Received this baby from University of Illinois Press the other day. I’m very much looking forward to reading it. If it’s anything like Howard Pollack’s Copland biography, it should be superb. Pollack has also written acclaimed books about American composers John Alden Carpenter, George Gershwin, and Marc Blitzstein, among others. “Samuel Barber: His Life & Legacy” is scheduled for release on April 4.
By the late 1970s, John Wayne was dead and the enduring genre of the American movie western was left a high-plains drifter.
Sure, there were revisionist westerns and elegiac westerns and, from beyond our borders, spaghetti westerns and even acid westerns. But by and large, the great tradition of sundrenched morality tales, with white hats beating black hats to lay the cornerstones of justice and civilization, had run their course.
Still, never underestimate the resonance of a good myth.
In the wake of “Star Wars,” with its space cowboys, cantinas, and laser sidearms, shoot-‘em-ups and showdowns were increasingly cast on distant worlds, though all-too-frequently without the uncomplicated, “classic western” moral gravitas.
A notable exception is “Outland” (1981), a gritty update of “High Noon,” transplanted to a mining colony on one of the moons of Jupiter. Sean Connery plays the upright marshal who, like Gary Cooper’s Will Kane, is left to stand alone against hired gunmen.
Space truly is the final frontier, as Roy and I discuss “Outland” on the next Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner. We’ll be looking for armchair deputies in the comments section, when we livestream on Facebook, YouTube, etc., this Friday evening at 7:30 EST!
In case you didn’t know, in the film version of “Fiddler on the Roof,” that’s Isaac Stern on the soundtrack, standing in for the titular musician. John Williams won his first Oscar for his adaptations and musical arrangements of the immortal songs of Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick. Zero Mostel created the role of Tevye, but for many the role was owned by Topol. With the acclaimed film version and numerous stage revivals, he was every bit as much Tevye as Yul was the King.
In the past few years, there have been rumblings about a film remake. Why? No doubt some studio executive at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, musing as Tevye did…
Well, I hadn’t intended to head in to New York today, but I can’t resist this program: the world premiere of Adolphus Hailstork’s Symphony No. 4, alongside Zhou Tian, composer’s spectacular Concerto for Orchestra and Jennifer Higdon’s flute concerto “The Light We Can Hear,” with Valerie Coleman the soloist. As an added bonus: only the second performance ever of John Thomas Douglass’ “The Pilgrim: Grand Overture.”
Douglass, a highly-regarded violinist, was the first Black American to write an opera (“Virginia’s Ball” in 1868). He settled in New York in the 1880s. Among his pupils was David Mannes, later concertmaster of the New York Symphony Orchestra, one of the root organizations that became the New York Philharmonic.
Mannes cofounded the Colored Music Settlement School in his teacher’s honor. He was also a founder of what is now known as the Mannes School of Music.
The Mannes Orchestra will be conducted by David Hayes, tonight at Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center.
The price of a ticket (before disproportionate service charges)? $6.50. Sign me up!
Alan Hovhaness’ music has frequently been described as transporting. But did you know that one of his symphonies actually went to space?
According to astronaut Rusty Schweickart, each of the crewmen who took part in NASA’s Apollo 9 mission were allowed to bring their own cassettes, which could be played in special players to keep the tapes from unraveling in zero gravity. Schweickart’s mix-tape included works by Ralph Vaughan Williams and Alan Hovhaness. One would assume from his choice of Hovhaness – the Symphony No. 2, “Mysterious Mountain” – that the Vaughan Williams must have been the “Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis,” with which there is a certain spiritual kinship. Great music with which to reflect on the majesty and mystery of space.
However, “mysteriously,” Schweikart was unable to locate his cassette until about the ninth day of the ten-day mission. He later noted, wryly, that his crewmates were not enthusiastic about his playlist.
Given the time frame of the Apollo 9 mission, which took place from March 3-13, 1969, Schweikart’s “Mysterious Mountain” would have been the classic recording made by Fritz Reiner and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (at the time the only commercial recording of the work in existence). It’s interesting to contemplate that, in 1969, both composers, Hovhaness and Vaughan Williams, would have been considered contemporary. “Mysterious Mountain” was composed in 1955.
I don’t know for certain about the inclusion of the “Tallis Fantasia,” but a Google search has turned up a book, “Foothold in the Heavens” by Ben Evans. The content is paywalled, but from a blurb in the description it looks as if Schweikart’s cassette might actually have included Vaughan Williams’ Christmas cantata “Hodie,” composed in 1953-54. As a dyed-in-the-wool Vaughan Williams fanatic, I happen to love the piece, but if this is true, no wonder it drove his shipmates to “lose” the tape!
Listen for yourself:
Hovhaness, “Mysterious Mountain”
Vaughan Williams, “Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis”
Vaughan Williams, “Hodie”
Happy birthday, Alan Hovhaness. Your music was literally out of this world!
