Name That Tune
This week’s Name That Tune was submitted by Listener Ian. Here’s your hint: this composer is best known for compositions influenced by his native Brittany, his travels to Africa, and his sea voyages. Henri Duparc called this composer the “son of my soul.” No Googling!
As always, your goal is to provide as much accurate analysis as possible. First try to get the nationality, year, and genre, then make educated guesses about the composer and — if possible— the piece. If you know the piece immediately, send us an email at toneprose@substack.com instead of commenting so the rest of us can have fun guessing.
Last Week’s Results
Tone Prose 66
Handel, Parnasso in Festa, “Quanto breve è il godimento sì funesta”
Much success was had this time around! I (Will) was the first to publicly guess Handel, followed by Listener Ellen. Listener Laurie was so sure of success (which she attained!) that she emailed her answer.
Joey’s hint was indeed helpful, since most people know that Handel wrote tons of operas (though most of those operas have never been heard by normal human beings.) I also knew that Vivaldi had written a lot of operas, but I looked it up, and holy cow, he actually wrote 51 operas!
How did these guys do it? I mean, I know they didn’t have cell phones and they reused and stole material left and right, but it’s still insane. Also, don’t forget that Vivaldi wrote something like 600 concerti to boot.
Think you can stump your fellow Listeners? Go ahead and try!
Head to our Google Form to upload a 30-second clip of an unidentified piece of classical music for us to try to identify.
Siren Chorus
U.S. opera goers recently got their first taste of an activist tactic that has grown increasingly common in Europe. According to the New York Times:
The opening night of a revival of Richard Wagner’s “Tannhäuser” at the Metropolitan Opera in New York was interrupted Thursday night by climate protesters shouting “No Opera” from the balconies on both sides of the opera house.
Protesters with the group Extinction Rebellion NYC unfurled banners that read “No Opera On A Dead Planet,” according to Peter Gelb, the general manager at the Met. Met officials were then forced to bring down the curtain at around 9:30 p.m., halfway through the second act.
About eight minutes passed before security officials ushered out the protesters perched on the balconies, Mr. Gelb said.
But here’s the catch: that wasn’t the end. The protesters had come up with a canny strategy whereby they were scattered throughout the house and lay in wait so that when one protester (or group) were identified and removed by security, the next group could interrupt the opera once it got going again.
I (Will) saw this all described in some detail on a colleague’s instagram story, and he was of the opinion that once the protests had ended, the ensuing performance was supercharged, leading to one of the most electrifying nights in the theater he had ever experienced.
I like to think I would have had the same reaction, but the truth is I probably would have found it annoying, in spite of the fact that I’m quite sympathetic to the protestors’ beliefs. I just doubt that anyone’s minds or habits were changed because of their actions, and I think that a Taylor Swift concert is probably full of lots more rich people as well as being a show that’s about 10,000x less carbon-intensive to mount.
Bolero
Before most of us have even had a chance to see Maestro, we find out that a new classical biopic is in the works. According to Classic FM:
Boléro, directed by Anne Fontaine, centres around 1928 – the year Ravel’s triumphant orchestral work was born.
Set in Paris in the roaring 20s, the French-language film stars Raphael Personnaz as the composer, who was commissioned by Russian dancer-choreographer Ida Rubinstein (Jeanne Balibar) to compose a new work for her next ballet.
Some of the biopic will shoot in Le Belvédère, a little house on the edge of the small town of Montfort L’Amaury near Paris where Ravel spent the last 16 years of his life and died in 1937.
Fontaine, who directed 2009’s Coco Before Chanel, said: “Maurice Ravel remains today one of the most brilliant composers of the 20th century. Not unlike Coco Chanel, he was a complex artist whose art resonates all over the world.
“I wanted to explore the process of creation of his Bolero: how inspiration can feed on personal trauma, regrets and sorrow, how art can be the result of an intimate quest and yet reach millions.”
Boléro is set for release in 2024.
Concert Report
Zorn at 70: Barbara Hannigan + John Zorn
November 16, 2023
Miller Theater, Columbia University
I (Joey) recently got to hear a concert of all John Zorn music at Columbia’s Miller Theatre in New York, featuring world superstar soprano Barbara Hannigan, whose repertoire and scope of musicality is unlike any other modern performer’s. She teamed up with a group of New York new music stars such as the Jack Quartet to put on this 70th birthday celebration at one of the only institutions with a long history of backing Zorn’s eclectic work.
John Zorn is an avant-garde composer whose work blends any number of influences, from Boulez/Babbitt/mid-century modernism to hardcore metal, free jazz, and world music, and he really leans into his “institutional outsider” label. Emceeing the entire show as if it were a jazz show (including nimbly jumping from stage to audience between each piece after short commentary), Zorn wore a schlubby (on purpose! Not an insult) hoodie and camo pants for the entire night, flipped off the lighting manager when they managed to get a spotlight on him, and urged performers to come out on stage in a decidedly “non-classical” way before each piece.
On the other side of this wonderfully odd marriage, Hannigan came out and sang with extreme poise (and three different outfits!) each of these incredibly hard works. The repertoire was as eccentric as the man, featuring sparse string quartet modernism à la Anton Webern, loud hardcore free jazz with Hannigan spitting out rapid poetry, live electronics-infused minimalism, and more.
It served as an introduction to this man’s music for me, and no wonder — in his opening speech he thanked the Miller Theatre, and specifically its director Melissa Smey, for being one of the only institutions that regularly featured his music for years. He said the only influence he ever had was through individuals’ advocacy.
Zorn can add Hannigan to that list, as she was undoubtedly one of the only virtuosi capable of singing the music in this concert. As it was my first experience seeing her live, it was quite the treat. For an idea of her full capabilities as a singer-conductor, check out her performance of Ligeti’s “Mysteries of the Macabre.”
In short, Barbara Hannigan is an amazing talent whom we are blessed to share this planet with. John Zorn is like Frank Zappa 2.0 with an amazing compositional command over seemingly every genre. It was a great concert!
Tone Praise
Ligeti, Musica ricercata No. 7 (arr. Blanc)
Will here, and I’m happy to say that my boy, Grégoire Blanc (surely a distant cousin) has nailed it again, and frankly, his powers only grow, both in terms of musicianship and production quality. This is one of the best uses of the theremin I’ve ever heard. Even if you don’t think you’re a Ligeti person or a theremin person, just give this a listen.
Tone Prose is a co-production of William White, Joseph Vaz, and the Listeners (i.e. you.)
That Ligeti is EVERYTHING. 🔥🔥🔥
NTT: This one is deeply flummoxing — très flummoxant!
From the clue, my best guesses would have been Jacques Ibert and Henri Tomasi, but my recollection is that neither of them were from Brittany. I could maybe add André Messager (who I think was also not from Brittany.)
The thing is, the music sounds so contemporary, like something the Kronos Quartet would have commissioned. Henri Duparc died in the 1930s if I'm not mistaken, so perhaps this person was very young indeed and lived well into the latter portion of the 20th century.
This one is a big ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ from me but I'm looking forward to learning the answer!