Various Thoughts About My Work
(and a few other
things)
by
Bruce Duffie
First
posted in March, 2017, with additions
from time to time
On
editing my interviews...
As you
may or may not be aware, my full-time
employment from 1975-2001 was with WNIB, Classical
97 in Chicago. Except for four
hours overnight during the week, and four hours
on Saturday afternoons, the programming
was exclusively classical music in its
great variety. In addition to my regular duties
as announcer, I also gathered interviews with
various musicians for use both on the air and in
selected magazines and journals. In all (through
about 2005), I did over 1600 exclusive interviews.
A few guests I met twice, and very rarely even more
times. While it was not the original
intent of the management to include atonal or cutting-edge
repertoire, I was able to add that material on
my weekend overnight shifts, and part of those programs
were the interviews with composers and performers
of new music.
Preparing
and presenting these interviews on webpages
is very different from editing sections
for use on the radio. What sounds
good to the ear may not look good to the eye.
Hence, various changes need to be made in
order for the resulting impact to be virtually
the same.
Let me
state here that it is my purpose and duty
to render the thoughts and ideas of my guests
as completely and accurately as possible.
It is also my feeling that I should make
the guests look good. I have a genuine
interest and overwhelming love of my subject,
and always tried to solicit ideas from my guests
in response to my own inquires and proddings.
Occasionally, I would ask a question which
was purposely ambiguous in order to allow the guest
to have the freedom to answer in whatever way he
or she chose. This would, however, come after at
least a few questions which would indicate to the guest
that I, as the interviewer, knew what I was talking about,
and that I was interested in knowing what they had to say.
As to the
actual editing, when doing it for the
radio, I would always try to select sections
that showed my guest to their best advantage.
I would also make sure to end the section
on a positive note.
Let me
inject here that when WNIB was going off
the air on its final day, I chose an opera
that ended with a positive sound in a major key
— Turandot
— and the final piece of music at 12 Midnight
— Lyric for Strings
by George Walker
—
was also a chosen because of its aural
impression, and the fact
that it ended quietly in a major key.
My first thought was to use Adagio for Strings
by Barber, but that piece was so associated
with the movie Platoon
and other works and dates, that
I desired something more unique and somewhat unknown
with the same feeling. To read more
about the final broadcast, click HERE.
When editing
the spoken words for visual (print)
use, certain mannerisms and repetitions
become really annoying, and when something
is annoying, it detracts from the overall impact.
So the phrases ‘you know’
and ‘I think’, and the interjection
‘well’ were
almost always dropped. I also usually removed
the phrases ‘kind of’ and ‘sort
of’ in most instances since they diminished the
thought and derailed the impact. My
guests were strong and vibrant, and there was no
reason to veil them in any kind of namby-pamby cloak.
In speech, sentences would often begin with the word
‘and’, so I would either drop the word, or
simply connect the thoughts into one sentence.
Parenthetical material, which is meant to amplify or clarify
ideas, makes for tricky reading, so I would often re-order
the sentence to get the thoughts together.
I hope
you notice that in all of the instances
I never changed any ideas of my guests,
nor did I put words into their mouths.
Their thoughts are what has come through... at
least that has always been my hope, and what I strive
to accomplish. On the rare occasion that
my guest would not answer my question directly
— or at all! — I would change my
question in the print edition so that my guests
could answer in the way they saw fit. If
there were any digressions or extraneous portions,
those were usually omitted, and any glaring errors
were either fixed or explained. Again, those
instances were very rare.
I did
change English-English to American-English,
but mostly only in spelling.
‘Labour’
became ‘labor’,
‘theatre’
became ‘theater’,
‘programme’
became ‘program’,
‘organisation’
became ‘organization’,
and references to
a group became singular rather than plural.
‘The audience don’t care’
became ‘The audience
doesn’t care’. This adjustment,
by the way, is only in the text of the interviews.
The biographical boxes and reprints of obituaries
were almost always left intact.
People
whose first language is not English will
often become quite proficient with
English vocabulary, but will continue to use their
original structure patterns. Whereas
in English we put the modifiers first
— a lovely blue sky — others
might speak about ‘a
sky blue lovely’.
Those quirks have often been fixed, though not in
every instance.
It always
was my intention to present these conversations
as something to learn from
and enjoy. The transcripts are not of
the ‘legal stenographic’
kind. My guests were not on trial.
I was a guest at their concert venue or
in their hotel, or they were guests in my home or
studio. I always treated them with kindness
and respect, and allowed them to express themselves
without fear of any kind of accusation or derision.
It is special
to be able to do it at all, but I have
managed to do it quite well in both the
audio medium and the printed renditions.
Not to toot my own horn, but most people seem
to think I am pretty good at both.
I have found it necessary to look not only at the
big, overall picture, but also the smallest details.
I’m sure there is nothing new or
extraordinary about this, but keeping that in my
mind as I edit goes a long way to strengthening the impact
of each interview.
I
know these interviews
are generally long, but they are what
I have, and I want to share what is there.
In a radio broadcast, people have to
sit there until it is over... or go away and miss
whatever comes next. On the printed page,
readers can interrupt their journey and (hopefully)
come back at some point to pick it up again without
missing a beat.
Occasionally
I will update the pages with new photos
and links. So even though a date
at the bottom might indicate the page was uploaded
before others, that is why later interview
links can appear. I do not do this chore
very often, so there may be links which could
be on a page, but are not. However, as long as
there is the possibility of additions or corrections,
things might get improved!
On that
thought, it always pleases me to be able
to include links to other interviews
within each new one that is posted. In most
cases, these are names that are brought up by
the guest, or appear in the biographies or obituaries.
Only occasionally have I introduced them
in the course of asking questions, and in each
case, the reference was, I hope, relevant and
logical.
I freely
admit to being a cheerleader for
my topic and my guests. This is not
a bad thing since I am not a news gatherer, but
rather a feature reporter. Because my interviews
were Features rather than News, some of the basic
rules and formats did not apply. For
instance, the old adage for news gathering is to
ask these questions: who, what, where, when,
why, how, huh? That last one (which I have
added) is usually where I got the best and most interesting
responses.
[A brief related addition, posted
on November 5, 2019] Regarding my webpages,
several times I have received requests
to place advertisements. In all cases I
have declined, and despite my tight financial
situation, I hope to be able to continue to say a resounding
“NO!”
to any and all inquiries of that sort.
= = = = = = = = = = =
The following
list appears on a couple of the interview
pages, but since people continue to
ask, here is the answer . . .
I
have done interviews with several musicians
who were born in the Nineteenth Century.
My guest with the earliest birth-date
(March 10, 1892) was soprano Dame Eva Turner.
However, composer/administrator
John Donald
Robb (June 12, 1892), though three
months younger than Turner, was nearly two
years older at the time of our conversation.
Hence, a clarification is needed when I
am asked who my oldest guest was! Next
in birth-order is composer Paul Amadeus Pisk
(May 16, 1893), followed by composer/pianist
Leo Ornstein (December
2, 1893),
and lexicographer Nicolas Slonimsky
(April 27, 1894).
Then come mezzo-soprano Sonia Sharnova
(May 2, 1896), composer/critic Virgil
Thomson (November 25, 1896), and composer Vittorio Rieti (January
28, 1898).
The order continues with composer/pianist
Ernst Bacon
(May 26, 1898), followed by composer Marcel Dick (August
28, 1898),
conductor Werner
Janssen (June
1, 1899), and composer Alfred Eisenstein (November
14, 1899). The remaining
four are composers Elinor Remick
Warren (February
23, 1900), Otto Luening
(June 15, 1900), and
Ernst Krenek
(August 23, 1900), and finally publisher Hans Heinsheimer (September
25, 1900).
The rest
of my guests were born in the Twentieth
Century. Perhaps, if I have the opportunity,
I might interview someone born after
January 1, 2001, and thus have conversations
with people born in three different centuries
and two different millennia! Though
there is no clerical error involved, and it is not
my intent to pad my statistics, somehow the film
Mr. 3000 comes to
mind.....
= = = = = = = = = = =
Many of
my guests are mostly or completely unknown,
and in an odd way, that pleases me very
much. If someone who is little-known becomes
more-known through my efforts, then I have
succeeded in bringing forth something special
to the composite knowledge of mankind. A lofty
statement, certainly, but when one thinks about it,
each of us is asked to push our tiny segment forward,
and my task seems to have been to enrich the musical world
through discovery of interesting items. Yes, I
have also presented some of the best-known and most popular
figures, but, as John von Rhein mentioned in a Tribune article about the
station, he admired my collection of ‘oddball’
composers and performers. Many times,
after doing a program featuring one of them, I would
get a call or two asking why this person was not
better-known. The callers would remark to
the effect that the music or performing artistry
just presented could certainly stand up against the output
of the well-knowns.
Editing
these interviews from a quarter-century
ago or more, I often find interesting
sidelights and tidbits that either amplify
ongoing ideas, or give new insight into little-explored
or un-spotlighted areas of the subject.
It is truly amazing that these thoughts would
be found in the most remote places and come from
such unlikely sources. This is why I do what I
do, and I hope that others both enjoy and are enlightened
by it all.
= = = = = = = = = = =
Despite
the fact that my early exposure to great
music was on radio (mostly WEFM, the
station sponsored by Zenith in Chicago),
and that I built up a huge collection of recordings
on LP and open reel tape, and that I made my
living at another station (WNIB, Classical
97, also in Chicago), I maintain
— and have said openly many times
— that the real place to hear great
music is live in a concert hall or opera house.
The collision of these two worlds becomes the so-called
‘pirated’
performances. Usually operas,
these gained wide circulation amongst
the cognoscenti, and in my teens and twenties I found
a number of people who traded copies of various
things with me. However, once I became a professional
radio announcer, I was very careful NOT to use
any of this material on the air. First of all,
the sound quality was often poor, and even though those of
us who obtained these performances understood this, the
casual listener would not be expected to be aware of the
reason(s) for presenting something in poor sound.
Besides that, broadcast rights were very tricky, and I
did not want to involve the station in anything which could
have caused legal problems. It is a thorny issue,
and the musicians I have spoken with have not come to any kind
of consensus about it. Many of them collect copies
— not just of themselves but of others,
both past and current — even while
decrying their use and existence! I remember specifically
one top record executive remarking on the Texaco Opera
Quiz that he does, indeed, collect them, but would immediately
bring suit against anyone who tried to distribute copies
of one of the artists on his label!
These
days, though I am not involved in the day-to-day
broadcasting activities, I am posting
interviews with my guests and illustrating
the webpages with photos of the artists and
their recordings. I find things on the
internet, but try not to use any copyrighted
material, and I eschew the placement of images
of pirated recordings on my sites. The
commercial recordings are fair game, especially
since I am giving them free publicity, but usually
not the broadcasts and in-house items which seem to
abound.
=
= = = = = = = = = =
A
few random thoughts.............
Whoever
named the Butterfly committed a spoonerism.
I think that every time I see one
flutter by, no matter what the articles on
its etymology say.....
Technically,
I was born in Elmhurst, Illinois, on
March 11, 1951. My mother’s
doctor was at Elmhurst Hospital, so
that is where she went to deliver me. My
father, however, always insisted I was born
in Evanston, since that is where we lived at the
time. With the myriad suburbs surrounding
most major and minor cities, I wonder
how often this kind of thing happens... It
is pleasing to me that I am exactly
— to the day — 100
years younger than Rigoletto.
Another Verdi opera, Don Carlos also
had its premiere on March 11, but in a later year (1867).
I also share that date with composer Carl Ruggles
(1876) , and band leader Lawrence
Welk (1903). A quick Google search just
now also revealed many others, including Shemp
Howard (1895). [Related story... I met
Michael Fine when he was producing one of the recordings
made by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. I
inquired if he was related to Vivian Fine, whom I
had interviewed. He said no. I then asked if he was related
to Irving Fine, another composer, and he said no. Finally,
I asked if he was related to Burton Fine, principal
violist of the Boston Symphony. Once
more, the answer was no. He then volunteered
that he was related to Larry Fine of the Three Stooges.]
More March 11 birthdays... Astor
Piazzola (1921), Mercer Ellington (1919), and Henry
Cowell (1897). When I interviewed Geraldine Decker,
we had a great laugh that she, also, was born on March
11 (1931).
They left
out the letter ‘D’
from the name Arizona.
I’ve never been there, but
I know it’s quite arid in
the South West...
There
are three major musical works in three
different languages, all of which the
public quite often mistakenly adds the
word ‘the’
before the name. To wit: Messiah, Pagliacci, and Winterreise. Each one is named
as just shown, NOT The Messiah,
nor I Pagliacci, nor Die Winterreise. [Note that the
title of the TV Game Show Match
Game also lacks the article. More
about that program later on this webpage.]
What is
with this overwhelming compulsion to cite
the excrement of the male cow?
English is not the easiest of languages… It can be
understood through tough thorough thought though.
General observation... Regarding professional sports, we,
in the Twenty-First Century
are just like the Ancients.
We take delight when our city’s
hired gladiators defeat any other city’s
hired gladiators. [GO CUBS!]
= = = = = = = = = = =
[September
1, 2017] While there have always
been doomsayers and other prophets
predicting the end of time, in the past twenty
years, there have been three distinct events
which many people truly believed signaled
the End of Days. Obviously, they were wrong,
but it is interesting to make note of them...
(1) Y2K. In anticipation of the numbered-year
leaving
the 1900s and moving to the 2000s, the hue
and cry was heard all over the world
that the computer systems could not handle that
change, and all our electric and electronic grids
would fail, and we would be destroyed. Much
time and effort was put into correcting the problem,
which apparently worked.
(2) One version of the Mayan Calendar simply stopped
on December 21, 2012, and
many people felt this was to be the last day
of Earth. Another version (which carried
on for many more years) was later discovered, but
that did not seem to prevent a few people from weeping
and wailing and gnashing their teeth.
(3) On November 2, 2016, the Chicago Cubs won the World
Series.
= = = = = = = = = = =
[December
26, 2017] A number of people have
asked me about how I selected which interviews
would be used on the air, and when they
would be presented. These days, on the WNUR
series — and also on the
late (and hopefully lamented) series on Contemporary
Classical Internet Radio — there
really is no rhyme nor reason for selection.
Programs were prepared, and now the ones which
exist are simply repeated after two or three
years, and usually in a different month. HOWEVER,
in my quater-century at WNIB, I was very careful
and rather ingenious about timing. Fairly
early on, I stumbled onto the use of ‘round
birthdays’. This simply meant that when a composer
or performer had a ‘round birthday’
— 50, 55, 60, 65, 70, etc. — they
got a show. Every five years each one would come
up, and a few of the early interviews aired several times.
These programs were in addition to any promotional
use — such as when one of their
works was being presented in live performance in the
Chicago area, or in conjunction with a new recording. The
advantages of this system meant I did not have agonize
over who had been done and who might be neglected, and so forth.
It also was completely color-blind and gender-blind.
There are only 366 possibilities, and everyone has
one whether they like it or not. It also suited my style,
in that I celebrated life and not death. Yes, I mourned
and eulogized my guests when they passed away, but I did not,
thereafter, mark their dates of death with special progams.
What brings
all this to mind is a brief article in
the newspaper, which is reproduced at right.
Since I am not doing fresh interviews
any more, I wondered just how well I did during
the time I was gathering them, from 1978-2006. So,
I counted up just the composers, and of the 496
names, 62 are women (12.5%), and 15 or 16 are African-American
(approximately 3%). The discrepency
is a man named Roque
Cordero. He was included in the series of
recordings of music by Black Composers
issued on Columbia LPs, but in our interview
he told me quite forcefully that he did not like that
label. He insisted he was Panamanian, not black.
There are probably others — both in
general and on my list — who dislike
or even disown one category or another, but that is
for another discussion. As to other minorities, I cannot
accurately compute them for various reasons. First,
I am often unaware of their background. A name
might come from a few generations back, or perhaps have
been lost or changed through marriage or assimilation. Further,
I have met a number of composers who belong to countries
other than America. How should I count them? Are
they to be lumped into a vague category of Minority-Citizens?
Then, to discount the entire exercise, it is not my
desire nor intent (nor responsibilty!) to ascertain any
kind of pedigree. My interest is their music, and their
ideas about its creation and presentation. Beyond that,
I truly do not care. Their race or sexual orientation
or any other factors are not my concern. As long
as they are part of the Classical Music community, I accept
them as such, and will give them their shot (as I like to
say). In truth, I consider all these kinds
of labels both insulting and unnecessary. We are all people,
citizens, musicians, etc. Naturally, I do not want to
purposely include or exclude anyone, and without really paying
much specific attention to the matter, I think I have been rather
fair and equitable. Looking at the numbers mentioned
above, I assume that this percentage also holds for the performers...
though the women will have a higher resulting-number
since they account for nearly all of the sopranos and mezzos!
As to conductors — which are even more
neglectful of the distaff side — there are
14 women in my group of 224 interview guests, which is
6.25%, plus six African-Americans.
= = = = = = = = = = =
[January
6, 2018] During this Holiday
Season, I was listening to some old favorites,
including The Typewriter, a
novelty piece by Leroy Anderson. It occurred
to me that it might not be too many years until
that device, which was once ubiquitous, would not
be even recognized by most of the populace. In
musical terms, it would be like mentioning the
Ophicleide or the Serpent...
Just a note
regarding soft timbre... Throughout
musical history, usually the brighter
and louder instruments have won the battle.
However, the actual idea of being ‘loud’
is, ironically, soft-pedaled!
There are two significant instances
where the idea (and nomenclature) of being
‘loud’
was dropped. One of the early hammer-struck
keyboard instruments was the ‘fortepiano’
or the ‘pianoforte’.
Forte
means loud, and piano means soft, so it was
literally the ‘loudsoft’ or the ‘softloud’,
indicating its ability to be both, contrasting
to the plucked-instruments such as the
harpsichord and the virginal. Quickly,
the name was abbreviated to simply
‘piano’,
as we know the instrument today. So,
the idea of being
‘loud’ was dropped. The same thing
happened to the box which actually turns
electrical signals into sound, namely the ‘loudspeaker’.
We all know it
as a ‘speaker’, which,
again, drops the idea of being loud. [You
may insert here any and all puns involving
the word ‘allowed’.]
=
= = = = = = = = = =
On the
subject of things that are obsolete, I
have wondered for a long time if the slide
rule was the object which went the fastest
from being absolutely necessary to being completely
useless. Everyone who did any kind
of mathematical computation needed one, and relied
on it in every instance. But as soon as the
electronic hand-held calculator came out, the slide
rule was immediately pushed aside, never to return
to any kind of use... except as a relic of a bygone
age.
Of course,
we can always look back even farther
in time to the abacus . . .
Chinese
type (5 plus 2) above; Japanese type (4
plus 1) below
Noting
the two different systems shown, today,
one might think of the rivalry between
Mac and PC, and realize that such dualities
have existed for centuries. Recently,
there was the debate between VHS and Beta
video tape systems, between 45 rpm and 33 rpm records
in the late 1940s, and cylinders vs. lateral-cut
78 rpm discs at the turn of the Twentieth Century.
There was no real problem with the introduction
of electrical recordings in 1925, since reproducers
in the home could accommodate both. The only
real need for new equipment was at the production end,
and the record companies invested in the new system.
The same could not be said for the introduction
of stereo in the mid-1950s. There, the home consumer
had to be persuaded to purchase new equipment, and this was
not even a decade after everyone had to abandon their 78 machines
in favor of the LP players. A similar upheaval in the
music industry was seen with the advent of cassettes and CDs.
A story I heard
many years ago (and have repeated in
the hopes it was mostly or completely true)
involves the size and playing-time of the compact
disc. It seems that one of the people who
were calling the shots at the time of its creation
was a Japanese man who knew that his countrymen
simply adored the Beethoven Symphony #9. So,
to accommodate that piece of music, the CD needed
to hold about 74 minutes of sound. The story
may or may not be true, but it makes a good legend, and
I simply choose to believe it.
[August 31, 2019, and inserted
here to keep the topics together] Thinking
again of 78s, here's the famous image of our
old friend Nipper, and a couple of tidbits about
its origins . . . . .
His Master's Voice (HMV)
is a famous trademark in the recording
industry, and was the unofficial name of a major
British record label.
The trademark image comes from
a painting by English artist Francis
Barraud titled His Master's Voice. It was
acquired from the artist in 1899 by the newly formed
Gramophone Company, and adopted as a trademark
by the Gramophone Company's United States affiliate,
the Victor Talking Machine Company. According
to contemporary Gramophone Company publicity material,
the dog, a terrier named Nipper, had originally belonged
to Barraud's brother, Mark. When Mark Barraud
died, Francis inherited Nipper, along with a cylinder
phonograph and recordings of Mark's voice. Francis noted
the peculiar interest that the dog took in the recorded
voice of his late master emanating from the horn, and conceived
the idea of committing the scene to canvas. The incident
took place at 92 Bold Street, Liverpool.
A different source relates a
cautionary tale for artists about getting
and keeping the copyright for art...
When Barraud painted Nipper curiously
searching for his master's voice in
the phonograph's horn, not only was the artist turned
down for a copyright for the image, but he was also
rejected by the Royal Academy, and various magazines.
The Edison Bell company responded that "dogs don’t
listen to phonographs."
Barraud eventually sold another
painting, with a Berliner brass horn,
to one of the company's managers, where it caught
the eye of the Emile Berliner, the company's founder,
who commissioned another copy AND bought the rights
to it! The famous image went on to become the trakemark
of the Victor Talking Machine Co. Victor was Berliner's
partner, and the image ultimately survived Victor's
merger with RCA in 1929. It was printed on record
labels, letterheads, novelties, and catalogues
for decades, but Barraud, the original artist, only
received two payments of £50 each.
Here are a few more details about
the dog, and the original painting (shown
below, which depicted a cylinder machine, and
not the flat-disc machine we all know)...
Nipper was born in
1884 in Bristol, England, and died in September
1895. He was a mixed-breed dog and probably part
Jack Russell Terrier, although some sources
suggest that he was a Smooth Fox Terrier,
or "part Bull Terrier". He was named Nipper because
he would "nip" the backs of visitors' legs.
Nipper originally lived with his
owner, Mark Henry Barraud, in the Prince's
Theatre where Barraud was a scenery designer. When
Barraud died in 1887, his brothers Philip and Francis
took care of the dog. Nipper himself died of natural
causes in 1895 and was buried in Kingston upon Thames
in Clarence Street, in a small park surrounded by magnolia
trees. As time progressed the area was built upon,
and a branch of Lloyds Bank now occupies the site. On the
wall of the bank, just inside the entrance, a brass plaque
commemorates the terrier that lies beneath the building.
On 10 March 2010, a small road near to the dog's
resting place in Kingston upon Thames was named Nipper
Alley in commemoration of this resident.
In 1898, three years after Nipper's
death, Francis Barraud, his last owner
and brother of his first owner, painted a picture
of Nipper listening intently to a wind-up Edison-Bell
cylinder phonograph. Thinking the Edison-Bell
Company located in New Jersey, USA, might
find it useful, he presented it to James E. Hough,
who promptly said, "Dogs don't listen to phonographs".
On May 31, 1899, Barraud went to the Maiden Lane offices
of The Gramophone Company with the intention of
borrowing a brass horn to replace the original black
horn on the painting. Manager William Barry Owen suggested
that if the artist replaced the machine with a Berliner
disc gramophone, that he would buy the painting. The image
became the successful trademark of the Victor and HMV record
labels, HMV music stores, and the Radio Corporation of
America, after the acquisition of the Victor company in 1929.
The trademark was registered by Berliner for use in the United
States on July 10, 1900.
Francis Barraud said, "It is
difficult to say how the idea came to me
beyond the fact that it suddenly occurred to me that
to have my dog listening to the phonograph, with
an intelligent and rather puzzled expression, and call
it 'His Master's Voice' would make an excellent subject.
We had a phonograph and I often noticed how puzzled he
was to make out where the voice came from. It certainly
was the happiest thought I ever had."
The slogan "His Master's Voice",
along with the painting, was sold to
The Gramophone Company for £100 (equivalent
to £10,628 in 2018) – half for the copyright
and half for the physical painting itself. The original
oil painting hung in the EMI boardroom in Hayes, Middlesex,
for many years.
The two cartoons below reflect
our 'progress' as we firmly embrace the Twenty-First
Century, and amplify my remarks vis-à-vis
the typewriter . . . . .
[Another observation, from May 11, 2020]
Future generations may wonder why something
called a "compact" disc held more material than
a "long playing" record!
Next is a cartoon
from 2017 (below-right), which was originally placed
on this page on September 27, 2021. The other cartoon (on the
left, and probably from a couple of decades ago) just seemed
appropriate, and was added January 30, 2022.
Statement seen: "Classic
LPs are going for record prices!!!!"
Next, yet another vinyl gag [added to
this page on July 16, 2022]
= = = = = = = = = = =
[June 29,
2018] Alert observers might notice
that as of the end of March, 2018, many of
the links to my interviews which appear in
Wikipedia articles have a slightly different
format. Specifically, my name has
been removed from the line. For several years,
it was <<<Interview with
(name of guest) by Bruce Duffie, on (date of interview).>>>
Because someone complained
that I was spamming, and felt the only
reason for these links was my own self-promotion,
that person urged the removal of all of these
links. A discussion was launched, and several
Administrators weighed in with their opinions. Fortunately,
enough of them saw the importance of the interviews
themselves, and the complainant was admonished
to cease the battering, and even urged to apologize
(which did not happen). After about a week,
the discussion was formally closed, and the upshot was
that I removed my name from many of the links, and am not
including it in future postings. However, a number
of the old-style links remain, so there might be a bit of confusion
since they are not uniform. For anyone who cares to
read it, the entire discussion is reproduced HERE.
[Updated information about
the above item] Since I had "corrected"
many of the links (to remove my name), another
editor(s) felt this was wrong, and undid some of those
corrections... thus replacing my name in the link. One
editor contacted me about the removals, and I showed
him/her the discussion (linked above). Since I don't
go back to old Wikipedia pages very often, I do not know whether
the changes have been made to a few or many of them.
It is unimportant... as long as the link itself is
there, I am satisfied.
[Further updated information
about my involvement with Wikipedia] In August
of 2021, another editor started deleting my links. Upon
inquiry, he stated that I had no rights to use the images
of record covers. I explained that record companies
sent me promotional copies of their material in hopes that I would
use it on the air, and also (where possible) show their images. I
even checked this out with one President of a major record company,
but this did not stop him from saying he would continue to delete
my links. Despite having been praised as "an asset to Wikipedia"
by several Administrators (shown above via the link), I knew that he
would see anything I added or deleted from Wikipedia. So, I
have simply withdrawn from any further involvement. My hope is
that he has lost interest in me, and that my earlier links would be
left intact. I say all this to (a) let you know that no further
interviews will be linked, and (b) tell why some links might disappear
from existing pages.
= = = = = = = = = = =
[January
3, 2019] In reading some of the comments
about my interviews, a couple people
have noted that a few of my questions tend
to pop up with regularity. While this is certainly
true, I do hope that in each case the inquiries
come naturally, and at an appropriate place in the
conversation. I never worked with a specific
list of questions, and always tried to discuss the
specific strengths of each guest. However, since
all were involved in so-called Classical Music, there
were bound to be common points of interest and expertise.
To look at it another way, when you eat at my restaurant,
each meal on the menu will be unique, but many will have
some ingredients in common. Since all are being prepared
by myself as chef, there will be some resemblances and
similarities. I hope this does not discourage anyone
from sampling my cuisine.....
It is also
interesting to see how various people
respond and react to the same question(s).
Continuing the metaphor, there will certainly
be differing opinions from various people
to the same item on my menu. Observing those
reactions should not, necessarily, cause me
to change the recipe. Perhaps having a few condiments
on the table will allow for each person to season
the dish to their own taste, but this can only happen when
a certain stability is built into the process. Once
again, my goal with the interviews is to allow each guest
to express their own views, and I trust that a few similar
questions will get a variety of responses.
= = = = = = = = = = =
A few years ago, I
met a fine baritone whom I had known on
the stage for a long time. Warren Fremling
has performed in local and regional productions
over the years, and has had a significant impact
each time. Lately, he has been an invaluable
help to me by proofreading my interviews before
they are opened to the public on my website. I
am grateful to him for pointing out not only mistakes
(of which, fortunately, there are few), but also for occasionally
suggesting better ways of expressing the ideas.
As I have mentioned, I never change the focus nor
direction of the words my guests use, but by tightening
and sometimes re-gathering thoughts, their objectives are
made more clear to readers. In several cases, Warren
has suggested slight changes which bring these thoughts into
sharper focus, and for that I am eternally grateful.
In our exchanges,
he also has provided me with further insights
into the world of professional singing, and
his most recent gift to me was a clear and succinct
explanation of the various voice-types, and how
they can be viewed by experts and novices alike. With
his permission, it is reproduced here...
There
are two things
that decide this. The first is color.
Richness in the middle voice is revealing.
The second, and much more reliable,
is the location of the bridge or passagio.
A mezzo’s bridge is a-kin to a baritone’s. It’s
on the D, a ninth above mid-C (a baritone’s being
an octave lower, obviously). I’ve diagrammed
voices according to their interest and comfort
to the listener’s ear – not what the singer does,
but what is natural to the instrument. A soprano
or tenor sound like this: \/ - the bottom
is light and the voice sounds more interesting and
easier as the voice ascends. The mezzo and baritone
sound like this: () – the voice is fattest in
the middle. We have some of the low notes of the contralto/bass
and some of the high notes of the soprano/tenor, but
you can’t live there. The middle is where we’re
most at home. The contralto/bass is the exact opposite
of the soprano/tenor – the voice gets fatter and more beautiful
with the descent.
|
= = = = = = = = = = =
[February 4,
2019] As the the shortest month of
the year rolls around once again, I am reminded
of the one word which I simply gave up trying
to pronounce correctly. I made an effort,
but it simply was too awkward to do both correctly
and smoothly at the same time. I could say Feb-ROO-rary,
but it required slowing down the enunciation to the
point where it was simply untenable. [You may insert
any kind of joke here, regarding it not being a ten, or even
a nine, but perhaps a two or three at best...] Imagine,
if you will, a car on the highway, and for some unknown
reason it just slowed to a crawl. It would certainly
look strange, to say nothing about impeding traffic and being
hazardous. This is not to say that an announcer
mis-pronouncing a word on the radio could be hazardous in
any way, but you get my drift... So if any tapes exist
of my work where I say the name of the second month, you will
hear a firm and confident FEB-you-air-ee. I know it
is wrong, and I knew it at the time, and I make no excuses.
I am sure I made other
mistakes, and, indeed, I was corrected
on a few occasions. But by and large, I
was complimented by members of the public
on my accuracy and stylistic manners. It
was especially nice to hear that I had pronounced
the name of a person or location properly from someone
who was from that particular locale. I want
to say, however, that when someone called to make a correction,
my first task was to ascertain if that person on
the telephone was accurate! There were a
few occasions when a caller would berate me and give
a different version of the way to pronounce a name, and
when I checked with a known authority, I found that my
own rendition was correct, and the caller had been wrong.
It reminds me of the sign which famously hung
in the City News Bureau for many years, which screamed, “If
your mother says she loves you, check it out!”
On that particular subject,
I remember one evening when we aired a
syndicated broadcast of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
The announcer (who shall remain nameless)
proclaimed the conductor to be Esa-Pekka Sa-LOH-nehn.
Well, I had interviewed the Maestro,
and, as usual, had asked him to do a station
break, in which he said his name. His
pronunciation was SAL-oh-nehn. At some point
during the evening, I must have said his name myself,
and pronounced it his way, and immediately received
a phone call screaming at me for my stupidity. “If
the announcer on the Los Angeles Symphony broadcast
had said it one way, that MUST be the accurate way!”
I tried, very calmly, to explain, but
the caller simply slammed the phone down. The
next evening, I brought in my interview tape and played
the station break. I have no idea if that caller
from the previous night heard it, but at least I settled
the matter for anyone who was listening . . . . .
= = = = = = = = = = =
[April 22, 2019] Consider,
if you will, the following scenario...
Bill opens a small restaurant that features
Fine Dining. He is successful, and over
the course of forty-five years, the eatery becomes
well-known and highly-respected. After spending
his adult life maintaining this establishment,
he decides to retire. As it happens, the location
he originally chose -- which was, at the time, perfectly
good but not very popular -- had become very desirable.
So Bill closed the restaurant and sold the location
to Bonney, who brought in her own staff and opened a shoe store.
It immediately attracted business, and became very
competitive.
Now when one thinks of
the history of the restaurant vis-à-vis
the ongoing story of the shoe store, it
should be obvious that aside from the physical
location, there is no connection whatsoever. Right?
Perhaps, the historical account of
each one should have a mention of the other as being
at the same address, but that's certainly all the crossover
interest there would be.
With that in mind, I ask
you to look HERE.
= = = = = = = = = = =
[June 28, 2019] Following
up on my remarks about diversity (above,
with the date of December 26, 2017), much
has transpired in the short time since then. While
I do not — and did not — go into
the political area when conversing
with my musical guests, it has come to my attention
that the Music World is, nonetheless, very much
involved in such social matters. For example,
the editorial in Opera Canada of Summer,
2019, discusses the “central
debate about how to keep the art form relevant for an audience
which no longer passively accepts the racist, misogynist
and sexist tropes of yesteryear.” It
goes on to discuss the “challenges faced by
women singers portraying some of the standard repertoire’s
iconic roles... many of which are mired
in stereotypes we find unacceptable in the
#MeToo era.”
My reason for bringing this
up is to point out that in several of my interviews
— which date from 1978-2006
— I specifically ask the question
of my female singer guests. To wit:
“How do we keep these Eighteenth
and Nineteenth Century characters relevant
to women (and men) today who have gone through world
wars, and social upheavals, and other developments
of our times?”
This is not to just
pat myself on the back for being so forward-looking,
but to show that my own curiosity was such that
it became imperative to inquire about these ideas,
and to ask how they resonated with audiences far
removed from the original mores and strictures.
Of course, in the theater,
the production team can (and often does)
re-set the action to a later era, or even to
the present day. That is, again, a discussion
for another time and place, but it does move
the ideas in ways that can provoke or amuse. There
is also the need to remember that it was only in
the early Twentieth Century that the classical musical
public abandoned its craving for anything and everything
which was new. Until then, while there were performances
of older pieces, it was the newest and latest symphonies
and operas which were anticipated with genuine eagerness. Once
this trend was lost, the oft-repeated repertoire began
to show signs of losing its immediate contact with concert-goers,
and from there it is the famous ‘slippery
slope’.
In any event, I just wanted
to call attention to my own small attempts
to make inquiry when possible, and to show that
my own feeling is that opera can remain a viable
and exciting living breathing art form.
= = = = = = = = = = =
Music Joke... Question:
What are the names of the Three
Bears? Answer: Smokey Bear, Yogi
Bear, Jacques Ibert
Second Music Joke...
What if we discover that’s
what it really is all about? [Reference:
Hokey Pokey]
Third Music Joke... Question:
What is the voice-range of the
quarter-hour? Answer: People
often say, "It'll be tenor fifteen minutes!"
Fourth Music Joke...
A woman is on trial for beating her
husband to death with his guitars.
The
judge asks, “First offender?” She replies,
“No, first a Gibson, then a Fender.”
Musical variation on an old joke...
If Mezzo-Soprano Shirley Verrett
married Tenor George Shirley,
she’d be Shirley
Shirley!
Continuing with a bit of music
humor, for those who wish to look at a slightly risqué
image, this R-rated
item is the photo of a sculpture depicting the realization
of a very old (music-related) joke. While it is nothing
more bold than what one would see at a museum, remember, no one
is forcing you to look. So, by clicking the link you implicitly
agree that your viewing is voluntary, and no complaints can be
made.
= = = = = = = = = = =
[August 29, 2019] I
stumbled upon this item just now, and thought
it would be fun to post it here. For
those who do not read music, or for anyone interested
in seeing a nifty connection between this tune and
the main thrust of my website, click HERE.
Lest you think it is only
one or two goofballs at a single establishment
who would make such an error, consider the fact
that the government of the former DDR (East Germany)
issued two postage stamps in 1956 to mark the 100th
anniversary of the death of composer Robert Schumann.
They were the same portrait of Schumann,
used for two denominations, but the music in the background
was by Franz Schubert! These are the top two stamps
in the illustration below. Soon, the error
was discovered, and a new version of the stamps (with music
by Schumann) was issued, as seen in the bottom two in the
illustration.
There have been other philatelic
mistakes, but most have been caught before
the stamps were available to the public for use
as postage. This is not about printing errors,
such as inverted images, or mistakes in colors or
perferations. Rather, place names have been
mis-attributed and people have been wrongly identified.
But those shown below are the only foul-ups
I know which involve music or musicians.
= = = = = = = = = =
=
[September 19, 2019]
The following is from an essay about
the (missing?) "A" in Neil Armstrong's famous
first statement when he stepped on the moon,
which was posted on the website "The Conversation"
7/16/19.
----------------------
When we talk, we formulate a thought, retrieve words from memory
and move our mouths to produce sound. We do this quickly, producing,
in English, around five syllables every second.
The process for listeners is equally complex and speedy. We hear
sounds, which we separate into speech and non-speech information, combine
the speech sounds into
words, and determine the meanings of these
words. Again, this happens nearly instantaneously,
and errors rarely occur.
These processes are even more extraordinary when you think more
closely about the properties of speech. Unlike writing, speech doesn’t
have spaces between words. When people speak, there are typically very
few pauses within a sentence.
Yet listeners have little trouble determining word boundaries in
real time. This is because there are little cues – like pitch and rhythm
– that indicate when one word stops and the next begins.
But problems in speech perception can arise when those kinds of cues
are missing, especially
when pitch and rhythm are used for non-linguistic
purposes, like in music. This is one reason
why misheard song lyrics – called “mondegreens”
– are common. When singing or rapping, a lot
of the speech cues we usually use are shifted to accommodate
the song’s beat, which can end up jamming our
default perception process.
[October 18, 2019] When
I was a teenager in the mid 1960s, I actually
did some work with computers... designing flow
charts and writing code in FORTRAN. The lines
were then put onto punch cards, which then ran through
the computer to execute the (very simple) programs.
I didn't stick with it, though, and only came back
to computers via a Memorywriter (a word-processor) which
the radio station had, and used for awhile to publish
the WNIB Program
Guide in the late 1980s.
My reason for mentioning this at
all is that some time back then I saw the famous
saying which is reproduced below. Recently
I remembered this saying, and looked it up via
a Google search. The many presentations
varied a bit, but had the same basic content. Besides
the signs and posters there was a tee-shirt, a coffee
mug, and even one going so far as to use faux nazi stationery.
In any event, here is one rendition
for your enjoyment.................
In the same Google search, I spotted
the following item, which probably should
be posted in every office................
[March 23,
2021 (yes, a year after the item which follows)]...
This next image actually belongs with both the
items above and below! .................
= = = = = = = = = = =
[March 24, 2020] During
the coronavirus pandemic, I happened upon
this article,
and felt it was significant enough to share. Perhaps it should
also be posted in every office, along with the
item shown directly above (about the rising cost and
increase of stupid questions), as an antidote to the
situation . . . . . . . . . (!)
Obviously, there is nothing funny
about the coronavirus, but there is some humor
to be found in the actions of a few individuals
. . . . .
[April 22, 2020] Current version
of old joke: Why did the chicken cross
the road? To maintain her social-distancing!
[November 9, 2020, and Covid is still the #1
topic everywhere... *sigh*]
[April 17, 2021... as it all still drags on] My
local grocery store has gone too far.
They’ve put a big X on the floor to show where to
stand in line at the register.
I’ve
seen enough Roadrunner cartoons... I’m not falling for that.
[October 30,
2021] Do we even need Halloween anymore?
I’ve been wearing a mask and eating candy for
14 months…
= = = = = = = = = = =
[June 24, 2020] We owned a Smart Car (shown on
right in the photo above) for about five years. It was really very
comfortable, and fun to drive
around town. Our other car was a mini-van,
which we used for transporting larger items, and
took on longer road trips. One day, when our
Smart Car was parked in a lot that was full, the owner of
the white Smart Car asked if she could use the ‘other
half’ of our space. The
result looks as though our cars are kissing!
In the spirit of admonishing a couple who are
showing too much PDA (public display of affection) to “Get
a room!”, a passer-by shouted, “GET A GARAGE!!!”
= = = = = = = = = = =
[September 12, 2020] As
people who have read my interview with Charles
Nelson Reilly know, one of my guilty pleasures
is watching re-runs of Match Game. The
ones I like best are from the 1970s, with host Gene
Rayburn, and panelist Richard Dawson, who was there until
1978. Of course, Reilly was there throughout, and
he truly made the show funny. One of the other regular
panelists, Brett Somers, said that a fan had declared
that the program should really be called Charles Nelson
Reilly's House Party, alluding to another program
actually called Art Linkletter's House Party. One
week, Raymond Burr was in the lower-middle position of
the six panelists. My reason for mentioning all of this
is that on one episode that week, there were two questions
relating to music! The first one went something like
this... Tough Teddy said, "Our school was soooooo tough...
[audience shouts, "How tough was it?"] ...it was so tough
that the the school orchestra kidnapped the janitor and put
him in the _______." [The panel and contestants were to
fill in the blank at the end of the sentence, and when they matched,
it scored a point for the contestant.] The more popular
answer was "Tuba", given by the contestant and four of the
panelists, but Reilly (and one other panelist) said "Drum".
This was what the writers were going for, since there
was a commercial product called "Janitor in a Drum". The
second musical question was, "Pat Pending (!) invented a
juke box for people who hate music. You drop a quarter in
the slot, and it ______s the record." The obvious answer
(which won the game for the contestant) was "breaks" (or smashes).
[November 2, 2020... amazingly this
goes with the Match Game item above!]
I continue to enjoy these re-runs, and now they
have added the evening series Match Game PM. Each
week had a stand-alone game which was edited a bit
to get through the entire game in one segment. (The
weekday edition just played for the time allotted, and games
spread over to the next day when necessary - which was most
of the time!) Anyway, there were two music questions
in recent PM programs... The first was "Lawrence _______".
The panelists gave Lawrence of Arabia, and Lawrence
Welk, then Reilly chimed in with, "I know this is an old
reference, but Lawrence Tibbett!" Rayburn acknowledged that
he knew of "the famous baritone", and began singing the Toreador
Song from Carmen, but the audience was not impressed. The
third response from the polled audience was Lawrence Olivier.
For the record, Lawrence Welk was chosen by the contestant,
and won the top prize. The other question was more obscure.
The question was "_______ foxes." The panel suggested
sly foxes, and, being theater people, Little Foxes (the
play by Lillian Hellman). I don't remember the third choice,
nor which was the winning item. I was engrossed in the fact
that while Somers and Rayburn were trying to remember which actress
starred as Regina on Broadway, and which one was in the film, Reilly
screamed, "AND BRENDA LEWIS STARRED IN THE OPERA REGINA BY
MARC BLITZSTEIN." I was so proud of him at that point. For
the record, it was Tallulah Bankhead on Broadway (1939), and Bette
Davis in the film (1941). The opera premiered in 1949 at the
46th Street Theatre, with Jane Pickens as Regina, conducted by Maurice Abravanel.
Lewis sang Birdie, but then moved to the title role when
the opera was revived in 1953 at the City Centre Opera.
[December 2, 2020... a couple more related items]
Two more questions come to mind, and both relate
to music in the nude. (!) A well-endowed
lady volunteered for the All-Nude Orchestra. Unfortunately,
she played _________. The contestant responded
with Cymbals, and some panelists also said that. But
after all six made their contribution, Rayburn said that
his answer was the Accordion! [Huge laugh from the audience.]
On another episode was this question... A man
complains to the conductor of the All-Nude Marching Band,
"I don't mind playing in your ensemble, but do I have to walk in
front of the _________???" Again, the contestant said
Cymbals, but a couple of the panelists said Trombone!
[December 27, 2020... one more item!] This
is from the third version of the program, the Match
Game-Hollywood Squares Hour. This
incantation of the program only lasted one season (October,
1983 - July, 1984). Rayburn returned as host of the
Match Game portions, and Jon Bauman (who had been Bowzer
with Sha Na Na) hosted the Hollywood Squares segment.
Bauman dressed normally, in a suit and tie, with regular
hair, not all greased up. However, he did occasionally
refer to his Bowzer character "from a previous life," and
sometimes showed his famous open-mouth fists-in-the-air pose.
Anyway, on one segment, there was this (musical) question:
"When well-endowed Wanda played her accordion, Lady
of Spain became Lady of _______." As it
happened, one panelist (Mark Russell) gave away the punch line by
saying that the title became Lady of Pain, and they had to
throw out the question before the contestant had a chance to respond.
For those who are interested, see my interview with accordionist
Robert Davine.
On another
program, the question was "George was always tired
when he got home from work because he was a ________
salesman." I don't remember any of the other
responses, but Bauman said "Anvil", and promptly started
singing the "Anvil Chorus" from Il Trovatore.
(Remember that Bauman had attended Juilliard!) Rayburn
also joined in, but no one else seemed to respond to their
rendition. *sigh*
[January
16, 2021... though the date of my posting is not
really relevant since all the Match Game programs
are re-runs from 45 or more years ago!] Another
couple of musical questions... "George knew his
son would be a musician because his head was shaped
like a __________." The contestant said Violin, and
the six panelists said Drum, Grand Piano, Heart - which is
an Organ (the panelist made that clarification!), Triangle,
Tuba, and Reilly said a G-Clef, and drew a very respectable image
on his card. The last panelist (Joyce Bulifant) noted
that it was quite an ensemble, and Rayburn pointed out that
there were seven different excellent responses. [The
following was added on November 27, 2021, but placed here for
obvious reasons] On another program, there was a different
set of seven responses. The question was, "Ugly Edna was
the center-fold of Musician's Monthly because her legs looked
like a ___________. The contestant said Violin, and the
six celebreties said Baton, Tuba, Piano Legs (Reilly), Cello,
Slide Trombone, and a Pair of Bassoons (Patti Deutsch).
Another question was,
"When Joshua wanted to destroy the wall in Jericho,
his trumpet wasn't enough, so he used a _________." The
contestant and one panelist said Tuba, another panelist
said Piano, one said Bulldozer, and the other three said
Hammer. Rayburn lamented that four of the six panelists
just didn't understand the question! Though there
were no 'right' or 'wrong' answers, he often would gently deride
them when there was one (or more) obvious answer, and the contestant
or panelists would completely miss the joke.
[February
12, 2021] Yet another "Audience Match" question
was, "Bella _______." Dawson rightly said that
the audience often mis-spelled their responses, and
that despite his name being Bela, they might have said "Lugosi,"
which, indeed was the number-one answer. Incidentally,
other questions on the program often used the character
of Count Dracula, and Rayburn spoke the quote in an accent
quite close to Lugosi's. Again, I forget what the number
two response was, but Reilly's (third position) response
was, "Bella figlia dell'amore," which is the opening phrase
of the Quartet from Rigoletto. Rayburn then began
singing the phrase (correctly). It's just another reason
why I love that show.
[March
21, 2021... yet another one to SPRING up... ! (Sorry
for the pun. I just wanted to SEASON this line.)]
Rose phoned her psychiatrist. She said,
"My husband is on the roof! He thinks he's a ________"
The contestant said Cat. Three panelists said
Bird, one panelist said Weather Vane, and another said TV
Antenna. Reilly said FIDDLER ! (Get it?
Fiddler on the Roof!)
[January 23, 2022]
One more re-run just seen... The question
for the big money was "______ toast". One celebrity
response was "French" (which was the $500 (top) audience response,
and the one the contestant chose). The next celebrity
response was "White", and then Reilly said, "I'm going to give
a Nellie answer. MELBA!" He had to explain who Nellie
Melba was, and that she was a famous opera singer. It turned
out that Melba Toast was the $100 audience response.
[February 19, 2022] From
another re-run of Match Game 75... The tuba player
said, "I don't think that new conductor likes me. In the
middle of my solo, he started __________ing in my tuba!" While
the celebrities were writing their responses, CNR asked, "How
far was the tuba from the conductor?" (Some
laughter from the audience) Betty White asked, "And what was
the trajectory?" (More laughter) CNR continued, "How
old was the conductor? All those strings to get across..."
(Much laughter) The contestant's response was, "Tinkling".
Rayburn then pretended to be on the podium looking at the orchestra,
pointing to the violins, then the cellos, then the basses farther away,
and, "Waaaay in the back are the tubas." The celebrity answers
were a bit boring... Allen Ludden said "Blowing", Brett Somers
said, "Barfing", CNR said "Eating lunch", Dolly Martin said "Expectorating",
and Betty White said "Pouring Water." Richard Dawson was the only
one who matched the contestant with "Tinkling".
[March 7, 2022... I just
keep watching the progams, and they keep serving up the
music questions] On a PM show, the question was:
A Marching Band member said, "I learned a painful lesson today. Never
stop fast when there's a ______ player behind you." The
contestant said Tuba, but all six celebrities said the 'right'
answer, which was Trombone!
From another (regular weekday)
show from 1978... Jack said, "This t-shirt craze
is really wild. I saw a girl with an entire orchestra
on her front. She had the biggest ________ I ever saw!"
The contestant said Cymbals. The celebrities said
Tubas, Instruments, Bassoons, and Maracas. CNR said Kettle
Drums, to which Rayburn commented that when they were upside down
they'd look... (he never bothered to finish the sentence since everyone
was laughing). By this time, Richard Dawson had departed for
Family Feud, and Bob Barker (host of The Price is Right)
sat in the lower-center seat that week. He said Boobs, to
which the audience loudly booed. He then said, "This audience
is the pits... like orchestra pits!" and the audience continued to
boo. After everything settled down, Rayburn said that in the
office, they all thought the answer would be Bongo Drums. Yes,
there were more boos from the audience. It's really a fun show...........
[March 17, 2022... and the
shows just keep coming along!] A Match Game Limerick:
A kinky young pianist named Twist/Played piano with
only his wrist./When he got on his knees/And banged on the keys/He
said, "I'm bound to be ________." The contestant and four
on the panel (including CNR) said Kissed. Dawson said Hissed
(which was my answer), but Bobby Van had the best response, which
was LISZT !
Another question from another show...
A stripper said to the night club owner, "I want
a new dressing room! The musician next door just poked
a peep hole through the wall with his __________." The
contestant had the best answer, which was Trombone, but none of
the panel said that. CNR was away doing a Broadway show,
so Gary Burghoff sat in his seat and said Drum Stick. (He had
actually worked as a jazz drummer, and was seen in M*A*S*H
playing a drum solo (which was not overdubbed!). Other responses
were Piccolo, Horn (which matched), French Horn (which did NOT
match), and two said Instrument.
[August 19, 2022] From a very early
program in the series, since Rayburn was called the Host
rather than the Star... A music teacher said to Dumb
Dora, "You don't play a _________ by blowing on it." The
contestant and five of the panelists all said Piano. CNR
was the only one who said Violin.
[October 17, 2022] Here's yet another
pair of questions... They call Oscar the Orchestra Leader
"The Ostrich" because when the band plays bad, Oscar sticks his
head in the _______. The contestant and three panelists said
Tuba. Arlene Francis said Pit, and CNR said Toilet. [The
contestant had matched one in the previous round, so only 5 panelists
responded.
The other question was an Audience Match. Slide
_________. Brett suggested Rule, Betty White said Projector,
and Richard Dawson made a joke of Slide, Kelly, Slide (the
1927 silent film), but then opted for Trombone. I was amazed
that Trombone did not show up as any of the audience's responses. The
third most popular response ($100) was Home, the second ($250) was
Projector, and the top one ($500) was Rule. I don't remember
what the contestant picked, but it was not Trombone..... *sigh*
[November 18, 2022] A baritone asked
a tenor, "How do you hit those high notes?" The tenor replies,
"Before each performance, my wife _______s my shorts." The
contestant and four of the panelists said starches. Patti Deutsch
said heats, and clarified that it was because the theater was cold.
CNR said lights. Dawson then remarked that if she lights
the shorts, only dobermans would hear the high notes!
[March 18, 2024] Each year there are some 'new' additions
to the re-run rotation, and now the syndicated version (without a date
attached) is being seen. One show from 1980 had this item... Old
Oscar the musician is really old. He played his first duet
with ________. The contestant said Beethoven, and when Rayburn asked
why she had come up with that, she said it was the only song she knew.
However, she soon started saying "Jesu joy (of man's desiring)" which
some audience members shouted was by Bach. The panelists' responses
were Brahms (Robert Walden), Bach (Brett Somers), then CNR said he had The
Definitive Answer: Gabriel, because he blew his horn! Judy Landers
then said Eve, Bill Daily said Lawrence Welk, and Marcia Wallace said, "That
good little tuba player, Noah!" CNR then chimed in that Noah would
have played the Double Bass, since everything on the Ark came in pairs!
= = = = = = = = = = =
I am proud to say that a quotation from my interview with
Maria Tallchief was used as the text with the animation
in this Google Doodle.
To see the video, and read about its creation,
click HERE.
= = = = = = = = = = =
[December 20, 2020] A couple of images
for the season . . . . . The first one is not
new, but does involve some wonderfully appropriate
critters!
On the other hand, it has been
a very tough year . . . . .
= = = = = = = = = = =
The following panel contains two separate jokes.
Do NOT try to make them into one
idea. They just happened to be inspired
by the world situation . . . . .
All of his reminds
me of an actual musical chord, concocted by Nicolas Slonimsky,
which he calls The
Grandmother Chord (shown immediately below)...
From the interview,
here is how he explains its derivation...
Technically, it is a mathematical problem because you
have to use all twelve different notes and all eleven different intervals.
It's not so easy; if you start by just trial and
error, you won't get anywhere because you will either
repeat a note or repeat an interval! But I also found
that musically it's very easy. Jocularly I say that
great adventures always have very elementary fundamental principles,
and this principle is extremely simple! Using a convergent
system of intervallic progression, the first note of the scale,
let's say C, then the last note of the chromatic scale, B.
Then the second note of the chromatic scale, C-sharp and the one
before — the penultimate —
B-flat, then D, A, E-flat, A-flat, E, G, F, F-sharp.
So it's convergent, and when it's expanded [sings, alternating
between low and high notes] "da-DAH-dee-DAH-dah-DAH" and developed
throughout seven octaves, then I have my Grandmother Chord.
= = =
= = = = = =
Walter Johannes Damrosch (January 30, 1862 –
December 22, 1950) was a German-born American
conductor and composer. He is best remembered today as
long-time director of the New York Symphony Orchestra and
for conducting the world premiere performances of George
Gershwin's Piano Concerto in F (1925)
and An American in Paris (1928). Damrosch
was also instrumental in the founding of Carnegie Hall. He
also conducted the first performance of Rachmaninov's third
piano concerto with Rachmaninov himself as a soloist.
Damrosch was the National Broadcasting Company's
music director under David Sarnoff, and from 1928
to 1942, he hosted the network's Music Appreciation
Hour, a popular series of radio lectures on classic
music aimed at students. (The show was broadcast during
school hours, and teachers were provided with textbooks
and worksheets by the network.) According to former
New York Times critic Harold C. Schonberg in his
collection Facing the Music, Damrosch was notorious
for making up silly lyrics for the music he discussed in
order to "help" young people appreciate it, rather than letting
the music speak for itself.
|
Now,
ninety years later, what would be the long-term effect
of even a mere five million listeners (and viewers)
of similar presentations on their computers? I
hereby "donate" all
the interviews which are posted on my website
as research materials to be used as any kind of compendium
or supporting material to a venture such as this.
= = = = = = = = =
[October
16, 2021] Occasionally, people notice that my
name (DUFFIE) is spelled differently than usual. As
a young boy, I asked my father about it, but he just dismissed
it with a shrug and a throw-away line about an ancestor
being a horse-thief. In any event, when heard and not
seen, most people will assume it's DUFFY. That has never
bothered me, except when necessary... like directing people to
my website! There, the name needs to be spelled correctly.
When speaking
with composers, or others involved with new music,
they often asked if I was related to John Duffy. A
few even thought I was him! John was a composer
himself, who also founded Meet The Composer in 1974,
and ran it until 1996. When John and I eventually
met, I distinctly remember that we both had to carefully write
the other's name when scribbling our contact info. I
also interviewed the violinist Robert McDuffie,
and there is a woman named Duffie Adelson, who ran the Merit School
of Music in Chicago. In college, after we music students
learned about the early Renaissance composer Guillaume Dufay
(or Du Fay, pronounced doo-FYE, or dew-FY, in either case it
rhymes with defy) (1397-1474), I was always called by that name.
What brought all
this to my mind recently was watching baseball games
of the Chicago Cubs. (Yes, even after trading away
several of their best players, I will still follow them,
as I have since I was a kid.) After being with other
teams, the infielder Matt DUFFY signed with the Cubs for 2021.
It always pleased me to hear the TV announcers say his name,
especially when he hit a home run, or made a spectacular fielding
play. As it happened, there were a couple of Cubs games against
the Minnesota Twins. (They don't play each other very often
because they are in different leagues, but now, with inter-league
contests, they do meet every few years.) Until I happened
to hear my family name spoken on the Twins' roster, I was unaware
of pitcher Tyler DUFFEY. Unfortunately, I didn't pay close
enough attention at the time to know if DUFFEY pitched to DUFFY.
After the fact,
I e-mailed the Cubs to find out, but received no answer.
So, I sent the same e-mail to the Twins. Again,
no answer. Finally, I contacted the Cubs
Insider, an unofficial website. Well, you guessed
it, I got no response. That's three strikes, so I'm
out. This is too bad, because it would have been fun
to speculate about DUFFIE watching DUFFEY pitching to DUFFY.
Of course, the best would be if I was at Wrigley Field
to catch a homer, or even a foul ball in this situation! *sigh*
Oh well, as they
say, "Wait 'til next year . . . . ."
[May, 2022] It's now 'next
year', and DUFFY has been traded to the Los Angeles Angels.
*big sigh*
[October 19, 2021]
Also regarding names... The Poet
and Peasant Overture by Franz von Suppé is certainly
one of the more popular items on concerts of light music.
It's from an 1846 Viennese operetta Dichter und
Bauer, to use the original title. For a long time,
my interview with pianist Mischa Dichter has
been posted on this website. Earlier today, I uploaded
my conversation with conductor Harold Bauer.
I just thought it was a nifty happenstance.
= = = = = = = = =
[October 30,
2021] A friend of mine sent me the following
item. It reminds me of Emily Litella, the malaprop
character played by Gilda Radner in the early years of Saturday
Night Live.
[November 17, 2021]
With all the re-thinking about language
these days, just as we call 8:00 "eight o'clock", perhaps
we should call August "eight o'calendar."
Also, what is the difference between a thingamajig
and a doohickey?
= = = = = = = = =
[November 27, 2021]
The cartoon below could easily have been inspired
by my own work-space... *sigh*
= = = = = = = = =
[December 31, 2021]
Three thoughts as we move from one year to the
next.....
A guy walks into a bar on New Year’s Eve and orders a glass
of champagne.
“It’s finally happened!” he exclaims. “I’ve made enough money that
I don’t have to work for the rest of the year!”
-----------------------------
My New Year’s Resolution is to go to the gym more often, get into
grad school, pay off my bills, and learn a new language.
I don’t have a clue how I’m going to get all that done by tomorrow.
-----------------------------
I’m going to stay up on New Year’s Eve this year.
Not to see the New Year in, but to ensure this one leaves.
= = = = = = = = =
[January 8, 2022] First, let me say that I
am NOT a gamer. I don't play video games, and really never have. When
I was in undergraduate school, I played Pinball,
which had flippers controlled by my hands, and a round
steel ball which knocked down targets and banged into
bumpers to accumulate points. It was kinda fun, and I
wasted a bit of time on the machine in the basement of my dorm.
Partly, it was also that we discovered a way to 'cheat'
a bit, thus gaining free games, and allowing us to keep playing
for no extra cash.
Later, while working
for WNIB, there was a pinball machine in the coin
laundry next to my 'L' stop, and I'd sometimes go in and
play a bit. Being cheap, I'd put in 50 cents, and
play until that was gone. Sometimes I'd spend an additional
50 cents, but never more than that amount of money. Usually,
that meant fifteen to twenty minutes, but occasionally a half
hour, and sometimes a mere five minutes.
What brings this all
to mind was an article by Jake Peterson which I just
stumbled on in the Lifehacker website. It
was titled, "Why Do Retro Games Look Better On Old TVs?" The
subtitle was, "8-bit Mario is never going to look great
on your 65-inch 4K TV." Here are the opening two paragraphs...
<<<If
you own retro consoles—say, a Super Nintendo or a
Sega Genesis—you have access to some of gaming’s greatest
roots. However, you might find plugging these awesome consoles
into your current TV doesn’t result in the experience you remember
from years past. Games look fuzzy and distorted, and it can be
tempting to think your memory is playing tricks on you. It’s not
your memory, though; it’s your TV.
For retro gamers, the CRT is the
display of choice. Those giant, boxy television
sets that nearly everyone threw out or gave away in
favor of modern flat panels are actually coveted for their
ability to properly display games from the ‘80s, ‘90s,
and even part of the aughts. Retro games are not designed for
modern, pixel-dense TVs.>>>
The article then goes on to explain
the thesis in detail, most of which I do not understand and don't care to
explore further.
My reason for bringing this up is that
since discovering 78 rpm records as a teenager,
and learning of the difference between 'acoustics' and
'electrics', the old collectors insisted that acoustics
sounded better on outside-horn machines [as shown here
on the right, and also seen above where the dog Nipper is listening
to His Master's Voice]. This means that these records
do not sound as good when played by equipment which has speakers.
A variation of the outside-horn machine was the inside-horn
cabinet, which simply put the horn into the box, and allowed it all
to look nicer in one's living room. In the photo at left, the
horn is in the short chamber immediately below the turntable, and
below that is a larger chamber where records could be stored. When
not in use, it could be all closed up, and was a distinguished
piece of furniture. A photo of two of the greatest singers
of that era, Tita Ruffo and Enrico Caruso, listening to their efforts
can be seen on the page of my interview with George Jellinek. They
only made one record together, on January 8, 1914. That
page also has a self-caricature made by the tenor of the recording
process of singing into the horn.
Acoustic records
were recorded by singing or playing into a horn that
looked like a megaphone, and electrics were recorded by using
a microphone. The date of change from one to the other
is 1925. All records made prior to that date are acoustics,
and after that date they all are electrics. The change
was almost immediate, and generally universal, because it was the
record companies which had to invest in the new equipment, which
they did. Both acoustics and electrics would be playable
on either horn or speaker machines, so it was not that urgent for
the public to get new equipment. It is similar to film, in
that all movies prior to The Jazz Singer of 1927 were silent,
but after that date, little by little sound was incorporated,
and they were called talkies. But the change was more
gradual because it meant that all the movie houses had to invest
in sound reproduction equipment. Other huge changes happened in
1948 with the introduction of Long Playing records, (although a
few 78s were still being made as late as 1955 or so), and again in the
mid-1950s when Stereo came along.
Anyway, it just hit me
that no matter what development comes along, a similar
upheaval probably occurred in the past... *sigh*
[January 13, 2022] Continuing
with the idea of recordings, while preparing to post
my interview with oboist Ray Still, he mentioned
that early in his career he had played on a record
called Classical Music For People Who Don’t
Know Anything About Classical Music, conducted by
Robert Russell Bennett. A bit of searching turned
up some interesting items, which are shown below.
= = = = = = = = =
[January 30, 2022] For
a very special music joke about Mary Had a Little
Lamb, click HERE.
[February 5, 2022] Remember
the old PSA (public service announcement) shown below-left?
Well, I've devised a new one relevant to my topic,
shown below-right . . . . .
[March 5, 2022] Three
computer jokes . . . . .
I heard Reggae music coming from my printer.
The paper was jammin’.
—
I bought a 3D printer, but I didn’t like it.
So I 3D printed a dumpster to throw it in.
__
On
Ash Wednesday I will be giving up spreadsheets for 40
days and 40 nights.
It’s going to be completely
Excel Lent.
= = = = = = = = =
[April 28, 2022] C'mon...
we all knew this was going to happen, right???
[August 21, 2022] As the
new school year begins, perhaps we should re-examine the curriculum
. . . . .
= = = = = = = = =
[September 17, 2022] It
is known that I never discuss politics, and rarely post items
of topical interest. However, back in 1987, I had a wonderful
interview with Lord Harewood.
During his lifetime, he was (among other things)
editor of Opera Magazine
and the famous Kobbé's
Complete Opera Book, Director of the Royal Opera Covent
Garden and the English National Opera, as well as several festivals,
and the BBC. He had boundless enthusiasm for opera in general
and Verdi in particular – equating his music with Shakespeare's
plays.
He was also a member of the British
Royal Family. Captain George Henry Hubert
Lascelles acceded to the title of 7th Earl of Harewood on 23 May
1947. Lord Harewood [pronounced HAHR-wood]
was the grandson of King George V, and first cousin to the late Queen
Elizabeth.
With her passing, and the accession of King
Charles III, I wanted to present this small bit of my conversation
. . . . .
BD:
You are first cousin to the Queen. Has your involvement
and interest in the arts engendered more interest on her part?
H:
I don’t think she would put it down first in her list of
hobbies if she were asked to write in Who’s Who. The one member
of the family who likes it a lot and is very involved is Prince
Charles, the Prince of Wales. He likes music a lot, but
he is the first person for a generation who has.
BD:
Permit me to ask one question, and you may dodge it if you like.
Will he make a good king?
H:
[Matter of factly] Oh yes. I think he’s a marvelous
man. He has so many qualities and so many experiences
and he’s so judicious about how he estimates them and how he
goes about them. I think he’ll be extraordinary.
* * * *
*
[September 19, 2022] [This
item by Norman Lebrecht appeared on September 18, 2022, in the
column SlippedDisc, ‘the
#1 Classical Music News Site’.]
In
2016, Judith Weir received the Royal Command to become the first
woman ever to serve as Master of the Queen’s Musick, a title
that dates back to 1626. No-one proposed, then or now, to modify
the term Master in a manner that made it more gender inclusive. Now
she is Master of the King’s Musick.
She tells the Washington Post: ‘I think
most of us have grown up with, as we knew him, Prince Charles.
He actually is a most unusual lover of classical music. He was
a cellist in his youth, played in college orchestra and really intensely
loves classical music. He’s made some very touching statements when
interviewed about his interests and has made it clear that it’s
absolutely top of the list. I don’t expect there to be less interest
in what we musicians do, and I’m sort of anticipating that there’s
a chance for us to do even more, once he gets over the huge backlog
of work he has to do.’
* * * *
*
In another item, Weir says: ‘“For this funeral
service, Westminster Abbey requested that I set to music the
first seven verses of Psalm 42, “Like as the hart desireth the
water-brooks: so longeth my soul after thee, O God”. The words and
music speak at first of the soul’s great sadness and thirst for God’s
reassurance; but as the psalm progresses, the mood becomes calmer and
more resolved, culminating in consolation, with the words “Put thy
trust in God”. The Queen’s strong faith in, and support of, Anglican
worship was an inspiration for me when setting this psalm to music.”’
= = = = = = = = =
[October 1, 2022] Over
the years, Kathy Cunningham has created several groups of hand-made
ceramic pumpkins. One is pictured below, and more can be
found HERE.
= = = = = = = = =
[Thanksgiving, 2022] As we head
into the Holiday Season once again, the Museum of Science and
Industry in Chicago presents their annual exhibit Christmas
Around the World and Holidays of Light. Since 2011, Kathy
Cunningham has been in charge of the USA TREE, which is always
a highlight of the display. This year, she made a set of enamel
ornaments depicting the birds, flowers, and trees of each state, plus
Washington D.C., and the four US Territories. These, along with
the set of wooden ornaments and other items from previous years adorn
the tree. Everything except the crystal icicles and the flags is
hand-made, and can be seen on the various webpages starting HERE. Shown
below-left is a shot of the tree after being decorated by the
Friends of the USA Tree, but before it had been placed
into the exhibit. On the right is a close-up of one of the
new ornaments (front and back) as an example.
= = = = = = = = =
[December 4, 2022] I ran across
the following cartoon a couple months ago, and saved it for Christmastide.
Having grown up as a choral singer, this particular carol
appeared regularly. Like Ninety-Nine Bottles of Beer
on the Wall, it can become repetitious. (!) If
I may, allow me to recommend one (of many) recorded versions for
your listening pleasure. When Joan Sutherland
committed it to disc, she used an arrangement by Douglas Gamley.
Since it only runs 3:10, let me suggest that you listen to
it twice. The first time, just enjoy her lovely voice. The
second time, ignore her singing (as much as possible), and concentrate
on the rest of the sounds. It is the 'arrangement' which is
notable, and can even be used as a teaching-device to demonstrate the
possibilities of making a terrific version of an over-familiar (and over-repetitive)
piece.
= = = = = = = = =
[December 27, 2022] A few months
ago, I ran across some cartoons by a Canadian pianist. I
saved this one (below) for an appropriate time . . . . . . . . .
= = = = = = = = =
[January 19, 2023] As we head into
the New Year, here's a bit of news that's sure to cause consternation
among lovers of Classical Music... *huge sigh*
= = = = = = = = =
[February 14, 2023] It's Valentine's
Day, which reminds me of a wise-crack I used to say in years when
I was on the air that evening (1975-2001). [Note that when
one hears the term 'VD', it usually refers to venereal disease, which
is now called STD, or sexually transmitted disease.] Anyway,
on Valentine's Day I would, "Wish everyone a safe, happy, and prosperous
V.D." While I was never reprimanded by the management for saying
that, I do wonder if such a phrase might not be decried as unacceptable
in today's socio-political climate. Being on a Classical Music
station, perhaps my listeners were a bit more sophisticated than
those tuned to the Top-40 bubble-gum frequency... (!)
= = = = = = = = =
[March 2, 2023] Throughout my adult
life, I have always encouraged people to experience live Classical
Music concerts. As far back as when I was in junior high school
(7th and 8th grades), my growing knowledge and enthusiasm manifested
itself in this quest. Later, I have been quoted as saying that
though I made my living on radio via recorded performances, the LIVE variety
was The True Way.
Some months ago, I saw the following cartoon, and stuck
it in my file for future amusement...
Little did I know that the idea would actually come
to pass... What follows are two news items from a regular
daily feed called Slippedisc. There have, of course, been occasional
disruptions in concert halls over the years, but this seems to be
a first. Let us hope that it is the last...
Here are more details from the following day ...
[April 19, 2024] A little more than a year later, we
find this report . . . . .
[A couple weeks later...] Next, we have an 'official'
statement, and then the perfect input from Stephen Hough, dealing with
his upcoming performance . . . . .
= = = = = = = = =
[March 14, 2023 (
day) ] A special version.....
= = = = = = = = =
[April 2, 2023] I wonder
if anyone has ever tried speakng the phrase, "Alexa: Klaatu barada
nikto." [Reference: The 1951 film The Day the Earth
Stood Still.]
= = = = = = = = =
[April 30, 2023] With budget considerations
always being discussed, this item should be kept handy . . . . . .
. . .
= = = = = = = = =
[August 8, 2023] Some bad news, and then
some good news.....
= = = = = = = = =
[October 28, 2023] For those who
drive around looking at Halloween decorations, here's a scary group
that might appear on your dashboard...
= = = = = = = = =
[December 31, 2023] As the year comes to
a close . . . . . [12/31/23]
[March 11, 2024] Today I am 73. A quick
Google search of that number presented several items. This one
was my favorite . . . . .
[June 16, 2024] In case I don't make it to 74, at least
there is something for me after my demise . . . . .
= = = = = = = = =
[May 12, 2024] This admonishment (below) was seen
on a bus in Birmingham, England. Whether or not it has anything
to do with the uproar at the Symphony concerts (cited above) is anyone's
guess . . . . .
= = = = = = = = =
[May 28, 2024] While watching the Cubs play Milwaukee on
TV, I heard them introduce a Brewers pinch hitter named Monasterio.
At first I could have sworn the announcer said
MONO-STEREO. *sigh* [The Cubs won 6-3.]
[June 23, 2024] Whenever I see an ad on TV for Capella
University, I always wonder if they have an a cappella chorus.
= = = = = = = = =
[November 3, 2024] I hope *everybody* remembered to re-set
their clocks for Standard Time. When I was a boy, I sang in the Choristers
at St. Mark's Church in Evanston. In the Spring, the choirmaster
would scream and holler at us during Thursday night's rehearsal, to be
sure to remind our parents to set their clocks ahead. Otherwise, we'd
be late for Sunday services. He would actually (really!) jump up and
down while saying this. HOWEVER, in the Fall, when failure to re-set
would mean we'd show up an hour early, he never said a word. I kinda
respected him for that!
Later in life, I usually worked that Saturday Night/Sunday Morning shift
at WNIB, and I would make a big point of saying "Central Daylight
Time" or "Central Standard Time". The next evening, I would
gently chide the public with, "Did you remember to re-set ALL your clocks
and watches??? How about the one in your car? Or what about that
special wristwatch in your jewelry box, that you only wear on important occasions?"
And yes, I did get a few calls thanking me for reminding them of those
items . . . . .
= = = = = = = = =
[February 9, 2025] As it relates to music, the term 'period
practice' is a style of music performance that uses techniques and instruments
from a specific historical period.
Today,
there was an item on the Slippedisc website under the heading 'A
Different Kind of Period Practice' . . . . .
Chicago, IL, February 2025 – Endometriosis
Awareness Month highlights the chronic condition affecting 11% of American
women, but everyone who menstruates deals with the monthly pain. As science
looks into the relationship between music and pain relief, could a new playlist
be the key to relieving cramps?
For many women, menstrual cramps are more than just a monthly
inconvenience: they can disrupt daily life and impact overall well-being.
But what if relief could be as simple as pressing “play” on your favorite
playlist?
A recent study published in BMC Women’s Health explored the
artistry effects of music and drawing as coping mechanisms for menstrual
pain in nursing students. The results were promising, showing that listening
to music not only alleviated menstrual pain but also helped reduce some of
the emotional discomfort often associated with menstruation.
The science behind this finding is rooted in how music interacts
with the brain. Research suggests that music activates the limbic system,
a region responsible for processing both emotions and pain perception. This
stimulation can reduce the transmission of pain signals, making menstrual
cramps feel less intense. Furthermore, music has the ability to trigger
the release of endorphins, the body’s natural painkillers.
This healing power of music is supported by scientific research.
A study published in the National Library of Medicine, titled Standardizing
Music Characteristics for the Management of Pain, revealed that instrumental
music, particularly without lyrics, is highly effective in relieving pain.
The study examined music with specific features: no lyrics, little percussion,
no nature sounds, and a tempo of around 60-80 beats per minute (bpm). While
each of these features contributed to pain relief, the absence of lyrics
consistently showed the strongest results across studies.
Recognizing music’s ability to heal and uplift, U by Kotex®
has curated a playlist of 20 classical tracks to help you relax during your
period and navigate the ups and downs of your cycle. *Listed
in order of BPM (beats per minute), from highest to lowest*
| # |
Composer |
Song title |
BPM |
| 1 |
Vaughan Williams |
Greensleeves |
80 |
| 2 |
Rosetti |
Piano Sonata in B-Flat Major, RWV E3: II. Andante |
79 |
3
|
Mozart
|
Sonata No. 8 in A Minor, II Andante Cantabile
|
78 |
| 4 |
Debussy |
The girl with the flaxen hair |
76 |
| 5 |
Ennio Morricone |
Gabriel’s Oboe |
76 |
| 6 |
Bach |
Air on the G string |
74 |
| 9 |
Pachelbel |
Canon in D |
72 |
| 10 |
Yiruma |
River’s Flow in You |
69 |
| 12 |
Craig Armstrong |
Romeo and Juliet Balcony Scene |
65 |
| 13 |
Satie |
Gymnopedie No. 1 |
64 |
| 14 |
Saint-Saëns |
The Swan |
60 |
| 15 |
Johann Strauss II |
The Blue Danube Waltz |
58 |
| 16 |
Beethoven |
Moonlight Sonata (1st Movement |
58 |
| 17 |
Tchaikovsky |
Swan Lake Act 2, No.10 |
58 |
| 19 |
Mahler |
Adagietto (Symphony No. 5) |
54 |
| 20 |
Arvo Pärt |
Spiegel im Spiegel |
54 |
|
= = = = = = = = =
[
March 25, 2025] Communication over the generation gap...
I asked my daughter to give me the phone book.
She laughed at me, called me a dinosaur, and handed me her iPhone.
So….. The spider is dead, the iPhone is broken, and my daughter
is pissed.
= = = = = = = = =
There was an old woman who lived in a shoe,
but only during the cold months.
In the summer she rented an open-toe sandal!
* * *
What time is 25% of a ballet dancer's outfit?
1:45 [Quarter to two, or quarter tutu.]
* * *
If Goofy's pet dog had $$$, he'd be a Plutocrat!
* * *
Baa, baa, black sheep, have you any wool?
Not since I went to a cotton-polyester blend!
* * *
Rigoletto is the hunchback jester and title character in Verdi's opera Rigoletto,
which is based on the play Le roi s'amuse by Victor Hugo.
Quasimodo is the title character of Hugo's Gothic Novel The Hunchback
of Notre-Dame.
Those two characters should file a class-action lawsuit for Trademark Infringement
against
Goodson-Todman, producers of the 1958-63 TV game show Play Your Hunch.
[Brief pause to allow for laughter or groans.....]
Seriously, about the program, Variety [January 14, 1959] called it
"typical daytime audience participation fare that some housewives find entertaining."
I wonder what the rest of the media would say if such a comment was
made now!
= = = = = = = = =
[April 10, 2025] Apparently there was a bit of a dust-up
at a piano recital in Amsterdam, when a woman confronted the soloist and
demanded to know what he was about to play. This news item (on Slippedisc)
elicited a long discussion, which included reasoned remarks as well as ugly
derision of various publics. In the midst of it all, one comment made
me literally laugh out loud.
You see, we in America are spoiled because programs are usually free and
plentiful. It was pointed out that in Europe, quantities are often
very limited, and sometimes cost quite a bit. So, it seems that numerous
soloists announce what they are about to play, but a few do not. One
wag suggested that a particular pianist should say that he was going to play
the Beethoven Appassionata, but then actually perform the Waldstein.
