Tosh on Theodor Adorno's "Night Music" (Seagull Books)

 

Tosh on Theodor Adorno's "Night Music"

"A Sound Mind" by Paul Morley (Bloomsbury Publishing)

 

A SOUND MIND: How I Fell in Love With Classical Music (And Decided to Rewrite Its Entire History)

By Paul Morley (Bloomsbury Press) 2020

Ever since I picked up issues of New Musical Express as a teenager and young adult, I have been drawn to the music-obsessed mind of Paul Morley. There are two types of music writing—the facts, such as who did what, and why, and where. Then there are writers like Ian Penman and Paul Morley. They use music as a springboard to investigate their world through a particular artist or album. Morley is famous for his various essays and interviews with the post-punk world of Factory Records and being a member of the band "Art of Noise." He co-started the label with mega-producer Trevor Horn and his wife, Jill Sinclair ZZT (ZANG TUMB TUUM) Records that produced (in the truest sense) Frankie Goes To Hollywood, among other artists. 

"A Sound Mind: How I Fell in Love with Classical Music" is a 600-page book focusing on Morley's love for music in its representative state as well as the aural pleasures that music brings to a soul. The book is not about classical music or music in general, but more about how Morley feels and thinks about how music is such an essential practice. Morley's book is a relative of Alex Ross's excellent music study, "The Rest is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century." While reading" A Sound Mind," I often find myself thinking about "The Rest is Noise." Alex Ross is very much an opinionated music historian. Still, he deals with the facts, dates, and how the music has affected the modern world. Morley's approach is personal, with touches of memoir-like writing, and of course, his past (and current) world as a commentator on Pop Music. Also, both writers have a large platform to write. The reader can devour the words and makes a perfect entranceway to the classical music world. Still, Morley doesn't always go from A to Z.  

The Classical world, generally speaking, is very boxed-in culturally. Musicians in that domain often specialize in a few composers or focus on a particular movement in history. The great pianist (and thinker) Glenn Gould specializes in Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Handel, and explores the world of Paul Hindemith. In comparison, some musicians focus on Debussy, Ravel, and others' Impressionistic music, and others, only contemporary music such as David Tudor. In Morley's mind, he doesn't know why one can't have both Mozart and John Cage on one album. His aesthetic and thinking are very much against music categories that are separated by history or specific movements. As a listener, he wants to digest the music in his manner or way. 

I have a healthy curiosity, and I like to approach art as something that I don't know, a mystery to me that will lead me to a journey with great possibilities. Morley feels the same way. His writings deal with the sense of discovery and wonder when approaching an artist or world; he is not sure about or even fully aware of their greatness. In the most real sense of a critic, he's not here to say so-so is bad or good, but why they do demand attention from the listener. 

Morley is not a dot connector but does give direction in how classical music moves from one century to another. It's just not all Bach, Brahms, and Beethoven here, and there is only a touch of Wagner (for that one needs to read Alex Ross's "Wagnerism."). Before I read this book, I never knew that Wagner wrote Siegfried Idyll as a surprise for his wife to be played for her birthday. Initially, the music was made for a thirteen-piece orchestra to be played outside of her bedroom. Or that Ruth Crawford Seeger (1901-1953), a rare female modernist in classical music, is also the stepmother to Folk legend Pete Seeger. She is mostly known as a folk-song collector and transcriber. Still, according to Morley, she wrote one of the great pieces in the post-twelve-tone American modernism. Also, Morley writes in great excitement on Elizabeth Maconchy (1907-1994), who wrote and was electrified by string quartets. In her liner notes for The Complete Quartets Vol. 1: String Quartets Nos 1 -4, "the string quartet is the most satisfying medium of all." A contemporary of hers, Elisabeth Lutyens (1906-1983), was looked upon as England's 'first serialist’ and nicknamed Twelve-Note Lizzie. She was from a wealthy family in England. Jiddu Krishnamurti even lived in their family home, as the Lutyens clan were interested in the Theosophical Movement. Her String Quartet No. 6, Op. 25 (1952) is six-minutes and five-seconds of moodiness as a practice. Her side job as a composer was writing music for British horror films such as Dr. Terror's House of Horrors (1965). 

The majority of music geeks that I come upon have a strong preference for vinyl or CD, but Morley seems to be okay with the streaming world. Fan of the vintage Walkman as well as Spotify (although not necessary for the musicians and composers being ripped off by the company). He loves the idea that one can take their music anywhere, as well as obtaining any music one can wish for. More importantly, he can break out of the Classical world's conservatism by programming two different music types from different decades or styles. There is a format that is strict when one approaches the classical music market. Also, musicians tend to have specific expertise of a particular century or style, such as Romantic or Impressionistic music. Morley, in the book, writes about and interviews musician Joanna MacGregor, a pianist. The latter has recorded and performed music by John Cage to Bach and worked with Talvin Singh. Her first music hero was Marc Bolan, and from there, she went to the score of classical music composers. MacGregor's extensive repertoire of music she covers is anti-elitist and open to a wide selection of music in that world. She's a rarity for a classical orientated pianist to be so vast in presenting music to an audience. As a listener, Morley enjoys the essence of a musician's journey into music. 

"A Sound Mind" also touches on someone like Brian Eno and how he has a presence in the composer's landscape. From 1975 to 1978, Eno started a record label, Obscure Records, that focuses on mostly Avant-Garde composers such as David Toop (a marvelous writer), Gavin Bryars, Michael Nyman, Harold Budd, John White, and a few Americans such as Cage and John Adams. Eno recorded Discreet Music for his label as well. For a rock/pop fan such as Morley and yours truly, these albums were influential in that they opened a pop music fan to different and more 'obscure' music. 

As a casual listener of Classical Music, I know the B's - Bach, Brahms, Beethoven, and even a Wagner or Satie, with Debussy on the side. However, there are still many composers whose music I don't know and composers I have never heard of. Morley takes the reader on a journey as he's the tour guide and drives the van.  A Sound Mind is an exceptional entrance to a world that I really don't know too much about, and I (and like Morley) come from the world of Rock n' Roll. Morley even went to the Royal Academy of Music to study how to write a composition and read music. His curiosity is addictive, and Morley's methods of exploring the unknown world of the Classical Music world is a fascinating trip and read. 

-Tosh Berman

BOOK MUSIK: Interview with Paul Morley on his book "A Sound Mind" (Bloomsbury)

 

Book Musik 035 – A Sound Mind discussion with author Paul Morley

Posted on December 1, 2020 by Book Musik

Tosh and Kimley are joined by writer Paul Morley to discuss his latest book A Sound Mind: How I Fell in Love with Classical Music (and Decided to Rewrite Its Entire History). Paul is a man after our own heart with wildly eclectic taste in music, an insatiable curiosity and a willingness to challenge his own assumptions. He is a well-established and highly respected pop/rock writer who’s been covering the scene since the 70s. In his 50s he realized that pop music wasn’t giving him the jolt it once did and decided to explore classical music. He discovered that its newness to himself made it as exciting if not more so than the latest pop phenomenon. It’s a fascinating adventure and the book is a passionate call to never stop expanding one’s horizons.

Theme music: “Behind Our Efforts, Let There Be Found Our Efforts” by LG17

Book Musik · Book Musik 035

"Paul Bowles on Music" edited by Timothy Mangan and Irene Herrmann (University of California Press)

ISBN: 9780520236554 University of California Press

Paul Bowles, the writer, meets Bowles the composer, who wrote music criticism in the 1940s.   The critiques he wrote in themselves are not that fascinating, but what's interesting is the culture that was presented in New York City during that era, and the coverage of the mainstream media at the time, with someone smart and brilliant as Bowles covering the "Waterfront." 

Bowles as most of us knows as readers is a writer of great skill but also wrote from a great distance.  His work, especially his short stories, is reporting another culture, which is odd, strange, and unknown to the westerner.   In a sense, Bowles was the head ant investigating the other culture for food and music and reported back to the American culture of that and future time.  What you see here is Bowles, primarily a composer at the time, writing about various music recitals/concerts that took place in Manhattan.  The majority of the events are classical recitals, but there are some side trips to see jazz (at mostly big venues) and folk (again, in major concert halls of the time).  He doesn't go to jazz or folk nightclubs to do his reporting, but mostly to places like Carnegie Hall and so forth.  So, in a sense, he's reporting on music culture, not for the specialist, but in most cases for the casual reader who looks through the newspaper for local news or events.  Some articles he did write for special interest publications, but even these pieces are geared for a broad readership.

As a writer and a publisher, as well as someone who loves music and music criticism, I find Bowles extremely important.  For one, I love his music, what I have heard so far, and two, it's fascinating to notice his 'place' in that society that was New York.  He was very interested in other cultures even in the 1940s, and often it seems like he went to South and Central America to discover new music, but was disappointed to realize that even then, countries were officially hindering certain type of music for a more commercial take on that world.   Bowles also covered film movie music for a specialist magazine in that field.  As far as I can gather, he would go to see the film, and just report on the music how it was used in the film.  That's interesting!  Also, he reviewed books on music (again, mostly classical, but some books on jazz) as well as recordings.  So he was probably one of the earliest critics to talk about records, for a well-read journal/newspaper, the New York Herald Tribune.   Also, there is an interview with Bowles, one of his last conversations with an interviewer about him working as a critic.  That alone is a fascinating document.  

"Night Music: Essays on Music 1928-1962 by Theodor W. Adorno (Seagull Books)

ISBN: 978-0857424501 Seagull Books

What I know of classical music is what I hear on record/vinyl/cd.   Beyond that, almost nothing.  My reaction to Classical it totally musical, and the occasional liner note on the back cover of the album.  With curiosity, I picked up Theodor W. Adorno's "Night Music," in the hopes of learning more about this form of music as well as dipping into the brain of Adorno, one of the leading 'thinkers' of the Frankfurt School of critical theory.  Adorno was also a composer, and what is interesting about "Night Music" is that it was written from the late 1920s to 1962.  The essays are not organized in chronicle order, but in a manner that is very readable.  The book consists of two collections of texts "Moments musicaux" and "Theory of New Music."  When Adorno speaks of new music, he's not talking about Cage (who does get a brief mention in a later essay) but composers of his generation and time, for instance, Schönberg, who is the main figure in these series of writings, along with Berg, Webern, and Ravel.  There is also the commentary on Beethoven, Wagner, and Bach, but the heart of the book is on the Second Viennese School of music.  For one, it's interesting to read these essays knowing that they were written during a time when Schönberg and Ravel were active and doing music.  One is not looking back, but at the present when these essays were written.   The writing for me is readable, but also difficult due to its density and Adorno's knowledge of music.  People who are either serious fans of Classical (especially 20th-century) or musicians will jump on this book with no problem, but for the guy or gal, it's a serious journey into the rabbit hole that is music.   Seagull Books who published "Night Music" should get special notice for the design of the book, and their great taste in titles.  Also, Wieland Hoban did a fantastic job in doing the translation from German to English.

Le Lion Cafe in Shibuya Tokyo

I was going to walk to a bookstore but decided to visit Le Lion Cafe which is in the Shibuya area of Tokyo.  I go here often over the years. It is one of my favorite places and by far my favorite cafe.  Their specialty and only specialty is that they play classical albums - mostly vinyl.  The coffee there cost 550¥, and it’s not that good.  What you’re paying for is someone to play records for you.  A vintage DJ set where one plays music for another.   They have these two massive wooden cabinet speakers facing the coffee drinkers.  One is not allowed to converse at the cafe.  There are small wooden chairs and covered seats.  All were facing the direction of the three turntables, various amps, and a CD machine or two.

When I walked in, they were playing Schubert’s “The Four Seasons” on vinyl.  Before and after each record, the waiter/waitress gives an introduction to the music being played.  Usually, they give the composer and the piece, but they also read from what looks like an old hardcover book on classical music, to provide detail about either the recording or the orchestra/musician/composer.  Last night after each playing, the waitress cleaned the vinyl before and after playing the record.   The next record was, I think, a piece of music by Tchaikovsky.  All introductions are done in Japanese, and they do exhibit the album cover on a stand in front of the speakers, but the lighting is so dark it’s hard to make out what the print says on the record cover.  She then played a recording of Handel’s harpsichord music.

I casually looked around the small room, and there are three people there drinking coffee and listening to the music.  There is an upstairs as well, that is the balcony, and the seating arrangement is the same as the bottom floor.  When you see the speakers, one would think that it will be loud.  The volume is somewhere in the middle.  What's interesting is that the music doesn't drown out the noise outside the cafe.  You can hear people laughing and walking pass the Lion Cafe, and one is aware that there is life outside the listening room.  The other thing one notices is that the architecture inside and outside represents a baroque era.  It is almost if you were walking down a street in the 17th century Vienna and you come upon this coffee house.  It's European but with the oversight of a Japanese aesthetic.

There are many things here that I find impressive, but one is sitting by yourself and being confronted with Western culture in an Eastern country.   The cafe is located in the Red Light District in Shibuya.  There are nothing here but bars and love hotels.   One would think that the perfect location for Le Lion Cafe would be the Ginza or West Shinjuku.  Here in Playland is the ultimate escape from the 21st century into the world that is both real and imagined.  The best 550¥ ever spent.