Spiegel im Spiegel for Cello and Piano (Arvo Pärt)

Arvo Part & Little Bells.

The small Baltic republic of Estonia only has a population of 1,329,460 people, but they can be justly proud, because one of that small number is arguably the greatest living composer in the world today. His name is Arvo Part who was born in Paide, a small city in Estonia in 1935. I had not heard of him until a few weeks ago. My awareness of his music came about through my growing interest in minimalist or ambient music. I see my discovery of Arvo Part’s music as a progression from other work I like such as Terry Riley, Virginia Astley, Tony Scott, the piano improvisations of Keith Jarrett and other such music. I have a very eclectic taste in music. I do not think there is any genre of music that I would refuse to listen to. However, there are times when I do not want to listen to songs, I just want to listen attentively without having to think. Minimalist type music is perfect for a meditative state and it seems to compliment my interest in the teachings of Krishnamurti and more recently Eckhart Tolle.

Reading about music online, the name of Arvo Part kept being recommended as an example of minimalist music. I decided to order a CD but had no idea what the best recordings of his compositions were, so settled on a double CD called The Very Best Of Arvo Part. It is a 2010 compilation of nearly 160 minutes of music by various artists, orchestras, and choirs. I thought I knew nothing about this music, but some of it sounded quite familiar. That is probably because film makers have often used his music in soundtracks. I do not really feel equipped to discuss this music in depth because I do not know enough about classical music and the techniques involved in composition. When I hear about terms like counterpoint, polyphony, tonality, or dissonance, I must look them up to see what they mean, and even then, I don’t understand it. I just like the music.

I gleaned from the sleeve notes that Arvo Part developed a radical new approach to music that he called Tintinnabuli meaning little bells. Many of his early pieces in this new style, including Tabula rasa (1977) and Spiegel im Spiegel (1978), have become some of his best-known compositions. Both of those compositions are included in this collection. Tabula Rasa is 28 minutes long and is exquisite. In Part’s music you can savour every note, harmony, and silence between the notes. I think all great musicians understand the importance of leaving spaces in their work.

Arvo Part suffered under Soviet rule. The censors banned his work from being performed. He was branded as ‘a traitor to the fatherland’. His reputation grew in the west however and the authorities finally granted him an exit visa in 1980 and he resided in Berlin where he stayed until 2010 before returning permanently to Estonia. Along with John Williams he is now the most performed composer in the world, or he was until this pandemic happened. There may be better recordings of his work, but as an introduction to Arvo Part I am very happy with this collection. It features music by such people as The Choir Of Kings College Cambridge, The Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, The Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir and many others. I was particularly taken by the violin playing of Tamsin Little and the piano of Martin Roscoe. This is very spiritual music. Arvo Part is a member of the Russian Orthodox Church, but you do not have to be religious to be moved by this music. By spiritual I mean in the sense of transcendence. To quote Van Morrison you could say this music really is ‘hymns to the silence’. I am extremely pleased to have discovered this wonderful music.

 

Cross My Heart. An Introduction To Phil Ochs.

The warm weather has ended for the time being. There is a cold northerly wind blowing which means I will not venture outdoors today. I thought I would pass the time by telling you about a CD which arrived a few days ago. It is called Cross My Heart, An Introduction to Phil Ochs. I first heard one of his songs in 1965 when Joan Baez had a top ten UK hit with There but For Fortune. At the time I didn’t know that Phil wrote that song. It was only decades later that I heard his name. For years I have liked the whole ethos of the scene in Greenwich Village, New York. The association with the Beat Generation writers, the music, the left-wing politics and the creative atmosphere. Reading books in recent years by the likes of Suze Rotolo and Dave Van Ronk and seeing the film Inside Llewyn Davis all added to my fascination with this time and place. 

As well as the obvious people like Bob Dylan and Joan Baez, in recent times I have acquired albums by the likes of Karen Dalton, Dave Van Ronk, Tim Hardin and Richie Havens. A name that kept cropping up as one of the leading figures in that scene was Phil Ochs. I thought it was high time I bought an album by Phil. What finally made my mind up was when a Facebook friend shared a video of Neil Young singing a song called Changes which was written by Phil Ochs. Neil spoke passionately about Phil and said he was one of the greatest poets. I have put that video on this blog page because I thought it was great. The album that arrived the other day is a compilation of songs from various periods in Phil’s career. When I first played it, I was surprised because most of the songs were nothing like what I expected to hear. I thought it would be a collection of simple protest songs, just vocals, acoustic guitar and maybe some harmonica. What I heard was very intricate, highly orchestrated, almost neo-classical, complex arrangements. At first, I was not sure I liked what I heard, but after listening attentively and making an effort to understand the songs, I like it very much indeed.

The first song is Chords Of Fame which was produced by Van Dyke Parks who I have always admired from his work with Brian Wilson. I did like this song instantly. It has a very lively bluegrass sound with fiddles, piano and great guitar picking. It is a warning about the cost of fame and Phil would know all about that. The second track Cross My Heart is quite different, with harpsichord, strings, brass and bells. I would describe it as baroque. While listening to this album I sometimes thought it was similar in some ways to American Gothic by David Ackles. The lyrics suggest that Phil might have been going through a difficult period in his life. Rehearsals For Retirement is a simpler, slower piece with piano to the fore. It is a song of despair at the state of the world. When you look at recent events it makes you think that things have got even worse. I shudder to think what Phil would have thought of Trump. The next song Crucifixion is an epic. It seems to be about how it is human nature to want heroes like Jesus or JFK, but the dark side is that the masses want them to die, so then we can have great outpourings of collective grief. The music is almost like modern opera, with bells and strange percussion sounds, often descending into a chaotic cacophony to symbolise the madness of the modern world. That is my theory anyway.

White Boots Marching In A Yellow Land is a much less ambiguous song to understand. It is a simple ant-war song. There is acoustic guitar and army style bugles and brass. The lyrics say, ‘The comic and the beauty queen are dancing on the stage. Raw recruits are lining up like coffins in a cage’. That would be a reference to Bob Hope and Miss World entertaining the troops in Vietnam. The Scorpion Departs but Never Returns is based on the true event of a nuclear submarine USS Scorpion which sank in 1968. The lyrics are quite harrowing and could be a metaphor for Phil’s own sinking mental condition. After witnessing riots and police brutality Phil wrote The War Is Over in defiance of the government, even though the war was far from over. The next song Niko Mchumba Ngobe is the most joyous song on this album with happy dance-able African rhythms. He wrote it during a trip to Kenya. It could be the beginnings of what we now call ‘World Music’. This was years before Paul Simon thought of bringing African music into Western culture. Joe Hill is not the song we associate with Joan Baez and Woodstock. This is an epic 22 verse song by Phil which tells the whole story of Joe Hill’s life and his framing by the authorities. It is more like the acoustic guitar music I was expecting to hear. Jim Dean Of Indiana is a quiet piano based homage to James Dean inspired by Phil’s lifelong interest in cinema. Pretty Smart on My Part is a darkly humorous satire, seen through the eyes of a right-wing sociopath. It has frenetic guitar playing.

Pleasures Of The Harbour is a return to the baroque sound with lush arrangements. Phil was inspired to write it after seeing a John Ford movie called A Long Voyage Home about a British cargo ship in WW2. I Ain’t Marching Any More is a straightforward anti-war song which chronicles the whole history of conflicts that the USA has been involved in. It was recorded live at Carnegie Hall. 

Phil’s health declined in the 1970s. He began drinking heavily, behaving erratically, and was deeply affected by the murder of his friend Victor Jara by the Pinochet regime in Chile. He was diagnosed as bi-polar and finally took his own life in 1976. However, his legacy lives on and his songs have been covered by dozens of performers. I am pleased that I finally got around to discovering his music and message. When you look at the state of the world today you realise that we need more people like Phil Ochs.

Neil Young - Changes. (Written by Phil Ochs. Live at Farm Aid 2013)

16 Lovers Lane by The Go-Betweens.

In one of my recent reviews, I mentioned The Go Between by L.P. Hartley. My niece Katherine read it and told me that one of her favourite bands was called The Go-Betweens. Then my Danish friend Bent Sorensen joined in and said that he liked The Go-Betweens as well. I am always open to new ideas, so I thought I would buy myself an album. I chose their sixth release called 16 Lovers Lane because I read that it was their most successful work and in a book of the 100 greatest Australian recordings it was named 12^th best Aussie album of all time. It was recorded in Sydney in 1988 after the band had returned from five years in London. They were Grant McClennan vocals and guitar, Robert Forster vocals, guitar and harmonica, Amanda Brown violin, oboe, guitar and vocals, John Willsteed bass, organ and piano. Lindy Morrison drums. You may be interested to hear that Tracey Thorne of the band Everything But The Girl has just publish a highly acclaimed book about her long friendship with Lindy Morrison. 

At the time of this album being recorded Grant had just started a relationship with Amanda and Robert had just broken up with Lindy. That might explain the subject matter of the songs. There are no songs about the great issues of the day. All the songs here are about the highs and lows of romance. All the songs are written by Grant or Robert and I think it is quite easy to spot who wrote which song. Grant wrote the first two songs which are Love Goes On! and Quiet Heart. I read in the Thanks section of the sleeve notes, they thanked The Byrds. I can hear that influence in the guitar sound and the harmonies. Lindy’s relentless drum rhythm on Quiet Heart also reminded me slightly of early U2 songs. I also love the sound of Robert’s harmonica which obviously brought Bob Dylan to mind.

Love Is A Sign and You Can’t Say No Forever were both written by Robert, and you can see the different style of song writing. There are no chorus’s, and the lyrics are more enigmatic and poetic. ‘London no longer exists’ is sung quite vitriolically which makes you think that they were pleased to get back to the sunshine of Australia after the cold grey skies of England. The Devil’s Eye is a short song written by Grant who also composed The Street Of Your Town. On first listen I found this the most immediately accessible song, but now I like all of them. With Amanda’s backing vocals and having instruments like the oboe, another band of the 80s came into my mind which was The Dream Academy who had a hit with Life In A Northern Town. On the surface this catchy Go-Betweens song sounds quite mellow, but the lyrics mention butchers’ knives and battered wives which give it an underlying sinister feel.

Clouds is possibly the most poetic of all the songs here and contains quite mysterious lyrics. Robert seems to be the deeper of the two songwriters, while Grant seems to have more of an ear for a catchy melody. Was There Anything I Could Do? is for me easier to understand. It seems to be about a free-spirited woman who the singer has trouble dealing with. When I saw the title of, I’m Allright I thought it was a typo error. I am always spelling all right as alright which is bad grammar, but Allright is wrong as well isn’t it? Anyway, that is how they spelled it several times in the lyrics. It is a good song anyway. Dive For Your Memory brings the album to a close. An acoustic guitar intro and then Lou Reed style semi spoken lyrics. I love it. I read on Wikipedia that Grant Mclennan sadly died in 2006 at the young age of 48 which meant the end of The Go-Betweens, but I am sure their reputation will continue to grow. Thank you very much Katherine and Bent for introducing me to the most enjoyable sound of The Go-Betweens.