I ’ve continued exploring the Hans Zimmer ‘Sherlock Holmes’ soundtrack described in the previous post. There are a variety of spatial effects—things that add considerable dramatic excitement to the score—that can be “deduced” from exploring the recorded cues with tools like Cubase® or Nuance®. Some deductions are, at best, “educated guesses” based on inspection of the digitized waveforms.
F or example, you can get instruments to sound like they are coming from outside the stereo image by inverting the relative phase angle of a channel. Start with a single channel (say, an explosion in this Sherlock Holmes film). Pan it hard-left. Duplicate the channel, and pan it hard-right. Then invert the phase angle (180 degrees). Now start with the volume on the duplicate at zero, and bring up the level on the duplicate/phase-inverted channel. You now hear the explosion on the left move out wider than it was when panned hard left. Sounds like a paradoxically larger space than what appeared to your eyes.
A dmittedly, some of these “film” spatial sonic effects might only be implemented in live chamber music performance by the likes of Maya Beizer or Tod Machover, or other devoted electroacoustic artists. But the prospect of producing (and hearing) live ‘augmented reality’ through DAW processing and sound reinforcement becomes more appealing/exciting the more we understand how it works, even for artists who are today squarely in the analog/acoustic world.
I t’s the furiously melodic likes of Gladiator, The Lion King, Inception, Batman Begins, Dark Knight Rises, Pirates of the Caribbean, Kung Fu Panda, and Sherlock Holmes that’s elevated film music to a thing of rocking beauty, as Zimmer and his team have employed every oddball instrument and influence from Gustav Holst, Lebo M. and the sound of bat wings into percussively thematic adrenalin.” — Daniel Schweiger, 2011.
I f you ask me, Zimmer’s score rescues Sherlock Holmes (and Guy Ritchie et al.) in the new ‘A Game of Shadows’ film.
Z immer and his composer-orchestrator colleagues at Remote Control Productions created a beautiful and varied score that augments the color and vista of the film, lending atmosphere, scope, and interest to what otherwise could seem predictable. Never gets in the way of what the script and imagery are doing, but never merely reinforces or sonically reiterates what’s been said or shown.
B ut more than this, I am really thrilled with the tempi and the rhythmic architecture of this score. I got the soundtrack and listened to it several times, measured the tempi bar-by-bar in each of the cues, and created a spreadsheet of the values (see jpeg above). I also put an EKG on myself and digitized my heartrate during each listening. Not only did my heartrate adapt to each of the tempo changes, but the heart rate variability (HRV, using the simple RMSSD metric) also synced with Zimmer’s music. Empirically, I suspect that that “N-of-1” experiment is indicative of why this music “works”—physiologic response “pulls” cognition, rather than the other way around.
S ee the book by Bacci and Melcher (link below) for more on phase-locking and rhythmic ‘entrainment’ of breathing, heartbeat, and other physiologic rhythms, syncing with music.
S ince I’d captured the tempo timeseries, I decided to do some other calculations on it, too. I used the open-source R system’s package ‘entropy’ (link below) to calculate the Miller-Madow, James-Stein, Tsallis, Chao-Shen, and Shannon/Jeffreys entropy values. The entropy of the timeseries of tempi for these 18 cues is H = 2.72... pretty high... indicating a substantial amount of variability/unpredictability/interestingness. If you do entropy calcs for “bad” or ineffective film scores (as I happened to do several times last summer), you get much lower values, H between about 1.10 and 1.90.
M ost film schools don't even mention music, much less compare examples of good and bad scoring.” — Richard Bellis, 2006, p. 8.
T he cues’ titles (track-names) collect words and phrases from the screenplay that are cadential—perfect rhythmic-harmonic demarcations of the narrative arc and plotting. It’s clear that Zimmer applied an admirable amount of objectivity in the spotting session, to inject material that adds considerable depth to the character or the story without the material asserting itself as a vehicle for his own ego.
T he score (Die Forelle; The Red Book; Moral Insanity) makes Robert Downey Jr’s Holmes more alert and angry when he is facing Jared Harris’ Moriarty. The score (He’s All ‘Me! Me! Me!’) makes Jude Law’s Dr. Watson all the more hapless as he gets unwillingly caught up in the plot.
T he producers and Guy [Ritchie, the director] and Jude [Law, co-star] and I got together and tried to have it feel like an extension of what we think brotherhood is—the bickering and miscommunications are part of something that aspires to something higher.” — Robert Downey Jr., Scotland BigIssues Magazine 05-DEC-2011.
A Game of Shadows’ stands as a valentine to the public-school buccaneer. It provides Ritchie with a licence to run wild with Gypsies, trade punches with cossacks, or just generally arse about in expensive hotels. It gives us anarchy as panto and global espionage in the guise of a homoerotic stag weekend.” — Xan Brooks, The Guardian.
I n other words, Zimmer’s score truly ‘services’ the film’s narrative, neither over-writing nor under-writing. Naturally, given the big-action subject matter in this film, there are lots of huge orchestral cues. But there are more than half of the cues that are intimate, chamber-like pieces.
M any think that what we do is ‘Art’. I disagree. Music is an art form. Film music is a craft with its roots in art. Art is a form of self-expression, and the last thing a director wants is some composer coming in and expressing him/herself all over the director’s film.” — Richard Bellis, 2006, p. 69.
F olk idioms in the Romani melodies (doina repeated-note gesture of lament), pentatonicism, Phrygian scale with the second and third scale degrees raised when ascending, and fraigish harmonic minor, flying-staccato, alla zingarese poco a poco accelerandos “hallgató/lassú-közép gyors-friss" (e.g., Kesergö or or verbunkos or csárdás style in ‘It’s So Overt, It’s Covert’; ‘Romanian Wind’) to breakneck speeds, acrobatic violin with pitches bending and glissing, and the tone growling and crying ... great colla parte tempo-leading.
T he Hungarian hallgató of the ‘Did You Kill My Wife?’ brass band is superb.
G ee, this soundtrack is an admirable thing! The tremolos begin slowly, and the accelerandi melt into the flourishes so that they sound like one gesture—far bigger ones than you imagined when they began. The playing and conducting are excellent throughout. Precisely nailing the tempo variations, yet sounding totally organic while remaining faithful to meter. Very, very nice!
I n writing a successful quartet, composers have to turn inward and look for their most personal musical message. So also do the performers. There is no room for deception—nothing to disguise it and make it superficially attractive. Seduction or manipulation will be obvious and will fail. Everything in quartets and other small chamber forms is about honesty and mutual discovery.” — Saul Bitran, violinist, Cuarteto Latinoamericano.
T he only way to reanimate these pieces is to play them with friends... When you’re ‘on’, not only are you breathing together, but you are also feeding off each other. You’re playing with someone who does something spontaneously and you respond, also spontaneously, which takes your performance and experience together to another level entirely.” — Kathryn Selby, pianist, Macquarrie Trio.
C hamber music, besides being very intimate, is substantially concerned with understanding the other performer(s) on deep levels—doing this in an open and undirected way—and concerned, too, with being generous and responsive to the significant other(s) and creating valuable and meaningful things together with them.
I n that regard, almost any piece of chamber music might be considered to be coherent with the values celebrated on Valentine's Day. Almost all chamber music nurtures a sense of closeness, immediacy, and anticipation.
Y ou want something that is already at least slightly familiar and known to be pleasurable to and enjoyed by your partner—so there will be low risk of disappointment and the greatest probability for delight.
T o heighten the anticipation, an experience that is already familiar can be the subject of hints or other gestures to plan for the experience and savoring that experience. But in order to be worthy of anticipation, the thing hinted at must also be novel in some way, not routine.
B ut there are side-effects each piece can have—inherent objective, physiologic consequences (unintended or otherwise) that accompany the music’s subjective emotional/cognitive/inspirational effects (see Lemmer and other links below). A little quickening of the pulse and transient high blood pressure is what you are after. What I had not expected is how long (many hours) it lasts!
Understand distinctions between history, entitlement, and managerial theories of the self and the significant other.
Avoid defensive, self-protective ‘Model I’ patterns of interpersonal interaction that blame others and limit learning.
Emphasize shared goals, fearlessness, and equality—mutual influence in relationship.
Emphasize modesty of proportion, pleasure of execution, resiliency in the face of set-backs, and durability of vision and passion.
Love is an organization—one that is deserving of deliberate, rational, caring management.
Love is an organization that, like any other enterprise, has explicit and implicit processes—and denying this or neglecting the processes can only but lead to chaos, low client satisfaction, and investor disappointment.
Communicate and critically test each other’s assumptions and beliefs openly and often.
Combine mutual advocacy with inquiry.
Combine shared exertion with shared relaxation and a minimum of irritability and aggression.
M ozart’s and Haydn’s music had only a slight reducing effect on the heart rate of the spontaneously-hypertensive (SHR) rats, and the blood pressure remained unaffected. The normotensive WKY rats showed no reaction at all. Ligeti’s String Quartet No. 2, on the contrary, caused a massive increase in SBP of around 20 to 30mmHg in the SHR rats which remained discernable over more than 10 hours. The WKY rats also reacted to Ligeti’s music with a raised SBP.” — Björn Lemmer, Institut für Experimentelle und Klinische Pharmakologie und Toxikologie, Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg.
I am not saying to eschew the Ligeti in favor of Mozart or Haydn for Valentine’s Day—not at all; far from it. In fact, the Ligeti may be precisely what you two will prefer on that adventurous intimate occasion. You are looking for a string quartet whose climax is like the last lines of a poem that choke you up a bit; focus the mind and heart, so to say. Sort of like catching sight of the sea—unexpectedly; together. Twenty or 30 mmHg of higher blood pressure for a few hours is precisely what you two are looking for...
C oming back through the Chiba coast I thought of Shonagon’s list—of all those signs one has only to name to quicken the heart, just name. To us, a sun is not quite a sun unless it’s radiant; a spring not quite a spring unless it is limpid. There is a way of saying boat, rock, mist, frog, crow, hail, heron, chrysanthemum—a concise way that includes them all, implies them all.” — Chris Marker, Sans Soleil.
R eligion is the everlasting dialogue between humanity and God. Art is its soliloquy.” — Franz Werfel.
C ertain insight: that there are no indications of reality in the unconscious, so that one cannot distinguish between truth and affective fiction.” — Sigmund Freud, letter to Wilhelm Fliess.
T hese recordings have a warm, gorgeous tone; the performers embody a flawless technique; and, above all, the compositions are vehicles for intense heartfelt expression. They transport us from our everyday reality to times and places of rejuvenation, reflection, and recommitment.
M embers of Dan Barrett’s International Street Cannibals Ensemble (title after Montaigne) deliver tactile performances with a widely-variable, bounding pulse. And CCR’s production values are excellent, providing a recording quality that offers exceptional intimacy, great warmth and depth—perfect for these energetic chamber works.
S ome of the compositions on this disc are enigmatic, like track #3, entitled C17H21NO4. There is nothing to describe what this means in the liner notes. But I look up the chemical formula and see that this is the formula for freebase cocaine. Possibly this is Pritsker’s musicopsychotropic homage to Allen Ginsberg’s ‘Mescaline’ or Lou Reed’s ‘Heroin’? (C17H21NO4 is also the chemical formula for scopolamine, an anticholinergic medication, and for fenoterol, a short-acting β2-agonist asthma drug, so don’t go leaping to any conclusions.)
T echnology has been at the heart of Pritsker’s work ever since he started making music. On this disc, he alternates his sampled electronic pieces, which tend to be around one minute in length, with longer acoustic pieces. The result is edgy, full of immediacy and a vivid conversationality, as though the performers’ control and precision could at any moment be derailed by matters arising—or by interaction of the performer with the listener. It is a titrated, dose-adjusted, relenting edginess that never wears out its welcome.
T he unaccompanied cello pieces ‘What Occurred in the Light, Goes on in the Dark’ and ‘In Memory of Giampaolo Bracali’, solo works performed by cellist Dan Barrett, are fine and intense compositions in the long, venerable tradition of cello soliloquys (see list at bottom of post).
W e have solo cello, in canon with itself. The soliloquy embodies a singular harmonic palette from which a series of hopeful reconsiderations are drawn, giving the impression that the artist’s mind is moving in sequences... not in [aporiatic] circles but in provisional sequences of thought that may or may not revisit positions held previously, rolled round and round in the cellist’s brain.
A fter an interim conclusion is arrived at, we find that the arc continues toward/into an extended climax, stretching out into broader rhythms and thinning the pitch-set.
T his conveys something of the impossibility of certainty——a pragmatic distillation of conviction from a subset of the points and evidence that one has entertained: the poignance of our human limitations and finite time on the planet.
I n some circles, soliloquy—as expressed by passionate, sexy cellos, or by anybody—is disparaged as a ‘naive’ form, irrelevant with respect to discourse theory. In turn, postmodern souls who engage in soliloquy are quick to dismiss theory as unconnected to real life, or, at least, to real life as they know it, their own real lives. Taking his cue from the works of Paul Roazen and Jacques Derrida in these fields, Gene Pritsker grafts soliloquy onto theory, exploring and producing one wild, anti-Freudian recording. He explores the unforeseen “collisions of interests” that unfold in the ‘space’ between the soliloquizing subject and the audience members who are witnesses to the soliloquys.
I rreducible uncertainties amid principled striving; civil but, like true cannibals, no strangers to outrage/despair/incivility/loss.
T hese pieces are captivating. The epitome of good will, the chamber and electronic compositions on this disc are enjoyably bold, muscular, and complex. I will be listening to them over and over. So, I hope, will you. The disc (link below) is to be released by CCR in February.
[30-sec clip, Gene Pritsker, Chamber & Electronic Music, ‘What Occurred in the Light, Goes on in the Dark’; (track 1), 2011, 1.1MB MP3]
[30-sec clip, Gene Pritsker, Chamber & Electronic Music, ‘Poem #1: Reflections on Elegy for Jane by Theodore Roethke’; (track 5), 2011, 1.1MB MP3]
I remember the neckcurls, limp and damp as tendrils; And her quick look, a side-long pickerel smile; And how, once startled into talk, the light syllables leaped for her, And she balanced in the delight of her thought,
A wren: happy, tail into the wind, Her song trembling the twigs and small branches. The shade sang with her; The leaves: their whispers turned to kissing; And the mould sang in the bleached valleys under the rose.
Oh, when she was sad, she cast herself down into such a pure depth, Even a father could not find her: Scraping her cheek against straw, Stirring the clearest water.
My sparrow, you are not here, Waiting like a fern, making a spiney shadow. The sides of wet stones cannot console me, Nor the moss, wound with the last light.
If only I could nudge you from this sleep, My maimed darling, my skittery pigeon. Over this damp grave I speak the words of my love: I, with no rights in this matter, Neither father nor lover.” — Theodore Roethke, Elegy for Jane (My Student, Thrown by a Horse).
H ans Abrahamsen’s Storm and Still Alessandro Appignani’s Soliloquy Richard Arnell’s Suite for Unaccompanied Cello Johann Sebastian Bach’s six Suites Bernard Barrell’s Soliloquys for cello solo Burton Beerman’s A Still, Small Voice for cello, dancer and video Eve Beglarian’s Eloise Alone Elizabeth Bell’s Soliloquy Luciano Berio’s Les Mots Sont Allés Benjamin Boone’s Buffing the Gut Walter Branchi’s Forms of the Wind for cello and electronics Benjamin Britten’s three Suites Matthew Burtner’s Fragments From Cold Garrett Byrne’s Sprocket! for solo cello Robert Griffin Byron’s Epitaph for cello and MAX/MSP Elliott Carter’s two Figments Gaspar Cassado’s Suite for Solo Cello Joel Chadabe’s Many Times Madeleine for cello and live electronics George Chave’s Three Reflections Paul Constantinescu’s Sonata Bizantina Andreina Costantini’s Jion Tom Cora’s (Thomas Corra) Man with the Movie Camera Anthony Cornicello’s I’ll have an Electric Mahabarata, Please Franklin Cox’s Clairvoyance, Recoil George Crumb’s Sonata for Solo Cello, Toccata Douglas Cuomo’s Only Breath Mario Davidovsky’s Synchronisms No. 3 Paul Michael Dooley’s Gradus for solo cello Henri Dutilleux’s Trois Strophes sur le Nom de Sacher Ludovico Einaudi’s Canto Alejandro Escuer’s El Arco de Encina Robert Fleisher’s Two Movements for Violoncello Domenico Gabrielli’s Seven Ricercari for Solo Cello Guillermo Galindo’s TX3 Orlando Jacinto Garcia’s Night Fragments for solo cello, Mixtura, After Humans for cello, electronics, video Djivan Gasparian’s Memories Ge Gan-ru’s Yi Feng Ada Gentile’s Per violoncello solo Mara Gibson’s E-Tip for cello and electronics Alberto Ginastera’s Punena No. 2 Philip Glass’s Songs And Tissues For Solo Cello Geoffrey Gordon’s Lorca Musica per Cello Solo Michael Gordon’s Industry for solo cello and electronics Sofia Gubaidulina’s 10 Preludes David Hainsworth’s Other Worlds Joseph Hallman’s Three Monologues and sixsolopieces Patrick Hardish’s Sonorities IV Jonathan Harvey’s Curve with Plateau Joseph Hayes’s Soliloquy Michael Hersch’s Sonatas for Unaccompanied Cello Nos. 1 & 2 Jennifer Higdon’s Soliloquy Paul Hindemith’s Sonata Op. 25 Toshio Hosokawa’s Sen II Alan Hovhaness’s Yakamochi Marie Incontrera’s Playing in the Caves Ben Johnston’s Toccata Frederick Kaufman’s Inner Sanctum for solo cello Daniel Kessner’s Four Studies in Melodic Expression Aram Khachaturian’s Sonata-Fantasy for cello solo in C Mark Kilstofte’s You (unfolding)... Hi Kyung Kim’s Five Bagatelles Jin Hi Kim’s Kae Maek Zoltán Kodály’s Sonata Op. 8 for Solo Cello Karl Kohn’s Soliloquy II David Lang’s World to Come for cello, tape, and video Mario Lavista’s Cuaderno de Viaje Ana Lara’s Koaia Tania Leon’s 4 Pieces for solo cello György Ligeti’s Sonata Magnus Lindberg’s Stroke Andrew List’s Tango-Tango for Solo Cello and Dancer Witold Lutosławski’s Sacher Variation For Solo Cello Tod Machover’s Electric Etudes for cello and electronics Robert Maggio’s Winter Toccata (I can’t believe you want to die) Kevin Malone’s Four Pieces for ‘Cello Ovidiu Marinescu’s Quodlibet Sonata Charles Norman Mason’s Ospedaletto for cello and electronics Harold Meltzer’s Blush Alfred Mendelssohn’s Suite for solo cello Lawrence Moss’s Three Chinese Poems Zae Munn’s Projectual for Solo Cello Clancy Newman’s Song without Words for solo cello Niccolò Paganini’s Caprices, Nos. 13, 17 and 24 Arvo Pärt’s Fratres for cellos Kryzytof Penderecki’s Capriccio for solo cello Riccardo Piacentini’s Con fuocco Gene Pritsker’s What Occurred in the Light Goes on in the Dark, In Memory of Giampaolo Bracali Shulamit Ran’s Fantasy Variations Max Reger’s Three Suites for solo cello Op. 131c Miklós Rózsa’s Toccata capricciosa, Op.36 Edwin Roxburgh’s Solilquy 4 Paul Rucker’s Strange Fruit and Soliloquy Timeless Language in the Present Tense Paul Rudy’s Vastly Shrinking Space for cello and electronics,Degrees of Separation, Grandchild of Tree Kaija Saariaho’s Petals Marc Satterwhite’s Witnesses of Time for Solo Cello Robert Saxton’s Toccata Salvatore Sciarrino’s Ai limiti della notte Mark Sforzini’s Remembrance Upon a Midnight Hour Judith Shatin’s For the Birds for cello and electronics Thomas Simaku’s Soliloquy II Stuart Smith’s "Said, nearly", Willow Christine Southworth’s Khaen Song Halsey Stevens’s Sonata for Violoncello Solo Randall Svane’s Three Unaccompanied Suites and Dreams Go Wandering Still Kasper Tagel’s Spanish Suite Karen Tanaka’s Song of Songs (with CD playback) Boris Tchaikovsky’s Suite for Solo Cello David Tcimpidus’s Brock Mountain Passage Augusta Read Thomas’s Spring Song, Ring Bells Summer Jukaa Tiensuu’s oddjob Chinary Ung’s Khse Buon Craig Walsh’s Pipeline Burst Cache for cello and electronics Charles Wuorinen’s Cello Variations Iannis Xenakis’s Nomos Alpha and Kottos Yahuda Yannay’s I can’t fathom it... Eugène Ysaÿe’s Sonata for solo cello, Op. 28 Zhou Long’s Wild Grass (with CD playback) Evan Ziporyn’s Kebyar Maya for solo cello and prerecorded CD.” — Some notable works for unaccompanied or electronics-accompanied or self-accompanied/looped solo cello.
