Class 6: "Over the Rainbow"

VIDEO LINKS

Almost all the videos shown in class are available on YouTube. The exceptions are that particular scene from Flight Pattern, the bulk of the documentary on Das Lied von der Erde, and the particular performance that I showed. But I managed to find close substitutes for everything.

I go through a lot of videos in deciding what to play in class, and wish I could show more than I actually do. So for every work played in class, I have added at least one supporting video. These are all *asterisked in the list below, as are all other items not played in class. Here are some further notes on these additions:

Minchin. A fascinating backstage video of the same song shot from different angles to show how the single-take original was made.
Grieg. Same song, same singer, but with English titles and touristy clips of the Norwegian fjords.
Évora. A different song with a similar feeling of nostalgia, and a video shot apparently in a bus moving through Cape Verde.
Arlen. All the Wizard of Oz clips played in class, plus a cover of “Over the Rainbow” by the Hawaiian singer Israel Kamakawiwo'ole. This shows just how far a cover can go, but apparently it has become a hit in its own right!
Mancini. A cover of “Moon River” in the androgynous voice of Frank Ocean that rivals the above in its departure from the original. This is accompanied by a video added by someone else, equally different, but I rather like it. I also added a blog post explaining the origin of both the original song and the Ocean version.
Weill. A performance of the original tango in Marie Galante before it ever became a song, plus two renditions of the song itself. The first, by Barbara Hannigan and Sir Simon Rattle, is one I have shown before; it is part of a film by Matthieu Amalric. The other is part of a recording session by Fatima Said, surely the most beautiful voice that has ever recorded it.
Pite. Only the central pas-de-deux of Flight Pattern is available as a continuous clip, but I added two extended interviews with the choreographer. The first focuses on the rehearsal process, but the second includes newsreel footage of actual refugees, connecting the ballet with its real-world inspiration
Gorecki. I include links to the Symphony of Sorrowful Songs by Henryk Gorecki to which Pite's ballet is set. She uses only the first movement, which I include below in an audio with occasional but mostly appropriate images (as opposed to the over-the-top Holocaust images in some other videos, as if the music needed extra reinforcement). The performance that moved me most is by Beth Gibbons with a Polish orchestra; not only her voice but also her face speaks volumes. The most effective movement of this is the third, which has only English titles. The complete work is also available, but the English overlaps the Polish text, making it almost unreadable.
Beethoven. My own two videos that I showed in class, plus an unannotated performance of the complete quartet by the same group.
Wagner. In addition to Isolde’s Liebestod, as played in class though without titles, we have the complete Chérau/Barenboim production from which that was taken—remarkable for its timeless simplicity and absence of medieval trappings. The very opening of the opera, which I discussed, is also the subject of a very approachable commentary by actor Stephen Fry.
Mahler. Jason Stark’s documentary, Everywhere & Forever, is out of print, but the substantial trailer gives at least a sense of it. Similarly, the performance video I showed, by Kurt Sanderling, is no longer available, but among the half-dozen live performances out there, I have chosen the classic one by Leonard Bernstein, whose passion shines through every moment. He also gives a spoken introduction that is immensely informative if you ignore the Chinese titles. Finally, if you need titles in English, I have two alternatives: a live performance from a provincial orchestra in Spain, and an audio conducted by Carlo Maria Giulini that has well-chosen Chinese artworks along with the text.

MINCHIN
	The Absence of You	* Official video * Backstage video (the making of the above)
GRIEG
	Peer Gynt	* Solveig's Song (live) (Sissel Kyrkjebø) * Solveig's Song (illustrated) (the same, with fjords and titles)
ÉVORA
	Various songs	* Sodade * Petit pays (video in Cape Verde)
ARLEN
	The Wizard of Oz	* "We're off to see the Wizard" * "Somewhere over the rainbow" (Judy Garland) * — instrumental version (Yo-Yo Ma) * — cover by Israel Kamakawiwo'ole
MANCINI
	Moon River	* In Breakfast at Tiffany's (Audrey Hepburn) * Cover by Frank Ocean (with unofficial video) * History of the song (both versions above)
WEILL
	Youkali	* As seen in class (Teresa Stratas, Fellini images) * Marie Galante tango (Rome Opera) * Fatma Said (part of recording session) * Barbara Hannigan (film by Matthieu Amalric)
PITE
	Flight Pattern	* Crystal Pite on her ballet (with rehearsal sequences) * — another interview (with real-life images) * — central pas-de-deux (Kristen McNally, Marcelino Sambé)
	Gorecki: Symphony 3	* Movement 1, with evocative images (Teresa Erbe) * Movement 3, with English titles (Beth Gibbons, English only) * Complete symphony (Beth Gibbons, various languages)
BETHOVEN
	String Quartet, Op.135	* Themes in the last movement (my video) * Last movement, annotated (as shown in class) * — complete performance of the above (Ariel Quartet)
WAGNER
	Tristan und Isolde	* Prelude on piano (as shown in class) * Isolde's Liebestod (as shown in class, no titles) * Full production (2007 La Scala, English titles) * The "Tristan Chord" (documentary by Stephen Fry)
MAHLER
	Das Lied von der Erde	* Jason Starr: Everywhere & Forever (trailer of video shown in class) * Bernstein, cued to last movement (Christa Ludwig, René Kollo) * Bernstein introduction (excuse annoying Chinese titles!) * Illustrated, with titles (Giulini, 1984) * Live, with titles (Portillo Festival)


IMAGES
The thumbnails below cover the slides shown in class, though there may be a few small discrepancies. Click the thumbnail to see a larger image. Click on the right or left of the larger picture to go forward or back, or outside it to close.

Here are brief bios of the creative artists considered in the class, listed in order of birth.

	Ludwig van Beethoven, 1770–1827. German composer, working primarily in Vienna. The dominant composer of his time, Beethoven wrote 9 symphonies, 16 string quartets, 32 piano sonatas, and one opera, Fidelio, which he labored on in several versions between 1805 and 1814. From about 1800 onwards, increasing deafness gradually put an end to his performing career, although he wrote some of his finest works when totally deaf. He is one of the first composers to exhibit a distinct late style.
	Richard Wagner, 1813–83. German opera composer. Wagner almost single-handedly transformed the nature not only of opera but also of harmony and orchestration. His 10 mature operas include Tristan und Isolde (1865), Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (1868), and the vast tetralogy Der Ring des Nibelungen (completed 1876), for which he had a special theater built at Bayreuth. His final opera, Parsifal (1882), was written for exclusive performance at that theater.
	Henrik Ibsen, 1828–1906. Norwegian playwright. Born to a wealthy family in the South of Norway, Ibsen established himself first as a theater director before writing the poetic dramas Brand (1865) and Peer Gynt (1867). Later plays, however, such as A Doll's House (1879), The Wild Duck (1884), and Hedda Gabler (1890), were realistic, exploring the distrubing psychological territory behind the facade of family life. He is the most performed playwright after Shakespeare.
	Edvard Grieg, 1843–1907. Norwegian composer. A member of a musical middle-class family in Bergen, Grieg studied at the Leipzig Conservatory, then moved to Copenhagen, where he began his career as a pianist. It was only then that national characteristics of folk-song, rhythm, and harmony began to enter his work. He became in effect the leading composer of Norwegian nationalism, much as Sibelius was in Finland, but less aggressively so, expressing himself mainly in shorter forms, belonging to the salon rather than the symphony hall.
	John William Waterhouse, 1849–1917. English painter. Beginning in an academic manner, he became drawn to Pre-Raphaelite style and subjects, with illustrations from Shakespeare, Greek myth, and Arthurian legend.
	Gustav Mahler, 1860–1911. Austrian composer and conductor. In the summers during his appointment as director of the Vienna State Opera, he completed nine symphonies, numerous songs, and his masterpiece, the "song-symphony" Das Lied von der Erde (The Song of the Earth, 1909). His works typically use very large orchestras and incorporate a wide range of musical styles.
	Hans Bethge, 1876–1946. German poet. His translations (or adaptations) of ancient Chinese poetry inspired Gustav Mahler's Song of the Earth and settings by numerous other composers.
	Yip Harburg, 1896–1981. American lyricist. Born Isidore Hochberg, he later took the name Edgar Yipsel Harburg, the "Yipsel" being a nickname for members of the Young Peopl's Socialist League. His left-leaning politics may be seen in songs like "Brother, can you spare a dime?" which he wrote with Jay Gorney, although his most famous work—the song texts for The Wizard of Oz—have no such agenda.
	Kurt Weill, 1900–50. German American composer. Weill became famous in Berlin for his collaborations with Bertolt Brecht, among them The Threepenny Opera (1928, a satirical adaptation of John Gay's The Beggar's Opera) and the political opera The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny (1930). Fleeing Nazi Germany, he eventually settled in New York in 1935, finding new fame on Broadway, but also writing more operatic fare such as Street Scene (1946, with Langston Hughes).
	Roger Fernay, 1905–83. French writer. Under the pseudonym of "Fernay," Roger Bertrand, son of a prominent publisher, pursued a career as an actor before turning to writing song lyrics and other contributions to the entertainment world, the best-known of which is his "Youkali," written to accompany a tango by Kurt Weill. [No photograph is available.]
	Harold Arlen, 1905–86. American composer. Born in Buffalo (as Hyman Arluck), the son of a cantor, he formed a band as a teenager then moved to New York City to work in vaudeville. In the 1930, he was working mainly with lyricist Ted Koehler, producing standards such as "Let's fall in love" and "Stormy weather." In 1935, however, he signed with MGM and began writing songs for movies, mostly with Yip Harburg, including the iconic score for The Wizard of Oz (1939).
	Johnny Mercer, 1909–76. American songwriter and singer. Born in a prosperous family in Savannah, Mercer took an early interest in black music and jazz. He had hoped to become a composer, but found that his greatest talent was as a lyricist. His over 500 songs include "Moon River" in Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961). He also had a parallel career as a singer, and was co-founder of Capitol Records.
	Federico Fellini, 1920–93. Italian film director. After a brief stint as a law student to please his parents, Fellini broke out as a cartoonist, writer, and later filmmaker. Beginning in the neo-realist style with works like La strada (1954), he gradually moved towards the more fantastic treatment that defined his style, in films like La dolce vita (1960), 8½ (1963), and Amarcord (1973). He is commonly listed among the greatest directors ever.
	Henry Mancini, 1924–94. American composer. Born in Ohio to Italian immigrant parents, Mancini served in the US Air Force in WW2. There he met Glenn Miller, who later got him a job in Hollywood, thus launching a career as one of the most successful film composers in Hollywood history, winning four Oscars. His hits include the song "Moon River" in Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961) and the theme music to the Pink Panther series.
	Henryk Gorecki, 1933–2010. Polish composer. Gorecki became a leading figure in Polish avant-garde music, but changed in the mid-1970s to a more straightforward "sacred minimalist" style, the epitome of which is his third symphony, the Symphony of Sorrowful Songs for orchestra and soprano soloist. The pehenomenal success of the 1992 recording of this by David Zinman with Dawn Upshaw suddenly made him the best-selling classical composer of his time.
	Cesária Évora, 1941–2011. Cape Verdean singer-songwriter. Évora's father, a violinist, died while she was a child, leaving the family in poverty. She began her first singing career while still a teenager, but then gave up performing until 1985, when she soon developed an international reputation. Performing barefoot, and often drinking and smoking onstage, she sang songs of homesickness and yearning in her native Cape Verdean dialect.
	Crystal Pite, 1970– . Canadian choreographer. Pite began work as a dancer with Ballet British Columbia and then spent several years with Ballet Frankfurt. She returned to Canada as a choreographer in 2001, and in 2002 founded her own company Kidd Pivot, for which she continues to create new works, in addition to managing a burgeoning career in Amsterdam, Paris, London, and many other centers.
	Tim Minchin, 1975– . Australian musician and comedian. Minchin has worked as both an actor and a singer, and is the composer-lyricist of award-winning shows such as Matilda and Groundhog Day. His present reputation depends largely on the comic shows he performs at the piano, saying of himself: "I'm a good musician for a comedian and I'm a good comedian for a musician but if I had to do any of them in isolation I dunno."