Post-Structuring
the World
Bonaventure
Hotel
Postmodernism
and the Bonaventure Hotel
I’ve
just stayed for two nights in the Westin-branded Bonaventure
hotel in downtown Los Angeles. I was keen to stay there and
explore the hotel because it’s something of an icon in architecture
and also a building that evokes strong reactions in people.
Some of
the hotel’s history is recorded at Wikipedia.
The Bonaventure is a bit of a star in the city of stars. It has
appeared in loads of movies and TV series since construction was
finished in 1976.
I was
fascinated by this hotel because it features in the work of Marxist
cultural theorist Fredric Jameson and has been something of a
touchstone for postmodern cultural theorists ever since, such as
Jason Berger, who re-examined some of Jameson’s argument that the
cultural logic of postmodernism reinforces the hold of capitalism on
the popular consciousness:
Using a
reinterpretation of Jameson’s own work, I will argue that his
analysis of the hyperspace within the Bonaventure Hotel in his
original 1988 essay provides evidence that postmodernism does create
a resistance to late capitalism through spatial
“deterritorialization.”[Berger
2004]
I’ve
never really agreed with this idea. To me postmodernism is a
capitulation to capitalist relations of production and a celebration
of crass, kitsche consumerism as the new revolution.
So is
the Bonaventure a celebration of capitalism, or does the building
condemn consumerism?
Writing
in New
Left Review in
1985, Mike Davis (author of the fantastic Planet of Slums) gave this
summary of Fredric Jameson’s seminal essay, “The cultural logic
of late capitalism”:
…according
to Jameson, the ‘new world space of multinational capital’ finds
its ‘impossible’ representation in the mirror-glass and steel
‘hyperspaces’ of the Los Angeles Bonaventure Hotel and other
contemporary urban megastructures.
From a
distance, and looking up, the Bonaventure building resembles a
truncated spaceship. A series of cylindrical towers around a central
core cylinder. For all money it looks like a Saturn V booster rocket
array on the launch pad. This image is enhanced by the hotel’s
external glass elevators. They appear like the infrastructure of the
gantry; lifting astronaut-guests up into the darkened recesses of the
residential towers.
Bonaventure
hotel - Saturn V booster array
I’ve
no idea what the Los Angeles cityscape looked like before the
Bonaventure was built in the late 1970s; but now it does not appear
out of place on the skyline. It is almost indistinguishable from the
office towers that surround it. The building does invoke the
arguments that Jameson made about it-it tends to keep out the world,
to be almost a world within itself. There are around five acres of
shopping space, but when I wandered around there yesterday (Tuesday
LA time), it was deserted. The shops were all selling crap souveniers
and expensive luxury items. There was a huge contrast between one
store selling reduced-price luggage and others with pricey jewellery.
In the
luggage store I was offered a suitcase, original price $150 for
$39.95 and a $35 travel wallet for $6.50. The store was managed by an
old Chinese guy, it was not what you’d expect in a luxury hotel
complex. I get the feeling that his lease is up and he’s moving
out. On the lower level of the shopping arcade there are more upscale
stores selling expensive luxe goods and jewellery. On the whole
though, the shopping arcade was not very attractive. Perhaps that is
the cultural logic of late capitalism. If you’re not buying luxe,
bugger off.
Jameson
noticed a similar feeling of disorientation in the shopping
galleries, but one major difference today is that there is now access
to the lobby from outside. When the building first opened, the main
entrance was on South Figueroa and to get to the lobby, guests had to
go down an escalator. Now there’s an entrance on Flower street that
allows same-level access to the lobby.
There
is actually a surprising amount of airspace between the LA towers.
Much more than I remember in Sydney. The wide boulevardes and
open areas between skyscrapers lets plenty of light down on to the
streets. Inside the hotel it’s a different story.
Bonaventure
atrium
The
interior is deliberately dark and moody. Reds dominate the lobby;
relieved a little by the bright blue fountains and pools that snake
around the circular core of the building.
Lobby
water feature and famous lifts
From
street level and up close the building has no redeeming features.
There is only unrelenting formed concrete, jutting in angular
profusion over the frontages on Sth Figueroa, Flower street and the
cross streets (4th and 5th)
Bonaventure
- a defensible fortress of pleasure?
Significantly
this fortress feel continues inside. There are battlements
overlooking the lobby from three floors up, they’re almost ramparts
where boiling oil could be poured down onto invading rabble. they
actually contain those hideous “nautilus”-style exercise
machines. This takes the whole ‘seen to be seen” mentality of
this transparent city to it’s illogical logical postmodern
conclusion. I didn’t see anyone using them while I was there.
Lifestyle
defence post, Bonaventure hotel, Sept 8 2008
And,
given the location of the Bonaventure, in the heart of the City (cap
intended), the rabble may, one day, come callining uninvited and
unwelcome. As Jason Berger explains, when it was built, the
Bonaventure was seen by Jameson as a reflection of the connection
between money, capital and new forms of postmodern leisure for the
grasping rich:
We see,
then, that because of its economic function within the city that the
Bonaventure Hotel is a normal element
of the whole. It is designed to fit into the physical and economic
landscape of the city, yet when you enter, it constructs its own
“new” world. This new world, however, is not intended to
contrast with the outside city as Disneyland is; it, instead, is
designed to replace it — to become the outside world.
Berger
argues that the disruptions caused to the shopkeepers who have to
deal with the irrational interior spaces of the Bonaventure lends
weight to the suggestion that postmodernism as a cultural logic
contains within it an oppositional trope;
The
Bonaventure Hotel, therefore, provides an apt example of the
resistance to late capitalism that is embedded within postmodernism.
It is, as we have seen, the Bonaventure’s spatial manifestation of
this postmodern expression that allows us to see its
deterritorialization and the subsequent dilemma it poses to stores
and, hence, capitalism. It is, however, capitalism’s response to
this threat — essentially a re-signification of
deterritorialization — that tends to mask the self-subverting
elements of late capitalism.
I don’t
think this is quite right. There is no real resistance to capitalism
any where within five miles of the Bonaventure hotel. Resistance
doesn’t really begin until you get to places like Hollywood
and Vine. Even there the resistance is visceral rather than
intellectual. Of course on the southside of the city there is real
resistance to capitalism as there is in other parts of the USA. There
resistance is provided by people who would not normally be admitted
to the Bonaventure, except as domestic or wait staff. A city like Los
Angeles, for all the whiteness of Hollywood, cannot sustain itself
without the labour of it’s vast and diverse underclass.
That is
why I mentioned Mike Davis, and City
of Slums.
If you want to know about resistance to capitalism and it’s
relationship to modern architecture, don’t venture down to the
Bonaventure, look at the teeming and desolate places on the planet
that Davis invokes.
I’ll
leave the final word to Fredric Jameson, he’s absolutely right
about this:
Bonaventure
ought not to have any entrances at all, since the entryway is always
the seam that links the building to the rest of the city: for it does
not wish to be part of the city…
Sydney
Opera House
Sydney
Opera House (1957 - 1973) is a masterpiece of late modern
architecture. It is admired internationally and proudly treasured by
the people of Australia. It was created by a young architect who
understood and recognised the potential provided by the site against
the stunning backdrop of Sydney Harbour. Denmark’s Jørn Utzon
gave Australia a challenging, graceful piece of urban sculpture in
patterned tiles, glistening in the sunlight and invitingly aglow at
night. Jorn Utzon died in Copenhagen in November 2008 aged 90.
In
its short lifetime, Sydney Opera House has earned a reputation as a
world-class performing arts centre and become a symbol of both Sydney
and the Australian nation.
World
Heritage Listed
Sydney Opera House was inscribed in the World Heritage List in June 2007: “Sydney Opera House is a great architectural work of the 20th century. It represents multiple strands of creativity, both in architectural form and structural design, a great urban sculpture carefully set in a remarkable waterscape and a world famous iconic building.” UNESCO
The expert evaluation report to the World Heritage Committee stated: “…it stands by itself as one of the indisputable masterpieces of human creativity, not only in the 20th century but in the history of humankind.”
Sydney Opera House was inscribed in the World Heritage List in June 2007: “Sydney Opera House is a great architectural work of the 20th century. It represents multiple strands of creativity, both in architectural form and structural design, a great urban sculpture carefully set in a remarkable waterscape and a world famous iconic building.” UNESCO
The expert evaluation report to the World Heritage Committee stated: “…it stands by itself as one of the indisputable masterpieces of human creativity, not only in the 20th century but in the history of humankind.”
Design/Structure
The distinctive roof comprises sets of interlocking vaulted ‘shells’ set upon a vast terraced platform and surrounded by terrace areas that function as pedestrian concourses.
The two main halls are arranged side by side, with their long axes, slightly inclined from each other, generally running north-south. The auditoria face south, away from the harbour with the stages located between the audience and the city. The Forecourt is a vast open space from which people ascend the stairs to the podium. The Monumental Steps, which lead up from the Forecourt to the two main performance venues, are a great ceremonial stairway nearly 100 metres wide.
The distinctive roof comprises sets of interlocking vaulted ‘shells’ set upon a vast terraced platform and surrounded by terrace areas that function as pedestrian concourses.
The two main halls are arranged side by side, with their long axes, slightly inclined from each other, generally running north-south. The auditoria face south, away from the harbour with the stages located between the audience and the city. The Forecourt is a vast open space from which people ascend the stairs to the podium. The Monumental Steps, which lead up from the Forecourt to the two main performance venues, are a great ceremonial stairway nearly 100 metres wide.
The
vaulted roof shells were designed by Utzon in collaboration with
internationally renowned engineers Ove Arup & Partners with the
final shape of the shells derived from the surface of a single
imagined sphere. Each shell is composed of pre-cast rib segments
radiating from a concrete pedestal and rising to a ridge beam. The
shells are faced in glazed off-white tiles while the podium is clad
in earth-toned, reconstituted granite panels. The glass walls are a
special feature of the building, constructed according to the
modified design by Utzon’s successor architect, Peter Hall.
History
of the Design
The history surrounding the design and construction of the building became as controversial as its design. In 1956 the NSW Government called an open-ended international design competition and appointed an independent jury. The competition brief provided broad specifications to attract the best design talent in the world; it did not specify design parameters or set a cost limit. The main requirement of the competition brief was a design for two performance halls, one for opera and one for symphony concerts. Reputedly rescued from a pile of discarded submissions, Jørn Utzon’s winning entry created great community interest and the NSW Government’s decision to commission Utzon as the sole architect was unexpected, bold and visionary.
The history surrounding the design and construction of the building became as controversial as its design. In 1956 the NSW Government called an open-ended international design competition and appointed an independent jury. The competition brief provided broad specifications to attract the best design talent in the world; it did not specify design parameters or set a cost limit. The main requirement of the competition brief was a design for two performance halls, one for opera and one for symphony concerts. Reputedly rescued from a pile of discarded submissions, Jørn Utzon’s winning entry created great community interest and the NSW Government’s decision to commission Utzon as the sole architect was unexpected, bold and visionary.
Construction
Design and construction were closely intertwined. Utzon’s radical approach to the construction of the building fostered an exceptional collaborative and innovative environment. The design solution and construction of the shell structure took eight years to complete and the development of the special ceramic tiles for the shells took over three years. The project was not helped by the changes to the brief. Construction of the shells was one of the most difficult engineering tasks ever to be attempted. The revolutionnary concept demanded equally revolutionary engineering and building techniques. Baulderstone Hornibrook (then Hornibrook Group) constructed the roof shells and the interior structure and fitout. At the behest of the Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC) the NSW Government changed the proposed larger opera hall into the concert hall because at the time, symphony concerts, managed by the ABC, were more popular and drew larger audiences than opera.
Design and construction were closely intertwined. Utzon’s radical approach to the construction of the building fostered an exceptional collaborative and innovative environment. The design solution and construction of the shell structure took eight years to complete and the development of the special ceramic tiles for the shells took over three years. The project was not helped by the changes to the brief. Construction of the shells was one of the most difficult engineering tasks ever to be attempted. The revolutionnary concept demanded equally revolutionary engineering and building techniques. Baulderstone Hornibrook (then Hornibrook Group) constructed the roof shells and the interior structure and fitout. At the behest of the Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC) the NSW Government changed the proposed larger opera hall into the concert hall because at the time, symphony concerts, managed by the ABC, were more popular and drew larger audiences than opera.
Completion
and Opening
Cost overruns contributed to populist criticism and a change of government resulted in 1966 to Utzon’s resignation, street demonstrations and professional controversy. Peter Hall supported by Lionel Todd and David Littlemore in conjunction with the then NSW Government Architect, Ted Farmer completed the glass walls and interiors including adding three previously unplanned venues underneath the Concert Hall on the western side. Opened by Queen Elizabeth II in 1973, new works were undertaken between 1986 and 1988 to the land approach and Forecourt under the supervision of the then NSW Government Architect, Andrew Andersons, with contributions by Peter Hall.
Cost overruns contributed to populist criticism and a change of government resulted in 1966 to Utzon’s resignation, street demonstrations and professional controversy. Peter Hall supported by Lionel Todd and David Littlemore in conjunction with the then NSW Government Architect, Ted Farmer completed the glass walls and interiors including adding three previously unplanned venues underneath the Concert Hall on the western side. Opened by Queen Elizabeth II in 1973, new works were undertaken between 1986 and 1988 to the land approach and Forecourt under the supervision of the then NSW Government Architect, Andrew Andersons, with contributions by Peter Hall.
For
the future
In 1999, Jørn Utzon was re-engaged as Sydney Opera House architect to develop a set of design principles to act as a guide for all future changes to the building. These principles reflect his original vision and help to ensure that the building’s architectural integrity is maintained.
In 1999, Jørn Utzon was re-engaged as Sydney Opera House architect to develop a set of design principles to act as a guide for all future changes to the building. These principles reflect his original vision and help to ensure that the building’s architectural integrity is maintained.
Utzon
Room
Utzon's first major project was the refurbishment of the Reception Hall into a stunning, light filled space which highlights the original concrete 'beams' and a wall-length tapestry designed by him which hangs opposite the harbour outlook. Noted for its excellent acoustics, it is the only authentic Utzon-designed space at Sydney Opera House and was renamed the Utzon Room in his honour in 2004.
Utzon's first major project was the refurbishment of the Reception Hall into a stunning, light filled space which highlights the original concrete 'beams' and a wall-length tapestry designed by him which hangs opposite the harbour outlook. Noted for its excellent acoustics, it is the only authentic Utzon-designed space at Sydney Opera House and was renamed the Utzon Room in his honour in 2004.
Modern
AlterationsThis
project was followed by the first alteration to the exterior of the
building with the addition of a new Colonnade along the western side,
which shades nine new large glass openings into the previously solid
exterior wall. This Utzon-led project, which was completed in 2006,
gave the theatre foyers their first view of Sydney Harbour. The
foyers' interiors are now being renovated to Utzon's specifications,
to become a coherent attractive space for patrons. The design also
incorporates the first public lift and interior escalators to assist
less mobile patrons.
Utzon was
working on designs to renovate the ageing and inadequate Opera
Theatre. On all projects, he worked with his architect son Jan, and
Sydney-based architect Richard Johnson of Johnson Pilton Walker.
Architecture
Prize
In 2003 Utzon received the Pritzker Prize, international architecture's highest honour.
In 2003 Utzon received the Pritzker Prize, international architecture's highest honour.
Revealing
Archaeology takes you on a journey through the transformations of the
Opera House site evidenced by recent archaeological discoveries.
These discoveries were made during excavation work for the Opera
House’s new underground loading dock.
A rendered three-dimensional scan of the archaeological remnants is used in the film along with images, paintings, drawings and a newspaper article from 1889 that highlight the significance of this important of the archaeological discovery.
A rendered three-dimensional scan of the archaeological remnants is used in the film along with images, paintings, drawings and a newspaper article from 1889 that highlight the significance of this important of the archaeological discovery.
https://operahouseproject.com
Oslo
Opera House
Officially opened
in April 2008,
the Oslo Opera House was designed by the acclaimed Norwegian
architectural firm Snøhetta.
The opera, which took five years to complete, sits on the bank of
the Bjørvika
district,
near the stock exchange and the central station. It is the largest
cultural building to be built in Norway since the construction of
the Nidaros
Cathedral in Trondheim at
the start of the 14th century.
From
classics to world premieres of renowned and new Norwegian works, as
well as a number of big concerts and one-off performances, the Oslo
Opera House aims to bring culture to a wider audience.
In 2012
around 310 000 people attended one of The Norwegian National Opera &
Ballet's performances and concerts. This is the highest number in the
history of the institution.The
2014 spring season features 171 performances and 20 new opera and
ballet productions will be premiered.
A new
landmark for Oslo
Oslo
Opera has become a new landmark for the city and proved an instant
success with both locals and tourists. In its five years since
opening, over 8 million people visited the house. Visitor numbers
grew by 20% between 2011 and 2012, and by the end of 2013 the total
had passed 10 million visitors.
From the outside, the most striking feature is the white sloping marble roofwhich rises directly up from the Oslofjord, allowing visitors to enjoy a stroll and take in views of the city.
If you see the building from the fjord you will notice a façade of solar panels. In fact, this is Norway’s biggest area of solar panels supplying the building with some of the energy its needs.
From the outside, the most striking feature is the white sloping marble roofwhich rises directly up from the Oslofjord, allowing visitors to enjoy a stroll and take in views of the city.
If you see the building from the fjord you will notice a façade of solar panels. In fact, this is Norway’s biggest area of solar panels supplying the building with some of the energy its needs.
International
prizes and accolades
The
opera has also won
an array of awards,
both at home and abroad, including the prestigious Mies van der Rohe
Prize (2009) and the International Architecture Award 2010. It was
also named World Cultural Building of the Year in 2008.
"The
Oslo opera house is a powerful and beautiful statement, radiant with
music and song, one that announces
Norway's arrival as a cultural centre.
Most of all, it's a building to be shared: anyone who travels
to Oslo will
want to see, and climb, Snøhetta's marble mountain," wrote
Jonathan Glancey in the British newspaper The
Guardian just
after the building’s inauguration in April 2008.
Meanwhile The
Times' Richard
Morrison declared: "I am in love. She's Norwegian, gorgeous,
full of fun, yet with surprising hidden depths. She's the new Oslo
Opera House, an amazing marble and granite vision that rises
out of the fjord like a giant ice floe."
Cutting
edge architecture and design
The
floor area of the base of the building is equivalent to four
international standard football fields and measures more than 38,000
square metres. The building boasts three
stages and
a total of 1,100
rooms.
The
foyer is a huge open room with a minimalist décor, using simple
materials such as stone, concrete, glass and wood. Here you find
seating areas, bars and restaurants.
The
main classical horseshoe shaped auditorium, which is one of the most
technologically advanced in
the world, offers great scenographic flexibility and fantastic
acoustics. The stage area measures several thousand square metres and
parts of it are as much as 16 metres below the surface of the water.
In
contrast to the light foyer, the main auditorium is decorated in
ammonia-treated Baltic oak. The seatbacks of the 1,350
seats contain
individual screens with subtitles in eight different languages. Boat
builders from the northwest coast of Norway have carved the
balconies, and hanging from the ceiling is Norway’s largest
circular chandelier. It is 7 metres in diameter, weighs 8 tons,
has 5,800 crystal glass elements and was produced by the Norwegian
firm Hadeland
Glassverk.
Backstage
tours
Interested
in finding out more about the opera? Join a guided
tour. Tours are available at weekends, and last for
about 50 minutes. They must be booked in advance.
Prague
Dancing House
In
August 1990 at the invitation of Vaclav Havel, Czechoslovakia's
recently elected playwright-president, the Rolling Stones came to
Prague. More than 100,000 Czechs turned out in the rain for this
watershed event, a shock of electricity for a nation whose energies
had long been suppressed by a dour Communist regime. Promotional
posters for the concert read, "The Rolling Stones roll in, the
Soviet army rolls out.
Prague's
fresh start was at the forefront of his mind when, one month later, a
local architect named Vlado Milunić submitted his design for a new
art gallery commissioned by President Havel. The gallery was to
occupy a prominent location along the Vltava River, on a corner
looking up toward Prague Castle, home to Bohemia's rulers for more
than a millennium.
"Charged
with internal energy, the building is bursting at its seams,"
Mr. Milunić wrote in his proposal. "The terrace protrudes like
the tongue of the Rolling Stones logo stuck out towards…the
Castle." His accompanying sketch included a doodle of the iconic
tongue in an upper corner of the page.
The
architect knew his client. President Havel, the former political
prisoner who famously inaugurated his time as the castle's chief
resident by riding through it on a scooter, loved the proposal. Mr.
Milunić won the commission.
Thus
was born the concept for what would become Dancing House, Prague's
postmodern masterpiece designed in partnership by Frank Gehry and Mr.
Milunić. With Dancing House, Messrs. Gehry and Milunić succeeded in
giving architectural form to Czechoslovakia's Velvet Revolution,
marking a singular moment of national transition and celebration.
Their
unlikely collaboration wouldn't have happened without an act of
capitalist intervention. Soon after Mr. Milunić submitted his
proposal for a tongue-terraced gallery, the site—vacant ever since
U.S. bombs destroyed its Renaissance Revival occupant during World
War II—was bought up by Nationale-Nederlanden, the forerunner to
Dutch financial-services conglomerate ING Groep NV.
Nationale-Nederlanden, of course, had no interest in Messrs. Havel
and Milunić's art gallery: The company wanted a big name to design
an avant-garde building for its Prague offices, a brash announcement
of arrival in the newly opened Eastern Europe.
But
Nationale-Nederlanden's representative in Prague, Paul Koch, was
friends with Mr. Milunić, and liked his existing plans for the site.
Mr. Koch urged his bosses to take a chance on the local architect by
pairing Mr. Milunić with a bigger international name. After Jean
Nouvel turned them down, in 1992 Messrs. Koch and Milunić approached
Mr. Gehry in Geneva, where Mr. Milunić showed off his concept
sketches for the building. His plans focused on corner towers in
varying states of distress and undress—the aforementioned concept
of a tower "bursting at its seams," a tower with a
simulacrum of its pants around its ankles, and a tower in the shape
of a naked woman ("a Czechoslovak Jeanne d'Arc," Mr.
Milunić said). All were meant to channel the creative energy of the
Velvet Revolution. Mr. Gehry was convinced. The two architects
quickly hit it off as creative collaborators.
The
core of their design became Dancing House's yin-yang duo of corner
towers: the dancing couple alluded to in the building's name. In the
project's early stages, Mr. Gehry referred to the pair as "Fred
and Ginger"—Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers—before recoiling
out of fear that he would be accused of sullying Prague's landscape
with Hollywood kitsch. But evocative as it is, Mr. Gehry's nickname
stuck.
Fred,
a masculine cylinder of concrete, stretches up and out,
simultaneously leading the rest of the building into the abutting
intersection and serving as an anchor for Fred's show-stealing
partner. The distorted cylinder is topped by a bird's-nest-shaped
mesh sculpture named "Medusa."
Ginger,
a feminine frame cinched at the waist and wrapped in a billowing
glass dress, angles away from Fred in several directions at once, her
spindly concrete legs poking through her dress and planting
themselves aggressively along the very edge of the street. Dynamic
and anthropomorphic, Ginger reflects Mr. Gehry's evolved
interpretation of Mr. Milunić's revolutionary female form. This
graceful piece of sculpture is also fully functional: The tower plays
host to several levels of conference rooms, along with a restaurant
and bar on the top two floors that provide expansive views of the
Vltava.
Naturally,
Fred and Ginger's novel appearance offended local critics of both
traditionalist and modernist tastes. Dancing House's naysayers
focused their attention on the building's supposedly poor integration
with the existing landscape, and lambasted it as the work of an
American starchitect with little regard for Prague. One early Czech
commenter called the work "a mess of pottage, this time
Californian."
Today,
this line of criticism seems wildly off the mark. Mr. Milunić spent
a great deal of time advising Mr. Gehry on the site's context, and
the two delivered a final product that richly pays homage to Prague's
architectural leitmotifs. Start with the towers themselves: Prague's
older city blocks are almost always bookended by towers of one kind
or another, often topped by an ornamental cupola. Mr. Gehry followed
the area's prevailing tradition by putting the focus on the corner,
and by topping Fred with his decorative "Medusa" sculpture,
whose form playfully echoes that of several onion domes sitting atop
adjacent corner towers.
Then
consider Dancing House's riverfront elevation, which provides an
object lesson in the artful integration of a new building with its
neighbors. Rightly so, since Mr. Milunić was literally a kid from
the block: Both his and Mr. Havel's families had lived in the
Secessionist structure next door, built by Mr. Havel's grandfather at
the turn of the 20th century.
You
have to step across the Jiraskuv Bridge to the Vltava's opposite
riverbank and take a panoramic view of Dancing House's environs to
appreciate just how well Messrs. Gehry and Milunić captured the
spirit of the landscape. Dancing House's wavy stuccowork and pop-out
windows elegantly match the window patterns and quoined and scored
exteriors of the neighborhood. Viewed in context, Dancing House grows
naturally from its surroundings, its movement leading to the corner
and to the surprising expression of its jubilant towers.
Perhaps
unavoidably, the whimsical atmosphere that inspired Fred and Ginger
faded over the years; Mr. Havel's death this past December punctuated
the end of an era in Czech and European history. But for a city that
has largely moved on, Dancing House stands as a living reminder of a
time when an entire nation shook off its inertia and kicked up its
heels.
—Mr.
Dameron, a former Robert L. Bartley Fellow at the Journal, is a
Prague-based correspondent for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
Guggenheim
Mueseum
Hailed
as the most important structure of its time when it opened in 1997,
Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim Museum Bilbao has changed the way people
think about museums and continues to challenge assumptions about the
connections between art, architecture, and collecting.
The
Guggenheim Museum Bilbao presents Thread
Routes Chapter I, IIand III (2010– ),
the first 16-mm film series produced by multi-disciplinary conceptual
artist Kimsooja (b. 1957, Daegu, Korea). This ongoing project
consists of six chapters, each shot in a different part of the world,
and together they form a mosaic of common performative elements that
unite different textile cultures. This triangular installation
created by the artist presents three chapters filmed in Peru, Europe,
and India.
The
Guggenheim Bilbao’s collection spans from the mid-20th century to
the present day, concentrating on postwar painting and sculpture in
America and Europe. The collection includes key works by significant
artists including Anselm Kiefer, Willem de Kooning, Robert
Motherwell, Gilbert & George, and Richard Serra.
Well
before the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao opened its doors to the public on
October 19, 1997, the new museum was making news. The numerous
artists, architects, journalists, politicians, filmmakers, and
historians that visited the building site in the mere four years of
its construction anticipated the success of the venture. Frank
Gehry’s limestone, glass, and titanium building was hailed by
architect Philip Johnson as “the greatest building of our time”
and the pioneering collaboration between the Solomon R. Guggenheim
Foundation and Basque authorities was seen to challenge assumptions
about art museum collecting and programming.
Located on the Bay of Biscay, Bilbao is the fourth largest city in Spain, one of the country’s most important ports, and a center for manufacturing, shipping, and commerce. In the late 1980s the Basque authorities embarked on an ambitious redevelopment program for the city. By 1991, with new designs for an airport, a subway system, and a footbridge, among other important projects by major international architects such as Norman Foster, Santiago Calatrava, and Arata Isozaki, the city planned to build a first-class cultural facility. In April and May of 1991 at the invitation of the Basque Government and the Diputación Foral de Bizkaia, Thomas Krens, Director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, met repeatedly with officials, signing a preliminary agreement to bring a new Guggenheim Museum to Bilbao.
An architectural competition led to the selection of California-based architect Gehry, known for his use of unorthodox materials and inventive forms, and his sensitivity to the urban environment. Gehry’s proposal for the site on the Nervion River ultimately included features that embrace both the identity of the Guggenheim Museum and its new home in the Basque Country. The building’s glass atrium refers to the famous rotunda of Frank Lloyd Wright’s New York Guggenheim, and its largest gallery is traversed by Bilbao’s Puente de La Salve, a vehicular bridge serving as one of the main gateways to the city. In 1992 Juan Ignacio Vidarte, now Director General of the Guggenheim Bilbao, was formally appointed to oversee the development of the project and to supervise the construction. Groundbreaking took place in 1993 and in 1997 a gala dinner and reception, attended by an international audience and Spain’s Queen Sofia and King Juan Carlos I, celebrated the inauguration of the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao.
Located on the Bay of Biscay, Bilbao is the fourth largest city in Spain, one of the country’s most important ports, and a center for manufacturing, shipping, and commerce. In the late 1980s the Basque authorities embarked on an ambitious redevelopment program for the city. By 1991, with new designs for an airport, a subway system, and a footbridge, among other important projects by major international architects such as Norman Foster, Santiago Calatrava, and Arata Isozaki, the city planned to build a first-class cultural facility. In April and May of 1991 at the invitation of the Basque Government and the Diputación Foral de Bizkaia, Thomas Krens, Director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, met repeatedly with officials, signing a preliminary agreement to bring a new Guggenheim Museum to Bilbao.
An architectural competition led to the selection of California-based architect Gehry, known for his use of unorthodox materials and inventive forms, and his sensitivity to the urban environment. Gehry’s proposal for the site on the Nervion River ultimately included features that embrace both the identity of the Guggenheim Museum and its new home in the Basque Country. The building’s glass atrium refers to the famous rotunda of Frank Lloyd Wright’s New York Guggenheim, and its largest gallery is traversed by Bilbao’s Puente de La Salve, a vehicular bridge serving as one of the main gateways to the city. In 1992 Juan Ignacio Vidarte, now Director General of the Guggenheim Bilbao, was formally appointed to oversee the development of the project and to supervise the construction. Groundbreaking took place in 1993 and in 1997 a gala dinner and reception, attended by an international audience and Spain’s Queen Sofia and King Juan Carlos I, celebrated the inauguration of the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao.
When
it opened in 1997, the Frank Gehry–designed Guggenheim Museum
Bilbao—a spectacular structure made of titanium, glass, and
limestone—was hailed as the most important building of its time.
Located in the Basque city of Bilbao in northern Spain, the museum
features exhibitions organized by the Guggenheim Foundation and by
the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, as well as selections from the
permanent collection of the Guggenheim Museums.
Artifacts
and Artifictions
Puppy,
Jeff Konns
Jeff
Koons rose to prominence in the mid-1980s as part of a generation of
artists who explored the meaning of art in a media-saturated era and
the attendant crisis of representation. Drawing on the visual
language of advertising, marketing, and the entertainment industry
and with the stated intent to "communicate with the masses,"
Koons tested the boundaries between popular and elite culture. His
sculptural menagerie includes Plexiglas-encased Hoover vacuum
cleaners, basketballs suspended in glass aquariums, porcelain homages
to Michael Jackson and the Pink Panther, and glass depictions of
himself coupled with his then-wife Ilona Staller, also known as La
Cicciolina (a former adult-film star and member of the Italian
parliament). Extending the legacy of Marcel Duchamp's readymades, and
integrating references to Minimalism and Pop, Koons presents art as a
commodity that cannot be placed within the hierarchy of conventional
aesthetics.
With Puppy, Koons
engaged both past and present, employing sophisticated computer
modeling to create a work that references the 18th-century formal
European garden. A behemoth West Highland terrier carpeted in bedding
plants,Puppy employs
the most saccharine of iconography—flowers and puppies—in a
monument to the sentimental. Imposing in scale, its size both tightly
contained and seemingly out of control (it is both literally and
figuratively still growing), and juxtaposing elite and mass-cultural
references (topiary and dog breeding, Chia Pets and Hallmark greeting
cards), the work may be read as an allegory of contemporary culture.
Koons designed this public sculpture to relentlessly entice, to
create optimism, and to instill, in his own words, "confidence
and security." Dignified and stalwart as it stands guard at the
museum, Puppy fills
viewers with awe, and even joy.
The
Human Condition (1935), Rene Magritte
The
Human Condition (La
condition humaine)
generally refers to two similar oil
on canvas paintings by the Belgiansurrealist René
Magritte. One was completed in 1933 and is in the collection of
the National
Gallery of Art in Washington
DC.[1] The
other was completed in 1935 and is part of the Simon
Spierer Collection in Geneva, Switzerland.[2] A
number of drawings of the same name exist as well, including one at
the Cleveland
Museum of Art.[3]
Relation
to other paintings[edit]
One of
Magritte's most common artistic devices was the use of objects to
hide what lies behind them. For example, in The
Son of Man (1964)
an apple hides the face of a man wearing a bowler hat, and in The
Pleasure Principle (1937)
a bright flash likewise obscures a face. In The
Human Condition,
the cover-up appears in the form a painting within a painting.
Magritte
had this to say of his 1933 work:
In
front of a window seen from inside a room, I placed a painting
representing exactly that portion of the landscape covered by the
painting. Thus, the tree in the picture hid the tree behind it,
outside the room. For the spectator, it was both inside the room
within the painting and outside in the real landscape.[4]
Paintings
within paintings appear frequently in Magritte works. Euclidean
Walks (1955)
is a work perhaps most like The
Human Condition. It
places a canvas in front of a high window depicting the tower of a
close building and a street below. InThe
Fair Captive (1947),
there is a beach scene with an easel set up. As in the previous cases
it holds a canvas depicting what the viewer might expect to be behind
it. This time though, flames from a burning tuba in front of the
frame are seen "reflected." The
Call of the Peaks (1942)
shows a mountain canvas in front of a mountain background which is
buffeted on the right by a curtain.
The
list of similar works can easily be extended to include such
paintings as The
Key to the Fields (1936),
its 1964 reincarnation Evening
Falls and
the 1942 work The
Domain of Arnheim,
all of which feature broken windows whose shattered glass pieces on
the floor still show the outside world they used to conceal.
Another
series of pieces which show both strong similarities and strong
differences from The
Human Condition are
the works titled The
Alarm Clock.
In these works, a painting is placed on an easel in front of a window
or on a balcony with a simple landscape in the background. However,
the painting does not show what may possibly be behind, but is
instead an upside-down basic fruit still life.
The
History of Chinese Painting and the History of modern Western
Arrtwashed in the Washing Machine for Two minutes , Huang Yong Ping
HUANG
YONG PING
The History of Chinese Painting and the History of Modern Western Art Washed in the Washing Machine for Two Minutes
1987/1993
Chinese tea box, paper pulp, glass
T. B. Walker Acquisition Fund, 2001
ABOUT THE ARTWORK
On December 1, 1987, Chinese artist Huang Yong Ping placed two books into a washing machine
and washed them for two minutes. One book was titled The History of Chinese Art by Wang Bomin
and the other was a Chinese translation of The Concise History of Modern Painting by Herbert Read.
These two tomes were transformed into a pile of unreadable pulp, which the artist dumped onto a
piece of broken glass mounted on an old Chinese tea crate. The original sculpture was accidentally
destroyed a few years later, so he remade it in 1993. The writing on the crate gives the dates and history
of the piece.
For the artist, the decision to put these two specific books in the washing machine is a strategy
for transforming and creating new meanings for both Eastern and Western cultures. Read’s book, like
most Western art history books, categorizes and classifies European and American art into styles,
movements, and “isms” such as Impressionism and Cubism. It follows the tendency for Western historians
and scientists to create a rational order out of facts, events, and philosophies. In contrast, Eastern
philosophies such as Zen or Tao take into account ideas of flux, change, and a balance of rational
and irrational ways of understanding the world. This artwork is not about replacing one tradition with
another; it is about the two overlapping and becoming mixed together after their own structures have
been pulverized.
In this work, Huang uses materials appropriated from sources that resonate with his interest in
both Eastern and Western cultures. His two-minute performance is given up to the chance processes
happening inside the washing machine. The resulting pile of dirty pulp is a metaphor for creation,
destruction, and transformation—strategies he has used repeatedly to question what it means to live
in a global world. When East and West collide, the resulting economic, political, and philosophical
changes make each one more complicated and less pure. Huang describes this as “washing the notion
of culture.”
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Born in 1954 in Xiamen, Fujian province in southeastern China, Huang Yong Ping came of age during
the Cultural Revolution,* a time of great social upheaval. By the late 1970s, however, a number of the
tensions had abated and China began to open up to the rest of the world. Censorship was relaxed and
the Chinese art world gained access to information about contemporary Western art. Huang’s artistic
ideas, formed in the 1980s, derived from his study of modern Western philosophers and artists as well
as from ancient Zen and Taoist philosophies. He pondered the strategies he should employ in order to
blend the old culture with the new and ways that he could find both connections and breaks between
his own culture and that of the West.
By the mid-1980s, Huang had become one of the most radical Chinese artists and a spokesman
for an avant-garde group in Xiamen that explored the ideas of the European Dada movement and
other important critical art tendencies. In 1986, this group held its first public exhibition featuring traditional artworks as well as installation pieces combining various everyday objects. After the exhibition
closed, the group decided to burn all the works in a huge bonfire. Huang drafted their statement, pointing
out that the purpose of burning the artwork was to emphasize that art exists as spiritual process,
not in its materialistic products. During the 1980s, he pioneered a new art that shattered conventional
methods in both Chinese art and Western art.
In 1989 Huang took up residence in Paris. Before this move, he had often used Western art ideas
and methods to counter Chinese “official” art and institutions. Since coming to France, he has tended
to use traditional Eastern ideas and practices to undermine European habits of thinking and cultural
stereotypes. For example, at times he has used chance processes such as spinning a roulette wheel
and consulting the I Ching, the ancient Chinese book of divination and philosophy, to determine how
an artwork should be made. By doing so, he attempts to remove rational thought and the originality of
the individual artist from his work. In other installations and actions, he takes on issues of colonialism,
globalization, and political strain between the West and the rest of the world. Some of his works have
been censored for political reasons in both realms.
THE CULTURAL REVOLUTION
China has a rich cultural and national history dating back almost 4,000 years. In 1949, the People’s
Republic of China established a communist government under Chairman Mao Zedong. By the 1960s
the government had become conservative and bureaucratic, and some felt the revolutionary fervor
was being lost. Over the next 10 years, the Red Guard, mostly young people who were zealous about
the early teachings of Mao, led the great Cultural Revolution by leading demonstrations, creating
upheaval in the educational and economic systems, and arresting those suspected of being disloyal
to the revolution. Relations with the outside world were virtually severed. Countless ancient buildings,
artifacts, antiques, books, and paintings were destroyed by the Red Guard in order to eradicate old
ways of thinking, and the production of art in China was tightly controlled by the socialist realist regime
during this period.
The History of Chinese Painting and the History of Modern Western Art Washed in the Washing Machine for Two Minutes
1987/1993
Chinese tea box, paper pulp, glass
T. B. Walker Acquisition Fund, 2001
ABOUT THE ARTWORK
On December 1, 1987, Chinese artist Huang Yong Ping placed two books into a washing machine
and washed them for two minutes. One book was titled The History of Chinese Art by Wang Bomin
and the other was a Chinese translation of The Concise History of Modern Painting by Herbert Read.
These two tomes were transformed into a pile of unreadable pulp, which the artist dumped onto a
piece of broken glass mounted on an old Chinese tea crate. The original sculpture was accidentally
destroyed a few years later, so he remade it in 1993. The writing on the crate gives the dates and history
of the piece.
For the artist, the decision to put these two specific books in the washing machine is a strategy
for transforming and creating new meanings for both Eastern and Western cultures. Read’s book, like
most Western art history books, categorizes and classifies European and American art into styles,
movements, and “isms” such as Impressionism and Cubism. It follows the tendency for Western historians
and scientists to create a rational order out of facts, events, and philosophies. In contrast, Eastern
philosophies such as Zen or Tao take into account ideas of flux, change, and a balance of rational
and irrational ways of understanding the world. This artwork is not about replacing one tradition with
another; it is about the two overlapping and becoming mixed together after their own structures have
been pulverized.
In this work, Huang uses materials appropriated from sources that resonate with his interest in
both Eastern and Western cultures. His two-minute performance is given up to the chance processes
happening inside the washing machine. The resulting pile of dirty pulp is a metaphor for creation,
destruction, and transformation—strategies he has used repeatedly to question what it means to live
in a global world. When East and West collide, the resulting economic, political, and philosophical
changes make each one more complicated and less pure. Huang describes this as “washing the notion
of culture.”
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Born in 1954 in Xiamen, Fujian province in southeastern China, Huang Yong Ping came of age during
the Cultural Revolution,* a time of great social upheaval. By the late 1970s, however, a number of the
tensions had abated and China began to open up to the rest of the world. Censorship was relaxed and
the Chinese art world gained access to information about contemporary Western art. Huang’s artistic
ideas, formed in the 1980s, derived from his study of modern Western philosophers and artists as well
as from ancient Zen and Taoist philosophies. He pondered the strategies he should employ in order to
blend the old culture with the new and ways that he could find both connections and breaks between
his own culture and that of the West.
By the mid-1980s, Huang had become one of the most radical Chinese artists and a spokesman
for an avant-garde group in Xiamen that explored the ideas of the European Dada movement and
other important critical art tendencies. In 1986, this group held its first public exhibition featuring traditional artworks as well as installation pieces combining various everyday objects. After the exhibition
closed, the group decided to burn all the works in a huge bonfire. Huang drafted their statement, pointing
out that the purpose of burning the artwork was to emphasize that art exists as spiritual process,
not in its materialistic products. During the 1980s, he pioneered a new art that shattered conventional
methods in both Chinese art and Western art.
In 1989 Huang took up residence in Paris. Before this move, he had often used Western art ideas
and methods to counter Chinese “official” art and institutions. Since coming to France, he has tended
to use traditional Eastern ideas and practices to undermine European habits of thinking and cultural
stereotypes. For example, at times he has used chance processes such as spinning a roulette wheel
and consulting the I Ching, the ancient Chinese book of divination and philosophy, to determine how
an artwork should be made. By doing so, he attempts to remove rational thought and the originality of
the individual artist from his work. In other installations and actions, he takes on issues of colonialism,
globalization, and political strain between the West and the rest of the world. Some of his works have
been censored for political reasons in both realms.
THE CULTURAL REVOLUTION
China has a rich cultural and national history dating back almost 4,000 years. In 1949, the People’s
Republic of China established a communist government under Chairman Mao Zedong. By the 1960s
the government had become conservative and bureaucratic, and some felt the revolutionary fervor
was being lost. Over the next 10 years, the Red Guard, mostly young people who were zealous about
the early teachings of Mao, led the great Cultural Revolution by leading demonstrations, creating
upheaval in the educational and economic systems, and arresting those suspected of being disloyal
to the revolution. Relations with the outside world were virtually severed. Countless ancient buildings,
artifacts, antiques, books, and paintings were destroyed by the Red Guard in order to eradicate old
ways of thinking, and the production of art in China was tightly controlled by the socialist realist regime
during this period.
The
Physical Impossibility of Death in The Mind of Someone Living, Damien
Hirst
The
Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living is
an artwork created in 1991 by Damien
Hirst,
an English artist and a leading member of the "Young
British Artists"
(or YBA). It consists of a tiger
shark preserved
in formaldehyde in
a vitrine.
It was originally commissioned in 1991 by Charles
Saatchi,
who sold it in 2004, to Steven
A. Cohen for
an undisclosed amount, widely reported to have been $8 million.
However, the title of Don Thompson's book, The
$12 Million Stuffed Shark: The Curious Economics of Contemporary Art,
suggests a higher figure.
Owing
to deterioration of the original 14-foot (4.3 m) tiger
shark,
it was replaced with a new specimen in 2006. It was on loan to
theMetropolitan
Museum of Art in
New York City from 2007 to 2010.[1]
It
is considered the iconic work of British art in the 1990s,[2] and
has become a symbol of Britart worldwide
The
work was funded by Charles
Saatchi, who in 1991 had offered to pay for whatever artwork
Hirst wanted to create. The shark itself cost Hirst £6,000[4] and
the total cost of the work was £50,000.[5] The
shark was caught off Hervey
Bay in Queensland, Australia, by a fisherman commissioned to
do so.[4][5] Hirst
wanted something "big enough to eat you".[6]
It was
first exhibited in 1992 in the first of a series of Young
British Artists shows
at the Saatchi
Gallery, then at its premises in St
John's Wood, North London. The British tabloid newspaper The
Sun ran
a story titled "£50,000 for fish without chips."[7] The
show also included Hirst's artwork A
Thousand Years.
He was then nominated for the Turner
Prize, but it was awarded to Grenville
Davey. Saatchi sold the work in 2004 toSteven
A. Cohen for an estimated $8 million.[7]
Its
technical specifications are: "Tiger shark, glass, steel, 5%
formaldehyde solution, 213 x 518 x 213 cm."[8]
The
New York Times in
2007 gave the following description of the artwork:
"Mr.
Hirst often aims to fry the mind (and misses more than he hits), but
he does so by setting up direct, often visceral experiences, of which
the shark remains the most outstanding.
In
keeping with the piece's title, the shark is simultaneously life and
death incarnate in a way you don't quite grasp until you see it,
suspended and silent, in its tank. It gives the innately demonic urge
to live a demonic, deathlike form."[9]
Campbel’s
Soup Can, Andy Warhol
Campbell's
Soup Cans,[1] which
is sometimes referred to as 32
Campbell's Soup Cans,[2] is
a work
of art produced
in 1962 by Andy
Warhol.
It consists of thirty-two canvases, each measuring 20 inches (51 cm)
in height × 16 inches (41 cm) in width and each consisting of a
painting of a Campbell's
Soup can—one
of each of the canned
soup varieties
the company offered at the time.[1] The
individual paintings were produced by a printmaking method—the
semi-mechanized screen
printing process,
using a non-painterly style. Campbell's
Soup Cans' reliance
on themes from popular
culture helped
to usher in pop
art as
a major art
movement in
the United States.
Warhol,
a commercial illustrator who
became a successful author, publisher, painter, and film director,
showed the work on July 9, 1962, in his first
one-man gallery exhibition
as a fine
artist[3][4] in
the Ferus
Gallery of
Los Angeles, California. The exhibition marked the West
Coast debut
of pop art.[5] The
combination of the semi-mechanized process, the non-painterlystyle,
and the commercial subject initially caused offense, as the work's
blatantly mundane commercialism represented a direct affront to the
technique and philosophy of abstract
expressionism[Technically,
an important predecessor is surrealism(Surrealism is
a cultural
movement that
began in the early 1920s, and is best known for its visual artworks
and writings. The aim was to "resolve the previously
contradictory conditions of dream and reality." Artists painted
unnerving, illogical scenes with photographic precision, created
strange creatures from everyday objects and developed painting
techniques that allowed the unconscious to express itself.),
with its emphasis on spontaneous, automatic,
or subconscious creation. Jackson
Pollock's
dripping paint onto a canvas laid on the floor is a technique that
has its roots in the work of André
Masson, Max
Ernst,
and David
Alfaro Siqueiros.
Another important early manifestation of what came to be abstract
expressionism is the work of American Northwest artist Mark
Tobey,
especially his "white writing" canvases, which, though
generally not large in scale, anticipate the "all-over" look
of Pollock's drip paintings.].
In the United States the abstract expressionism art movement was
dominant during the post-war period,
and it held not only to "fine
art"
values and aesthetics but
also to amystical inclination.
This controversy led to a great deal of debate about the merits and
ethics of such work. Warhol's motives as an artist were questioned,
and they continue to be topical to this day. The large public
commotion helped transform Warhol from being an accomplished 1950s
commercial illustrator to a notable fine artist, and it helped
distinguish him from other rising pop artists. Although commercial
demand for his paintings was not immediate, Warhol's association with
the subject led to his name becoming synonymous with the Campbell's
Soup Can paintings.
Warhol
subsequently produced a wide variety of art
works depicting
Campbell's Soup cans during three distinct phases of his career, and
he produced other works using a variety of images from the world of
commerce and mass media. Today, the Campbell's Soup cans theme is
generally used in reference to the original set of paintings as well
as the later Warhol drawings and paintings depicting Campbell's Soup
cans. Because of the eventual popularity of the entire series of
similarly themed works, Warhol's reputation grew to the point where
he was not only the most-renowned American pop art artist,[6] but
also the highest-priced living American artist.[7]
Artist’s
Studio Look, Roy Lichtenstein
"It
was hard to get a painting that was despicable enough so that no one
would hang it--everybody was hanging everything. It was almost
acceptable to hang a dripping paint rag, everybody was accustomed to
this. The one thing everyone hated was commercial art; apparently
they didn't hate that enough, either."--Roy Lichtenstein, 1963
Roy
Lichtenstein began producing Pop Art paintings--based on the imagery
of consumerism and popular culture--in the early 1960s, and he is
most often associated with paintings and prints based on comic
strips. When once asked how he selected his images, the artist
explained, "I go through comic books looking for material which
seems to hold possibilities for painting, both in its visual impact
and the impact of its written message. I try to take messages which
are kind of universal . . . completely meaningless or so involved
that they become ludicrous."
Although
not based on an actual comic-book image, Artist's
Studio No. 1 (Look Mickey) is
stylistically similar to Lichtenstein's cartoon translations.
Following a centuries-old tradition in Western art in which artists
use their own studios as subject matter, he depicts his artistic
environment and acknowledges his accomplishment as an artist by
including examples of his pioneering works such as Look
Mickey (1961)
andCouch (1961).
However, unlike other more traditional representations of artists'
studios, Lichtenstein satirizes his own work by painting the space in
the impersonal comic-strip style that made him famous.
Darth
Vader, Tommervik
Once
the much-maligned painting style of Absinthe-fuelled
bohemians, Cubism has
been given new life by American artist Tommervik.
The
muted tones, strong lines and graphical shapes Tommervik creates are
strongly reminiscent of the figures and still lifes pioneered by
Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque at the turn of the 20th Century.
However, there's not a bottle or a guitar in sight in these images,
which instead transform the world of Star
Wars into
abstract oils on canvas.
Over
the last year Tommervik has started to add paintings of Star
Wars characters
to his repetoire of
sportsmen, bears and Pee Wee Herman, to name but a few. He's now
racked up quite a collection, the majority of which you can view in
our gallery, below, which reflects a childhood fascinated with the
Hollywood franchise.
Tommervik
told Wired.co.uk: "Star Wars impacted on my life at an early
age. I remember all the neat toys, and remembering them and my
childhood inspired .
Interestingly,
the artist relies entirely on these vintage toys and his imagination
as the reference point for his paintings, saying his craft gets in
the way of any pop-cultural film research: "I don't remember
which Star Wars film was my favourite. It's been such a long time
since I watched the films -- I'm often too busy painting."
Instead
of their stage presence, Tommervik is inspired by the aesthetics of
the sci-fi
characters who appear in his images. "The characters
and the scene set-ups are not important to me. It's the colours and
the shapes of things which make me want to paint the subject."
While
Tommervik claims that the Millenium Falcon offers the best
combination of those factors, he is also a droid
fan, saying R2-D2 has always been his favourite character, with
R5-D4 following a close second. Tommervik has painted the droid in
various Cubist reincarnations.
As to
why he chose the synthetic Cubism style of painting, Tommervik claims
it is as natural to him as wanting to paint Princess Leia and Darth
Vader performing a two step, "I represent everything in the same
way, it's just my style -- it's abstract."
A
Rubber Ball Thrown on the Sea, Lawrence Weiner
This
depicts the difference between modern and post-modern art.and this is
a post-modern art
ll
trends become clearer with time. Looking at art even 15 years out,
“you can see the patterns a little better,” says Melissa Ho,
assistant curator at the Hirshhorn Museum. “There are larger,
deeper trends that have to do with how we are living in the world and
how we are experiencing it.”
So what
exactly is modern art? The question, she says, is less answerable
than endlessly discussable.
Technically,
says Ho, modern art is “the cultural expression of the historical
moment of modernity.” But how to unpack that statement is
contested. One way of defining modern art, or anything really, is
describing what it is not. Traditional academic painting and
sculpture dominated the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. “It was
about perfect, seamless technique and using that perfect, seamless
technique to execute very well-established subject matter,” says
Ho. There was a hierarchy of genres, from history paintings to
portraiture to still lifes and landscapes, and very strict notions of
beauty. “Part of the triumph of modernism is overturning academic
values,” she says.
In
somewhat of a backlash to traditional academic art, modern art is
about personal expression. Though it was not always the case
historically, explains Ho, “now, it seems almost natural that the
way you think of works of art are as an expression of an individual
vision.” Modernism spans a huge variety of artists and kinds of
art. But the values behind the pieces are much the same. “With
modern art, there is this new emphasis put on the value of being
original and doing something innovative,” says Ho.
Edouard
Manet and the Impressionists were considered modern, in part, because
they were depicting scenes of modern life. The Industrial Revolution
brought droves of people to the cities, and new forms of leisure
sprung up in urban life. Inside the Hirshhorn’s galleries, Ho
points out Thomas Hart Benton’s People
of Chilmark,
a painting of a mass of tangled men and women, slightly reminiscent
of a classical Michelangelo or Théodore Géricault’s famous Raft
of the Medusa,
except that it is a contemporary beach scene, inspired by the
Massachusetts town where Benton summered. Ringside
Seats,
a painting of a boxing match by George Bellows, hangs nearby, as do
three paintings by Edward Hopper, one titled First
Row Orchestra of
theatergoers waiting for the curtains to be drawn.
In
Renaissance art, a high premium was put on imitating nature. “Then,
once that was chipped away at, abstraction is allowed to flourish,”
says Ho. Works like Benton’s and Hopper’s are a combination of
observation and invention. Cubists, in the early 1900s, started
playing with space and shape in a way that warped the traditional
pictorial view.
Art
historians often use the word “autonomous” to describe modern
art. “The vernacular would be ‘art for art’s sake,’”
explains Ho. “It doesn’t have to exist for any kind of utility
value other than its own existential reason for being.” So,
assessing modern art is a different beast. Rather than asking, as one
might with a history painting, about narrative—Who is the main
character? And what is the action?—assessing a painting, say, by
Piet Mondrian, becomes more about composition. “It is about the
compositional tension,” says Ho, “the formal balance between
color and line and volume on one hand, but also just the extreme
purity of and rigor of it.”
According
to Ho, some say that modernism reaches its peak with Abstract
Expressionism in America during the World War II era. Each artist of
the movement tried to express his individual genius and style,
particularly through touch. “So you get Jackson Pollock with his
dripping and throwing paint,” says Ho. “You get Mark Rothko with
his very luminous, thinly painted fields of color.” And, unlike the
invisible brushwork in heavily glazed academic paintings, the strokes
in paintings by Willem de Kooning are loose and sometimes thick. “You
really can feel how it was made,” says Ho.
Shortly
after World War II, however, the ideas driving art again began to
change. Postmodernism pulls away from the modern focus on
originality, and the work is deliberately impersonal. “You see a
lot of work that uses mechanical or quasi-mechanical means or
deskilled means,” says Ho. Andy Warhol, for example, uses silk
screen, in essence removing his direct touch, and chooses subjects
that play off of the idea of mass production. While modern artists
such as Mark Rothko and Barnett Newman made color choices that were
meant to connect with the viewer emotionally, postmodern artists like
Robert Rauschenberg introduce chance to the process. Rauschenburg,
says Ho, was known to buy paint in unmarked cans at the hardware
store.
“Postmodernism
is associated with the deconstruction of the idea, ‘I am the
artistic genius, and you need me,’ ” says Ho. Artists such as Sol
LeWitt and Lawrence Weiner, with works in the Hirshhorn, shirk
authorship even more. Weiner’s piece titled “A RUBBER BALL THROWN
ON THE SEA, Cat. No. 146,” for example, is displayed at the museum
in large, blue, sans-serif lettering. But Weiner was open to the
seven words being reproduced in any color, size or font. “We could
have taken a marker and written it on the wall,” says Ho. In other
words, Weiner considered his role as artist to be more about
conception than production. Likewise, some of LeWitt’s drawings
from the late 1960s are basically drawings by instruction. He
provides instructions but anyone, in theory, can execute them. “In
this post-war generation, there is this trend, in a way, toward
democratizing art,” says Ho. “Like the Sol LeWitt drawing, it is
this opinion that anybody can make art.”
Rubik
Mona Lisa, Invader
Invader is
the pseudonym of a well-known French urban
artist,
born in 1969, whose work is modelled on the crude pixellation of
1970s-1980s 8-bit video
games.
He took his name from the 1978 arcade
game Space
Invaders,
and much of his work is composed of square ceramic tiles inspired by
video game characters. Although he prefers to remain incognito, and
guards his identity carefully, his distinctive creations can be seen
in many highly-visible locations in more than 60 cities in 30
countries.[1] He
documents each intervention in a city as an "Invasion", and
has published books and maps of the location of each of his street
mosaics.
In
addition to working with tiles, Invader is one of the leading
proponents of indoor mosaics created using stacks of Rubik's
Cubes in
a style he refers to as "Rubikcubism". He is also known for
his QR
code mosaic
works.
A
street artist known only as Invader is making a killing recreating
famous images such as Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa – out of
Rubik’s Cubes.
He uses up to 800 of the cult 1980s blocks for each work and then sells them for as much as £20,000 apiece.
He uses up to 800 of the cult 1980s blocks for each work and then sells them for as much as £20,000 apiece.
And
the name of this art movement? Rubikcubism. Invader’s creativity is
inspired by two leitmotifs: Notoriety in movies, novels or real life
– Rubik Bad Men – and iconicity in art – Rubik Masterpieces.
He has recreated the likes of Andy Warhol’s Campbell’s Soup, historic events such as the 9/11 attack and celebrities including Stanley Kubrick.
Each
work can take up to two days to put together and Invader uses a
computer-generated picture to calculate how to twist the blocks into
position.
The
works are all the more impressive as they appear to overcome the
limits imposed by the Rubik’s Cube palette of just six colours.
‘This
deals with little colourful squares and hijacking a cult object from
the 80s,’ said Invader.
‘There
is also a generational aspect because it is a cult object from my
childhood.
‘But
ultimately it is a game and you could say I spend my time playing
with Rubik’s Cubes when I am working in my studio.’
Invader
first made a name for himself in 1998 after he pasted mosaics of
characters from the classic Space Invaders game around Paris.
He
went on to ‘invade’ 35 other cities with the mosaics, including
London, New York, Melbourne and Tokyo.
His
works sell at the Lazerides gallery in London, which also displays
pieces by Banksy and Jamie Hewlett.
The
Rubik’s Cube is a 3D puzzle invented in 1974 by Hungarian sculptor
and architect Ernó Rubik.
More
than 300,000,000 have been sold, making it the world’s best-selling
toy.
Prada
Marfa
Prada
Marfa is
a permanently installed sculpture by
artists Elmgreen
and Dragset,
situated 1.4 miles (2.3 km) northwest ofValentine,
Texas, just off U.S.
Highway 90 (US 90),
and about 26 miles (42 km) northwest of the city
of Marfa.[1] The
installation was inaugurated on October 1, 2005. The artists called
the work a "pop architectural land
art project."[2]
The
sculpture, realized with the assistance of American architects Ronald
Rael and Virginia San Fratello,[3] cost
$80,000 and was intended to never be repaired, so it might slowly
degrade back into the natural landscape.[4] This
plan was deviated from when, six days after the sculpture was
completed, vandals graffitied the
exterior, and broke into the building stealing handbags and shoes.
Sculpture[edit]
Designed
to resemble a Prada store,
the building is made of "adobe bricks, plaster, paint, glass
pane, aluminum frame, MDF,
and carpet."[2] The
installation's door is nonfunctional. On the front of the structure
there are two large windows displaying actual Prada wares, shoes and
handbags, picked out and provided by Miuccia
Prada herself from the fall/winter 2005 collection; Prada
allowed Elmgreen and Dragset to use the Prada trademark for
this work.[1] The
sculpture was financed by
the Art
Production Fund(APF) and Ballroom Marfa, a center of contemporary
art and culture.
Prada
had already collaborated with Elmgreen and Dragset in 2001 when the
artists attached signage to the Tanya
Bonakdar Gallery in New
York City with the (false) message "Opening
soon—PRADA".
Prada Marfa is located relatively close to Donald
Judd's Chinati
Foundation. The minimalism of
Prada's usual displays that are mimicked in this work play off the
minimalism that Judd is known for as an artist. The site-specific of
Prada Marfa invites for a comparison with other art movements such
as minimalism and land
art, which are equally dependent on the site where they are
placed. Prada Marfa relies almost entirely on its context for its
critical effect.[5] The
"sculptural Intervention" can be interpreted as criticism
of consumerism,
luxury branding and gentrification,
but whether intentionally or not, it reinforces the capitalist values
it criticizes.[5] Therefore
this work of art experienced a change of meaning and gained an
ambivalent moment, that the artists did not expect. Along a ledge
that runs around the base of the building, hundreds of people have
left business
cards, weighed down by small rocks.[6]
Vandalism[edit]
Prada
Marfa, March 2014 vandalism.
A few
days after Prada Marfa officially debuted, the installation was
vandalized. The building was broken into, its contents (six handbags
and 14 right footed shoes) were stolen, and the word "Dumb"
as well as the phrase "Dum Dum" were spray
painted on the sides of the structure.[4] The
sculpture was quickly repaired, repainted, and restocked. The new
Prada purses do not have bottoms and instead hide parts of a security
system that alerts authorities if the bags are moved.[4] The
vandalism shows the strong reaction and interaction between the
sculpture and the viewers, being created among other things by the
site-specific. The direct physical relationship between the sculpture
and the viewers achieved extensive local and international press
coverage.[5]
The
exhibition was again vandalized in March of 2014. The structure was
painted light blue, hung with fake logos for Toms
Shoes from the awnings, and posted with a political
manifesto on the door. Ballroom Marfa issued a statement decrying the
vandalism and pledged to restore the site.[7] A
Texas artist, 32-year-old Joe Magnano (using the pseudonym 9271977)
was subsequently arrested and tried. Magnano pleaded guilty to two
counts of misdemeanor criminal mischief and agreed to pay Ballroom
Marfa $10,700 in restitution as well as a $1,000 fine.[8]
Response
from Texas Department of Transportation[edit]
The Texas
Department of Transportation (TxDOT) is currently discussing
the fate of the installation now that it considers it to be a
billboard that does not fit permitted specifications.[9] As
of March 2014, no final decision had been made regarding the
installation and its location. Michael Elmgreen commented on the
allegations that Prada Marfa is an illegal advertisement for Prada.
He stated: "There is no company behind the artwork. I was not
commissioned by Prada [...] They never, ever asked me to do
advertisement for them."[10] In
September 2014, TxDOT officials announced that the structure would be
reclassified as a museum, with the Prada
Marfa as
its only exhibit. This action exempts the structure from the same
signage rules that forced the removal of a 40-foot-tall (12 m)
neon bunny previously installed nearby by Playboy magazine.
Prometheus
Bound, Peter Paul Rubens
Prometheus
Bound is
an oil painting by the Flemish artist Peter
Paul Rubens.
It shows the punishment of Prometheus.
Begun between 1611 and 1612, it was completed by 1618, with the eagle
painted by the specialist animal painter Frans
Snyders.
For a long time Rubens kept it in his own personal collection. It is
now in the collection of the Philadelphia
Museum of Art.
Paintings
from Rubens' workshop can be divided into three categories: those he
painted by himself, those he painted in part (mainly hands and
faces), and those he only supervised as other painters produced them
from his drawings or oil
sketches.
He had, as was usual at the time, a large workshop with many
apprentices and students, some of whom, such as Anthony
van Dyck,
became famous in their own right. He also often sub-contracted
elements such as animals or still-lifein
large compositions to specialists such as Frans
Snyders,
or other artists such as Jacob
Jordaens.
Prometheus ([promɛːtʰeús],
meaning "forethought")[1] is
a Titan in Greek
mythology,
best known as the benefactor who brought fire to mankind. Prometheus
sided with Zeus and
the ascendingOlympian
gods in
the vast cosmological struggle against Cronus (Kronos)
and the other Titans. Prometheus was therefore on the conquering side
of the cataclysmic war of the Greek gods, the Titanomachy,
where Zeus and the Olympian gods ultimately defeated Cronus and the
other Titans.
Ancient
myths and legends relate at least four versions of the narratives
describing Prometheus, his exploits with Zeus, and his eternal
punishment as also inflicted by Zeus. There is a single somewhat
comprehensive version of the birth of Prometheus and several variant
versions of his subjection to eternal suffering at the will of Zeus.
The most significant narratives of his origin appear in
the Theogony of
Hesiod which relates Prometheus as being the son of the Titan Iapetus
by Clymene, one of the Oceanids. Hesiod then presents Prometheus as
subsequently being a lowly challenger to Zeus's omnipotence. In
the trick
at Mecone,
Prometheus tricks Zeus into eternally claiming the inedible parts of
cows and bulls for the sacrificial ceremonies of the gods, while
conceding the nourishing parts to humans for the eternal benefit of
humankind. The two remaining central episodes regarding Prometheus as
written by Hesiod include his theft
of fire from
Olympus for the benefit of humanity against the will of Zeus, and the
eternal punishment which Prometheus would endure for these acts as
inflicted upon him by the judgment of Zeus. For the greater part, the
pre-Athenian ancient sources are selective in which of these
narrative elements they chose by their own preferences to honor and
support, and which ones they chose to exclude. The specific
combinations of these relatively independent narrative elements by
individual ancient authors (Hesiod, Homer, Pindar, Pythagoras), and
specific exclusions among them, are often influenced by the
particular needs and purposes of the larger myths and legends which
they are depicting. Each individual ancient author selectively
preferred certain crucial stories depicting Prometheus over others.
The
intensive growth and expansion of Greek literature and philosophy in
the classical fourth and fifth century Athenian period would greatly
affect both the interpretation and influence which the myth of
Prometheus would exert upon Athenian culture. This influence would
extend beyond its dramatic and tragic form in the Athenian period,
and influence large portions of the greater Western literary
tradition which would follow it for over two millennia. All three of
the major Athenian tragedians, Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides,
were affected by the myth of Prometheus. The surviving plays and
fragments of Aeschylus regarding Prometheus retain a special place of
prominence within modern scholarship for their having survived the
ravages of time. The majority of plays written by Aeschylus,
Sophocles and Euripides have been lost to literary antiquity,
including many of their writings on Prometheus.
Both
during and after the Renaissance, Prometheus would again emerge as a
major inspiration for his literary and poetic significance as a
symbol and archetype to inspire new generations of artists,
sculptors, poets, musicians, novelists, playwrights, and film-makers.
His literary and mythological personage remains prominently portrayed
in contemporary sculpture, art and literary expression including Mary
Shelley's portrayal of Frankenstein as The
Modern Prometheus.
The influence of the myth of Prometheus extends well into the 20th
and 21st century as well.
Guernica,
Pablo Picasso
Probably
Picasso's most famous work, Guernica is
certainly the his most powerful political statement, painted as an
immediate reaction to the Nazi's devastating casual bombing practice
on the Basque town of Guernica during Spanish Civil War.
Guernica shows
the tragedies of war and the suffering it inflicts upon individuals,
particularly innocent civilians. This work has gained a monumental
status, becoming a perpetual reminder of the tragedies of war, an
anti-war symbol, and an embodiment of peace. On completion Guernica
was displayed around the world in a brief tour, becoming famous and
widely acclaimed. This tour helped bring the Spanish Civil War to the
world's attention.
This
work is seen as an amalgmation of pastoral and epic styles. The
discarding of color intensifis the drama, producing a reportage
quality as in a photographic record. Guernica is blue, black and
white, 3.5 metre (11 ft) tall and 7.8 metre (25.6 ft) wide, a
mural-size canvas painted in oil. This painting can be seen in the
Museo Reina Sofia in Madrid.
Interpretations
of Guernica vary widely and contradict one another. This extends, for
example, to the mural's two dominant elements: the bull and the
horse. Art historian Patricia Failing said, "The bull and the
horse are important characters in Spanish culture. Picasso himself
certainly used these characters to play many different roles over
time. This has made the task of interpreting the specific meaning of
the bull and the horse very tough. Their relationship is a kind of
ballet that was conceived in a variety of ways throughout Picasso's
career."
Some
critics warn against trusting the polital message in Guernica. For
instance the rampaging bull, a major motif of destruction here, has
previouse figured, whether as a bull or Minotaur, as Picasso' ego.
However, in this instance the bull probably represents the onslaught
of Fascism. Picasso said it meant brutality and darkness, presumably
reminiscent of his prophetic. He also stated that the horse
represented the people of Guernica.
Historical
context
Guernica
is a town in the province of Biscay in Basque Country. During the
Spanish Civil War, it was regarded as the northern bastion of the
Republican resistance movement and the epicenter of Basque culture,
adding to its significance as a target.
The
Republican forces were made up of assorted factions (Communists,
Socialists, Anarchists, to name a few) with wildly differing
approaches to government and eventual aims, but a common opposition
to the Nationalists. The Nationalists, led by General Francisco
Franco, were also factionalized but to a lesser extent. They sought a
return to the golden days of Spain, based on law, order, and
traditional Catholic family values.
At
about 16:30 on Monday, 26 April 1937, warplanes of the German Condor
Legion, commanded by Colonel Wolfram von Richthofen, bombed Guernica
for about two hours. Germany, at this time led by Hitler, had lent
material support to the Nationalists and were using the war as an
opportunity to test out new weapons and tactics. Later, intense
aerial bombardment became a crucial preliminary step in the
Blitzkrieg tactic.
After
the bombing, Picasso was made aware of what had gone on in his
country of origin. At the time, he was working on a mural for the
Paris Exhibition to be held in the summer of 1937, commissioned by
the Spanish Republican government. He deserted his original idea and
on 1 May 1937, began on Guernica. This captivated his imagination
unlike his previous idea, on which he had been working somewhat
dispassionately, for a couple of months. It is interesting to note,
however, that at its unveiling at the Paris Exhibition that summer,
it garnered little attention. It would later attain its power as such
a potent symbol of the destruction of war on innocent lives.
Fidel
Castro (1959 photo), Agan Harahap
Batman
with Fidel Castro as he arrives in Washington DC in 1959
He’s
just creating superhistory using superheros and history..with
Photoshop
Michael
Jordan, LeRoy Neiman
Mention
from the time when it was sold in an auction:
Titled Michael
Jordan,
issued in 1991, numbered "AP 2/50" (designating this as a
rare artist's proof), and flawlessly signed in pencil along the lower
margin by both Michael Jordan and LeRoy Neiman (each grading "10").
Edition limited to just 376 total impressions (320 numbered
impressions, 50 artist's proofs, and 6 printer's proofs). This is one
of only two serigraphs ever produced by LeRoy Neiman picturing
Michael Jordan and the only one to feature him exclusively. Utilizing
a montage format, Neiman captures Jordan in an array of poses:
dribbling, driving, shooting, and dunking. This serigraph, which was
issued in 1991, the year in which Jordan won his first of an eventual
six World Championships with the Bulls, is widely recognized as the
premier art print of Jordan. The serigraph measures 29.5 x 36.5
inches (image area) and is in Near Mint condition. Beautifully and
very expensively matted and framed to total dimensions of 42.5 x 51
inches. Please
Note: Due to the size and/or weight of this lot, shipping costs
(depending on where it is sent and its method of shipping) may be
substantial.
LOA from James Spence/JSA. Reserve
$1,500. Estimate $3,000/$5,000. SOLD
FOR $5,875
LeRoy
Neiman (born Leroy
Leslie Runquist,
June 8, 1921 – June 20, 2012) was an American artist known
for his brilliantly colored, expressionist paintings and screen
prints of athletes,
musicians, and sporting events.
The
Sound of the Unbound
Fake
Plastic Trees"
is a song by the British alternative
rock band Radiohead,
from their second album The
Bends (1995).
It was the third single to be released from that album in the UK, but
in the US, it was released as the band's first single from the
album.[1]"Fake
Plastic Trees" marked a turning point in the band's early
career, moving away from the grunge sound
of their earlier hit single "Creep".[2]
In
2008, the song was featured on Radiohead:
The Best Of,
a compilation
album.
Despite
the song's popularity, not all critics were complimentary upon
release. Writing for NME in
May 1995, John Mulvey surmised that the song lacked substance, and
drew comparisons with the stadium
rock of U2.[7]
The
song placed at number 376 on Rolling
Stone magazine's
list of the 500
Greatest Songs of All Time, and at number 28 on Triple
J Radio's Hottest
100 of All Timecountdown.[8]
Music
video[edit]
The
music video, directed by Jake
Scott, is set inside a supermarket,
where the band are pushed around in shopping
carts among several other characters, including clerks,
children, an old man with a large beard who plays with toy guns, a
woman in a large black hat, a bald man in basketball jersey who
shaves his head with an electric razor, a young man playing with a
trolley, etc. The director has said about the video: "The film
is actually an allegory for death and reincarnation but if you can
read that into it you must be as weird as the people who made
it".[9] Norman
Reedus, star of Boondock
Saints and The
Walking Dead, makes a cameo appearance as 'the young man playing
with a trolley'.
"It's
the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)"
is a song by the rock band R.E.M.,
which appeared on their 1987 album Document,
the 1988 compilation Eponymous,
and the 2006 compilation And
I Feel Fine... The Best of the I.R.S Years 1982–1987.
It was released as a single in
November 1987, reaching No. 69 in the US Billboard Hot
100 and
later reaching No. 39 in the UK
singles chart on
its re-release in December 1991.
The
song originated from a previously unreleased song called "PSA"
("Public Service Announcement"); the two songs are very
similar in melody and tempo. "PSA" was itself later
released as a single in 2003, under the title "Bad
Day."
In an interview with Guitar
World magazine
published in November 1996, R.E.M. guitarist Peter
Buck agreed
that "End of the World" was in the tradition of Bob
Dylan's
"Subterranean
Homesick Blues."[2]
The
music video was directed by James
Herbert,
who worked with the band on several other videos in the late 1980s.
It depicts a young skateboarder, Noah Ray,[3] rifling
through an abandoned, collapsing farmhouse and displaying the relics
that he finds to the camera.
The
Best Imitation of Myself: A Retrospective is
a compilation
album by American singer-songwriter Ben
Folds and
his alternative
rock trio Ben
Folds Five,
released in the United
States of America on
October 11, 2011 by Legacy
Records.[1] The
title comes from a song from their 1995 self-titled
debut album.
The
standard-edition album contains 17 popular songs from the band's
discography and Folds' subsequent solo career, as well as the new Ben
Folds Five single "House", which debuted on the website for
the NBC competition
show The
Sing-Off,[2] on
which Folds is a judge.
An
expanded edition includes 43 additional tracks over three discs,
including two more new songs from Ben Folds Five recorded in 2011.
Folds also made available through his website the additional
album Fifty-Five
Vault,
a 56-track collection of rarities. A five-track sampler from this
album, Free
Folds Five,
was included with digital copies of The
Best Imitation of Myself.
This
Is Just a Modern Rock Song is Belle
& Sebastian's
fourth EP,
released in 1998 on Jeepster
Records.
The front cover features Alan Horne, founder of Postcard
Records.
It is the only Belle & Sebastian release never to be issued
in North
America,
although all four tracks from the EP were later collected on the Push
Barman to Open Old Wounds compilation.
A chart ruling was put into place shortly before the EP was released
stating singles or EPs must contain no more than three tracks and
last no longer than 20 minutes in total to be eligible for the UK
singles sales chart, and thus – with its four tracks and carefully
crafted total running time – This
Is Just a Modern Rock Song failed
to chart.
"Slow
Graffiti" was written for the soundtrack of the film The
Acid House based
on the Irvine
Welsh novel
of the same name.
4′33″ (pronounced
"Four
minutes, thirty-three seconds"
or just "Four
thirty-three"[1])
is a three-movement composition[2][3] by
American experimental composer John
Cage(1912–1992).
It was composed in 1952, for any instrument or combination of
instruments, and the score instructs the performer(s) not to play
their instrument(s) during the entire duration of the piece
throughout the three movements. The piece purports to consist of the
sounds of the environment that the listeners hear while it is
performed,[4] although
it is commonly perceived as "four minutes thirty-three seconds
of silence".[5][6] The
title of the piece refers to the total length in minutes and seconds
of a given performance, 4′33″being
the total length of the first public performance.[7]
Conceived
around 1947–1948, while the composer was working on Sonatas
and Interludes,[2] 4′33″ became
for Cage the epitome of his idea that any sounds may
constitutemusic.[8] It
was also a reflection of the influence of Zen
Buddhism,
which Cage studied since the late 1940s. In a 1982 interview, and on
numerous other occasions, Cage stated that 4′33″ was,
in his opinion, his most important work.[9] The
New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians describes 4′33″ as
Cage's "most famous and controversial creation".[2]
Silence
played a major role in several of Cage's works composed before 4′33″.
The Duet
for Two Flutes (1934),
composed when Cage was 22, opens with silence, and silence was an
important structural element in some of the Sonatas
and Interludes (1946–48), Music
of Changes (1951)
and Two
Pastorales (1951).
The Concerto
for prepared piano and orchestra (1951)
closes with an extended silence, and Waiting (1952),
a piano piece composed just a few months before 4′33″,
consists of long silences framing a single, short ostinato pattern.
Furthermore, in his songs The
Wonderful Widow of Eighteen Springs (1942)
and A
Flower (1950)
Cage directs the pianist to play a closed instrument, which may be
understood as a metaphor of silence.[10]
The
first time Cage mentioned the idea of a piece composed entirely of
silence was during a 1947 (or 1948) lecture at Vassar
College, A
Composer's Confessions.
Cage told the audience that he had "several new desires",
one of which was
to
compose a piece of uninterrupted silence and sell it to Muzak
Co.
It will be three or four-and-a-half minutes long—those being the
standard lengths of "canned" music and its title will
be Silent
Prayer.
It will open with a single idea which I will attempt to make as
seductive as the color and shape and fragrance of a flower. The
ending will approach imperceptibility.[11]
At
the time, however, Cage felt that such a piece would be
"incomprehensible in the Western context," and was
reluctant to write it down: "I didn't wish it to appear, even to
me, as something easy to do or as a joke. I wanted to mean it utterly
and be able to live with it."[12] Painter Alfred
Leslie recalls
Cage presenting a "one-minute-of-silence talk" in front of
a window during the late 1940s, while visiting Studio 35 at New
York University.[13]
In
1951, Cage visited the anechoic
chamber at Harvard
University.
An anechoic chamber is a room designed in such a way that the walls,
ceiling and floor absorb all sounds made in the room, rather than
reflecting them as echoes. Such a chamber is also externally
sound-proofed. Cage entered the chamber expecting to hear silence,
but he wrote later, "I heard two sounds, one high and one low.
When I described them to the engineer in charge, he informed me that
the high one was my nervous
system in
operation, the low one my blood in circulation."[14] Cage
had gone to a place where he expected total silence, and yet heard
sound. "Until I die there will be sounds. And they will continue
following my death. One need not fear about the future of
music."[15] The
realization as he saw it of the impossibility of silence led to the
composition of 4′33″.
Another
cited influence[12] for
this piece came from the field of the visual arts. Cage's friend and
sometimes colleague Robert
Rauschenberg had
produced, in 1951, a series of white paintings, seemingly "blank"
canvases (though painted with white house paint) that in fact change
according to varying light conditions in the rooms in which they were
hung, the shadows of people in the room and so on. This inspired Cage
to use a similar idea, as he later stated, "Actually what pushed
me into it was not guts but the example of Robert Rauschenberg. His
white paintings [...] when I saw those, I said, 'Oh yes, I must.
Otherwise I'm lagging, otherwise music is lagging'."[16] In
an introduction to an article called On Robert Rauschenberg, Artist,
and His Works, John Cage writes "To Whom It May Concern: The
white paintings came first; my silent piece came later."
Article
Describing The Giants
in the Sky…In
a recent story in The New Yorker,Stephen
Sondheim revealed
several plot changes for the upcoming Disney film adaptation of his
Tony Award-winning musical Into
the Woods,
which will arrive in theatres Dec. 25.
Sondheim
spoke about the changes in the film during an event hosted by the
Academy for Teachers in which the composer-lyricist met with a group
of high school theatre teachers to discuss the challenges they faced
when it came to artistic censorship in an educational setting.
Kevin
Gallagher, a teacher who is considering a production of Into
the Woodsat
his school, brought up concerns over the nature of the relationship
between Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf. "So, what is the
objection?" Sondheim asked.
"Infidelity,
a wolf being lascivious, that the whole connection with Red Riding
Hood is sexual," Gallagher replied. "Well, you'll be happy
to know that Disney had the same objections," Sondheim said.
Spoilers
below
Sondheim
continued, "You will find in the movie that Rapunzel
does not get
killed, and the prince does notsleep
with the [Baker's Wife]." He added, "You know, if I were a
Disney executive I probably would say the same thing."
Another
teacher asked if the song "Any Moment," which bookends the
encounter between Cinderella's Prince and the Baker's Wife, had been
cut. "The song is cut," Sondheim stated. Following outcry
from the teachers, Sondheim added, "I'm sorry, I should say,
it's probably cut."
When
pressed that he should have stuck up for the inclusion of the song,
Sondheim said that he and Into
the Woods' Tony
Award-winning book writer James
Lapine did
so. "But Disney said, we don't want Rapunzel to die, so we
replotted it. I won't tell you what happens, but we wrote a new song
to cover it," he said.
Beacon
high school teacher Jo Ann Cimato, who has staged school productions
of Spring
Awakening, Passing Strange, The Last Days of Judas Iscariot and The
Light in the Piazza with
teen actors, said that her students felt angry and mistrusted when
they read the un-edited scripts of certain productions after they
were forced to make alterations for their own school production.
Sondheim
replied that the students were right to feel that way, adding, "But
you have to explain to them that censorship is part of our
puritanical ethics, and it's something that they're going to have to
deal with. There has to be a point at which you don't compromise
anymore, but that may mean that you won't get anyone to sell your
painting or perform your musical. You have to deal with reality."
*
As
previously reported, the film of Into
the Woods will
also feature the new song "Rainbows" and a new song written
for Meryl
Streep,
who portrays The Witch.
Rob
Marshall ("Chicago,"
Disney's "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides")
directs the film, based on the Tony-winning original musical by
Lapine, who also penned the screenplay, and Sondheim, who provides
music and lyrics.
The
cast includes Emily Blunt ("Looper," "The Young
Victoria," "The Devil Wears Prada") as the Baker's
Wife, James
Corden (One
Man, Two Guvnors)
as the Baker, Anna
Kendrick ("Pitch
Perfect," "Up in the Air") as Cinderella, Chris Pine
("Star Trek Into Darkness," "Jack Ryan") as
Cinderella's Prince, Johnny Depp ("Pirates of the Caribbean,"
"The Lone Ranger," "Sweeney Todd") as the Wolf,
Daniel Huttlestone ("Les Misérables") as Jack, Lilla
Crawford (Annie)
as Little Red, Tracey
Ullman as
Jack’s Mother, Christine
Baranski ("Mamma
Mia!," "The Good Wife") as the Stepmother, MacKenzie
Mauzy (Next
to Normal)
as Rapunzel and Billy
Magnussen (Vanya
and Sonia and Masha and Spike)
as Rapunzel's Prince.
Rounding
out the cast are Tammy
Blanchard (How
to Succeed…)
and Lucy Punch ("Bad Teacher," "Dinner for Schmucks")
as Cinderella's stepsisters, Florinda and Lucinda, respectively;
Richard Glover ("Sightseers," "St. Trinian's") as
the Steward; Frances
de la Tour ("Hugo,"
"Alice In Wonderland") as the Giant; Simon
Russell Beale ("The
Deep Blue Sea") as the Baker's father; Joanna Riding ("My
Fair Lady") as Cinderella's mother; and Annette Crosbie
("Calendar Girls," "The Slipper and the Rose") as
Little Red Riding Hood's granny.
"Into
the Woods," according to press notes, "is a modern twist on
the beloved Brothers Grimm fairy tales, intertwining the plots of a
few choice stories and exploring the consequences of the characters’
wishes and quests. This humorous and heartfelt musical follows the
classic tales of Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Jack and the
Beanstalk, and Rapunzel—all tied together by an original story
involving a baker and his wife, their wish to begin a family and
their interaction with the witch who has put a curse on them."
The
big-screen adaptation welcomes songs from the stage musical,
including "Children Will Listen," "Giants in the Sky,"
"On the Steps of the Palace," "No One Is Alone"
and "Agony," among others.
The
production team includes Dion Beebe as director of photography,
Dennis Gassner as production designer and Colleen Atwood as costume
designer.
Into
the Woods premiered
on Broadway Nov. 5, 1987, at the Martin
BeckTheatre.
The production, which ran for 764 performances, won Tony Awards for
Best Score, Best Book and Best Actress in a Musical.
LYRICS
RADIOHEAD
Fake Plastic trees
Her
green plastic watering can for
her fake Chinese rubber plant
In the fake plastic earth
her fake Chinese rubber plant
In the fake plastic earth
What
she bought from a rubber man
In a town full of rubber bands
to get rid of itself
In a town full of rubber bands
to get rid of itself
It
wears her out, it wears her out
It wears her out, it wears her out
It wears her out, it wears her out
She
lives with a broken man
A cracked polystyrene man
Who just crumbles and burns
A cracked polystyrene man
Who just crumbles and burns
He
used to do surgery
For girls in the eighties
But gravity always wins
For girls in the eighties
But gravity always wins
And it
wears him out, it wears him out
It wears him out, it wears him
It wears him out, it wears him
She
Looks like the real thing
She tastes like the real thing
My fake plastic love
She tastes like the real thing
My fake plastic love
But I
can't help the feeling
I could blow through the ceiling
If I just turn and run
I could blow through the ceiling
If I just turn and run
And it
wears me out, it wears me out
It wears me out, it wears me out
It wears me out, it wears me out
If i
could be who you wanted
If i could be who you wanted all the time, all the time
If i could be who you wanted all the time, all the time
IT’S THE END OF THE WORLD REM
That's
great, it starts with an earthquake
Birds and snakes, an aeroplane, Lenny Bruce is not afraid
Eye of a hurricane, listen to yourself churn
World serves its own needs, don't misserve your own needs
Birds and snakes, an aeroplane, Lenny Bruce is not afraid
Eye of a hurricane, listen to yourself churn
World serves its own needs, don't misserve your own needs
Feed
it up a knock, speed, grunt, no, strength, no
Ladder, structure clatter with fear of height, down height
Wire in a fire, represent the seven games
In a government for hire and a combat site
Ladder, structure clatter with fear of height, down height
Wire in a fire, represent the seven games
In a government for hire and a combat site
Left
her, wasn't coming in a hurry with the furies
Breathing down your neck
Team by team, reporters baffled, trump, tethered crop
Look at that low plane, fine then
Breathing down your neck
Team by team, reporters baffled, trump, tethered crop
Look at that low plane, fine then
Uh oh,
overflow, population, common group
But it'll do, save yourself, serve yourself
World serves its own needs, listen to your heart bleed
Tell me with the rapture and the reverent in the right, right
You vitriolic, patriotic, slam, fight, bright light
Feeling pretty psyched
But it'll do, save yourself, serve yourself
World serves its own needs, listen to your heart bleed
Tell me with the rapture and the reverent in the right, right
You vitriolic, patriotic, slam, fight, bright light
Feeling pretty psyched
It's
the end of the world as we know it
It's the end of the world as we know it
It's the end of the world as we know it
And I feel fine
It's the end of the world as we know it
It's the end of the world as we know it
And I feel fine
Six
o'clock, TV hour, don't get caught in foreign tower
Slash and burn, return, listen to yourself churn
Lock him in uniform and book burning, blood letting
Every motive escalate, automotive incinerate
Slash and burn, return, listen to yourself churn
Lock him in uniform and book burning, blood letting
Every motive escalate, automotive incinerate
Light
a candle, light a motive, step down, step down
Watch a heel crush, crush, uh oh, this means no fear
Cavalier, renegade and steer clear
A tournament, a tournament, a tournament of lies
Offer me solutions, offer me alternatives and I decline
Watch a heel crush, crush, uh oh, this means no fear
Cavalier, renegade and steer clear
A tournament, a tournament, a tournament of lies
Offer me solutions, offer me alternatives and I decline
It's
the end of the world as we know it
It's the end of the world as we know it
It's the end of the world as we know it
And I feel fine, I feel fine
It's the end of the world as we know it
It's the end of the world as we know it
And I feel fine, I feel fine
It's
the end of the world as we know it
It's the end of the world as we know it
It's the end of the world as we know it
And I feel fine
It's the end of the world as we know it
It's the end of the world as we know it
And I feel fine
The
other night I tripped a nice continental drift divide
Mount St. Edelite, Leonard Bernstein
Leonid Breshnev, Lenny Bruce and Lester Bangs
Birthday party, cheesecake, jelly bean, boom
You symbiotic, patriotic, slam but neck, right? Right
Mount St. Edelite, Leonard Bernstein
Leonid Breshnev, Lenny Bruce and Lester Bangs
Birthday party, cheesecake, jelly bean, boom
You symbiotic, patriotic, slam but neck, right? Right
It's
the end of the world as we know it
It's the end of the world as we know it
It's the end of the world as we know it
And I feel fine
It's the end of the world as we know it
It's the end of the world as we know it
And I feel fine
It's
the end of the world as we know it
It's the end of the world as we know it
It's the end of the world as we know it
And I feel fine
It's the end of the world as we know it
It's the end of the world as we know it
And I feel fine
It's
the end of the world as we know it
It's the end of the world as we know it
It's the end of the world as we know it
And I feel fine
It's the end of the world as we know it
It's the end of the world as we know it
And I feel fine
It's
the end of the world as we know it
It's the end of the world as we know it
It's the end of the world as we know it
And I feel fine
It's the end of the world as we know it
It's the end of the world as we know it
And I feel fine
BEST
IMITATION OF MYSELF BEN FOLDS FIVE
I feel
like a quote out of context
With holdin' the rest
So I can be for you what you want to see
I got the gestures and sounds
Got the timin' down
It's uncanny, yeah
You'd think it was me
With holdin' the rest
So I can be for you what you want to see
I got the gestures and sounds
Got the timin' down
It's uncanny, yeah
You'd think it was me
Do you
think I should take a class
To lose my Southern accent?
Did I make me up
Or make the face 'til it stuck?
I do the best imitation of myself
To lose my Southern accent?
Did I make me up
Or make the face 'til it stuck?
I do the best imitation of myself
The
problem with your speech
You gave me was fine
I liked the theories about my little stage
And I swore I was listenin'
But I started driftin'
Around the part about me
Actin' my age
You gave me was fine
I liked the theories about my little stage
And I swore I was listenin'
But I started driftin'
Around the part about me
Actin' my age
And now
if it's all the same
I've people to entertain
I juggle one-handed
Do some magic tricks and
The best imitation of myself
I've people to entertain
I juggle one-handed
Do some magic tricks and
The best imitation of myself
Maybe
I'm thinkin' myself in a hole
Wonderin' who I am?
When I ought to know?
Straighten up now time to go
Fool somebody else
Fool somebody else
Wonderin' who I am?
When I ought to know?
Straighten up now time to go
Fool somebody else
Fool somebody else
Last
night, I was east with them
And west within tryin' to be for you
What you want to see
But I can't help it
With you the good and bad comes through
Don't want you hangin' out
With no one but me
And west within tryin' to be for you
What you want to see
But I can't help it
With you the good and bad comes through
Don't want you hangin' out
With no one but me
Now if
it's all the same
It comes from the same place
And if my mind's somewhere else
You won't be able to tell
I do the best imitation of myself
It comes from the same place
And if my mind's somewhere else
You won't be able to tell
I do the best imitation of myself
Yes,
it's uncanny to see
You'd really think it was me
The best imitation of myself
Do the best imitation of myself
You'd really think it was me
The best imitation of myself
Do the best imitation of myself
THIS
IS JUST A MODERN ROCK SONG BELLE & SEBESTIAN
Emma
tried to run away
I followed her across the city
She went out to the Easter house
Because she liked the sound of it
I followed her across the city
She went out to the Easter house
Because she liked the sound of it
She
didn't have a single penny
She stuck a finger in the air
She tried to flag down an aeroplane
I suppose she needs a holiday
She stuck a finger in the air
She tried to flag down an aeroplane
I suppose she needs a holiday
I put
my arm around her waist
She put me on the ground with judo
She didn't recognize my face
She wasn't even looking
She put me on the ground with judo
She didn't recognize my face
She wasn't even looking
Laura's
feeling just ideal
Her horoscope was nearly perfect
She's thinking of something to do
Because she is the birthday girl
Her horoscope was nearly perfect
She's thinking of something to do
Because she is the birthday girl
She
walked out to the edge of town
She saw me lying in the park
She took Emma by the hand
They've got a lot in common
She saw me lying in the park
She took Emma by the hand
They've got a lot in common
I'll
leave them to do what they want
I'll leave them to do what they need to
I'll go and play with words and pictures
I'll admit I'm feeling strange
I'll leave them to do what they need to
I'll go and play with words and pictures
I'll admit I'm feeling strange
I'm not
as sad as Doestoevsky
I'm not as clever as Mark Twain
I'll only buy a book for the way it looks
And then I stick it on the shelf again
I'm not as clever as Mark Twain
I'll only buy a book for the way it looks
And then I stick it on the shelf again
Now I
could tell you what I'm thinking
But it never seems to do you good
It's beyond me what a girl can see
I'm only lucid when I'm writing songs
But it never seems to do you good
It's beyond me what a girl can see
I'm only lucid when I'm writing songs
This is
just a modern rock song
This is just a sorry lament
We're four boys in corduroys
We're not terrific but we're competent
This is just a sorry lament
We're four boys in corduroys
We're not terrific but we're competent
Stevie's
full of good intentions
Richard's into rock 'n' roll
Stuart's staying in and he thinks it's a sin
That he has to leave the house at all
Richard's into rock 'n' roll
Stuart's staying in and he thinks it's a sin
That he has to leave the house at all
This is
just a modern rock song
This is just a tender affair
I count "three, four" and then we start to slow
Because a song has got to stop somewhere
This is just a tender affair
I count "three, four" and then we start to slow
Because a song has got to stop somewhere
GIANTS IN THE SKY STEPHEN SOUNHEIM
There
are giants in the sky
There
are big tall terrible giants in the sky
When
you're way up high and you look below
At
the world you left and the things you know
Little
more than a glance is enough to show you
Just
how small you are
When
you're way up high and you're on your own
In
a world like none that you've ever known
Where
the sky is lead and the earth is stone
You're
free to do whatever pleases you
Exploring
things you'd never dare
'Cause
you don't care
When
suddenly there's
A
big tall terrible giant at the door
A
big tall lady giant sweeping the floor
And
she gives you food and she gives you rest
And
she draws you close to her giant breast
And
you know things now that you never knew before
Not
'till the sky
Only
just when you've made a friend and all
And
you know she's big but you don't feel small
Someone
bigger than her comes along the hall
To
swallow you for lunch
And
your heart is lead and your stomach stone
And
you're really scared being all alone
And
it's then that you miss all the things you've known
And
the world you've left and the little you own
The
fun is done
You
steal what you can and run
And
you scramble down and you look below
And
the world you know begins to grow
The
roof, the house, and your mother at the door
The
roof, the house, and the world you never thought to explore
And
you think of all of the things you've seen
And
you wish that you could live in between
And
you're back again only different than before
After
the sky
There
are giants in the sky
There
are big tall terrible, awesome, scary, wonderful giants in the sky
Sasha
Zalmer Music Notations
When
you think about it, the concept of music notation is pretty weird.
Imagine if Andy Warhol had received commissions not for paintings,
but rather for paint-by-number templates, to be realized by each art
interpreter on their own canvases. Of course, we all know why music
developed a notation system, but a recent email exchange with French
composer Sasha Zamler-Carhartreminded me of the importance of not
taking our practices for granted. Assumptions are baked into every
aspect of music notation, often layered one on top of the other, and
they color the kinds of music we can make.
Any
notation system is about trade-offs: certain elements are emphasized
over others for the sake of not overwhelming our human minds with
their finite capacity for detail. After all, you could theoretically
employ waveform print-outs as music notation, but that’s way too
much detail to be useful in most performance contexts. By necessity
then, the priorities of your practice inform its notation. But as
soon as your notation exists, it throws its priorities right back in
your face and informs your practice, more or less to the same extent.
Make
too many wrong assumptions about a notation and you’ll quickly dig
yourself into a hole. On the performing end of the equation, you’ll
totally miss the point when it comes to wide swaths of repertoire,
delivering lackluster interpretations that fail to reflect either the
composer’s intent or your expressive talents. As a composer, you’ll
limit your sound world to a small set of symbols—as the saying
goes, when all you have is a hammer, everything starts to look like a
nail—or conversely you’ll make it unnecessarily hard for
performers to realize ideas that don’t fully fit the notation
you’re using. So whether as performer or composer, you’ll have
basically become the score’s whipping boy: conforming your music to
the notation’s limitations instead of conforming the notation to
your artistry.
New
Music, Early Music
In our
exchange, Zamler-Carhart told me about his compositional practice,
the frustrations he had as a student, and how he came to find his
voice as an artist. For him, the problem lay in the seemingly
uncontroversial advice his teachers offered on how new music works in
the “real world”:
- You won’t get much rehearsal time
- Make your scores as clear as possible so ensembles can play your pieces after a few readings
- The best interpreters are technical virtuosi and perfect sight-readers
Yet
Zamler-Carhart wasn’t satisfied with the results he was getting.
Eclectic by temperament, he also studied early music, and in that
genre he came across a set of practices that better resonated with
his aesthetic:
- Music is rehearsed and reworked “endlessly until it sounds beautiful”
- If the music is worth performing, the time and effort required to realize the score are immaterial
- The best interpreters are those who bring “flawless elegance” to their playing
Zamler-Carhart
has taken these principles to heart, and they have informed his
practice ever since. Consequently, he prefers not to “work with
musicians unless they can give me a lot of time (I mean weeks and
months, not hours).” Once in rehearsal, he refines his
interpretations orally, teasing out nuances via performance practice
instead of ultra-precise notation, and this allows him to have
meaningful exchanges with interpreters who are not new music
specialists.
In
Zamler-Carhart’s thinking, this works because performers who deal
primarily with the music of the past expect a “triangular”
relationship between notation, interpreter, and performance practice.
There is the assumption that some of the information required will
not be in the score—not that anything goes, mind you, but rather
that sources outside of the printed page are necessary.
Zamler-Carhart simply leverages this set of expectations. In his
words:
Many
early music performers are not used to seeing lots of dynamic and
articulation markings in a score. They expect those elements to be
part of performance practice and to be conveyed in rehearsal. An
over-specific score can discourage them and give them the impression
that the music is more difficult than it really is. Once in
rehearsal, however, they will probably accept any change in dynamics,
articulation, timbre and even tempo as part of normal rehearsal
information, and they will incorporate that into their performance.
Naturally,
Zamler-Carhart’s approach has certain implications: when he chooses
to rely on oral performance practice, he also de facto excludes the
resulting piece from much of the new music mainstream. The American
Composers Orchestra is unlikely to spend “weeks and months”
rehearsing a single piece with a single composer, so if you want to
write orchestral music, the “early music” model is not for you.
But that doesn’t mean it has no value. Too often we assume that the
standard notational model and the performance practice it entails is
the only path (or at least the unquestionably superior path). This
isn’t true, and when you look closer, you’ll find that it comes
with its own trade-offs and restrictions.
Realizing
this, Zamler-Carhart has successfully used a range of notations (and
non-notations) for his pieces, from a one-line vocal staff with
neumes to modernist graphic scores, and from (selective) traditional
notation to orally transmitted music to be learned solely by ear. He
has even changed notational systems mid-piece when appropriate.
However, what he does notdo
is turn the score into some kind of musical crossword puzzle: his
choices are always based on the idea of making it as easy as possible
to realize the musical vision at hand.
The
Right Tool for the Job
When it
comes to building a career, the best musicians navigate the biases
inherent in music notation in one of two ways: either (1) they
restrict themselves to repertoire that works with their notational
preferences, or (2) they switch notations based on the task at hand.
Percussionist
Steven Schick provides a great example of the second
approach. Earlier in his professional life, regular recital tours and
prodigious quantities of new repertoire were central to his practice.
On one end of the spectrum, he earned a reputation for his masterful
interpretations of famously complex pieces such as Brian
Ferneyhough’s Bone
Alphabet (written
for Schick in 1991) and Xenakis’s Psappha.
On the other, he served as percussionist for Bang on a Can,
performing works by David Lang, Steve Reich, Louis Andriessen, and
other composers of the minimalist or post-minimalist vein.
These
repertoires are not notated in the same way—indeed, there is
significant variation even within each. The score to
Reich’s Drumming is
traditional yet sparse, and the phasing for which the piece is famous
is simply described in text. Bone
Alphabet,
alternately, takes Cold War–era notational specificity to its
extreme, with articulations and dynamics in virtually every bar,
nonstop nested tuplets, and constant meter changes. Psappha,
on the other hand, eschews traditional notation entirely in favor of
a series of grids and tablatures.
Over
the last decade, Schick’s musical priorities have evolved and so
have the notational practices employed. He now focuses on
collaborative, large-scale projects developed in tandem with
composers, directors, instrument builders, writers, and other artists
over an extended period of time. Take Schick
Machine,
his collaboration with Paul Dresher. A one-man, concert-length
theater piece scored largely for invented percussion
instruments, Schick
Machine tells
the fantastical story of a “mad scientist” percussionist who
tinkers with instruments in his garage. Schick moves across a stage
cluttered with dozens of custom-made instruments, narrating and
performing as he goes, often to humorous effect. At certain moments
the storytelling dominates, while at others the narrative gives way
to purely instrumental “numbers” that feature specific groupings
of percussion instruments. There are no breaks in the piece and the
performance lasts over an hour.
Notating
a piece like Schick
Machine poses
clear logistical challenges. Of course, you could detail every
movement, gesture, speech, and musical figure with diagrams and staff
notation. But would such a score convey the priorities of the piece?
If the goal were to create a piece that gets played on every high
school percussion recital the world over, perhaps. But that’s not
the point—I mean, just look at the title. The piece is meant for
Schick alone; the score only needs to be precise enough for him to
remember how to realize a performance. Thus, they didn’t bother
with a traditional score. Schick explains:
The
piece was derived from improvisations and is still pretty largely
improvised. There is a script and a sort of standard performance
video that we made at the Mondavi Center…I use them together in
lieu of a score.
At
best, going through the motions of Cold War notational practice would
have been a waste of time and a distraction. At worst, it would have
“downsampled” the artistry of the piece, flattening the nuance of
the Dresher/Schick vision into a long and complex series of
approximations. Now, I am by no means arguing that Schick has
rejected traditional notation entirely—he is still more than
willing to read a score written in the new music fashion. But it is a
testament to his creative talents that he can shift gears when the
music demands it, as it does for this piece. A lot of musicians, even
at the highest level, can’t do that.
Breaking
the Unwritten Rules
Of
course, you can have a successful music career focusing entirely on a
single notational practice, whether new music specificity, early
music ambiguity, structured improv, standard orchestral practice, or
whatever. But you still need to understand the priorities of your
notation. There are always unwritten rules, and there are
consequences to violating them.
A few
months ago, I saw a Facebook exchange between a handful of composers
who are in the same graduate composition program together. One of
them had written a piece that is played at a single dynamic level
throughout. As such, he had simply written f at
the start of each part and left it at that; there were no further
dynamics and no cautionary indications. Of course, the first thing
the performers asked in rehearsal was, “Where are the dynamics?”
His response was a snotty, “At the start of the piece.”
Technically, the composer was using traditional notation correctly,
but new music practice requires more specificity than he provided.
The interpreters knew that most contemporary scores have a lot of
dynamic detail, so without a cautionary indication, it is entirely
reasonable for them to assume there had been a printing error.
Performers
can, of course, get along fine without dynamics, but you can’t just
assume they’ll figure out what you want—you need to point them in
the right direction. Zamler-Carhart did just this with his St.
Francis String Quartets,
written for the New York-based JACK Quartet. The scores have
virtually no dynamics, articulations, or tempo marks. Not
unexpectedly, the quartet was a bit surprised at first, but they were
willing “to engage with the piece and understand the logic of why,
for example, a passage would be soft or loud even if it doesn’t say
so… even with a concert looming.” For Zamler-Carhart, the
experience was fulfilling and “the challenge improved the quality
of performance.”
These
exceptional cases aside, some skill in interpreting unwritten
conventions is required even for the most banal of notational
practices. Take the tenuto. Composer
Sarah Kirkland Snider posted this question on Facebook
awhile ago:
Poll
of performers/conductors/composers: when you see a tenuto mark
(horizontal dash over a note) without a slur, do you think of it as a
request to alter the dynamic or the duration? (And if you’re a
performer, tell me which instrument you play.)
Her
query inspired 62 responses and a spirited debate that was never
resolved. Answers ranged from “a color change” to “emotional
pressing” to shorter duration, longer duration, a slight dynamic
accent, “more weight,” and many other contradictory statements.
The fact of the matter is that you can never get a single,
objectively right answer to this question, because the tenuto has
evolved as a sort of open-ended placeholder, begging to be
repurposed. The only thing you can really say is that it means that
something in the music should change.
Stuck
Inside the Box
Taking
notational practice for granted can hold you back in important ways.
When I was a composition student at UC San Diego, we had a residency
with the Arditti Quartet, perhaps the foremost interpreters of
modernist string quartet repertoire and its diaspora. But their
virtuosity in that genre doesn’t mean they excel at everything else
quartet-related.
During
the course of the residency, Irvine Arditti made it fairly clear that
he has (or had) certain blind spots when it comes to notational
practice. In particular, he seems to have bought into the Cold War
ideal that the score is the music, objectively and completely. On
several occasions he responded to requests for a change in
interpretation with, “We’re just playing what’s in the music,”
implying that the quartet’s interpretation was correct and that the
composer had made a mistake in notation.
Yet my
fellow composers and I, debriefing over beers, couldn’t help but
feel that something was missing, that there was a degree of
one-dimensionality to their playing. One of my colleagues later had
his piece performed at June in Buffalo by another quartet of less
lofty reputation, and he vastly preferred that interpretation to the
Arditti’s. The other quartet was willing to take the time to learn
how his notation worked and how to interpret the musical ideas that
underlay it. Consequently, they realized it more faithfully.
Irvine
Arditti might counter that we had all just written shit pieces. (You
can decide for yourself, at least for my piece; their rendition is
embedded below.) At numerous points throughout the residency, he
complained that there were no young composers doing anything
interesting anymore: the best of their works were bad copies of
Lachenmann, and the worst were just plain bad.
I don’t
think that’s the problem. Rather, the issue is that Irvine Arditti
acts as if there were only a single, objective notational practice.
Since he refuses to interpret notation in any way other than the
Lachenmann/Stockhausen/Xenakis model, is it any surprise he can’t
find nuance in other types of scores? The young composers he calls
derivative probably are—I don’t doubt he knows Germanic
post-serialism like nobody’s business. But move outside of that
comfort zone, and he loses the ability to assess other styles on
their own terms. Anything he is not willing to decipher becomes “not
well written” and anything he can decipher is by necessity
derivative. It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Nor am
I the only person to notice the effects of this blind spot on the
Arditti Quartet’s interpretations. Their Beethoven renditions
haven’t exactly met with critical acclaim, after all. Reviews
like the following are typical:
…for
most of the concert they seemed more concerned with just getting the
notes together than with interpretation. This was especially, almost
painfully, evident in the opening work, Beethoven’s Grosse Fuge in
B-Flat Major, Op. 133. Beethoven, of course, is not exactly in the
Arditti’s wheelhouse. But that’s still no excuse for iffy
intonation, long stretches of uninflected dynamics, and questionable
articulation.
If
there were really only one objective way to use notation, this
shouldn’t have been possible for a quartet of the technical caliber
of the Arditti. Yet that’s what they served up. The Ardittis are
perhaps the greatest string quartet interpreters of the Cold War
modernist repertoire and its offshoots. Unfortunately, they are
middling interpreters of everything else, because they assume all
music works the same way.
Naturally,
there are many successful paths between the Arditti Quartet and
Zamler-Carhart’s ever-shifting notation. Nor am I advocating that
everyone structure their careers like Steven Schick. But we as
musicians in the classical tradition use notation pretty much all the
time, and it’s worth reflecting on how that changes us. I don’t
fault Irvine Arditti for liking the kind of music he likes, or for
sticking to a single performance practice. But it is undeniable that
his approach to notational practice has influenced his career.
Music
notation is not the tabula rasa we pretend it to be. It is rather a
tool for expressing specific kinds of sonic ideas, to specific kinds
of people, for specific reasons. You don’t need a fancy graphic
score or some kind of alternative tablature to completely transform
the priorities of a notation, you just need a performance practice.
If we ignore the unwritten aspects of notation, we’re likely to
come away dissatisfied. If we keep them in mind, conversely, we’ll
be more successful at creating music that speaks to us, whether as
composers or performers.
On a
Heroic Note
"'Heroes'"[1] is
a song written by David
Bowie and Brian
Eno in
1977. Produced by Bowie and Tony
Visconti,
it was released both as a single and as the title track of the
album "Heroes".
A product of Bowie's fertile "Berlin"
period,
life in the city was crystallized into a tale of two lovers who come
together in the shadow of the "Wall
of Shame" (though
here "the shame was on the other side"). While not a huge
hit in the UK or US at the time, "'Heroes'"
has gone on to become one of Bowie's signature songs and is well
known today for its appearance in numerous advertisements. It has
been cited as Bowie's second most covered song after "Rebel
Rebel".[2]
"Gotham
City"
is a song by R&B singer R.
Kelly based
on the fictional city
of the same name.
It was featured on the soundtrack to the film, Batman
& Robin,
and reached number nine on both the U.S. Billboard Hot
100 and Hot
R&B/Hip-Hop Songs charts.
The music video for the song was directed by Hype
Williams.
A remix version for the song was released with a video also directed
by Williams. The music video is directed by Hype
Williams.[2] Kelly
is seen driving his motorcycle around New York City in the video, he
also passes Time Square. Kelly also drives the Bat-mobile. The video
for the remix is also directed by Hype
Williams.
Vladimir
John Ondrasik III[2] (born
January 7, 1965), known by his stage name Five
for Fighting,
is an American singer and songwriter. He is best known for his
piano-based rock, such as the Top 40 hits "Superman
(It's Not Easy)"
(2001), "100
Years"
(2003) and "The
Riddle"
(2006). The music video was directed by Ramaa Mosley and premiered in
June 2001. A scene from this video was filmed at Yonge Street and
Richmond Street in Toronto, Ontario. At the end of the song's music
video, John Ondrasik lies in bed with his own wife and son.
"Calling
All Angels"
is the title of a 2003 song by the rock band Train.
It was included on the band's third studio album, My
Private Nation,
and produced by Brendan
O'Brien.
The song received mixed reviews from rock critics, with Ken Tucker
of Entertainment
Weekly giving
the song a B+ and calling it "an anthemic hymn to
commitment...that builds steadily to a gloriously clanging
climax."[3] Matt
Lee of the BBC was
less impressed, describing the track as "pedestrian, the vocals
soulless, even more so than" the band's biggest hit single,
"Drops
of Jupiter (Tell Me)".
The music
of Star
Wars was
written by composer John
Williams and
performed by the London
Symphony Orchestra for
all six feature films, from 1977 to 2005. This encompasses both
the original
trilogy,
the first three films, and the prequel
trilogy,
the last three films. As of July 2013, Lucasfilm President,
Kathleen Kennedy, announced at Star Wars Celebration Europe that
Williams would be returning once more to score Star Wars Episode
VII: The
Force Awakens.[1] Williams'
scores for the two existing trilogies count among the most widely
known and popular contributions to modern film
music.
Additionally, music for Star
Wars: The Clone Wars was
written by Kevin Kiner, and further music has been composed for Star
Wars video
games and works in other media. The 2016 spinoff film Star
Wars: Rogue One will
be scored by Alexandre
Desplat,[2] the
first major Star
Wars film
not to use Williams.
The
scores utilize an eclectic variety of musical styles, many culled
from the Late Romantic idiom
of Richard
Strauss and
his contemporaries that itself was incorporated into the Golden
Age Hollywood scores
of Erich
Korngold and Max
Steiner.
While several obvious nods to Gustav
Holst, William
Walton and Igor
Stravinsky exist
in the score to Episode
IV,
Williams relied less and less on classicalreferences
in the latter five scores, incorporating more strains
of modernist orchestral
writing with each progressive score. The reasons for Williams'
tapping of a familiar Romantic idiom are known to involve Lucas'
desire to ground the otherwise strange and fantastic setting in
well-known, audience-accessible music. Indeed, Lucas maintains that
much of the trilogy's success relies, not on advanced visual effects,
but on the simple, direct emotional appeal of its plot, characters
and, importantly, music.[citation
needed]
Star
Wars often
is credited as heralding the beginning of a revival of grand
symphonic scores in the late 1970s. One technique in particular is an
influence: Williams's revival of a technique called leitmotif,
which is most famously associated with the operas of Richard
Wagner and,
in film scores, with Steiner. A leitmotif is a phrase or melodic cell
that signifies a character, place, plot element, mood, idea,
relationship or other specific part of the film. It is commonly used
in modern film scoring as a device for mentally anchoring certain
parts of a film to the soundtrack. Of chief importance for a
leitmotif is that it must be strong enough for a listener to latch
onto while being flexible enough to undergo variation and
development.
A
series of concerts which featured Star
Wars music, Star
Wars: In Concert,
took place in 2009 and 2010. First performed in London,
it went on to tour across the United
Statesand Canada,
last playing at London, Ontario, Canada on July 25, 2010.
Symphony
No. 3 in E-flat major, Opus 55
(also Italian Sinfonia
Eroica, Heroic
Symphony)
is a structurally rigorous composition of great emotional depth,
which marked the beginning of the creative middle-period of the
composer Ludwig
van Beethoven.[1][2]
The fourth movement is a set of variations on
a theme, which Beethoven had used in earlier compositions; as the
finale of the ballet The
Creatures of Prometheus,
Op. 43 (1801); then as the theme of the Variations and Fugue for
Piano in E♭ major,
Op. 35 (1802), also called the Eroica
Variations.
The
subtitle Eroica
Variations of
Opus 35 derives from its thematic overlap with the fourth movement of
this symphony. In the symphony proper, the thematic variations are
structured like the piano variations of
Opus 35: the bass line of the theme first appears and then is
subjected to a series of strophic variations that lead to the full
appearance of the theme proper. After a fugal treatment of the main
theme the orchestra pauses on the dominant of the home key, and the
theme is further developed in a new section marked Poco Andante. The
symphony ends with a Presto coda which recalls the opening of the
fourth movement and ends in a flurry of sforzandos.
The fourth movement is between 10 and 14 minutes long.
LYRICS
Heroes
I,
I will be king
And you, you will be queen
Though nothing will drive them away
We can beat them, just for one day
We can be Heroes, just for one day
And you, you will be queen
Though nothing will drive them away
We can beat them, just for one day
We can be Heroes, just for one day
And
you, you can be mean
And I, I'll drink all the time
'Cause we're lovers, and that is a fact
Yes we're lovers, and that is that
And I, I'll drink all the time
'Cause we're lovers, and that is a fact
Yes we're lovers, and that is that
Though
nothing, will keep us together
We could steal time,
just for one day
We can be Heroes, for ever and ever
What d'you say?
We could steal time,
just for one day
We can be Heroes, for ever and ever
What d'you say?
I,
I wish you could swim
Like the dolphins, like dolphins can swim
Though nothing,
nothing will keep us together
We can beat them, for ever and ever
Oh we can be Heroes,
just for one day
Like the dolphins, like dolphins can swim
Though nothing,
nothing will keep us together
We can beat them, for ever and ever
Oh we can be Heroes,
just for one day
I,
I will be king
And you, you will be queen
Though nothing will drive them away
We can be Heroes, just for one day
We can be us, just for one day
And you, you will be queen
Though nothing will drive them away
We can be Heroes, just for one day
We can be us, just for one day
I,
I can remember (I remember)
Standing, by the wall (by the wall)
And the guns shot above our heads
(over our heads)
And we kissed,
as though nothing could fall
(nothing could fall)
And the shame was on the other side
Oh we can beat them, for ever and ever
Then we could be Heroes,
just for one day
Standing, by the wall (by the wall)
And the guns shot above our heads
(over our heads)
And we kissed,
as though nothing could fall
(nothing could fall)
And the shame was on the other side
Oh we can beat them, for ever and ever
Then we could be Heroes,
just for one day
We
can be Heroes
We can be Heroes
We can be Heroes
Just for one day
We can be Heroes
We can be Heroes
We can be Heroes
Just for one day
We can be Heroes
We're
nothing, and nothing will help us
Maybe we're lying,
then you better not stay
But we could be safer,
just for one day
Maybe we're lying,
then you better not stay
But we could be safer,
just for one day
Oh-oh-oh-ohh,
oh-oh-oh-ohh,
just for one day
just for one day
Gotham
City
I'm
lookin' over the skyline of the city
How loud quiet nights in the mist of crime
How next door to happiness lives sorrow
And signals of solution in the sky
How loud quiet nights in the mist of crime
How next door to happiness lives sorrow
And signals of solution in the sky
A city
of justice, a city of love, a city of peace
For everyone of us
We all need it, can't live without it
A Gotham City, oh yeah
For everyone of us
We all need it, can't live without it
A Gotham City, oh yeah
How
sleepin' awake because of fear
(Oh yeah)
How children are drowning in their tears
How we need a place where we can go
A land where every one will have a hero
(Even me)
(Oh yeah)
How children are drowning in their tears
How we need a place where we can go
A land where every one will have a hero
(Even me)
A city
of justice, a city of love, a city of peace
For everyone of us
'Cause we all need it, yeah, can't live without it
A Gotham City, oh yeah
For everyone of us
'Cause we all need it, yeah, can't live without it
A Gotham City, oh yeah
A city
of justice, a city of love, a city of peace
For everyone of us
'Cause we all need it, can't live without it
A Gotham City, oh yeah
For everyone of us
'Cause we all need it, can't live without it
A Gotham City, oh yeah
Yet in
the middle of stormy weather
We won't stumble and we won't fall
I know a place that all this shelter
We won't stumble and we won't fall
I know a place that all this shelter
City
of justice, city of love, city of peace
For everyone of us
We all need it, can't live without it
Gotham City, oh yeah
For everyone of us
We all need it, can't live without it
Gotham City, oh yeah
We
need a city of justice, city of love, city of peace
For everyone of us
We all need it, can't live without it
Gotham City, oh yeah
For everyone of us
We all need it, can't live without it
Gotham City, oh yeah
City
of justice, city of love, city of peace
For everyone of us
Yes, we all need it, can't live without it
Gotham City, oh yeah
For everyone of us
Yes, we all need it, can't live without it
Gotham City, oh yeah
A
Gotham City
(Everybody needs Gotham City)
Gotham City
(Don't you want one, oh yeah)
(Everybody needs Gotham City)
Gotham City
(Don't you want one, oh yeah)
Come
on, come on, Gotham City
(Everybody needs Gotham City)
A Gotham City
(Don't you want one, oh yeah)
(Everybody needs Gotham City)
A Gotham City
(Don't you want one, oh yeah)
Its
not easy (Superman)
I
can't stand to fly
I'm not that naive
I'm just out to find
The better part of me
I'm not that naive
I'm just out to find
The better part of me
I'm
more than a bird, I'm more than a plane
I'm more than some pretty face beside a train
And it's not easy to be me
I'm more than some pretty face beside a train
And it's not easy to be me
I wish
that I could cry
Fall upon my knees
Find a way to lie
Bout a home I'll never see
Fall upon my knees
Find a way to lie
Bout a home I'll never see
It may
sound absurd but don't be naive
Even heroes have the right to bleed
I may be disturbed but won't you concede
Even heroes have the right to dream?
And it's not easy to be me
Even heroes have the right to bleed
I may be disturbed but won't you concede
Even heroes have the right to dream?
And it's not easy to be me
Up up
and away away from me
Well it's all right
You can all sleep sound tonight
I'm not crazy or anything
Well it's all right
You can all sleep sound tonight
I'm not crazy or anything
I
can't stand to fly
I'm not that naive
Men weren't meant to ride
With clouds between their knees
I'm not that naive
Men weren't meant to ride
With clouds between their knees
I'm
only a man in a silly red sheet
Digging for kryptonite on this one way street
Only a man in a funny red sheet
Looking for special things inside of me
Digging for kryptonite on this one way street
Only a man in a funny red sheet
Looking for special things inside of me
Inside
of me, inside of me, yeah
Inside of me, inside of me
Inside of me, inside of me
I'm
only a man in a funny red sheet
I'm only a man looking for a dream
I'm only a man in a funny red sheet
And it's not easy, it's not easy to be me
I'm only a man looking for a dream
I'm only a man in a funny red sheet
And it's not easy, it's not easy to be me
Trains-Calling
all angels
I need
a sign, to let me know you're here
All of these lines are being crossed over the atmosphere
I need to know, that things are gonna look up
'Cause I feel us drowning in a sea spilled from a cup
All of these lines are being crossed over the atmosphere
I need to know, that things are gonna look up
'Cause I feel us drowning in a sea spilled from a cup
When
there is no place safe and no safe place to put my head
When you can feel the world shake from the words that are said
When you can feel the world shake from the words that are said
And
I'm, calling all Angels
And I'm, calling all you Angels
And I'm, calling all you Angels
And I
won't give up, if you don't give up
I won't give up, if you don't give up
I won't give up, if you don't give up
I won't give up, if you don't give up
I won't give up, if you don't give up
I won't give up, if you don't give up
I won't give up, if you don't give up
I need
a sign to let me know you're here
'Cause my TV set just keeps it all from being clear
I want a reason for the way things have to be
I need a hand to help build up some kind of hope inside of me
'Cause my TV set just keeps it all from being clear
I want a reason for the way things have to be
I need a hand to help build up some kind of hope inside of me
And
I'm, calling all Angels
And I'm, calling all you Angels
And I'm, calling all you Angels
When
children have to play inside, so they don't disappear
While private eyes solve marriage lies 'cause we don't talk for years
And football teams are kissing queens and losing sight of having dreams
In a world where what we want is only what we want until it's ours
While private eyes solve marriage lies 'cause we don't talk for years
And football teams are kissing queens and losing sight of having dreams
In a world where what we want is only what we want until it's ours
Discord
and Harmony
"Redemption
Song"
is a song by Bob
Marley.
It is the final track on Bob
Marley & the Wailers'
ninth album, Uprising,
produced byChris
Blackwell and
released by Island
Records.[2] The
song is considered one of Marley's greatest works. Some key lyrics
derived from a speech given by the Pan-Africanist orator Marcus
Garvey.
At
the time he wrote the song, circa 1979, Bob
Marley had
been diagnosed with the cancer in
his toe that later took his life. According to Rita
Marley,
"he was already secretly in a lot of pain and dealt with his own
mortality, a feature that is clearly apparent in the album,
particularly in this song".
Unlike
most of Bob Marley's tracks, it is strictly a
solo acoustic recording,
consisting of Marley singing and playing an acoustic
guitar,
without accompaniment. The song is in the key of G major.
"Redemption
Song" was released as a single in the UK and France in October
1980, and included a full band rendering of the song. This version
has since been included as a bonus track on the 2001 reissue
of Uprising,
as well as on the 2001 compilation One
Love: The Very Best of Bob Marley & The Wailers.
Although in live performances the full band was used for the song the
solo recorded performance remains the take most familiar to
listeners.[citation
needed]
In
2004, Rolling
Stone placed
the song at #66 among The
500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
In 2010, the New
Statesman listed
it as one of the Top 20 Political Songs.[3]
With
Bob accompanying himself on Guitar, "Redemption Song" was
unlike anything he had ever recorded: an acoustic ballad, without any
hint of reggae rhythm. In message and sound it recalled Bob
Dylan. Biographer Timothy
White called it an 'acoustic spiritual' and another
biographer, Stephen
Davis, pointed out the song was a 'total departure', a deeply
personal verse sung to the bright-sounding acoustic strumming of
Bob's Ovation
Adamas guitar.
— James
Henke, author of Marley
Legend
The FIFA
Anthem or FIFA
Hymn is
played at the beginning of FIFA structured
matches and tournaments such as international friendlies or the FIFA
World Cup.
It was first played at the 1994
World Cup.
It was composed by Franz
Lambert,
and is instrumental with no lyrics.
"Nothing
to My Name"
(also known in as "I
Have Nothing")
is a 1986 Mandarin-language rock song
by Cui
Jian.
It is widely considered Cui's most famous and most important work,
and one of the most influential songs in the history of the People's
Republic of China,
both as a seminal point in the development of Chinese rock and roll
and as a political sensation. The song was an unofficial anthem for
Chinese youth and activists during the Tiananmen
Square protests of 1989.
Both
in its lyrics and instruments, the song mixes traditional
Chinese styles with
modern rock elements. In the lyrics, the speaker addresses a girl who
is scorning him because he has nothing. However, the song has also
been interpreted as being about the dispossessed youth of the time,
because it evokes a sense of disillusionment and lack of individual
freedom that was common among the young generation during the 1980s.
By
the late 1970s, Western rock music was gaining popularity in mainland
China.
After the Cultural
Revolution ended
in the mid-1970s and the government began a period of economic reform
called gaige
kaifang,
many students and businessmen went abroad and brought back Western
music. Chinese singers began performing covers of popular Western
rock songs.[1]
At
the same time, Chinese society and the Chinese government were
quickly abandoning Maoism,
and promoting economic policies that had a
more capitalist orientation.[2] Many
Chinese teens and students were becoming disillusioned with their
government, which they felt had abandoned its ideals.[3] Because
of the rapid economic changes, many of them felt that they had no
opportunities and no individual freedom.[4] These
developments formed the background against which "Nothing to My
Name" appeared in 1986.
Cui
Jian was heavily influenced by Western artists such as Bob
Dylan, The
Beatles, The
Rolling Stones,
and Talking
Heads;[5] in
the late 1980s he even performed with a hair style modeled on that
of John
Lennon.[6] In
"Nothing to My Name" and other songs, he intentionally
altered the sounds of traditional
Chinese musical instruments by
mixing them with elements of rock music, such as electric
guitar.[7] He
also purposely divorced his musical style from that of
the revolutionary
songs and
proletarian operas that were common under Chairman Mao
Zedong during
the Cultural
Revolution—for
example, he performed his music very loud, as high as 150 decibels,
just because Mao had considered loud music disruptive to the social
order.
Throughout the song, the narrator addresses an unidentified girl,
asking "When will you come with me", and lamenting the fact
that she laughs at him for having nothing to his name.[11] He
tells her he wants to give her his hopes and bring her freedom, that
"the earth is turning under your feet" and "the waters
of life are flowing free", yet she persists in scorning
him.[11] He
asks why she laughs at the pack he carries on his back, and he
wonders why he keeps on going, with nothing to his name.[11] At
last, he tells her that he has waited for a long time, and that this
is his final plea: he wants to grab her by the hands, to "take
you away with me".[11] As
he sees her hands tremble, and her eyes "overflow with tears",
he asks her, "Do you really mean to tell me, you love me as I
am?"[11]
Interpretations
of the song's meaning vary from one listener to the next; some people
view it as a song about love and desire, while others understand it
as a political metaphor, the lyrics being addressed as much to the
Chinese nation as to a girlfriend.[12][13][14][15] University
of Florida scholar Jonathan Matusitz describes the song's
lyrics as a means of expressing politically sensitive ideas that
could not be stated through any other medium.[16] In
this interpretation, the lyrics near the beginning, "I've asked
you without end / When will you go with me / But you always laughed
at me / for having nothing to my name"
("我曾经问个不休/你何时跟我走/可你却总是笑我/一无所有")
are taken to express the "humiliation and lack of individuality,
possession, and personal freedom",[11] the
"sense of loss and disorientation" among China's youth in
the 1980s.[17] Ethnomusicologist
Timothy Brace has described this common analysis of the song lyrics
as "recast[ing] the setting of this piece from that of a boy
talking to his girlfriend to that of a youthful generation talking to
the nation as a whole." The ambiguity is heightened by the
structure of the phrase yī
wú suŏ yŏu,
an idiomatic chengyu.
It literally means "to have nothing" and has no
grammatical subject.
Therefore, it can be interpreted as meaning "I have
nothing" (implying that it is a song about two people), or
"we have
nothing" (understanding it as social commentary).[18][19]
The
narrator of the song worries that the girl he is addressing will
ignore him because he has nothing to give her; likewise, the song's
audience in the 1980s—young students and workers—were also
suffering from not having resources to marry, to be with their
girlfriends and boyfriends, or to attract members of the opposite
sex.[4] The
lyrics also express Western concepts of individualism,[20] and
were some of the first popular song lyrics in China to promote
self-expression and self-empowerment. This put the song in stark
contrast with older music, which had emphasized conformity and
obedience.[3] As
the narrator, later on in the song, confidently proclaims to the girl
that he will "grab her hands" ("我要抓起你的双手")
and then she will go with him ("你这就跟我走"),
he suggests in the end that she can love the fact that he has nothing
("莫非你是正在告诉我/你爱我一无所有").
On one level, this suggests that the song is about "love
conquering all",[21] but
the line has also been interpreted as threatening, and suggestive of
an unorthodox and "Dionysian"
mix of love and aggression.[22]
Just as
Cui adapts traditional Chinese sounds and instruments to a new
format, in "Nothing to My Name" he also reappropriates
traditional Chinese lyrical tropes.
The lines "The earth under your feet is moving / The water
around your body is flowing" ("脚下的地在走/身边的水在流")
are reminiscent of the use of natural imagery in classical Chinese
poetry and music,
but here are intended to evoke the events going on around the song's
listeners, and to provoke them to rebel against the established
order.
It’s
a small World After all was
a song by the SSherman brothers in 1963 for attraction of the same
name it was played in movies of the Lion King and the Return of Jafar
And television programmes like the muppet show and Walt Disney
anthology seris.
"The
Internationale"
(French:
"L'Internationale")
is a widely-sung left-wing anthem.
It has been one of the most recognizable and popular songs of
the socialist movement
since the late 19th century, when the Second
International (now
the Socialist
International)
adopted it as its official anthem. The title arises from the "First
International",
an alliance of socialist parties formed by Marx andEngels which
held a congress in 1864. The author of the anthem's lyrics, Eugène
Pottier,
attended this congress.
The
original French refrain of the song is C'est
la lutte finale / Groupons-nous et demain / L'Internationale / Sera
le genre humain.(English:
"This is the final struggle / Let us group together and tomorrow
/ The Internationale / Will be the human race.") "The
Internationale" has been translated into many languages. It is
often sung with the left hand raised in a clenched
fist salute and
is sometimes followed (in English-speaking places) with a chant of
"The workers united will never be defeated." "The
Internationale" has been celebrated
by socialists, communists, anarchists, democratic
socialists,
and social
democrats.
The
original French words were written in June 1871 by Eugène
Pottier (1816–1887,
previously a member of the Paris
Commune)[1] and
were originally intended to be sung to the tune of "La
Marseillaise".[2] Pierre
De Geyter (1848–1932)
set the poem to music in 1888.[3] His
melody was first publicly performed in July 1888[4] and
became widely used soon after.
The Symphony
No. 11 in G
minor (Opus
103; subtitled The
Year 1905)
by Dmitri
Shostakovich was
written in 1957 and premiered, by the USSR
Symphony Orchestra underNatan
Rakhlin,
on 30 October 1957. The subtitle of the symphony refers to the events
of the Russian
Revolution of 1905.
The
symphony was conceived as a popular piece and proved an instant
success in Russia—his greatest, in fact, since
the Leningrad Symphony just
over a decade earlier.[1] The
work's popular success, as well as its earning him a Lenin
Prize in
April 1958, marked the composer's formal rehabilitation from
the Zhdanov
Doctrine of
1948.
A
month after the composer had received the Lenin Prize, a Central
Committee resolution
"correcting the errors" of the 1948 decree restored all
those affected by it to official favor, blaming their treatment on
"J.V.
Stalin's
subjective attitude to certain works of art and the very adverse
influence exercised on Stalin by Molotov, Malenkov and Beria."
Allegro
non troppo (Tocsin)
The
finale begins with a march, (again repeating material from the climax
of the second movement), which reaches a violent climax, followed by
a return to the quietness of the opening of the symphony, introducing
a haunting cor
anglais melody. After the extended solo, the bass
clarinet returns to the earlier violence, and the orchestra
launches into a march once again. The march builds to a climax with
snare drum and chimes in
which the tocsin (alarm
bell or warning bell) rings out in a resilient G minor, while the
orchestra insists a G major. In the end, neither party wins, as the
last full orchestra measure is a sustained G natural, anticipating
the future events
of 1917.
"Light
& Day",
also known as "Section
9 (Light & Day/Reach for the Sun)",
is a single from The
Beginning Stages of... by The
Polyphonic Spree.
The
song has been used several times in popular culture - once in an
episode of Scrubs,
once in an episode of Undone,
the documentary Murderball,
an episode of Chuck,
in advertisements for
the supermarket Sainsbury's,
as well as most recently being the theme song in the trailer for the
2012 film adaptation of Dr.Seuss' The
Lorax.
In April 2010, research conducted by PRS
for Music revealed
that the song was the most performed in UK Television
advertising.[1]
The Eternal
Sunshine of the Spotless Mind DVD
includes a music video for the song, featuring scenes from the movie
altered so that both the main actors (Carrey and Winslet), as well as
various inanimate background elements of the movie (a brain scan, a
plate of vegetables, a house), appear to be lip-syncing to the song.
LYRICS
REDEMPTATION
SONG BOB MARLEY
Old
pirates, yes, they rob I,
Sold I to the merchant ships,
Minutes after they took I
From the bottomless pit.
Sold I to the merchant ships,
Minutes after they took I
From the bottomless pit.
But my
'and was made strong
By the 'and of the Almighty.
We forward in this generation
Triumphantly.
By the 'and of the Almighty.
We forward in this generation
Triumphantly.
Won't
you help to sing
These songs of freedom?
'Cause all I ever have,
Redemption songs,
Redemption songs.
These songs of freedom?
'Cause all I ever have,
Redemption songs,
Redemption songs.
Emancipate
yourself from mental slavery,
None but our self can free our minds.
Have no fear for atomic energy,
'Cause none of them can stop the time.
How long shall they kill our prophets,
While we stand aside and look?
Some say it's just a part of it,
We've got to fulfill de book.
None but our self can free our minds.
Have no fear for atomic energy,
'Cause none of them can stop the time.
How long shall they kill our prophets,
While we stand aside and look?
Some say it's just a part of it,
We've got to fulfill de book.
Won't
you help to sing
These songs of freedom?
'Cause all I ever have,
Redemption songs,
Redemption songs,
Redemption songs.
These songs of freedom?
'Cause all I ever have,
Redemption songs,
Redemption songs,
Redemption songs.
Emancipate
yourself from mental slavery,
None but our self can free our mind.
Have no fear for atomic energy,
'Cause none of them can stop the time.
How long shall dey kill our prophets,
While we stand aside and look?
Some say it's just a part of it,
We've got to fulfill de book.
None but our self can free our mind.
Have no fear for atomic energy,
'Cause none of them can stop the time.
How long shall dey kill our prophets,
While we stand aside and look?
Some say it's just a part of it,
We've got to fulfill de book.
Won't
you help to sing,
These songs of freedom?
'Cause all I ever had,
Redemption songs.
All I ever had,
Redemption songs
These songs of freedom
Songs of freedom
These songs of freedom?
'Cause all I ever had,
Redemption songs.
All I ever had,
Redemption songs
These songs of freedom
Songs of freedom
LIGHT
AND DAY POLYPHONIC SPREE
Light
& day, is more than you'll say
'Cause all my feelings are more
Than I can let by or not it's more than you've got
Just follow the day, follow the day and reach for the sun
'Cause all my feelings are more
Than I can let by or not it's more than you've got
Just follow the day, follow the day and reach for the sun
Follow
the day and reach for the sun
You don't see me fly into the red, one more you're done
Just follow the seasons and find the time, reach for the bright side
You don't see me fly into the red, one more you're nuts
Just follow the day, follow the day and reach for the sun
You don't see me fly into the red, one more you're done
Just follow the seasons and find the time, reach for the bright side
You don't see me fly into the red, one more you're nuts
Just follow the day, follow the day and reach for the sun
Follow
the day, follow the day and reach for the sun
You don't see me fly into the red, one more you're done
Just follow the seasons and find the time, reach for the bright side
You don't see me fly into the red, one more you're nuts
Just follow the day, follow the day and reach for the sun
You don't see me fly into the red, one more you're done
Just follow the seasons and find the time, reach for the bright side
You don't see me fly into the red, one more you're nuts
Just follow the day, follow the day and reach for the sun
Follow
the day, follow the day and reach for the sun
Follow the day, follow the day and reach for the sun
Follow the day, follow the day and reach for the sun
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