1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:12,020 Approaching the 2 o'clock hour in Shickley Mix, but first, I must remind you, this is WLRE Huntsville, with offices and studios located on the campus, the University of Alabama, Huntsville. 2 00:00:12,560 --> 00:00:14,320 Shickley, are you ready? 3 00:00:14,600 --> 00:00:17,240 Me oui, mon ami. Here's the theme. 4 00:00:32,390 --> 00:00:44,410 Hello there, I'm Peter Shickley, and this is Shickley Mix, a program dedicated to the proposition that all musics are created equal. Or as Duke Ellington put it, if it sounds good, it is good. 5 00:00:45,410 --> 00:00:56,770 Financial sustenance for this program is provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and by this Au Courant radio station, where I'm provided with this really charming studio space. 6 00:00:56,890 --> 00:01:09,610 You know, the walls are covered with art done by kids from all over the state. Yes, it's an art of the state studio, all right, and what gets cooked up here gets distributed by PRI, Public Radio International. 7 00:01:11,730 --> 00:01:21,470 Today's show is called Au Contraire, mon ami. Au Contraire, we're going to take a look at contrast in music. How do you achieve it, and how much of it do you want? 8 00:01:22,330 --> 00:01:33,030 Well, there are all sorts of things you can do to achieve it. You can change the, well, here, let me turn on the authentic instrument and demonstrate some of these here. 9 00:01:33,730 --> 00:01:44,490 You can achieve contrast by changing the dynamics, or loudness. Mary had a little lamb. 10 00:01:46,010 --> 00:01:47,530 Little lamb. 11 00:01:48,010 --> 00:01:59,430 Little lamb. Mary had a little lamb. It's fleece-wise, white as snow. 12 00:02:07,030 --> 00:02:18,270 Or, you can change the rhythm. Mary had a little lamb. Little lamb. Little lamb. Mary had a little lamb. 13 00:02:18,310 --> 00:02:31,290 It's fleece-wise, white as snow. Or the meter. That is, how many small beats there are. And then, you can change the rhythm. And a big beat. As in, duple time. One, two. One, two. One, two. 14 00:02:31,350 --> 00:02:35,750 And triple time. One, two, three. One, two, three. One, two, three. 15 00:02:48,290 --> 00:03:04,060 You can contrast a smooth line, having sustained, connected notes, with a detached line, having 16 00:03:04,060 --> 00:03:05,540 short, detached notes. 17 00:03:07,160 --> 00:03:10,460 Mary had a little lamb. 18 00:03:10,980 --> 00:03:12,580 Little lamb. 19 00:03:13,660 --> 00:03:14,700 Little lamb. 20 00:03:15,220 --> 00:03:26,380 Mary had a little lamb. Or, you can vary the tempo, or speed. 21 00:03:28,820 --> 00:03:29,980 Mary had a little lamb. 22 00:03:41,540 --> 00:03:54,100 Little lamb is fleece-wise, white as snow. Hey. By the way, what I did there is what often, if not usually, if not almost always happens in real music. Stop. I had many pieces, which is you change more than one element for a contrasting section. 23 00:03:54,500 --> 00:04:05,220 Not only did I sing the second phrase faster than the first. I also changed the accompaniment from smooth to choppy. Then you can go into another key. 24 00:04:05,900 --> 00:04:17,899 Well, you know, it's Mary had a little lamb. A little lamb was what she had. I said, Mary had a little lamb, fleece-wise white as snow. 25 00:04:17,920 --> 00:04:28,200 Whoa, whoa, whoa. Mary had a little lamb. we had a little lamb a little lamb it's a little lamb now that particular modulation or key change 26 00:04:28,200 --> 00:04:34,960 is going up a half step started here and we went up to there and that's a very common modulation 27 00:04:35,550 --> 00:04:43,960 in popular music i got to admit it's sort of a pet peeve with me so often towards the end of the tune you hear that old 28 00:04:43,960 --> 00:04:56,440 and it goes into the key a half step higher you know why they pick that key a half step higher you know why don't they go up a major third higher why don't they go down a fourth 29 00:04:56,860 --> 00:05:06,460 the reason they go up a half step is that going up gives a little bit more tension a little bit more brightness for the big end of the tune but it's still within the range of the singer 30 00:05:06,460 --> 00:05:17,800 if you went up any farther the top notes might be out of his or her range you know why they pick that key a half step higher you know why don't they go up a major third higher by now you're probably thinking hey the contrast i'd like to hear is another song 31 00:05:17,800 --> 00:05:30,020 so let me just mention a few of the myriad other possibilities you can vary the orchestration the whole idea of a concerto is based on the contrast between a large group and a solo 32 00:05:30,020 --> 00:05:42,520 instrument or small group you can counterpose if you approve of doing things that take more than six letters to spell you can counterpose homophonic sections hymn-like sections with contrapositions 33 00:05:42,540 --> 00:05:53,760 or puddle sections featuring rhythmically independent lines you can write antiphonal pieces in which the only difference between two successive phrases is where the performers are 34 00:05:53,760 --> 00:06:00,140 situated in the room and of course in vocal music you can change the words a lot of old 35 00:06:00,140 --> 00:06:12,520 folk songs have literally dozens of verses set to the same music now the question of how much contrast you want is a much trickier and more interesting one this is where we get into different pieces of music and we're going to talk about how to do that in a little bit more 36 00:06:12,540 --> 00:06:20,480 but first let's start out with a piece that has very little contrast in it there is no variety 37 00:06:20,480 --> 00:06:27,340 whatsoever in terms of orchestration meter or texture very little variety in terms of dynamics 38 00:06:27,340 --> 00:06:37,410 and key and virtually none in terms of rhythm these are 16th notes four to a beat in this case 39 00:06:37,410 --> 00:06:44,210 now this piece we're about to hear has over 400 notes in it and all but three of those notes are 40 00:06:44,890 --> 00:06:51,210 16th notes in other words rhythmically speaking you're about to hear two and a half minutes of 41 00:06:54,850 --> 00:07:07,530 absolutely even notes okay i'm lying they're written absolutely even but the performer takes liberties he speeds up and slows down a bit to shape the melody and keep it from sounding 42 00:07:07,530 --> 00:07:17,810 mechanical nevertheless this is for a mainstream western classical work unusually easy to play and it's a very difficult piece to play and it's a very difficult piece to play and it's a very difficult piece to play unusually devoid of contrast nice piece though 43 00:08:18,430 --> 00:09:49,780 the first movement of bach's first suite for unaccompanied cello performed by yo-yo ma 44 00:09:49,780 --> 00:10:02,260 by the way the dynamics there the softer parts getting louder getting softer none of that was written in by bach but as far as i'm concerned it's entirely appropriate to put in your own dynamics 45 00:10:03,280 --> 00:10:14,940 the piece virtually demands them now even when he's writing for large groups bach gets an awful lot of mileage out of just two rhythmic note values eighth notes 46 00:10:14,940 --> 00:10:26,410 and 16th look at the brandenburg concertos there's six of them right here's the uh the first one uh 47 00:10:32,550 --> 00:10:34,290 those are eighth notes 48 00:10:37,850 --> 00:10:43,510 those are 16th notes go through a whole movement second brandenburg first movement 49 00:10:51,570 --> 00:11:01,330 i haven't checked this out but i wouldn't be surprised if that whole first movement of the second brandenburg has nothing but eighth notes and 16th notes in it with the exception of the 50 00:11:01,330 --> 00:11:05,810 last note of a phrase which is often longer last movement of that piece 51 00:11:10,770 --> 00:11:14,470 now you get a couple of little faster notes when you play the embellishments 52 00:11:14,470 --> 00:11:23,630 but as far as what's written goes it's all eighth notes and 16th notes 53 00:11:24,770 --> 00:11:26,190 fourth brandenburg uh 54 00:11:33,050 --> 00:11:45,390 Fortunately, the flutists or recorder players play those notes much better than I sing them, but they're nevertheless all eighth notes and sixteenth notes. Here's the beginning of the third Brandenburg Concerto. 55 00:12:13,040 --> 00:12:24,280 This movement, too, uses eighth and sixteenth notes so preponderantly that when, towards the end of the movement, he introduces a countermelody that starts with three longer notes. 56 00:12:28,380 --> 00:12:31,980 It's like a blaze of sunlight breaking through the clouds. 57 00:12:46,380 --> 00:12:54,900 So here we've got a bunch of pieces that rhythmically, melodically, dynamically, and texturally have very little contrast, very little variety. 58 00:12:55,420 --> 00:13:03,520 And yet, there are those of us who feel that the Brandenburg Concertos are up there in the cantonment. It's a category of, this is as good as it gets. 59 00:13:04,120 --> 00:13:16,840 As a matter of fact, some of us like to ruffle feathers by saying that if we could, we'd be willing to trade a hundred Bach cantatas for another six Brandenburgs. I had a friend in high school who didn't know any classical music, 60 00:13:17,020 --> 00:13:28,980 and I played him a record of the second Brandenburg. That's the one with the zingy trumpet parts in the fast movements. And he said, well, it's nice, but it all sounds the same. 61 00:13:29,740 --> 00:13:37,560 How many times have you... How many times have you heard classical music people say that about rock and roll? Or rock and rollers about jazz? And it's true. 62 00:13:38,040 --> 00:13:47,740 If you really don't dig the basic material and respond to the small changes going on, it does all sound the same. It's like people of a different race all looking the same. 63 00:13:48,520 --> 00:13:53,660 Now, for instance, if you listen to a lot of bebop solos, especially the up-tempo ones, 64 00:14:16,660 --> 00:14:27,820 there's no more rhythmic variety in the melody and bass line of that chart. There's more of a Charlie Parker solo than there is in a Bach piece. And I've heard musicians play a game where you slide from one Mozart piece into another 65 00:14:27,820 --> 00:14:38,620 in such a way that most people wouldn't even notice. They're that much alike. Now, nobody's saying you don't need any contrasts. If you want to hear a piece that's utterly devoid of variety, 66 00:14:38,940 --> 00:14:51,320 pick up your telephone and listen to the dial tone. But you don't have to have much contrast. You don't have to have variety lights to have good music. As the three numbers of our Keep It Coming, Sweet, illustrate. 67 00:14:51,940 --> 00:14:53,940 I'll see you in a little over eight minutes. 68 00:18:07,090 --> 00:23:04,530 The Keep It Coming, Sweet. 69 00:23:05,230 --> 00:23:15,650 It began with a cut from an album called Mbuti Pygmies of the Ituri Rainforest. And this is interesting. The cut is called Musical Sticks. 70 00:23:15,770 --> 00:23:28,350 But what it is, is once every three years, the Nkumbi initiation for boys takes place. This is a Bantu festival, but Mbuti take part. The beginning of the Nkumbi is heralded by the sounding of the Mahakali. 71 00:23:28,350 --> 00:23:40,030 These are the Makata sticks, which are made specially for each Nkumbi and destroyed along with the initiation camp when all is over. The number of sticks varies from six to nine. During this initiation, there were nine. 72 00:23:40,710 --> 00:23:53,270 Each player takes a stick and holds it under his left arm, hitting it with a wooden clapper held in the right hand. The sticks are carefully shaven to exactly the right pitch. The base stick is about three feet long 73 00:23:53,270 --> 00:24:05,250 and the treble only 18 inches. The leader of the group beats the base stick and somewhat like the master drummer in West Africa, produces a variety of cross rhythms while trying to draw the other players off the beat. 74 00:24:05,650 --> 00:24:17,350 Reminds me of the old bebop players. They used to try to make the chords as complicated as possible so only the really good musicians could join in there. Anyway, here there is also a masked dancer, the man who will perform the circumcision operations, 75 00:24:17,690 --> 00:24:28,470 who dances with ankle bells that we could also hear. Then we have the middle movement of Bach's Second Brandenburg Concerto with the Mainz Chamber Orchestra conducted by Gertrude Kuhlman. The second movement is a piece by Günther Kehr. 76 00:24:28,890 --> 00:24:40,150 And then finally, a nice little piece by Meredith Monk called Ellis Island, played by a two piano team called Double Edge, Edmund Nieman and Turret Tillis. 77 00:24:41,690 --> 00:24:52,790 There's only one right way to make a martini. Use no more vermouth than a mosquito could drink. But the possibilities of mixing predictability and surprise in a piece of music are endless. 78 00:24:53,330 --> 00:25:03,490 I'm Peter Schickely and the show is Schickely Mix from PRI, Public Radio. Radio International. You may not need constant variety to make good music, 79 00:25:03,590 --> 00:25:14,850 but during the 18th and 19th centuries in Europe, the desire for contrast increased. I guess it comes with the territory of robust romanticism. In the beginning of the 18th century, 80 00:25:14,990 --> 00:25:25,830 there might be plenty of contrast between one movement of a piece and the next, but there wasn't much contrast within a movement. Let's hear the beginning of that slow movement from the Second Brandenburg again. 81 00:25:44,330 --> 00:25:56,050 In 15 seconds, we've heard all the music of the 18th and 19th centuries and all the musical material Bach is going to use in the whole three-and-a-half-minute movement. Now let's hear the opening movement of Mozart's 34th Symphony, 82 00:25:56,250 --> 00:26:07,910 written in 1780, about 60 years after the Bach. There is more variety in this one movement than in all three movements of the Bach piece put together. Lots of surprise here, 83 00:26:08,510 --> 00:26:12,750 including what sounds like a slow introduction that turns out not to be one. 84 00:26:14,670 --> 00:26:24,020 . . . 85 00:26:41,340 --> 00:26:49,840 Very martial music, mostly loud and percussive, but with a few surprising dramatic soft places. 86 00:27:06,310 --> 00:27:08,710 Here comes the second theme group. 87 00:27:32,580 --> 00:27:42,620 This part is everything the beginning wasn't. It's soft, it's smooth, it's gentle, with chromatic notes, notes in between the regular scale notes. 88 00:28:20,980 --> 00:29:05,190 . . . 89 00:29:26,470 --> 00:29:37,310 Now we've got loud and soft contrasted riffs, right within the phrase. And it's getting dark, it's getting dramatic. It sounds like an opera scene. What's going on? 90 00:30:07,020 --> 00:30:13,060 This part sounds like neither the martial music of the opening or the sweet second theme. 91 00:30:27,890 --> 00:30:30,490 And now we're coming back to the recapitulation. 92 00:33:32,880 --> 00:33:44,080 Neville Mariner conducting the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields. In the first movement of Mozart's Symphony No. 34, in C. With all the variety there is in that movement, 93 00:33:44,260 --> 00:33:55,620 there's one thing that remains constant, and that's the meter. The piece is in 4-4 time throughout. 1, 2, 3, 4, 1. Now we'll move ahead a century to Brahms' Third Symphony, 94 00:33:55,820 --> 00:34:08,620 written in 1882-83. Here the contrasts between the first and second theme groups include not only texture and dynamics, the first theme is loud and expansive, the second soft and intimate, 95 00:34:08,620 --> 00:34:18,380 and not only key, the second is in a fairly remote key in relation to the first, but also meter. The first is in a large duple time. 96 00:34:26,480 --> 00:34:30,280 1, 2, 1, 2. 97 00:34:57,370 --> 00:35:00,550 And the second theme group is in triple time. 98 00:35:05,170 --> 00:35:11,570 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3. 99 00:35:19,820 --> 00:35:27,320 Another contrast between those two main themes is the first theme group, is that the motion of the first one is predominantly down, 100 00:35:36,220 --> 00:35:39,420 while that of the second is predominantly up. 101 00:35:46,920 --> 00:35:58,920 Now, let's take that very specific aspect of melodic shape, whether the predominant motion of the theme seems to be down or up or neutral, and see how Beethoven uses it to increase the contrast 102 00:35:58,920 --> 00:36:10,040 from one movement to the next in his Fifth Symphony. We begin with a melodic fragment, a motif, that is one of the most forceful downward gestures in all of music. 103 00:36:37,120 --> 00:36:49,780 Fate knocking on the door? Trying to break it down, I'd say. After a final downward gesture from the horns, the second theme is soft, smooth, and has a predominantly upward feeling. 104 00:37:04,620 --> 00:37:12,740 The upward feeling is created not only by the flute's melody, but also by the bass line, 105 00:37:17,060 --> 00:37:25,540 which is the opening motif inverted, so it goes up instead of down. But the downward motion dominates the movement as a whole. 106 00:37:25,800 --> 00:37:28,180 The opening motif is inverted, so it goes up instead of down. 107 00:37:30,300 --> 00:37:40,000 As does the dramatic, loud, and punchy quality of the opening. What a delightful breeze, therefore, is the opening of the second movement, 108 00:37:40,200 --> 00:37:43,840 the contrast emphasized by gentle upward gestures. 109 00:38:11,910 --> 00:38:16,770 Even when this movement turns grand, the upward gesture predominates. 110 00:38:50,440 --> 00:39:01,920 We've had down, we've had up. What will the third movement bring? It starts with a soft upward sound, and then it goes up. but the most memorable part of the opening section, is static. It tends to stay on one note. 111 00:39:19,020 --> 00:39:27,380 The last movement is busy, long, loud, rich in melodic phrases, and mixes up and down gestures all over the place. 112 00:40:23,630 --> 00:40:36,490 Excerpts from Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, performed by the London Classical Players. The conductor's name is Roger Norrington, mine is Peter Schickely, and the program's is Schickely Mix, from PRI Public Music. 113 00:40:36,490 --> 00:40:46,930 Radio International. Au contraire, mon frere, contrast in music and how it grew. We're bounding ahead to the second half of the 20th century now. 114 00:40:47,050 --> 00:40:56,910 This next piece is a study in contrasts. Nothing about it stays the same for long. Eight and a half minutes of solid quicksand, if you catch my drift. 115 00:49:08,950 --> 00:49:19,570 From one of those wonderful CD sets put out by Mosaic Records, the complete candid recordings of Charles Mingus, that was a little number called 116 00:49:19,570 --> 00:49:31,570 All the Things You Could Be by Now If Sigmund Freud's Wife Was Your Mother. In addition to Mingus on bass, we heard Ted Curzon on trumpet, Eric Dolphy on sax, 117 00:49:31,810 --> 00:49:43,180 and Danny Richman on drums. And the time for tidbit time has rolled in like a wave of wiseguyism over the sands of decorum. 118 00:49:43,520 --> 00:49:52,660 This next selection, has more variety than a Hollywood newsstand. Talk about quick change artists. Everything is catchy, yes. 119 00:50:04,770 --> 00:50:17,110 Fingertips, fingertips, fingertips. I hear the wind blow. I hear the wind blow. It seems to say, hello, hello. 120 00:50:17,350 --> 00:50:19,450 I'm the one who loves you so. 121 00:50:19,850 --> 00:50:21,090 Hey now everybody now. 122 00:50:21,130 --> 00:50:30,290 Hey now everybody. Hey now everybody now. Who is that standing out my window? 123 00:50:31,370 --> 00:50:41,350 I found a new friend underneath my pillow. Come on and wreck my car. 124 00:50:41,450 --> 00:50:44,130 Come on and wreck my car. 125 00:50:52,100 --> 00:50:56,920 Who hits me in the eye? Are you the guy who hits me in the eye? 126 00:50:57,240 --> 00:50:59,180 Please pass the milk, please. 127 00:50:59,900 --> 00:51:04,900 Please pass the milk, please. Please pass the milk, please. 128 00:51:05,400 --> 00:51:14,580 Leave me alone, leave me alone. Who's knocking on the wall? 129 00:51:20,380 --> 00:51:27,220 Myself. What's that blue thing doing here? 130 00:51:29,880 --> 00:51:31,100 Something grabbed me. 131 00:51:42,700 --> 00:51:43,820 I don't understand you. 132 00:51:44,020 --> 00:51:45,380 I don't understand you. 133 00:51:45,380 --> 00:51:47,260 I just don't understand you. 134 00:51:47,480 --> 00:51:53,830 I don't understand you. I don't understand the things you say. I cannot understand you. 135 00:51:55,230 --> 00:51:57,370 I don't understand you. 136 00:52:01,470 --> 00:52:10,110 I heard a sound. 137 00:52:10,310 --> 00:52:13,490 I turned around. Turned around to find the thing that made the sound. 138 00:52:15,190 --> 00:52:26,490 Mysteri- Mysterious whisper Mysterious whisper 139 00:52:26,490 --> 00:52:33,230 Mysterious whisper 140 00:52:33,910 --> 00:52:44,750 Mysterious whisper The day that love 141 00:52:46,170 --> 00:52:47,590 Came to play 142 00:52:50,890 --> 00:52:59,390 I'm having a heart attack I'm having a heart attack 143 00:53:02,210 --> 00:53:10,850 I'm having a heart attack I'm having a heart attack 144 00:53:10,850 --> 00:53:22,700 Pips Face Fingertips 145 00:53:25,040 --> 00:54:26,250 They might be giants from their album Apollo 18. 146 00:54:26,850 --> 00:54:38,250 And that was called Fingertips. Now, the weird thing about this listing is, on the back of the album, it says that track 17 is Fingertips. But then the next track, Spacesuit, is track 38. 147 00:54:39,050 --> 00:54:49,850 And when you open it up and look inside there, you realize that every one of those little segments is given a separate track number. Now, if they only list it once on the back, why did they do that? 148 00:54:50,190 --> 00:54:58,590 Well, being an old fogey, I wouldn't have known. But my kids filled me in on it. See, CD players these days often have a button for random programming. 149 00:54:59,290 --> 00:55:09,470 So instead of listening to the album in the same old order every time, you put a bunch of CDs in these things, and it'll just randomly access tunes from all over the place. 150 00:55:09,870 --> 00:55:21,310 And what'll happen here, of course, is that those little segments, individual little segments, will pop in. You know, they'll pop in. You know, between Bing Crosby singing White Christmas and who knows what else. 151 00:55:22,090 --> 00:55:31,810 Neat little idea. You know, I just realized while I'm saying this that my CD player has a random programming thing. Let me push that, and I'm going to start it and see what happens. 152 00:55:46,640 --> 00:55:59,280 Hey, that's not bad. I like that. And that's Sickly Mix for this week. Our program is made possible with funds provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and by this radio station and its generous members. 153 00:55:59,680 --> 00:56:12,000 Not only that. Our program is distributed by PRI, Public Radio International. We'll tell you in a moment how you can get an official playlist of all the music on today's program with record numbers and everything. 154 00:56:12,320 --> 00:56:24,720 Just refer to the program number. This is program number 70. And this is Peter Sickly saying goodbye and reminding you that it don't mean a thing if it ain't got that certain je ne sais quoi. You're looking good. 155 00:56:24,900 --> 00:56:25,980 See you next week. 156 00:58:07,120 --> 00:58:17,600 If you'd like a copy of that playlist I mentioned, send a stamped self-addressed envelope to Sickly Mix. That's S-C-H-I-C-K-E-L-E, Sickly Mix. 157 00:58:18,090 --> 00:58:27,460 Care of Public Radio International, 100 North 6th Street, Suite 900A, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 55403.