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Hello there, I'm Peter Shickely, and this is Shickely Mix, a program dedicated to the

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proposition that all musics are created equal.

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Or as Duke Ellington put it, if it sounds good, it is good.

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And the long and short of it is that our bills are paid by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting,

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by the National Endowment for the Arts, and by this very radio station, where the long-winded

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are given short shrift.

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And the beauty part is that shortly after each show is made, it gets distributed by

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the long-suffering folks at PRI, Public Radio International.

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Now when you say the word long, it makes me think of Wagner.

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You might say that Wagner went to great lengths to finish a piece.

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You know, he criticized Mendelssohn for writing too much fast music.

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But I've always had the suspicion, I can't prove this, but I've always had the sneaking

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suspicion that Wagner was paid by the minute, musically speaking.

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And that's why he wrote so much slow stuff.

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You know, Wagner's music sounds long even when it isn't.

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What I mean is, like I can remember the first all-Wagner concert I ever heard.

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This was before I'd ever seen one of the operas.

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I hadn't even heard that much.

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My folks were not Wagner fans, and although I spent a lot of time hanging around radio

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station WDAY in Fargo, listening to Hank and Thelma and the best little band in the land,

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they didn't tend to program Wagner much.

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Anyway, during my college years, I went to hear the Philadelphia Orchestra play an all-Wagner

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program, and even though I'm sure the concert wasn't really any longer than any other concert,

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when I came out onto the street afterwards, I remember having this feeling, I wonder who's

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president.

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Now, speaking as I was earlier about the long and the short of it, what's that Latin adage,

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Ars Longa, Vita Brevis, have I got those endings right?

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Art is long.

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Life is short.

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But you know, I've always been impressed with how long life is.

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I mean, barring tragic occurrences, most of us live a long time.

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Haven't you ever suddenly remembered something from your past and it feels like it must have

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happened a century ago?

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Recently, I was reminded of a job I once had for a brief while.

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It was cleaning typewriters, standing at a huge sort of table tray with formaldehyde

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in it.

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That feels so long ago that I'm surprised that typewriters had been invented.

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What I think that Latin saying Ars Longa, Vita Brevis really means is that life is short

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compared to Wagner's music.

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But that music sure can be beautiful.

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One of the extraordinarily few drawbacks to the Shickly Mix format is that it's hard to

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accommodate long pieces.

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I would like to use the prelude to Tristan and Isolde to illustrate something today,

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but I can't seem to find a listing of how long it is here.

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Usually they have it on the back of the CD, whatchamacallit, the jewel box.

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Well, let's put it on and listen through the introduction, you know, until it settles into

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the main section.

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Let's listen through the introduction, you know, until it settles into the main section.

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Let's listen through the introduction, you know, until it settles into the main section.

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Let's listen through the introduction, you know.

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Let's listen through the introduction.

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Let's listen through the introduction.

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Let's listen through the introduction.

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You know, this doesn't sound as if it's, wait a minute, let me pull the volume down here.

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This doesn't sound as if it's ever going to settle down.

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I'll tell you what I'm going to do.

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I'll just turn the volume all the way down here, but keep the CD running.

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I can use the other CD player, the one over here where the wire recorder used to be for

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the rest of the show, for the other things.

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Then I can check up on the Wagner later.

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That's Isolde and the Chicagoans, by the way.

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Okay, on another edition of this show, we talk about musical transitions.

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Today we're going to talk about pieces that don't use transitions.

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We're going to hear some masterpieces of transitionlessness.

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Now, I'm disregarding miniature works that are chiseled out of one piece of cloth, as

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it were.

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Many songs, both classical and popular, and many so-called character pieces for piano

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retain one texture throughout.

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They may and probably do have sections, but the dimensions are so small that having transitional

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sections between the sections is not only unnecessary, but undesirable.

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The standard old-fashioned pop song, for instance, has four sections, if you count repetitions.

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A, A, B, A. And, in fact, the colloquial term for the B section is the bridge.

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But it's not really a transition in the sense we're using, because it doesn't go from one

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place to another place.

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It's simply a contrasting section that goes from one place back to the same place.

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If it's a bridge, it's sort of an M.C.

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Esser bridge.

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You know, that guy who does the paradoxical pictures.

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We'll be dealing today mostly with pieces that have well-defined sections, usually in

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different keys, but not separated from each other by smaller sections that accomplish

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a smooth transition.

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The composers of these pieces run out of the sauna and jump right into the lake.

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Here's a pair of perky pieces that don't beat around the bush.

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There are no tearful farewells, no promises to stay in touch.

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When it's time to move on, they pick up and go.

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The first of these has sections in six different keys.

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Closely related to be sure, the second uses only four different keys, but wanders farther

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afield.

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In both cases, however, there's nary a transition in sight.

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See you in six.

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One, two, three, four.

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Five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22,

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23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44,

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45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 65,

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65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 78, 79, 79, 90, 91, 91, 91,

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91, 91, 91, 91, 91, 91, 91, 91, 91, 91, 91, 92, 91, 92!?

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Oh

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Oh

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Oh

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Oh

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Oh

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Oh

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Oh

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Olé a

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couple of transition lists wonders

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the first was from Mozart's Serenade in B-flat major the last movement the finale and

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That was Christopher Hogwood and the Amadeus winds

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By the way, if you heard all that noise there, it was not recorded next to a campfire

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That was the keys of the instruments clicking away and has a contrabassoon in it

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And that's a lot of keys that are big and they make a lot of noise

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And then we heard from an album called the Schoenstein yodeler der Berge the most beautiful

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yodelers of the mountains a tune called mine a yodel veldt

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My yodel world, I guess that is the Wolfgang lintner band

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yodel world

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Is that a Swiss theme park? I?

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Don't know about that

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But I do know Peter shikily when I see him in the mirror his show is called shikily mix from PRI

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Public Radio International

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Today's show is called there's nothing between us. We're just good friends

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We're talking about music with well-defined sections, but no

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transitional fufa raw separating them

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Now unlike the melody on top and bass line on the bottom texture that has been so popular for the last few centuries

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The favorite texture of serious Renaissance music was based on points of imitation

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One part presents a short melodic idea

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Which is then imitated by all the other parts one after the other sort of like the beginning of a round

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So the sections are defined by these points of imitation and what usually happens is that while some parts are finishing up a section

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Another part introduces a new melodic idea that will serve as the basis for the next section

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Now you may not be used to listening this way, but if you pay attention and turn off that TV

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You'll be able to hear the new bits of material being introduced and imitated in this beautiful piece

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The texture doesn't very much, but there are definite overlapping sections in

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Terms of key or tonal centers both of these next two pieces stick pretty close to home

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Me too. I'll be back in less than five minutes

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Oh

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Oh

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Oh

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Oh

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Oh

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Oh

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Oh

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Oh

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Oh

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Okay that pair began with just going to pray

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a chance on a long bro doing BCA which

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in addition to being poorly pronounced means

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In the shade of a bush in the morning. I found belong my sweetheart making a rosary

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Just gonna put this back in here now folks

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Then from an album called fluffy ruffle girls

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That was a rag called pickles and peppers by Adeline Shepherd all the rags on this album

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were written by

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Women most of them at the end of the 19th century beginning of this century

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Virginia Eskin was the pianist

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Hey, I almost forgot about old Dickey Wagner on the other CD player. Let's see where the prelude to Tristan is

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I don't know

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I may just have hit it wrong here, but it sounds as if he still hasn't settled down

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Okay, I'll take it out here again, I wish I knew how long this cut is, you know

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I should know I mean the piece was on that Philly Orchestra program. I went to in 1954

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well, we'll let the wag simmer in his own juice a while longer and turn to a genre that has been traditionally light in the

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transition department I

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refer to the theme and variations genre in which providing

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Transitions between variations is as rare as not providing them is common and vice versa

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Most sets of variations are based on the harmonic structure of the theme often. It's a popular theme of the day and

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Hey

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You know, I just realized why the theme is so important in the music of our self-centered society

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Ever since Freud we've been obsessed with the ego the self the me

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Well, if you take those two words the me and put them together

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See what I mean now, it's insights like that that separate this show from your typical

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dry-as-dust

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Music appreciation course taught by some absent-minded

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professor who wouldn't recognize the real world if he tripped over it and I say he because

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Women are usually more in touch with the real world men make sure of that

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Anyway, both members of our next pair of selections are based on the harmonic structure of the theme

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I can't believe I never noticed that before and

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in addition to that structure the sections or variations in the first piece are defined by changing the texture and

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sometimes the tempo and once by switching to the minor key and then later back again and in the second piece they're defined by

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Well, basically they're defined by who's playing

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This dynamic duo of the theme and variations honor lasts about 10 minutes

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you

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you

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you

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you

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you

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you

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you

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you

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you

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you

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you

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you

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you

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you

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you

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you

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you

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you

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you

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you

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Okay, that was two sets of theme and variation pieces

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They're first Brahms variation and fugue on a theme by Handel and that was played by Emmanuel X

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That wasn't the whole piece by the way, just the theme in the first eight variations

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then the second was Gerry Mulligan and

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People don't tend to call the standard jazz

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Procedure there of theme and improvised choruses theme and variations, but that's exactly what the form is

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this was Bernie's tune and

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Gerry Mulligan on baritone sax Chet Baker on trumpet and you know

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This is from one of these terrific mosaic boxes here and I left the box at home

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So my guess is but please don't bother to write or call if I'm wrong

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I think that it's Carson Smith on bass and Chico Hamilton on drums

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My name is still Peter Shickely and the show is still Shickely mix from PRI Public Radio International

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This next pair of pieces takes the idea of transitionlessness to the max

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In these works the sections that abut each other sometimes have virtually nothing in common not melody

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harmony rhythm texture tempo or even in the second piece instrumentation

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well within each piece of the performers are the same and

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Of course, there are no transitions between the sections now you may remember that today's show is called

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There's nothing between us. We're just good friends. Well in these two pieces, you're not even sure about the friends part

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It's more like a room full of strangers

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Fascinating strangers, but strangers I'll be back in a little under seven minutes

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You

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You

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You

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You

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I

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Hear the wind blow I hear the wind blow it seems to say

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I

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I found a new friend underneath my

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Come on

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My god, please pass the milk, please, please pass the milk, please

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By myself

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What's that blue thing?

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I don't understand you

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I just don't understand you

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I don't understand the things you say I can't understand a single word

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I don't understand you

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I just don't understand you

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I cannot understand you

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I don't understand you

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I don't understand you

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I heard a sound, turned around, turned around to find the thing that made the sound

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Mysterious whisper

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The day that love came to play

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I'm having a heart attack

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I'm having a heart attack

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I'm having a heart attack

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I'm having a heart attack

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Fingertips

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Fingertips

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I walk the low, darkened corridors

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And I walk the low, darkened corridors

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I walk the low, darkened corridors

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And I walk the low, darkened corridors

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Talk about your odd couple. That was Messiaen and They Might Be Giants.

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The Messiaen was the first of the four rhythmic etudes.

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The Ile de Feu, that's the Isle of Fire number one.

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That was Peter Hill playing the piano, Olivier Messiaen.

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And then from They Might Be Giants, the album Apollo 18, that was Fingertips.

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A favorite cut of mine. Actually, I guess you should say a favorite bunch of cuts.

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Well, I guess it's time to check in on Wagner again. Let's see where he is here.

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He's still roiling around.

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You'd think he would have settled into something by now.

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Okay, I'm going to bring it down again. We'll leave him to his own compositional devices and go on to our next piece.

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Now we're going to shift gears a bit here, folks, and listen to a piece that is sort of a synthesis of cake-having and cake-eating, transition-wise speaking.

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This piece is made up of layers, and each layer can be thought of as having sections or as being a section,

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in the sense that that section appears at some point, evolves and disappears.

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But the sectional changes in one layer don't happen at the same time as those in the other layers.

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So the overall effect is one of constant change, constant and gradual change, which is what a transition is.

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Now, that aren't meant to be in front of anything,

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maybe we can talk about a transition that isn't meant to connect anything,

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which, as it happens, is a pretty good working definition of minimalism.

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Okay.

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Okay.

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Okay.

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Okay.

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Okay.

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Okay.

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Okay.

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Okay.

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Okay.

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Tourist song, composed and performed by John Adams from his album, Hoodoo Zephyr.

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Very nice cut.

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What is it we used to say when we were kids?

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Hoodoo.

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You do.

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You do what?

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Have a power.

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What kind of a power?

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The power of voodoo.

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Hoodoo.

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You do.

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You do what?

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Have a power.

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What kind of a power?

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The power of voodoo.

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Hoodoo.

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You do.

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You do what?

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Have a power.

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What kind of a power?

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The power voodoo.

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Hoodoo.

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You do.

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You do what?

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Have a power.

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What kind of a power?

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A little grade school minimalist humor there.

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Now, you know when you go to a symphony orchestra concert and usually the program booklet says

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this piece is scored for two oboes, two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, timpani, and strings.

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Well, on this John Adams album here, it says composed and produced utilizing the Korg Wave

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Station, Yamaha Electone, Yamaha SY-77 and SY-99, Emu Systems Proteus I and Emax II,

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Kurzweil K2000, and Lexicon LXP-15.

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I could have sworn I heard a Hammond B3 in there, or maybe it was a B52.

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Minimalism is, like jazz, one of those terms that's getting harder and harder to use with

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any assurance of what it means.

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Some of the composers commonly called minimalists don't like the term, and that piece is certainly

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a far cry from the early works of Terry Riley, Philip Glass, and Steve Rice.

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It's much more toe-tapping, melodic, and sensual.

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I once asked Paul Taylor, one of my very favorite choreographers, what he does when he sees

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many performances of one of his pieces during his New York season, and he said sometimes

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he picks a particular dancer and follows just him or her throughout the whole piece.

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I like to do that listening to Tourist Song, that John Adams piece.

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Follow a particular layer, which makes me notice details I'd never noticed before.

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The first time I hear certain kinds of minimalist music, I find myself suddenly realizing that

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some element has changed considerably since the beginning, but I'd been in such a trance,

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and I'm talking about an attentive trance, that even though I knew that things were changing,

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I'm surprised at how much they've changed.

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I love that feeling.

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Hey, you know that Wagner has got to be over by now.

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I bet we've missed out here.

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Let me pull it up here.

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I can't believe it.

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Let me turn it down a little bit here.

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There's got to be a timing here somewhere.

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Let me look in the booklet of this thing.

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Here it is.

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The timings are listed.

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Prelude to Tristan and Isolde, 10, 19, 45, 11.

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What?

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Oh, here's the code.

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That means it lasts 10 days, 19 hours, 45 minutes, and 11 seconds.

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Just kidding, folks.

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It'll actually be over in less than a week.

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We might as well listen to as much of it as we can.

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You know, it actually reminds me of the John Adams in a way.

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It sounds like an eternal transition.

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I know there's a theme that keeps coming back and the opening motif and everything, but

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it never stays in one key long enough to feel like it's really there, you know what I mean?

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And remember how hushed the very beginning of the piece was?

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The whole prelude feels like a gigantic, ecstatic transition from silence to singing.

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You know what?

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I think I'm just going to read the end credits now and then we can listen to Isolde and the

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Chicago Symphony until the show's over or the cows come home, whichever happens first.

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So that's Shickly Mix for this week.

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Our program is made possible with funds provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting,

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by the National Endowment for the Arts, and by this radio station and its members.

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It's distributed by PRI, Public Radio International.

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We'll tell you in a little while how you can get an official playlist of all the music

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on today's program with album numbers and everything.

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Just refer to the program number.

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This is program number 94.

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And this is Peter Shickly saying goodbye and reminding you that it don't mean a thing if

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it ain't got that certain je ne sais quoi.

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You're looking good.

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See you next week.

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Thank you.

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Thank you.