1 00:00:14,070 --> 00:00:26,810 Hello there, I'm Peter Schickely, and this is Schickely 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. 2 00:00:27,370 --> 00:00:37,630 And how good it is to acknowledge that our bills are paid by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, by the National Endowment for the Arts, and by this very radio station, 3 00:00:38,220 --> 00:00:48,790 within whose hallowed walls I whip up this weekly concoction, which is catered, as it were, to the outside world by PRI, Public Radio International. 4 00:00:49,990 --> 00:01:02,710 And those food images are no accident, because today's show is called Musical Fruit. We're going to hear everything from Yes, We Have No Bananas to the theme song from the Chaplain Files, 5 00:01:02,730 --> 00:01:15,610 to the film Limelight, get it? Limelight? And, well, let's see, we'll hear a suite of pieces by New York composers called Music from the Big Apple, and, uh, oh, there's also a... 6 00:01:15,610 --> 00:01:28,080 I can't believe this. Um, excuse me. Hello? What do you mean it's a stupid idea for a show? 7 00:01:28,360 --> 00:01:39,800 I don't go around telling... Well... Well, no, I mean, you're right. Anybody could do it. I mean, I don't like the titles, but give me a break. Do you have any idea how many shows I've done? 8 00:01:40,320 --> 00:01:51,160 There's no reason that every single one of them has to deal with heavy-duty technical and philosophical things like augmented thirteenth chords, or whether the idea of following a leader 9 00:01:51,160 --> 00:02:02,920 makes the fugue an inherently fascistic form. I like to lighten up every once in a while, you know? What do you want from me? I mean, right now. Here we are. You're interrupting the show. What do you want me to do? 10 00:02:04,540 --> 00:02:16,910 Okay, and what's your idea of a more... interesting subject? Well, I've got quite a bit here, you know. Yeah, I'm sure I have that. That I know I have. 11 00:02:17,230 --> 00:02:30,210 In fact, the Mozart clarinet quintet is right here. I've been working on an idea for a program about composers whose last names start with M. Oh, Monteverdi, Montpeu, 12 00:02:31,190 --> 00:02:39,950 Moe, he wrote a song for the Three Stooges once. But come on, we're on the air here. What's your idea? Yeah? Yeah, I've read that. 13 00:02:42,810 --> 00:02:53,990 Okay, look, I'll do that, but then I'm going to go back to what I had... You have to prepare these shows, you know? I mean, you have to pull the albums and you can't just improvise them on the spot. 14 00:02:54,710 --> 00:03:04,940 But okay, I'll start off with this. Okay. Okay, bye. It's been suggested that we begin the show 15 00:03:04,940 --> 00:03:15,460 with something a bit meatier than musical fruit. That listener who just called in was playing a CD of the Ravel Piano Concerto last night, 16 00:03:15,880 --> 00:03:27,120 and the liner notes told about how Ravel said that he had modeled the theme of the slow movement on the theme of the slow movement of Mozart's clarinet quintet, bar by bar. That's a quote. 17 00:03:27,460 --> 00:03:39,740 And this listener can't hear the relationship and wants me to discuss this. It is an interesting subject. We often talk about the influence of one composer on another in general terms, 18 00:03:39,980 --> 00:03:49,640 but it's not often that a composer's music is so important that the composer says he modeled a movement in detail on a specific piece by someone else without actually quoting the piece, I mean. 19 00:03:50,020 --> 00:03:55,880 So here's the opening of each of those two slow movements. First the Mozart, then the Ravel. 20 00:08:51,070 --> 00:09:02,690 Marta Argrich playing part of Ravel's Piano Concerto with Claudio Abado conducting the line. Before that, Sabina Mayer and the Philharmonia Quartet Berlin 21 00:09:02,690 --> 00:09:15,390 playing part of Mozart's clarinet quintet. I gotta say, it's a bit of a poser. Now what I did was, I wrote down the Mozart theme while it was playing. I know the piece pretty well, 22 00:09:15,450 --> 00:09:25,390 but I wanted to really have it in front of me. And then I stared at the Mozart while the Ravel was playing. And I must say that, although there were certain confluences, 23 00:09:25,890 --> 00:09:37,350 I had to ignore so many non-confluences that I can't help wondering if I wouldn't have noticed certain confluences listening to any of a number of aria-like slow movements 24 00:09:37,350 --> 00:09:47,310 by any of a number of composers. There are certain similarities in the melodic outlines, but if there's anything consistent, I can't hear it. 25 00:09:47,870 --> 00:10:00,330 Of course, if it's consistent but really arcane or obscure, I'm not very good at that kind of analysis. But let's face it, in terms of enjoying the piece, it's all beside the point. Ravel didn't call the movement 26 00:10:00,330 --> 00:10:13,310 Fantasy on a Theme by Mozart. He was just trying, apparently, to use the Mozart to nudge his own inspiration. He wasn't concerned with consistency. I wish we could talk to Ravel on the phone 27 00:10:13,310 --> 00:10:25,490 and ask him about it. Hey! I didn't know that sickly mixes carried in heaven. Hello, Maurice? No, I'm just kidding around. So anyway, are you happy? 28 00:10:25,610 --> 00:10:36,790 I mean, I'm sorry I can't come up with some... insightful commentary about the relationship, but, you know, I'm not the composer. I can't presume to... What? What do you mean? The whole program? 29 00:10:38,590 --> 00:10:49,750 Well, no, I mean, the idea of a whole program based on my own music does have a certain attraction, a measurable amount of appeal. I can't deny that, but... 30 00:10:51,130 --> 00:11:03,010 Well, you're right. I do have that advantage over Ravel. I'm here. I can be asked about the specific influences. I can be asked about the specific influences in my music. So what do you want to know? That's the first quartet, yeah? 31 00:11:03,950 --> 00:11:15,990 The last movement. You mean the beginning of the last movement? Gene Ritchie, definitely. The inspiration for that section comes from a couple of Gene Ritchie's early albums, specifically the cuts in which she 32 00:11:15,990 --> 00:11:27,270 accompanies herself on the dulcimer. The drone in the dulcimer, her serenely beautiful voice singing the tune, while she plays a counter melody on the top string of the dulcimer, 33 00:11:27,910 --> 00:11:38,310 the counter melody sometimes parallel to the tune and sometimes not. I remember quite clearly that when I was working on the last movement of the string quartet, that's the sound that was in my ears. 34 00:11:39,630 --> 00:11:50,670 No one particular song, I guess, and I certainly filled out the texture, but I did... What? Oh, yeah, I've got them here. Really? You think I should? 35 00:11:53,590 --> 00:12:06,350 Well, why not? Here, I'm going to put the felt on the guitar, put the tone down, or actually I might as well hang up and you can turn your radio on. Okay? Yeah, bye. Well, like Oscar Wilde, 36 00:12:06,390 --> 00:12:18,030 I can resist anything but temptation. So I hope that you all share that caller's feeling that it's interesting to hear a composer talk very specifically about the influences on a particular piece. 37 00:12:18,810 --> 00:12:31,590 One musician, who has played my first quartet a lot, says he thinks of the opening of the last movement as a prairie benediction. It's a nice phrase, a good evocation, and it certainly ties in with my Iowa 38 00:12:31,590 --> 00:12:42,510 and North Dakota roots. But when I hear the section, I tend to think of Appalachia, with which I feel a powerful bond, even though I'm a Yankee who has hardly spent any time there. 39 00:12:42,950 --> 00:12:48,450 It's a bond forged completely by music, music like that of the young Gene Ritchie. 40 00:12:52,070 --> 00:12:58,650 But black is the color of my true love's hair But black is the color of my true love's hair 41 00:12:58,650 --> 00:13:12,670 His face is on the ground 42 00:13:12,670 --> 00:13:25,200 His face is on the ground Whereon he stands He knows my love And well he knows I love her 43 00:13:25,200 --> 00:13:37,030 I love her view 44 00:13:38,010 --> 00:13:48,310 As you have me Born to weep Born to weep 45 00:13:48,310 --> 00:14:02,020 Her death 46 00:14:03,060 --> 00:14:13,930 Ten thousand times Ten thousand times Ten thousand times Of so fair you will 47 00:14:13,930 --> 00:14:25,980 But still I hope The time will come 48 00:14:25,980 --> 00:14:36,390 When we'll be as one But black is the color 49 00:14:36,390 --> 00:14:43,530 Of my true love's hair His face is on the ground 50 00:14:49,960 --> 00:14:58,240 His face is on the ground Whereon he stands His face is on the ground Whereon he stands 51 00:14:58,240 --> 00:15:04,860 His face is on the ground His face is on the ground 52 00:16:24,020 --> 00:16:36,820 Gene Ritchie singing Black is the color accompanying herself on the dulcimer. How old is that record? It's not only an LP, folks, it's a ten-inch LP, Elektra. The catalog number is two. 53 00:16:37,680 --> 00:16:50,200 That was followed by the Audubon Quartet playing the opening of the last movement of the string quartet No.1 subtitled American Dreams by the less and less young American composer Peter Shikely 54 00:16:50,200 --> 00:17:01,440 who I understand has a radio show now called Shikely Miss I think it's distributed by PRI, Public Radio International. Little change of course here. 55 00:17:01,880 --> 00:17:11,400 This show was going to be called Musical Fruit, but I've been persuaded to turn it into a show about influences. Very specifically identified influences. 56 00:17:12,079 --> 00:17:22,280 Taking advantage of the fact that in the host of this show, you have a live and breathing composer who, well, who doesn't mind talking about his own music. 57 00:17:22,280 --> 00:17:34,020 And who is willing to fess up to where he stole things from. In other words, I'm the horse's mouth. Although that's not the only part of the equestrian anatomy that has been applied to me. 58 00:17:34,440 --> 00:17:46,780 And I've pulled out a bunch of recordings here. Hello? I'm doing it, okay? So stop calling. What do you mean, be specific? 59 00:17:48,900 --> 00:17:57,920 That is exactly what I was about to do, okay? Okay. Come on. On other editions of this show, 60 00:17:58,520 --> 00:18:08,040 we talk about the influence of jazz or folk music or Asian music on various composers, but it's been pretty general. Now we're going to get down to the nitty gritty. 61 00:18:08,240 --> 00:18:20,140 The time, the place, the scene of the crime and what was taken. In 1960 or 61, I was visiting a friend in the Bay Area and I needed some photos of myself for some reason. 62 00:18:20,220 --> 00:18:33,140 And my friend knew a serious amateur photographer, and he agreed to shoot me a picture of myself. And while he worked, he put on a bluegrass record by Earl Taylor and his Stony Mountain Boys. A record that, as regular listeners to this show know, 63 00:18:33,320 --> 00:18:41,800 became one of my all-time favorite albums. It's mostly standard bluegrass songs done with incredible energy and great harmony singing. 64 00:18:42,640 --> 00:18:53,820 Many, many years later, I wrote a piece for cello and piano called Mountain Music I. The middle movement of which, shall we say, pays homage in a very direct way to two of the, 65 00:18:56,340 --> 00:19:07,860 the most famous blues of the late 19th century. Ruby features one of my favorite bluegrass textures. Long, mournful melody notes sung over a boilingly busy instrumental accompaniment. I even lifted the phrase, 66 00:19:08,020 --> 00:19:20,710 Ruby! Ruby! from the song. In the Pines has some classic in the cracks harmony singing, but what I used was the beginning of the melody, 67 00:19:20,850 --> 00:19:31,410 and the general feeling, which I exaggerated, of a bumptious way of singing. I used waltz, as opposed to the refined strains of old Vienna, 68 00:19:32,030 --> 00:19:43,150 although that bumptiousness in my piece alternates with more lyrical sections. Actually, I was about to say, okay, here are the pilferies and the pilferer, 69 00:19:43,250 --> 00:19:56,090 but of course it's more complicated than that. Earl Taylor didn't write those songs, or even invent those textures. They're standard bluegrass issue, going back to Bill Monroe and others. But the Stony Mountain Boys simply do it so well. 70 00:19:56,090 --> 00:20:08,330 They tackle the songs with such vigor and feeling. And on the other hand, there's a lot more original material in my piece than there is borrowed material. But it certainly is a case of working under the influence. 71 00:20:08,890 --> 00:20:10,930 See you in about nine and a half minutes. 72 00:20:13,530 --> 00:20:14,730 Oh, Ruby! 73 00:23:55,340 --> 00:23:57,800 Train I ever saw, 74 00:23:57,800 --> 00:24:03,540 Went down that Georgian line. 75 00:24:04,820 --> 00:24:11,300 The engine passed at six o'clock, 76 00:24:11,580 --> 00:24:16,180 And the cab passed by at nine. 77 00:24:17,720 --> 00:24:27,780 In the pines, in the pines, Where the sun never shines, And we shivered when the cold came. 78 00:24:27,800 --> 00:24:39,470 Oh, the wind blows. Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh. 79 00:24:41,970 --> 00:25:11,790 Little girl, little girl, 80 00:25:11,930 --> 00:25:14,890 What have I done 81 00:25:15,330 --> 00:25:25,810 That makes you treat me so? You cause me to weep, And you make me cry. 82 00:25:25,830 --> 00:25:27,890 You cause me to moan, 83 00:25:27,970 --> 00:25:32,210 You cause me to leave my home. 84 00:25:34,030 --> 00:25:37,630 In the pines, in the pines, 85 00:25:37,630 --> 00:25:45,130 Where the sun never shines, And we shiver when the cold wind blows. 86 00:25:47,570 --> 00:25:59,140 Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh. 87 00:26:05,940 --> 00:26:07,740 Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh. 88 00:29:54,530 --> 00:30:01,910 Little girl, little girl, Stony Mountain Boys performing Ruby and In the Pines, and that was followed by the middle movement 89 00:30:01,910 --> 00:30:14,670 of Mountain Music One, written in his spare time by the host of Shickley Mix, and performed in concert by Astrid Schween on cello and the composer at the piano. That movement, by the way, is called 90 00:30:14,670 --> 00:30:21,310 Stony Mountain Holler, as a tribute to Earl Taylor and his band. Okay, now in this next family... 91 00:30:21,310 --> 00:30:46,640 Wait, I'm not answering that. All right. In this next family, the child doesn't perhaps look quite 92 00:30:46,640 --> 00:30:58,300 as much like his parents as in the last, but the family resemblance is still pretty obvious. We'll begin with the grandfather, as it were. African thumb piano music, played by a virtuoso 93 00:30:58,300 --> 00:31:09,780 in Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe. Then come the parents. We'll hear part of an African piece played by Balafon, an American marimba ensemble. This is the piece that directly influenced the 94 00:31:09,800 --> 00:31:21,280 mine, along with another African piece played by Garrick Vistad and his friends at a percussion quartet concert in Woodstock, New York, in the summer of 1993 or 94. Unfortunately, I don't have 95 00:31:21,280 --> 00:31:30,240 a recording of that one. Then the third piece in this set will be a movement from an orchestral suite by yours truly. See you in about six and a half minutes. 96 00:31:47,760 --> 00:31:49,180 Thank you. 97 00:32:55,820 --> 00:38:17,670 We began with part of a piece called Nimu Timu, played by John Kunaka, on a 24-key 98 00:38:17,670 --> 00:38:27,310 mbira, or 24-key mbira. Then came part of Mashamba Ntsu, or Tsao, from Southern Africa, played by the Balafon 99 00:38:27,310 --> 00:38:39,930 Marimba Ensemble. And finally, from Thurber's Dogs, a suite for orchestra inspired by the drawings of James Thurber, we heard Dog Sleeping, performed by the Pro Musica Chamber Orchestra 100 00:38:39,930 --> 00:38:48,290 of Columbus, under the direction of Timothy Russell. The composer of that last piece and the host of this radio program have the same name. 101 00:38:48,750 --> 00:38:55,050 I.e., Peter Shickily. And that of the show is Shickily Mix, from PRI, Public Radio International. 102 00:38:56,570 --> 00:39:08,550 Our show is called Under the Influence, and I'm owning up to some, I hope we can all agree, petty larcenies, compositionally-wise speaking. Or maybe a better metaphor is demonstrating 103 00:39:08,930 --> 00:39:18,270 some plant cuttings I've made, and how I grafted them to other plants, and what the results were. Sometimes composers are influenced by a particular 104 00:39:18,270 --> 00:39:30,730 kind of music, ragtime, gamelan, tango, and sometimes by one particular piece. If you ask what single western piece written in the 20th century has influenced the most composers, 105 00:39:31,050 --> 00:39:43,250 it would have to be the Rite of Spring, Stravinsky's 1913 ballet score. Just a few years ago, a rather self-deprecating composer acquaintance of mine showed me the score of his latest piece 106 00:39:43,250 --> 00:39:54,670 and said, yet another attempt to recompose the Rite of Spring. I guess that would be the Rewrite of Spring. These days, of course, many of us get to know more music through recordings than through 107 00:39:54,670 --> 00:40:01,190 live performance, and especially in non-classical music, you can sometimes develop an inordinate 108 00:40:01,190 --> 00:40:13,230 attachment to one particular cut on an album. My knowledge of jazz is very scattered. I didn't hear much of it until I got to college in 1952, and I didn't hear much of the harder-edged stuff until I got to college in 1952. I didn't hear much of the harder-edged stuff until I got 109 00:40:13,230 --> 00:40:22,670 to college in 1952. I didn't hear much of the harder-edged stuff until I got to New York in 1957. I don't even remember how I came to acquire an LP by Lenny Tristano, not exactly a household name, 110 00:40:22,790 --> 00:40:29,470 but I had it by 1960, and I was listening to it a lot. The very first cut on the album made a huge 111 00:40:29,470 --> 00:40:37,090 impression on me. Single melodic line, hard driving, exaggerated accents and also de-accents, 112 00:40:37,650 --> 00:40:49,570 no chordal fill, and great use of the middle and low-middle range, considerably below where the typical piano solo lies. Piano parts inspired by that cut have appeared in 113 00:40:49,570 --> 00:40:58,550 several of my chamber works, and if I ever write a concerto for piano and orchestra, I'm sure it'll turn up again. Here's the Tristano tune, called Line Up, 114 00:40:58,690 --> 00:41:11,630 followed by the slow movement from My Serenade for Six. After a few minutes of serene slow music, probably partially inspired, come to think of it, by the slow movement of the Subert Cello Quintet, 115 00:41:12,090 --> 00:41:18,190 The door bursts open and the ghost of Lenny Tristano charges in. I'll be back in about 11 minutes. 116 00:52:30,540 --> 00:52:39,520 Followed by the middle movement of the Serenade for Six, written by Peter Shickley, who also, interestingly enough, chose the music for this program. 117 00:52:40,200 --> 00:52:52,280 And performed by the Schrickel Ensemble. Performed beautifully. Now, we've had a lot of my stuff on this show. Let's go out with someone else's music. I think it would be nice if... 118 00:52:55,200 --> 00:53:06,520 Okay. Hello? Hello? We've had a lot of my stuff. There's not time for another whole piece. 119 00:53:07,320 --> 00:53:14,120 Mom, I'm a grown-up guy. It's my show. I can do what I want, okay? We're going out on somebody else's stuff. Bye. 120 00:53:15,800 --> 00:53:16,280 Boy. 121 00:53:38,510 --> 00:53:51,190 Let's go out with the Balafon Marimba Ensemble. I love this cut. That's Sickly Mix for this week. Our program is made possible with funds provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, 122 00:53:51,270 --> 00:54:00,850 by the National Broadcasting Service, by the National Endowment for the Arts, and by this radio station and its members. Our program is distributed by PRI, Public Radio International. 123 00:54:01,710 --> 00:54:12,670 We'll tell you in a moment how you can get an official playlist of all the music on today's program, with album numbers and everything. Just refer to the program number. This is program number 97. 124 00:54:14,350 --> 00:54:23,710 And this is Peter Shickley 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. See you next week. 125 00:55:37,760 --> 00:57:47,340 If you'd like a copy of that playlist I mentioned, send a stamped self-addressed envelope to 126 00:57:47,340 --> 00:57:55,020 Shickley Mix. That's S-C-H-I-C-K-E-L-E, Shickley Mix. Care of Public Radio International. 127 00:57:55,220 --> 00:58:02,220 100 North 6th Street, Suite 900A, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 55403. 128 00:58:03,980 --> 00:58:07,360 PRI, Public Radio International.