‘And How Would You Like that Prepared Sir?’ ‘Harmonically, Please.’

Schickele Mix Episode #104

Part of The Schickele Mix Online Fan Archive

Premiere
1996-07-24
“Peter, are you ready?”
As James Joyce wrote in his now classic book Ulysses, "yes".

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[This is a machine-generated transcript, cleaned up and formatted as HTML. You can download the original as an .srt file.]

And now, Schickele Mix. Ready, Mr. Schickele?
As James Joyce wrote in his now-classic book, Ulysses, yes, here's the theme.
[No speech for 15s.]
Hello there, I'm Peter Schickele, and this is Schickele 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. Our bills, I'm happy and grateful to say, are paid by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, by the National Endowment for the Arts, and by this radio station, to which you are tuned right now, which gives me the space to expand my ideas, after which they ooze out all over the place, thanks to PRI, Public Radio International.
Once upon a time, many, many, many years ago, a caveman named Andmer Plumdrews woke up very early and couldn't get back to sleep. It was a very, very, very, very, very, very, very, It was still dark in the cave, but when he went outside, he marveled at what he saw, for the sky was light and clear and full of strange and beautiful colors, but the sun was nowhere to be seen. The fact is that Andmer's cave was so deep and dark that he had never in his life been up before sunrise. He climbed to the top of a nearby promontory and watched in wonder as the sun, in all its splendor, climbed slowly into the sky from beyond the sky. beyond the horizon. So moved was he by the beauty of the scene before him
that he expressed his feelings aloud, speaking, of course, in cave. Og, og, Ogmebo, Ogmebo to Bobo.
The next morning, having invented a primitive device that dropped a rock on his head at 5 a.m., Andmer woke up his aging father and helped him up to the promontory. His father, too, was moved by the sunrise and expressed himself with the same words as his son, but his voice was pitched differently, so that a kind of harmony was produced when they spoke.
Og, og, Ogmebo, Ogmebo to Bobo. The next morning, Andmer brought his father, his wife, and both their kids up to the promontory. And when the sun rose, and they all expressed their amazement, each in a distinct voice, the world heard its first chorus.
Og, og, Ogmebo, Ogmebo to Bobo.
Soon the whole clan was gathering on the promontory to greet the sun. By now, Andmer Plumdrew's initial reaction had become an incantation, spoken simultaneously by everyone, each in his or her own range, the moment the sun appeared. Little did these beetle-browed but gentle folk, realize that they were inventing harmony.
Og, og, Ogmebo, Ogmebo to Bobo. Today, thousands and thousands of years later, and in spite of vast evolutionary changes in language, that same incantation can still be heard when the descendants of those simple cave people come together on the promontories of what we now call Austria.
The hills are alive with the sound of music With songs they have sung for a thousand years The hills fill my heart
That's right folks, and remember you heard it first on Schickele Mix. Harmony was invented in Austria, sometime between the last two years, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, by the ancestors of Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer.
And the musical world hasn't been the same since. On another edition of this program, we talk about how, in a melody plus accompaniment situation, the accompaniment is usually quite distinct from the melody, in order to make the melody stand out. Specifically, the accompaniment is often very different rhythmically from the melody.
The accompaniment may be a simple beat, that is soft, slower than most of the notes in the melody,
or the accompaniment may be fancy guitar and banjo picking, whose notes are faster than those of the melody.
Get down boys, go back home, back to the girl you love Here I never wrong, now, now
In both those cases, and in many, many, many, many other cases, the rhythm of the accompaniment is completely different. Now the one common kind of accompaniment that does not follow the principle of rhythmic differentiation from the melody, is what we'll call harmonizing. Protestant hymns and doo-wop singing are two bastions of harmonizing, which term I'm using to mean music that has at least two voices, but all the voices have the same rhythm. The melody, in as much as it stands out at all, usually stands out simply because it's on top.
Our first suite today contains four great examples of harmonizing. Now, composers are not out to write textbook examples. They feel no didactic need to stick to one technique throughout a piece. But I'll be sticking pretty close to the truth if I say that in these four works, all the parts have the same rhythm as the melody. The first number features two women singing mostly in unison, but every once in a while they sort of drift apart, which I suppose is one of the ways that harmonizing works. The three women in the second piece, and the six men in the third, sing pretty consistently in harmony. In fact, it's usually harmony in parallel or similar motion. That is, if the melody goes up, all the other voices go up, too, and vice versa.
This kind of harmonization can often be improvised, as Antmer Plumdrews and his clan demonstrated. Then the last number is a Protestant hymn, but believe me, it's not the kind they sang at the first concert, but it's a congregational church in Fargo, North Dakota, up there on North Broadway. The Your Rhythm is Good Enough for Me Suite lasts about 12 minutes.
I'll see you then.
[No speech for 391s.]
This warning says that you must be aware of the deceivers he or she attracts you with something like touch, touch and kiss, kiss. Get away from those who want to touch, touch and kiss, kiss. Thereafter, they leave you alone. You. This warning is for you and you and you too. And for everybody. Come back, Paulina, come back.
Come back, Paulina, come back. I feel so rude. Come back, Paulina, come back. I saw tears from your face. Come back, my love, come back. I've fallen like waterfalls.
Come back, my love, come back. Remember me. Remember your promise. Come back, come back, come back. Remember your promise. I feel so rude. Come back, Paulina. I am lonely Come back, Paulina I saw tears from your face Come back, my love Falling like waterfalls Come back, my love, come back Come back
Remember your promise, remember Come back, come back, come back Remember your promise, remember Listen to me, Paulina Come back, Paulina, come back Listen to me, Paulina Paulina, come back
Chululu, Chululu, Chululu, Chululu, Chululu, Chululu, Chululu, Chululu, Chululu, Chululu, Chululu, Chululu, Chululu, Chululu, Chululu, Chululu, Chululu, Chululu, Chululu, Chululu, Chululu, Chululu, Chululu, Chululu, Chululu, Chululu, Chululu, Chululu, Chululu, Chululu, Chululu, Chululu, Chululu, Chululu, Chululu, Chululu, Chululu, Chululu, Chululu, Chululu, Chululu, Chululu, Chululu, Chululu, Chululu, Chululu, Chululu, Chululu, Chululu, Chululu, Chululu, Chululu, Chululu, Chululu, Chululu, Chululu I feel sorrow I saw tears on your face Come back my love Hold me like waterfall Come back my love Why don't you come back
Remember your promise Remember, come back, come back Remember your promise Remember, come back, come back Remember your promise Please Paulina Please Paulina Come back to him
He loves you, he wants to marry you, get away from those who want to touch, touch, and kiss, kiss, thereafter they leave you alone.
Lord, Lord, what wondrous love is this, O my soul, O my soul.
What wondrous love is this, O my soul.
What wondrous love is this.
What wondrous love is this, O my soul, O my soul.
When I was sinking down, sinking down, sinking down.
When I was sinking down, sinking down. When I was sinking down, sinking down.
When I was sinking down, beneath God's righteous crown, Christ laid aside his crown for my soul.
To the sky His crown, warm my soul.
To God and to the world sing, I will sing. To God and to the world sing.
To God and to the world sing, is the great I am.
Me and Jonathan, I will sing, I will sing.
I am me and Jonathan. I will sing.
Very good indeed. The, your rhythm is good enough for me, sweet. We began from a sampler album called the Heart of the Gales.
A group called, and I don't know how to pronounce, you know, Gaelic stuff.
So it's, the group is called Sileus, or Silius, which consists of Patsy Seddon and Mary McAllister. They're both singing here. Apparently they also play harp. I'd, I'd love to get that whole album.
Anyway, that's called Pertibull, or something like that, mouth music. Then the second piece was from the Anonymous Fours album, An English Lady Mass. That was an anonymous Gloria, medieval Gloria. Then from an album called the Best of Ladysmith Black Mambazo, a tune called Pauline, which you probably figured out. Great number. And then finally. That, that incredibly rousing sound at the end is from an album called White Spirituals from the Sacred Harp. The Sacred Harp is this terrific collection of old folk hymns in three and four part arrangements and shape note singing. This was taped at the Alabama Sacred Harp Convention in 1959 by Alan Lomax. The hymn was called Wondrous Love.
And those hundred people or so were all sight readings. Somebody calls out a hymn, they give the pitches, and they all go to it. Sometimes apparently people bring in new ones and everybody just sight reads.
It sounds like a tremendously emotional thing. I would love to be there for one of those conventions. I don't know if an outsider would feel at home, but I'd love to be there.
Now if you say hymn style harmonization, everyone will assume a style in which the parts, usually four, soprano, alto, tenor, bass, all share basically the same rhythm. But that is not adhering to the rhythm. It's adhered to strictly. And in fact Bach, who made dozens of chorale harmonizations, often gives a fair amount of rhythmic independence to the lower three voices, but only up to a point. They're never as independent as they would be in a fugue, for instance. Sometimes a lot of busy harmonic activity can actually obscure the melody. Here's a setting by P.D.Q.
Bach of a hymn he identifies as mündlich, that is, orally. It sounds more like a medication instruction than a hymn title.
Anyway, we will hear it performed on the organ of the King Congregational Church in Fayray, North Dakota.
[No speech for 125s.]
If you're wondering how P.D.Q. Bach, who according to the world's greatest authority lived in the 18th century, could have made a setting of an Elvis Presley song, let me point out that the melody of Love Me Tender comes from an old, old song about a girl named Orville.
The organist in that performance is also the host of this radio program. The name of both of them is Peter Schickele, and the name of the show is Schickele Mix from PRI, Public Radio International.
Today's show is called, Harmonically, please. We started with one of the most basic kinds of harmonization, one chord for every melodic note. And now we continue with another one of the most basic kinds of harmonization, one chord for every group of melodic notes, which brings us back, by the way, to the norm of rhythmically differentiated accompaniments. The technique of simply plonking down a chord every measure, or every half measure, or every other measure, can get very tedious when employed by an amateur who can do nothing else, like when there used to be a piano in the school cafeteria.
[No speech for 16s.]
But it can be very effective as a contrast to more florid kinds of accompaniment. It's very rarely used for a whole piece, which is why this next suite begins with an excerpt. I call the pair Simplicity Itself, and I'll be back in less than four minutes.
[No speech for 229s.]
Simplicity itself. The first of those two numbers was the beginning of the lament on the death of Sor Blanca Maria with the terrific fiddle player Bonnie Rideout, and that was Sue Richards playing the Celtic harp.
And then we had Dietrich Fischer-Diskau and Alfred Brendel from Schubert's Winterreise der Greise Kopf. These words sound so modern in a way.
The frost had spread a white glow over my head. Then I thought I was an old man already and was very glad. But soon it thawed away.
I have black hair once more, so that I shudder at my youthfulness, how far it is yet to the grave. Do a punk rock number on that. Now, the thing about pianos and harps is that when you play a chord, it decays. There's no way you can keep it going without playing it again.
But if you transfer this simplicity itself technique to instruments that can sustain notes, it's a whole new ball. As we hear in the next sweetlet called Hold That Chord. It has two movements and holds forth for about six minutes. Till then.
The ruler lives up the stairs
And four doors down the hall
And knows that
Except for linens When the family comes to call
The room nobody lives in
Is always empty Inculately clean
And all is softly silent
Except for buzzings
Eyes between the screen And all is softly silent Except for buzzing eyes between the screen
But there's a feeling
Even breathing in the air Like there's someone
When there's no one even there
And I'm hearing the cheers for the heroes Of scenes going down in this room
And I'm hearing the cheers for the heroes Of scenes going down in this room And I'm hearing the cheers for the heroes Of scenes going down in this room
For so many years But now nobody goes
For forty years or so
This room has been alone
And starving for a moment Completely human
Completely all her own
Who is up the stairs
[No speech for 161s.]
Hold that chord The first number was John Sebastian singing his song The Room Nobody Lives In and pumping away at the harmonium. And then from an absolutely gorgeous album called La Dolce Vita with the King's Singers and a group called Tragicomedia. Tragicomedia.
That was a fantasy by a new composer to me, Alonso Mudara.
And according to the liner notes, Mudara's Fantasia for Vioella imitates the improvising style of Ludovico, the great Spanish harpist of the previous generation. I would have loved to have heard him play.
Okay, my name is still Peter Schickele, just as it was earlier in the show. And that of the show is still Schickele Mix from PRI, Public Radio Indoors.
international. Have you heard about the composer who liked dissonant chords so much he ate them for breakfast? When people asked him what he had for breakfast, he said, harmony grits.
We're talking about basic harmonic accompaniments to melodies here, and we're having a swell time doing it. Now, you see, the trouble with the hold that chord technique is that after a while, it can get to sounding pretty lugubrious. How can you keep the same chord going without being mistaken for a zombie? Easy. Repeat the chord. Repeat it again. And keep repeating it until you feel the sap starting to flow. Our last suite contains five examples of accompaniments featuring repeated chords, and it covers a lot of territory. Let's call this suite Once Is Not Enough.
And here we go. A one, one, one, a two, two, two, two, a one, one, a two, two, a three, three, a four, four.
[No speech for 145s.]
Hallelujah.
[No speech for 12s.]
A one, one, one, a two, two, three, a four, four, five.
A one, one, one, a two, two, two, a one, one, a three, two, three, a four.
A one is the best for a four time over.
Now, it's time to get a grade for engagements with par Backanne.
macamico투 лоџ 19 оу coincide
[No speech for 69s.]
preclude delle или
[No speech for 124s.]
Say hi, don't do it, man.
[No speech for 169s.]
Someday, yeah, this boy wants you back again.
That boy isn't good for you.
He may want you too. Ooh, this boy wants you back again.
Oh, and this boy, this boy,
always feel the same. If this boy gets you back again.
This boy, this boy, this boy, this boy.
Once is not enough, a fine collection of repeated chords. We began with a song by Amy Beach, the American composer. This was called Uni, June, written in 1903. American composer, but German poem. Oh, June days in the sunshine, flooding, and cloudless, richly flowered meadows and blossoming wine.
And in the gardens throughout the world, hearts ease and roses. Poem by Erich Janssen. And then we had from one of my favorite albums, a 10-inch LP, Music of Africa series number 11.
That was a song called Utando Kwabanyé, a song with zither accompaniment by Enoch Matawu, who is from the Debele branch of the Zulu family. It's a song about a man who's been in the world for a long time, but who's been in the world for a long time. It's about the possession of cattle with which to pay the bride price. The cattle demanded of a young man who wishes to marry. Recorded in 1953.
Then the wonderful group Muzikash with Marta Sebastian singing. That's a mezuzeg dance. And I don't think I'll even try to give the title, but the name of the album is Marta Sebastian. And that instrument that keeps repeating the chord, in addition to the string bass, is a three-chord, and it's a 3-chord. It's a three-string violin with a flat bridge, so that the bow hits all three strings at once. And that instrument just plays chordal accompaniment, repeating it like that. Then we heard the famous E minor prelude from Opus 28 of Chopin, played by Russell Sherman. And then finally, the Beatles, this boy. It's just, to me, it's fantastic how they take what is basically a rather trite kind of figure and a trite kind of harmonic progression, and turn it into a fantastic, a fantastic song because of the harmonization, and also because of that great bridge. Meanwhile, the guitar is going chung, chugga, chung, chung, chung, chung, chung, chugga, chung, chung, one of the great cliches of repeated chords. Hey, we've got time for tidbit time. And speaking of repeated chords, this is a cautionary tale about some of the occupational hazards that can befall a repeated chord player.
Huh? Oh yes, I'm the great pretender. Ooh, ooh. Pretender. But just a moment, please. You're on the piano.
What are you doing?
Well, man, I just play a little ooh-bah-bah-doo, like ooh-bah-bah, ooh-bah-bah-bah. See, I think it's a mistake on my part. I got the same chord over and over, like a clink, clink, clink, clink, clink, clink. That's right. That's right.
You want me to play the same thing all through the song? You catch on fast.
Wow. My need is such, I pretend too much. I'm lonely, but no one can tell.
Oh, oh, man, you scared me, don't do that.
Oh, oh, yes, I'm the great pretender. Ooh, ooh. I drift in a world of my own.
Watch it, that's better, I'll play the game. And you'd better play it, too, for we're getting a new piano man. That's all right with me.
To real is this feeling of make believe. Ooh. To real what I feel, what my heart can't conceal.
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, yes.
I am the great pretender.
Ooh, ooh. Just laughing and gay like a clown. My hand is falling off and I seem to be what I'm not. You see, I'm wearing my heart like a crown. Wow, what a drag.
Pretending that you're still around.
Just a moment. Just a moment, please.
I thought you were through. No, no. I don't want to play that lick no more, man. I come from a different school, like Shearing, Erick Garner, Stone and Tick, man. Hold it.
That's not going to sell the records. Man, don't bug me.
I don't want to play that cling, cling, cling jazz.
You play that cling, cling, cling jazz or you won't get paid tonight.
Well, all right. To real is this feeling of make believe. Ooh. To real what I feel, what my heart can't conceal.
Oh yes, I'm a great. You see how lovely that turned out now. That's the darling part. Appreciate it. And gay like a clown. Ooh. I seem, hold it. I seem, slow down. I seem, retard.
Don't stop me now, man. I got to where I like it. Stop it. Stop it, I say. I'm getting out of here.
He ruined the ending. One of the loveliest parts in the whole film.
Peace!
The whole piece!
[No speech for 22s.]
Stan Freeberg's classic version of The Great Pretender brings Schickele Mix to a close for this week. Our program is made possible with funds provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, by the National Endowment for the Arts, and by this radio station and its members, whom I now thank. Thank you, members. 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 album numbers and everything. Just refer to the program number. This is program 104.
And this is Peter Schickele saying goodbye and reminding you that it don't mean a thing if it ain't got that certain genocide. You're looking good. See you next week.
[No speech for 58s.]
If you'd like a copy of that playlist I mentioned, send a stamped self-addressed envelope to Schickele Mix. That's S-C-H-I-C-K-E-L-E, Schickele Mix.
Care of Public Radio International, 100 North 6th Street, Suite 900A, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 55403.
P.I.P. R.I. Public Radio International.