Mathematical Institute Bulletin: Song of the Week

Like people, songs have afterlives, often long after being initially ignored.

The Passenger, from the 1977 album 'Lust for Life', was released as the b-side (the flip side of vinyl singles) of the ignored single 'Success'. But gradually it made its way in to the mainstream until it became a relentless favourite of movie directors and advertising agencies. All of which is great for Iggy though these different contexts can maybe detract from simply listening to the song.

David Bowie plays the piano (and sings).

 

Some people may find classical music inaccessible. But even people who like it sometimes struggle with atonal works.

Yet atonal music, where there are no discernible keys or typical harmonies, is over 100 years old and Arnold Schoenberg was at its forefront. Written in 1926-8, this short piece is from one of his most famous works. One way to listen is to not expect harmony or indeed anything. After all, life itself can feel pretty atonal sometimes.

On 7 May 1964, in the disused Wilbraham Road railway station in Manchester, UK, the Blues and Gospel Tour pulled in to the platform. And the local TV station were there to film it.

The line-up was the stuff of musical legend and included gospel star Sister Rosetta Tharpe whose guitar playing was hugely influential for the British blues youngsters such as Eric Clapton and Keith Richard.

As Sister Rosetta was being escorted to the platform (see the first 45 seconds of the video below) it had begun to rain. She asked to change her first song. This is what she played.

With thanks to Ursula Martin for the suggestion.

Earlier this month, in Lecture Theatre 2 in the Andrew Wiles Building, a collection of talented Oxford Mathematics students, together with colleagues in STEM subjects and beyond, performed Fermat's Last Tango to sell-out crowds over five performances.

Written in 2000 by Joanne Sydney Lessner and Joshua Rosenblum, Fermat's Last Tango tells the story, in words and music, of a 300 hundred-year-old mathematical mystery and the man who spent seven years trying to solve it. Sound familiar?

This is the full performance. Dip in, as it is fun (and turn on the subtitles).

A song to lift the soul. Plus some shots of Piccadilly Circus in the sixties. Happy weekend.

Term is over, so time to relax with a jazz classic. It's 1960, we're in Milan, and the Count is in town with his band.

And just wait for Sonny Cohn to saunter to the front and start to play.

Musicians make most of their money from live performance these days, but recordings of live concerts can just make you long for the original studio versions. However, there are exceptions. Bruce is one of them. Here is a live version of Hungry Heart. If you want the original for comparison, here it is.

Singer and activist (she doesn't like the title) Peggy Seeger was born in America but now resides in downtown Iffley from where, at the age of 87, she still performs songs about a range of issues from women's experiences to ecological matters. An interesting life.

Mozart composed over 600 works in his 35 years. Mind you, he started composing at the age of five.

The pianist here is Mitsuko Uchida.

Burt Bacharach died last week at the age of 94. Together with lyricist Hal David he wrote some of the greatest popular music (incidentally, he was classically trained). Just Google and stand back in awe.

Here's Sandie.

Brian Wilson was responsible for most of the Beach Boys' greatest music including the famous Pet Sounds album. He also suffered from severe mental health issues as well as substance abuse. This home recording is from 1976.

Wilson's health improved subsequently, enabling him to enjoy the acclaim he deserves.

Slade are most associated with the glam rock era (and Christmas) which is not surprising given what they wore, but the music has proved influential in subsequent decades on bands such as the Ramones and Nirvana. They probably had less influence on spelling bees though.

Viktor Ullmann was an Austrian composer, conductor and pianist who died in the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in 1944. He composed this piece the previous year while in the Theresienstadt concentration camp.

There has been a lot of academic research in to sleep recently (notably by Oxford academic Russell Foster), but for those of us who struggle with the old shut-eye (and age doesn't help, we warn you) then how about Max Richter's 2015 Sleep, an eight and a half hour concept album based around the neuroscience of sleep. Its companion album, From Sleep, from which this track is taken, is only one hour long. The quick nap version, if you like. 

You have to admire anyone who can stay at the top of their game for over 20 years, especially in the world of popular music (and maths, of course). Beyoncé Knowles-Carter remains as commercially and critically successful as ever with this song high up in 2022 song of the year lists.

If you don't want Beyoncé swearing at you, here's the radio version

Dance away the January heartache with a Dobie.

Emahoy Tsegue-Maryam Guebrou is a 98-year-old Ethiopian nun whose solo piano music came to prominence in 2006 as part of the Ethiopiques collection. She was trained in the western classical tradition though her music has been described as bluesy, freewheeling waltzes with the influence of the chants of the Orthodox Church. It might all sound a bit obscure, but it is well worth a listen.

Christine McVie, singer and songwriter with Fleetwood Mac, died this week, Christine was part of the band's most commercially successful period, but its first incarnation was as a blues band led, as on this track, by Peter Green.

Ageing musicians playing the songs they wrote when young can be a little 'awkward'; but in this case Paul Weller makes it work. Boy About Town from his Jam days is a song about a defiant 21-year-old. Nearly 40 years of life later, with the same words, it is something different. 

Young first, then older.

Ballet music, where the music is as important as the dance, was a product of the late 19th Century onwards and was led by Russian composers such as  Tchaikovsky, Stravinsky and, here, Sergei Prokofiev. You can almost picture Cinders' dream.

For musicologists, the period between rock & roll and the Beatles first single in 1962 (Love Me Do) is often seen as rather quaint, but Runaway is certainly not quaint with Del's vocals and the instrumental break from the Musitron, an instrument, according to Wiki, based on the Clavioline, a forerunner to the synthesizer invented by Constant Martin in France in 1947. Check it out.

Lovers' Rock, romantic reggae put crudely, came to prominence in London in the 1970s, and has been a huge influence in the decades since, especially on R&B and hip-hop. One of film director Steve McQueen's recent Small Axe films was entitled Lovers Rock and featured this song, probably the best known of the genre.

Like TV ballroom dancing, the Eurovision Song Contest survived ridicule by becoming ridiculous. However, it has thrown up some talented winners. Remember Diggi-loo Diggi-Ley by Herreys?

France Gall was French but won in 1965 when representing Luxembourg. This track wasn't her winning effort but is superior and has a great video, 20 years before MTV. It was written by Serge Gainsbourg, last week's Song of the Week artist.

Serge is probably best known outside France for 'Je t'aime', but he was responsible for many other and better works across various media including film and prose and especially via 16 albums.

This track is from 1968. It is based on an English language poem written by 'Bonnie' Parker, one half of the 1930s outlaw couple after whom the song is named. Brigitte shares the vocals with Serge.

To the untrained ear, like your Song of the Week editor's, this piece sounds as though it might have been written in 1582. In fact it was written in 1982. John Tavener was one of the leading composers of choral religious music in the 20th century. The Lamb, a setting to music of the William Blake poem of 1789, is featured in the soundtrack for Paolo Sorrentino's Oscar-winning film The Great Beauty.

You may also be interested to know that John Taverner (sic) was a sixteenth century writer of choral music.