Mathematical Institute Bulletin: Song of the Week

There is much to be said about Wagner but whatever you think he is one of the few artists who can confidently claim to have changed an art form; in his case, opera.

The Flying Dutchman has been doomed to an eternity of wandering the seas. Once every seven years, he is able to leave the ship to search for a woman whose perfect love will redeem him. Senta perhaps?

You get the picture. Wagner is dramatic, controversial, usually long, but if you get the chance, go and see it. This performance is by the legendary Swedish soprano Birgit Nilsson.

Popular music is full of bad luck stories but Badfinger's takes some beating. Not that they weren't without some success, which makes for the saddest stories of all.

There is a lot of construction, renovation and general moving of stuff going on around the University and City just now.

Now, no doubt it is all being done with 100% efficiency, but just in case here is the definitive 'work not getting done' tribute. Incidentally the song was recorded in the same studio where, a few months later, the Beatles changed the face of popular music.

As you will have read above (we hope), James Sparks will be talking about Bach's Goldberg Variations at the Spitalfields Music Festival. James says of Glenn Gould's interpretation. 

"Variations 3n+2 are all of this type (n=1,2,..,9) - two melodies, fast, one in each hand, with crossing of melodies/hands in every conceivable way you can imagine!"

Disco (or D-I-S-C-O as the song has it) has its critics. Music for people who don't like music being one barb. However, nothing beats a good hook and More, More, More more than delivers.

With the summer party on the horizon, let Chuck get you in the party mood. There are one-hit wonders and no-hit wonders and Chuck might just fall in to the latter category though this song has cult status among the Northern Soulters and has been covered by the likes of Dexy's Midnight Runners.

Written and recorded by Jamaican artist Junior Murvin in protest at police and gang violence in his home country, this song became a success in the US and UK and an anthem of the 1976 Notting Hill Carnival in London which broke out in to riots. The Clash also recorded a version as part of their fusion of reggae and punk.

See second Bulletin item.

Popular music has often borrowed from its classical colleagues, and even from poetry, but often with mixed success. But in this 1939 song by Hoagy Carmichael all falls in to place. The main melodic theme is based on the Fantaisie-Impromptu in C sharp minor by Frédéric Chopin and the lyrics are based on a poem by Jane Brown Thompson. There are many versions. In this one by the Lew Stone Band, vocals are by British crooner Sam Browne.

Band names are so familiar we rarely stop to think what they mean, if anything. The Beatles? The Bee Gees? But that's not the point, of course, and most of them probably didn't give it too much thought. However, there's no doubt the Cure chose well.

Erich Korngold was an Austrian-born composer who fled the Nazi regime for America where he made a living composing film music while also continuing to produce a range of 'classical' works.

This song is one of four songs about Shakespearean characters and plays, in this case Desdemona, ill-fated wife of the ill-fated Othello (it's a tragedy in case you were wondering), 

Some record labels are more well-known than many of their artists - Motown, 2 Tone, Def Jam. Stiff Records were one such example during the independent label boom of the 1970s with artists such as Elvis Costello, Devo and, in this case, Wreckless Eric. Eric is still going at 67 though no doubt a little less 'wreckless'. 

Film music, and musicals, can be an acquired taste, especially when the strings get going, and the strings are certainly being pulled in this song by the Sherman Brothers from the 1964 Disney film Mary Poppins.

This week musician Ed Sheeran won a copyright case brought against him claiming he stole his hit Shape of You. Back in 1976 George Harrison was not so lucky when he was ordered to pay compensation for 'stealing' aspects of The Chiffons He's So Fine when writing his 1970 hit My Sweet Lord. Generally it seems the law has resisted supporting claims of musical plagiarism and you can't help feeling Harrison might have got a better verdict today.

In a break from your Song of the Week editor's self-indulgence, this week's song is chosen by MSc student Martin Smit. Martin writes:

Over the last 2 years, a number of jazzy, noise-inspired indie rock bands have emerged from London, particularly The Windmill in Brixton. To some they represent a rejection of the pervasive chilled out indie music "to relax to" while to others they are part of a natural 20 year cycle, reviving the sounds of bands like The Strokes, Interpol, and the Arctic Monkeys with a more urgent, politically aware tone to the lyrics.

Some bands closely associated with this movement are "Black Midi", "Dry Cleaning", "Squid" and "Black Country, New Road". This song exemplifies the movement's connections to post-punk, and features spoken word vocals found in almost all of the movement's output.

Progressive (Prog) Rock takes a lot of flack. No surprise given its love of overly complex songs you can't hum, performed in elaborate settings and costumes (Peter Gabriel performed this song while dressed as a flower). However, occasionally they stopped trying to be JS Bach and knuckled down and wrote great songs (not many admitttedly). This is one of them.

Hard to believe this recording of the blues classic 'Nobody Knows' is almost 100 years old. Here is Bessie Smith, the 'Empress of the Blues', nailing it in 1929 on the verge of the Great Depression which was about to strike the US and the world (and Bessie).

Shostakovich's 7th Symphony was dedicated to the Russian city of Leningrad which was under siege from the German army in 1942 and where it was performed during the siege on 9 August 1942. Meanwhile, 80 years later...

You may not think Motörhead your thing, but you might just find the riff head-banging its way in to your weekend. And the sentiment applies everywhere.

Duke Ellington wrote this song in the 1930s, but this recording is from his 1962 collaboration with John Coltrane when he was 63 and Coltrane was 36. Duke is the pianist, 'Trane' the saxophonist. Two innovators from different eras of Jazz (or "American Music" as Duke liked to call it).

Music for Airports is the first of four ambient albums from musician (Roxy Music and solo), producer (U2, Bowie) and artist, Brian Eno. The idea came to him as he sat in the drab atmosphere of 1970s Cologne Bonn Airport. The creative process consisted, in typical Eno style, of splicing together various loops of recordings. It was designed to be played continously and to induce a sense of calm - Eno was a nervous flyer.

This is the first part. It's 17 minutes but it will take you calmly in to the weekend after reading an exhausting Bulletin (if anyone gets this far).

In 1968 British singer Dusty Sprngfield left for Memphis to revive her career and expand her range from the pop style of her earlier years (good though it is). The result was the Dusty in Memphis album. Still pop, but no little Soul.

Anti-war songs are a staple of popular music, ranging from Edwin Star ("War! What is it good for?") to, er, Culture Club ("War, war is stupid, and people are stupid").

Shipbuilding, written by Clive Langer with lyrics by Elvis Costello and delivered via the distinctive vocal chords of Robert Wyatt, is more ironic, and one of the best. It was written in 1982 when the UK sent a fleet of ships and troops to the Falkland Islands which had been invaded by Argentina.

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor was an English composer and conductor. Born in London in 1875, his mother was English and his father, a descendant of African-American slaves, was from Sierra Leone. He was named by his mother after the romantic poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

Monkee Mike Nesmith died last month. The Monkees might have been manufactured (The American Beatles) and might have made a silly if loveable tv series, but they produced some great songs helped by songwriters like Neil Diamond who wrote this one.

Nesmith went on to a successful solo career and was one of the early pioneers of music video. Talented family, as his mother invented typewriter correction fluid which earned them all a lot of money.