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DVDs

• Hopeville – The Original Gospel Sensation – DVD 193
• Thievery Corporation: Live at the 9:30 Club -  DVD 192

Miscellaneous

• Disco Gold – (CD 9580)
• Rags and Other Riches – (CD 9575)
• Genesis- The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway – (CD 9581)
• Tania Leon – In motion, Haiku, Inura – (CD 9560)
• The Very Best of Singers and Songwriters – (CD 9582)

Classical

• Evening, Morn, & Noon – The scared Music of Jack Gottlieb – (CD 9574)
• Malcolm Arnold – Four Scottish Dances Op.50 & Symphony No.3, Op.63 – (CD 9579)
• Masterworks – Clarinet & Piano, John Russo, Lydia Walton Ignacio – (CD 9578)
• Casella/Partita & Respighi/Toccata & Rachmaninov/Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini – (CD 9577)
• Elie Siegmeister – Clarinet Concerto, Flute concerto, sextet for Brass and percussion, Theatre set – (CD 9576)
• A Wind Blows from the East – Four German Medieval Tales – (CD 9568)
• Chamber Works by Ernest Gold – String quartet No. 1, Songs of Love and Parting, Piano Sonata – (CD 9572)
• Feldman – Piano and String Quartet – (CD 9571)
• Crazy Jane – (CD 9570)
• Music of Chinary Ung – Volume 3 (CD 9567)
• A la Albeniz – Chris Buckholz, trombone, Sean Botkin piano – (CD 9566)
• Poul Ruders – Volume 7, symphony No. 4 “An Organ Symphony”, Trio Transcendentale, Songs and Rhapsodies – (CD 9569)
• Beethoven 7 & 7.1 – (CD 9565)
• Darkling – Stefen Weisman, Anna Rabinowitz – (CD 9584)
• Florence B. Price – Concerto in one movement, symphony in e minor – (CD 9564)
• Alchemy – Jan Krzywicki – (CD 9563)
• Diversions – Stentorian Consort, music for trombones – (CD 9562)
• Free Flying – Brett Shuster Trombone – (CD 9561)

Operas

• Rio de Sangre – An opera in 3 acts by Don Davis – (CD 9559)
• The Fortune Teller – Victor Herbert, The Ohio Light Opera – (CD 9583)

A New Way to Control the Public: Blast Classical Music

An interesting article came under discussion today between Cene and I. Anne Midgette recently wrote an article for the Washington Post on the use of classical music to control a population or population’s behavior in a public area.

Midgette begins the article describing a recent trip departing from Port Authority. Now, if you have never been to Port Authority in NYC…it is not a very fun experience. I may be a small town girl from Alaska, and therefore don’t deal well with crowds – but I do love NYC and hate Port Authority. Anyways, Midgette describes sitting in P. Authority waiting, and suddenly becoming aware of a blasting Schubert trio. Normally she loves Schubert’s trio but on that particular day, she just wanted the music to stop.

When questioned, a P. Authority spokesperson said the music was played to entertain visitors…but other public areas blast classical music over loud speakers to deter the homeless or groups of rowdy teenagers. In the 1980′s 7-Eleven began playing classical music out to parking lots, and many stores have taken up the idea, to keep teens from loitering. In 2011 police in West Palm Beach, Florida blasted Mozart and Beethoven on a crime-ridden street corner and saw incidents go down.

But, Midgette questions, is it really classical music that is changing the population (or behavior) of these groups? Or could be other factors related to the blasting of Schumann and Brahms? For example: installing speakers generally involves some kind of physical improvement to the area and increased police presence.  Even the assistant chief police of West Balm Beach said in an article by the Huffington Post that the program of playing music to decrease crime, abandoned years ago, “really doesn’t have a lasting effect.”

Still this kind of behavior molding idea fits nicely into society’s view of classical music overall. University students know Plato advocates for music’s place in education to create a good citizen. It calms patients in surgery. It can help “socialize inner-city children.” Just take a look at the program, El Sistema, in Venezuela where famous conductor, Gustavo Dudamel, got his start. But blasting classical music in a 7-Eleven parking lot does seem somewhat elitists. It almost confirms the social mindset that civilized human beings understand and enjoy Mozart…and hulligans run from it like crazy cartoon villains. I, for one, don’t really buy that mindset.

“Yet,” Midgette writes, “using classical music to fight crime is not tapping into classical music’s inherent powers as much as its social attributes. Playing music in any space redefines that space, much as painting a mural on the side of a building affects the space around it: It is transformed from a no-man’s-land to a place with an identity, a kind of self-awareness.”

So blasting Schubert’s piano trios over a less-than-perfect sound system at Port Authority might not define the space in the kind of way for which the music was intended (I mean really…how can Port Authority be anything but chaotic?) it is an interesting idea on how to view and use music.

To read the full article go to the Washington Post

Johanna’s Picks! (aka The Best)

Here are some of my favorite CDs at the Music Library, they range in content from silly to serious.

Creampuffs From Vienna -  I love Viennese waltzes and this CD is chock full of them! Plus it has a silly name.  (CD 8063)

Kronos Quartet Performs Philip Glass – This is an amazing recording, I would especially recommend the last movement of the Mishima Quartet (No 3). (CD 6835)

The Goat Rodeo Sessions – If you haven’t heard of Goat Rodeo, or had a chance to listen to this album, now is the time to check it out. Featured on the Colbert Report, this CD is more than likely to brighten your day. Plus Yo Yo Ma! (CD 9529)

The Mystery Sonatas – This set of violin sonatas by early composer Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber uses scordatura, where the strings of the violin are tuned differently from their normal pitches. I’m working on a few of these for my senior recital which you should all go to! (CD 9523)

Little Richard, The Georgia Peach – Need I say more? (CD 9544)

New CD Arrivals!

Cruzar la Cara de la Luna (To Cross the Face of the Moon) – Houston Grand Opera (CD 9556)

Barbara White – My Barn Having Burned To The Ground, I Can Now See The Moon – (CD 9557)

The Sacred Voice – sacred vocal works by Graham Gordon Ramsay (CD 9558)

Unsilenced Cell Phone leads to a Beautiful Musical Moment

Violist Lukas Kmit improvises on the ring tone of an interrupting cell phone.

78 78s by Ian Nagoski

15 years ago Ian Nagoski began collecting old 78s, specifically focusing on non-English releases. With recordings from over 40 different countries he has unearthed important pieces of cultural history. He explains in a short film titled, “To What a Strange Place” (embedded below) that while he was collecting music by foreign performers, most of the recordings were made in America. These performers were immigrants and their recordings were made to sell back into their communities. The music harkens back to traditions and communities that have been changed or lost over the years. Nagoski has created a mix of 78 of his favorite 78 recordings for NPR. He remastered and re-released scores of 78s and is currently on tour with this project, traveling to Baltimore on January 26. This isn’t the first time Nagoski was mentioned on our blog, a year or so ago we highlighted the Washington Post Magazine that featured the work done by Nagoski with music from the Greek immigrant community.

Final D.C. Jazz Loft at Red Door Tomorrow

Tomorrow night, Saturday, January 21st, marks the end of the road for the D.C. Jazz Loft series at Red Door (443 I St NW, go down the alley and look for the red door). It begins at 7pm and will go . . . well, presumably pretty late.

It features a who’s who of DC’s young jazz scene including Brian Settles, Elijah Jamal Balbed, Jonathan Parker, Kris Funn, and Jonah Parzen-Johnson, as well as the 000 trio, featuring AU Music Library alumnus, Luke Stewart.

For more details on the performers, including sound samples, check out the CapitalBop blog post.

Shayna’s Picks!

Here are some of my faves ya’ll!!

Finishing the Hat – Stephen Sondheim – ML 54.6 .S69 S66 2010

The essential Sly & the Family Stone – CD 9547

Assassins – CD 1878

Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson – CD 5337

Little Women – CD 3632

Lydia Teuscher, soprano, free for music students, Jan. 26th

It’s the first Vocal Arts DC concert of 2012, and – again – it’s a phenomenal deal for students. If you’re a student, you can get a reduced-price ticket ($15) by emailing Robert at robertsheehan@vocalartsdc.org. If you’re a music student, tickets are available for FREE. Can’t beat that!

Lydia Teuscher will be performing a program of Haydn, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Schumann, and Strauss along with accompanist, Graham Johnson. Full bios are on the VADC website.

True Life: I’m a Medieval Minstrel

If you haven’t watched the Terry Jones’ Medieval Lives series yet, you’ve been missing out. Each episode takes a look at the history of a particular type of person (peasants, knights, monks, etc.) throughout the history of the Middle Ages. Of particular interest to this audience is his episode on minstrels. It’s a great look at the changing styles and roles of music in the Medieval period, and a fun way to breathe a little life into your music history reading.