Vespers uses Renaissance instruments; The Waking Sun and The Nobility of Women, Baroque. Some people have asked how do I do it, and why. We composers rarely ask ourselves “why” questions, but fair enough.…
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Author Archives: Kile Smith
Now is the Time. Mad Men
Sunday, May 20, 10–11 pm.
Now is the Time, American contemporary music, Sundays at 10 pm. On WRTI-HD2 and on the classical stream at wrti.org. This week, Mad Men:
David Carbonara. Mad Men Suite.
Interview with David Carbonara.
David Carbonara. Lipstick.
John Zorn. Train to Thiensan.
John Zorn. Snake Catcher.
Lois V Vierk. Go Guitars.
Larry Kucharz. Pastel 9909.
It’s all styles of concert music by living American composers. Here are the recording details and complete schedule, and because you really wanted to know, here’s the theme music and how it was written. Tell me what you think (if I can’t take it, I promise to write back), and ask me where you can send CDs for broadcast consideration.
David Carbonara interview
My interview with David Carbonara is now online at wrti.org. It’s included in the next Now is the Time broadcast (5/20, 10pm), but you can hear the interview anytime in this podcast. He’s a great guest. All about TV composing, last-minute surprises, what producers talk about on the other side of the studio glass, hurrying, last-minute surprises…
No name, no pain
For more than 40 years I knew one thing for sure. I was absolutely certain that in the desert you can’t remember your name ’cause there ain’t no one for to give you no pain. Can’t remember your name. And it made a kind of sense, you know. After all, the horse had no name, but maybe the guy just couldn’t remember that, either. It fit together. But now the internet tells me, I looked it up, that, no, in the desert you can remember your name. Can remember.
Right now you might be asking yourself why. I wouldn’t blame you. I asked this myself. Why, in the desert, can you remember your name. Well. I’ll tell you why. ’Cause there ain’t no one for to give you no pain, that’s why.
So all these years I was absolutely certain of this one thing, and here it’s the opposite, aannd for the same reason. But what’s worse is that just when it seems as if I’m about to understand it, I think about the horse.
La la, lahh, la, la-la la, la la-la, lahh, la. La la, lahh, la, la-la la, la la-la, lahh, la.
Mad Men CD, David Carbonara
My latest CD mini-review for WRTI, including podcast with musical excerpts. You can read all my CD reviews here.
Matthew Weiner, the creator of the hugely popular TV series Mad Men—now in its fifth season—works very hard at going beneath the surface to capture the look of the 1960s, from company logo typefaces to office equipment tints to the shine in a pair of trousers. Mad Men composer David Carbonara labors just as much on the show’s music to express that era; he’s a composer of acutely original pieces.
Mad Men, Original Soundtrack from the TV Series, Vol. 1 is filled mostly with standards from artists such as Gordon Jenkins (“Caravan”), Vic Damone (“On the Street Where You Live”), and Ella Fitzgerald, who makes an appearance with “Manhattan.” “Fly Me to the Moon” is Julie London’s luscious pizzicato-tinged string version, not Frank Sinatra’s better-known big-band hit.
But for lovers of music in the cracks—not pop, not concert, but what, exactly—the reason to look for this CD may be David Carbonara himself.
Weiner chooses most of the period songs, but “Lipstick” by Carbonara is a distillation (if you will, given all the imbibing in the series) of music in the twilight: slightly lounge, slightly jazz, and as rebellious as one may appear while keeping one’s hair in place. It’s the sound of muted trumpets, punchy trombones, low flutes, snapping fingers, walking bass lines, one-handed laconic piano playing (necessary while stubbing out a cigarette), and that child of the time, the Hammond organ. His “Mad Men Suite” is likewise all delicately drawn atmosphere.
A big surprise is the inclusion of the traditional round “Babylon,” known by many (anachronistically for the show) from Don McLean’s 1971 album American Pie. In one episode it was worked into a Village mandolin-strummed folk happening (with Carbonara briefly on camera, playing autoharp!). Its text comes right out of Psalm 137, “By the waters of Babylon, we laid down and wept, when we remembered Zion.”
What that has to do with the advertising world, legions of die-hard Mad Men fans will know. There’s a lot going on here beneath the surface.
Now is the Time. Subito
Sunday, May 13, 10–11 pm.
John Harbison. North and South: Six Poems of Elizabeth Bishop.
Sally Lamb. Subito.
John Harbison. Cello Concerto.
Now is the Time, American contemporary music, Sundays at 10 pm. On WRTI-HD2 and on the classical stream at wrti.org, it’s all styles of concert music by living American composers. Here are the recording details and complete schedule, and because you really wanted to know, here’s the theme music and how it was written. Tell me what you think (if I can’t take it, I promise to write back), and ask me where to send CDs for broadcast consideration.
Alumnus of the Year
“He says he’s got reserved parking… Alumnus of the Year.”
Silence. “Sorry, didn’t get that. Try again?”
The parking lot attendant for this crowded commencement day spoke into his walkie-talkie again. “A guy here says he has reserved… parking. Alumni… For the Day.”
“Alumni for the Day?… don’t know anything about that. Wait, hold on.” People walking by the car look at me. Then, “Hey OK, send him through, we’ll figure it out.”
He moves a traffic cone and I shunt out of the lane. They figured it out indeed, and a hundred yards on, there was a space, just for me, another attendant waving me in, moving another cone to one side. Having cones moved for you is very nice, I discover. I would’ve parked where I’ve been parking all semester and walked the five minutes, but when the office told me I had reserved parking, I thought, I’m going for the reserved parking.
Philadelphia Biblical University honored me at Saturday’s commencement as its 2012 Alumnus of the Year, and at a luncheon afterward presented me with a beautiful crystal award. I am humbled and surprised by it. Chancellor W. Sherrill Babb said some awfully nice things at the commencement ceremony, and President of the University Todd Williams introduced me with extremely kind words at the luncheon.
Thirty-two years ago I was graduated from Philadelphia College of Bible (as it was then called), its first year at its present, Langhorne campus, with a Bachelor of Science in Bible and a Bachelor of Music in Composition. Many things here have changed, many things have stayed the same. I would like Sam Hsu to have seen this, but he’s in a better place.
Jackie and I filled in for him, if it can be expressed that way, by teaching Music History 2 (Baroque, Classical) and Music History 4 (1900–present), respectively, until a more permanent fix for his position is found. I’ve enjoyed it immensely and learned so much from teaching there this semester.
I also taught Music Notation at Temple University this semester, and it comes rushing back that Temple’s School of Music presented me with their Alumni award two years ago, similarly surprising and humbling me.
I don’t know what I’ve learned in these years, or what I’ve done to merit these profound notices by these good people, but I do know that I’m in company that I like to keep. These are fine, fine people, and it’s good to be around them.
They sent me through.
