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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Category Archives: new music
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…
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.
On BBC 3
“Veni Sancte Spiritus,” the first section from my Vespers, showed up on The Early Music Show April 21st on BBC Radio 3. Lucie Skeaping profiled Piffaro, The Renaissance Band, and among Weelkes, Finck, and Susato, there I am, with Joan, Bob, and The Crossing. Thanks, BBC, thanks, Piffaro!
Herr Christ, der einig Gotts Sohn, at Rutgers
Listen to Rutgers University’s excellent Kirkpatrick Choir in my setting of “Herr Christ, der einig Gotts Sohn” from Vespers, conducted by Daniel Spratlan April 28th. The text and my translation are here, along with a video of a performance by the Virginia Chorale from two years ago. It’s interesting for me to compare two fine performances, by choirs of different sizes.
Dan is such a sensitive conductor and knows Vespers inside-out, having sung every performance of it with The Crossing from his customary spot over in second bass country. I’m grateful not only for his consideration of this hymn setting, but also for his further commitment to make the entire Vespers the subject of his doctoral dissertation.
