Soft Machine-VOLUME TWO (Probe Records CPLP-4505) 1969
Today is Robert Wyatt's 67th birthday.
Wyatt is the one laughing on the left in the photo below.
(From left to right- Wyatt, Hugh Hopper and Mike Ratledge.
This Soft Machine record is the last where Wyatt's vocal and songwriting duties are still fully integrated into the band's sound and presentation. The next- "Third" is a double album with Wyatt's only song having most of the basic tracks played by Wyatt alone, and the next- "Fourth", has no Wyatt-penned numbers or vocals on it at all. Around this time, before being kicked out of the group he made a solo album- 'End Of An Ear"
crediting himself- "Robert Wyatt : Out of work pop singer".
After being expelled from Soft Machine in 1971 he formed a "very bad" (in his own unnecessarily harsh words) band called Matching Mole ("Machine Molle"; get it?) releasing two albums: "Matching Mole", and "Little Red Record" (produced by Robert Fripp).
In 1973 Wyatt had an accident which left him paralyzed below the waist and decided the direction of his musical life. No longer able to play trap drums, he concentrated his energies on his song- writing and vocals, creating "Rock Bottom". This was the beginning of the type of work Wyatt releases to this day: Self-penned, often solo-performed for the basic tracks with the addition of musicians-to this day a huge roster which reads like a "who's who" of avant rock: Brian Eno, Fred Frith, Ivor Cutler, Chris Cutler, Phil Manzanera, Mike Oldfeild, and in recent years Paul Weller.
At the time this record was recorded, The Soft Machine had finished a major tour opening for the Jimi Hendrix Experience (Who are thanked personally in the song "Have You Ever Been Green?").
The music is more jazz-oriented than the music of most of the other psychedelic bands of the time, though not yet the thorough jazz-rock "fusion" of the later albums. The song structures and psychedelic touches make it more interesting then the post-"Third" albums. Though the later albums may be argued to be more technically 'accomplished' This line-up have more chops than their friends in Pink Floyd, for what it's worth.
The lyrics are usually observational, sometimes whimsical or humorous ("Hulloder","Pig") and often strangely mundane for such psychedelic music- But, as Wyatt sings in "Hibou Anemone and Bear":
"If something's not worth saying, SING IT"
Soft Machine-VOLUME TWO (1969)
Side 1:"Rivmic Melodies":1: Pataphysical Introduction Pt. I (1:00)2: A Concise British Alphabet Pt. I (0:10)3: Hibou, Anemone and Bear (5:58)4: A Concise British Alphabet Pt. II (0:12)5: Hulloder (0:52)6: Dada Was Here (3:25)7: Thank You Pierrot Lunaire (0:47)8: Have You Ever Bean Green? (1:23)9: Pataphysical Introduction Pt. II (0:50)10: Out Of Tunes (2:30)Side 2:"Esther's Nose Job":1: As Long As He Lies Perfectly Still (2:30)2: Dedicated To You But You Weren't Listening (2:30)3: Fire Engine Passing With Bells Clanging (1:50)4: Pig (2:08)5: Orange Skin Food (1:52)6: A Door Opens And Closes (1:09)7: 10.30 Returns To The Bedroom (4:14)PERSONEL:Hugh Hopper- bass, alto saxMike Ratledge- keyboards, flute (10)Robert Wyatt- drums, vocalswithBrian Hopper- tenor & soprano saxes (uncredited)
Note: I have not split the tracks: the two suites play continuously. I have also included lyrics.
file under repair
Today is Boris Blacher's 109th Birthday.
He died in 1975.
From the liner notes by Horst Gobel (enclosed) with interpolations (in italics) by Dr I:
Boris Blacher writes about his technique of "variable meter" in the forward to his "Ornamente, Opus 37":
"The realization that formal development will often be intensified by metrical change gave rise to the idea of organizing the metrical process in such a way that each measure is subject to a different metrical structure. If the metrical proportions are then constructed along mathematical lines, namely according to sequences or combination theory, then the metrical process is no longer the product of random or arbitrary events. New, higher-level symmetries are the result, moreover interesting overlaps of the metrical series with the musical phrase, varient recapitulations, and the like.
Some of our well-worn compositional techniques (e.g. canonic and imitative figures) will likely have to be sacrificed in favor of new rhythmic patterns. The variable meter method, on the other hand, if correctly applied, places at our disposal a substantial enrichment in respect to rhe elemets of rhythm and form.
No.1 and 2 are based on the simple arithmetic series:
234....9 and retrograde, then 34....43.
No.3 is based on a series with the formation law:
234 345 456....678 and retrograde.
No.4 is based on the principle of cyclic variation ie:
4532 5324 3245......
4532 2453 3245......
No.5 on a summation series:
2,3,5,8,13,
No.6 Permutation of four elements=24
No.7 is based on the formation law of the series:
87 876 8765.....8765432
65 654 6543.......65432
43..................432
The recapitulation appears in retrogerade. The basic unit for all movements is the eighth note".
Lest all this math should scare you away-as Gobel writes in the liner notes (in reference to the Sonata - but it is a truth which could be applied to almost all of Blacher's works):
"This purely formal component is of course to be recognized only as the groundwork upon which the musical materials are then to be erected."
That such strictures could yield such playful, lyrical, and swinging music is truly a marvel.
Boris Blacher- WORKS FOR PIANO (Thorofon Capella MTH 223) Recorded In 1980.
Side One:
1: Sonata For Piano (1951) (7:59)
-Allegro ma non troppo - Andante
-Andante - Vivace
2: First Sonatine, Opus 14 No.1 (1940) (2:33)
-Allegro
-Andantino - Vivace
3: Second Sonatine, Opus 14 No.2 (1940) (3:08)
-Moderato
-Allegro
4-10: Ornamente Opus 37 (Seven Studies In Variable Meter) (1950)
4: No.1- Vivace (Virgil Thomson) (:58)
5: No.2- Andante (Rudolph Wagner-Regeny) (1:16)
6: No.3- Allegro (Karl Amadeus Hartmann) (:56)
7: No.4- Allegretto (Priaul Rainier) (1:11)
8: No.5- Allegro (Rolf Liebermann) (1:20)
9: No.6- Moderato (Nicolas Nabokoff) (2:47)
10: No.7- Presto (Gottfried von Einem) (1:19)
Side Two:
11-34: 24 Preludes For Piano (1974)
11: No.1- Allegro (:46)
12: No.2- Allegretto (:28)
13: No.3- Moderato (:45)
14: No.4- Presto (:38)
15: No.5- Allegretto (:25)
16: No.6- Andante (:46)
17: No.7- Maestoso (:39)
18: No.8- Agitato (:49)
19: No.9- Adagio (1:27)
20: No.10- Vivace (:35)
21: No.11- Lento (:39)
22: No.12- Allegro molto (:25)
23: No.13- Allegretto (:41)
24: No.14- Lento (1:16)
25: No.15- Vivace (:40)
26: No.16- Adagio (1:22)
27: No.17- Agitato (:28)
28: No.18- Maestosto (1:30)
29: No.19- Andante (:51)
30: No.20- Allegretto (:26)
31: No.21- Presto (:50)
32: No.22- Moderato (:54)
33: No.23- Allegretto (:25)
34: No.24- Allegro (1:06)
35-37: Three Pieces For Piano (1943)
35: No.1- What About This, Mr. Clementi? (:45)
36: No.2- Moderato (1:35)
37: No.3- Allegro moderato (:44)
Horst Gobel: Piano
re-up:
(1)
Boris Blacher MUSIKVERLAGE
(All sleeve notes in German.)
These Notes excerpted from external sources:
Memories of Boris Blacher
by Harald Kunz
Blacher certainly took great pleasure in experimenting. This began already in the 1920s with the Dadaistic opera Habemeajaja. The high point was reached with music for Werner Egks meaningless but emotive artificial words in his Abstrakte Oper Nr. 1, which initially caused a scandal but went on to be a success. The end point was Ariadne, a duo-drama in which two speakers recite a text written in Goethe's time to an accompaniment by electronics in microtones of a third.
He also found great pleasure in jazz. Jazzy syncopation in Concertante Musik had made him unpopular with the Nazi press and later compositions often use chords that recall Blacher's liking for the Glenn Miller Sound of the 1940s. From time to time he wrote compositions for jazz ensembles like the Modern Jazz Quartet and the German All Stars. Blues Espagnola und Rumba for the twelve cellists of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra demonstrates how elegantly Blacher combines jazz elements with the classical tradition.
The creativity of the musician Blacher was guided and controlled by the rationality of Blacher the mathematician. According to the laws of mathematics, he constructed his compositions and created the rhythmic serial principle of his „Variable Metrics“. Yet even in the most logical of his scores, there are always deviations from the norm, breaks in the rules; Blacher said of such „mistakes“ that they are what renders art human.
Intelligence and imagination, charm and humour, nonchalance and understatement were the hallmarks of his personality. With these congenial traits in his music, Boris Blacher's oeuvre will remain timeless and contemporary.
(translation: Gloria Custance)
Reprinted by kind permission of Boosey & Hawkes
(...) Blacher's is an idiom of striking originality,based upon free atonal counterpoint. His adherence to the neo-classic esthetic manifests itself in his fondness for terseness and directness of expression.His orchestral writing is bright, vivid, and thinned out according to a careful selection of instruments. The result is a lightness and transparency which is at the opposite pole from the fat sound of German postromanticism. The rhythmic subtlety of Blacher's music derives from a technique of "variable meters" that are worked out according to definite mathematical progressions. The meter changes from bar to bar according to a pre-existent series which applies to rhythm the tone-row principle of twelve-tone music.Yet Blacher does not transform the technique into a system, leaving himself free to vary it according to his needs.His penchant for satire and irony goes hand in hand with a suppleness and volatility that are not often found in German music.(...)
Joseph Machlis- Introduction To Contemporary Music (1961,W.W.Norton & Company, pp 251-2).
note: Blacher was married to the pianist Gerty Blacher-Hertzog.
Side One:
ABSTRAKTE OPER NO. 1, OPUS 43 (1953) 27:21
(The University of Illinois Opera Group, Leitung- Ludwig Zerner)
Side Two:
ELEKTRONISCHE IMPULSE (1965) 2:50
SONATA FUR KLAVIER, OPUS 39 (1951) 7:54
(Gerty Herzog- Klavier)
APRESLUDE- 4 Lieder nach Gedichten von Gottfried Benn OPUS 57 (1958) 4:41
(Ernst Haeflinger- Tenor ; Gerty Herzog- Klavier)
WHAT ABOUT THIS, MR. CLEMENTI? 3 Stucke (1943) 3:05
(Gerty Herzog- Klavier)
re-up again:(1)
