CCC 052 Arturo Marquez

American classical music lovers seem to be a little myopic. European composers are well-represented on the concert stage, and there's a few Americans as well. But that's about it. And that's too bad -- because there are many outstanding composers living and working both north and south of our borders.

Mexican composer Arturo Marquez is our selection this time for the Consonant Classical Challenge. Marquez incorporates the traditional music of his native land into his musical language, and the results have been very successful. His series of danzóns for orchestra successfully translate the essence of this popular Latin American dance, similar to what Brahms did with the Viennese popular dance, the waltz.

Marquez uses very simply chordal harmonies, coupled with exciting, syncopated rhythms. Those two characteristics of Mexican folk music make Marquez' compositions accessible and appealing to a wide audience -- both classical and non-classical

One of his most recent works, the Conga del fuego nuevo, is a perfect summation of Marquez' style.




Marquez has written extensively for both orchestral and chamber ensembles. His Cello Concerto No. 2 is one of his larger works. Yet even with its more sophisticated construction, Marquez' musical language remains consistent.

 

The series of danzóns have proved Marquez' most popular compositions -- especially with the championing of conductor Gustavo Dudamel (whose popularity also extends beyond the traditional classical audiences). Danzón No. 2 not only captures the excitement of this Latin American dance, but also demonstrates Marquez' skill at orchestration.



Marquez has achieved a high degree of popularity -- abroad. His music can be challenging to perform. It takes a high-energy ensemble to really bring this compositions to life. But what life! I've enjoyed his shorter works immensely. I would love to hear some of Arturo Marquez' major compositions performed, too.

RECOMMENDED RECORDINGS 

Fiesta

Danzón

Discoveries

NaNoWriMo - The Beginning of the End

Day 27 of the National November Writing Month challenge and I'm still writing about about the pace I need to (45,894 words as of this morning). Three days and about  5,000 words to go -- since I'm now averaging about 1,000 words an hour, I should make it. And remember, when it comes to the word count, its strictly quantity, not quality here!

Something unusual happened today. I wrote the end of the story. I normally just follow my outline, and as the story diverges from it just keep writing sequentially so I can see where it goes. This time, though, as the story unfolded I realized there were a lot of loose ends I needed to tie up -- more than I could remember. So, I started in on the last chapter. Here's a sample. It's open-ended, because I'm still in the thick of the story writing more loose ends and clues that need to be resolved.

The adventure continues!

"The Commissar Commands"

Chapter 20 – A Plot Revealed

A small group gathered in one of the private rooms of the Metro Club. Carlton sat in one of the overstuffed leather chairs, reflecting on how different this meeting one from their first meeting with King in this very room. King was there, of course. He held himself stiffly, his abdomen tightly bandaged under his clothes to restrict movement. Ambrose had the couch all to himself, his corpulent frame seemed to spread out to fill the space. 

Lieutenant MacGuffy had wheeled in Michaels. The arms merchant had sustained a broken collarbone from his fall, as well as a sprained ankle. Michael’s patrician features were drawn and haggard. He had been assured by the doctors he would make a full recovery, but the trials of his brush with death still wore heavily on him. 

 

Commissioner Rowland leaned against the fireplace, hands in his pockets. “I’m not sure I understand this at all,” he said. “So Harris was the Commissar. But why?”

“Misdirection,” said King. “Ricco was a malcontent – the kind revolutionists like to recruit. He worked at Eagle Iron Works. I guess as one of his employees, Ricco came to Harris’ attention. Harris then came up with the idea of creating this Commissar character as a way to conceal his identity and contacted Ricco to recruit him to the cause." 

"Ricco only ever knew Harris as the Commissar. Amazing how something as simple as a false mustache and a distinctive outfit can make an effective disguise.” He looked at Raymond owlishly.

Without seeming to notice, Raymond walked over to the decanter and poured a drink. 

“Do tell,” he said blandly, as he raised the glass to his lips.

King continued.”Harris' charade not only fooled his men, it fooled us, too. We were all looking for an organization led by a foreign power. But there was no commissar, no secret spy ring. Just Harris and his dupes.”

MacGuffey snapped his fingers. “Now I get it,” said the grizzled detective, “When we raided the Seven Seas tavern, you remarked on the fact that there was no electrical outlet in the radio room.”

“Exactly,” said the federal agent. “It was an odd detail, but I didn’t know why at the time. Later we discovered that Harris just filled the room with radio consoles and monitors on them – they weren’t connected to anything.”

“Just like the phony chemical plant we set up as bait,” Carlton remarked wryly. 

King laughed, “Exactly. Funny that Harris fell for the same gag he pulled himself. Harris used a wind-up Victrola playing a record of radio sounds effects.”

“And the dummy?” asked MacGuffey. 

“All part of the deception. The dummy sitting at the table was another bit of stage business, but an important one.  Harris made sure his men saw into the room every time they met. The dummy was far enough away that it looked real. And Harris was careful to only hold the door open long enough to let his men see it, but not long enough for them to notice that it didn’t move.”

“Taken all together, it had the effect Harris wanted. His men saw radio gear, they heard radio sound effects, and there seemed to be an operator sitting at the controls. To his followers, it looked like the Commissar was emerging from the command center of a large spy network rather than just someone playing a lone hand.”

Pearls Before the Double Bounce

Much as I enjoy reading the daily comics, I seldom laugh out loud when I do. I did today when I read Pearls Before Swine. Here's the strip in question. I'll explain why afterwards. (click on image to enlarge)

I often engage in wordplay, so I usually see pun-based punchlines coming long before the setup's done. Not so this time, which is why I laughed. A key component to humor is the element of surprise, which is what Stephen Pastis so masterfully achieved.

Neighbor Bob is a recurring character in Pearls, so I didn't realize that his name would be an important part of the pun. I was anticipating the punchline to be "No sari" (No, sorry). So when it turned out to be a play on the expression "No siree, Bob," I was taken by surprise. And I laughed.

But the real treat was the last panel where Pastis makes another pun on the word "Sari" -- the one I had expected, but didn't get, and therefore no longer expected. Two punchlines, or as I like to think of it, a double bounce.

Masterful. And funny.

Thankful for time off

I'm taking a short break from the Internet this Thanksgiving. No Twitter, Google+ or even Facebook (well, mostly on that last one). And I'll be taking time off from this blog. For the next three days, I'll be spending my time exclusively in the analog world -- and loving every minute of it.

Have a happy Thanksgiving, everyone. See you (virtually) next week!

The Alley Comes to Tracy 2

I recently posted about Walt Wallet's cameo (from Gasoline Alley) in Dick Tracy (The Alley Comes to Tracy). I thought it was just a single sequence, but I was wrong. Mike Curtis and Joe Staton spun out the crossover for a full week. And how enjoyable it was for us comics fans.

Here's the entire sequence, which mainly serves as a break in the action between one story arc and another. A few things of interest. Baby Judy was abandoned in Walt's car in 1935, and was adopted by the Wallets. In the flashback sequence both Dick Tracy and Walt Wallet appear as they were drawn in 1935 by their respective creators Chester Gould and Frank King. What fun! (click on images to enlarge)

Meta Barney & Clyde 2

Barney & Clyde (Gene and Dan Weingarten, writers; David Clark, art) regularly plays with the expectations of the comic reader (see: Meta Barney & Clyde). Popularly, the term "meta" is used to describe art that is self - aware. Such as movie characters who know they're in a film, or a hero who knows he's a character in a book. And that's what this past Sunday's strip was all about. (click on image to enlarge)

The execution was so brilliant, I have nothing to say, except well done. Meta, indeed!

CCC 051 - Michel Perrault

This installment of the Consonant Classical Challenge features Canadian composer Michel Perrault. Perrault is inspired in part by Canadian folk songs. These tunes have a slightly different character than American folk songs, which makes his music sound akin to -- but not like -- those of American composers also drawing on folk traditions.

"Jeux de quatres" (Four Games) illustrates this. The work is a concertino for harp and orchestra, and uses the solo instrument to good advantage. The slow movements have a spare, open sound that remind me of Copland, without Copland's "American" quality. Fast sections hop about in a Stravinsky-like fashion, without Stravinsky dissonance.


Perrault's "Meditation elegiague" for violin and piano is a short work that shows off his melodic gifts. The open parallel motion of the piano's chords remind me of Debussy. The melody, however, has some quite interesting and unexpected turns in it that give the work its expressive quality.


Perrault (like Copland) has also written for film, and, like Copland, his scores seem to work equally well in a concert setting. Listen carefully to this chamber piece "Carry & Roll." Fine writing, indeed!


Michel Perrault is well-known in Canada, and virtually unknown south of the border. And that's a shame, because he has an original voice, and one that should appeal to a great many concert-goers. Unfortunately, there seem to be no recordings of his music readily available for me to recommend. And that's another shame. http://www.michelperrault.com/english.html

Lessons from York - A Skewed View 2

In yesterday's post (Lessons from York - A Skewed View 1) I looked at some collecting trends and speculated on their cultural meaning. The Train Collectors Association Eastern Division toy train meet. is the hobby's equivalent of CES -- both in relative scale and breadth of coverage. You will see all the latest products there, but more importantly, you'll see the ebb and flow of supply and demand.

The sudden appearance of some types of objects can suggest trends (which was what yesterday's post was about), but the disappearance of readily available objects can be equally telling. So what things did we not see at York this time?

Don't pay too much for this. You will not get your
money out of it.

No deposit, no return
We didn't see any Lionel Coke sets again. When MPC brought out this "collectible," everyone scarfed it up. After all, it's a Lionel train, and it's Coca-Cola memorabilia. With two markets to sell to, buyers were bound to double or even triple their investment, right?

Wrong.

It turned out that neither group of collectors were especially interested, and so mint-in-the-box Coke sets have been a staple of the York meets for years. The spring show I noticed their absence (and guessed as to why). But they haven't returned, and I'm not sure they will.

I suspect more than one of the vendors that used to sell them at York are now offering them on eBay. A quick search showed eight, ranging in price from $169 to $249. All mint, all "rare." It's neither. And if you pay more than $120 for it, you've been taken.

Boxing up the returns
Another thing that was conspicuously absent this time were MPC "collectible" boxcars. During the postwar era, Lionel came out with a series of boxcars, the 6464 series. From 1954 through 1966 this boxcar was given a variety of different paint schemes, offered in sets and sometimes for sale separately, and always with the 6464 prefix to the catalog number (6464-100, 6464-475, etc.). Just like stamps, many postwar-Lionel collectors strive to have a complete set of the 25 different 6464 boxcars (and the innumerable variations).

An original 6464-150 boxcar, made between 1954-1957. Still
desirable by collectors.

Lionel didn't plan to make these boxcars collectible -- they were just painting the same shell with different designs to go with their train sets and keep the product fresh. But the continued demand for the 6464 boxcars didn't go unnoticed by MPC when they bought Lionel in the 1970's, or indeed by any of the other companies who have owned Lionel since. And so a steady stream of "6464-style" boxcars continue to flood the market.

Part of Lionel/MPC's 1976 Bicentennial series.
Unlike the 6464 series this car is modeled on, interest
(and value) has dropped significantly.

The current Lionel company offers a Monopoly, college football, and Beatles series of boxcars to name a few. MPC had a series of 50 state boxcars, as well as Disney characters, Lionel history, the 13 colonies (for the Bicentennial), and several more. Collectors dutifully bought them all, confident that, like the original 6464's, demand and prices would only increase over time.

Nope.

For years I've seen MPC 6464 boxcars stacked on tables like cordwood, some priced as low as $10 (way below the original 1970's list price). Until this show. For the first time, most tables were clear of these faux-collectibles.

Why?

I think that this market has also moved to eBay. A quick search for "Lionel MPC boxcar" seems to confirm this.

Will this trend continue? I suspect so. And I'll be interested to see the impact on the York meet. Will we see fewer tables rented? Will the quality of the merchandise offered improve? We'll know more in the spring.

Lessons from York - A Skewed View 1

Dad and I are back from our semi-annual trip to the Train Collectors Association Eastern Division toy train meet in York, PA. As is our tradition, we spent a lot of time discussing what we saw a lot of (and what we didn't) -- and more importantly, the reasons behind them.

As always, although the particulars of these posts are about toy trains, that's not what they're really about. I'm convinced that the behaviors of collectors are universal. And that's what I'm interested in.

The York train show is a good place to spot trends. It's one of the biggest shows in the hobby, drawing 13,000 - 15,000 attendees, and has hundreds of tables. It also has most of the major manufacturer's exhibit as well. For a company like Lionel, York is their Consumer Electronics Show.

Most of the items for sale we see show after show -- but there are always a few items present in unusually large quantities. Why?

This time, there were three things we saw on table after table.

A Lionel Standard Gauge No. 6 Locomotive, ca. 1906

Passing of the guard

This time we saw a lot of very early Lionel locomotives (about 1906-1915). Now, these are fairly rare, to begin with, and it's remarkable just to see one or two Lionel steam locomotives from that ear at York. This time, though, we saw dozens. The prices were quite high, but (at least for this show) they were available.

Why?

There's a common theme in toy collecting -- many collectors either want the toys they had as children or the toys they didn't get as children. So part of the desirability of an item is tied to a certain generation.

Toys from the early 1900's were sought after by the generation of collectors that founded the TCA in the 1950's. At this point, most of them have either passed on or broken up housekeeping. Which means these items are coming back on the market. Perhaps this mass appearance of rare, early toys is actually marking the end of an era.

Lionel standard passenger set: (from  top to bottom):
311 passenger car, 310 baggage car, and the 312
observation car. Not rare, but quite nice.

Next round of cuts

We also saw an unusual amount of  Lionel 310, 311, and 312 Standard Gauge passenger cars. These are attractive cars, but about mid-range in terms of desirability and value. And they come from a later era than the No. 6 steam locomotive pictured above. These two-tone cars were sold as sets from 1924 through 1939 when the Standard Gauge era ended.

There are a lot of these out there, and we usually see a few sets at York. But this time we saw an unusually high number of them.

Why?

If our theory about youthful nostalgia is right, then most of the owners of these sets are now in their 70's and 80's. Some sets will come on the market through estate sales, but there's a good chance that most are being culled from collections as the owners downsize. After all, if you're moving to assisted living, and only have room for a few pieces, you're going to keep only the top-of-the-line sets (which these aren't).

A year and a half ago a lot of sets come on the market (A Setting for Sets) and I thought it was for this same reason. Perhaps these two-tone passenger cars are just part of the next round of items to get rid of?

Lionel O-gauge postwar (1949-1955) F3 diesels,
originally sold as a pair.

A new generation retires?

The third thing we saw an exceptionally high number of were Lionel O-Gauge postwar F3 diesels. After World War II, Lionel resumed toy train production with a completely new line of products. Gone were the toy-like metal locos and rolling stock (like the examples above). Instead, Lionel used injection-molded plastic to create realistic scale and semi-scale models of real trains.

The most popular locomotives were the F3 diesels. The Santa Fe livery was a huge it, and thousands were sold between 1948 and 1955. The Santa Fe F3s are actively sought after, but because there were so many made, they're always readily available (for a price).

Seeing the success of the Santa Fe F3, Lionel offered the model in different livery, with less success. The New York Central version also ran from 1948  - 1955, but didn't sell as well as the Santa Fe. Today it's a much rarer locomotive, and I seldom see more than few at any York meet. Until this time. Everyone seemed to have them, and -- curiously -- not just the originals, but also the reproductions made by Williams and MTH as well.

Why?

Collectors who were kids in the early 50's are now hitting retirement age. Perhaps this is the beginning of the downsizing process for them. Why are the reproductions coming on the market? it's not for the reason you might think. Williams and MTH products are clearly marked, so there's little chance of them being sold as originals.

Rather, I think it has to do with a common practice among collectors who operate layouts. Often, a collector will keep the original item on the shelf for display, and run a reproduction on the layout. It keeps the value of the original high because moving parts don't get worn further, less chance for accidents that can chip paint or break delicate plastic parts and so on. Also, the reproductions are usually more reliable for operation.

My guess is that some of these collectors are moving into smaller homes, and taking down their operating layouts. And with neither shelf space nor layout, they no longer need the originals or the reproductions.

Something to support my assumption: in April I remarked on the scarcity of Industrial Rail pieces (What We Didn't See). These pieces have virtually no collectible value but are great for operating layouts. This time we saw a good deal of Industrial Rail rolling stock for sale -- all going for around $10 a piece. Another sign of layouts being disassembled?

Next: Lessons from York - A Skewed View 2; what we didn't see

Tone-deaf Spam

I received the comment below for my post Walt, Skeezix, Dad and I. Yes, it's spam, phrased so vaguely it would seem to fit most any post -- except the one it landed on. I was writing about my father, our mutual love of comics, and the passage of time.

You've made some good points there. I looked on the internet for more info about the issue and found most individuals will go along with your views on this website. 

 Sure, sport. Except this was a  post with no issues, nothing anyone has a particular opinion about, or anything related to the "comment." But what really got me was the last line. Because with the post I included a picture of my father and I (reproduced above).

Also visit my blog - how to get rid of belly fat

What!? Are you saying that picture makes me look fat?

The Alley Comes to Tracy

Last year Dick Tracy made a cameo appearance in Gasoline Alley (Tracy Comes to the Alley). Today Dick Tracy's current creative team, Mike Curtis and Joe Staton, returned the complement. Walt Wallet appears in Dick Tracy, and it's clear he's no stranger to the master detective. (click on image to enlarge)

Vitamin Flintheart first appeared in the Dick Tracy strip in 1944 -- and he was old then. There's a good chance that he and Walt Wallet might actually be the same age!

I wonder if there will be a mention of Uncle Walt's good fortune in Gasoline Alley.

CCC - The First Fifty

 I started the Consonant Classical Challenge  to show that the characterization of modern music as ugly and unlistenable was simply unfair. When I began, I knew of several living composers that fit the list. Soon enough, though, it became a challenge for me to keep finding composers for the survey. It's a challenge I've enjoyed, and I've discovered a lot of great music along  the way (which I've shared with you in this series). I've found fifty living composers who -- each in their own way -- have made use of classical music traditions to create works that connect rather than break with the past. Beginning next week, I'll see if I can find at least fifty more...

01 Lowell Liebermann	26 Richard Danielpour
02 Arnold Rosner	27 Jack Jarrett
03 Jennifer Higdon	28 Samuel Zyman
04 Bechara El-Khoury	29 Michael Abels
05 Michael Torke	30 David Del Tredici
06 Michael Daugherty	31 John Tavener
07 John Corgliano	32 Valentin Silvestrov
08 Joan Tower	33 Tarik O'Regan
09 John Adams	34 Beata Moon
10 Jau Greenberg	35 Nico Muhly
11 Christopher Theofanidis	36 William Duckworth
12 Robert Ward	37 Judith Zaimont
13 Adolphus Hailstork	38 George Walkerb
14 Eric Ewazen	39 Thomas Oboe Lee
15 Walter Ross	40 Judd Greenstein
16 Samuel Adler	41 Paul Moravec
17 Einojuhani Rautavaara	42 John Joubert
18 Max Richter<	43 peteris Vasks
19 Avner Dorman	44 Juan Orrego-Salas
20 Carl Vine	45 Leo Brouwer
21 Eric Whitacre	46 Kenneth Fuchs
22 John Rutter	47 Larysa Kuzmenko
23 Christopher Rouse	48 Crt Sojar Voglar
24 Peter Schulthorpe	49 Ester Mati
25 Kevin Puts	50 Dobrinka Tabakova

Being a good citizen

"Poor officials are elected by good citizens who do not vote."

-Tarheel Ward, 1970s

A friend of mine posted this today. It's a quote from her high school history teacher. I think it just about sums things up nicely.

As is my custom, I voted early in the morning. I think of it as the most important thing I do today.

And I'll think it 's the most important thing I'll do on Election Day next year, when the elections are all local, and ton Election Day the year after that when we'll have some state-level decisions to make.

In my opinion, the folks who only vote in the presidential election are like the people who only come to church on Christmas and Easter. Yes, it's better to some participation rather than none, but by only showing up for the big events, you miss what the experience is really all about. And you miss the chance to make decisions that immediately effect your life.

I'm a good citizen who voted.

How about you?

NaNoMo Day 5: The Past is Prologue

Day 5 of the National November Writing Month challenge and I'm running close to par (7,746 words as of this morning). With a 30-day deadline for 50,000 words, making changes can feel like trying to change a tire while your car's hurtling down the highway.

I've already adjusted the plot, and today I surprised myself by writing a prologue. According to my outline (Writing off in All Directions at Once), the story was supposed to start here:


Chapter 1
A private detective is following a group of men to a clandestine meeting. He’s discovered, and chased by the group. He’s cornered in a desperate gunfight, and takes a moment to write out something on a piece of paper and hide it. The gang closes in the detective is killed.

Instead, I wrote the following:

Prologue – A Gathering Storm

The noonday sun had just broken through the clouds when the battleship Portsmouth sank. A blurred whitish streak lanced through the sky.  It was accompanied by a shrill whistle that pierced the air. The streak curved downwards and something struck the battleship right behind the bridge. The projectile, still trailing white smoke crashed through three decks of steel as if they were paper. A loud explosion rumbled from the center of the ship, sending vibrations coursing through the hull. 

Smoke and debris pushed upwards, blasting out through the hole punched in the superstructure. Chunks of metal flew into the air and spiraled down into the ocean as a second streak arced towards the doomed vessel. The new projectile followed the path of the first, burrowing even deeper into the bowels of the ship before detonating. 

This second explosion rolled like thunder through the lower decks, and the hull bulged outwards amidships. With a groan, twisted metal plates, already stressed from the first blast, gave way. Rivets popped, letting the warped hull plates fall away like scales. The exposed beams of the hull were also bent by the explosions, and without the stabilization of the hull plates, buckled under the strain.

With a grinding crash, the battle ship split in two. The bow and the stern lifted upwards as the exposed mid-sections of each half of the ship took on water. Oily steam from the destroyed engine room roiled out over the water, briefly obscuring the two halves of the battleship.

The metallic groan grew in volume, as overstressed bulkheads slowly twisted and tore apart. The creaking of collapsing decks and clatter of falling masts became a death rattle as the remains of the Portsmouth slipped beneath the waves. Within minutes, all that remained of the battleship was a dark stain on the water, sprinkled with floating debris.

[Don't worry -- no one was hurt. This was a decommissioned battleship being used for target practice, as I explain in the rest of the prologue.]

As for chapter one, it turned out all right. Here's the first paragraph:

Chapter 1 - Trouble

A bullet splanged against the brick, dusting Lorton with rust-red flakes. The private detective hunkered down behind an ashcan in the alley. He knew he had been discovered almost immediately, but hoped he could put enough distance between himself and his pursuers to escape to safety. Another shot ricocheted off the brick building behind him, this one lower.

That's one of the things I like about NaNoWriMo. The only way to make the deadline is for me to bypass my internal editor and just get the words written. And sometimes I surprise myself.