The sound of his voice has been compared to “hog calling,” described as an abrasive whine.  Pop critic Stephen Holden once wrote that “his voice jerked upward in a spasmodic shriek, as though he had just sucked in a mouthful of helium. Weird half-yodels, yips, cracked sobs and gravelly mutterings embellished every other phrase.”

And yet, as we celebrate Bob Dylan’s 70th birthday today, May 24,2011, we salute an icon of American music. Can he really be 70?

It seems only yesterday that he burst onto the music scene with an eclectic style combining a unique mix of country music, blues, and rock.  He brought together elements from the Popular Front of the 1930’s–musician/composers like Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger–and beat poets like Allen Ginsberg.  And of course Elvis. You hear their influence in his signature songs of protest written and sung during the urban folk revival of the 1960’s and 1970’s. Sean Wilentz’s fascinating  recent book Bob Dylan in America sheds new light on a whole web of such associations.

The  power of Dylan’s lyrics, and the ways they have uncannily articulated major ideas of our times, is evident from an unlikely source:  they have been cited 186 times in court filings and scholarly legal publications–almost three times as often as The Beatles (74) or Bruce Springsteen (69).  A law professor, combing  legal databases, discovered that even conservative justices of the Supreme Court like Bob Dylan’s words.  Chief Justice John Roberts quoted, “When you got nothing, you got nothing to lose” from “Like a Rolling Stone,” in one of his opinions.  Even Justice Antonin Scalia is on record as having cited, “The times they are a-changin'” to prove his point.

For us, the most transcendent and timeless Dylan  song of all is  the 1962 classic  “Blowin’ in  the Wind,” which is filled with cosmic images.   Lyrics and music match perfectly. Listen to the three successive stanzas made up of three questions each, all beginning with the insistent  words: “How many…?”  They build  in intensity and specificity, only to end each time in the ambiguous, almost anti-climactic statement, “the answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind.”  This refrain is sung to a  gently descending melodic line that suggests a quiet recognition of what should be painfully obvious to everyone.

We are happy to bring you Bob Dylan’s original 1963 recording  of   “Blowin’ in the Wind,”  in his own unique voice.  As a bonus we also give you a video of what is perhaps the most famous cover  (pop version) of the song as originally sung by Peter, Paul and Mary.

]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3t4g_1VoGw4

Btw, in a provocative article in today’s New York Times, a writer suggests that our musical tastes are formed when we’re about 14.  He notes that Paul McCartney, John Lennon, Aretha Franklin, Jerry Garcia, Jimi Hendrix, Lou Reed, Carole King, Brian Wilson, Joan Baez, George Clinton all turned 14 around the same time.

Where were you, musically, when you were 14?  Where are you now?

Back in the 1950’s the U.S. State Department sent jazz greats Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and others to Russia during the Cold War.  The idea was that American music could break down barriers and open Russia up to Western influences.  In retrospect, that idealistic plan may ultimately have been successful!

This past week, on May 3, 2011, the United Nations tried something similar, helping  the conductor Daniel Barenboim take the bold step of  bringing a group of musicians, all hand-picked volunteers from many of Europe’s top-flight orchestras, to Gaza to give a free lunch-time concert of Mozart’s “A Little Night Music” and his G Minor Symphony.

Explaining his purpose, Mr. Barenboim made the careful distinction that he wanted this history-making event to demonstrate solidarity with Gaza’s civil society and culture.  To that end, the invited audience consisted of women’s groups, business people and young musicians.

Those who have tracked  Daniel Barenboim’s career know that he holds both Israeli and Palestinian citizenship and is a controversial champion of peace in the region through creating musical ties that bind.  His  West-East Divan Orchestra, made up of both Israeli and Arab young musicians,  is perhaps the most powerful manifestation of that commitment.

The emotional effect of the Gaza concert is apparent in Michael Kimmelman’s report to The New York Times, (click to read his article):  “[The musicians] played on a makeshift stage, with obvious emotion and exceptionally well, before an invited audience of several hundred that rose to cheer not just afterward but also from the moment the players walked into the hall.”

In an interview Mr. Barenboim is clearly making a point dear to him when he notes that orchestral music displays “an interrelationship of elements, a balance, with no one instrument having the voice all the time.” These are surely fundamental characteristics of the most productive and happy human relationships, whether in families or the world.

He adds: “Even musically noneducated people can feel this inherent quality of justice and rationality.” What would it be like, we wonder, if  people were taught to become more aware of  what they are feeling when they listen.  Could that foster more expansive thinking?

We are not naive enough to think that this one event will end the enmity in the Middle East.  Yet, we feel it is crucial to celebrate what imagination and commitment can accomplish.  We hope you will spread the news of this event to a larger audience.

As Michael Kimmelman said: “Gazans themselves clearly received this concert as one of the most tangible signs yet of change,” and many of the older members of the audience were in tears because it had been so long since they had had Western musicians in Gaza.

As one of the Palestinian organizers of the concert said: “Young Gazans only see the West through cheap Hollywood films.” …  So how can they be expected to be citizens of the world, if they are not exposed to another view?”

What do you think?

Can listening to music influence people’s thinking for the better?

Can experiences like this concert open young people to new possibilities?

One final question:  why do you think Daniel Barenboim choose to play only Mozart in Gaza?

We would love to know your answers.

One of the liveliest public radio programs on music that we regularly listen to is John Schaefer’s “Soundcheck.”  His curiosity about all kinds of music seems infinite and his appreciation is highly infectious.

A recent show really caught our ear when Schaefer interviewed a pop music critic from Canada, Eric Sidlin, who grew up knowing very little about classical music.  One night, out of idle  curiosity (or perhaps an unconscious search for something more),  he attended a concert that featured the Bach Cello Suites. Sidlin was  so moved by this unfamiliar, haunting music that he spent close to a  decade researching the mysterious  background of these works.  He describes  his transformational  journey of discovery in his new book  The Cello Suites: J.S. Bach, Pablo Casals and the Search for a Baroque Masterpiece.

(You can hear this interview as a podcast and find others on “Soundcheck” online every weekday.)

These Suites–most probably never performed in Bach’s lifetime–languished in obscurity for almost 200 years until they were resurrected single-handedly in the early part of the 20th century by the great Catalan cellist Pablo Casals (1876-1973). His historic recording of the complete set, made during the time of the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), was a testament to his strongly held belief that Bach’s music could remind humanity of the good even when evil seemed to be overtaking the world.

The extraordinarily transcendent power of this music has been eloquently described by one of our greatest contemporary cellists, Yo-Yo Ma. In his personal commentary to the album, Artist’s Choice– Yo-Yo Ma: Music that Matters to Him (Sony Music A 53869), he puts at the very top of his list the “Sarabande” from Bach’s Cello Suite no. 5 as performed by Pablo Casals.  The performance here is from the historic recording.

Yo-Yo Ma writes:  “What I love about Casals is that he used to say he was, first of all, a human being; second, he was a musician; third, he was a cellist. I think those priorities were very much demonstrated in the way he lived his life. In an interview I heard  when Casals was in his nineties, he was asked to choose the one piece he would want to play for the whole world. He selected the Sarabande from Bach’s Fifth Suite. So this is a self-chosen piece by Casals of the very music he had championed throughout his life.”

We are also bringing you Yo-Yo Ma’s inspired interpretation of Bach’s “Sarabande,” so you can see, as well as hear, it played by two geniuses of the cello at very different points in time. You will see that Ma’s “Sarabande” is a  masterpiece of profound reflection.  The cello seems to speak in the voice of a  body at rest.  Consisting of two symmetrical halves, the music moves with the calming pulse of a slow exhale as it courses downward, balanced by a series of inhaling upward reaching phrases.  As you listen, pay attention to your own breathing. You may find it unconsciously synchronizing with the music.

Casals’  interpretation of the same piece is strikingly different. For starters, notice that Casals plays it in 2 minutes and 47 seconds, while Yo-Yo Ma’s rendition takes around four minutes. Performing under the stress of a horrific  civil war, Casals communicates a much greater  sense of urgency, hearing the music in phrases of four measures each. There is a determination in his playing, complete with the sound of his powerful fingers striking the fingerboard for certain key notes.

Yo-Yo Ma, on the other hand, tends to emphasize each measure as a meditative moment. The  result is  a more broadly philosophical statement of the music. He seems to be savoring the nuance in almost every note. Watch his fingers and his face.  As he plays he seems to be completely in a state of flow, at one with the music.

In both performances we hear, above all, the transcendent voice of Bach.  We hope it resonates for you the way it did for Eric Sidlin, the now-former pop music critic.  This music gave a new and rich direction to his life, one he never expected.  That is the power of art.

Have you ever had an experience like that with music?

And what did you think about the different interpretations here? Did you respond to one more than the other?  Why? We’d love to know your reactions.

 

 

 

Hello again from Josh and Lynne.  We want to apologize for our long hiatus between posts.  We have been deeply affected by some very sad personal events, specifically serious illnesses and deaths in our close family, all happening within a relatively short time.  Thankfully, our family bands together in trouble as well as joy.  And, yes, music has played a major role in helping us all get through the hard times. Our first post, below, is our way of sharing some of what we have learned, which we hope will benefit you during difficult times too.

Here is just one example.

When a family member had to be taken to the hospital,  she took her iPod and built a protective wall between herself and what we call “hospital toxicity.”   This was a spontaneous act on her part, an intuitive self-prescription for health. The Beatles were her personal medicine.

For us, the connection between music and positive psychology has become even more vital because we have seen its value in action over and over again. We  also see, more clearly than ever, that the idea of music and happiness, like love, holds whole worlds of meaning when you start to explore them.  Our mission is to bring you all the healthful benefits of music that we discover as we scour the global world of research and practice out there for you.

We want to draw your attention to a recent article on Gabrielle Gifford’s recovery from the horrific shooting in Tuscon.  Therapy through music is playing a key role in stimulating her brain, helping her speak again.

And just last week (March 17, 2011), at the Jacob Burns Film  Center in Pleasantville, NY, we were blown away by a new movie, “The Music Never Stopped” — a movie, which in the words of James Greenberg of “The Hollywood Reporter,”  “honors the ability of music to heal even the most damaged soul.”

The movie is quite loosely based on a case study by Dr. Oliver Sacks, “The Last Hippie, ” included in his 1995 anthology AN ANTHROPOLOGIST ON MARS.  It touchingly dramatizes the enormous power  music can have when it taps into our deep memory.  It also illustrates the crucial role music can play (something we believe in very strongly) when shared between generations:  in the movie this sharing heals a broken relationship between an alienated father and son.

At the beginning of the movie, the son, Gabriel Sawyer, is afflicted with a benign brain tumor that leaves him unable to process new memories or remember anything after 1968.  He hardly speaks. We soon learn that he  ran  away from home in his mid-teens after an angry showdown with his father, Henry, who  forbade him to attend a Grateful Dead concert in the late 60’s. He disappeared for twenty years.  When he is ill and reunited with his parents, his father is initially convinced that their early bond around the father’s music will bring his son’s memory back.

However, thanks to the intervention of a gifted music therapist, the father begins to accept the truth that for his son another kind of music–music his father hates–is the key to Gabriel’s moments of awakening.  As the father starts to appreciate the son’s music, they gradually bond in a way that was never possible for them before. They do this by savoring together the music of such iconic groups as The Beatles, The Grateful Dead, and  singers like Bob Dylan, working their magic in songs like “Truckin,’ ” “Touch of Grey,” “All You Need is Love,” and “Desolation Row.”

Go see this movie for yourself!  You’ll find a lot to think and feel about. Here’s a link to an inspiring podcast where the Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart talks about his personal connection with Oliver Sacks and Greg, the real “Gabriel Sawyer.”

This story validates, in the most profound way, how memory, especially when linked to music, is so fundamental to our nature as human beings.  You can check out Josh’s posts on music and memory by clicking here.

The performance of “All You Need is Love” in the movie, the moment when Gabriel comes alive for the first time  (listen here*–you may need to turn down the volume; it’s a loud piece!), has a historical footnote. Thanks to the newly available  satellite technology of the time , the first performance   was reportedly seen by an audience of some two hundred million on June 25, 1967, two weeks after the Arab-Israeli War. This paean to international peace and brotherhood combines the opening phrase of “La Marseillaise”–rallying the world community, the global tribe of peaceniks–with its own driving rhythms.  The refrain, “All you need is Love,” reminds us of the simplest and perhaps purest of childhood memories by suggesting  the opening phrase of  “Three Blind Mice,” then  morphing  into a resolute descending major scale pattern.

Our goal, as we move forward on our musical journey, is to share with you–and we invite you to share with us –the music you love.  What resonates for you when you remember the most difficult and most joyous moments of life?

 

(Click on the blue links in the text to hear the music we talk about below.)

Continuing our suggestions about music for a work environment, there are times when you want to encourage a more energetic mood in yourself and in staff.   As we noted in the preceding post on calming music, choosing music that is complex and instrumental (without lyrics) seems to stimulate the brain to perform well at work.

Let’s begin with the andante, which literally means “walking tempo.” This tempo naturally speeds up your body’s internal rhythms.  Here’s a brief example from the start of the second movement of Mozart’s “Prague” Symphony. Listen to the gentle pulse of the andante, filled with warm caressing lyricism.  No wonder Mozart was so popular in Prague!

For livelier rhythms you might also look for movements marked allegretto or scherzo. Here, for instance, is the beginning of the second movement, marked allegretto, of Schubert’s Symphony #3.  There’s a wonderfully sweet, childlike innocence and zest in this music.

For something with really bubbling energy, it’s hard to beat the following two pieces.  First, listen to part of the scherzo (which literally means “joke”) from Felix Mendelssohn’s “Incidental Music to a Midsummer Night’s Dream.” Mendelssohn could be called the Genius of the Quicksilver Style.

This music was inspired by the opening scene of Act II of Shakespeare’s play, where Puck asks one of the woodland fairies: “How now, spirit! Whither wander you?”  The reply is “…over hill, over dale…I do wander everywhere/Swifter than the moon’s sphere.”

Second, for an example from the symphonic master of the scherzo, listen to the opening of the third movement of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7.  Its cascading line, built on a descending major scale, is filled with gentle hints of laughter and mischief.  For the historically curious, it’s worth knowing that in his many scherzos Beethoven transformed the rather staid, generic minuet of the rigid pre-French Revolution social order into something much more lively and distinctively his own.

To find other examples of energy-producing music, Beethoven is a very good place to start.  The third movements of all his symphonies except the Ninth (there it comes in the second movement) have vibrant, sometimes amusing scherzos. One of Josh’s favorite scherzos appears in the third movement of the Fourth Symphony, where the scherzo rhythms remind him of the way the car lurched when he first learned to drive a stick-shift.  Talk about music and memory!

What music energizes your brain without interfering with concentration when you’re working?  Please write in and tell us.