Dr. Mehmet Oz, the noted cardiovascular surgeon who has become a major health expert in America regularly featured on Oprah, has opened a fascinating new website, YouBeauty.com, as of July 1st this year.  He and Dr. Michael Roizen are the authors of You: Being Beautiful, You: Staying Young, and many other books on diet and health, all on our reference shelves for years now.

We are proud to announce that we and our site are featured in the very first issue of YouBeauty.com, in an article called “Your Mind on Music.”

Click on this link to read Josh’s cogent remarks first.  Please let us know your reactions and please share the news. This is a wonderful site.

The power of music to connect human beings and elevate their spirits is as old as mankind itself.

Music is essential to our nature as social animals, our need to bond with others. It can take many forms–a mother cooing to her baby, work songs on chain gangs, protest marches, marching bands, people singing in a chorus…we’re sure you can think of many more examples.  Take a look at  our posts on the relationship between music and memory here.

We now know from  leading neuroscientists who write about music that “happiness” hormones like oxytocin can be released as a result of musical bonding.  Daniel Levitin explains how this probably occurs, in his book The World in Six Songs (2008).

Nowadays, in the age of the  Internet, the ability to create bonding through music has reached world-wide proportions. This was brought home to us recently when we learned about Eric Whitacre’s remarkable 2000+ member Virtual Choir, made up of singers from 58 countries.

As a teenager who played the synthesizer and the drum machine even though he did not read music, Whitacre had dreams of becoming a pop star. But his life goal changed radically at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, after he grudgingly attended a choir rehearsal of Mozart’s  Requiem. In his own words his world, which had been black and white, suddenly it burst into color as he heard the Kyrie.

In gratitude for this transformational experience,  he ultimately  wrote a choral piece in honor of  the choir director who had so changed his life and who set him on the career  path to becoming a  choral conductor and composer.

In the TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) talk below, Whitacre movingly describes the evolution of the virtual choir, which had its beginnings in a simple YouTube fan video made by a girl singing the soprano line from his choral composition called “Sleep.”   He was deeply moved by her performance and suddenly had a vision. Why not post all the vocal parts of this piece on the web and make a video of himself conducting the music for people to sing along?  Let him tell the rest of the story…

Here are some lines from the poem “Sleep,” on which Whitacre based his piece.   You may hear echoes of Robert Frost’s “Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening.”  We do.

The evening hangs beneath the moon

A silver thread on darkened dune

With closing eyes and resting head

I know that sleep is coming soon

.            .            .           .

As I surrender unto sleep

As I surrender unto sleep.

And finally, if you would like to hear the full April 2011 global virtual performance of “Sleep,” here it is.

If you might like to join a virtual choir, Eric Whitacre has posted videos on YouTube giving more information about the way the process works.

It seems to us that this is an extremely valuable, creative, truly new use of technology that actually increases human well being.

What do you think?

This is for those of you who don’t know much about music.

Or who would like to know more about it than you do now.

Let’s start off by having some fun. Have you seen a Virtual Keyboard?

Even if you have never played an instrument, you can experience making music yourself with this wonderful invention (click here).

Time for a confession from Lynne:

Josh plays the violin as if it’s an extension of his body and soul.

I play the piano…badly.

Josh can quickly identify almost any piece of music and can usually name the conductor and performer after listening to a few bars of it.

I have a terrible memory for instrumental music, especially when it’s “classical.”

For years we have played a car game sort of like Twenty Questions.  As we drive along and are listening to music–especially classical instrumental music–on the radio, he will ask if I want to guess who wrote it.

I’m happy to tell you that I’m getting a little better at guessing the right century and sometimes even the right country of origin.  If I’m feeling really daring, I may even try for the first initial of the composer’s name.

Now, if you want lyrics to every song in the American Songbook, I’m your gal. And songs from my parents’ generation? I can sing the verses and choruses of songs most people have never heard of, the result of spending a lot of my childhood on long car trips.

The point of my confession is this:

You don’t need to be a musical savant to be part of our tribe. You just have to be interested enough in music to read our posts.  We want you to feel very comfortable responding with your own comments and asking questions.  That’s how we all learn and grow.

Here are some good reasons for sticking with us.

Music listening, playing, and study stimulate all sorts of cognitive processes.

When you listen to unfamiliar music you are challenging yourself to swim in a sea of novel patterns and sounds.  This nourishes brain growth just the way adapting to any new environment does.  Facing the unknown becomes even more valuable when you are guided to understand how to listen and make sense of what you’re hearing.  Then you get an Aha! experience as a bonus.

Familiar music is challenging as well, when you learn how to recognize its musical structure and unique genius.  It’s like swimming in warm Caribbean waters, diving below the surface where you usually stay, deep down to where unexpected, hidden beauties lie. Another powerful Aha! experience.

Our job is to give you insights that pique your curiosity and sense of wonder so that your dives are exciting–and easier than they would be without our guidance.

As Josh and I continue to explore the wide world of music that we feel represents humanity at its best, I hope you will be our companions in discovering music that

• moves you strongly, not necessarily always in a positive way (!)
• provokes your thinking
• arouses your desire to listen and learn more
• puts you in touch with that mysterious spirit residing in each of us that resonates to the greatest forms of human expression and experience…

Even if–like me–you still can’t, for the life of you, name that tune.

 

Hawaii has been in the news a lot lately.  President Obama released the long form of his birth certificate, and A Singular Woman, Janny Scott’s biography of his mother, Ann Dunham, was recently published.

But Hawaii is also offering something even more newsworthy, in larger numbers than ever before–an instrument through which almost anyone can find musical expression, enriching their own lives as well as those around them. Such are the unexpected benefits of playing the ukulele.

The association of the ukulele with Hawaii is far from new. In fact, it is a descendant of a four-stringed instrument brought to Hawaii in the late 1870’s from Portugal.  It has gone through several waves of popularity since then. Remember Tiny Tim?

But there is nothing that quite compares to the current ukulele craze. It all began in 1999, when Israel Kamakawiwo’ole ‘s ukulele version of “Over the Rainbow” was used in a commercial for eToys. That recording has been licensed over 100 times since, to sell everything from paint to lottery tickets to food, software, and banking services.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FBKa-bCasY

A number of major pop artists and indie rock groups have fed this craze. They include Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam, who is about to release a new solo album, “Ukulele Songs.” Here is his “Longing to Belong.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgqmlFbroqE

And don’t forget Paul McCartney’s tribute to George Harrison at the 2002 “Concert for George.” Four years later Jake Shimabukuro’s rendition of  Harrison’s “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” went viral on YouTube.

Most importantly, as singerAmanda Palmer, formerly of  the punk cabaret group, Dresden Dolls, puts it, the ukulele is the ideal instrument for the D.I.Y. age. It represents everything that “the grand polished machine of the music industry is not. … This is the age of democratization in music. Anyone can be a musician. And in a recession, when you have a $20 instrument and there is a big musical renaissance, anyone will want to join in.”

Local strumming groups are springing up all over the place because no special  training is required to join. Ukulele strumming goes so well with untrained vocal styles.  We were charmed recently by a photo of two middle-aged women learning to play the ukulele together.  They looked so excited and pleased with themselves. It brought home clearly the inner rewards that people get from making music for fun, whether you sing alone in the shower or join a ukulele orchestra.

There is a lively magazine focused on making music for fun, called, fittingly, Making Music: Better Living Through Recreational Music Making (full disclosure: the lovely editor, Antoinette Follett, is a relative of ours).  Click on the link for more information on the ukelele. The whole magazine is well worth checking out.

A message from Josh:

The joys of serendipity.  The other day, listening to the car radio while driving to my college campus to teach, I heard a piece by Richard Wagner that I have loved for a long time:  “A Siegfried Idyll.” I’d like to share some thoughts about it with you.

Wagner has been a controversial personality from the beginning.  There is his megalomaniacal Aryanism and his anti-semitism to deal with, for starters.  He was at the center of a major scandal that caused great pain to two families and alienated him from his champion Franz Liszt.

And yet he could also write this serenely beautiful statement of peace and love, contradicting the cliche that his music is only aggressively loud and bombastic.

The origins of the Idyll lie in the deep emotion Wagner felt for his wife, Cosima.  He gave it to her as a surprise Christmas Day/birthday gift in 1870.  It was first played on the staircase of their home, Villa Tribschen, on Lake Lucerne in Switzerland.  Imagine Wagner standing at the top of the staircase, conducting a 15 member chamber ensemble consisting of flute, oboe, two clarinets, trumpet, two horns, bassoon, two first and second violins, viola, cello, and double bass!

Barely four years earlier, Cosima,  then still legally married to the celebrated conductor/pianist Hans Von Bulow, had scandalously left her husband for Wagner.  Within four years she had borne Wagner two daughters and then in 1869 a son whom they named Siegfried.  (Siegfried is of course also the name Wagner gave to the third opera in his Ring of the Nibelung cycle, which premiered on August 16, 1876 as part of the historic world premiere of the complete Ring–a major public event.)

However, “A Siegfried Idyll” was not actually the original name of this piece. The story is more complicated.

Wagner and Cosima had begun a secret affair around 1864.  Both found the great love of their life in each other.  For the rest of their lives Cosima was Wagner’s muse and fierce protector. This music that he wrote for her reflects the strength of their bond, which lasted until their deaths.

Thus he named this gift to her “The Tribschener Idyll, with Fidi’s Birdsong and Orange Sunrise, as a Symphonic Birthday Greeting from Richard to Cosima.” Tribschener for their beloved home, Villa Trebschen…Fidi, the nickname of their little son Siegfried.

In the beginning it was, as Edward Downs says,  “a private and personal document, never intended for the ears of the outside world.”  In fact,  it was only “grim financial pressure” that ultimately persuaded them to publish it, substituting the present, familiar title for the personal, intimate one Wagner originally gave it.

What you should listen for in the music, performed by a chamber ensemble drawn from members of the Vienna Philharmonic conducted by Sir George Solti:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFtpLhfKJ_0

There are four essential melodies or themes.

• The principal one is a calm melody first heard in the strings.   Recent scholarship has revealed that this melody was actually part of a never-completed string quartet “valentine” that Wagner had intended as a gift to Cosima when they first became involved around 1864.

• What follows is a caressing oboe melody quoting an old German cradle song, “Sleep, Little Child, Sleep,” something jotted down in Wagner’s diary before his son Siegfried was born. There is the striking similarity between this melody and the opening principal one; they can been seen as virtual mirror images of each other.

• The third melody heard also originated as part of the “valentine” string quartet.  It is better known to Wagnerites as the introduction to the climactic love duet of Brunnhilde and Siegfried, where she sings “O Siegfried, thou glorious hope of the world.”

• Finally, there is the music of the forest bird that tells Siegfried of Brunnhilde, who lies asleep on a high rock surrounded by magic fire where she awaits a fearless hero to set her free.  It’s evident that the opera Siegfried and the “Siegfried Idyll” share important common elements.

• After a return of the lullaby, “A Siegfried Idyll,” aglow with the poetry of sleep, leaves us in a state of sublime peace.

This is a beautiful example of transcendence achieved through love, as you can see from the pictures that accompany the music.

Questions arise.  Can we separate the composer’s backstory from the finished creation?

Should we?