I have a confession to make: I didn’t care much for Rufus Wainwright’s last album “Release the Stars.” With some time between and some Rufus vacation, I returned to the music, able to listen again with fresh ears. Much of the RELEASE music is on the live album, “Milwaukee at Last” just released as a combo DVD and CD, is performed here. Filmed and performed in Milwaukee, where I lived in the summer of 1973, Rufus is in the middle of the tour, the music is impeccably performed, and Rufus––as a singer, pianist, guitarist, and songwriter––is at his peak.
There are interviews with the band members, clips and close-ups of the audience listening to his music, and of course LOTS of Rufus chat. In that every performance is so intense, the banter in between works well as a published live documentation. Seeing the “Release” songs live here make them come to life. All these songs “work” for me now. I get it.
I am overjoyed to see Rufus spending time crafting the difficult piano part in “Tulsa” as well as playing it and sing it at the same time. The CD version of this song had a string quartet––it works fine as a solo piano and voice arrangement, especially here. Rufus nails it.
Every member of the band (all male here btw) is a virtuosic multi-instrumentalist as well as a singer. I realized that this is not so far from the Philip Glass or Steve Reich ensembles in their early years–a little chamber orchestra to tour playing your music. What is interesting is how that instrumentation changes with every tour.
Gerry Leonard is the musical producer and guitarist for this show and does a terrific job. He is clearly senior to everyone else: hats off to Rufus for being consistently intergenerationally inclusive.
I struggle writing my book analyzing songs by Rufus Wainwright because I keep forgetting who I am writing the book for. I simplify the language so that regular music lovers can appreciate it, but then I address issues that are more appropriate to graduate music analysis seminars for composers or music theorists.
What is it that non-musicians want to know about music? I fear that these music lovers don’t know the questions to ask––so I need to ask interesting questions.
What do classical musicians want to get out of a book that analyzes songs by a pop songwriter? My guess is that we want to see that there are similar compositional methods a classical composer might use, showing up somewhere in the music. Good voice leading along with an organic use of a theme in a pop piece impresses a classical musician.
Who am I writing for? Both audiences.
Sigh.
[Early American doll, photo by RB]
Having finished my composition projects for the summer, I am finally returning to finishing my book on Rufus Wainwright. Having bought Robert O. Gderdingen’s terrific publication “Music in the Galant Style” I have found the book format that I’d like to have for my book: one with relatively large type, but most importantly, a hardback book that can stay open at the piano without breaking the binding. I will have as many musical examples as I am able. Each essay will have a lyric/melody/form analysis — see below.
I was shocked to see how much I’ve already finished. But in that I’m smarter now than when I originally wrote all this I’ll be revising and tweaking each essay.
My new working title is RUFUS WAINWRIGHT: ANALYTIC ESSAYS ON SELECTED EARLY SONGS. I am debating whether to keep or toss a bevy of miscellaneous chapters about Rufus, but otherwise I will focus on analytic observations and less on dish or biography.
In the illustration below, I include the lyrics, the melodic form with respect to repeated melodic figures (a, b1, c, etc.), and the formal structure (A, B, verse, chorus, etc.). Look up and down the left side of the diagram. You see abcd and their variants appearing from left to right. Each letter and its variant have their own column. What this allows the reader to see and understand is exactly when melodic figures are new or repeat. And what we see over and over in Rufus’s music is that they usually repeat, and there are limited melodic figures in each song. If you look at all the a1 figures and the lyrics to the right, you’ll know that they all have the same melody. Now look at a2; and then b; and then c; and finally d. I include a complete transcription at the end of most essays.
Statistically the “a” figures appear most frequently (12 times); the “b” figure 6 times; the c figures 8 times; and the “d” figure is rarest at 3 times. The “a1″ and “a2″ figures are the melodic hooks as well as the title of the song, “Pretty Things.” The “b” figure is a simple melodic turn that joins a1 and a2. The “c” figure is an oscillating 4th, and the “d” figure is a falling 4th that signals the end of the section.
As you look at this illustration, you see that the yellow and blue section together make up one big chunk. This chunk is repeated again, but then varied in its third appearance. Can you see what has changed?
Young Maurice Ravel
My Dear Rufus
I heard your preview aria from your new opera and am quite pleased at your new direction.
Might I remind you to please not be overly influenced by Philip Glass, and his habit of getting “stuck” in one register when composing for the keyboard. Look at the piano music I have written and especially Claude’s brilliant Preludes. In fact, I encourage you to set aside some time to compose your own set of preludes, much like Billy Joel did.
I hope that your entire opera does not “hover” as much as this little jewel does. I encourage you to explore textures that you have never worked in. Learn how to compose a scherzo; a vivace section, like Vivaldi would; a gripping allegro; a captivating fugato (I don’t care about fugues for the most part), but especially get away from the omnipresent homophonic writing that exemplifies so much of your attempts at bridging classical music. You have a terrific sense of melody and harmony, but only a so-so sense of counterpoint. Learn how to make harmonic motion turn into a sea of individual voices. Discover other strong textures besides the Kleinian “wall of sound.”
Critics may tar you with the same brush that they did with Claude’s “Pelleas” — complaining about a lack of action. Be strong, my boy, be strong. Don’t let good reviews get you fat, and bad reviews get you down. Trust your momentum.
Best of luck with the premieres of your new opera. A very exciting time, indeed!
Hugs
Maurice Ravel
PS: And I love the new beard!
Emma Lew Thomas came back from Germany aglow with Rufus Wainwright and Robert Willson’s collaboration on 25 Shakespeare Sonnets. Nothing has been released to date, so, sniffing around YouTube I found a collection of sonnets in progress, as well as a preview from a Berlin TV news show. I threw in the Bacharach collaboration for the heck of it.
Dear Rufus
I am so proud and happy for you and your recent compositions. I heard your new Shakespeare Sonnets–they remind me of some of my own songs. You struggle with a desire for an old-time, folky sense of harmony fighting with being more harmonically adventurous. Meld the two my boy.
I have avoided sitting in on your opera rehearsals, wanting, rather, to be surprised. Like me, you don’t seem like a concerto or operatic composer. You have been, to date, a song writer. Nonetheless, I anxiously await your new opera, to hear your foray into that realm, and know that I will be cheering for you.
With hugs from the other side,
Franz Schubert
PS: Charles Tomlinson Griffes sends his love.
I called Martha Stewart a while back and told her that what she really needed to do was to invite Rufus Wainwright onto her show. In fact, why not the whole family. So I was thrilled to find that she followed through on it. Here’s what turned out, in two parts. (And don’t play them at the same time.) You also will see a very healthy and happy looking Kate McGarrigle, Rufus’s mom.
Looking for one of my favorite songs of all time, look what I found! Rufus singing it. He’s still learning it, but good to hear him sing anyway.
Here is Regina Crespin singing it. Mmmmm…
And here is Janet Baker:
And we must have Jesse Norman.
Sung by Rufus Wainwright, Martha Wainwright, and Teddy Thompson (2001),
We watched SOUTH PACIFIC last night — it having been filmed in Kauai, which is where I am right now. I have to admit to loving his music and began thinking about his compositional technique for writing songs.
Rodgers seems to start with the lyrics. His melodies always fit the lyrics perfectly. Afterall, his job is to make sure the audience, and especially those sitting in the back row of the balcony, can understand the words. The shapes of his tunes always seem to be implied by the words themselves.
My guess it that the next thing that comes is the bass. Once the melody and the bass are written, harmony is implied. He can either flesh out that harmony or imply it in the countermelody.
The third step is his remarkably effective countermelodies. They draw very little attention to themselves, but the countermelodies contain, in my opinion, so much of the emotion of the song: the non-chord tones, the suspensions, and the mood. They are quite often in step-wise motion and sequential. Play a Richard Rodgers song with only the melody and bass line and, although effective, the result is not as powerful as when the countermelody is added.
As I work on my book on Rufus Wainwright, I can’t help but notice that many of the songs I prefer have countermelodies not unlike Richard Rodgers. They are predominantly step-wise, sequential and offer spicy tones to the prevailing harmonies.
