This year I was asked by Drew McManus (whose blog, Adaptistration is widely read) to contribute to a website and initiative called “Take a Friend to the Orchestra.” Various writers, bloggers, and critics have contributed to it over the years. My post has just appeared.

Composer, professor, Chair of the UCLA Department of Music, music publisher, and blogger Roger Bourland is a polymathic kind of guy. It’s tough to describe Roger’s contribution but suffice to say, it is undoubtedly a representative example of engaging creativity. If you’re like me, you’ll love it and wonder if the technology exists to crawl around Roger’s mind for an hour just to have a glimpse of what it’s like to experience a live concert event with friends real or imagined… [Drew McManus]

Between Charlie and Hector

By: Roger Bourland

I had looked forward to this evening for a long time. Rufus Wainwright was going to join me for dinner and an LA Philharmonic new music concert. On the bill was John Adams “Short Ride in a Fast Train,” Igor Stravinsky’s “Requiem Canticles,” and Lou Harrison’s “Symphony on G.” I had never met Rufus, but he agreed to join me on a free night. He was to arrive by train, so I made reservations at Traxx at Union Station for 6 pm.

I sat for a while, alone, nursing my Hendricks Gibson, when a text arrived on my Palm Pre: “Sorry, I missed the train, no more 2nite, maybe brunch tomorrow?” I was, in a sense, relieved, but disappointed. I wasn’t sure Rufus would really enjoy this concert, as he is more of an opera fan: orchestra, not so much.

[...]

Read the entire article here.

Rufus has been promising us a solo piano album since before his Judy phase. Perhaps this new one will be it. His website announced the album officially yesterday with an interesting playlist. The album will be called “All Days Are Nights: Songs For Lulu” and no, I have no idea who Lulu is, except an opera by Alban Berg and an old cartoon.

1. Who Are You New York?
2. Sad With What I Have
3. Martha
4. Give Me What I Want and Give It To Me Now!
5. True Loves
6. Sonnet 43
7. Sonnet 20
8. Sonnet 10
9. The Dream
10. What Would I Ever Do With A Rose?
11. Les Feux d’artifice t’appellent
12. Zebulon

I was greatly saddened to see the passing of Kate McGarrigle, mother of Rufus and Martha Wainwright and sister of Anna and Jane. I thought her cancer was in remission but evidently it returned. She touched many lives and helped shape the aesthetic of one of the great songwriters on the planet, Rufus Wainwright.

Like many Americans, “Heart Like a Wheel” sung by Linda Ronstadt was our first introduction to this great talent. A big heart she had. She will be sorely missed, and I am sorry for her family’s loss.

And a recent and final performance of her lovely “Tell Me of Mendocino” — funny banter between Rufus and Kate at the beginning. Touching harmony.

And her final composition and a touching performance of the December 2009 Royal Albert Hall performance of “Proserpina.”

The LA Times reported that the family stood around her bed singing as she died.

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.