Strange Days

American music sometimes shows up in the strangest of places.

I've long thought that Soft Cell's 1981 hit Tainted Love epitomized New Wave music. It captured the contrast that embodied that particular style: upbeat, poppy music supporting what is essentially a dark message. Further, it came along right as the world was first hearing of AIDS; "tainted love" indeed. I have held this tune up as a piece that perfectly fits its era. So imagine my surprise when a piece on NPR revealed that Tainted Love was actually written in 1964:




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I have to credit Naida D will turning me on to another bit of mindbending musical synchronicity. She mentioned to me that she had read a book entited The Cellist of Sarajevo, about Vedran Smailovic, a musician who risked his life every day to play on the streets of Sarajevo during the war between the Serbs and Muslims. The piece he played was the Adagio in G Minor by Remo Giazotto. We were able to find a recording of this piece, arranged for cello ensemble, using the Naxos Music Library, accessed through Northern Arizona University's Cline Library. Here's the piece (it's often erroneously credited to Tomaso Albinoni):



I couldn't help noticing similarities bewteen this piece and Barber's Adagio for Strings (see previous blog entry); this makes sense, as Barber and Giazotto were contemporaries. So I found a recording of it on Naxos and spun it for Naida. Within thirty seconds, she recognized that she had heard Barber's Adagio before. Consulting her iPod, she found a techno remix of it by a Dutch DJ named Tiesto. Here's the clip I located on YouTube (brace yourself, it's a bit more hard-driving than the original...):



I have to admit being pretty knocked out that one of the most exquisite examples of twentieth-century American orchestra composition was the inspiration for something so radically different in sound and texture. Regardless of whether or not you like European dance music, it's hard not to see that musical fusion as something innovative.


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And now for something completely different, while we're on the subject of new and innovative musical treatments (and the subject of my last blog entry). I saw Victor Wooten play this one on stage at a concert by Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, and I'm telling you, I'm not sure I would have believed it if I hadn't seen it with my own two eyes:



Many thanks to Maya C for hippin' me to the Flecktones, all those years ago...


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Till next time...

D