Resources

Category: Resources

Cool.

Last week we were too consumed by meat products to mark this momentous anniversary. On Sept. 26, 1957, West Side Story opened at the Winter Garden in New York, with music by Leonard Bernstein and lyrics by a very young Stephen Sondheim. An item in the New York Times that day revealed that it dealt with “the timely subject of juvenile delinquency.” They might as well have said “Oklahoma! it ain’t.” The next day Times reviewer Brooks Atkinson showed that he got it: a score that captures “the shrill beat of life in the streets;” “Everything contributes to the total impression of wildness, ecstasy and anguish;” “This is one of those occasions when theatre people…are all in top form.”

The Mudd has the original cast recording, the full score, the 1961 film (on DVD) starring Natalie Wood and Richard Beymer, and the crazy, what-were-they-thinking 1985 studio recording with José Carreras as the Polish youth and Tatiana Troyanos as the Puerto Rican teenage girl. Give it a listen just to hear UW-Milwaukee’s own Kurt Ollmann.

Symphony of a Thousand + One Guitar Player

mahler

An ocean away on Sept. 12, 1910, “Antonio Martello pleads guilty…to playing a guitar and singing Neapolitan ballads to a woman in the Bronx and is sentenced to serve 20 days in the workhouse as a common nuisance.” — <a href="http://carol.lib.lawrence.edu/F/?func=item-global&doc_library=LAW01&doc_number=000326728&year=&volume=&sub_library=LUCIA"Music Since 1910.

The Mudd has numerous recordings of the Mahler and even one of Neapolitan songs.

Always Dress Your Carcass in the Best From Neiman Marcus

A trainOn September 10, 1907 a new department store, Neiman Marcus, (that’s a big store in Big D) opened its doors. Also on this day 75 years ago at one minute past midnight the A Train started running on the IND 8th Avenue Line in New York.

There’s a Neiman Marcus in Manhattan at 41st. and Broadway. The A Train doesn’t run over there, but you can take it to 42nd St. (the Port Authority Bus Terminal) and then take the IRT Times Square-Grand Central Shuttle. It’ll get you pretty close. And listen to Billy Strayhorn’s “Take the A Train” while you’re traveling.

Scaramouche, Scaramouche – Will You Do the Fandango?

queen mercuryHere’s what we’ll bet you don’t know about Freddie Mercury: he was born in Tanzania, his real name was Farrokh Bulsara, and today would have been his 61st birthday.

The library doesn’t have any authentic Queen CDs, but we do have We will rock you, the “rock theatrical” with music by Ben Elton and Queen. You can check it out and hear that version of “Bohemian rhapsody,” or listen to all six glorious minutes of the real thing (with no visuals) on youtube. If all you know about Queen is “We are the champions” and “We will rock you,” you’ll be surprised and delighted at the musical intelligence and tight vocals.

Anton vs. Darius

boeufAnton Bruckner (1824) and Darius Milhaud (1892) share a birthday today. Austrian versus Frenchman. One old enough to be the grandfather of the other. One a composer renowned for symphonic works in the tradition of Beethoven and Schubert (with a Wagnerian twist) along with sacred compositions; devout Roman Catholic; virtuoso organist. The other an avant garde artist of the 1920’s who prodigious output spanned all genres and who, in the words of New Grove, was a “pioneer in the use of percussion, polytonality, jazz and aleatory techniques.” Couldn’t get much different. We’ve got tons of Bruckner and tons of Milhaud. Compare and contrast. And next April the Lawrence Symphony Orchestra will be performing Bruckner’s 4th symphony.

Happy Birthday, Mister Adler

Monroe DressToday marks the 86th birthday of composer Richard Adler. In 1950 he began composing with Jerry Ross, and a few years later they cranked out The Pajama Game (1954) and Damn Yankees (1955.) The latter show contains the song “Hey There,” the opening of which is said to be based on the first theme of Mozart’s Piano Sonata in C major, K. 545. Judge for yourself.

Grove Music Online has an interesting bit of trivia about Mr. Adler: “He was also the producer and director for various celebrity productions in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, including Marilyn Monroe’s celebrated appearance in Madison Square Garden singing Happy Birthday to President Kennedy.” But we want to know who sewed her into The Dress.

Listen to or view some Richard Adler.

Send ‘Em In

clown graduateIt’s National Clown Week, proclaimed by Richard M. Nixon in 1971. We won’t even go there.

We think clowns are kind of scary, but not as scary as ventriloquists’ dummies. We’re talking the wooden kind with the hinged mouth. If you want to see something spooky, check out the International Ventriloquists’ Association web site. Yeesh.

National Clown Week also reminds us of a remark made by Bart Simpson to his dad when Homer expressed an urge to attend college: “Barber or clown?”

Here are our two favorite clown-related items in the Mudd: the electronic book Careers for Class Clowns & Other Engaging Types and Herb Gardner’s play A Thousand Clowns.