Ed. note: We love New Amsterdam records, so we’re thrilled to be teaming up with them. This Thursday night from 6-8 pm, mental_floss is co-hosting a party at the Galapagos Arts Space called Pollinate with a whole bunch of exciting arts groups. The Wassaic Project will feature stunning sculptures from new artists, Hotel St. George press will dazzle audiences with a few short readings, and New Amsterdam is going to be spinning fresh, new sounds the whole time. We’ll be there handing out FREE magazines (and enjoying the beers on tap as we do!). If you’re in the Brooklyn area, drop by. (For more info on this launch party and New Amsterdam’s month long Undiscovered Islands festival, be sure to visit here). Now back to the interview.

A New Type of Label

When the dot.com bubble burst in 2001, many sites that survived—and even prospered—had something in common: equal weight given to the brand/url/business, on the one hand, and the User on the other. A perfect example can be found by looking at the difference between Britannica Online (launched in 1994) and Wikipedia (launched in 2001). The former is Web 1.0, the latter, Web 2.0.

Young entrepreneurs who’ve come of age in the Web 2.0 world don’t even consciously think about this division. They just create sites and organizations that give the user a lot of freedom, a lot of space to play, to help shape the organization itself. (Just think about all the young folks who got involved with Obama in the digital space to create their own fundraising and rally events, dinners, and blogs on or via his site.) So, it makes sense that when classically trained composers Judd Greenstein, Sarah Kirkland Snider and William Britelle teamed up to form their own record label, they made a point of creating a 2.0 Web site.

Formed in 2008, New Amsterdam calls itself “a haven for trained musicians whose work slips through the cracks” between genres. New York Magazine critic Justin Davidson says New Amsterdam is a “virtual coffeehouse” “at the center” of the indie classical scene in New York. They’ve already released 11 albums by artists such as big band leader Darcy James Argue and violist Nadia Sirota. But just as importantly, their Web site doubles as a social networking space, allowing musicians to create a profile, upload music, video, pics, even blog, all for free! And if you’re now thinking MySpace, think again. NewAmsterdamRecords.com has an aesthetic and a style that perfectly represents and presents the community it serves, a trillion miles away from the eyesore and chaos of MySpace.Today we had the privilege of interviewing New Amsterdam co-founders Judd Greenstein and William Brittelle, so if you’re interested in new music, or the record business, read on, read on… (more…)

Who doesn’t love that great song “Mahna Mahna” from Sesame Street? As funny as it is earwormy, as adorable as it is cool, the song appeals to each generation anew and never gets tiring.
But guess what? Neither Sesame Street nor The Muppet Show can take credit for discovering the song. Penned by the Italian film composer Piero Umiliani (if you haven’t heard of him, it’s okay, “Mahna Mahna” is all he’s really known for), “Mah Nà Mah Nà” as it was originally called in Italian, was first used in the 1968 pseudo-documentary Svezia, Inferno e Paradiso—a film composed of a series of short, soft-focus type segments about—strapped into your parachutes?—sexuality in Sweden! (Hence the paradise and hell, I guess.) Check out the (pg-13) clip below for the original scene underscored with the original Umiliani arrangement.

Sesame Street used it a year later in an episode that was premiered in 1969, then on the Ed Sullivan show later the same year, and again on The Muppet Show in 1977.

The original arrangement (”Mah Nà Mah Nà”) was a huge hit in ’68 and ’69 and made it all the way to #55 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100. It also hit the charts again across the pond in ’77, making it all the way to #8 in the UK. In the original Italian version, the song makes about as much sense, lyrically, as it does in English, which is to say, nonsense. If you want to compare the above version to the Muppet version, or just want to feel nostalgic, here’s the latter:

Check out past On Music posts here >>

Ever wonder what instrument was used to make that funny sound of the adults talking on the Peanuts cartoons? It’s a trombone with the rubber end of a toilet plunger over the instrument’s bell. By opening and closing the plunger with the hand, thereby allowing more or less air out of the trombone’s bell, the trombonist is able to get a wah-wah effect, which the directors were able to use to mimic the rise and fall of our voice patterns, exaggerated, of course.

Here’s a demonstration by Wycliffe Gordon:

My favorite adult on the Peanuts was always Linus van Pelt’s schoolteacher/crush, Miss Othmar.

Check out the below clip (about 1:30 into it) for some classic Miss Othmar trombone.

Check out past On Music posts here >>

Some of you might recall my post from a little over a year ago on peculiar instruments. In it, I talked about the bonang, didgeridoo, and others. Well here’s an electronic one I left off the list: the Chapman Stick.

Invented in the early 70s by Emmett Chapman, “the stick,” as it’s usually referred to, is sort of like a cross between a bass and a wide-neck guitar. But rather than plucking or strumming the strings (of which there can be 8, 10, or 12, depending on the model), the stick-ist taps or hammers them, with either the right or left hand, or, more commonly, both.

While many musicians use the stick, probably the most famous is Tony Levin of Peter Gabriel and King Crimson fame. Here’s a great video of him playing (and singing) the Crimson song “Elephant Talk.”

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Theresienstadt concentration camp, or Terezín as it was usually called, was an oddity, even by the Nazi’s standards. They used it as transit camp, before carting people off to Auschwitz. But more than that, they used it as propaganda, the “model Jewish settlement”—the beautiful, special place where Jews would be resettled under Hitler’s plan, before he went full-steam ahead with “The Final Solution.” As such, people placed in Terezín were given privileges that the others were not. Concerts, theater, books to read—even opera.
The words opera and Holocaust very rarely make their way into the same conversation, let alone the same sentence. It is difficult to imagine, then, that an Austrian composer and pianist by the name of Viktor Ullmann not only contemplated the great operatic tradition while imprisoned in Terezín, but was actually able to compose one. Scribbled on the back of camp records and lists of prisoners to be sent to the gas chambers, Ullmann penned a work called The Emperor of Atlantis, which is largely about life and death having lost their meaning.

And while both the composer and the librettist, Peter Kien, were ultimately murdered in Auschwitz, the score was miraculously smuggled out and resurfaced in London before ultimately receiving its premiere some 30 years later in Amsterdam. I don’t have any excerpts of the piece, but I do have another piece Ullmann wrote, and others by four more composers who were part of the unusual, sadly surreal musical scene at Terezín.

1. Gideon Klein

Klein was studying music in Prague when the Nazis closed all institutions of higher learning in the occupied Czech territories. He was sent to Terezín in December, 1941, but was then sent to Auschwitz and ultimately to Fürstengrube, where he was murdered in the gas chambers.
Here’s an excerpt from his Trio for Violin, Viola and Cello. (more…)

The English composer Gustav Holst completed his most famous work, The Planets, about 15 years before Pluto was discovered. The piece was inspired by astrology, not astronomy (though he wasn’t eager to reveal his main influences because the most famous astrologer in Britain, Alan Leo, had been prosecuted under the Vagrancy Act of 1917, which declared all astrologers, palmists, clairvoyants and mediums “common thieves and vagabonds.”)

By the time Pluto was discovered, Holst was so over the success of the piece, which seriously dwarfed the rest of his works, the composer decided against adding an 8th movement, refusing to write a Pluto.

As we know now, this turned out to be a good thing. The one and only 7-movement piece (there was never an Earth movement) is about 50 minutes long when played in its entirety. I’ll recommend some of the better recordings at the end of the post, but let’s first look at each planet.

1. Mars, the Bringer of War

One of the angriest pieces of tonal music you’ll ever hear, Mars opens the piece with an ominous, hard-hitting, relentless march in 5/4. This little excerpt comes at about four minutes into the movement. If you hear some similarities between this and John Williams’ Star Wars score(s), you’re not alone. Many have remarked over the years about Williams copying Holst. In Williams’ defense, The Planets is the definitive, dramatic, ‘outer space’ score. It would be hard for anyone to escape its influence, especially a Hollywood hack (j/k ;-) But seriously, if you know Stravinsky’s Le Sacre du Printemps, you also know how much Holst was influenced (read: stole) from that momentous score, premiered about one year before Holst sat down to write his. There’s nothing original under the sun, right?
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Musicians have always lifted tunes from each other. Stravinsky borrowed from Tchaikovsky, who rearranged Mozart, who stole from Beethoven, who took local folk songs and made them his own, and on down the line.

Of course, these composers were always pretty creative when it came to thievery. Here are six recent(ish) pop songs that were either influenced by famous classical melodies, or sample actual tunes and use them in the fabric of the song. I leave it up to you to judge whether or not they do justice to the originals.

1. “Someone to Call My Lover” by Janet Jackson

Released: on the album All for You (2001)
Stolen from: Gymnopédie No. 1 by Erik Satie
More specifically: Notice how the songwriters took the original tune in 3/4 and rejiggered it to fit the standard 4/4 beat of a pop song.
Janet Jackson version:
Satie version:
Fast Fact:Janet Jackson is the only performer to be nominated for the Grammy in Pop, Rock, Dance, Rap and R&B.

2. “Road to Joy” by Bright Eyes

Released: on the album I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning (2005)
Stolen from: Beethoven’s 9th Symphony
More specifically: the “Ode to Joy” tune, based on the poem by German writer Friedrich Schiller. (Road/Ode, get it?)
Bright Eyes version:
Beethoven version:
Fast Fact: Beethoven wasn’t the only composer who went deaf. Here are 5 others you should know about. (more…)

In Italian, a cappella literally means in chapel style. That’s because back in the day, instruments were forbidden in the church (they still are in many orthodox churches, synagogues and mosques). Therefore, all music had to be sung, and only sung.

These days, a cappella generally refers to a song, sacred or secular, that’s performed without instrumental accompaniment. Far from the chants of Gregorian monks, or the motets of Ockeghem, or even the traditional 1940s barbershop quartet, a cappella is alive and well in the 21st century. Here are three of my favorite recent recordings:

1. “Everything in Its Right Place” – Sonos

I love the original version of this Radiohead tune from Kid A, but wow! have these six artist from Los Angeles enabled me to appreciate the song in a whole new way. Check it out below, and remember: every sound you hear is produced with the voice, even the faux-backward stuff. (The whole track can be purchased on iTunes.) For more on Sonos, see their MySpace page.

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Loyal readers of this blog will recall my post on default songs, a term I coined that refers to the song you default to when either there’s no song in your head, or you want to get a lousy song OUT of your head. Default songs can change as you change, and since my original default song post was a year ago, I’m sure many of you have new default songs by now – tunes you’re just itching to share with us.

For instance, when last I posted on the subject, my default song was AC/DC’s “You Shook Me All Night Long” (apologies to those who now have it stuck in your head). Thankfully, sometime around Thanksgiving, my default song changed over to the wonderfully benign folk tune, “Coming ‘Round the Mountain.” This is because I sing a variation of it every night to my son Jack when it’s time for his bath.

As I wrote before, most of the time a default song isn’t something you have much control over. It’s just there, sawing away in the background.

You hear it? Stop. Be quiet. Listen. What song is playing in your head right now? Whatever it is, it may be your default song. It might also be the last song you heard at the local supermarket while standing in line to buy groceries as you thumbed mindlessly through People magazine.

So I ask you again: What’s your default song these days and, just as importantly: are you happy about it or annoyed?

Check out past On Music posts here >>

[and while we're stuck on number 5, here's an oldie-but-goodie from last Christmas...]

1. “White Christmas” – While there are more than five Christmas carols written by Jewish songwriters, I thought I’d just cover my favorites, starting with not only the most famous Christmas song written in modern times, but according to the Guinness Book of World Records, the best-selling single of all-time.

Written by: Irving Berlin in 1940

Actually written by: Israel Isidore Baline (Irving’s real name)

Written while: seated poolside at the Arizona Biltmore Resort and Spa in Phoenix, Arizona (talk about your White Christmas)

Made famous by: Bing Crosby in the movie Holiday Inn
Cool Irving Berlin fact: Refusing to make money off his deep-seated patriotism, Berlin donated all the royalties from “God Bless America” (just another little ditty he penned) to the Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts and Campfire Girls
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