On Demand
The Calm
By David Garland
August 8, 2008
 photo by Anne Garland |
This week and next on Evening Music, the middle movements of Mozart’s piano concertos are featured at 8:30 pm. These are the slow movements, rich in eloquent beauty; tender, contemplative moods; and a sense of calm.
We can all use more calm. Where do you find your calm? A place? A memory? A person? A book? A hope? A plan? Drawing? Music? What’s it like? Let us know in the comments section.
Today Soundcheck re-ran an interesting discussion on the effects—from calming to distressing—of music on animals. You can hear it at this link.
On Friday night’s film music feature (at 10 pm) I’ll present the two scores created for Conrad Rooks’ 1966 movie Chappaqua. It’s not extraordinary for a film to be scored twice, but it’s pretty amazing when you consider the artists involved in this case: Ravi Shankar and Ornette Coleman. And a young composer named Philip Glass was assistant to Ravi Shankar on this project—an experience that profoundly affected Glass’s music, and led him toward minimalism.
Comments
Comment from andrea
Date: August 8, 2008, 8:54 pm
When something’s let go of, it circles; and though we are rarely the centre of the circle, it draws around us its unbroken, marvellous curve.
rilke
Comment from Laura
Date: August 8, 2008, 9:20 pm
I find calm when I see the joy in simple things: lighting a candle; making iced tea; walking by the waterfront at sunset; soaking my feet in epsom salts. I look forward to these things each day. I also turn on this program in search of calm sometimes, and was pleased to hear that it was the current focus.
Comment from Annie
Date: August 9, 2008, 8:38 pm
I am very un-calm right now. I just heard you refer to a piece of “African” music. Where in Africa does it come from? Do you know? Africa is a vast continent, possibly 3 time the size of “America,” with a huge variety in its music.
If you called something “American” music, what would that mean: an undifferentiated nothing. Yet this is how you speak of African music. People praise you for your musical knowledge and denigrate Terrence McKnight for his supposed ignorance. Yet, you know nothing about where in Africa the African music you play is from.
But of course, isn’t it obvious why these people praise you and attack Terrence? I am disgusted that in 2008 this is still going on.
Learn something about where the African music you play is from and state the country, part of Africa, etc. And I exhort your “fans” to stop hating Terrence and give him a chance, but some of them won’t because they are the most heinous of self-entitled snobs.
Terrence is brave enough to be a human being and vulnerable and to acknowledge he doesn’t know everything on the radio.
Do you know everything? No. Do your fans know everything? Unfortunately some of them think they do, except how to just turn off the radio if something is on that they don’t like.
No; they get something out of spewing their vitriol. But can they do/say something that will contribute to the betterment of the world and not just their own comfortable homes and pockets?–I doubt it.
Comment from David Garland
Date: August 9, 2008, 9:25 pm
Annie, the selections I played from John William’s “Magic Box” CD were by composers from various places in the African continent: Zaire, South Africa, and Cameroon. I didn’t mean to be disrespectful by not getting into specifics on the air.
I certainly enjoy working with (and listening to) Terrance McKnight, and I hope our “fans” are all basically Evening Music fans.
–David
Comment from lizpenn
Date: August 9, 2008, 11:05 pm
Wha? Who said anything about Terrance McKnight? I just love this show, and don’t really have time to listen to it on weeknights. Actually I logged on to say that Evening Music is one of my main calming places … I love tuning in while cooking and eating dinner on Friday and Saturday nights, just listening and letting my mind wander and knowing that at some point during every show, I will be completely transported by some piece of music or other. Never has that not happened.
Comment from kayakgirl
Date: August 10, 2008, 8:59 pm
Calm is found inhabiting the center, balancing tension and awareness. Without awareness, it is not calm - it something else all together. I think of the center of a labyrint as an example of calm - we walk the journey in, have a moment there and carry it back with us as we continue our journey. There would be no calm in these slower movements of Mozart, for example, without form and tension and resolution.
Comment from Tom, Union Sq.
Date: August 25, 2008, 11:48 pm
Terrance McTalkoverthemusic? Wnyc would be better off just replaying old Garland shows on weeknights.
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