Alex Ross writes about Tan Dun with a little more finesse that this bivalve can muster on the subject.

“Tan quickly gravitated to New York’s downtown scene, particularly to the world of John Cage. By combining Cage’s chance processes and natural noises with plush Romantic melodies, Tan concocted a kind of crowd-pleasing avant-gardism.

In March, at the Egg, he demonstrated that sensibility with a concert of “Organic Music,” with the China Youth Symphony; in “Paper Concerto” and “Water Concerto,” the Japanese percussionist Haruka Fujii crinkled paper and swished water in amplified bowls and other receptacles. In a further feat of packaging, Tan relates this music to shamanistic rituals of Hunan province, where he grew up. With such deft gestures of fusion, Tan has satisfied a Western craving for authentic-seeming, folklore-based music.”

[...]

“In the West, our situation as composers is very sad,” Chen Qigang told me. “In the nineteen-fifties, we lost command of the field, not just because popular composers took over but because we ceded the terrain. We ‘developed’ to the point where we no longer knew anything about the art of writing melody. We had a kind of nonexistence in musical life.” Nodding to his Olympics experience, he added, “Now I understand how hard it is to compose a cheery little song.”

No composer has embraced that challenge as eagerly as Tan Dun, whose submission to the Olympic ceremony is a radically bathetic pop ballad entitled “One World, One Dream.” Conceived in league with the songwriter and producer David Foster, Tan’s song has been recorded by Andrea Bocelli, the platinum-selling crossover tenor, and Zhang Liangying, another competitor from the 2005 “Super Girl” contest. “You are me and I am you,” they sing together, in English. Unfortunately, they don’t go on to say, “I am the walrus.”

Did you stop going to the movies after seeing one you didn’t like?

More brilliantly no-nonsense answers to common whinges at the Queensland Opera.

Over the course of her music writing career, Miss Mussel has had occasion to write notes for 109 pieces, 20 of which have been Herr Beethoven’s piano sonatas. You don’t have to be much of a pianist to recognize that this is pretty standard rep. There have been hundreds of program notes written about these pieces, so what could a bivalve who “plays a little when the mood strikes” possibly contribute to the discussion?

Maybe nothing but Miss Mussel certainly got a lot out of the process. Because the set was done over a relatively short period of time, it was like getting to know someone from the inside out. All the little details became clear and with only two hands to follow instead of an entire orchestra, it was much easier to appreciate all the little jokes as well as the piece’s inner workings. All of the sudden, Beethoven made sense.

It would certainly be going too far to say that these notes are seminal works of any sort. They are written for a general concert audience, which limits the depth of analysis quite significantly. On the other hand, you won’t find such line as, “One of his more enterprising servants hired out the horse and it wasn’t until Beethoven received a large bill for fodder that he curtailed the servant’s illicit entrepreneurial activities and got rid of the animal” in any theory textbooks.

Over the course of the summer, Miss Mussel will be publishing some of her favourite sets of notes. The idea is that they will be organized in a fashion at least remotely approximating logical.

First up: Beethoven Piano Sonata Op 2 No.1

Question 1: If Miss Mussel were contracted to write a 1500-word essay/program note about Messiaen’s Turangalila Symphony, (and she is) where should she go first for information?

Any seminal publications/articles/recordings pop into mind?

A university library is available for journal articles.

Question 2: What would you like to see in a note about said symphony. You’ve all read program notes you hated, so now’s your chance to help create one you might like.

UPDATE: Finished notes available here.

Much to post today but before we dive into the main course, enjoy this appetizorial delight.