8.21.06: Bochum, Songs

Last night was the second performance — much better technically than the first, but without the nervous edge, which is strangely sometimes a nice thing. For the audience it must be like watching a high wire act and wondering if the performer will slip and fall; it’s usually less than perfect, but there’s a riveting voyeuristic appeal. For the performer there is an added adrenalin rush generated by the terror and fear of trying to get through it alive.

Photo © Helge Thelen

Last night I sensed that the orchestra, having witnessed our reception the previous night, was in a more generous and accepting mood, and their playing and smiles showed it. The band — Greg, Kenny, Charlie — were less glued to their charts, and they played more as though they knew where the songs were going, which they did.

“Empire”, the ironic national anthem, was well received, as was “Here Lies Love” and “Un Di Felice”. We threw in a couple of old favorites like “Road To Nowhere” (without the orchestra) and “Psycho Killer” (with) and Joe Henry joined on a country tune and Allen Toussaint’s “Soul Sister”.

Now Kenny and I are at Düsseldorf airport, having just gone through two security checks — the second more thorough one for passengers headed to the U.S.

More about songs

At last night’s farewell dinner either Thomas or Greg, again musing on the roots of popular song, suggested that it was the Russian Jews who immigrated West, in successive waves, carrying with them metaphorical “suitcases of songs” — an approach which had a huge impact on the development of popular song in the West. These songs did not consist of sheet music or scores, but musical seeds, in their heads, that would mutate and sprout in the West, evolving into the composed song pre-rock and roll, country and R&B. (Interesting that the huge infusion of African elements into song also came from structures and elements carried in the heads of slave/immigrants.) Elements of folksong (already appropriated by Russian composers) were combined with compositional technique, and there you go, the 20th century popular song. When asked why this form took root in America, Dimitri Tomkin was quoted as saying, “the taiga is the taiga” — meaning the steppes of Russia and the American Great Plains fostered similar sensibilities.