Belated happy 100th, Bernard Herrmann!

The centennial of Bernard Herrmann's birth took place last June, and as you can plainly see, I haven't exactly been keeping up with this blog so it's not surprising that it's taken me this long to post something in tribute. Herrmann is one of my favorite American composers...not just favorite "film composer" but one of my favorite composers period. There's no question that his work raised the art of film scoring to a new standard, at least for awhile. I'm not so sure about the period we are in now...there certainly are some great craftsmen working in the genre, but I'm not sure how many are as willing to push their comfort zone to create something truly original that ultimately becomes inextricably linked with the film itself in one's memory. Then again, how many composers are given that latitude in scoring a film today? Even Herrmann, as is well known, eventually ran up against that barrier, and even with Alfred Hitchcock himself despite a long string of successes.

Today most people who know Herrmann's work know it through those scores for various Hitchcock films, most notably "Vertigo" and "Psycho," and that's understandable given that those are not just some of Herrmann's greatest scores, but also two of the most accomplished and visionary films for which he wrote music. For this Happy 100th post, however, I'd like to pay tribute to some of my favorite Herrmann scores for non-Hitchcock films (or in one case, TV), to encourage everyone to seek out more of his work.

Number one among these "other" Herrmann scores would be the achingly romantic score for "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir" in 1947:




A close second would be for the score to Francois Truffaut's film realization of "Fahrenheit 451," especially the Prelude and that otherworldly glockenspiel part:



Herrmann did an enormous amount of work for television, especially the CBS network, in the 1950's and 60's. Part of that included incidental music for a number of "Twilight Zone" episodes. Everybody knows the famous "ticking clock" Twilight Zone theme which was written by Marius Constant, not Herrmann...but to me the original Twilight Zone theme music which Herrmann did compose and which was used only in TZ's first season is far creepier, far more chilling. See what you think:



Let this be a jumping-off point for you to explore more of the vast body of work by this very significant American composer...including the concert works he composed. And, since I just love the guy's music so much, I'll relent and include one Hitchcock-film excerpt here, one of my very favorites if perhaps not quite as famous as Vertigo or Psycho...the Prelude from "The Man Who Knew Too Much":

"Don't miss" show at Sumter gallery closes 4/22

This is the final week ahead for two wonderful exhibits at the Sumter County Gallery of Art that really captured my imagination on a visit back in early March. Joe Walters is a South Carolina artist based now in the Low Country who has been recently creating numerous wall-mounted sculptures, assemblages really, that seem to replicate thickets of branches, leaves, bird eggs, and the like from natural models, but carry their own abstractions with them. Some of these are combined here to form triptychs, making larger statements. Jeffrey Day wrote an excellent piece in the Free Times some weeks back that gives you a really good sense both of what Walters' art is like and the kind of career he is having, what makes him tick.

Across the hallway, in the other gallery space of roughly equal size, is an equally evocative show by North Carolina artist Anne Lemanski. Lemanski's work, too, is essentially sculpture, but she seems to come out of more of a craft tradition, having studied at the Penland School in North Carolina. (I asked Jeffrey Day recently about where the dividing line into "craft" can be located, especially when talking about pieces that don't have any clear link to functionality...he laughed heartily and gave me one of those "you don't want to open THAT can of worms" looks.)  Most of her work here consists of fantastical animals, some more realistic than others, composed of various materials (leather, paper, even industrial plastics) sewn together; the animals (more specifically the manner in which they are depicted) are meant to evoke larger political/sociological/ecological questions in the viewer. A good example is her coyote made of Mexican serapes:

 More intricately--and intimately--spectacular, is the array on the far wall of the space entitled "A Century of Hair 1900-1990."  Lemanski uses her same painstaking techniques of assemblage to portray women's hair styles from each decade of the century, and as the gallery's own notes on the exhibit describe, "embedded in each sculpture is a commentary on the culture of the time: how women were regarded and the challenges they faced in each decade." Much more on Lemanski and her working process from Verve Magazine here.

Directions to the Sumter County Gallery can be found here. I had not been to the gallery prior to this visit, but found that combining a drop-in at the gallery with a walk around the nearby Swan Lake Iris Gardens makes for an extremely pleasant half-day trip. Meanwhile, I look forward to seeing more work from these two Carolinas artists in the years ahead.

Council nixes city arts czar

Columbia City Council has put the kibosh on Mayor Benjamin's plan to hire a Cultural Arts Director for the city. Given current economic conditions, this decision shouldn't be too surprising to anyone. Still, it was a kind of double-whammy for the arts in Columbia yesterday: renowned poet and professor (and Emmy-award-winner) Kwame Dawes announced he is leaving USC next year for the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Dawes, the founding director of the now-defunct USC Arts Institute, made it pretty clear that the defunding of the Institute was a major factor in his decision to leave. The decision left Provost Michael Amiridis scrambling a bit to defend the decision to defund the Institute, while trying to acknowledge the loss to the University that Dawes's departure represents. Of course, to be fair, Amiridis is in a thankless position in these times of economic duress to the university. But the question of whether funding came down to "production vs. promotion" of the university's arts offerings is a more complicated question than Amiridis' summation to the Daily Gamecock would have you believe. Speaking of the Daily Gamecock, I think they've got it right on this.

SC Phil brings its own front and center

From local TV station WACH, here is a nice little piece on this Saturday's South Carolina Philharmonic concert, which features concertmaster Mary Lee Taylor Kinosian and principal oboist Rebecca Nagel in the Bach Double Concerto for violin and oboe. For as much pleasure as Midlands music audiences get from visiting guest artists passing through town to perform on our various concert series, it's always worth reminding ourselves (especially in the current economic/political climate) that this area is home base for a significant number of high-level musicians. So bravo to the SC Phil for programming this...they're keeping this idea alive next season as well, I see...with solo turns scheduled for principal clarinetist Doug Graham and principal trombone Brad Edwards.

Bach wrote this concerto in 1729 for the renowned Collegium Musicum series in Leipzig, which he had taken over from Telemann some time before. It's a good month for Bach in Columbia: on Palm Sunday, April 17, at 4 PM the Trinity Episcopal Cathedral Choir will join forces with the SC Philharmonic for a performance of the St. John Passion. This is not one of the free concerts at the cathedral, tickets are indeed required for this: all information including a link to a ticket order form can be found on their website.

Art vs. missiles: by the numbers

Sometimes you just have to put these things in perspective by looking at the numbers.

National Endowment for the Arts budget for FY2011 as proposed by President Obama: $161.3 million. This figure was cut to $124 million by the House, led by Republicans supposedly in the name of fiscal prudence. The Senate has rejected these cuts.

Cost of Tomahawk missiles fired by the U.S. in basically one day as military action against Libya commences: $66 million. This is calculated using an extremely conservative estimate of each Tomahawk's cost at $600,000; it is said about 110 such missiles were fired in this assault.

[Update March 23: this ABC News report cites a study that indicates that the total cost of putting in place and enforcing the no-fly zone in Libya could cost between $30 million and $100 million per week. I offer this information not to take a pro-or-anti-intervention stance as regards this action; but I think when citizens debate whether our supposed current fiscal crisis warrants drastic cuts to NPR or the NEA or their outright elimination, I think they are entitled to be given some facts that put these dollar amounts in a real perspective and context.]

Welcome addition to Columbia BBQ scene

Last Friday three friends and I convened at True BBQ out in West Columbia's "Triangle City" to check out this relatively new addition to the area barbecue scene. I'm happy to report that we were all in agreement that it is indeed a worthy newcomer. True BBQ is an "a la carte" place, not a buffet, but if you get a large chopped BBQ plate I guarantee that you are not going to be leaving the place hungry. You order at the counter and they bring it to your table; the place is small but reasonably pleasant as you can see, with a lot of windows and light:

 A smoker sits out front, permeating the air around the structure with enticing 'cue aroma. "True" offers your basic 3 kinds of sauce; but they're served in a little plastic cup on the side, so presumably you could ask for a couple and see what you like best (I just tried the SC mustard style which was good if a little sweet; they also have eastern NC vinegar style and---though it shouldn't even be dignified with a mention---a tomatoey-ketchup based "Western" sauce...maybe it's good but I don't think one should put that style sauce on pork bbq). The best news, though, is that the BBQ is good enough to eat with no sauce: chopped a bit more coarsely than one usually finds around here, with a nice bit of "brown" and a truly smoky flavor.

Ordering a BBQ plate gets you a big portion of hash and rice; my experience matched that of other early reviews I've seen of the place, in that there seems to be general agreement that True BBQ makes some of the very best hash in the area. I had collards and slaw which were serviceable, there are many of the other standard sides and I look forward to trying those. They also do lots of other main dishes, too, ribs, chicken, and also they have some desserts which none of the four of us could even think about after stuffing ourselves.

Like many of your best barbecue places, "True" is only open 3 days a week, I believe; forgot to take exact note of the days and can't verify it as of this writing as their website is not yet totally functional. But I believe it's Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Great spot to dash out to for lunch on those days, better still if you can take a nap afterwards or even take the whole rest of the afternoon off. You might need to. Very friendly folks running the place, and I look forward to going back many times. We needed another good BBQ place within quick access of central Columbia; please give these folks a try and let's keep them in business!

True BBQ is at 1237 D Avenue in West Columbia.

photo: True BBQ

Where in SC is Dr. Seuss' "Iota"?

We have a giant hard-cover compilation of many of the Dr. Seuss classics in one volume, a gift that was given to us upon the birth of our son; bedtime reading has been drawn from that volume on many an evening. Our now three-year-old boy is pretty obsessed with a few favorites: The Grinch Who Stole Christmas (not limited to holiday time), The Sneetches (a classic anti-racist parable), Green Eggs and Ham, and the Sleep Book (a good inducement to wind down for a fidgety little guy). But last night we revisited one story that we'd only looked at a couple of times before: "If I Ran the Zoo." Full of fabulous made-up animals, I always take special note of this tale because in it, Dr. Seuss name-checks our home state:

In the Far Western part
Of south-east North Dakota
Lives a very fine animal
Called the Iota.
But I'll capture one
Who is even much finer
In the north-east west part
Of South Carolina.

Now, aside from noticing the use of the same "finer...Carolina" rhyme made famous in Gus Kahn's song "Carolina in the Morning" (which debuted in 1922, when Theodore Geisel was 18 years old), the other aspect of this verse that got me thinking was wondering just where exactly that "north-east west part of South Carolina" would be. Looking at a map, I think you might find that "much finer" Iota (or some other animal...not really clear whether Seuss is referring to a finer Iota or just a finer animal in general) right around Gaffney. Maybe in the shadow of the giant peach off I-85.

The really interesting tidbit about "If I Ran the Zoo" (written in 1950) is that it seems to be quite possibly the first printed example of the use of the word "nerd." And here he is: