The Rite of Spring Turns 100

What may be the single most influential musical composition of all time, Russian composer Igor Stravinsky's le Sacre du Printemps, premiered in Paris on May 29th, 1913.  The music, and its starkly iconoclastic ballet choreography by Vaslav Nijinsky so jarred many audience members, it produced an unprecedented demonstration, considered by many to have been "a riot."

[T]here is general agreement among eyewitnesses and commentators that the disturbances in the audience began during the Introduction, and grew into a crescendo when the curtain rose on the stamping dancers in "Augurs of Spring". Marie Rambert, who was working as an assistant to Nijinsky, recalled later that it was soon impossible to hear the music on the stage. In his autobiography, Stravinsky writes that the derisive laughter that greeted the first bars of the Introduction disgusted him, and that he left the auditorium to watch the rest of the performance from the stage wings. The demonstrations, he says, grew into "a terrific uproar" which, along with the on-stage noises, drowned out the voice of Nijinsky who was shouting the step numbers to the dancers. The journalist and photographer Carl Van Vechten recorded that the person behind him got carried away with excitement, and "began to beat rhythmically on top of my head", though Van Vechten failed to notice this at first, his own emotion being so great. 

{The premiere's conductor, Pierre] Monteux believed that the trouble began when the two factions in the audience began attacking each other, but their mutual anger was soon diverted towards the orchestra: "Everything available was tossed in our direction, but we continued to play on". Around forty of the worst offenders were ejected—possibly with the intervention of the police, although this is uncorroborated. Through all the disturbances the performance continued without interruption. Things grew noticeably quieter during Part II, and by some accounts Maria Piltz's rendering of the final "Sacrificial Dance" was watched in reasonable silence. At the end there were several curtain calls for the dancers, for Monteux and the orchestra, and for Stravinsky and Nijinsky before the evening's programme continued.

The score of Le Sacre I bought about 50 years ago

Although the ballet went on to become accepted by audiences as both dance and as a concert work, Nijinsky's unique choreography disappeared after the 1913 Ballets Russes season, until it was reconstructed for the Joffrey Ballet in the 1980s, by a team led by Millicent Hodson.  There have been several other choreographic interpretations of Stravinsky's music and scenario, and the publisher estimates the ballet has undergone 150 productions worldwide since its composition.

Le Sacre's influence on composers during nine decades of the 20th century, and into this one, has been substantial.  What Stravinsky did in the music, was to combine new harmonic ideas, bordering on atonality, with a rhythmic freedom which was unprecedented, all portrayed symphonically by a very large orchestra of 110 players, with a huge rhythm section.  In terms of composers' approach to rhythmic units, there is BLS and ALS (Before Le Sacre and After Le Sacre).  American composers as diverse Aaron Copland and Frank Zappa described encountering the work's jagged sonic and metric vistas as having changed their lives.

In a brief period of time, less than a decade, when the shock of new music was represented by Richard Strauss' sensually depraved Salome (1905) and Arnold Schoenberg's atonal Pierrot Luniere (1912), Le Sacre stood out.  Because it led so many composers and other musicians in so many searches for freedom of expression, in so many different ways, I regard it as the most influential composition, not just of the 20th century, but of all modern history.

Happy 100th Birthday, Le Sacre du Printemps.

Here is the definitive performance of this masterpiece in the original (reconstructed) choreography.  The orchestra and dancers of the Kirov Ballet are directed by Valery Gergiev:

Joe Miller Looks to Be Ready to Be Made a Fool One More Time

From the Juneau Empire:

Joe Miller has filed paperwork indicating he has raised more than $5,000 for a possible run for the U.S. Senate seat held by Sen. Mark Begich in the 2014 election. 

Miller could not be reached for comment on whether the filing indicated a run for that office, or whether he is just continuing to explore that option. 

Miller, of Fairbanks, lost the Senate primary in 2010 to a write-in campaign by U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski during a three-way race for that seat. He announced via a widely-reported email last month that he had launched an exploratory committee. 

The form filed by Miller early this month indicates some level of fundraising has begun. The candidate designated Citizens for Joe Miller, with Treasurer Bernadette Koppy, as his campaign committee.

News reports on the filing, including an article in politico.com seeming to state that Miller is running, set some political sites abuzz. Miller’s own site, joemiller.us, Tuesday afternoon contained a column penned last month discussing a possible run.

At politico.com, one person commented "Joe Miller vs Sarah Palin, for the right to be crushed by Mark Begich. I can hardly wait."

Palin hasn't formed an Exploratory committee, but Alaska Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell has.

The last time an Alaska GOP Lt. Governor ran in a GOP primary was 2008, when Sean Parnell ran against Rep. Don Young.  It was the closest race Young had been in since the 1990s, in a November contest against Valdez Mayor John Devins.  I suspect Miller will get enough outside support to conduct a fairly credible campaign.

But who is going to support him in Alaska?  Against Treadwell, Alaska GOP-friendly corporations and in-state PAC's will mostly back Treadwell.  If the Alaska GOP central committee ever sorts out its key-to-the-office and other such problems, what emerges will be a fractured structure.  If Treadwell's supporters can help patch that up, the spinoff might be enough to raise money and conduct grassroots organizational campaigning that intersects with Party tradition and old school solidarity.  If that happens, he will handily beat Miller.

I doubt Palin will enter this race.  She isn't perceived to be engaged in Alaska and our issues anymore, in any meaningful ways.  Even by the Alaska GOP.

hat tip to David Otness

Memorial Day Pictures

On Monday, Memorial Day, I played Taps twice in Wasilla:  At the annual ceremony at Wasilla Memorial Cemetery, late in the morning, and at the large ceremony at the Veterans Wall of Honor, at 1:00 pm.  The first time I played Taps at the Wall of Honor site was 20 years ago.  Two years later, I directed the Mat-Su College Community Band and the Anchorage Community Concert Band in Memorial Day concerts at the Wall of Honor, and in Anchorage, at the Veterans Memorial.  In those, we commemorated the 50th Anniversary of the end of World War II.

I play Taps when asked on Memorial Day to both honor men and women who perished in honorable service of our country, and as a kind of prayer that the insanity of permanent war might end soon.

After the ceremonies, I returned home to face the most beautiful day in years.  Judy was gone, hiking Matanuska Peak.  I decided to take the canoe out onto Neklason Lake for the first time this year.  Strider the dog is getting old, and his pelvis is starting to splay.  But he climbed into the center of the canoe, and we were off.

The pair of swans are back.  Last year, for the first time since we've lived on the lake, swans stayed the summer and hatched and reared cygnets - seven of them!  They've already set up a Trumpeter swan mound for their next brood.

There is still ice on the lake, which is now eleven days beyond the old late date:

And we still have the small remnant of a large snow drift in the front yard:

We Petition Obama to Invite Medea Benjamin to the White House for a Beer

I just submitted this petition to the White House niche, We the People:

We petition the Obama Administration to Invite Medea Benjamin to the White House for a beer. 

On May 23, 2013, President Obama gave an important address at the National Defense University. Near the end, indefatigable peace activist, Medea Benjamin, pled with the President to consider important issues he had not addressed directly in his speech. The President stated, "The voice of that woman is worth paying attention to." 

We the undersigned believe the same. We encourage President Obama to invite Ms. Benjamin to the White House for a beer or two, so that he may redeem his pledge. 

It needs 150 signatures before it goes up on their front page. For anyone unfamiliar with the subject, here are two excerpts from the May 24th edition of Democracy Now:

The relevant parts of Obama's speech:


Medea Benjamin explaining her actions:



Here's a link to the  petition.

How We Say "Hell, No!" to Monsanto

There's going to be a big demonstration in Anchorage on Saturday, as part of a global "Say No to Monsanto!" action:

A global protest against one of the world's largest agricultural companies is set for this weekend as the “March Against Monsanto” is coming to Alaska. Organizers of the Anchorage march said Friday that more than 500 people have signed up to protest the Missouri-based company, which sells genetically altered pesticides and crop seeds around the world.  

The Anchorage group’s organizer, Kim Houstin, said she wants the march to be “family friendly” and focus on education. Their concerns for Alaska revolved around genetically modified salmon, but the group said Monsanto's products have other, far-reaching effects.  

“What these chemical companies are doing reaches far more than just the food supply,” Houstin said.  

“It reaches the bee colony collapse, which one in every three mouthfuls of food is thanks to the pollination of bees. And so it trickles down to pretty much every aspect of our life.”  

The March Against Mosanto takes place Saturday morning at 10 a.m. at the Park Strip in downtown Anchorage.  

More information can be found on their Facebook page.

I'm probably not going to be attending.  Because of the late, late spring, we're two weeks behind on getting things ready for our non-Monsanto, organic gardens and greenhouse.  Above are 432 plants awaiting being transplanted in our garden.  Today, Judy and I raked the garden, moved compost, cleared away little rocks, and pulled stakes from last year's peas and beans.  Pulling stakes, I realized the ground is still frozen only five inches down in some places:

Here are a variety of greens I moved out of the greenhouse, so they can nourish in the clean, warmer air and breezes:

The last remaining snow berm, on the lakeside lawn:

The floating dock emerged from under the ice on the lake this morning:

The southern shore of Neklason Lake:

Richard Wagner Turned 200 Today

Today marked the 200th anniversary of the birth of German Romantic era opera composer, Richard Wagner.  The most influential musician of the second half of the 19th Century, Wagner's approaches toward operatic structure, chromatic harmony and the use of themes to portray characters in his music dramas and their feelings, influenced hundreds of composers, and countless other artists.

He was an extremely egotistic person, quick to ask for gigantic favors from friends, and slow to forgive even the slightest criticisms of his music, polemical writings, personal affairs or involvement in German intellectual circles.

Since 1933, Wagner's anti-Semitism and Nazi appropriation of his art have created an image of the man that even carries over into regard for his music.  His music, played often by the predominantly Jewish Palestine Symphony Orchestra before 1938, disappeared entirely from their repertoire after Kristallnacht, and wasn't played again in Palestine or Israel until 2000, "when the holocaust survivor Mendi Rodan conducted the Siegfried Idyll in Rishon LeZion."  None of his operas have been performed in Israel.  In 2012, an orchestral concert of his works was announced and scheduled, then cancelled.

Wagner wasn't the only composer the Nazis appropriated for their own use.  One who would have shuddered at such misrepresentation was Austrian symphonist Anton Bruckner, whose sweeping vistas were often played on German propaganda radio, throughout the Nazi era.  German composer Richard Strauss, who was heavily influenced by Wagner's art, lived through the 3rd Reich, but backed out of his early role as a ceremonial cultural figure of the Nazis, retiring into seclusion.

Here's an example of the Nazi regime using Wagner's music.  In this case the Berlin Philharmonic is filmed giving a concert at the Berlin-Gesundbrunnen AEG [Allgemeine Elektricitäts-Gesellschaft] plant.  During World War II, AEG extensively used slave labor, and they provided the electrical power plants for all the Nazi extermination camps.  Wilhelm Furtwängler conducts the Overture to the opera Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg:

 

Here, from a happier time is a superb concert performance of Walther's Prize Song, from the 3rd Act of Die Meistersinger, sung at the London Symphony Orchestra Proms. Raymond Verry sings Walther:

 

And here is the opera's Finale, staged at the Metropolitan Opera, twelve years ago:



Finally, here is a performance of one of Wagner's rare chamber orchestra works, Siegfried Idyll, at a Proms concert last year, performed by the BBC Scottish Symphony, conducted by Donald Runnicles:


Wagner's music inspired me when I was a teenager, just beginning to write my own music.  However, I never tried to emulate any of what he does in his craft, choosing examples for models from other composers.  I've only performed in a few of his compositions over the decades, and never conducted his work. As this 200th anniversary approached, I have found myself listening to and reading through the orchestral scores of Tannhäuser und der Sängerkrieg auf Wartburg, and Tristan und Isolde.  Rich stuff.

Heavy Police Presence at Anti SB21 Event Outside Governor's SB21 Signing

There was a distinctly heavy police presence at the Dena'ina Center on Tuesday.  One black Anchorage Police Department car circled the building several times, at one point photographing the 60 or so demonstrators, peacefully milling around, greeting each other, cheering and listening to speeches by current and former Alaska legislators.

At one point, I entered the building to use a restroom, and greeted two APD officers, who said "Hello" back.  But other officers refused to acknowledge my greetings.  The black car eventually settled into an alleyway, where an officer seemed to glower at us for several minutes.

Others were photographing the demonstrators, either from across 7th Avenue, or from the edges of the crowd.  One of those taking many pictures of us was KFQD Big Oil apologist, Dave Stearin, who apparently posted some on the right-wing radio station's web site.

Jeanne Devon from The Mudflats recorded some of the speeches, and has posted them at the web site and on Youtube.

UAA History Prof to Address Bartlett Club Thursday on the Middle East

Tailgunner Joe Loses Historic Lawsuit Against Alaska Dispatch

Alaska's most bizarre political figure since John Lindauer made the news today.  Last Friday, he lost what may be the biggest wrongful withholding of public records lawsuit in Alaska history:

The amount of the award -- nearly $100,000 combined -- is among the highest ever assessed in Alaska in a suit over wrongful withholding of public records, [Alaska Dispatch attorney John] McKay said.   

When a party wins a lawsuit in Alaska state courts, they are generally entitled to recover 20 percent of their legal fees. Unique circumstances allow a judge to award a much higher amount. 

“Mr. Miller unreasonably ran up the cost of this litigation for both the Dispatch and the Borough,” McKay said. “After we got the records released, he refused to let the Dispatch out of the case unless it gave up its rightful claim to fees as the winning party and made the Dispatch incur more and more unnecessary fees, using this as leverage. The judge correctly rejected this tactic, and the Dispatch should be credited for setting an example by resisting such intimidation.”

I have no idea how much Miller himself spent on this lawsuit. Erik Hill, at the Anchorage Daily News, took a photo of Miller last Friday, flanked by two of his attorneys, Thomas van Flein and Michael Morley, two very pricey lawyers, who don't usually serve their clients for free. [see comments below.]

Miller has formed an exploratory committee for the 2014 Alaska U.S. Senate race, along with Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell.  No doubt Treadwell, along with Sen. Mark Begich, are delighted to see Miller get back into the news this way.

Miller hasn't yet made up his mind on how to deal with the setback:

Reached via email Sunday, Miller spokesman Bill Peck said Miller and his staff had yet to see the judge’s ruling.

Miller would be a fool to pursue this further, so he probably will.

To me, this case illustrates how much Alaska is the biggest small town in the world.  I've had two encounters with Joe Miller.  One was in early September 2010, when he confronted me outside the Mat-Su Democrats' booth at the Alaska State Fair, yelling at me, and pounding a sign with information about him, with his umbrella.  Here's a picture of the encounter:

The other was a few weeks later, when I bumped into him leaving the downtown Anchorage Hotel early in the morning, accompanied by the same "friend" he's with in the above picture.  I've never written about the second encounter before. I doubt I ever will again.

Soon after the 2010 election, Ray Metcalfe, the genius behind the current referendum to repeal SB21's big oil giveaway, and I, bought the handcuffs (seen at the top of this article) that had been used to cuff Alaska Dispatch reporter Tony Hopfinger at a Joe Miller rally, from Bill Fulton, the man who "arrested" Hopfinger at that event.  We gave them to Tony.

John McKay, the attorney who just won this suit, is currently writing lyrics for a song cycle I hope to compose for soprano Mari Hahn.

Would Alaska Be Fertile Ground for Industrial Hemp?

When I was a teenager, my Boy Scout troop tied 20-foot-long, 1/2-inch-thick hemp lines for the longshoreman's union to raise money for our hikes and other trips.  The scoutmaster called it "Manila hemp."  It had been the standard tie-down line for cargoes brought on to freighters for oceanic voyages for centuries.

A decade later, in 1973, when I first came to Alaska, I became enmeshed in commercial fishing in Cordova.  There were hemp lines here and there, but plastic and nylon line ruled.  Eventually, hemp disappeared.  It was weeded out of the mix of materials used as rope and thread.  The Federal government, state governments and international bodies made it hard to grow industrial hemp, even though it is unusable to get one high, as is methanol alcohol to get one drunk.  It became illegal to grow non-THC hemp in the USA.

It still is.

Last November, Colorado and Washington legalized marijuana for use as a mind-altering substance by their citizens.  They are now drawing up the framework for people to grow, market, distribute, sell and use THC-embedded products to smoke, drink, eat, rub on your body or otherwise use.

Colorado also legalized the growing of hemp for use as an industrial product that doesn't use THC.  Hemp fiber and hemp oil are valuable commodities worldwide.

Alaska has been reputed to be a place where marijuana grows well in the long days of summer. In the world of MJ used to get one high, an indoor, controlled environment is best to assure a quality product at this high northern latitude, though.  Even in summer.

But industrial hemp could take advantage of our long spring and summer days, to produce large plants at high yields per acre.