I promised a return to my music
based posts on my blog, and here we go! Not that I may not return to this
curious journey that is retirement, but I think I need to process and consider
that a bit more (still trying to wrestle with being retired from work on the one
hand, and yet remaining ‘called’ to Ministry and ordained to a ministry of Word
and Sacrament… hmmm…).
Anyway, back to music as I say,
and in particular this marvellous musical to which I have referred before.
As I think I may have said, I was
no stranger to American musicals as a child. My parents both sang and acted in amateur
musicals in Glasgow, and there were various records of musicals in our house. To
this day I can (and sometimes do… to the irritation of my family) sing many
songs from the great musicals; South Pacific, Oklahoma, Guys and Dolls and so
on.
But there was always something different,
greater, unique about West Side Story. The story, the choreography, and – of course
– the music.
A few evenings ago we watched the new
film version on TV. This has been produced by Stephen Spielberg, and – while I
admire his work very much – I was slightly uncertain, as the 1961 film is so
much part of my life and I have seen it so very many times.
But I was hugely impressed! Loved
it. I will certainly watch it again, and probably again.
However, my first reaction when it
ended was to decide to go back to the 1961 film and watch that again.
Interesting!. There was something about
that earlier version which had a passion and warmth that I am not sure is there
in the 2021 version. But I’m not sure…
That said, having watched /
listened to both versions, the music really struck me afresh.
There is no doubt that it sits firmly
in the tradition and genre of the musical. And yet, it does so while drawing so
very much on so many other traditions; jazz, Latin, symphonic, operatic, and
comedy songs etc.
But it most certainly not
jazz nor yet Latin nor yet opera. It is most certainly a musical, and sits
in that genre. Yet so many different styles and genres are represented in it.
And that made me think about Progressive
Rock at its best. No, not the overblown excesses with which part of the Prog
Rock scene has been associated (which can be as far from genuinely ‘progressive;’
as could be). But the best examples (which, in embryonic form, can be found in the
late 1960s pre-Prog work of the Beatles, the Beach Boys, Traffic, early Pink
Floyd, the Nice and so forth). Progressive Rock was unmistakably and undeniably
‘rock’ music. But it drew not simply on the rock and roll and blues roots that typified
and gave birth to that genre, but also classical music, jazz, folk, vaudeville,
and so forth.
King Crimson’s albums ‘In the Court
of the Crimson King’ or ‘Lark’s Tongues in Aspic’, Yes’s ‘Close to the Edge’
and so forth are good examples of this at its best.
No, there is not point or
significance in all of this. Just a musing… and I may muse more on progressive
rock another time!
But it is that sense of music
being firmly within a certain genre while drawing so freely on other genres
that intrigued me.
I doubt it will much interest
anyone else!
Ah well, must re-watch West Side
Story…now, which version???
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