Beatles Arias

In 1966, opera singer Cathy Berberian recorded an album of Beatles covers, backed by classical arrangements.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to hell.

Cathy Berberian "Beatles Arias"

Regular readers of this blog will find this album frequently hilarious (love how she trills her Rs); otherwise, it can clear rooms. Berberian has extensive legit classical and avant-garde credentials - she was composer Luciano Berio's wife; John Cage wrote pieces for her. So it's not easy to dismiss this as another misguided record company Beatles rip-off. Maybe if I spoke European, I'd understand the interview included on this album which may reveal her motives.

1		Ticket To Ride
2		I Want To Hold Your Hand
3		Michelle
4		Eleanor Rigby
5		Yellow Submarine
6		Here, There And Everywhere
7		Help!
8		You've Got To Hide Your Love Away
9		Yesterday
10		Can't Buy Me Love
11		Girl
12		A Hard Day's Night 13 Interview
		Récitals
14		Introduction
15		Ticket To Ride
16		Yesterday Piano – Bruno Canino

Pierre Bastien's Musiques Machinales

(Vote for "M4M Idol"! You've got 'til Oct. 6.)

It's a "Two-For-Tuesday"! On Wednesday! Here are two absolutely spellbinding albums by French composer Pierre Bastien, who, since childhood, has been fascinated with the idea of incorporating machines into music. His first experiment was with a spoon attached to a metronome striking a pan. Since then he has come far indeed, constructing Erector Set-like rockin' robots, and on his "Mecanoid" album, brilliantly incorporating (non-hip hop) turntablism. Over the repetitious rhythms of his machines he often blows cool Miles-like jazz horn. The results, on his "Musiques Machinales" album, range from the Steve Reich-like minimalism of "Chez Les Crânes" to "Marchin' Band," reminiscent of "Rain Dogs"-era Tom Waits. Scratchy fiddle and, on at least one song, what sounds like a musical saw also feature in his cabinet of curiosities. Like Frank Pahl and his Scavenger Quartet (whose "We Who Live On Land" album I recently posted in it's entirety) gorgeous melodies such as the one on "Vipers" from "Musiques Machinales" sell these obtuse ideas. Magical.

PIERRE BASTIEN "Musiques Machinales"

PIERRE BASTIEN "Mecanoid"

RUSSIAN HORNY CHOIR

This article sez that in the 1700s: "...in Russia a unique and bizarre custom of wind playing developed. Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction, and this would certainly seem to be so in this case. Prince Kirilovich Narishkin, the Master of the Hunt to the Empress Elizabeth, had become frustrated with the sound coming from the horns used to signal the progress of the hunt. The coppersmith on Narishkin's estate made the horns in question, and apparently no attempt towards consistency of pitch had been made. So in 1751 the prince had sixteen new instruments made which were tuned to play a D major chord. The technique of overblowing was not taught on these simple instruments, so standard practice called for a single note to be played on each horn."

It's called 'Russian horn capella' music, and, yep, as with hand-bells, only one note can be played on these giant instruments (hence the need for big groups), but you'd never guess to listen to this lovely album - it's played with such expert precision that one could be fooled into thinking it's just a couple/few musicians playing, not a large ensemble flawlessly passing notes back and forth.

Apart the peppy "Funiculi Funicula" it's pretty much standard classical classics, e.g. Mozart, "William Tell Overture," "Ave Maria," etc.

Russian Horny Choir (Concert)

I had to translate everything from Russian using the somewhat inaccurate Babelfish, and since the results were kinda funny, I just left it, making no attempt to clean 'em up.

Thanks to whoever the reader was who left a comment heppin' me to this stuff, sorry I can't remember your name/find your comment, sir!