Music

Music I most enjoyed discovering this quarter:

• John Surman: “Pebble Dance” (2024)
• Cliff Eidelman: Magdalene (1988)
• Hans Zimmer: Dune: Part Two (2024)
• Mark Knopfler: “An American Hero” (1997)
• George Fenton: Cry Freedom (1987)
• Michel Legrand: Musicales Comédies (2009)
• David Shire: The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974)
• Mychael Danna: Kama Sutra (1996)
• Various: Black Cat, White Cat (1998)
• Kevin Penkin: Made in Abyss (2017), Made in Abyss 2 (2020), Made in Abyss 3 (2022)
• Kenji Kawai: Avalon (2001)
• Le Cri du Caire: Le Cri du Caire (2023)
• John Zorn: Parrhesiastes (2023)
• Matthew Halsall: An Ever Changing View (2023)
• David Maslanka: “An Ascent Into Heaven Where Pagan Dances…” (1981), Symphony No. 4 (1993), Concerto for Alto Saxophone and Wind Ensemble (1999),¹ “Solvitur Ambulando” (2000), 11:11, A Dance at the Edge of the World (2001), Testament (2002), Traveler (2003), “Mother Earth” (2003), Symphony No. 6 (2004), “Coming Home” (2005), Give Us This Day mvt 2 (2006), Symphony No. 8 mvts 1 & 3 (2008), Quintet for Winds No. 4 mvt 1 (2008), “Nighthawks” (2009), Liberation (2010), Concerto for Saxophone Quartet and Wind Ensemble (2012), “Illumination” (2013), “On This Bright Morning” (2013) [playlist]
• Heitor Villa-Lobos: Fantasia for saxophone, three horns, and strings (1948)
• Pierre Max Dubois: Concerto for Alto Saxophone and String Orchestra (1959)
• Darius Milhaud: Scaramouche, Suite for Saxophone and Orchestra (1939)
• Henri Tomasi: Saxophone Concerto (1949)
• Toshiyuki Honda: Concerto du vent (2005)
• Jacques Ibert: Concertino da Camera (1935)
• Takashi Yoshimatsu: Saxophone Concerto “Cyber-bird” [Opus 59] (1994)
• Nico Muhly: “Storm Centre” (2009), “Can’t Wait” (2010), So Far So Good (2011), Viola Concerto, mvts 1 & 3 (2014)
• Nonkeen: “Ceramic People” (2016)
• Michael Gordon et al.: Cloud River Mountain, mvts 1 & 2 (2015), Road Trip, parts 1-5 & 8-9 (2017)
• Julia Wolfe: Flower Power (2020)
• Joby Talbot: “Hovercraft” (2006), Tide Harmonic [Eau] (2009), Fool’s Paradise (2012), Suite from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (2012) [playlist]
• Miklos Rozsa: “Quo Vadis Prelude” (1951)
• Dmitri Shostakovich: “The Youth of Maxim Overture” (1935), “The Gadfly Overture” (1955)
• Michel Legrand: “Sword for Your Supper” (1973)
• Dimash Qudaibergen: “Diva Dance” (2017), “Sinful Passion” (2018), “Olimpico” (2019), “SOS d’un terrien en détresse (2021 live)“ & “Stranger” (2021)
• Angelina Jordan: “I Put a Spell on You” (2016), “Bohemian Rhapsody” (2020), “Love Don’t Let Me Go” & “Now I’m the Fool” (2023)
• Emma Kok: “Voilà” & “Voila [duet]” & “Hallelujah” (2023)
• Disturbed: “The Sound of Silence” (2016)
• Diana Ankudinova: “Last Dance” (2018), “Wicked Game” (2019), “Can’t help falling in love“ & “Personal Jesus” (2021)
• Teddy Swims: “Lose Control” (2023)
• Indila: “Last Dance” (2013)
• Asaf Avidan: “Different Pulses” (2012), “Lost Horse” (2020), “Reckoning Song” (2023 version)
• Pentatonix: “Daft Punk” (2013), “Hallelujah” (2016)
• MB14: “La Cup Worldwide Showcase 2018” (2018)
• D-low: “Sing a Little Harmony” (2023)
• Aurora: “Runaway” (2015)
• Yebba: “My Mind“ (2014)
• Jackie Evancho: “Nessun Dorma” (2011)
• Heart: “Stairway to Heaven” (2012)
• Solomia Lukyanets: “Time to Say Goodbye” (2015)
• Jordan Smith: “Mary Did You Know” (2021) and live version (2023)
• Bei Bei: “The Voice of China” (2020)
• Marcelito Pomoy: “Time to Say Goodbye” (2020)
• Piet Arion: “SOS d’un terrien en détresse” (2019)²
• Cristina Ramos: “Call Me” (2019)
• Chezelle Shahadat: “The Sound of Silence” (2019)
• Tamara Weber-Fillion: “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” (2016)
• Lord Huron: “The Night We Met” (2015)
• Lara Fabian: “Je Suis Malade (live)“ (2016)
• Yma Sumac: “Tumpa” (1954)
• So Hyang: “Bridge Over Troubled Water” (2015), “Arirang Alone” (2015)
• Chris Stapleton: “Nothing Compares to You” (2016), “The Star-Spangled Banner” (2023)
• Chase Holfelder: “I Will Always Love You“ (2016)
• Kristen Cruz: “I See Red” (2022)
• Matt Corby: “Brother” (2020)
• Paolo Nutini: “Iron Sky” (2014)
• Malakai Bayoh: “Pie Jesu” (2023)
• James Last: “The Lonely Shepherd” (1977)
• Alex Shapiro: “Moment” (2016)
• Omar Thomas: “Mother of a Revolution” (2019)
• Ravi Shankar: Symphony (2010)
• Shirish Korde: Svara-Yantra (2005)
• John Tchicai: Moonstone Journey (1999)
• Moondog: Snaketime Series (1957)
• Denny Zeitlin: “Syzygy” (1977)
• Albert Mangelsdorff: “Do You Like Pastrami” (1999)
• Tom Harrell: “Vista” and “Brazilian Song” (1990)
• Daniel Kobialka: “Prelude to Afternoon of a Faun” (1986)
• Craig Harris: “The Veil” (2005)
• Ernie Krivda: “The Glory Strut” (1980)
• acloudyskye: What Do You Want! (2022)
• Jerskin Fendrix: “Poor Things Finale and End Credits” (2023)
• Distant Cowboy: “Core Memory” (2022)
• Christine and the Queens: Paranoia, Angels, True Love (2023)
• Sewerslvt: “Jvnko Still Loves You” (2020)
• Raja Kirik: “Waru Doyong” (2023)
• Myroslav Skoryk: “Melodia in A Minor” (1982)
• Fabiano do Nascimento & Sam Gendel: The Room (2024)

I also watched many YouTube “reaction” videos for my two favorite vocal performances of all time: Ankudinova’s “Can’t help falling in love” and Dimash’s “S.O.S.” Lots of warranted shock, goosebumps, speechlessness, and weeping on display. A few examples: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine. YouTuber “Fairy Voice Mother” has excellent explainers on how each performance is achieved technically: Ankudinova, Dimash. You may also enjoy her reaction/analysis for Johnny’s Cash’s “Hurt.”

Another very impressive vocal performance I discovered this quarter is Will Ramos’ “To the Hellfire,” but I can’t exactly say I “enjoy” it, so I didn’t list it above. How many different species of demon do you hear?

Rediscovered or revisited, and really liked:³

• Antonin Dvorak: Dramatic (Tragic) Overture (1870), Serenade for Strings (1875), Slavonic Dances [1st series, orchestral] (1878), Czech Suite mvt 5 (1879), Symphony No. 7 (1885), Slavonic Dances [2nd series, orchestral] (1886), 4 Romantic Pieces mvts 1-3 (1887), Symphony No. 9 (1893), String Quartet No. 12 “American” (1893), Humoresques [Opus 101] No. 7 (1894), Suite in A Major [Opus 98b] mvt 5 (1895) [playlist]
• Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 1 mvt 1 (1875), Swan Lake and Swan Lake Suite (1876), “Slavic March” (1876), Violin Concerto [Opus 35], mvts 1 & 3 (1878), Symphony No. 4 mvt 1 (1878), 1812 Overture (1880), The Sleeping Beauty “Waltz” (1899), Souvenir de Florence [Opus 70] (1890), The Nutcracker and The Nutcracker Suite (1892), Andante and Finale [Opus 79], mvt 2 (1897) [playlist]
• Sergei Prokofiev: Symphony No. 1 (1917), “Dance of the Knights” (1935), “March for a Spartakiade” (1937) [playlist]
• Ralph Vaughan Williams: Serenade in A Minor mvt 2 (1898), English Folk Song Suite (1923), “The Running Set” (1933), “Fantasia on Greensleeves” (1934) [playlist]
• Leos Janacek: Glagolitic Mass mvt. 1 (1926) [playlist]
• Richard Strauss: Violin Concerto mvt. 1 (1882), “Sunrise” (1896), An Alpine Symphony (1915) [playlist]
• Robert Schumann: Piano Quartet in C Minor mvt 1 (1829) Piano Concerto mvt. 3 (1845), Introduction and Allegro appassionato (1849), Five Pieces in Folk Style No. 1 (1849), Symphony No. 4 mvt 5 (revised 1851) [playlist]
• Henry Mancini: “Peter Gunn” (1959), “Moon River” (1961), “Baby Elephant Walk” (1961), “Pink Panther Theme” (1963), “Charade Theme” (1963), “Arabesque” (1966)
• Mary Lou Williams: Zodiac Suite (1945)
• Nico Muhly: Keep in Touch (2005), Mothertongue (2008), Cello Concerto (2012)
• Steve Reich: Music for 18 Musicians (1976), Music for a Large Ensemble (1978), Variations for Winds, Strings, and Keyboards (1979), Tehillim (1981), “Vermont Counterpoint” (1982), The Desert Music (1983), Eight Lines (1983), Three Movements (1986), Electric Counterpoint (1987), Reich/Richter (2019) [playlist]
• Karl Jenkins: “Palladio” (1995), “Dies Irae” (2005), Stabat Mater (2008), Stella Natalis (2009), “One Song” (2012), Stravaganza (2019), One World (2023) [playlist]
• John Williams: “Olympic Fanfare & Theme” (1984), “The Olympic Spirit” (1988), “Call of the Champions” (2002), Escapades mvts 1 & 3 (2002) [playlist]
• Ram Jam: “Black Betty” (1977)
• Tina Šetkić: “Vivaldi Tribute” (2013), “Arpeggios From Hell” (2014), “Moonlight Sonata mvt 3” (2016)
• Johnny Cash: “Hurt” (2002)
• Haley Reinhart: “Creep” (2015)
• Prince: “Creep” (2008)
• Whitney Houston: “Star Spangled Banner” (1991)
• Focus: “Hocus Pocus (live 1973)” (1973)
• Tenacious D: “Tribute” (2010)
• Julia Wolfe: “Lick” (1994), “Believing” (1997), Oxygen (2021), “Into the Clouds” (2022)
• Nils Frahm: Spaces (2013), All Melody (2018)
• Erich Korngold: “Kings Row Main Title” (1942)
• Bernward Koch: “Close Your Eyes” (2005)
• Alex North: “A Streetcar Named Desire Main Title” (1951)
• Bernard Herrmann: Psycho “Prelude” and “The Murder” (1960)
• Elmer Bernstein: The Magnificent Seven (1960)
• John Barry: “James Bond Theme” (1962)
• Ernest Gold: “Exodus Theme” (1960)
• Nino Rota: La Strada Suite mvts 1 & 2 (1966), “Godfather Love Theme” (1972)
• Maurice Jarre: Lawrence of Arabia “Overture” and “Main Titles” (1962)
• Mikis Theodorakis: “Zorba’s Dance” (1964)
• Ennio Morricone: “A Fistful of Dollars Titles” (1964), “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly Titles” and “The Ecstasy of Gold” (1966), The Mission (1986), Cinema Paradiso’s “Love Theme” (1988)
• Patrick Wilson: “The Streets of San Francisco Theme” (1972)
• Lalo Schifrin: “Mission Impossible Theme” (1966)
• Vangelis: “Chariots of Fire Titles” (1981), “Conquest of Paradise” (1995)
• Bill Conti: “Rocky Theme” (1976)
• David Shire: “The Conversation Theme” (1974)
• John Carpenter: “Halloween Theme” (1978)
• Howard Shore: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
• John Williams: Star Wars (1977), Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), “E.T. End Credits” (1982), Schindler’s List (1993), “Jurassic Park End Credits” (1993), “Hedwig’s Theme” (2001)
• Danny Elfman: Beetlejuice (1988), “The Simpsons Theme” (1989), “The Batman Theme” (1989), Edward Scissorhands (1990), Batman Returns (1992), Mars Attacks! (1996), “Spider-Man Main Title” (2002)
• Angelo Badalamenti: Twin Peaks (1990)
• Nicola Piovani: Life is Beautiful (1997)
• Michael Galasso: In the Mood for Love (2000)⁴
• Alan Silvestri: “Back to the Future” (1985)
• Joe Hisaishi: “The Girl Who Fell from the Sky” (1986)
• Craig Armstrong: “Hanging” and “Escape” (1999)
• Jon Brion: “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind Theme” (2004)
• Scott Walker: “Opening” (2016)
• Don Davis: The Matrix (1999)
• John Debney: The Passion of the Christ (2003)
• James Horner: The Land Before Time (1988)
• Basil Poledouris: “Hymn to Red October” (1990)
• Buffalo Daughter: “Autobacs” (1998)
• Garbage: “Only Happy When It Rains” (1995)
• Squirrel Nut Zippers: Hot (1996)
• Spoon: Gimme Fiction (2005), Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga (2007)

This quarter, I listened through “complete works” playlists for Dvorak, Maslanka,⁵ Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev, Janacek, Strauss, Vaughan Williams, and (Robert) Schumann. My experience was similar to before. This time, I was disappointed and a bit surprised by how little music I strongly liked by Prokofiev, Vaughan Williams, Strauss, Janacek, and Schumann.

I also finished listening through ~all recorded works (those on Spotify or not) for some living composers: Steve Reich, Nico Muhly, Bryce Dessner, Andrew Norman, Missy Mazzoli, John Williams (his non-film music), Anna Thorvaldsdottir, David Borden, Caroline Shaw, Mason Bates, Joby Talbot, Omar Thomas, Shirish Korde, and Julia Wolfe. Previously, I’ve done the same for living composers Philip Glass, John C. Adams, Max Richter, Michael Gordon, Arvo Part, and Michael Nyman. I like a lot of music by Philip Glass, Steve Reich, John C. Adams, Max Richter, Michael Nyman, David Borden, Michael Gordon, and Mason Bates (links go to favorites on Spotify). I was disappointed by how little music I liked by Andrew Norman, Missy Mazzoli, John Williams (non-film), Anna Thorvaldsdottir, Julia Wolfe, Omar Thomas, Shirish Korde, and Caroline Shaw (though much of it was “fine”).

I also listened through ~all film scores/soundtracks in Scaruffi’s history of film music (1, 2). I liked most of it less than I expected to. I’d been hoping that film scores would be a sweet spot of “classically trained composers, able to draw on all styles and techniques up to the date of composition” and “aims to be enjoyed by a broad audience, unlike the vast majority of 20th century classical music.” And I guess that’s mostly true for the hundreds of film scores I listened to, but my enjoyment of them is brought down a lot by their nature as incidental music, i.e. needing to serve the purposes of the exact timing and emotional content of the films they were written to accompany, which makes a lot of film music seem to wander randomly when I’m listening to it apart from the film. Also, I think my tastes in film scores are pretty different from Scaruffi’s, because a lot of my favorite film scores (e.g. Hans Zimmer’s Inception) don’t have particularly interesting “musical” content in the traditional sense, but create a mood and sound cool.

In Q2, I think I’ll pull back on the pace of my classical music listening and resume my 3rd listen through Scaruffi’s rock history (I’m on this chapter, in the ’90s).

Movies/TV

Ones I “really liked” (no star), or “loved” (star):

• Various, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, seasons 3-5 (2007-2009) ★
• Payne, The Holdovers (2023)
• Jefferson, American Fiction (2023) ★
• Coppola, Priscilla (2023)

Games

All games I finished or decided to stop playing:

• [none]

Books

I’m now posting book ratings and reviews to my Goodreads account instead of here. See also my growing did-not-finish list. Note the explanation on my Goodreads profile page:

For most of my adult life I read only nonfiction. I started reading fiction again in late 2023. I consume fiction almost exclusively via audiobook and usually with limited attention (while driving, doing chores, falling asleep, etc.), so I prefer fiction that is fast-paced and easy to follow. As a result, my fiction tastes are more “pop” than my tastes in e.g. film/TV or especially music. My ratings for nonfiction books are about quality / usefulness / epistemic calibration. My ratings for fiction books are entirely about how much I enjoyed them, with no adjustment for artistic merit.

Five-star reads this quarter were: The Way of Kings, Lonesome Dove, and The Paper Menagerie.

Some reflections, both from the (little) reading I’ve done so far, and from the research I’ve done to queue up >2000 books/series:

• I’m having a blast discovering what my fiction tastes are as an adult. I’m going into this journey with very little clue about which authors or subgenres I’ll like most, though I have a guess about which broad genres I’ll like best: probably fantasy and science fiction and some kinds of history / alternate history for their world-building, and probably thrillers for their pacing.
• Probably <5% of nonfiction books I’ve read are available as audiobooks, so it’s been a great relief to learn that >80% of fiction books I want to read are available as audiobooks. Gosh, is nonfiction really that unpopular compared to fiction?
• I’m getting the sense that there are >1,000x more high-quality prose fiction works than there are high-quality film/TV works. Possibly this is because prose fiction is so much cheaper to produce, and because there are more things that can go badly when making film/TV works. (The later arrival of film/TV probably doesn’t matter here, since >99% of prose fiction was written after the invention of film.) In any case, I’ve watched several thousand movies and TV shows, but even still it feels like almost all (what I expect to be) high-quality fiction is available only as prose fiction, and the existence of film/TV is a rounding error on that, like opera or narrative poetry. (And videogame storytelling is still usually pretty bad.)
• That said, even prose fiction has many large content gaps. For example, there are almost no novels in which the protagonists are (non-anthropomorphized) animals, there are very few novels set before (say) 1000 C.E. in Africa or the Americas or set anywhere before 1000 B.C.E., there are almost no novels featuring Muhammad, and there are (arguably) few novels in which the protagonists are aliens or AIs that are distant from humans in the space of possible minds. (Alien and AI characters are usually very human-like in cognition, with simple-to-describe tweaks.)
• It’s still very early days and a small sample size, but so far the fiction critic whose tastes (at least within speculative fiction) seem to most closely match my own is this guy named Matt. Besides our correlated tastes, I like the humility and apparent honesty of his YouTube reviews. See also his most recent tier list, his overrated and underrated series lists, and his controversial opinions.
• Because I only consume fiction in audiobook form, and am often listening in a low-attention state (e.g. when struggling with insomnia, or while doing errands or driving), it’s easy for me to miss some passages and need to jump backwards a few minutes or restart the current chapter. If I need to restart a chapter more than a couple times, I sometimes give up and consult a chapter-by-chapter summary instead for that chapter. I subscribed to SuperSummary for this purpose, and some books have good (free) wikis with chapter-by-chapter summaries. If I can’t find a chapter-by-chapter summary anywhere for a specific book, I get the ebook and copy/paste specific chapters into Claude and ask Claude to summarize each such chapter in ~1000 words. I often consult a chapter summary after I finish listening to each chapter by default, just to make sure I didn’t miss anything critical and to help consolidate the chapter in my memory.
• Going forward, I plan to split my time between (a) books that help me explore my tastes and try new things, and (b) books or completed series⁶ that might turn out to be among my all-time favorites, based on what I’ve learned about my tastes so far. (So e.g. no Song of Ice and Fire because it’s not completed, and also because I watched the TV adaptation too recently.)

1. Unsurprisingly I also like the arrangement for orchestra. [↩]
2. Still cool even though the highest whistle notes appear to be manipulated. [↩]
3. I think I hadn’t heard some of the classical pieces before, but I’m not sure which ones. [↩]
4. TBC I’m only talking about the Galasso tracks on this soundtrack. [↩]
5. Maslanka has many recorded works not on Spotify, but I listened to ~all of them too, almost all of which are available on his website. [↩]
6. Except in cases where e.g. the first book works well as a standalone, e.g. The Pillars of the Earth, in which case I might read the first book without worrying about whether the series is completed. [↩]