Imaginary

Fictional Narratives

It was thought that he must, in the past, have lived a country life, since he knew all sorts of useful secrets, which he taught to the peasants. He taught them how to destroy scurf on wheat, by sprinkling it and the granary and inundating the cracks in the floor with a solution of common salt; and how to chase away weevils by hanging up orviot in bloom everywhere, on the walls and the ceilings, among the grass and in the houses.  He had "recipes" for exterminating from a field, blight, tares, foxtail, and all parasitic growths which destroy the wheat. He defended a rabbit warren against rats, simply by the odor of a guinea-pig which he placed in it.  One day he saw some country people busily engaged in pulling up nettles; he examined the plants, which were uprooted and already dried, and said: "They are dead. Nevertheless, it would be a good thing to know how to make use of them. When the nettle is young, the leaf makes an excellent vegetable; when it is older, it has filaments and fibres like hemp and flax. Nettle cloth is as good as linen cloth. Chopped up, nettles are good for poultry; pounded, they are good for horned cattle. The seed of the nettle, mixed with fodder, gives gloss to the hair of animals; the root, mixed with salt, produces a beautiful yellow coloring-matter. Moreover, it is an excellent hay, which can be cut twice. And what is required for the nettle? A little soil, no care, no culture. Only the seed falls as it is ripe, and it is difficult to collect it. That is all. With the exercise of a little care, the nettle could be made useful; it is neglected and it becomes hurtful. It is exterminated. How many men resemble the nettle!" He added, after a pause: "Remember this, my friends: there are no such things as bad plants or bad men. There are only bad cultivators." [Victor Hugo, Les Misérables (1862), Volume I – Fantine; Book Fifth – The Descent Begins, Chapter III, “Sums Deposited with Laffitte”.]

Novels:

• Laura Vaccaro Seeger, First the Egg: A Children’s Book (Roaring Brook Press, 2007) “This is a book about transformations . . . from egg to chicken, seed to flower, and caterpillar to butterfly. But it’s also a book about creativity - as paint becomes picture, word becomes story . . . and commonplace becomes extraordinary.”
• David Wiesner, Sector 7 (Clarion, 1999) “tells the story of a small boy on a class trip to the Empire State Building who is transported by a friendly cloud to Sector 7, a great cloud factory high in the sky. Once there, they conspire with clouds that are bored with their shapes and long for a new way to express their individuality.”
• Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe (MacMillan and Company, 1868): “Alone on a desert island, Crusoe manages to survive thanks to his pluck and pragmatism. He keeps himself sane by keeping a diary, manages to build himself a shelter, and find a a way of salvaging useful goods from the wrecked ship, including guns.”

Poetry

Music: Composers, artists, and major works

In contemporary “classical” music, several organizations and record labels are devoted to new music emphasizing creativity. These include:

• Bang On a Can All-Stars, with its playlists;
• Tzadik label, with its long list of releases;
• Kairos label, with releases by Ensemble Modern (its playlists), Ensemble Recherche (its playlists), and many others; and also releases of music by composer Beat Furrer (his playlists);
• New World Records label, featuring works by Christian Wolff (his playlists), David Tudor (his playlists), and Alvin Curran (his playlists);
• Cantaloupe Music, a label launched by members of Bang On a Can – its artists include Nadia Sirota (her playlists); Sō Percussion (its playlists); Julia Wolfe (her playlists); Nico Muhly (his playlists); Tyondai Braxton (his playlists); Vicky Chow (her playlists); and Nadia Shpachenko (her playlists); and
• Alarm Will Sound, a chamber ensemble with a substantial set of releases in new music.

Franz Joseph Haydn is widely credited with the invention of the string quartet, which has become among the most popular forms of classical music. He came upon the form by accident, when a nobleman requested a composition for the musicians he had available: two violinists, a violist and a cellist..Haydn composed seventy-seven string quartets under fifteen opus numbers, changing chamber music forever. Haydn’s string quartets retain the divertimenti style through Opus 17 but Opus 9 marks leap forward from the earlier works, allowing us to hear the master’s invention of string quartet in progression. 

Op. 9 (1769) (approx. 134’)

• Quartet No. 11 in D minor, Op. 9, No. 4, FHE No. 16, Hob. No. III:22 (approx. 23’);
• Quartet No. 12 in C Major, Op. 9, No. 1, FHE No. 7, Hob. No. III:19 (approx. 23’);
• Quartet No. 13 in G Major, Op. 9, No. 3, FHE No. 9, Hob. No. III:21 (approx. 19’);
• Quartet No. 14 in E♭ Major, Op. 9, No. 2, FHE No. 8, Hob. No. III:20 (approx. 21’);
• Quartet No. 15 in B♭ Major, Op. 9, No. 5, FHE No. 17, Hob. No. III:23 (approx. 26’);
• Quartet No. 16 in A Major, Op. 9, No. 6, FHE No. 18, Hob. No. III:24 (approx. 22’). 

Op. 74 (“Apponyi” quartets, set 2, 1793) (approx. 80’)

• Quartet No. 57 in C Major, Op. 74, No. 1, FHE No. 28, Hob. No. III:72 (approx. 21-32’)
• Quartet No. 58 in F Major, Op. 74, No. 2., FHE No. 29, Hob. No. III:73 (approx. 22-23’)
• Quartet No. 59 in G minor (“Rider”), Op. 74, No. 3, FHE No. 30, Hob. No. III:74 (approx. 24’) 

Op. 77 (“Lobkowitz” quartets, 1799) (approx. 62’)

• Quartet No. 66 in G Major, Op. 77, No. 1, FHE No. 13, Hob. No. III:81 (approx. 24’)
• Quartet No. 67 in F Major, Op. 77, No. 2, FHE No. 14, Hob. No. III:82 (approx. 27’) 

Opus 81: Quartet No. 68 in D minor (unfinished) (approx. 10’); Op. 103, Hoboken No. III:83 (incomplete, 1803) (approx. 11’)

Violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja pushes boundaries, in playing and in presentation. Kopatchinskaja is known “for ‘alarmingly innovative’ (LA Times) musical interpretation that ‘excites and puzzles’ (New York Times) . . .” “She’s also a fascinating and innovative musical thinker, always ready to take a new approach to familiar repertoire.” She explains one of her methods: “I often help myself to escape routine by staging the piece in my head, writing a story, designing costumes, stage-setting, figures, asking how can I make it understandable even for a small child so that he doesn’t lose his attention, so that an old person doesn’t fall asleep and so that a young person comes again. It needs a new voice, language, ear and eyes in order to wipe off the dust from our classical temples.” Here is a link to her playlists, and to her performing live.

Conductor Leopold Stokowski “was the innovative and charismatic conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra  from 1912 to 1941 and was an influential figure in music-making through much of the twentieth century.” “Of all symphonic conductors in the 20th Century, Leopold Stokowski was the one most concerned with audio advancement. He made the first electrical recording of a complete symphony (1924), was the first to experiment with stereo (1931) and, most extravagant, developed in ‘Fantasia’ the first multichannel sound system for movies (1940).” “He elicited a distinctly silken string sound. He innovated on the style of performance and mesmerized his listeners with the expressive painterly gestures of his hands (he used no baton), his dashing profile, his shock of flowing hair, and his elegant presence.” He is the subject of a book by William Ander Smith. Here are links to his releases, his playlists, a documentary film, and a video of his conducting.

Engelbert Humperdinck, Hänsel and Gretel (1893) (approx. 105-110’): two children use their wits to survive. The opera is modeled on the Grimm fairy tale. Top performances with video are by Gruberova & Fassbaender (Solti) in 1981; and Damm & Ullmann (Gurgel) in 1981. Top audio-only recorded performances are by Springer & Hoff (Suitner) in 1970; Moffo & Donath (Eichhorn) in 1981; and von Otter & Bonney (Tate) in 1989 ***.

Other works, from other composers:

• Johann Sebastian Bach, Two- and Three-Part Inventions for keyboard, BWV 772-801 (1723) (approx. 50-56’) Performances are by Gilbert, and Růžičková (harpsichord); Nilolayeva, and Gould (piano).
• Ben Johnston employs a 53-tone scale in his String Quartet No. 2 (1964) (approx. 15’).
• Sofia Gubaidulina, Quaternion, for cello quartet (1996) (approx. 22-23’): making new uses of the cello with methods such as quarter-tuning
• Dmitri Shostakovich composed his String Quartet No. 7 in F-sharp minor, Op. 108 (1960) (approx. 13’) after his divorce from his second wife. His first wife, whom he adored, had died, leaving him a widower. In this quartet he returns to some old forms but with a new understanding and greater maturity.
• Vincent d’Indy, Symphony No. 2 in B-flat Major, Op. 57 (1903) (approx. 42-45’), presents “a musical argument outlining the tension between tradition and innovation.” [Dominic Wells, in the notes for this album]
• Marc Blitzstein, Airborne Symphony (1945) (approx. 53’): “The narrator (known as the Monitor) offers a brief history of human flight in the first movement – each of the three movements is divided into four sections – then the work shifts to the present, depicting the Axis as evil automata and offering a mournful catalogue of cities destroyed by bombs.”
• George Rochberg, 50 Caprice Variations for unaccompanied violin (1970) (approx. 73’)
• Sergei Rachmaninoff, Variations on a Theme of Corelli in D Minor, Op. 42 (1931) (approx. 18-19’): “Written in his drier, less Romantic style, Rachmaninoff’s Variations begins with a stately announcement of La Folía with a clarity that seems almost alien to the composer’s typically complex structures. Quite imaginatively, the twenty variations that follow are organized in a manner that almost resembles a full-scale sonata.”
• Jeffrey Hall, Artifacts (1976-2019) (approx. 69’): “. . . these profoundly cerebral works, written between 1976 and late 2019, mesmerize with a sober exploration of contemporary compositional techniques and the expressive potential of the piano.”
• Anton Bruckner, Symphony No. 0 in D Minor, “Nullte” (1869) (approx. 42-50’). Top recorded performances are by Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam (van Beinum) in 1955, Hamburg Philharmonic (Young) in 2012, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra (Nelsons) in 2020, Bruckner Orchestra Linz (Poschner) in 2022, and Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg (Bolton) in 2024.

Gebhard Ullmann and Basement Research have created albums whose titles suggest invention of the tangible and the abstract:

• “Impromptus and Other Short Works” (2019) (47’)
• “Hat and Shoes” (2015) (52’) (Note the clever album cover: many shoes and one hat.) 

“Praised as heirs of amazonic psychedelia and chicha traditions, as well as innovators, Bareto’s concerts should be promoted as dance parties.” Their instrumentation and style are fascinating and addictive. Here are links to their releases, their playlists, and some videos.

Other albums:

• Nik Bärtsch, “Entendre” (2021) (53’): “Bärtsch says he considers each piece as a template rather than a fixed and final composition. 'Each piece plays with the idea of composition, interpretation and improvisation,' he says, 'and is nourished by the same force, yet can create very surprising results.'”
• Paul Combs, “Unknown Dameron: Rare and Never Recorded Works of Todd Dameron” (2019) (67’)

Music: songs and other short pieces

• The Beatles, "Paperback Writer" (lyrics)
• John Coltrane, "Giant Steps"
• Kraftwerk, "Computer World" (lyrics)
•   Sérgio Assad, Clarice Assad & Third Coast Percussion, “The Creator”

Visual Arts

Film and Stage

• Hugo, an allegory about how we fashion our lives from the spare parts available to us
• Exploring a similar theme, the philosophical allegory and “parable about life” Woman in the Dunes(Suna no Onna) is “a long, leaden, grueling account of the arguing and quarreling and lovemaking of a man and a woman trapped in a shack at the bottom of a sand pit amid some remote and desolate dunes”
• Salaam Bombay!: a ten-year-old boy learns to survive in the streets of Bombay after being banished from his home for damaging a bicycle