MASTERSTROKE - Knowing the How

Raindrops on roses
And whiskers on kittens
Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens
Brown paper packages tied up with strings
These are a few of my favorite things

Many people identify that tune not bothering who wrote the words. Many played that musical over not caring if neighbours enjoyed it that much. Yet many others relive their first experience seeing that movie not worrying about the science that explains how they’re able to do so.

         But learning ‘the how’ was John Coltrane’s business. Born in 1926 America, when and where jazz was just taking roots; having no grasp of mathematics, crucial to understanding the genre; and living for only 40 years, which meant too little time to achieve mastery; John William Coltrane lumbered against the odds to know ‘the how’. His work would endure by learning how. And learn he did – inflection, syncopation and improvisation – the very how of writing, recording and performing on “Moment’s Notice”. He had to learn if truly, and how, “The Night Has a Thousand Eyes”. John Coltrane found how “Midriff” would reel out of the Art Blakey Big Band. For Trane, nothing compares to knowing the how.

On John Coltrane for Legends of the Score

MASTERSTROKE - Composing a Master's Brew

How do you compose a master’s brew? He knows – this Camerounian born in 1933 – that selecting the finest quality ingredients do not necessarily translate into a perfect age-old lager: assembling professionals. The best grains are crushed and mixed with demineralized water: creating originality. The resulting mash is boiled, its starch broken down with enzymes: melodic and rhythmic phrases. Fermentation begins here using purpose-grown yeast in suitable tanks: pitching the process. The beer you arrive at will now be filtered, bottled, pasteurized, labelled, cooled and shipped to your favourite pub so you may savour the bubbles, sparkling and tempting: staging the performance.

Begin with Soul Makossa and Africadelic in the 70’s. Go on to Goro City and Douala Serenade of the 80’s. Find Wakafrika and Mboa from the 90’s. And make certain to return to Aye Afrika and The Panther released in this millennium. Manu Dibango fuses the syncopation and improvisation of jazz with its bass groove. He blends the complex rhythm of afrobeat with blues riffs and wind blasts always in a bid to lure you to the art of the science of composing a master’s brew.

For Legends of the Score on Manu Dibango

MASTERSTROKE - The Twist in the Plot

Just like we speak of multitasking in work and life today, Handel’s music is typified by contrapuntal harmony. That jargon is from the word “counterpoint” which refers to the use of more than one strands of independent, yet concordant, melody. We hear a lot of that in Messiah.

But it was not only this German composer’s music that was contrapuntal. His very life, between 1685 and 1759, was a paradox of sorts, a couple of twists and turns: he went to law school but took organ lessons; he wrote fascinating operas like Rinaldo depicting sensual love then composed dramatic oratorios like Samson evoking ethereal devotion; he was religious enough to serve as church musician yet secular enough to drink and squabble a little too often; he was a commoner whose finances were debt-laden from declining patronage, nevertheless a nobleman whose works thrived on royal commissions repeatedly.

The truth is: life is not a straight-line graph. Sometimes you take a right turn but end up on the left wing. Do what needs to be done therefore, choosing the best options under the circumstances. Somewhere around that turn lies the Twist in the Plot.

For Legends of the Score on G.F. Handel

MASTERSTROKE - Expertise Emerges Effortlessly

An equal length of sections and a proportionate use of instruments were Bach’s dogma for writing music. As a result, this German composer seemed to effortlessly summon his talents at will. His harmony was predominantly polyphonic. He chose his ornaments so carefully that their effects were never lost on the listener at mass, in court or in concert. Why? Born in 1685, Bach wrote Baroque music, and baroque means highly decorated. So, it wasn’t enough to just balance the sections, the phrases had to wear ornaments in the same way a beautician skillfully makes up a woman, adorning her gorgeous dress and graceful hair with expensive matching trinkets.

Yet all that balance and beauty happened naturally for Johanne Sebastian Bach so that today, almost 270 years after his death, we enjoy his Minuet in G minor for the keyboard, Badinerie from Suite in B minor and the orchestral arrangement of Fugue in G minor which he had written for the organ. Of course, he wrote several pieces for voice: cantatas, oratorios, songs, arias and so forth. But he seemed to have done all that and more while intentionally hiding his sweat. Morale: When we are easy in our own skin, expertise emerges effortlessly.

For Legends of the Score on Johanne Sebastian Bach.