Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2007 February 4

= February 4 =

king of the road````
king of the road —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 71.222.94.214 (talk) 03:06, 4 February 2007 (UTC).
 * Was that your question? There's a short article (lyrics, mainly) on the Roger Miller song "King of the Road". Here's the King of the Road disambiguation page, listing other possible kings of the road.---Sluzzelin 03:25, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

Gamelan
Hi, I’m looking for a substantial amount of information on how gamelan music was introduced to the west and incorporated into western music. Obviously I’ve tried Gamelan and followed all the links. I’ve also tried the Grove Encyclopedia. No luck. Does anyone know where else I could look? Thanks in advance! S.dedalus 07:01, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

Colin mcphee seems to have been instrumental (unavoidable pun) in introducing the gamelan to western composers - as well as composing for it himself. There may have been others...87.102.35.119 13:51, 4 February 2007 (UTC)
 * One of the first waves must have arrived in the field of ethnomusicology during the second part of the 19th century. It was obviously already known to theorist Alexander John Ellis who applied his tuning system to gamelan among other. Later, another ethnomusicologist, strongly influenced by Ellis, who studied, recorded and wrote about gamelan was Erich von Hornbostel.
 * During the early 20th century composers too took a keen interest in studying musical cultures all around the world (including the rural countryside in their native country, the most famous example here being Bartók). The West's imitation of the "Arabic scale" and Chinoiseries using gongs and ever the same pentatonic scale had already existed, but this new generation of composers wanted to study and understand in depth, and use its creative potential, not merely emulate the feel. (On a sidenote, the article on Debussy suggests that he borrowed his even-tempered pentatonic scales from gamelan.)
 * One of Hornbostel's students was Henry Cowell who also studied gamelan with an Indonesian teacher and incorporated it in his work. Students of his, such as Lou Harrison, and creative partners such as Colin McPhee, mentioned above, studied and incorporated gamelan as well.
 * The last significant wave probably came with the West's increasing interest in non-western culture (during the 1960s I suppose, when batik, another Indonesian import, saw a rise in popularity too). One the one hand, Hollywood and television had always borrowed whatever worked, and gamelan represented a peaceful, yet exotic and complex mood (Star Trek has used gamelan-type music too). Rock, jazz and experimental performers took an interest in non-Western music. Off the top of my head: Karl Berger and Robert Fripp studied gamelan. Gamelan ensembles have established themselves in the West by now, and World music has become very marketable. I didn't find a timeline on all this, and I don't know any books to recommend, but maybe searching some of these names will help you further. ---Sluzzelin 22:20, 4 February 2007 (UTC)
 * There are gamelan influences in several piano works by Claude Debussy, who heard Javanese music during the Exposition Universelle (1889) in Paris. Very informative article here. Skarioffszky 22:58, 4 February 2007 (UTC)
 * Yes, good link from the Debussy article. Darius Milhaud would be another French composer who took an interest in gamelan (though not as intensely as Cowell). ---Sluzzelin 23:15, 4 February 2007 (UTC)


 * There was also Benjamin Britten, who tried to emulate the gamelan in The Prince of the Pagodas (1956). And Leopold Godowsky, who wrote his 12-part Java Suite for piano in 1925 after a visit to the area.  It had to wait until 2000 for its premiere complete recording, by Esther Budiardjo, although guys like Marc-André Hamelin and Krystian Zimerman have recorded excerpts.  In his preface to the suite, Godowsky writes: The sonority of the gamelan is so weird, spectral, fantastic and bewitching, the native music so elusive, vague, shimmering and singular, that on listening to this new world of sound I lost my sense of reality, imagining myself in a realm of enchantment.  Nothing seen or experienced in Java conveyed so strongly the mysterious and strange character of the island and its inhabitants.  JackofOz 23:52, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

Etude no. 3
I am looking for a description of Franz Liszt's concert Etude no. 3, A Sigh. I need specific info about the color, textures, harmony, etc.
 * Things like colour and texture are very subjective when applied to a piece of music, and one person's interpretation will be radically different from another's. Why don't you try listening to the piece, really listening to it (in the dark, on headphones, perhaps), and see if you can isolate what colours and textures it suggests to you.  --Richardrj talkemail 20:26, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

Adding an image still from a movie
Hello, I received an autobot regarding an image still I uploaded fro the film Children of Men. I am not sure how or what to tag the image, andI have read the list of copyright image tags - none of them seem to fit. The still, while captured by me, is not of my creation, and is of low enough quality and out of context with the scene in which the image is taken so as to not endanger the original work. I am trying to abide by the rules, but am unsure what to do here.Arcayne 19:53, 4 February 2007 (UTC)
 * You should tag the image . Skarioffszky 21:00, 4 February 2007 (UTC)
 * Yep, has some pointers. --Kjoonlee 01:38, 5 February 2007 (UTC)