|
|
|
Home Read Copyright notice Browse/Listen Download CD Download liner notes Back to Compositions index Contact |
 (2010) Celebrating short attention spanThe longest symphony in this cycle is a minute, the shortest just 6 seconds. In the time it takes an orchestra to tune up you can pack in two or three complete symphonies of mine, AND acquire the same sense of cultural superiority that two tedious hours would give you at Lincoln Center.If you are that multi-tasking, espresso swigging, Blackberry addicted, musical sophisticate (which I am sure you are) you simply don’t have the two and a half hours (not counting parking) that a Mahler symphony requires. How about 23 seconds? It’s what you’ve been waiting for -
"My symphonies
are to music
what a 1000mg vitamin C pill is to 50 oranges" (Taussig)
It’s what Mahler would have done had he had to fight rush hour twice a day.  |
1. [0:22] This
loving God?God, by His own admission, has zero tolerance for competition. A single horrific chord sums up the divine personality, followed by what sounds like a distant heart monitor. Yahweh on life-support? |
2. [0:31] Doppelganger *Two voices follow each other as in a Canon. But after a few steps it becomes apparent that the follower is not a mere shadow but has a personality of its own. _____ * Doppelganger: “A tangible double of a living person” |
3. [0:44] Holy Trinity A heavenly choir sings Three Blind Mice. |
4. [0:13] Four horsemen
of the Apocalypse(String quartet)
The four horsemen from the Book of Revelations ride
their Stradivarius mounts to nowhere.
It might as well be a comment on the demise of European chamber music.
|
5. [0:29] PentagonThe 5-sided geometric shape, a sign of harmony in many cultures, has come to symbolize American military aggression? A standard Heavy Metal 4-beat rhythm goes "off track" with a fifth beat. That, plus the lunatic screams and automatic weapons is the allegory of what lurks beneath the shiny medals and pressed uniforms. |
6. [0:37] Six
degrees of
separationIt is said that any two people on the planet are separated by just six intermediaries, a comforting thought for the lost and lonely. Here a lonely voice gradually inches its way closer to another note. After six hesitant steps it merges with it |
7. [0:35] Seven
deadly sins (The
Pope’s wet dream)
It is interesting that killing was not one of the church-ordained seven deadly sins. But then the sins were not so much about morality as about the lurid fantasies of priests and Popes. As we know, not much changes in the Catholic Church. The piece uses plainchant as the façade covering up what actually occurs in the back room. |
8. [0:32] 8-ballGod may not play dice but he loves billiards. The ultimate cosmic 8-ball is shot into space and, once free of earth gravity, continues forever on its trajectory. |
9. [0:16] Nine lives
“Cats” - the Twitter version. |
10. [0:27] Fingers
The pianist’s dream - what 10 fingers could do if you had three hands. But Chopin’s Prelude No. 7 brings us back to a two-handed reality. |
11. [0:29] The
eleventh hour(When you finally realize what
a
joke it all is)
The stopwatch ticks in the background as Time limps on, slowly but surely running out. In the nick of time though we are saved from melodrama by a cuckoo clock announcing that it’s all over. |
12. [0:39] Sun
signs (12-tone music of
the spheres)
Around 1900 the composer Arnold Schoenberg invented “12-tone music”, in which all 12 notes had to be repeated before any could be used again. Although it produced the most dreadful atonal cacophony known to man, it dominated “modern music” for decades and gave it its rightly deserved bad name. This symphony attempts a more listenable 12-tone music, though its 12 measures strictly adhere to Schoenberg’s nutty rule. |
13. [0:16] Friday
the 13th Need we say more? |
14. [0:52] Valentine
(Love and popcorn)
It’s Hollywood and Hallmark - running towards each other in slow-motion in a meadow with sunset (or rain). |
15. [0:29] Beware the
Ides (See #23 below)
Just because psychics are crackpots doesn't mean they are wrong. On that fateful March 15th Caesar should have listened to the soothsayer instead of trusting his own jusdgement. |
16. [0:32] Sweet Sixteen
(A blast from the
past)
It’s 1958. You are driving along in a Chevy convertible smoking a Camel and listening to Chuck Berry’s single Sweet Little Sixteen. The reception is poor. Or is it a transmission trapped in space now pinged back to earth? |
17. [0:08] It
takes 17 muscles
to produce a smile The 17 notes in this piece were drawn on the page not according to their musical values but as a graphic representing a lopsided smile.  The inspiration comes from the Brazilian
composer Heitor Villa-Lobos whose 1939 composition New York Skyline was
also entirely derived from a picture. |
18. [0:33] Gowns
&
mortarboards "ValeDiscordians"
We have all sat through high school graduations in which the school band hacked its way through Elgar’s Pomp and Circumstance March. This is a tribute to all those valiant (if less than proficient) kids. |
19. [1:04] A century
of
Victoria’s empire (Victoria vs. a
tabla player)
Rule Britania was the anthem of British colonialism. The sun was supposed to never set on the Empire, and yet it did. When it came to a contest between the mightiest empire in human history and some lowly Indian nobodies guess who came out on top? This symphony is probably the shortest account of the rise and fall of the Raj |
20. [0:45] 20/20 hindsightHindsight is pointless. Events unfold as they must whether we predict them correctly or rationalize them later. In this piece a predictable rhythm co-exists with a fluid unpredictable melody. Two parallel universes - unsynchronized. |
21. [0:24] Gun
salute The real sounds of ship guns become here percussive effect. The 21-gun salute originated as a way for a man-of-war to indicate its peaceful intentions by firing blanks as it approached a foreign harbor, which usually replied in kind (or not, as the case may be). |
22. [0:31] Catch-22
(A modern
labyrinth)
Joseph Heller’s novel introduced the phrase into everyday language, signifying an endless frustrating loop of cause and effect from which there is no escape. This mini string quartet is designed to be endlessly looped, to evoke the effect of entrapment, a little nightmare for our times. |
23. [0:21] The 23 stabs
that
killed Caesar (Overkill)
After ignoring the warning to stay home (see #15 above) Caesar was stabbed 23 times by his colleagues in the Roman senate. This is either a case of extreme blood thirst or just monumental incompetence. |
24. [0:34] 24/7
(Moto perpetuo)
The symphony consists of 24 measures, each representing an hour. The perpetual motion rhythm is punctuated by the sounds of a typical day (e.g. Alarm clock at 6 am, elevator at 8 am, office machines throughout the day, subway home at 10 pm, and snoring with distant sirens to round it all off). |
25. [0:40] 25%
- a quarter
moonJust a good old-fashioned moon song. |
26. [0:11] From
A to Z (Underwood meets
Bah Bah Black Sheep)
The 26 letters of the English alphabet have inspired the Alphabet song, made popular by Sesame Street. Here an Underwood typewriter provides the rhythm, and a sheep reminds us that Bah, bah black sheep uses the same tune. |
27. [0:17] Bones
in my hand An important factoid for piano players. |
28. [0:58] Days
in February With 28 days the shortest month is still too long by half. Notice the wind matching the clarinet pitch on the final note. |
29. [0:34] B-29 over
HiroshimaIt’s a lovely day in a public park in Hiroshima, August 6th 1945. Overhead the drone of the B-29 carrying the first Atomic bomb is approaching. No one notices, except one baby. |
30. [0:11] Turning
30 To some turning 30 may be not a cause to celebrate. |
31. [0:39] Ice
cream flavors Like a sundae that mixes every flavor in the ice cream truck, this piece mashes together incompatible musical styles, from Classical to Indian to Soul. Quite disgusting, actually. |
32. [0:38] Freeezing!
The icy sounds of the Glass Armonica (an instrument invented by Benjamin Franklin and consisting of spinning crystal bowls) is used in this frozen musical landscape. |
33. [0:25]
Miracles and
crucifixion The number 33 figured prominently in the life of Jesus of Nazareth. 33 miracles are attributed to him, and at 33 he was nailed to the cross. “The passion according to Taussig” is short and brutal. |
34. [0:51] Rule 34: If it exists,
there’s porn of it This composition gives a new meaning to the liturgical Agnus Dei (the Lamb of God) by overlaying the traditional Catholic prayer with the sounds of (child?) pornography. |
35. [0:14] Click,
click - 35mm A composition for solo camera (35mm Pentax) and orchestra. The sound of the camera shutter provides the rhythmic inspiration for the piece |
36. [0:26] Views
of Mount Fuji (Tourists)
“36 views of Mount Fuji” is a famous series of color woodblock prints by the Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai (1760–1849). In this contemporary version a group of noisy camera toting tourists takes twice as many views in seconds. Now that’s progress for you. |
37.
[0:28] Prime
Some numbers evoke no associations in anyone’s mind, except mathematicians. 37 is one such number. The music accordingly is random. |
38. [0:27] The
38th parallel (Korea
DMZ)
At the close of the Korean War, more than half a century ago, North and South Korea were separated along the 38th parallel by a demilitarized zone. American soldiers are still there, eyeing their North Korean adversaries across the land mines. On the 38th parallel time stands still. |
39. [0:26] The
39 Steps Hitchcock’s classic thriller provides the idea for this composition. The sound of footsteps becomes a musical instrument. |
40. [0:24] Ali
Baba and the 40
thieves One of Scheherazade’s best-known stories from A Thousand and One Nights. The virtual Egyptian orchestra performing the piece consists of slightly detuned strings playing in unison, an Oud (a kind of a lute), and various Middle Eastern drums. |
41. [0:30] 1941 - V
for Victory When Winston Churchill invented the V for victory sign in 1941 it became the symbol of British defiance of Nazi Germany. V also stands for the Roman numeral 5, which in Morse Code goes: dot, dot, dot, dash, same as the heroic opening of Beethoven’s 5th symphony. It became the BBC's sign in during the war. Here though Beethoven's theme has a ghost-like quality and, mixed with Morse Code and sirens, evokes the horror of the London Blitz. |
42. [0:09] Life,
the
universe, and everything In Douglas Adams’s The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy the super computer Deep Thought, after contemplating the ultimate question of Life, the Universe, and Everything for 7.5 million years, finally provides the answer, and the answer is - 42. |
43. [0:28] Zeroes and
Ones *The main musical idea for this piece came from a rhythm generated by the binary numbers 101011, where 1 is a note and 0 is a pause. This rhythm is repeated in different speeds (half, double and triple speed) ______ * (43 in Binary =101011) |
44. [0:31] 4/4
Time There are two simultaneous 4/4 rhythms here, one double the speed of the other. |
45. [0:14] 45-Single
In the vinyl era there were those little hit single records with a big donut hole in the middle. When you forgot to lift the tone arm at the end of a song, the needle would keep scratching the center groove producing a hypnotic rhythm that could go on forever, or till someone remembered to turn the thing off. |
46. [0:32] Chromosomes
(All 46 of them)
Yes, there are more than just X and Y chromosomes. Every cell in our body contains 46 chromosomes, except sperm and egg cells which have just 23 each (the X and Y variety). Just in case you are looking for a meaningful connection between this vital information and the music, you will have to provide it yourself, because there really isn’t any. |
47.
[0:25] AK-47
(A
fugue of wailing)
The Kalashnikov AK-47 automatic rifle has produced more widows and orphans over its long and ignominious career than any other hand held weapon. Instead of focusing on the rifle, the music focuses on its aftermath. This fugue uses real voices of mourners from several countries. |
48. [0:48] Days
under the Bodhi tree The Buddha sat under the Bodhi tree in deep meditation for 48 days before reaching Nirvana. Why so long? Apparently the mind (even Buddha’s) is a noisy nuisance, determined to disrupt the serenity of emptyness. |
49. [0:41] The
49th parallel The border between the United States and Canada, one of the longest between any two nations, stretches along the 49th parallel. In a world of conflict and war it stands out as a peaceful civilized border. Accordingly, the symphony superimposes the two national anthems in a spirit of compromise rather than conflict. And you need compromise because The Star Spangled Banner is in 3/4 time and Oh, Canada in 4/4 time. |
50. [0:24] 50/50
Mozart’s Eine Kleine Nacht Musik has an attack of split personality. |
51. [0:21] Area-51
(Abducted)
The only thing of interest about Area 51 is that it does not exist. When fiction meets truth fiction wins by becoming the truth. |
52. [0:48] White
keysAll but the very last note in this little tune (a C sharp) are played on the white keys. |
53. [0:23] 1953-
Lilibet gets a crown Queen Elizabeth II was never destined to be queen. To her parents she was just Lilibet. Her life changed forever when her uncle King Edward VII abdicated and made her father into King George VI. Lilibet was cute. It's tough to make God Save the Queen cute, but we tried... |
54. [0:22] Rubik
squares
If you count them, there are 54 squares in a standard Rubik cube. A Rubik cube is made up of 9 cubes, and each cube has 6 faces, therefore 9x6=54. And none of this has anything whatsoever to do with the music. |
55. [0:21]
I
can’t drive 55 Brass instruments trade riffs with car horns in this automotive symphony. Sammy Hagar, whose 1984 hit by the same name inspired the piece, makes a cameo appearance. |
56. [0:48] Cape
Horn - 56º S “The Horn”, one of the most treacherous seas at the southernmost tip of South America, was the mariner’s worst nightmare. For centuries, before the Panama Canal was built, it was the only sea route from Europe to Chile, Peru, and the Pacific. |
57. [0:24] Carnegie
Hall - 57th St. Perched on the corner of 57th Street and 7th Avenue in Manhattan, Carnegie Hall is the Vatican of Classical music. Well, maybe. Here a very short violin concerto concludes in a burst of hooting from a comedy club. |
58. [0:33] Montezuma's 58
pieces of gold Legend has it that Montezuma II used an ancient divination technique on the eve of meeting the Spanish Conquistador Cortes. The 58 pieces of gold told him that the invaders were benevolent gods. |
59. [0:27] Last
minute The dual meanings of “last minute” play against each other in this black comedy - being late, speeding, and meeting one’s last minute. |
60. [0:30] 60
to Zero in 1 second In a twist on car acceleration specs (“0-60 in __ seconds”), the numbers here refer to heart rate in a hospital ER. It is a sequel to the car crash in #59, and the solo instrument is a heart monitor. |
61. [0:40] Kill
me a son, on highway 61 (Bob Dylan
revisited)
Dylan’s album Highway 61 Revisited included a satirical song about God commanding Abraham (Abe) to kill his son on Highway 61. Using Dylan’s original as a starting point the symphony asks what if Abe had complied? |
62. [0:25] 1962
- Dancing with Nikita This is the great Cuban missile dance with JFK and Khrushchev circling each other as the world held its breath. The sound of a heartbeat provides the rhythm for this macabre Waltz. |
63. [0:11] A question
mark (63
is “?” in ASCHII) ASCHII was the original computer code for letters, numbers, and symbol characters. The code for a question mark was 63. The notes of this short piece were generated from a horizontal question mark placed on top of a musical staff. |
64. [0:27]
Kama Sutra - 64 pathways to bliss
(64 pathways to
bliss)
 The 64 sexual positions in the Hindu Kama Sutra, a Tantric Yoga text became popular in the West during the sexual revolution of the 1960s. The shape of a reclining figure generates the notes for this piece. |
65. [0:52] Out
to pasture? Never!65 used to be the age of retirement. Not anymore. The engine-like rhythm here reflects the determination of Boomers to keep going. But the call of the pasture is there, represented by African ivory horns and cattle. It’s only a matter of time. |
66. [0:12] Oh
you devil!
666 is the sign of the Beast, or the devil. For some reason the devil has become associated with the fiddle in European classical music, from Tartini’s “Devil’s trill” sonata in the 18th century to Paganini being the “devil’s violinist” in the 19th, to Stravinsky’s “L’histoire du Soldat” in the 20th century. But in this whimsy the devil is just a joke. |
67. [0:39] 1967
- Summer of Love In the summer of 1967 thousands of young Americans descended on San Francisco “with flowers in their hair”, guitars in their hands, and joints in their backpacks. The song that started it all “San Francisco” is recreated here as it is picked up by a spacecraft cruising some 45 light years away. |
68. [0:46] Prague
spring with tanks In a sequel to #67 “San Francisco” is played by a Czech accordionist on a street in Prague during the all too brief 1967 “Prague Spring”, in which communism was temporarily relaxed and freedom restored for a few month. But the music is cut short as Soviet tanks rumble into town and crush the Czech dream. |
69. [0:27] Soixante-Neuf
(X-Rated symphony)
The term describes a sexual position in which partners lie on top of each other facing in opposite directions. As in #64 above (Kama Sutra) the melody is derived from a graphic superimposed on a musical grid, except here it is duplicated upside down and backwards as well: The resulting duet is played by a bass and a blues-harp in a 60s cool Jazz style. |
70. [1:08] Three
score and ten all the days of your years", (Borrowed time)
The quote from Psalm No. 90 sets the limit of human life at 70 years. This may seem hopelessly out of date, but no matter how much longer you live, what’s left after 70 is just borrowed time. Water dripping in a cave provides the rhythmic backdrop to a melancholy violin solo. |
71. [0:25] Symphony 71
interrupted The cello and the ringtone - a duet for our times. |
72. [0:23] Virgins
in paradise This symphony might merit a Fatwa (an Islamic contract on the composer’s life). Among the questions that the symphony does not address are: How do the 72 virgins stay virginal in paradise? Is there an unending supply of fresh virgins in heaven? What happens to virtuous Muslim women in heaven (if they happen not to be Lesbians)? Are there virgin men in paradise (fair is fair)? |
73. [0:15] Dots
and dashes 73
in Morse Code is:
- - … … - -
The Morse code for 73 is a Palindrome, which means
that it sounds the same whether played from left to right or from right
to left. This fascinating factoid is completely irrelevant, a. because
either way it produces the same cool rhythm, and b. because by the time
you figured it out the symphony is over. |
74. [0:26] The
Ring (1874 The Valkirye) In 1874 Richard Wagner premiered his opera The Valkyrie, part 2 of his monumental Ring Cycle. If performed in its entirety, Wagner’s Ring would take 16 hours. By contrast, Taussig’s Ring lasts 26 seconds. It still packs in The Ride of the Valkyries, a Wagnerian soprano yodeling in her Upper West Side condo, the ring of her doorbell, and the Pizza delivery boy banging on her door. Now that’s efficiancy for you. |
75. [0:41] Diamond
anniversaryThe few couplees who manage to stay together for 75 years usually celebrates their Diamond anniversary together in heaven. All the clichés of heaven are here, the harp, the cloud, the celestial choir. Still, it’s kind of a dead party. |
76. [0:34] 76
TrombonesThere are not really 76 trombones in this adaptation of the hit from The Sound of Music, but still quite a few. They are attempting to be sophosticated and play a fugue, with limited success. |
77. [0:20] Practice
your scales! *Contrary to what piano students are told, a scale has not 8 but just 7 notes. This 4-part fugue consists of up-and-down scales at various speeds, and is a tribute to the millions of kids made to practice these dreary finger exercises. As you’d expect, it is in 7/8 time. _______ * The reference to 77 is a bit of a stretch, 7 and 7 for the 7 notes scales... |
78. [0:20]
Gramaphone (& those old
78s)
Old 78 records were notorious for getting stuck and repeating the same groove until nudged. This Tango goes one better. Every time the needle skips back it seems to go up a note and lose some of its voices until at the end all that's left is the scratch. |
79. [0:42] Pompeii
79 AD After the initial volcanic eruption that destroyed Pompeii and all its inhabitants, mighty Vesuvius continued to spew ash and Lava onto the devastated landscape for weeks. |
80. [0:31] Around
the world in 80 days Travel music for Jules Verne’s novel. The opening whistle echoes the whistle in the previous #79. |
81. [0:23]
 Hells Angels Hells Angels often refer to their clubs as 81, which stands for their initials H-A, H being the 8th letter of the alphabet and A the 1st. (A bit far fetched? Click here and look at the figure's eyes). Musically, an idling Harley provides the steady beat for the Heavy Metal piece, and then takes off. |
82. [0:25] An
82-legged Central Park centipedeIt may be an urban myth or a hoax, but an 82-legged centipede was actually spotted in Central Park and reported in the Times. Was it a new species or just a very unfortunate centipedal traffic victim? We shall never know. |
83. [0:35] A second
Bar-Mitzva at 83? Some Jews believe that when you hit 83 you’ve outlived your allotted years by 13 years (see #70 above), and therefore are due a second Bar-Mitzva. Since most people of that age are either dead or severely limited in their dancing capabilities, the melody chosen for this piece is El-Male Rahamim, the Jewish prayer for the dead. But a Bar-Mitzva is a celebration after all, so the tune gets a Klezmer treatment at the end, and the dead or nearly dead dance away the night. |
84. [0:40] 1984 ("War is Peace")
In the bleak world of George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four the totalitarian state maintains a perpetual war in distant lands as a justification for its control of its citizens. The "War on Terror" with its "Patriot Act" that ensured that no patriotic American would dare challenge the government is right out of Big Brother's playbook. The music uses "Al Qaeda" as the menacing battle cry that ensures our compliance. |
85. [0:33] '85
Live Aid"We are
the World"
What would have “We are the World” sounded like if it had been done by African villagers instead of rich Nashville super stars? |
86. [0:42] Eighty-sixed
Eighty-sixed: “slang
for axed, downsized”
A funeral march for the downsized executive. |
87. [0:26] “Fourscore
and seven years ago…”The opening words of Lincoln's Gettysburg address were the number 87 (Fourscore and seven). A bugle call and an approaching marching band playing the Battle Hymn of the Republic transport us to the Civil War era. |
88. [0:17] 88-Keys Another piano riff. |
89. [0:31] 1989
- when the wall came down In 1989 the Berlin Wall came down, ushering in the unification of Germany and the collapse of the Soviet Union. The musical representation of that historical event consists of the East Germany’s national anthem gradually swamped by Pink Floyd’s Another Brick in the Wall (“All in all it was just bricks in the wall”). |
90. [0:47] 90º
N - North Pole summerScientists predict that as early as 2030 Global Warming will make the North Pole free of ice in the summer. This whimsical symphony conjectures a tropical North Pole get away. |
91. [0:27] India
long-distance 91 is the long distance code for India, an important number as India assumes a central role in international business. In this global economy dial-tones are used millions of times each day to trigger numbers through pitch, but here they trigger a melody instead. The musical style is pure “globalization”; Indian rhythm, bongos from Cuba, bamboo racks from Indonesia, a singer from Kazakhastan, and a busy-signal from Verizon |
92. [0:39] 1492Columbus and the Arawak he mistook for Indians |
93. [0:29] 93
million
miles to the sunSorry, no manned missions |
94. [0:25] Surprise!
Joseph Haydn wrote even more symphonies than Taussig (114). Admittedly his were a bit longer. Haydn’s number 94 is called the “Surprise symphony”. It starts with a gag - a very soft opening to lull the audience and then, unexpectedly, a sudden explosive chord. Taussig’s No. 94 uses the same tune (sort of), the same strategy, but with a “surprising” twist. |
95. [0:31] 95 Theses
of
Martin LutherMartin Luther launched the Protestant brand of Christianity by nailing 95 theses (arguments) against the Catholic Church to the Wurttemberg cathedral door. What is less known is that he was also the first “Christian Music” singer/songwriter. The chorale in this symphony is Luther’s first attempt at music, with a little rhythmic drumming to get those stodgy Lutherans swinging. |
96. [0:38] Petals
of
the Third Eye Inner peace, love, and bliss. Ohm Shanti. |
97. [0:43] Just
a
Number Just music. |
98.
[0:24]  98.8 -
Body
Temperature 98.8º is considered normal 102º definitely sick. Why then are the sickest insane acts perpetrated with normal body temperature? Maybe if Hitler had a chronic 102º temperature he would have stayed in bed and been quite a meek nice fellow to the nurses. No WW2. |
99. [1:01] 99.9(Almost there) Composers love to build up to a giant climax at the end of their compositions, so why bother with the rest of the piece? Here is a collage of endings from two Beethoven symphonies (Nos. 8 and 9), Ravel’s Bolero and La Valse, and Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony No.2 (that interminable chord at the end). |
100. [0:19] The
hundredth monkey That proverbial 100th monkey is nothing special. She might be just a silly little brat. Her importance lies in the fact that she is the 100th of something. The same holds true for this musical blip. |
101.
[1:13] Music 101Never mind the music. It’s the applause that counts. |
Download CD Booklet