February 10, 2021
Sounds of Solace
Simon Morrison
Professor of Music, Princeton University
Nancy Beck, Introducer, and Simon Morrison
Minutes of the 19th Meeting of the 79th Year
Stephen Schreiber opened the Old Guard meeting on the 10th of February at 10:10 a.m., a bit earlier than usual to accommodate the speaker’s teaching schedule. He announced next week’s speaker, Mark Salter, who will talk about his life with Senator John McCain.
Visitors for this meeting were Rita Asch (guest of Marsha Rojer), Sarah Jones (guest of Lanny Jones) and Judith Finches (guest of Christine Danser). Nancy Beck introduced Simon Morrison, who is an archival historian of 20th century Russian and Soviet music at Princeton University. Over 147 people tuned in to the lecture. The minutes for last week’s lecture were read by Ralph Widner at the end of the meeting.
Stephen Schreiber presided over the Old Guard meeting, which featured Professor Morrison talking about “Songs of Solace”; Mr. Morrison was introduced by Nancy Beck, who kept her remarks short to accommodate Mr. Morrison’s teaching schedule at 11:00 a.m. Simon Morrison has spoken at the Old Guard before. His comments on music as a solace in these difficult times were illustrated by recordings of his choices of music. Links to the music follow these minutes.
Mr. Morrison started his talk with a tape of Mazzy Star’s “Into Dust” that he described as “introspective, shadow-filled music,” and the “saddest and most beautiful song I know.” He then commented on musical reflections of past trauma with Bob Dylan’s “Murder Most Foul,” a 17-minute song about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, an example of a single event as part of a sweeping epic to explore the American experience.
Like Dylan, composer Charles Ives catalogued the music around him—patriotic marches, hymn tunes, Beethoven sonatas, early 20th century popular songs. Ives’s “The Unanswered Question,” about the torpedoing of the Lusitania is not comforting music but asks important questions about the meaning of life.
For his next piece Mr. Morrison played an excerpt from a Facebook post in March 2020, by Megan Sarno, class of 2016 at Princeton, accompanied by her husband on the finger-picked guitar: “My Life Flows on in Endless Song.”
The “sorrow songs,” as W.E.B. DuBois dubbed them, are the legacy of enslaved African Americans and are perhaps our most profound songs of suffering and of hope. These spirituals live deep in our culture. Mr. Morrison played an except of Marian Anderson’s “Deep River” as an example of an anthem beloved by all Americans now, but originally borne of hardship and pain.
Mr. Morrison made reference to Barack Obama’s singing of “Amazing Grace,” a piece that speaks of joyful transformations yet with a sense of loss—with both minor and major chords—and he recounted several other stories of music’s ability to sustain us in the times of great pain and tragedy.
Mr. Morrison reminded us that popular music has responded to the pandemic in ways that make us want to move and dance—with electronic music, hip-hop, and synthesized pop (in other words, through all our personal devices). As an example of this, he played one of his 10-year-old daughter’s favorites: Dua Lipa’s “Don’t Start Now.” He reminded us that despite the reasons people dislike social media, we should praise the platforms that allow us to come together to make music.
Finally, Mr. Morrison ended with a “parting delight,” Brian Eno’s fifth track of Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks, “Ascent,” meant to suggest a hymn or chorale. The “glorious positivity” of this music comes from Eno’s running the processed choral sequence backwards.
Mr. Morrison ended his talk on the solace of music: “With that, I float away, in comfort if not solace.”
Respectfully submitted,
Anne Seltzer
Simon Morrison's Playlist:
Mazzy Starr: "Into Dust" https://youtu.be/SiO_7LhPZFM
Bob Dylan: "Murder Most Foul" https://youtu.be/3afm8a4hv1I
Charles Ives: "The Unanswered Question" https://youtu.be/vXD4tIp59L0
Megan Sarno singing hymn attributed to Robert Wadsworth Lowry: "My Life Flows On in Endless Song" https://youtu.be/rP3fa2uqxY0
Marian Anderson singing the spiritual "Deep River" https://youtu.be/2bytFrsL4_4
Dua Lipa: "Don't Start Now" https://youtu.be/oygrmJFKYZY
Brian Eno: "Ascent" https://youtu.be/OlaTeXX3uH8
Visitors for this meeting were Rita Asch (guest of Marsha Rojer), Sarah Jones (guest of Lanny Jones) and Judith Finches (guest of Christine Danser). Nancy Beck introduced Simon Morrison, who is an archival historian of 20th century Russian and Soviet music at Princeton University. Over 147 people tuned in to the lecture. The minutes for last week’s lecture were read by Ralph Widner at the end of the meeting.
Stephen Schreiber presided over the Old Guard meeting, which featured Professor Morrison talking about “Songs of Solace”; Mr. Morrison was introduced by Nancy Beck, who kept her remarks short to accommodate Mr. Morrison’s teaching schedule at 11:00 a.m. Simon Morrison has spoken at the Old Guard before. His comments on music as a solace in these difficult times were illustrated by recordings of his choices of music. Links to the music follow these minutes.
Mr. Morrison started his talk with a tape of Mazzy Star’s “Into Dust” that he described as “introspective, shadow-filled music,” and the “saddest and most beautiful song I know.” He then commented on musical reflections of past trauma with Bob Dylan’s “Murder Most Foul,” a 17-minute song about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, an example of a single event as part of a sweeping epic to explore the American experience.
Like Dylan, composer Charles Ives catalogued the music around him—patriotic marches, hymn tunes, Beethoven sonatas, early 20th century popular songs. Ives’s “The Unanswered Question,” about the torpedoing of the Lusitania is not comforting music but asks important questions about the meaning of life.
For his next piece Mr. Morrison played an excerpt from a Facebook post in March 2020, by Megan Sarno, class of 2016 at Princeton, accompanied by her husband on the finger-picked guitar: “My Life Flows on in Endless Song.”
The “sorrow songs,” as W.E.B. DuBois dubbed them, are the legacy of enslaved African Americans and are perhaps our most profound songs of suffering and of hope. These spirituals live deep in our culture. Mr. Morrison played an except of Marian Anderson’s “Deep River” as an example of an anthem beloved by all Americans now, but originally borne of hardship and pain.
Mr. Morrison made reference to Barack Obama’s singing of “Amazing Grace,” a piece that speaks of joyful transformations yet with a sense of loss—with both minor and major chords—and he recounted several other stories of music’s ability to sustain us in the times of great pain and tragedy.
Mr. Morrison reminded us that popular music has responded to the pandemic in ways that make us want to move and dance—with electronic music, hip-hop, and synthesized pop (in other words, through all our personal devices). As an example of this, he played one of his 10-year-old daughter’s favorites: Dua Lipa’s “Don’t Start Now.” He reminded us that despite the reasons people dislike social media, we should praise the platforms that allow us to come together to make music.
Finally, Mr. Morrison ended with a “parting delight,” Brian Eno’s fifth track of Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks, “Ascent,” meant to suggest a hymn or chorale. The “glorious positivity” of this music comes from Eno’s running the processed choral sequence backwards.
Mr. Morrison ended his talk on the solace of music: “With that, I float away, in comfort if not solace.”
Respectfully submitted,
Anne Seltzer
Simon Morrison's Playlist:
Mazzy Starr: "Into Dust" https://youtu.be/SiO_7LhPZFM
Bob Dylan: "Murder Most Foul" https://youtu.be/3afm8a4hv1I
Charles Ives: "The Unanswered Question" https://youtu.be/vXD4tIp59L0
Megan Sarno singing hymn attributed to Robert Wadsworth Lowry: "My Life Flows On in Endless Song" https://youtu.be/rP3fa2uqxY0
Marian Anderson singing the spiritual "Deep River" https://youtu.be/2bytFrsL4_4
Dua Lipa: "Don't Start Now" https://youtu.be/oygrmJFKYZY
Brian Eno: "Ascent" https://youtu.be/OlaTeXX3uH8