Singular Music

 

This is a collection of short-stories Murakami published in 2020. The title comes from the last story in the collection but the one I liked best is the one depicted on the cover - "Confessions of a Shinagawa Monkey"  / Ichininshō Tansū (一人称単数).

It is a story that brings together a number of elements I love about Japan - the inclination to experience nature, the everyday courtesy, openness to absorbing and improving upon foreign music, literature, food and technology. With some effort it seems even monkeys can improve themselves in Japan :)

As with most of his books, quite a few of stories in this collection revolve around music, mostly jazz or western classical. Many of these pieces are completely unfamiliar to me, so my way of indulging in immersive reading is to settle down with the book on my favourite chair with a drink, a bowl of snacks (if KakiPi is nor available, murukku or banana chips will do), and to play as background music one one of the pieces that appears in the storyline.

In this collection, no less than three stories have their titles that indicate which type of music is going to dominate the narrative - "Charlie Parker Plays Bossa Nova", "With the Beatles" and "Carnaval". The last one comes with a specific recommendations - Schumann's Carnaval by Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli (Angel Records) or the one by Arthur Rubenstein (RCA  Records)!

An enjoyable, uplifting read.

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Music from 'First Person Singular' / Ichininshō Tansū (一人称単数):

• Jazz - Charlie Parker - Ornithology - the best of Bird
• Charlie Byrd - Corcovado (also a hill in Rio, Brazil - home to the statue of ‘Jesus the Redeemer’)
• Pharoah Sanders
• Miles David
• Art Pepper 
• Thelonious Monk
• Beethoven Piano Concerto 1 - 3rd movement 
• Middle-class music: Mantovani Orchestra -- Percy Faith -- Roger Williams -- Andy Williams -- Not Cole King
• Max Steiner - Theme from A Summer Place (Percy Faith Orchestra)
• Rolling Stones - “(I can't get no) Satisfaction"
• Byrd - “Mr.Trambourine Man”
• Temptations - “My Girl”
• Righteous Brothers - “You've lost that lovin’ feelin’
• Beach Boys - “Helping Rhonda”
• Diana Ross
• Supremes
• Classical - Bruckner - 7th symphony, 3rd movement / 9th symphony 
• Richard Strauss
• Prokofiev - Romeo and Juliet 
• Schumann - Carnaval -- by Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli (Angel records) or Arthur Rubenstein (RCA)
• Bach - Goldberg variations + well tempered clavier
• Beethoven - late piano sonatas + third Concerto 
• Folks Crusaders - “I only live twice”

For the Love of Railways

 

Smooth, flowing prose is so difficult to find!

The last book I read was the 2022 winner of the Booker prize, and I did not like it. Even before i reached half way through I had got tired of the ghosts and ghouls, the violence, and most of all, by the cumbersome writing style. So I was quite relieved to find a recent book by Haruki Murakami.

"Colourless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage" (2013) has its share of the usual Murakami elements - a protagonist (TT) trying to come to terms with a troubled past, a tangle of human relationships, and a piece of music that ties up the threads. In this book it is Franz Liszt's 'Le mal du pays' (Fr. homesickness, melancholy) from his Years of Pilgrimage, suite 'Year I: Switzerland', preferably played by the Russian pianist Lazar Berman. For a change, this book has few references to food, and none on cats :)

One thing I liked in particular about this book is the descriptions of Japan's amazing railway network, and its stations. It gives you a glimpse of the kind of passion that goes into building machines in Japan. TT is a an engineer who specialises in designing and building railway stations - Tsukuru visited railroad stations like other people enjoy attending concerts, watching movies, dancing in clubs, watching sports, and window shopping. When he was at loose ends, with nothing to do, he headed to a station.

This brings us to lovely descriptions like this one - 

Shinjuku Station is enormous. Every day nearly 3.5 million people pass through it, so many that the Guinness Book of World Records officially lists JR Shinjuku Station as the station with the "Most passengers in the World". A number of railroad lines cross there, the main ones being the Chuo line, Sobu line, Yamanote line, Saikyo line, Shonan-Shinjuku line, and the Narita Express. The rails intersect and combine in convoluted ways. There are sixteen platforms in total. In addition, there are two private rail lines, the Odakyu and the Keio line, and three subway lines plugged in, as it were, from the side. It is a total maze. During rush hour, that maze transforms into a sea of humanity, a sea that foams up, rages, and roars as it surges towards the entrances and exits. Streams of people changing trains become entangled, giving rise to dangerous, swirling whirlpools. No prophet how righteous, could part that fierce, turbulent sea...The long trains, their arrivals and departures times down to the second, are like long-suffering, well-trained farm animals, systematically exhaling and inhaling people, impatiently closing their doors as they rush off towards the next station.

The engineer loves his work, but it is music - mostly classical - that binds his life together. So apart from Lizst, he has for company,  Thelonius Monk ('Round Midnight, 1943), Antonio Carlos Jobim, and even Elvis Presley ("Viva Las Vegas", "Don't be Cruel").

As with other novels by Murakami, this one too is best savoured with his selection of music playing in the background :)

 

Starting with Murakami

 

My first book for 2023 is a book Haruki Murakami wrote a few years ago - "Killing Commendatore" ((Japanese: 騎士団長殺し, Hepburn: Kishidanchō-goroshi).

One issue with eBooks - for better or worse - is the fact that it does not give you a let you get discouraged by the size of a book. This one has over 700 pages - not the regular, non-serial, Murakami but certainly not the sort I would pick up in a hardcopy format. Yet it is just the sort or engaging, fluid prose that keeps you flicking from one chapter to another, until you reach a point when it all seems to end rather abruptly, as though the author himself got bored of stretching the narrative for so long.

I have not yet reached the end though. Like a piece of chocolate that you keep in your pocket,  and keep nibbling on it every now and then, to make it last long, I read Murakami's to slowly discover perspectives I am not too familiar with - food, classical music, and, this time, the world of painters and paintings.

It is worth it. 

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REFERENCES & LINKS

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_Commendatore

* Review - WP 2018 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_Commendatore

* Discussion - https://sevencircumstances.com/2019/05/17/an-idea-that-asks-to-be-murdered-killing-commendatore-by-haruki-murakami/

Music & Murakami

Sometime back, when I was reading Haruki Murakami's "Norwegian Wood", I could not bear the thought that I had never heard a lot of the music mentioned in the book. I did make a note of them but never got around to listening to the pieces. 

 Now, having just finished reading his book, "South of the Border, West of the Sun", I thought there would be somebody out there who has already listed out the URL's. Since nothing has turned up on Google, here is my bit for those who seek Murakami's music - 

* Sinatra South of the Border As Time Goes By 

* Nat King Cole Pretend (Song) Pretend - Lyrics Embracable You (Song) Embracable You - Lyrics

* Schubert - Winterreise Winterreise - 1. Gute Nacht - Quasthoff, Barenboim (Translation of the German lyrics) 

* Corvocado Piano Trio Song (Sarah Vaughan) Lyrics 

* Rossini William Tell Overture (Note: the book does not mention any overture) 

* Peer Gynt Suite Grieg 'Peer Gynt' Suite No. 1, Op. 46 - 'Morning' More info on Wiki 

* Star Crossed Lovers (Ellington) The Star-Crossed Lovers" - adapted from Billy Strayhorn's ballad "Pretty Girl." There seem to be multiple versions going around - here are a couple of them. Instrumental - New York Trio Song Lyrics - (Romeo & Juliet) Lyrics 

* Talking Heads - Bringing Down the House (or is it Burning Down the House?) Song Lyrics 

* Handel - Organ Concerto Beethoven: Symphony No. 9; Handel: Organ Concerto ( 1 hour 26 mts!) 

MUSIC FROM THE BOOK - "THE WIND-UP BIRD CHRONICLE" Rossini - Theiving Magpie variations by Claudio Abbodio ('youthful, fluid, contemporary') and Toscanini ('blood curdling intensity') Tara's Theme (From 'Gone With the Wind') Herb Alpert A Summer Palace Andy Williams Hawaiian Wedding Song Canadian Sunset J.S. Bach Musical Offering (2-7) Sergio Mendez Bert Kaemfert 101 Strings Orchestra Hard Driving Jazz Albert Ayler Don Cherry Cecil Taylor Johnny Angel Water Springs at Kawai, Hawai Robert Maxwell Ebb Tide - On the piano (instead of Harp) Beatles Eight Days A Week Tchaikovsky Serenade for Strings Schumann Forest Scenes Birds as Prophet Keith Jarret- piano solo's Mozart Magic Flute Handel Concerto Grosso Bari Manilow Air Supply Waterloo Bridge in the mist, Auld Lang Syne, Robert Taylor, Vivien Leigh