Fran Magazine: Issue #48

The marimba, Bach, and Wii Sports issue, respectively

Thanks for reading Fran Magazine, a weekly vanity project by Fran Hoepfner. This issue, which concerns non-recent ephemera, is for paid subscribers only. I was laid off from Gawker this morning so, lol, maybe consider upgrading your subscription for more Fran (me).

In fits and spurts

What I’m reading: Continuing the aforementioned Forster short story collection The Eternal Moment, including one particular narrative that isn’t not Beethoven fanfic.
What I’m also reading: Andrew O’Hagan’s review of Spare for the London Review of Books.
What I’m watching: I predict 80 for Brady will make 200 million dollars.

Ney Rosauro & the Bach to Nintendo pipeline

In middle and high school and for about ten minutes in college, I played keyboard percussion: marimba, vibraphone, xylophone, bells, upright chimes. This was a natural fit because I’d been playing piano for several years, and these instruments, whether vertical or horizontal, mimic the physical characteristics of a piano. White keys, black keys — you get the gist. These are very old instruments — the xylophone dates back to around 500 AD, maybe even earlier — though they don’t really appear in Western classical music as we understand it until the 1500s or so. One of the most memorable and distinctive uses of a xylophone comes from Camille Saint-Saëns’s Danse Macabre, which you know whether you know it or not.

Like most musical education, learning keyboard percussion was split between ensemble practice (either with the band or orchestra or a full percussion ensemble) and solo work. The solo marimba and vibraphone work I focused on was not so much “classical,” as we know it to be in a Tár-focused society, but closer aligned to jazz and traditional music. Most keyboard percussion music comes not from the Western classical music “canon,” but from elsewhere in the world. We call this “world music,” though I have often found that to be a reductive way to refer to non-European classical music. Instrumental music is closer, if not vague. We can kind of never win when it comes to the language of calling stuff something, which I guess is always a good thing to keep in mind. All I’m trying to say is that this is an instrument, when you’re learning it, you don’t get stuff like “Beethoven’s Xylophone Concerto” or whatever. In order to engage with the specific sounds made by keyboard percussion, you have to be willing to expand your geographical palate. A worthy adventure.

I spent most of my high school years focusing on the output of one particular Brazilian composer: Ney Rosauro. It’s my understanding that Rosauro is a favorite for a lot of younger musicians, as his melodies are contemporary without being alienating, difficult without being complex. He’s good for young people, both to learn and to listen to. When I am bored in my drudges of Bruckner or even Mahler, as happens to the best of us, I turn to the music of Rosauro. For me, his compositions are nostalgic and exciting, though it’s been more than half my life since I played his work. Here is a video¹ of percussionist Evelyn Glennie playing his Concerto for Marimba and Orchestra (arranged here for piano accompaniment).

The other weekend, we had our friends Sara and Nate over for dinner. I went to grad school with Sara, and her husband Nate was my piano teacher during that time, and Nate and Phil like all the same music — it all works out great for us. Sara and Nate also live in a different former apartment of mine — Eternal Daughter much? We were cooking and prepping food prior to their arrival. Often in the early evening I like to throw on some classical music on our TV because it connects to the good speakers, and if there’s one thing that always makes classical music more enjoyable to listen to, it’s playing it as loud as possible. Phil’s request for the evening was nothing too grandiose… or performative… or some other similar adjective. We weren’t going to be playing Beethoven or Mahler or Shostakovich when Sara and Nate showed up, that was for sure.