Let's face it, iPods are everywhere. Even in space. But you don't need to go all intergalactical to find something new to download. It's time again for us to run If I Only Had an Ipod and make with the music.
Today's guest DJ is Robert Marshall, author of the debut novel, A Separate Reality—we have heard many marvelous things about this book, including a description of the main character as a sort of gay Holden Caulfield. Color us intrigued.
Those on the left coast can catch Robert read on Tuesday night in L.A. at A Different Light Bookstore (8853 Santa Monica Blvd in West Hollywood), with Sarah Shun-Lien Bynum, author of Madeleine is Sleeping. For those in NYC, the hardworking Mr. Marshall will be reading at the uber-cool KGB Bar this Sunday, which is sure to be a fabulous event.
For those betwixt and between LA and NYC have no fear. Robert Marshall is here today to share his musical inspirations for your listening pleasure. As for the book, you're going to have to buy a copy for yourself and see what everybody is talking about...
Listen Up by Robert Marshall
Mark, the twelve year old narrator of my novel A Separate Reality, listens to music in the hope of finding comfort, inspiration, and meaning. The novel, set in the early seventies, takes place in Phoenix. At the beginning Mark is listening to Joni Mitchell. He soon discovers Cat Stevens, and, later, David Bowie. As childhood’s twilight darkens, he discovers Jethro Tull and Aqualung. And, quite unaware of the existence of glam rock, he is also haunted by the lyrics of The Sweet’s Little Willie.
In my novel I wanted to explore the way that cultural products -- books, albums, songs – take on new meanings as they move into the world and into minds. While writing A Separate Reality I listened to music that was perhaps as decontextualized as Mark’s inner soundtrack. I like to listen to the human voice while I write. But I don’t want to understand the words. I became obsessed, while working on this book, with German lieder. My friend Bob Gindick provided me guidance, and I collected a rather vast library. But my first lieder love remains my favorite. Elizabeth Shwarzkopf (I did not at first know about her dubious behavior during the Third Reich) played over and over. When I was having great trouble with a sentence, I would invariably put on her recording of Schubert’s An Die Musik (I am also partial to her recording of Strauss’s Four Last Songs). When she died last summer, I was surprised to learn she had been Norman Schwarzkopf’s aunt. I don’t know why that is significant but feel sure it must be. My number two favorite was a recording of Tibetan chants.
Her name was Elisabeth Schwarzkopf.
Anyone who was an artist in Hitler's Germany could be tainted with guilt by association. The biography in which the details came out is by Alan Jefferson. She made two studio recordings of Vier Letzte Lieder, the first, in mono, in the 1950s with her voice at its finest, and in 1965 with George Szell conducting.
Posted by: ramesh nayar | January 02, 2007 at 06:45 PM