Professors' Pods: Academics Share Their Favorite Anthems
Bob Dorff
Issue date: 2/4/10 Section: A&E
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Visiting Associate Professor of Philosophy Thomas Nightingale's love for music is evident from a glance at his syllabus. He names weekly essays after types of Chopin pieces (this semester they are called "waltzes") and peppers his lectures with references to jazz works and Dylan lyrics. "I love music in a very privileged sort of way because I am not a musician," Nightingale said. "I took a really serious interest in music in an academic way in my college years. Before that I listened to pop music like anyone else. My main interests now are jazz, folk and blues." Nightingale's love for jazz manifests itself in a weekly show on WKCO, so people who enjoy the songs he names here can tune in and hear more of his favorites from 1:00 p.m. to 3: 00 p.m. on Sundays.
"Azure" by Duke Ellington
"I don't think it is an especially well-known tune. It has a kind of Latin sensibility to it. It has a unique swing that I don't think any of those actual 'swing' bands could have touched. It's very understated; it's not verbose swing. Very 'Ellington-ian,' it has all the sort of missing notes and so forth. But it's a happy sort of Latin blues thing. It makes me smile, and sometimes it makes me cry. I just think he is a genius."
"Mood Indigo" by Duke Ellington
"A much more catchy and well-known tune. What I like about it especially is the way Mingus [Charles, bassist] plays it. He plays it with the utmost respect for Ellington. He doesn't monkey around with it at all, but he plays it with a very kind of lyrical, almost romantic sensibility. He's directing his own group, so they're playing the way he wanted them to play. It's almost a way that Ellington never would have played. It really brings out a kind of romantic aspect without overstating it, which is quite a challenge."
Mahler's Six Symphony, Third Movement
"It's quite long, about 17 minutes. The strings get so high, they just keep going up and up and up. It's almost like a heavenly choir kind of effect. And then they sustain that for the longest time, and at the end there is a single harp pluck. A little humorous thing, almost like a little joke at the end. At the same time, it works because you need to release that tension, and it does. I like this symphony and I like lots of Mahler symphonies, but more than some of the symphonies as a whole, I think that some of the movements stand alone as just being utterly remarkable creations. I would listen to this over and over and over again and pay attention to the development. It is just a remarkable piece."
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