Keep dancing!Happy Sunday, Waterloo Region! Your regular Horizon Broadening Hour host, Mophead, is busy with the day job, so I’ll be filling in the seat for the month of April. Today features some of the tracks which I’ve added to our LibreTime library over the last two months. Not everything is new, but it’s new to me.
The Horizon Broadening Hour is hosted by Mophead and Bob Jonkman, produced by Richard Giles (Music Committee Coordinator), and sponsored by Radio Waterloo. HBH airs on CKMS-FM every Sunday from 10:00pm to Midnight.
Bob Jonkman talks to script developer Sepehr Reybod and actor June Sung about the upcoming performance of Immolation, how the play was developed, the theme of the play, how it relates to current events, and how the play is structured to achieve the message it is trying to convey.
Bob introduces Sepehr Reybod and June Sung. June explains what the Department of Theatre and Performance is, and how students are involved. Sepehr describes what he does as “text developer” — Immolation is a devised piece, there was no script, only a spark of an idea. The actors wanted to look at resistance, revolution, and rebellion. The text was created by the actors, and Sepehr fleshed it out, created a narrative structure, and assembled it into the script. He’s also the assistant director, working with director Pam Patel of MT Space. Similar to a piece of music, the play follows four movements and interludes. The story emerged in rehearsal and improvs. Even the title took time to come out. Script writing isn’t generally part of the course, but it’s the nature of a divised piece. There is lots of dependence on the other actors and supporting staff, and even the audience is invited to fill in for themselves. Sepehr describes the stage setup.
June tells us of the background and research on freedom fighters that went into Immolation. June researched the South Korean trans-gender activist Jungle.
24m04s
Talking about immolation in the news, and Aaron Bushnell. Sepehr thinks it’s important to differentiate immolation itself from self-immolation: Immolation is the act to destroy by fire, whereas self-immolation is a performative act of protest. But Immolation was created before the self-immolation of Aaron Bushnell. The act is done with the hope of a response to bring something new. This is a big part of the show, taking a look at the different ways we can spark this hope, burn something down, create something new by the act of metaphorically burning down the system. Sepehr repeats the message of hope in Immolation. But mainstream media doesn’t often show the hope and restoration, only the protest and destruction. The language of protest is violence, because that is how these protests can be heard. June thinks that Immolation does end with the hope that something better will come along; each movement shows the destruction and regrowth in different ways. Telling a story that shows regrowth and joy is one of the best forms of protest.
31m02s
June recites an excerpt from Immolation.
32m29s
June provides some analysis of the meaning behind those words. Sepehr gives different examples of what resistance looks like; sometimes it is 100,000 people marching in the street, but also someone walking into a space where they don’t belong and changing it from within. Sepehr goes over the structure of the play. Each movement is a standalone piece, that together tells the whole story.
37m23s
What happens next? After a well-deserved rest, June might like to see one movement or the whole play fleshed out into a larger piece; revolution doesn’t stop when the lights go down. While Waterloo Region has seen its share of protest, reception for Immolation will depend a lot on the venue. At UofW a wide variety of perspectives is appreciated, but that’s not true everywhere; all the more reason to continue to present it. But Sepehr says people are hungry for change, they can use Immolation as the spark to make that change. Theatre is ephemeral, but June says the experience she’s had will stay with her forever. Working on Immolation has got her more energized to work for freedom for all people.
June reminds us of the dates and time for performances of Immolation, as well as the web site and ticket prices. Sepehr tells us about the theatre and the arrangement of the thrust stage. June tells us there will be a new production in the fall, but she is graduating so she won’t be a part of it. Students don’t have to be a theatre major to register for course “Theatre Performance 417”. June tells us about the audition process, slightly different because of the improv.
53m27s
Bob gives the end credits.
CKMS Community Connections Hour One airs on CKMS-FM 102.7 on Monday from 11:00am to Noon, and Hour Two airs alternate Fridays from 3:00pm to 4:00pm.
Today we’re playing lots of KW Content: Music by musicians from Waterloo Region. Then we speak with Mark Higgins, the promoter/producer/impressario for Canada’s Teen Jam.
Mark Higgins tells us about Canada’s Teen Jam: A program of musical discoveries for teens with dreams, the next generation of superstars. The mission is to take this across Ontario and Canada. Many teens have sports and other programs but teens with musical talent have nothing. Mark is not releasing the names of the performers yet, that will be revealed on Saturday. Bob offers to bring the performers into the studio for an interview and a Live, On-Air, In-Studio performance! Mark is impressed with the professionalism and demeanor of the performers. Canada’s Teen Jam launched in January, and is now starting the tour to get the performers into other festivals and showcases. Kitchener is the first stop. Canada’s Teen Jam goes from 3pm to 5pm, followed by the Wayback Festival performers. Mark appreciates the irony: Canada’s newest performers followed by Canada’s superstar rock performers. Mark has had a lot of experience promoting and producing performers, notably The Tragically Hip at Bobcageon, which was filmed for a documentary. Covid has affected the start of CTJ, everyone is catching up from the performances that were missed.
53m04s
Bob gives the end credits.
CKMS Community Connections Hour One airs on CKMS-FM 102.7 on Monday from 11:00am to Noon, and Hour Two airs alternate Fridays from 3:00pm to 4:00pm.
Tim tells us about Basketball Rock, more of a novelty song for him, but now the music he writes is labelled “neo-classical”. All his songs are recorded at River Music Studios in London, Ontario, the better for the quality of the music. Tim Schwindt, propietor of River Music did the guitar, bass, and drums; Tim (McInnes) played the piano and sang the vocals, and, of course, wrote the song . Tim’s first album was almost all ragtime music, with seven Jellyroll Morton covers, and seven of his own compositions in the ragtime vein. His second album, Shadowlife is almost all his own music. Tim says you can hear his style get more serious, for example he says Repetitive Stress is being picked up on dark, lugubrious playlists on Spotify. Tim wrote It’s A Sad Song and An Even Sadder Song in an attempt to create the saddest song ever written. Certainly it’s the saddest song Tim could write.
9m11s
Tim is mostly self-taught. He took piano as a kid and teenager, but what he doesn’t know about music theory would fit into a good-sized warehouse. He finds YouTube useful for picking up music theory. Introducing An Even Sadder Song (but Bob plays Music For Money instead).
The viola and violin parts were played by Tim’s neighbour, Kelvin Enns, the principal viola player for the London Symphonia. Kelvin and Tim have collaborated on several pieces, including For Ukraine and Almost Home. Tim has also collaborated with Jessie Grandmont on the song Ghost Dance. Jesse is currently touring with Fiddler on the Loose (plug plug!) playing in Drayton, Petrolia, and even in the United States. He’s an excellent violin player, and Tim says he just plays some triads on the piano…
17m01s
Bob comments on Tim’s varied repertoire; Tim says he’s narrowing down to writing only neo-classical music. But every now and then a funny song occurs to him, like Better Days, about vaccination, in which he also plays ukelele. Current events sometimes get Tim going, like writing a pro-vax song to counter the anti-vax songs.
19m06s
Tim just had a birthday (the Big Seven-Oh); he started his “music business” after he retired from being a forklift driver. He started seriously playing music in 2015 playing at the McCormick Home for Alzheimers patients, every now and then sneaking in his own compositions. Once Tim started getting ready to record the songs just kept coming. All of Tim’s musical connections (collaborators, studio, playing venue) are within walking distance of his home. Tim stays out of the spotlight, preferring to do studio work and writing songs rather than performing. He’d love to find other people to perform his music. Some of Tim’s music is getting thousands of streams on Spotify.
23m13s
Tim is working on a new song. It was something Tim had heard before — something he had written himself. But Tim says it’s not wrong to steal from yourself. Sometimes Tim thought he was in a rut, but then a brand-new melody occurs to him. There are hundreds of songs that have gone through the transom of his mind; there are parts of songs, ones for which there’s no ending, and some he’s just plain forgotten. Tim can’t keep two different songs in his head. A new song will knock out the one that was there. Tim set up a video camera to film himself playing, so if he forgets something he can go back to remind himself of the melody. Tim introduces Ghost Dance with Jesse Grantmont on violin.
Talking about the instrumentation on Music Box Waltz — it’s a celeste, also used in Mozart’s Magic Flute and Tchaikovsy’s Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy, then Music Box Waltz switches to a Fazioli-sound piano. Tim is a connoisseur, he can tell the difference between a Bösendorfer, Yamaha, or Steinway piano. For some songs he uses the effect of an upright or broken-down piano, for example in Silent Movie Heroics.
Silent Movie Heroics is meant to emulate movies of Douglas Fairbanks Sr., swashbuckling, swordfights, and chases. It’s a change of pace from the serious neo-classical stuff. The slightly out-of-tune piano sound is an effect added digitally to a midi keyboard. Done professionally, the effects sound like the real thing.
43m41s
On Music For Money that’s Tim’s brother Brad McInnes playing the Irish flute. Tim told him what the melody was, then Brad was on his own. Tim hasn’t collaborated on composing, but he has “borrowed” from other composers, for example Almost Home sounds a lot like Beethoven’s Pathétique.
Does Tim deliberately try to emulate other composers? He did in this case, although he says his composition is not as sophisticated, and doesn’t have as much “meat on the bone” as Chopin’s real music, but it’s a suggestion of his music. Tim suggests playing Backwards Boogie.
What’s backwards about Backwards Boogie? Tim says it’s the left hand — if you play it backwards you’ll get some subliminal messages. Tim went into the studio and improvised. It’s not a three-chord boogie but a six-chord boogie. Tim prefers people use Spotify to get his music, wants to get Ghost Dance over 1,000 streams.
Another music show as I continue to dig through my e-mail from last year. Today we have more recent releases, as I skim off the top layer of my InBox. No podcast, so if you want to listen to these tracks at your whim, click on the links for the artists and buy their music!
The studio remains closed, putting a crimp in getting musicians and community members in for interviews. Web conferences just don’t feel like real radio…
This is a repeat of the show from Monday, 28 February 2022.
Case Départ
Rehab Rock
(single)
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