A special episode of the Memory Palace commissioned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art to coincide with the opening of Rockefeller-Worsham Dressing Room in Gallery 742 of The American Wing and with Artistic Furniture of the Gilded Age, an exhibition open now through May 1st, 2016.
Music* Under the credits is Harlaamstrat 74 off of John Dankworth's Modesty Blaise score.* First up is one of my very favorite recordings of all time: Andromeda from Chris McGregor's Brotherhood of Breath. One of the finest bands ever assembled. * The sailors get grumpy to Sito from Pierre Favre and the European Chamber Ensemble. (The end drum loop comes from that piece too). * The guys run off to save the day to Edgar Meyer and Mark O'Connor doing the Green Groves of Erin.* That turns into, In Threes by Loscil.
Music * Under the credits is Harlaamstrat 74 off of John Dankworth's Modesty Blaise score. * They first meet to a piece called Brouillard (version 1) from Georges Delaure's extraordinary score to Jules et Jim. (A second version comes in later when J.J. Audubon is living the high life in England). * We also hear Waltz by Mother Falcon. * I go back to the Marcelo Zarvos/Please Give well when the Scotsman arrives at their store. Note: it's the go-to soundtrack for "People Arriving at One's Store With A Life Changing Proposition" here at the Memory Palace. Also: go watch Please Give. * The little piano piece is from Nathan Johnson's score to The Day I Saw Your Heart. * Lucy and John titter like plovers to Andrew Cyrille's dope, skittering drums on Nuba 1. * The especially sad bit, right before the end is Dream 3 (in the Midst of my Life), from Max Richter's giant, From Sleep album. * A couple times, including the ending, we hear "the Lark Ascending" from Ralph Vaughn Willliams. It is beautiful. You should buy it.
Notes As per usual, I read a lot about the Audubons and the Bakewells. I relied most upon the charming and smart, On the Road with John James Audubon by Mary Durant, and Carolyn DeLatte's lovely, thoughtful book, Lucy Audubon: a Biography. * Just a quick note: there's a very enjoyable PBS/American Masters/Nature documentary about Audubon. It's a fun and informative watch. But, I'll say, you come out of that thinking that things were fundamentally swell between Lucy and John in a way that I'm not entirely sure is supported by the facts. Or jibes with, you know, human nature.
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Music* Under the credits is Harlaamstrat 74 off of John Dankworth's Modesty Blaise score.* First bit is called Steep Hills of Vicodin Tears by A Winged Victory for the Sullen from their self-titled album. * A brief bit of Occam II for Violin by Silvia Tarrozi scores the shuttle accident (non-NASA category). * We've got Eloy by Deaf Center. * Finish out with Call from Julianna Barwick's album Pacing.
Notes* There's no, proper, grown-up biography of Margaret Knight (as far as I've been able to locate). Though there are a handful of kid's books of varying degrees of charm and accuracy. She does pop up in a fair amount of "Lady Inventors!!!" collections. I read a bunch of these, but I want to single out one for its rigor: Autumn Stanley's Mothers and Daughters of Invention.
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Music* Under the credits is Harlaamstrat 74 off of John Dankworth's Modesty Blaise score.* First up is "Adultere bourgeoise," a piece from Paul Misraki's score to A Double tour.* Then we've got a piece called "Night Time Talk" by Stephen J. Anderson. * We hit For the Trees by Matmos a couple of times (the bit after: "the facts were these," or whatever I say)* Frank Durr's theme is P from that first LaBradford album, all those years ago. * The score for the House of Butterflies is called Fragment II by Library Tapes. It comes back again toward the end.* We also hear Invidia, by Deadmaus. That's the one we finish on.
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Music*Under the credits is Harlaamstrat 74 off of John Dankworth's Modesty Blaise score.*The piece opens with Rainfall, by David Darling and Michael Jones. *Her brief love story is scored by Nathan Johnson's Penelope's Theme from his score to The Brothers Bloom.*When she lands her first gig, we start Garde a Vue, and roll into Le Roi de coeur, from Chantal Martineau.* The vibraphone piece is "Opening" by Nathaniel Bartlett. * The recurring violin piece is called Geometria del Universo by the one-named Colleen. * It ends on Romain's First Love, again by Georges Delarue, from his fantastic score to Promise at Dawn.
* Under the credits is Harlaamstrat 74 off of John Dankworth's Modesty Blaise score.
* There're too pieces from Per Storby Jutbring's album, Dance of the Diaper Fairy. Snowbound, up top, and the title track at the end.
Notes
* Hoo boy, have I read a ton of books about the space program, thanks to my stint on the writing staff of ABC's Astronauts' Wives Club last year. So, most of this piece is just "stuff I now know." However: read numerous contemporary newspaper accounts, readily available on
* Much of my information about the contents of the ceremony and speeches was gathered from this, the digitized journal and scrapbook of Charles Henry Niehaus, the sculptor of the monument. It's an extraordinary resource.
