Rearranged

How the prolific songwriter and composer draws on intuition and orchestration to create his musically and emotionally compelling songs and concert music. Gabriel Kahane discusses his arranging approach for his own vast and varied catalog as well as for other artists, writing orchestrally for piano accompaniment, and what it's like to hear a jazz musician interpret one of his songs.Gabriel Kahane's newest recording is Elevator Songs, a collaboration with the vocal music ensemble Roomful of Teeth. Thanks to Gabriel and Jeffrey Kahane, and to Dumbarton Oaks, for letting me gather tape backstage. In the episode, Gabriel discussed "Baltimore" from Book of Travelers and "Empire Liquor Mart" from The Ambassador. Links are below. https://gabrielkahane.bandcamp.com/album/elevator-songshttps://gabrielkahane.comhttps://www.doaks.org/https://gabrielkahane.bandcamp.com/track/baltimorehttps://gabrielkahane.bandcamp.com/track/empire-liquor-mart-9127-s-figueroa-st

How the High Llamas founder and in-demand arranger gets his sound. Rearranged host Lawrence Lanahan inteviews O'Hagan about the evolution of the High Llamas' sound, arranging for other artists, and learning from the younger version of himself while arranging old tunes with Cathal Coughlan for a Microdisney reunion. SHOW NOTES Thanks to Talia Augustidis [link: https://allhear.substack.com/] for recording O'Hagan's end of the conversation in South London. Discover the High Llamas' music at Bandcamp [link: https://thehighllamas.bandcamp.com/] or Drag City [link: https://www.dragcity.com/artists/the-high-llamas?srsltid=AfmBOorK3qmVVM2ZO4naSom_XEMigUubzy5BdToEVb9Pq1kqSFE7aJLF] Listen to "Berry Adams," [link: https://thehighllamas.bandcamp.com/track/berry-adams] the song O'Hagan discussed at the beginning of the interview.

Don’t mess with my melody! What happens when arrangers end up in court. Copyright law is supposed to incentivize creative expression, but court rulings on arrangements have had the opposite effect. In Episode 4, we learn why the courts have called arrangers "mere mechanics," stifling creativity from the 19th century right up through songwriter Ed Sheeran's recent trial. Guests: Kembrew McLeod is a professor of communication studies at University of Iowa. McLeod co-produced the documentary Copyright Criminals, and with Peter DiCola, he wrote Creative License: The Law and Culture of Digital Sampling, Duke University Press, 2011. https://communicationstudies.uiowa.edu/people/kembrew-mcleod, https://www.dukeupress.edu/creative-license Charles Cronin is a lawyer, musician, and historical musicologist in Los Angeles. He has taught at Claremont Graduate University and George Washington University, and he helped build GWU's extremely handy Music Copyright Infringement Resource. https://blogs.law.gwu.edu/mcir/authors-and-contributors/ Salvatore Pappalardo is a professor of English in the English Department of Towson University in Maryland. https://www.towson.edu/cla/departments/english/facultystaff/spappalardo.html Thanks to: Kembrew McLeod Charles Cronin Salvatore Pappalardo Please check out Joanna Demers's book Steal This Music: How Intellectual Property Law Affects Musical Creativity, University of Georgia Press, 2006. https://ugapress.org/book/9780820327778/steal-this-music/ The theme music and other scoring music for Rearranged was written and recorded by Lawrence Lanahan. Music discussed: “Satin Doll,” Duke Ellington “I Got Rhythm,” George Gershwin “Rhythm-A-Ning,” Thelonious Monk “Ornithology,” Charlie Parker “Donna Lee,” Miles Davis Go!, Dexter Gordon, Blue Note, 1962 “Choir,” James Newton “Pass the Mic,” Beastie Boys “D.O.G. in Me,” Public Announcement “Atomic Dog,” George Clinton “Love Break,” Salsoul Orchestra “Vogue,” Madonna “Blurred Lines,” Robin Thicke “Fish Market,” Steely and Clevie “Dem Bow,” Shabba Ranks “Despacito,” Daddy Yankee/Luis Fonsa “Happy Together,” The Turtles “Thinking Out Loud,” Ed Sheeran “Let’s Get it On,” Marvin Gaye

Arrangements are often belittled as second-hand, second-class music. We’ll discover their potential for stunning originality. A pianist and a scholar of Franz Liszt show us the profound originality possible in derivative music like Liszt’s piano renditions of Beethoven’s symphonies. In Episode 2 of Rearranged, a classical music scholar and a pianist will look under the hood of Franz Liszt’s solo piano transcriptions of Beethoven’s nine symphonies to discover the vast originality possible in derivative music. From SoundCloud: In Franz Liszt's solo piano arrangements of Beethoven's symphonies, Liszt scholar Alan Walker discovers that composers are not as original as they like to think they are, and that "no other art has anything to compare with the arrangement." Because arrangements are derivative music, based on existing works, they have carried a reputation as second-class music for centuries. Arrangers have been diminished, belittled, insulted, and even sued! In Episode 2 of Rearranged, we’ll discover the astonishing artistry and creativity and, yes, originality in derivative masterworks like Franz Liszt’s rearrangement of all nine Beethoven’s symphonies for solo piano. And we’ll talk to a pianist who has played all nine about the originality he discovered in Liszt transcripts—and the originality he introduced into those transcripts himself. Guests: Christopher Taylor, pianist, professor of piano, Mead Witter School of Music, University of Wisconsin-Madison, https://music.wisc.edu/faculty/christopher-taylor/ Dr. Alan Walker, Professor Emeritus, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario. https://experts.mcmaster.ca/display/walkera __ Audio of Alan Walker is from "In Defence of Arrangements," lecture, Coolidge Auditorium, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., November 9, 2013, permission granted by author (available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=quFtSrro_Xc), and a lecture recorded specifically for this episode, received October 31, 2020. Thanks to: Christopher Taylor Alan Walker Mom and Dad for having a piano that actually has a malfunctioning D key The theme music and other scoring music for Rearranged was written and recorded by Lawrence Lanahan. Music discussed: Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 “Choral," Otto Klemperer, Philharmonia Orchestra, Warner Classics, 1958/2020. https://www.warnerclassics. com/release/beethoven-9- klemperer LISZT, F.: Beethoven Symphony No. 9 (Transcription) (Liszt Complete Piano Music, Vol. 21) (Scherbakov), Konstantin Scherbakov, piano, Naxos, 2004. https://www.naxos.com/ CatalogueDetail/?id=8.557366 Concert Paraphrase on Rigoletto, S. 434, Piano - Prodiges Season 6, Paul Ji, Warner Classics, 2020. https://www.warnerclassics. com/release/paul-ji

A preview of the podcast REARRANGED, wich considers the meaning we take from songs by examining an under appreciated aspect of their creation: the arrangement. Premieres February 25.