The Title of this post is Titles

February 4th, 2010

Newsflash: Jenny Johnson’s new opera is called Book of Gazes.

You might have seen it referred to as OurEyesAreTouching or East River: You and I have Met Before.  The good news is, it’s still the same piece of music and Rhymes With Opera will still join with Baltimore’s hip hop quartet Soul Cannon to perform it in May.

Titles are funny. Did you know that Star Trek was once called Corporate Headquarters? And The Great Gatsby was almost called Trimalchio in West Egg? For music, I like to think of titles as a sort of free drink ticket to the listening experience. You’re not sure if you want to go, and then you find out there’s a free drink involved and you figure you’ll check it out, why not? If the title piques my curiosity, I’m slightly more excited to hear the music. Then again, if there’s no drinking at the venue, that doesn’t mean I won’t go. There’s a chance I might dig the music more when I’m sober anyway, pay a little more attention. My friend Nomi Epstein titles her pieces things like Untitled or Music for Seven Instruments and Voice because she doesn’t want the listener to be loaded with any baggage before they hear the music. Then there’s the goofy approach – I play in a band called We Used To Be Family who has song titles like Stop That Shit and For Barry Glazer and those Micturated on. In that case, the title just becomes a label, a place holder.

How about I Feel the Air (Of Another Planet) for a title? I’ve been really digging on that Stereolab song lately. It’s incredibly beautiful and I think the title really sets it up well. You can listen to it here.  Strangely enough, that’s also what a soprano sings (in german) in Schoenberg’s 2nd string quartet, which some say is the first expressionist piece of music. Does Stereolab dig on Schoenberg?!

Anyway, don’t miss Book Of Gazes on May 15, 16 and 17 in Baltimore, Philly and New York respectively.