Great music. Mediocre words.

Sergei Rachmaninoff; Symphony No. 2; Russian National Orchestra; Mikhail Pletnev, conducting

My friend John doesn’t like the hymn “O God Beyond All Praising”. I don’t think the words trouble him. Michael Perry penned two respectable verses that glorify and exalt the everlasting God. John doesn’t like the fact that we sing the words to the stately theme from the middle section of “Jupiter” from Gustav Holst’s “The Planets." I have problems disagreeing with my friend John.

Original words deserve original tunes or original music. So many times, lyricists come running to the great music masters to “borrow” a melody for their schmaltzy, corny and, dare I say, mawkish efforts at sentimentalism with butter and syrup dripping over the top.

Perhaps some day people will forget the abominable lyrics that Freddie Martin wrote for Tchaikovsky’s great Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-Flat Minor.

Tonight we love while the moon

Beams down in dream light tonight

We touch the stars

Love is ours

Night winds that sigh

Embrace the sky….

Yechh. Yup. My snobby nose is in the air again.

“Til The End Of Time” plagues Chopin’s Polonaise in A-Flat Major. “All By Myself” and “Full Moon And Empty Arms” pester Rachmaninoff”s Piano Concerto No. 2 in C Minor. “I’m Always Chasing Rainbows” badgers Chopin’s Fantasie-Impromptu. And “Never Gonna Fall In Love Again” besets Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 2 in E Minor.

I heard “Never Gonna Fall In Love Again” before I heard the great Symphony No. 2. Somebody had a hit with the song in the 1970’s or 1980’s but I don’t remember who it was. I heard Mel Torme allude to it in a medley of tunes on an album that he did with George Shearing.

If you, dear reader, were to ask me who my favorite composer was, and didn’t allow me the opportunity to say - Oh, I don’t like to pick favorites. They’re all good, aren’t they? – I would probably blurt out the name of Rachmaninoff. I have loved his music from note one. This symphony epitomizes the notion of the Romantic Era symphony, with its passionate melodies, dramatic tension, stormy conflict and serene vision. Remarkable, since he composed it early in the 1900’s, outside the traditionally acknowledged Romantic Era.

I wonder whether the composers listed above would have actually minded if their music had acquired words somewhere along the line. We live in a paranoid society, and are horrified if we find that someone is making a buck on the coattails of our own successes. Perhaps Chopin and Holtz were flattered that someone liked their music.

Credits: To British composer Gustav Holst. Thank you for “The Planets”.