When the Last Sword is Drawn: Samurai RPG Thoughts

CAN I HAVE A KATANA?
This week I wrote on samurai. I don't know exactly why- I suspect some of it came from Hida Mann's heretical suggestion that the newest edition of L5R is superior to L5R 1e. Then there were some awesome session reports for Blood & Honor on RPG Geek. I saw some other posts in the blogosphere on the topic (this from Monsters and Manuals)...all of which really got me jonesing for a samurai game. So I went with samurai week-
Samurai RPGs: Kami & Katanas (Part One) 

Samurai RPGs: Kami & Katanas (Part Two)  
SamuraiBibliography: Useful Books for GMs
Bushido: RPGs I Like
Ge Koku Jo

WHY I LIKE SAMURAI
I think it worth considering from time to time what you actually like about a genre. Running fantasy, sci-fi, or horror campaigns you can lose sight of what drew you there in the first place. In this I’m not necessarily talking about the actual history, but the what I love from the conventions- as depicted in films, books, and games.

Code of Conduct: Samurai games offer a set of behavior codes players can accept. It is difficult to legislate morality in an rpg. Often systems to handle this come off as punishing and adversarial. Various World of Darkness games require the player to take tests or suffer penalties to their specific “morality” track. These abstract and sketchy systems lead to communication rifts between player and GM. The results may seem arbitrary. Samurai games on the other hand, have a clearer and more unifying sense of the codes of behavior and conduct. Great stories can come from the dilemmas posed by the gap between desires and those codes.

Colorful: I remember when I saw Ran and the colors blew me away. I know a decent amount of that’s ahistorical, but I love the idea of forces with brightly painted uniforms and vivid banners. The colors and patterns on kimonos and other outfits fascinate me. I used to own all of the Dixon Men-at-Arms series covering the Samurai. If I had to paint only one genre of miniatures for the rest of my life, it would be samurai.

No Armor: Perhaps a little ironic given the point above, but I like the relative scarcity of armor in the genre. War is the time for armor, but most fights, duels and small scale conflicts arm opponents with a sword and the clothing on their back. That makes the fights deadly and encourages a creativity to the conflict.

Echoes of the Musketeer: Samurai games often seem to me to be more serious versions of a swashbuckling campaign. Unarmored or lightly armored swordsmen of skill dueling and leaping around. Social status and class serve as an important factor in both. Duty, loyalty, and right action can be supported or challenged, depending on the nature of the authority. There’s less direct humor and slapstick perhaps in the Samurai campaign.

Distance: At the same time, the setting remains foreign enough that play is fairly open. GMs can and should strive for verisimilitude over simulation. A musketeer games carries a degree of “western” baggage.

Aesthetics: I love that non-fighting skills have a significant place in the setting. An appreciation for beauty, a sense of craftsmanship, a simplicity of approach- these are lovely hallmarks. They help make this more than this a flashing swords genre. Certainly Western historical genres have some of this (romantic poetry for example), but the samurai genre embraces it.

THE L5R REVOLUTION
I liked Bushido and Oriental Adventures, but never really felt press to run them. The samurai games we did play and run were short and filled with fantasy. L5R changed my mind- it gave me a cool and consistent world that I wanted to run right away. I loved the relatively compact realm and cohesive story. Rather than spinning out wider, L5R made strategic choices about what it included.

Ahistorical: L5R breaks away from the yoke of history. Yes, Oriental Adventures had Kara-Tur but that never felt fully fleshed out. Instead it felt patchwork to me, especially when it got ported to the Forgotten Realms. It also smashed things together in equal measure. Legend of the Five Rings draws influence from other Asian cultures for the various clans, but it never loses sight of being a samurai campaign. Many players feel uncomfortable with historical games. Some don’t like ‘constraints’ of history or worry about getting things wrong (or even offending). L5Rsays you don’t need to worry about that. You don’t have to sweat the small stuff.

Gender Roles: Though it can be inconsistent about this at times, L5R generally allows full and equal play opportunities for female characters. There are matriarchal clans and the rules provide numerous examples of strong female characters the equal of men. Often they’re even in reasonable armor. That gender equity’s built in, rather than requiring hand-waving by the GM. That’s the kind of approach I’ve always tried to take with my other campaigns, so L5R works for me.

The Clans: The Great Clans of L5R provide easy to pitch concepts. I can describe any clan in a sentence or two and players will remember that. Add to that the visual distinctions and you have a winning combo. Once players know the clans, you get to work one more level down and explain the families among those clans. It isn’t long before players remember and can respond NPCs instinctively.

Articulated Codes: I love that the clans share the Bushido code, but perceive it differently. Each clan has some virtues they value and some they regard as less essential. That’s a brilliant device.

Magic: I don’t love the lumping together of the various distinct faiths of Japan into the “Shintao” of L5R, but most of the time it works. In particular it allows Shugenja a role and purpose beyond simply being casters. Making them generally ritual and spiritual advisors gives them an added gravity and weight.

Diplomacy: More than most games, especially fantasy games, L5R finally made social classes compelling and dangerous. Diplomats and ambassadors may more restrictive fields of battle, but they can do more damage than a simple sword strike. That’s the way it should be and L5R raises the bar for these kinds of player options.

FILM & SOUND
Kurosawa spoiled samurai cinema for me. It isn’t that he set the bar too high with his staging, craftsmanship, and artistry. Rather that he used the samurai film to tell humanist stories, “a preoccupation with the human elements of a movie.” In this he managed to create depth, sympathy, and emotion in a genre not associated with it. That made watching other cheaper samurai films- Shogun’s Ninja, Lone Wolf & Cub, Hanzo the Razor, Death Shadows- more difficult because of the focus on the brutality and violence. The message in so many of these films seems to be about a moral wasteland, the inevitability of violence, and the annihilation of the self. I try to watch everything I can, but films which revel in the gruesome I play only slight attention to. There are many great samurai films. Here are ten I’d pick as a good set to watch in prep for running a samurai campaign:

• Kuroneko: A good combination of ghost story and samurai action. 
• Samurai Rebellion: Introduces some of the complexities of the social politics while also offering insight into the daily lives of conventional samurai. 
• Onmyoji: The supernatural, conspiracies, and as close to an actual shugenja as we’re ever going to see on the screen. The sequels pretty fun as well. 
• The Seven Samurai: Has to go on the list for a look at a grounp getting slowly picked off. 
• Yojimbo/Sanjuro: Great characters and intriguing plots. Worth watching for how you’d model some of these complications at the table. 
• Taboo: A striking film and not to everyone’s taste. Importantly it offers insight into the social dynamics of the samurai caste. 
• 13 Assassins: Worth watching for considering how to set up and stage combats. 
• Dora-Heita: A goofy and fun story chronicling the arrival of a drunken magistrate to clean up a town. Given how many L5R games use magistrates as a basis, worth watching. 
• Dororo: Just ok, but has some interesting bits and fun fights. On the list because of the fantasy elements. 
• Red Beard: Not a samurai film, but my favorite Kurosawa movie. Insight into the characters and culture. Great for informing NPC creation. 

Also, if you’re looking for samurai soundtracks to use while running a game I recommend the following. Some have more Chinese or Asian themes, but work in the context. Genji: Dawn of the Samurai (Tomoatsu Kikushi & Seiichi Negi); Jade Empire (Jack Wall); The Hunted (Kodo); Guild Wars: Nightfall (Jeremy Soule); Otogi 2: Immortal Warriors (DoRe); Onimusha 2 (Taro Iwashiro); Okami (Masami Ueda & Hiroshi Yamaguchi); Nobunaga’s Ambition Online (Kenji Kawai); Kengo 3 (Takayuki Nakamura); Jubei Ninpucho: Ninja Scroll (Kaoru Wada); and Heavenly Sword (Nitin Sawhney). You may have to edit out some of the more goofy bits from the video game soundtracks.

THE RONIN PROBLEM
Man I don’t like ronin. That’s weird given the romanticized version of them given in so many films and stories. Usually they’re the last inheritors of the spirit of bushido, the practical character who can see past rules, or the lovable buffoon. They reject the existing structures and establishments. The problem I have with them is that they throw away so much interesting material. They avoid real dilemmas of choice and duty, instead substituting more physical conflicts over survival and murder. Players by and large suspect and reject authority- they tend to resent orders and obligations. A samurai campaign suggests virtues, duties, clan loyalties, and service to your lord. It restricts and makes the choices more difficult and more meaningful.

Ronin look like every other standard fantasy PC. That makes them more boring. An all-ronin game, unless the players agree they serve a higher goal- just feels like an outlaw game, and maybe the group should be playing Wild West. Worse can be the single ronin among a group of samurai; you’ve built in some real acrimony there. The GM may have to handwave pretty hard to keep fights from breaking out. As John Wick suggests in Blood & Honor, being a ronin ought to be awful: with no one to support you, no respect, no acknowledgement. But what GM’s actually going to subject a player to that consistently? In my experience ronin leaning players want to have their rice cake and eat it too.

Changeling Songs

Some time back I wrote a post explaining why Neko Case's Middle Cyclone is the ultimate Changeling the Lost album. To add to that, I'd say the following is the ultimate CtL song & video combo not from that album. 

For song but not video, we would also accept this-

On Music: RPG Soundtracks & General New Albums

THREE DRACONIC SOUNDTRACKS FOR RPGs

Alex North, Dragonslayer

A recent re-release of the soundtrack for this classic fantasy film. The music’s pretty amazing- borrowing quite a bit from Russian composers, but certainly strong enough to stand on its own. One of the most listenable scores I’ve heard in recent years. The pieces fit together and there’s little filler. A great work to listen to or use in the background for a fantasy campaign.

Brian Tyler, Dragonball Evolution

I’ve generally liked Tyler’s works even when the film’s he’s scoring are terrible…like this one. This one combines epic action cues with a spirit of the fantastic. The soft bits have a predictability to them, but that often works for these kinds of scores. When he does hit the full-on action rush, he sustains the pace throughout. While Tyler falls back on some clichés, generally he mixes that with lovely melodies and some interesting switches. Good for action games or any with movement and tension.

Klaus Badelt, Dragon Hunters

Based on the excellent CG film, rather than the terrible animated series. I enjoyed the film, but the music here is pretty meh. I’ve tried to listen and have it resolve for me a couple of times, but there’s nothing that hooks me. The scores a little all over the place for me to recommend anything but a few pieces, like “World Gobbler’s Death” to throw into fight sequence music.

NEW GENERAL MUSIC

They Might Be Giants, Join Us

I haven’t enjoyed the last couple of TMBG albums as much as their earlier ones. There were some great songs on The Spine and The Else. But too many felt slight, goofy or just didn’t hook me. On the other hand, I enjoyed this album from the first listen. “Cloisonné” song made me laugh out loud the first time I heard it. “Protagonist” and “Judy is Your Viet Nam” I loved as well. I’m really happy with this album. Incidentally my five favorite TMBG albums: John Henry; No!; Flood; Apollo 18; and Factory Showroom.

Fountains of Wayne, Sky Full of Holes

Boy, these guys have a lot of work to do in order to measure up to Welcome Interstate Managers. That’s one of my favorite albums- it holds together as a whole. Both this album and the last one have a few songs that really work. But neither this one nor that works fully. Mind you I like some of the songs here. However a couple of times when I started to hear one, my immediate thought was “Oh, yup, that’s a Fountains of Wayne song…” They fall into some obvious patterns and styles a little too often for my taste.

Explosions in the Sky, Take Care, Take Care

I love Explosions in the Sky- they’re among my favorite groups to have playing when I’m working (along with early Mogwai, Godspeed You Black Emperor). I had been worried since they’d suggested that this album would spin them off in a new direction. I wouldn’t say it does, but neither is it boring. This album resolved faster for me than any of their others. Recent Mogwai has been boring, but I don’t have any of that reaction listening to them.

Zoe Keating, One Cello x16

Meh. This ought to be the kind of thing I like. I like strange musical arrangements working to create a new kind of soundspace. For example, I like Piano Circus, the more avant-garde work of Evelyn Glennie and J.G. Thirwell. I mean what she’s doing is interesting, but nothing sticks for me. She’s layered the cello sounds excellently, but I don’t have a feeling that the device is more than a device.

…And You Will Know Us By the Trail of the Dead, Tao of the Dead & So Divided

I know that Source Tags and Codes is the ‘classic’ and essential album for these guys- and I do enjoy that one. But I also enjoyed the strange meanderings of Worlds Apart which followed. So Divided is more like that, with a few single-oriented tunes. It is a decent album. But Tao of the Dead- well I imagine a lot of people will hate this one. It is a full-on goofy prog-rock album with goofy lyrics, funky sounds and some drop downs into serious noise. But overall it is a polished beast. Dumb fun.

Florence + The Machine, Lungs

I’m late to this party, but it kept popping up in the list of recommended albums for me on Amazon and Qriocity. I love the sound of most of these songs- a few of them I’m already skipping through, though. However I find myself having to deliberately not listen to the lyrics- when I do, my enjoyment of the song goes down significantly. It reminds me of anime theme music- I love the songs for the sound, but based on the on-screen translation, I would just be shaking my head if I understood.

The Head and the Heart, The Head and the Heart

Good fun in an indie folk kind of way. Light- I’m not sure exactly how to place them. I like the sound of the songs and the actual lyrics work for me.

Viva Voca, The Future Will Destroy You

Here’s another one that’s popped up in my recommendations, but I’ve always ignored. When I finally went to listen to them, I like it immediately. They’re solid indie- like a fun version of Interpol, perhaps? There’s a little of Rilo Kiley and the New Pornographers in there, but less adventurous and more polished.

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Hysterical

I love their first album, which remains one of my top ten “I Don’t Know What I Want to Listen To” albums. It remains a great album after many, many listens. But I didn’t like Some Loud Thunder that much. Sherri really enjoys it and I like a couple of the songs, but it doesn’t hold together. On the other hand, I really enjoyed Hysterical from the first listen. It is different in that it is cleaned and popped up, but it works for me. I love the first two songs hugely, and most of the rest I enjoy. I’m surprised to see so many negative reviews.

Tori Amos, Night of Hunters

I enjoyed this more than some of her other recent work. As opposed to something like Elvis Costello’s classical collaborations, Tori Amos actually finds a space where that connection works. The piano’s excellent and her voice really gets a chance to shine through. The additional vocals from her daughters compliment a haunting album.

Albums Written for Changeling: Middle Cyclone

For me, Changeling the Lost and music go together. I’ve seen a good deal of debate about music at the gaming table- some people love it, others find it a distraction. I lean towards it being a good mood setting device. I put together many, many albums which echo the themes of the campaign, hit random and save it as a playlist on the laptop. I try not to muck around with the music directly while I’m playing- I keep the volume low (which I know some people dislike).If I hear something particularly fitting, like tense music in a tense scene, I’ll casually reach over and raise the volume. But generally I could live without music while I’m running. Except perhaps for Changeling- I’ve got a great discordant batch that runs from movies (The Ring, The Cell) to video games (Crimson Butterfly, Clock Tower), to classical (Michael Nyman, Kronos Quartet), to tech/industrial (Front Line Assembly, Dust Brothers), to experimental (Steroid Maximus, Godspeed You Black Emperor) to…well you get the idea- an eclectic mix so that from one moment to the next you’re not sure what you’re going to be hearing.

Now in that regard, I think there are a couple of perfect Changeling albums- that is, albums that tell Changeling stories. The most literal of these would be The Decemberists’ Hazards of Love, a rock opera about the daughter of a river and the adopted son of the queen of night…or something like that. It’s a fun and dark album that I think could give rise to a kind of historical, even Shakespearean Changeling narrative. But that’s a fairly literal rock opera album of the fae. I’d argue that there’s another even more Changeling-y album I listen to: Neko Case’s Middle Cyclone. One would think Fox Confessor Bring the Flood, but this one trumps it. Allow me to run through the songs to make my point. But my first piece of evidence would be the album cover.

I mean, seriously.

"This Tornado Loves You"

The love song of an Elemental Changeling- caught up in his own winds and violent storms. He’s lost the means to interact as people normally would. Does the object of his affection even know about him? The Elemental knows that its madness, but can’t help but spiral into it, can’t help but blame the beloved at least a little for the state he’s in. And there’s the line “What would make you believe me?”- what sacrifice, what revelation, what violence must he commit to bring this love to fruition? The song’s even spookier if you imagine it as the obsession of a Keeper with his future victim.

"The Next Time You Say Forever"

Here’s a Changeling who has tried to go home and realized that he can’t. He’s managed to hurt and alienate those he loved. He’s been away and understands the power of words and promises. When he hears them from others, he flinches. The others don’t believe who he is- he hasn’t been gone, hasn’t changed.

"People Got a Lotta Nerve"

I told you I was a monster, sorry about your arm. The fatality of the lifestyle of the Changeling, and the fall back to base nature as an excuse for behavior. They know how this story will wrap up “It will end again in bullets, friend…”

"Polar Nettles"

Sherri’s suggested the idea of a token artifact known as the “Someday Soon.” A monkey’s paw thing that puts things off until they catch up with you. Regrets, debts, hopes…

"Vengeance Is Sleeping"

Between the Mask and the Mien, the Changeling is always in disguise. How much of that is to disguise what they are from themselves? Isn’t that what a clarity break represents in the game: a recognition of the Changelings broken nature- how far they are from what they consider right or human?

"Never Turn Your Back on Mother Earth"

Fearful tale of the Queen of the Spring Court. She grants favors with one hand, but people forget that Spring is the hungry season- the last of the food used up but new things planted. The Fairest Queen of the Spring Court must make those choices, must sacrifice to bring a better harvest and can seem capricious in all things. There’s an echo of The Wicker Man in all of this.

"Middle Cyclone"

The regretful Ogre looks around and realizes how her nature keeps everyone and everything else away. She’s tried everything, called upon the mundane details of the basic contracts. She’s been fooled and knows she will be again. She loves but knows how powerful a force and a gift that is.

"Fever"

The Darkling changeling wanders in the forgotten corners of the freehold, scavenging and hunting. She follows a strange trail leading to an abandoned factory and there comes across her Keeper, dancing and present in the real world. Fear grips her- there can be no escape- she hears his awful enchantments and he hears her heartbeat. He pursues and the Changeling invokes a desperate contract to escape. Perhaps the most literal of the songs on the album.

"Magpie to the Morning"

All contracts have a catch and a cost. Some people play around and desperately grasp for Goblin contracts…with prices that cannot be avoided. Why do the Goblins make these contracts? They bear no love for the Changeling…what’s the catch?

"I'm an Animal"

The broad, declarative song of the Beast. If there was a Changeling musical, this would be the theme song, sung when the Beast first appears and called back every time they appear. The Beast knows its rough fate, and lives in the present moment more than any other Changeling.

"Prison Girls"

I think one of the things underestimated in the Changeling books is the difficulty of Changelings interacting with normally people. They suffer from a kind of PTSD, they see meaning in odd things, they respond and overreact in strange ways. They become obsessed over details, attached to them and making so much more of them, to a dangerous extent.

"Don't Forget Me"

The sad and poisoned love song of a Fetch for his Changeling twin. He hates and loves his adversary, hates his own awful nature. He wants to live, but also wants acknowledgement from that Changeling of his value, of his place- which the Changeling can’t ever provide.

"The Pharaohs"

Here’s the story of a Fairest, a Treasured, who became the consort of the Prince of a Court. She thought she would be a princess, would be happy. But he never comes to her bed, he never pays attention and taking this role has cost her much.

"Red Tide"

What does the Freehold look like after the Keepers return? The last survivor wanders the landscape of devastation. How did it happen? Who invoked them? Who said the wrong thing? “I hate the rain…”

Marais La Nuit

And 30 minutes of crickets to finish out the album….

Anyone else have albums with songs that just seem to absolutely sum up the stories of a setting?

Music Journal

Can You Dig It?

I really love music- love listening to new music. A while back, I finally signed up for a trial offer of a service called Qriocity available on the PS3. I’d assumed it was just like Pandora. However, it turned out to be more than that. It is a streaming music service where you can build a library and playlists (on a PC for the latter). But importantly you can save and listen to whole albums. Since I like classical, I really want to be able to hear all of a piece rather than a section or a movement. Qriocity doesn’t have everything- there are some pretty big gaps among pop and rock musicians. Some artists are absent, while others have significant gaps (for example Kansas doesn’t have Leftoverture, Joe Jackson doesn’t have Big World, there’s only a single Neko Case album). But if you’re exploring different kinds of music, it is an amazing service. Right away I was listening to new things and albums I hadn’t heard in years- stuff I used to have on cassette.

Then of course the Playstation network got hacked and went down for four weeks. Then back up and then down again.

It has finally been up for about a solid week now. I’m a little irritated that since I’d only signed up for the trial I won’t be getting extended days back on Qriocity. Still I suspect I will keep up with the service. I’ve started keeping a music journal so I can note what I’ve listened to and what I thought of it. I've been partly inspired by Scott's posts on jazz over at Huge Ruined Pile. I’ve left some things out, but here’s what I’ve listened to recently:

Albums I Used to Have

Midnight Oil Blue Sky Burning and 10, 9, 8, 7…: Both of these hold up for me. I have Red Sails in the Sunset and that’s the album I listened to the most before, I’d forgotten how good these were.

REM Life’s Rich Pageant, Document, Automatic for the People, Orange: I put those in order of enjoyment. I think Life’s Rich Pageant’s a great, greta album but it has a couple of songs that wear on me in relistening.

Sinead O’Connor I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got: Wow. That did not hold up. That was painful to listen to.

New Pop/Rock

Aimee Mann I’m With Stupid, @#%&*! Smilers, Bachelor No. 2, Lost in Space: All great, and I’m going to have to buy those eventually.

Envelopes Demon: Starts out weirdly mixed and compelling. However, the more I listen the less I like. Gets more and more twangy as it goes along. Might have to check other stuff.

Kinky Kinky: Fun and crazy. Not sure how much more I’d want to listen to.

Kathryn Calder Are You My Mother?: Somewhere between Aimee Mann and Neko Case lies this album. Good stuff.

New Crazy Stuff

Makrosoft Stereo Also Playable Mono: 1950’s/60’s lounge remixes of modern songs like “Enter the Sandman” and “Blac Hole Sun”- great fun. I bought the mp3 after listening to it to throw into the Changeling soundtrack.

Various Artists Whipped Cream & Other Delights Re-Whipped: A remix album of the classic Herb Alpert record. Fun, goofy, but fun.

Classical

John Adams Portrait: Chamber music performed by Angele Dubeau and La Pieta…which I assume is her violin’s name. Very chamber-y, but listenable. Seems like later period Adams and I kept thinking of Ravel.

Britten War Requiem: Hadn’t listened to this before. I really like Britten’s orchestral stuff, but his other stuff- voice and chamber leave me cold. I’m not sure why.

John Adams Century Rolls: His Piano concerto, plus a few other really fun pieces. Enjoyed very much- listened to a couple of times.

Ades Violin Concerto: Good, but I’m going to have to hear that a few more times for it to resolve.

Bernstein Candide Overture and others: Who has two thumbs and likes Bernstein’s compositions. Not this guy.

Foerster Violin Concertos: Eminently forgettable. I have no notes by them. I remember having them on and thinking, “You know, I should put on some music…”

Jazz

Medeski, Scofield, Martin and Wood Out Louder: Fun- the extra member kicks things up.

Medeski, Martin and Wood 20 (Part 1), 20 (Part 2): The first good and the second, meh.

Jackie McLean Bluesnik: Classic, solid jazz. Nothing that absolutely grabbed me, though.

Art Blakey A Night in Tunisia: Another nice, but basic album.

John Coltrane Giant Steps: I wish I had a better vocabulary to describe jazz. I’m just starting to listen to it so I feel like I’m reaching for the words. I found this album lovely and evocative, but not one that hooked me. I think I want more energy from my jazz.

Sonny Rollins: Listened to a bunch of his stuff. One of the “Best Of…” albums I found was really, really good. That led me to What’s New? Which I loved- a mix of classic songs and avant garde performance. There’s on annoying song on it- I don’t like voice with my jazz. Saxophone Colossus and Our Man in Jazz also excellent.

Jimmy Smith: Another one that hooked me right away and I listened to several albums by. The Sermon! is great, as is Hobo Flats. Angel Eyes is later period and is just OK. Off the Top feels really 1970’s and kind of lame to me. But the album Damn! is unbelievably great.

Buddy Rich: Blues Caravan and Buddy’s Rock were both good. I have to listen to some more. I like solid jazz percussion and he’s listed several places as one of the best jazz drummers.

Michael Daugherty: Contemporary Classical I Like

So I wanted to do a quick check in today and tomorrow before 2010 gets away from me entirely. Well, I ought to be able to admit it got away from me. But hey-- didja see all those game reviews I wrote in October...and then got burnt out. So in any case, tomorrow I want to do a little look back at my gaming in general for 2010 and what I want/have planned for 2011. But for today I want to go entirely non-role play. I'll come back to rpgs tomorrow.

I'm a fan of several streams of 20th century Classical Music, and some forms of experimental music where it moves over more into a kind of fusion or rock. For the latter category I'd cite my love for Godspeed You Black Emperor, Turning Machine, Mogwai, Explosions in the Sky, Steroid Maximus, Russian Circles, and so on. I like a kind of wall of sound and more classical approaches-- probably why for Jazz I like things like both Brubeck and Medeski, Martin, and Wood. I think I really prefer my music in general to be a little transparently evocative. That means some dissonance and some emotional force to me. So I follow a lot of movie, TV, and game soundtracks-- many of which I use at the game table. I'd say about half of the film soundtracks are immediately forgettable, and about 2/3rds of the game soundtracks if not more. But every once in a while you hit something like ChronoCross or Shadow of the Colossus, either of which I could listen to again and again. My favorite classic composer, Shostakovich, often gets dismissed as sounding soundtrack-y but I consider that a compliment.

Which leads my to talk about some more contemporary classical music I quite like. I got spurred to this my hearing that Michael Daugherty received a Grammy nomination for a new recording of his Metropolis Symphony. I owned a previous recording of that plus a number of other pieces by him-- which I'd oddly just been listening to when I heard about this on NPR. So I thought I'd do a quick run down of his work that I've heard and a couple of the other people I tend to associate with him.

Metropolis Symphony/Bizarro Suite (Baltimore Symphony Orchestra; Zinman) This is an initially jarring piece of work. It uses a number of odd instruments including a siren and police whistle. It keeps moving forward as a piece-- though I can't really say that as a whole it gels for me. It remains fun to listen to. For some reason I'm reminded of those animated CBS Children's specials, like A Cricket in Times Square. There's something about the music that sounds the same to me. It is a loud and brassy piece. The Bizarro Suite on this recoding takes some of the themes of the symphony and reworks and inverts them. That's a nice touch.

Metropolis Symphony/Deus ex Machina (Nashville Symphony; Giancarlo Guerrero) I haven't listened comparatively to this performance of the symphony versus the earlier one. Based on timing, Guerrero takes things a hair faster in the movements, except for the final one. The other piece on this, Deus ex Machina, is a kind of piano concerto. I haven't read any notes on it, but based on the titles and the sound it seems to be draw from the sounds of trains-- the mechanical rumbling, the movement, the turning of wheels. I really love it. The second movement seems to incorporate a variation on Taps that is amazingly lovely. It might be a Copland reference as well, I don't know. I'd recommend this recording of the two just because you get more here. I got mine as an mp3 downloard from Amazon for $5.

Spaghetti Western (from a concerto collection, University of Michigan Symphony Orchestra; Kenneth Kiesler) This is a concerto for English Horn and Orchestra. I adore it. He lifts the feeling of the Ennio Morricone themes from movies like The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. But it doesn't feel like a direct reference or just an homage to me. It is a fun and listenable piece that pulls many flavors together.

Fire and Blood/Motor City Triptych/Raise The Roof (Detroit Symphony Orchestra; Neeme Jaarvi) I'll confess I haven't listened enough to this album to really pull together a solid and specic opinion beyond enjoying it. Its a live performance-- with the crowd applause after which seems to be “in” right now for recordings. I like it. Raise the Roof reminds me a little of the most animated John Adams works. There's also a really feeling of Americana here-- not the broad and majestic pictures which Copland creates, but one of solid and gritty early and mid-20th century America. Perhaps I'm ascribing too much-- I haven't read the liner notes (one of the drawbacks to buying mp3s through Amazon).

Philadelphia Stories/UFO (Colorado Symphony Orchestra; Marin Alsop-- with the amazing Evelyn Glennie on percussion) The first piece owes a great deal to Stokowski who, with Bernstein really helped shape classic music performance in the mid-20th Century. The third movement references him by name and I've seen it recorded by itself as a performance piece. Philadelphia Stories is fun, clean and listenable. On the other hand, UFO presents a real challenge. It is a kind of complicated concerto for solo percussion and orchestra which uses many, many different sounds-- at times supremely discordant. The final movement speeds through. I have a hard time wrapping my hand around it as a whole piece but I do enjoy listening to it.

Daugherty's a good ways away from some of the more narrow and completely dissonant forms in 20th Century music. He doesn't echo any of the minimalism of Philip Glass or even John Adams. There's more a Charles Ives in there-- but without being awful like Ives is. There-- I said it. He's more listenable that some other 20th century stuff (to me at least) like Boulez, Messiaen, or Carter. I will note that he's routinely criticized for being kitschy-- and that may be why I like him.

I've just about hit my self-imposed 1000 word limit-- so I'll deal with the other composers in another piece later. Tomorrow an rpg overview for 2010 and 2011; then my first game review of the new year on Saturday (I hope).