
Music to Read By: A Playlist to Accompany Mary Roach’s PACKING FOR MARS
This is a guest post from Cariwyl Hebert. Cariwyl is the founder of Salon97, a San Francisco-based non-profit that makes classical music approachable to the uninitiated. When she’s not showing folks across the country a *really* good time at her classical music salons, she immerses herself in the world of search engine marketing and social media consulting. Cariwyl is also a fervent fan of discovering the best cocktails around, watching movies with her husband, reading books about anything and everything, going on long walks, and making up for it later by meeting up with friends for a trip to one of the many restaurants on her to-do list. Follow her on Twitter @salon97.
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Occasionally I come across a book that simply begs to be enjoyed along with a playlist. I have a field day with such projects. In actuality, I generate a lot of playlists—at least one per month for my non-profit’s classical music salons—and being asked to put together an event (and therefore a playlist!) for the San Francisco Public Library in honor of Mary Roach’s Packing for Mars, was a true honor. What could be more fun than a playlist to accompany a book about visiting outer space? Not much!
First off, if you haven’t read Packing for Mars, you should. It’s hilarious, informative, fairly crazy, and did I mention hilarious?
Below are three classical music selections to go along with your Packing for Mars expedition:
Also sprach Zarathustra, Richard Strauss
Strauss’ Also sprach Zarathustra was an homage to Nietzsche and his work by the same name. Man and nature are depicted by contrasting tonalities in Strauss’ work.
You have definitely heard the first minute or two of this piece before, but it is very likely you have yet to listen to the work in its entirety. Now is your chance!
Fun facts about Richard Strauss and Also sprach Zarathustra:
- Richard Strauss was known to depict emotion readily in his compositions, so keep this in mind when listening to Also sprach Zarathustra.
- Other hits by Strauss include Don Quixote and Salome.
- While most composers create increasingly avant-garde works as they progress through their careers, Strauss’ works became more traditionally “classical” as he grew older. Many of his later works are downright Mozartean.
- John Cage didn’t begin composing until age 19 (a late start in this profession) yet he is said to have had the most impact on 20th century music.
- Interactions with composer Arnold Schoenberg were the inspiration for Cage becoming a composer.
- He championed the aesthetics of silence and chance operations (i.e. rolling dice to determine note length etc.).
- Atlas Eclipticalis was developed by placing music manuscript paper over Czech astronomer Antonín Becvár’s star charts. The size of the stars equated the volume of the notes in the piece.
- As a child, Holst learned to play the trombone as treatment for his problems with asthma. He also learned the piano and violin.
- He was best friends with fellow composer Ralph Vaughan Williams.
- Most of Holst’s career success was owed to The Planets. So much so that audiences expected his subsequent works to be similar to his prior masterpiece.
- The Planets was originally titled “Seven Pieces for Large Orchestra.”