Linking subjects

A colleague talked of research she did for the musical term falling fifths. She showed me three examples of composition that have falling fifths: Beethoven's 9th Symphony, Schumann's string quartet No. 3. Opus 41, and Ned Rorem's War Scenes (Dewey call number Q 784.3061 R).

Having never heard of Rorem, I looked at War Scenes: Rorem set music to Walt Whitman's US Civil War diary, Specimen Days (Q 811 W). Rorem wrote it in protest against the Viet Nam War. A habitual and long-time diarist himself, Rorem has published much. One of those books is A Ned Rorem Reader ([Music] 780.92 Rorem); in it I read part of an essay he wrote on The Beatles. In that essay he made reference to two movies: Express Bongo (Port Washington Library owns the 1959 film on VHS), and Privilege (Hewlett Woodmere owns a new DVD release of the 1967 film).

Thus are subjects hyperlinked in the library. What a way to learn.


Falling fifths are discussed in various articles in IIMP, the International Index of Music Periodicals. But, what are they? A website defines: "in musical terms, a Falling Fifth is a chord progression that goes down “a fifth,” like from a G chord to a C chord (count G, F, E, D, C = 5). When writing music, a falling fifth progression is always acceptable (along with a falling second and a rising third), and if you continue progressing in falling fifths, you’re following the Circle of Fifths."

The website happens to be written by a librarian. Awright!