“Go to heaven for the climate, hell for the company.” – Mark Twain

If you need proof that the second half of this statement is true, look no further! The overture to Jacques Offenbach‘s first opera, Orpheus in the Underworld, is all the proof you’ll need.

The opera is based on the Greek myth where Orpheus travels to hades to bring back his dead wife (spoiler alert: Orpheus is a dolt and screws the whole thing up). Now, when Mozart drags us to hell, it’s genuinely frightening. When Wagner descends to the underworld, the music is sinister and fiery. But ignore those examples. Take the big journey down with Offenbach, and you get … the CAN CAN!

Say you’re cruising down the highway, and all of a sudden, music! The distance between the concrete blocks you’re driving on are all exactly the same – and the bump, bump, bump, bump of the car as it passes from block to block makes a sort of drum-beat. Or maybe you turn on your tractor, and the turning of the engine is so infectious that you just have to get our your guitar and jam along …

We’ve all had funny moments when life gives us an unexpected musical moment. There are even some theories that the whole idea of music started with repeated noises. When we were primitive cave-dwellers, hearing a foreign noise could be very distressing – could the origin of that noise be something that could kill us? But hearing it over and over again, in the same rhythm, or same pitches, relaxes our brains and tells us that no, that’s not a tiger prowling around our cave, that’s just the wind blowing the trees. A bit of a stretch yes, but that’s the really really short version.

One example of “unexpected music” that we’ve all probably had is the experience of riding in a train. So many moving parts, and such a constant speed, make train travel a mesmerizing rhythmic experience. Well, Arthur Honegger took that to the next level when he wrote “Pacific 231” – instead of sitting in a train and experiencing unexpected music, you can now sit in a hall and experience unexpected train travel. This piece needs no further description – you’ll know exactly what is going on as you listen – and what a great ending!

Just one more anvil post; I’m not sure which is my favorite, yesterday‘s or today’s. Yesterday’s is a complete piece, start to finish; today’s is an snippet from an opera …. but it’s Wagner.

This short video is an excerpt from his massive, 15 hour opera cycle known as “The Ring Cycle” – four long operas based on German mythology and part of the inspiration behind Tolkein‘s “The Lord of the Rings.” It’s music that accompanies a scene change; its crescendo and sinister sound make it memorable and loved by Wagner fans. The scene change takes us from the land of the gods to the depths of Nibelheim, an underground city of dwarfs. The dwarfs here tirelessly mine for gems and work at the anvil, hence the unmistakable sounds you’ll hear starting around 1:53.

gotta love this video for the extreme close-up of Wagner’s mutton chops and neard.