Accordionist and composer Michael Ward-Bergeman will join contemporary music supergroup eighth blackbird for a program of music influenced by folk songs at Chicago's Millennium Park on Thursday, June 19 at 6:30 p.m.
Tim Munro, flutist of eighth blackbird, describes Ward-Bergeman as a wonderful collaborator who can play "every musical style known to humanity."
"He's just one of those consummate musicians," Munro said. "If I could sum up what we'll be doing with Michael, basically he's going to be crossing over onto our turf, and we're going to be doing some of our [eighth blackbird] repertoire together, and we're going to be crossing over onto his turf, and we're going to be arranging and performing some of his own compositions."
The blackbirds will perform several of Ward-Bergeman's songs, including "Barbeich," which, as its name suggests, is inspired by the music of accordion virtuoso Raul Barboza and contemporary composer Steve Reich.
Another work on the program represents a branch of folk music that is a strange, twisted genre unto itself: the murder ballad.
eighth blackbird will play Murder Ballades, an arrangement of some of these shocking, yet strangely catchy 19th century tunes. The blackbirds commissioned this work from Bryce Dessner, guitarist of rock band The National and a contemporary classical composer in his own right.
"Often they're quite rambunctious arrangements that he's done, and they get more and more Bryce-like as the piece progresses," Munro said. "He incorporates a whole lot of different effects to mimic different sorts of sounds... He's given an old tradition a modern spin."
According to Munro, the tradition of the murder ballad stretches all the way back to Europe.
"It goes like this: a grisly murder happens, and the tale of this grisly murder is spread far and wide through these songs," he said. "In that way, it's actually quite similar to a gossip magazine now. It was basically their way of spreading gossip."
I pointed out that the music of these grisly tales is actually rather pleasant, at times even rollicking.
"Right!" said Munro, laughing. "So, that's the funny thing about the murder ballads, is that they often have very jaunty tunes, while they're talking about heads being severed, and people being gutted, and bodies being thrown into streams and such things."
Most people know at least one of these ballads. "Tom Dooley" and "Frankie and Johnny" are some well-known examples from America:
"We all know one or the other of them," Munro said about the murder ballad genre. "And they still come down to us now... Although some of the tunes are familiar, and some are not at all familiar, it's a tradition that still has resonance for us today."
Apparently so, given this parody of a murder ballad written by Tom Lehrer in the 1950s:
eighth blackbird's free concert of Murder Ballades and other songs will take place at Millennium Park, as part of the "Loops and Variations" series, on Thursday, June 19 at 6:30 p.m.
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