Song of the Week by DJ Kate Hedin
by Carl Nelson
Today our Song of the Week DJ is Kate Hedin, partner to our resident “extreme” writer Bobby White, balboa expert, professional violist and all around lovely lady.
Artist: Benny Goodman
Song: Caprice Xxiv Paganini
Year: 1941
Album: 1941, Vol. 3
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Why I like it:
In a time in our lindy hopping lives when early jazz and “chunk-ca-chunk” music is so popular, I find my self drawn more and more to the old classic sound of big bands. Benny Goodman was definitely the first band that really grabbed me when I started dancing, so I guess his sound holds a special place in my heart.
I remember very specifically when I heard this piece (Caprice Xxiv Paganini) for the first time. While dancing at the Boston Tea Party in ‘05 or ’06, I heard this song blast through the speakers, and I can still see myself running up to the DJ booth after that dance, desperate to see what recording had just played. For me, the theme of that piece is something so familiar and so distinctive that I would recognize it anywhere. The main melody of Benny Goodman’s piece comes from a very famous classical work for solo violin by Niccolo Paganini. (Included below) Many of you may know that my “other life” is one of classical music. I have been playing the viola for over 20 years now, and received both my bachelors and masters degrees in viola performance. (www.katehedin.com) I still get a thrill when my two passions cross paths. This song by Benny Goodman is a brilliant example.
Piece: Caprice No. 24, for solo violin
Composer: Niccolo Paganini
Artist: Itzhak Perlman
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Niccolo Paganini (1782-1840) was both a pillar of violin virtuosity and composer who wrote pieces that showed off the technical mastery of which he was capable. His 24th caprice is probably his most famous work, and its theme has been used by over 35 other composers, including Benny Goodman, as a spring board for their own theme-and-variation compositions.
In the Goodman song, the full band plays the opening chorus: an energetic swung version of Paganini’s theme. Then Benny comes in with his solo, his own chilled variation of this theme. Each soloist thereafter variates the melody in their own way, leading a slow-driving crescendo to the final culmination: a recapitulation of the original theme in the final chorus with full band. For me, the fact that Benny Goodman not only wrote a piece that was a intellectual throw-back to one of the milestones of classical music, but also managed to make it swing so hard with that driving sound he does so well – well, it just baffles and amazes me.
You can find Benny Goodman’s rendition of Caprice Xxiv Paganini on Amazon.com.
A very nice tune. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
Thanks Kate. I learn something everyday.
That song is also the “theme” in Rachmaninoff’s “Rhapsody On a Theme By Paganini” which is one of my favorite pieces of all time (being a pianist myself).
Thanks guys. I’m glad you’re enjoying the song.
Shana– indeed Rachmaninoff is another one of those 35+ composers who used Paganini’s theme. In general, I’m not a big fan of Rach. myself, but that piece you speak of is such a great piece! (I played it–within the orchestra–one summer at a music festival in NC.) Especially with that slick inversion of the theme; v. cool, and so beautiful.