Pink Martini : Splendor In The Grass

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Splendor In The Grass

When Whitman, Wordsworth and Tchaikovsky Seamlessly Collide.



"All these years of living large/are starting to do us in/I won't say it wasn't fun/but now it has to end
Life is moving oh so fast/I think we should take it slow/rest our heads upon the grass/and listen to it grow"



As this verse from the title track of Pink Martini's new album ends, the orchestra moves seamlessly into the swelling opening of Tchaikovsky's  Piano Concerto No. 1. I can't think of another band on the planet that could pull this off. I promise it will give you chills.

The beauty of Pink Martini's music lies in it's ability for even the newest of compositions to call forward something ancient in us. You find yourself wondering if the song is new or a masterfully reworked classic you can't quite place. In the case of this track (a quiet number that packs a punch) it's a new song-albeit one that draws on not only on Tchaikovsky but more obviously in its' nod to Walt Whitman's Leaves Of Grass and William Wordsworth's poem "Splendor In The Grass".

But what I love most about it is how it melds these dual sentiments of love of nature and human love into a song that ends up feeling like an acceptance of our current economic demise- it's fundamentally an acknowledgment that the glory days are over, that they didn't really make us any happier and that it's time to get back to a simpler way of life.

(And you thought Pink Martini were just 'songs for your next dinner party' ... So did I.)

The new album was released on 10/27/2009 on Heinz Records.

Splendor in the Grass - Pink M...


by Pink Martini from Splendor In The Grass

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