![]() ![]() Venetian composer Giuseppe Tartini (1692-1770) said he was inspired to write the “Sonata In G Minor,” the so-called “Devil’s Trill,” after Satan, playing a violin, appeared to him in a dream. No one knows for sure which 18th-century cleric said that “the Devil has the best tunes” (some of which you will find in our playlist) but long before Jelly Roll Morton had recorded a Devil-related song called “Boogaboo,” classical music had aroused consternation over “dance macabres” and immoral symphonies. ![]() ![]() It wasn’t just syncopated rhythms that caused trouble. For a time in the 20s, jazz was banned in hundreds of public dance halls. The Devil knew how to tempt, after all, whether with an apple or a sexy rhythm. Saxophones were viewed with suspicion (the “scandalous” instrument had been banned by Pope Pius X in 1903) and when they were used to belt out jazz that aroused lewd dancing, it provoked alarm and moral outrage. Even with big-band music in concert halls, there were anxieties. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
January 2023
Categories |