Music appreciation

In the fall of 1973, Leonard Bernstein assumed the Poetic Chair of the Charles Eliot Norton Lectures and presented The Unanswered Question: Six Talks at Harvard in which he extended Noam Chomsky's linguistic theory of deep structure and transformational grammar to encompass not only musico-linguistic analogues, but also the deeper abstract concepts these forms of communication share. Most importantly, he explored beyond this conceptual domain to an even more essential source of creative expression---the realm of the ineffable. Bernstein's circle metaphor represents this paradoxical, transcendental sphere. This thesis extrapolates the profound philosophic threads inferred by Bernstein's lectures, and analyzes the developing logic of his metaphysical-aesthetic Weltanschauung.

The popular culture of the past three decades owes a great deal to the creativity and musical impact of the artists featured in Retro-Respect. The project's objective was to carefully select ten of this generation's most influential recording artists and, as a musical tribute, produce and record unique arrangements of songs by each of them for an audio CD. Each featured artist has at least a 30 year history of influence and recognition as being among the industry's best, and all remain musically active today. Included are Aerosmith, Chaka Khan, Stevie Wonder, Steely Dan, Bonnie Raitt, Sting, The Eagles, Eric Clapton, Elton John and David Bowie. Retro-Respect was produced and arranged by Kam Falk. Each of the eight vocal and two instrumental songs features a different ensemble with Falk performing on six-string bass, fretless four-string bass, keyboards, vocals and drum/ percussion programming.