XIV. 1914
On the General Enthusiasm for Gyration, the Evils of Occidentalism, and the Duration of the Campaign.
There’s a lot I leave out every year, and I’ll probably never be entirely comfortable whittling it down, but dear God what it cost me to leave out Arturo Mathon’s “El apache argentino” and Fred Van Eps’ “Sans Souci” and Joan Sawyer’s “Hesitation” and for God’s sake the first recording of “My Melancholy Baby”! Life is so unfair.
XI. 1911
On the wide applicability of Semitism, the riches of Fairyland, and the omnivorousness of Appalachia.
While I’m not sure I’d say that I think music only gets better and better the closer we get to the present, I’m definitely excited by the evolutionary leap forward of 1911. Said evolutionary leap was not necessarily audible at the time, or even all that clear just by listening; clean breaks are only visible in retrospect, once stories get told.
