this week in music

THE GAITS: A HIGH LINE SOUNDWALK

Free smartphone app turns High Line walk into an audio adventure

Free smartphone app turns High Line walk into audio adventure

Who: Composers Laine Fefferman, Jascha Narveson, and N. Cameron Britt and software developer Daniel Iglesia
What: Make Music Winter festival
Where: The High Line, Gansevoort & Washington Sts. to West 30th St.
When: Sunday, December 21, free, 5:00 – 6:30 pm
Why: Free downloadable app turns walk along the High Line into an unusual soundscape; portable speakers encouraged (first one hundred participants can borrow a wearable speaker for free); among the other free Make Music Winter events on December 21 are Tom Peyton’s “Bell by Bell,” the Nick Horner Family’s “Flat Foot Flatbush,” J. C. King’s “Kalimbascope,” Hiroya Miura’s “Lightmotif,” Malcolm J. Merriweather’s “Pilgrimage,” James Holt’s “Prelude,” Daniel Goode’s “Soho Gamelan Walk,” and Nissim Schaul’s “Wheels”

A CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS 50th ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION WITH LIVE MUSIC

Charlie Brown and Linus discuss Christmas in classic holiday special (courtesy of Lee Mendelson and Bill Melendez Productions © 2014 Peanuts Worldwide LLC)

Charlie Brown and Linus discuss Christmas in classic holiday special (courtesy of Lee Mendelson and Bill Melendez Productions © 2014 Peanuts Worldwide LLC)

Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium
1000 Fifth Ave. at 82nd St.
Saturday, December 20, 11:00 am & 1:30 pm, and Sunday, December 21, 2:00 & 4:00 pm, $40-$80 (includes museum admission)
212-535-7710
www.metmuseum.org
www.peanuts.com

First broadcast on television on December 9, 1965, A Charlie Brown Christmas has been a holiday staple for fifty years, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art is celebrating that half century of existential Christmas depression, commercialism, and faith with the special presentation “A Charlie Brown Christmas 50th Anniversary Celebration with Live Music.” “I think there must be something wrong with me, Linus,” Charlie tells his thumb-sucking, blanket-gripping best friend at the beginning of the cartoon. “Christmas is coming, but I’m not happy. I don’t feel the way I’m supposed to feel.” On December 20 and 21, the Met will make everyone feel a whole lot better by screening the delightful show in the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium with the Rob Schwimmer Trio and the Church of the Heavenly Rest Children’s Choir playing live, reinterpreting the Vince Guaraldi Trio’s magical jazz score. Following the twenty-five-minute tale — which was written by Peanuts creator Charles Schulz, directed by Walt Disney Studios and Warner Bros. veteran Bill Melendez, and features the voices of Peter Robbins as Charlie Brown, Chris Shea as Linus, Tracy Stratford as Lucy, Kathy Steinberg as Sally, and Melendez as Snoopy — Schwimmer and Mark Stewart will lead a holiday sing-along. Tickets, which range from $40 to $80, include museum admission, so you can also check out the Met’s Christmas Tree and Neapolitan Baroque Crèche.

VIDEO OF THE DAY: NOT THE MESSIAH (HE’S A VERY NAUGHTY BOY)

Who: Eric Idle, Victoria Clark, William Ferguson, Marc Kudisch, Lauren Worsham, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s conducted by Ted Sperling, the New York Metro Pipe Band, and the Collegiate Chorale
What: Not the Messiah (He’s a Very Naughty Boy), by Eric Idle and John Du Prez
Where: Carnegie Hall, Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage
When: Monday, December 15, and Tuesday, December 16, $15-$145, 8:00
Why: Outrageous musical evening by the creators of Spamalot, based on Monty Python’s Life of Brian: “Baroque-N-Roll” featuring such songs as “Hail to the Shoe,” “We Love Sheep,” and “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life”

VIDEO OF THE DAY: “REASON” BY ERASURE

Who: Erasure
What: The Violet Flame Tour
When: Tuesday, December 30, $50, 8:00 (with All Hail the Silence and Alex English) and Wednesday, December 31, $50, 9:30 (with Book of Love and Alex English)
Where: Terminal 5
Why: New album, The Violet Flame (Mute, September 2014) and EP, Reason (Mute, November 2014), from Andy Bell and Vince Clarke

VIDEO OF THE DAY: PHIL KLINE’S UNSILENT NIGHT

Who: Phil Kline and anyone else who wants to participate
What: Twenty-third annual Unsilent Night
Where: Washington Square Park to Tompkins Square Park
When: Saturday, December 13, free, 6:45
Why: Phil Kline leads parade of holiday celebrants carrying boomboxes or speakers playing tracks that can be downloaded here; in response to calls for this event to be a march held in solidarity with the recent events in Ferguson, Staten Island, Cleveland, and elsewhere, Kline announced in a statement on the official website that “Unsilent Night has always welcomed individuals to honor whatever belief or cause is important to them, and continues to do so,” and he asks that any such protests be “visually based.”

PHILADELPHIA AND OTHER STORIES

PHILADELPHIA AND OTHER STORIES

Paul Rome and Roarke Menzies return to the Bushwick Starr with PHILADELPHIA AND OTHER STORIES

The Bushwick Starr
207 Starr St. between Wyckoff & Irving
December 18-20, $18, 8:00
www.thebushwickstarr.org

Brooklynites Paul Rome and Roarke Menzies (Calypso) specialize in collaborating on literary performances featuring an experimental score and narrative. The latest work from writer Rome and composer and musician Menzies is Philadelphia and Other Stories, running December 18-20 at the Bushwick Starr. Part radio play, part performance art, part literary reading, Philadelphia and Other Stories is built around a New Year’s Eve road trip to the City of Brotherly Love, in addition to tales of skin rashes and romantic memories. The presentation is directed by Mark Jaynes, with Rome, Menzies, actress Katie Schottland, guitarist David Kammerer, and singer-songwriter Katie Mullins.