tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33713511385960554442024-03-15T18:10:02.744-07:00The Detritus ReviewClassical Music's Ivory Towers Laugh Hard, Fall Over, Soil PantsUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger614125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3371351138596055444.post-16482459672561612632013-08-16T22:14:00.001-07:002013-08-16T22:24:10.090-07:00In Which I Am Clearly Being Baited<div class="article__body">
It is, really, unthinkable that <a href="http://www.examiner.com/article/one-last-plea-for-classical-music" target="_blank">this</a> could be anything other than a blatant attempt to lure the ol' Detritus Review out of the garage and out for a spin.<br />
<br />
Poorly conceived and, however implausibly, perhaps even more badly executed; fact-free and full of ignorant, knee-jerk platitudes about music; written without recourse to copy, style, or content editors? Clearly a ploy. There is no way the good people at the <a href="http://www.sfexaminer.com/" target="_blank">San Francisco Examiner</a>; no...wait, <a href="http://www.examiner.com/about" target="_blank">who</a>?<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #990000;">Examiner.com launched in April 2008, to provide freelancers
across the United States with a platform to share their knowledge and
expertise through informative and entertaining content.</span><br />
<br />
Huh. Well, there's no way <i>that</i> could go wrong.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #990000;">We have an
in-house editorial team that provides guidance and mentorship to the
contributors.</span><br />
<br />
Objection! Assumes facts not in evidence. <br />
<br />
<span style="color: #990000;">Our network has grown to over 100,000 contributors,
captivating our audience with interesting, entertaining, relevant
content on a variety of topics</span><br />
<br />
Sounds like a low-paid freelance crap mill. I should know; I used to be an editor <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demand_Media" target="_blank">for one</a>. Who, one wonders, is behind this paragon of prose generation?<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #990000;">Examiner.com
is wholly owned by The Anschutz Corporation, one of the largest sports
and entertainment companies in the world</span><br />
<br />
Gosh, I sure hope someone there has opinions about music.<br />
<br />
Turns out I'm...no, no. We're <i>all</i> in luck, <br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.examiner.com/article/one-last-plea-for-classical-music" target="_blank">One last plea for classical music</a><br />
Peter Adams, examiner.com, August 13, 2012<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #990000;">Composers of atonal music haven’t harmed <a class="inline_link" href="http://www.examiner.com/topic/classical-music">classical music</a>.
They have killed it.</span><br />
<br />
Yawn. I don't like apples, but I don't go around saying "apples have killed fruit." I suspect that this is because I am not an idiot.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #990000;">They insisted that the audience was not important,
couldn't understand it, or just did not matter.</span><br />
<br />
They did? I mean, this could be referring to the <a href="http://www.palestrant.com/babbitt.html" target="_blank">famous article by Babbitt</a>, but it seems more likely that it's just a broad, sweeping generalization.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #990000;">This was the height of
arrogance.</span><br />
<br />
Not like writing freelance articles addressing topics about which you are woefully ignorant!<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #990000;">Even Schoenberg who basically invented atonal music did not
much care for it and publicly wondered more than a few times why anyone
would want to listen to it.</span><br />
<br />
This is the dumbest thing I've ever seen, and I saw <i>Battleship</i>.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhM0WL1TNCHpR0aWyfgpdFfym-zj4bSxg4FqKmAN3BkdYg0Dk63ICcHZMZr4EdCVZRqbhdejIhpPaQMAQfoiQhXf2SKe5xND1_lvTrj4XnV0FZFWLuHGxqshsDqbzadYPEojJylOZpYXtg/s1600/Battleship-wallpapers-2-400x250.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhM0WL1TNCHpR0aWyfgpdFfym-zj4bSxg4FqKmAN3BkdYg0Dk63ICcHZMZr4EdCVZRqbhdejIhpPaQMAQfoiQhXf2SKe5xND1_lvTrj4XnV0FZFWLuHGxqshsDqbzadYPEojJylOZpYXtg/s320/Battleship-wallpapers-2-400x250.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Figure 1: Possibly worse than <i>Transformers</i>.</div>
<br />
Also, your prose literally makes me sad. Also, I am one of the arrogant assholes that likes Schoenberg, and I think I've read just about everything he wrote that's available in English, and I challenge you to back up your assertion with, you know, facts.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #990000;">Today, has any set of recordings sold as
poorly as the complete collection of Schoenberg’s atonal piano music?</span><br />
<br />
This is just raw speculation. It might even be libel. And it's certainly fucking stupid; why would you equate sales with quality?<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiEkYM43ymcsk8sBK7P9v3_XN15ZS4bSDtirPMsV823dydrVRUqk-oDb5l_PbhD6c8XNaCUREdt27Q-svBFnUFfvfwlsuoH38qpOWtwHb6v5_xMGXum4F4BnoruZAJ0PSvGQVygYkL1go/s1600/Carly-Rae-Jepsen-Call-Me-Maybe-Universal-Studios-Citywalk.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiEkYM43ymcsk8sBK7P9v3_XN15ZS4bSDtirPMsV823dydrVRUqk-oDb5l_PbhD6c8XNaCUREdt27Q-svBFnUFfvfwlsuoH38qpOWtwHb6v5_xMGXum4F4BnoruZAJ0PSvGQVygYkL1go/s1600/Carly-Rae-Jepsen-Call-Me-Maybe-Universal-Studios-Citywalk.jpg" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Figure 2: Far better than that fucktard Schoenberg.</div>
<br />
This article is Sarah Palin showing up to a speaking engagement with a Big Gulp, except it's not clear to whom this red meat is being proffered. <i>Ha ha stupid libtards with your atonal music!</i><br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #990000;">As
a teacher in Southern California, he told students in his composition
classes that the best way to make a living as a composer was to write
jingles and music for advertisements.</span><br />
<br />
This, of course, is no longer true, as movies and television are now much more lucrative avenues. But that was never the point, was it?<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #990000;">He taught students to write atonal
music, but then said don’t do it.</span><br />
<br />
Most of his students, actually, studied traditional counterpoint, harmony, form, and so forth. And, again, there's not even an ancillary quote to back up this nonsense. And, yet again, this "mentored" prose is about the same quality as a third-rate quarterback's out routes.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7NfzZt8t_KMdu9ob6XxEVbYueQSdhawkEO4veFSzH2MU5nvcaKfhK3v_wQQnaVGlNB_L-9H_Jyzt9RI-aV0grgJUzSJFOt7KyanWDs_pw0Xa5tW14IYZFsXVn76FGUlBSQBGs8hAqOhY/s1600/TimTebow-635.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7NfzZt8t_KMdu9ob6XxEVbYueQSdhawkEO4veFSzH2MU5nvcaKfhK3v_wQQnaVGlNB_L-9H_Jyzt9RI-aV0grgJUzSJFOt7KyanWDs_pw0Xa5tW14IYZFsXVn76FGUlBSQBGs8hAqOhY/s320/TimTebow-635.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Figure 3: I hate your writing <i>this</i> much.</div>
<br />
<span style="color: #990000;">Too few listened, and audiences are
now stuck listening to the same old hash of Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven,
and occasionally, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, and perhaps when a conductor is
feeling adventurous will drag out music by Mendelsohn, Vivaldi, Saint
Saens, Schumann, or J. S. Bach or unlistenable collections of atonal
sound passed of as music.</span><br />
<br />
Wow. My apologies to Tim Tebow. He may be passed of as [sic] a quarterback, but this is fucking dreadful. This sentence might go in The Canon of Fucking Dreadful Sentences. I will henceforth refer to this sentence as "The Shitstain."<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #990000;">Keep an eye open if you go to Classical music
concerts. Did the conductor program atonal music? Not if he/she wishes
to keep conducting. Audiences will not listen to this music and people
will and do walk out if it is programmed. If the conductor wishes to
drive the ensemble into bankruptcy he/she will schedule atonal music.</span><br />
<br />
This, meanwhile, is just utter crap. One wonders if the writer has made a survey of recent programs, or, really, ever been to a concert. For instance, this <a href="http://nyphil.org/" target="_blank">failing and bankrupt ensemble</a> is directed by <a href="http://nyphil.org/about-us/the-orchestra/music-director-alan-gilbert" target="_blank">this idiot who is completely fired</a> never ever <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=new+york+philharmonic+schoenberg&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=com.yahoo:en-US:official&client=firefox" target="_blank">programs atonal music</a> of any kind.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #990000;">Most concertgoers despise atonal music, and tragically by extension
any piece of music composed since about 1950, if not much earlier.</span><br />
<br />
One notes with interest that the writer is himself a composer. <br />
<br />
<span style="color: #990000;">Even
Stravinsky is still too strange for some audiences. Atonal music is too
intellectual.</span><br />
<br />
Eh, I think I'm just going to go with a big "fuck you" at this point. Why don't you go listen to some nice comfortable drivel and leave the rest of us alone?<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #990000;">In one way, it is like the New York Crossword puzzle.</span><br />
<br />
Yes, the...New York Crossword puzzle. You know what else "it is like?" <i>Proofreading.</i><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #990000;">It
looks interesting on paper once you figure it all out. But both are
basically amusing mind games. To carry this analogy to an absurd
extreme, consider this...</span><br />
<br />
Yeah, you know what? Nah. This is getting long and I'm out of practice. I'm just going to have to go ahead and cherry pick some of the dumbest things from the remainder of this article.*<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">*None of them nears the majesty of The Shitstain, but we make do with what we have.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #990000;">Now, having harangued modern music, let’s put the whole discussion in
perspective.</span><br />
<br />
Oh, <i>let's do</i>. Can we [sic] change to the plural while we're [sic] at it? <br />
<br />
<span style="color: #990000;">Every few hundred years or so, aesthetics change.</span><br />
<br />
This is the single dumbest thing I've read since the last dumbest thing (above), and I read <i>The Fountainhead</i>.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh75zyEb6BJtBkOKjf7Y4aueknkxXj_kjyjECf7thUpYiI0AklKyl_LH5mMvnZ9GbowfKcuhpGX9hjDvzLp4Y1yR0r80Yc9dcYoA2bQJswLJB99Vgij7DUiWI179r5ZxOFPF5gcLBsV5MU/s1600/the-fountainhead-book.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh75zyEb6BJtBkOKjf7Y4aueknkxXj_kjyjECf7thUpYiI0AklKyl_LH5mMvnZ9GbowfKcuhpGX9hjDvzLp4Y1yR0r80Yc9dcYoA2bQJswLJB99Vgij7DUiWI179r5ZxOFPF5gcLBsV5MU/s320/the-fountainhead-book.jpg" width="217" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Figure 4: A pile of crap.</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
How often does someone who has, very clearly, not given any serious thought to style, aesthetics, art, teleology, or philosophy get to generalize like this? <i>Welcome to examiner.com!</i></div>
<br />
<span style="color: #990000;">Sometimes this change is subtle. Other times it is more abrupt. The
technique of painting of the stultified French academy of the mid-1800s
was completely turned on its head with the new painting techniques of
the French Impressionist artists. Why did this style evolve? The best
guess is that Europe was being introduced to influences from outside of
modern Europe. Ancient Egyptian, Greek, and Roman art vied with
contemporary art from Europe’s colonies, and from Asia. Modern recipes
for paint allowed artists to paint directly from the tube and not spend
hours grinding pigments, and/or mixing chemicals to produce that desired
color.</span><br />
<br />
A smattering of actual information is like the sprinkles dressing up the faecal-flavored cupcake that is this worst-informed summary about change in the arts ever.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #990000;">For music, these same influences combined with a growing
awareness of styles from earlier times, and non-European cultures. This
produced some of the finest works of the 19th century. Then, the angst
caused by the Franco-Prussian war, WWI, and WWII turned Europe inward
and made its populous became morose. The majority of Europe was being
seriously bombarded with too much highly negative information, and too
little time to take it all in or expel it.</span><br />
<br />
Holy crap! Europe was being bombarded with <i>time?</i> <br />
<br />
<span style="color: #990000;">For this reason, historians
will describe our time as the Expressionist movement, where beauty was
cast out and replaced by negative emotions.</span><br />
<br />
Leaving aside speculation about what historians will call "our" time, I think that one's taken. <br />
<br />
<span style="color: #990000;">To heck with the social
graces and common courtesy while we are at it.</span><br />
<br />
Atonal music is rude, and furthermore worse than Hitler.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #990000;">Today, a few adventurous composers of classical music are striving to
break away from atonal music techniques and rekindle people’s
willingness to hear new classical music.</span><br />
<br />
Here one idly speculates that the author is one such composer. Further, this is hardly a new idea.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjd1zI0H0a8LvOPGbrEauv2-HjbbszgE_9oPJo_zPitRSWkhCD9SNFDqW-ANtQoDBXrC4SV-wr2_2OaxMpSqmDN4ndPSDuS8AEBqk-5-sYb_TvLJJJ3Mfe7IxayJ3FK6CLwGTTTfSSJRiM/s1600/peter-pears-6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjd1zI0H0a8LvOPGbrEauv2-HjbbszgE_9oPJo_zPitRSWkhCD9SNFDqW-ANtQoDBXrC4SV-wr2_2OaxMpSqmDN4ndPSDuS8AEBqk-5-sYb_TvLJJJ3Mfe7IxayJ3FK6CLwGTTTfSSJRiM/s320/peter-pears-6.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Figure 5: Benjamin Britten clutches his pipe at Peter Pears.</div>
<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #990000;">However, for many of them, this
technique of writing atonal music is a ball and chain that they
inherited in college.</span><br />
<br />
Mixed metaphors are a stage in a china shop. <br />
<br />
<span style="color: #990000;">They cannot or will not break free and change
their writing style. One of the most difficult things for a composer to
do is to write a beautiful melody.</span><br />
<br />
Let alone a coherent screed. <br />
<br />
<span style="color: #990000;">This has always been true, and is why
a great melody can make a composer rich.</span><br />
<br />
Asserting that your assertion is universal seems like a great rhetorical strategy...and then you get to junior high school.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #990000;">With atonal music, beauty is
to be shunned as if it were a skunk.</span><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEp6GPHR7PfH2stfsbHV30KGpTYFqrnJufOkNe0qe2jmtiBDC8zGJLDN6pYGbjqa4q59AyyGVL4l3VLf31fG9cHlYpYIr3zPtk3frKzg0p4ElXvtK-ELFLBAhl4ggsdc3oBbALsF9RaBE/s1600/tumblr_mprljycBKv1somw7ho1_1280.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="244" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEp6GPHR7PfH2stfsbHV30KGpTYFqrnJufOkNe0qe2jmtiBDC8zGJLDN6pYGbjqa4q59AyyGVL4l3VLf31fG9cHlYpYIr3zPtk3frKzg0p4ElXvtK-ELFLBAhl4ggsdc3oBbALsF9RaBE/s320/tumblr_mprljycBKv1somw7ho1_1280.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Figure 6: "<span class="st">Dear Mr. President, there are too many states nowadays.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span class="st">Please eliminate three. I am not a crackpot."</span></div>
<br />
<span style="color: #990000;">However, audiences have been
bludgeoned enough with bad music and will no longer accept the
possibility that a composer today can write something worth listening
to.</span><br />
<br />
Which is why there are so few composers nowadays, as opposed to, say, <i>more fucking composers than there have ever been in all previous times combined</i>.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #990000;">Any composer who writes beautiful music is dismissed with some very
spicy invectives by snarky music critics.</span><br />
<br />
Have you ever <i>read</i> any music criticism? Somewhere I heard there's an entire <i>blog</i> snarkily dismissing knee-jerk atonality-hating music critics. (Who are, by the way, legion, if you hadn't noticed.)<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #990000;">Sorry, music critics, but
trying to breathe life into a dead skunk is a waste of time, and does
not improve its smell. Music critics are as much to blame for the death
of new Classical music as the composer, if not more so.</span><br />
<br />
Man, if you replaced "composers" with "progressives" and "atonal music" with "the liberal agenda" you could publish this in <i>Reason</i>.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTYlEj_Fn3Qkt5r9J0wERBBjy2wZyhrEhNaHP7jGncDSs7jmvIJ_ApDdd9PUaPcq0B86VL9JeF3NlXUqzEuHAUe9YPGVS6EE4IkQDqMnPWds9JhU336TC1qFPBwxOUGzc6_3vFG-oOQmY/s1600/1256309817319391_lg.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTYlEj_Fn3Qkt5r9J0wERBBjy2wZyhrEhNaHP7jGncDSs7jmvIJ_ApDdd9PUaPcq0B86VL9JeF3NlXUqzEuHAUe9YPGVS6EE4IkQDqMnPWds9JhU336TC1qFPBwxOUGzc6_3vFG-oOQmY/s320/1256309817319391_lg.jpg" width="244" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Figure 7: Propaganda meets drivel; they have a few drinks</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
and decide to murder intellectual honesty while it sleeps.</div>
<br />
<span style="color: #990000;">Art styles do not change because of a new artist or composer as
quickly as styles are created because of new technology. The French
Impressionists learned this and changed the art field. The jazz era saw
the introduction of new musical instruments like the trumpet, saxophone,
and banjo. Popular music quickly devoured these new musical instruments
and fully digested them. Classical music composers tried to integrate
these instruments but basically failed.</span><br />
<br />
I think I can say without fear of hyperbole that this is the best encapsulation of an argument, ever.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnE7TG8m35iCbZ_XBeZbR5OSHgQ8SynA9OgQMKFevaUYmQcmatP2aEcICqcqDn089C6CggjzU4fH-x-EQPYEX0T0oHB4k3nm13O5UynwnQePMtzMvkxj18_RvT4pg1lGD4t1FwWT1EqBU/s1600/Johnny-in-the-control-tower.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnE7TG8m35iCbZ_XBeZbR5OSHgQ8SynA9OgQMKFevaUYmQcmatP2aEcICqcqDn089C6CggjzU4fH-x-EQPYEX0T0oHB4k3nm13O5UynwnQePMtzMvkxj18_RvT4pg1lGD4t1FwWT1EqBU/s1600/Johnny-in-the-control-tower.jpg" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Figure 8: "Well, let's see. First the earth cooled. And then the dinosaurs came,
but they got too big and fat, so they all died and they turned into oil.
And then the Arabs came and they bought Mercedes Benzes. And Prince
Charles started wearing all of Lady Di's clothes. I couldn't believe it."</div>
<br />
<span style="color: #990000;">Today, the trumpet has
successfully replaced the cornet.</span><br />
<br />
Seriously? This is like a fake high school science film in <i>The Simpsons</i>.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #990000;">But to see a classical music concert
featuring a saxophone, banjo, or even marimba is just too strange.</span><br />
<br />
Holy fucking hell. Have you ever been to a new music concert? The marimba is <i>de rigeur</i> for new composers (right up there with setting "Seven Ways of Looking at a Blackbird").<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #990000;">Other
classical music composers have gone underground. To make art that
requires all an artist’s emotions and often much of their savings only
to have the work panned or ignored by critics is too much for some.</span><br />
<br />
Yikes. Bitter much?<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #990000;">Others composers simply have sidestepped the critics and have released
music in electronic forms only and will not waste their time submitting
works to conductors.</span><br />
<br />
Others composers alsos sometimes haves editors, I reckon. <br />
<br />
<span style="color: #990000;">Is there a chance that modern tonal music will give birth to a new
form of Classical music? Oh, let us hope that it will.</span><br />
<br />
I don't think, given the available evidence, there is any danger of that, because: context.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #990000;">Let it be joyous,
heartfelt, and meaningful, but not be vapid.</span><br />
<br />
Heh, yeah. What he said. Also: a unicorn that shits rainbows. Because, you see: it's 2013, and we're most of us not 19th century [white, male] European post-Cartesian Hegelians in emergent Nationalistic and rapidly industrializing nation-states. But, you know, whatever.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #990000;">Let it be more than any of
the previous styles, but aware of all that have come before, if only to
know what to avoid.</span><br />
<br />
Which, ironically, is how we got to atonality, in a manner of speaking. But <i>do</i> carry on: <br />
<br />
<span style="color: #990000;">By contrast, how many times have you heard someone
sing a tone row (atonal equivalent to a melody)?</span><br />
<br />
Um. Many? You don't have YouTube, I guess. <br />
<br />
And to hell with that; I've <i>taught</i> people to sing tone rows. <i>It's fucking easy.</i> And the pandering at the end there makes me think that your target audience is Idiots Who Already Agree with You. (I'll see if I can find submission information for <i>Reason</i>.)<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #990000;">You won’t because that
was not the goal of the atonal composer.</span><br />
<br />
[Please please <i>please</i> tell me what the "goal of the atonal composer" is!]<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #990000;">The goal of the atonal composer
was to alienate, and they succeeded beyond their wildest expectations. </span><br />
<br />
I swear to the Invisible Pink Unicorn, that is the best answer of all time.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #990000;">NOW WHAT?</span><br />
<br />
Hey, did I leave a big "fuck you" up there somewhere? </div>
Sator Arepohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00006808744513156317noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3371351138596055444.post-55233144117065439732013-06-08T09:26:00.000-07:002013-06-08T09:33:03.093-07:00I'm here for Microwave Cookery<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #363636; font-size: small; font-weight: normal; line-height: 21.71875px;">On a “musical thrill-ride” of a concert where “fistfuls of piano notes” were “pitted against [a] full-throttle orchestra” in front of “1,941 concertgoers” and…well, no less than the “</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #363636; font-size: small; font-weight: normal; line-height: 21.71875px;">interaction of such electrifying sonic events with our senses invigorate(d) and inspire(d), providing sustenance for both body and soul,” the Springfield Symphony Orchestra performed Gershwin (yeah!) and Rachmaninoff (double yeah!!). </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<a href="http://www.masslive.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2013/04/concert_review_springfield_sym_1.html" style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Concert review: Springfield Symphony Orchestra shines with Rachmaninoff’s piano concerto</span></a><br />
<div style="background: white; line-height: 16.3pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #363636; font-family: inherit;">Clinton Noble Jr., April 14, 2013, The Republican
(MassLive.com)</span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 16.3pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 16.3pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #363636; font-family: inherit;">But wait, there's more!</span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 16.3pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 16.3pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #990000;">The meat in the expatriate sandwich (as it were)…</span><span style="color: #363636;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 16.3pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 16.3pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #363636;">I’m not sure Gershwin could be called an expatriate
because of, you know, the definition of the word.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 16.3pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 16.3pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #990000;">…was...</span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 16.3pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #363636;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 16.3pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #363636;">Yeah?!</span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 16.3pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #363636;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 16.3pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #990000;">...Walter Piston's...</span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 16.3pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #363636;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 16.3pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #363636;">Whoa? Who the fuck is Walter Piston? </span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 16.3pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #363636;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAbtu8QcZy0AxGKXRRq0m_Bp2kaEIz-A83j4vWMoQgmb7XAfRmBcigH2b8IDaXbAzOb5-aIqjlJdg2AMwJtPxu7Haac39e3n-dGLu26wcP6lx4j_VA7vWWguJ_m9QZUtezH0hzDWjvlGIN/s1600/PistonHonda.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAbtu8QcZy0AxGKXRRq0m_Bp2kaEIz-A83j4vWMoQgmb7XAfRmBcigH2b8IDaXbAzOb5-aIqjlJdg2AMwJtPxu7Haac39e3n-dGLu26wcP6lx4j_VA7vWWguJ_m9QZUtezH0hzDWjvlGIN/s1600/PistonHonda.gif" /></a></div>
<div style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 16.3pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #363636;">figure Walter Piston: "I'll give you a TKO from Tokyo!"</span></div>
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<span style="color: #363636;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 16.3pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #990000;">...was Walter Piston's Fourth Symphony, penned in 1950 for
the centenary of the University of Minnesota, and as American as apple pie. </span><span style="color: #363636;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 16.3pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 16.3pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #363636;">If it weren't for the pure Rachmaninoffian awesomeness on the second half, I know I'd be long gone. I've got a connection to the interwebs...let's see what I can find out. </span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 16.3pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #363636;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 16.3pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #363636;">Well, first, Walter Piston actually lived in France for over 2 years. I don't know why I care about this expatriate meme, but I just do.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 16.3pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 16.3pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #363636;">And (b), his symphony is “American as apple pie”? Because he’s an American? Does this mean I'm going to like his symphony? Because, you know, Harry
Partch was born in America too. In fact,
his music began a complete rejection of European concert tradition (or so
Wikipedia tells me). What could be more
apple pie-ish than that?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 16.3pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 16.3pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #363636;">I really don't know what to think. My gut is telling me that this Piston piece is music I've never heard, and therefore awful. But my brain is confused by your American comment. America is the greatest country god ever gave man, but on the other hand there's Eric Whitacre. </span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 16.3pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 16.3pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #363636;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimltFktn7-ic-R2_DKGrybUKi7081Rv0tr4yBMy_3c8pVFXWb9qfCEV7W0viCJTKzZdmfbNpukO2fkdPymkw9sRgB9arYAV8phGkLj08xJmv94GuqBWjN39DCgi3eJOjZHmPJO8rPw7sjx/s1600/faith+tones.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimltFktn7-ic-R2_DKGrybUKi7081Rv0tr4yBMy_3c8pVFXWb9qfCEV7W0viCJTKzZdmfbNpukO2fkdPymkw9sRgB9arYAV8phGkLj08xJmv94GuqBWjN39DCgi3eJOjZHmPJO8rPw7sjx/s320/faith+tones.jpeg" width="319" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #363636; line-height: 21.71875px; text-align: center;">figure gift: The greatest music god ever gave America. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 16.3pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #363636; line-height: 16.3pt;">Unfamiliar American
composer…it just </span><span style="color: #363636;">doesn't</span><span style="color: #363636; line-height: 16.3pt;"> add up.</span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 16.3pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 16.3pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #990000;">Rhodes gave a brief spoken introduction to the piece and
played its opening theme, marked “Piacevole,”…</span><span style="color: #363636;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 16.3pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 16.3pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #363636;">I don't know...'piacevole' doesn't sound very Merican to me.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #363636;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 16.3pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #990000; line-height: 16.3pt;">…or “pleasing” by the composer, before giving a scrupulously
rehearsed and deeply expressive reading of the entire work.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 16.3pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #212121;">Sounds quite punctilious. But I guess I’m still hung up on this "I've never heard of him" thing. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 16.3pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #990000;">“I know when audiences see a composer they don’t
recognize on the program, they think ‘Oh, no! what’s this going to be like?’”
Rhodes admitted.</span><span style="color: #363636;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 16.3pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #363636;">Thank you. That's what I've been trying to say. Let's just put some Beethoven on this concert and be done with it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 16.3pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #990000;">Piston offered nothing scary to the concertgoer, Rhodes
further quipped,…</span><span style="color: #363636;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 16.3pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 16.3pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #363636;">Scary? As in American, or not-American?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #363636;"><br /></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEGqK1JcWcVOHZndbLk7R15dCnQeTaz6j8AS2xYV8_en8ak3I9T7mzwYzCBUZZ4VJGzhftrag6yuHLKKDZbHy4YAdt7EEbFlO4gd_xryLU1ul0uwvNPCE8poskWN8ptTV1FRvow2wWZQXv/s1600/piston+harmony.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEGqK1JcWcVOHZndbLk7R15dCnQeTaz6j8AS2xYV8_en8ak3I9T7mzwYzCBUZZ4VJGzhftrag6yuHLKKDZbHy4YAdt7EEbFlO4gd_xryLU1ul0uwvNPCE8poskWN8ptTV1FRvow2wWZQXv/s320/piston+harmony.gif" width="247" /></a></div>
<div style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 16.3pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #363636;">figure book: Chapter 1: Don't Write Scary Music</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #990000;"><span style="line-height: 16.3pt;">…adding that he </span><span style="line-height: 21.71875px;">doesn't</span><span style="line-height: 16.3pt;"> play “scary” pieces because he </span><span style="line-height: 21.71875px;">doesn't</span><span style="line-height: 16.3pt;"> like them, either.</span></span><span style="color: #363636; line-height: 16.3pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 16.3pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 16.3pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #363636;">Yeah. Who the fuck
likes “scary” pieces?</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 16.3pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #990000;">Light-hearted as that sentiment might seem on the
surface, it is a very telling commentary on the excesses of the previous
century.</span><span style="color: #363636;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 16.3pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 16.3pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #363636;">Or the biases of narrow-minded musical midgets. Wait…was that uncalled for? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 16.3pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 16.3pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #363636;">Nope, you’re probably right. Those asshat 20<sup>th</sup> century
composers totally ruined music. If I
don’t recognize the name of the composer (gasp!) then who knows sort of unclean
sounds could enter my virginal ears. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 16.3pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 16.3pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #990000;">Indeed, as Rhodes asserted, works by Piston and other
Americans like him, Hanson, Schuman, Thomson, et al., became eclipsed by the
music of the intelligentsia and the academic avant garde, and never achieved
the recognition that their content and construction merited, because they were
perceived as appealing, therefore populist, and second-rate.</span><span style="color: #363636;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 16.3pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 16.3pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #363636;">Their awesome music was eclipsed by the awful music that
no one likes? How on earth did that
happen?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 16.3pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 16.3pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #990000;">Rhodes and the SSO are shedding long overdue daylight on
some terrific music that is as exciting to listen to as it is to play, and
their 21st-audience is grateful.</span><span style="color: #363636;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 16.3pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
I know there's a lesson here about not <span style="color: #363636; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">judging the music of composers you're unfamiliar with, but...</span></div>
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Gustavhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05316458340368681169noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3371351138596055444.post-43713856890291584962013-04-27T09:19:00.000-07:002013-04-27T10:24:35.418-07:00It's very easy to criticize...And it's fun, too!<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="line-height: 20px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Everyone knows that classical music attained perfection in 1873. It's a scientific fact. Why people persist in expressing independent thoughts about music after then is beyond me. </span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<a href="http://www.palmbeachdailynews.com/news/news/local/symphonys-chamber-program-falls-short/nWScd/"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Review: Symphony’s chamber program falls short</span></a></div>
<div style="background-color: white; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Ken Keaton, Palm Beach Daily News, Feb. 20, 2013</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">That's too bad. Unispired programming, less than perfect performances...I wonder who or what might be to blame?</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: inherit;">In 1918, Arnold Schoenberg...</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Wait. That Arnold Schoenberg?</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: inherit;">...(yes, that Arnold Schoenberg)…</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Yes?</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white;">
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: inherit;">…founded the Society for Private Musical Performances in Vienna.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">This is true. </span></div>
<div style="background-color: white;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white;">
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: inherit;">His purpose was to present modern music to small audiences in a chamber setting, and often he or his students would arrange larger orchestral works for a chamber ensemble.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">I can see now why you mention Schoenberg's society. Chamber ensembles in chamber settings? Bor-ing.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white;">
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: inherit;">He believed that hearing the notes in a more transparent setting would make the music easier to understand.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Okay, that sounds like an interesting premise. So...?</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white;">
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: inherit;">Though Schoenberg is best known for breaking the tonal system…</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Well, crap. I can't afford a new tonal system. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: inherit;">…by creating a new musical language, his efforts were not limited to the most avant-garde works.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Oh, inherent bias, where would we be without you?</span></div>
Gustavhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05316458340368681169noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3371351138596055444.post-59479207632952610842013-03-10T12:46:00.000-07:002013-03-10T20:36:15.778-07:00Article loads more fun to read than it must have been to write<a href="http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2013/mar/05/review-chamber-series-puffs-up-to-smphony/" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.5em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Chamber Series puffs up to symphony strength</span></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Naples Daily News, March 5, 2013</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">In a small, but musical, community a pick up orchestra performed Beethoven's Seventh Symphony. It's a difficult work for even the most esteemed orchestras, what with its lack of clean, clear solos, </span><span style="line-height: 24px;">spice-less</span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> phrasing, and the preponderance of multimeasure notes.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; line-height: 1.5em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The work is forged from four movements actually praised for their dance attributes,...</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I know, pssh...</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUnQD4c_1P8pJCLx8g-9aTDJk0QqkEqbJZk6j7BQsrcO4x5pp4weJxsLg-aQCF7Mu3i0Iczb1ANzTBtsVC8_KIqMYM1UDw3L7jH5yEWzXvS-SnFpF_RWlHdtz0NpQIzNE1Wz9xAHb7ExsD/s1600/JIM120_Forge.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="316" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUnQD4c_1P8pJCLx8g-9aTDJk0QqkEqbJZk6j7BQsrcO4x5pp4weJxsLg-aQCF7Mu3i0Iczb1ANzTBtsVC8_KIqMYM1UDw3L7jH5yEWzXvS-SnFpF_RWlHdtz0NpQIzNE1Wz9xAHb7ExsD/s320/JIM120_Forge.JPG" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">figure 1: Beethoven composing a symphony. And saving the universe from, oh, let's say Juggernaut?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But what does it mean?</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">...meaning it’s nearly impossible not to shake your head or sway at some point.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">That actually sounds true.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">T<span style="line-height: 1.5em;">he grandly dark second movement even lends itself to headbanging, if you’re channeling ‘80 rock culture.</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiH5-r7_iJyNuzwuO7SzXmecu7JaR4YXKw5R-0Kdc2jyLKco63IynVGvVLf17RlEvajNJfXXcbJPOThWA3WQl76BsV31iQFUv7pHQv3S2NGTEThcDhe4cAgpHKB4pP6qVNs8LsIn83gRdYw/s1600/beavis_and_butthead_experience_front.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiH5-r7_iJyNuzwuO7SzXmecu7JaR4YXKw5R-0Kdc2jyLKco63IynVGvVLf17RlEvajNJfXXcbJPOThWA3WQl76BsV31iQFUv7pHQv3S2NGTEThcDhe4cAgpHKB4pP6qVNs8LsIn83gRdYw/s320/beavis_and_butthead_experience_front.jpg" width="208" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">figure 2: The perfect analogy.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The woodwinds gifted the piece with clean, clear solos, and the flutes shot deliciously peppery phrases into the third movement. Its ubiquitous timpani sounded like loads more fun to play than it must have been.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What's not to like about that description about the otherwise bland, yet arduous 7th symphony.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A dozen violins and about nine of the lower-registers were making lush music, throwing phrases from upper to lower and holding a marathon multimeasure note behind the other sections in the final movement.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 24px;">In case that was unclear, the lush throwing music is right after the</span><span style="line-height: 27px;"> end of the beginning of the middle.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The secondary theme of the Second Movement seemed to pose a few challenges in tone for the violins. Still, this section sailed through the treacherous finale so nimbly and happily the uninitiated would never know this isn’t a standing orchestra with a full schedule.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlwsmzrA2yoU1AEi5seOF6EmVGwyZzVjucbAzS2RyLaooD038PrLgSKYfmGehEmyjmpkmAhAPx7KgIaKKjbiycBMnl7XkwqTtmffJttZRbzBHuGV5_HmWv2oI2NDngYdqbWS6U6kWxgxXR/s1600/chwytybloodygitarowe.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlwsmzrA2yoU1AEi5seOF6EmVGwyZzVjucbAzS2RyLaooD038PrLgSKYfmGehEmyjmpkmAhAPx7KgIaKKjbiycBMnl7XkwqTtmffJttZRbzBHuGV5_HmWv2oI2NDngYdqbWS6U6kWxgxXR/s320/chwytybloodygitarowe.jpg" width="226" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">figure 3: Happily the uninitiated would never know that he's not fingering a real chord.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sounds like a pretty incredible performance. And for a pick-up orchestra! Is there some sort of outrageous claim you can make that will perfectly sum it all up?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We have heard this symphony live three times in the last four seasons — once from the Los Angeles Philharmonic — and this stands with the best of them.</span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Of course it does.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Do yourself a favor and read the entire article which includes gems like "...<span style="line-height: 1.5em;">and each of its parts deserves to be savored, if only for 10 seconds, in our mental echo chambers."</span></span></div>
Gustavhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05316458340368681169noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3371351138596055444.post-77196264752193067252012-12-25T19:56:00.000-08:002012-12-25T19:56:02.560-08:00Oversight(s)<h3 class="entry-title">
<a href="http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/12/18/3732343/observer-reviews-articles-contained.html" target="_blank">Observer reviews, articles contained duplicated sentences</a></h3>
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Charlotte Observer, 12/18/2012</div>
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At first I thought that the paper (or writer) had unintentionally printed the same sentence twice. You know: in a row.</div>
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But no.</div>
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<div class="entry-title" style="color: #cc0000;">
A freelance writer who wrote theater reviews and articles for the
Observer from 2009 until this month repeated paragraphs from other
publications in about a third of the articles she wrote for the
Observer.</div>
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Okay, a couple of things:</div>
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1) It took three years to figure this out?</div>
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2) Who wrote this correction? No one -- not even "Charlotte Observer Staff" -- is willing to take attribution.</div>
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a) Detritus Review Reader Challenge! Can you rearrange this sentence to be less clear? I don't think I can.</div>
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b) "[A] third" is dreadful. In what writing guide, editorial style sheet, or first-year freshman composition course is "one-third" not merely preferred but mandated as correct?</div>
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c) I would either use "[month] 2009 until this month" or "2009-12" (you can quibble about "2009-2012" if you like, but even though most newspapers are read electronically, AP style still places a premium on column-inches and prefers any truncated form as long as clarity is maintained).</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="entry-title" style="color: #cc0000;">
These duplications violate the Observer’s ethical guidelines and
contractual agreements with freelancers, which require that writers
produce original material.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Look, I'm not out to cast aspersions on this writer, the name of whom I will omit. But let's not be afraid to use the word "plagiarism" when it's appropriate. In fact, one could argue that this is precisely the case for which the use of that particular word is reserved.</div>
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<div class="entry-title" style="color: #cc0000;">
In the Observer’s review in April 2012 of “Stomp” at the Blumenthal
Performing Arts Center’s Belk Theater, 13 of 16 sentences were the same
as sentences in a review published in MIT’s The Tech in 2001. Among
other reviews with duplicated paragraphs:...</div>
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Blah blah blah.</div>
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In some cases, the writer repeated a distinctive phrase from another
publication; in others she duplicated multiple paragraphs verbatim.</div>
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<br />Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/12/18/3732343/observer-reviews-articles-contained.html#storylink=cpy</div>
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At first I was all like Jebus! at least plagiarize from Tommasini or Kosman or someone who knows how to, you know, write sentences and stuff (not that <i>The Tech</i> is terrible, but: come on!).</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8RTIqLljVE7cPNtoSqCCKvbLj8Yw9mIq8TOpPSX3Xp_Y8Y-UPnFIUJDDg57mkWxTNmdBN217m6h2IsNJ0W7f_wZlly6xpD3BMxsIZmjIwCJJ3zlWHvt_vMu5YKjE5fJmqrF2VkyZLwYA/s1600/29506348.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8RTIqLljVE7cPNtoSqCCKvbLj8Yw9mIq8TOpPSX3Xp_Y8Y-UPnFIUJDDg57mkWxTNmdBN217m6h2IsNJ0W7f_wZlly6xpD3BMxsIZmjIwCJJ3zlWHvt_vMu5YKjE5fJmqrF2VkyZLwYA/s1600/29506348.jpg" /></a></div>
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</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Figure 1: <i>Kyle:</i> Jimmy, exactly what part of the fishsticks joke did Cartman write? <br /><i>Jimmy</i>: Well, he didn't actually write... any of it. <br /><i>Kyle</i>: Let me guess: you came up with the joke, and Cartman sat on the couch eating Twizzlers? <br /><i>Jimmy</i>: Actually, it was potato chips.
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But then I was all like, hey! that's clever, since no one will ever figure it out--it's not like the entire internet is archived and accessible via a full-text sear...oh, wait.</div>
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<div class="entry-title" style="color: #cc0000;">
The writer, [redacted-ed.], also repeated paragraphs verbatim in three
articles in two Observer-owned magazines, SouthPark Magazine and Lake
Norman.</div>
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I...wait.<i> SouthPark Magazine?</i></div>
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Coincidence? or an <i>hilarious</i> coincidence?</div>
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[The writer] apologized and said the duplicated sentences were unintentional.</div>
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"I <i>totally</i> meant to replace the paragraphs I pasted in from other reviews with original material, and simply forgot to do it, repeatedly, over a three-year span. For this I am sorry."</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8yEtNtpqNIOh02i9iaxNRFz68TS_8wHjG34yZjwQvin8kvFcd_JhFw7D4OqguxiokgACpgOyb1-MEgdGHYaUcXjSO0GzimNCcYZx4YzWV56lvg4i3O6jMB8qkSut5hEoqfyJm0wIyvk0/s1600/widestance1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="248" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8yEtNtpqNIOh02i9iaxNRFz68TS_8wHjG34yZjwQvin8kvFcd_JhFw7D4OqguxiokgACpgOyb1-MEgdGHYaUcXjSO0GzimNCcYZx4YzWV56lvg4i3O6jMB8qkSut5hEoqfyJm0wIyvk0/s320/widestance1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<div class="entry-title" style="text-align: center;">
Figure 2: Perhaps the oversight was due to a wide editorial stance.</div>
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In the end, what's important here is that editorial oversight works, albeit sometimes slowly, and-</div>
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<div class="entry-title" style="color: #cc0000; text-align: left;">
The similarities in the reviews came to the Observer’s attention through
a reader who saw one of Bell’s reviews, searched on the Internet for
other reviews of the same show and discovered several duplicated
paragraphs. The reader called the Observer last week. That call prompted
an examination...[the writer] is no longer writing for any Observer publication.</div>
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<br />Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/12/18/3732343/observer-reviews-articles-contained.html#storylink=cpy</div>
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<br />Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/12/18/3732343/observer-reviews-articles-contained.html#storylink=cpy</div>
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The Charlotte Observer crowdsourced their editorial oversight?*</div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">*What's more, it's late 2012 and the Blogger spellchecker doesn't know the word "crowdsourced." Isn't this thing run by The Google?</span></div>
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Oh, well done, sirs. Well done indeed.</div>
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Merry Christmas. Please enjoy this topical, holiday-themed pop culture reference that has little or nothing to do with the above.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKLuL5FrirbpipM2aLHvAhS0Qcv8HTRTtXK5UIHjPfP677Q8XcIVfxkFU_qs_TnadEofxQxENZSS46Z5izIfJqP2WmTrAwJDUWknug9JUyDAji16TndT1I9mEHwz3R-pJ66evwQSMBzA8/s1600/diehardxmas.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="269" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKLuL5FrirbpipM2aLHvAhS0Qcv8HTRTtXK5UIHjPfP677Q8XcIVfxkFU_qs_TnadEofxQxENZSS46Z5izIfJqP2WmTrAwJDUWknug9JUyDAji16TndT1I9mEHwz3R-pJ66evwQSMBzA8/s320/diehardxmas.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Figure 3: <b>John McClane</b>:
You throw quite a party. I didn't realize they celebrated Christmas in Japan.
<br /><b>Joseph Takagi</b>
:
Hey, we're flexible. Pearl Harbor didn't work out so we got you with tape decks.
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<br />Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/12/18/3732343/observer-reviews-articles-contained.html#storylink=cp</div>
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<br />Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/12/18/3732343/observer-reviews-articles-contained.html#storylink=cpy</div>
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<br />Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/12/18/3732343/observer-reviews-articles-contained.html#storylink=cpy</div>
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<br />Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/12/18/3732343/observer-reviews-articles-contained.html#storylink=cpy</div>
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<br />Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/12/18/3732343/observer-reviews-articles-contained.html#storylink=cpy</div>
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Sator Arepohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00006808744513156317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3371351138596055444.post-55226518066229878592012-11-18T21:30:00.000-08:002012-11-18T21:31:20.086-08:00Expanding the Parameters, or All Antecedents Have Consequences<h2>
<a href="http://bostonglobe.com/arts/music/2012/11/17/holiday-classical-music-performances-that-aren-messiah/UXYJt3cGgLf3phOh763KPI/story.html" target="_blank">Holiday classical musical performances beyond the 'Messiah'</a></h2>
David Weininger, Boston Globe, 11/17/2012<br />
<br />
Goodness gracious, is it that time already? Never too early to jump back into the shark-infested waters, as my mom always said.*<br />
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">*May not be true.</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #cc0000;">Soon it will be Christmas.</span><br />
<br />
Thank heavens for the Boston Globe. Talk about news you can use!<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #cc0000;">What should you listen to?</span><br />
<br />
Should? Uh...<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #cc0000;">This is not a simple question.</span><br />
<br />
No shit. What I "'should'" listen to is, apparently, prescribed by to the condition that "soon it will be Christmas." That's a whole <i>thing</i> right there. Perhaps I'm not a nominally Christian white East Coast American male over 55 who gives a shit that it's almost Christmas?<br />
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Oh, wait. This is in a <i>newspaper</i>. Well, I guess you have to write to your audience.<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-59NqzPtq65ukZT7YxVWceoCg49dJYtUc1dYaORrqfUewSzz9DFfXf0USaOrl-8DBFI7QFcLvoDuxHi0OpCoyfkiS7GInOZa-NcQ_EKvLcDMh1JUCRwparruJjU2Pzmz7t04Yle_PaEo/s1600/Reinikka_reading_the_newspaper.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="246" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-59NqzPtq65ukZT7YxVWceoCg49dJYtUc1dYaORrqfUewSzz9DFfXf0USaOrl-8DBFI7QFcLvoDuxHi0OpCoyfkiS7GInOZa-NcQ_EKvLcDMh1JUCRwparruJjU2Pzmz7t04Yle_PaEo/s320/Reinikka_reading_the_newspaper.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Figure 1: The all-inclusive target audience</div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000;">Historically, Christmas...</span><br />
<br />
If I said that I didn't like where this was going, I'd be lying...but only because of who I am and the blog for which I write. I'm ten kinds of strapped in and prepared for the least-researched sentence <i>ever</i>.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #cc0000;">...has been an immensely prolific time for composers, especially (and obviously) for those writing for the Christian church.</span><br />
<br />
I submit that the sense of "historically" being invoked here is not really anything as broad as the word itself suggests. It seems to me that, here, "historically" means "during the 18th century."<br />
<br />
There was actually a relatively short period of time, in a pretty small part of the world, during which most composers were employed by Christian churches.<br />
<br />
But, of course, people, places, and times not roughly related to "the last two or three hundred years of European-American history" aren't included in "historically."<br />
<br />
But, now, see: perhaps that's exactly what this article is after: breaking the Christmas concert paradigm.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdx6MSPygpt2gwAR3CRbmi875WPLvpR_F69mPH2qgWzwNQ5c_73xLn1kBRTDhcX6bvdX2H783B6WAG1hy-hviulF6at1de6d2efP1dnFY05-2VVfnlg6UuNk65hTC26-68AWpea-IAGpY/s1600/fife.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdx6MSPygpt2gwAR3CRbmi875WPLvpR_F69mPH2qgWzwNQ5c_73xLn1kBRTDhcX6bvdX2H783B6WAG1hy-hviulF6at1de6d2efP1dnFY05-2VVfnlg6UuNk65hTC26-68AWpea-IAGpY/s1600/fife.jpeg" /></a></div>
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Figure 2: "Now Andy, if you let them take thirty, they'll take thirty-five. If you
let them take thirty-five,</div>
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they'll take forty. If you let them take
forty, they'll take forty-five."</div>
<br />
Slow down there, Sator. You're a little rusty at this. Don't be so quick to--<br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000;">But this trove of musical riches is astonishingly easy to lose sight of, even in so artistically sophisticated a place as Boston.</span><br />
<br />
Wow, okay. I can't imagine that this sort of self-congratulatory onanism is going to live up to my optomistic projection.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGZH4LnWn7_XTq_pBCv5yKcDChWSCYF5NVcWD0BwnXdWlpp_e9J3p-5fEgv2QES-swVIScgoME_bB4fnLHT5r-hlxE6TCu0kvFB4bUNx29BvbuTTwrKFgu6QMmsiZfuwYMRntxNDydE4c/s1600/bostonfans.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGZH4LnWn7_XTq_pBCv5yKcDChWSCYF5NVcWD0BwnXdWlpp_e9J3p-5fEgv2QES-swVIScgoME_bB4fnLHT5r-hlxE6TCu0kvFB4bUNx29BvbuTTwrKFgu6QMmsiZfuwYMRntxNDydE4c/s1600/bostonfans.jpeg" /></a></div>
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Figure 3: The sophistication of Boston's cultural patrons is matched</div>
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only by their class and dignity.</div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000;">It can seem as though holiday offerings are confined to endless renditions of the “Hallelujah” chorus and an all-too-small group of holiday favorites.</span><br />
<br />
Although we're all sick of the Messiah--and I am therefore sympathetic to this sentiment--the contstruction "it can seem" is so unbelievably rhetorically weak that I'm rather put off. Instead of invoking a familiar sensation, "it can seem" could be used to justify any number of terrible, terrible sentences. To wit:<br />
<br />
"It can seem like your friend's hot daughter really appreciates your attention."<br />
<br />
See?<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #cc0000;">How to break out of this rut?</span><br />
<br />
By continuing to employ a string of weak grammatical constructions?<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #cc0000;">One strategy is to explore a Christmas distant in time and space from our own,</span><br />
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Figure 4: Does the rabbit-creature have a garrotte made of stars?</div>
<br />
<span style="color: #cc0000;">...and this is an experience that early music ensembles are especially skilled at providing.</span><br />
<br />
I'm gonna go ahead and write this off as a segue to talking about specific groups in Boston this season, since trying to understand the logic of this sentence in the abstract, as the alternative assumes some kind of non-Euclidian rhetorical space with which I'm not adequately equipped to deal.<br />
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Figure 5: If you thought of it, there are already hundreds of images of it.</div>
<br />
<span style="color: #cc0000;">Two such groups are Boston Camerata, an ensemble of instrumentalists and singers, and the vocal group Blue Heron. This year, the former is presenting “The Brotherhood of the Star: A Hispanic Christmas,” while the latter is offering a sampling of music for Advent, Christmas, and New Year’s from 15th-century France and Burgundy.</span><br />
<br />
I am in favor of both of these groups. I think it's important to go on the record about that before proceeding.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #cc0000;">“There’s a reason we hear ‘Messiah’ and ‘Nutcracker’ every year — because they’re so great,” said Scott Metcalfe, Blue Heron’s music director.</span><br />
<br />
Ha ha yeah that's totally it. We're not lazy or indoctrinated or forcefed a false nostalgia that poisons our present -- they're just so great!<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #cc0000;">“But doing these sort of alternative, 15th-century Christmases, there’s no sense that they have a holiday anything like ours.”</span><br />
<br />
Translation: the artistic director of an early music ensemble speculates that, based on available evidence, Christmas in 15th century Burgundy was different than Christmas today.<br />
<br />
I guess there IS a reason this is in the newspaper (based on available evidence).<br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000;">This is Blue Heron’s sixth season of holiday concerts — Metcalfe said that in the group’s early years they skipped it because, ironically, many of the singers could make more money doing “Messiah” performances.</span><br />
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Let's leave alone that "it" seems somehow to refer to "sixth season of holiday concerts" and, instead, focus on how "ironically" is "ironically" [sic] being used incorrectly.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #cc0000;">Boston Camerata, by contrast, began doing Christmas concerts in the early 1970s under Joel Cohen, now music director emeritus. (He is also directing “Brotherhood.”) Many have proven to be among the group’s most enduring programs.</span><br />
<br />
Many of...its artistic directors? Too many antecedents, not enough consequents. It's what Christmas is all about!<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #cc0000;">‘For us, there is a desire to pull the curtain open and say, wait a minute, there may be other things out there. Let’s look at them, let’s enjoy them.’ Anne Azéma, the Camerata’s artistic director, said of the impulse behind them: “It came out of a desire to remove oneself from the Christmas routine.”</span><br />
<br />
By putting on a Christmas concert?<br />
<span style="color: #cc0000;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000;">By “routine,” she meant “a canon
that was developed in the late 19th century in America — a mixture of
German-Scandinavian-English music which created this sort of postcard
idea of all things that we think now as Christmas.”</span><br />
<br />
Oh. Well, good, then, within the limited scope of expanding that notion to include slightly more European countries over a slightly longer period of time.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #cc0000;">That includes the caroling tradition that’s especially strong in Boston, popular songs about chestnuts and angels, “Messiah,” and other time-honored entries.</span><br />
<br />
Since I have a blog, I'd like to take this opportunity to mention that the only thing I hate more than angels (which are, conveniently for me, imaginary) is people who just fucking love angels.<br />
<br />
I'm sorry, you were saying something about Christmas concerts?<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #cc0000;">“It’s wonderful material,...</span><br />
<br />
Is that a nice way of calling it "not music?"<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #cc0000;">...some of it at least,</span><br />
<br style="color: #cc0000;" />
Ha.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #cc0000;">...but it’s become so overfamiliar that its impact is often lost.”</span><br />
<br />
Ding ding ding!<br />
<br />
If I was still an academic postmodernist asshole I'd call it "overdetermined" - but I quit being that, so I won't.**<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">**Technically, I am no longer an academic.</span> <br />
<br />
<span style="color: #cc0000;">“In a way, caught among all these things, you tend to forget that Christmas has been happening for quite a while,” she continued.</span><br />
<br />
Like basically since Halloween! Every year!<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #cc0000;">“For us, there is a desire to pull the curtain open and say, wait a minute, there may be other things out there. Let’s look at them, let’s enjoy them.”</span><br />
<br />
First, this the second time in three quotes you've used the "pull the curtain" analogy. I will refrain from speculating about that.<br />
<br />
Second, I like "look at" as a metaphor for "listen to." If you get <i>too</i> literal you scare away the rubes!<br />
<br />
Third, this:<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #cc0000;">These are, nevertheless, holiday concerts, which means that an audience, no matter how adventurous, is going to want something that resonates with their own experience, even if the music is unfamiliar.</span><br />
<br />
Yeah, this is about where I stopped reading, but only partly because the rationalization-to-description ratio became untenable.<br />
<br />
Happy Thanksgiving from your friendly if unreliable bloggers at the Detritus Review.Sator Arepohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00006808744513156317noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3371351138596055444.post-53757321931433888492012-11-11T18:28:00.000-08:002012-11-11T18:28:27.714-08:00Jonesing for Sesquicentenniality
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Yeah, yeah. We’re busy. We’re busy with all kinds of
important things. Since our last public service announcement, we have
collectively produced at least eight babies (<a href="http://www.russellheimlich.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/several-chocolate-babies.jpg">six others are probable</a>), three
ex-wives (Sator does not count the one in Haiti), ruined at least two
businesses, wrote three dissertations (two of which are still in the works, or
not), and, in our spare time, have been making plans for the upcoming <a href="http://www.thelmagazine.com/binary/6092/1266006372-muhly.jpg">zombie apocalypse.</a> (If anyone has or knows anyone who has property in eastern Idaho
and is looking to sell, please feel free to contact us via this site)</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Unfortunately, this means that we’ve neglected our duties to
the Detritus Review and to our generous sponsors, to whom we are eternally
grateful. (<a href="http://twitter.com/atamproductions/status/14483314844901376">ASCAP has yet to send me any checks</a>, so I am especially thankful)
But rest assured, dear Detritusites, you have always been in our prayers. Not
to say that you can’t take care of yourselves in these distressing times; but,
rather, we feel it is our duty to keep the critics in check so you don’t have
to. Wasted time falls short of the tree…or something.<o:p></o:p></div>
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So, apologies all around.<o:p></o:p></div>
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And believe you me, I know it feels like a hundred and fifty
years since last time; which is why today I feel the need to make up for our…<o:p></o:p></div>
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Wait. What’s that you say? <a href="http://www.musee-nogent-sur-seine.fr/2011/images/stories/debussy.jpg">Debussy’s sesquicentennial is this year!</a> O.M.G. [sic] I know; he had a weird, misshapen head. And…what…there are no real plans to celebrate?
That’s…what? Okay. Yeah. Yeah. But…oh, good. Whew! There was a piano recital on
which the second book of Preludes were…who? Thibaudet? He’s pretty good, if I
recall.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">He confidently handled Debussy’s structural challenges…</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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By playing them, one assumes, because they are written that
way. That and he is a confident pianist who is playing the piano.<o:p></o:p></div>
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It’s almost as if the very idea of form is something like
kryptonite to pianists—could it be that they writhe in pain just at the sight
of rounded-binary? Either way, Thibaudet seems to have overcome this
stereotypical weakness. Good for him. Otherwise form might’ve hijacked all the
oil tankers, thus further impeding the average hog rider’s <a href="http://www.saltyseadog.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/1_large.jpg">thirst for freedom.</a><o:p></o:p></div>
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On the other hand, perhaps I’m overreacting. Perhaps
structure, here, is synonymous with effect. [Thinks about it]<o:p></o:p></div>
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Nah. That’s crazy!<o:p></o:p></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">He confidently handled Debussy’s structural challenges, as
in the gradual shifts of tone that give the effect of a mist lifting in the
prelude “Terrasse des Audiences du Clair de Lune.”</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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At least this wasn’t from the New York Times. <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/12/arts/music/music-in-review-jean-yves-thibaudet.html?ref=music">Can I get a holler!</a><o:p></o:p></div>
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Well, don’t that just pee down my neck and call it a
broomstick with more words!<o:p></o:p></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">His textural variety, from twinkle to velvet, was gorgeous
in the “Suite Bergamasque” and the three “Estampes.”</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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See figure 1.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtencynXI3G56n8Uk9RCMHXIMg5nnAwoZTlV2vE_s2bRL1tjjOGNnWgsqSLgMfsd2zEAd52Kq9wvHCsztPmP79KWv34pMcEBRmzfWcRQ6HYCo0pObHidmnsNXfva6sN_lmMlQHZHjo5Eo/s1600/kepler.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="102" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtencynXI3G56n8Uk9RCMHXIMg5nnAwoZTlV2vE_s2bRL1tjjOGNnWgsqSLgMfsd2zEAd52Kq9wvHCsztPmP79KWv34pMcEBRmzfWcRQ6HYCo0pObHidmnsNXfva6sN_lmMlQHZHjo5Eo/s320/kepler.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Figure 1. Kepler’s famous Textural scale</div>
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And finally, let’s play a game.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">As he finished the last swoop up the keyboard in the final
selection, “L’Isle Joyeuse”…</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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Cast your vote now! What happened after the last swoop?<o:p></o:p></div>
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A. Thibaudet played an encore by Chopin, spoiling the
birthday celebration.<o:p></o:p></div>
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B. One audience member finally stopped coughing.<o:p></o:p></div>
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C. Leonard Bernstein made an appearance, combed his hair.<o:p></o:p></div>
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D. A lifelong Hells’ Angel member made everyone
uncomfortable with piercing irony.<o:p></o:p></div>
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And now for the answer! If you guessed B, one audience
member finally fucking stopped coughing, you’d be wrong.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #660000;">As he finished the last swoop up the keyboard in the final
selection, “L’Isle Joyeuse,” a bald, bearded man in a T-shirt sitting near the
front burst out of his seat with a whoop, arms in the air as if at a rock
concert. You go, dude.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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Figure <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlGFfjY_vrY">Free Bird</a><o:p></o:p></div>
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<!--EndFragment-->Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3371351138596055444.post-24603858362768390552011-11-02T20:50:00.000-07:002011-11-03T01:24:48.810-07:00Critic Is Large; Contains Multitudes, or "Masters Are Masterful"<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/02/arts/music/andras-schiff-at-carnegie-hall-review.html">Exploring Bartok's Legacy With Plenty of Energy</a><br />Anthony Tommasini, New York Times, 11/1/2011<br /><br />Let's leave aside (by which I mean: let's don't) that the title editor made the random choice to capitalize one of the prepositions and not the other. In virtually every style format exactly <span style="font-style: italic;">zero percent</span> of prepositions in titles should be thusly treated, but maybe it's some new quirk in <a href="http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/about16.html">Chicago 16</a> of which I'm not yet aware; because, hey: if you didn't change a bunch of shit, why would you need to issue a new edition? It's not like every editor in the world is basically required to buy one every time you...oh, right.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjqB9ee9AezvdOgZn_LjlpbzmkdgOt2eDK1rftO6B0XsM-Y6Zb2jq4gsotTuHfxhhbr4QwNIlnEFRUYdu6vzvVUno0sYJ-ZNbSZCSQgsL1K_Ev8j2egtaSRIJLOKr2GDwokFgqkZj0XmQ/s1600/university-of-chicago-logo.gif"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 277px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjqB9ee9AezvdOgZn_LjlpbzmkdgOt2eDK1rftO6B0XsM-Y6Zb2jq4gsotTuHfxhhbr4QwNIlnEFRUYdu6vzvVUno0sYJ-ZNbSZCSQgsL1K_Ev8j2egtaSRIJLOKr2GDwokFgqkZj0XmQ/s400/university-of-chicago-logo.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5670613439980199234" border="0" /></a>Figure 1: The University of Chicago, publisher of the aforementioned eponymous ubiquitous style guide. So <span style="font-style: italic;">that's</span> how they fund their <s>insanely wacky</s> devastatingly influential school of economics.<br /><div style="text-align: left; color: rgb(153, 0, 0);"><br /></div></div><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">Master is a term applied too loosely in classical music.</span><br /><br />This is, unedited [by me: ed.] and verbatim, the opening sentence in this review; no words have been manipulated to make it appear more prominent than it is.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">To declare someone a master makes it sound as if an artist had reached some benchmark of skill and insight, and every performance said master gave would automatically be masterly.</span><br /><br />I'm not sure that "mastery" necessarily equates to "consistency," but, yes, that word is thrown around pretty casually.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">In fact great musicians work constantly and continually challenge themselves. </span><br /><br />Wow. Good thing I read the New York <span style="font-style: italic;">Times</span>, because I just popped into existence about 45 seconds ago and thought that great musicians were, generally, incompetent but <span style="font-style: italic;">insanely fucking lucky</span>.<br /><br />But: fine. Overused designator. Too-oft typed moniker.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">Maybe the definition of a master is elusive.</span><br /><br />Wow; that's award-winning stuff right there. You think you can find insights like that in the <span style="font-style: italic;">Post</span>?<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPYAy1gR-1-mqvvO_3FlG6RYQiolf80-GcfXLl-OPaTelEGbtaFpMvKmqkn3ruKOtdEFmf3FMfKYe9WnRpvzYb3jksPrWFhEFDv8FtYsRZ3HaIUOn03N2ksHieL43QFQtuBVSwpZni6KQ/s1600/NY_NYP.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 259px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPYAy1gR-1-mqvvO_3FlG6RYQiolf80-GcfXLl-OPaTelEGbtaFpMvKmqkn3ruKOtdEFmf3FMfKYe9WnRpvzYb3jksPrWFhEFDv8FtYsRZ3HaIUOn03N2ksHieL43QFQtuBVSwpZni6KQ/s400/NY_NYP.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5670618359982257602" border="0" /></a><br />Figure 2: The <span style="font-style: italic;">Post</span>, winner of the "Miss Congeniality" award in the 2010 Best Partisan Rag Pageant.<br /></div><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">But somehow you know one when you hear one, as was clear on Monday night when the pianist </span><a style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);" title="Biography of Mr. Schiff." href="http://www.kirshdem.com/artist.php?id=andrasschiff&aview=bio">Andras Schiff</a><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);"> played a recital before a full house of rapt listeners at Carnegie Hall. </span><br /><br />Really? Let me get this straight, paraphrase-style:*<br /><br />"Man, people sure throw "master" around a lot; it's vague to begin with and overuse just makes it kind of meaningless and trite. But man! You should've <span style="font-style: italic;">seen </span>this concert! Dude was a <span style="font-style: italic;">master."</span><br /><br />Know what? I got your master right here. Self-proclaimed is the way to go, unless you're going to wait for the <span style="font-style: italic;">Times</span> to come around and, finally, declare you to be such.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgi7rkWM5HNx2mWzWBb81ng4F5JxhS3uF6ixHFTc-JAsBJpKS0g6yzztjyh0ztHldXLh-U0Brk7kNnnwB-gQOS9SoWaOtkyXkcxl1JKdHZmsoGaQDcA-ATu5vMznS1UXNwn20Dj42p8rJY/s1600/master+p.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 293px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgi7rkWM5HNx2mWzWBb81ng4F5JxhS3uF6ixHFTc-JAsBJpKS0g6yzztjyh0ztHldXLh-U0Brk7kNnnwB-gQOS9SoWaOtkyXkcxl1JKdHZmsoGaQDcA-ATu5vMznS1UXNwn20Dj42p8rJY/s400/master+p.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5670616172453606210" border="0" /></a><br /><div style="text-align: center;">Figure 3: True mastery is characterized by subtlety.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: left;">Become the ruling body.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:78%;">*We are aware of all internet traditions.</span><br /></div></div>Sator Arepohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00006808744513156317noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3371351138596055444.post-64690348911127482382011-10-24T13:24:00.000-07:002014-01-30T08:07:53.291-08:00Thank God! Orchestra Doesn't Play Strauss<a href="http://www.indystar.com/article/20111015/ENTERTAINMENT/110150371/Review-ISO-s-guest-artists-cast-spells-enchanting-classics?odyssey=tab%7Ctopnews%7Ctext%7CEntertainment">Review: ISO's guest artists cast spells with enchanting classics</a><br />
Jay Harvey, Indianapolis Star, Oct. 15, 2011<br />
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I love "guest artists"! And who doesn't love magic.<br />
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If I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times...if only classical music would resort to black magic...<br />
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<span style="color: #990000;">Music associated with enchantment begins and ends this weekend's Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra concerts, but the way the program's other major work was performed Friday was no less enchanting.</span><br />
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Perfect. Enchantment associated music, other major works that are enchanting too...and to think some people think orchestra programming has become stale.<br />
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But this makes me wonder...what is 'enchanting' music? Google images knows everything, let's ask them!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjr_sx1pPqeaZXgHgNmPff8EAisdh5zW-134vwGp2YjHS9L6v29Wa3SD7kRLOC7xTlE70SU1-EmP2dSIPlekI2f-q1DgeUWI0tvX3F2Rq_1ym7JCrS7wpFoEW5ntHrgXs0GmeYWQKzDXzYI/s1600/R-150-2511265-1288399526.jpeg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjr_sx1pPqeaZXgHgNmPff8EAisdh5zW-134vwGp2YjHS9L6v29Wa3SD7kRLOC7xTlE70SU1-EmP2dSIPlekI2f-q1DgeUWI0tvX3F2Rq_1ym7JCrS7wpFoEW5ntHrgXs0GmeYWQKzDXzYI/s400/R-150-2511265-1288399526.jpeg" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5668183169870251954" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 226px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 229px;" /></a>figure enchanting: Oh, dear God. No!</div>
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<span style="color: #990000;">Jonathan Biss, Bloomington-born and on his way to becoming world-renowned, played the solo part in Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-flat...<br /><br /><span style="color: black;">Okay, so was this the enchant<span style="font-style: italic;">ment </span>asscoiated music, or the enchant<span style="font-style: italic;">ing </span>music? I actually thought this would be more obvious. Silly me.</span><br /><br />...with an elegance that didn't get too lofty to convey emotional engagement.<br /><br /><span style="color: black;">It's a tough balancing act, all that elegance muddying up the emotional engagement. <br /><br />If I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times, just leave the elegance at the door. It's just so damn elitist. </span><br /><br />His generally crisp, even articulation never overcame his focus on tone, which had a rounded, singing quality even in leaping passage work.</span><br />
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Wait, crisp articulations and rounded, singing tone in the same performance!? And an elegance that didn't screw up all that emotional stuff? Get the fuck out!<br />
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But why, oh why, must two positive attributes of piano-playing (good articulation and focused tone) be mutually exclusive? Thank god for players like Jonathan Biss, who defy the laws of music criticism and are the exception that proves the rule.<br />
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I wonder what makes him such a great pianist.<br />
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<span style="color: #990000;">A thoughtful artist with lots of individuality to bring to the classic repertoire, Biss crafted a first-movement cadenza that blended youthful vigor and studied reflection, its resonant climax aided by abundant pedal.</span><br />
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If I've said it once...more youthful vigor and abundant pedal, please!<br />
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<span style="color: #990000;">The slow movement had just enough reserve as its delicate song poured forth,...<br /><span style="color: black;"><br />Yes...er...uh? Wait...reserved what?</span><br /><br />...with the piano's quiet, single-line outburst near the end filling the hall. The consistent brio and polish Biss applied to the finale...<br /><span style="color: black;"><br />I know, seriously. Someone really should edit those changes into Beethoven's score. I know he's the "greatest composer of all-time", but he really should know better than to leave the brio and polish out of this finale.<br /><br />I mean, how else is he going to produce an ovation?</span><br />...produced a slow-building but insistent ovation...<br /><br /><span style="color: black;">See. Were they standing?! I sure as heck hope so if they expected to cause a spontaneous (completely unplanned) encore.</span><br /><br />...that resulted in an encore: the fifth of Beethoven's Six Bagatelles, op. 126.<br /><span style="color: black;"><br />If I've said it once...audiences love brio and polish!</span><br /></span><br />
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<span style="color: #990000;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNIQ97yGIkxv5kq_RkniGHjx2MsqwofzAWYkyYJLLyi2QAEY1vcUbQggGGnDP6dLZI9n0-IDCGxbUHKuCL9HObnnV0I4pccbm9QAJwTfZlc-lw7PtRfvv4llD8Z1kVFmL7NsUutkYLpJo2/s1600/brio-1pint.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNIQ97yGIkxv5kq_RkniGHjx2MsqwofzAWYkyYJLLyi2QAEY1vcUbQggGGnDP6dLZI9n0-IDCGxbUHKuCL9HObnnV0I4pccbm9QAJwTfZlc-lw7PtRfvv4llD8Z1kVFmL7NsUutkYLpJo2/s400/brio-1pint.jpg" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5668184725611227586" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 393px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><span style="color: black;">figure Brio plaster polish: Who knew.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000;">In the concerto, guest conductor Gilbert Varga kept the balance and coordination of the orchestra keenly matched to the soloist.<br /><br /><span style="color: black;">I should hope so. </span><br /><br />This was no surprise,...<br /><span style="color: black;"><br />Oh really? Why?</span><br /><br />...given the controlled grandeur and sweep of the program-opener: Mozart's Overture to "The Magic Flute."</span><br />
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Of course! If I've said it once, I've said it thousand times. If you can control the grandeur of<em> Die Zauberflöte</em> Overture, then you are more than ready for the balance and coordination of pre-19th century Beethoven.<br />
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But that opera, from which they performed just the famous overture, is so unconventional, what possibly could they pair it with on this concert? A conundrum that has plagued orchestras for centuries.<br />
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<span style="color: #990000;">The unconventionality of that opera from Mozart's last year is nothing compared to the bizarre pantomime scenario for which Bela Bartok supplied a bristling score in the early 1920s.<br /><span style="color: black;"><br />Really? To which bizarre pantomime scenario are you referring?</span><br /><br />Friday's concert ended spectacularly with the suite from "The Miraculous Mandarin."</span><br />
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Hmmm...now I'm a classical music lover, and I've heard of Beethoven and Mozart, <span style="font-style: italic;">and</span> I've even seen <span style="font-style: italic;">Amadeus</span>. So I consider myself an expert on <span style="font-style: italic;">The Magic Flute</span>, and that opera has a guy dressed up as a bird. That's pretty crazy.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh35Xp3uTJ9ERXAR0EcIhmuPkEBNr_5hhS4l7zI3aXp9_oMKLQETtZAANrSj0LCpYgwHni09kE4rtKDQtANtRa82Fo3pOO09_TXKr2jEkNxBHsbWeqBFvmba26o2smyBdB0BdLA2_j_UevC/s1600/Magic_Flute-Review-4.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh35Xp3uTJ9ERXAR0EcIhmuPkEBNr_5hhS4l7zI3aXp9_oMKLQETtZAANrSj0LCpYgwHni09kE4rtKDQtANtRa82Fo3pOO09_TXKr2jEkNxBHsbWeqBFvmba26o2smyBdB0BdLA2_j_UevC/s400/Magic_Flute-Review-4.jpg" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5668185882330207202" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 287px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a>figure adult man dressed as bird: See. That opera is pretty silly. Wait...is that a...nipple?!</div>
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What's this Mandarin guy got?<br />
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<span style="color: #990000;">In the story line, some roughnecks commandeer a young woman as sexual bait, forcing her to lure visitors to a seedy apartment.<br /><span style="color: black;"><br />I'm pretty sure most of Mozart's opera are about the same thing. Basically.</span><br /><br />Two hapless men are ejected for insufficient funds, and then the title character proves too much to handle, in ways the complete score details.<br /><span style="color: black;"><br />Two men kidnap a woman into sexual slavery, but their plans are thwarted when the their home is foreclosed on?<br /><br />Banks...always screwing the little guy!<br /><br />Wait...this story sounds familiar.<br /><br />Are these two hapless men the Tim Conway and Don Knotts to the Miraculous Mandarin's orphaned kids from <span style="font-style: italic;">The Apple Dumpling Gang</span>?<br /></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEiD94aXNiYdBCTgFliplqROQnvaS-ujwBtA2k_XFkvk2N63eiw8fw1Y11mq7KJQEi9Qhkb9DqYCbNJiQmuRBl1k18MoglGL1rpiq7TeDvg_i2Ky6F3OFT2v0kMjUPmj_IciF7ebhHEGj6/s1600/AppleDGang-69a_1320c.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEiD94aXNiYdBCTgFliplqROQnvaS-ujwBtA2k_XFkvk2N63eiw8fw1Y11mq7KJQEi9Qhkb9DqYCbNJiQmuRBl1k18MoglGL1rpiq7TeDvg_i2Ky6F3OFT2v0kMjUPmj_IciF7ebhHEGj6/s400/AppleDGang-69a_1320c.jpg" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5668181187571387634" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 400px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 398px;" /></a>figure two hapless men: </span></span>"You know something, Amos? The Lord poured your brains in with a teaspoon, and somebody joggled His arm. I keep trying to tell you we ain't got no lead to throw, and no powder to throw it with. "</div>
<span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"><br /></span></span><span style="color: #990000;">The suite is graphic enough so that it would be inaccurate to say the music transcends the sordid plot.<br /><span style="color: black;"><br />Uh.... Okay, so I totally agree that the music in a ballet should transcend the plot, although I'm certain I have no idea what that means. But how could you even tell if </span></span><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;">the music is transcending the plot</span></span><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: black;"> since you're only hearing the suite (without the whole ballet part)?<br /><br />Or are you suggesting the music is too accurately depicting the graphic storyline? ...a concept I'm having a difficult time actually visualizing.<br /><br />Oh bother.</span><br />Still, it's one of the milestones of symphonic modernism and received a brilliant performance Friday, with Varga and the ISO conveying every snarling or spooky twist and turn.</span><br />
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Sexual slavery aside, it's still a great piece. But "magic" flutes have nipples.<br />
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<span style="color: #990000;">Obscure, early music by Varga's Hungarian countryman Bartok showcased principal guest concertmaster Alexander Kerr.<br /><br /><span style="color: black;">If I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times...I love obscure, early music.</span><br /><br />The first of "Two Portraits" features a ceaseless, impassioned violin solo that Kerr sustained beautifully.<br /><span style="color: black;"><br />He sustained the solo? Is this sustained as in maintained, or as in ratified? </span><br /><br />The second one is mocking and vehement; it discards the solo violin -- the composer's payback for a love affair gone awry -- in a performance both idiomatic and picturesque.</span><br />
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I like my vehement mockingly picturesque, too!<br />
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Wait...what pieces were associated with enchantment?<br />
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figure concert: Whoa. Wait a minute, Doc. Are you trying to tell me that my mother has got the hots for me?</div>
Gustavhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05316458340368681169noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3371351138596055444.post-33337885304055955772011-09-29T07:42:00.000-07:002011-09-30T10:02:25.386-07:00Complementary work deserves compliments<a href="http://www.siouxcityjournal.com/entertainment/music/article_e09a2d8f-e21c-574d-b24b-5238ea145645.html">Review: Harrell finds many subtleties in Dvorak</a><br />Bruce R. Miller, Sioux City Journal, September 23, 2011<br /><br />In great contrast to me, I suppose.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">Antonin Dvorak wasn't interested in writing any works for cellos -- ...<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">He wasn't?</span><br /><br />... he didn't think they were good solo instruments.</span><br /><br />He didn't?<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">Thankfully, wiser heads convinced him otherwise and he produced the Cello Concerto in B Minor -- ...<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Ah yes, the masterful op. 104. The first and only piece for solo cello that Dvorak ever wrote, not counting the first Cello Concerto in A major, B. 10, his Cello Sonata in F minor, the Polonaise in A major for cello and piano, the Rondo in G minor (which he later orchestrated), the arrangements he made of his </span><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Slavonic Dances </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">for cello and piano, or the transcription of </span><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Silent Woods</span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"> for cello and piano, and later for cello and orchestra.</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><br />Wiser heads truly did prevail.</span><br /><br />...a piece that Lynn Harrell owned Saturday night performing with the Sioux City Symphony Orchestra.</span><br /><br />Don't you mean pwned?<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">Bopping along...<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Bopping along? ...in his little red wagon?</span><br /><br />...with the orchestra's parts, he practically made the music seem as if it was one of classical music's Top 10.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Which, of course, it's not. Pssh.<br /><br />To even suggest that this piece belongs in the same esteem as <span style="font-style: italic;">Eine kleine nachtmusik </span>or the <span style="font-style: italic;">William Tell </span>Overture<span style="font-style: italic;"> </span>(just the Lone Ranger part, not the rest, of course) is blasphemy. </span> <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Classical music's Top 10 is a sacred, unalterable law of nature. I mean, would you really have Time Life Recordings remake all those cds?</span><br /><br />He got his cello to sing, too, mimicking Lori Benton's superior flute work and justifying the brass section's noble fanfares.</span><br /><br />The cello sang, copying the flute and justifying the brass? Sure, that sounds like orchestration 101 to me.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">The piece -- part of a Dvorak night -- wasn't one you'd go home humming, but it did have plenty of work for everyone to do.</span><br /><br />So, the Dvorak was more like Bill Lumbergh?<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPGcavhGR1G7uYlT3RJ9TVH6T1xuQeFo4to02qoYUe0ILN7IS9RkhlErnDdno4ZTqlBNlE72hIARCzxbv_-H7A1HNRf6tu-HtsSYotCIhqe7M231oa8oRS-XfH-nTyiWlrWWEIkh3VKYKB/s1600/OS-Lumbergh-coffee.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 210px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPGcavhGR1G7uYlT3RJ9TVH6T1xuQeFo4to02qoYUe0ILN7IS9RkhlErnDdno4ZTqlBNlE72hIARCzxbv_-H7A1HNRf6tu-HtsSYotCIhqe7M231oa8oRS-XfH-nTyiWlrWWEIkh3VKYKB/s400/OS-Lumbergh-coffee.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5657799626779732642" border="0" /></a>figure superfluous Office Space reference, loosely tied to Dvorak: "Hello Peter, whats happening? Ummm, I'm gonna need you to go ahead come in tomorrow. So if you could be here around 9 that would be great, mmmk... oh oh! and I almost forgot ahh, I'm also gonna need you to go ahead and come in on Sunday too, kay. We ahh lost some people this week and ah, we sorta need to play catch up."<br /></div><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">Harrell, in fact, gave his fingers such a deft workout you frequently wanted a camera on them to see just how he was able to zip from the melodramatic to the sublime.</span><br /><br />Precisely, a giant scoreboard with closeups, replays, and the 'kiss cam' in between pieces. Whatever I can do <span style="font-style: italic;">not</span> to listen to the music.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">Harrell played well with all sections of the orchestra (even those that had some timing snags) but he was particularly chummy with the woodwinds.<br /><br /></span><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgC_-SUW-8l4v-xEBn6cgXuz8rZl4jKyxH0ANKQdBEFS0Yi4AeN7Uq1A8yxm7PU3zrR0Z8_o28eDRp-hks4NnBeZiXw4EtvIBBxXvGte8h710dbxVSEiklB6rzYjFXdCEYA3ptu-LXpAMSS/s1600/civil+war+reenactment.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 241px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgC_-SUW-8l4v-xEBn6cgXuz8rZl4jKyxH0ANKQdBEFS0Yi4AeN7Uq1A8yxm7PU3zrR0Z8_o28eDRp-hks4NnBeZiXw4EtvIBBxXvGte8h710dbxVSEiklB6rzYjFXdCEYA3ptu-LXpAMSS/s400/civil+war+reenactment.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5657802835286926434" border="0" /></a><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">figure chummy: Lynn and the woodwinds reenacting the battle of Antietam. As I assume most woodwind sections do.</span></span><br /></div><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);"><br />The adagio showed they were willing to step up to their guest's level and compete. The horns did nicely, too.<br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><br />I'm sure the horns will appreciate the shout-out.</span><br /><br />And that chilling fanfare in the end? It may have been Dvorak's way of putting a button on a request,...<br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><br />A button?</span><br /><br />...but it certainly gave Harrell the rest he needed before launching into a more familar [<span style="font-style: italic;">sic</span>] encore.</span><br /><br />Just as Dvorak intended. Subtly, of course.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">The rest of the program was filled with other Dvorak works...<br /><br /></span>As all-Dvorak programs tend to do, from time to time.<br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);"><br />... -- the rather passive "In Nature's Realm," the more familiar Symphony No. 7 in D minor.</span><br /><br />"Passive", "familiar"...sounds like a Dvorak concert to me.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">Still, it was the Lynn and Lori show that impressed.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">I love that show.</span><br /><br /></span><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirFNBBtrcUP2VjutfvyNDcnMXfpqDpCTT0RVkTNAKwQeWdcNwSy12EDY9rQfke8mgqMGgTBmde7y4LmbWekMryVNms06BRGCcZyjeCFSkTHBZeAepJ0kNY8GAXGhwEzREiiCzWVabfkY7P/s1600/Sonny_and_Cher_Ultimate_Collection-744813.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 259px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirFNBBtrcUP2VjutfvyNDcnMXfpqDpCTT0RVkTNAKwQeWdcNwSy12EDY9rQfke8mgqMGgTBmde7y4LmbWekMryVNms06BRGCcZyjeCFSkTHBZeAepJ0kNY8GAXGhwEzREiiCzWVabfkY7P/s400/Sonny_and_Cher_Ultimate_Collection-744813.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5657805251374378978" border="0" /></a><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">figure Lynn and Lori: Thank you, pop culture.</span></span><br /></div><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);"><br />While the rest of the orchestra got a chance to shine in the third number, it was Benton's complementary work that deserved the compliments.</span><br /><br />Are we still talking about the concerto?<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">Harrell may not have the flash of friends Itzhak Perman and Pinchas Zukerman, but he more than has the skills.</span><br /><br />Itzhak Perman?! I realy ove that guy. Seriousy.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">Saturday night, he was willing to share them with the Siouxland musicians.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Wait. Itzhak Perman and Pinchas Zukerman were there?</span><br /><br />And the result? The result was good, very good.</span><br /><br />Gabby Hayes good?<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">Even better?<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Even better than Gabby Hayes, the cello concerto that almost wasn't, and the unrestrained irreverence of the Lynn and Lori Smile-Time Variety Hour!?<br /><br />If it isn't a complete and utter non-sequitur, <span style="font-style: italic;">and</span> extremely patriotic, I'm not sure it could be any better.<br /></span><br />The orchestra started the season with a rousing version of the Star Spangled Banner. While this was probably a given decades ago, it was nice to see it back -- a good way to start what could be a great season.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">I know, I was totally in danger forgetting that piece.<br /><br /><br />Wait...what did you say about subtleties?<br /></span></span>Gustavhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05316458340368681169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3371351138596055444.post-89177368759060449622011-09-09T10:36:00.000-07:002011-09-09T15:47:53.220-07:00Friday Quickie: Tales of Not-Quite New Music<a href="http://www.edinburghguide.com/festival/2011/livemusic/classical/bambergsymphonyorchestrareview-9201">Bamberg Symphony Orchestra Review</a><br />Iain Gilmour, EdinbourghGuide.com, September 5, 2011<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">The Bamberg Symphony Orchestra is well-remembered from its five-concert residency at the 2003 Edinburgh International Festival.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Excellent. Sounds like repeat engagement would bring about a wonderful reunion.</span><br /><br />Neither memories nor growing repute from widespread touring were sufficient to draw a reasonable-sized audience to the first of its two concerts closing the Usher Hall run in the 2011 Festival.</span><br /><br />Hmm. I wonder what the problem was? Also, what's a reasonable-sized audience? How unreasonable could it have been -- was the fire marshal called?<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_yWg9HGY3KWWAycmVxUN5CC10XCn6Ivt1vz-a8fKyqi8ANj1yNlRxfLHH8sRh5V3qkw5BO2L85ss0mmmO3H49LXC_8Dwyvdpkrp6NKXr9oOb9OcZdIIiAq7Pw0zybFtwHlwXIIt50oqGm/s1600/large+soccerball.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 268px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_yWg9HGY3KWWAycmVxUN5CC10XCn6Ivt1vz-a8fKyqi8ANj1yNlRxfLHH8sRh5V3qkw5BO2L85ss0mmmO3H49LXC_8Dwyvdpkrp6NKXr9oOb9OcZdIIiAq7Pw0zybFtwHlwXIIt50oqGm/s400/large+soccerball.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5649312399229658466" border="0" /></a>figure reasonably-sized: Seems to fit nicely.<br /></div><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">The choice of programme could have been a determining factor.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Really...the choice of programme? I've never heard such an accusation before.<br /><br />Did they program symphonic U2? Because, there's no way I'd miss that!<br /></span></span><div style="text-align: center;"><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/Kt5_gQyGrE8" allowfullscreen="" width="420" frameborder="0" height="345"></iframe></span></span><br /></div><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><br /></span></span><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">embeddence U2: Note the presence of a singable tune. </span></span><br /></div><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><br /></span>An evening devoted solely to Messaien and Bartok is not a sure crowd-puller.</span><br /><br />Oh, of course. Composers who, despite being dead (a major plus), had the misfortune of writing music after the era of good music had ended.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">That is no criticism of the orchestra or its English conductor Jonathan Nott,...<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Of course not. It's not their fault that music after 1900 is awful.</span><br /><br />...who has just extended until 2015 a tenure as principal conductor begun in 2000. Nott encouraged and controlled the players admirably in the opening item, Messiaen’s Chronochromie.</span><br /><br />Encouragement and mind-control are indeed good tactics, but really, you'll catch larger audiences with Beethoven than you will with Messiaen.<br /><br />Conventional wisdom, I know, but playing the Messiaen well will never mean as much as not playing it at all.<br /><br />But since the orchestra has lost their minds, and are probably only performing in front of the cleaning crew and student composers, tell us a little about this piece.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">The work encapsulates two ideas – time and colour...<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Hence the name.</span><br /><br />... – and demands a big orchestra, with the usual percussion section enlarged by gongs, bells, glockenspiel, marimba, cymbals and xylophone.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Wait. Gongs, bells, cymbals, and xylophone are unusual percussion?<br /></span><br /><br /></span><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgchsFaYA_Q0Oz5IVBZ3Gin4rQoJ7Xdjs2qCH8wlFw-oCTE13l2W-BWNwYExM0RT10AlLEEnsRV1KbaNImEeXoJkLRNQOugWGHkt7We7qgfSgz1V5TEl80GszlqXVSdhcE5Ween6izBPB3X/s1600/triangle.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 277px; height: 249px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgchsFaYA_Q0Oz5IVBZ3Gin4rQoJ7Xdjs2qCH8wlFw-oCTE13l2W-BWNwYExM0RT10AlLEEnsRV1KbaNImEeXoJkLRNQOugWGHkt7We7qgfSgz1V5TEl80GszlqXVSdhcE5Ween6izBPB3X/s400/triangle.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5649313125217346594" border="0" /></a><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">figure futuristic instrument: Observe the unusual shape and strange bends in this seemingly normal hunk of metal.</span> </span><br /></div><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);"><br />For Messiaen sounds had colour and time was expressed by rhythm and duration.</span><br /><br />Wait...time was expressed by duration?! That's clearly some freaky shit.<br /><br />[snip]<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">The orchestra produced every twist and turn in the score,...<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Against their better judgment, I'm sure.</span><br /><br />...from “twittering” sections – reflecting the composer’s lifelong interest in bird song -- to “off-key” combinations with accurate sound and precise timing.</span><br /><br />Just think how much better this piece would have been had it been "on-key".<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">Messiaen was a complex character – composer, ornithologist, church organist (for 60 years at Holy Trinity in Paris) and teacher. His spell as Professor of Harmony at the Paris Conservatoire may have had more influence on the development of modern music than his compositions – his students included Stockhausen, Boulez, Goehr, and Kurtag – though he was the first composer to use an early version of an electronic keyboard.</span><br /><br />And this is all very important and interesting, of course, providing that no orchestra ever play their music.<span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);"></span>Gustavhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05316458340368681169noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3371351138596055444.post-3582770652425236342011-09-05T01:25:00.000-07:002011-09-05T15:25:49.659-07:00Writing about Music Still as Awesome as Last Time I Checked<a href="http://www.abqjournal.com/main/2011/09/02/entertainment/diamond-season-off-to-a-brilliant-start.html">Diamond season off to brilliant start</a><br />D.S. Crafts, Albuquerque Journal, 9/2/2011<br /><br />Don't bother clicking the link; the Journal is, apparently, so awesome – one hopes this is due to its expensive and, <span style="font-style: italic;">ergo</span>, excellent staff of wordsmiths – that they don't just give their advertising-soaked content away for nothing. You can sit through an ad for a trial version if you really want to.<br /><br />I find this patently fucking offensive. Let's just say I'll be getting my local arts coverage somewhere else from now on.<br /><br />I guess I could take the print version, but (as a friend of mine always replies when offered a subscription to the Austin American-Statesman) I have neither a bird nor a puppy.<br /><br />---Begin Digression---<br /><br />A few words are in order. Yes, it has been a long time; life intervenes. Sue us. Also, the Austin-based percentage of Detritus Review writers went from 50% to 66% to 33% to 0% in the short space of a year.* Doings, as they say, are afoot.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">*I was going to make a graph of this, but I didn't.</span><br /><br />Clever readers will have already surmised that I have relocated to Albuquerque, along with Mrs Arepo and the cat. (Yes, all bloggers really do have cats. No, you cannot see a picture.) All is well and the chile is excellent and near-daily.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghqxYcgxiYU45JTSeU0Yr3rActElBKTnMeTIpxnmxLIVjQonSjPHJOg3RyL1uoIej4WdMM29yxYVhR-xUq3eL4p8M5f6CxICpvY_1mxrfeiqLRH7rg32ACU4K_80fN0X2Vpkx9tOfZ5vY/s1600/rellenos.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghqxYcgxiYU45JTSeU0Yr3rActElBKTnMeTIpxnmxLIVjQonSjPHJOg3RyL1uoIej4WdMM29yxYVhR-xUq3eL4p8M5f6CxICpvY_1mxrfeiqLRH7rg32ACU4K_80fN0X2Vpkx9tOfZ5vY/s400/rellenos.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5648789809687942098" border="0" /></a>Figure 1: Chiles rellenos<br /></div><br />Enough.<br /><br />---End Digression---<br /><br />My first and only sojourn into the Albuquerque Journal's Pay-to-Read Arts Coverage was rewarded with the requisite Hacky Classical Music Review Title.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">Diamond season off to brilliant start</span><br /><br />Oh, well played, sirs. Way to not fall into the dreaded let's-at-least-use-the-<span style="font-style: italic;">second</span>-stupid-thing-that-pops-into-our-collective-head trap.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">The Santa Fe Concert Association commenced its 75th anniversary season in grand style, bringing to the stage of the Lensic Performing Arts Center soprano Susanna Phillips among others.</span><br /><br />If I were the arts director, I'd bring her to the stage by herself — as befits the featured artist — and leave the “others” sort of in the background. What? It was just a missing comma? Oh, never mind, then, newspaper-that-thinks-I-should-pay-for-its-awesome-online-content.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">Phillips, seen in August on public television’s Mozart concert, is quickly and rightfully becoming one of the most celebrated singers in the country. A veteran of three Mozart leads at the Santa Fe Opera, she sings two primary roles at the Metropolitan Opera this season.</span><br /><br />She does and/or will?<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">Conducted by Joseph Illick, she opened the program with the “Four Last Songs” by Strauss.</span><br /><br />I'm a little confused about agency here; I admit that this might be my own problem.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYyd93Cn9BrR-On5CEgrTDVZNPARFQfkpY-Hq8NlU-B5wAXctIADY-pEcg03uaTqXeHBK9NVCcw6KYBTF-m6G0c-Ka1IU9OA9WZ-soP80wXvzLcoRzauqwCgy0elxK6BphbCk84hI4mFQ/s1600/agency.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 256px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYyd93Cn9BrR-On5CEgrTDVZNPARFQfkpY-Hq8NlU-B5wAXctIADY-pEcg03uaTqXeHBK9NVCcw6KYBTF-m6G0c-Ka1IU9OA9WZ-soP80wXvzLcoRzauqwCgy0elxK6BphbCk84hI4mFQ/s400/agency.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5648792255645169634" border="0" /></a><br />Figure 2: The crumbling ruins represent sentences<br /></div><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">Somber songs about death are not exactly the most festive work to begin a gala opening concert, but from a performance of such radiant beauty there were anything but objections.</span><br /><br />Okay; no. It's not just me. Prepositions aren't interchangeable and/or to be omitted <span style="font-style: italic;">ad libitum</span>. The first phrase, which has a prepositional deficiency so severe it likely has scurvy, gives way to a second clause implying that the performance was so exquisite <span style="font-style: italic;">it didn't even object to itself.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">With long, warm phrasing she gave heartfelt meaning to each of the poems. Illick carefully gauged the tempos of the predominantly string sonority to allow her a maximum of expression.</span><br /><br />One notes with interest that the author of the review is himself a composer; this is a nice insight.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">Phillips then returned for selections from Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 2, “Lobgesang,” which includes chorus, soprano and mezzo-soprano.</span><br /><br />Selections? They didn't play the whole symphony? You stay classy, Santa Fe Concert Association.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">Here in contrast to the introspective Strauss, she let loose the full power and luster of her voice and shone brilliantly above the orchestral textures.</span><br /><br />Still working on that “diamond” thing, eh? Was that with or without conspiring with the title-writing editor to keep up the lame, lame joke?<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">Linda Raney’s chorus too sang with an unbridled optimism, creating a “joyful noise” most appropriate to the occasion.</span><br /><br />The scare quotes lead me to believe that the reviewer thinks that the chorus was awful—but enthusiastic!<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheIq-tar1YrnWN7JEjdmmEBdQwmzSn9gi2SeKWjLu9oN0vmvI2_iG8xRDts85rzW6ppPXNTN6iK5Fniz6VAAc2tZi84mBJt5lDJYFyW7f_HehjA14tnBCv8qEFijfzyRDeHyN0COc9ssI/s1600/air_quotes.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 324px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheIq-tar1YrnWN7JEjdmmEBdQwmzSn9gi2SeKWjLu9oN0vmvI2_iG8xRDts85rzW6ppPXNTN6iK5Fniz6VAAc2tZi84mBJt5lDJYFyW7f_HehjA14tnBCv8qEFijfzyRDeHyN0COc9ssI/s400/air_quotes.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5648793182437333858" border="0" /></a>Figure 3: Requisite pop culture reference<br /></div><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br />Pro Tip: Do not use fucking scare quotes in your writing.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">Mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton sang two small roles with the Santa Fe Opera this summer, both, unfortunately, too short to give us anything but a glimpse of her outstanding talent.</span><br /><br />“Both” is not the same as “each.” That difficulty is overcome, however; even though each [sic] of her small roles was too short to allow an accurate assessment of her talent, said assessment is nevertheless undertaken.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">Here too, frustratingly, we heard only one or two short solo passages other than the voice in duet with Phillips.</span><br /><br />One or two? Lost count, did we? Wait; maybe I'm confused. There were two singers. What was that last bit again?<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">...other than the voice in duet with Phillips.</span><br /><br />Now I'm more confused than ever. I don't know what that means. The addition or subtraction of a comma and/or preposition (if I have understood the rules of the column-game so far) won't even help.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">I, for one, hope to hear more of her rich, hearty mezzo in future.</span><br /><br />I, for one, hate clichéd stock phrases. I, for one, will also not be referring to the Albuquerque Journal for information about future local arts events. I, for one, will, further, not address the rest of this review.<br /><br />I would, however, be remiss if I didn't mention the end of the article.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">Appreciative congratulations to the SFCA in this most auspicious 75th season. 1937 had to be a good year. It heralded, as the program notes reminded, the introduction of Spam.</span><br /><br />Points for the delightful <span style="font-style: italic;">non sequitur</span>, even if it was cribbed from the program notes.Sator Arepohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00006808744513156317noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3371351138596055444.post-89909976734819682292011-06-21T13:35:00.000-07:002011-06-23T07:15:34.663-07:00Concert ruined by programming SchumannThe following article really isn't a bad article. I really should say that it is indeed a <span style="font-style: italic;">good</span> review. This is the Anne Midgette I enjoy reading. She is a fine writer with an attention to argument and word choice that appeals to my particular tastes. But despite my favorable opinion of this review, it left me with a couple of observations I thought needed making.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/music-review-juggler-in-paradise-at-nso/2011/06/09/AGGOa7NH_story.html">Music review: ‘Juggler in Paradise’ at NSO</a><br />Anne Midgette, Washington Post, June 10, 2011<br /><br />Even in an article primarily dedicated to the work of a living composer, it appears that the relative dissonance is still the defining criteria of whether a piece is good or not.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">Augusta Read Thomas writes music that is dense and smart but also listenable.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Oh, the false dichotomy...could there be a Detritus Review without you.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">So...only dumb music is listenable? And therefore, all smart music is unlistenable?</span><br /><br />Thick with complex rhythms, bright with textures, dappled with particular shades of dissonance alternating with snatches of melody, it doesn’t blatantly try to seduce the hearer, but it doesn’t want to be off-putting, either.</span><br /><br />This is an interesting comment. In the hands of a lesser writer, I'm not sure this could be read in any other way than to say, "this piece is dissonant, but not <span style="font-style: italic;">too </span>dissonant".<br /><br />However, more intelligently written, I still think Midgette's point is simply to alleviate the dismissals of those who would, well, dismiss the music of living composers.<br /><br />There are melodies, but not pretty ones. Got it.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">Hers is emphatic music, making its points with a care that approaches the finicky, but it’s always looking over its shoulder to make sure that you’re following.</span><br /><br />Sure, why not. Although, I'm not sure I'd ever call finicky music emphatic.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">Its blend of intellect and accessibility makes her music very popular with orchestra programmers and conductors.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Okay, so here's that sentiment again, of her music's smartness/intellect. Doesn't this immediately beg the question, what makes her music "smart"?<br /><br />Rather than immediately starting in with an assessment of her music's dissonance levels, why not explain the very opening sentence -- "</span></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Augusta Read Thomas writes music that is dense and smart but also listenable.</span>" You have three adjectives here...why must listenable be our only focus?<br /><br />And in this case, listenable seems to ultimately equal levels of dissonance and consonance.<br /><br />Of course, smart and dense in music are not as easily defined as I think is assumed here. I know I'm nitpicking Midgette here somewhat, but it seems especially frustrating when she has so many good things to say in her review.<br /><br />Also, I don't want to disregard this matter of a piece being "listenable". However, I do find that very word to an uninviting place to start. Are there really unlistenable pieces out there?<br /><br />It's an absurd sort of phrasing -- pieces of music whose sounds cannot be perceived by human ears, or cause so much pain to be safe for aural consumption?<br /><br />Fine, I'm being too literal. Like I said, I don't wish to ignore listenability. All music must grapple with it's accessibility and it's popular appeal, even if it wishes to disregard them.<br /><br />And this leads me back to Ms. Midgette's review of Thomas' concerto...<br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"></span><br />[<span style="font-style: italic;">snip</span>]<br /></span><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">The music, though, might not be so popular with audiences.</span><br /><br />Interesting. Her smart but listenable music isn't popular with audiences? Any thoughts?<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">Eight pieces in two decades by one orchestra is an excellent track record for a composer in her 40s, yet it’s hardly enough to breed familiarity among the public.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">So, this isn't her fault? Is it that by new music standards, popular still equals rarely performed?</span><br /><br />Despite Eschenbach’s presence and the work’s presentation between two slices of Schumann (the “Braut von Messina” overture on one side, the second symphony on the other), Thursday’s audience was sparse.</span><br /><br />See, I would blame Schumann for that.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">And the crowd seemed oddly untouched by the piece,...<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Really? How did you come to this conclusion?</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">As our lawyer friends might point, are you really testifying as to how some 1000 other people felt on the night of June 9th?<br /><br />But, I guess I get it, the piece must not be listenable enough.<br /></span><br />...a 20-minute arc in which the violin trails through the orchestra and accumulates sounds, like a strand of string picking up sugar crystals to form rock candy.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Ugh. Say no more. I hate rock candy. As I assume everyone in attendance did as well.</span><br /><br />Thomas makes emphatic gestures built of sometimes unperceived subtleties, repeating them, with a kind of stuttering effect, to make sure you’ve got it.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Unperceived</span> subtleties repeated until I get them?<br /><br />If not prefaced with this idea that the audience was untouched, or didn't like the piece, I'm mostly happy with these interesting, if not poetic observations. Perfectly in line with your standard review, however...what does this have to do with your line of argument regarding listenability?<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">“Juggler in Paradise” — its epithet perhaps one of the less successful of Thomas’s signature poetic titles — is a Harlequin-like piece spangled with bells and wood blocks, in which the violin solos are often joined by bongo drums, or lead into passages of big-band jazziness. At one point, the orchestra held its breath for a solo bongo cadenza, then pounced with a quick powerful chord, like a cat leaping on a mouse.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Sounds like a cool piece. So what in the hell is the problem?</span><br /><br />In short, it’s a piece shot through with antic humor, and yet it’s a little too self-conscious to be truly funny.</span><br /><br />Oh. You thought the piece was supposed to be funny? <span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);"></span>Gustavhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05316458340368681169noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3371351138596055444.post-40451863366298249332011-05-20T13:55:00.000-07:002011-05-21T11:09:40.657-07:00Friday Quickie: That's not something you see everydayIt's a slow news cycle here in the detritus world of music criticism. And as such...<br /><br /><a href="http://www.startribune.com/entertainment/music/122265914.html">Symphony in A minor a minor disappointment</a><br /><br />Oh. Dear. God.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">This week's Minnesota Orchestra concerts, heard Thursday at Orchestra Hall, mark the climax of its season-long Rachmaninoff symphony cycle.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">I think the story here is that the Minnesota Orchestra has completely given up on programming good music.<br /><br />Har har har...see what I did there?<br /><br />Sorry, I'm sure some of you out there just love Rachmaninoff...but just admit it, you're totally wrong. Right?<br /></span><br /></span><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">Rachmaninoff's Symphony No. 3 in A minor is the composer's final symphony and one of the last of his orchestral works.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">In fact that the only other orchestral work he composed (<i>Symphonic Dances</i>) was the only other piece he wrote at all until his death seven years after this symphony. Just saying. </span><br /><br />As such, it is a nice pairing with the contrastingly youthful "Firebird."</span><br /><br />Sure, what the hell.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">The first movement opens in deep melancholy, perhaps expressing Rachmaninoff's sense of loss and of time passing.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Perhaps. But if you're basing this on the fact that you heard the Dies Irae, you should note that every piece Rachmaninoff ever wrote has the Dies Irae in it...or something like that.<br /><br />So, how was this symphony "a minor" disappointment?<br /></span><br />Wigglesworth missed the depth of emotion, stressing orchestral precision over passion, the result feeling somewhat cerebral and cold.</span><br /><br />Well, that's not something you read everyday. Rachmaninoff -- "cerebral"? Surely you jest.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirO-wa8k9QyGhYffhHhKztMInkMgoXaQ8blNX0CqYbACnn3usha78uUHIx8K5spG0J3S1ei850Jz1AfkS9nreCl1caGluRG5BDN49BO0KiRV613CcPoNNjKQMYTwXZz0eqzB8zPlooGjRK/s1600/Things+you+don%2527t+see+every+day.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirO-wa8k9QyGhYffhHhKztMInkMgoXaQ8blNX0CqYbACnn3usha78uUHIx8K5spG0J3S1ei850Jz1AfkS9nreCl1caGluRG5BDN49BO0KiRV613CcPoNNjKQMYTwXZz0eqzB8zPlooGjRK/s400/Things+you+don%2527t+see+every+day.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5608904404085194962" border="0" /></a>figure don't see that everyday: It is just as true today as it was in his day. Amen.<br /></div><br />----------------------------------<br /><br />Actually, Rachmaninoff's music <a href="http://detritusreview.blogspot.com/2011/05/friday-quickie-comparison-wasnt-not-apt.html">isn't not</a> cerebral. It's just so much more common for his music to be inundated with superlatives extolling the emotional genius of his music. I mean, it's not like he's Bruckner or something.<br /><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);"></span>Gustavhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05316458340368681169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3371351138596055444.post-66231109545719890492011-05-13T10:22:00.000-07:002011-05-13T11:36:09.498-07:00Friday Quickie: Comparison wasn't not aptMaking an analogy, or even a direct comparison, can be an illuminating device when talking about abstract concepts. Of course, some people use them in place of an actual point, but Richard Nilsen has a point...just not a good comparison.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.blogger.com/%E2%80%9Chttp://www.azcentral.com/thingstodo/stage/articles/2011/04/22/20110422phoenix-symphony-phillip-addis-mahler-review-mendelssohn.html%E2%80%9D">Symphony review: Singer Addis punks out on Mahler songs</a><br />Richard Nilsen, Arizona Republic, Apr. 22, 2011<br /><br />“Punks out”?<br /><br />…<br /><br />Okay, how did Addis punk out on Mahler?<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">Phillip Addis wasn't no Sinatra.</span><br /><br />Wait. Phillip Addis was not <span style="font-style: italic;">no</span> Sinatra?<br /><br />So… Phillip Addis <span style="font-style: italic;"> is</span> Sinatra?<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">The baritone sang Gustav Mahler's "Songs of a Wayfarer" with the Phoenix Symphony this week…</span><br /><br />Wait…the singer who's not no Sinatra sang Mahler?<br /><br />How’d he do?<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">…and the performance was a major letdown.</span><br /><br />Well, Sinatra wasn’t known for his Mahler performances.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">Sometimes you wait a whole season for a particular concert, because the music scheduled isn't merely beautiful or entertaining, but promises emotional transport.</span><br /><br />I wish I had something clever to say here, but really, this is something unique that a symphony orchestra has the power to do but so rarely does. And this seems especially true since they rely so consistently upon the same pieces that have already emotionally transported me many times before.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">After all, that is why we who love classical music persist in a love for a dying art form: It can take us out of ourselves and leave us feeling the radiance of the universe.</span><br /><br />The art form isn’t dying, it’s just that people always insist on performing pieces that people already know they love.<br /><br />The classical music universe is definitely not expanding the way most orchestras program.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">It is almost a drug and we crave it.</span><br /><br />Exactly. But we digress.<br /><br />So, I’m assuming you love the Mahler “Songs of a Wayfarer” and you wished Sinatra were singing them? …<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">And when something like the Mahler sits there on the calendar all year, beckoning us to wait for its April date, we hope once again for that emotional and spiritual fix.</span><br /><br />Oh, come on, Mahler’s on the calendar every year. But, I guess I know what you mean.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">Well, perhaps you can expect too much.</span><br /><br />If you expected Sinatra to sing your Mahler, perhaps you did expect too much.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">It wasn't that Addis sang badly.</span><br /><br />Oh. Was his diction good?<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">Certainly his diction was good. </span><br /><br />Good. Music is all about diction.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">As if music were about diction.</span><br /><br />Wait? Music’s not about diction?<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">But the Sinatra comparison is dead on:…</span><br /><br />Are you sure, because I can’t even begin to imagine why you’d compare this singer to Sinatra.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">…When you heard Frank Sinatra sing, you knew - or felt you knew - that he had lived every word of the song he sang.</span><br /><br />And there’s never been a classical singer who you felt this about before? Perhaps even someone who has sang the Mahler before?<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">The emotional intelligence he brought to lyrics meant that even as his voice declined, his ability to put across a song never wavered.</span><br /><br />Exactly. Like when he sang:<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Come fly with me, let's float down to Peru</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">In llama land there's a one-man band</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">And he'll toot his flute for you</span><br /><br />I totally feel like he’s been to Peru, in a way no other artist could.<br /><br />And the emotional content in lyrics like:<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">She'll have no crap games with sharpies and frauds</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">And she won't go to Harlem in Lincolns or Fords</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">And she won't dish the dirt with the rest of the broads</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">That's why the lady is a tramp</span><br /><br />When he sang that, I could feel that this woman really eschewed the cultured, high-society conventions of her day...like not driving domestic automobiles.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">It was what was missing from Addis' performance: He never convinced us - never even tried to convince us - that the words actually mean anything. </span><br /><br />This seems fair. But did you really need Sinatra to make this point?<br /><br />The styles of singing (and the songs themselves) really don't have a lot in common.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">He sang as if he had memorized the words, not internalized them. It is at such times that you realize that mere musicality isn't enough: Great art isn't about pretty.</span><br /><br />Couldn’t agree with this more… Wait, are you saying Sinatra wasn’t a good singer?<br /><br />[snip]<br /><br />But you're making what I would a consider a valid and important observation about the performance...are you sure there isn't a more apt comparison you could provide to help us understand your argument?<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">If you have ever heard Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau sing these songs, you know how far we have fallen.</span><br /><br />Thank you.<br /><br />See, I don’t know that recording, but this seems like a much better comparison. You've now created a workable reference point for people who know the Mahler songs. Plus, I’m actually likely to seek out this recording to understand better your frame of reference.<br /><br />Maybe it's just me, but I find this far more illustrative.Gustavhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05316458340368681169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3371351138596055444.post-27292439392761002772011-04-27T19:40:00.000-07:002011-04-27T19:46:55.686-07:00The Greatest Review You've Ever Read?We here at the Detritus have come to learn that great music is great because it's aesthetically and technically stunning, makes money, makes people happy, is liked by more than 216 people, can run 40 yards in 4.2 seconds, and is written by someone famous and dead.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: left;">However, these common criteria leave out, arguably, the most important factor...what's in here. [<span style="font-style: italic;">I'm pointing to my gut</span>]<br /></div><br /><a href="http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11099/1138220-388.stm">Concert review: Blomstedt, PSO create a Brahms experience</a><br />Andrew Druckenbrod, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, April 09, 2011<br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);"><br />We spend an inordinate amount of time trying to define greatness,…</span><br /><br />So true. And from what I can tell, it's pretty much an exact science nowadays...<br /><br />Like when Mel Kiper said of JaMarcus Russell, "Three years from now you could be looking at a guy that's certainly one of the elite top five quarterbacks in this league. Look out because the skill level that he has is certainly John Elway-like."<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6EiRu1P6iIJEjDIXdxV_S9rkKnBtnbmLzo9h-0eNQC2zAgWVPNIFHi0n7yhWyckdPHtu5gW9JOvBgjccF0q9oxF23of6dSmXoNRdpTCjpB4iQSOoqIBnKzfUUYXuDrzAYBeMbypTRioEs/s1600/jamarcus.png"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 348px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6EiRu1P6iIJEjDIXdxV_S9rkKnBtnbmLzo9h-0eNQC2zAgWVPNIFHi0n7yhWyckdPHtu5gW9JOvBgjccF0q9oxF23of6dSmXoNRdpTCjpB4iQSOoqIBnKzfUUYXuDrzAYBeMbypTRioEs/s400/jamarcus.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5599246535425461938" border="0" /></a>figure greatest JaMarcus: The epitome of spending an inordinate amount of time defining greatness.<br /><br /></div>JaMarcus Russell is one of the greatest quarterbacks ever, right?<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">…and classical music is particularly obsessed with it.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Well, when you only listen to the same 10 or 15 composers who all died over 100 years ago, might as well rank them between sessions of masturbating over which conductor's phrasing of Mahler 4 was ejaculatory enough.<br /><br />Was that harsh? It felt harsh. Anywho...<br /></span><br />But so often it is a debate made away from the music in question…</span><br /><br />What do you mean “away”?<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">… -- in a coffee shop or a classroom, in an article or a book.</span><br /><br />And you prefer that debate be made <span style="font-style: italic;">inside</span> the music? Words are my tool of choice when I wish to communicate specific thoughts and ideas. Do you want me to make an argument that Beethoven's music is great with music? I’m not sure I follow.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">But what role does experience play?</span><br /><br />I’m going to guess that most of the people debating this have experienced classical music before. No?<br /><br />So Mr. Smarty-pants, how do you define greatness in music?<br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);"><br />As of late I have come to define greatness in music as any composition or song that, when listening to it, seems the best work I have ever heard.</span><br /><br />Like I said, defining greatness is pretty much down to science these days.<br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);"><br />When I am listening to a Beethoven Symphony, I can't imagine another that's "better."</span><br /><br />I’m not sure you’re actually familiar with the concept of a <span style="font-style: italic;">definition</span>.<br /><br />But now that I think about it, our imaginations should be the first criterion for any good definition of the greatness of music.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">Same with Chopin's nocturnes and Wagner's operas, Schubert's lieder or Radiohead's albums.</span><br /><br />Radiohead does make the best Radiohead albums…although Muse releases pretty good Radiohead albums, too.<br /><br />No wait...neither of them releases very good Radiohead albums.<br /><br />But, hey, wait a minute.<br /><br />What if I can’t<span style="font-style: italic;"> imagine</span> a better piece, but I<span style="font-style: italic;"> feel</span> like there must be one. Is it necessarily so that imagination is greater than feelings?<br /><br />I don’t know, because I imagine that you have no idea what you’re talking about, but my gut feeling is that you’re absolutely right.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQkGrhAVtP9dObP3xvHQRkEwwmiRj33nzyPaJSr6EvPHK_28ny-m-i8t0JLEK55uSeL7WC0zk9wqOCiu5-WBpexHALmit5XqOw9SRhiKNLddWgUsKWQiT1keHOJ_PTKej9puexik5zF0RF/s1600/Titanic+BW.gif"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 280px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQkGrhAVtP9dObP3xvHQRkEwwmiRj33nzyPaJSr6EvPHK_28ny-m-i8t0JLEK55uSeL7WC0zk9wqOCiu5-WBpexHALmit5XqOw9SRhiKNLddWgUsKWQiT1keHOJ_PTKej9puexik5zF0RF/s400/Titanic+BW.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5600408231100035442" border="0" /></a>figure greatest method of transportation: I can't imagine a more seaworthy vessel.<br /></div><br />Never mind…<br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);"></span><br />[<span style="font-style: italic;">snip</span>]<br /><br />Moving along, Brahms' First Symphony was on the program (clearly the greatest symphony ever), as was his First Piano Concerto...<br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);"><br />I am happy to report that pianist Garrick Ohlsson is human.</span><br /><br />This was in doubt?<br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);"><br />He missed a note in his brilliant performance of the First Piano Concerto,...</span><br /><br />I really hoped you pointed this out to him after the concert. However, in his defense...<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2TJbqV4Vwe9fQoFfip1jpHWUFh9v1alpS9khmt-pHH2OOvsJr4S4LBXpGl-dcd25znS1Ch7BBdxGBlWzJfdCQGQUP7mcpDSlj5toxcj1r5peYjuDtTWHixUESw1LPdFNGFSlxRmQrxjV_/s1600/Piano-Mouse-Trap-36140.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 347px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2TJbqV4Vwe9fQoFfip1jpHWUFh9v1alpS9khmt-pHH2OOvsJr4S4LBXpGl-dcd25znS1Ch7BBdxGBlWzJfdCQGQUP7mcpDSlj5toxcj1r5peYjuDtTWHixUESw1LPdFNGFSlxRmQrxjV_/s400/Piano-Mouse-Trap-36140.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5599241588208588722" border="0" /></a>figure concerto: Garrick Ohlsson won't let a little thing like the greatest piano concerto ever get in the way of sweet, sweet vengeance.<br /></div><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">…and it actually made me appreciate his amazing virtuosity all the more.</span><br /><br />That's exactly how I feel about JaMarcus Russell.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);"></span><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">You just had to be there.</span><br /><br />Exactly. How else could you experience imagining this was the greatest music ever?<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhR6K2-nTlGg5QmUXjQb_7g7_cPgcJx31flZX8EmRmPhEmE99KkkcbIJ0jTTeZko9HQqT2kUa0FRX1ABHl4AcsW2tYkXavVDSjvcZK_wxsH5X4qbWNWKrWVKNEuZrvrphLM7YtnoBwAvHhb/s1600/trojanhorse.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 213px; height: 215px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhR6K2-nTlGg5QmUXjQb_7g7_cPgcJx31flZX8EmRmPhEmE99KkkcbIJ0jTTeZko9HQqT2kUa0FRX1ABHl4AcsW2tYkXavVDSjvcZK_wxsH5X4qbWNWKrWVKNEuZrvrphLM7YtnoBwAvHhb/s400/trojanhorse.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5600453579049084706" border="0" /></a>figure greatest present: I can't imagine a more innocent looking gift. How thoughtful.<br /></div>Gustavhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05316458340368681169noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3371351138596055444.post-6468887464484318692011-04-10T14:31:00.000-07:002011-04-10T14:49:17.561-07:00And once again, a day-time talk show has shown us the way...It's tricky business commenting on and critiquing the work of others, and I'm speaking of our work here at the Detritus and not just the role of the critic in general. I've read a lot of reviews in the past couple years and I'm starting to wonder if I can ever be satisfied.<br /><br />With that...<br /><br /><a href="http://www2.timesdispatch.com/entertainment/arts-literature/2011/mar/06/music-review-richmond-symphony-orchestra-ar-887477/">Music Review: Richmond Symphony Orchestra</a><br />Devorah Ben-David, Richmond Times-Dispatch, March 6, 2011<br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);"><br />The Richmond Symphony Orchestra wowed classical music aficionados during its Masterworks performance at the Carpenter Theatre.</span><br /><br />Well, surely this review will break the trend.<br /><br />However, I’m curious why classical music aficionados were singled out here. I guess the obvious implication is that regular music aficionados and general classical music patrons were un-wowed by the performance at the Carpenter Theatre.<br /><br />Intriguing, indeed.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">"Dancers, Dreamers and Presidents for Orchestra," written by Haitian-American contemporary composer…</span><br /><br />I like what I see here. <span style="font-style: italic;">New</span> music...and one and a half sentences without the need to snark.<br /><br />But yes, that contemporary music does tend to scare of those classical music novices.<br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);"><br />…Daniel Bernard Roumain, launched the energetic opening piece.</span><br /><br />A rough turn of phrase, to be sure, but you still have me. New music wows classical music lovers -- good news indeed!<br /><br />So, can I hope for more than a one sentence review? Some in depth history or analysis? And more importantly, that this contemporary composition isn't just viewed through the lens of some gimmick, and be allowed to exist by itself as a work of art?<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">It was inspired by a 21-second dance shared by then-Sen. Barack Obama and Ellen DeGeneres on her TV show in 2007.</span><br /><br />Hmmm… er. I hope this piece isn't as lame as it already sounds. Sorry, Daniel. I’m sure it’s a great piece and all (I mean, it did wow classical music aficionados), but just because it’s contemporary doesn’t make it not cheesy.<br /><br />Remember, how we discuss music colors the reactions of others...and I'm not just alluding to critics. Contemporary music cannot just be another scavenger of the trash-heap of pop culture.<br /><br />But, how about alleviating some of my concerns that this is just some trite gimmick about “hope” and what not?<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">His message is one of hope that the road to peace might be better served by dancing together than haggling over our differences.</span><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_UQcLWkjdz36y9t3DgdwtDdRY5ZCDvRadoVkwjiwrMPF-3ikNIeXtZYvxs1spc4Ngu07xNPy2bexYLbIcEASaEd4KFy9fyCg03CeeP_o0RZDbRvjuMws4_j17uGfelnirv0yJaHDzEKVX/s1600/Mr_Burns_alien.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 251px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_UQcLWkjdz36y9t3DgdwtDdRY5ZCDvRadoVkwjiwrMPF-3ikNIeXtZYvxs1spc4Ngu07xNPy2bexYLbIcEASaEd4KFy9fyCg03CeeP_o0RZDbRvjuMws4_j17uGfelnirv0yJaHDzEKVX/s400/Mr_Burns_alien.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5593716988155923554" border="0" /></a>figure misunderstood: "It's trying to bringing love! Don't let it get away! Break its legs!"<br /></div><br />Who knew that the road to world peace went through a moderately amusing segment on a morning talk show.<br /><br />I guess I shouldn't talk since I did write my <span style="font-style: italic;">Will it Float? Symphony.</span><br /><br />And I do love when music is about all that hope-y, change-y stuff. It’s a powerful message, no doubt. One I’m not sure many composers have the courage to put out there.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">The composition, which was commissioned by the Sphinx Commissioning Consortium, is fundamentally a dance piece.</span><br /><br />Meaning people are intended to dance to it? How many dance halls employ full symphony orchestras nowadays?<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">It appears to include a part of everything Roumain has met in his musical life in terms of the classical and pop world.</span><br /><br />Oh boy, a piece about world peace that bridges the divide (once again) between classical music and pop music.<br /><br />I’m sorry. I love new music.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Snap out of it, Gustav.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">As the three movements of the piece unveil, the element of surprise is intriguing. "Dancers" begins with a banging solo…</span><br /><br />Is that “banging” as in awesome, or “banging” as in whacking stuff with sticks?<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">…for the timpani and drum kit, so reminiscent of Afro-Caribbean melodies.</span><br /><br />I’m not sure which part that sentence is extraneous…the “so” or the comma, but we definitely need to lose one. And I think you mean rhythms and not melodies here. But, what do I know.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">In "Dreamers," the contrabass section makes its dramatic entry, while another incarnation of musical vignette unfolds.</span><br /><br />Really, is there any part of the music that doesn’t “unfold”, or isn’t “musical”?<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">Chordal patterns again repeat in "Presidents"… </span><br /><br />Chordal patterns do tend to do that, from time to time.<br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);"><br />…but quickly morph into hip-hop beats creating a crowded score.</span><br /><br />And this too, although, I would wager with slightly less frequency.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWQcT1G40AIs7jkBpe8GhBXsr0I6iCx3Sq9U9vqqloI1pa5bCLP_-gp2MeXoKASdCgtN1SEj4nA959xeN-6F66IyIaAaIxIb4UjIk8th-MEHjlRxDW3HPtbahG9D73L-b7MUUpOuhK4WPQ/s1600/barack_obama_dancing_2007_ellen_degeneres_show.jpeg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 314px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWQcT1G40AIs7jkBpe8GhBXsr0I6iCx3Sq9U9vqqloI1pa5bCLP_-gp2MeXoKASdCgtN1SEj4nA959xeN-6F66IyIaAaIxIb4UjIk8th-MEHjlRxDW3HPtbahG9D73L-b7MUUpOuhK4WPQ/s400/barack_obama_dancing_2007_ellen_degeneres_show.jpeg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5594066436744923970" border="0" /></a>figure presidential dignity: The Ellen Show quickly morphing into hip-hop beats with an actual presidential candidate.<br /></div><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">Here Roumain's musical interpretation comes off as fragmented. But this may be purely intentional, as discontent ultimately breeds fragmentation in our world.</span><br /><br />You're theorizing that his fragmented musical interpretation was intention. Wait, his music interpretation of what...hip-hop? And whose discontent are we talking about?<br /><br />What we have here is a failure to communicate. Now, this seems to be an interesting analysis of the eclectic juxtapositions being made in this piece, but if you think about it for a second, I have no idea what the author is talking about. It may very well be that his fragmented musical interpretation was intentional. But, his music interpretation of what...hip-hop? And whose discontent are we talking about?<br /><br />I should slow down though. For all my grousing, I do laud the author for taking the time to discuss this piece in such detail…especially when most critics would save their column inches for these next two works.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0); font-weight: bold;">Tomasi's Concerto for Trumpet and Orchestra</span> <span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);"><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Ah, the Tomasi Trumpet Concerto...I have been known to partake of this particular concerto from time to time. It is a striking piece, and as Philip Ramey writes in the <a href="http://www.wyntonmarsalis.org/discography/classical/tomasi-jolivet-trumpet-concertos/">liner notes</a> to Wynton Marsalis' recording of this piece:</span><br /><br /></span><span style="font-style: italic;">"Perhaps the most striking elements of this brittle yet lyric piece are the opening movement's trumpet cadenza with quiet snare-drum background and the jaunty cartoon-music finale."</span><br /><br />Couldn't have said it better myself.<br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);"><br />The trumpet, which dates to at least 1,500 B.C., has been a victim of musical snobbery in history. </span><br /><br />Snobbery, eh? Do you have any particular composer in mind? Mozart was rumored to be a trumpet-ist.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">But certainly not when Thomas Hooten is playing "Concerto for Trumpet" by French composer Henri Tomasi.</span><br /><br />Wait, the trumpet players were the snobs?<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">The lyrical piece is neo-classic in texture, melody and rhythm and has three of the maestro's signature trademarks. The music is structured, concise and clear.</span><br /><br />How convenient that three of Tomasi’s trademarks are completely consistent with all neo-classical music.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">While some may regard this particular work as slightly brittle,… </span><br /><br />Brittle?<br /><br />Huh. I wonder who "some" might be.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">…Hooten breathes life into the opening movement of the trumpet cadenza.</span><br /><br />Cadenza = concerto?<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">While he appears to fatigue a bit during the cartoon-music finale, he nonetheless leaves the stage with a standing ovation.</span><br /><br />Is it normal that only players who don’t get tired during a concerto get standing ovations?<br /><br />And that's so funny that you called it a "cartoon-music finale"? I guess it didn't realize how clearly that finale sounds like cartoon music.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_8hp2QR3X7CM3OFPrFq2sfPivcMw4_zfgnm4Wf5mX3xd2xKwAK7SoR3OsqOW771dSXX7znkKJhdF0R-bJz-2NzRsLe1_kxKSImtRDpd4u3lYW71fik3OEStyc1fO7OTyn6b1wN0xMZirt/s1600/Tailgate_unoriginal_9.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 267px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_8hp2QR3X7CM3OFPrFq2sfPivcMw4_zfgnm4Wf5mX3xd2xKwAK7SoR3OsqOW771dSXX7znkKJhdF0R-bJz-2NzRsLe1_kxKSImtRDpd4u3lYW71fik3OEStyc1fO7OTyn6b1wN0xMZirt/s400/Tailgate_unoriginal_9.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5594069844995371794" border="0" /></a>figure unoriginal: Hey, who's your favorite player?<br /></div><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0); font-weight: bold;">Symphony No. 6 in B Minor, Opus 74, "Pathétique"</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">One of the great classical music composers is Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky.</span><br /><br />Are you writing a report for your high school music appreciation course? Here, let me save you some time by giving you part of a report I wrote on Tchaikovsky.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Tchaikovsky was born on May 7, 1840 and died of suicidal cholera on November 6, 1893. Although, he was Russian, Tchaikovsky was no communist as attested to by his pro-American anthem, the “1812 Overture”, written in honor of the glorious victory of America over the forces of evil (France) for a 4th of July celebration. Equally famous for his symphonic, ballet and operatic output, he strongly resented the trumpet.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">And while Symphony No. 6 in B Minor was meant to be a celebration of life, he died nine days after its premiere.</span><br /><br />How pathetic. But it’s a good thing that his death couldn’t actually rewrite the music, which should still sound like a celebration of life, right?<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">It begins with the somber voice of the double basses and is punctuated by the violas' mournful voice. </span><br /><br />That’s not how I’d compose a piece celebrating life, but I’m not one of the great classical music composers either.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">Listening carefully, one instinctively feels that something is haunting the composer's mind.</span><br /><br />Aren’t the concepts of “listening carefully” and “instinctively” sort of at odds with each other?<br /><br />Can I find fault with any sentence? Are all my comments in the form of questions? Never mind.<br /><br />If only Tchaikovsky had called <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtyNeMazZY8">555-2368</a>, maybe the music wouldn’t have retroactively been rewritten. And maybe he might still be alive today.<br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);"><br />The Richmond Symphony Orchestra does a flawless job of interpreting this agitation. All that was left in its wake was thunderous applause.</span><br /><br />They applauded Tchaikovsky’s inner turmoil and utter demise? That seems like a bit of a jerk move don’t you think?Gustavhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05316458340368681169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3371351138596055444.post-65050388772823545432011-03-19T13:52:00.000-07:002011-03-19T13:52:56.318-07:00Anything written in A minor is bad-tempered gnashing of teeth*<span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">I know critics must hate it when we take them literally, but seriously, is there any other way to read <a href="http://blog.mysanantonio.com/the-music-beat/2011/03/review-san-antonio-symphony-13/">this?</a></span><br /><br />Georges Bizet’s only complete symphony was a breeze for Sitkovetsky. All he had to do was conduct,...<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Is that all? Pssh, I could have done that. </span><br /><br /></span><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-ed6ttdVl74q9RF3XrbyOgq38b1LfPOkIbq8_wAL1eaeA42AONQXVpuGA1n-_Xqw1mDITAcLtIZefDgaskl1eX0O4UxcGgL39lUVPbRhZmXhiQ_JISt4nlkSxvYqmPnY3-rRsFzPQc4-O/s1600/bizet.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 230px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-ed6ttdVl74q9RF3XrbyOgq38b1LfPOkIbq8_wAL1eaeA42AONQXVpuGA1n-_Xqw1mDITAcLtIZefDgaskl1eX0O4UxcGgL39lUVPbRhZmXhiQ_JISt4nlkSxvYqmPnY3-rRsFzPQc4-O/s400/bizet.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5585893867285958178" border="0" /></a><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">figure bizet: Compositional facial hair of the week.</span></span><br /></div><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);"><br />...and he did it well, as in the other pieces.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">But the Bizet, unlike the other pieces, was a breeze...what would you say made it so easy for Sitkovetsky?</span><br /><br />He styled the melodies just right, marked effective, brisk tempos...<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Well, that sounds like it might have taken years of training, not to mention a unique aptitude to style melodies "just right". So, that's not it...</span><br /><br />...and shaped the structure so that it was just as much fun and enjoyable as the composer’s masterpiece, “Carmen.”<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">He made it as much fun as Bizet's opera "Carmen"? What an incredibly odd thing to say about his symphony. But still, that doesn't sound very easy at all.</span><br /><br />Anything written in C major is always happy and spring-like.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">So very true. But, is the Bizet Symphony in C in C major...? [<span style="font-style: italic;">checks the internets</span>]<br /><br />Why, yes, it is in C major!<br /><br />So, therefore no matter what </span></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Sitkovetsky did, the music would always be happy and spring-like, leaving him ample time to mark effective tempos. That Sitkovetsky is one clever SOB.</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);"><br />Sitkovetsky didn’t hold any of that back.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Wait, what kind of asshole would hold back C major awesomeness?<br /><br />-----------------------------------------------<br /><br />*Find out what emotions are for all the keys <a href="http://www.gradfree.com/kevin/some_theory_on_musical_keys.htm">here.</a><br /></span></span>Gustavhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05316458340368681169noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3371351138596055444.post-12718518072533679002011-03-11T05:05:00.000-08:002011-03-11T05:05:00.196-08:00Friday Quickie: Performance took the miraculousness to a new levelI'm pretty sure there are rational explanations for most of the review that follows. But just in case, I think we need to set some ground rules. Some simple guidelines to help us get through the perfunctory introduction and description of standard works of music: 1) They aren't miracles, and 2) orchestras do more than "offer accounts" of said music, but less than rewrite the emotional content of the music.<br /><br />Yes, I think that's a pretty good start.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.indystar.com/article/20110305/ENTERTAINMENT/103050338/1005/ENTERTAINMENT/Review-Young-Spaniard-leads-ISO-through-fine-program?odyssey=nav%7Chead">Review: Young Spaniard leads ISO through a fine program</a><br />Jay Harvey, Indianapolis Star, March 5, 2011<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">A young conductor with an adventurous…</span><br /><br />Ooh… “adventurous”. I am a fan of adventure, so consider me very excited.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">…resume is on the Hilbert Circle Theatre podium this weekend, putting the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra to the test with a couple of challenging American works.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Challenging</span>? <span style="font-style: italic;">American</span>? Hmmm....<br /><br />No worries...still excited.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">But there is more than just the bracing novelty of hearing John Adams' "Lollapalooza" and Aaron Copland's "Short Symphony" to commend this program to the public's attention.</span><br /><br />I object to the classification of either of those works as novelty. Especially the Copland…I mean it has the word symphony in the title – how much of a novelty could it be?<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://michigan.gov/images/msp/label_novelty_176728_7.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 296px; height: 181px;" src="http://michigan.gov/images/msp/label_novelty_176728_7.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>figure <span style="font-style: italic;">Lollapalooza </span>Warning: Who knew <span style="font-style: italic;">Lollapalooza</span><span> was written in Pakistan</span><span style="font-style: italic;">.</span><br /></div><br />I’m pretty sure that no offense is meant to either composer (I think), but I really am not sure what to make of calling American compositions novelties.<br /><br />But, that’s actually not while we’re looking in on this review…<br /><br />[<span style="font-style: italic;">snip</span>]<br /><br />After the orchestra “presented a cohesive performance” of <span style="font-style: italic;">Lollapalooza</span>…<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">The 1933 Copland work, composed just past the crest of his high modernist period,…</span><br /><br />Okay, I’m not sure Copland ever had a “high” modernist period (well at least in the 20s or 30s). But whatever...<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">…is less calculated to provide fun for either an orchestra or its audience.</span><br /><br />“Calculated to provide fun”? That’s an odd turn of phrase when reviewing a symphony.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://danacain.com/storage/Miss%20Modernism.jpg?__SQUARESPACE_CACHEVERSION=1280165742864"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 305px; height: 286px;" src="http://danacain.com/storage/Miss%20Modernism.jpg?__SQUARESPACE_CACHEVERSION=1280165742864" alt="" border="0" /></a>figure calculated fun: Modernism at its most fun.<br /></div><br />Are any of the Brahms or Beethoven (for example) symphonies calculated to provide fun, or do we just reserve that qualification for novelty works?<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">It contains some elements of the popular appeal that would soon come to the fore in major ballets such as "Appalachian Spring" and "Billy the Kid."</span><br /><br />Yes, that’s kind of true. What exactly are those "popular" elements? And what makes up the rest of the elements in the piece? It’s post-“high modernist”, not very fun, and preceded his populist music, and...?<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">But playing it may tend to reflect a love of labor more than a labor of love.</span><br /><br />Har har. That’s some good word play, but I have no idea what would make you say that. Do you have some reason to conflate his politics with this particular piece of music, or were you just looking for something topical, yet relevant to Copland to say?<br /><br />If so, nicely done.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.uncoverage.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/wisconsin41.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 450px; height: 298px;" src="http://www.uncoverage.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/wisconsin41.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>figure love of labor: Just as upset at all these fat cat teachers and their fancy 1993 Nissan Sentras as I am!<br /></div><br />So, now that we've fully established the history of this great, yet novelty work...what kind of performance did the orchestra offer?<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">Despite some tentativeness in the fast outer movements, Friday's performance offered an admirable account, with some nicely pointed lyrical contrast in the second movement.</span><br /><br />An admirable account. Excellent. This seems like a great program so far, offering us a cohesive performance, then an admirable account…what else does the ISO have to offer us?<span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);"><br /><br />Argentine pianist Ingrid Fliter, in a return ISO engagement, offered a pert, frolicsome account of Saint-Saens' Piano Concerto No. 2 in G minor.</span><br /><br />Offering a frolicsome account is a nice contrast to cohesive and admirable accounts.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">She gave the homage-to-Bach opening music just enough seriousness,…</span><br /><br />Because it’s not a novelty, right?<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">…then quickly focused on flair and agility, with stylish support in the accompaniment. The substance of the finale is spun out to tissue-paper thinness, but Fliter rendered it all with conviction. For an encore, she treated Chopin's "Minute" Waltz to a tempo massage that had it purring.</span><br /><br />Tempo massage? Does that mean it went faster or slower?<br /><br />Did the piece have a happy ending?<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">"La Mer" is always a miracle,…</span><br /><br />Oh, I know I'm going to like where this sentence is going...a miracle you say? How so?<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">…in that audiences love it because of its reassuring picturesqueness, despite the radical nature of Debussy's harmonic and melodic language.</span><br /><br />Radical? Are you sure? Perhaps (and that’s a big perhaps) it was radical to the audiences around when it was first premiered, but the piece begins quite convincingly in b minor and spends most of the first movement in some variation of 5 flats.<br /><br />In fact the whole piece is anchored in some tonal center.<br /><br />The music does drift harmonically quite a bit at times, but radical…I think might be overstating it just a tad.<br /><br />But more importantly, it's a miracle if someone likes music with "radical" harmonic and melodic languages?!<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">Friday's performance took the miraculousness to a new level.</span><br /><br />This might be my favorite sentence I’ve read in a review in a long time.<br /><br />So, did they perform the piece with extra radical-ness in the harmonic language?<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">Heras-Casado drew from the ISO an incredible suppleness of response. He isolated certain details with crystalline clarity, but the piece's momentum wasn't disturbed by anything too finicky. Tempos were flexible and related logically to one another.</span><br /><br />See, I thank Debussy for this, and more thank the conductor more for the gentle massage.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">And the performance was emotionally moving to a surprising degree.</span><br /><br />That is a miracle.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://home.insightbb.com/%7Ejmengel4/bread/bread_estrada.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 431px; height: 401px;" src="http://home.insightbb.com/%7Ejmengel4/bread/bread_estrada.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>figure my breakfast: Also a miracle.<br /></div>Gustavhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05316458340368681169noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3371351138596055444.post-48553836017039306772011-02-27T17:02:00.000-08:002011-02-27T17:22:24.143-08:00And Yet Another Orchestra Shows Incredible BalanceAnother harmless review...but I'm not sure why I have to say this, but composers write the music, not the conductor, or the soloist, or the players. At a certain level of musicianship, the music isn't demonstrably more sad or powerful or jubilant. Tempos change, and articulations can vary...but these alterations are often slight. This isn't to say that the Berlin Philharmonic doesn't perform Beethoven 5th Symphony better than the Albuquerque Community Orchestra...they most certainly do. But the music...it's just as fateful in the beginning, and as triumphantly C major at the end. And it's been that way for 200 years.<br /><br />So there.<br /><br /><a href="http://oregonmusicnews.com/blog/2011/02/07/young-pianist-yuja-wang-conquers-rachmaninoff-in-terrific-oregon-symphony-concert-%E2%80%93-orchestra-at-the-top-of-its-game/">Young pianist Yuja Wang conquers Rachmaninoff in terrific Oregon Symphony concert – orchestra at the top of its game</a><br />James Bash, OregonMusicNews.com, February 7, 2011<br /><br />Ah, good, a sports cliche...now I know this will be thoughtful review.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">Guest artist Yuja Wang brought her A game…</span><br /><br />I’m going to admit it up front, that this I’m probably only bringing my C+ game to this critique.<br /><br />But of course, you should still read on…<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">…to the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall on Saturday evening (February 5) at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall…</span><br /><br />They have an Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall now? That’s convenient.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">…and created an impressive debut with the Oregon Symphony in her performance of Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Third Piano Concerto.</span><br /><br />If only print newspapers had editors as attentive and fastidious as online editors…oh, wait.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">Wang played this demanding work with incredible precision and artistic panache.</span><br /><br />Panache is good. Precision…<span style="font-style: italic;">meh.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">Her opening statement showed right away that she had power and finesse,…</span><br /><br />Convenient then that Rachmaninoff put some powerful, yet finesseable music right up front.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">…but…</span><br /><br />My favorite part about the "but" construction in most of these reviews is the unnecessary juxtaposition of two usually positive things.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">She was pretty but smart too.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">….she excelled in creating the lush, rhapsodic atmosphere with a singing tone.</span><br /><br />Her performance sounds dreamy…do you have a favorite part?<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">One of the most memorable passages… </span><br /><br />Yeah...<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">…came in the second movement when she evoked a series of cascading waterfalls that opened onto a high plateau with an expansive vista.</span><br /><br />She did what now? She evoked a waterfall? On a high plateau? With an expansive vista?!<br /><br />Also, you said 'she'? Did the music not naturally evoke this image? If I understand you correctly, you are suggesting that her interpretation added waterfalls to the music?<br /><br />She drew you a picture, right?<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">Maybe she could’ve lingered a little more here or there,…</span><br /><br />‘Here’ or ‘there’? Are these real places, or are you making a sweeping generalization about the performance and hoping we just wouldn't care?<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">…but she is only 23 years old, and I’m sure that her interpretation will change in the future. </span><br /><br />You're right. 23 year-olds don't linger as long as they should.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">In support of Wang’s performance, the orchestra brought its A game as well.</span><br /><br />So, we’re not grading on a curve then?<br /><br />Any chance there’ll be extra credit on this concert?<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://chomposaurus.files.wordpress.com/2008/07/chestnut.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 341px; height: 350px;" src="http://chomposaurus.files.wordpress.com/2008/07/chestnut.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>figure bringing it: Joey Chestnut brought his A game when he downed 68 hot dogs and buns at the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest.<br /></div><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">The series of duets in the first movement (flute, oboe, clarinet, horn, and bassoon)…</span><br /><br />Yes, duets. Can I just pick any two instruments from the list above for the duet? Or were there duets of every possible combination (not permutations, since order does not matter)? Meaning there were…(remembering 11th grade pre-calculus)…<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/math/e/e/d/eed76baaa00cf639ad1c1cecd11247f1.png"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 84px; height: 46px;" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/math/e/e/d/eed76baaa00cf639ad1c1cecd11247f1.png" alt="" border="0" /></a>figure combinations: How the fuck do you solve an equation with no numbers?!<br /></div><br />10 duets!? That’s kind of a lot…at least for just the first movement.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">… had balance and grace.</span><br /><br />Can you really have grace without balance? Think about it.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">At one point in the second movement, the orchestra snuck in…</span><br /><br />Ooh. Nice imagery. I wonder how they snuck in.<br /><br />…as if they were all wearing really thick socks.<br /><br />Well, that is an effective way of sneaking. And I’m assuming they took their shoes off first, because, you know, that would totally negate the benefits of really thick socks.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://filipspagnoli.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/crowded-train-in-india.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 392px; height: 268px;" src="http://filipspagnoli.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/crowded-train-in-india.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>figure snuck in: Hey! Wait a minute...how did all you people get on this train?<br /></div><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">The then…</span><br /><br />“The then”...<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">…played in a way that made a very gradual crescendo that showed incredible control.</span><br /><br />Really? You must be shitting me.<br /><br />And they did this in the second movement?!<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">The brass flared impressively in the third movement when the music went off to the races,…</span><br /><br />Dog or horse races? There is a difference you know.<br /><br />Oh, or were they people races? If so, did the music also take in the high jump and javelin competitions as well?<br /><br />Or...and I dare to ask...were they...?<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe title="YouTube video player" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/Y5QwYJoLUfE" width="480" frameborder="0" height="390"></iframe><br />figure man vs beast: Stupid giraffe.<br /></div><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">…and the overall effect at the end of the piece was jubilation from all corners of the nearly sold-out hall. </span><br /><br />Four for four, huh? And what about the center of the auditorium, was there jubilation there too?<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">Wang responded with an encore, Rachmaninoff Vocalise (Op.34 n. 14).</span><br /><br />No way an encore was preplanned. Way to go audience, your jubilation spontaneously created an encore.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">The orchestra opened the concert with a superb performance of Johannes Brahms’ Tragic Overture. Again, the orchestra demonstrated incredible balance and articulate phrasing.</span><br /><br />I’m just wondering to myself if balance is the sort of thing that I could ever describe as “incredible”.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">Two of the horns and principal bass trombonist Charles Reneau made the sound magically decay during an exposed section,…</span><br /><br />Magically? Did you expect the sound to extend forever?<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">…and the lower strings marvelously created a wistful mood towards the end of the piece.</span><br /><br />A wistful mood not indicated in the score?<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">Under the direction of Kalmar, this piece became a real gem.</span><br /><br />Otherwise it’s a pile of shit.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">The orchestra also made a very strong case for Carl Nielsen’s rarely heard Symphony No. 6, aka the Sinfonia semplice. </span><br /><br />A “strong case”? What an incredibly odd thing to say.<br /><br />Are the Brahms and Nielsen generally accepted as crappy pieces of works, and the Oregon Symphony disagrees, bravely standing in direct opposition to common wisdom?<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">The music in this piece seemed to travel in numerous directions in a fascinating way.</span><br /><br />I'll bet it was hard to keep track of all the places you were going.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjArKvHVVBSJHmtFxK7dMxZxQjmJvEiVJpJBVH4b4yJwLajxqo77UiRDZwaMpacGnbtawAxMhITn2tF44YbEaochRo8Ds3tXJuZGkwX0gdTYFVMG5Of60k2tY48zNMCcBBraZAAWNxhZV8/s320/no-more-gps-church-funny-sign.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjArKvHVVBSJHmtFxK7dMxZxQjmJvEiVJpJBVH4b4yJwLajxqo77UiRDZwaMpacGnbtawAxMhITn2tF44YbEaochRo8Ds3tXJuZGkwX0gdTYFVMG5Of60k2tY48zNMCcBBraZAAWNxhZV8/s320/no-more-gps-church-funny-sign.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>figure traveling in numerous directions: A little free advice from Deliverance Unto The Lord, Inc.<br /></div><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">In the first movement alone, the orchestra went from suspenseful super quiet state to an agitated, fast and loud one before settling into a soothing ending.</span><br /><br />Wow. Sounds like some super calls from the orchestra. Why Nielsen composed that first movement without a soothing ending is beyond me.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">The second movement had an eclectic, disjointed feel (in his introduction, Kalmar told the audience to picture a group of children waking up from a nap)…</span><br /><br />Yes…okay. Children waking from a nap…I’m thinking some portamento in the strings…no, glissandi in the trombones!<br /><br />In fact, no strings at all…for a short…no, extended period.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">…that was punctuated here and there by glissandos from principal trombonist Aaron LaVere, and for an extended period only the woodwinds, brass, and percussion played. </span><br /><br />Thought so.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">The strings got things going in the third movement with tight ensemble playing.</span><br /><br />What “things” specifically did they get going?<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">After principal flutist Rose Lombardo played a beautiful solo, the mood of the music became strident before downshifting to a solemn and slow close.</span><br /><br />With all those "things going", I bet it was a quite a relief when the music downshifted.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">The fourth movement featured a waltz that the cellos and double basses usurped for a while until other themes developed and were exchanged seamlessly between sections.</span><br /><br />You might say that the cellos and basses usurped that melody like Ahaz usurped the throne of Judah from his father Jotham, if I might be allowed a bit of biblical humor.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">Gordon Rencher played a charming passage on the xylophone before the violins launched into a series of skipping phrases. </span><br /><br />Where are you going with this? Are you under the impression that there are people for whom charming passages and skipping phrases might make them come to the concert? Or do just prefer to give anecdotal snippets instead of any substantive review?<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">The piece ended with the bassoons getting the last word, and that accented the overall whimsical nature of the piece.</span><br /><br />Oh, those bassoons – can they not be whimsical?<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">I hope that the orchestra plays some more Nielsen in the near future.</span><br /><br />Me too. But you’re not assuming that all of Nielsen’s music features whimsical bassoons, authoritarian lower strings, and manic mood changes, are you?<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">[Note to readers: I added the word "magically" to this review -- in a vain attempt to describe the decayed sound that Charles Reneau made.] </span><br /><br />Well, why don’t you at least try, because, I’m not sure magical even begins to add to our understanding of how his decay might have differed from your standard decaying sound.Gustavhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05316458340368681169noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3371351138596055444.post-72423006566119500162011-02-04T09:25:00.000-08:002011-02-04T09:25:33.732-08:00Mozart the Certain<!--StartFragment--> <br />
<div class="MsoNormal">If titles could cry, this one would be committing suicide by drowning itself in its own tears in a small, cold, windowless greenroom of the Vancouver Opera House.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://communities.canada.com/vancouversun/blogs/communityofinterest/archive/2011/02/02/what-can-mozart-teach-us-about-leadership.aspx">What can Mozart teach us about leadership?</a><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">Brad Frenette<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">Vancouver Sun, Community of Interest Blog<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Now, because the title is perhaps one of the most ridiculous I’ve ever encountered, I feel I need to provide a little background, so we don’t get the wrong idea. First, we should note that Brad Frenette is the general director of the Vancouver Opera, so already there’s a lack of journalistic standards and, perhaps, a conflict of interest. And second, the Sun’s Community of Interest blog describes its mission as “[…] featuring the opinions of tastemakers, community advocates and thought leaders from across Vancouver, Canada and the world […],” which means, if the title is any indication, that Brad is more of a tastemaker rather than thought leader. I guess, the wrong idea is already the correct one.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">[whew]<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Alright, let’s dig in.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">--<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">So, what exactly can Mozart teach us about leadership? [tongue in cheek] Not that I expect an answer.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">There are many reasons why I am passionate about opera:</span><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #363636;">That’s nice.</span> Why don’t you list your reasons? Because, you know, they won’t be generic or anything.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">“Okay,” he says.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">…beautiful, emotional and inspiring music; literate, poetic language; grand and glorious productions on stages filled with singers, choristers and dancers; and very often, a link with important people and events in the past.</span><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">So <i>often</i>—but not all the time, mind you—there’s a link (i.e., ?) with things in (of?) the past.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Believe it or not, I, too, am passionate about the past. Like, it happened and stuff. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">But another reason I am passionate about opera is the relevance it has for our lives today.</span><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #363636;">Because the general director of the Vancouver Opera is telling me that opera is relevant today, I should believe him</span>. After all, he’d have no incentive to tell me otherwise, right?<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Fine. How is it relevant? Does it have something to do with Mozart teaching us about leadership?<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">[Ha ha ha! I still can’t get over the title. It’s just wrong for so many reasons. Anyway…]<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">Opera is certainly not alone among the arts in this ability to speak to us about our own times, but it is the art form I know best and about which I can speak with certainty.</span><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #363636;">There’s certainly a lot of certainty going on here.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Certainly, when I encounter so much certainty, I am surely reminded, with certainty, of that without-a-doubt inspiring quip by the most famous of Jedi: “Only certain Sith Lords deal in irrefutable absolutes.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #363636;">And after a bit about how the opera company works hard to help their audience appreciate its 21<sup>st</sup> century relevancy, despite its “powdered wigs and foreign languages,” this:<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">But here I believe is the wonderful secret of my art form: opera is about the big things, the important emotions of all of us humans….and these “big things” and large emotions don’t change from year to year, decade to decade, or even century to century. </span><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #363636;">Rarely, these days do I encounter such advocacy of classical-era (enlightenment) thinking. Maybe I should go bleed myself to alleviate the headache this is causing me.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">Sometimes these sweeping themes…</span><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #363636;">That is, large emotions that never change.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">Sometimes these sweeping themes are rather personal: love and betrayal; estrangement; the distances created between families and friends and the bridges to span those distances.</span><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #363636;">Ooh! Ooh! Ooh! Me! Me! Me! Pick me!<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #363636;">Yes, Empiricus?<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">That means, sometimes the sweeping themes, which are large emotions that never change, are also societal.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Very good, Empiricus.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">Sometimes the big ideas are societal: when we last produced Aida, we investigated the plight of “Women in War” with Lloyd Axworthy, Ruth Segal and others;</span><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #363636;">Now pick me! Pick Me!<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #363636;">Yes, Brad?<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #363636;">Sometimes, self-promotion is all about leadership and Mozart taught me that.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #363636;">Wrong, Brad.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">…when we staged Macbeth our panelists examined “Power and its Abuse;”</span><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #363636;">You’re still doing it wrong, Brad. You’re not carrying the four. And you multiplied the denominator only afterwards. See what you did wrong, there?<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">…in 2002, during the opera </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">Of Mice and Men</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;"> important BC artists discussed the “Role of the Arts in Effecting Social Change.”</span><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Nevermind, Brad. Just go to recess.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">Our current offering, Mozart’s La Clemenza di Tito, is about one important thing:</span><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #363636;">Well, if the above was of any help, I would guess that Tito is about leadership, which is one large emotion. [cough] <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #363636;">But will it ever be explained? Tune in tomorrow for all the answers or not.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #363636;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #363636;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #363636;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #363636;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #363636;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #363636;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #363636;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #363636;">[tomorrow] <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #363636;">Meanwhile, back at the Detritus Towers…<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">Our current offering, Mozart’s La Clemenza di Tito, is about one important thing: what qualities do we want in those who lead us?</span><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #363636;">Finally! Finally something refers to the title, that absurd, absurd title. Maybe now we’ll know the answer to the big question: how can Mozart teach us about leadership?<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">Mozart’s gorgeous and spirited music, the intriguing scenery and stellar singing are all in the service of this big idea</span><span style="color: #363636;"> [i.e., one large, never-changing emotion]</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">.</span><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #363636;">Yeah, yeah. But how is it that those things teach us about leadership?<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">Is ruling with compassion a better idea than ruling with vengeance?</span><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #363636;">Let’s ask Mozart!<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">Is the good of the people more important than the reputation of the leader? Does forgiveness in a leader show strength or betray weakness?</span><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #363636;">Sounds more like Mozart is asking the questions, rather than answering them.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">Mozart’s opera inspired us to bring together a first-class panel last week at the Vancouver Public Library to discuss this notion of effective and compassionate leadership.</span><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #363636;">What can <i>Mozart</i></span><span style="color: #363636;"> teach us about leadership?<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">Columnist Gary Mason, UBC professor Michael Byers, Tsawwassen First Nations Chief Kim Baird, Superintendent of West Vancouver schools Chris Kennedy, and Brenda Eaton, Chair of BC Housing Management Commission, discussed with one another and the audience their beliefs concerning leadership. </span><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #363636;">Hello?! <i>What can Mozart teach us</i></span><span style="color: #363636;"> about leadership?<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">Mason spoke of VANOC CEO John Furlong’s exercise in nation building which was built in part on the biggest Olympics torch relay in history…</span><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #363636;">!!!<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">…involving Canadians across this land, as well as convincing the powers-that-be to invest in the performance of our athletes, which paid off handsomely and helped unite the country in its pride and patriotism.</span><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #363636;">That doesn't have anything to do with Mozart, does it?<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">Michael Byers noted that after his long prison sentence and eventual rise to the South African presidency, Nelson Mandela rejected revenge as a tool of governance and instead focused on “truth and reconciliation” and sought to heal his country by his ferocious support of the Springbok Rugby team as it grew to be the World Cup winner, as portrayed in the film </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">Invictus</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">.</span><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #363636;">Ah, yes, Invictus. Wait, what?!<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #363636;">Isn’t Mozart supposed to teach <i>us</i></span><span style="color: #363636;"> about <i>leadership</i></span><span style="color: #363636;">?<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">Qualities of leadership:</span><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #363636;">Just great. Another fucking list.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">Qualities of leadership: what the past can tell us about, warn us about, prod us to think about. </span><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #363636;">Forget grammar, that doesn’t even make the slightest syntactical sense! And if those were the conclusions of the panel...well, "first-class" and "thought leaders" might be a tad exaggerated.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">What great art – whether opera, symphonic music, great theatre or inspired painting – can help us to understand about our own lives and our own times:</span><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #363636;">Will our author give us another list, or is he just feigning? Vote now.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">…isn’t that a timely and relevant conversation [...]?</span><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Sorry, you clearly voted incorrectly. Please try new, more certain, leadership. Definitely delete. Obviously not Mozart. Patently an error. Irrefutably 404. Indubitably.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">-<o:p></o:p></div><!--EndFragment-->Unknownnoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3371351138596055444.post-86877746559043156482011-01-24T12:28:00.000-08:002011-01-24T12:32:06.648-08:00Audiences Pleased By Audience-Pleasing MusicRecently, the <a href="http://www.mysanantonio.com/entertainment/music/article/Overnight-review-San-Antonio-Symphony-945050.php">San Antonio Symphony introduced a new music director</a>. Let's check in and see how things are doing so far.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">FIRST TAKE: So this is how it is going to be with new Music Director Lang-Lessing — …</span><br /><br />…let’s say…yes?<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">…programs of bold, vivid, purpose-driven and audience-pleasing music.</span><br /><br />I know, depressing prospect isn’t it.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinu1MOjPVUoeSB6X_4DY5oNZsvKFRrPQ79D1y6nEAhSWYBUYqjPeW5fhuu5vu_5XpC0JyivOuW4ZnlgNlaCpjswkIRYUYn45WKaKtIs_FOCyZrKRU7IlsVvANU2ou1dh4Bn1GgGJRJhEyV/s1600/f75d225b9da03a6bd8b60110.L.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 267px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinu1MOjPVUoeSB6X_4DY5oNZsvKFRrPQ79D1y6nEAhSWYBUYqjPeW5fhuu5vu_5XpC0JyivOuW4ZnlgNlaCpjswkIRYUYn45WKaKtIs_FOCyZrKRU7IlsVvANU2ou1dh4Bn1GgGJRJhEyV/s400/f75d225b9da03a6bd8b60110.L.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5565841435379754930" border="0" /></a>figure purpose-driven: Rick Warren knows why I'm here on Earth. I'm guessing to help get more tax cuts for rich people. Really, is there any other purpose in life?<br /></div><br />Though, it does beg the question what “purpose-driven” music is exactly.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">It is one thing to schedule such music,…</span><br /><br />Yes, that is “one thing”.<br /><br />But, is it difficult to schedule programs of audience-pleasing music? In my experience, it takes some real cojones to schedule music that <span style="font-style: italic;">isn’t</span> audience-pleasing.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">…but another matter to deliver it with authentic, crisp precision and emotion like Lang-Lessing did in his first regular subscription concert.</span><br /><br />Wow, sounds like you guys are really lucky getting the authentic performances of audience-pleasing music while all the rest of us suckers are stuck with disingenuous concerts of meandering, inexact music.<br /><br />So what was this music so in need of some authentic crispness?<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">The two Franz Liszt tone poems, “Mazzepa” and “Les Préludes,” sizzled with electricity at every turn of their musical stories.</span><br /><br />You guys got bold, vivid and authentic versions of the Liszt tone poems?! I’m so freaking jealous!<br /><br />But I thought you mentioned something about “audience-pleasing”?<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">The performance of Antonin Dvorák’s Symphony No. 9, “From the New World,”…</span><br /><br />Ah.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">…nailed every emotion from tender nostalgia and spirituality to triumph.</span><br /><br />Every emotion? Really? Now, I know that you must be exaggerating.<br /><br />Everyone knows that it’s not humanly possible to nail every emotion in the New World Symphony.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://ramascreen.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/care-bears.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 592px; height: 364px;" src="http://ramascreen.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/care-bears.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>figure care bears: Also nailed every emotion, and learned a valuable lesson at the end of each episode too!<br /></div><br />Sure, most orchestras get the nostalgia and triumph. But what about the submissive contempt of the Poco sostenuto in the third movement? Most orchestras cop out with no more than amenable condescension.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">OF NOTE: The solo star in the Dvorák symphony was English horn player Stephanie Shapiro, who performed the “Going Home” theme...</span><br /><br />Seriously, people, the spiritual is based on Dvorak’s theme, not the other way around.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">…performed the “Going Home” theme as if singing in a human voice. </span><br /><br />See, I like my English horn sounding like an English horn. I guess I’m just funny that way.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">Lang-Lessing extended the concert with a sparkling encore, leading the orchestra in one of the Slavonic Dances from Dvorák’s Opus 46.</span><br /><br />Truly purpose-driven...or was that audience-pleasing?<br /><br />And, <a href="http://www.thereporter.com/news/ci_17156729">in other news</a>:<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 102, 0);">Citing "budget constraints" but no red ink, Vallejo Symphony leaders have canceled the second half of the critically acclaimed orchestra's four-concert season and promised "rebuilding" on firmer financial footing in the months to come.</span><br /><br />That’s unfortunate. What happened?<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 102, 0);">[T]he orchestra's board of directors on Jan. 13 voted to "cease operations for the balance of the season," a decision that came just days after the symphony's recent concert featuring several pieces of new contemporary music.</span><br /><br />Oh. I see.<br /><br />----------------------------------------<br /><br />And, thank you to our loyal readers for your patience. We apologize for the lack of updates in the recent months, and hope to post more often soon. Who knew that newborns needed so much attention?Gustavhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05316458340368681169noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3371351138596055444.post-35665711457682170712011-01-01T15:19:00.000-08:002011-01-01T15:41:26.119-08:00A New Year Quickie - Emphasis on structure robs music of forward pulse...Again!I am becoming more and more convinced that some critics just don't read their reviews before they publish them. Seriously, I'm pretty sure what follows doesn't actually mean anything.<br /><br />Although, when you take into consideration current day practices of music criticism...<br /><br /><a href="http://www.examiner.com/fine-arts-in-new-york/12-28-review-ny-string-orchestra-carnegie-hall">NY String Orchestra @ Carnegie Hall</a><br />Eugene Chan, Queens Examiner, Dec. 31, 2010<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">Current day performance practice of Beethoven symphonies...<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Okay, let me stop here and add that Eugene never once tell us which symphony the orchestra is playing. </span></span><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">I guess I should be glad that he mentioned it was by Beethoven, because really, do you need to know anything else?</span><br /></span><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">However, I'm more interested in learning about current day performance practices of Beethoven symphonies...</span></span><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://a1.phobos.apple.com/us/r1000/040/Purple/8e/c1/46/mzl.itaqnhbb.320x480-75.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 480px;" src="http://a1.phobos.apple.com/us/r1000/040/Purple/8e/c1/46/mzl.itaqnhbb.320x480-75.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>figure current day performance practices: Beethoven as performed by my iPhone.<br /></div><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">It's all yours, Eugene.</span><br /><br /></span><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">Current day performance practice of Beethoven symphonies </span><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">often emphasize fleet of tempo and attack.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">A couple of things, and I hate to be picky, but your subject and verb really should agree. Also, I think you mean fleetness (a noun), since it's sort of difficult to emphasize an adjective in this context -- or you have a superfluous "of" before tempo. And, I'm not quite sure what a fleet attack in music is. </span><br /><br /></span><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.speedsautobody.com/images/fleet_service.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 474px; height: 301px;" src="http://www.speedsautobody.com/images/fleet_service.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">figure fleet: A clever play on words?</span></span><br /></div><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);"><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">But never mind, we're learning something here.</span><br /><br />Laredo's [the conductor] interpretation was slower and emphasized string playing that was plush in texture.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Plush? The string playing was "a fabric, as of silk, cotton, or wool, whose pile is more than 1/8 inch (0.3 cm) high"? Plus, isn't "in texture" sort of redundant?</span> <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><br /><br />Of course, we kid. Okay, his interpretation of the unnamed symphony was slower than you're used to, and featured a richer string sound. Sure, why not. </span><br /><br />An audience member could often hear Beethoven's orchestration,...<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">...and the rest of the time?</span><br /><br />...which sometimes was illuminating--...<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Illuminating is good.</span> <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">So what was illuminated by the sometimes heard orchestration (in this version that was slower and had sumptuous strings)?</span><br /><br />...for example about a minute into the fourth movement the interplay between first violins, violas and second violins.<br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><br />Good call. That is totally an awesome moment. And please, don't waste your time explaining further, because we all know <span style="font-style: italic;">exactly</span> where you're talking about in this unnamed Beethoven symphony.</span><br /><br />At other times the emphasis on structure robbed the music of its forward pulse.</span><br /><br />Precisely. If only Beethoven had... . What's that again?<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">[Rereads sentence]</span> Okay?<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://blogs.amctv.com/scifi-scanner/space1899.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 465px; height: 347px;" src="http://blogs.amctv.com/scifi-scanner/space1899.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>figure confused?: Just try and figure out my logic.<br /></div><br />"The emphasis on structure" -- I know what structure is, although I'm not quite sure how a performance emphasizes it. Extra loud accents when themes begin and end?<br /><br />"...robbed the music of its forward pulse." -- So you're saying that music slowed down? Or is this a metaphorical pulse, as in the music lost your attention.<br /><br />Fuck me, this isn't clear at all.<br /><br />Maybe your conclusion will help clarify things.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">However, after an entire concert of chamber-like balances...<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Uh-huh. Symphonic music is always so inappropriately balanced?</span><br /><br />...and volume restraint,...<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Yes, the orchestra was too quiet, until...</span><br /><br />...Laredo removed the reins off the orchestra at the very end.<br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><br />I'm a big fan of the orchestra is a horse metaphor. Really, it's just such a contemporary, accurate comparison. </span><br /><br /></span><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://images.chron.com/blogs/artsinhouston/Cattelan_Horse.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 512px; height: 341px;" src="http://images.chron.com/blogs/artsinhouston/Cattelan_Horse.JPG" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">figure horse: See, a horse isn't a metaphor, it's a piece of art by Maurizio Cattelan.</span></span><br /></div><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);"><br />The symphony closed with crackling horns and sizzling strings as the music hurtled to its close. </span><br /><br />Well, that certainly cleared everything up.<br /><br />After a slow performance that made that one section with the violins and violas audible, but robbed the forward pulse through emphasis on structure, the conductor flung the music to its close on a metaphorical horse.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">Praise to the principal flute Adrienne Kantor for her graceful adornment in the slow movement of the Brahms Double and the rapid fluttering passage work in the finale of the Beethoven.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Yes, praise be to Adrienne.</span><br /></span>Gustavhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05316458340368681169noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3371351138596055444.post-92049377135333044852010-12-13T09:19:00.000-08:002010-12-20T15:48:12.616-08:00Mozart's Music Receives Zesty Performance -- It's About Damn TimeIf I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times...let's leave musicology to the professionals. Professionals like Paul Hyde of the Greenville News.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.greenvilleonline.com/article/20101120/ENT/311200013/Review-Mozart-s-personality-shines-through-in-Greenville-Symphony-Chamber-Orchestra-concert">Review: Mozart's personality shines through in Greenville Symphony Chamber Orchestra concert</a><br />Paul Hyde, GreenvilleOnline.com (The Greenville News), November 20, 2010<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">Mozart, it’s often said, kept his personal emotions out of his musical works.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Really? I've never heard this before.<br /><br />But you know, his music did always strike me as strangely formulaic<i>... 4 bars--half cadence, another 4 bars--authentic cadence</i>. Hard to cram emotion (especially <span style="font-style: italic;">personal </span>ones) into that.<br /><br />Good call.</span><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkTlCmvP4k5eIbkyV14Il6iBbKfKEpIjELK9ZT05iBXUQV77vZiV13Ou-6FiBcMy0v32-ulkYvVdSCuzFDH9dsrR1ublwfYJsGoeViAW8S8PicWFupgzTCI9JX-dPXt1HalofQ4n53NZzU/s1600/text-emoticons.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 278px; height: 208px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkTlCmvP4k5eIbkyV14Il6iBbKfKEpIjELK9ZT05iBXUQV77vZiV13Ou-6FiBcMy0v32-ulkYvVdSCuzFDH9dsrR1ublwfYJsGoeViAW8S8PicWFupgzTCI9JX-dPXt1HalofQ4n53NZzU/s1600/text-emoticons.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>figure personal emotion: If Mozart really wanted to add emotion to his music, he really should have just used emoticons like a normal person.<br /></div><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">Maintaining an Olympian detachment, Mozart the classicist never revealed his inner self as did many a Romantic composer, Tchaikovsky most notably.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Money</span> troubles don't rival the creative gold-standard of repressed homosexuality.<br /><br />But clearly the difference between the two couldn't be the increased used of chromaticism, larger, more opulent orchestrations, and the use of superliminal narratives.<br /><br />And if the Detritus has taught me anything, it's that with this kind of set up surely something will challenge this more than well-established premise (I mean, it is printed in a newspaper so it must be true).<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">Yet Friday night’s all-Mozart concert by the Greenville Symphony Chamber Orchestra seemed to belie that notion.</span><br /><br />Ah, I see. Until now, it had been the performers (which have included the New York Philharmonic, the Berlin Philharmonic, and musicians who actually knew Mozart) who failed to decipher Mozart's hidden message of personal emotion deep inside his music...that is, until the Greenville Symphony took a crack at the task.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">The works had a strongly autobiographical flavor.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Who knew? I'm very excited to discover what deep meaning has been previously unheard in these mystery Mozart works.</span><br /><br />A listener could sense the man behind the music.</span><br /><br />This is very exciting.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51K%2BVrM-IhL._SL500_AA300_.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 300px;" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51K%2BVrM-IhL._SL500_AA300_.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>figure man behind the music: Why, the masons were responsible for the economic collapse, behind the JFK assassination, faked the moon-landing, and (from what I've read) are made up of humoid reptilians who run the world by replacing world leaders.<br /></div><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">Take, for instance,...<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Ooh. A "for instance". I guess an example would be nice. But really, Paul, we would have taken your word for it. </span><br /><br />...the first piece on the concert, which took place at the Peace Center’s Gunter Auditorium.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Is the location important our cryptographic discovery, or were you just throwing that in to satisfy those pesky 5 w's?<br /><br /></span>Mozart wrote the three-movement Symphony No. 27 when he was only 17 years old.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Excellent. We'll start with insights into the mind of the young genius. Just think of how different he must have felt, an isolated genius still under the shadow of his famous father and constantly performing in the courts of royalty. Nope, not just your typical youth full of hope and gumption.</span><br /><br />The sprightly work is clearly the work of a young man, a little superficial...<br /></span><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><br />A little superficial...wait, the young man or the work?</span></span><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);"><br />...but full of youthful hope and gumption.<br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><br />This is quite the penetrating analysis. I'm not sure how you were able to ascertain these kinds of insights. I mean, hearing an upbeat, major mode symphony primarily in triple meter written by a teenager...how ever could you discern this image of a young man full of hope?<br /><br />But never mind, this was the clearly the product of the playing by the Greenville Symphony.<br /><br />What kind of account did they offer?<br /></span><br /></span><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">Conductor Edvard Tchivzhel and the orchestra offered a spirited account of the appealing symphony.</span><br /><br />You'd have to think that a performance that yielded answers to 237-year old mysteries would have to be at least a "spirited" account, if not an effervescent one.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">Likewise, “A Musical Joke” spotlighted the playful adult Mozart in full-throated guffaw, parodying some of the inept composers of his day.</span><br /><br />See now, I knew about this one.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2667/3730759100_32a6944a62.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 457px; height: 304px;" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2667/3730759100_32a6944a62.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>figure musical joke: Har har har.<br /></div><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">A listener got a vivid sense of Mozart the notorious prankster in this odd but amusing work, with its ditsy themes, meandering phrases and intentional wrong notes.</span><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8tymFP4Y7gZXQxAaTYPF3LP6wSSdAZg-DyOs6V3eMrqtd761ooODaBx_aD1gvHpgDwgYviGZv8l7KY0XhHxNVyT4GUI6VyPLNKF3Cq7Jl0qkrrpzoJE4HF6cyXvqlp4HphRGvg4a8QFvB/s1600/MozartMusicalJokeK522.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 505px; height: 205px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8tymFP4Y7gZXQxAaTYPF3LP6wSSdAZg-DyOs6V3eMrqtd761ooODaBx_aD1gvHpgDwgYviGZv8l7KY0XhHxNVyT4GUI6VyPLNKF3Cq7Jl0qkrrpzoJE4HF6cyXvqlp4HphRGvg4a8QFvB/s400/MozartMusicalJokeK522.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5547350129867795074" border="0" /></a>figure another musical joke: I'm laughing on the inside.<br /></div><br />A vivid sense of a notorious prankster?<br /><br />I guess there's no arguing with how significant an insight this is into the hidden personal emotions of Mozart. He was young, and had a sense of humor...breakthroughs for sure, but there must be more.<br /><br />I mean, these first two works are obscure Mozart, what about his greatest hits?<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">In the second half of the concert, the Overture to “The Marriage of Figaro”...<br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><br />Interesting. This is indeed full-on super-famous Mozart. I wonder what personal emotions Mozart managed to squirrel away in a piece about meant to precede and introduce a fictional story.</span><br /><br />...showed a less antic but more effervescent side of the composer.</span><br /><br />I see. So, it was Mozart's personal effervescence that made this piece what it is, and not the fact that he stole the opening melody from the combination to Willy Wonka's musical lock. At least that's what I've always taken from this work...Mozart's compulsive kleptomania.<br /><br />Most people don't realize that the Haffner Symphony was really written as part of plea deal with the good people at Haffner's Discount Pantaloons and Wig Shoppe.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">Tchivzhel and the orchestra presented a zesty reading of the piece.</span><br /><br />The performances were spirited and zesty, just like my favorite salad dressing. And on such a historic evening...<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.jetkappa.com/_cache/Seasoning%20and%20Sauces/img/Zesty_Italian_Salad_Dressing_0.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 395px; height: 263px;" src="http://www.jetkappa.com/_cache/Seasoning%20and%20Sauces/img/Zesty_Italian_Salad_Dressing_0.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>figure zesty: "A spirited mixture of garlic, onion, sweet red bell pepper, carrots and Italian spices sure to help you grill like a gourmet."<br /></div><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">Throughout this annual all-Mozart concert, Tchivzhel elicited crisp, clear-textured playing from the orchestra’s musicians.</span><br /><br />Crisp, too?! This must have been one incredibly tasty salad...er, concert.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">Closing the program was a familiar late work, the Symphony No. 40, a minor-key composition that has suggested to many listeners Mozart’s bleak state of mind at a time of depression and financial difficulties.</span><br /><br />Good point. With also his highfalutin musicology, some music fundamentals could help reveal some important truths as well. And in case any of you have forgotten the basic rule of all music composition...minor-key equals sad and major-key equals happy. Really, all you'll ever need to know about music, at least in my experience.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://thepasswordisswordfish.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/amadeus2.jpg?w=497"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://thepasswordisswordfish.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/amadeus2.jpg?w=497" alt="" border="0" /></a>figure sad mozart: Mozart composing a piece of somber, but not quite woebegone, music.<br /></div><br />Though, I wonder which part of the 40th symphony specifically suggested financial difficulties?<br /><br />Personally, I think it must have been the 11-tone row used in the powerful development of the 4th movement. The decentralized key center clearly represented his general economic malaise, in which the 11 used tones represented everyone getting their money, with the 12th pitch, being Mozart, getting none. Brilliant.<br /><br />And for you to have picked this up simply from a zesty performance. Bravo, sir!<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">Tchivzhel emphasized the work’s restless, turbulent spirit. The work ends on a note of darkness and irresolution,...<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Yes, that 8-bar dominant pedal into strong beat tonic triads really does leave you feeling uneasy.</span><br /><br />...as if it had much more to say — a perfect symbol of the composer himself.</span><br /><br />Is that really symbol? Maybe more of a metaphor, wouldn't you say?<br /><br />Whatever.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">A mere three years after writing the Symphony No. 40, Mozart would be dead, probably of acute rheumatic fever,...<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Is this a particularly important point, or were you just tossing this in for...I don't know, let's say, to show that you read Mozart's wiki page before you wrote this article.</span><br /><br />...two months short of his 36th birthday.</span><br /><br />Ah, so in addition to the 40th symphony revealing Mozart's personal emotions, it also foretold events to come?<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">A sad, untimely death it was for the composer, to be sure,...<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Because there are those who would doubt this?</span><br /><br />...but what a grand and poignant life’s legacy he left behind, as the Greenville Symphony Chamber Orchestra’s annual all-Mozart concerts graciously remind us.<br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><br />Yes, but the point was about the personal emotions the symphony discovered embedded in pieces previously thought to be cold and barren.</span><br /></span>Gustavhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05316458340368681169noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3371351138596055444.post-12737081592157154572010-12-10T10:41:00.000-08:002010-12-10T10:46:48.843-08:00Happy Birthday Elliott! Again. Ugh.Another smattering of birthday celebrations; a few newly inked scores; and yet another chance for our critic brethren to reflect upon the miraculous music and career of one of the world’s most vital centenarian composers.<br />
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<a href="http://thestar.blogs.com/soundmind/2010/12/new-yorker-elliott-carters-102nd-birthday-a-prime-excuse-to-venture-into-his-complex-musical-world.html">New Yorker Elliott Carter’s 102nd birthday a perfect excuse to venture into his complex world</a><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">John Teruads</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">Toronto Star, A Sound Mind, Classical Music Blog</span><br />
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…with a title that says, “Eh, well, he’s 102; that’s something, at least.”<br />
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As the title may suggest, this little puff piece, doesn’t…what’s the word? Puff.<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">New Music Concerts was not able to get Elliott Carter to Toronto for tonight's celebration of his 102nd birthday at the Isabel Bader Theatre (the actual birthday is tomorrow).</span><br />
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Downer. “Now that’s a concert I want to go to!”<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">It's not just by virtue of longevity that Carter has become known as a connoisseur's composer.</span><br />
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For those who may be new to the DR, “connoisseur’s composer” means no audience, often for a reason. And what that has to do with longevity, which is a virtue according to our author, I have no clue.<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">Long ago,</span><br />
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In a galaxy quite removed from today’s schmaltzy nostalgia for tonality…<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">Long ago, when the art music world was in the thrall of atonal composition, Carter (like his French counterpart, Olivier Messiaen) developed his very own musical grammar.</span><br />
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And all by himself!<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUNUJPC24HpjHXIlO8vepXV6Y-TFkuOjyWmitsnQ2NEHGfQ-wOor-0YnnJ_xgUTzlyaVWf4JKcv7V0xJZqWLmkHaMFmCxIZSm21S3w1ZEHDrXir2A5fGRqp9jBWvuEPqxVafuucbDHKRA/s1600/baby.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="227" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUNUJPC24HpjHXIlO8vepXV6Y-TFkuOjyWmitsnQ2NEHGfQ-wOor-0YnnJ_xgUTzlyaVWf4JKcv7V0xJZqWLmkHaMFmCxIZSm21S3w1ZEHDrXir2A5fGRqp9jBWvuEPqxVafuucbDHKRA/s320/baby.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">Figure 1: Who’s a big boy? Who’s a big boy? You are! </div><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">I'm oversimplifying…</span><br />
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No shit. Maybe you should mention that these guys were also atonalists.<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">…but his music starts with a layering of diverse rhythms.</span><br />
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First of all, “diverse rhythms.” Are you saying that he used both eighth notes and sixteenth notes? Or that the rhythms are more complex than that? Didn’t he exploit metric modulation with some notoriety in the 40s?<br />
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Second, I learned metric modulation in third grade. So…<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">For his sound palette, Carter assembled a catalogue of (unusual) chords…</span><br />
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…based on intervallic content, as in atonal set-theory, which is perfectly adaptable to serialization, <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=z-54NaykVZYC&printsec=frontcover&dq=elliott+carter+harmony&source=bl&ots=uPzluJBtPk&sig=tWj5DH3UqeAl72ha77Mw8wayJbQ&hl=en&ei=WnMCTd2pF4P0tgONheCdDQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CDMQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q&f=false">which he did.</a><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">…Carter assembled a catalogue of (unusual) chords, not a set of tone rows, as his serialist peers would usw [sic].</span><br />
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Serialism is dead, therefore, Elliott Carter is not a serialist, right?<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">The results are no easier to grasp at first hearing.</span><br />
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His own musical grammar + diverse rhythms + unusual chords = the results. Fucking spot on, John!<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">Like a lot of expressionist visual art, Carter's music rewards multiple visits and analytical listening.</span><br />
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Okay, I am about to link to Wikipedia, which is something I usually hesitate to do, because…<br />
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Well, it’s like this: while there are some awesome-smart people in this world, if I were ever to be charged with, say, murder, I would do everything in my abilities to avoid a trial and, thus, avoid being judged by my peers. Got it?<br />
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In this case, however, I’m going to link to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expressionism">the Wikipedia article on Expressionism,</a> because it took me nearly three seconds to find it, which only shows how little research it took to find something to the contrary (it’s also cited):<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d;">[Expressionism’s] typical trait is to present the world in an utterly subjective perspective, radically distorting it for emotional effect, to evoke moods or ideas.</span><br />
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Ahem. Either John doesn’t know what expressionism is about or Elliott is getting it wrong. I’ll leave it to you, dear reader, to judge for yourself.<br />
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Hold on a minute! This is a concert puff piece, right? So why should I go, again?<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;">The Isabel Bader Theatre is normally a horrible place to hear classical music because of its dry-as-dust acoustics.</span><br />
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But, for Carter’s music…?<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_1bmqwyg9xAqBiZ7pfd7nP_vKYmD8yDX9WbdviDFPddq_fpJGcDx-s_ftnsbZ1j-_Omg2XD9NX-k0Lan7qUjLOY-_L2Q6jXj6CQ0RTQzG36DSM8Ed1DnGITMqWcM3MDi2xU1OpOp6cBE/s1600/6a00d83451c83e69e20105365c1fcd970c-800wi.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="228" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_1bmqwyg9xAqBiZ7pfd7nP_vKYmD8yDX9WbdviDFPddq_fpJGcDx-s_ftnsbZ1j-_Omg2XD9NX-k0Lan7qUjLOY-_L2Q6jXj6CQ0RTQzG36DSM8Ed1DnGITMqWcM3MDi2xU1OpOp6cBE/s320/6a00d83451c83e69e20105365c1fcd970c-800wi.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">Figure 2 (courtesy of <a href="http://operachic.typepad.com/opera_chic/elliott-carter/">Opera Chic</a>): Happy Birthday Mr. Carter!</div><div style="text-align: center;">-</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com18