And NYTIMES WIN, as the kids like to say.

That’s right, Monday night’s S21 concert at Waltz Astoria was a big success.  Lost Dog played wonderfully, and I can vouch for the fact that the program is every bit as good as we’ve been claiming.  And of course a good review in the Times by our pal and internet neighbor Steve Smith is a nice bonus.

This Friday at the Good Shepherd Church (152 West 66th Street in Manhattan) should be even better, and I’m told that most of the composers will be in attendance, many having traveled hundreds or thousands of miles to be here.  Admission is free, and the show starts at 8PM.

Also, it’s not to late to help out with a modest financial contribution–your support helps us make these things free.  You can give online here, (please be sure to write “For the Sequenza21 concert” in the “Special Instructions” box–otherwise it won’t be applied to our event), or if you’d prefer you can send a check to:

The Astoria Music Society
38-11 Ditmars Blvd.
Box 102A
Astoria, NY 11105

(If you send a check, please include a note indicating that you want your gift applied to the S21 concert.)  All contributions made through Astoria Music Society (Lost Dog’s parent organization) are tax deductible.  If for whatever reason you hate those options but still love us, e-mail me at galen[at]galenbrown.com and we’ll work something out.

As we watch the inexorable approach of the Sequenza21 concerts (December 1 and 5.  Those dates are in your calendar, right?  Go ahead and take care of that now, I’ll wait.  All set?  Great.) you may be thinking to yourself “What can I do to help?”  Obviously you can come to the concert, and you can spread the word, but there’s another thing too.

Both of these concerts are going to be free to the public, but we have a variety of expenses to pay for, from the cost of the performance venues to paying the fabulous Lost Dog musicians.  If you would consider throwing a few bucks into the kitty to help defray the costs of things like that, we would be most grateful.

You can make gifts through the Astoria Music Society website, and all gifts are tax deductible:
http://www.astoriamusic.org/support/index.html
Click the “Donate” button, which goes to paypal.  After you log in to paypal, please be sure to click the “add special instructions” tab and put in text like: “Please apply this donation towards the Lost Dog Sequenza 21 program”.  Without that text the money won’t get directed towards the Sequenza21 show.

On November 3rd, I sat down with David Lang at a cafe in Downtown Manhattan. I recorded the interview (on my iPod) intending to transcribe it, but the audio, while still marred by a lot of background noise, is actually listenable. Here it is:

New York’s NPR station WNYC has been doing a bunch of programming on Leonard Bernstein, and the other night when I was moving my car I heard a great story:

Lenny was backstage in a greenroom in Vienna, and a little old lady approached him.  She introduced herself as the widow of Alban Berg, and Bernstein told her how honored he was to meet her.  Now Berg, as you will recall, died without completing his opera Lulu, and there was some question about who would finish it.  Helene Berg, Alban’s widow, initially offered the job to Schoenberg, who accepted but then decided it was too time-consuming, and the opera wasn’t completed until after her death in 1976.

Back in the greenroom, Helene told Lenny “I sink zat maybe you should finish Lulu.  I vill go home and ask Alban.”  Helene would apparently hold seances to speak with her dead husband.  A few nights later, backstage, this Helene Berg approached Leonard Bernstein again, and Bernstein again professed his admiration for her husband and his honor at meeting her.  Helene Berg said to Lenny “I asked Alban about Lulu.  Alban sagte nein.”  That line, “Alban sagte nein,” apparently became a running joke in the Bernstein household.

That’s the story as I remember it from the other night on WNYC.  The recording isn’t available on the website, but maybe somebody out there heard it too.  Opera Today tells the story slightly differently, saying that Bernstein himself sought permisson, but confirming that he was declined after Frau Berg consulted with Alban in a seance.  An article in the New York Times last year also describes Bernstein as approaching Helene Berg, but sets the scene at two breakfasts at the Berg home.

How ever it went down (and I’m inclined to believe that Bernstein approached Helene Berg) it’s a great story.  And I intend to make that my new excuse for turning people down.  You want me to come to your solo contrabasoon recital?  No can do–Alban sagte nein.  Want me to do an arrangement of “My Heart Will Go On” for flute and acoustic guitar?  Ooh, I’d love to, but Alban sagte nein.

Congratulations to our pal Alex Ross, one of this year’s 25 MacArthur Fellows. There were three other music-related “Genius Grants,” as they’re more commonly called, for 2008:
Violinist Leila Josefowicz, instrument maker and composer Walter Kitundu, and saxophonist Miguel Zenón.

According to the MacArthur Foundation website “There are three criteria for selection of Fellows: exceptional creativity, promise for important future advances based on a track record of significant accomplishment, and potential for the fellowship to facilitate subsequent creative work.” Prospective fellows are nominated anonymously by a group of Nominators, and are selected by an anonymous Selection Committee.

This is the score for “Piece in the Shape of a Square” spread out across the stage at the Players Theatre. Tonight in Manhattan at 8:00 PM we’re celebrating the 50th anniversary of the birth of Minimalism with a concert of Steve Reich’s “Piano Phase,” two “Piano Pieces” by the obscure but great Terry Jennings, Terry Riley’s “In C,” and this piece by Philip Glass.

The Players Theatre, 115 MacDougal Street, Greenwich VIllage, Manhattan. Tickets are $20 ($15 with Student ID). Be there or be a person in the shape of a square.

This is just a friendly reminder about our upcoming concert next Wednesday, September 17th. Sequenza21 and Music On MacDougal are teaming up to present a concert of early Minimalism in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the genre.

M50: Minimalism Turns Fifty
When: September 17th, 2008 at 8:00 PM
Where: The Players Theatre, in Greenwich Village, Manhattan
115 MacDougal Street, New York, NY 10012
Tickets: $20 (Student tickets $15 with Student ID) By Phone: 212-352-3101 or Online.

Program:
Steve Reich — “Piano Phase” (1967) (Version for two Marimbas)
Philip Glass — “Piece in the Shape of a Square” (1967)
Terry Jennings — “Piano Piece” (December 1958) and “Piano Piece” (June 1960)
Intermission
Terry Riley — “In C” (1964)

The concert is made possible in part by the support of Cold Blue Music, and by Bechstein, the official piano sponsor of Music On MacDougal.

See you there! Tell your friends! It’s going to be great, and you won’t want to miss it.

There’s been a certain amount of breathless reportage about a new study linking personality and musical taste done by Adrian North at the Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, UK. It’s hard to be sure where things went awry, but by the time the media got a hold of the results they were badly exaggerated.

The BBC, for instance, says the research “suggested classical music fans were shy, while heavy metal aficionados were gentle and at ease with themselves.” North himself, interviewed by the BBC, makes similarly bold claims: “If you know a person’s music preference you can tell what kind of person they are, who to sell to. There are obvious implications for the music industry who are worried about declining CD sales. One of the most surprising things is the similarities between fans of classical music and heavy metal. They’re both creative and at ease but not outgoing.” These statements imply a very strong effect—the sort of effect that should mean that if you know somebody’s musical taste you can make fairly accurate predictions about his or her personality.

If you’re starting to be skeptical, you’re not alone. Jonathan Bellman, at Dial M, has a pretty good rant you might want to read.

Knowing that the media is notoriously bad at accurately reporting scientific findings, I wanted to know what we’re really talking about here, so I e-mailed Professor North with a few questions.

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