Classical Music

Classical Music, Contemporary Classical

That’s Earle, Brother

I missed this little diatribe from Bernard Holland in the Times.  Thanks to Carmen Tellez for bringing it to my attention:

Unpleasant truths were another topic brought back forcefully by a concert at the Kitchen in September, by the fine young group Either/Or. Here was a program of 1960s arrogance and self-absorption, with people like Cornelius Cardew, Christian Wolff and Earle Brown as the main offenders. Listening to a collection of composers sharing inside jokes and private messages in music that reeked of contempt for the public made me get down on my knees and give thanks that an era so damaging to music was over. It didn’t drive an intelligent public away from classical music by itself, but it helped.

by Jerry Bowles
Classical Music, Contemporary Classical, Critics

“What’s the problem?”

Gavin BorchertGavin Borchert, composer and the Seattle Weekly‘s classical music critic, has an interesting take in this week’s rag, on current calls for jazzing-up or otherwise “slumming” the concert experience. A couple cogent paragraphs:

A couple of things puzzle me. First, the classical concert experience is, in all essentials, identical to that of dance, theater, literary events, or for that matter—barring the munching of popcorn and cheering the fireball deaths of villains—movies. Go to the performance space, buy a ticket, sit down in rows, watch and listen, try not to disturb your fellow audience members. Yet it’s only in conjunction with concerts that you hear complaints about what a crushing burden this all is. Second, why is sitting quietly considered such an unendurable ordeal? Millions of people do it every night in front of their televisions.

[….]

So what have we learned? Well, maybe people behave the way they do at concerts not because it’s an artificial standard imposed by ironclad tradition but because the music sounds better that way. Maybe listeners feel classical music most deeply when they pay quiet attention to it. Maybe sometimes not clapping is OK, and we don’t need to rush in and obliterate every silence. Maybe true innovations in concert presentation—new ways of getting music and music lovers together—will be concerned not with questions of formal vs. informal, loose vs. uptight, but with what setting best allows music to work its magic.

by Steve Layton
Classical Music, Contemporary Classical

Bad Vibes From Benaroya

The New York Times leads off its Sunday Arts Section tomorrow with one of those double-bylined investigative reports that spell trouble for somebody. It appears that all is not well with the Seattle Symphony. The article is not up online yet but here’s the lede:

Any dictionary will tell you that a symphony orchestra trades in harmony. Anyone who has spent much time around orchestras will tell you that the harmony often stops at the music’s edge; that tensions abound in a body of 100 or so high-strung thoroughbreds as a music director seeks to impose a single vision.

And to judge from alarmist reports coming from here over a dozen years or so, the Seattle Symphony Orchestra has carried disharmony to new heights, lurching from crisis to crisis…

That’s the good part. I’ll put up a link as soon as I find it.

UPDATE:  See comments for link.

by Jerry Bowles
Classical Music, Composers, Contemporary Classical

Marvin’s Excellent 24-Hour New Music Marathon

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Our gaucho amigo Marvin Rosen is the most innovative and knowledgeable music programmer in the universe but who knew that he aspired to become the new music world’s Jerry Lewis? 

Marvin is hosting a special 24-hour marathon edition of his terrific radio program Classical Discoveries titled “Viva 21st century,” which will air on WPRB out of Princeton, NJ beginning at 6:00 pm on Thursday, December 27 and will conclude at 6:00 pm on Friday, December 28.

Sympathizers and fellow travelers who don’t live in the Princeton area can listen to the show online at www.wprb.com The program includes works from only the 21st century from all over the world.  (Got that, only works from the last seven years.)

If you’d like to submit selections for possible airplay on the show please email Marvin at marvinrosen@classicaldiscoveries.org  

Here are the Marvin rules:  The selections must be on a regular CD with all tracks and notes on the music in a traycard.  Submitting a CD does not guarantee the music will be aired.  In addition no CDs will be returned. All CDs for consideration for this program must be received by Saturday, December 22.

Can Marvin stay awake?  Will he explain why he is doing such a silly thing?  Will Frank and Jerry show up in a misguided display of solidarity?  You’ll just have to tune in and find out.   

by Jerry Bowles
Classical Music, Composers, Contemporary Classical

Andrew Imbrie, 86

I was late getting to the Times today and just noticed that Andrew Imbrie has died.     Joshua Kosman’s obituary is here.  Robert P. Commanday remembers him here.

Imbrie wasn’t nearly as spectacular or well-known a musical figure as Stockhausen but through his prolific and quietly impeccable body of work, his teaching, and his singular, unique voice, he may have been just as influential.  You can listen to his magnificent Requiem, written in 1984 after the death of his son, free at Art of the States.  I’m listening to it now.

by Jerry Bowles
Chamber Music, Classical Music, Contemporary Classical, Downtown, Experimental Music

Sounds Postitively…Anti-Social

Dear Jerry,

You are cordially invited to a program featuring the music of Pat
Muchmore as performed by the erstwhile and talented members of Anti-Social Music. The gala shall be held at the Ukrainian National Home at 2nd Ave between 8th & 9th streets on December the Thirteenth, where the finest beers and vodkas will be available to soothe the savage humours stirred by the oft-acrid tones emanating from the stage. Also available: pierogies and other Ukrainian delicacies–some of which may be forcibly shoved down the gullets of less attentive patrons.

A number of works excreted by Muchmore’s fecund mind will be played, all of which sport titles that are either incomprehensible, not fit to be uttered in polite society, or both. The fine musicians of ASM will then venture into the studio to record these works for an upcoming release on laser-etched binary Audio-Disk, courtesy of the fine folks at the American Music Center and their wondrous Aaron Copland Fund.

Other cool people involved in making this night of pleasure happen include The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, NYSCA, and the Meet the Composer/JPMorgan Chase Fund for Small Ensembles.

cheers,
Andrea La Rose
Anti-Social Music

Anti-Social Music Presents:
Muchmore Music–Muchmore Pierogies
Thursday, Dec. 13th – 8PM
Ukrainian National Home ( 140 2nd Avenue bet. 8th & 9th Sts)
6 to Astor Place/R-W to 8th St/F-V to 2nd Ave/L to 1st or 3rd Ave
http://antisocialmusic.org

by Jerry Bowles
CDs, Classical Music, Contemporary Classical

How Strange is the Change From Major to Minor

Big news on the time-marches-on front.  Deutsche Grammophon (DG) yesterday became the first major classical record label to make the majority of its huge catalogue available online for download with the launch of its new DG Web Shop.

The DG Web Shop allows consumers in 42 countries to download music, including–the press folks claim–markets where the major e-business retailers, such as iTunes, are not yet available: Southeast Asia including China, India, Latin America, South Africa, and Central and Eastern Europe including Russia.

Almost 2,400 DG albums will be available for download in maximum MP3 quality at a transfer bit-rate of 320 kilobits per second (kbps) –  an audio-level that is indistinguishable to most of us from CD quality audio; and which exceeds the usual industry download-standard of 128-192 kbps (as well as EMI’s 256 kbps on iTunes, the press folks helpfully observe).  Most prices are in the $12 range, which is not too bad I suppose although they’d be making a nice profit at half that.

The best feature, from my perspective, is that 600 out-of-print CDs are now available again as downloads. 

by Jerry Bowles
Classical Music, Contemporary Classical

Not So Great Performances

From the BBC:

Croatia rose to the occasion in their crucial Euro 2008 defeat of England – after an apparent X-rated gaffe by an English opera singer at Wembley.

Tony Henry belted out a version of the Croat anthem before the 80,000 crowd, but made a blunder at the end.

He should have sung ‘Mila kuda si planina’ (which roughly means ‘You know my dear how we love your mountains’).

But he instead sang ‘Mila kura si planina’ which can be interpreted as ‘My dear, my penis is a mountain.’   –more–

Today’s topic–embarassing public performances.  Your own or others.

by Jerry Bowles