The Life of Classical Music

The other night, I went out to dinner with some of my composer friends/colleagues (Cat, Branden, Will, Patrick, & David and our professor Michael Johanson).  We had a lengthy conversation about what music is and how one picks what they listen to.

Our conversation kinda foucsed around these questions:

• Do you put on different listening ears depending on the kind of music?
• Is there a difference between "art" song (like Schubert) and pop music (like Dido...?)?
• Do you listen differently depending on you mood? depending on what your doing?
• How do you pick your new (to your ears) tunes?
• What is the criteria for something to be music?

None of these really have any definite answers - at least none that people can agree on.

Let me tell you how we got to this conversation and some of the answers some of us posed along with more questions:

Branden asked if anyone would go with him to Ke$ha's concert with him next year - half of the group immediately said "NO!" and asked why he listens to "that stuff."

Defending himself, Branden argued that it was entertaining and, thus, fulfilled the requirement of music: to entertain.

Will and Patrick questioned this - what about evoking feeling?  the talent behind the artists?  what about invention?

Then we got to questions like:

• Are bands that are reviving old styles inventive?
• Can classically trained musicians really separate the music they hear?
• Why do all pop songs have the same chord progressions?
• Why do some have the same melodies?
• Have we written all of the possible melodies?

Cat brought up a YouTube video we had watched in Music History a couple years ago: every pop song can be related back to Pachebel's Canon...here's the rant.

What say you?

Please take the poll to the left since it is related!!!

Digging Into the Person...and Their Psyche

Review of Maynard Solomon's "Taboo and Biographical Innovation: Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert"**

An interesting look into the minds of the musical favourites of many, Solomon's article gives unusual insight into the process of biographical writing and its process.  Not actually addressing music at all, Solomon dwells into the person and psyche.
Leopold Mozart is deemed a liar: his father's death, his schooling, his marriage.  The city of Salzburg is none the wiser, but later leaves the Mozart family abandoned.  Leopold's motives are left to psychoanalysis and the multiple symbolical explanations for the reality to fantasy.  Solomon wonders why these have only recently been brought to the biographers' attention.  Beethoven's lineage is in question--not by everyone else, but by the Beethoven family--and his possible lovers are living double lives.  Schubert's friends and colleagues wrote of his disinterest in the the women-folk and his effeminate demeanour; Solomon was one of the first to connect anecdotes to Schubert's potential homosexuality in an article from 1981.
Solomon, invested in the music business and in music history, writes of the hidden sources and the implications of their release.  This article, geared mainly towards psychologists, could easily catch the attention of musicians and gossipers, although not for the same reasons.  The psychology behind the music is not discussed, hardly even mentioned.  Only Schubert's music is mentioned-"an effeminate tenderness [exists] in Schubert's music."  Given the potential for an audience outside the psychological community, Solomon should have included more about the affects of the psyche on the composers, even if it were not discussed in direct relation to the music.  Upon concluding all of the narratives, Solomon arrives at his main point of the article: social taboos have hindered the spreading of personal information for biographers.  Solomon never makes a definite verdict if this is good or bad-or if he as a biographer thinks it is important.  Solomon relied heavily on past publications of his own and primary sources; the primary sources cited support his claims and conclusions.
Understanding the ability of sources to be hidden for extended periods of time and how the inaccessibility of those sources influence the impressions and understandings of people throughout history is applicable to more than Mozart, Beethoven, and Schubert.  What is the value of the importance of personal sources to the stories behind the people?  Do we even need to know the stories?  The only reason that Solomon mentions is the taboo affect--whatever the poison touches becomes poison itself.
Solomon mentions how some have elected to burn all of their correspondences to avoid subjecting themselves to the personal invasions upon their passing.  Solomon should have started exploring the new technological age.  With the ease to create so much and delete everything created, how are biographers going to dig into the personal, hidden lives of today's celebrities?  Or maybe, we already know everything we want to know with the tabloids and the internet thriving.  With all of the interest in today's celebrities, and having many of those knowledge cravings filled by the wide variety of sources now, where will the digging into the lives of the past celebrities end?

**you will likely need a subscription to the journal, but it is findable online

Serenaded Back to School

On Wednesday, September 8, the Lewis & Clark College Music Department introduced some of their new faculty, Gregory Ewer and Susan Smith, at the Faculty Recital in Evans Auditorium on the Lewis & Clark College campus. Ewer, violin, and Smith, piano, were joined by Miriam English Ward, viola, Dorien de León, cello, and Jason Schooler, bass. The turnout was very good for a weeknight—at its peak filling at least half of the auditorium. The program was classically orientated featuring Mozart, Rossini, and Schubert, making the program very balanced stylistically, and the pieces selected were composed for slightly peculiar ensembles.

Much of W.A. Mozart’s Piano Quartet in E-flat Major K. 493 felt like a conversation between friends with the metamorphosing theme that returned throughout the piece. The second movement, “Larghetto”, brought soothing, lulling melodies—like a consoling talk with a friend. The pairing of the strings and playful interactions with the piano made for a pleasant listen. Smith did a brilliant job at balancing beauty with technique and interacting with the violinist’s cues. The cello seemed to act as the metronome throughout bulk of the piece but had its fair share of melodic prominence. The quartet was fluid, but the cellist and violist did not seem as comfortable participating in the theatrical aspect of the performance.

The most atypical instrumentation of the concert resided in Duo for violoncello and contrabass by Gioacchino Rossini. It was refreshing as a Classical music listener to hear the contrabass being focus of a piece. “Allegro” easily showcased the skills and extremes of each instrument—range, bowings, and quick fingers. The second movement had many exchanges of the theme that were completely fluid, as well as the switches from two-part harmonies to three- or four-part harmonies. The technical change to double-stops was likely unnoticed by the non-string players in the audience. The third movement was extremely playful, but the performers demeanour did not reflect such. During this movement, a group behind me kept giggling—never did find out what was so amusing in the back of the auditorium.

During intermission, a number of people blitzed the food for the reception; de Leon entreated the audience members join the performers afterwards to continue the celebration. Unfortunately, for much of the student audience that left during intermission, the group saved the best for last.

Franz Schubert’s Piano Quintet in A Major D. 667 “The Trout” seemed like it was played to help the students say goodbye to the scintillating summer sun and hello to the cool fall rain—a perfect close to the summer. The piece—composed for violin, viola, cello, bass and piano—rotated through the excitement and nonchalance of summer to the advancing autumn with its playful folk melodies, false endings, varying accompanying and melodic structures. However, the visual aspect at the beginning of the piece was imbalanced; the visible emotion was not coming everyone. By the last movement, the emotion and theatrics seemed to be flowing throughout the group—like a child getting accustom to a cool pool.

Overall, this concert was a great way to break the mundane normal schedule of the week.