Shoe-burt

I've been told that salons are coming back. Small, intimate spaces where people share their talents and converse for entertainment. Just in time, Schubert, king of the salon, is getting a make-over:

Granted, these fine young gentlemen will be performing in public, at St. Mark's Church in NY. But the spirit is still that of something fun, eclectic, and intimate. I wonder what kind of business model musicians could come up with to make salons profitable. Or perhaps salons will signal the rebirth of the amateur musician, with a piano/guitar/accordian/didgeridoo in every house.

Repeated listening

I've written before about the artificial stress our society often makes when it comes to music enjoyment. To summarize, we often think we should be able to understand everything about a piece of music on the first hearing. If we don't, then there is either something wrong with us, or with the music. I was thinking about this the other day while listening to Alfred Brendel playing the first movement of Schubert's Bb Sonata. This movement is almost fifteen minutes long, and I admit that when I first started listening to it I was somewhat loathe to spend that much time on one track. When listening to my iPod I liked shorter tracks, so the variety would keep me interested. But I've listened to this movement at least 11 times according to iTunes, much more if incomplete hearings and listening to the CD are added in. These repeated listenings have allowed me to memorize much of the work, so I could sing along while doing the dishes. I had a fabulous time, following the various shifts in motives, harmonies, keys, rhythms, and general characters. Fifteen minutes of doing the dishes had never passed so quickly. So it just took patience and effort in getting to know this piece that allowed me to enjoy it to such extent.

What's out there

A colleague in the math department sent me this link to a great explanation of violin acoustics.

Stephen Casales has finished the Unfinished Symphony.

Composer, teacher and critic Stephen Casale studied theory and composition at the New England Conservatory of Music and musicology at New York University. The project to realize a performing version of the Scherzo movement of Schubert's "Unfinished" symphony based on Schubert's piano sketch for the movement took shape in Martin Chusid's graduate course on Schubert at NYU, where it was performed in 1978. A studio recording of the Scherzo was subsequently made by the Czech Radio Symphony under Vladimir Valek in 1995. The present performance by the Toronto Philharmonia is the first professional concert presentation of this realization of the movement.

A new e-company is trying to connect music instructors with students at ClickForLessons. I have no idea how effective it is.

This Saturday there is a symposium celebrating John Cage's 95th birthday at the University of New Hampshire.

John Cage in 2007: Reception, Performance Practice, Analysis

Symposium, 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m., M-223, Paul Creative Arts Center, UNH

Our Memory of What Happened is Not What Happened: Cage and the Power of Myth
Brent Reidy, Ph.D. candidate, Musicology, Indiana University

On John Cage's Late Music, Analysis, and the Model of Renga in Two2
Rob Haskins, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Music, UNH

Interdeterminacy and Performance Practice in Cage?s _Variations_
David P. Miller, Boston, MA

Thinking About Cage and Nature, Back Then and Right Now
David Andrew, Ph.D., Professor of Art History, UNH

Concert, 8:00 p.m., Bratton Recital Hall, Paul Creative Arts Center, UNH

Music for One
Margaret Herlehy, Oboe

Four6
Rob Haskins, David Miller, Laurel Karlik Sheehan, and Brent Reidy, performers

Two2
Rob Haskins and Laurel Karlik Sheehan, pianos

FriPod: Slava

Today the sad news of Mstislav Rostropovich's death has swelled out in the blogosphere and the mainstream media. In honor of the great 'cellist, conductor, and human rights advocate this week's FriPod will look at the recordings I have of Slava, plus some tracks that have "Slava" in the title.

1. String Quintet in C Major, Franz Schubert, performed by the Emerson String Quartet with Slava. I love this piece and I love this performance. I transcribed the first movement for brass choir, though I never really captured the energetic drive of the closing theme in the transcription. The second movement still haunts me, especially the minor dominant chord that almost made me swerve off the road when I first heard it (2:51 in the recording). One fond memory is of singing this movement in the large second floor hallway of the Eastman School, as a group of us were trying to do a Schenkerian analysis. We were too lazy to go find a piano, so we assigned parts (I was second cello, just like Slava). The third and fourth movements have such verve. I can picture the five musicians swaying and bouncing in their seats as they communicate joy, tenderness, tension, anger, beauty.

2. Suite No. 1 in G major for unaccompanied 'cello, J.S. Bach. Many of the obituaries being published today mention Slava's memorable performance of this suite at Checkpoint Charlie as the Berlin Wall was torn down. They don't reveal that he had only recently started playing the suites, and did not record them until 1995, the collection I have. His tone is so wonderful, clear yet full of character. The phrasing is sparkling, letting the dances have the proper rhythmic character while also giving a larger shape to the movements and the entire suite.

3. Suite No. 2 in D minor for unaccompanied 'cello, Bach. Slava shows he understands the counterpoint behind the complex compound melodies of these suites. The Prelude sings as he gives a subtly different color to each contrapuntal line. The Allemande explodes with multistopped fireworks.

4. Suite No. 3 in C major, etc. I agree with Allan Koozin's description of Slava's suites: "His graceful accounts of the Bach Suites for Unaccompanied Cello illuminated the works’ structural logic as well as their inner spirituality." The Sarabande of Suite No. 3 is full of the trembling terror and awe that humanity feels as it faces God and the infinite. The unknowable is beautiful, but also humbling and frightening.

5. Suite No. 4 in Eb major, etc. I use the Bourees from this suite often as aural examples of the composite ternary form. It is so perfect, from the formal design down to the local motives as they drive to the essential cadences.

6. Suite No. 5 in C minor, etc. From Wikipedia:

Suite No. 5 was originally written in scordatura with the A-string tuned down to G, but nowadays a version for standard tuning is included in almost every edition of the suites along with the original version. Some chords must be simplified when playing with standard tuning, but some melodic lines become easier as well.

The Prelude is written in an A-B form, and begins with a slow, emotional movement that explores the deep range of the cello. After that comes a fast and very demanding single-line fugue that leads to the powerful end.

This suite is most famous for its intimate Sarabande, which is the second of the two movements throughout the suites that doesn't contain any chords. The fifth suite is also exceptional as its Gigue is in the French style, rather than the Italian form of the other five suites.

7. Suite No. 6 in D Major, etc. Slava plays the Prelude as if it were a 20th century work, with awesome echo effects. This suite has the longest track, with the Allemande clocking in at 10:31. That's impressive, especially given the extremely high notes required in this suite.

8. Slavonic Dances, Antonín Dvořák, performed by the New York Philharmonic. Okay, I'm cheating, as I didn't have any tracks with the complete "Slava" so I went with "Slav." I have three of the dances: "Dumka" op. 72, no. 6/14; "Sousedská" op 46, no. 6; and "Furiant" op. 46, no. 8. These dances capture the Slavic passion, the split between refined civilization and raucus barbarity.

9. Marche Slave, Op. 31, Pyotr Tchaikovsky, performed by Claudio Abbado and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Perhaps a funeral march for Slava?

10. Danse slave (Le Roi malgré lui), Emmanual Chabrier, performed by Ernest Ansermet and L'Orchestre De La Suisse Romande. French schlock, after glorious Russian pathos. Sigh.

FriPod: Improvisation

To celebrate the fact that I have finished* my first sabbatical article, this week's list is of Improvisations:

1. Duet Improvisation, by Miroslav Vitous and Chick Corea on Works. A very moody work, full of dialogue but not much happiness.

2. Impromptus 1-3, D. 946, by Franz Schubert, performed by Alfred Brendel. Not strictly improvisations, these composed works are meant to sound spontaneous. It doesn't work for me. These pieces sound polished, prepared. What makes music sound improvised? A roughness, little errors that marr the surface to reveal the craft underneath?

3. Impromptu for Trumpet and Piano, by Jacques Ibert, performed by Thierry Caens and Yves Henry. Now this one sounds more improvised. The long French lines meander at points, the piano sets up a groove, etc.

4. Improvisation, by Bill Russo, performed by the Stan Kenton Orchestra on New Concepts of Artistry in Rhythm. Bill provides space for several improvised solos, one of the better tracks on this album.

5. Improvisations sur les chants paysans hongrois, op. 20, by Béla Bartók, performed by Claude Helffer. These pieces are based on Hungarian peasant songs that BB transcribed in the field. But why "Improvisations?" There is a certain hesitancy to them, as if we can hear him working out the implications of the melodies while sitting at the piano.

6. Quatre Pièces Caractéristiques Op. 5: I. Impromptu. Le Sabbat, by Clara Schumann, performed by Jozef De Beenhouwer. Like the Schubert, this is not spontaneous.

Clearly I have more improvisations in my iTunes, on most of my jazz tracks for starters. But this is enough for today, as I mourn the death of my second iPod. The click wheel has stopped working, and all efforts to fix it have failed. So it is getting shipped back, hopefully without any mail problems this time.


*Finished with this stage anyway. Now to hear from the editor and reviewers.