Mark Likes Music

Zooey Deschanel's National Anthem, Or How (Not) to Talk About a Performance

2011-10-26T13:19:00.000-04:00

Two responses to Grantland's broadside against Zooey Deschanel's national anthem bring up a problem that confounds everyone concerned with analyzing music: the difference between a transitory live performance, where an audience measures success in that moment, using a set of expectations conditioned by context; and t a recording of the same event, a mediated experience that listeners experience individually, over and over again.

Jason Heid, on Dallas's D Magazine tells us what it was like to experience Deschanel's rendition at the game:

I was at Rangers Ballpark for Game 4 last night, and loved the sense of melancholy with which Deschanel infused the familiar song. It felt almost like a funeral dirge, and I mean that as a high compliment. It was quite different from what we normally get at these games: when some mid-level country music or top 40 star is trotted out for a serviceable, but instantly forgettable, performance.

A reader of Andrew Sullivan's The Dish makes the point that the Deschanel version, as opposed to the much praised Whitney Houston's at the 1991 Super Bowl, was perfect to sing along with:

Zooey sang it like she meant it. Even the way she softened the ends of most of the lines gave the audience room to hear themselves singing along, and isn't that supposed to be the point?
Her job was not to deliver an aria to a silent hall; it was to lead the crowd in singing the song.

However dramatic or pleasing Whitney Houston's rendition might have been, you can't sing along to it. you can only listen ... Singing the national anthem is supposed to be a participatory ritual, not a spectator sport.

Is it fair, as Grantland did, to evaluate a live performance based on a video recording of it? Are Caspian-Kang and Vargas-Cooper (these are their names, really), and Jason Heid responding to the same thing at all? And do we really want to sing along?

It Wasn't as Bad as All That, Was It? Zooey Deschanel's National Anthem

2011-10-25T12:52:00.001-04:00

Relax, guys. On Grantland, Jay Caspian-Kang and Natasha Vargas-Cooper rant over this:

Here's a sample:

Where have our divas gone? There is no strife in ZoZo’s lily-white aesthetic. No sex, no violence, just tweeting. What a tepid and sniveling symbol she is. She has nothing to draw on, nothing to find resonance in. She’s not even fit for our time. Give us a beleaguered icon. Someone trying to maintain their imperial draw even though they’ve grown bloated and waterlogged with age. I want to hear the sounds of a woman who has known loss and triumph, not the pubescent squeaks of a flinching sitcom star with cute bangs and a stupid blog.

Very classy.

There have been far worse renditions of our national anthem, and many better. If you can stand reading their childish drivel, Caspian-Kang and Vargas-Cooper have their own best-of list.

Responses to NPR's Dropping World of Opera, Lisa Simeone Firing

2011-10-24T23:04:00.001-04:00

A few responses to NPR dropping Lisa Simeone's World of Opera because of her involvement in organizing protests in DC, and her firing as host of Soundprint for the same reason:

On his Baltimore Sun blog, David Zurawick says that NPR has a code of ethics and needs to enforce it.

Libertarian website Reason thinks that the lengths NPR goes through to prove its objectivity only emphasizes its editorial bias; better just to acknowledge it and let its employees be Prius-driving, yoga-loving, liberal lunatics.

WDAV in Charlotte, which produces World of Opera, is sticking by Simeone. The station is keeping her as host, and will start distributing the show directly to stations beginning on November 11. WDAV blog commenters seem pleased.

James Fallows of the Atlantic has some responses from Davidson College alumni on WDAV's support for Simeone. (WDAV's studios are on the campus of the school.

FAIR found her firing "absurd."

On a related note, Michelle Norris, whose husband is now an Obama 2012 advisor, recently quit her job as All Things Considered host to avoid the appearance of conflict of interest.

Koyaanisqatsi and the "Crying Indian"

2011-10-21T23:52:00.003-04:00

The so-called "crying Indian" ad is the most famous (or infamous) example of a patronizingly essentialist view of American Indians as environmental augurs:

I think Koyaanisqatsi is another. The only words you hear in the film are Hopi. Koyaanisqatsi means "life out of balance," and the chorus that is part of Philip Glass's score intones three tribal sayings that can be interpreted as being warnings about the impact of human actions on the world.

It's certainly not mean-spirited but can nonetheless be as limiting and de-humanizing as any cowboy-movie stereotype.

It's as if They Read My Mind

2011-10-18T21:10:00.003-04:00

Look what was in my mail today:

I'll probably just stay home; I can watch the movie for free on YouTube. By the way, Philip Glass's 75th birthday is coming up on January 31, in case you're wondering why you're seeing so much of his music programmed this season.

UB40 Goes Bankrupt

2011-10-17T18:22:00.000-04:00

Well, at least it's not an orchestra this time.

As reported in Digital Music News and the UK's Daily Mail, UB40 recently declared bankruptcy. Lead singer Ali Campbell left years ago, alleging that the group's management mishandled the group's finances; I guess he was right.

Digital Music News points out that UB40 probably enjoys a "healthy royalty stream"--they've sold, apparently, 70 million records--but I don't think anyone in that band ever wrote his own song. A couple of their famous covers:

What People Drink In the Famous Works of English Literature, Oliver Twist Edition

2011-10-16T21:30:00.000-04:00

Gin and hot water seemed to be the cold-weather drink of choice for Dickens's lowlifes in Oliver Twist. Mr. Bumble drank it, and so did Sikes. Fagin served it to Oliver.

Now that the nights are getting nippier, I thought I'd try it out. Let me tell you: gin and hot water is awful. It tastes like warm nail polish remover. Adding lemon juice helps, but not much. I found a recipe on Epicurious for a gin toddy that might be good.

I'm reading Treasure Island now, so I guess I'll be drinking lots and lots of rum soon.

Watch Koyaanisqatsi with Music by Philip Glass for Free

2011-10-15T00:36:00.003-04:00

Love it or hate it, Koyaanisqatsi is now available to stream for free on YouTube. The commercial breaks are jarring, but it's a great, free way to get your Philip Glass fix at work (or at home).

It's also on Hulu.

Philip Glass: "My Frontiers Are Behind Me"

2011-10-14T12:16:00.003-04:00

In this short promotional video for the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Philip Glass talks a little bit about his increasing interest in the classical-music tradition as a source of inspiration:

This has been going on for a while. Some people love his symphonies, string quartets, and the like; others don't. Back in the fall of 2010, Robert McDuffie toured the country with Glass's nod to Vivadli, American Four Seasons. In the Chicago Tribune, John von Rhein called it, "a Glass half empty." Mike Paarlberg loved the piece, mostly for not sounding like Koyaanisqatsi.

Across the pond, two different reviewers for the same paper had very different opinions, as Richard Guerin points out. In the London Telegraph, Ivan Hewett hailed American Four Seasons as "classic art"; Michael White called it "unmitigated trash."

Here's the last movement. Decide for yourself:

Finally, Something the iPad is Good for

2011-08-30T21:23:00.000-04:00

A couple of weeks ago, The Atlantic posted an article about the iPad's usefulness as a replacement for hard-copy sheet music, and included this video of James Rhodes making a big deal of his decision to go electronic:

About a year ago, Gizmodo expressed similar sentiments, declaring that the iPad is "perfect" as a sheet-music reader. Over at the Technology in Music Education blog, there is a review of music readers for the iPad.

The music readers for iPads go beyond the gimmickry of Smule apps, but I'm sure there's something disconcerting about relying on a computer in a performance setting. Paper music can blow off the stand, but if a tablet computer loses power, you're out of luck.

Five Things: Music for Hurricanes

2011-08-26T11:23:00.002-04:00

Get ready for the big storm!

1. A blast from the past (1940, anyway):

2. Perfectly obvious:

3. A little Sturm und Drang for you:

4. Avoid tropical storms, and ghosts (thanks, Joe Lehman):

5. Something you might not have heard before, from the Sir Douglas Quintet:

Also, Captain Bringdown, Gordon Lightfoot; Max Webster; and hurricanes hitting out west.

More Nova Scotia Mushrooms

2011-08-22T22:36:00.001-04:00

After seeing my last post, my always-game mother-in-law sent me a link to Northern Bushcraft's page on edible mushrooms in Nova Scotia. Some of their pictures are just breathtaking, like this one, of the boar's head tooth mushroom:

A Mess of Mushrooms in Nova Scotia

2011-08-21T23:35:00.000-04:00

Apparently, Nova Scotia had gotten a lot of rain before we arrived for our visit, creating perfect conditions (moist, dark, and cool) within Truro's Victoria Park for mushrooms. This one was my favorite:

This one was striking:

There were a lot of this kind:

Here are some others:

No one else seemed as fascinated by their presence as I was, but I just don't remember seeing such an array of mushrooms in the park, or anywhere else in Truro. If you know the names of these, I'd love to hear from you.

"So Short, So Tight": A Yuja Wang Sexy Dress Round-Up

2011-08-20T10:39:00.006-04:00

I just spent the last hour or so catching up on all that was written about the form-fitting orange mini-skirt Yuja Wang wore earlier in August at a Hollywood Bowl performance with the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

The Well-Tempered Ear has a good discussion going. Worry Later notes that, when you Google Yuja Wang, the second autocomplete suggestion is "Yuja Wang boyfriend."

For reviewer Mark Swed, the dress, "so short, so tight" was the triple-X highlight of his evening.

In an article in the Los Angeles Times (which cites some books on the subject of fashion and music), organist Cameron Carpenter, known for his own outrageous outfits, was quoted as saying that "What people are missing here is that Yuja might want to be seen to be making, as many us do, a personal statement without having played a note."

WQXR posted a podcast and slideshow; flipping through the WQXR photos, it looks as if what is scandalous is youth.

There's more on blogs hosted by the Washington Post and LA Weekly, and on the Los Angeles Times's Culture Monster blog.

Our Latest Trip to Truro's Victoria Park

2011-08-17T21:03:00.024-04:00

Every time we go back to Nova Scotia, my family and I make a point of visiting Victoria Park in Truro.

The centerpiece of the 400-acre park (with another 600 acres of protected woodland surrounding it) is Joe Howe Falls, named for the journalist, politician, and one-time opponent of Confederation best known for his successful self-defense on a libel charge in 1835.

From Victoria Park, Summer 2011

I'm probably a bad dad for letting (making) my children climb the 175 steps of Jacob's Ladder, but this was something I looked forward to do when I came as a kid.

From Victoria Park, Summer 2011

Here's the photo album of our latest sojourn to what is probably the most spectacular municipal park in the province (and that includes anything in Halifax):

Victoria Park, Summer 2011

Lawrence House: The Best Little Museum in Nova Scotia

2011-08-11T20:56:00.002-04:00

There are a lot of museums, historical sites, and memorials in Nova Scotia; it seems you can't drive five miles without running into one. Of the ones I've stopped at, my favorite is Lawrence House in Maitland.

Back in 1967, the Nova Scotia government bought the one-time residence of shipbuilder W. D. Lawrence from his granddaughter, Abbie. On this day in 1971, it opened as a museum, commemorating a more prosperous time for the Fundy region and Nova Scotia as a whole.

I went down to Lawrence House this afternoon with my wife and children to join in the 40th-anniversary celebration. We spent about two hours there with the remarkable, knowledgable staff, and learned a lot about the man who lived there and his time.

W. D. Lawrence's claim to fame was his building of the 250-foot, 2,500-ton "great ship." Many of his contemporaries derided the Irish-born businessman's plan to launch the W. D. Lawrence, not necessarily because it was a wooden leviathan powered by sail at a time when steam ships were emergent, but simply because the vessel was so big.

The ship, which set sail on its maiden voyage in 1874, is long gone, but the house is still there, as are the furnishings from the period, tools from the yards, and photos of the W. D. Lawrence in dry dock.

Fiercely proud of Nova Scotia--he built The Great Ship in part to showcase the province's maritime might--Lawrence entered politics as a member of the House of Assembly in 1863. He was, along with Joseph Howe, a fierce opponent of Confederation (wise men).

Unlike Howe, Lawrence never came around to accepting Nova Scotia's place in Canada. He always maintained that Confederation was "an idle vision calculated to check the future growth and prosperity of our country." "Our country" was Nova Scotia, and those who wanted to join Canada were "traitors."

Better Know a Composer: Harry Partch

2011-08-10T08:16:00.001-04:00

In 1952, Mills College students banded together with professional musicians from around Oakland, taught themselves how to play Harry Partch's array of strange, self-made instruments, and put on the composer's King Oedipus.

Oedipus garnered a surprising amount of national coverage (surprising in that it got any at all), including (most likely) the newsreel footage that Open Culture posted on its website yesterday.

In this report, the announcer identifies cloud-chamber bowls "derived from atomic research" (!) and a 72-stringed kithara as byproducts of Partch's search for "the elusive tones that exist between the notes of a regular piano."

Whether you think Partch was "kooky," as Open Culture puts it, or not (see the comments following the article), this newsreel is intriguing in that it takes Partch's search for new musical resources seriously. The tone is not jokey or disbelieving, but straight-up, delivered with the same seriousness as the latest update on the virtual front of the Cold War.

Better Know a Composer: Clara Schumann

2011-07-27T18:58:00.002-04:00

Her husband gets more attention today, but back in the 19th century Clara Schumann (1819-1896) was the star in the family.

With a performance career spanning six decades (she made her solo debut in Leipzig at the age of 11), Clara was Germany's reigning "Queen of Pianists" throughout most of the 1800s. Chopin, Liszt, and Mendelssohn dedicated works to her, and no less a cultural kingpin than Goethe was an enraptured fan of her playing.

She also served as Brahms's confidant, musical adviser, and muse from the time they met in 1850, when Brahms was an up-and-coming twenty-year-old, until her death.

She was a first-rate composer, although she was personally insecure about her skill at writing music. Clara's most popular piece during her lifetime was the Piano Trio, which she wrote in 1846. Only months later, her husband completed his inaugural work in the genre, and she often paired the pieces in concert. Here's the last movement, which includes a fugato section much admired by Mendelssohn:

Everyone Needs a Hobby: I Write Program Notes About Schoenberg

2011-07-27T11:44:00.001-04:00

Last January, I gave a paper on Rochberg's Second String Quartet at the winter meeting of the American Musicological Society's Greater New York Chapter. In March 2012, I'll be down in Charlotte to give a paper on the composer's Music for the Magic Theater at the Society for American Music's annual conference. Here's the abstract:

Coldplay Cover Alert

2011-07-26T11:50:00.002-04:00

Stereogum posted a clip of Swedish singer Robyn covering “Every Teardrop Is A Waterfall” as part of an appearance on the BBC.

I don't know who Robyn is, but her version is nice. Certainly, it's a lot less overwrought.

It's Getting Harder to Like Coldplay All the Time

2011-07-04T09:04:00.001-04:00

Last week, Coldplay released the video for its latest mashup, "Every Teardrop is a Waterfall," and it isn't pretty.

Steuermann's Schoenberg

2011-06-20T15:18:00.002-04:00

Last week, Russell Sherman gave a recital of Schoenberg's piano music. In his remarks to the audience, he made a point of noting that his teacher, Schoenberg acolyte Edward Steuermann, never taught these works to him. According to Sherman, Steuermann told him that "this is your music."

Steuermann recorded Schoenberg's piano music in the 1950s; here's the Three Piano Pieces, Opus 11:

You can read my essay on Schoenberg's piano music here.

Who Needs a Publisher?

2011-06-20T11:00:00.006-04:00

So, you want to be a novelist? Go ahead. John Locke (I don't believe this is his real name) took the bull by the horns and published his own books through Kindle Direct Publishing, and today Amazon.com announced he's the first independently published author to have sold a million e-books.

This past weekend, The New York Times Magazine published an article about Amanda Hocking (I'm pretty sure this is her real name), who recently signed a $2 million book deal with St. Martin's Press on the strength of the sales on her self-published books.

Reading about how St. Martin's went after Hocking to exploit her personal success building a healthy niche audience reminded me a lot of the major record companies' approach to bands back in the early 2000s, when they didn't want to touch groups unless they brought an audience with them. We know how that turned out.

My Favorite Riots

2011-06-16T14:38:00.001-04:00

Jokes about Canadians acting un-Canadian abound on Twitter in the wake of the Vancouver riots last night, but those in the Great White North have a wonderful tradition of purposeless rabble-rousing.

As the Nova Scotia Archives pointed out on Facebook, Halifax celebrated the end of World War II with hooliganism:

In 1955, Montreal reacted to the suspension "Rocket" Richard by taking out their displeasure on pretty much anything they had around at the time. They do this kind of thing a lot in Montreal over hockey and Guns 'n' Roses.

They rioted in Vancouver when the Canucks lost the Stanley Cup back in 1994. Back then, they reacted with shock (only in "a big American city" does this sort of thing happen); it's old hat now.

Better Know a Composer: Arnold Schoenberg

2011-06-14T12:39:00.003-04:00

If you want to get a good picture of how Schoenberg's aesthetic thought changed over time, his solo piano music is the place to start. In no other genre can you so clearly hear the shift from free-wheeling intuitive expression to a historically conscious formalism grounded in a desire to redeem Western music.

Here's an essay that appeared in the program for Russell Sherman's recital of these works last night at Mannes as part of the Institute and Festival of Contemporary Performance. Take a look. If you're interested, I'm happy to point you to other things to read, and recordings as well.

You can listen to Steuermann's recording from the 1950s of the Three Piano Pieces, Opus 11, here. Also, here's a video of Glenn Gould and Yehudi Menuhin talking about Schoenberg's Violin Fantasy.

Every Coldplay Track's Another Song

2011-06-13T17:25:00.002-04:00

Coldplay everywhere. I heard the Pixies' "Where is My Mind?" in a bookstore the other day.

Five minutes later I was humming "Fix You."

This guy hears it.

Sherman's Schoenberg

2011-06-10T18:33:00.001-04:00

On Monday, Russell Sherman is performing all of Schoenberg's piano music in a recital at the Mannes School Concert Hall in Manhattan, the opening concert in the annual Festival for Contemporary Performance.

Sherman's personal link to Schoenberg is his teacher Edward Steuermann. More than just a student of Schoenberg, Steuerman was the composer's go-to pianist in Berlin and Vienna. Here in the US, Steuermann premiered the Piano Concerto in 1944 with the NBC Orchestra and Leopold Stokowski. (Originally, Schnabel was the scheduled pianist, which may have offended Steuermann.)

Despite this close connection to Schoenberg, Steuermann taught very little Schoenberg to his students, according to Sherman. Here he is in an interview with Gunther Schuller:

"Well, he hardly taught me any modern music, and even Schoenberg he wasn't much interested in teaching. But he used to say--in that Polish way--'That's your music. You do what you want with it; I don't have to teach that to you.'"

(You can listen to Steuermann's recording of Schoenberg's Opus 11 here, but not here.)

I had a chance to talk with Sherman a week or so ago about the recital; we talked more about hockey than music. Apparently, Sherman's quite the Rangers fan, and we bonded over memories of some great Canadiens teams from the 1970s.

To fill out the program, Sherman's performing Beethoven's Opus 109 sonata, and he'll tell you in his opening remarks why he chose this piece.

I CAN HAZ SCHOENBERGER?

2011-06-10T11:57:00.003-04:00

Cat's play Opus 11:

If you want to see how a human might perform this piece, Russell Sherman's giving a recital of all of Schoenberg's piano music Monday night at the Mannes School Concert Hall in Manhattan. It's part of the Institute and Festival of Contemporary Performance's annual spring festival.

MoogFest Set for October in Asheville

2011-06-09T20:19:00.002-04:00

Instead of writing more about Les Paul and Google's homepage guitar logo, I thought I'd direct your attention to another music-technology innovator and the festival named in his honor.

Last week, MoogFest announced the bands appearing in October down in Asheville, NC on October 28-30. The headliner is Flaming Lips, but Battles are also appearing. A video that runs down the list is here.

Last year, I posted a video of Robert Moog explaining his Minimoog synthesizer. This year, to celebrate its founder's birthday, the Moog company put out its own YouTube video on the history of its most celebrated product:

Two More Elements, One More Periodic Table Blog

2011-06-09T12:30:00.000-04:00

Today, as "they" (being a group of scientists from around the world) announced two new elements for the periodic table, I am adding yet another online-only resource to learn more about it.

On Slate.com, Sam Kean provides some interesting, sometimes offbeat, context for each of the elements with his "Blogging the Periodic Table."

Between Kean's blog and the University of Nottingham's YouTube series, you'll be surprised how fun high-school chemistry can be.

Watch and Learn: The Periodic Table

2011-06-06T21:54:00.002-04:00

I never learned the periodic table. I'm not proud of this, but I can't go back in time to high school and change my course load now, can I?

What I can do, though, is watch the University of Nottingham School of Chemistry's Periodic Table of Videos on YouTube and atone for my irresponsible educational decisions. Now I know what Strontium is.

I tried listening to songs about the periodic table, but they didn't help at all.

Thanks to openculture.com for pointing the Periodic Table of Videos out. If you're cheap and like smart stuff, openculture.com is for you.

Everyone's Talking about Coldplay

2011-06-06T11:42:00.002-04:00

Craig Ferguson weighs in on Coldplay's new song (starts at two minutes in):

Thanks to my friend Joe Lehman for this. See who Coldplay's ripped off now here.

Let's Play Six Degrees of a Coldplay Song

2011-06-05T10:28:00.002-04:00

Coldplay made a point of crediting Peter Allen on their new song "Every Teardrop is a Waterfall," but this

doesn't sound like this:

It sounds like this:

Congratulations Sacados! You've won the who's-going-to-sue-Coldplay-now sweepstakes.

Flip Video Founder Goes for Something Completely Different

2011-06-02T16:53:00.000-04:00

Don't feel bad for Flip founder Jonathan Kaplan. Cisco may have killed the digital video camera he created, but he's not looking back in anger. Instead, he's moving forward with a chain of grilled cheese restaurants. David Pogue's got the information.

How to Talk About Hard Music: Menuhin and Gould on Schoenberg's Violin Fantasy

2011-06-02T12:46:00.003-04:00

If you want a primer on what's so great about Schoenberg--and what's so bad--you can do worse than this:

Schoenberg scholarship has only recently started addressing the problems that Gould and Menuhin brought up here over five decades ago. It just goes to show you how theorists' focus on post-tonal coherence, and musicologists' obsession with finding links to the classical-music past, has held us back from really getting at how this music sounds.

The open-mindedness that Menuhin displays is striking. So is the clarity of both performers' descriptions of the music; their no-nonsense approach lets their insights shine through. This is a master class on how to talk about "difficult music" without pretension and with depth.

After a six-minute debate on the merits of Schoenberg's Violin Fantasy, they play it. Look who's got his part memorized:

Why Don't Pulitzer People Give Popular Music Any Respect?

2011-04-23T01:19:00.000-04:00

Ann Powers complained recently that a popular-music critic has never won the Pulitzer for criticism, but with resignation:

This snub is par for the course for those of us lucky to do a job that's long been derided as extraneous AND self-indulgent," fumes Powers, "a substitute for the real mojo musicians possess. Marginalized within most newspapers as neither money-making (film critics bring in ads) or enriching (get thee to the symphony, philistines!), and scorned by many living the 'rock and roll lifestyle' as overly pointy-headed, pop critics are caught in a hallway between the high and the low.

See her full article here.

If she doesn't like the nods for criticism, she should look at the music choices. This year, Zhou Long won for his opera Madame White Snake (it's not what you think) based on a Boston performance that received lukewarm reviews. This in a year that saw some pretty amazing rock albums (not Contra; see Pitchfork's list, or NPR's).

Although the Pulitzer committee has given lifetime achievement awards to Bob Dylan and Hank Williams (and Milton Babbitt), no popular music has ever won the music prize.

Wynton Marsalis did win for his jazz oratorio Blood on the Fields. But even that piece was within the bounds of a concert-music genre. (Last year, by the way, Jennifer Higdon won for her violin concerto.)

This isn't about the Pulitzer people getting hip or loosening up. It's about them acknowledging that as concert music grows less and less satisfying intellectually, rock and popular music is picking up the slack (and has been for a while).

Zhou Long Wins Pulitzer Prize

2011-04-22T09:15:00.000-04:00

On Monday, Zhou Long won the Pulitzer Prize's music award for Madame White Snake, his epic Tawny Kitaen bio-opera.

Next up for Zhou: an oratorio based on Loni Anderson's life with Burt Reynolds.

New Mexico Symphony Goes Bankrupt

2011-04-22T08:39:00.001-04:00

Last weekend, the Philadelphia Orchestra's board voted to restructure under Chapter 11; now, the New Mexico Symphony in Albuquerque is closing up shop.

According to one report, the musicians were surprised at the decision by the board to file Chapter 7:

One musician called out Board of Directors Vice-Chair George Boerigter, saying that less than two weeks ago the musicians were told the symphony was headed toward Chapter 11 reorganization.

Talk of financial trouble dates back to 2008, and board member George Boerigter claims that the orchestra didn't even have the funds available to restructure under Chapter 7.

Earlier this month, the Syracuse Symphony also folded, citing an inability to raise money for even the rest of the season, and the Detroit Symphony, while avoiding bankruptcy, ended a strike that saw musicians' salaries cut to offset crushingly large debt.

Grooveshark Fights Back

2011-04-20T10:13:00.002-04:00

A week after Amazon sent a (leaked or open) letter to record labels re-stating the legitimacy of its Cloud Drive and Player, Grooveshark yesterday released its own open missive, defending their right to exist under the Safe Harbor provision of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act.

The company specifically calls out Google for withdrawing Grooveshark's App from its Android Market. In a brilliant rhetorical move, it compares its service with Google's own YouTube, both in its relationship to the DMCA and in its business practices to avoid piracy.

The letter, available on Digital Music News, was probably cover as Grooveshark released its own third-party Android app on Monday.

The Amazing Internet-Streaming Flip Camera That Wasn't

2011-04-16T22:38:00.002-04:00

Clearly, David Pogue's a disappointed fan of the now-defunct Flip video camera, as am I. In his column this week, he revealed some inside information that makes the shutdown of Flip even more disappointing: apparently, the company was preparing to launch FlipLive, a new camera that would allow you to share video over the internet in real time:

Think how amazing that would be. The world could tune in, live, to join you in watching concerts. Shuttle launches. The plane in the Hudson. College lectures. Apple keynote speeches.

Or your relatives could join you for smaller, more personal events: weddings, birthday parties, graduations, first steps.

Imagine how cool that would have been. Certainly, it would have kept me in Flip for a while. This is something an iPhone 4 just can't do.

The other interesting thing about Pogue's article is his speculation on why Cisco, which bought Flip from Pure Digital in 2009, had no intention of keeping the product on the market:

The most plausible reason is that Cisco wants the technology in the Flip more than it wants the business. Cisco is, after all, in the videoconferencing business, and the Flip’s video quality— for its size and price—was amazing. Maybe, in fact, that was Cisco’s plan all along. Buy the beloved Flip for its technology, then shut it down and fire 550 people.

The Flip Camera: Easy to Use, Fun for Families, and Gone

2011-04-16T22:09:00.004-04:00

Recently, I used a Flip video camera to shoot this:

And this:

Flip cameras are popular with journalists, and I can see why: I use ours to share the familial goings-on with friends and relatives all over the world. I've recorded ballet and violin recitals, trips the to the Met Museum and Prince Edward Island, and uploaded them all to Facebook or YouTube.

We got our first Flip video shortly after they arrived on the market, a Christmas gift from my mother-in-law. The video quality was underwhelming, but it became our go-to camera (period) because it was just so easy to use, and so relatively easy to share clips online. Vanessa even uses it to document her performances and rehearsals.

David Pogue reported this week that Flip was readying a camera that would stream live to the internet. That's amazing, and it's not going to happen. (More on that here).

Last Christmas, we gave my son his own Flip video. He should hold on to that; it's a collector's item now.

Amazon: Don't Even Think About Suing Us

2011-04-12T10:22:00.003-04:00

In a letter to record labels, Amazon.com made it pretty clear where they stand on getting music licenses:

Cloud Player is a media management and play-back application not unlike Windows Media Player and any number of other media management applications that let customers manage and play their music. It requires a license from content owners no more than those applications do. It really is that simple.

Nothing to see here. Move along, RIAA.

The full text of the letter is here.

Meanwhile, I haven't used the Cloud Player since its first day, mostly because I can't seamlessly buy and load to it from work, which is when I do most of my listening.

The Empire Strikes Back: With a New Ad Campaign

2011-04-08T22:19:00.001-04:00

The Star Wars parodies just keep on coming (and coming and coming). Sneaky Zebra has been helping out Death Star PRwith a series of commercials that put a human face on the doomsday weapon-planet. Here's my favorite:

It's important that the Empire does stuff like this. They don't want to come off looking like Microsoft. Those guys are evil.

I Can't Wait for Clone Wars on Ice

2011-04-08T19:28:00.001-04:00

Eat it, George Lucas. You can't stop the power of Star Wars: The Musical.

As Open Culture points out, Salon.com has posted the entire parodic show that a group of Californian high-schoolers put together in 1996. Of course, Lucas didn't find it funny, and had his lawyers shut the production down. But it lives on, thanks to the internet. Thank you, internet.

It's really quite something; here's the ending:

Students Hit Hard by the Syracuse Symphony Bankruptcy

2011-04-06T18:27:00.001-04:00

As John O'Brien points out, Syracuse isn't just losing a professional orchestra--its youth orchestra is also folding.

The student musicians in the group held their final rehearsal on Sunday "for a concert the Syracuse Symphony Youth Orchestra will never perform." They were to have performed their season-ending concert on May 15.

On Monday, the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra board announced that they will file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, citing its $5 million debt and inability to raise the $7 million it needed to finish the season. The youth orchestra operated as part of the Syracuse Symphony's organization.

That Uncomfortable Feeling (Watching the Detroit Symphony Strike from Afar)

2011-04-05T21:56:00.007-04:00

Tim Smith gets at what has been so dispiriting about the Detroit Symphony strike:

I've heard it said here, and I can well imagine it being said elsewhere, that finely trained musicians want to concentrate on the music-making they trained for; that they find too much community service detrimental to the fundamental goal of sustaining artistic growth. But the movement toward embracing the world beyond the safe routine of the concert hall is surely going to gather momentum. It makes sense, short-term and long-term.

Both sides had their chances to present new visions for the orchestra, and both blew it. The musicians fell back on the tired old tropes about needing to maintain the orchestra's status as a top orchestra (for the sake of civic pride), about their value as fine artists who are enriching the city by exhibiting jewels of high culture on the concert stage.

Management stuck to its line of needing to acknowledge hard economic realities; there was no talk of how the short-term pain of huge budget cuts could not just ensure the fiscal health of the orchestra, but also make it a viable entity within Detroit again.

During the strike, a news story broke that the state government was cutting education funding so deeply that Detroit would need to close schools. There are opportunities for non-profits to step in and play a vital educational role, not through "outreach" concerts but as sustained partners in classrooms and community centers.

At the very least, one of the sides could have scored some points by taking the high ground; at best, some sort of blueprint for an orchestra integrated into the city could have emerged.

How to Survive the Winter in Toronto

2011-04-03T11:31:00.003-04:00

On Facebook, Menon Dwarka posted this only-in-Toronto public service announcement from Wendel Clark, a perfect complement to the Rheostatics' ode to the one-time Maple Leafs captain:

I'm just wondering why Hogtown needs prominent citizens giving advice about living with snow. Shouldn't people there just know this stuff by now?

Five Things: Songs About Hockey

2011-04-01T18:07:00.001-04:00

As a Mets fan, Opening Day is as good a day as any to talk about hockey.

1. Atom and His Package, "Goalie"
There's a conversation going on about the value of obese goalies over at Andrew Sullivan's Daily Dish. One reader points out that the topic's already been covered in song.

2. Stompin' Tom Connors, "The Hockey Song"
I've always found him a little hokey. But add one letter, and you've got "hockey."

3. Tragically Hip, "Fifty-Mission Cap"
Until I heard this song, I had no idea who Bill Barilko was. Until I heard this song, I also had no idea that the Leafs had ever won the Stanley Cup. It had always sounded like crazy talk to me.

4. Rheostatics, "The Ballad of Wendel Clark"
I wanted to include "Queer" but couldn't find a clip. Poor Leafs fans: so many songs, so few Stanley Cups.

5. Claman/Toth, "The Hockey Theme" (The old Hockey Night in Canada theme song)

Another Leafs fan! It's amazing they have any left.

How to Play Hockey Night in Canada on Guitar

Syracuse Symphony is Done for the Year

2011-03-30T10:52:00.001-04:00

Since just after Christmas, the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra had been trying to raise money to save its season. They didn't quite get there: today, its board of trustees announced that it is cancelling the rest of the season, citing, in part, its inability to reach its March fundraising goal.

Second Thoughts on Using Amazon's Cloud Drive

2011-03-29T20:52:00.002-04:00

Because it uses Flash, there's only an Android app for Amazon's new Cloud Player--nothing for iPhone. But I'm having no problem installing the MP3 Uploader on my MacBook and can upload and play tracks through Chrome and Safari. At least I can listen through my computer at work (a PC) and through portable speakers at home (the Mac).

Here's the thing: to upload all of my music from iTunes to the Cloud Drive, I need 20 GB of storage and they only give me 5 GB for free. If I buy an MP3 album from Amazon, I get that additional 15 GB without cost for a year. But what do I do after a year? Then I pay $20 annually to keep my music in the locker. That's pretty cheap, but I'm not going to go for it before I see what Google's got to offer.

For now, I'll live with my free 5 GBs, and because they'll let me store anything I buy from them for free, I'll use Amazon's MP3 store. (See: they got me!)

Want more?

Matt Brian speculates that all of this is a prelude to Amazon releasing their own Android tablet. Glenn Peoples of Billboard has weighed in on his blog, and Ben Parr of Mashable has some first impressions.

First Thoughts On Using Amazon's Cloud Drive

2011-03-29T12:04:00.006-04:00

The new Amazon.com "storage locker" for music (and other stuff) is nothing fancy; it's even more boring to look at than iTunes.

Amazon gives you 5 GB for free, and nothing you buy from its MP3 store counts against this amount. So, if you already use Amazon.com as your source for music, it's a good deal.

I put up Fully Completely and am listening to it now. Loading the album was a drag: I had to upload track by track. You can download an app that helps with uploading, but I'm at work and the firewall's blocking this. I'll have to try it out at home.

I couldn't use Chrome to upload and had to shift to Firefox--not a big deal, but I use Chrome as my default.

I went home and tried playing around on my Mac.

Better Know a Composer: Luciano Berio (Part II)

2011-03-28T16:55:00.002-04:00

Berio's Italian, but he has some strong connections to the US and New York City in particular. He wrote Sinfonia for the 125th anniversary of the New York Philharmonic in 1968. This was no commission to an out-of-towner: Berio had been teaching at Juilliard since 1964, and before taking the Juilliard job he had taught at Mills College in Oakland for two full school years. He studied at Tanglewood in 1952 with Luigi Dallapiccola and then returned as an instructor in 1960.

As the second movement of Sinfonia, Berio included a version of his 1967 piece O King, an elegiac tribute Martin Luther King, Jr.

Originally scored for a small ensemble and one singer, O King (here in its symphonic arrangement) projects the individual syllables of the phrase "O Martin Luther King" into the surrounding musical landscape; gradually they coalesce to sound out the slain civil-rights leader's name at the end of the piece.

Even if you can't hear this, it's a beautiful, powerful piece. And for all its avant-garde pretensions, it's general form--slow and steady progress toward a definite endpoint--is pretty conventional.

Better Know a Composer: Luciano Berio

2011-03-28T16:23:00.003-04:00

I recently posted a note on the Carnegie Hall blog about Mozart's Zaide, which in the version that Ensemble ACJW is performing on Thursday really isn't Mozart's at all. Throughout the unfinished singpspiel is music that Luciano Berio (1925-2003) wrote back in 1995: the show starts and ends with it; it interrupts the action at two points during of the opera. Whether you like it or not, Berio's music asserts itself and--as a recurring comment on the action--hijacks the event.

Berio showed a penchant throughout his career for this kind of appropriation, and people who know his music will compare the Zaide music to the third movement of Sinfonia (1968).

Spoken texts from Beckett's The Unnamable--and Berio's own writings--uncomfortably intermingle with Mahler's scherzo movement from the Second Symphony, and quotations of Schoenberg and Debussy (for example). Here, things are not cut and dry: although Mahler is the clear focus, all the borrowed material works together--and gets worked upon. Nothing appears whole and unmolested, as it does in the Zaide commentary.

Although Berio was Italian, he had strong connections to New York and the US (click here for more).

Happy Birthday Bach

2011-03-21T22:46:00.000-04:00

Your time at the top was short, cut down by those flannel-wearing, shoe gazing, heroin addicts.

Apparently, Bach is Canadian. You know who's not Canadian? The Irish Rovers.

Hey, They're Irish: The Muppets

2011-03-17T20:06:00.001-04:00

Speaks for itself, really:

Thanks to Liz.

Speaking of Liz, Thin Lizzy is Irish. So are the Irish Rovers (although I thought they were Canadian).

Hey, They're Irish: The Irish Rovers

2011-03-17T16:29:00.001-04:00

Because they started out in Toronto, I always assumed The Irish Rovers were Canadian. I guess I was wrong, but they were all over the CBC in the 1970s.

I had no idea "The Unicorn" was a song by Shel Silverstein. Clearly I don't know much about the Irish Rovers. If you can stand it, here's a video.

Or you can listen to Thin Lizzy, who are also Irish.

Hey, They're Irish: Thin Lizzy

2011-03-17T15:26:00.002-04:00

Hard rockin' and totally ignorant of terms related to American football, Thin Lizzy recorded "Whiskey in the Jar" in 1972. It was their first hit.

Finally, I Can Walk from My Apartment to a Concert

2011-03-15T20:56:00.002-04:00

My wife and I play "Riverdale Would Be Better If" a lot. Thanks to Mark Mandarano, the game just got a little easier (or harder; we have one less answer, at any rate).

This past Sunday, I went to hear his Sinfonietta of Riverdale. They played some typically facile French music--and Varese, sticking out like the most beautiful sore thumb I've ever seen. Although I have my suspicions that Mandarano was trying to hide Octandre from ticket buyers (the piece was conspicuously absent from the website), he doesn't typically shy away from programming interesting, challenging music.

Up next for the group: Wagner and Schoenberg on May 15 at the Riverdale Temple. If you're interested, check out their website or follow them on Facebook.

Everyone Likes Pi: It Sounds Delicious

2011-03-14T15:10:00.000-04:00

Michael John Blake's "What Pi Sounds Like" has become quite the YouTube sensation--and the go-to story subject for Pi Day today. NPR.org ran a piece on Morning Edition and it's up on Time's website. Gizmodo, Salon.com, The Stir, and Wired's "Geek Dad" blog: all mention the clip.

Then there's my friend Peter MacDonald, who clearly takes Pi Day very seriously.

Pi Day's Coming Up: Here's Something to Help You Celebrate

2011-03-11T19:24:00.002-05:00

I was going to wait, but just couldn't contain myself (and neither could Peter MacDonald, who mentioned this on Facebook.)

Pi Day is coming up, and Michael John Blake is paying tribute to everyone's favorite mathematical symbol through music. He explains:

I can't wait to hear what he comes up with for Pie Day.

I've Kind of Been Wondering the Same Thing

2011-03-09T23:17:00.002-05:00

If you want to know how rock died, go to Steven Hyden's 10-part series Whatever Happened to Alternative Nation?. It takes forever--I'm only halfway through--but it's worth it.

I particularly appreciated his evenhanded assessment of Guns N' Roses: in revealing how fraudulent metal bands had become, they were a psychotic precursor to Nirvana.

Yes, it helped that I was only 10 at the time, but GNR was unnerving in a way that even the scariest of metal bands couldn't touch ... Nirvana is credited with making '80s hair-metal bands look silly with Nevermind, but GNR had already done that with the "Welcome To The Jungle" video several years earlier.

It's this GNR that I remember--not those purveyors of cheese that brought us Use Your Illusion. Only a couple of weeks after the band filmed that "Jungle" video, I saw them open for The Cult in Halifax. They were loud, crude, clearly drunk. Best of all, they weren't Poison.

Better Know a Composer: Wallingford Riegger (Part II)

2011-03-09T18:14:00.001-05:00

In addition to Dichotomy, it's important to mention the piece that made Riegger's name, Study in Sonority. He wrote it in 1927 for his Ithaca Conservatory summer-term orchestra; the group had mostly violins, so he wrote for 10 violinists. At Eastman, Howard Hanson programmed the work before Stokowski got a hold of it and performed it with the Philadelphia Orchestra strings in 1929 at Carnegie Hall and in their home city.

The New York Philharmonic played the piece a couple of times in the 1960s, and in 1994 at the American Eccentrics festival. There's nary a commercial recording to be had, but you can view the score on the New York Philharmonic's digital archives.

Free Downloads from New York Public Library

2011-03-04T12:07:00.000-05:00

If you're a New York Public Library member, you can now download tracks from the Sony catalog for free through the Freegal music service. That's a lot of music. They've Isaac Stern playing Rochberg's Violin Concerto and Mumford & Sons, Miles Davis and Justin Timberlake.

The good news is that the tracks are DRM-free: you can play them on anything. The bad news is that you can only download three tracks a week. So think hard about what you want to listen to.

O Say Did You Know?

2011-03-03T13:41:00.001-05:00

David Hildebrand pointed out on the Society for American Music listserv that "The Star-Spangled Banner" became the official US national anthem 80 years ago today. The BBC interviewed him for World Update (at about 47:40). I haven't seen much about it in the American news yet; I'm sure the Canadians will have something to say about it.

You probably know that the "The Star-Spangled Banner" got its melody from a drinking song. But do you know which one? And did you know that Francis Scott Key's lyrics first appeared in September 1814 as a broadside in Baltimore?

The Smithsonian Museum of American History has a great section on its website where you can find out a bunch of stuff about our national anthem. Check it out and impress your friends.

And whatever you do, make sure you know the lyrics.

Perlman Leaves Westchester Phil

2011-02-24T16:15:00.004-05:00

Itzhak Perlman, whose contract was up in June, resigned today as music director of the Westchester Philharmonic.

The orchestra is facing serious financial troubles, and is late with their paychecks to both Perlman and orchestra musicians. Clearly, having Perlman didn't help the bottom line: he started in 2007, and contributions fell 31% between 2008 and 2009.

There is no replacement conductor for the April 16 and 17 concerts; Jaime Laredo will step in to conduct on May 14 and 15.

Back in November, I took the family to hear the orchestra at Purchase College with Chelsea Tipton. Tipton's not famous, but the orchestra sounded crisp and spirited with him, and the program was stimulating. The Westchester Philharmonic can't afford big names anyway; building on the strength of the orchestra and interesting programing is probably the way to go.

Detroit Musicians' Negotiating Committee Says "Vote No"

2011-02-18T16:15:00.001-05:00

As Drew McManus points out, both Detroit papers are reporting that the Detroit Symphony musicians' negotiating committee is recommending rejection of management's deal to end the strike.

The Detroit Free Press quotes spokesman Haden McKay, who says that the offer "did not meet our minimum requirements." The Detroit News is saying that the committee felt management pulled a bait-and-switch, agreeing to things on Wednesday night in negotiations, only to leave them out in the agreement they delivered the next morning.

Orchestra Death Watch: Detroit Musicians Get A "Final Offer"

2011-02-16T20:44:00.003-05:00

The Detroit Symphony management presented its "final offer" last night to striking musicians. They'd like the musicians to vote on the offer by Thursday night; the union's response pretty much typifies their tone and approach up until now:

... according [to] musicians' spokesman Greg Bowens, the union's bylaws require a 72-hour waiting period after any proposal is submitted before a vote can be taken. He said if the contract offer was e-mailed to the union at 6:45 p.m. Tuesday as the DSO said, then 72 hours would mean a Friday evening vote. "Management," said Bowens, "should have taken this into account."

NEA Chairman to the Arts: Talk to the Invisible Hand

2011-02-16T00:37:00.002-05:00

There's just too much artsy stuff out there and not enough time. It's a problem we face here in New York City. NEA chairman Rocco Landesman wants to solve it for us.

"You can either increase demand or decrease supply," says Landesman, as reported in the Washington Post
this past weekend. "Demand is not going to increase. So it is time to think about decreasing supply."

Michael Kaiser, who recently criticized arts organizations for timidity in programming, stood up for the little guy in his response: "My biggest problem with thinning out the field is that what people typically mean is: Thin out the smallest, weakest, least developed."

Landesman's comments came before Obama on Monday proposed cutting NEA funding, but the Washington Post article does note that Landesman may have been preparing people for the tough times ahead.

Maybe Michael Kaiser Just Isn't Looking in the Right Places

2011-02-15T21:20:00.001-05:00

On Sequenza21, Armondo Bayalo claims that Michael Kaiser is "just plain wrong about the state of the art"--and then proceeds to tell us all the reasons why he's right.

Bayalo's real point isn't that Kaiser is wrong, but that he is only right within his own big-arts frame of reference. He doesn't see all the great stuff that's going in "smaller, leaner operations" than the Kennedy Center:

Fair enough, but part of the problem is that the funders and fundraisers who hold the purse strings aren't willing to invest in those grass-roots groups so that they can grow.

I Want to Know What Rock Music Michael Kaiser's Been Listening To

2011-02-15T20:34:00.008-05:00

Kennedy Center president and one-note high-culture pundit Michael Kaiser called out arts presenters for a lack of imagination yesterday on his Huffington Post blog.

"The embracing of new technologies and the willingness to try new things seem to have become more the province of rock music and movies," says Kaiser. "The classical arts have simply not kept up."

Who's to blame? Administrators, says the guy who founded a school for arts managers.

... groups of people are now more responsible for arts making than the individual. Boards, managers and producing consortia are overly-involved.

And these groups are misbehaving. They are overly-conservative, subject to "group think" and so worried about budgets that they forget that bad art hurts budgets far more than risk-taking does.

Kaiser tends to repeat the same argument whenever he writes--and it makes a certain amount of intuitive sense. At least for music.

When I read Kaiser's post, I think of the time I noticed that three different orchestras were playing Beethoven's Fifth Symphony in the same month, in the same hall (guess which one?). I also think of all the music I'll never hear live because those orchestras continue to program the same music over and over, season after season.

I'd like to think that our programmers and music directors are doing this because the boards and management they answer to are closed minded. But I also know that it's not that simple. And I know that Kaiser has his own blind spots, as Armondo Bayolo points out on Sequenza21.

Better Know a Composer: Wallingford Riegger

2011-02-15T00:05:00.080-05:00

Maybe it was because he was a communist, but you don't hear much about Wallingford Riegger anymore. Two years before Riegger went in front of the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1957, Gilbert Chase made a point in his book America's Music of singling out the composer as "the leading native-born American composer who composes with twelve tones."

Granted, that's a pretty small group to be out in front of, but you get the point: Riegger was generally well respected, a composer who had emerged from the hotbed of avant-garde musical activity in 1920s New York City with a style at once daring and grounded in traditional technique. He was flaky, but not too flaky.

Dichotomy (1931-2) is one of his earliest works that typify what Riegger was all about, the first piece of his that showed the maturity he would later exhibit in his third and fourth symphonies.

His earliest success here in the US (he studied in Germany for a few years) was his Study in Sonority.

Go See My In-Laws' Art

2011-02-14T23:16:00.000-05:00

If you're in Charlotte in March, take some time to check out my father-in-law's and sister-in-law's show at the Max L. Jackson Gallery at Queens University.

Sabrina (the sister-in-law) is up at the Vermont College of Fine Arts. She sculpts metal, using blacksmithing tools to create some beautiful, surprisingly delicate work. I think you'll enjoy it.

Murray (the father-in-law) studied art at Florida State University--and took piano lessons with Dohnanyi while he was there. Between then and now, he joined the Air Force, "worked for the government," went to medical school and became a doctor, got married, raised his children, and started painting again.

The show runs all March, but there's a reception on March 10, 5-7 PM.

Better Know a Composer: Roy Harris (Part II)

2011-02-13T12:14:00.002-05:00

On Facebook, Joe McKesson celebrated the birthday of Roy Harris (1898-1979) yesterday.

Part II is here. Harris's Third Symphony (1939) is his most famous work, but I also like the music on the Louisville Orchestra's recordings from 1960: his concert piece Kentucky Spring, Violin Concerto, and Symphony No. 5, all written in the late 1940s.

Better Know a Composer: Roy Harris

2011-02-13T11:59:00.002-05:00

As Beth Levy points out, you'll see the words log cabin, Oklahoma, and Lincoln in the opening sentence of almost every biography ever written about Roy Harris.

Although he was a Sooner for only five years, almost everyone in music circles identified him as being quintessentially Western. Arts patron Mary Churchill had this to say about her meeting with Harris in Paris, where he was studying in the late 1920s: "[he was] wild and worn; but gave off a wonderful western farmer air in the middle of the Place de la Concorde."

Serge Koussevitzky said that "nobody has captured in music the essence of American life--its vitality, its greatness, its strength--so well as Roy Harris." That Harris shared a birthday with Lincoln--both were born on February 12--only added to the mystique.

Harris (1898-1979) certainly didn't dispel any of the myth making, and even helped cultivate it. He was a lot like Bob Dylan that way: both built personas to promote themselves that have ended up enveloping--and even overshadowing--their music.

Is Today Cancellation Day for Detroit?

2011-02-11T10:14:00.000-05:00

As Drew McManus reminds us, the Detroit Symphony management said on Wednesday that they would cancel the season if an agreement wasn't reached in two days.

Will they really follow through? Were they bluffing? Does anybody care?

Darth Vader Still Scares Me Completely

2011-02-10T00:18:00.002-05:00

There's nothing funny about Darth Vader. Nothing. He's the embodiment of evil. Have these people even seen Star Wars? I'll have nightmares tonight.

Orchestra Death Watch: Detroit Symphony Negotiations Grind On

2011-02-09T20:39:00.000-05:00

Two million dollars is what the Detroit Symphony and the union are fighting over. Management wants to keep that money for community outreach; the musicians want it for their salaries.

Once again, the musicians whine for the short gain instead of going for long-term engagement with the city and the people that, ostensibly, will help sustain their organization.

The orchestra says that they'll need to cancel the rest of the season in "two days" if they don't reach a settlement. I thought that ship had already sailed. It seems as if the strike has been going on forever.

One Football Song?

2011-02-07T21:56:00.001-05:00

"Running Back" is as close as my friend David Parks got to a football song.

A good bit of rock history, but not a football song.

Football Makes for Lousy Music

2011-02-06T11:41:00.001-05:00

I heard Kate Jacobs's "Rey Ordonez" yesterday. It's one in a long line of baseball odes, and there are lots of songs about hockey--but why doesn't anyone write about football?

Maybe it's because football isn't fun. Baseball and hockey have crazy fun-loving characters and lovable losers (I'm looking at you, Maple Leafs). Football has psychotics that (literally) commit horrible violent crimes; winning's not the main thing, it's the only thing.

So, this Super Bowl Sunday (don't sue me NFL), check in with Brian Wilson (who's making a case to be the next Bill Lee, apparently), find out why Gerry Cheevers's mask was so creepy, and listen to some music:

And if I'm wrong about football, let me know.

Why I Wasn't Blogging for Two Weeks

2011-02-04T20:20:00.003-05:00

Last weekend, I gave a paper at the local American Musicological Society chapter's winter meeting. Here's the paper, which is on Rochberg's Second String Quartet.

A Free Concert on Sunday

2011-02-04T16:50:00.000-05:00

Christ and St. Stephen's Church on West 69th Street in Manhattan is a great place to hear music, and this weekend you check it out for free: the North/South Chamber Orchestra is performing some new music there on Sunday at 3 PM.

You'll hear music by Sean Hickey. He's a friend of mine, but also a composer worth knowing.

Sunday with the Kids: Baby Got Bach

2011-02-03T18:31:00.000-05:00

Baby got Bach is back. Orli Shaham and her gang will be down in Greenwich Village at Le Poisson Rouge on Sunday--doors open at 11 AM.

It looks like a good time for all, and a nice balance of hands-on participation and top-notch performance. Make sure you hang around for the finale: Steve Mackey's Sneaky March.

No, I Don't Like Pina Coladas. I'd Like a Divorce.

2011-01-21T20:46:00.002-05:00

I got a couple of responses to my last post about creepy songs--thanks Robyn, Kappy--that both added this to the list:

Songs that Make Me Uncomfortable, Huffington Post Style

2011-01-21T08:23:00.001-05:00

On the Huffington Post this morning, Alida Nugent gives her list of songs that have left her thoroughly creeped out:

I have now changed my definition of love. After hearing these songs, Love, to me, is clowns at the circus, that weird guy who owned an emu farm and antique shops.

In some cases, the lyrics make you shudder, but in others, it's about the context: Chris Brown's horrible misogynistic rage issues ruin "Forever"; the video does in Lionel Ritchie's "Hello."

I've got my own list. What about you? Any songs that make you want to take a shower--or call the police?

Update?

2011-01-20T20:37:00.002-05:00

Jennifer Higdon, who won a Pulitzer this year for her Violin Concerto, wants orchestras to program more new music--because it sells:

The only orchestra concerts I've attended lately that have been sold out have had new works on them (and yes, I go to concerts without new music).

I've also been to concerts where half the audience walks out with the composer in the audience right before the world premiere of his big new piece.

Sometimes Explaining Yourself Just Makes Things Worse

2011-01-17T01:57:00.001-05:00

In a recent blog post, Eva Yaa Asantewaa knocks The New York Times's A. O. Scott for his solipsistic approach to movie criticism. She quotes him:

I have to say that the goal of criticism has never been to control or reflect the public taste--neither is possible--but rather the simpler (but also infinitely difficult) work of analyzing and evaluating works of art as honestly and independently as possible.

There's a frightening decadence running through a lot of mainstream cultural criticism these days, including music and dance. (If you click through, you'll see it comes mostly from one particular outlet.)

If You're Going to Be Awesome, Be Awesome All the Time

2011-01-13T21:29:00.000-05:00

You can't even begin to imagine my surprise when I found out that this was the website of the guy who wrote The Most Amazing Press Release Ever:

Today's Seth Godin's blog post (one of them, anyway; it gets to be a little much sometimes) warned of raising expectations only to dash them on the rocks of mediocrity. Going from that irreverent press release from PitchPoint to its website homepage is a case study in this particular way to fail.

It's confusing too. What am I going to get if I hire this publicist, I wonder. Am I getting the sarcastic, brazen PitchPoint--the 483 Words of Pure Awesomeness--or am I getting the run-of-the-mill "one stop shop for all your marketing and creative needs." It's hard to tell.

Vanessa and Friends Played at Trinity Church Today

2011-01-13T18:40:00.001-05:00

Here's the video from Vanessa's concert with Aron Zelkowicz and Sally Koo at the Trinity Church on Wall Street:

The show was great, the church was beautiful, and the staff was really welcoming and helpful. If you have some time, you should go to one of their Concerts at One.

And come by the Third Street Music School Settlement in Manhattan on January 28; Vanessa and Aron are playing a concert at 7:30 PM. Since they don't get paid for this, bring a hat and pass it for them.

For those of you who don't know, "Vanessa" is Vanessa Fadial. She's my wife. And an amazing pianist as well. Just ask our neighbors. All six floors of them.

"483 Words of Pure Awesomeness"

2011-01-12T21:04:00.003-05:00

Yes, yes they are.

If only I had seen this at Naxos.

Who's Erich Korngold?

2011-01-10T23:15:00.000-05:00

Most people who know anything about Erich Korngold know that he was a film composer. Some might also place him as the fin-de-siecle Viennese wunderkind that put the fear of God into Strauss.

My first contact with Korngold came as a graduate student, when I heard Gil Shaham's recording of his violin concerto. What struck me about the music--particularly the first movement--was that it had nothing superfluous. It was perfect, polished, and immediately satisfying.

Before Shaham, Heifetz owned Korngold's concerto. Since Shaham, a lot of violinists have taken up the piece in concert and on record, including Hilary Hahn, James Ehnes, and Philippe Quint.

Philippe recorded it for Naxos. My friend Raymond Bisha produced a podcast on Korngold for Naxos, which you can listen to on the Arkivmusic website.

If we waste our time on that musical painter of light Rachmaninov, we can do worse than to pay some attention to Korngold as well. Renee Fleming is singing his songs tomorrow night at Carnegie Hall, and I also suggest you listen to any one of the violin concerto recordings out there.

Is It Just Me, or Is This Really Lame?

2011-01-09T10:51:00.002-05:00

There are so many reasons to cancel your subscription to The New York Times. Alastair Macaulay is one. This might be another.

Maybe it's Tommasini's condescending tone ("I don't do rankings"), or his ignorance of the music media that exists all around him (which contributes to the condescension), or his cloying set-up (that whole thing about the high-school student), but today's how-to-make-a-top-ten-composers-list-if-you-really-want-to article annoyed me.

One of the goals of this article (I guess; it's hard to say what's going on) is to question assumptions about the canon. As an alternative, I suggest Benjamin Carlson's series on the Atlantic's web site, published last spring.

Carlson can come off as a little didactic, but his list of instructions on how to listen to classical music can be helpful. For people new to Bach, Beethoven, and the boys, it provides a firm launch pad; for more experienced listeners, the list helps focus in on aspects of the music we take for granted. I found myself disagreeing with Carlson at times (he wrote three articles in all), but at least he gave me points to think about.

I may just be grumpy this morning. What do you think? You can
e-mail me if I'm full of beans.

In the 1950s, Animation Could Get Pretty Dark Too

2011-01-08T00:16:00.001-05:00

Toot, Whistle, Plunk, Boom--the hippest music appreciation class ever--won the Academy Award for best short animated film in 1954; it was up against this:

There was some crazy stuff going on in the 1950s. Don't let anyone tell you different.

Learn the Entire History of Music in Disney '50s-Cool Style

2011-01-07T23:18:00.003-05:00

The people over at Open Culture are at it again. Today, they posted this Disney film from 1953, Toot, Whistle, Plunk, Boom. It's Disney, it's from the '50s, but it's definitely not square.

This is about 100 times more awesome than anything Leonard Bernstein did. Seeing this, having They Might Be Giants is doing on Disney's music label with songs about science makes so much more sense. I still can't explain Billy Ray Cyrus, though.

Orchestra Death Watch: Louisville Musicians Get Paid, Will Play Saturday

2011-01-07T00:07:00.001-05:00

Last Friday, the musicians of the Louisville Orchestra got smaller paycheques than usual, but considering their employer is in Chapter 11 and was threatening to liquidate, that might not have been so bad. According to one report, they only got 20% of their weekly salary; they were to have gotten the remainder yesterday. In addition, the orchestra found the funds to put on their pops concert on Saturday.

Meanwhile in the blogosphere, some less-than-sympathetic online commenters to news reports about the Louisville Orchestra has prompted responses from both Tim Smith and Drew McManus.

Five Things: Songs About the Periodic Table

2011-01-04T18:33:00.004-05:00

I'll admit it: I never learned the periodic table. I probably never will. But if you're up for it, here are some songs to help you out.

1. They Might Be Giants, "Meet the Elements"
My children listen to this pretty much non-stop.

2. Tom Lehrer, "The Elements"
It's the song that defines the genre.

3. "Periodic Table of Rock"
Isn't this the guy from the first Freecreditreport.com band?

4. The "Learn the Periodic Table Song"
If you like Billy Joel, this one's for you.

5. Peter Weartherall, "The Periodic Table Song"
Who knew that chemistry would be such fodder for children's singers?

Cheesy Classical Music You Should Know: The "Blue Danube" Waltz

2010-12-31T23:51:00.008-05:00

On every January 1 since 1939, the Vienna Philharmonic has been waltzing in the new year at the Musikverein. In all of these concerts, Johann Strauss Jr.'s music is the most prominent musical fixture.

Although it was his father, along with Josef Lanner, who popularized Austria's indigenous 3/4 dance music, Johann Strauss Jr. was the true "Waltz King"; by the time he passed in 1899, his music was beloved worldwide, from Bosnia to Boston.

Most people are familiar with his "Blue Danube" Waltz; the Vienna Phil plays it on every New Year's Day concert--and of course, it's part of the 2001: A Space Odyssey soundtrack:

As respected for his dance music as he was in his time--Brahms was but one noted admirer and friend--and as historically important as he is for it today, Strauss was also a successful stage composer. He wrote a ballet based on Cinderella, and provided competition to Offenbach with operettas such as his Die Fledermaus (1874):

This year, the Vienna Philharmonic New Year's Day concert is broadcast in over 70 countries, and you can watch it on PBS. Just try not to think too hard about who was in Vienna in 1939 when this tradition all started, and what it might have meant back then.

"More a Charles Ives in There--Without Being Awful Like Ives Is"

2010-12-31T09:06:00.001-05:00

On his Age of Ravens blog, Hoosier Lowell Francis wrote about classical music he likes--and wrote exclusively about Michael Daugherty. He sums it all up like this:

Daugherty's a good ways away from some of the more narrow and completely dissonant forms in 20th Century music. He doesn't echo any of the minimalism of Philip Glass or even John Adams. There's more a Charles Ives in there-- but without being awful like Ives is. There-- I said it. He's more listenable that some other 20th century stuff (to me at least) like Boulez, Messiaen, or Carter. I will note that he's routinely criticized for being kitschy-- and that may be why I like him.

It's as good a description as I've heard.

Red Cape Tango - Metropolis Symphony - Michael Daugherty

Orchestra Death Watch: Louisville Orchestra Restructuring Slog

2010-12-29T22:00:00.001-05:00

The dreary business of the Louisville Orchestra's restructuring is going forward, with the CEO threatening to close up shop if he has to pay the band.

Today, a US Bankruptcy Court judge ruled that the organization can't cut its budget by voiding its contract with its musicians,who will now get cheques until April as a result, according to the Louisville Courier-Journal.

In testimony prior to the ruling, the board president, Chuck Maisch, said that the orchestra could only honor the contract by dipping into its endowment; the orchestra's CEO, Robert Birman, said that the orchestra would simply have to liquidate assets.

It looks as if that the proceedings start up again in Louisville on January 6.

I Suppose Alastair Macaulay Would Have a Problem With This Too

2010-12-27T22:06:00.004-05:00

Thanks to Steve Rochen for this through Facebook.
(Who's Alastair Macaulay?)

Cool Music Presents My Kids Got

2010-12-27T21:44:00.001-05:00

Usually toy instruments are useless, but Hearth Song's Melody Lap Harp is the real deal. What I particularly like about it was that you can tune it with an accompanying tuning hammer; so many children's musical toys either clang horribly upon arrival or go out of tune quickly. You don't need much skill to start: it comes with tablature sheets that sit just underneath the strings. My daughter's really into it.

Our Christmas-Eve visit to church left my son a little rattled; he took solace the next day in They Might Be Giants's Here Comes Science.

The group's Here Come the 123's was a pre-Christmas gift for our daughter. The songs are catchy, groovy, and even at times poignant: