For a long time,
I’ve thought that the classical music world needs to embrace other kinds of
music. Why? At first the idea might not make sense to some people. We don’t ask
reggae stars to acknowledge country music; we’d be surprised if
class=SpellE>Wynton
So why should classical musicians (and classical music institutions) reach out
to any other musical style?
Well, there are many
reasons. (And as I’m writing this, I’m playing the hot new Bruce Springsteen
album. He sings Pete Seeger songs live, with a large
crew of musicians joining him, completely unrehearsed. Hot!) The classical
music world is trying to figure out its relationship to the rest of the world.
The rest of the world listens to pop (and jazz, and country, and
class=SpellE>hiphop
and lots more). We live, as far as they’re all concerned, in a closed little
box. We need to show them we’re human, too, and that we live in the same world
they do. And that many of us listen to their music, which—because we live in
the same world—is our music, too.
There’s more. We’re
publicly funded. What’s our relationship to the community that funds us? Are we
good neighbors? Do we respect what other kinds of musicians do? Or do we stand
apart with our noses in the air, waiting for the chance to educate people to
appreciate our superior art?
And then think of
orchestra musicians who play nonclassical music (the
Philadelphia Orchestra principal trombonist who plays in a Latin band, as shown
in the film Music from the Inside Out; the
players in the Metropolitan Opera orchestra who, I’ve heard, have a punk band
and play at CBGB; so many more). Why should this be cut off from their
orchestra life? Why can’t their orchestras—into which they pour so much of
their hearts—nurture everything they do musically?
So,
fine. The principle is
clear. (At least to me.) But how do we put it into
practice? I thought of one way when Aretha Franklin started singing opera
arias. She stepped in for Pavarotti one year at the Grammys,
singing “Nessun dorma” when
he abruptly dropped out. She was sensational, though of course in her own
style, not Puccini’s. (You can hear it—and see her, too—right
href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9v9Zpd4ulQ&search=aretha%20franklin">here
thanks to YouTube. Forgive her Italian, and stay to
the end, when the really great stuff comes.) Later on, she sang “
class=SpellE>Vissi class=SpellE>bel class=SpellE>Vissi
Symphony; you can read my happy review.)
So when she did
that, I thought that opera companies should have congratulated her. “Aretha,”
the Met could have said, “welcome to our music. Of course we don’t do it the
way you do, but the way you do it makes us really happy. Come do a concert on
our stage!”
But beyond that,
what? How about some ideas we could try every day? So here’s one from Jennifer
Foster, the broadcaster from WDAV, a classical public radio station at w:st="on">Davidson
in
whose musical mashups I
href="http://www.artsjournal.com/sandow/2006/03/_not_so_passive.html">wrote about
all from the station’s area.
Let Jennifer tell
the story (as she wrote it in an e-mail to me, which
I’m quoting with her permission):
Within the series I record and produce, Carolina Live: The Main Street Sessions
(our station is on
I’ve wandered outside of classical boundaries several times. I have aired
progressive jazz, jazz standards, Brazilian folk, Celtic, barbershop quartet,
world percussion, singer/songwriter, and "new grass" material. I
fully expected hate mail, irate phone calls, angry
emails. We received none. In fact, words like “refreshing” and “innovative”
came up in a smattering of emails, letters and conversations.
The context of the program and some sensitive editing on my
part may have helped. I was able to humanize each musician or group of
musicians using interview material that was presented along with (and sometimes
layered over) the music we recorded in the performance studio.
style='mso-spacerun:yes'>
I discovered (for me) it’s hard to discriminate against music
when the humans making it are right in front of you. I put that affection to
work on the air as best I could in the way I scripted, edited, framed and
presented each segment.
I also deeply believe I can’t be the only person on earth who
loves all kinds of music; that an ear that revels in classical music is also attracted
to other kinds of music that are emotionally or texturally rich, complex or
thrilling.
style='mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt;mso-bidi-font-family:"Book Antiqua"'>But there’s more:
We organized a live concert, calling on musicians who’d
performed for the show to perform at the concert, held in an Episcopal church
in uptown
It was a remarkable array of performers — all ages, all types of music — and
people loved it. All three hours of it! There was old music, early music, new
music (Rzewski’s Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues was a real w:st="on">high point
quartet performed between numbers (the crowd loved them).
To top it off, a
twenty-five-year-old
composer, Nathan Wright Shirley, wrote a piece that
brought all of these diverse musicians together for a grand finale. He even
wrote in a part toward the end for me (I’d been emcee al evening) to sing. It
was a bit rough at the beginning — those early music folks were having a tough
time with pitch — but once it gets into full swing, it isn’t half bad. You can
(look for the "listen" button). Rough as it was, it brought the
audience to their feet. What fun!
style='mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt;mso-bidi-font-family:"Book Antiqua"'>And what a great idea! And what a terrific way to make classical music part of the community, by making the community part of what a classical music institution does.
style='mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt;mso-bidi-font-family:"Book Antiqua"'>Another North Carolina example (which I’ve mentioned here before)—pianist Gregory McCallum taking his piano around the state, playing recitals, giving
class=SpellE>masterclasses stopped, where local pianists of all ages and all musical persuasions could play. Greg wanted to take that to every county in the state, but unfortunately had to stop because of illness.
style='mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt;mso-bidi-font-family:"Book Antiqua"'>Many thanks to Jennifer, for doing all this, telling me about it, and letting me quote her. Check out The
style='mso-bidi-font-style:normal'>Main Street Sessions
href="http://www.wdav.org/nav1024.cfm?cat=2&subcat=124&subsub=234">web page (scroll down on that page to see it):
style='mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt;mso-bidi-font-family:"Book Antiqua"'>• Original songs by Mike Orlando, mandolin, banjo and guitar, and sister
class=SpellE>Larina href="http://www.michaelorlando.com" target="_new">www.michaelorlando.com • Barbara Blaker-Krumdiek, baroque cello with viola da gamba/bass player/cellist, Robbie Link
href="http://www.robbielink.com" target="_new">www.robbielink.com • Kate Minogue, wooden flute, guitar, & vocals • Billy Jones, the singer/songwriter whose homemade “Townie” T-shirt and musical connections launched the idea for the show. • Henry Lebedinsky
href="http://www.gostalbans.org/musicatstalbans.htm" target="_new">www.gostalbans.org/musicatstalbans.htm , musician of all trades & guest fiddler, Michael Albert from w:st="on">
style='mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt;mso-bidi-font-family:"Book Antiqua"'>Which reminds me of one last—and best—reason to do all these kinds of music together: Because they sound good together, and because people in the audience (who might not draw such hard and fast musical boundaries as we do) might like to hear them.


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