Archives for April 2010

A singer friend of mine currently residing in Asia but normally based in Los Angeles, Titus Levi, forwarded me an email he received from the composer/pianist Gene Carl. Titus had asked Gene what makes writing for voice and chorus so tricky. Gene’s response was so thoughtful that I asked if I could publish his musings as a guest blog here at lies like truth. Gene generously agreed. Here’s what the composer has to say on the subject:

Text, small ambitus, rests and the melodic line. Basically. Nadia Boulanger, the teacher who taught Stravinsky’s way of composition to among others, Copland, Carter and Thomson, made her students study the final cadences in the Chorals–unbelieveable how varied. Carter’s account of those lessons was inspiring to me.

With words a composer has to remember which vowels can be sung easily high and low. It’s not forbidden to do the opposite, but singers are very suspicious if they see parts which don’t follow the “rules”. Pink Chinese Restaurants has four songs which form the trunk of the cantata. Everyone says the first song Sun Luck is the best written for voice. The last piece is supposed to be “awkward” cause there’s lots of “i’s” in the highest notes. I think of the problems with West Side Story, also. The minor 7th rise in “there’s a place for us”, or the rhythmic syncopation and change of meter in “Something’s coming” which Jose Carrera proved was VERY difficult in the documentary about the recording of West Side Story with opera singers: Bernstein got furious and called a pause.

Also, the voice is not conducive to large leaps especially downwards. Stepwise is what one’s taught–jumps are seldom used and never in succession. Everytime I write a descending minor 6th I get a lecture from a vocalist. And then the constant use of the descending tritone in Ifigeneia’s final chorus caused innumerable comments—but sounded incredible.

Also, the ambitus is usually smaller and the use of lots of highs continuously leads to aspiration–los of voice! Have heard it happen.Duke Ellington is one of the only composers I can think of who uses as few notes as possible for each instrument–almost choral writing for Band.

Think of the problems if the soprano is more than 2 octaves distance from the bass. Watch how the soprano relates to the bass–that’s the clue of good writing too whether its close or open harmony.

The rise of instrumental music, and dance music outside of the church music, freed up a lot of composers so they could both write quicker music and not be so concerned with intervals, as long as it was able to be fingered without too much problem.

When I took a workshop on Mongolian throat singing (singing harmonics through focusing and shaping the mouth cavity which I first heard on recordings from Tuva which Richard Feynman was crazy about–you remember the stoned Physics prof at Cal Tech who got TWO Nobel prizes). The teacher gave me a big lecture on the “place” of the vowels and consonants in the mouth and gave me a diagram of this.

For some reason the “latin” countries (Italy, Spain and France) have a greater tradition in singing. Trouveres, troubadores, the first polyphonic music fauxbourdon, Notre Dame School, Hocket technique, Perotin and Leonin, and other developments seem to have preceeded the Minnesangers and other Germanic vocal developments where folk singing was much more important. The English have their own development which often paralelled the continent and especially when composers went to study there or composers from the continent came to English courts. Wonderful history, actually.

The development of polyphonic music hinges on an understanding of how different voices, starting at different moments in the musical phrase, can make sense language-wise. During the Renaissance there was a development of pieces with more than one text simultaneously which shows how composers hadn’t solved that problem and avoided it. The hyper polyphony of Ockegehm and Obrecht, and also Dufay, De la Rue—the canons which were sung with simultaneously different time signatures–are still mysterious to our ears. Kohn gave courses on the multi-rhythmic Middle Ages and Renaissance music where there were really no measures or regular “takt”. Even Bach was re-measured by Bartok in his editions of the WohlTempierte Klavier. L’homme arme changes meters and was the most used “secular” folk song of the time.

We are really square compared to that time. Listening to Pavement (Twilight) gives me a warm feeling cause they use the text and follow thatrhythm, no matter what. Yes, Monk, too. And Joni.

As for NONO: Il Canto Sospeso, is his masterwork, based on letters from camp victims of WWII. His and Dallapiccola’s works are intricate because the syllables are often divided up amongst different vocal lines–an extension and development of hocket technique, really. A word like “mag-ni-fi-cent-ly” would need five singers, one for each syllable. Very difficult to bring off and impossible to understand. PLUS: one singer sings “mag”, the next “ni” and so on—not too nice for the singers. Especially Ha venido for soprano and six sopranos is brilliant this way and a very classical choral conductor who I spoke with, expressed his respect for Nono and Dallapiccola to my shock. He said the lines and the notes which a singer has to take his/her note from are very clear. Cuando stanno morendo is also a beautiful piece where the solution is different than his earlier works. The best was one of the Operas with three Marilyn Monroe’s singing together in intricate polyphony–the name of the Opera eludes me. I saw it once in Holland Festival–70’s.

About guest blogger Gene Carl:

Gene Carl (1953 Burbank, California) pianist/composer received awards as a young pianist finishing his BA cum laude at Pomona College in ʼ75 and was awarded the Thomas J. Watson Fellowship. At the Royal Conservatory in The Hague he was awarded the Prize of Composition in ʼ83 and in the same year got an award from ElectroMusic Competition in Bourges, France. He toured with Andiressenʼs group Hoketus, with other ensembles and solo including Cageʼs Sonatas and Interludes”. As well heʼs produced/arranged in projects around Brian Wilson and Joni Mitchell. His last composition project was with Robert Woodruff and Toneelgroep Amsterdam for “Iphigeneia in Aulis”. He wrote many articles about Dutch music most notably about the composer/philosopher Dick Raaijmakers, and was guest editor for the dubble issue on Schoenberg in The Netherlands. At the moment heʼs working on a chamber opera based on Tournierʼs The Golden Droplet scheduled for the Chamber Opera Festival in 2011. He has 7 CDʼs and 2 LPʼs out with his own work and is pianist/synthesizer player on othersʼ LPʼs/CDʼs.

Having complained about the snoozing audience at the Auerbach/Weilerstein gig a couple of nights ago, it was gratifying to see an audience wide awake and vociferously responsive at a concert at Davies Symphony Hall which included the world premiere of a song cycle written by the singer-songwriter Duncan Sheik (Spring Awakening).

To say that Sheik’s Song Suite from Whisper House — a cycle based on songs from Sheik’s latest musical which premiered at San Diego’s Old Globe Theatre in January and was orchestrated for the San Francisco Symphony by Simon Hale — did not go down well with the symphony audience is to put it mildly. The crowd here is usually easy to please. They don’t seem to notice when the players are dialing it in and give standing ovations on every night of the week. But this time, the house was positively disgruntled. A guy sitting two seats down from me made protracted booing noises. Another person said “thank god that’s over,” very loudly. And a third shouted, “I don’t see what was so ghostly about that awful piece,” referring to the fact that the songs in the cycle are all sun by characters from the spirit world in the musical.

They were right to voice their complaints. The catharsis was important after half an hour of grinding orchestrations delivered by musicians who seemed on automatic pilot, lackluster melodies, cliched lyrics and the mediocre vocal abilities of Sheik, who delivered all six songs with a gravely earnestness that went beyond the most ardent efforts of Michael Buble.

Even though the cycle has to be one of the worst works I’ve ever experienced at the San Francisco Symphony, I was glad I was at Davies to witness this particular musical aberration. It made me happy to know that audiences are paying attention and can sometimes be moved to make their feelings heard.

Two things to share with you this morning:

1. A friend of mine texted me the other day from New York to ask if I knew of any good blogs about conducting. I thought he was asking because he wanted to find a good writer or two on the subject to follow. It turns out that I was wrong: he wants to start a blog about conducting himself.

This isn’t a bad idea. He’s interested in conducting, has done a bit of it himself on the choral music front and has some strong opinions on the subject. Plus there really don’t seem to be many good blogs on the subject out there — it’s definitely a niche that needs to be filled. That being said, I don’t yet know if my friend is a compelling writer — that’s probably the most important quality a blogger needs alongside expertise and passion for a subject.

His latest text concerned me a little however: “How many followers do I need to warrant press passes?!” he wrote. The “LOL” appended to the end of his message suggested that he was joking about blogging in order to get free tickets to see concerts. But following several conversations I’ve had with arts PR people lately, I’ve learned of the strain that freeloading bloggers place on arts organizations. It takes PR people a great deal of time and energy to check out a blogger’s bona fides. There are lots of people out there who simply blog as a way to get freebies. Weeding out the genuine web-based commentators from the frauds is a challenge.

So while I’m sure my friend has honest motives for wanting to blog about conducting, perhaps he should consider paying his own way for a while…

2. The Lera Auerbach and Alisa Weilerstein recital at the Herbst Theatre last night was a hypnotic affair. So hypnotic in fact that half of the whitehairs sitting in the orchestra seats were fast asleep by about 15 minutes into the program, which featured Auerbach’s cello and piano arrangement of Shostakovich’s Twenty-Four Preludes in the first half and Auerbach’s own Twenty-Four Preludes for cello and piano in the second half.

There was really no excuse for the snores. The instrumentalists brought much passion to their playing. They seemed like twin sisters not just because they looked similar with their wavy brown hair and chinadoll faces, but also because of their subtly symbiotic approach to phrasing and beginnings and endings.

The music ranged between so many different moods and styles that there wasn’t a moment to feel bored, let alone sleepy. I wonder if it’s something about the Herbst Theatre that puts people in a comatose state? Or perhaps the crowd imbibed too much steak and wine before arriving? Or maybe it’s just a question of age relative to the price of concert seating, in which case, the presenter should find ways to encourage more young people to come and sit in the orchestra seats.

Last Friday, over lunch with a friend, the discussion turned to ways to make classical music relevant to younger audiences. This hoary topic tends to make conversation spiral around in circles. But I feel that there’s enough happening in the field these days to suggest that composers and musicians are doing what they can to reach out to younger audiences. This great article in the Financial Times by Laura Battle explores the topic in some depth. But in general, arts institutions have been slower to catch on.

Here in San Francisco, there is a modicum of institutional buy-in to the idea that classical music can break free of stuffy concert halls and stiff concert etiquette. The San Francisco Symphony runs its After Hours events in the second tier lobby at Davies Symphony Hall. These are popular with a younger crowd. Museums are starting to get the hang of creating a more free and easy atmosphere for audiences to hear music – yesterday’s blog post about Friday night’s L@TE event at the Berkeley Art Museum provides an example of how institutions are collaborating with musicians to bring new audiences to contemporary classical music.

I would like to see more actual presenters of classical music events range beyond their habits and try new things. Why shouldn’t San Francisco performances, Old First Concerts or Stanford Lively Arts produce cool, adjunct events to accompany their main stage concerts at the usual auditoriums? Logistics notwithstanding, there must be a way to create buzz around all these great artists playing in town by having them perform a low-key, short set perhaps with collaborators from other musical genres like jazz and electronica, dancers or visual artists, in a club or other convivial spot prior to the mainstage concert.

Come on, classical music presenters: let’s get creative.

Thoughts about some stuff I did at the weekend:

1. L@TE at The Berkeley Art Museum: The museum turns out to be the perfect place for a casual evening concert, hobnob over wine or beer and visual art tour. Joan Jeanrenaud’s cello playing was hypnotic. I could have listened to the ex-Kronos Quartet musician growl and purr all night. Ken Ueno’s throat singing went on for slightly too long. I think it makes a better backdrop for strolling the galleries than something to sit and listen to with concentration for 40 minutes. The event was well-attended. Though the acoustic isn’t great at the museum, the central sunken indoor courtyard provides a wonderful natural amphitheatre for performances. A huge undulating orange sculpture provided seating for around 70 people. Some people sat against the wave-like structure; others lay on their backs with their eyes shut. Looking down on lounging concert listeners from one of the museum’s indoor “balconies” was like looking down at a work of art in itself. Spencer Tunick would enjoy composing one of his naked people pictures in this setting I think.

2. Oakland Art Murmur: Every first Friday of the month, downtown Oakland’s art galleries throw open their doors in the evening for prowling and hanging out. The area is usually swarming with hipsters and the air is giddy with the smell of weed and frying hotdog onions. It’s a great place to be. The cold weather on Friday kept things low key this time around though. I turned up at 9.30pm and was sad to see that most of the main gallery spaces had already closed their doors.

3. Reggie Wilson / Fist & Heel Performance Group and Andreya Quamba / Compagnie 1er Temps at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts: The union between Wilson’s troupe, a Brooklyn-based company, and Quamba’s troupe, from Dakar, Senegal, has been three years in the making. The groups’ combined piece, The Good Dance, brought together slow, sultry movements that brought to mind desert plains and burning sun, with the cataclysmic flailings of lives lived in the fast lane. The piece made use of dozens of filled plastic water bottles, which the performers spent a lot of time alternately arranging in careful patterns or knocking over with carefree clumsiness. The piece spoke of cultures nurtured and destroyed. It pulsed with the water of life. And yet at the same time, there was a brittleness at its heart. Though much of the movement, drawing on its African roots, was earth-bound and tribalistic in feel, there was a fragility to some of the choreography. In a final duet between two male dancers, this feeling particularly came to the fore. The piece ended so abruptly, with one dancer walking off and the other stuck still in the middle of the stage, that I felt like something had snapped. It was a curious way to end the work. Perhaps not the most satisfying, but definitely thoughtful.

4. Big Idea Party at YBCA: YBCA’s occasional parties aren’t always galvanizing affairs. People mill around, look at a bit of art, have a drink and go home. But the party on Saturday evening produced in collaboration with the thePeople DJ and artists collective from Oakland was by far the best art institution evening event I’ve ever been too — and that includes a “wear a tiara” night at the Victoria and Albert museum which I attended a few years ago and had held in high esteem for so long. thePeople inspired everyone on the dance floor with music that made it impossible for us to stand still — a great mix of latin and trip-hop-infused electronica and house music. The galleries were full of people who actually seemed to stop and really spend time with the many video art works on display. The campari cocktails and jerk-spiced fish, chicken and veggie tacos were a score. I think what I responded to the most about this event was the combination of watching artists at work and being able to participate. Watching formidable hip-hop dancers on the dancefloor inspired us to move — and we did.

I know rehearsal periods for theatrical productions are tight in this country. Artists manage to pull of incredible feats i four weeks through sheer hard work, talent and caffeine. But I’m getting a little tired of theater companies using preview performances as dress rehearsals.

A dress rehearsal is not a preview performance. There is no audience at a dress rehearsal. The director has the right to stop and start the action at his or her will, though the proceeding should include at least one “as if in front of a live audience” run-through. A preview performance, on the other hand, should be a finished, ready-to-go product. There are paying customers out there who are there to see a show and want to be entertained.

But for some reason, companies often disregard these facts and treat the preview(s) as if they’re just public rehearsals where money has changed hands between the public and the producers. This is not on. There isn’t a grey area between rehearsing and performing. The two are distinct and should be treated that way.

One of the most frustrating things about hosting a radio show which airs from 10 – 11 pm on a Friday night is that you get a lot of disgruntled would-be listeners writing to you to let you know that they’d love to tune in — if only the show weren’t happening at such an awkward time during the week. I’ve been getting several requests a week from people asking about whether it’s possible to hear the show after the fact

I am now happy to report that the public radio station which broadcasts VoiceBox has at last created a “Local Musical Player” for its website which allows listeners to hear the most recent VoiceBox and other KALW programming after the air date. Music rights and restrictions do not allow the station to archive shows for an indefinite period of time, but at least VoiceBox fans can catch each episode for an entire week after it airs. Click here to find the player online.

Happy listening!