Unanswered Question: May 2011 Archives

With the fate of American orchestras in the news, the National Endowment of the Humanities has recently awarded $300,000 for a symphonic project -- "Music Unwound" -- that dramatically explores new templates for concerts and new missions for institutions of performance.

The NEH public programs division funds orchestras once every decade or two. That the Humanities Endowment is not accustomed to dealing with orchestras, and that orchestras are not prone to apply for NEH funding, identifies in a nutshell the challenges and opportunities the new grant addresses.

"Music Unwound" funds a consortium comprising the Buffalo Philharmonic, the Louisville Orchestra, the North Carolina Symphony, and the Pacific Symphony. All four orchestras will undertake a "Dvorak and America" project that explore the ways in which culture has helped Americans to understand and define themselves. Two of the orchestras will additionally undertake a "Copland and Mexico" project that targets Hispanic audiences, and uses Copland's Mexican epiphany (a Mexico City dance hall transformed him into a populist) as a means of discovering Silvestre Revueltas (a master Mexican composer next to whose elemental sound mosaics Copland's El Salon Mexico is the confection of a skilled beginner).

The projects incorporate actors, a video artist, and a variety of art and cultural historians. They link to museums and universities, middle and high schools. Longfellow's The Song of Hiawatha and the paintings of Frederic Church, the Mexican Revolution and the murals of Diego Rivera are among the topics at hand. Its cross-disciplinary intensity is what qualifies "Music Unwound" for Humanities funding.

"I'm a firm believer that people don't know what they like; they like what they know," comments Louisville Orchestra CEO Rob Birman. "'Music Unwound' could serve as a model for American orchestras long into the future. The landscape of the American orchestral experience is crying out for something new, something with greater impact, more context and relevance for younger audiences. 'Music Unwound' delivers as array of entry points through which listeners of all ages can engage with orchestras across artistic disciplines."

Jesse Rosen, President of the League of American Orchestras, calls "Music Unwound" a project "of the utmost significance not only to the participating organizations but to the evolution of programming and audience building."

As project director of "Music Unwound," I was able to build upon two previous NEH initiatives I've directed. The first was a "National Education Project" that created a young readers book (my Dvorak in America) and interactive DVD (by Robert Winter and Peter Bogdanoff) treating Dvorak's American sojourn as a springboard for cross-disciplinary instruction. The second was a Teacher-Training Institute (hosted by the Pittsburgh Symphony) that trained 25 teachers (grades 3 to 12) to use the Dvorak story to infuse the humanities into Social Studies, Music, and English Literature classrooms. Four alumni of the institute will partner "Music Unwound" in Buffalo, North Carolina, and Orange County (California).

The "Music Unwound" rubric is an invention of the Pacific Symphony, long a national leader in thematic symphonic programming. Perhaps the most novel of the NEH-funded Dvorak projects will be undertaken by the Pacific Symphony Youth Orchestra. This may be the first time an American youth orchestra has presented a thematic program with film and narration in combination with (1) classroom-style instruction for the instrumentalists themselves (who will learn about Longfellow, Buffalo Bill, and yellow journalism in the context of Dvorak's American sojourn); and (2) visits to local high schools by the young instrumentalists (who will perform and discuss Dvorak's American String Quartet).

A starting point for "Music Unwound" was a "Dvorak and America" program I wrote and produced for the New York Philharmonic with the participation of Alec Baldwin and Marin Alsop. That was part of a special "Inside the Music" series the Philharmonic undertook for a couple of seasons. The "Music Unwound" programs, by comparison, are not ancillary: they all fall within the central subscription series of the participating orchestras. They point eagerly to the future.

Among his colleagues, the unclassifiable bass trombonist David Taylor is both famous and notorious. I happen to have known him for something like 25 years. We occasionally play together in my living room. David sight-reads Beethoven cello sonatas and German Lieder. One day, I introduced him to the harrowing late songs of Franz Schubert. I though they might be a fit for the Taylor temperament. They were. He has since made Schubert's "Der Doppelgänger" a signature piece, performing it on home turf in cities like Vienna, Linz, Zurich, Innsbruck, and Salzburg (the "Anti-Music Festival"). In general, he finds that Europeans are more open to his type of music-making than Americans. "The first time I played Schubert in Europe was at the Musikverein in Vienna, with the Tonkünstler Orchestra. I was a little afraid to hand out my arrangement of 'Doppelgänger' to the players. At first they were skeptical, especially when I began playing it. Then the smiles broke out."

Our new century has produced, in ever growing numbers, "post-classical" musicians who migrate serendipitously among musical worlds once treated as distinct. In rare cases, they are restless virtuosos who concomitantly explore new instrumental possibilities and new repertoire. Taylor is a questing post-classical musician of this type: edgy, flamboyant, reckless, experimental.

While studying at Juilliard, Taylor was a member of Leopold Stokowski's American Symphony, and occasionally played with the New York Philharmonic under Pierre Boulez. Shortly after, he joined the Thad Jones Jazz band. He recorded with Duke Ellington and with the Rolling Stones. He has since been closely associated with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Gil Evans Big Band, and the Charles Mingus Big Band. He has performed chamber music with Winton Marsalis, Yo-Yo Ma, and Itzhak Perlman. Alan Hohvanness, Charles Wuorinen, George Perle, and Frederic Rzewski - important composers from all points of the compass -- have all composed for him.

With Post-Classical Ensemble, in DC, Taylor two seasons ago perforemd three late Schubert songs - "Doppelganger," "Die Nebensonnen," and "Der Leiermann" -- with instrumental accompaniment, in juxtaposition with performances of the songs as Schubert wrote them, with the baritone William Sharp. Taylor sang "Nebensonnen" (in English) in a rough whisper somewhat akin to what passes for singing by Tom Waits: an audacious tour de force. But it was "Doppelganger" (under a red spotlight in a pitch-black auditorium) that most transfixed and amazed.

Next season, with Post-Classical Ensemble, Taylor will premiere his Arpeggione Concerto for bass trombone and strings - a commissioned arrangement of Schubert's Arpeggione Sonata - on a program called "Schubert Uncorked." A few weeks ago, at the Kennedy Center, he offered another "Doppelganger" with Post-Classical Ensemble, this time accompanied by six double basses. The performance was filmed -- see what you think. Here's the text (Heinrich Heine) in English translation:

Still is the night, the streets are at peace.
In this house lived my darling;
she has long since left the city,
But the house still stands in the same place.

A man stands there, gazing up,
Wringing his hands in torment;
I shudder when I see his face --
The moon shows me my own form.

You doppelganger, you pale companion!
Why do you affect the anguish of love
Which racked me in this very place,
So many a night, in times past?