a dose of music: a classical injection - part 4

For today's "dose" I chose Maurice Ravel's "Le Tombeau de Couperin" (A Memorial for Couperin) arrangement for orchestra. He originally wrote the piece for piano in six movements, but orchestrated an arrangement in 1919 which was shortened to four movements. Each movement is dedicated to one (or more) of his friends who died in World War I. Ravel himself was in the war acting as an ambulance driver and was also wounded. The piece is presumably named after Francois Couperin, a well-known French Baroque composer, after which Ravel wished, not necessarily to write in his style, but to pay respect to the French baroque keyboard style which Couperin was well known for.

This is a slight change in pace to what I have been suggesting, as it’s a lot lighter in orchestration, meaning there are fewer players than in a Mahler Symphony, and the dynamics and density of sound is much softer, lighter, and thinner. This is a nice short piece that has some great harmonies. Its evokes a much different feeling than the brassy, loud pieces I’ve suggested in the past. I hope you like it.

sports vs. music

I love watching sports, and have been doing so a lot these past few days…and will continue to do so in the next few weeks, as we are in the midst of March Madness: a fantastic competition of college students playing to win a spot in the Sweet Sixteen, Elite Eight, Final Four, and ultimately win the championship. Just a note: although I do enjoy watching this tournament, I’m not one of those people who thinks college sports are way better than professional sports. I mean when it comes down to it, while the games can be exciting especially during the post season, unless its one of the top teams, they really make a lot of mistakes. Missed shots, botched plays, etc. I mean, they’re students, not professionals…that’s fine. But often people say, “But at least they’re playing with heart and not for the money,” and I say, “No, they’re playing with heart to get the money.” This may or may not be true, but, especially when you’re looking at the top teams, you can bet the players are playing for a spot in the NBA. A small tangent.

Anyway, when I’m watching sports, I’m often comparing it to music. Whether its thinking about how they practice, what they’re thinking during the game, how they react under pressure, etc. Obviously many books have been written and other comparisons have been made when it comes to the psychological and mental aspects of sports relating to music. Of course, it almost always goes that way….sports to music, and rarely the other way. Can you imagine during a basketball practice a coach referencing musicians to some aspect of their sports’ practice or athletes reading books on how musicians practice? “If you guys would just practice your free throws like musicians practice their scales, maybe we’d win our next game!” Highly doubtful. I wonder why that is. They’re often doing that to us in master classes, lessons, and other training we go through. It doesn’t bother me, as it often helps…its just interesting. Regardless, there seems to be a close connection between the two. They’re both forms of entertainment, but music tends to lack the competitive aspect, and doesn’t tend to draw the crowds or attention (probably due to the lack of competition in performances, as this is what draws the crowds) that sports does. Obviously we musicians don’t get the monetary perks that most professional sports athletes have, but then again, we don’t have the exorbitant fines they often receive too, thank goodness. Unfortunately we don’t have the endorsement perks, signing bonuses, (free) personal trainers, or other benefits and help they have either. All these things annoy me. But I think what makes me the most annoyed is their reward, whether monetary, fame or whatever else, for the work, skill, or talent that is, lets say, equal to, the work, skill, or talent necessary to be a truly successful musician. Granted, the chances of becoming a professional athlete are slim, and are very competitive. But then again, so is becoming a successful musician. In fact, I’d argue its harder, takes more work, costs you more money, pays a heck of a lot less, and may or may not be less rewarding. While there is a draft for most sports every year, you’d be lucky if there were four good auditions (four spots) for a position of your instrument every year in an orchestra, at which every musician who plays that instrument and is actually pursuing getting a job will be there (and not just college aged musicians, but grown people who either don’t have a job still, or want a new one). Not only this, but they might not even be spots in great orchestras, or well paying positions…regardless, there will still be a whole lot of hopeless musicians there. To be a soloist is even more ridiculous…perhaps more rewarding monetarily, but crazy hard to achieve the status, let alone keep it. Not only this, but music demands less mistakes and is less forgiving than sports. Sports will allow for a missed free throw here and there, a missed shot, a botched pass, a bad game, a bad week, even a bad season….heck, look at A-Rod…the guy sucked for like half the season, granted he got some flack for it, but he still made ridiculous amounts of money, and kept his job. Music…not so much. First of all, an audition for a job won’t really allow for a mistake. They all say you can make a mistake and still win, and sure, you could probably crack something, but certainly not again, and definitely nothing major. When it comes to the job, you might be able to miss note here or there, but not again, or you’ll get looks. And it better not happen much…or you’ll be getting a talk. That’ll happen even if you’re playing out of tune, or say hitting all the notes, but your sound starts to suck. I certainly don’t think someone should be able to get away with schlock playing, but when comparing it to sports, it seems so trivial. Whatever…I’ll still go on watching sports, and enjoying them, and I’ll definitely keep playing music, and hopefully enjoying that too. So, unless someone figures out how to get 50,000 people to consistently attend classical music concerts (at a stadium I guess), get people to wear XYZ Orchestra ‘jerseys,’ start selling beer and hot dogs at the Opera Café, have an Orchestra Super Bowl, and maybe having some sort of Classical American Idol, it looks like things are just going to have to stay that way.

a dose of music: a classical injection - part 3

My next suggestion is Gustav Mahler’s Second Symphony, also known as “The Resurrection” Symphony. Mahler wrote nine complete symphonies, and started a tenth, which he never finished. His Second Symphony is a beast though, and a favorite for Mahler listeners. It can range anywhere from 70 to 90 minutes long, depending on who is conducting, but don’t let this scare you off. I strongly recommend giving it a listen, the ending is well worth the wait, not to mention the whole piece, which is fantastic. Anyway, Mahler wrote the five movement behemoth over the course of six years, beginning in 1888, and finishing it up in 1894. He wrote the first movement over the first year, and proceeded to write the next three movements by 1893. It wasn’t until after the death of his friend, Hans von Bulow, that he was finally inspired to write the fifth movement, which includes chorus. It was after hearing Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock’s Die Auferstehung (The Resurrection) that he decided to write his fifth movement based on the text of this poem.

Unlike most of his music, Mahler had a narrative for this piece. The setting of the first movement is a funeral, in which questions such as, “Is there life after death?” are asked. The second movement recalls the happy times in the life of the deceased. The third, written in a scherzo (a dance), there is a complete loss in faith, and the belief that life is meaningless presides over the movement. The fourth, an unusually short movement, especially compared to the 30 minute fifth movement, but one of my favorites, is called Urlicht, or Primeval Light, and is a beautiful song sung by an alto in which faith and a belief in Christ as Savior is again realized. In the fifth movement, elements from the previous four movements are referenced, such as doubts and questions from the first movement. The character finally becomes sure of God’s love, and the belief in everlasting life is sure. This movement is especially impressive as Mahler masterfully uses alto and soprano solos combined with chorus, great brass, and suspensful wind and string writing.

Enjoy.

some general terms, just in case

As I was looking over my last entry, I realized I should have explained some of the “departments” in the orchestra and other musical ensembles. The orchestra is made up of several different divisions: the strings, the brass, the woodwinds, and the percussion. The strings are made up of, from highest to lowest: the violins, the violas, the cellos, and the basses. The latter two are considered the lower strings. Violas kind of get shuffled around in the mix, and thus tend to be the butt of many jokes. The harp is also part of the string family, but is often is own entity...as are, often, the musicians who play harp. The woodwinds, in score order (meaning the order they appear in a full score of music which the conductor looks from), are made up of: the flutes, oboes, clarinets, and bassoons. The brasses, also in score order, are made up of: the horns, trumpets, trombones, and tuba. The first two are typically considered high brass, while the latter two are low brass. The percussion is pretty explanatory, and I’m not going to list all the possible percussion instruments, as I think, that would take forever. Some typical ones include the snare drum, bass drum, cymbals, timpani (or kettle drums), triangle, etc., etc. The piano and celeste (the instrument that you may know better as "Trolley" from Mister Rogers' Neighborhood) are also technically considered percussion instruments, but are also a part of the keyboard family. These are just the basic instruments. Often there are many more playing, but they will fit into one of these groupings.

In case I suggest listening to chamber music, here are some typical chamber groups.

Strings:

A string quartet, the most common ensemble, is made up of two violins, a viola, and a cello. When strings have a quintet ensemble, it is referred to as whatever instrument is added to a standard quartet. So, a piano quintet is made up of a piano, two violins, a viola, and a cello. A viola quintet is a viola plus a typical string quartet, and so on. A piano quartet, however, is a string quartet minus a violin which is replaced with a piano. A string trio is made up of a violin, viola, and a cello. And finally, a piano trio is usually a piano, violin, and a cello.

Woodwinds:

A woodwind quintet, the most common ensemble, or commonly known as a wind quintet, is made up of a flute, clarinet, oboe, horn, and bassoon. A wind quartet is typically a flute, oboe, clarinet, and bassoon, and a wind trio is made up of a flute, oboe and clarinet.

Brass:

A brass quintet, the most common ensemble, is made up of two trumpets, a horn, a trombone, and a tuba. A brass quartet is typically two trumpets and two trombones, but can also be made up of two trumpets, a trombone, and a horn. Unlike the strings, when a group is referred to by the instrument, such as a 'trumpet' quintet, or a 'trombone' quartet, this simply means five trumpets, or four trombones, respectively. Brass players keep it simple…and use common sense.

Of course all of these ensembles have exceptions to the rule, thus throwing anything I just wrote out the window.

a dose of music: a classical injection - part 2

For my next “dose,” I’d like to suggest listening to Richard Strauss’ Eine Alpensinfonie, or An Alpine Symphony, which is one of his great tone poems. Tone poems are typically one-movement pieces written around a story, or some sort of imagery which is “programmatic,” meaning it follows a story line of sorts. This one is somewhat autobiographical in that Strauss recalls climbing the Alps when he was 14. I would suggest listening to a recording of this piece that has individual tracks for each segment of the piece (since it doesn’t have movements and each scene melds into the next). There should be 21 or 22 depending if they group the ‘Waterfall’ and ‘Visual Feature’ movements together or not. Each segment of the piece is a scene during his journey up and down the mountain. In case the recording you get has the movements in German, here are the English translations: Night, Sunrise, the Ascent, Entry into the Woods, Wandering by the Stream, by the Waterfall, a Visual Feature, on Flowery Meadows, an Alpine Pasture, In thicket and undergrowth on the Wrong Path, on the Glacier, Dangerous Moments, at the Summit, Vision, the Fog Rises, the Sun is Gradually Obscured, Elegy, Calm before the Storm, Thunderstorm and Descent, Sunset, the Waning tones (the journey ends), Night. Listening in this way will allow the music to make more sense and you can follow why Strauss wrote the music the way he did for each “scene.” For example, in the Alpine Pasture scene, listen for birds (flutes) and cow bells (cow bells), and before the Thunderstorm scene you’ll hear raindrops begin, and quickly develop into a thunderstorm of wind, thunder and lightning, all clearly portrayed in the music. Two major recurring themes which you’ll want to listen for are the Night and Sunrise themes. You’ll hear the Night theme in the low brass in the beginning, and the Sunrise theme in trumpets in the beginning of the second scene; both reoccur throughout the whole piece. Enjoy.

auditions...the bane of my existence

For those of you who are not musicians, and for those who are, and would like to commiserate with me, I would like to explain a little something musicians must go through in order to get jobs...auditions. I'm going to concentrate on the orchestral audition, as it hits most closely to home. So if you would indulge me by continuing to read further. A quick disclaimer: as my knowledge concerning the job search in the "outside world" is limited, I have made certain conclusions based mostly on what I believe to be true, but can pretty much be sure, I'm not far off the mark.

Now, musicians audition for all sorts of things, from orchestral positions, to tours, to shows, to music festivals, etc., and if you're some sort of performing artist, these processes are probably very familiar and similar to your own. I think, and perhaps I'm wrong, but because the 'orchestra' is more of an 'institution' than most other ensembles, it has somehow evolved its audition to being so incredibly "fair," for better or for worse, that it becomes an almost alien process that is so remarkably different from actually playing the job, that auditioning requires a skill of its own to win (which I obviously still have yet to master as I have not yet won a professional position). Like I said, I'd like to concentrate on the orchestra audition because really, in my opinion, its one of the weirdest, most unique, messed up ways of looking for someone for a job.

It all starts with the "posting" of an opening of a job. Lets go with the arbitrary instrument of, the kazoo (hopefully you realize there are no kazoo positions in an orchestra, and this is meant purely as a case study example, only). The vacancy will be posted in the union paper, which you receive if you are a part of the union. Ironically, you don't need to be in a union until you're in an orchestra (or play a union gig already), and yet this is how you find out about the opening. Subsequently, most people check the paper from a library, or find out by word of mouth or a third-party website. After applying through mail or email by sending in your resume, you will, hopefully, receive a response from the orchestra personnel manager either inviting you to come, or telling you that you are too inexperienced and suggesting that you not come (as its illegal to refuse anyone the right to audition), or, in conjuction with the latter, that you may send in a recording of your beautiful kazoo playing with a list of orchestral excerpts x, y and z. [A quick note to those who don't know: an orchestral excerpt is usually a difficult or telling passage of some aspect of playing on your instrument from the orchestral repertoire which can be anywhere from 3 to 30 measures long].

Once you are invited, or are asked to come after your recording is accepted, you book a flight and a hotel for the 'preliminary round' audition date. This is all at your own expense (until perhaps the final round which the orchestra may or may not cover your costs). This can be an interesting matter, because more often than not, there are several days of preliminary round auditions...meaning, if you need to book a flight, you obviously need to know what day you're playing on (and what time) so that you can make arrangements accordingly (especially if you want a good price on a plane ticket). While you may have seen all the dates of the audition posted, you still don't know when you're playing until they tell you, which, can sometimes be only a couple weeks before the audition. By this point, tickets prices have often gone up, etc. Not to mention, this whole process is quite expensive, because usually in order to be in top form, you'll want to fly into the audition city the day before, and, if a semi-final round exists the same day as your preliminary round, you'll probably need to stay over another night because you don't know whether you'll advance or not. Plus, you will have sent in a check as a deposit for anywhere from $50 to $100 to reserve your audition time (Granted, you get the check back assuming you show up). Oh, and not to mention, you'll need money for all the meals you'll eat, cabs to and from the airport to your hotel, and unless you happen to land cheap hotel in the middle of a metropolis next to the concert hall, cab fare from your hotel to the audition location. Remind me, do musicians swim in money? The term starving musician suddenly makes sense.

Lets assume for this kazoo audition, you found out your audition details with plenty of time, and you were able to make arrangements without problems. You'll be practicing your kazoo, and the whole list of kazoo excerpts, which may or may not all be asked in the audition, a lot, perfecting that beautiful paper buzz, your intonation, your rhythm, and that quality tone you know you can produce on your expensive, plastic instrument. I forgot to mention, you and maybe 50 to 200 other kazoo players are taking this audition, for the one spot, that opens up once every couple of months? years? So, you fly out the day before, have a pleasant? night's sleep in your hotel, and wake up in time to arrive at the audition a good half-hour before your "hour" of auditions. You'll check in, and usually, if its a well run audition, will be put into your own warm up room. These days, you are assigned an "hour" during which you play, and there can be anywhere from 5 to 10 people within you hour. However, some auditions are run where everyone who is auditioning that day shows up at the same time, then draws 'straws' to find out when you will play within the day. Lets assume for this kazoo audition, its the case of the former. At this point, you'll be given the order which you are to play within your hour, and thus can somewhat guess what time you'll play (which usually isn't accurate, as things run like a typical doctor's office). So finally, as you're warming up in your room, hands a little sweaty, hearing everyone else buzzing away on their kazoos, wondering why you got into this business and whether you should even be playing the kazoo at all, the proctor of the audition knocks at your door informing you, "Its time." They lead you down the hall, as if you're walking the "green mile" or something, get to the stage door, and give you a last look of, good luck, hah! You walk out on stage, on a carpet mind you (because they don't want to know whether you are male or female), and they announce your number, since the committee, made up of prominent orchestra members, is behind a screen in the audience and can't see you or know who you are. The list of excerpts for the day more than likely was given to you when you checked in that day, a much smaller list of maybe 5 or 6 from the big list you were given initially. Sometimes they'll pull a stunt and put excerpts in front of you, one at a time, so you don't know what you're playing next until it hits you in the face. So, you play a couple excepts, and usually, there's a cut-off point...that way if you're really sucking, they at least "gave you the chance to play," and say "Thank you!" Or if you're sounding good, they'll let you continue, and finish up the list. Don't miss a note! They may even ask you to play one or two over again, if they like what they're hearing, which is a good sign. This doesn't happen too often, as they have a million other kazoo's to listen to in the day. Assuming you got to play the whole list, this whole process takes, oh, I don't know, maybe 5 minutes...fun fun. Now this process right here, in some case, some orchestras might have up to three different rooms with three different committees, simultaneously listening to kazoo players. This typically happens if they have a really large pool of applicants. Maybe I'm wrong here, but I personally can't see how three different committees can have any sort of consistancy in what they're listening for. Regardless, after you audition, you're then led to a holding room. There you wait nervously, because after the committee hears that hour of applicants play, they quickly confer, and choose, if anyone, who to advance to the next round, based on, usually annonymous votes...because heaven forbid anyone know your opinion of someone's playing. The proctor will then come into the room and announce who advanced. I've heard of days, and whole auditions (several days worth of people playing, mind you), where NOBODY advanced. And I'm not talking about advanced=winning the job. No, I'm talking about, advancing to the next round, or semi-final round. And there are typically three rounds, preliminary, semi, and final rounds. These days, even if you get that far, you still haven't won the job. If you and someone else (or more) do happen to make it to the final round, you'll each be asked to play maybe a week or two with the orchestra in a trial period. If that works out, then, they might consider you the winner of the audition. Even then, you're still under a probationary period, which can last up to a year and a half, and, if you aren't given tenure after this period, at least in the orchestra world, that means they don't want you, so go look elsewhere.

Anyway, if you've been able to do this yourself, kudos to you...and personally, and maybe foolishly, I still have hope and faith that this will happen to me. BUT...I have to say, its often quite discouraging to practice your kazoo hours a day, spend a whole heck of a lot of money (which typically musicians, other than Britney Spears and Snoop Dogg, don't have a whole heck of a lot of) and time to be put into an unnatural situation where you have to play at your optimum level, and show, in 5 minutes, with some weird 10 bar excerpts, that you are the best kazoo player they're going to hear. Its possible...but hard. And I know, thats not exactly the way any typical business conducts interviews for its jobs. So goes it...we've chosen the field ourselves, so I guess thats what we asked for. However, I have to say, once you've won the job, its pretty sweet. You're doing what you love, and being paid to do it. So, the next time you go to the symphony, remember what these people have gone through, and know they've got some skills...Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, Roger Federer skills...well, maybe not, but at least on their instruments.

a dose of music: a classical injection - part 1

At the typical conservatory, and any other classical institution for that matter, musicians are often bombarded with the oh-so fateful questions, "What is the future of classical music?" and "Where is it going," which are usually, and almost always followed by this seemingly recent and overly stressed idea of "outreach" for musicians. I don't have a problem with outreach, in fact I think its a great idea depending on how its carried out, but I also have issues with it, which deserves an entry unto its own. Regardless, this led me think about why it seems people aren't interested in classical music. The reasons are many, but I decided that one, which I might be able to address myself, is the matter of exposure. I think it often gets a bad rap because people don't know what to listen to, and their idea of classical music instantly shoots to some sort of Mozart Symphony or similar type of piece. This isn't a bad thing, since Mozart was obviously a genius, and wrote great music, but sometimes, I'll admit it, it gets a little boring. The average joe just hasn't heard a lot of whats out there, and there is indeed A LOT out there...good, exciting stuff. Sometimes since classical music (and I use the word 'classical' out of the literal time period sense) tends to be long, people don't want to hear it and lose interest quickly, mostly due to our quick pace of life these days. Pop music is short, gets to the point, and I'll admit, can be very powerful. But....If you like pop music, and most people do, classical music has the same punch, in fact is, almost always, so much greater, because it takes much longer to lead up to a climax, which makes it all that much more rewarding. Not only is the music is so much more rewarding once it gets there, but the music is written so much better...in other words, it uses more than just the four basic triad chords that a pop piece might use. So I decided that, as a duty I felt to myself and to help expose those desperately seeking juicy classical music, a periodical classical music listening suggestion blog entry was necessary. Whatever I might be listening to, whether it be popular/famous, or (more preferably) not, I'll share it, and hopefully if anyone is indeed reading out there, you might go find it somewhere, and take a listen.

For today's "dose" I decided to choose Ottorino Respighi's Pini di Roma, or Pines of Rome. This is one of those more well-known pieces, so you may already know it, as it was used in Fantasia 2000, but its a good one to start with. This piece is great; its not too long, it follows a story (so you can at least imagine whats going on during the piece), good harmonies, and has a great punch at the end. Gotta love brass. You can read more about it at Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pines_Of_Rome

a musician's first entry

Ah yes....I'm a musician.....a classical musician....and a student at that. I'll be finishing my second degree shortly, and as I'm nearing that light at the end of the tunnel, I realized that I'm about to become one of those "starving musicans" I always joked about. I won't really be starving, but I certainly don't have a steady job yet. The music world is a funny one, because it really is a bubble unto its own. I guess I wouldn't really know what other "bubbles" are like, or if they compare; but as I do have some friends outside of the music world, I can honestly say that as far as I can tell, the musician bubble is unique.

Anyway, I'm a little new to blogging scene, quite new actually....funny that I've started a blog, really, considering the first time I even visited a blog was yesterday, simply to see what they were all about. I always knew what a blog was, but never visited one. I've actually always considered myself pretty attuned (no pun intended) to technology, or at least tried to keep somewhat up to date with what was at least out there....but I often only read about things, and never checked them out.....such as blogging. Having said that, I don't know where the content on this blog will lead, or even if its "supposed" to lead somewhere...but hopefully it will be somewhere fun and englightening. I think since music, and the music world is often a unique and mysterious place, it would be fun and hopefuly a bit interesting to talk about such things, for both musicians and non-musicians. I guess we'll see.