(Not really a hymn or anything, but this was the postlude at a service so I’m putting it in here.)
Telemann: “Allegro” (work not cited)
Heinrich Schütz: Also hat Gott die Welt geliebt
How does rhythm ‘work’ when there is no obvious pulse, as in much classical music?
A dress code still exists for a few places in this world when it comes to concerts, but not a whole heck of a lot. Anything goes at San Francisco Opera, as I’ve seen many times over. But now I’ve run across the following, from Manchester International Festival:
Suitable footwear
Although we have stipulated that you must wear suitable footwear to the production, some audience members are still turning up in unsuitable footwear. Now that the show is up and running, it is evident that any form of footwear where the entire foot is not protected – including flip flops, open toed sandals and high heels – is not acceptable. Unfortunately we will not be able to admit audience members who arrive in such footwear to the production. Please could you make sure you pass this information on to other members of your party.
Yes. Footwear!
This is for the show (?) >It Felt LIke a Kiss Here’s more:
SOLD OUT
Imagine walking into a disused building. You find yourself inside a film. It is a ghost story where unexpected forces, veiled by the American Dream, come out from the dark to haunt you…
It Felt Like a Kiss tells the story of America’s rise to power in the golden age of pop, and the unforeseen consequences it had on the world and in our minds. Beginning in 1959, the show spotlights the dreams and desires that America inspired during the ’60s, when the world began to embrace the country and its culture as never before. But as this daring production unfolds across five floors, blending music with documentary and the disorientating whirl of a fairground ghost train, the audience is forced to face the dark forces that were veiled by the American dream – a dream that ultimately returns to haunt us all.
Created by Adam Curtis and Felix Barrett with Punchdrunk
Original music composed by Damon Albarn
Recorded performance by Kronos Quartet and Damon Albarn
Directed by Felix Barrett
Film by Adam Curtis
Recording produced by Damon Albarn and David HarringtonPlease Note
The audience will be admitted in groups of 9, every 10 minutes.
This is a promenade, walk-through production, the duration of which is variable – please see information box to the right.
Please wear suitable footwear.
This show is suitable for 16+ years.
The show is not suitable for people of a nervous disposition.
Production contains strobe lighting and theatrical smoke.
Kinda makes me wanna go. But only kinda.
& they are sold out anyway. So oh well.
I know kids love tours. I know they are good for morale and all that jazz. Sometimes they are even good musically.
But sometimes I wonder about them.
I know, too, that teachers who take their students on tour are often doing so and getting perks. I wonder how many parents know that a teacher may get a free vacation later on, due to getting students to pay what is often a lot of money for a tour. Surely teachers are underpaid, and I suppose this might be the only way they get a vacation, but it still does bother me a bit. (Maybe I’m jealous; I don’t get to go to Europe as so many band directors seem to get to do these days!)
When bands and choirs go on a tour that includes those contests where they compete against other groups, it’s all somewhat silly. You are competing with whatever groups are managing to go on the same dates as your school. You may be pitted against a very weak music program. Winning gold can often be quite meaningless.
I chaperoned a tour years ago, and the main point of it all was to get to Disneyland. At that time, I, as a chaperone, didn’t pay a penny. Then the band director suggested all chaperones and teachers join her for an expensive dinner. When it came time to pay she smiled and said, “We have extra money! I’m paying for this.” Hmmm. Ethical? Were the children — or their parents, really — paying for our dinner? The drama teacher and a math instructor who came along as chaperones shared a room, telling all the kids they were brother and sister. A year later they were married. I’m guessing they weren’t brother and sister after all. Ya think?
Another tour (not a music tour, but a school tour from another department) had the teacher bringing a partner and another person (never quite figured out their particular living situation but a threesome was somewhat troubling) along with his chosen friends as chaperones. We parents were told we tended to get in the way and he preferred that we didn’t come along. But then I realized after the fact that we were told a lot of “incorrect” information. (Some might call them lies.) And money? The price continued to rise, and the teacher was the only one managing the money. Quite questionable.
So I can’t really say I’m in favor of tours these days. And I’m glad my kids are older and I don’t have to wonder what’s going on when kids go on these things. I hope parents are more careful than I was about tours; I’m just so wimpy I kept my mouth shut and never said a word.
The orchestration I did completely on my own. It’s very rare even for some classical composers to do their own orchestration. In a Straussian fashion, I made sure there was a lot going on in the orchestra and that’s an integral part of the drama.
-Rufus Wainwright
You can read a short bit about his new opera here.
Opera San José will have a short (one hour, I believe) performance at Santana Row tonight at 7:00. I’m thinking of dropping by … I love me some opera! You can read about it here. (No orchestra; I’m assuming they’ll have piano accompaniment.)
Maybe, by hearing some Manon excerpts, the opera will come back to me. (We open next season with the work.) I pulled out my part the other day and, looking through it and playing a few things, I couldn’t remember one thing about it! Ack! That’s scary to think about. When we played it, we were doing six or seven rehearsals and fifteen performances. And I can’t remember it?
PattyPathetic™
This video made the news, and I’m guessing most of you have seen it … but still … considering my earlier link to Bret’s post …
The singer/songwriter has another video and, I think graciously, gives an update and tries to get people to lighten up about Miss Irlwig:
Ah flying! I’m sure many musicians could tell tales. I’ve watched guys load planes, and I am always shocked, seeing them not just toss, but throw in an incredibly rough way, as if in a contest to see if they can break luggage. It’s really rather bizarre to watch.
I haven’t traveled on a plane with my oboe for so long I can’t even remember doing it. But Bret Pimentel has some advice for those of you who do. Sounds like he does a lot more travel than I.
Maestro Vajda has been named as the new artistic and music director of Music In The Mountains.
I really enjoyed working with Gregory Vajda; I look forward to seeing him again with Symphony Silicon Valley in our 2009-2010 season.
This second article includes this:
By all accounts, MIM musicians, some of whom have performed under Vajda at Symphony Silicon Valley, are keen on him.“We are extremely excited about this,” said MIM concertmaster Robin Mayforth, who was also on the search committee.
“He has this infectious energy and enthusiasm that translates into us being able to play on this incredible level.”
But it wasn’t just Vajda’s charisma that won over Mayforth and other members of the orchestra.
“From the moment he steps up to the podium, there is a clarity in his stick technique,” she said. “And there is this incredible trust that he places in us, and we feel we can trust him as well. That puts everyone at ease.”
(Robin Mayforth is also concertmaster of Symphony Silicon Valley.)
Mayo Clinic is very proud of its art. Everyone who walks into Mayo receives art therapy, whether they know it or not. Architecture, paintings, sculptures, and music is carefully designed and chosen for the purpose of stress management. Thus, of course, soft instrumental music always plays in the chemo waiting room. Yesterday, while sitting in a waiting room chair, I suddenly experienced a huge distraction from my book. I heard something rather interesting. My ears perked up and listened carefully to the room’s elevator music. Was my mind playing tricks on me? I listened more closely to the violins, violas, cellos, and basses in the song. I could not believe it! I heard an instrumental version of The Bangles, Eternal Flame—a pop hit from 1989.
At the age of six, this was my favorite song. In 1989, I also loved Madonna’s “Like a Prayer” and Guns N’ Roses’ “Paradise City.” Yes, I was a rockin’ six-year-old. When I was young, each Sunday after church, my family visited my grandma at her house. Lucky for my now-rock-star-brother Andy and me, the Top 20 countdown was on MTV every Sunday morning. Of course, the two of us religiously camped out in my grandma’s living room and watched the show every Sunday. As an extra treat, in 1989, another older brother, Ken, recorded the Top 100 video countdown of 1989 on a VHS tape. I sang along with the songs and my brother Andy taught me (and himself) how to head-bang. It was joyous.
As a six-year-old, Susana Hoffs, the main singer of The Bangles, was my idol. She was so pretty, and she provided me with a favorite song. Twenty years later, at Mayo, I hear the song. First of all, I could not believe that an orchestra played an instrumental version of Eternal Flame (that is a bit odd). Second of all, I could not believe that I was hearing the instrumental version of Eternal Flame in the chemo waiting room at Mayo.
I read this here, where a brain cancer patient blogs about her “adventure” with this horrible disease. If you go to the site, be sure and start at the beginning so you get her full story. I just can’t imagine having her very upbeat attitude.
And how did I find her blog? Well, it all began here, where you will see one of the people I met for sushi and a concert last night. Cory is the guy on the left, holding the clarinet. (Hi Cory with no “e”! ;-)
heard someone describing the instruments in the orchestra and how an oboe is actually bigger than a clarinet apparently.
Maybe he misheard and the word was “better” …? ;-)
… but I’m home from San Francisco and figured I’d at least update this quickly.
I had a great time with Maura and Cory, the two people I was meeting for sushi and symphony. They are comfortable and easy to be with, and of course my worries were totally unnecessary. (Although now I do think, “Gee, they probably think I’m totally weird!” But that’s because I’m … well … totally weird. Right?)
The sushi was incredibly yummy (I’ll have to go back sometime with Dan) and the symphony was great fun!
Now it’s off to bed with me … I’ll try to blog more about the concert later. My brain is fried.
When I’m sitting at home tweeting or messaging or doing whatever it is I do on the computer, I feel fairly confident (unless someone writes and reprimands me for something I’ve written). I even feel somewhat extroverted. So I go ahead and say, “Let’s get together!” to people. Even if I’ve never met ‘em.
Of course when it comes close to time to meet said people, I get nervous. I have “performer’s tummy” right now, because I am anxious. I’m about out the door to meet one person I’ve met several times (she found my blog and we communicated for a time and I gave her a few oboe lessons) as well as a clarinetist I “met” on Twitter. Both are young enough to be my children. Both are in music, so we do have that in common. But of course now I start thinking, “Ack! What are you doing?! You are old. They are young. You are goofy. They will probably be baffled by how you dress, what you say, and even how you eat.” But there you go. We set up plans. We are meeting for sushi and then going to hear Jeremy Denk play at the SF Symphony. He’s not all we’ll hear, of course, but I am pretty jazzed about getting to hear a blogger I’ve followed for quite some time. It’s an all Beethoven concert: Coriolan Overture, Piano Concerto No. 5, and Symphony No. 5, with James Gaffigan conducting. I’ll be curious to see what oboists are playing for a summer concert.
And now? … I’m off!
Last week, Manchester County Court was the scene of an extraordinary victory. A man called Adrian Bradbury had taken his family to see a professional staging of The Wizard of Oz at the Lowry Theatre in Salford. I know the Lowry well. It’s a superb arts centre and it usually puts on top-class shows. But The Wizard didn’t enchant Mr Bradbury for one simple reason. It had no live band.
All the songs and dance routines were performed to pre-recorded backing tracks. Mr Bradbury felt that if you had paid to see what was billed as a “magical family musical” you were entitled to expect live musicians. So he sued under the Trade Descriptions Act. And, astonishingly, he won. The Lowry argued that “133,000 theatregoers have enjoyed The Wizard of Oz at the Lowry and Mr Bradbury was the only person who expressed any concern with the lack of live music”. But the judge, in effect, said “so what?”. He ruled that Mr Bradbury’s personal expectation of hearing real musicians was genuine and reasonable. So the Lowry must now refund the £134.50 that he spent on tickets.
I was alerted to this by Charles Noble at Daily Observations. Full article is here.
Having been to a production that used synthesizers to replace an orchestra I think we should be able to sue them as well. What you heard came nowhere near a real orchestra. But somehow the audience seemed clueless.
