Jazzman Larry Ochs has seen many things during 40 years playing his saxophone around the world but, until this week, nobody had ever called the police on him.
That changed on Monday night however, when’s Spain’s pistol-carrying Civil Guard police force descended on the Sigüenza Jazz festival to investigate allegations that Ochs’s music was not, well, jazz.
Police decided to investigate after an angry jazz buff complained that the Larry Ochs Sax and Drumming Core group was on the wrong side of a line dividing jazz from contemporary music.
The jazz purist claimed his doctor had warned it was “psychologically inadvisable” for him to listen to anything that could be mistaken for mere contemporary music.
… and, for that matter, is the musician making art? I’ve written before about being a “creative” not a “creator”, and I’ve frequently felt somewhat inferior to those that do have the talent and desire to create. I am an interpreter of someone else’s art. But when I perform, and I creating art?
Looks like theatre folk talk about this sort of thing too:
(Thanks to Opera Chic for the alert!)
You can read more about the actors’ conversation here.
I was going to wait and post this later; I’m in the middle of painting a guest room here (Hmm. Is this really the best thing to do with my free time, I wonder?!) … but I’m thinking I should really post this before I forget. So here goes …
Symphony president Andrew Bales sent me a comment about the Nuts, in response to what I posted earlier. With his permission I’m posting his comments here for all. (I have told him that when I was librarian with San Jose Symphony eons ago the librarian of the Cleveland ballet really did tell me that three players were used for Nuts, but who knows why that was if he now says there were only two. Not a big deal, but thought I’d mention it. I didn’t want all of you to think I was making things up!)
Anyway, here’s his note to me:
The mixed up score for Nutcracker was created with a very specific purpose in mind. Just as musicians play this for generations, dancers perform it more than any other piece of repertory they will ever do. When Dennis and his partner Ernie conceived of this production they knew that Tchaikovsky wrote the score almost entirely in waltz time and this would make for a rather pallid mix over time. They interspersed other works by Tchaikovsky in order to offer them a variety of rhythms to makes dances to. As we are now celebrating the 30th anniversary of this production, it must have worked as both dancers and audiences still seem to love it. So all this mix up is not an arbitrary insertion, but a plan to enliven this stage work for generations.
Second, you noted that budget cuts eliminated the third oboe/English horn and that isn’t true. In Cleveland and in San Jose it was always done with two players, except for a period when the Ballet first came here and the old Symphony contract had more players in its A/B configuration than were ever used in Cleveland. The Symphony hired the extra players to fill out its service obligation to its A/B players so the Ballet had players in the pit
here that were never in the pit in Cleveland. For the old San Jose Symphony, it was cheaper to pay for a few extra players to perform with the Ballet than to find entire new productions that would use those same players.This last point actually led to the formation of the Ballet Orchestra contract separate from SJS. Way back when the Ballet asked for a compliment of about 49-50 musicians and the SJS insisted on 61. The Ballet said yes (read me), but they would only pay for the 49-50 that they had always used. SJS said fine, but after several years and a few budget crisis
cycles the Symphony wanted to be paid for the entire 61-member ensemble. The Ballet said that was not the deal and that it could not go beyond the core it had always used in Cleveland. At that point an SJS administrator decided that the foundations were pushing SJS to do more education work so they would redirect the Ballet services into that field and drop the Ballet. This prompted me to form the new Ballet contract which eventually evolved to the successor symphony to SJS. So the moral is—wait for it — woe be
he/she who fails to play Nutcracker.
& just so you all know, I’m now working on the next set (along with my painting project, that is) … Nutcracker is rolling along just fine, and next up is Scheherazade. I definitely need to start that now, even while I’m only playing second and English horn. It does have some notes! :-)
The 4th annual Wright State Double Reed Festival will be held on Saturday, January 16, 2010. Featured artists include bassoonist Benjamin Coelho and his brother, oboist Carlos Coelho. Both will give performance master classes during the day and perform on the evening concert event. Dan Duncan will be giving a presentation lecture on instruments that preceded the modern double reeds, Bruce Gbur will be speaking about new works being published and performed and giving a presentation on the contrabassoon. Hosts Bill Jobert, instructor of bassoon at Wright State, and Kathy DeGruchy, instructor of oboe at Wright State will also be giving clinics and performing during the day. Featured ensembles include the Air Force Woodwind Quintet “Huffman Prairie Winds”, The Burning River Trio, the quartet “Room for Cello”, the Centerville Middle School Bassoon Ensemble, and more!
For more details on presentors, performers, vendors, and registration forms, go to www.wright.edu/music/double-reed or contact Bill Jobert at William [dot] jobert [at] wright [dot] edu
I had no idea what I was getting into, but I had performed 90 percent of the operatic roles that were appropriate for my age, and opera singing was becoming too easy.
-David Miller, of Il Divo
Dear oboists and bassoonists:
California State University-Fresno is pleased to announce our 14th Annual Double Reed Day to take place on Presidents’ Day, Monday, February 15, 2010. Our guest artists will be oboist Peter Cooper and bassoonist Benjamin Kamins. The day will feature morning interactive sessions, afternoon master classes, and an evening recital showcasing our guest artists as well as a double reed ensemble of all participants. Exhibits from professional vendors, double reed suppliers, instrument manufacturers, and composers will also be featured. The event appeals to double reed musicians of all ages and abilities, and brings together amateurs, students, and professionals from across the region. For more information and to download a registration form, please visit our website.
Registration form: zimmer.csufresno.edu/~larryg/DRDFLYR.pdf
In addition to the afternoon master classes for oboe and bassoon, we will also need performers for the morning session on orchestral excerpts for the oboe. Please note your desired repertoire on the registration form if you would like to be considered as a performer for a master class or oboe excerpts class. Let us know if you have any questions. We hope to see you in February!
Thank you!
Krista Riggs, oboe – kdriggs [at] csufresno [dot] edu
Larry Gardner, bassoon – larryg [at] csufresno [dot] edu
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra said on Monday that it had appointed Yo-Yo Ma, above right, to the new position of creative consultant.
Whew! Nice to know he’s not gonna have to file for unemployment. Assuming he gets a salary, of course. I do hope it’s not just minimum wage. ;-)
Yes, I’m being silly. I’m a Yo-Yo Ma fan, actually. He’s a great musicians AND a really, really nice guy.
(I’m not sure what’s up with the “above right” in the quote pasted above. There was no photo when I was looking at the page. Odd.)
Anyone have thoughts on this?
As for my negative feelings about Martynov’s Quintet (I still harbor them), the fact that the work claimed the bulk of this review is telling as to the piece’s effectiveness as a work of art. Although it evoked a response of dislike, it still evoked a strong response … and that’s what matters most.
I read it here.
“It’s the large, exciting projects that no one thought we could do. That’s what gets people excited, and that’s what gets you noticed,” Michael Kaiser, president of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., told an audience of approximately 150 at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts.
“A lot of people think the way to get through a crisis is to cut art, cut the marketing,” Kaiser said. “So fewer people come; fewer people give money. You cut more, and you get sicker and less important to your community.
“Do really good work. People have gotten frightened, and when they get frightened, they forget it’s about innovation and revenue, not about cost control.”
RTWT
An epiphany came when he was 24 and acting in a soap opera, “The Doctors.” In one scene Mr. Baldwin’s character enters a hotel room and turns on the radio before he is to be killed. The casting director, Roger Sturtevant, happened to be on the set.
“Music comes on, this evocative music,” Mr. Baldwin said. “And I turn to Roger, and he was laughing.” “What’s so funny,” Mr. Baldwin asked. “He looked at me like I was a complete idiot. And he just said. ‘It’s Berlioz’s ‘Symphonie Fantastique,’ ‘The March to the Scaffold.’ Everybody knows that.’ And I didn’t know that, and I felt like an idiot that I didn’t know that. And that was the beginning.”
Mr. Baldwin said he started listening to classical music on the radio in his car as he looked for work in Los Angeles. “When you’re job hunting in L.A., you could be driving three, four hours a day,” he said. If he pulled up to a studio before the piece was over, he would call the station to find out what it was. Sometimes he would wait for the end and show up late. He began collecting records.
“I never turned back,” he said.
You can read more about Alec Baldwin and what’s he’s doing with (for) classical music here.
Maybe Mozart is good for premature babies, but not for me? If I listen will my energy level be lower?
A group of Israeli doctors have plunged into this long-running debate with a small study that found the soothing sounds of the 18th century composer may help premature babies grow faster.
Doctors at the Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center measured the energy expenditure of 20 infants born pre-term while listening to Mozart in their incubator. They compared that figure with the amount of energy they expended without the music. But the scientists did not test a control group to measure the energy used by babies who didn’t listen to Mozart at all.
Among the babies in the study, the findings showed Mozart lowered the quantity of energy they used, meaning the babies may be able to increase their weight faster.
RTWT
Of course there was also this:
Dr. Arthur Eidelman, a retired former head of pediatrics at Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek hospital who did not participate in the research, praised the new study but did not credit Mozart for the positive results.
“What’s unique about Mozart is it’s rhythmical, the range of decibel level is minimal,” Eidelman said. “One could almost make the case that appropriate rap music may do the same thing if you have it within the right range of volume.”
O Jesulein suß
