Thinking about some magnificent virtuoso organ playing heard last weekend I am struck by its fearlessness. Why not take risks except for fear that someone will disapprove. What more disapproving environment than church? Well, try the music school or the concert hall.
That wasn't the only fearless music making I heard last weekend: Saturday evening Phil Schaap was celebrating (on WKCR) the Luis Russell orchestra recorded in 1929 and 1930, just at the time Louis Armstrong had begun hiring them as "his" band. These recordings predate the invention of magnetic tape, so it is recorded the way they played it and man! do they play. These sessions can be heard on-line: http://www.philschaapjazz.com/index.php?l=page_view&p=radio. If the link doesn't get you there scroll down the home page to the link to radio archives.
Tuesday, June 18, 2013
Monday, June 17, 2013
Dissonance and Consonance
By teaching a blind, autistic child for the past 13 years I have learned not to take any sound for granted. His musical ear was spotted by an attentive physical therapist at the Lighthouse school and so he landed on my doorstep. I had no idea how to teach him especially as, unlike many blind children, he does not use his fingertips to orient himself.
I did intuit that one day he would feel the terrible isolation of his situation and a depth of emotion I couldn't begin to name. So we set off on a path of learning to deal with a wide range of sound, which included dissonance.
He could without the slightest difficulty pick out a conventional harmonization by ear, indeed, he transformed every slightly "off" interval into a familiar sound. His increasing fascination with dissonance means that he does not repeat himself when he plays because the sound is always a challenge.
Now in his early 20's, he is having to learn the deep sadness of ending a particularly dissonant piece with three conventional chords BUT they have to be fingered in such a way that they cry--so small feat for him, as he tends to use his fingers like sticks--a habit that would take hours and hours of daily therapy to correct. This is so difficult that he has to make a huge effort to interfere with his memory of "chords as usual" in order to produce these highly specific sounds.
His struggle has taught me a great deal.
I did intuit that one day he would feel the terrible isolation of his situation and a depth of emotion I couldn't begin to name. So we set off on a path of learning to deal with a wide range of sound, which included dissonance.
He could without the slightest difficulty pick out a conventional harmonization by ear, indeed, he transformed every slightly "off" interval into a familiar sound. His increasing fascination with dissonance means that he does not repeat himself when he plays because the sound is always a challenge.
Now in his early 20's, he is having to learn the deep sadness of ending a particularly dissonant piece with three conventional chords BUT they have to be fingered in such a way that they cry--so small feat for him, as he tends to use his fingers like sticks--a habit that would take hours and hours of daily therapy to correct. This is so difficult that he has to make a huge effort to interfere with his memory of "chords as usual" in order to produce these highly specific sounds.
His struggle has taught me a great deal.
Sunday, June 16, 2013
Christopher Houlihan: Brilliant Organist
Today I had the pleasure of hearing some of the finest organ playing I have heard in decades. It was playful, inventive, lyrical, virtuosic, engaging to the max. I was stunned at how much I enjoyed it and even more stunned to discover that two of the works he played were by Durufle, whose music usually leaves me chilled--another case of how the performer can bring the music to life!
If you have the chance, go hear him.
If you have the chance, go hear him.
Our Stupid Poebel
Last night I played Mozart's variations on Unser dummer Poebel meint. I asked a dear friend in the audience, as she had grown up in Mannheim, to translate this title. What a good thing I did! I had always assumed Poebel to be someone's name. My translation would have been: Our Stupid Poebel is of the Opinion. Turns out Poebel stands for the guy in the street, no not quite, the Lumpenprole.
How politically incorrect can you get. Then I remember The Good Soldier Schweik, one of the great Poebels of all time: If you haven't read it get on it. You never do or did know what exactly might be behind the fellow's expressed opinion or behavior.
There is a lot to think about politically.
Musically there is also a lot to think about. I have never heard anyone play these variations. I can feel them turning into one of my big numbers. They are surely Mozart at his fullest virtuosic maturity: How do I know what to do with them? Years and years of listening to grasp the idiomatic humor of musical devices that, in themselves, as notated, are entirely static.
How politically incorrect can you get. Then I remember The Good Soldier Schweik, one of the great Poebels of all time: If you haven't read it get on it. You never do or did know what exactly might be behind the fellow's expressed opinion or behavior.
There is a lot to think about politically.
Musically there is also a lot to think about. I have never heard anyone play these variations. I can feel them turning into one of my big numbers. They are surely Mozart at his fullest virtuosic maturity: How do I know what to do with them? Years and years of listening to grasp the idiomatic humor of musical devices that, in themselves, as notated, are entirely static.
Saturday, June 15, 2013
Schumann: Album for the Young
I cannot sufficiently praise the brilliance of this collection. Starting with the very first piece Schumann touches the essence of piano playing while giving distilled paradigms of composition in various genres: lyric, ironic, completely serious, teasing, it is all there.
The longer I live, the more I teach, the greater my respect for these jewels. Too bad we think we outgrow them just because they were required when we were 9 years old.
The longer I live, the more I teach, the greater my respect for these jewels. Too bad we think we outgrow them just because they were required when we were 9 years old.
Friday, June 14, 2013
Simplifying Everything In The Name of Achievement
Make a list of all the pieces you play: all of them.
How many of them do you enjoy?
How many do you really get?
Are you ever surprised when you hear someone play a piece you thought you know?
Is that pleasureable or not?
If so, why? How?
How many of them do you enjoy?
How many do you really get?
Are you ever surprised when you hear someone play a piece you thought you know?
Is that pleasureable or not?
If so, why? How?
The Past and Singularity
How ironic it is that the study of the music of the past is so taken up with carrying on traditions when the works that we seek to master are unique creations of singular minds!
I think of Bach's Two-Part Inventions, works of absolute genius written surely as puzzles for his extremely gifted oldest child, Wilhelm Friedemann, to figure out. We are taught them as if they embody principles of good musical behavior while, in fact, they clearly do just the opposite. They are filled with contradictions, teasings, musings, astonishments, all designed to stimulate a highly talented first son. In the name of what exactly do we perpetuate the law and order approach?
Or take those incredible works of Mozart, those that are easy to play, the ones routinely assigned to young or inexperienced players: the Piano Sonata in C, K. 545; the G Minor Piano Quartet, K. 487.
I cannot help but remark that, as a child, I was grabbed by singular sounds within Mozart piano works--not by the pieces as a whole but by individual moments that put me as if in direct contact with a kindred spirit. I got them therefore I was not along in the universe.
I think of Bach's Two-Part Inventions, works of absolute genius written surely as puzzles for his extremely gifted oldest child, Wilhelm Friedemann, to figure out. We are taught them as if they embody principles of good musical behavior while, in fact, they clearly do just the opposite. They are filled with contradictions, teasings, musings, astonishments, all designed to stimulate a highly talented first son. In the name of what exactly do we perpetuate the law and order approach?
Or take those incredible works of Mozart, those that are easy to play, the ones routinely assigned to young or inexperienced players: the Piano Sonata in C, K. 545; the G Minor Piano Quartet, K. 487.
I cannot help but remark that, as a child, I was grabbed by singular sounds within Mozart piano works--not by the pieces as a whole but by individual moments that put me as if in direct contact with a kindred spirit. I got them therefore I was not along in the universe.
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