Late September

I notice that my blog-writing friends are not writing much these days. Some are busy with work, some have crisis situations to deal with, and I imagine that some are not motivated. I haven't had any blog-inspiring musical experiences lately.

This might be a little interesting:

I have 84 Music Appreciation students divided into three sections. We have been studying the concept of canon as it relates to classical music. As part of this study, each of the three groups constructed its own canon of 20 works. They were free to choose from any style, era, genre, artist, etc.

The only classical work to even be considered was Pachelbel's Canon. It made it onto one of the group's canons with 9 votes.

The only other works that belonged to any sort of remotely classical genre were Carol of the Bells as performed by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra and the Star-Spangled Banner.

I wonder if the classical repertoire will consist primarily of Pachelbel's Canon and a few other favorites in a few hundred years.

Penderecki Viola Concerto

Last night, I heard Roberto Diaz and the Richmond Symphony perform Penderecki's Concerto for Viola and Orchestra. Also on the program was Rimsky-Korsakov's Russian Easter Overture and Tchaikowsky's 5th Symphony. Eighty of my students also attended this weekend's Richmond Symphony Concerts.

After class today, one student asked me about what he perceived as a lack of emotion in Diaz's playing. I responded with the following points:

1. A performer's emotional response to a piece they are playing is not the same every time. For various reasons, sometimes you might not feel much of anything that's relevant to the music at hand. The place of emotion in performance is an issue that many performers grapple with.

2. It may be possible for a performer to focus entirely on the musical details of a score, and thus to bring it to life for the listeners. Such a performer might be trusting the music to evoke the appropriate emotions in the listeners, not his or her own expression or charisma.

3. Maybe the meaning or application of a particular work is so universal that the injection of a performer's personal emotional emphasis might interfere with the work's true scale and power. I wonder if the overly emotional presentation of a large symphonic work might paradoxically weaken its impact.

4. Finally, a performer's appearance is not a trustworthy measure of his or her emotional engagement. Not everyone looks the same way when they are angry or sad or enjoying themselves. Also, a performer's emotional experience in performance may involve emotions we have never felt.

Looking towards the "Golden Plain of Sinai" - The Golden Plain was a secret worship site until the Shakers built their meeting house. 

The Meeting House - with separate entrances for men and women. 

Shaker Village at Pleasant Hill

On the way home from Missouri, Kathy and I spent the night at Shaker Village at Pleasant Hill, Kentucky. Pleasant Hill is a half hour south of Lexington, and the village consists of thirty-three buildings that are operated as a living museum in the daytime and as hotels at night. The surroundings were charming, peaceful and inspiring, and the meal we ate there was tremendous. (To spend the night there only costs ten dollars more than the Holiday Inn Express where we stayed on the way out there.)

The Shakers were a Christian sect known for their commitment to living the way Christ did. They were celibate and pacifists. They were known for their great hospitality, their simplicity, and their hard work.

In the realm of music, they composed thousands of hymns. As far as I can tell, very few of these works were adopted by other Protestant groups. Some of their hymns were written as though they were dictated by spirits or angels who speak in unfamiliar languages.

There is a great CD of Shaker Music available on the Erato label. It is entitled "Simple Gifts" and features The Boston Camerata with the Shakers of Sabbathday Lake, Maine. Sabbathday Lake is the one remaining group of Shakers, or at least they were according to the CD liner notes in 1995.

Below I am going to quote the text from a Shaker spiritual written by Sister Polly M. Rupe at Pleasant Hill back in the 1860's.

What the dew is to the flower,
Gentle words are to the soul.
And a blessing to the giver,
And so dear to the reciever,
We should never withhold.

Gentle words,
kindly spoken,
often soothe the troubled mind,
While links of love are broken
by words that are unkind.

Then O, thou gentle spirit,
my constant guardian be,
"Do to others," be my motto,
"as I'd have them do to me."

Poulenc Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra

This week I performed Poulenc's Two Piano Concerto with my friend Randy Schilb and the Columbia Civic Orchestra in Columbia, Missouri.

Lloyd Arriola had recommended the piece to us, and it was a very good recommendation. One reason for this is that Poulenc's style requires very little fluctuation of tempo, so it presents very few ensemble problems. This is important when there may not be a lot of rehearsal time available. Another reason that this was a good choice for this situation is that there's something interesting for everyone in the orchestra to play, and as Randy pointed out, in a volunteer orchestra, people want to play! The other piece that we seriously considered was by Mozart and wouldn't have provided the winds and percussion with so much to do.

The Concerto is packed with neat details regarding instrumentation such as a duet between the first piano and the principal cellist at the end of the first movement. The orchestral parts often seem to grow right out of the piano parts. This is a pleasure for the musicians. What's more, the two audiences for which we've played this piece really seemed to enjoy it.