DESERT VOICES

posted by James Reel

Is it Thursday already? I’ve lost track of time, what with all the deadlines I’ve had to meet (I know, losing track of time is not a good thing to do as deadlines approach … and recede). Yesterday alone, I cranked out three scripts for the Arizona Friends of Chamber Music radio series and a little 450-word magazine news item. Today all I really have to do is write a restaurant review, so I can surely find the time to direct you to my latest contribution to the Tucson Weekly:

Is it a sign of gay-rights progress that Arizona and California voters have denied homosexuals the right to marry? It's progress if you consider that 20 years ago, the issue would not even have been placed on a statewide ballot. Now, it's an inescapable question, because--whether social conservatives like it or not--gays and lesbians are part of the American mainstream. They're so mainstream, in fact, that they're integrating their institutions: You no longer have to be gay to sing in a gay chorus. Desert Voices is celebrating its 20th anniversary this season. It started out as a social activity for uncloseted Tucson gays and lesbians who didn't have many options beyond the bar scene. Today, it's a serious chorus that includes gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender members, and is even about 30 percent straight.

Read the rest of my Desert Voices story here.

CHRISTMAS STORIES

posted by James Reel

Last Thursday I never got around to posting a link to my Tucson Weekly contribution, it being Thanksgiving and all, and since then I’ve just been too busy to blog, what with a whole lot of December 1 magazine deadlines hitting me, as well as a 400-page manuscript for a lizard field guide that I had to proofread for a publisher. Anyway, now that that long sentence is over, back to business as usual. This time, it’s a two-in-one review of holiday Christmas plays:

The first two holiday theatrical productions to hit the boards this year couldn't be more dissimilar: an affectionate, family-friendly comedy from Gaslight Theatre, and a subversive, dark comedy from the new Unlikely Theatre. Take the kids to Gaslight, but don't let them anywhere near the other show; don't even let them read the review, because it contains naughty words that nobody wants to believe Santa and his reindeer could utter.

Learn the awful truth here.

WELL SAID

posted by James Reel

From the blog On an Overgrown Path:

How right Hopkinson Smith is about the need for virtuoso listeners. So much futile effort is being extended today on trying to reach non-existent new audiences for classical music when, what is really needed, is to develop, extend and challenge existing audiences.

Read blogger Pliable's further remarks on the subject here.

WHY MANAGERS LOOK LIKE VILLAINS

posted by James Reel

According to this news item, the principal cellist of the Saskatoon Symphony Orchestra has been fired for the second time in a year. I have no idea what this is about, but the orchestra’s top manager is almost forcing us to take the cellist’s side with this kind of babble: “I do not consider it to be a firing. I consider it to be a termination.” What does that mean? It looks like obfuscation, and even if the management has good cause to dump the cellist, junk language like that is bound to make ordinary people suspicious.

DISCONNECTED?

posted by James Reel

Greg Sandow announces:

I'm making a list—and checking it twice—of all the ways in which classical music doesn't connect to our larger culture.

I won’t reprint the seven items Greg has initially compiled; you can read it here. But when I look at the list, my reaction is, for the most part, so what? Consider this item: “Even when new music is played, much of it doesn't sound like the world around us. The sounds of popular music aren't much heard, though they were in past centuries.” Well, that’s only partly true. Nationalist composers like Dvorák certainly used elements of popular music in their concert works, but these composers consituted a mere subset. Very few major concert works by the leading 19th-century German and even French composers incorporated much popular music, and in the case of Verdi, the influence went the opposite direction: his melodies became popular streetcorner favorites in Italy.

Why, really, should classical music reflect contemporary popular culture, as Greg repeatedly urges? We don’t expect all movies or novels to do this, although many of course do. And in any case, what’s wrong with diversity? Why can’t concert-hall music provide an alternative to the pop elements that saturate our culture? Do we really want to live in a homogenized culture?

Do read Greg’s post and decide for yourself; also, pay attention to this comment (which is not by me), stating some good objections to Greg’s premise and points.

THINGS STRINGS

posted by James Reel

Speaking of Strings magazine (see the entry below), I’ve neglected to post links to my contributions to the December issue. First, an article about something you may have heard here on KUAT-FM:

RACHEL BARTON PINE is out to prove that Beethoven’s Violin Concerto was not an isolated work of genius. She doesn’t quibble with the genius part, but the concerto, so unlike the earlier works of Mozart, didn’t come out of nowhere. And Pine has a concerto in hand to prove it: a work by Franz Clement (1780–1842), the violinist-composer for whom Beethoven wrote his own concerto. Clement’s work predates Beethoven’s by a full year. Pine, a 33-year-old Chicago-based solo violinist and chamber player, has recorded the D major concertos of Clement and Beethoven in tandem on a newly released CD, and their similarities are striking. In 1806, Clement conducted and performed the solo in Beethoven’s concerto, which the latter had written specifically for Clement. The two works bear out a contemporary description of Clement’s playing style: “indescribably delicate, neat, and elegant,” according to an 1805 Leipzig music journal. “It has an extremely delightful tenderness and cleanness that undoubtedly secures him a place among the most perfect violinists.” Contrast this with the style of another violinist close to Beethoven, Ignaz Schuppanzigh, a teacher of Beethoven’s who participated in premieres and early performances of almost all the composer’s string quartets, from Op. 59 on. Beethoven called Schuppanzigh’s playing “fiery and expressive,” although this may have come at the expense of playing in tune, especially in upper positions. Nevertheless, the violin writing in Beethoven’s quartets, tailored for Schuppanzigh, tends to be much more aggressive than what’s found in his concerto. “The French concertos of that time, by Kreutzer and Rode and those guys, kept the violin front and center with the orchestra just a backup band,” Pine says. “Clement and Beethoven take a more collegial or even chamber-music approach. People talk about how unusual it was for Beethoven to do that, but Clement did it first.”

That’s just the beginning; the full article awaits you here.

While you’re at the site, if you’re a working musician you might want to read an article I wrote about royalties and copyright, but I honestly don’t expect you to look at it if it has no practical application to what you do. (As if I honestly expected you to follow the links to the other stuff I write.)