Preparing for the second dance

I am certain we all know the question

If a tree falls in the wilderness, and no one hears it, does it make a sound?

or the comparable

If a man says something and his wife doesn’t hear it, is he still wrong?

but one can also ask

If no one hears a composition, is it still music?

The reason I pose this question at all comes from the fate of much commissioned music. Is it music if the music does not make it into the repertoire? On Daniel Gawthrop’s website, he describes Behold this Mystery in the following way: “Further performances followed, and the piece has now earned a place in the small but distinguished category called Twentieth Century Extended Works for Chorus and Orchestra Which Have Received More Than One Performance. ”

I suppose it is cheating to answer my 3rd question above so quickly, but I have to say yes (the answer to the first, — I don’t care to return to that interminable debate, the answer to the second one is “of course” – (note, I have been married nearly 40 years). I have a friend that has to this point composed something like 600 pieces of music. Until recently most of them have never been heard and now, after I recorded two CD’s worth, more people have heard them. But even if that hadn’t happened, he still heard them in his mind and on his piano. As we all know, the Mass in B minor was not performed during Bach’s lifetime and possibly the first performance was more than 100 years after Bach’s death.

We are in a time in classical music much like the opening words of The Tale of Two Cities “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” For example, with recordings we can hear a wider variety of music than we have ever been able to hear. There are many composers. But today, composers in general don’t have musical groups to play their compositions and expose it to the public. All new music must compete with music from previous ages for an opportunity to be heard. With modern electronics, we can make satisfactory recordings of a live performance easily so that anyone can hear the music. But with the heavily processed modern studio recordings, the listener has come to expect perfection in recordings that just isn’t possible in a live performance. (I will return to this subject in two weeks time in a post entitled Is it real or is it Memorex) Musicians’ Unions have made it possible for classical musicians in the best orchestras to make a (good) living but have made it difficult to record new compositions.

I know that reading long posts on the Internet is not fun so I plan to continue this discussion next week in a post that I am tentatively calling Preparing for the afterlife.

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Holy Juxtapositions for Lent

The crucifixion of Jesus Christ our Lord.

We have the stories in the Bible. We have the church traditions. We have the scholars and theologians who have studied them in detail… and are still studying. We can learn and understand much, but, at the same time, this crux of history brings heaven, earth, and hell together in ways that we can only begin to comprehend. For the artistically-minded, there is plenty of space for the imagination to soar. For the Christian, it can all be devotion to the Holy Son of God.

In this post, I journey toward comprehension of the cross through juxtapositions that are present at it. For example:

These are just some of my own. For more, I draw from the riches of Western hymns and Eastern liturgy and tradition.

Cross of Jesus from John Stainer’s The Crucifixion

Once the Lord of brilliant seraphs, / Winged with love to do His will,
Now the scorn of all His creatures, /And the aim of every ill.

Alas! and Did my Savior Bleed? by Isaac Watts

Well might the sun in darkness hide / And shut his glories in,
When Christ, the mighty Maker died, /For man the creature’s sin.

Selections from an Eastern Orthodox Holy Saturday liturgy:

In a new tomb He is laid, Who empties the tombs of the dead.
Light of salvation, how art Thou hidden in a dark tomb?
By dying, O my God, Thou puttest death to death through Thy divine power.
Hell was wounded in the heart when it received Him whose side was pierced by the spear.
The most pure Temple is destroyed, but raises up the fallen tabernacle.
The second Adam, He who dwells on high, has come down to the first Adam in the depths of hell.

Joseph of Arimathea receiving the body of Jesus from Pontius Pilate.

St. Epiphanius says: “…A mortal went in before a mortal, asking to receive God; the God of mortals he begs; clay stands before clay so as to receive the Fashioner of all! Grass asks to receive from grass the Heavenly Fire; the miserable drop seeks to receive from a drop the whole Abyss! Who ever saw, who ever heard such a thing?”

A hymn of Joseph of Arimathea speaking to Pilate:

Give me this stranger, who from infancy has been as a stranger, a sojourner in the world.
Give me this stranger, whom His own race has hated and delivered unto death as a stranger.
Give me this stranger, who in a strange manner is a stranger to death.
Give me this stranger, who has received the poor as guests.
Give me this stranger, whom His people from envy estranged from the world.
Give me this stranger, that I may hide him in a tomb, for as a stranger He has no place to lay His head.
Give me this stranger, whose Mother seeing His dead body cries out: ‘O my Son and my God, I am sorely wounded within me and my heart is rent, seeing Thee as one dead; but in Thy Resurrection I take courage and magnify Thee.’

How now can we respond to such things, too wonderful for us by far? We cannot, if we hope that our response will equal them. But, by faith, we can simply embrace, trust, die, and be reborn. And give thanks, now and forevermore.

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Trouble in Tahiti or Wherever You May Be

A friend of mine likes, “good news/bad news” jokes. He asked me once if I knew the good news and bad news about opera. He continued, “the good news about opera is you usually get your money’s worth because operas are incredibly long. And the bad news – operas are incredibly long!”

I thought of him recently, and his joke that does not apply to Leonard Bernstein’s opera, Trouble in Tahiti. This one-act opera’s running time is about 45 minutes. Perhaps for this reason it is seldom performed. Written in 1952, this opera depicts suburbia of the time, “Happily married, sweet little son…up-to-date kitchen, washing machine, colorful bathrooms and Life magazine, and a little white house in Brookline…Suburbia.” Just seven years after the end of the Second World War, funded in part by the GI Bill of Rights, suburbia had become a Garden of Eden for many families. And compared to the recent memories of World War II, the fighting and death abroad, the rationing at home, everyone’s life on hold till the war ended, suburbia certainly was Eden for many an American family.

The Next Theatre Company, Evanston, IL [http://www.nexttheatre.org] figured out an innovative way to bring Trouble in Tahiti to their audience. This opera has become the first act in the world premiere of The American Dream Songbook, described by artistic director Jason Loewith as “our hybrid world premiere music-theatre event.” After the conclusion of Trouble in Tahiti, the audience returns after the intermission for a second act titled, “The American Dream Revue” which consists of five contemporary songs written by Kevin O’Donnell, Michael John LaChiusa, Michael Mahler, Michael Friedman, and Josh Schmidt. Act One, which is Trouble in Tahiti, reveals an inner life of suburbia that doesn’t match its outer image. Act Two, “The American Dream Revue” sings songs of present day American Dreams. It left me wondering if this generation might not have any more luck in finding genuine happiness in their many and varied lifestyles than their parents or grandparents did in suburbia some sixty years ago.

The children and grandchildren of 1950s suburbia have other dreams. Many have repudiated suburban lifestyle, searching for other manifestations of Eden, through diverse careers, gentrified urban

neighborhoods and/or back to the land rural retreats to name just a few. How will these epiphanies of the American Dream look to people in another 50 years? What might our children and grandchildren’s dreams look like in 2058, and how successfully might their dreams take shape? And who will be the composers who capture these dreams in their music?

Music helps us to explore, communicate, and reflect upon each generation’s version of the American Dream. Music also often reminds us that each generation finds different and differing manifestations of their dreams, including the ever elusive American Dream. Leonard Bernstein’s short opera, Trouble in Tahiti does these things exceptional well on its own. Contextualized in The American Dream Songbook, it becomes even more focused for us today who still search for a Garden of Eden in our midst.

The American Dream Songbook runs until March 22, 2008 at the Next Theatre in Evanston, IL.

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