A few words from the pope.

The pope’s US visit this week has had some musical repercussions.  Jeffrey Tucker has distilled some of the issues.  His piece ends with this quote from our distinguished visitor.

When the community of faith, the world-wide unity of the Church and her history, and the mystery of the living Christ are no longer visible in the liturgy, where else, then, is the Church to become visible in her spiritual essence? Then the community is celebrating only itself, an activity that is utterly fruitless. And, because the ecclesial community cannot have its origin from itself but emerges as a unity only from the Lord, through faith, such circumstances will inexorably result in a disintegration into sectarian parties of all kinds - partisan opposition within a Church tearing herself apart. This is why we need a new Liturgical Movement, which will call to life the real heritage of the Second Vatican Council.

The article is worth a few minutes to read in entirety and can be found here: http://thenewliturgicalmovement.blogspot.com/2008/04/music-for-dc-mass-end-of-era-and.html

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Is it real or is it Memorex®

In the last couple of weeks, we have talked about the ease of recording a concert. But the question comes: “is one willing to accept the recording of a performance?” We are so used to listening to studio recording that are made up from selections from multiple recordings. I had the privilege to listen to a recording session of John Nelson’s orchestra. They played the movement twice completely plus several recordings of specific selections from the movement. This leads to precision that is unavailable in a live performance recording. In addition, if one is recording a live performance of a work, there is always the problem of an audience noises. A cough is almost unavoidable in the recording. While in a live performance, you take it as one of the “things how they are.” However, after second time you listen to a recording you start to expect it and finally, you almost focus on this noise – “is it time for the guy that coughed to get up and leave the audience?” About the fourth time one is about ready, to paraphrase the Mikado, “the coughers, none of them will be missed, no, none of them will be missed”.

A second characteristic of a live performance is the life that seems to be present that isn’t in the studio recording. – for a live recording, one emphasizes not being boring; for a studio recording one emphasizes not making mistakes. I did a CD of a soprano soloist in our church. She had thought to record a performance of a fundraiser, but I prevailed on her to record in advance. She was a very good amateur soloist and most selections I had at least 3 tries. The CD came out very well. I recorded the concert also, and when I gave her the CD, I commented that I was thankful I had the real multiple cuts. While at the time of the performance, I enjoyed it immensely; however, while listening to the recording of the performance; I could hear all sorts of pitch problems that the life of the live performance had concealed from me.

When we listen to a CD, we are less tolerant of extraneous noises and dynamic range problems. In many ways, it reminds me of the problems in photography. For example, you look out and see a beautiful landscape of gorgeous fall trees. The picture is taken, and when you look at, you realize that there are power lines that your eye was able to ignore and see the underlying beauty. Or you see a person under a tree outside and your eye will automatically cancel out the green from the reflected from the trees. Take a picture of someone under a tree and they will look green. Of course, this is far from new; this is what impressionists noticed and how they made light “real.” It seems the mind, will correct the sound and light in real life but not in reproductions.

So, in getting a recording of a live performance, one must look beyond the minor imperfections to the music that is being conveyed. So returning to where we stared about two weeks ago, when one listens to music, either real or recorded, one must go beyond what has been recording and go to what should have been heard.

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Preparing for the afterlife

A few weeks ago, I was listening to Peter Bannister talk about his work Et iterum venturus est that Soli Deo Gloria has commissioned, which will be premiered in Paris in 2008. One of the other listeners asked, “When are we going to be able to hear it. Peter’s comment was that he was preparing an organ reduction so that the piece could be heard without the necessity of a chamber orchestra.

I previously talked about the question of music being heard – in particular new pieces and commissions. I quoted Daniel Gawthrop about the small number of chorus-orchestral compositions that receive a second playing. There are multiple reasons, not the least of which is that people haven’t heard many of these new pieces. A couple of years ago, the Naperville Chorus presented Robert Hanson’s Psalms of David, a piece that was very popular with the chorus and our audience. But it really isn’t recorded so it it is difficult for groups not knowing of Bob Hanson to realize that this is a piece that is worthy of performance.

Today, it is easy to make recordings, but it is difficult to release a recording that uses any professional musicians. The additional costs make it virtually impossible. The recent SDG commission of Requiem by Christopher Rouse is a case in point. The Los Angeles classical music radio station wanted to play it on their sacred music show, but as of the last time a friend in the area checked, they didn’t have the funds. Another of Christopher Rouse’s pieces, Karolju was just released as a recording about 17 years after its first performance; this is a piece by a Pulitzer-prize-winning composer, and the piece is very accessible. We in Naperville may do it; I gave a recording of it to our Music Director and he was very interested. It is a question of orchestra size/shifting.

A second section may come from the resources often required for a professional presentation of these pieces. At this point, I am leaving what I know about; I hope I am not in the class of the efficiency expert listening to a symphony (see for example
http://www.ecst.csuchico.edu/~tfsmiles/humor/orchestra.html
which discusses these issues). I expect that most sacred choral music is done by amateur groups in this country. An orchestra, such as the Chicago Symphony may have only 4 or 5 concerts a year with choral music. I know that for our amateur chorus, one of the major considerations is the cost of an orchestra – we have to hire them – and the difficulty of the music; they have very limited rehearsal time for the amount we can afford to pay them. Certainly, the difficulty of the music is a consideration. While I suspect we could do something like the Bach B-Minor Mass, it would require more work than I think most of our members would be willing to put in. But Britten, Poulenc, Vaughan Williams, and Brahms we have done reasonably successfully.

For a professional orchestra, again cost is a consideration. They already need to pay a chorus; do they want to/can they afford to pay for a large orchestra with extra players? In the article cited above, which discusses the Schubert symphony, comments that the four oboes are not often needed so they could be eliminated and the their jobs spread among the other players. The thought of a tuba player playing the piccolo part comes immediately to mind. But it may be worth asking could a different balance of instruments give a similar effect? Would two oboes and a couple of other woodwinds give a pleasing substitute? Clearly, if the answer is no, then it won’t be done; this however may mean limiting the number of times a piece is played.

New music can be difficult to understand. When someone says, “you need to hear the music several times before you really understand it”, the question becomes, “where does one get the opportunity to hear new music multiple times?” Of course one can help this somewhat with program notes. The piece that comes immediately to my mind is Honeggar’s Cantate de Noel where at the beginning, the music attempts to depict the formlessness before the birth of Jesus and progressing to chant and finally carols weaving throughout. If the reason for the apparent formlessness is explained to the audience in advance, the whole structure of the piece is much more powerful and understandable. They are no longer trying to find form in music that is intended to be formless. To expect the average concert goer to figure it out on his/her own and in one listening is unreasonable.

Finally, a totally Quixote comment; if the Musicians Union could be prevailed upon to not need so much for the release of a recording of a premiere performance, it would make it possible for more people learn about new music. I will discuss the possible problems next week in a blog post that I am tentatively calling “Is it real or is it Memorex.”

As I see from the Soli Deo Gloria goals for the future, one of these goals is to make sure that every commission is recorded so it can be released on a CD. Clearly it is a question of money. Should one try to commission more music or to us funding to make sure that the music can be heard?

While something can be music even if it isn’t heard, if it is to make an impact on people’s lives, it must be heard.

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