A few words from the pope.

This post was written by Michael Dodaro, and posted on April 18, 2008  | Filed Under culture, music and religion, music | Double-click any word for more info | View other posts by Michael Dodaro | Leave a Comment | For info on this author, visit http://operaciv.blogspot.com/

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®

This post was written by Charles Jonah, and posted on April 10, 2008  | Filed Under other, music | Double-click any word for more info | View other posts by Charles Jonah | 1 Comment | For info on this author, visit http://www.sdgmusic.org/voices/2007/07/31/introduction/

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

This post was written by Charles Jonah, and posted on April 2, 2008  | Filed Under music | Double-click any word for more info | View other posts by Charles Jonah | Leave a Comment | For info on this author, visit http://www.sdgmusic.org/voices/2007/07/31/introduction/

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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Preparing for the second dance

This post was written by Charles Jonah, and posted on March 25, 2008  | Filed Under music | Double-click any word for more info | View other posts by Charles Jonah | Leave a Comment | For info on this author, visit http://www.sdgmusic.org/voices/2007/07/31/introduction/

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

This post was written by Joel Buursma, and posted on March 12, 2008  | Filed Under religion | Double-click any word for more info | View other posts by Joel Buursma | Leave a Comment | For info on this author, visit http://www.sdgmusic.org/voices/2007/08/19/introduction-joel-buursma/

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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