Concert Report #3. Music For 18 Musicians.

     In what turned out to be one of the most inspiring and eventful hours of the academic year, I'm glad I turned out for an interpretation of composer Steve Reich's Music for 18 Musicians. In Ford Hall at 9 p.m, November 11th, eighteen musicians from Ithaca College put on one of the best shows I've seen all year. It exemplified what music is meant for, it moved me, it left me speechless afterwards, and it gave me something in return for my time, something I can hold onto forever. During the concert  texture, rhythm, melody, and minimalism set the stage for what would become more than musical values, but raw and pure emotion.
     Music for 18 Musicians was written by legendary composer Steve Reich in 1974 (completed in 76'), and is one of his most prominent pieces. Before I knew of this concert I had just started getting into Steve Reich earlier the week before and had listened to this piece in its one hour non-stop entirety. Literally there are no movements or breaks to rest. The ensemble of eighteen musicians comprised of a violin, a cello, two clarinets (who also played bass clarinets), four voices (all female), four pianos, three marimbas, two xylophones, and a metallophone. Notice how these are all acoustic instruments. The piece revolves around pulses, in kind of a way they were ideas that layered and weaved within one another. According to the program there were thirteen of these ideas, the fourteenth piece going back to the first pulse. The rhythm throughout this piece is basically split in a battle between two voices. The mallets and piano providing one study rhythm and the voices and strings providing a counter rhythm over that. The voices were awesome, they used the microphone to fade in and out in volume, creating a push and pull effect, like the tides coming in. The greatest part of this concert is the effect the music had on me.
     The piece's texture was vast and each had a unique sound. Sometimes it was monophonic, with just the marimbas or piano hammering down on a steady pulse, driving it forward. Other times it turned polyphonic, a battle of xylophone and strings under the steady foundation of the pulse. Each piece weaving in and out, louder, softer, push and pull. To me it was if the earth itself was breathing, as if the tide was coming in and out, the steady pulse and light "melodies" echoing life itself. I sounds like a bunch of mumbo crap but really it was quite enlightening and refreshing. The texture and instrumentation were are a perfect match for the tune and it helped get its message across. It was minimal in complexity, simple in structure and form; yet it proved that complexity is not needed to create music, meaningful music. This piece really gets in your head, it provides imagery and lets our imaginations expand, it creates emotions of passion and contemplation. For me a least, for me. I definitely enjoyed this piece and it reminded me why I play music and incorporate it so heavily into my life.

Clifford Brown: Study in Brown.

Prepare to have your mind blown.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eoLuDSO33js

Stravinsky: The Rite Of Spring

8:17-9:50

Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring

Throughout history, music has always pushed off from the base of its descendants, creating something new in the process. Modernism is no exception to this rule, and yet perhaps it is one of the best examples to demonstrate the drastic change that is possible. Modernism, starting in the early 20^th century, gave art a whole new perspective. It was radical, expressionistic, free, and experimental. It disregarded almost entirely the logic behind the Enlightenment, and the "folk art" of Romanticism. Instead it sought the abstract and unchartered. Perhaps this can all be embodied in one of the most celebrated Modernistic pieces of music in history, at a time when Modernism was really starting to take charge; on the brink of World War One. This piece being Igor Stravinsky’s 1913 Rite of Spring. A product and absolute genius work of Modernism, Stravinsky’s piece showed new ideas like Disjunction, Fragmentation, and Stratification; all which can be shown in just over a minute of this thirty-five minute piece. Stravinsky demonstrates 20-th century aesthetics of modernism by his own use of texture, rhythm, and melody.

            By looking at his work in the Rite of Spring from 8:17-9:50, and his use of texture and rhythm, Modernism aesthetics can be applied. Though Stravinsky uses an exceptionally large orchestra for this piece, he uses them sparingly and often writes parts as if they were playing chamber music. This creates many different voices throughout the piece. This section of the piece starts off with the low strings hitting the one, driving the music forward, while the middle strings and the woodwinds banter for the rest of the bar. And because of this banter the beginning doesn’t shout 4/4, rather the off beats give it this kind of flowing aura. Then the second idea (at 8:29), fronted by the light flutes and the middle strings come in, completely contrasting to the first idea. Then its fades out and the ominous low groove comes back in. This is a play of light and dark, of ritual and the slow awakening of the Earth. As this continues the melody on top is constantly switching instrumentation. The horns take the strings, the strings take the flute, and a complete swap takes place (8:49). Its as if the musicians didn’t know what part to play. This is a good example of Fragmentation, the breaking of ideas. Stravinsky dissected the piece and created more movement by making each instrument play the same line throughout different points. And as the instruments weave in and out of roles Stravinsky weaves in and out of time signature, going from 4/4 to 3/4.

            Stravinsky shows modern ideas like stratification and disjunction through his melody as well. At 9:10 a new melody arises from the flute, completely separate from the underlying theme that flows under it. This flute creates stratification, creating a deep contrast from the light and dark sounds, and making it seem as if they were in conflict. Also disjunction, two sharply unrelated ideas against one another. In Paul Cézanne’s painting The Large Bathers there is a sense of two things going on. The nude bathers sitting on the edge of the river are in complete contrast to the town just across. Two seemingly different things brought together, and that’s what Stravinsky has done with this part.  After this brief intrusion by the flute the listener is taken back to the original theme. This whole section takes place over 32 bars in two different time signatures, coming out from a piece that was considerably faster in tempo, and using its instrumentation in a disjoined way. Stravinsky was painting a picture, and it was unlike anything that had come before it.

           Stravinsky demonstrated these 20-th century aesthetics of modernism in what became one of the greatest and most recognizable pieces of all time. He took the ideas budding in the early 20^th-century and explored them in way no one had conceived before, in fact so radical it caused a riot! His abandonment of past aesthetics like definitive phrase structure and complete embrace of something completely new really did wake the Earth up. This piece was not only an awakening in a ritualistic sense, but truly did bring the 20-th century into full swing.

The Romantic Age: Caspar David Friedrich's painting, Wanderer Above the Sea of Mist (1818)

     The Romantic Era sought in some way to combat the industrial revolution, to bring about a age that seeked out answers through inner thoughts and feelings. This was a revolt against science and reason, for who needed those to explain or define the great power of nature and its beauty? The Romantic Era was just as it sounded, science had done what it needed to do, it was time to let the arts to shine. 

     When looking at Casper Friedrich's Wanderer Above the Sea of Mist it is not hard to see the Romantic ideals present, or at least understand what they were talking about during this time period. The picture presents a lone figure, back faced towards the viewer, overlooking a landscape covered in fog, stretching out until it is engulfed by the mist. From the way the mist lays over the landscape its as if it was the ocean, crashing against the mountains and hills the it covers. The man looks across this divide and its infinity perhaps reflecting over a journey through these hills he has taken or is about to take. Or maybe he is just in awe over it all; taken by the raw power and awe of nature.

     Nature, so revered and knowing, so infinite and unchanging, this is what the enlightenment captured. Here we see this man looking into the great vastness of this landscape where the hills and fog blend seamlessly into the cloud filled sky. Where the future is uncertain and reason stands no ground to the pure emotion and awe of this awesome landscape. A man standing strong and yet so powerless is the power of nature, to the power of his own soul. I believe this painting shows more than a look on nature but a look into his very soul. The uncertainty and vast hopelessness of this man overlooking a endless sea of mist is a metaphor for his very being. His emotions vast and unpredictable, covered in mist and shadow, unknown and unexplored. This is what romanticism was about, emotion, uncertainty. Our feeling fade in and out of the fog like the mountains and the rock formations, never hinting when they will appear or disappear, and yet like this man we must face it and live it triumphantly. Like this painting we must all succumb to the great power of nature and our very inner being.  

Concert Report #2: Symphony Orchestra.

Saturday, October 5, 2013, 8:15 PM
Carlos Sanchez-Guttierrez (2013-14 Karel Husa Visiting Professor) Girando, Danzando (1996/2013)
André Jolivet: Bassoon Concerto 
    Nadina Mackie Jackson, bassoon
Shostakovich: Symphony No. 10, op. 93

     Though I can't find my actual copy of October 5, Symphony Orchestra I pasted a copy of the program above for reference. 

     I attended the Symphony Orchestra a couple of weeks ago and I find it certainly worth mentioning in this report. It was held in the biggest hall they have, which I believe is Ford, at 8:15 p.m. It was conducted by Jonathan Pasternack who is substituting here at the college. He has conducted such orchestras as the London Symphony Orchestra and the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center which I thought was pretty awesome. The Symphony Orchestra unlike the Symphonic is made up mostly of stringed instruments; violins, violas, cellos, double basses. But also has trombones, tubas, drums, bassoons, and other non-stringed instruments. I had never seen a live Symphony Orchestra before so I was excited to see what the could do.
     The first piece was actually composed by a visiting professor who happened to be there that evening and gave a bow at the end of the piece at the conductors instruction. It started of simple, playing through passages and stating harmonic and melodic ideas the spun and weaved through one another. Gradually weaving in dynamics and texture. The second piece took a different mood, the parts were much more angular and bold and stood out much more, leaving me on the edge of my seat. I would almost say the second half was the "French Revolution" to the first, splitting off in new ways , throwing out the old and beginning anew.
     The second piece was a Bassoon Concerto which was composed in 1954. This piece seemed to bring about a stir in the crowd because there was seemingly a Bassoon superstar in our midsts. Her name was Nadina Mackie Jackson and she and blue hair, but that's not all, she also played the Bassoon very well. She was the focal point of the piece and though it was written so where near the Enlightenment Era, in retrospect I can see how there were certainly traits of its ideals about it. The way there was a banter between the Bassoon and the Symphony for starters. they were discussing, conversing ideas. The Bassoon would call out an idea then the Symphony would either react or accept, then they would go again and again. Until finally at the end they came to a rational solution of harmony and balance within the piece. At the end it was a celebration of enlightenment and reason and showed between the soloist and the group that they felt the same way. 
     The third piece was by far the most recognized and talked about of the night; that being Shostakovich's Symphony No. 10, op. 93. I had heard the name but not until now realized was a a big deal this guy was. Quite a excellent composer to say the least. I was also surprised to see that this piece was actually composed in 1953 and that Shostakovich had been working on film scores until this time; the death of Stalin. The piece was pretty awesome and thus was the longest and most strenuous of the pieces, for both listener and players. The piece started off with this low weaving, almost haunting line that gradually rolled through loud and soft. Definitely a minor key (e minor if you want to be picky). The rest of the first movement follows this dark roller coaster and end with a piccolo solo, apparently depicting nervous whistling; pretty cool.   The second movement is pretty mind blowing due tot he fact alone that it is four minutes in length as where the first was nearly twenty five! It was syncopated and angry, chromatic, fast, life or death, military, chaos! Then the third and fourth, which have a story all their own, which I won't relate to you on the premise of time. But I will describe that there was no stopping, no polite pauses, no stroll down the lane or row down the lazy river. It was electric it was intense, to the very last second. It showed on the snarled faces of the players, on the sweat and ferocity of the conductor, in the energy of the room. And when it ended it was masterful (and the poor conductor had to come out at least three times for a bow). And that was it, the concert was over, and everyone left a little fuller than they came.
     Was it enlightened, was it revolutionary, was it a masterpiece? Yes to all these things! Was it a balanced Sonata of Mozart? A playful string quartet by Haydn? No it was not, and yet it was powerful, it was bold, it was revolutionary and expansive on the ideas of individuality and conclusiveness. It told a story based in rationality and in reason and those I believe convey the true spirit of the Enlightenment era. As did all the pieces that were played that night. For my first Symphony Orchestra I found myself quite lucky to be placed in front of some quite capable musicians, and will certainly be coming back for more.  

18th-century phrase. Mozart it is.

     The song I chose to represent the enlightenment is Mozart's Horn Concerto No. 3 in Eb-Major K. 447. second movement. The movement is titled Romance (Larghetto). I enjoy this piece because it is very uplifting, simple, and clear. The texture of this piece make it really work. The french horn stands above all and delivers the lines that the strings accompany. The string section includes two violins, a viola, and a nice cello for the bass. They provided a nice soft response and accompaniment to the horn. There are also woodwind instruments that provided subtle tones that almost create a chordal aspect; these are a clarinet and a bassoon. With all these instruments working together they create a lift and enjoyable atmosphere that reminds me a lot of a walk in the park on a nice warm day. The piece is in cut time which I believe also brings the feeling of the piece along nicely. The melody that the horn plays and then the strings repeat is very simple and easy to sing along to. I enjoyed how the whole form of the movement began and ended in the same place, giving the piece a relaxing and enjoyable feel. 

     I found it easy to hear the period structure within the first parts of the movement. I identified the beginning as an parallel interrupted period. Parallel because of the reoccurring theme and interrupted because I could hear that dominant chord, identifying the half cadence. The two periods are each eight bars in a very slow cut time. Each one is concise and is a great reference to what a parallel interrupted period sounds like. 

     This represents Enlightenment ideals to me through its simple and transparent melodies. It is uplifting, it is new, it sounds for all intents and purposes, enlightened. Mozart crafted a beautiful work here that sounds straight out of time period of reason and science, of form and revolution. This movement to me is romantic and bold, it stands out and pushes forward. Good tune. 

Here is the phrase structure for the beginning. (5 should be V for the chord)

Enlightenment

     A revolution of societal and political changes. A time of science and individuality, a time of great thought, and life changing ideas. This was the Classic Era; this was the Enlightenment. Through architecture and music, painting and philosophy, the times were changing. From divine intervention to the possibility of the individual, and from the age of aristocrats to the age of a rising middle class. With the American and French Revolution new emerges from the ashes of old and everything changes. 

     The aspect I'd say the most important and influential was the Philosophers and the enlightened movement they so progressed. People like John Locke and Voltaire who believed in Individual Liberty, blazing the trail for freedom and equality; things our nation relies on today. My favorite quote though is perhaps from Scottish philosopher David Hume who said, "No human can know anything perfectly, so no human has the right to judge another." To me that is such a powerful and resounding statement. We have no right no judge one another, no right, absolutely none. What a statement in such a time period! David Hume never even lived to see the French Revolution. Such claims, such bold thoughts, so early in the 18th century. In a time where arrogance was seemingly a attribute to status this is really something to be heard. And not only is it important then but it is just as important now. 

     In today's society judgment is not something we necessarily wish upon others, but it is most certainly something we struggle with. It is engrained in our culture and our media. We are branded by it as children, molded by it throughout our youth and into adulthood. And all it does is destroy. It separates, it dictates, it causes pain. It is still a problem we find in America and in the World. It is a problem we face in our everyday lives, and yet so much has changed for the good since David Hume. His quote of love and equality for all people is a message that still resonates and is repeated today. It is a message that changed the way the World thinks; the way we think. So much progress has been made and yet so much more needs to be done. David Hume's ideas of kindness and empathy our extraordinarily important, that's why they've lasted so long.

     This is only one aspect of this great time period, a time period that if was inexistent would undoubtedly alter the lives of billions in the future. It was people like David Hume who made a nation and a world a better place. And that is what I found fascinating on the subject of Enlightenment Ideals.