Context 1: Wednesday, June 23: mini-survey of Western Classical Music - what does this even mean?
listening links:
Hildegard - https://youtu.be/WDeR9MeGNPg
Palestrina - Sicut Cervus: https://youtu.be/0yd5EE0hAB8
Bach - Art of the Fugue: https://youtu.be/4uX-5HOx2Wc
Mendelssohn - Violin concerto https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDwKJ6bBXEA
Brahms - Symphony No. 1 mvt. 4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWuVEFwT5fw
Wagner - Tristan prelude: https://youtu.be/l25J7xdhhKc
Mahler - Symphony No. 1 mvt. 2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sq1t_a56ng8
Ives - Quarter tone pianos: https://youtu.be/izFgt2tZ0Oc
Stravinsky - Rite of Spring: https://youtu.be/5AU2waGF8D8
Schonberg - Pierrot https://youtu.be/Vw-OItKIZMc?t=38
limits of orchestral repertoire…
Baltimore: https://www.bsomusic.org/stories/the-2014-15-orchestra-season-by-the-numbers/
also see information from the League of American Orchestras
let’s start getting more music into the canon!
Julius Eastman: The Holy Presence of Joan of Arc: https://youtu.be/YhrTlm7whGs
Florence Price Symphony No. 1 - https://youtu.be/NALSBMlaG84?t=24
What other types of canons do you know / have you “lived” in?
Context 2: Friday, June 25 - The Facets Model
Lutoslawski and more! How do we talk about music when we talk about music? What questions do we ask? What’s important? Why?
listening and other links of interest:
pre-show: Tyshawn Sorey & Martha Crispell: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czYzQIxY5jg
the “facets” model: http://composersforum.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/FacetsModel.pdf
Interview with Lutoslawski: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdDE5owPUMc
One of Lutoslawski’s “popular” songs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqrEpc2v-iI
What was happening in 1954 in Poland? What other composers of this time period do you know? Possibly, Shostakovich: https://youtu.be/cg0M4LzEITQ?t=2929
“Your business is rejoicing”: https://www.keepingscore.org/interactive/pages/shostakovich/opinions-march
Why include “folk music”? What tunes are in the movement we’re playing? https://culture.pl/en/work/concerto-for-orchestra-witold-lutoslawski
"A cyje to kuniki": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLfeo9vswNE
“old meets new” - compare and contrast with Bartok Concerto for Orchestra: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9uwpuyc7nS4
opening not unlike Brahms 1 (just a tritone away…) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGRqIGOAPcE
Some links for Caroline Shaw:
Her site: https://carolineshaw.com
Strings... https://stringsmagazine.com/exploring-composer-caroline-shaws-music-for-string-quartet/
https://thelistenersclub.com/2015/09/25/through-the-looking-glass-caroline-shaws-entracte/
Haydn https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9hgd5NVhW8
Partitahttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mukrVsKqTs&list=PLqdFJzgdyvWnzexNx9L4lqY33tHGzt1gg
Other listening:
1st movement of Schoenberg 2nd quartet: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eB5I5iU0OoE
Translations...https://www.oxfordlieder.co.uk/song/2222
Bach: “hass nur, hasse mich recht” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkOPdvko_ig
Context 3: Friday, July 2 - Band and Orchestra
Pre-show: Satie Vexations: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKKxt4KacRo
Unpacking recent events:
The Hunting Ground, Presentation by Chris Thompson, Zoom with Viet Cuong
What do you associate with “orchestra” vs. “band” or “wind ensemble?”
What is the deal with high schools and bands?
Who is a “real” composer?
What, if anything, do we hope our audience gets from our concert?
To what extent can we derive meaning from a piece of music? Or bring meaning to a piece?
Context 4: Wednesday, July 7 - Technology
Pre-show: AACM / Art Ensemble of Chicago https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5oLYQd6QmHM&t=268s
Who is a “real” composer, again, anyway?
Interview with Roscoe Mitchel and Muhal Abrams https://youtu.be/YRWEgK6J6b0
What has been the effect of technology on music?
What do you consider technology? Anything from zoom lessons to metal strings?
Early electronic music: theremin (Clara Rockmore) https://youtu.be/XdFSU8sn3mo
Beach Boys https://youtu.be/GcUgOEImP1o?t=181
Ondes Martenot https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yidV0HeVyCg
Messiaen https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dp4n8lqX944
Radiohead https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TlzPHeN1VLQ
Musique Concrete - Poeme Electronique https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTMSllIv2lw
Concepts: sine waves, square waves, sawtooth waves: https://youtu.be/VRD9Uj2YTBk?t=46
“Data systems” - how does what someone plays / records make it to our ears - systems, sampling rates, etc.; analog vs. digital concepts
Alvin Lucier - “Every person has a little electronic studio inside his or her brain.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIPU2ynqy2Y&t=609s
Grandmaster Flash https://youtu.be/m3YXyK-gWvc?t=435
Who is a composer?
What are the impacts of quotation / appreciation / appropriation in instrumental music?
Mahler Symphony No. 1 (quoting and manipulating Frere Jacques)
Berio -Sinfonia (quoting Mahler 2)
Previous mentions of Shostakovich and Lutoslawski
Public Enemy - Fight the Power
looking up who they sampled and who sampled them
creating a new type of canon
Caroline Shaw example from Partita
who is allowed to quote what / when / why / how, and who decides?
Context 5: Friday, July 9 - Links for you to listen to, zone out, relax, whatever you like!
Pre-show: I am sitting in a room https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhtO4DsSazc&t=22s
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/11/arts/music/alvin-lucier-sitting-in-a-room.html
How did the concerts go for you?
What do we mean by the term “minimalism” in music?
Pendulum Music https://youtu.be/fU6qDeJPT-w?t=12
Come Out https://youtu.be/g0WVh1D0N50?t=3
DIY examples with Audacity (free software)
Application to instruments: Piano Phase, Violin Phase
“Stepped Phasing” such as Clapping Music
“Additive Process” such as Music for Pieces of Wood
Music with a tonal center but not traditional functional harmony - Music for 18 (see also: In C)
John Adams The Chairman Dances https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvyJNhJTu14
(a recording of an orchestra simulating a record player)
Philp Glass Glassworks https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QA8OZ4j8i4
Opera - Einstein on the Beach https://youtu.be/ezOI3sPqWPU?t=26
Film - Koyaanisqatsi
Away from these three composers, what does it mean for something / someone to be “minimalist”?
LaMonte Young https://notationnotes.tumblr.com/post/172051227536/draw-a-straight-line-and-follow-it-composition
https://gallery1412dotorg.files.wordpress.com/2016/12/la-monte-young-composition-7.jpg?w=584
Morton Feldman Rothko Chapel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OT87BMhYZsA
Works from GSW 2021: In C, Joy Boy, 4’33?”, others?
Orchestra and Classical Music as “high art”, “great art”, etc. - who decides?
reference back to Context 1, development of orchestras as “good for you”; “makes you smarter/better”, etc.; middle- to upper-middle brow aspirational culture.
* digital addendum for future discussion - when we say “this was marketed as…” marketed by whom? to whom? when? how?
An example from 1949, Life Magazine https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EWdDokYX0AAuo1h?format=jpg&name=large
Consumer choices defining social class
Note the stratification of music from jukebox / “Grand Canyon Suite” / “Chopin” / “Ives and after”
What social stratifications do you notice? Do you create them / operate in them / challenge assumptions?
Where do you think that orchestra and instrumental music fall, and why?
Context 6: Wednesday, July 14 - Realities of Orchestral Life???
“Art is anything that loses money” http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/05/magazine/the-way-we-live-now-10-5-03-essay-lincoln-center-s-culture-gap.html?pagewanted=all
Who has been to a professional orchestra concert in the past 2 years? How many?
Adaptistration Blog: Orchestra Compensation Reports, etc. http://www.adaptistration.com/blog/2016/06/22/2016-orchestra-compensation-reports-music-directors/
Has orchestral programming gotten any better / less exclusive the last couple years? Nope! https://drive.google.com/file/d/1eooHnhUu_d6PAgvz-_JOAe57osobtemP/view?usp=sharing
Can I get a job? How do i find out? www.Musicalchairs.info
The audition process! To not screen or to screen?
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/16/arts/music/blind-auditions-orchestras-race.html
Where does the money come from? What is the structure? (Board / Adminstration / “Artistic”?)
Is there a “crisis?” Material from Gregory Sandow’s book/blog at http://www.artsjournal.com/greg/ Is this an artistic crisis or a systemic (/ systematic?) economic issue?
What structures do you see in GSW orchestra and in what ways are they the same / different? How about at your high schools? Community ensembles?