"Monumental" Grieg

Who would have thought it possible?  Last night at the Dayton Philharmonic, soloist Emile Naoumoff transformed the sweet little Grieg concerto, that mainstay of my youth, from student competition piece - or at best, the "big brother" of the Schumann - to "THE GREATEST CONCERTO EVER WRITTEN," in a performance shockingly over the top, beyond committed, so far out on the limb that they had to build new limb, legendary and unforgettable.  My daughter, for whom classical music ranks  marginally above Mantovani and somewhere below dissecting frogs, was literally in tears throughout much of it.  I found myself swearing out loud, "Holy f___! WHAT WAS THAT?!?!" while yelling "Bravo!" at the conclusion.  The performance made the Tchaikovsky 5 on the second half seem like an afterthought, however well-executed it was.

I was reminded of Mr. Bernstein, who urged us onward at Tanglewood with the thought that "Any sound is possible," and of my own piano teacher, Ted Lettvin, who insisted, "Make a sound I've never heard before."  One might have found Mr. Naoumoff's physical histrionics unconvincing and on the wrong side of good taste, but I bought into the whole approach within the first 5 minutes.  It wasn't flashy, hand-wise; it wasn't fast (good Lord, it was the antithesis of fast!), it was hyper-dramatic - again, perhaps not everyone's cup of tea - but he sold it, clearly believed in it and I found it irresistible.  I became a believer again, not just in the piece itself, but in the possibility that one who has been attending concerts for 55 years from NY to Beijing and back, could still be surprised, delighted and awed.  By frikkin' Grieg, of all things.  In Dayton.

To describe the performance further would be to diminish it, so I'll leave it at that.  I hope to bring some of that crazy to Elgar this week, even though "Elgar" and "crazy" might seem incompatible notions.  They aren't, as we discovered in rehearsal on the 1st Symphony this past week.  Some of the writing is crazy hard, the music crazy beautiful, the architecture crazy aspirational.  We're going to go for it.  If Naoumoff + Grieg + Dayton can = WOW, Philharmonia + Elgar + CCM can at least aim in that direction.

Party on! - MG

Needs and wants

Dear Readers,

While our orchestral Bill of Rights has been around a while, discussion arose last week in class about orchestral needs and wants as they pertain directly to our conducting.  Here are the questions I posed:

What conducting does the orchestra NEED?
What conducting does the orchestra WANT?
And what conducting do we do because we think it's cool?"

Please take a day or two to consider,  then I'll share with you the ideas we assembled.  I hope you will consider this a discussion, not a test or a statement of dogma.  I just think it is an interesting concept, and we came up with specific responses from both the class and our string quartet "orchestrina."  NOTE:  No violists were harmed in the writing of this post.

Regards to all.  Elgar sends his best.
MG

Land of Hope and Glory…and half-diminished 7th chords

No, dear readers, I have not forgotten about you.  I have been lost in Elgarland, trying to understand this 1st symphony.  Today's blogpost is from the note I just wrote for the Philharmonia, as we prepare to tackle this massive work next week:

"Elgar's language is ripe with half-diminished 7th chords and German +6 chords.  Extreme chromaticism is mixed with "noble" diatonic passages in ways which I find most challenging to understand.   Influences range from Wagner to Strauss to Brahms (compare the last mvmts of Elgar 1 and Brahms 3).  I think of the pressure on Elgar to produce an important "British" symphony, how long it took him to write one; he was actually older than Brahms was when he wrote his own 1st symphony.  Among many fascinating aspects of the work, I am finding the implications of half-diminished 7th's and how they distort and expand the architectural/harmonic design of sonata-allegro form especially compelling.  That may sound like a pretty obscure path to wander down, but it is one which I find important to travel in order to grasp Elgar's design, especially in the sprawling 1st movement.

At times I wish all music were as immediately effective as Act 1 duet from Madama Butterfly (even though it was cut and pasted together in an effort to create a convincing dramatic/lyric narrative), or as compactly constructed and direct in impact as Dvorak 9.  But it isn't, and the expansion of post-Wagnerian chromatic vocabulary altered symphonic design irrevocably.  Rachmaninoff tried the symphonic form 3 times, and only succeeded in the 2nd (in my opinion).  Elgar waited till he was 50, and built an extraordinary work of great power and beauty, but his language takes more effort to understand.  I hope you will find it worth the effort."

I have a lot more to say about the half-dim 7th chord thing, but not now.  Now it is time to congratulate my former student JUNGHYUN CHO for winning the Blue Danube International Opera Conducting Competition - WOO-HOO!!!  No one is more deserving; am so proud of him and happy for him.

Have a great weekend! - MG

Luisi, Brahms, China Philharmonic

Memo to:     TBSH'ers
From:          Johannes Brahms
In re:           China Philharmonic/Fabio Luisi performance of my 2nd Symphony, in D Major, Op. 73

Last night, I was stirred from my grave (note - didn't roll over in my grave, not until the last movement) by a rousing performance of my 2nd symphony.  The playing was energetic and committed (most of it), even if the wind/brass intonation was at times, "ripe."  Maestro Luisi conducted from memory (he knows my score very well); he is an elegant looking man with great hair - no beard, but I won't hold that against him.  His view of my music was interesting; I used the word "rousing" above, but I don't really know if that was my intent in this work.  Some have referred to my 2nd Symphony as my "Pastoral."  I don't know if it is that, either.

I am always grateful when someone decides to perform my music in public, even though I am usually nervous about what they will do with it.  As I am no longer very energetic, nor was I when I wrote the piece, it is difficult for me to reconcile Mo. Luisi's athletic physical approach to my music with my own girth and gait, or at least that of my former self.

"Interpretation" aside (Mein Gott, how I hate that word!), the intonation truly suffered the longer the performance went on.  Main culprits were the 3 and 4 horns (und warum immer so stark?), oboe, clarinet and trombones.  The matching of pitch was acutely off in the 2nd movement, and Mo. did nothing to address the concern.

That said, there was a lot of beautiful playing.  Don't understand why the 1st violins didn't all use the same fingering, and there were some indiscriminate slides - schöne - but not uniformly executed.  Great principal violist; I want him for my new "Dead Philharmonic"  (by the way, if anyone wants to help fund it, I can get you in now on the underground floor...).

This, from our "DEAD CRITICS ARCHIVES."

Enjoy the weekend; now I go back to work on Elgar 1, which is a heckuva of a piece.  More on that later, friends.  - MG

From "Scout" to "Trail"

Dear Readers,

Happy Friday!   A word puzzle for you today; what we call "word ladders."  We will start with an easy one:  How do you get from the word "DOG" to the word "CAT," changing just one letter at a time?  How many ladder "rungs" do you need?  An easy one - just three.  Now a complicated one, which seems like it should be easier than it turned out to be (thanks, John Murton, for the solution!):  How many rungs does it take to get from "SCOUT" to "TRAIL"?  While you ponder that one, here is the point…
…
…
…which revolves around Rachmaninoff 2nd Symphony.  While one might think that Rachmaninoff just sucked that ravishing tune in the 3rd movement (the clarinet tune, not the dozen other ravishing tunes) out of thin air, I can easily make the case that the tune was derived, if not constructed, from other material in the symphony.  So here is a note puzzle, based on the same concept as the word ladder:  How does Rachmaninoff get from bar 1 of the 1st movement to bar 6 of the 3rd?  How many musical/note "rungs" does he employ?  How many does he need?  Does this teach us anything about how he composed in general?  Are there other works in which he uses a similar approach to melodic generation through motivic expansion?
…
…
…ok, here's a hint about SCOUT to TRAIL - 14 rungs.

Have a great weekend, and keep a score nearby! - MG 

Why the 3rd mvmt of Fantastique is great...

Dear Readers,

Happy Thursday!  

We are working on Symphonie Fantastique (among other pieces) this semester in conducting class and the question came up about the 3rd movement - boring, or not boring?  Several members of the class were rather forthright about their feelings, and another member defended the movement, saying that she liked it a lot.  My assignment to her - give a talk on what you like about the 3rd mvmt of Fantastique.

Before weighing in further, I should add that I didn't like Fantastique at all for many years, not until I conducted it, in fact.  Furthermore, I didn't really get Berlioz style until working on and conducting Les Nuits d'Étés, Harold in Italy and Roméo.  Now even though I very much enjoy a lot of Berlioz, Fantastique is by no means my favorite of his works.  That said, I am especially fond of the 3rd movement.  Hmm…

So what do you think?  How do you feel about the 3rd movement?  And why?  I am interested in responses and opinions, and then I will be happy to share mine.

More to come.  Happy score study! - MG

"MAKE YOUR OWN METRONOME!"

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

It is a pleasure to report that I have a new homework assignment, from Oxford University Press, related to their acceptance of "The Beat Stops Here" for publication (yay!).  My task - to restart the TBSH blog and to share it with as many people as possible.  Given that I am not on social media, I hope you will take the opportunity to spread word about the blog with your friends and colleagues, and together, we can make empty, dumb beating a thing of the past.  We can cure podium deafness, one maestro at a time.  We can solve the problem of tempo illiteracy and wasted rehearsal time, if we do it together.

Public service announcement over.  I thought you might find this fun; it is from a new piece, about tempo.  I shared it with my students at opera bootcamp this summer and with my current class - hope you enjoy!  By the way, next CCM orch conducting workshop is next April 22-24, 2016: Conducting Rachmaninoff and Sibelius 2nd Symphonies.  Woo-hoo!  Can't wait.

MAKE YOUR OWN METRONOME!
An Interactive Arts and Crafts Project
I: FIRST, A TEST!
1) Do you like music?
2) Are you good at math?
3) If not, do you have a calculator?
4) Do you like scavenger hunts?
If you answered yes to at least three of the questions above, you passed the test and you can start to MAKE YOUR OWN METRONOME!  All you need are a few items you already have around your house or studio.  First you need some scores, then you need a pencil and paper, and a calculator (if you are not good at math).

II:  GATHER YOUR TOOLS!
Scores you will need - all of the Beethoven symphonies, especially the Scherzos.
Other scores you may use – Tchaikovsky 5 and 6, Carmen, Petrouchka, and/or any other scores you want that have metronome markings.  Gather your scores, pencil, paper (and calculator, if you are not good at math) in one place; you are now ready for the next step in MAKING YOUR OWN METRONOME!


III:  SCAVENGER HUNT!
Below you can see a list of numbers. All you have to do is hunt through the scores in front of you for pieces of music - either entire pieces or parts of pieces - that match the numbers below.  You may need more scores, so get some if you need them.  Ready?  OK, let’s go!
Metronome marking Piece #1 Piece #2 Piece #3
40
48
52
56
58
60
63
66
69
72
76
80
84
88
90
92
96
100
104
108
112
116
120
126
132
138
144
152
160
168
176
Now you may be thinking, “Boy, that is an awful lot of numbers!”  You are right, Maestro, it is!  That’s ok; you are smart.  If everyone could do it, the world would be filled with conductors, and aren’t we glad that it isn’t?  So start hunting for those numbers, take all the time you want, look through all the scores you need.  Here, I’ve given you a head start; below you can find a list of the metronome markings Beethoven himself assigned to the Scherzos of eight of his nine symphonies.  Why not all nine, you may ask?  Silly Maestro!  You must know that the 8th Symphony doesn’t have a Scherzo, silly!  Wasn’t that silly!  Isn’t this fun?
You may now be asking yourself, “But wait, what about all the numbers in between, like 41, or 65, or 113, or 147?  Why don’t we have to find THOSE numbers?”  OK, here is a secret, but don’t tell ANYONE – those numbers really don’t exist on a metronome.  No REAL composer uses them. You may see them in some pieces of music and even on some of those metronomes you find online, but most composers don’t use them, at least not GREAT composers.  All right, maybe Bartok, but he doesn’t count; he was Hungarian.  No, you really only need the ones listed above.
Another question?  OK, what is it?  “If I find a piece at 60, why do I have to find a different piece at 120?  Isn’t that just twice as fast?”  You are RIGHT, Maestro, you really only need to find pieces that are divisible into another number!  The same is true with 126, or 144, which are divisible both by 2 (63 and 72) and by 3 (42 and 48).  Now you are really getting the hang of it!
HERE IS YOUR BONUS STARTER LIST OF PIECES WITH NUMBERS!
Metronome Markings of the Scherzos from Beethoven Symphonies,
from slowest to fastest:
Symphony No. 5 in C Minor, Op. 67 dotted half = 96
Symphony No. 2 in D Major, Op. 36 dotted half = 100
Symphony No. 4 in B-Flat Major, Op. 60 dotted half = 100, Trio: 88
Symphony No. 1 in C Major, Op. 21* dotted half = 108
Symphony No. 6 in F Major, Op. 68 dotted half = 108
Symphony No. 3 in E-Flat Major, Op. 55, “Eroica” dotted half = 116
Symphony No. 9 in D Minor, Op. 125 (2nd mvmt) dotted half = 116
Symphony No. 7 in A Major, Op. 92 dotted half = 132, Trio: 84
* - 3rd movement marked “Menuetto”
Note:  Symphony No. 8 in F Major, Op. 93 has no Scherzo.  3rd movement Menuetto is at 126.

Wow!  That’s 8 different numbers already, and if you divide them in half, why, that’s 16 numbers.  See how much fun it is!  Now for the MOST IMPORTANT PART of MAKING YOUR OWN METRONOME!!  Are you ready?  Here it is:

IV: CHARGING YOUR NEW METRONOME!

Once you have as much of the chart filled in as you can (and you can keep adding to the chart as much as you want), you will be able to say
I MADE MY OWN METRONOME!
But the metronome WON’T WORK until you put in a battery.  Your metronome doesn’t take normal batteries, because it doesn’t run on electricity.  No, your new metronome runs on a “BRAIN BATTERY.”  All you have to do to charge your brain battery is to STUDY SCORES.  Learn the pieces you yourself found that correspond to the numbers in the chart you made all by yourself, so you know exactly how they sound and how fast they go.  The more you learn, the more powerful your brain battery will be and the longer it will last.  You may ask now, “Won’t that take a long time?”  The answer is YES - it will a long time.  It will take years.  So you had better get to work, Maestro.
You might now ask, “Now that I have my own NEW METRONOME, what can I do with it?  What is it good for?”  These are excellent questions:  Think about this:

V: USES FOR YOUR NEW METRONOME!
Now that you have your own new metronome and charged it with your brain battery, there are several useful and fun things you can do with it.  First, you can use it to find a right tempo, or the right tempo, of any other piece that has a metronome marking. Suppose you come a piece of music that you haven’t studied, and it has a metronome marking at the beginning.  Maybe you are looking at the aria known as “Musetta’s Waltz,” from act two of Puccini’s opera, La bohème.  It is written at 96 to the quarter note.  Take your metronome, go to the line that says “96” and you will find the Scherzo from Beethoven 5.  Everybody knows how this one goes!  Just sing; sing just the horn call: “Sol – sol – sol – so-o-o-l, sol – sol – sol – so-o-o-l,” etc.  And now you know the tempo for Musetta’s Waltz, at least as written by Puccini.
I know what you are going to say now.  You will say now (I already know!) that you have heard this Puccini song, and that it went much slower than that.
Right.  We said that your new metronome can be used to find a right tempo.  Many pieces of music have different “right” tempos, depending on who is playing or singing them.  Yes, Maestro, there is more than one “right” tempo for some pieces of music; in fact probably for all pieces of music.  Don’t confuse your NEW METRONOME with another toy, like the “Magic 8-Ball,” which knows ALL the right answers, if not the right tempos.  Your NEW METRONOME doesn’t have all the right tempos; it has all the tempos you need, but only you can decide if they are right or not.  But here is the neat thing about your NEW METRONOME – at least you don’t have to guess anymore what all those confusing numbers mean and how fast or slow they are.  Isn’t that neat?  So much fun!

More to come friends.  Rock 'n' roll! - MG