American violinist Rachel Barton Pine practically grew up with the Bruch Violin Concerto No.1; in her conversation with me about her new CD, Pine says that the Bruch was her first “grown up” concerto, after having learned Bach and Mozart. Though Pine has explored the full landscape of classical repertoire for her instrument, this is her first recording of Bruch’s concerto. Less surprising, perhaps, is that this is also her first Elgar recording. Although Elgar’s monumental work is getting more play these days, it’s still a piece that hovers just outside the standard repertoire. Pine’s contribution might help improve its standing even more. She had input from Sir Neville Marriner (just a few months before his death in 2016), and Sir Neville’s teacher was Billy Reed, who advised Elgar during composition. So, Ms. Pine felt a sense of continuity that traces back to the composer. More importantly, through her usual excellent research and immersive rehearsal, Pine has drawn out some of the personal expression that Elgar wove into his very detailed score. Bruch and Elgar may seem like an unusual pairing, but not for Pine: having listened to Yehudi Menuhin’s recording of the works for so many years, to her it’s natural.
Elgar & Bruch: Violin Concertos – Pine, Litton, BBC Symphony Orchestra Buy Now
Here at All Classical Portland, we have our own library of CDs which we draw from to use in our day-to-day radio programming. However, rather than playing these CDs directly on the radio, volunteers first burn each CD into our hard drives, where we can use them on-air in the form of .wav files. One of my current tasks as an intern is to edit .wav files of pieces that have been burned into the computer but are still not quite ready for air play. Using a music editing software, I listen to each piece and edit the amount of silence that occurs before a piece starts, after it ends, and between movements of pieces like concertos and symphonies. This task is important because there are often up to four or five seconds of silence before sound starts on a CD track. I edit each piece to begin with just the right amount of pause for the radio host to press play after announcing the piece, and set the stage for the start of the music.
Measuring the moments of silence that bookend a piece got me thinking about the crucial role that silence plays in our experience of listening to classical music. Music, of course, is made up of sounds, but it is also characterized by the silences that happen between the sounds. The silence that takes place within a piece of music can create profound effects – effects of surprise, humor, fear, or a sense of expanded time and space. Sometimes these moments of silence are tiny, even unnoticeable to a listener. Other times, they can interrupt the flow of music and shock a listener into a new level of awareness. Throughout the history of classical music, many composers have realized that silence can be just as expressive as sound, holding different philosophies towards their use of silence as a tool to create different effects on the listener. Let’s explore some of those effects here.
Silence as Surprise: Joseph Haydn, String Quartet Op. 33 No. 2, “The Joke,” IV. Presto (1781)
Haydn’s music is filled with humor and wit, and one of his common tricks is to manipulate silence in his pieces, which deliberately thwarts listeners’ expectations of what will happen next within his otherwise predictable and logically organized forms. One of Haydn’s more famous uses of silences occurs at the end of his second opus 33 string quartet, nicknamed “the Joke.”
The final movement, “Presto,” has a rondo form, containing a recurring main melody that alternates with contrasting themes. Haydn’s main melody is a buoyant tune comprised of four two-measure phrases. After several variations on the theme and a slower Adagio passage, Haydn starts up the theme again in its original form to close out the piece. This is where the “joke” of the piece happens – Haydn now splits up the tune into its four smaller components, with a two-bar rest between each one. When the melody finally ends, the piece appears to be over. Unsuspecting audience members might start to applaud, only to stop in confusion when the music starts back up again after a four-measure rest. The quartet plays the first half of the melody, but fails to finish out the phrase, leaving the audience hanging in suspense. As an uncertain and awkwardly hilarious silence fills the hall, the audience breathes out in relief and laughter as the quartet finally sets their bows down.
Silence as Release: Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings(1936)
In contrast to the Haydn example above, silence can also be used for the opposite effect, creating a moment of space, relieving the audience and releasing tension built up after sound has said all it can possibly say. One example of silence as an act of release can be found in Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings, which was originally composed as an Adagio movement in his String Quartet, Op. 11. The piece outlines an arc that travels from hushed sadness to intense grieving, and finally back to silence. The entirety of the 8-minute work develops out of a stepwise melody stated at the start of the piece. The music progressively builds in intensity via denser textures, stronger dynamics, and ascending registers in the strings.
At one point, the intensity reaches such a level of agonized pain that the strings appear unable to go any further, stuck on a note in the melody that gets louder and louder until it is thrown off into complete silence, creating a climax of emotional catharsis. (This moment happens at about 5:23-6:05 in the above recording by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, but I recommend listening to the whole piece for the full effect). Echoes of the climax note are left resonating in the empty space before the strings begin again in a quiet understatement, slowly dying away to the end of the piece with a new sense of peace and resignation. One of our hosts here at All Classical Portland, Christa Wessel, often says on air that classical music can serve as a “respite from the ruckus of the world.” The impact of this silence in Barber’s Adagio for Strings, a moment to sigh and catch one’s breath, is one of those magical places of respite you can enter into that can never be explained completely by words.
Silence as Interval: Toru Takemitsu’sThe Dorian Horizon(1966)
The silence in Barber’s Adagio for Strings serves as a turning point, marking a moment between the climax of the piece the gradual descent to the end. This notion of silence as an interval between two events was key to the compositional technique of Toru Takemitsu (1930-1996), a Japanese composer known for his works which synthesized Western classical forms and experimental 20th century techniques with traditional Eastern sounds and instruments.
Takemitsu was skilled in subtlety manipulating orchestral colors using unusual percussion, electronics, spatial arrangements of instruments, and silence, imbuing music with a sensuality he believed it had lost. Takemitsu’s use of silence in particular was heavily informed by the Japanese aesthetic of ma. Ma is an everyday word from the Japanese language that incorporates various meaning of space and time – the space between two structural parts, the gap between two events in time. Ma is a type of emptiness, an interval of in-between, or a negative space. Ma can be seen in various aspects of Japanese culture, such as the deliberate pause at the end of a bow before coming back up, or the honoring of pauses and silence in conversation. Ma is a core concept underlying Japanese art forms, including architecture, gardens, sumi-e brush painting, and Noh theater. For music, Ma is the silence between all notes.
The empty space of ma is not a void, but an energy filled with possibility. This sense of possibility can be heard in the silences of Takemitsu’s 1966 piece The Dorian Horizon. The Dorian Horizon is a collage of varying orchestral textures, some dissonant and grating, some soft and gentle. Each sound event is separated in space and time by intervals of silence or near silence. Sometimes this silence is absolute, creating a sense of space and sparseness. Other times, the silence is colored with deep ominous drones in the cello and bass, creating an atmosphere of claustrophobia and unease. In his own writings, Takemitsu defined ma as “the powerful silence.” ThroughoutThe Dorian Horizon, it is the silences from which the events of sound arise, more than harmony or form, that create a sense of tension and resolution.
Silence as Sound: John Cage’s4’33“ (1952)
Early on in Takemitsu’s career as a composer, he was preoccupied with absorbing Western European orchestral music into his idiom. In his later years, however, Takemitsu found himself returning to experimentation with Japanese instruments and music styles. He credited this return in part to his contact with John Cage, who’s own artistic philosophy was greatly influenced by Japanese art and thought.
One cannot discuss silence in music without addressing John Cage, who proposed the radical notion that there is no such thing as silence. Cage expressed his artistic philosophy through his compositions, but also through a series of essays and performative lectures throughout his life which are summarized in his book Silence: Lectures and Writings. As Cage describes in Silence, artists have always wanted their work to mean something, to do something. Cage, rather, aspired to be meaningless through his work. For Cage, that idea that art is useless and it expresses nothing is the very source of its strength. He declares in his “Lecture on Nothing,” “I have nothing to say and I am saying it and that is poetry as I need it.”
Silence, in a way, became Cage’s symbol of this profound meaninglessness. Arguably Cage’s most famous (or infamous) work is his 4’33”, a three-movement work composed in 1952. 4’33”‘s score consists of three blank pages. The performer is instructed not to play their instrument throughout all three movements, which are to be timed with a stopwatch. Such a concept may seem like a gimmick, but unlike Haydn’s motivations in his Op. 33 quartet, Cage did not intend for 4’33” to be treated as a joke. 4’33” is a piece comprised entirely of silence – or is it? Without any notes to latch onto, the listener starts to become aware of the sounds in the environment around them – the uncomfortable rustling of clothes, the ever-present hum of the air conditioning, the traffic outside, even the thoughts running through their head. According to Cage-ian scholar Kyle Gann, 4’33” represents “an act of framing, of enclosing environmental and unintended sounds in a moment of attention in order to open the mind to the fact that all sounds are music.” And indeed, in a recollection of the premiere, Cage describes: “You could hear the wind stirring outside during the first movement. During the second, raindrops began pattering the roof, and during the third people themselves made all kinds of interesting sounds as they talked or walked out.” Through the conduit of silence, Cage gave countless musicians and performers permission to go beyond the limitations of standard instrumentation and embrace all sounds as music.
After the Last Note
One of my favorite moments to experience in classical music concerts is witnessing the very last note of a piece. As the final chord hangs in the air, the reverberations gradually dissipate through the concert hall. In that moment before the applause, it is as if the entire audience is holding their breath together in suspense and awe. Each listener was taken on a different emotional journey while listening to the piece just played, but in this moment everyone has arrived in the same place. Then, as the conductor lowers their baton, there is sudden exhale of relief. The hall once again resonates with life; this time not with the tones of instruments, but with the warm rush of applause and elated “bravos.”
Even though the radio is not quite the same as a live concert, I feel that the hosts at All Classical are also sensitive to this special moment after a piece ends. When I edit the length of silence at the end of a piece, it is my job to create a fade out with a generous six seconds of silence after the last note ends. This gives the radio host the freedom to let the resonance of the last sounds and the emotional weight of the piece settle in with the listener before announcing the conclusion of the piece and moving on to the next track of the day’s program.
By holding that precious space of silence with their listeners before speaking again, an All Classical host acts like the conductor in a concert, holding the baton up in the air before lowering it as a signal of finality, welcoming in applause from the audience. While everyone listens and experiences the station in their own way, I often personally feel that when listening to radio I am not truly listening alone. Rather, I am listening simultaneously with thousands of other people also tuned into the station. Maybe this is why when a piece ends on All Classical I get that same feeling of shared suspense and relief as I experience in concerts.
In the concert hall, on the radio, and in our daily lives, where does the sound end, and when does the silence begin? Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky died only nine days after the premiere of his Sixth Symphony, the “Pathetique.”* Like the man himself, the end of the final movement fades away into complete silence. In the last few measures, the only sounds come from muted cellos and basses playing a low, deep B minor chord and sounding as if coming from some distant, far-off place. In the last measure of the symphony, Tchaikovsky places a rest sign with a fermata (a musical “pause”). The piece concludes in open-ended silence, merging in with the ambience of the concert hall and the energy of the audience members. When does the piece end, and when does life begin again? The conductor lowers their arms, but a heaviness remains.
How do you experience silence in classical music? Let us know by emailing intern@allclassical.org.
*The Oregon Symphony will be performing Tchaikovsky’s Sixth Symphony, along with Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in Salem on Friday, February 9 at 8:00pm at the Smith Auditorium and in Portland on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday,February 10, 11, and 12 all at 7:30pm at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. Visit the OSO website for details and tickets.
All Classical Portland celebrates Black History Month during the month of February, featuring some of the best recordings of composers of African origin (American, and around the world). Here are some recommended recordings of music by black composers, musicians, and conductors. If you purchase any of the music below using the Archivmusic.com links we have provided, All Classical’s programming receives a small portion from the sales. Happy listening!
But Not Forgotten – Clarinet Music by African American Composers / Marcus Eley, clarinet, Lucerne DeSa, piano – includes music by Dorothy Rudd Moore, Alvin Batiste, Clarence Cameron White, Undine Smith Moore, and more.
Violin Concertos By Black Composers / Barton, Hege, Encore Chamber Orchestra – includes music by Joseph Bologne Chevalier de Saint-Georges, Joseph White, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, and Chevalier De Meude-Monpas.
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor: Chamber Music / Kelly Burke, clarinet, John Fadial, violin – includes Coleridge-Taylor’s Quintet for Clarinet and Strings in F Sharp minor, African Dances for Violin and Piano, and Nonet in F minor.
American Classics – Edmond Dédé / Richard Rosenberg, Hot Springs Music Festival Symphony Orchestra – includes Edmond Dédé’s Chicago, Merliton fin de siècle, Rêverie champêtre, and more.
Ellington: Black, Brown & Beige / Jo Ann Falletta, Buffalo Philharmonic – Includes Ellington’s Black, Brown and Beige Suite, Harlem, Three Black Kings, and more.
Hailstork: An American Port Of Call / JoAnn Falletta, Virginia Symphony – Includes Hailstork’s Symphony No. 1, Launch Out On Endless Seas, Fanfare on “Amazing Grace,” and more.
Joplin: The Complete Rags, Waltzes & Marches / William Appling, piano – An extensive of Joplins ragtime pieces, including Sugar Cane, The Cascades, Bink’s Waltz, and more.
Still: Summerland / Susan Dewitt Smith, piano, Alexa Still, flute / New Zealand Quartet – Includes William Grant Stills’s Prelude for Flute, String Quintet and Piano, Pastorela, Folk Suite No. 1, and more. (Note from John Pitman: Susan Dewitt Smith is from Portland, and has been featured on our Thursdays @ Three program!)
Still: La Guiablesse, Danzas Da Panama / Jackson, Still, Berlin Symphoniker – Includes three of John Pitman’s favorites: Danzas de Panama, Summerland and Quit Dat Fool’nish.
Samuel Coleridge Taylor, and Fela Sowande / Chicago Sinfonietta/Paul Freeman, cond. – features Fela Sowande’s beautiful African Suite for Strings.
American Classics – Dreamer – A Portrait Of Langston Hughes / W.G. Still, Margaret Bonds – Includes Bonds’s The Negro Speaks of Rivers, Kurt Weill’s Street Scene: Lonely House, and more.
Imani Winds – Includes pieces by Jeff Scott, Ravel, Piazzolla, Mongo Santamaria, and Umoja, a piece by Imani Wind’s flutist Valerie Coleman.(Note from John Pitman: One of their first recordings, and still of favorite here at All Classical Portland.)
George Walker: Lyric for Strings / Paul Freeman, Chicago Sinfonietta – Includes pieces by composers Ulysses S. Kay, George Walker, Roque Cordero, Adolphus Hailstork, and more.
Florence Beatrice Price: Dances in the Canebrakes / Althea Waites, piano – Includes pieces by William Grant Still, Margaret Bonds, Ed Bland, and Florence Beatrice Price.
Obo Addy: Our Beginning / Kronos Quartet – includes pieces by Dumisani Maraire, Hassan Hakmoun, Foday Musa Suso, Lawrence JKS Tamusuza, Obo Addy, and more. (Note from John Pitman: Obo Addy taught music at Lewis & Clark College prior to his death in 2012.)
Do you have any other favorite classical music recordings by black composers or musicians? Email us at intern@allclassical.org to let us know!
Since 1976, the United States has officially recognized February as Black History Month, an annual time to recognize the central roles blacks have played in U.S. history and a celebration of the achievements of African Americans in our culture and society. All Classical Portland will be joining the celebration of Black History Month, featuring some of the best recordings of composers of African origin (American, and around the world).
One of the critical values of classical music (and of art in general) is that it allows listeners to hear the world through different lenses. Through their unique set of backgrounds, experiences, and values, composers create works that expose their audiences to humanity’s rich variety of perspectives and cultural traditions. However, as an art that draws from a primarily western European tradition, celebrating diversity is also one of classical music’s greatest challenges to overcome. Even today, black composers remain on the outskirts of the classical music establishment. Social prejudices, as well as other factors, have excluded them from entering the classical canon, which continues to be largely dominated by white, male composers. However, African-Americans have deeply influenced the orchestral tradition in the United States and beyond.
One of the most prominent African American contributors to the history of classical music was William Grant Still (1895-1978), a leading figure in the Harlem Renaissance and known to his colleagues as the “Dean of Afro-American composers.” Born in Mississippi and raised in Arkansas, Still took formal violin lessons and taught himself clarinet, saxophone, oboe, viola, cello and double bass. He was interested in pursuing a college music education, but his mother pushed him to study medicine at Wilberforce University in Ohio, concerned that societal limitations would prevent a successful career as a black composer. Nevertheless, Still later dropped out of Wilberforce and entered Oberlin University to study music.
Still had a diverse musical training. He wrote jazz arrangements for blues masters and bandleaders such as Artie Shaw, Paul Whiteman and W.C. Handy, but also received formal instruction from composers including George Chadwick of the first New England school, and the French modernist composer Edgard Varèse. Over his career, Still wrote over 150 compositions, including operas, ballets, symphonies, chamber works, choral pieces, and solo vocal works.
Still broke racial barriers and earned many “firsts” in the realm of classical music. He was the first African American to conduct a major symphony orchestra in the United States, as well as first to have an opera produced by a major company in the United States. Additionally, Still composed the first symphonic work by a black composer to be performed by a major U.S. orchestra, the Afro-American Symphony, premiered by the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra in 1931 under the direction of Howard Hanson. On Thursday, February 1st, All Classical will be featuring this work alongside some of the other greatest works by African-American composers.
The Afro-American Symphony fits within the standard framework of a European four-movement symphony but incorporates African American musical idioms throughout the piece. By blending jazz, blues, and spirituals into a traditional classical form and placing them within the context of the concert hall, Still highlights these styles as something to be celebrated, rather than downcast as low class or vulgar music. Let’s explore the ways that Still interweaves these three African American idioms – jazz, blues, and spirituals – into his Afro-American Symphony, with a focus on the first movement.
The Afro-American Symphony is scored for full orchestra, including celeste, harp, and tenor banjo (the piece was the first time a banjo had been used in symphonic music). The symphony has a typical sonata-form first movement, a slow movement, a scherzo, and a fast finale. While Still did not intend the Afro-American Symphony to be an explicitly programmatic piece, his notebooks did include alternate titles for each movement (“Longing,” “Sorrow,” “Humor,” and “Aspiration”). After completion of the symphony, Still linked each movement to verses from poems by the poet Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906), which heighten the emotional impact of each movement. Dunbar was one of the first African American poets to achieve a national reputation from both white and black audiences. His accurate portrayals of African American life in the South using folk materials and dialects aptly complement Still’s efforts to interweave African and European traditions in his piece.
For the music itself, the opening movement begins with an introductory melody by the English horn, followed by the first theme played by a muted trumpet, a blues melody adapted from W.C. Handy’s Saint Louis Blues. This tune becomes a prominent centerpiece, reappearing in altered forms throughout both the first movement and the symphony as a whole. We might now think of blues music as any sort of sad, downcast kind of song, but the blues has a rich African American history, beginning as a folk style that developed in the southern United States and becoming a standard genre by the end of the nineteenth century.
Since the 1920s, the blues has helped shape jazz, country music, and rock’n’roll, and many other popular musical genres. Still’s melody has several key features that make it a classic blues tune, including its use of the standard twelve-bar blues harmonic progression, a swung rhythm, and a use of lowered fifth, third, and seventh scale degrees in the melody that imitate “blue” notes. Still was aware that inserting a blues tune into his symphony could cause some listeners to perceive it as unrefined. However, as he writes in his sketchbook, his decision to place the tune at the forefront of the piece reflects his fierce defense of blues as a powerful emblem of African American identity:
“I harbor no delusions as to the triviality of the Blues, the secular folk music of the American Negro, despite their lowly origin and the homely sentiment of their texts. The pathos of their melodic content bespeaks the anguish of human hearts and belies the banality of their lyrics. What is more, they, unlike many Spirituals, do not exhibit the influence of Caucasian music.”
Other elements throughout the movement reflect characteristic features of African American music. Later, for example, the first theme repeats in the clarinet, this time with interjections from other winds. These interjections between short phrases of melody suggest the “call-and-response” style found in much African music. Still also frequently uses syncopation in the melody and accompaniment (rhythms with accents displaced on the weak beat) and chords including both major and minor thirds, further suggesting African American-influenced jazz music.
Also of note is Still’s unusual instrumental timbres. Still groups instruments together to create sounds typical of jazz big bands, including trumpets and trombones with Harmon mutes, drum set effects such as steady taps on the bass drum, dampened strikes on the cymbal, and col legno (on the wood of the bow) rhythms in the violins. All of these factors give a nod to the seminal influence of jazz as the style that became most associated with America between the two World Wars. American classical composers seeking a way to write music that was distinctly “American” took advantage of the new idiom of jazz as inspiration, including George Gershwin, Marc Blitzstein, and Leonard Bernstein. Jazz also influenced classical composers in Europe, including Erik Satie and Igor Stravinsky.
As the first movement continues to develop the jazzy melodies from the first theme, however, it transitions to a second theme with a melancholy mood, with pentatonic contours suggestive of an African American spiritual. Spirituals originated when slaves heard hymns upon conversion to Christianity and used the hymns as musical models, applying their own ideas to Biblical texts with themes of longing freedom from bondage. Still’s combination of blues and spiritual-influenced music fittingly reflects movement’s subtitle of “Longing” while sharing a core aspect of the African American experience with his audience.
The rest of the symphony continues with this fusion of African American experience into classical European form. The second movement, Adagio (“Sorrow,”) continues with themes that relate to the first movement but carrying on in the spiritual style. The third movement, Animato (“Humor”), presents a pair themes and variations. Interestingly, several measures into the first theme is a tune that closely resembles Gershwin’s “I Got Rhythm.” Did Gershwin get his melody from Still, or was it the other way around? While scholars haven’t reached a decisive conclusion, musicologist Catherine Parsons Smith suggests that Still believed Gershwin had picked up the melodic and rhythmic ideas of the tune from improvisations by Still while playing in the orchestra pit of Shuffle Along ten years earlier. Either way, the melody is a joy to listen to, and in addition to the more fanfare-like second theme the movement echoes the themes of African American emancipation and empowerment in the Dunbar poem attached to the movement. The final movement, Lento con risoluzione (“Aspiration”), begins with a poignant hymn-like section reminiscent of gospel and choral music, and gradually culminates into a lively finale.
The Afro-American Symphony is a compelling reflection of Still’s diverse range of experiences as a composer and musician. Still’s incorporation of three prominent forms of African American music into his piece, the blues, jazz, and spirituals, creates a unique symphonic style that celebrates the complexity and richness of the black experience in the post-Civil War musical era. Since the 1931 premiere of the Afro-American Symphony, Still’s multifarious style has gone on to influence even non-classical music. In 1934, Still moved to Los Angeles, where he composed music for films alongside his classical works, helping shape a style that other composers and arrangers used for scoring films and popular music. The Afro-American Symphony, however, remains as Still’s landmark piece, and remains one of the most frequently performed symphonies by an American composer in the United States. Bringing together a lifetime of musical experiences, it has earned a place in the canon of the Western classical music tradition not in spite of, but because of its daring and creative integration of African American and European idioms.
Hungry for more listening? Music Director John Pitman also has some recommended recordings of Still’s works from All Classical’s music library. John chose a particular recording of Still’s Symphony for several reasons:
“The performance, by the Cincinnati Philharmonia Orchestra, is especially bright and full of life. There are also two rare gems by the composer on the CD, and a work by Olly Wilson called Expansions II, which connects Still’s mid-century music to more recent times. The liner notes are especially valuable, as they include several paragraphs by the composer’s daughter, Judith Anne Still, who has dedicated her life to preserving her father’s important contribution to American music.”
If you are interested in listening to this CD, it can be purchased via this link to Arkivmusic.com. When purchasing the CD using this link, All Classical’s programming receives 10% from the sale.
Thanks for reading, and stay tuned for more blog posts this month featuring composers, conductors and musicians in celebration of Black History month, including Marian Anderson, Paul Robeson, André Watts, Kathleen Battle and more!
References
Burkholder, J. Peter, Grout, Donald Jay, and Palisca, Claude V. A History of Western Music. 9th New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2014. Print.
Burkholder, J. Peter, and Palisca, Claude V. Norton Anthology of Western Music. Volume Three: The Twentieth Century and After. 7th New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2014. Print.
Conductor Teddy Abrams has a longstanding connection to Oregon and the Pacific Northwest, as the music director of the Britt Festival. He also the heads the Louisville Orchestra, which has a history that is near-legendary in the realm of recorded music. In the 1950s, the mayor of Louisville, along with like-minded civic leaders, felt that American audiences deserved something that European audiences had enjoyed for centuries: music of their own time. The Louisville Orchestra recorded American music that no other label would touch. They performed it regularly, too, and between those two efforts, effectively changed the landscape of American music. Conductors around the world heard these recordings, and programmed more American music. The positive effects ripple into our own time.
However, we live in a new era, and Abrams, with the Louisville, are once again making new sounds heard. All In is the orchestra’s first recording in at least 20 years. It begins with Unified Field, by Mr. Abrams. The idea behind the piece is that we, as Americans in the 21st century, have access to more music than at any other time in history. As a result, we expose ourselves to a wider range of styles than anyone before us. Unified Field represents the many styles we encounter, but it’s also a musical portrait of America itself. The diversity and experiences that individuals and communities bring to the American cultural experience are expressed in his piece.
Abrams bridges the miles between Oregon and Kentucky with another, very special talent: Storm Large. She sings three songs on All In: One by her (A Woman’s Heart); a classic Cole Porter tune (It’s Alright with Me); and one written for her by Abrams: The Long Goodbye. All of them fantastic vehicles for Storm’s unique voice and abilities, and a good case for a musical “Unified Field” theory.
One thing I find gratifying about classical music is that there is always more to learn from this art form. Whatever your relationship is with classical music right now, it can be enriching to continue learning about it, regardless of your level of experience and knowledge with the genre. It is a joy to hear All Classical carry this spirit of learning into their day-to-day programming. Composer’s Datebook and The Score, for instance, dive deep into the background and compositional process of different pieces of music. On air between pieces, All Classical hosts will often give tidbits of insight into the music just played or the next piece coming up. How old a composer was when they wrote a piece, a memory of the first time the host heard a piece – you never know what interesting and inspiring knowledge you might come across when listening to All Classical.
Are you eager to learn more about classical music? Whether new to classical music and want a more structured introduction to the genre, or already a long-time listener, there are many options for deepening your relationship with classical music in some way. The sheer number of resources and information available, however, can make such a task daunting. To make the process easier, let me suggest a few different pathways of learning to take, depending on your personality, preferences, or specific interests. Consider this a “Choose Your Own Adventure” – for classical music!
The Bookworm’s Pathway: Exploring Historical Context
Do you define your quality time as spending a night in and curling up with a good book? Then you may find digging into the background and context of the music you love to be a rewarding experience. Who wrote this music? Where, and when did they write it? Why did they write it, and what social and political factors may have influenced their artistic output? Oftentimes I find that asking these questions and learning about a particular composer or time period of music can lead me into an ever-deepening rabbit hole of even more and topics to explore and pieces of music that I have never heard before.
Begin by creating a “listening tour” for yourself. If you don’t have the time or resources to go out to concerts on a regular basis, do not fear! Simply make a music playlist using a favorite composer, instrument, or time period as a starting point. Services like Spotify are great for this because they can recommend music based on your listening preferences. Once you have your personal playlist created, find a resource to learn more about the topic or theme of your playlist. (For example, you might seek out a biography or documentary on the composer you are interested in). A site like Wikipedia can also be a useful launching point, but there are also several quality websites that focus specifically on classical music knowledge. Here’s a list of recommended, free resources:
Building your playlist:
ClassicalArchives– An archive of classical music recordings. This is a great place to search, purchase, and download recordings. Entering search terms for classical music on iTunes can be a nuisance at times, but this site has useful search functions by composer, period, principal instrument, and more.
Spotify “Composers Basics” Playlists – In the Classical Music section of Spotify, a number of playlists have been created for individual composers which feature their most influential and loved works.
Learning about composers and their works:
Classical Music Navigator– A comprehensive encyclopedia of music works, composers, as well as forms and styles of music.
Classical Net– A catalog of both information and news on classical music, including CD reviews and recommended recordings.
AllMusic– A website includes reviews of new music from all genres, but also containing useful many composer biographies and program-note style descriptions of classical music pieces. Simply look up a classical music term using the search bar.
Resources on the All Classical website:
Beyond The Music Blog– All Classical’s Music Director, John Pitman, listens to new classical music releases each month and selects one album to feature each month. If you are interested in seeking out new music or performers, this blog is for you!
Programs on All Classical– Discover programs like Club Mod, The Score, Northwest Previews, and more.
The Explorer’s Pathway: Discovering Your Local Classical Music Scene
This pathway is the perfect option if you love live music and enjoy going out to meet new people. Challenge yourself to attend a classical music event every week or month. Try going to events that feature performers, groups, or styles you’ve never heard before – there are likely to be many hidden gems in your city waiting to be discovered. If you live in the Portland, OR, the classical music scene here is alive and well. Wherever you are, your local new publications are a good place to start searching.
Here are some useful resources for finding music events in the Portland area:
All Classical’s Northwest Previews– Tune in to All Classical Friday mornings at 8:00 am for a five-minute feature highlighting arts events taking place throughout the upcoming weekend. If you miss the broadcast time, Northwest Previews is also available as a podcast.
Oregon Symphony Events Calendar– The Oregon Symphony presents a variety of concerts each season, from symphonies and concertos to movie score music.
OregonLive Events Calendar– The Oregonian’s online calendar features submissions for events in the metro area as well as other cities in Oregon. Filter your search by location, keyword, or category (including classical music).
The Tinkerer’s Pathway: Pick Up an Instrument and Play!
Have always been itching to learn to read music for the first time or pick up an instrument you haven’t played since your high school days? If you are a hands-on person and enjoy immersing yourself in the process of whatever it is you are doing, this pathway is for you. Learning to make music can be a valuable source of growth and enjoyment for the mind, body, and soul. An increasing gamut of scientific research is supporting the finding that music making promotes neuroplasticity, or the brain’s ability to reorganize and develop new synaptic connections between neurons. Learning a new instrument is a particularly effective practice that feeds the brain by strengthening existing and making new neuronal connections.
The science behind learning a new instrument may be complex, but the challenge of taking on this path is deceptively simple: keep it fun. Committing yourself to practicing for a certain amount of time on your instrument every day can turn your adventure into an obligation. Instead, find ways to engage with your instrument that remind you of the joy of music, whatever that means for you – learning your favorite songs on the piano and singing along, getting together with other musicians and playing duets, or maybe even writing your own music! The possibilities are endless. Here are some learning resources that are free and simple to use, on your own time:
Coursera Music Courses– Coursera is an online platform that offers free MOOCs (massive open online courses) on a variety of subjects from top universities and institutions from around the world. For music, Coursera offers options for learning music theory fundamentals as well as more specific topics, including guitar playing, songwriting, and jazz improvisation.
Music Theory Websites – Websites like musictheory.net and teoria are great for building up a basic knowledge in musical elements like scales, chords, and intervals, and include exercises in ear training, rhythmic skills, and more.
iOS and Android apps – There are a variety of free or low-cost apps for learning and playing music, including SimplyPiano, Yousician, and Uberchord.
YouTube Channels – There are many quality YouTube channels and videos on learning just about any instrument. Go out there and explore!
There are many ways to experience classical music, but one thing we have in common is that we are all listeners. Even when life gets in the way and we might not be able to engage with the music to the extent you would like to (as a reader, concert-goer, or musician), we can always listen. Your financial support of classical music is also a tremendously impactful action that doesn’t require too much time and effort on your part. But if you do have the time, challenge yourself to choose one of these learning pathways and stick to it. You never know what new discoveries about classical music, and also about yourself, may come your way.
Do you have a favorite resource for connecting with classical music that was not discussed here? If so, feel free send us a message at intern@allclassical.org.
References
Seinfeld, Sofia, et al. “Effects of music learning and piano practice on cognitive function, mood and quality of life in older adults.” Front Psychol. 2013; 4: 810. PMC. Web. 17 Jan. 2018.
Slevc, L. R., Okada, B. M. (2015). Processing structure in language and music: a case for shared reliance on cognitive control. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 22, 637-652.
Wan, Catherine Y., and Gottfried Schlaug. “Music Making as a Tool for Promoting Brain Plasticity across the Life Span.” 16.5 (2010): 566–577. PMC. Web. 17 Jan. 2018.
Here’s one for listeners who love the sound of the cello. A whole gang of them. Amit Peled is an Israeli-born cellist who, at 6’ 5” could have pursued a professional basketball career (he considered it), is now a professor of music at the Peabody Conservatory of Music of the Johns Hopkins University. He’s taking his “gang” of top cello students around the country, giving them the invaluable lessons of live performance and life on the road as a professional musician. Mr. Peled says that sometimes it’s exhausting, both for him as well as them. But the rewards come with those moments on stage, when his young colleagues can collaborate with him by bringing music to life. Another treat for anyone who loves cello history, and the recordings of Pablo Casals: Mr. Peled has been granted, by Casals’ widow, the 1733 Goffriler instrument that Casals himself played. The accompanying conversation, with audio samples, tell the story and give you a sense of what Mr. Peled is accomplishing with his young players.
The past which is not recoverable in any other way is embedded, as if in amber, in the music, and people can regain a sense of identity. . . — Oliver Sacks
In our last two posts investigating the fascinating realm of Music and the Brain, we explored what drives our musical preferences and some of the human body’s physiological responses of listening to music. Today, we look into the connections between music and memory, and how music can serve as an agent of healing through helping sufferers of Alzheimer’s Disease deal with memory loss.
Saving His Music
In a past Thursdays @ Three broadcast, and in various events in the Portland area, pianist Naomi has shared the music of Steve Goodwin, a pianist and composer with Alzheimer’s. Through their project Saving His Music, Naomi has helped Steve write down and capture his music before it fades into the fog of his disease.
Alzheimer’s is a form of dementia, a chronic disorder that causes problems with memory, thinking, and behavior. While the majority of people with Alzheimer’s are 65 and older, Alzheimer’s is not a normal part of aging and progressively worsens over time. Alzheimer’s begins in the early stages with mild memory loss, but in the later stages of the disease, a patient will experience symptoms that interfere with daily life, including disorientation, mood and behavior changes, and difficulty speaking.
Steve’s music, often inspired by nature, served as the soundtrack for his family’s life and easily flowed from his hands to the piano. Much of it was never written down, and early onset Alzheimer’s made it difficult for Steve to play piano. But by recalling moments from his songs, Steve has been collaborating with Naomi to fill in the gaps. His music, though he may struggle to get it out, still remains deeply instilled within him.
The connection between music and memory
Music has a profound connection to our personal memories. Listening to an old favorite song can take you back years to the moment that you first heard it. A 2009 study done by cognitive neuroscientist Petr Janata at the University of California, Davis, found a potential explanation for this link between music and memory by mapping the brain activity of a group of subjects while they listened to music.
Janata had subjects listen to excerpts of 30 different songs through headphones while recording their brain activity with functional magnetic resonance imaging, or fMRI. The songs were chosen randomly from “top 100” charts from years when each subject would have been 8 to 18 years old. After each excerpt, the subject was asked to answer questions about song, including whether the song was familiar, enjoyable, or linked to a specific autobiographical memory. Janata found that songs linked to strong emotions and memories corresponded with fMRI images that had greater activity in the upper part of the medial pre-frontal cortex, which sits right behind the forehead. This suggests that upper medial pre-frontal cortex, which is also responsible for supporting and retrieving long-term memories, acts as a “hub” that links together music, emotions, and memories.
These findings were supported by an earlier study, where Janata found that this very same region of the brain was active in tracking tonal progressions while listening to music. This music-tracking activity became even stronger when a subject was listening to a song associated with powerful autobiographical memories. In this way, Janata describes that listening to a piece of familiar music “serves as a soundtrack for a mental movie that starts playing in our head,” calling back memories of a particular person or place.
Music therapy and Alzheimer’s
The medial upper prefrontal cortex “hub” also happens to be one of the last areas of the brain to atrophy from Alzheimer’s. This may explain why people with Alzheimer’s can still recall old songs from their past, and why music can bring about strong responses from people with Alzheimer’s, causing patients to brighten up and even sing along. In fact, a type of therapy called music therapy takes advantage of this very phenomenon.
Music Therapy is a type of non-verbal therapy that uses instruments and music to help people work through a range of emotional, cognitive, and social issues. Music Therapy can be a profound tool for healing through using the process of making and listening to music, providing people with a powerful channel for communication and expression.
How exactly does music therapy work? As we discussed in our previous post on physiological responses to music, music can act decrease anxiety and stress by affecting heart rate, breathing, and promoting the release of endorphins. But as we have discovered, music can also help bring back previously forgotten memories.
A recent study from Brown University School of Public Health found that the use of a music therapy program on long-stay nursing home residents with Alzheimer’s was associated with reductions in anxiety medication, as well as improvements in behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia. The music therapy program used in this study, Music and Memory, provides patients with personalized listening devices stocked with playlists of their favorite music. If you’d like to learn more about Music and Memory, the program was featured in the 2014 award-winning documentary, Alive Inside. I also recommend the author and neurologist Oliver Sacks’s excellent book, Musicophilia, which explores the effect of music on the brain and the human condition through a series of portraits on people from all walks of life. Remember, wherever you are in life, music can be used as a power to heal and remember what matters to us.
Thomas, KS et al. “Individualized Music Program is Associated with Improved Outcomes for U.S. Nursing Home Residents with Dementia.” Am J Geriatr Psychiatry. 2017 Sep;25(9):931-938. Web. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28483436
One of the highlights in our recent, four-day Festival of Carols, was this new recording by Norwegian-born composer, Ola Gjeilo (YAY-lo). Mr. Gjeilo’s inspiration is varied, going back to his youth: classical, jazz, film music, and also non-musical inspiration, such as architecture. “Winter Songs” is to some extent a “Christmas” album, but not exclusively. To me, it is really more a meditation on the season of winter, and how it is a period of rest and transition between Autumn and Spring. A quieter time, and more contemplative, and with unique beauty. The crisp air, and the occasional surprise of snow can be felt in Gjeilo’s music here. Some pieces are inspired by women poets such as Christina Rossetti, Emily Brontë, and Hildegard Von Bingen. Gjeilo creates a journey through a wintery landscape with traditional carols, original choral works (sung by the Choir of Royal Holloway), and pieces for piano and strings (played by the composer and 12 Ensemble). Many of our listeners responded so favorably to the inclusion of “Winter Songs” in the Festival, and I’m sure they’ll delight in hearing them more as we journey through the season of winter. Ola shares more in my conversation, posted on this page.
Avi Avital is an Israeli mandolinist, and Deutsche Grammophon artist, who is most accustomed to playing classical works such as those of Vivaldi (in 2015, I interviewed Mr. Avital about his Vivaldi in Venice CD, which can still be heard on the Music Blog page). With this latest release, Mr. Avital branches out, but also looks inward, to his Moroccan roots (where his parents had emigrated from in the 1960s), and beyond classical into jazz. Well, a kind of jazz, because as Avital explains in our conversation, he and his fellow musicians found it difficult to choose just one genre name for these original compositions. It’s more that they are an amalgamation of styles from different cultures, the result of their individual and collective experiences, and beautiful collaboration. Something the world certainly needs right now.
