More than You Wanted to Know

About Music
When You Foolishly
Signed Up
for
Music 10100

Professor Stephen Jablonsky

Spring 2016

The City College of New York

Table of Contents

Business Matters
Introductory Materials
The Elements of Music
The History of Music
Genres of Music
Performers
Essays about Music
The Appendix
 City College, CUNY
Spring 2016

Music 101: Introduction to Music

Professor Stephen Jablonsky
Class Hours: Monday and Wednesdays 2:00 to 3:15
Classroom: Shepard Room 180
Office: Shepard 80
Office Hours: Monday and Wednesdays 1:00 to 2:00 and 3:15 to 4:00
E-Mail: Jablonsky@optimum.net
Website: www.stephenjablonsky.net
Bulletin course description: Concepts underlying the understanding and
enjoyment of music. Examples from around the world highlight matters of form
and content. Attendance at concerts, both on and off campus, as well as guided
classroom listening aid in the development of listening and communication
skills. Pre- or coreq.: FIQWS or ENGL 11000. 3 hr./wk.; 3 cr.

Required Text: The text for the course has been designed by your instructor
and will either be handed to you in person or sent to you as email attachments.
It is, therefore, important for you to check your email inbox on a regular basis.
All the music covered in this class is available on YouTube.
Objectives: This course is designed to foster an understanding of the various
contexts in which music is heard in different cultures around the world.
Examples drawn from diverse historical and geographical repertoires will
cultivate an awareness of stylistic similarities and differences. Students
practice being active listeners, learning the vocabulary necessary to
describe this experience both verbally and in writing. By the end of this
course, students will know preeminent composers, performers, genres and
styles, and their historical context. Students will recognize by ear and be
able to articulate orally and in writing the differences between various
musical styles and genres.
General Education Proficiencies:
After completing this course you will have developed the following
proficiencies:
Oral and written communication skills Students will produce well-
reasoned written or oral arguments using evidence to support conclusions.
Critical analysis You will have had multiple experiences in critically
and constructively analyzing information in different areas of study.
Information literacy You will have had multiple experiences in
gathering, interpreting, and assessing information from a variety of resources
and in evaluating the reliability of this information.
Artistic/Creative expression proficiency Students will identify and
apply the fundamental concepts and methods of a discipline or
interdisciplinary field exploring creative expression.
Grading:
Tests (30%)
Final Exam (20%)
Written Assignments (50%)

General Advice/Classroom Policies:

1. Absenteeismtwo weeks allowed

2. There will be absolutely no eating or drinking in this classroom.
3. Late assignments are penalized
4. There are no makeup exams
5. Plagiarism and cheating will not be tolerated. Turning something in with
your name on it means you take full responsibility for its contents and
pledge that it is your own work. See CUNY policy below.
6. Use the bathroom before you come to class.
7. When the class is over take all the stuff you brought with you.

CUNY Policy on Academic Integrity

As stated in the CUNY Policy on Academic Integrity: Plagiarism is the act of
presenting another persons ideas, research or writings as your own. The
following are some examples of plagiarism:
Copying another persons actual words without the use of quotation
marks and footnotes attributing the words to their source;
Presenting another persons ideas or theories in your own words
without acknowledging the source;
Using information that is not common knowledge without
acknowledging the source;
Failing to acknowledge collaborators on homework and laboratory
assignments.
Internet plagiarism includes submitting downloaded term papers or
parts of term papers, paraphrasing or copying information from the
internet without citing the source, and cutting & pasting from various
sources without proper attribution.
A student who plagiarizes may incur academic and disciplinary
penalties, including failing grades, suspensions, and expulsion.
A complete copy of the CUNY Policy on Academic Integrity may be downloaded
from the Colleges home page.
 Class Schedule

WEEK DATE SUBJECT EXAMS PAPER

1a Feb-1 Business Matters
1b Feb-3 Introduction
2a Feb-8 Elements of Music 1
Paper
2b Feb-10 Elements of Music
3a Feb-17 Elements of Music
3b Feb-22 Elements of Music
4a Feb-24 Musical Instruments
4b Feb-29 History Overview
Elements & Instrument Test
5a Mar-2 History Overview 2
Paper
5b Mar-7 The Mass and Motet
6a Mar-9 The Mass and Motet
6b Mar-14 The Symphony
7a Mar-16 The Symphony
7b Mar-21 The Symphony 3
Paper
8a Mar-28 The Symphony
8b Mar-30 Stage Music
Mass & Symphony Test
9a Apr-4 Stage Music
9b Apr-6 Stage Music
10a Apr-11 Stage Music
10b Apr-13 Stage Music Paper 4
11a Apr-18 The Concerto
11b Apr-20 The Concerto
12a May-2 The Concerto
12b May-4 Chamber Music Concerto & Stage Test
13a May-9 Chamber Music
13b May-11 Chamber Music
14a May-16 Chamber Music
14b May-18 History Review Paper 5
15 FINAL

 Music 101 Assignments
Assignment 1a
Due Monday, February 8
600 words: The Role of Music and Dance in My Life

An autobiographical statement about the cultural environment in which

you grew up. Share with me some significant memories of music and/or
dance experiences.

Assignment 1b
Due ASAP: Send me a 100 word bio and photo to share with the class.
When you send me an assignment as an attachment please label it with
your name and the number of the assignment (ex. Jablonsky 1b).

Assignment 2
Due Wednesday, March 2
600 words: Composers Lives

Watch the Great Composers biographies of Bach, Beethoven, and Wagner

and report things you found interesting about each. What did they have
in common? What made them unique?

Assignment 3
Due Monday, March 28
600 words: The Metropolitan Museum Treasure Hunt Report

(see report sheet)

Assignment 4
Due Monday, April 18
600 words: The Concert Report

You are to attend a concert at the college and report back to me about
the memorable moments of the entire process. Tell me about you before,
during, and after the concert.

Assignment 5
Due, Monday May 16

600 words: Carnegie Hall Concert report

You are to attend a concert at Carnegie Hall and report back to me.
 Music and Dance at The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Your assignment is to visit the museum, located at 82nd Street and Fifth Avenue, and go on a cultural treasure hunt. You are to locate
twenty pieces of art that have something to do with music or dance. Fill in the chart below with your treasures and then, in 600
words, describe your feelings about the trip and your favorite treasure. You may only use five examples from the instrument
collection. Go and enjoy! If you go with a friend it is even better. Dont pay the suggested admission fee.

Title Artist Medium Date Country Comment

 Some Helpful Hints for Writing Term Papers

All papers must be computer generated.

Heading. Contains your name, my name, class and section, and date. Make sure you have
the correct title and when you write your paper make sure you stick to the topic. Do not add
a blank back page or a fancy cover.

Staple. Use one staple in the upper left-hand corner to attach your sheets.

Margins. One inch on the top and left. 3/4 inch on right and bottom.

Justifying. Do not justify the right margin of the text.

Double Spacing. Double-space all text.

Line spacing. Use one blank space after a comma and two after a period.

Punctuation. Check a style manual if you are not sure of punctuation usage. Do not use too
much or too little.

Spelling. Use a dictionary and/or Spell Check before you print.

Tense agreement. Make sure that the time elements in the sentence agree with each other.

Singular/plural. Make sure the quantity of the subject agrees with the form of the verb.

Syntax. Make sure the word order is correct. Try to make sure you have communicated
exactly what you wanted to say in the simplest, most direct way. Sometimes it is better to
break a lengthy, complicated sentence into two simpler ones.

Grammar. Make sure you handle adverbs and adjectives correctly. Adverbs modify a verb,
adjective or other adverb. They often end with the letters ly. Adjectives modify a noun. Do
not mix them in a series.

Past tense. Many verbs end with the letters ed if the action is in the past.

Contractions. Use them only for dialogue

Articles. Foreign students should remember to use a and the before a noun.

Redundancies. Try not to repeat important words, phrases or ideas in the same or
consecutive sentences.

Word count. Stay within the 90-110% range of the suggested length. For example, if the
paper is to be 600 words long you may write anywhere from 540 to 660 words.

Editing. Read your paper carefully to make sure it represents your best work. You may
make a few minor corrections by hand if necessary. If I am the first person to read your
paper, you are in trouble.
 Now that youve passed english 110,
how many of these rules do you remembir?!

1. Each pronoun agrees with their antecedent.

2. Verbs always has to agree with their subject.
3. Watch out for irregular verbs which has cropped up into our language.
4. Never use no double negatives.
5. A writer must not shift your point of view.
6. When dangling, dont use participles.
7. Join clauses good like a smart conjunction should.
8. And dont use conjunctions to start sentences.
9. Dont use a run-on sentence you got to punctuate it.
10.About sentence fragments.
11.In letters themes reports articles and stuff like that we use commas to keep
strings apart.
12.Dont use commas, which arent necessary.
13.Its important to use apostrophes right.
14.Dont abbrev.
15.Check to see if you any words out.
16.In my opinion I think that the author when he is writing should not get into
the crazy ridiculous silly annoying sloppy habit of making use of too many
unnecessary words which he does not really need but uses anyway.
17.When you finish your paper you checked the tense agreement.
18.Then, of course, theres the old one: Never use a preposition to end a sentence
with.
19.Always use spelcheck.
20.Last, but certainly not least, avoid cliches like the plague.
YouTube Adventures in Sight and Sound
Beyond the Score Mussorgsky: Pictures from an Exhibition: Pictures of What?

https://youtu.be/qtxXKQOX2Cs

Beyond the Score Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring

https://youtu.be/R3cJ_u9pTw8?list=PLFhCyd0u4PXD3mktc9Y0lEkSQhW8h7gwB

Beyond the Score Berlioz: Symphonie fantastique

https://youtu.be/PHWJKrXvAMw?list=PLFhCyd0u4PXD3mktc9Y0lEkSQhW8h7gw
B

Beyond the Score Schoenberg: Pierrot lunaire

https://youtu.be/b_9dlco80lc

Beyond the Score Wagner: The Tristan Effect

https://youtu.be/XxWGRKFXLlE

Stravinsky: The Nightingale

https://youtu.be/BDQH_lFwgGA

Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9n1bNb62yJY

Stravinsky: Petruska

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sY-SIRvyHgI

Debussy: Afternoon of a Faun

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GqGVkfUip8

Great Composers: Beethoven (BBC)

https://youtu.be/uHo7-PMXf9Q

Great Composers: Bach

https://youtu.be/4OvzStZfeBg

Great Composers: Mozart

https://youtu.be/TkgMDAltCoM

Great Composers: Tchaikovsky

https://youtu.be/tEW1T5foR1g

Great Composers: Wagner

https://youtu.be/wOJ3r0OqItw
 A Students Credo
I recognize that I am a professional student. That means that I will earn the
grades for the courses in which I am enrolled. As a professional student I
understand that

1. I must successfully pass prerequisite courses in order to prepare for the

work in sequential ones. Any incomplete grades will be made up in a timely
manner.

2. I must attend my classes regularly, understanding that I am only allowed

two weeks of absences before I may be dropped from any course.

3. I must come to class on time as my punctuality reflects on my

seriousness of purpose. I will help to keep the classroom a clean learning
environment and will take all my stuff with me when I leave.

4. I must come to class prepared to work. I will bring with me the

appropriate equipment and materials necessary for my active and engaged
participation in the educational process.

5. I must hand in all assignments on time and I will make sure that they
represent my best work.

6. I must let my instructors know when there is something I do not

understand, either from what goes on in class or from the homework.

7. I must prepare for examinations by studying sufficiently far in advance

that I do not need to cram at the last minute.

8. I must take organized and complete notes from both classroom lectures
and homework readings. I understand that all learning is cumulative. I will
also check my email regularly for any or all messages from my instructor or
the college.

9. I must stay current. If I am absent from class I will contact one of my

fellow students to find out what I have missed.

10. I must remember that I will only get out of the course what I put into
it. As an adult I am responsible for me and my own academic success.

Your Name_______________________________ Date________________

MUSIC IS...

A mystery
A stimulus
An art
A craft
A business
A sport
A game
A mood modifier
A sleep aid
A science
A social event
A religious experience
A word enhancer
An escape from reality
An image enhancer
A form of communication
A celebration
A companion
A kinesthetic experience
A buying aid
A digestive aid
A learning experience
A time perception modifier
An adventure
A gateway to memories
An analog of experience
An analog of emotion
A series of wave forms
 The Relatedness of Knowledge
While music is our main concern in this course, it is best not to take a
narrow view of this particular human activity. It might be interesting, as
well as profitable, to think about the relationships between music and
the other fields of study that are offered at our school. For example,
what can music tell us about mathematics and what can mathematics
tell us about music? Is medicine related to music? How about
economics?

Advertising/Public Relations
American Studies
Anthropology
Architecture
Art
Asian Studies
Biology
Black Studies
Chemical Engineering
Chemistry
Civil Engineering
Computer Science
Creative Writing
Earth & Atmospheric Science
Economics
Education
Electrical Engineering
English
Foreign Languages and Literature
History
Jewish Studies
Journalism
Latin American Studies
Mathematics
Mechanical Engineering
Media and Communication Arts
Medicine
Philosophy
Physics
Political Science
Psychology
Sociology
Theater & Speech
Womens Studies
 The CIPA Formula

Q = (C: t x T)s + (I: t x T) + (P: t x T)s + A: t x T)s

_________________________________________________
M x E

Q= the quality of the musical experience
C= the composer
I= the intended audience
P= the performer
A= the actual audience
M= the medium of performance
E= the concert environment
t= talent
T= training
s= state of being

What you see above is a hypothetical formula that attempts to explain

the complex interaction between the composer (C), intended audience (I),
performer (P), and the actual audience (A) that results in the quality (Q)
of the musical experience for those listeners. This formula has not been
approved by any reputable mathematician. It is only one way of trying to
explain why music sounds the way it does.

 The When, Where, Why, What and Who of Music

In order to place a piece of music in the proper context you need to answer the
following questions:

When?
o Does the music sound like it comes from a particular time?
o Is it your time?

Where?
o Does the music sound like it comes from a particular place?
o Is it your place?

Why?
o Does this music have a purpose?
o Is it for dancing or for listening?
o Is it religious or secular?

What?
o What is the medium?
o Is it being sung and/or played?
o Is it a solo or an ensemble piece?
o Is it excited or calm?
o Is it intimate or monumental?
o Is it expository or developmental?
o Does it have one continuous mood or does it have contrasting
sections?
o Is it narrative (it has a program or story) or is it abstract?

Who?
o What do you know about the composer?
o What do you know about the performer?

How?
o How is the music coming to you and under what circumstances?
 Some Themes of Life That Are Portrayed in Art

Birth Death

Motherhood Fatherhood

Grandmotherhood Grandfatherhood

Sisterhood Brotherhood

Friendship Enmity

Youth Old Age

Courtship Rejection

Marriage Divorce

The Hunter The Hunted

Victory Defeat

Promotion Demotion

Food Gathering and Preparation Eating and Drinking

Work Rest

Good Weather Stormy Weather

History Mythology

The Performer / Creator The Audience

Good Health Sickness

Wealth Poverty

Flora Fauna

Science Technology

Natural Structures Manmade Structures

Sports Diversions

The Country The City

Music Dancing

On the land On the water

Hopes Fears

Kindness Cruelty

Heroism Cowardice
 A MUSIC LISTENERS CHECKLIST
Rate and/or evaluate the following elements of music

VOLUME: Soft 1 2 3 4 5 Loud

MEDIUM: Acoustic or Electronic

o Instrumental: Strings Woodwinds

Brass Percussion
Keyboard Special effects
o Vocal: Soprano Alto Tenor Bass
Ensemble Chorus

TEMPO: Slow 1 2 3 4 5 Fast

REGISTER: Low 1 2 3 4 5 High

DENSITY: Thin 1 2 3 4 5 Thick

RHYTHM: Regular 1 2 3 4 5 Irregular

METER: Non-metrical 1 2 3 4 5 Metrical

Duple Triple Compound Mixed

DURATION: Short 1 2 3 4 5 Long

PROPORTION: Small 1 2 3 4 5 Large

TENSION: Consonant 1 2 3 4 5 Dissonant

ARTICULATION: Separate (staccato) or Connected (legato)

Conjunct (steps) or Disjunct (skips)

FORM: Binary Ternary Rondo Complex

TEXTURE: Homophonic Polyphonic Monophonic Heterophonic

SCALE: Major Minor Pentatonic Other___________

 Some Very Basic Things to Know About Music Theory

1. Music is organized sound and silence. Sound is vibration. Sounds are pitches or
noises. Humans can hear vibrations from 20-20KHz.

2. The doubling of a vibration (frequency) results in sameness. It is called the octave.

3. Within this doubling we divide the sound space into scales. For example:

a. pentatonic scales contain five notes

b. whole-tone scales contain six notes
c. diatonic scales contain seven notes (common usage)
d. chromatic scales contain twelve notes

4. The two diatonic scales in common usage in Western music since 1600 are major
and minor. Their differences can be demonstrated by calculating the sequence of
whole steps (W) and half steps (H) starting from the tonic (note #1):

a. major W W H W W W H
b. minor (natural) W H W W H W W

5. Thus, the intervals (distance) from the tonic to the other tones are:

Major: Maj2 Maj3 P4 P5 Maj6 Maj7

Minor: Maj2 Min3 P4 P5 Min6 Min7

6. The names of the scale steps are:

#1 tonic (the tonal center or home pitch)

#2 supertonic (above the tonic)
#3 mediant (half way between the tonic and the dominant)
#4 subdominant (a P5 below the tonic)
#5 dominant (vibrates 1.5 times faster than tonic)
#6 submediant (half way between the tonic and the subdominant)
#7 leading-tone (it pushes up to the tonic by half-step motion)

7. Three tones may be combined simultaneously to form a triad (basic harmonic unit):

Major triad: root Maj3 P5

Minor triad: root Min3 P5
Diminished triad: root Min3 dim5
Augmented triad: root Maj3 aug5

The functional name of a triad is derived from the name of its root. Its number is,
likewise, derived from the scale step number of the root and is written in Roman
numerals. Triads may be inverted and/or rearranged (that is, the root does not
always have to be the bottom note and the third, the middle and the fifth, the top).
The most important triads are the tonic (I), the subdominant (IV), and the dominant
(V). Chords can be increased in size by the addition of 7ths, 9ths, 11ths, and 13ths.
Chromatic harmony uses chords from outside the scale.

8. A melody is a characteristic sequence of pitches (a mix of chord tones and non-

harmonic tones) and rhythms. Melodies contain phrases that end with cadences.


Modern music notation employs a system based on five lines and four spaces known as the staff. At the beginning of each
staff is a clef (key) as to the relationship of the lines and spaces to the pitches contained therein. In this example, the upper
staff has treble clef that designates that the note G may be found on the second line. The lower staff employs a bass clef that
indicates that F is on the fourth line. In this case, because this is music for piano, the two staves are joined together by a brace.
The three number signs at the beginning of each staff is known as the key signature. Those number signs are actually known as
sharps and the key in this case is A major. The fraction indicates that there are three beats in every measure and the quarter
note represents the beat. Because there are three beats per measure the meter is triple. Most of the music we know is either
triple or duple meter with two or four beats per measure. The measures are separated by the vertical bar lines running
through both staves.
 The Overtone System (Harmonics)
The overtone series results from the fact that a vibrating body, such as an acoustic instrument, subdivides itself into an
infinite series of integer fractions (1/2, 1/3, 1/4, 1/5, etc.). These subdivisions produce frequencies (harmonics) which are
integral multiples of the fundamental (2F, 3F, 4F, 5F, etc.). The following series is based on the fundamental C and is
limited to the first sixteen harmonics. A series may be built on any tone.
The black noteheads represent pitches which are lower than standard piano tuning and should not be used for interval
calculations.

b n w w
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16

w # w w
b w w
& w w
w w
? w
w
You can calculate the frequency ratio of any interval by locating it on the harmonic series.
Find the following:

P 1 __1 : 1______ P 5 ________ Maj 3 ________ Min 3 ________ Maj 2 ________ Min 2 ________

P 8 __2 : 1______ P 4 ________ Min 6 ________ Maj 6 ________ Min 7 ________ Maj 7 ________

 Fascinating Rhythms
Fascinating Rhythm,
You've got me on the go!
Fascinating Rhythm,
I'm all a-quiver.

The lyrics to the George and Ira Gershwin hit song from 1924 say it all. The
excitement of studying and performing music begins with rhythm.

Rhythm

Of the four basic parameters of musicrhythm, melody, harmony, and

timbrethe first is the most basic and the place where we begin our study
of music. Everything we do in music starts with rhythm. Melody and
harmony may be added later but are not necessary for a satisfying musical
experience. Rhythm refers to the duration of sounds and the duration of the
spaces (rests), or lack of spaces, between them. Rhythms are considered
regular when they contain recognizable patterns and there seems to be a
reasonable system of expectation in the musical narrative. On the other
hand, rhythms may be irregular when we cannot anticipate with assurance
what might come next because we do not sense an integral logic born of
pattern. Rhythms can be very simple, consisting of a small number of
durations or it may be highly complex. Volumes could be written about this
intriguing subject but the discussion here is kept brief in the interest of
practicality and because it is more fun to perform rhythms than to read
about them.

It is important to understand that we read rhythms the same way we read

language. As you read this introduction your eye is taking in sizable batches
of data at one time, perhaps several words at once. You are not reading each
letter separately and then forming them into words. So it is with rhythm.
Your job is to familiarize yourself with the common patterns employed in
various meters in order to be able to recognize them as the musical
equivalents of words and phrases. The skilled musician often takes in half
measures, whole measures, or even pairs of measures at a glance depending
on the complexity of the patterns and the tempo.
Meter

Most music has at the heart of its rhythmic structure an underlying pulse
known as the beatthe steady, measured throbbing on which all the
rhythmic values are based. Most of the music of the past four hundred
years is metrical; that is, the beats are grouped into recognizable patterns
the most common of which are two beats per group (duple meter) or three
beats per group (triple meter). These groupings are known as measures and
are separated by bar lines when notated. The first beat of each group gets
an accent and is performed with some increased level of energy. This first
beat is known as the downbeat because conductors indicate the beginning
of each measure with a downward motion of the hand or baton. The last
beat of each measure is known as the upbeat and the conductors hand or
baton should move accordingly. In essence, all beats other than the
downbeat are considered upbeatsduple meter is counted DOWN-up
while triple meter is counted DOWN-up-up. When triple meter moves very
quickly it is often counted in one.

Time Signatures

We use a fraction, known as a time signature, at the beginning of every

piece to notate the meter. The numerator (upper number) tells us the
number of beats per measure while the denominator (lower number) tells us
which of our rhythmic symbols will represent the beat. The symbols (notes)
in common use are as follows:

The whole note w

The half note h h

The quarter note q q q q

The eighth note e e e e e e e e

The sixteenth note xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

As you can tell from their names, they are part of a relative value system
that is based on a division by two. There are also double whole notes as well
as 32nd notes, 64th notes, and the very rare 128th notes.

The time signature for marching music is 2/4 in which every measure has
rhythmic symbols that add up to the equivalent of two quarter notes. When
you are dancing the waltz the music you hear is written in 3/4 time. A great
deal of music is written in 4/4 or what is known as common time, indicated
by an upper case C instead of the fraction. In 2/4 time the first beat is
accented and the second is not (ONE, two, ONE, two or LEFT-right, LEFT-
right). In 3/4 time the first beat is accented and the two that follow are not
(ONE-two-three, ONE-two-three). In 4/4 time the primary accent occurs on
the downbeat and there is a subsidiary accent on the third beat that begins
the second half of the grouping (ONE-two-three-four, ONE-two-three-four).

There are many pieces that have time signatures that use the eighth note to
represent the beat. Perhaps the most common of these is 6/8. This is a form
of duple meter in which each half of the measure is divided into three beats.
We apply the term compound to 6/8, 9/8, or 12/8 meters that have triple
divisions of the beat. In 6/8 time the main accent is on beat one and the
subsidiary accent is on beat four (ONE-two-three-four-five-six). You may
occasionally see a composition written in 3/8 time and the use of the less
common eighth value usually indicates a desire on the composers part for a
performance that feels lighter than 3/4 time.

You may occasionally run across music that uses the half note as its
common note value. The most common of these is known as cut time
(2/2 or ) and is generally used for music that would ordinarily be written
in 4/4 but is moving too fast to warrant the counting of the weak beats (two
and four). The music in cut time looks exactly the same as 4/4 but the weak
beats are subordinated even further. The tempo often affects the way in
which music will be perceived or performed. A piece in a moderate 3/4 time
will be counted in groups of three beats but at a higher rate of speed it may
be counted in one.

We use a variety of symbols called rests to indicate the absence of sound.

The symbols in common use are as follows:

The whole rest below the middle line

The half rest above the middle line

The quarter rest g

 The eighth rest

The sixteenth rest

Rests are more difficult to perform than notes because we must wait the
appropriate amount of time without making a sound. For most of us that is
often very hard to do. A rest does not mean do nothing, it means count.
The longer the rest, the more patient you must be. It is often helpful to say
rest when you are having difficulty with this form of negative sound space.

Tempo

Tempo refers to the speed of the beat. At the beginning of each composition
there is either a word or metronome marking that indicates how fast the
piece should be performed. Your first attempt to perform any activity in this
book should be done at half speed. If you practice too quickly your
performance may be filled with mistakes that are very hard to un-learn
later. Very few of the etudes in this book have tempo designations because it
is expected that you will begin to practice each one of them at a pace that is
comfortable. When you have mastered the material at that speed you may
gradually speed up the tempo until it reaches the appropriate speed.
Accuracy comes first; speed comes later.

Metronome markings indicate the number of beats per minute. For example,
march time (2/4) is usually performed at quarter note equals 120 which
means that there are 120 beats per minute or two beats per second. Every
serious musician owns a metronome. When you practice with a metronome
it keeps you honest and tests your ability to stay in tempo.

You may also find that the tempo is indicated by a word, often in a foreign
language such as Italian, French, or German. Here are some of the common
Italian terms in order of speed:

Gravevery slow
Largoslow and broad
Lentomoderately slow
Adagioslow and easy
Andanteat a comfortable walking pace
Moderatomoderate (not too fast and not too slow)
Allegrettomoderately fast
Allegrofast
Vivacefast and lively
Prestovery fast
Prestissimoas fast as possible
If you wish the performer to slow down gradually use the term ritardando.
The term accelerando is used to indicate a gradual speeding up. From time
to time, you may wish to employ these in the performance of a particular
rhythmic etude.

Ties and dots

We join two notes together by the use of a tie, a curved line connecting two
note heads. For example, in 4/4 time a half note may be extended by tying it
to another note. To create a note that lasts three beats you may either tie a
half note to a quarter or merely place a dot after the note head. This dot
represents the quarter to which it is tied and is a form of abbreviation. The
dot always represents half the value of the note that is dotted. Therefore, a
dotted quarter note is equal in length to a quarter note tied to an eighth.
And, a double dotted quarter is equal to a quarter tied to an eighth tied to a
sixteenth.

Rests may also be dotted.

Dynamics

Dynamics refer to the volume of sound (loudness). The following

abbreviations from the Italian are in common usage. They are listed in order
of loudness.

ppppianississimo (as soft as possible)

pppianissimo (very soft)
ppiano (soft)
mpmezzo piano (moderately soft)
mfmezzo forte (moderately loud)
fforte (loud)
fffortissimo (very loud)
ffffortississimo (as loud as possible)

To indicate an increase in volume we use the term crescendo. To indicate a

decrease in volume the term decrescendo is used.

No dynamic markings have been used in this chapter. I suggest that when
you are preparing a performance of any of these activities that you make
your own decisions about volume. Experiment until you find a pleasing
balance of soft and loud. Obviously, the emotional effects created by
dynamic manipulation will greatly affect your listeners. A phrase performed
pianissimo will send an entirely different message when the dynamic level is
increased to fortissimo.

Counting Rhythms

Sometimes it helps to scat sing those rhythms that are problematic. For
example, in music that uses time signatures with the quarter note
representing the beat you can use the numbers of the beats, and for 8th
notes on the second half of the beats, e (say ee) for the second 16th, and
a (say ah) for the fourth 16th. Here is an example in 4/4 meter:

1234|1&2&3&4&|1e&a2e&a3e&a4e&a|

When you encounter music that moves too rapidly for you to articulate
comfortably it is time for double- and triple-tonguing. For rhythmic figures
that are divisible by 2, use either of the following double-tonguing
techniques. For light double-tonguing practice saying tahkah or tah
kahtahkah. For a heavier sound use duhguhduhguh. When the
rhythmic figure is divisible by 3, use either tahtahkah or duhduh
guh. Practice these tonguing techniques, which are commonly employed by
woodwind and brass players, slowly at first and then increase the speed
until you are so good that you can amaze your friends and family.
 The World of pitch

OK. You are finally learning to read music. Why you waited this long nobody knows.
Maybe you thought it would be hard to do. Well, you are about to discover that it is
not. There are two elemental aspects to music notation--pitch and rhythm. Pitch
refers to the tones we make with our voice or an instrument. When the sound
vibrates at a steady rate it produces what we call tones. We write these tones
on what we call a staff--five lines and the four spaces between them. When sounds
seem to go up, they go up the page and vice versa. The music you see below begins
with that fancy squiggle we call a treble clef. It is used for all the music on the right
side of the keyboard. It is also called a G clef because it tells us where to find the
note G--on the second line from the bottom. Lucky for you the musical alphabet
only goes from A to G.

For demonstration purposes I have written the names of the notes for you in the
first half of this piece. Your job is to write the names in the second half. You will
notice that notes can go above or below the staff. If we need to, we can add what are
called leger lines for notes like the B in measure 7.

Play these notes on your keyboard. It should not be too hard as they are almost all
white notes. The black notes between them are called flats and sharps. If you go up
from F to G (see m.11) the black note between them is called F sharp (#). If you go
down from G to F (see m. 15) the black note between them is called G flat (@).

& 44
G F E D E F G A B C D B C G C B A G

&
6

w #

A G F E D E F B C

12

& b
w
 Measuring Intervals

The distance between two notes is known as an interval. We measure this distance
using a scale. For example, the interval between C and D is known as a second
because D is the second note of the C major scale. All intervals have two names--
one tells the quality and the other tells the scale step. If you are measuring an
interval using a major scale then you end up with the intervals shown on the first
staff below. The intervals derived from minor and other scales are shown on the
second staff. These interval measurements can begin on any note of the chromatic
scale. Play these intervals on your keyboard to hear how each one sounds. Each
interval has a different character. They serve as the foundation of all harmony.
You will need to be able to recognize intervals with speed an accuracy if you want
to succeed as a musician. For added appreciation, play the note C on your
keyboard and sing the rising and falling major scale against it. Then try the
chromatic scale.

unison major 2nd major 3rd perfect 4th perfect 5th major 6th major 7th octave

& 44 ww ww w w w w
ww ww w w w w

minor 2nd minor 3rd aug. 4th dim. 5th aug. 5th minor 6th aug. 6th minor 7th

bw #w bw
9

& b ww b ww # ww b ww # ww w w w
enharmonic enharmonic enharmonic
 Various Scales
4
Four-note
&4 b b b b
Pentatonic
& b
b
5

Whole tone
& # # b
# b b
11
Major
&
15
Natural minor Melodic minor Harmonic minor
& b b b b
b b
17
Octatonic 1 Octatonic 2
&
b # # b b n # b
23
Chromatic
& # # # # b n
27

 Scales derived from modes
Ionian Dorian Phrygian

4 1
&4 b b
2
b
1 2 3 3

b b b

Lydian Mixolydian Aeolian

& # b b b
4 1 1 2 2 3

b
7

Melodic Minor

& # b b
4 2 1 3 2 1

b b

13

& b b b b
3 1 3 2 4 3

b # b
b
19

Harmonic minor

n n n
2 5 1 5 3 5
& b b b b b
b
25

& # b n
4 5

31

 Some Pentatonic Scales

&4
6

6 flat
& b b b

4
2 flat
& b
b
7

2 and 6 flat
& b b b
b
10
3 flat
&
b b
13
3 and 6 flat
& b b
b b
16
2, 3, and 6 flat
& b b b
19
5 flat
&
b b b
22
2 and 5 flat
& b
b b b
25
2, 3, and 5 flat 2, 5, and 6 flat 3, 5, and 6 flat

& b b b b b b b b b
28

 Harmonizing with Triads
The construction of triads

An interval consists of two notes played simultaneously or consecutively. A

chord is a discrete collection of three or more notes that function as a
harmonic unit. Its constituents may be played simultaneously or consecutively.
Most of the time we see or hear all the notes of a chord in close proximity to
each other, but other times we are presented with incomplete harmonic
information. In other words, composers do not always use all the notes all the
time.

The basic harmonic unit in tonal music is the triad, a three-note chord built of
3rds. Harmony based on 3rds is labeled tertian (i.e., every other note in scalar
motion). The note on which the chord is built is called the root; another note is
added a 3rd above the root and is called the third; the other member of the
chord lies a 5th above the root (and a 3rd above the third) and is called the fifth
(see Example 5-1, root position). In every triad there are three intervallic
relationships: between the bottom note and the middle note, between the
bottom note and the top note, and between the middle note and the top note.
Each of these intervals contributes to the way your brain processes the aural
data it receives, but the intervals measured from the bottom are the most
critical because the lowest sounding note is the harmonic foundation.

A triad may appear with any of its three notes in the lowest position we call
the bass. We use this appellation even though it may not actually be in the
bass voice or bass clef. When the root is lowest, the triad is most stable and is
said to be in root position. As such we have 3rds between each of the notes and
a 5th between the root and the top note. It is important to remember that the
root is not always the same as the bass (the lowest sounding note). The root
and bass are the same only in root position.

If we rearrange the triad, making the third the lowest note and the root the top
note, the triad is in first inversion. In this position there is a 3rd between the
bass and the middle note, a 6th between the bass and the root, and a 4th
between the middle note and the root. This is a different collection of intervals
than that found in root position. They both have the same root but provide the
listener with two different aural experiences. In this inversion the triad is
somewhat less stable than it was in root position.

When the fifth is lowest, the triad is in second inversion. The special sound of
the second inversion results from the 4th between the bass and the root, the 6th
between the bass and the third, and the 3rd between the root and the third.
Later, we will see that the fourth between the bass and the root creates a
sonority that is quite unstable and must be handled with care.
 Example 5-1. Inversions of Triads

ww ww
root position first inversion second inversion

& www w w
third
root root
fifth fifth fifth
third third
root

(5) 6 6
(3) (3) 4

In Example 5-1, the intervals above the bass are indicated for each position of
the triad. This practice is known as figured bass in which the Arabic numerals
serve as a convenient shorthand label for each form. This system, also known
as thoroughbass, was essential to the instrumental chamber music of the
Baroque Period during which the harpsichord player, as accompanist, often
had the bass line and Arabic numerals and was expected to improvise the rest
of the texture based on the information provided. In their most common form
triads are abbreviated as follows:

(root position) is assumed and is not notated;

(first inversion) is abbreviated as 6;
(second inversion) is notated as 6/4.

Triads in other arrangements

The triad is not always presented with all of the notes within an octave, called
close position, as in Example 5-1 above. Sometimes chords appear in open
position, with the notes farther apart (more than an octave). Triads must
always be made from letter combinations of root, 3rd, and 5th regardless of the
accidentals used. For example, a C minor triad is comprised of the notes C, E@,
and G, never C, D#, and G. Only the following combinations are possible
(practice reciting these combinations to assure accuracy):

A-C-E B-D-F C-E-G D-F-A E-G-B F-A-C G-B-D

Therefore, whenever you see a chord that is in open position, or jumbled up, all
you need to do is match what you see to the seven combinations above.

Here is an interesting question: How many C triads are there on the

piano keyboard? In other words, how many combinations of C, E, and G
are there?
 The answer is 392. There are eight Cs, seven Es, and seven Gs. 8 x 7 x
7=392. Wow!

The four types of triads

There are four types (qualities) of triads whose names depend on the interval
between the root and 3rd and interval between the root and 5th:

Table 5-1. How Triads Are Labeled

When the 3rd is And the 5th is The quality is

minor diminished diminished

minor perfect minor
major perfect major
major augmented augmented

In Example 5-2 we see the four types of triads built on the root G. Only major
and minor triads may be used as tonics. The diminished triad only appears as
iio, vio, and viio while the augmented triad is occasionally used as an altered
form of the dominant.

Example 5-2. Types of Triads

& www bwww

major triad minor triad

P5 P5
M3 m3

& bbwww #www

diminished triad augmented triad

b5 #5
m3 M3

Using chord symbols to name triads

Every triad has two namesthe name of the root and the name of the quality.
Thus, a major triad with a root of G is named G major and is notated by the
capital letter G. For major triads it is not necessary to indicate the quality in
the labelif we see just the letter G we will know it refers to G major. A minor
triad with a root of G is named G minor and is notated as Gm. Use + for
augmented (or aug) and o for diminished (or dim). Do not use the archaic
system that assigns a plus (+) to major and a minus (-) to minor. The minuses
that students write on their homework and test papers tend to get too small to
read clearly and the negative appellation is an inappropriate value judgment.

Chord inversions can be notated by adding the bass pitch after a slash. For
example, Am/C indicates an A minor triad with C in the bass (first inversion).
This use of chord symbols is called lead sheet notation and is common in
popular sheet music and jazz scores and is always written above the chord
(Example 5-3). The simplest lead sheet scores do not contain information about
inversions, but you would do well to use the slashes when appropriate because
the bass line is so important in tonal music.

Example 5-3. America (opening)

#3
G Em Am/C D G Em C G/D D# Em

& 4 q q q q. e q Q Q Q q. e q

Numbering the triads

We use Roman numerals to identify the scale step on which the triad is built
and Arabic numerals to indicate the inversion. In this text the Roman
numerals will appear in uppercase to represent major and augmented triads
and in lowercase for minor and diminished. Thus, a C major chord in first
inversion (with E in the bass) in the key of C major is labeled I6. The Roman
numeral I indicates that the root of the triad (C) is the first note (tonic) of the
key (C major). The Arabic numeral 6 indicates that the triad is in first
inversionthat there is a 6th between the bass and the root.

Note that the lead sheet name is the same no matter what key the triad is in.
(Cm is the label for C-E@-G whether it is the tonic in C minor, the submediant
in E@ major, or the subdominant in G minor. Note, also, that the same scale
degree indicates a different triad in different keys (e.g., a I chord in CM is a C
major triad, but a I chord in FM is an F major triad). In Example 5-4 we see
that the same three triads are labeled differently according to the key in which
they are found.

Example 5-4. Examples of Chord Labels

www # www
C Em G C Em G

& ww www www www

w
CM: I iii V GM: IV vi I
It is essential to know both systems of notation thoroughly and to be able to
translate from one system to the other rapidly. Whereas lead sheet notation
treats all chords as isolated units without regard to key, the numbered scale
step notation relates the chords to one another and also indicates their
functions within the tonal system of a particular key.

To translate lead sheet notation into scale step notation, use a Roman numeral
for the scale step of the root of the triad. Indicate the quality of the chord by
the use of upper or lowercase. Then, add figured bass notation where
necessary to show inversions. For example, the first chord in Example 5-5 is G
major. In the key of GM a G major triad is I. The second chord, Em, is vi in
GM. The third chord is Am/C, the supertonic in the first inversion (ii6).

Example 5-5. America (opening)

#3
G Em Am/C D G Em C G/D D# Em

& 4 q q q q. e q Q Q Q q. e q
GM: I vi iifl V I vi IV V( @ ) (vii) vi

A note about labeling

When using scale step notation, write the Roman numeral only under the beat
on which the chord first appears. It is not necessary to repeat the Roman
numeral if the chord is repeated. As a general rule, try to write as little as
possible to keep your labeling easy to read. If the inversion changes on such a
repetition, change only the figured bass notationthe purpose being to reveal
the basic harmonic structure as represented by chord changes in a legible
manner without cluttering the page with redundant notations. In Example 5-6
you will notice that 5/3 is needed under the third chord to show a return to
root position.

Example 5-6. Labeling Inversions

& w ww w
w w
? ww ww ww
I - 6 - 53
NOT I Ifl I
The quality of triads in major keys

As may be seen in Example 5-7, major keys contain three major triads (I, IV,
and V), three minor triads (ii, iii, and vi), and one diminished (vii). This
distribution results in a hierarchy of importance. The major chords are the
primary triads, the three triads you would learn if you could only learn three
chords. There are four secondary chords and the unique one is vii, the only one
of this family of chords that is diminished.

Example 5-7. Triad Qualities in Major

## ww www www
D!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Em!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!F#m!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!G!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!A!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Bm!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!C#o

& www www www www w

DM: I ii iii IV V vi vii

The quality of triads in minor keys

The family of chords in minor is larger than in major due to the three forms of
the minor scale. By comparing the triads in natural minor (Example 5-8) with
those in major (Example 5-7) you will notice that in minor the tonic,
subdominant, and dominant chords are all minorthe opposite of their
qualities in major. Also, now it is the supertonic that is diminished, not the
leading tone (which is replaced by the major subtonic). The mediant and
submediant, which were minor, are now major. In many ways, major and
minor chord collections seem to present two polarities.

Example 5-8. Triad Qualities in Natural Minor

www www
Dm!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!E o!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!F!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Gm!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Am!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Bb!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!C

www
& b www www www www
Dm: i ii III iv Vm VI VII

The natural minor scale, formerly known as the Aeolian mode, contains a
seventh tone that is a whole step below the tonic. Therefore, dominant
harmonies built on that scale do not contain a leading tone and create an
archaic modal sound, rather than a tonal one, when moving to the tonic.
The problem of weak dominants is fixed by the addition of the leading tone to V
and vii and the result is known as harmonic minor. In a sense, harmonic minor
borrows the V and vii chords from major (Example 5-9).

Important advice: Whenever you are about to begin composing a piece in

minor you must remind yourself that you will need to add the leading
tone in every dominant chord. Make sure you have plenty of accidentals
handy. You will need them. If I had a dollar for every time one of my
students forgot to add an accidental to a dominant in harmonic minor...

Example 5-9. Triad Qualities in Harmonic Minor

w ww ww # www
Dm!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Eo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!F!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Gm!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!A!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Bb!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!C#o

b w w w #
& ww ww w w w
w w w
Dm: i ii III iv V VI vii

The need to harmonize the raised 6th and 7th steps in ascending melodic minor
creates an interesting admixture of triads that must be employed with great
caution. Example 5-10 reveals that the ii, IV, V, and vii are the same as in
major. An augmented mediant and a diminished submediant have been added
to the harmonic palette and are quite rare.

Example 5-10. Triad Qualities in Ascending Melodic Minor

w w w
w
Dm!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Em!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!F+!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!G!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!A!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Bo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!C#o

b n w # w n
& www ww ww w w w
w # w n w
w # w
Dm: i iim III+ IV V vio vii
 Musical Instruments

Woodwinds:
Piccolo, flute, alto flute, recorder
Oboe, English horn

Piccolo clarinet, B flat clarinet, bass clarinet

Saxophone (soprano, alto, tenor, baritone)
Bassoon, contrabassoon
Brass:

Trumpet
French horn
Trombone, bass trombone

Tuba
Strings:
Violin, viola, cello, string bass
Guitar, lute, mandolin

Harp
Percussion:

Timpani

Snare drum, tenor drum, bass drum

Gong, triangle, chimes, wind machine
Wood blocks, siren, cymbals, temple blocks, castanets
Glockenspiel, xylophone, marimba, vibraphone

Keyboards:
Piano, harpsichord, celesta, synthesizer, organ
 Western Classical Music History
(Almost everything you need to know on one page)

Medieval (to 1450)

Perotin Leonin Polyphony/Organum, counterpoint

Guillaume de Machaut John Dunstable Gregorian Chant, notation, Greek modes
Hildegard von Bingen Guillaume Dufay Isorhythm, motet, mass, troubadours

Renaissance (1450-1600)

Josquin des Prez Orlando di Lasso Modal, imitative counterpoint, chorale

Johannes Ockeghem William Byrd Cantus firmus, printed music,
Jacob Obrecht Heinrich Isaac Consort, polychoral, antiphonal
Giovanni da Palestrina Giovanni Gabrieli Mass, madrigal, vocal style, lute
Tone painting, polychoral, homorhythmic

Baroque (1600-1750)

Claudio Monteverdi Henry Purcell Major/minor tonality, homophony, triads

Francois Couperin Heinrich Schutz Continuo/Figured bass, Fugue, organ, violin
Arcangelo Corelli Antonio Vivaldi Opera, Oratorio, Cantata, Aria, harpsichord
Girolamo Frescobaldi Domenico Scarlatti Concerto, Overture, Dance suite, trumpet
Johann Sebastian Bach George Frederic Handel Instrumental style, virtuosity, castrati

Classic / Romantic (1750-1900)

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Franz Joseph Haydn Symphony, Sonata, Art song, Rondo
String quartet, Minuet & trio, Piano
Ludwig van Beethoven Franz Schubert Symphonic poem, Etude, Prelude, singspiel
Franz Liszt Frederic Chopin Fantasia, Waltz, Cyclical symphony
Robert Schumann Johannes Brahms Nationalism, Popularism, Boehm system
Hector Berlioz Gioacchino Rossini Chromaticism, NHT dominance
Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky Giacomo Puccini Sonata-allegro form, clarinet, ballet
Felix Mendelssohn Gustav Mahler Miniature/monumental, saxophone
Richard Strauss Alexander Scriabin Exoticism, mysticism, verismo
Giuseppe Verdi Richard Wagner Leitmotiv, continuous music

Modern (1900-2050)

Claude Debussy Maurice Ravel New and old scales, ametricality

Igor Stravinsky Arnold Schoenberg Nonfunctional harmony, polytonality
Alban Berg Anton von Webern Atonality, primitivism, mixed meter
Bela Bartok Gyorgy Ligeti Electronic instruments, Theremin
Charles Ives John Cage Chance theory, Concrete music
Aaron Copland George Gershwin Jazz, syncopation, polymeter
Bruno Maderna Luciano Berio Pan-nationalism, Experimentalism
Dmitri Shostakovitch Sergei Prokofiev Neoclassicism, improvisation
Benjamin Britten Gustav Holst Vertical sonorities, triumph of dissonance
Arvo Part Steve Reich Minimalism Amorphous
George Crumb Elliot Carter Serialization, 12-tone system
Karlheinz Stockhausen Pierre Boulez Multi-media,Computer, Synthesizer
Edgar Varese Ruth Crawford Post-romanticism
John Corigliano David Del Tredici Fusion
Harry Partch Olivier Messiaen Amelodic, Aharmonic
John Adams Leonard Bernstein
Morton Feldman Earl Kim
Toru Takemitsu Frank Zappa
John Adams Leon Kirchner
 HOW TO ANALYZE MUSICAL STRUCTURES

Composers throughout the ages have acquired valuable insights into the
compositional process by looking at the music of their contemporaries and
predecessors. A great deal of their education is spent listening to music and
studying scores. Early in their careers, all composers employ a good deal of
imitation because, in our business, it traditionally is the greatest form of
flattery. When we hear something we like in someone elses music we want to
use it in our next composition. The goal of every composer is to move beyond
the period of imitation to a discovery of his or her own individual voice. No
composer was ever completely original because no one grows up in a musical
vacuum. You have been surrounded by music since birth and all those
influences form the foundation of what will hopefully become your own style.
No one ever learned to be a composer from reading a book. Budding composers
learn their craft by working with an experienced teacher who can evaluate the
myriad subtleties of the compositional process and offer valuable suggestions
and corrections.

The Waring Blender Theory: It is my contention that what we think of

as original compositions are, in fact, only 5% original at bestthat
producing a personal style is like adding different ingredients together in
a blender. 95% of what we call personal style derives from what we have
absorbed from outside influences. To this mixture we add a touch of our
own uniqueness. By throwing the switch, the blending process
homogenizes all these ingredients into what we think of as originality.

If you are not curious about how music is put together, stop here and close the
book. The reason we analyze music is to find out how the music we enjoy
listening to is constructedto tell us why it sounds the way it does. The
process of analysis involves the labeling of agreed upon components as well as
the interpretation of the relationship of these materials to one another. As
analysts we must try to get inside the piece to see what makes it work the way
it does. Every compositional process is a mind game that the composer plays
with himself. Every game has an objective, game pieces, rules, and moves. The
intellectual joy of every theorist is to postulate about what kind of game plan a
certain composer may have employed in the act of writing a particular piece.
The interesting thing about music composition is that although there are
general stylistic guidelines which composers in particular periods seem to
follow, each piece of music is a unique collection of compositional choices.
Therefore, from the study of many individual pieces comes an understanding of
general compositional strategies as well as an appreciation for those special
moments of unexplainable genius.
 q Structural units

The first job of a theorist is to address the question of musical structurejust

how are the sounds and silences of a musical composition organized? There is
nothing simple or obvious about it, as any beginning composer or analyst has
discovered. There are innumerable problems of musical syntax and grammar
that must be learned through much hard work. One begins by analyzing
simpler pieces, such as folk songs, and later we get to the big stuff. Let us
begin at the beginning.

The smallest unit of structure is the note. A small number of notes may be
grouped together as a motive (or motif), a collection of rhythmic, melodic,
and/or harmonic materials that serves as the seed that will generate the
material of the rest of the piece. A good example is the G-G-G-E motive at the
beginning of Beethovens Symphony No. 5. All of the materials of this first
movement are derived from these four notes. This is what we call
developmental music because, like a fertilized egg, everything grows from this
single idea.

The next largest structural unit is the phrase. It is the equivalent of a sentence
and concludes with a sense of repose we call a cadence. Everything we do in
music is related to phrases; their composition, analysis, and performance.
Phrases may be joined in a pairing we call a period. Generally, a period
consists of an antecedent phrase that makes a musical statement and is
followed by a consequent phrase that responds to it. Two related periods may
be joined together to form a double period, the equivalent of a four-line stanza
in poetry. In fact, there is much about the structure of music that reminds us
of poetry and vice versa. Tonal compositions may have as few as four phrases
and larger pieces, such as the movement of a symphony or sonata, may have
as many as the composer desires. In larger structures like these the next
structural division is called a section that may comprise any number of
periods, double periods, or unattached phrases. If it cadences on the tonic it is
called a closed section and if it ends with a half cadence or in a key other than
the tonic it is considered an open section. A piece may have any number of
sections. If it comprises two sections it is in binary form (A-A1). The most
common ternary form (three sections) has an A-B-A1 structure. There is no
limit to the number of sections that a composer may employ. When
diagramming structure we use lowercase letters for phrases and uppercase for
sections.

q What is a phrase?

Any definition of the word phrase is best kept loose and open because they,
like shoes, come in all sizes, shapes, and colors. A phrase may be as short as a
measure (see Chopins Prelude No. 20 in C minor) or as long as the composer
needs to finish the idea. It could be as much as sixteen bars or even more.
Phrase length is often related to meter and tempo but generally the standard is
four or eight bars. Most theorists will admit that it is impossible to come up
with a definition that fits all types. The more phrases you analyze, the more
you will appreciate the problem.

Some four-bar phrases cannot be subdivided because the entire phrase is one
continuous musical idea. Other phrases may be constructed of two two-bar
motives (notated 2+2). Another common type of subdivision is one in which a
one-bar motive is followed by another and then by one which is two bars long
(1+1+2). Those of you who are familiar with 20th-century popular songs by the
likes of George Gershwin, Jerome Kern, and Richard Rodgers will know that a
32-bar form (8, 8, 8, 8) was the standard they all used. Occasionally, the fourth
phrase was extended by four bars to make the piece 36 bars long (8, 8, 8, 12).

In classical compositions it is often the case that one phrase ends on a

downbeat and the next phrase begins on the very same downbeat. When two
phrases overlap in this fashion it is called a phrase elision and is notated with
a slur. The following phrase length analysis is actually only seven measures
long because of the elision between the 2+2 phrase and the four-measure
phrase:
2+2 4

q How cadences end a phrase

The process by which a phrase ends is called a cadence, a word that comes
from the Italian, cadere, to fall. It refers to the manner in which the rhythm,
melody, and harmony work together to give a feeling of conclusion, or lack
thereof, at the end of a phrase. One of the most important compositional
strategies is the creation and sequencing of cadences. Cadences come in all
strengths, from those that convincingly conclude the piece to those that are
only a momentary breath pause between phrases. Composers generally know
where each phrase is going to end the same way pilots know their destination
before takeoff.

e The Rhythmic Component

The strength of a rhythmic cadence depends, to a large degree, on which beat

the music ends. If the rhythmic activity ceases on a downbeat (the first beat of
the measure), the cadence is most conclusive. The note on the downbeat may
be either long or shortit does not matteras long as the note is begun on the
downbeat. If the rhythm stops on any other beat, or part of a beat, the effect
will be rhythmically weaker.
 e The Melodic Component

If the melody ends on ^1, the tonic, the melodic component of the cadence is
most conclusive. The use of the other members of the tonic triadthe 3rd or
the 5thcan serve as resting points but are less conclusive and are considered
imperfect. The use of other scale steps at the cadence (for example, ^2, ^4, or
^6) indicate that at least one more phrase is needed before the piece can end
successfully. The use of ^7 gives little sense of repose because, as the leading
tone, it demands an immediate resolution to the tonic.

e The Harmonic Component

In analyzing the harmonic component of cadences we direct our attention to

the last two chords in the phrase. All true cadences end on one of the primary
triads (I, IV, or V) in root position. The use of the tonic chord in root position
as the final chord, preceded by either the dominant or the subdominant in root
position, produces the strongest possible sense of conclusion and is termed a
full cadence. If the chord that precedes the tonic is a dominant, the cadence
is said to be authentic. If the next to the last chord is the subdominant, the
effect is plagal. However, if the next to the last chord in a phrase is inverted,
the effect is harmonically imperfect because root positions are always stronger
than inversions.

Many phrases, especially antecedents, end on the root-position dominant triad

and produce what is called an authentic half cadence. The final chord in this
type of cadence is often preceded by its own dominant (V/V). When this
happens the phrase ending is referred to as a reinforced half cadence.
Occasionally, a phrase ends on the root-position subdominant triad and is said
to contain a plagal half cadence. Very often, phrases that end with half or
imperfect cadences are paired with phrases that end with full cadences.
Because the antecedent phrase ends with a weak cadence and the consequent
ends with a strong cadence, a period may be seen as the musical equivalent of
a question and answer. Above all, it is important to realize that a phrase ends
on a chord and in a key and sometimes they are not the same, as in the case of
the half cadences.

q The ubiquitous caesura

The term caesura (pronounced: se-zhu-ra) refers to a break between phrases

that is something less than a cadence. It describes phrase endings that lack a
sense of repose because all the ingredients of a true cadence are not present.
Here, the weakness of the phrase ending is created by the use of an inverted
final chord; or, the phrase may end on a chord other than I, IV, or V; or, there
may be no rhythmic cessation at the end of the phrase in either the melody or
the accompaniment. When a phrase ends on a V7 it is a caesura, not a half
cadence, because the progression is not complete without a resolution to the
tonic. Caesuras are quite commonly used to blend two phrases together
without the break between them that a cadence would provide (see Example
13-7). In larger compositions the feeling of forward momentum is often the
result of the frequent use of caesuras rather than cadences.

q The so-called deceptive cadence

When a phrase ends with a progression from the dominant to the submediant
(either Vvi or VVI), the cadence is called deceptive because V does not go to
I, but resolves, instead, to a chord which substitutes for it, a tonic substitute.
The deceptive cadence seems to demand that the next phrase provide the
expected resolution to the tonic after a strongly diatonic progression of chords.
Some theorists do not consider this to be a cadence at all and prefer to label it
as a caesura because of its lack of conclusiveness. It is a highly effective way of
prolonging the piece by practicing tonic avoidance and is featured prominently
in many Romantic Period pieces such as Wagners Tristan und Isolde.

MULTI-SECTIONAL INSTRUMENTAL FORMS

The structure of large musical forms is not dissimilar from that of large literary
works. A novel comprises chapters, paragraphs, sentences, phrases, words,
and letters. In music we have movements, sections, periods, phrases,
subphrases, and notes. The following discussion relates to the most common
forms employed by the composers of the common practice period. Many of
these forms are still in use today. They may range in size from sixteen
measures to six hundred. What is significant about the proportion is the
amount of time the composer has allotted for the statement, restatement, and
development of ideas. Some works may be considered expository because they
present lovely melodies and harmonies but little is done to develop these
materials. At the other end of the spectrum are purely developmental works
that may begin with seemingly inconsequential ideas but, as time goes by,
these ideas grow and develop in extraordinary ways. On larger canvases we get
to see these ideas go through a variety of transformations much like what
happens to the protagonist in a great drama. At the end of the play that
character has been transformed in some significant way that has moved and
transformed the audience as well
 q Binary form

Tonal composers have employed a wide variety of musical forms over the past
four hundred years. The simplest of these is known as binary form because it
contains two sections. There are equal binary forms where both halves are the
same length and unequal ones in which the second part is longer than the
first. The dance music of the Baroque Period is a rich source of binary forms
whose A sections usually ranged from eight to twenty-four measures depending
on the tempo of the piece. If the composition is in major the A section may end
with a cadence on V or in the key of the dominant. If it is in minor the
modulation is to the relative major. Almost without fail, there is a repeat sign
and the section is played again. The second part (A1) uses melodic material
very similar to the first in a more adventurous harmonic framework and ends
with an authentic cadence in the tonic. This section is also repeated. A form
known as rounded binary is notable because the second part features a return
to the opening material in the original key (||: A :||: A1 A :||).

q Ternary form

Perhaps the most important ternary form of the 18th century was the minuet &
trio that was essentially an A-B-A1 arrangement. A binary form minuet (A) was
paired with a second minuet (B) that provided just a touch of thematic contrast
in a related key. At the end of the second minuet, referred to as the trio
because the texture often thinned to three lines, there is the indication da
capo (to the head) that tells the musicians to return to the first minuet that
they play without the repeats. In the Romantic period, beginning with
Beethoven, this form got continually faster and more complex evolving into
what we now think of as a true scherzo. In the early 18th century the term was
applied to lighter works in 2/4 time. With Haydn it became a tempo
designation and later it became a replacement for the minuet. In the 19th
century the same form was often used for its most popular dance, the waltz.

q Rondo form

There are a number of different rondo forms. What they all have in common is
that they begin and end with an A section. Where they differ is the number and
nature of the sections that alternate with restatements or variations of A. The
simplest rondo has an ABACA structure and this may be extended to A-B-A-C-
A-D-A. The arch, or bow, rondo form has the symmetrical structure of A-B-A-C-
A-B-A. Occasionally, in more complex rondos where the A section may be
rather long, the form was truncated by the removal of the A after the C
resulting in an A-B-A-C-B-A structure. In listening to, or analyzing, rondos it is
interesting to see in what condition the A section returns and how closely the
alternating sections are related to each other, if at all. The alternating sections
are very often in related keys and occasionally a restatement of A may be in the
opposite mode or it may be modified by change of register, dynamics, or
instrumentation. This form was often used for the final movements in sonatas
and symphonies.

q Sonata form

Sonata form, or sonata-allegro form, is the most frequently used complex form
in the instrumental music of the Classic/Romantic Period. Almost every first
movement of untold numbers of sonatas, symphonies, concertos and string
quartets employed this form that has a long history of evolutionary process. It
has also been used for second and fourth movements as well. If there is a third
movement it is usually in ternary form (minuet & trio). Sonata form is more of
a design concept than a prescribed structure. Its flexibility has given rise to
myriad variants. A huge number of books and articles have been written about
this subject and you can get to them later. The following discussion will give
you a general sense of the problem and your further investigations of particular
examples will teach you about the details. Basically, the form is a large
rounded binary comprising an exposition that may be repeated, and a
development section followed by a recapitulation that may also be repeated.

The exposition contains two contrasting groups of materials. Group I is

presented in the tonic and is traditionally more vigorous than Group II. It is
followed by a transition that modulates to the key of the second, more lyrical,
group, which is either the dominant or the relative major if the piece is in
minor. The exposition ends with a closing group that usually reprises motives
from group I and sounds very cadential with an insistence on the establish-
ment of the new key. There is often a repeat sign at the end of the exposition.
In the 19th century, as symphonic movements got larger and more complex, the
repeat was dropped from common practice and, eventually, from scores.
Beethovens Symphony No. 9 (1824) was his first in which the repeat is absent.

The development section is essentially a fantasia on material from the

exposition. There is no way of knowing in advance what material will be
developed, and sometimes it is only a minor detail, not the prominent theme. It
is the most harmonically unsettled section and features only tonicizations.
There are no cadences here because the development is supposed to be a
turbulent mix of melodic, rhythmic, and harmonic excitement and instability,
all of which lead to the climax. As the storm subsides the harmony stabilizes
on a long dominant pedal that prepares us for the return to the beginning back
in the tonic.
The recapitulation is a modified restatement of the exposition. Traditionally, it
connects group I and group II with a transition that pretends to modulate but
returns to the tonic. Thus, all three groups (including the closing group) are in
the home key. This section can be the most intriguing for the analyst because
the modifications to the exposition may be very subtle. Very often, the listener
is not aware that something has been added or deleted, or reorchestrated, or
shifted to another octave, or had its harmony altered. While the development
section is just thatthe obvious juggling of primary motivesthe recap is the
place of compositional magic where the composer practices a sleight of ear,
leading us to believe that this is a da capo repeat, which it is not.

Frequently, the momentum at the end of the recapitulation is too great to allow
the composer to conclude there so a coda is added. This section was originally
quite brief and practiced a kind of deception. Its use of primary materials leads
us to believe that this will be a second exposition but turns out to be an
abbreviated version of group I and brings the piece to a complete stop. Codas
were never the same after Beethovens Symphony No. 5 in which the coda of the
first movement, which turns out to be another development section, is larger
than the exposition and is followed by its own codetta (little coda).

q Sonata-rondo form

There is a hybrid form known as sonata-rondo that combines aspects of both

its namesakes. It typically follows an A-B-A-C-A-B1-A plan in which the first A
and B are analogous to groups I and II in sonata form. The second A is the
equivalent of the closing group while the C section is a development. The final
A, B1, and A serve as a kind of recapitulation and are entirely in the tonic. Like
the forms from which this derives it may have many variants. Individual pieces
may be judged to be somewhere on a scale that runs from sonata to rondo. The
major difference between them is that in sonata-rondo the exposition (A-B-A) is
not repeated as in most sonata forms. This form was often used for symphonic
finales.

q Theme and variations

The concept behind theme and variations is quite simple although nothing is
simple when it comes to the creativity of great composers. The form begins with
the theme, often in simple binary form, followed by a series of variations that
may, or may not, be the same length as the theme. At the end there may be a
reprise of the theme or not. There is no prescribed number of variations that
may be employed. There may be as few as three or as many as thirty-two. This
form gives the composer the opportunity to apply extreme inventiveness to a
single musical idea. The character of the variations may cover a wide spectrum
of emotional states from slow and contemplative to ecstatic virtuosity. The
basic jazz form of head-solos-head is a descendent of this practice. A
composition that employs the theme and variations structure could stand
alone or be part of a larger multi-movement work.

In this form, the theme does not have to be original. Countless composers have
taken someone elses theme, or a folk song, and played around with it, as did
Haydn in the second movement of his Surprise Symphony. The operative
concept in the execution of this form and, indeed, all musical activities is the
word play. We play the piano or we play around with musical ideas. The
playfulness that is so much a part of childhood is, thankfully, still alive and
well in the spirits of adult composers and performers. The perfect depiction of
this playfulness occurs in the film Amadeus in the scene where Mozart listens
to the uninspired little piece that Salieri wrote for the Emperor to perform and
then proceeds to sit at the piano and transform the dull ditty into a delightful
bonbon.
 A Geocentric View From CCNY

Our neighborhood: Manhattanville (our first famous resident was

Alexander Hamilton). Ha(a)rlem is the flat land to the east of us.
Our county: New York (Manhattan Island)
Our City: New York City (includes The Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn [Kings
County] and Staten Island [Richmond County])
Our State: New York State (Albany is the capitol of The Empire State)
Our nearest neighbors: New Jersey (The Garden State) to the south and
Connecticut (The Nutmeg State) to the north (New England)
New York is one of the original thirteen colonies:
o New Hampshire
o Massachusetts
o Rhode Island
o Connecticut
o New York
o New Jersey
o Pennsylvania
o Delaware
o Maryland
o Virginia
o North Carolina
o South Carolina
o Georgia
The mid-west begins with Ohio.
Eventually you come to the Mississippi River and thats where the west
begins.
When you get to either California, Oregon or Washington stand on the
beach and watch the sun set into the Pacific.
Texas used to be part of Mexico. Then it became the largest state until
somebody decided to add Alaska to the famous forty-eight. And
since they added such a frigid state they had to counterbalance
it with a new warm state, which was Hawaii.
Oklahoma is a Broadway show by Rodgers and Hammerstein and also a
state.
There are 50 states and most of them seem to either have English,
Spanish, or Native American names (what are the others?).
New York City may be considered the capitol of the world since so many
people want to come here and attend CCNY. It was originally a Dutch
colony (Amsterdam Avenue), then the English stole it, and now it belongs
to the world.
There was a convent on Convent Avenue.



Locate these capital cities:
London Dublin Moscow

Vienna Rome Vatican City

Paris Bern Zagreb
Bucharest Amsterdam Sarajevo
Madrid Helsinki Vilnius

Berlin Stockholm Sofia

Warsaw Copenhagen Riga
Budapest Kiev Oslo

Ankara Athens Reykjavik

Brussels Prague Lisbon
Music in the Renaissance
The Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History

Music was an essential part of civic, religious, and courtly life in the Renaissance. The
rich interchange of ideas in Europe, as well as political, economic, and religious events
in the period 14001600 led to major changes in styles of composing, methods of
disseminating music, new musical genres, and the development of musical
instruments. The most important music of the early Renaissance was composed for
use by the churchpolyphonic (made up of several simultaneous melodies) masses
and motets in Latin for important churches and court chapels. By the end of the
sixteenth century, however, patronage was split among many areas: the Catholic
Church, Protestant churches and courts, wealthy amateurs, and music printingall
were sources of income for composers.

The early fifteenth century was dominated initially by English and then Northern
European composers. The Burgundian court was especially influential, and it
attracted composers and musicians from all over Europe. The most important of these
was Guillaume Du Fay (13971474), whose varied musical offerings included motets
and masses for church and chapel services, many of whose large musical structures
were based on existing Gregorian chant. His many small settings of French poetry
display a sweet melodic lyricism unknown until his era. With his command of large-
scale musical form, as well as his attention to secular text-setting, Du Fay set the
stage for the next generations of Renaissance composers._

By about 1500, European art music was dominated by Franco-Flemish composers, the
most prominent of whom was Josquin des Prez (ca. 14501521). Like many leading
composers of his era, Josquin traveled widely throughout Europe, working for patrons
in Aix-en-Provence, Paris, Milan, Rome, Ferrara, and Cond-sur-L'Escaut. The
exchange of musical ideas among the Low Countries, France, and Italy led to what
could be considered an international European style. On the one hand, polyphony or
multi-voiced music with its horizontal contrapuntal style continued to develop in
complexity. At the same time, harmony based on a vertical arrangement of intervals,
including thirds and sixths, was explored for its full textures and suitability for
accompanying a vocal line. Josquin's music epitomized these trends, with Northern-
style intricate polyphony using canons, preexisting melodies, and other compositional
structures smoothly amalgamated with the Italian bent for artfully setting words with
melodies that highlight the poetry rather than masking it with complexity. Josquin,
like Du Fay, composed primarily Latin masses and motets in a seemingly endless
variety of styles. His secular output included settings of courtly French poetry, like Du
Fay, but also arrangements of French popular songs, instrumental music, and Italian
frottole._

With the beginning of the sixteenth century, European music saw a number of
momentous changes. In 1501, a Venetian printer named Ottaviano Petrucci published
the first significant collection of polyphonic music, the Harmonice Musices Odhecaton
A. Petrucci's success led eventually to music printing in France, Germany, England,
and elsewhere. Prior to 1501, all music had to be copied by hand or learned by ear.
Music books were owned exclusively by religious establishments or extremely wealthy
courts and households. After Petrucci, while these books were not inexpensive, it
became possible for far greater numbers of people to own them and to learn to read
music._

At about the same period, musical instrument technology led to the development of
the viola da gamba, a fretted, bowed string instrument. Amateur European musicians
of means eagerly took up the viol, as well as the lute, the recorder, the harpsichord (in
various guises, including the spinet and virginal), the organ, and other instruments.
The viola da gamba and recorder were played together in consorts or ensembles, and
to facilitate this often were produced in families or sets, with different sizes playing the
different lines. Publications by Petrucci and others supplied these players for the first
time with notated music (as opposed to the improvised music played by professional
instrumentalists). The sixteenth century saw the development of instrumental music
such as the canzona, ricercare, fantasia, variations, and contrapuntal dance-inspired
compositions, for both soloists and ensembles, as a truly distinct and independent
genre with its own idioms separate from vocal forms and practical dance
accompaniment._

The musical instruments depicted in the studiolo of Duke Federico da Montefeltro of

Urbino (ca. 147982) represent both his personal interest in music and the role of
music in the intellectual life of an educated Renaissance man. The musical
instruments are placed alongside various scientific instruments, books, and weapons,
and they include a portative organ, lutes, fiddle, and cornetti; a hunting horn; a pipe
and tabor; a harp and jingle ring; a rebec; and a cittern._

From about 1520 through the end of the sixteenth century, composers throughout
Europe employed the polyphonic language of Josquin's generation in exploring
musical expression through the French chanson, the Italian madrigal, the German
tenorlieder, the Spanish villancico, and the English song, as well as in sacred music.
The Reformation and Counter-Reformation directly affected the sacred polyphony of
these countries. The Protestant revolutions (mainly in Northern Europe) varied in their
attitudes toward sacred music, bringing such musical changes as the introduction of
relatively simple German-language hymns (or chorales) sung by the congregation in
Lutheran services. Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (1525/261594), maestro di
cappella at the Cappella Giulia at Saint Peter's in Rome, is seen by many as the iconic
High Renaissance composer of Counter-Reformation sacred music, which features
clear lines, a variety of textures, and a musically expressive reverence for its sacred
texts. The English (and Catholic) composer William Byrd (15401623) straddled both
worlds, composing Latin-texted works for the Catholic Church, as well as English-
texted service music for use at Elizabeth I's Chapel Royal._

Sixteenth-century humanists studied ancient Greek treatises on music that discussed

the close relationship between music and poetry and how music could stir the
listener's emotions. Inspired by the classical world, Renaissance composers fit words
and music together in an increasingly dramatic fashion, as seen in the development of
the Italian madrigal and later the operatic works of Claudio Monteverdi (15671643).
The Renaissance adaptation of a musician singing and accompanying himself on a
stringed instrument, a variation on the theme of Orpheus, appears in Renaissance
artworks like Caravaggio's Musicians (52.81) and Titian's Venus and the Lute Player
(36.29).

Rebecca Arkenberg
Department of Education,
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
How the Phonograph Changed Music Forever
Smithsonian.com

Much like streaming music services today are reshaping our relationship with music,
Edison's invention redefined the entire industry

These days music is increasingly freein just about every sense of the word.

Right now, if you decided you wanted to hear, say, Uptown Funk, you could be listening
to it in seconds. Its up free on YouTube, streamable on Spotify or buyable for about two
bucks on iTunes. The days of scavenging in record stores and slowly, expensively building
a music library are over. Its also become easier than ever to make music. Every Mac
ships with a copy of GarageBand, software powerful enough to let anyone record an
album.

Are these trends a good thingfor musicians, for us, for the world of audible art?

Now the arguments begin. Some cultural critics say our new world has liberated music,
creating listeners with broader taste than ever before. Others worry that finding music is
too frictionless, and that without having to scrimp and save to buy an album, we care less
about music: No pain, no gain. If you own all the music ever recorded in the entire
history of the world, asked the novelist Nick Hornby in a column for Billboard, then who
are you?

Artists fight over digital music too. Many say it impoverishes them, as the relatively fat
royalties of radio and CD give way to laughably tiny micropayments from streaming
companies, where a band might get mere thousandths of a penny from their label when a
fan streams its song. Other artists disagree, arguing that giving away your music for free
online makes it easier to build a global fan base avid for actually giving you money.

A confusing time, to be sure. But its certainly no more confusing than the upheaval that
greeted a much older music technology: the phonograph. Back in the 19th century, it
caused fights and joy tooas it forever transformed the face of music.

Its almost hard to reconstruct how different music was before the phonograph. Back in
the mid-1800s, if you wanted to hear a song, you had only one option: live. You listened
while someone played it, or else you played it yourself.
That changed in 1877 when Thomas Edison unveiled his phonograph. It wasnt the first
such device to record and play back audio, but it was the first generally reliable one:
scratchy and nearly inaudible by modern standards, but it worked. Edison envisioned a
welter of uses, including for business, to make Dolls speak sing cry or to record the last
words of dying persons. But in 1878 he made a prediction: The phonograph will
undoubtedly be liberally devoted to music.

He was right. Within a few years, entrepreneurs began putting phonograph recordings
mostly on wax cylindersinto coin-in-slot machines on city streets, where passersby
could listen to several minutes of audio: jokes, monologues, songs. They were an instant
hit; one machine in Missouri hauled in $100 in a week. The next obvious step was selling
people recordings. But of what?
At first, nearly everything. Early phonography was a crazy hodgepodge of material. It was
all over the place, says Jonathan Sterne, a professor of communication studies at McGill
University who wrote The Audible Past. It would have been vaudeville stars, people
laughing, people telling jokes and artistic whistling. An example was Uncle Josh
Weathersbys Visit to New York, a skit that poked fun at urban mores by having a
country hick visit the big city. Meanwhile, in the wake of the relatively recent Civil War,
marching music was in vogue, so military bands recorded their works.

Soon, though, hits emergedand genres. In 1920, the song Crazy Blues by Mamie
Smith sold one million copies in six months, a monster hit that helped create blues as a
category. Jazz followed, and hillbilly music, too. If people were going to buy music,
producers realized, theyd want some predictability, so music had to slot into a known
form. One surprise hit was opera. In 1903, in an attempt to eradicate the phonographs
working-class vaudeville associations, the Victor Talking Machine Company recorded the
European tenor Enrico Carusoso successfully that labels began frantically cranking out
copies. Why has this great interest and enthusiasm for Opera so suddenly developed?
asked one journalist in 1917 in National Music Monthly. Almost every layman will
answer with the two words, the phonograph.

But the nature of a song also began to change.

For one thing, it got much, much shorter. Early wax cylindersfollowed in 1895 by the
shellac discs of the inventor Emile Berlinercould hold only two to three minutes of
audio. But the live music of the 19th and early 20th centuries was typically much more
drawn out: Symphonies could stretch to an hour. As they headed into the studio,
performers and composers ruthlessly edited their work down to size. When Stravinsky
wrote his Serenade in A in 1925, he created each movement to fit a three-minute side of a
disc; two discs, four movements. The works of violinist Fritz Kreisler were put together
with a watch in the hand, as his friend Carl Flesch joked. Blues and country songs
chopped their tunes to perhaps one verse and two choruses.

The three-minute pop song is basically an invention of the phonograph, says Mark Katz,
a professor of music at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and author of
Capturing Sound: How Technology Has Changed Music.

Whats more, the early phonograph had terrible sound fidelity. Microphones werent
commonly in use yet, so recording was a completely mechanical process: Musicians
played into a huge horn, with the sound waves driving a needle that etched the audio into
the wax. It captured little low end or high end. Violins turned into a pathetic and ghostly
murmur, as one critic sniffed; high female voices sounded awful. So producers had to
alter the instrumentation to fit the medium. Jazz bands replaced their drums with
cowbells and woodblocks, and the double bass with a tuba. Klezmer bands completely
dropped the tsimbl, a dulcimer-like instrument whose gentle tones couldnt move the
needle. (Carusos enormous success was partly due to the quirks of the medium: The
male tenor was one of the few sounds that wax cylinders reproduced fairly well.)

Recording was physically demanding. To capture quiet passages, singers or

instrumentalists would often have to stick their face right into the recording horn. But
when a loud or high passage came along, a singer would have to jump back when hitting
a high C, because its too powerful, and the needle would jump out of the groove, says
Susan Schmidt Horning, author of Chasing Sound and a professor of history at St. Johns
University. (Louis Armstrong was famously placed 20 feet away for his solos.) I got plenty
of exercise, joked the opera singer Rosa Ponselle. If a song had many instruments,
musicians often had to cluster together in front of the cone, so tightly packed that they
could accidentally smack an instrument into someone elses face.

Plus, perfection suddenly mattered. On the vaudeville stage a false note or a slight slip in
your pronunciation makes no difference, as the hit singer Ada Jones noted in 1917,
whereas on the phonograph stage the slightest error is not admissible. As a result, the
phonograph rewarded a new type of musical talent. You didnt need to be the most
charismatic or passionate performer onstage, or have the greatest virtuositybut you did
need to be able to regularly pull off a clean take. These demands produced unique stress.
It is something of an ordeal, admitted the violinist Maud Powell. Does your finger touch
by accident two strings of your fiddle when they should touch but one? It will show in the
record, and so will every other microscopic accident. Plus, there was no audience from
which to draw energy. Many performers froze up with phonograph fright.

Even as it changed the nature of performing, the phonograph altered how people heard
music. It was the beginnings of on demand listening: The music you want, whenever
you want it, as one phonograph ad boasted. Music fans could listen to a song over and
over, picking out its nuances.
This is a very different relationship to music, as Sterne notes. Previously, you might
become very familiar with a songwith its tune, its structure. But you could never before
become intimate with a particular performance.

People started defining themselves by their genre: Someone was a blues person, an
opera listener. What you want is your kind of music, as another advertisement intoned.
Your friends can have their kind. Pundits began to warn of gramomania, a growing
obsession with buying and collecting records that would lead one to ignore ones family.
Has the gramophone enthusiast any room or time in his life for a wife? one journalist
joked.

A curious new behavior emerged: listening to music alone. Previously, music was most
often highly social, with a family gathering together around a piano, or a group of people
hearing a band in a bar. But now you could immerse yourself in isolation. In 1923, the
writer Orlo Williams described how strange it would be to enter a room and find someone
alone with a phonograph. You would think it odd, would you not? he noted. You would
endeavor to dissemble your surprise: you would look twice to see whether some other
person were not hidden in some corner of the room.

Some social critics argued that recorded music was narcissistic and would erode our
brains. Mental muscles become flabby through a constant flow of recorded popular
music, as Alice Clark Cook fretted; while listening, your mind lapsed into a complete
and comfortable vacuum. Phonograph fans hotly disagreed. Recordings, they argued,
allowed them to focus on music with a greater depth and attention than ever before. All
the unpleasant externals are removed: The interpreter has been disposed of; the audience
has been disposed of; the uncomfortable concert hall has been disposed of, wrote one.
You are alone with the composer and his music. Surely no more ideal circumstances
could be imagined.
Others worried it would kill off amateur musicianship. If we could listen to the greatest
artists with the flick of a switch, why would anyone bother to learn an instrument
themselves? Once the talking machine is in a home, the child wont practice,
complained the bandleader John Philip Sousa. But others wryly pointed out that this
could be a blessingtheyd be spared the agonies of Susies and Janes parlor concerts,
as a journalist joked. In reality, neither critic was right. During the first two decades of
the phonographfrom 1890 to 1910the number of music teachers and performers per
capita in the U.S. rose by 25 percent, as Katz found. The phonograph inspired more and
more people to pick up instruments.

This was particularly true of jazz, an art form that was arguably invented by the
phonograph. Previously, musicians learned a new form by hearing it live. But with jazz,
new artists often reported learning the complex new genre by buying jazz recordsthen
replaying them over and over, studying songs until theyd mastered them. Theyd also do
something uniquely modern: slowing the record down to pick apart a complex riff.
Jazz musicians would sit there going over something again and again and again, says
William Howland Kenney, author of Recorded Music in American Life. The vinyl was their
education.

Records werent terribly profitable for artists at first. Indeed musicians were often
egregiously ripped offparticularly black ones.
In the early days, white artists often sang coon songs in the voice of blacks, lampooning
their lives in a sort of acoustic blackface. Arthur Collins, a white man, produced records
ranging from The Preacher and the Bearsung in the voice of a terrified black man
chased up a tree by a bearto Down in Monkeyville. When black artists eventually
made it into the studio, the labels marketed their songs in a segregated series of race
records (or, as the early label executive Ralph Peer called it, the [n-word] stuff). Even in
jazz, an art form heavily innovated by black musicians, some of the first recorded artists
were white, such as Paul Whiteman and his orchestra.

Financial arrangements were not much better. Black artists were given a flat fee and no
share in sales royaltiesthe label owned the song and the recording outright. The only
exceptions were a small handful of breakout artists like Bessie Smith, who made about
$20,000 off her work, though this was probably only about 25 percent of what the
copyright was worth. One single of hersDownhearted Bluessold 780,000 copies in
1923, producing $156,000 for Columbia Records.

When hillybilly music took off, the poor white Southern musicians who created that
genre fared slightly better, but not much. Indeed, Ralph Peer suspected that they were so
thrilled to be recorded that he probably could pay them zero. He kept artists in the dark
about how much money the labels were bringing in. You dont want to figure out how
much these people might earn and then give it to them because then they would have no
incentive to keep working, he said. When radio came along, it made the financial
situation even worse: By law, radio was allowed to buy a record and play it on the air
without paying the label or artist a penny; the only ones who got royalties were composers
and publishers. It would take decades of fights to establish copyright rules that required
radio to pay up.

Last fall, Spotify listeners logged on to discover all of Taylor Swifts music was gone. Shed
pulled it all out. Why? Because, as she argued in a Wall Street Journal article, streaming
services pay artists too little: less than a penny per play. Music is art, and art is
important and rare, she said. Valuable things should be paid for. Then in the spring,
she hit back at Apple, which launched its own streaming service by offering customers
three free monthsduring which time artists wouldnt be paid at all. In an open letter to
Apple online, Swift lacerated Apple, and the company backed down.

Technology, it seems, is once again rattling and upending the music industry. Not all
artists are as opposed as Swift is to the transformation. Some point out an upside: Maybe
you cant make much by selling digital tracks, but you can quickly amass a global
audiencevery hard to do in the 20th centuryand tour everywhere. Indeed, digital
music is, ironically, bringing back the primacy of live shows: The live-music touring
market in the U.S. grew an average of 4.7 percent per year for the last five years, and it
brings in $25 billion per year in revenue, according to IBISWorld.

Its also changing the way we listen. Nick Hornby may worry that young people arent
committed to their music because it costs them less, but Aram Sinnreich, a professor of
communications at American University, thinks theyve simply become more catholic in
their interests. Because its so easy to sample widely, they no longer identify as a fan of a
single genre.

In the age of the iPod, and the age of Pandora, and the age of Spotify, weve seen the
average college student go from being a hard-core rock fan or a hard-core hip-hop fan to
being a connoisseur of a lot of different genres, and a casual fan of dozens more, he says.
Its very rare to come across someone of college age or younger whos only invested in one
or two styles of music, and theyre less likely to judge people on their musical taste.

One thing is true: While the recording medium may constantly change, one thing wont
our love of listening to it. Its been a constant since Edison first produced his scratchy
recordings on tinfoil. Even he seems to have intuited the power of that invention. Edison
was once asked, of your thousand-fold patents, which is your favorite invention? I like
the phonograph best, he replied.
The Tale of Two Georgs

How cruel is the history of music? Today I was driving to school, when, on my XM
radio, I heard a lovely Baroque suite by one Georg Caspar Schurmann. I was, once
again, delightfully surprised at encountering a fine composer about whom I knew
absolutely nothing. What I heard was music that certainly rivaled that of Handel in
quality and style, so I made sure to look this fellow up when I got home. As soon as
dinner was over, I pulled out my Bakers and found that Slonimsky rates him as
eminent, which puts him one rung below great. At CCNY that evaluation would
him an A minus, memorable at the very least. So then I checked out iTunes and
found one overture by him available for purchase. My next stop was YouTube where
only one of his compositions is available. It turned out to be the same piece I had
heard earlier in the day on the radio, and its a damn good piece.
So, what does all this tell me about the ravages of time? Well, there must scores of
fellows out there in the dark recesses of history who were deemed masters in their
day and have failed to make the big time centuries later. Hey, this guy lived and
worked in one of the best courts in Europe almost his whole life, and he lived to 79,
and now he only gets 3 inches in Bakers? I must conclude that the music business is,
indeed, very cruel to the highly talented because they failed to be supremely
talented. Talk about elitism! I have spent my fifty years as a professor of music
focused on an infinitesimally small percentage of music historys cast of characters.
For every Handel there must be ten Schurmanns who I may never meet in this
lifetime, so I must be grateful that I got to spend at least one day with Caspar before
I toss him aside and get back that other Georg who made it into the Hall of Fame.

So how do we measure a composers worth? Handel gets 86 inches in Bakers and

Schurmann gets 3. Is Handel 28 times more noteworthy than Schurmann? Listen to
the music, and you be the judge.

The Mass Through History

Machaut Messe de Nostre Dame

Josquin Missa Pange Lingua
Palestrina Pope Marcellus Mass
Monteverdi Mass for Four Voices

Bach Mass in B minor

Mozart Requiem

Beethoven Missa Solemnis

Verdi Requiem
Puccini Messe
Faure Requiem
Durufle Requiem

Stravinsky Mass
Britten War Requiem
Penderecki Polish Requiem

Ligeti Requiem
Part Berliner Messe

The Ordinary of the Mass
Kyrie eleison.
Christe eleison.
Kyrie eleison.
Lord, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.
Gloria in excelsis Deo.
Et in terra pax
hominibus bon voluntatis.
Laudamus te; benedicimus te;
adoramus te; glorificamus te.
Gratias agimus tibi
propter magnam gloriam tuam.
Domine Deus, Rex coelestis,
Deus Pater omnipotens.
Domine Fili unigenite Jesu Christe.
Domine Deus, Agnus Dei,
Filius Patris.
Qui tollis peccata mundi,
miserere nobis.
Qui tollis peccata mundi,
suscipe deprecationem nostram.
Qui sedes ad dextram Patris,
O miserere nobis.
Quoniam tu solus Sanctus,
tu solus Dominus,
tu solus Altissimus, Jesu Christe.
Cum Sancto Spiritu
in gloria Dei Patris.
Amen.
Glory be to God in the highest.
And in earth peace
to men of good will.
We praise Thee; we bless Thee;
we worship Thee; we glorify Thee.
We give thanks to Thee
for Thy great glory.
O Lord God, Heavenly King,
God the Father Almighty.
O Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son.
Lord God, Lamb of God,
Son of the Father.
Thou that takest away the sins of the world, have mercy upon us.
Thou that takest away the sins of the world, receive our prayer.
Thou that sittest at the right hand of the Father,
have mercy upon us.
For thou only art holy,
thou only art the Lord,
thou only art the most high, Jesus Christ.
Together with the Holy Ghost
in the glory of God the Father.
Amen.
Credo in unum Deum;
Patrem omnipotentem,
factorem coeli et terrae,
visibilium omnium et invisibilium.
Credo in unum Dominum Jesum Christum,
Filium Dei unigenitum,
Et ex Patre natum ante omnia scula.
Deum de Deo, lumen de lumine,
Deum verum de Deo vero,
Genitum non factum,
consubstantialem Patri:
per quem omnia facta sunt.
Qui propter nos homines,
et propter nostram salutem
descendit de coelis.
Et incarnatus est de Spiritu Sancto
ex Maria Virgine: et homo factus est.
Crucifixus etiam pro nobis
sub Pontio Pilato,
passus et sepultus est.
Et resurrexit tertia die
secundum Scripturas.
Et ascendit in coelum:
sedet ad dexteram Patris.
Et iterum venturus est cum gloria,
judicare vivos et mortuos:
cujus regni non erit finis.
Credo in Spiritum Sanctum,
Dominum, et vivificantem:
qui ex Patre Filioque procedit.
Qui cum Patre et Filio simul
adoratur et conglorificatur:
qui locutus est per Prophetas.
Credo in unam sanctam
catholicam et apostolicam Ecclesiam.
Confiteor unum baptisma,
in remissionem peccatorum. Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus, Dominus Deus
Et expecto resurrectionem mortuorum Sabaoth.
et vitam venturi sculi. Pleni sunt coeli et terra gloria tua.
Amen. Osanna in excelsis.
Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Hosts.
I believe in one God; Heaven and earth are full of Thy glory.
the Father almighty, Hosanna in the highest.
maker of heaven and earth,
and of all things visible and invisible.
And in one Lord Jesus Christ, Agnus Dei,
the only begotten Son of God, qui tollis peccata mundi,
begotten of the Father before all worlds; miserere nobis.
God of God, light of light, Agnus Dei.
true God of true God, Dona nobis pacem.
begotten not made;
being of one substance with the Father, Lamb of God,
by Whom all things were made. Who takest away the sins of the world,
Who for us men have mercy upon us.
and for our salvation Lamb of God.
descended from heaven; Grant us peace.
and was incarnate by the Holy Ghost,
of the Virgin Mary, and was made man. Benedictus qui venit
He was crucified also for us, in nomine Domini.
suffered under Pontius Pilate, Osanna in excelsis.
and was buried. Blessed is He that cometh
And on the third day He rose again in the name of the Lord.
according to the Scriptures:
Hosanna in the highest.
and ascended into heaven.
He sitteth at the right hand of the Father;
and He shall come again with glory
to judge the living and the dead;
and His kingdom shall have no end.
I believe in the Holy Ghost,
the Lord and giver of life,
Who prodeedeth from the Father and the Son,
Who with the Father and the Son together
is worshipped and glorified;
as it was told by the Prophets.
And I believe in one holy
catholic and apostolic Church.
I acknowledge one baptism
for the remission of sins.
And I await the resurrection of the dead
and the life of the world to come.
Amen.
The Symphony Through History
Mozart

Symphony
40

Haydn Symphony 94 The Surprise

Beethoven Symphony 3, 5, 9 The Choral
Schubert Symphony 8 The Unfinished
Berlioz Symphony Fantastique

Mendelssohn Symphony The Italian

Dvorak Symphony 9 From the New World
Franck Symphony in D minor

Tchaikovsky Symphony 6 The Pathetique

Mahler Symphony 1 The Titan
Sibelius Symphony 5
Stravinsky Symphony in Three Movements

Shostakovitch Symphony 5
Prokofiev Symphony 5
Berio Sinfonia

Other Orchestral Music:

Brahms Haydn Variations
Grieg Peer Gynt
Wagner Siegfried Idyll

Bizet LArlesienne
Scriabin Poem of Ecstasy
Strauss Don Juan

Mussorgsky Night on Bald Mountain

Webern Six Pieces for Orchestra
Schoenberg Five Pieces for Orchestra
Ives Orchestral Set 2

Reich Music for Large Ensemble

Adams Short Ride in a Fast Machine
The Symphony (Wikipedia)

During the 18th century, "the symphony was cultivated with extraordinary
intensity".[6] It played a role in many areas of public life, including church
services,[7] but a particularly strong area of support for symphonic
performances was the aristocracy. In Vienna, perhaps the most important
location in Europe for the composition of symphonies, "literally hundreds of
noble families supported musical establishments, generally dividing their time
between Vienna and their ancestral estate [elsewhere in the Empire]". [8] Since
the normal size of the orchestra at the time was quite small, many of these
courtly establishments were capable of performing symphonies. The young
Joseph Haydn, taking up his first job as a music director in 1757 for the
Morzin family, found that when the Morzin household was in Vienna, his own
orchestra was only part of a lively and competitive musical scene, with multiple
aristocrats sponsoring concerts with their own ensembles.

LaRue, Bonds, Walsh, and Wilson[10] trace the gradual expansion of the
symphonic orchestra through the 18th century. At first, symphonies were
string symphonies, written in just four parts: first violin, second violin, viola,
and bass (the bass line was taken by cello(s), double bass(es) playing the part
an octave below, and perhaps also a bassoon). Occasionally the early
symphonists even dispensed with the viola part, thus creating three-part
symphonies. A basso continuo part including a bassoon together with a
harpsichord or other chording instrument was also possible.[10]

The first additions to this simple ensemble were a pair of horns, occasionally a
pair of oboes, and then both horns and oboes together. Over the century, other
instruments were added to the classical orchestra: flutes (sometimes replacing
the oboes), separate parts for bassoons, clarinets, and trumpets and timpani.
Works varied in their scoring concerning which of these additional instruments
were to appear. The full-scale classical orchestra, deployed at the end of the
century for the largest-scale symphonies, has the standard string ensemble
mentioned above, pairs of winds (flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons), a pair of
horns, and timpani. A keyboard continuo instrument (harpsichord or piano)
remained an option.

The "Italian" style of symphony, often used as overture and entr'acte in opera
houses, became a standard three-movement form: a fast movement, a slow
movement, and another fast movement. Over the course of the 18th century it
became the custom to write four-movement symphonies,[11] along the lines
described in the next paragraph. The three-movement symphony died out
slowly; about half of Haydn's first thirty symphonies are in three movements;[12]
and for the young Mozart, the three-movement symphony was the norm,
perhaps under the influence of his friend Johann Christian Bach.[13] An
outstanding late example of the three-movement Classical symphony is
Mozart's "Prague" Symphony, from 1787.

The four-movement form that emerged from this evolution was as follows:[14][15]
1 an opening sonata or allegro
2 a slow movement, such as adagio
3 a minuet or scherzo with trio
4 an allegro, rondo, or sonata

Variations on this layout, like changing the order of the middle movements or
adding a slow introduction to the first movement, were common. Haydn,
Mozart and their contemporaries restricted their use of the four-movement
form to orchestral or multi-instrument chamber music such as quartets,
though since Beethoven solo sonatas are as often written in four as in three
movements.[16]

The composition of early symphonies was centered on Milan, Vienna, and

Mannheim. The Milanese school centered around Giovanni Battista
Sammartini and included Antonio Brioschi, Ferdinando Galimberti and
Giovanni Battista Lampugnani. Early exponents of the form in Vienna included
Georg Christoph Wagenseil, Wenzel Raimund Birck and Georg Matthias Monn,
while later significant Viennese composers of symphonies included Johann
Baptist Wanhal, Karl Ditters von Dittersdorf and Leopold Hoffmann. The
Mannheim school included Johann Stamitz.[17]

The most important symphonists of the latter part of the 18th century are
Haydn, who wrote at least 107 symphonies over the course of 36 years,[18] and
Mozart, with at least 47 symphonies in 24 years. [19]

19th century

At the beginning of the 19th century, Beethoven elevated the symphony from
an everyday genre produced in large quantities to a supreme form in which
composers strove to reach the highest potential of music in just a few works.[20]
Beethoven began with two works directly emulating his models Mozart and
Haydn, then seven more symphonies, starting with the Third Symphony
("Eroica") that expanded the scope and ambition of the genre. His Symphony
No. 5 is perhaps the most famous symphony ever written; its transition from
the emotionally stormy C minor opening movement to a triumphant major-key
finale provided a model adopted by later symphonists such as Brahms[21] and
Mahler.[ His Symphony No. 6 is a programmatic work, featuring instrumental
imitations of bird calls and a storm; and, unconventionally, a fifth movement
(symphonies usually had at most four movements). His Symphony No. 9
includes parts for vocal soloists and choir in the last movement, making it a
choral symphony.[22]

Of the symphonies of Franz Schubert, two are core repertory items and are
frequently performed. Of the Eighth Symphony (1822), Schubert completed
only the first two movements; this highly Romantic work is usually called by its
nickname "The Unfinished." His last completed symphony, the Ninth (1826) is
a massive work in the Classical idiom.[23]

Of the early Romantics, Felix Mendelssohn (five symphonies) and Robert

Schumann (four) continued to write symphonies in the classical mold, though
using their own musical language. In contrast, Hector Berlioz favored
programmatic works, including his "dramatic symphony" Romo et Juliette and
the highly original Symphonie fantastique. The latter is also a programme work
and has both a march and a waltz and five movements instead of the
customary four. His fourth and last symphony, the Grande symphonie funbre
et triomphale (originally titled Symphonie militaire) was composed in 1840 for a
200-piece marching military band, to be performed out of doors, and is an early
example of a band symphony. Berlioz later added optional string parts and a
choral finale.[24] In 1851, Richard Wagner declared that all of these post-
Beethoven symphonies were no more than an epilogue, offering nothing
substantially new. Indeed, after Schumann's last symphony, the "Rhenish"
composed in 1850, for two decades the Lisztian symphonic poem appeared to
have displaced the symphony as the leading form of large-scale instrumental
music. If the symphony had been eclipsed, it was not long before it re-emerged
in a "second age" in the 1870s and 1880s, with the symphonies of Anton
Bruckner, Johannes Brahms, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Camille Saint-Sans,
Alexander Borodin, Antonn Dvok, and Csar Franckworks which
continued to dominate the concert repertory for at least a century.[20]

Over the course of the 19th century, composers continued to add to the size of
the symphonic orchestra. Around the beginning of the century, a full-scale
orchestra would consist of the string section plus pairs of flutes, oboes,
clarinets, bassoons, horns, trumpets, and lastly a set of timpani.[25] This is, for
instance, the scoring used in Beethoven's symphonies numbered 1, 2, 4, 7, and
8. Trombones, which had previously been confined to church and theater
music, came to be added to the symphonic orchestra, notably in Beethoven's
5th, 6th, and 9th symphonies. The combination of bass drum, triangle, and
cymbals (sometimes also: piccolo), which 18th century composers employed as
a coloristic effect in so-called "Turkish music", came to be increasingly used
during the second half of the 19th century without any such connotations of
genre.[25] By the time of Mahler (see below), it was possible for a composer to
write a symphony scored for "a veritable compendium of orchestral
instruments".[25] In addition to increasing in variety of instruments, 19th
century symphonies were gradually augmented with more string players and
more wind parts, so that that the orchestra grew substantially in sheer
numbers, as concert halls likewise grew.[25]
The 20th Century

At the beginning of the 20th century, Gustav Mahler wrote long, large-scale
symphonies. His Eighth Symphony, for example, was composed in 1906 and is
nicknamed the "Symphony of a Thousand" because of the large number of
voices required to perform the choral sections. Additionally, his Third
Symphony is one of the longest regularly performed symphonies at around 100
minutes in length for most performances. The 20th century also saw further
diversification in the style and content of works that composers labeled
symphonies (Anon. 2008). Some composers, including Dmitri Shostakovich,
Sergei Rachmaninoff, and Carl Nielsen, continued to write in the traditional
four-movement form, while other composers took different approaches: Jean
Sibelius' Symphony No. 7, his last, is in one movement, whereas Alan
Hovhaness's Symphony No. 9, Saint Vartanoriginally op. 80, changed to op.
180composed in 194950, is in twenty-four.[26]

A concern with unification of the traditional four-movement symphony into a

single, subsuming formal conception had emerged in the late 19th century.
This has been called a "two-dimensional symphonic form", and finds its key
turning point in Arnold Schoenberg's Chamber Symphony No. 1, Op. 9 (1909),
which was followed in the 1920s by other notable single-movement German
symphonies, including Kurt Weills First Symphony (1921), Max Buttings
Chamber Symphony, Op. 25 (1923), and Paul Dessau's 1926 Symphony.[27]
There remained, however, certain tendencies. Designating a work a "symphony"
still implied a degree of sophistication and seriousness of purpose. The word
sinfonietta came into use to designate a work that is shorter, of more modest
aims, or "lighter" than a symphony, such as Sergei Prokofiev's Sinfonietta for
orchestra (Kennedy 2006a).[28]

In the first half of the century, Edward Elgar, Gustav Mahler, Jean Sibelius,
Carl Nielsen, Igor Stravinsky, Bohuslav Martin, Roger Sessions, and Dmitri
Shostakovich composed symphonies "extraordinary in scope, richness,
originality, and urgency of expression" (Steinberg 1995, 404). One measure of
the significance of a symphony is the degree to which it reflects conceptions of
temporal form particular to the age in which it was created. Five composers
from across the span of the 20th century who fulfill this measure are Sibelius,
Stravinsky, Luciano Berio (in his Sinfonia, 196869), Elliott Carter (in his
Symphony of Three Orchestras, 1976), and Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen (in
Symphony/Antiphony, 1980).[29]
Music for the Stage Through History

Monteverdi The Coronation of Poppea, Act I, 3

Purcell Dido & Aeneas, Didos Lament
Handel Rinaldo, Lascia chio pianga
Handel The Messiah, Hallelujah

Mozart Don Giovanni, Act I, 3

Verdi Rigoletto, La donna e mobile

Verdi La Forza del destino, overture

Wagner Tristan & Isolde, Prelude and Liebestod

Wagner The Ride of the Valkyries
Wagner Siegfried Idyll
Puccini Madama Butterfly

Puccini La Boheme
Rimsky-Korsakov Scheherazade
Stravinsky Petrushka

Stravinsky The Rite of Spring

Debussy Afternoon of a Faun
Berg Wozzeck, Act 3
Ravel Daphnis & Chloe

Delius Irmelin Prelude

Copland Billy the Kid
Prokofiev Alexander Nevsky

Gershwin Porgy & Bess

Bernstein West Side Story
Ligeti Lux Aeterna (2001: A Space Odyssey)
 Diaghilev's Ballets Russes

L'Pavillion d'Armide Nicolai Tcherepnin https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SZCMDGBrOo Michel Fokine Alexandre Benois

Prince Igor: Polovtsian Dances Alexander Borodin https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVURal-QYsA Michel Fokine Nicholas Roerich
Les Sylphides Frederic Chopin(Glazounov) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_s-U_l6zx4 Michel Fokine Alexandre Benois
Cleopatre Anton Arensky (+others) Michel Fokine Leon Bakst
The Firebird Igor Stravinsky https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVNhChU97C8 Michel Fokine Alexander Golovine
Scheherazade Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakoff https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9n1bNb62yJY Michel Fokine Leon Bakst
Giselle Adolphe Adam https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfriAg6CTuU Marius Petipa/Jean Coralli Alexandre Benois
Le Spectre de la rose Carl Maria von Weber https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_jZ9jxLfZc Michel Fokine Leon Bakst
Petrushka Igor Stravinsky https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sY-SIRvyHgI Michel Fokine Alexandre Benois
Daphnis & Chloe Maurice Ravel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1s9vEQsTGyg Michel Fokine Leon Bakst
Le Dieu Bleu Reynaldo Hahn Michel Fokine Leon Bakst
L'Apres midi d'un faune Claude Debussy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GqGVkfUip8 Vaslav Nijinsky Leon Bakst
Le Sacre du printemps Igor Stravinsky https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BryIQ9QpXwI Vaslav Nijinsky Nicholas Roerich
Jeux Claude Debussy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkZhDcB-OfA Vaslav Nijinsky Leon Bakst
La Legende de Joseph Richard Strauss https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eh8IJm6kuU4 Michel Fokine Leon Bakst
Le Coq D'or Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakoff https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qh6DXUpOa0 Michel Fokine Natalia Goncharova
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Chq1Ty0nyE
Parade Erik Satie https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mpwR8jx3lQ Leonide Massine Pablo Picasso
La Boutique fantasque Rossini/Ottorino Respighi https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsLDsdEsTeg Leonide Massine Andre Derain
El Sombrero de tres picos Manuel De Falla https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JO76VMryY9U Leonide Massine Pablo Picasso
Song of the Nightingale Igor Stravinsky https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDQH_lFwgGA Leonide Massine Henri Matisse
Pulcinella Igor Stravinsky https://youtu.be/AotJtPjMFnI Leonide Massine Pablo Picasso
Chout Sergei Prokofiev https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seIwWv705j4 Leonide Massine Mikhail Larionov
Renard Igor Stravinsky https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nM4zPeC545w Bronislava Nijinska Mikhail Larionov
Les Noces Igor Stravinsky https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yi-5mugSiX4 Bronislava Nijinska Natalia Goncharova
Les Biches Francis Poulenc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZyhfI1ea8w Bronislava Nijinska Marie Laurencin
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEHbAscVByI Henri Laurens
Le Train bleu Darius Milhaud https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wEFYT6Y39g Bronislava Nijinska Coco Chanel
Les Matelots Georges Auric n/a Leonide Massine Pere Pruna
Zephyr et Flore Vernon Duke n/a Leonide Massine Georges Braque
Romeo and Juliet Constant Lambert https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCkiKF9Vn7o George Balanchine Max Ernst, Joan Miro
Jack in the Box Erik Satie (Milhaud) n/a George Balanchine Andre Derain
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2dTpPfGF84
Le Pas d'acier Sergei Prokofiev https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=haA8tMKbpy4 Leonide Massine George Jaculov
Mercure Erik Satie n/a Leonide Massine Pablo Picasso
La Chatte Henri Sauguet n/a George Balanchine Naum Gabo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kr00uM_Z-A Andre Bauchant
Apollon Musagete Igor Stravinsky https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OpiN_aFgRQ George Balanchine Coco Chanel
The Prodigal Son Sergei Prokofiev https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-TUCK3scdc George Balanchine Georges Roualt
 Dance Assessment Inventory

Purpose
o Ceremonial Popular/folk Art
o Professional Amateur

Location
o Indoors Outdoors
o Formal Informal

Artistic Elements
o Scenery: see Art Assessment
o Properties
o Costumes
o Lighting

Music
o See Music Assessment
o Live or Recorded?
o Synchronized with dance?

Number of Dancers
o Solo Duet Trio Quartet Quintet Sextet 7 to 12 More Than 12

Ensemble Gestures
o Same Similar Different
o Simultaneous Consecutive

Movement
o Are the dancers silent, rhythmic or melodic?
o Which body parts are in motion?
Head Arms Torso Hips Legs Feet Hands
o How often are the feet on the ground?
o Are there acrobatic elements?
o Is pantomime involved?
o Are special feats of strength in evidence?
o Is the movement smooth or jerky?
o How high is the energy level?
o Is there body contact? Lifting?
o Types of motion: parallel, similar, contrary, oblique

Structure
o How long is the dance?
o Is it sectional?
o Is it narrative or abstract?
o Is it tragic or comic?
The Concerto Through History
Vivaldi The Four Seasons

Bach Piano Concerto in D minor

Bach Brandenburg Concertos
Mozart Piano Concerto 23
Mozart Clarinet Concerto

Mozart Sinfonia Concertante

Haydn Trumpet Concerto

Beethoven Violin Concerto

Beethoven Piano Concerto 5

Chopin Piano Concerto 1
Mendelssohn Violin Concerto
Schumann Piano Concerto

Grieg Piano Concerto

Scriabin Piano Concerto
Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto

Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto 1

Brahms Double Concerto
Brahms Violin Concerto
Dvorak Cello Concerto

Rachmaninov Piano Concerto 2

Shostakovitch Piano Concerto 1
Sibelius Violin Concerto

Berg Violin Concerto

Bartok Piano Concertos 1, 2, 3 and Concerto for Orchestra
Gershwin Piano Concerto in F
Gershwin Rhapsody in Blue
Chamber Music Through History

Perotin Siderunt Principes

Machaut Dame, de qui toute ma joie vient
Gesualdo Moro, lasso, al mio duolo
Gabrieli Motet, O magnum mysterium

Bach Partita No. 1 in B flat

Bach Prelude & Fugue No. 1, WTC
Bach Jesu, Joy of Mans Desiring

Handel Water Music

Mozart Clarinet Quintet
Mozart Eine kleine nachtmusik
Beethoven Moonlight Sonata

Schubert Erlkonig
Chopin Preludes and Mazurkas
Tchaikovsky Serenade for Strings

Mussorgsky Pictures at an Exhibition

Ives The Unanswered Question
Ravel String Quartet
Debussy String Quartet

Schoenberg Pierrot lunaire

Bartok Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta
Varese Ionisation and Octandre

Copland Twelve Songs on Poems by Emily Dickinson

Boulez Le marteau sans matre
Stockhausen Gesang der junglinge
Crumb Vox balanae

Adams Phrygian Gates

Joel Lullaby (Kings Singers)
 Some 20th Century Stars of Music and Dance
How many of these do you know?

Igor Stravinsky Placido Domingo

Scott Joplin Cole Porter
Miles Davis Elvis Presley
W. C. Handy Leontyne Price
Aaron Copland Giacomo Puccini
Mikhail Baryshnikov Ottorino Respighi
Sergei Diaghilev Andres Segovia
Claude Debussy Dimitri Shostakovitch
Irving Berlin Jean Sibelius
Count Basie Andrew Lloyd Weber
Sergei Prokofiev Beverly Sills
Sergei Rachmaninoff Isaac Stern
Anton von Webern Paul Robeson
Louis Armstrong Stevie Wonder
George Gershwin John Cage
Billie Holiday
Ravi Shankar Martha Graham
Richard Rodgers Mikhail Baryshnikov
Tito Puente Sergei Diaghilev
Vladimir Horowitz Alvin Ailey
Jascha Heifetz Twyla Tharp
Joan Baez George Balanchine
Maurice Ravel Leonid Massine
Leonard Bernstein Rudolf Nureyev
Pierre Boulez Fred Astaire
Oscar Hammerstein Jr. Agnes de Mille
Arnold Schoenberg Gene Kelly
Andrew Carnegie Isadora Duncan
Bela Bartok Bob Fosse
Duke Ellington Margot Fonteyn
Nat King Cole The Nicholas Brothers
Van Cliburn Michael Jackson
Tommy Dorsey Robert Joffrey
Dizzy Gillespie Busby Berkeley
Woodie Guthrie Arthur Murray
Benny Goodman Anna Pavlova
Paul McCartney Jerome Robbins
Paul Hindemith Moira Shearer
Charles Ives Jose Greco
Kurt Masur Shirley Temple
John Lennon Maria Tallchief
Gustav Mahler Ginger Rogers
Bob Marley Vaslav Nijinsky
Zubin Mehta Walt Disney
Luciano Pavarotti Sol Hurok

Leontyne Price is widely regarded as the first African American to
gain international acclaim as a professional opera singer.

Synopsis
Renowned for her early stage and television work, Price made her opera
stage debut at the San Francisco Opera in 1957, and her debut at New
York City's Metropolitan Opera House in 1961. Widely regarded as the
first African-American singer to earn international acclaim in opera, Price
is known for her roles in Il Trovatore, Antony and Cleopatra, and Aida.

Early Life and Education

Mary Violet Leontyne Price was born on February 10, 1927, in Laurel,
Mississippi, to James Anthony Price, a carpenter, and Kate Baker Price,
a midwife with a beautiful singing voice. Price showed an interest in
music from a young age and was encouraged by her parents. After
beginning formal music training at age 5, she spent much of her time
singing in the choir at St. Paul Methodist Church in her hometown.

Following her time at Oak Park Vocational High School, where she was a
standout pianist and member of the glee club, Price enrolled at the
College of Education and Industrial Arts in Wilberforce, Ohio. She began
her studies focusing on music education, but was later encouraged by
faculty to switch her concentration to voice. After graduation, Price
headed to New York City to attend The Juilliard School on a full
scholarship.

At Juilliard, Price studied under the tutelage of her beloved vocal

instructor, Florence Page Kimball. Price's beautiful lyric soprano voice
landed her feature roles in many of the school's operas. After witnessing
Price perform the role of Alice Ford in a student production of Giuseppe
Verdi's Falstaff, composer Virgil Thomson leapt at the chance to bring
her into one of his productions.

Professional Career
In April 1952, Leontyne Price made her Broadway debut as St. Cecilia in
the revival of Thompsen's Four Saints in Three Acts. Immediately following
the show's three-week engagement, she was cast in a touring production
of George Gershwin's Porgy and Bess. For the next two years, Price
dazzled audiences with her stunning portrayal of Bess, gaining acclaim
with her flawless vocal interpretations. During her tour with the show,
she married co-star William Warfield, who portrayed Porgy.

In 1955, Price starred in the NBC Opera Theatre's television production

of Giacomo Puccini's Tosca. This performance led to a string of TV operas
featuring the budding starlet.
In her opera stage debut at the San Francisco Opera House in 1957,
Price took on the role of Madame Lidoine in Francis Poulenc's Dialogues
des carmlites. The moving performance marked the commencement of
her rise to fame in the serious opera community. By 1958, Price was
wowing European audiences at such famous venues as the Covent
Garden in England and La Scala in Milan. She had reached stardom at
home as well as on an international level.

Price's debut at the New York City's Metropolitan Opera House in 1961
as Leonora in Il Trovatore was such a success, it marked the beginning of
her residency as one of the opera's principal sopranos. She flourished as
a prima donna at the Met, starring in such roles such as Cio-Cio-San in
Madama Butterfly, Minnie in La Fanciulla del West and, perhaps most
notably, as Cleopatra in Antony and Cleopatra.

Price's fame led her to be widely regarded as the first African-American

singer to gain international reputation in opera, and allowed her to be
selective with her roles throughout the 1970s. She chose to perform in
opera productions less frequently, focusing mainly on recitals.

Retirement and Legacy

Price delivered her farewell performance in the titular role of Aida at the
Met in 1985, which was telecast and hailed as one of the most successful
operatic performances in the Met's history. Throughout her career,
Price's recordings have earned her numerous honors, including more
than a dozen Grammy Awards. She rose to stardom as a woman of color
in a time and profession where the odds were not in her favor.

Biography.com
Yo-Yo Ma
From his website

Yo-Yo Mas multi-faceted career is testament to his continual search for new
ways to communicate with audiences, and to his personal desire for artistic
growth and renewal. Whether performing new or familiar works from the
cello repertoire, coming together with colleagues for chamber music or
exploring cultures and musical forms outside the Western classical tradition,
Mr. Ma strives to find connections that stimulate the imagination.

Yo-Yo Ma maintains a balance between his engagements as soloist with

orchestras throughout the world and his recital and chamber music
activities. He draws inspiration from a wide circle of collaborators. Each of
these collaborations is fueled by the artists interactions, often extending the
boundaries of a particular genre. One of Mr. Mas goals is the exploration of
music as a means of communication and as a vehicle for the migration of
ideas across a range of cultures throughout the world. To that end, he has
taken time to immerse himself in subjects as diverse as native Chinese
music with its distinctive instruments and the music of the Kalahari bush
people in Africa.

Expanding upon this interest, in 1998, Mr. Ma established Silkroad, a

nonprofit organization that seeks to create meaningful change at the
intersections of the arts, education and business. Under his artistic
direction, Silkroad presents performances by the acclaimed Silk Road
Ensemble and develops new music, cultural partnerships, education
programs, and cross-disciplinary collaborations. Silkroads ongoing
affiliation with Harvard University has made it possible to develop programs
such as the Arts and Passion-Driven Learning Institute for educators and
teaching artists, held in collaboration with the Harvard Graduate School of
Education, and a new Cultural Entrepreneurship initiative in partnership
with Harvard Business School. More than 80 new musical and multimedia
works have been commissioned for the Silk Road Ensemble from composers
and arrangers around the world.

Through his work with Silkroad, as throughout his career, Yo-Yo Ma seeks
to expand the cello repertoire, frequently performing lesser known music of
the 20th century and commissions of new concertos and recital pieces. He
has premiered works by a diverse group of composers.

As the Chicago Symphony Orchestras Judson and Joyce Green Creative

Consultant, Mr. Ma is partnering with Maestro Riccardo Muti to provide
collaborative musical leadership and guidance on innovative program
development for The Negaunee Music Institute of the Chicago Symphony
Orchestra, and for Chicago Symphony artistic initiatives. Mas work focuses
on the transformative power music can have in individuals lives, and on
increasing the number and variety of opportunities audiences have to
experience music in their communities. Mr. Ma and the Institute have
created the Citizen Musician Initiative, a movement that calls on all
musicians, music lovers, music teachers and institutions to use the art form
to bridge gulfs between people and to create and inspire a sense of
community.

Yo-Yo Ma is strongly committed to educational programs that not only bring

young audiences into contact with music but also allow them to participate
in its creation. While touring, he takes time whenever possible to conduct
master classes as well as more informal programs for students musicians
and non-musicians alike. At the same time, he continues to develop new
concert programs for family audiences, for instance helping to inaugurate
the family series at Carnegie Hall. In each of these undertakings, he works
to connect music to students daily surroundings and activities with the goal
of making music and creativity a vital part of childrens lives from an early
age. He has also reached young audiences through appearances on Arthur,
Mister Rogers Neighborhood and Sesame Street.

Mr. Mas discography of over 90 albums (including 18 Grammy Award

winners) reflects his wide-ranging interests. He has made several successful
recordings that defy categorization, among them Hush with Bobby
McFerrin, Appalachia Waltz and Appalachian Journey with Mark
OConnor and Edgar Meyer, and two Grammy-winning tributes to the music
of Brazil, Obrigado Brazil and Obrigado Brazil Live in Concert. Mr. Mas
recent recordings include Mendelssohn Trios with Emanuel Ax and Itzhak
Perlman; The Goat Rodeo Sessions, with Edgar Meyer, Chris Thile and
Stuart Duncan, which received the 2013 Grammy for Best Folk Album; and
A Playlist Without Borders, recorded with the Silk Road Ensemble. His
new album, Songs from the Arc of Life, with pianist Kathryn Stott, will be
released in September 2015. Across this full range of releases, Mr. Ma
remains one of the best-selling recording artists in the classical field. All of
his recent albums have quickly entered the Billboard chart of classical best
sellers, remaining in the Top 15 for extended periods, often with as many as
four titles simultaneously on the list. In fall 2009, Sony Classical released a
box set of over 90 albums to commemorate Mr. Mas 30 years as a Sony
recording artist.

Yo-Yo Ma was born in 1955 to Chinese parents living in Paris. He began to

study the cello with his father at age four and soon came with his family to
New York, where he spent most of his formative years. Later, his principal
teacher was Leonard Rose at the Juilliard School. He sought out a
traditional liberal arts education to expand upon his conservatory training,
graduating from Harvard University in 1976. Throughout his career he has
received numerous prestigious awards. In 2011 Mr. Ma was recognized as a
Kennedy Center Honoree. Appointed a CultureConnect Ambassador by the
United States Department of State in 2002, Mr. Ma has met with, trained
and mentored thousands of students worldwide in countries including
Lithuania, Korea, Lebanon, Azerbaijan and China. Mr. Ma serves as a UN
Messenger of Peace and as a member of the Presidents Committee on the
Arts & the Humanities. He has performed for eight American presidents,
most recently at the invitation of President Obama on the occasion of the
56th Inaugural Ceremony.

Mr. Ma and his wife have two children. He plays two instruments, a 1733
Montagnana cello from Venice and the 1712 Davidoff Stradivarius.
Pierre Boulez, Composer and Conductor Who Pushed Modernisms
Boundaries, Dies at 90
By PAUL GRIFFITHS. January 6, 2016, NY Times

Pierre Boulez, the French composer and conductor who helped blaze a
radical new path for classical music in the 20th century, becoming one of
its dominant figures in the decades after World War II, died on Tuesday
at his home in Baden-Baden, Germany. He was 90.

His family confirmed his death in a statement to the Philharmonie de

Paris. Prime Minister Manuel Valls, also in a statement, said, Audacity,
innovation, creativity that is what Pierre Boulez was for French music,
which he helped shine everywhere in the world.

Mr. Boulez belonged to an extraordinary generation of European

composers who emerged in the postwar years while still in their 20s.
They started a revolution in music, and Mr. Boulez was in the front
ranks.

As a young composer and throughout his life as an insistently private

man he matched restless intelligence with great force of mind: He
knew what had to be done, by his reading of history, and he did it, in
defiance of all the norms of French musical culture at the time. His
Marteau Sans Matre (Hammer Without a Master) was one of this
pioneering groups first major achievements, and it remains a landmark
of modern music.

But his influence was equally large on the podium. In time he began
giving ever more attention to conducting, where his keen ear and
rhythmic incisiveness could produce a startling clarity. (There are
countless stories of him detecting faulty intonation, say, from the third
oboe in a complex piece.

He reached his peak as a conductor in the 1960s, when he began to

appear with some of the worlds great orchestras, like the Concertgebouw
in Amsterdam, the Berlin Philharmonic and the Cleveland Orchestra. By
the early 70s, he had succeeded Leonard Bernstein as music director of
the New York Philharmonic, an appointment that startled the music
world and led to a fitful tenure.
His conducting style was unique. He never used the baton, preferring to
manipulate the orchestra by means of his two hands simultaneously, the
left indicating phrasing or, in much contemporary music, counterrhythm.
His characteristic sound unemotional on the surface but with
undercurrents of intemperateness, at once brilliant in color and
rhythmically disciplined depended on his famously acute ear and
suited his core repertoire: Stravinsky (several of whose works he
introduced to Europe), Debussy, Webern, Bartok and Messiaen. It was
refreshing as well in his many excursions into earlier music.
To be a conductor, though, meant working with the existing machinery,
and that was not something a revolutionary like Mr. Boulez was willing
to do. So he tried to remake the machinery. After becoming music
director of both the New York Philharmonic and the BBC Symphony
Orchestra in London in 1971, he explored unconventional repertoire,
unconventional concert formats and unconventional locations.
But he also accepted that he had to rethink some of his own
preconceptions, and as his musical outlook broadened, his output as a
composer dwindled.

It was his reputation as an avant-garde composer and as a champion of

new music that prompted his unexpected appointment in New York.
After the initial shock at his arrival, there was hope that he might bring
the orchestra into the 20th century and appeal to younger audiences.
But his programming often met with hostility in New York, and he left
quietly six years later.

His destination was Paris. Dismissive of the French musical

establishment, he had spent most of the previous two decades abroad,
but President Georges Pompidou, keen to reclaim a native son, had
agreed to found a contemporary-music center for him in the capital: the
Institute for the Research and Coordination of Acoustics and Music,
known as IRCAM. It had its own 31-piece orchestra, the Ensemble
Intercontemporain.

Mr. Boulez gained further government support in the 80s, when he

achieved his grandest project, the City of Music complex in Paris,
housing the Paris Conservatoire, a concert hall and an instrument
museum.

Pierre Boulez (the Z is not silent) was born on March 26, 1925, in
Montbrison, a town near Lyon, the son of an industrialist, Lon Boulez,
and the former Marcelle Calabre. He studied the piano and began to
compose in his teens.

A defining moment came when he heard a broadcast of Stravinskys

Song of the Nightingale conducted by Ernest Ansermet; it was a work to
which he often returned throughout his conducting career. Rejecting the
wishes of his father, who wanted him to study engineering, he went to
Paris in 1942 and enrolled at the Conservatoire.

Picking Up the Torch

In 1944-45, he took a harmony class taught by Olivier Messiaen, whose
impact on him was decisive. Messiaens teaching went far beyond
traditional harmony to embrace new music that was outlawed both by
the stagnant Conservatoire and by the German occupying forces: the
music of Schoenberg, Stravinsky, Bartok and Webern.

Messiaen also introduced his students to medieval music and the music
of Asia and Africa. Mr. Boulez felt his course was set; but he also knew
he needed to go further into the 12-tone method that Schoenberg had
introduced a generation before.

I had to learn about that music, to find out how it was made, he once
told Opera News. It was a revelation a music for our time, a language
with unlimited possibilities. No other language was possible. It was the
most radical revolution since Monteverdi. Suddenly, all our familiar
notions were abolished. Music moved out of the world of Newton and into
the world of Einstein.

To start on this route, he took lessons in 1945-46 with Ren Leibowitz, a

Schoenbergian who had settled in Paris. Soon, in works like his mighty
Second Piano Sonata (1947-48), he was integrating what had been
separate paths of development in the music of the previous 40 years:
Schoenbergs serialism, Stravinskys rhythmic innovations and
Messiaens enlarged notion of mode.

As Mr. Boulez saw it, all these composers had failed to pursue their most
radical impulses, and it fell to a new generation specifically, to him
to pick up the torch.

Though he was outspoken about his historical role, he was much warier
of talking about what his music expressed. There was the odd reference
in his early writings to the poet and playwright Antonin Artaud; there
was also an admitted kinship with the poetry of Ren Char, which he set
to music in Le Marteau Sans Matre and other works. But he was also
capable of ferocious abstraction, as in the first section of his Structures
(1951) for two pianos, a test case in applying serial principles to rhythm,
volume and color.

About his private life, he remained tightly guarded. Jeanne, his older
sister, was important to him; few others were able to break through his
reserve.

At the beginning of his career, he was hired as music director of a theater

company in Paris run by Jean-Louis Barrault and Madeleine Renaud.
His 10-year appointment with them was crowned in 1955 by a
production of The Oresteia of Aeschylus, for which he wrote an
ambitious score; they also helped him set up the Domaine Musical
concerts in 1953.

The Domaine Musical, intended as a platform for new music, 20th-

century classics and early music that was little performed, proved Mr.
Boulezs abilities as an administrator and, later, as a conductor. It also
provided a model of the contemporary ensemble that was widely imitated
and has remained central to the propagation of new music.
Mr. Boulez made his debut as a concert conductor on March 21, 1956, at
a Domaine Musical concert. (The organization was still known then as
the Concerts du Petit Marigny, after the theater in Paris in which the
concerts took place.) The program included Le Marteau Sans Matre,
which had received its first performance the previous summer in Baden-
Baden.

At once delectable and stringent, this work united traditions of Austrian-

German discipline and French finesse with the sounds of Africa, East
Asia and South America, made available by its variegated ensemble;
besides contralto voice, it included alto flute, viola, guitar and percussion.
Le Marteau Sans Matre was widely admired, not least by Stravinsky,
who heard it when Mr. Boulez made his North American debut in Los
Angeles in March 1957.

Mr. Boulez gave his first concert with a symphony orchestra in June
1956, when he conducted the Orquesta Sinfonica Venezuela on one of
his last tours with the Renaud-Barrault company. During the 1957-58
season, he appeared with the West German Radio Symphony in Cologne
in his own Visage Nuptial and Stockhausens Gruppen.
He then forged a lasting connection with the Southwest German Radio
Symphony Orchestra of Baden-Baden, where he made his home. In 1960,
he conducted the orchestra in the first performance of his Pli Selon Pli,
an hourlong setting of poems by Stphane Mallarm for soprano, with an
orchestra rich in percussion.

That lustrous score allowed the conductor certain flexibilities in

assembling its fragments. A musical work should be a labyrinth, with no
fixed route, Mr. Boulez often said. It might also never have a fixed ending.
From then on, he began starting more works than he ever brought to
completion, while at the same time submitting older pieces to rounds of
revision.

As a conductor, he showed much less hesitation. Where his first concerts

had been devoted entirely to 20th-century works, he began, in the early
1960s, to explore earlier repertoires Haydn, Bach, Schubert, Mozart,
Beethoven with the Concertgebouw and the Southwest German Radio
Symphony Orchestra. He made his debut with an American orchestra,
the Cleveland Orchestra, in March 1965. The program, a typical one for
him, comprised Rameau, his own music (Figures-Doubles-Prismes),
Debussy and Stravinsky (The Song of the Nightingale).

The next year, he conducted his first operas, Wozzeck in Frankfurt and
Paris, and Parsifal at Bayreuth in Germany, and he started recording
for Columbia Masterworks. His first releases for the label included
Wozzeck and albums of Debussy and Messiaen.

Resistance in New York

His appointment to the New York Philharmonic in 1971 presented great
challenges. As music director, he had to enlarge his repertoire rapidly.
Until then, he had conducted very little Romantic music other than
Berliozs; now Schubert, Brahms, Dvorak and Borodin joined his
programs, not always convincingly. Though he refused to compromise on
Tchaikovsky, he was becoming much more like a regular conductor.

Part of his individuality was lost in the colossal task of maintaining

important positions on both sides of the Atlantic, his post with the BBC
Symphony demanding much of his time as well. Added to the load was
his commitment to prepare the Bayreuth centenary Ring in 1976.

Both his programming and his handling of an older repertoire met with
some resistance from audiences, critics and, it was said, even some of
his musicians. Harold C. Schonberg of The New York Times called Mr.
Boulez a brainy orchestral technician whose scientific approach
lacked heart. Reviewing a 1972 concert that included Edgard Varses
1927 composition Arcana, Donal Henahan of The Times reported that
perhaps a quarter of the downstairs audience at Philharmonic Hall fled
as if from the Mr. Boulez wanted to make the orchestra a more flexible
institution, and a more modern one. Performances might begin with
short programs of chamber music, played by members of the orchestra.

More of the repertoire would be explored. During his first season as the
music director, there was an emphasis on Liszt. Then concerts consisting
entirely of new and recent works were given at downtown sites. There
were also informal evenings of talk, rehearsal and performance
featuring 20th-century composers. And there were summer seasons of
rug concerts, with a different program every night for a week, played to
audiences seated on the floor of Philharmonic Hall.

The rug concerts lasted only two years, and none of his other innovations
survived his departure. He had given up his post with the BBC
Symphony in 1975, leaving as a parting gift his somber Rituel. His last
concerts with the Philharmonic were in May 1977; on the program was
Berliozs Damnation of Faust. He went back regularly to conduct in
London, but he did not return to the Philharmonic podium until 1986.
His priority after the Philharmonic was Ircam, the Paris research
institute, and he cut back on his conducting commitments; among the
few he kept was the first full performance of Bergs Lulu in 1979, at the
Paris Opera.

Believing that musics development since 1945 had been frustrated by a

lack of research into electronic possibilities, Mr. Boulez set to work at
Ircam on Rpons, for a small orchestra with six percussion soloists
whose sounds are digitally transformed and regenerated. It was first
performed in October 1981.

The paradox was that the man who had such an extraordinary orchestral
imagination and such extraordinary powers to realize the fruits of that
imagination in performance should have been so convinced of his need
for electronic resources. Rpons is in most respects inferior to
clat/Multiples, a work for a similar percussion-based orchestra that
he had begun and abandoned a decade before. Nor does it begin to rival
the orchestral virtuosity displayed in the arrangements of his early piano
cycle Notations.

He continued to add to Rpons during the early 1980s, though much of

his creative energy was going into new versions of old scores. In the early
1990s, he emerged from his tumult of rewriting to produce at Ircam the
greatest of his late works, a new version of explosante-fixe initially
conceived as a memorial to Stravinsky for electronic flute and small
orchestra.

He also began to appear more widely again as a conductor, with

orchestras in the United States (Los Angeles, Cleveland, Chicago) and
Europe. (The concerts were often associated with recording sessions for
Deutsche Grammophon.) He returned to what had always been his main
repertoire, while also developing enthusiasm for Mahler and making
occasional visits to territory he had not touched before: Richard Strauss,
Bruckner, Scriabin, Janacek.
At his death, he was conductor emeritus of the Chicago Symphony
Orchestra. Among the honors Mr. Boulez received in his later years were
the Kyoto Prize in 2009 and the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of
Knowledge Award in 2013. He was named a professor at the Collge de
France. He won dozens of Grammy Awards.

He never ceased to think about subjects in relation to one another; he

made painting, poetry, architecture, cinema and music communicate
with each other, always in the service of a more humane society, the
office of President Franois Hollande said in a statement.
In 1995, his 70th-birthday year, Mr. Boulez conducted his own and other
20th-century music in London, Paris, Vienna, New York, Tokyo,
Amsterdam, Brussels and Chicago. In 2005, he spent his 80th birthday
in Berlin at a retrospective of his music. A few pieces were completed in
this period, notably Drive 2, a 45-minute score for 11 instruments
that took almost two decades to reach its end point, in 2006.

Many more projects remained unfinished, while others were never begun,
like the opera on which he was to have collaborated first with Jean Genet
and later with Heiner Mller.

Even so, the achievements embodied in his published works and

recordings are formidable, and his influence was incalculable. The tasks
he took on were heroic: to continue the great adventure of musical
modernism, and to carry with him the great musical institutions and the
widest possible audience.
Secrtariat Pierre BOULEZ Imprim le 1/14/16
A. Schirmer/K.-P. Altekruse

2003

25 janvier 03 Mozarteum Salzburg/Mozartwoche (WPhO)

Mozart Ouverture zu "La clemenza di Tito" KV 621
Schnberg Kammersymphonie N2 op 38
Mozart Klavierkonzert B-Dur KV 595 (Pollini)
Mozart Adagio & Fuge c-moll KV 546
Schnberg Kammersymphonie N1 op 9

31 jan, 1, 2 fv 03 idem Lucerne 30/8/02 Berlin (Berliner Philh)

REC Bartok 3 fv Debussy Jeux
Bartok Concerto pour piano 2 (Leif Ove Andsnes)
Ravel le Tombeau de Couperin
Varse Amriques

12, 14 fvrier 03 cit de la musique (Orch. du Conservatoire)

rp 4-11 Wagner Parsifal Acte II (M. DeYoung, Robert D.Smith, R.Trekel)

20, 21, 22 fvrier 03 Cleveland (Cleveland)

Kyburz Noesis
Mahler Des Knaben Wunderhorn (M.DeYoung/Roman Trekel)

27, 28 fv, 1er mars 03 Cleveland (Cleveland)

Mahler Symphonie n 3 (Michelle DeYoung)

11 mars 03 cit de la musique (EIC)

Boulez Domaines
Boulez Le Marteau sans matre

15, 16 mars 03 cit de la musique (EIC)

Boulez Anthmes 2
Rpons

22 mars 03 Carnegie Hall (EIC)

Boulez Anthmes 2

PAG
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1
Secrtariat Pierre BOULEZ Imprim le 1/14/16
A. Schirmer/K.-P. Altekruse
Boulez Rpons

23 mars 03 Carnegie Hall (EIC)

Eclat
Boulez Drive 1
Drive 2 ("1re amricaine")
Domaines
(reading Notations Manhattan School of Music, morning of March 24 + discussion afternoon, concert
music de chambre EIC le soir)

7 avril 03 Luzern (GMJO) poss. TV

prog 1 Wagner Tristan Vorspiel
Berg Violinkonzert (Akiko Suwanai)
Schnberg Pelleas et Mlisande

11 avril 03 Luzern (GMJO)

prog 2 Bartok Divertimento
Takemitsu Eucalypts I (flte Wolfgang Schulz)
Boulez Messagesquisse
Ravel Shhrazade (Anne-Sofie van Otter)
Messiaen Sept Ha-Ka (PL Aimard)

13 avril 03 11.00 Luzern (GMJO)

prog 3 Berg 3 Stcke fr Orchester op 6
Webern 6 Stcke fr Orchester op6
Mahler Symphonie N6

18 avril 03 prog 3 Osaka (GMJO)

21, 22 avril 03 prog 3, 1 Suntory Hall, Tokyo (GMJO)
24 avril 03 prog 2 Opera City Concert Hall, Tokyo (GMJO)
26 avril 03 Aichi Arts Center, Nagoya (GMJO)
Berg Violinkonzert (Akiko Suwanai)
Mahler Symphonie N6

1er mai 03 11.00 Lisboa (BPO)

Ravel, Mozart, Bartok (Pires)

9/10 mai 03 Symposium Harvard

PAG
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Secrtariat Pierre BOULEZ Imprim le 1/14/16
A. Schirmer/K.-P. Altekruse

12 mai - 1 juin 03 Los Angeles + Ojai (LAP)

16,17,18 mai Berg Concerto pour Violon (Jennifer Frautschi)
Bruckner Symphonie N 9

22,24,25 mai Janacek Sinfonietta

Messiaen Les Oiseaux exotiques (Uchida)
Strauss Burlesque
Haydn Symphonie N 45 "Farewell"

30 mai 03 Ojai (LAP)

Mozart P.C. K 456 (Uchida)
Mahler Symphonie N 9

31 mai 03 New Music Group Ojai (LAP)

Dalbavie Tactus
Manoury Passacaille
Carter Tempo e Tempi
Boulez sur Incises

1er juin 03 Ojai (LAP)

Stravinsky Symphonie en 3 mouvements
Ravel Shhrazade (Susan Graham)
Bartok Concert pour Orchestre

14,15,16 juin 03 Vienne Musikverein (VPO)

Wagner Parsifal Prelude
Schnberg Kammersymphonie 2
Mahler Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen + REC (Quasthoff)
Bartok Musique pour cordes, percussion et clesta

17 juin 03 Vienne Konzerthaus (VPO)

Wagner Parsifal
Schnberg Kammersymphonie 2
Mahler Rckertlieder (Violetta Urmana)+ REC 18
Bartok Musique pour cordes, percussion et clesta
19 juin 03 Graz (WPhO)

PAG
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Secrtariat Pierre BOULEZ Imprim le 1/14/16
A. Schirmer/K.-P. Altekruse
Wagner Parsifal
Schnberg Kammersymphonie 2
Mahler Kindertotenlieder (Anne Sofie von Otter) + REC 20/21
Bartok Musique pour cordes, percussion et clesta

22 juin 03 idem 14 juin Thtre des Champs-Elyses (WPhO)

7,9,10,11,12,14,15,16,17 juillet 03 Thtre du Jeu de Paume, Aix (EIC)

rp partir 26 juin Stravinsky Renard
de Falla Le Retable de Matre Pierre
Schoenberg Pierrot Lunaire (Anja Silja, M e S Klaus-Michael Grber)

23+24 aot et 12 sept Salzbourg et Lucerne (WPhO)

rp partir 20 aot Webern op 1, op 10, op 6
Mahler Symphonie N4 (Juliane Banse)

28 aot -6 sept. 03 Academie d'orchestre Lucerne

17 sept 03 ouverture nouvelle salle Carnegie Hall (EIC)
Boulez Incises
Dialogue de l'ombre double
Le Marteau sans matre (Hillary Summers)

18 sept 03 ouverture nouvelle salle Carnegie Hall (EIC)

Debussy En blanc et noir
Bartok Sonate pour 2 pianos et percussion
Boulez sur Incises

30 sep - 4 oct 03 Paris (Orch. de Paris)

3, 4 oct Paris Janacek Sinfonietta
Capriccio (Bronfman)
La Messe glagolitique

23-29 octobre 2003 Tourne (EIC) Bruxelles, Lisbonne, St. Etienne

progr.1 Carter Asko Concerto
Berg Kammerkonzert
Boulez sur Incises Lisboa or Eclat/Multiples Bruxelles

progr.2 Stravinsky Concertino

PAG
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Secrtariat Pierre BOULEZ Imprim le 1/14/16
A. Schirmer/K.-P. Altekruse
Webern Lieder op. 14 et op. 13
Boulez Improvisation sur Mallarm I, II (Valdine Anderson)
Boulez Eclat/Multiples

progr. "la virtuosit" cit de la musique (EIC) extraits

21 octobre Stravinsky Concertino
Webern op. 14 et 13
Berg Kammerkonzert (1er mouvement)
Boulez Improvisation sur Mallarm I, II (V. Anderson)
Berio Chemin

22 octobre 2003 cit de la musique EIC

Boulez Eclat/multiples
Boulez Sur Incises

7, 8, 9 nov. 2003 Ens.Contrechamps - Zurich, Ble, Genve

Boulez Pli selon pli (Valdine Anderson)

28, 29, 30 nov 03 Los Angeles (LAP)

Mahler Adagio 10e
Wagner Parsifal Acte 2 (V. Urmana)

4,5,6,7? dc 03 Chicago (CSO)

Bartok Divertimento
Ligeti Concerto pour violon (Tetzlaff)
Ravel
Prokofiev
11,12,13 dc 03 Chicago (CSO)
Wagner or Berlioz

PAG
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NY TIMES
------------------------------------------------------------------------

October 17, 2004

Better Playing Through Chemistry

By BLAIR TINDALL

RUTH ANN McCLAIN, a flutist from Memphis, used to suffer from debilitating onstage
jitters.

"My hands were so cold and wet, I thought I'd drop my flute," Ms. McClain said recently,
remembering a performance at the National Flute Convention in the late 1980's. Her heart
thumped loudly in her chest, she added; her mind would not focus, and her head felt as if
it were on fire. She tried to hide her nervousness, but her quivering lips kept her from
performing with sensitivity and nuance.

However much she tried to relax before a concert, the nerves always stayed with her. But
in 1995, her doctor provided a cure, a prescription medication called propranolol. "After
the first time I tried it," she said, "I never looked back. It's fabulous to feel normal for a
performance."

Ms. McClain, a grandmother who was then teaching flute at Rhodes College in Memphis,
started recommending beta-blocking drugs like propranolol to adult students afflicted
with performance anxiety. And last year she lost her job for doing so.

College officials, who declined to comment for this article, said at the time that
recommending drugs fell outside the student-instructor relationship and charged that Ms.
McClain asked a doctor for medication for her students. Ms. McClain, who taught at
Rhodes for 11 years, says she merely recommended that they consult a physician about
obtaining a prescription.

Ms. McClain is hardly the only musician to rely on beta blockers, which, taken in small
dosages, can quell anxiety without apparent side effects. The little secret in the classical
music world - dirty or not - is that the drugs have become nearly ubiquitous. So
ubiquitous, in fact, that their use is starting to become a source of worry. Are the drugs a
godsend or a crutch? Is there something artificial about the music they help produce?
Isn't anxiety a natural part of performance? And could classical music someday join the
Olympics and other athletic organizations in scandals involving performance-enhancing
drugs?

Beta blockers - which are cardiac medications, not tranquilizers or sedatives - were first
marketed in 1967 in the United States for disorders like angina and abnormal heart
rhythms. One of the commonest is propranolol, made here by Wyeth Pharmaceuticals and
sold under the brand name Inderal. By blocking the action of adrenaline and other
substances, these drugs mute the sympathetic nervous system, which produces fear in
response to any perceived danger, be it a sabre-toothed tiger or a Lincoln Center
audience.

Even the most skillful and experienced musicians can experience this fear. Legendary
artists like the pianists Vladimir Horowitz and Glenn Gould curtailed their careers
because of anxiety, and the cellist Pablo Casals endured a thumping heart, shortness of
breath and shakiness even as he performed into his 90's. Before the advent of beta
blockers, artists found other, often more eccentric means of calming themselves. In 1942,
a New York pianist charged his peers 75 cents to attend the Society for Timid Souls, a
salon in which participants distracted one another during mock performances. Others
resorted to superstitious ritual, drink or tranquilizers. The pianist Samuel Sanders told
an interviewer in 1980 that taking Valium before a performance would bring him down
from wild panic to mild hysteria.

Musicians quietly began to embrace beta blockers after their application to stage fright
was first recognized in The Lancet, a British medical journal, in 1976. By 1987, a survey
conducted by the International Conference of Symphony Orchestra Musicians, which
represents the 51 largest orchestras in the United States, revealed that 27 percent of its
musicians had used the drugs. Psychiatrists estimate that the number is now much
higher.

"Before propranolol, I saw a lot of musicians using alcohol or Valium," said Mitchell Kahn,
director of the Miller Health Care Institute for the Performing Arts, describing 25 years of
work with the Metropolitan Opera orchestra and other groups. "I believe beta blockers are
far more beneficial than deleterious and have no qualms about prescribing them."

But use of drugs is still largely secretive. "Inderal is like Viagra," a woodwind player at a
major orchestra said. "No one admits to using it because of the implication of weakness."
Robin McKee, the acting principal flutist of the San Francisco Symphony, agrees, saying,
"It's too bad we're reluctant to talk about using such a great tool."

Indeed, the effect of the drugs does seem magical. Beta blockers don't merely calm
musicians; they actually seem to improve their performances on a technical level. In the
late 1970's, Charles Brantigan, a vascular surgeon in Denver, began researching classical
musicians' use of Inderal. By replicating performance conditions in studies at the
Juilliard School and the Eastman School in Rochester, he showed that the drug not only
lowered heart rates and blood pressure but also led to performances that musical judges
deemed superior to those fueled with a placebo. In 1980, Dr. Brantigan, who plays tuba
with the Denver Brass, sent his findings to Kenneth Mirkin, a frustrated Juilliard student
who had written to him for help.

"I was the kid who had always sat last-chair viola," said Mr. Mirkin, whose bow bounced
from audition nerves. Two years later, he won a spot in the New York Philharmonic, where
he has played for 22 years. "I never would have had a career in music without Inderal,"
said Mr. Mirkin, who, an hour before his tryout, took 10 milligrams.

For the last two decades, such use of beta blockers has generally met with approval from
the medical establishment. "Stage fright is a very specific and time-limited type of
problem," said Michael Craig Miller, the editor of The Harvard Medical Letter. Dr. Miller,
who is also an amateur pianist, noted that beta blockers are inexpensive and relatively
safe, and that they affect only physical, not cognitive, anxiety. "There's very little downside
except whatever number you do on yourself about taking the drugs."

BUT now that the drugs have established themselves as a seemingly permanent part of
the classical music world, some musicians and physicians are beginning to question the
acceptability, safety, efficacy and ethics of using them. One concern is that many
musicians use beta blockers without proper medical supervision. The 1987 survey of
orchestra musicians revealed that 70 percent of musicians taking beta blockers got them
from friends, not physicians. Mr. Mirkin, the Philharmonic violist, first obtained Inderal
from his father, who took it for angina. Others buy it while touring countries where they
are sold over the counter.

Stephen J. Gottlieb, a professor of medicine who published a study on the effects of beta
blockers in The New England Journal of Medicine in 1998, says beta blockers should be
obtained only after a medical examination, since people with asthma or heart disease
could develop problems like shortness of breath or a slowing of the heart rate. "One-time
use of low doses of beta blockers should be safe in healthy people," Dr. Gottlieb said,
adding that the fatigue, hallucinations, tingling and vivid dreams listed as side effects in
Physicians' Desk Reference would be unusual in those using Inderal only occasionally.
The risks are far more serious for those who use beta blockers consistently and take up to
700 milligrams of Inderal a day. Musicians typically take 5 to 20 milligrams in isolated
doses.

But some performers object to beta blockers on musical rather than medical grounds. "If
you have to take a drug to do your job, then go get another job," said Sara Sant'Ambrogio,
who plays cello in the Eroica Trio. Chemically assisted performances can be soulless and
inauthentic, say detractors like Barry Green, the author of "The Inner Game of Music,"
and Don Greene, a former Olympic diving coach who teaches Juilliard students to
overcome their stage fight naturally. The sound may be technically correct, but it's
somewhat deadened, both men say. Angella Ahn, a violinist and a member of the Ahn
Trio, remembers that fellow students at Juilliard who took beta blockers "lost a little bit of
the intensity," she said. Ms. Ahn doesn't use the drugs, she said: "I want to be there 100
percent."

Indeed, the high stakes involved in live performance are part of what makes it so thrilling,
for both performers and audiences. A little onstage anxiety may be a good thing: one
function of adrenaline is to provide extra energy in a threatening or challenging situation,
and that energy can be harnessed to produce a particularly exciting musical performance.
Performance anxiety tends to push musicians to rehearse more and to confront their
anxieties about their work; beta blockers mask these musical and emotional obstacles.

Some musicians are also grappling with the ethics of better performing through
chemistry. In auditions, which are even more nerve-racking than regular performances,
do those who avail themselves of the drug have a better chance of success than those who
do not? Should drug testing apply to performers, as it does to some athletes and to job
applicants at some companies?

"If you look at the logic of why we ban drugs in sport, the same should apply to music
auditions," said Charles Yesalis, a professor at Pennsylvania State University who studies
performance-enhancing drugs. But the issue receives little attention because, unlike
athletes, classical musicians are seldom called on to represent big business ventures. "If
Nike offered musicians ad contracts," Dr. Yesalis said, "more people would pay attention."

Speaking from the Athens Olympics in August, Steven Ungerleider, a sports psychologist
and the author of "Faust's Gold," said that beta-blocking medications are prohibited for
some events, like riflery, in which competitors use the drug to slow the pulse so that they
can fire between heartbeats to avoid a jolt. The drugs are banned in a number of other
sports, including motorcycling, bobsledding and freestyle snowboarding.
But Dr. Miller, the Harvard physician, points out that beta blockers differ significantly
from steroids, which use testosterone to increase muscle mass, strength and speed.
Inderal enables rather than enhances, by removing debilitating physical symptoms; it
cannot improve tone, technique or musicianship, or compensate for inadequate
preparation.

As Ms. McClain's firing demonstrates, the use of beta blockers by students is a

particularly delicate issue. Those who openly use the drugs believe they have a
responsibility to mention them to students suffering from severe stage fright.

"If I'm looking out for the welfare of my students, I cannot in good conscience not tell
them about beta blockers," said Ms. McClain, adding that she would be more careful
about how she represented the information in the future.

Some teachers believe that coping with performance anxiety is an essential part of a
classical music education and that early use of beta blockers deprives students of the
chance to confront their stage fright. Robert Barris, a bassoonist and a co-chairman of
the music performance studies faculty at Northwestern University, encourages students
to address the roots of their anxieties while avoiding psychological dependence on
chemicals. Unlike previous generations of musicians, these students can draw on a rich
array of nonchemical treatment options. The new field of performing-arts medicine
includes some 20 centers across the country, many of which treat stage fright with
therapies that range from Inderal to more holistic approaches like hypnosis, yoga and
aerobic exercise.

But several musicians interviewed for this article expressed impatience with these
treatments, which can seem slow and uncertain compared with the instant gratification
and convenience offered by the beta blockers. "Holistic solutions take work and time to be
effective, whereas Inderal is a quick fix," Mr. Barris confirmed. As it happens, he takes
Inderal by prescription for a heart ailment, and he said that he works to combat any
soporific effects the drug might have on his musicianship by putting extra energy into his
concerts. "No one wants to listen to a secure, accurate but disconnected performance," he
added.

Jim Walker, a former principal flutist of the Los Angeles Philharmonic who has recorded
more than 400 movie soundtracks, says that preparation is the best medicine. Still, he
describes himself as an Inderal advocate, with the caveat that the drug be approved by a
physician. Some of his best students at the University of Southern California, he said, are
too nervous to deliver a representation of how well they really play and might stand to
benefit from beta blockers.

"It's absolutely legitimate to recommend Inderal to a student who's unable to perform

because of nerves," he added. "If I'd never heard the story about Ruth Ann McClain, I'd be
far more blatant in recommending it."

Blair Tindall, a professional oboist, is writing "Mozart in the Jungle" for Grove/Atlantic
Press. Elaine Aradillas contributed reporting for this article.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

December 12, 2004

The Juilliard Effect: Ten Years Later

By DANIEL J. WAKIN, The New York Times

FOURTEEN years ago, Chad A. Alexander took his bassoon and headed east
from a small California town, assumed a coveted place at the Juilliard School
and began training for a job in one of the country's great orchestras.

"Everything seemed possible," he said recently. "Going to Juilliard makes you

feel very special and privileged and in awe of the history of the school." He
graduated and quickly won a three-year position in the New World Symphony,
a training orchestra based in Miami. But his career fizzled with a succession of
fruitless auditions, dwindling freelance gigs and mounting debt.

He needed a day job. But a Juilliard degree had not prepared him for much
besides playing. "When you go to a conservatory, something as specialized as
that, you're basically from a different planet," he said. He cast a wide net, but
the only outfit that offered him a job was an insurance company in Long
Beach, N.Y., on Long Island. He played a few jobs in the evenings. But he was
earning his living as a customer service representative.

Last May, Mr. Alexander finished out of the running in yet another audition, for
the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, and saw his finances on a precipice. So in
what he called a heartbreaking moment, he sold his bassoon for $5,300 to pay
credit card bills. "It was time," he said. "It got to the point where you're just
tired of being poor." Now he lives in Phoenix and works as an assistant
underwriter.

Eric Crambes is another former resident of Planet Juilliard. A charming French

violinist and a native of Lyon, Mr. Crambes studied at the Yehudi Menuhin
School in Britain as a child and then with the teacher Tibor Vargas, living at
his home in Switzerland. Ready for a change at 17, he broke away from Mr.
Vargas and came to Juilliard.

Since graduating, he has moved smoothly into a flourishing career. He has

forged a role as a fill-in concertmaster with respected European orchestras,
and he commissions pieces, directs a music festival and plays as a soloist with
dancers from the New York City Ballet. "I don't want to label myself," he said. "I
have a very large spectrum of activities, and I like it that way."

Both Mr. Alexander and Mr. Crambes graduated from Juilliard 10 years ago.
Their stories suggest just two of the many varied paths that superlatively
trained musicians can travel after leaving one of the world's premier
conservatories, which next year celebrates its 100th anniversary. To give a
more comprehensive picture of those paths, Arts & Leisure took a close look at
the Class of 1994, whose members are now solidly in their 30's and mostly
embarked on careers and family life.

The results suggest how hard it can be to live as a classical musician in a

society that seems increasingly to be pushing classical music to the margins,
even as Juilliard and scores of other music schools pour out batches of
performers year after year. Orchestras and chamber ensembles are under
increasing financial pressure as subscriptions have dropped and government
arts financing has dried up, the recording industry has shrunk and the median
age of classical audiences is not getting any younger.

Sometimes the struggle is just too much, and many drop out, perhaps
disillusioned with a once-sacred endeavor that has come to seem a cold,
unforgiving trade. Others, like Mr. Alexander, are simply sick of the financial
grind: the low pay, the lack of benefits, the scramble for work. But many others
make it, and what also came clear from the analysis of this class were the high
levels of dedication many of the graduates maintain and the satisfactions and
excitement of expressing oneself through one of the purest forms of
communication: the making of music.

The class of 1994 includes Justine Flynn, a French-horn player who has
battled alcoholism and, after bouncing from job to job in and out of music, now
plans to become a tax preparer; Mark Inouye, a baseball-loving, happy-go-
lucky trumpeter with the Houston Symphony; Gwen Appel, a clarinetist who
gave up the grind of public-school teaching for a diamond grader's job at
Tiffany's; and Ittai Shapira, an Israeli dynamo with a flourishing solo violin
career.

They were among the 44 instrumentalists who graduated in 1994, excluding

pianists, who generally follow a distinct career path of their own. Of those, 36
were traced. Eight could not be found; they have left little trace in Google and
none at the Juilliard alumni office, all of which suggests that their involvement
in music has also dwindled.

At least 12 are out of professional music performance. Eleven have full-time

orchestra jobs. Another, a cellist, recently quit the Hong Kong Philharmonic to
move back in with his parents in Dayton, Ohio, and audition for American
orchestra jobs. Four are freelancers who survive by teaching; five more
consider themselves full-time freelancers or chamber musicians; three consider
themselves mainly soloists.

All of those now outside music have struggled to come to terms with their new
identities. Surrender can be a wrenching adjustment for people who have lived
their whole lives in the intimate embrace of an instrument and whose talent
brought them glory at a young age.
LIKE many Juilliard graduates, Ms. Appel, the clarinetist, was burdened with
debt after graduation: $28,000 in student loans. Then still using her maiden
name, Santiago, she taught music in New York public schools to support
herself and pay off her loans. (Juilliard's tuition now runs $22,850 a year.) But
the grind kept her from practicing. "I found it very depressing," she said. "It
really had nothing to do with what I was doing before."

She quit her job, went back to practicing for auditions and married. But
something had changed. "I didn't have that drive anymore to practice four or
five hours a day," she said. Deep down, she knew that the chances of landing a
good orchestra job were small. "I wasn't in denial about it. Some people are. I
see people struggling, close to 30. I just didn't want to live that way."

Answering a longstanding interest, Ms. Appel took a six-month diamond and

gem appraisal course in 2001 and went to work at Tiffany's as a diamond
grader and saleswoman. (She is now on maternity leave.) She still plays as an
amateur in chamber groups and community orchestras. And as with many of
her classmates who quit professional playing but kept up with the instrument,
the experience proved liberating. "The less stress I had with it, the better I
sounded," she said. "Sometimes it sounds better than when I was practicing
four hours a day."

The violin is an easier instrument than the clarinet to ride to stardom, and
three of Ms. Appel's violinist classmates have managed to do just that: Mr.
Crambes; Nicholas Eanet, who is one of two concertmasters in the Metropolitan
Opera Orchestra; and Mr. Shapira. What many of the Juilliard class have
learned over the last decade is that when it comes to making a career, talent is
rarely the most important quality. It takes discipline, focus and energy - and
connections, often formed at Juilliard.

"At Juilliard I met a lot of people that I still work with," Mr. Crambes said. "It's
a very important part of our job, to have relations with people." Relationships
emerge not so much from class membership as from studying with the same
teacher or playing in the same groups. Few of the members of the class of 1994
have kept in close touch, although a number were aware of what others were
doing. Several reconnected recently after the suicide of a contemporary at
Juilliard.

Mr. Shapira, represented by the International Management Group's touring

department in London, performs around the world, and he gave the premiere of
a piece by Shulamit Ran at his Carnegie Hall debut last year. He has issued a
dozen CD's, produced concerts, toured with the jazz pianist Dick Hyman and
started the Ilona Feher Foundation, which supports young Israeli violinists.
"This is my passion," he said.

As a student, Mr. Shapira said, he did not pay much attention to teachers who
talked about a changing music world. "I practiced and did what I was told," he
added.
But he has learned.

"Just because you play really well," he said, "that's not enough. You need
vision, you need persistence, you need passion for what you do, and you need
to provide something unique.

"I've formed relationships with conductors and producers. We found out what
we like to do with each other in a changing market. Rather than be the missing
part of a puzzle, you can create a puzzle around you."

Mr. Shapira, who still lives four blocks from Juilliard, credits the conservatory
with giving him a solid musical foundation and a base of operations. For a few
weeks every year, he plays with the group Concertante, which consists of
Juilliard grads. "The key to enjoying what I do is the focus that I thank
Juilliard for," he said, "but also variety, versatility."

FOR many students, Juilliard was a rude awakening. They often arrived as
minicelebrities in their musical communities, perhaps the winner of a local
competition or the best player in town. And they joined a group of people just
as accomplished, just as driven and often just as unprepared for the tough job
market they would someday face.

"When you're 12," said Matthew Herren, an accomplished cellist who moved
last year to Lawrence, Kan., where his partner got a job, "no one says, 'You're
going to have to carry that thing on the B train to Queens to do some cash job
for 75 bucks.' "

It was a hard fall for Ms. Flynn, the horn player, an engaging woman with an
explosive laugh.

Ms. Flynn said she grew up with a young mother in a single-parent household
and felt the burden of providing her with emotional support. "For me, music
was my religion," she said. "It was my reason for being. The rest of my life, I
wasn't so crazy about."

"When I got accepted and was 18, it was sort of like a dream coming true," she
said of Juilliard. "I'm going to go there, and it's going to be beautiful and
wonderful."

But she hated Juilliard from the start. "It was cold," she said. "It was
professional. That's what it's supposed to be. I was not ready for that." Before,
music had provided a sense of belonging to something greater than herself. "I
got there," she said, "and the message I received was, 'It's a business, kid.' "

The drugs and drinking came in the first two years there. Ms. Flynn took a year
off and came back, more focused on the horn. After graduation, she went back
to her original home in Portland, Ore., with hopes of working on a pilot arts
program for public schools, knowing deep down that a real go at a career would
have meant staying in New York. But she was searching for something else.

She described her questions at the time: "How can I be useful as a musician?
What's my purpose? What's my point? I was very conflicted about being a
classical musician."

In the years since, Ms. Flynn has worked as a groundskeeper at an arboretum

on Long Island, played fourth horn in the New Mexico Symphony, received a
master's degree in composition from Wesleyan University, composed, played
horn and trumpet in bands, shaved her head, directed a choir in Albuquerque
and most recently taught band and chorus at a school outside Phoenix.

Ms. Flynn, who said she became sober two and a half years ago, recently took a
tax preparation class. "I got an A," she said, laughing. "It shows I can do
something else other than play the French horn." Over Thanksgiving she
moved back to Portland, where she said she had been warmly welcomed by old
friends and was applying for jobs preparing returns.

"I feel my life is better than it's ever been," she said. "I have hope, hope in the
sense I don't have to be real specific what my life has to look like. I have an
opportunity to live it."

The sorts of questions Ms. Flynn asked about the relevance of music applied to
many of her classmates, who sometimes wondered what point there was in
playing the same war horses over and over, to what seemed to be inexorably
aging audiences.

Some sought a way to make music more immediately and directly relevant to
the world around them, like Rivka Gottlieb, a British harpist who was buffeted
by a bitter custody battle and family illness before discovering music therapy
as a career. She has just finished post-graduate training in using music in
psychological counseling and teaching the disabled from the Guildhall School
of Music and Drama in London. "To be able use to music as a tool to help
people - it's something I had always dreamed of," Ms. Gottlieb said.

ALANNA HONOR describes herself as one of those people who needed stability
and a sure way to pay the rent after graduation. She taught viola students
through her time at Juilliard, earned a public school teaching credential and
now teaches 200 third, fourth and fifth graders in the Ossining, N.Y., school
system. It is a job she clearly loves. Ms. Honor, known as Alanna Wheatley at
Juilliard before she married, still practices and plays community recitals.

"The way for me not to get bitter or depressed is to keep playing," she said. "I
had to create my own reality and performance venues. You get rejected and
can't take it personally. You have to create your own success and play for
yourself primarily. Then it doesn't matter if it's not to someone's liking."
Juilliard's uniquely high-pressure atmosphere, its fame and the brilliance of its
teachers provoke contradictory feelings about the place from its offspring.

Some alumni complain that it failed to prepare them for orchestra playing or
teaching, bread-and-butter work for musicians, or for the practical aspects of
running a career; or that it squelched creativity and individuality. Still, many
said that their Juilliard years were among the happiest of their lives, a time of
intense musical development with beloved teachers and a source of lifelong
musical collaborations.

Juilliard's president, Joseph Polisi, said he was not surprised by the number of
undergraduates who do not have performance careers. "They came in as 17- or
18-year-olds," he said in an interview. "They're very talented, they're very
focused, but at the same time they are becoming young adults and finding
themselves in ways that may not have anything to do with music." Yet he
acknowledged the prime goal was to create excellent performers.

Over the last decade, the school has developed courses in how to shape careers
or teach, but they are often electives. It requires at least one class a term in the
humanities, which most students barely tolerate. At the same time, Juilliard
has an obligation to create a "sense of excellence" by having a critical mass of
students approaching professional level, Mr. Polisi said.

"We're providing the curriculum, the tools and the experience to have a shot at
this incredibly competitive profession," he said. "But there is no guarantee."

When asked how he expected a typical class to turn out, Mr. Polisi said, "I want
them to be at peace with themselves and with whatever they are doing with
their art."

Mr. Inouye, the trumpeter, seems to have arrived at that point. Mr. Polisi
recalled him as the young man who used to joke about turning Juilliard's open
spaces into a beach volleyball court. Mr. Inouye has a wry take on the laments
of classical musicians. He tells this joke: "How do you get a musician to
complain? Give him a job. How do you keep him complaining? Give him a
better job."

Some of those interviewed who travel from gig to gig like modern troubadors
welcomed the variety but yearned for the stability of an orchestra. Orchestra
players said they liked the stability but felt stifled.

Mr. Inouye defies his own joke. "When I get tired of music, it'll be the end," he
said, "I love it. All I need is one person to inspire me or push me or find
motivation from," he said of orchestra playing.

Mr. Inouye arrived at Juilliard with valuable perspective. He had spent two
years as a civil-engineering major at the University of California, Davis. "It
exposed me to other people, other things, other backgrounds, other ways of
thinking," he said.

He is now playing principal trumpet in the Houston Symphony while on

sabbatical from his permanent post as second trumpeter in the San Francisco
Symphony. "I always said I wanted to get a job in a National League baseball
city," he said. "But the Giants! That's the team I grew up with."

In the end, maybe going to a conservatory is like being a compulsive gambler: It

is one big bet, but the drive to study music is so blinding, and doing anything
else so inconceivable, that young players are oblivious to the risk. Sometimes it
is hard to determine whether they are driven by single-mindedness or they live
in self-denial.

Once at Juilliard, they discover the inherent paradox of being a classical

musician. You are called on to be expressive, imaginative, creative, somehow in
touch with the mystical reaches of art, an individual. But you are also called on
to ply a craft with exceeding skill, meshing a complex of minute physical
activities in the service of black markings on a page and the composers who
wrote them, often submerging yourself in the crowd. And you do it all with the
purpose of making a living.

Inevitably, many will be disillusioned; some, enough so to leave the profession.

But every one of those graduates has an indelible stamp.

"Even if my instrument was destroyed," said Nora McInerney Fuentes, a

violinist who works in public relations for Time-Warner, "the gifts that I was
given and what I've done with them - no one can take them away from me."

More on the Graduates

THE ORCHESTRAS THEY PLAY IN INCLUDE:

San Francisco Symphony
New Jersey Symphony
Taipei Symphony Orchestra
Singapore Symphony Orchestra
St. Lukes Chamber Orchestra
Taiwan National Symphony Orchestra
Buffalo Philharmonic
Metropolitan Opera Orchestra
Netherlands Radio Symphony
Simn Bolivr Symphony Orchestra (Venezuela)

OCCUPATIONS OF THOSE NOT PERFORMING INCLUDE:

English teacher in Japan
Fitness trainer
Stay-at-home mother
Art museum bookkeeper
Software engineer
Music therapist
Saleswoman at Tiffany's
Public relations assistant
Insurance underwriter
Public school string teacher
Network engineer for the Federal
Reserve Bank in San Francisco

Blair Tindall and Tom Torok contributed additional reporting for this article.
Famous Pianist Franz Liszt
Composers Edward Macdowell

Isaac Albeniz Nicolai Medtner

Charles-Valentin Alkan Wolfgang Mozart

Leif Ove Andsnes Leo Ornstein

Anton Arensky Ignacy Jan Paderewski

Carl Philip Emanuel Bach Vincent Persichetti

Johann Sebastian Bach Francis Poulenc

Mily Balakirev Sergei Prokofiev

Bela Bartok Sergei Rachmaninov

Ludwig van Beethoven Anton Rubinstein

Leonard Bernstein Camille St. Saens

Georges Bizet Erik Satie

Johannes Brahms Domenico Scarlatti

Benjamin Britten Franz Schubert

Feruccio Busoni Robert Schumann

Frederic Chopin Alexander Scriabin

Muzio Clementi Dmitri Shostakovitch

Aaron Copland

Henry Cowell
Claude Debussy

Rubin Goldmark
Louis Moreau Gottschalk
Enrique Granados
Edvard Grieg

Joseph Haydn
Scott Joplin
Famous Violinist
Composers

Johann Sebastian Bach

Arcangelo Corelli

Francesco Geminiani

Giuseppi Tartini

Giuseppi Torelli

Francesco Maria Veracini

Antonio Vivaldi

Joseph Haydn

Wolfgang Mozart

Franz Berwald

Nicolo Paganini

Pablo de Sarasate

Louis Spohr
Johann Strauss I
Johann Strauss II
Henryk Wieniawski

George Enescu

Get to Know a Critic: Alex Ross
The Record (NPR), 2012

"I am a white American male who listened to nothing but classical

music until the age of twenty. In retrospect, this seems bizarre;
perhaps 'freakish' is not too strong a word."

That's Alex Ross, the classical music critic for The New Yorker magazine,
in an essay taken from his new book Listen to This, a collection of essays
first published in the magazine.

Ross began writing for The New Yorker in 1996, and in 2007 published
his first book, the excellent The Rest is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth
Century, which looks at how modern musical styles developed in the
context of world events (you can hear him read from the book here).
Noise was named one of the best books of the year by dozens of
publications and won the National Book Critics Circle Award for
Criticism.

Listen to This further maps the boundaries of Ross's personal taste,

which today is more catholic, and also contains a number of essays on
the way a particular musical theme or ideawhat he calls "musical DNA"
can translate across genres.

As a critic, Ross has already written at length about how he came into
his own taste. But we wanted to know, in his own words, what his job
entails in terms of a personal philosophy as well as day-to-day routine.
So we sent him a list of questions.

What's your preferred way of listening to a record? (Headphones,

speakers, CD, vinyl, alone, with other people?) How do you actually
listen most of the time?
I do most of my listening alone in my study, on a trusty pair of Spica
speakers, which I bought back in 1990. They don't have much bass,
which is a plus in classical music beefed-up bass sounds fake, as if
the double basses were on steroids. I tend to listen on CDs, although I
have a fair amount of music stored up on my computer and assemble
playlists keyed to current projects.

When I was writing about John Cage, I lined up all of his music
chronologically all that I had on record, at least and listened
through several times. I did the same with Mozart a few years back. That
took a while, since the man wrote seven days of music. I use Bose noise-
canceling headphones when I travel. My doctor advised me to stop using
in-ear headphones while jogging, to preserve my hearing.

Do you have a routine for listening to music that you write about?
How many times do you need to listen to an album?

I browse through new releases constantly, waiting for some kind of

"catch" that makes me keep listening instead of moving on to the next
one. I play new discs in the background while I'm writing; a good sign of
a great record is that it breaks my concentration. I may listen dozens of
times to a piece that I'm struggling to grasp or want to understand more
deeply. With a brand-new work, I don't feel I've really heard it until I've
heard it live: it's a more acute form of listening, and being part of an
audience changes my perspective. I actually don't review recordings very
often live performance is my main beat.

Do you feel a responsibility to listen to music you don't like? How

quickly do you dismiss things you don't like?

Absolutely. I have a list of well-regarded composers and performers that

I've never really "got"; I regularly return to them, to check whether
something has changed and I can see the light. I respect Anton Bruckner
and The Rolling Stones to make a weird duo but I can't say that I
love either of them. I try not to dismiss things too quickly, but the "blech"
reaction is hard to ignore once it kicks in.

What are the perks of your job? Can you accept free concert
tickets/gifts/box sets/swag/lunch? What do you do with CDs you
get sent in the mail that you don't want?

I rely on press tickets to cover the classical scene; otherwise I'd have to
shell out thousands of dollars a year. Although I buy a fair number of
CDs and downloads, I depend on promotional copies to keep up with new
recordings. I give away unwanted CDs at the office. I'm not aware that
classical music has any swag! The corporate machine doesn't care about
our world it's small potatoes.

How many pieces do you write each week? How many words per
piece?

Each year I write 14 or 15 columns (around 1500 words each) and two or
three longer pieces, which may be up to 8000 or even 10,000 words long
and require months of work. I also write quite a bit on my blog,

Are you allowed to write for other publications?

No, with extremely rare exceptions. And I'm not complaining The New
Yorker gives me a good salary and is a very pleasant place of confinement.
7. Do you remember the first piece of music you wrote about?
Robert Simpson's Sixth and Seventh Symphonies, for my college radio
station program guide.

Was there a person who pushed you, directly or indirectly, to

become a music critic?

Leon Wieseltier, the literary editor of The New Republic, published my

first major piece of music journalism and strongly encouraged me to
become a critic. I was dubious of the whole enterprise, because I thought
I was destined for an academic career. I don't think I would have become
a critic without his intervention; even when I had a job offer from The
New York Times, I had to be talked into it.

Have you ever changed your mind about a piece of music you
wrote about?

Many times. My first piece of published criticism, in 1992, was a

takedown of John Corigliano's opera The Ghosts of Versailles; I now think
it's a vibrant and inventive work. When I was in my twenties, I thought
Alfred Schnittke was the greatest living composer; I still think highly of
him, but at the time I overrated him. It's healthy for musical tastes to
evolve rather than to stay fixed.

Are there days when you just don't want to listen to music? What
do you do when that happens?

There are stretches during the classical season October and November,
February and March, sometimes July and early August when I'm
attending a concert almost every night. It gets to be a bit much, and I
enjoy the fallow months when I go out much less often. Yes, there are
times when I don't feel like listening to music, but I never know when I'll
make an unexpected discovery, so I often push myself to venture out
even when I'd rather stay home and watch True Blood.

Which parts of your job feel like work? Which parts are fun?

Researching a book or a long article is pure joy for me my favorite part

of the entire process. When I'm writing, I oscillate in stereotypical fashion
between pleasure and agony, pride and self-disgust. I can't say that any
part of the job is all that difficult; it ain't exactly working in a coal mine. I
feel supremely lucky to be making a living in this steadily shrinking field.

All different types of music can be good, but is there a quality that
good music shares? I guess this is a way of asking if you have an
operating philosophy for determining what you like?

That's an incredibly difficult question. When I think of the music that I

love the most to make a quick and off-the-cuff list, Bach's Mass in B
Minor, Schubert's String Quintet, Brahms's Intermezzos Opus 117,
Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time, Bob Dylan's "Sad-Eyed Lady of
the Lowlands," Nina Simone singing "Strange Fruit," Radiohead's Kid A,
Bjork's Vespertine, John Adams's Nixon in China I don't have the
slightest idea what they may have in common. Some mixture of earthy
impulses and intellectual complexity seems important, but I can't
quantify it. My definition of great music is music that makes me stop
thinking about any other kind.

Your new book is called Listen to This. Are you a critic because you
feel a desire to evangelize about music? How much influence do
you feel like you have?

I don't have as much influence as the critics of The New York Times, but
when I train my little spotlight on younger, lesser-known artists I can
certainly help to win them attention. Yes, there's an element of
evangelism in my work, although I try not to thump the Bible too loudly.
Isn't every critic an evangelist at heart?
The Huffington Post
Hunter Stuart (3/11/2013)

A new report by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra reveals that almost

half the orchestra's members belonged to the Nazi Party by 1942. The
orchestra's study also says that it expelled over a dozen players because
of their Jewish affiliations, and that some of them perished in
concentration camps after their expulsion.
The findings, released on the Vienna Philharmonic's website on Sunday,
were part of the results of a study commissioned by the orchestra's
chairman in January, in response to criticisms that the organization had
not been up front about its Nazi past.
Founded in 1842, the Vienna Philharmonic is perhaps best known for its
annual New Year's Concert, which is broadcast on Jan. 1 from Vienna to
tens of millions of people around the world. The renowned concert was
started in 1939 as a way to help spread Nazi propaganda, says one of the
historians hired by the orchestra to investigate its past, according to
Reuters.
The same day the orchestra's study results were announced, it was also
revealed in a new TV documentary that a former director of the orchestra
and a member of Hitler's Waffen SS, Helmut Wobisch, had delivered a
prestigious award to Nazi war criminal Baldur Von Schirach in 1966,
Reuters reports.
In December, an Austrian politician demanded that the Vienna
Philharmonic examine its Nazi past and accused the orchestra of a lack
of transparency and of destroying important documents from the World
War II era, the Los Angeles Times reported. Politician Harald Walser cited
the award that was given to Schirach as an example of how the orchestra
had a close relationship with the Nazis.
The Vienna Philharmonic has also been criticized recently for being too
homogenous. In January, influential classical music writer Norman
Lebrecht penned a Bloomberg op-ed, pointing out that the orchestra had
only six female members and no Asians, even though a third of students
at Vienna's University of Music are Asian. Lebrecht also pointed out that
the orchestra has no non-white members at all.
The full report on the Vienna Philharmonic's Nazi musicians will be
published Tuesday, March 12, on the 75th anniversary of Austria's
annexation by Nazi Germany, Al Jazeera reports.
Vulture.com
Davidson on the Vienna Philharmonics Suppressed Nazi Past
By Justin Davidson

Vienna is a city both obsessed with and spooked by the past. Its most
prestigious cultural export, the Vienna Philharmonic, has generally
presented the years between the German annexation of Austria in 1938
and the end of World War II as a tragic anomaly in an otherwise gilded
history that the orchestra is sworn to preserve. But a startlingly frank
new report posted on the orchestras website (in German only, for now)
makes it clear that when the Germans swept into Vienna, they found an
orchestra that was a ready, even eager tool of Nazi propaganda.
The report, prepared by independent historians and issued a week after
the Philharmonics three-night stint at Carnegie Hall (and a year before
its scheduled return), also suggests that Hitlers henchmen helped shape
the orchestra we know today. Those glamorous New Year's broadcasts,
the lilting Strauss waltzes with just the right intake of breath before the
upbeat, the gold-plated tours abroad, the rote invocations of Vienna as a
city of music all these apparently timeless aspects of an ancient
institution were facets of Nazi-era ambitions.

Information gleaned from long-forgotten archives that recently turned up

in a storage room show that the orchestra was methodical in purging its
Jewish members; thirteen were expelled, and five of them were murdered.
The organization was far sloppier about identifying its Nazis after the war,
though they werent hard to find. Nearly half the musicians 49 percent
had been party members, so firing them all would have meant
dismantling the Vienna Philharmonic. Instead, the institutions leaders
resorted to spectacular forms of amnesia. They did fire the trumpet
player Helmut Wobisch, who had been an SS informant, but he was
readmitted in 1947 and later became executive director. In the mid-
sixties, the convicted war criminal and onetime Philharmonic supporter
Baldur von Schirach got out of jail; Wobisch gave him a duplicate of the
ring of honor that the orchestra had awarded him and then rescinded.
The politicization of the Vienna Philharmonic predated the Nazi regime.
The battlefields of World War I were practically still smoking when the
orchestra began building itself up from a fine hometown band to a
national icon. Soon music was added to the flammable cocktail of
ideology and ethnic pride. In 1925, the mayor of Munich greeted the
orchestras visit to his city as a declaration that all German-speaking
people are culturally united, whether they now reside on this or that
side of these unnatural borders. As nationalistic sentiment grew, and a
Fascist government took power in 1934, the Philharmonic took care to
identify itself with the grandeur of Germanic culture.
The Nazis had no need to invent a new patriotic music: They found one
ready-made in the Philharmonics deeply conservative repertoire. The
management forbade the performance of contemporary music on
subscription concerts, on the theory that it would represent a break in
Philharmonic tradition and a lowering of standards. Satisfying official
taste was hardly a problem you could always play more Bruckner and
Wagner and neither was the ban on Jewish composers like
Mendelssohn and Mahler; the Philharmonic wasnt playing them much
anyway.

No music is more tightly bound with the identity of the Vienna

Philharmonic than the whipped-cream waltzes of the two Johann
Strausses, father and son. Hitlers propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels
embraced it as an effective link between high symphonic culture and
popular entertainment, and the Philharmonic serenaded soldiers and SS
officers with The Beautiful Blue Danube and Tales of the Vienna Woods.
During the 194445 season, Strauss accounted for fully half of the
orchestras repertoire.

The Nazis valued the Strausses' music because it rooted the partys
ambitions in the glories of the past. Conductor Clemens Krauss had no
trouble selling the Reich Ministry of Propaganda on the idea of an all-
Strauss New Years concert for radio broadcast, inaugurating in 1939 a
tradition that has survived, still glittering, into the digital age. The
supreme irony is that the composers had Jewish forebears, and when
Goebbels found out about that, he ordered the information suppressed.
He couldnt afford to ban a Strauss. I have no desire gradually to
undermine the entire German cultural patrimony, he wrote in his
journal.

For years, the orchestra held up its staunch provincialism as evidence

that it resisted Berlins hegemony. Then as now, it cultivated its local
flavor with fanatical care. Preparing for a set of four Strauss concerts in
1940, Krauss wrote to the orchestra: In order to give the events a
distinctively Viennese character, the soloists must, if at all possible, be
selected from within the orchestra or at least from the circle of artists
who have emerged from the Viennese school. This seems like a
statement so obvious as to be tautological: A Vienna Philharmonic
concert of Viennese music ought to sound Viennese, so its important to
engage Viennese musicians. But the new report points out that such a
fierce defense of authenticity served a pan-German goal. Goebbels
insisted on preserving and promoting Viennas unique musical culture as
a way of bringing glory to the Reich.

In many ways, the orchestra has hardly evolved since then. It still tries to
hire musicians born and educated in the city, who feel its unmistakably
light and unctuous timbre in their bones. The repertoire has also budged
little. It now includes Viennese composers whom the Nazis banned,
including Mahler, Berg, and Schoenberg, but it remains a fantastically
narrow list overwhelmingly local, almost entirely posthumous, and 99
percent male. The orchestra began granting full membership to women
only in 1997, and since then their numbers have soared to a grand total
of 7, out of 126 players. The Vienna Philharmonic makes the Vatican
look hip.

Seventy years ago, it was the crown jewel of a barbaric regime that saw
music as the key to cultural legitimacy. Today, its a global ambassador
of a nation that has only fitfully acknowledged its past enthusiasm for
Hitler. Next year, the orchestra returns to Carnegie Hall as the pillar of a
festival called Vienna: City of Dreams, covering a history that cuts out
circa 1925. Meanwhile, lets hope the wakeful historians keep updating
at the truth.
Voyager Record Contents (1977)

Bach, Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 in F. First Movement, Munich Bach Orchestra, Karl Richter,
conductor. 4:40
Java, court gamelan, "Kinds of Flowers," recorded by Robert Brown. 4:43
Senegal, percussion, recorded by Charles Duvelle. 2:08
Zaire, Pygmy girls' initiation song, recorded by Colin Turnbull. 0:56
Australia, Aborigine songs, "Morning Star" and "Devil Bird," recorded by Sandra LeBrun Holmes.
1:26
Mexico, "El Cascabel," performed by Lorenzo Barcelata and the Mariachi Mxico. 3:14
"Johnny B. Goode," written and performed by Chuck Berry. 2:38
New Guinea, men's house song, recorded by Robert MacLennan. 1:20
Japan, shakuhachi, "Tsuru No Sugomori" ("Crane's Nest,") performed by Goro Yamaguchi. 4:51
Bach, "Gavotte en rondeaux" from the Partita No. 3 in E major for Violin, performed by Arthur
Grumiaux. 2:55
Mozart, The Magic Flute, Queen of the Night aria, no. 14. Edda Moser, soprano. Bavarian State
Opera, Munich, Wolfgang Sawallisch, conductor. 2:55
Georgian S.S.R., chorus, "Tchakrulo," collected by Radio Moscow. 2:18
Peru, panpipes and drum, collected by Casa de la Cultura, Lima. 0:52
"Melancholy Blues," performed by Louis Armstrong and his Hot Seven. 3:05
Azerbaijan S.S.R., bagpipes, recorded by Radio Moscow. 2:30
Stravinsky, Rite of Spring, Sacrificial Dance, Columbia Symphony Orchestra, Igor Stravinsky,
conductor. 4:35
Bach, The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 2, Prelude and Fugue in C, No.1. Glenn Gould, piano.
4:48
Beethoven, Fifth Symphony, First Movement, the Philharmonia Orchestra, Otto Klemperer,
conductor. 7:20
Bulgaria, "Izlel je Delyo Hagdutin," sung by Valya Balkanska. 4:59
Navajo Indians, Night Chant, recorded by Willard Rhodes. 0:57
Holborne, Paueans, Galliards, Almains and Other Short Aeirs, "The Fairie Round," performed by
David Munrow and the Early Music Consort of London. 1:17
Solomon Islands, panpipes, collected by the Solomon Islands Broadcasting Service. 1:12
Peru, wedding song, recorded by John Cohen. 0:38
China, ch'in, "Flowing Streams," performed by Kuan P'ing-hu. 7:37
India, raga, "Jaat Kahan Ho," sung by Surshri Kesar Bai Kerkar. 3:30
"Dark Was the Night," written and performed by Blind Willie Johnson. 3:15
Beethoven, String Quartet No. 13 in B flat, Opus 130, Cavatina, performed by Budapest String
Quartet. 6:37

Adjusting Medication May Prolong Levines Tenure at
the Met
By MICHAEL COOPER FEB. 1, 2016 NY Times

The stage was being set to announce the retirement of James Levine,
the music director of the Metropolitan Opera since 1976, after his
longstanding health woes seemed to worsen this season to the point
that singers and musicians were having difficulty following his
conducting.

But then Mr. Levine and Peter Gelb, the Mets general manager, paid
a visit last week to his neurologist for an update on his condition
and the doctor gave Mr. Levine an 11th-hour reprieve, saying that Mr.
Levines most serious problems could probably be solved by adjusting
the dosage of a medication that he has been taking for Parkinsons
disease.

The news cheered Mr. Levine, who had been saddened by the thought
that his illness might force him to step down. I hope hes right,
because I love the Met company more than I can describe, the
conductor said on Monday evening in an interview at the office of his
neurologist, Dr. Stanley Fahn.
You are probably aware of the concept of Six Degrees of
Separationthe premise that all human beings on the planet are
related. Well, here is another case in point. This article from
todays NY Times may seem remote to you but there is a
connection. In 1958 I was a student at the Aspen Music Festival
in Colorado and Jimmy Levine stayed in the same motel, Eds
Beds, in the room next to mine for the eight weeks of the summer.

I was a trumpet student and he was a piano student. We did not

really get to know each other because I was 16 and he was 15
and, as budding musicians, we were both emotionally retarded.
When the summer ended he went back to Cleveland and I went
to Manhattan and we never saw each other again. Now we are
both in our 70s and he is struggling with health issues and I
have never felt betterthe luck of the draw!

SoYou know me and I knew Jimmyhow many degrees is

that?
New York Philharmonic Taps Jaap van Zweden as Its Next Maestro
By MICHAEL COOPER
JAN. 27, 2016

The New York Philharmonic announced on Wednesday that it was

turning to Jaap van Zweden, an intense, exacting Dutch conductor, to
be its next music director and guide it through the costly renovation
of its hall, two seasons of exile and, if all goes well, a triumphant
return to Lincoln Center.

The appointment of Mr. van Zweden, 55, whose name is pronounced

Yahp van ZVAY-den and who is currently the music director of the
Dallas Symphony Orchestra and the Hong Kong Philharmonic
Orchestra, ends nearly a year of speculation about who would succeed
Alan Gilbert when he steps down from the position next year.

Mr. van Zwedens tasks at the Philharmonic will include more than
music-making. He will be the orchestras public face as it works to
raise $360 million to renovate David Geffen Hall and to bolster its
endowment; act as the leading artistic voice as the hall is redesigned;
and be charged with making sure that the orchestra manages to retain
its audience when construction, which is slated to start in 2019, leaves
it homeless for at least two seasons.

Its a challenging time, but it is also a time where I would say that
there are an incredible amount of possibilities, Mr. van Zweden said
in an interview at his Midtown Manhattan hotel.

Mr. van Zwedens guest appearances with the Philharmonic have

produced exciting concerts. Critics at The New York Times have
praised his dynamic, all-out performance of Mahlers First
Symphony (at his debut in 2012) and his visceral, bristling account
of Shostakovichs Symphony No. 8. When he led the orchestra this fall
in Mozarts Piano Concerto No. 23 and Beethovens Fifth Symphony,
Zachary Woolfe wrote in The Times that conducting this imaginative
and playing this varied dont appear at Geffen Hall every week.

While his vision for the Philharmonic is not yet clear, Mr. van Zweden
is less associated with contemporary composers than Mr. Gilbert is,
suggesting a possible shift of emphasis. Mr. Gilbert, who has led the
orchestra since 2009, was praised for championing new pieces and
making them central to his tenure, but drew criticism in some
quarters for his work in Mozart, Beethoven and Brahms the so-
called standard repertory, of which Mr. van Zweden is known for
delivering crackling performances.

But Mr. van Zweden said that he looked forward to playing more
contemporary music at the Philharmonic, noting that in his days
leading the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, he conducted
world premieres every week or two. It was a fantastic time, to work
with composers who are still alive, he said, adding that he enjoyed
the ability to ask for their input on how pieces should be played. Its
a luxury I think we should treasure as conductors, because, you know,
you cannot go back to Mahler or to Beethoven or Mozart.

A Composers Complaint
Stephen Jablonsky

Being a composer, especially a classical composer, is like being a mother. For a

protracted period of time you carry within you the seed of a compositional idea and one
day it gestates. After much travail, often filled with conflict, pain and anxiety, you give
birth to a new offspring. But this is where the similarity ends. The mother then spends
the ensuing years rearing and enjoying the fruits of her labor, but for the composer it is
entirely different. The moment the piece is completed it usually spends the next few
months or years--that is, if the composer is lucky and it happens at all--waiting to be
adopted by a performer, much like the unwanted child of a pregnant teenager who, at the
moment of birth, is taken away with the expectation that it will be given to others to
raise.

Like the composer, the young girl may meet her progeny sometime in the future only to
discover that the child was not raised in a fashion she would have chosen. Often, when
the composer finally gets to hear the work in question the performance either does not
conform to a preconceived interpretation or it is badly played (composition abuse?).
Usually, even the best of performances does not measure up to the state of perfection in
which the piece was originally conceived in the composers imagination.

That was in the old days when, with pen or pencil in hand, the composer spent weeks or
months bent over the composition table trying to imagine the tonal possibilities for an
imaginary ensemble.

Today things are different. We have MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) which
means that, with a synthesizer and a computer, we composers need no longer dream of
hypothetical ensembles-- they are at our fingertips. In the past ten years, the pencil has
been replaced by the mouse. Now, however, we are no longer like that pregnant
teenager, we are more like Pinocchios Papa Geppetto. We can create a living being, but
it is mechanical, almost wooden. No matter how hard we try, it is not real. MIDI does
allow us to immediately test our compositional theories but still we dream that someday a
group of great musicians will bring our wooden puppet to life before a thunderously
applauding Carnegie Hall audience. The review in The New York Times the next
morning proclaims our genius to the world (O.K., time to stop dreaming).

It is fortunate that we compose classical music to satisfy some inner need, for, if we
depended upon our craft to earn us a decent living, it might be eons before we could put
enough bread on the table to feed a family of four. Meanwhile, we carry on, creating
beauty for beautys sake, realizing that, even for the most successful of us, the rewards of
recognition and appreciation are meager at best when compared with the adulation
awarded to stars of popular music. Did you know, for example, that while a gold album
in popular music represents the sale of a million disks, in the classical genre is represents
only 50,000? Think hard! How many classical musicians do you remember seeing at the
Grammys? Maybe its time to change the term Classical Music to Unpopular Music.
Some suggest that this unpopularity is deserved because our musical language has
become too difficult to understand on first hearing, which is generally the only chance a
classical composer gets. Viewed in perspective, it is hard to imagine that the musical
monuments of the past were ever easy to appreciate in their own time.

Maybe Unpopular Music really isnt for everyone. After all, the Big Mac and the ham
and cheese sandwich are much more popular than Sole Meuniere, Peking Duck and Beef
Wellington. And it may be more than just a matter of taste or budget. If everyone had
the cash, would they spend it on haute cuisine on a daily basis? Maybe yes, probably no.
It does seem that our recent obsession with Lite cuisine has carried over to our listening
preferences.

Should, then, the music of Bach, Mozart and Wagner, like rich food, be enjoyed only
rarely, on special occasions? While each of us must decide what our daily diet of culture
will be, most would agree that Unpopular Music should play at least some small part.
But if that is so, why must that small part consist, mostly, of the contributions of
deceased Unpopular composers? Are we living composers doomed to receive our just
desserts only in heaven?

When we look at the array of Unpopular music being played in concert halls and the
media, we realize that only a handful of talent is represented. What about the forgotten
ones, those untold thousands of composers whose music is virtually lost to us on dusty
library shelves, in lonesome archives, and even refuse dumps? Are they like minor
league ball players hoping to be discovered? Must they always dream of next season?
Maybe even the minor leagues are a dream--for most of them are like Sunday afternoon
softballers. Often, they are not even footnotes to hardball history. Does the fact that
WNCN (FM) and WQXR (AM) dumped their classical formats indicate that, even for the
few well-known Unpopular composers, the playing field is getting smaller all the time?

Ultimately, we must ask ourselves if there is there a place, or even a need, for the output
of the myriad forgotten composers, those who have no difficulty quantifying their
obscurity. It is possible that their contribution is purely statistical-- that, in order to
produce its Beethovens, a society must have a significantly large number of composers
toiling away so that, from among this vast number, a few may rise to the top and
represent the efforts of their generation. If it sounds like ants or bees, maybe there is a
parallel. It may seem strange to think of composers, those lofty artists, as cultural drones,
but the description may be very appropriate.

Of course, this complaint should not be limited to the creation of music. It pertains to all
the arts and, by extension, to every human endeavor. This means that most everyone,
even many of the stars, suffers the same malady. What, then, is the cure we all seek?
Is it love, recognition, appreciation, pride? How about all four, and more? Thats what
makes us human. Wait a minute...

Composers are human?

 Connecting the Dots
Stephen Jablonsky
On my way home after my first day of teaching in September of 1964 I thought a
great deal about what had transpired in my Introduction to Music class earlier that
day. What was most apparent was the fact that I did not know as much about music
as I had previously thought. There I was, a cocky 22 year-old with a BA in music
from CCNY, a masters degree from NYU, and a year in between at Harvard. As I
lectured to my students that fateful day I was cognizant that, having never taught
before, I had no experience explaining anything to anyone with any degree of depth
or precision. There were moments in the class where I realized that I was not
absolutely sure of what I was talking about. More significantly, I began the see the
gaping holes in my knowledge of a subject I had started studying fifteen years
earlier.
The scene shifts forty-six years to the present. As chair of the Music Department I
rarely spend a leisurely hour breaking bread with colleagues at the faculty dining
room because there always seems to be too much to do back at my office what with
300 majors and 64 faculty members counting on me for guidance and counsel and
so much bureaucratic minutiae that needs my attention. So, I usually microwave my
lunch from home and spend ten minutes eating while reading Bakers Biographical
Dictionary of Musicians. What struck me early on in this ritual were the myriad
characters described in Slonimskys tome as significant, prominent, eminent,
outstanding, and the like and I had never heard about these people. How is it
possible that musicians this accomplished had flown below my radar? In a moment
of clarity it dawned on me that the world of music was so vast that one could easily
spend a lifetime believing that you actually knew something about music and all you
had done was scratch the surface.

Case in point: earlier this week I came upon the entry for Leon Dudley, otherwise
known as Kaikhosru Sorabji. His entry began with the word remarkable so I
continued reading with great interest. Upon finishing I got up and went to my
computer to YouTube this fellow to see just how remarkable his music might be.
Well, the music that I heard was definitely arresting and challenging. I am not sure
whether this fellow was a genius or a lunatic, which begs the question, Is there a
difference? Regardless of the final judgment, it is obvious that this fellows music is
worth a listen. I checked for his name in my sixth edition of Grout/Palisca and he is
absent. He did not make the cut. Not surprisingly, he is not alone. I have read about,
and then researched, dozens of Baker denizens and they have all seem to have
disappeared into the fog of history.
Thinking about this situation prompted me to envision my understanding of music
as analogous to the Connect the Dots drawings of my youth. If I remember correctly,
you open to a particular page and you see nothing but dots and perhaps a few line
drawing hints to help you get started. If you stare long enough you realize that if you
connect the dots correctly you can create something that looks like a horse or a
schoolhouse. Well, that is how I now picture my understanding of musicas a
widely spaced collection of intellectual dots that I connect only in my imagination.
The intellectual magnetism that connects these dots gives me the appearance of
solidity much like the particles in the subatomic world but, like those particles, they
are not really solid and seem to jump around a lot when I look at them closely. In
attempting to quantify my knowledge I realize that most of my education, both
formal and personal, has been devoted to a relatively small number of greatly
talented composers and performers, mostly American and European, who are truly
only the tip of the iceberg.
Much of what I know of music has been determined by the path I have traveled.
After graduating from CCNY I went to Harvard where I met Pierre Boulez and Leon
Kirchner and got to know them and their music quite well. One of my classmates
went on to study at Princeton where he worked with Earl Kim. I mention Kim in
particular because I did not know his music until recently. He was a Korean-
American of prodigious abilities and wrote some really lovely music that escaped
my purview until recently. My second wife is Korean-born and the son of her best
friend is a conductor who performed some of Kims songs at a concert last year and,
by doing so, shone a light in that little corner of the musical universe for me. Thank
you, Yoon Jae.
One of the saving graces of having lived almost seven decades is the comforting
awareness that I know almost nothing. I seem to know just enough about myself
that I am no stranger to my foibles and shortcomings, and I know just enough about
people and life to enjoy the daily gifts that fate bestows upon me, and I know just
enough about music theory and composition to be able to write some charming
pieces that pose no great threat to the masters, but I know almost nothing about
musicbarely enough to call myself professor. In truth, I continue to be more of
student than a professor, and I am grateful that my career as educator has allowed
me to be both to the fullest possible measure. In my youth, my arrogance allowed
me to believe that I could know music just as some astronomers believe they can
wrap their minds around the universe or some theologians believe than can
comprehend God, but I am in a more realistic place now that allows me to enjoy my
role as explorer, not conqueror.
 Music as Narrative

Stephen Jablonsky

Let us remember that music is both magical and mysterious, and, because
of that, untold amounts of energy and intelligence have been spent trying to
explain it with varying degrees of success. Sometimes I wonder if musical
analysis is a fools errand best kept to ones self. Music, because it occurs
over time, is narrative in the sense that it presents a sequence of musical
events that may or may not be related to each other. It is narrative in a
language that is perceived and understood in different ways by each listener.
Our brain processes the incoming aural data relative to what it already
knows about other music. It also operates on various levels of cognition
based on prior musical training and experience. It is even possible that we
listen to the alternative realities of music simultaneously, but focus or blur
our attention depending on our purpose of listening.

I have always contended that a musical masterpiece is greater than the sum
all the theories that try to explain it. I sometimes find myself reading the
most erudite of scholarly reporting only to realize that all those diagrams,
charts, and verbal descriptions are like analyzing the muscle and tissue of a
cadaver. The magic and mystery of music is analogous to the spark of life
that animates the body, and like doctors, music theorists marvel at its
indescribable beauty. Great music bristles with the spark of genius and its
effect stays with us long after we experience it. Music of lesser quality
merely survives during its performances and is soon forgot.

Great films (and great music) are great from the first scene to the last and
never flag. We are swept up and carried through time without any
awareness of its duration. It holds our attention the way a hypnotist
controls our awareness. Good luck to all those who attempt to explain the
power of the trance. Each masterpiece is the product of great skill and craft,
but at no time are we aware of the technical genius that undergirds the
work. What sweeps us away is the emotional ride we are taken on as we
explore the heights and depths of the human experience. A great watch
keeps perfect time without our understanding how the inner works operate.
The genius that went into creating the watch mechanism is best appreciated
only by other watchmakers.

I close by sharing with you a visual experience very much like listening to
musicwatching clouds float by on a warm summer afternoon. The
exquisite aesthetic of that experience defies description and has, to my
knowledge, not yet prompted the formation of a Society of Cumulus
Theorists.
Popular and Unpopular Music

Yesterday I was meeting with a new member of our faculty, Ran Dank, who
will be teaching a section of Music 15400 and he mentioned that he was going
to give a concert in Poland soon that included the music of a Jew who had died
in a Nazi concentration camp. He didn't mention the composers name because
he may have figured that I wouldn't know about him, but, as luck would have
it, a previous professor in our department, Fred Hauptman, had turned me on
to the music of Erwin Schulhoff maybe twenty years ago when little of his
music was available in print or recording. Because it is Friday night, and I have
finished my shabbas meal, I went to YouTube and checked out what is available
by Schulhoff and was delighted to see how much of his stuff is there. The last
piece I listened to was his Fifth Symphony which has no title so I am calling it
"Man of Steel Symphony (Stalin). This is one of the most muscle bound
pieces I have ever heard and if you are a brass lover you will go nuts, especially
if you like the trombone.

I share this piece with you because I enjoyed it (I was a trumpet player back in
the day) and was the 285th person on the planet to hear this version on
YouTube. 285 out of maybe 1 billion people with access to a computer! You
see, there is popular music and then there is unpopular music, and 285 hits
would put Schulhoff well down on the list of the unpopular. In case you need
the contemporary standard, one of Lady Gaga's Edge of Glory website has had
24 million hits so far. Now that's popular! But, fear not, there are dead white
guys from Vienna who do make the charts big time. Beethoven's Fur Elise by
Ivo Pogorelich has had 15 million visits--so there. Take that! I am guessing
that, if you put all the Fur Elise websites together, Ludwig might even do better
than some of Britneys best stuff.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMr7BRQ2Ycg

Stephen Jablonsky
 Inspired Improbabilities
Stephen Jablonsky
What is the difference between competent music and great music? For me, it is what
I call inspired improbabilitiesthose musical events that simultaneously surprise
and delight us. They always come at just the right moment when the piece needs
that special something to keep the listener fully engaged and continuously amazed. I
suspect they come from that inner voice that resides within all creative people that
says, Do this now. The rational mind responds, Are you kidding? Thats crazy
stuff! The great artists have always listened to that inner voice because it is
processing and juggling data in ways the rational mind cannot begin to fathom. Our
inner voice is nurtured by all that it ingests while we listen and practice. It seems to
have a genius all its own, and tends to exert discretion and playfulness in equal
measure.
I have always enjoyed the interaction between the composer and the composition I
am writing at the moment. The farther I get into the compositional process the more
the piece seems to take on a life of its own. There are special moments when the
piece informs me of what it needs to do next. I always attend to this command even
though it seems to go against everything I was taught or thought to be correct
practice. I have to respect the needs of the piece when it wants to go in directions I
had not originally planned for the musical journey. I trust that the listener will
experience heightened neural activity when they hear these special moments
because the act of adding them to the creative mix gives me a tingle.
Every composer learns his craft from studying with other composers and gleaning
important lessons from countless hours of listening and study of scores. What he
does with that craft will be profoundly affected by his ability to go beyond what he
has been given. By thinking outside the box he creates a new box where he may
reside for a period of time before moving on. If properly constructed, those boxes
will contain the inspired improbabilities that will elevate the piece from safe and
comfortable to daring and exhilarating--from craft to art. There is a difference
between a piece that travels well along the ground and one that takes off and flies.
The magic that creates the fliers cannot be fully comprehended, reduced to formula,
or repackaged for future use.
There are no algorithms for taste. Taste is the innate ability to discern the difference
between good, adequate, and unacceptable. If properly employed it prompts us to
never settle for less than the best. It seems that the impeccable taste of the great
masters was always operating at the maximum while many famous composers I can
think of had good days and bad. The joy of listening to great music derives from an
indefinable awareness that what we hear is the product of a supreme talent creating
something new at the highest level of output. The magic of the experience results
from the genius of a compositional practice that is exquisite and an editing process
to match. There is a truth in the beauty of the thing that cannot be denied nor
defined. At the end of a great performance of a great piece there is an intellectual
and emotional exhalation that says, Yes, that is how it must be!
Whenever I hear a piece of music I always feel like I am being told a story in sound.
As a theorist I have never been able to discover why certain pieces seem to be telling
an important story while others seem to be well-constructed musical palaver. It may
have something to do with the power of an idea, but I am never quite certain how to
quantify that musical power or express it in words. I think, like most people, I can
sense when I am in the presence of greatness. Hearing the first phrase of a great
composition is like the opening scene of a great drama, or the first page of a great
book, because it is immediately intriguing and gives the audience a strong sense of
the artistic trajectory that will propel the action to the last scene or page. We then
follow the travails with rapt attention and seem to disappear into the story along
with the characters. When properly done, we should lose all sense of time, and
maybe even place. When the curtain finally falls we are aware that we have been on
an extraordinary journey. The course of events took us where we needed to go and
cadenced successfully at just the right time and place. If the experience was truly
great, all we can say is, Wow!
Epilogue: Several years ago I went to a concert that was so boring I kept checking
my watch during the first half. During the second half I kept checking my calendar.

 The Goldberg Variations
Stephen Jablonsky

Towards the end of the semester, when there was some extra cash in the
departmental till, I asked my faculty if there were some DVDs they would
like to order for use next semester. Among the suggestions was a film by
Bruno Monsaingeon entitled Hereafter, a biography of Glenn Gould. I
ordered the film, and when it arrived I watched it intrigued by the
strangeness and brilliance of the Canadians life. Much of the film was spent
on his first recording, the Goldberg Variations of Bach.

The power of the film stayed with me into the next day, so I decided to put
the CD of the Variations in the player in my car so I could refresh my
memory of this keyboard monument of the Baroque. I played it as I travelled
down the Merritt Parkway and onto the Hutch. All was well and good until
Glenn got to the 25th variation. It was then that my life was knocked slightly
out of the orbit it had been travelling. My ears were telling me that some
heavy harmonic stuff was going down and I struggled to grasp what was
unfolding. The dark narrative of this piece takes twists and turns that
challenge the listener to stay with the tonality. As the variation neared the
end I had the impression that this little piece of magic seemed to be just one
step away from Tristan and two short steps away from early Schoenberg.
The problem is that Bach was writing in 1742, Tristan was 1859, and
Verklaerte Nacht was 1899. How could one step be 117 years, and two steps
be 157 years? The only explanation I can come up with is that Bach was
composing this variation somewhat out of the time/space continuum, in
some timeless place where all geniuses occasionally find themselves in
pursuit of universal truth and beauty.
I am reporting all this to you so that you will understand how the tranquility
of my first week of summer vacation has been unsettled by the myriad
compositional problems that have been thrust upon me as a guy who
cannot resist the temptation to analyze a piece that beckons me. How could
any obsessive theorist rest easily when there are questions to be answered,
and so many knots to be unraveled? Bach must have known that, from time
to time, even 268 years later, a musician coming upon this cultural artifact
would be challenged to unlock its mysteries. I can report that I have already
spent two hours this morning doing some preliminary analysis and I can see
that this piece is like a musical Venus flytrap. Its savory flavors entice me to
enter but I know there will be no exit. I am sorely tempted to get to the
bottom of this matter, but having gone down two layers already I am not
sure there is a bottom, or, if there is a bottom I am not worthy of diving that
deep.
From what little I understand of these variations, it seems Bach did the pre-
jazz thing of dumping the melody and keeping the bass line as the
foundation for the thirty variations. In number 25 he adds chromatic
passing tones to the otherwise diatonic line and then adds a sequence-
based melody that gets really scary almost immediately. In the second
measure the tonal center shifts from G minor to F minor! If one of my
students had written a sequence that moves immediately to VIIm in the
second measure I would mark it wrong, or at least highly questionable.
When I found that Bach put the bass line in the tenor starting in measure 9
thats when I knew it was going to be rough going from hereon in, and that
is why I am taking a little break from looking at all those divinely-inspired
notes and am coming up for air. Returning to a piece that, like Tristan, has
a harmonic narrative that is continually obscured by a profusion of non-
harmonic tones that come too soon and often resolve way late might be just
the thing for some cold winter afternoon, but, hey, it is June, and this piece
is December.

Soon it will be lunchtime and I will have to leave my study and disconnect
from Mr. Gould and his Goldberg madness. The question is: when will I
return to continue this excavation? After lunch I could do any number of
fun things in a warm summer afternoon, or I could return to my desk and
continue digging with the eventual possibility of writing an article in which I
share my amazing discoveries with a few friends and colleagues. There is a
remote possibility it might even be published years from now and be read
from start to finish by as many as five theorists spread across the globe. I
know one thing: the more time I spend with this piece the more I will realize
how wide is the gulf between Johann Sebastian Bach and all the rest of us
poor wretches.
What should I do? I am open to suggestion.
 Mahler Apotheosis
Stephen Jablonsky
The fourth and final movement of Mahlers Ninth Symphony is, without doubt, one of
the great finales in the history of symphonic music. Its slow, majestic demeanor
describes a farewell to life that is profound at the beginning and becomes ethereal as
the movement draws its last breath. Recently, listening to this piece brought to mind
two questions for which I am not sure there are hard and fast answers. It is even
possible that there are no answers, a prospect that may reinforce their importance.

Every measure of this masterpiece is filled with almost magical musical materials that
force me as theorist to ponder why it is that some music seems to be saying something
important while other well-crafted pieces I have encountered seem to utter very
eloquent but vapid musical narratives, what Shakespeare called much ado about
nothing.
The second question concerns the ability of the music to transcend this level of
importance and rise to some exalted place that seems to be the very apotheosis of the
entire score. There are four such measures that appear on p. 170 of the orchestral score
(mm.5-8) that haunt me every time I hear them. They seem to be the distilled essence of
the entire symphony and utter some special truth about the human spirit for which I
have no words. Marked dolcissimo, this passages poignant affect has never faltered
since I first heard it as an undergraduate a half century ago.
There is another such musical moment that I know of that does the same magic trick as
the Mahler. It is a two-measure fragment, measures 81 and 82, in the fabulous love
duet, Bess, You Is My Woman Now from George Gershwins opera, Porgy and Bess.
Each measure contains the same four-note descending scale harmonized with different
chords. This is the moment where the two lovers commit to each other and the effect is
devastating. There is a poignancy that is indescribably powerful and never fails to bring
tears to my eyes. These two bars transcend human understanding as only music can do.
I have spent my entire professional career investigating the structure of musical
masterpieces and attempting to transmit my findings to my students and colleagues,
but I have never attempted to answer philosophical questions such as these. I have
studied the linear and harmonic elements of this musical fragment that lasts just thirty
seconds until I was blue in the face and I am still no closer to an answer than I was
when I started. All of which begs the question, When you are confronted by magic is it
in your best interest to know how the trick is done? I am almost ready to conclude that
the answer to that question is no, for child-like wonder may be a precious gift to be
cherished and preserved, especially by theorists in their golden years.


Modern Music:
A Personal Viewpoint

Stephen Jablonsky

Many years ago I went to a modern music festival that Pierre Boulez
conducted with the London Philharmonic. Over the course of three
evenings he played many of the orchestral masterpieces of the first half
of the 20th century. Each piece was beautifully performed and
intriguing to hear, but something amazing happened when he played
the final pieceStravinskys Petrushka. During the performance I
realized how dark and angry all the other pieces were in comparison to
the brightness and glitter of Petrushka's bristling sonorities. A great deal
of the neurosis and madness of the 20th century found its way into its
music, and the expressionists were, probably, the worst of the bunch. If
you look at Schoenbergs paintings you will have a better idea why
much of his music sounds the way it does. He needed more time on
Freuds couch.

I love Debussys music because his structures are as exquisitely
complicated as the other moderns but his stuff is beautiful from
beginning to end. Ravel deliberately put a modicum of dissonance into
his music but even that spice is sweet. Some modern music, especially
pieces written in the second half of the 20th century, went off track when
it got so obtuse that the audience could not remember three notes when
they left the theater. Many of the moderns forgot that music is about
drama, not serial calculations and note sequencing. To be modern is not,
in and of itself, a virtue. Modern does not have to be difficult, or even
offensive. Melody is not a bad thing every once and a while. There is
something very pleasurable about singing along with every note in
Prokofievs music. People do like to sing along whether at camp or at
Carnegie. OK, maybe they do not have to sing the whole thing, but they
have to hum something on the way home from the concert.

Modern jazz has suffered the same fate as classical music. When it
abandoned the idea of being danceable or tuneful it lost its audience and
its revenue. Picture a ballroom filled with hundreds of people jiving to
the Count Basie band. Then, picture a small jazz club on 52nd Street or in
the Village where a handful of avid listeners are wondering when, and
if, the tune will ever come back. The musicians are digging the
improvisations but the audience has been disconnected from the primal
essence of music. They are dazzled by the intellect and the technique
but are befuddled and lost much of the time. Some music provides
intellectual joy while other music attends to important emotional needs.
Great music does both.

Sometimes the theory of modern compositional practice got in the way
of the music. Think about the intriguing, influential philosophies of Cage
in comparison to his often insipid music. In much of his music he gave
up control of the compositional process, and this is problematic because
it is the sonic evidence of a brilliant mind at work that delights and
fascinates us. Webern's late stuff is as devoid of emotion as the late
experiments of Mondrian--fascinating but cold, made for the head, not
the heart. The application of abstraction in art and music is a process
where the details are distilled away and only the essence is left. In
Webern what you are left with is a few well-chosen tones in a relatively
thin texture. The audience is expected to savor each pitch but may
arrive at the end of the experience still feeling hungry. Antons later
music often reminds me of a meal of hors doeuvres. On the way home I
feel like stopping for a Whopper.

So, what is at the heart of the problem? If the audience cannot follow the
musical narrative that is being told then it is all just a lot of smoke and
mirrors, or worse--musical blah-blah. Music must first be engaging and
entertaining, and then it can be art. It needs to be magical. It is already
mysterious. Most of all, there must be a significant and palpable
connection between the humanity of the composer and the hearts and
minds of the audience.


 Good Math, Bad Music

Stephen Jablonsky

A possible reason that much contemporary music has never been well
received may be that too many composers got lost in the number games of
20th century compositional practice. While it is true that all composers play
mind games with themselves in the process of creating music, many
luminaries in the generation that included the likes of Pierre Boulez (b.
1925) and Milton Babbitt (b. 1916) lost sight of the fact that people are
mostly emotional beings, not numerical calculators (Sacred Hearts, not
Sacred Brains). Too many of the works from that period are brilliantly
calculated but are devoid of the color, mood, and passion that can move an
audience to tears or rapture.

When Arnold Schoenberg (18741951) applied his 12-tone method

(formulated in 1924) he imbued his soundscapes with the 19th century
Romanticism of his youth. He was always the Romantic. Here was a brilliant
mind that was searching for a replacement for the diatonic tonal system and,
in the process, created exquisitely crafted works that very few people wanted
to hear. His music had a new technology clothed in an out-of-date aesthetic.
It was his student, Anton von Webern (18831945), who seemed to apply an
aesthetic that was truly modern, more in tune with the times and the new
note-picking system. For a long time performers of his music did not realize
that he too was a Romantic and their performances reflected that ignorance
they were insipid. He just disguised his romanticism better than
Schoenberg. His sparse textures must be performed with the same passion
that one would apply to the music of Johannes Brahms (18331897) and
Gustav Mahler (18601911) only the attention is focused on far fewer notes.

This misunderstanding of Webern's underlying Romanticism led a lot of

young composers that followed him to believe they could play all those
wonderful numerical and structural mind games and everything would work
out just fine. Well, it did not. Over many decades the musically adventurous
among us have attended too many concerts where minds were dazzled, but
hearts were unmoved. Often they went home unable to remember a single
musical gesture. Too often they heard a vast amount of musical data without
hearing anything that seemed to be meaningful. What this music often
lacked was modesty. Mozart played as many mind games as anyone who
ever lived, only he hid his calculations where only the refined ear and eye
could find them. His out-front, tuneful lyricism disguised his underlying
machinery. His music invites us to sing along, and, once we are seduced by
his magic, we spend a lifetime trying to figure out how he did it.
Music is a communication from heart to heart and mind to mindit must
tell us what it means to be a human being, not a Univac. The most difficult
part of being a composer is trying to balance the heart and the mind, and it
does not take much to tilt slightly in the wrong direction with results that are
brilliantly insipid and vacuous. There are those, like minimalist composer
Tom Johnson (b. 1939), who believe otherwise. Here is a fellow who has
employed a great deal of mathematical calculations in his compositional
process with questionable results. Many art forms in the 20th century have
had practitioners who eschew their own humanity. For them, emotion plays
no part in the artistic process. Johnson admits this denial of the personal
element as follows:

I have often tried to explain that my music is a reaction against the

romantic and expressionistic musical past, and that I am seeking
something more objective, something that doesn't express my emotions,
something that doesn't try to manipulate the emotions of the listener
either, something outside myself. Sometimes I explain that my reasons for
being a minimalist, for wanting to work with a minimum of musical
materials, is because it also helps me to minimize arbitrary self-
expression. Sometimes I say, "I want to find the music, not to compose
it."1

This is in tune with the philosophy originally promoted by John Cage

(19121992), a highly influential thinker whose music has never found wide
acceptance with a paying audience. Many who have heard Johnsons music
feel that he fulfills his minimalist intentions most effectively. Pieces such as
his Narayanas Cows, a composition that employs the Fibonacci series as a
pitch generator, are pleasing to some, but have not found wide acceptance.
Many people, when listening to his music, come away disappointed that they
have not been touched by the personal revelations of a sentient being. They
experience the musical equivalent of eating a vegetarian snackwhile at the
concert they are entertained by a skillful array of sounds, but an hour later
they are hungry for something more profound.

It is too often the case that good math does not make good music.
1
Chronicle of the NonPop Revolution, Kalvos.org/johness4.html
 Stravinsky: A Short Take
Stephen Jablonsky

Trying to understand Stravinskys compositional process is probably

impossible, or, at least, improbable. The "Neo-classicism" of Stravinsky
is, in my opinion, a musical parallel to the art world's explorations of
Dada and Surrealism. If you look at Dali's bent watches and try to tell
the time you are attempting to do the same thing as making sense of
Stravinsky's triads (non triads). You are correct that the harmonic
material in Pulcinella ranges everywhere from completely tonal to
completely bent out of shapekind of like walking past fun house
mirrors.

Remember, that you are trying to understand the mind of a great

composer who was infinitely playful, comical, and a major troublemaker.
This will not solve your technical problem but I hope it gives you some
perspective as you try to sort out your data. By the time Pulcinella came
along the diatonic tonal system was dead and buried. Stravinsky was
using exhumed parts of this dead system in the same way that Dr.
Frankenstein was trying to create new life. Got the picture? What made
Stravinsky so great was the fact that no matter what he stole (and he
stole a lot of different stuff throughout his long career) he processed it in
his own unique way and it came out sounding like Stravinsky. You may
come up with a lot of data and exquisite formulas but pinning down
Stravinsky is much like herding cats.

What is amazing about Stravinsky was his ability to reinvent himself

with great regularity much like his contemporary, Picasso, an equally
dangerous provocateur who used distortion to great effect.
 Stockausen is Dead

Stephen Jablonsky

Quite a number of years ago I made a visit to the opening of the new
Tower Records store at Lincoln Center and was delightfully surprised at
how large the classical music CD section was. I figured this was the place
to add special recordings of contemporary works to my already sizable
collection. I walked around to the places devoted to some of my favorites.
Much to my dismay I discovered that the space devoted to Stockhausen
had only three CDs in it and it caused me to think that times had
certainly changed.

Back in the fifties and sixties Karlheinz was one of the giants of the avant
garde. Every time he gave a concert in NYC it was a major event attended
by all 200 lovers of contemporary music, mostly university types like
myself (200 out of a total population of 7 million!). Well, here it was
twenty years later and this giant had been relegated to a footnote of
history by the paucity of commercial square footage. I was always in awe
of his prodigious output and the fertility of his unique mind. How could it
be possible that there were only 3 CDs representing his total output? It
caused me to think about what success in the classical composition field
really means.

If you are a mediocre talent with a great sense of self-promotion like

Philip Glass you make a name and a career for yourself. If you are a
genius like Stockhausen, Berio, Carter, or Crumb you live, and
eventually die, in almost total obscurity. Somehow that seems unfair,
but, then, life is not necessarily fair. Which reminds me of Briggs Fair
and how little the music of Delius is played. I will stop here because the
list could get very long of composers far more talented than I who got
little or no recognition during or after their lifetimes. It has been a fact of
nature for a very long time and will, undoubtedly, continue until the End
of Time...oh, yes, and Messiaen.....
 Composer Leslie Bassett (1926-2016)

A Conversation with Bruce Duffie

In the course of doing interviews for thirty years now, I have been portable. That is to say, I
have usually gone to my guests at their hotels or apartments, backstage at their performing
venues, or even to their homes when I have been traveling. A few conversations were done
at the radio station and the occasional other odd location, such as a quiet restaurant, an alcove
in a hotel mezzanine, and even an unused conference room at OHare airport! Then there
were a few which were done at my own studio. Having guests in my home is always a
distinct pleasure, and when I could persuade a composer or performer to set aside a bit of
time while en route elsewhere, I had a nice place to chat and enjoy a cup of coffee. Later I
was often able to take them out for a genuine Chicago Pizza...

When I first contacted composer Leslie Bassett, he indicated that he came to Chicago on
occasion, and we agreed to meet during his next trip. In June of 1987, he and his wife
arrived at my home and we settled in for a nice conversation. What follows is that
encounter . . . . .

Bruce Duffie: First, let me ask you about winning the Pulitzer Prize. Has that had any great
lasting effect on you or your composing?
Leslie Bassett: It brought me a better salary at the University of Michigan, which is nice, but
it didnt bring as many performances of the Variations itself as you would have
thought. You would have assumed that the orchestra piece that wins the Pulitzer Prize then
would be used. In fact, my publisher did send the score around to a lot of orchestras
somewhat later, because it wasnt published right then. But it hasnt had as many
performances as you would have expected, and I found that disappointing. I talked with
Michael Colgrass not too long ago, and he was complaining also that his Pulitzer Prize
orchestra piece had not been played a second time, or at least not more than once, until it was
done by Louisiana State University when he was there as guest composer two or three years
ago. And he found this strangea piece that presumably is considered good isnt
immediately grabbed by orchestras. I think theres a certain amount of promotional things
that have to be done, and if you have agents and publishers who are very aggressive in this
regard and feel they can invest throwing away most of the scores, then I think maybe theres
some chance of it. But its a very touchy business. But it has made a lot of difference, in fact,
because when you go to a town and youre discussed, or comments are made by local
newspapers, they all know its the Pulitzer Prize, so they give it coverage.

BD: How difficult is it to get second performances of anything, Pulitzer Prize or no?

LB: It depends, I suppose, on an awful lot of things. Young composers have an awful lot
of trouble getting second performances if they dont have a national name and if their piece
was performed well by, lets say, a good community orchestra or one of the minor major
orchestras. Its very hard to get a second performance. There are a lot of composers in the
United States.

BD: Are there too many?

LB: No, not too many, but there are an awful lot of them, and they all have orchestra
pieces! Theres a lot of competition for comparatively few slots on an orchestras
season. Some orchestras are doing better than others, as you know, but a lot of orchestras
play very little new music, even yet. I think things are improving, but its not ideal.

BD: Is there a Pulitzer Prize in music every year?

LB: Theres a competition every year; they dont award it every year.

BD: I was just wondering if maybe some of the big orchestras should, say, six months after
the Pulitzer Prize is normally awarded, play that work, and if theres no Pulitzer Prize that
year, then a previous one?

LB : That would be a lovely idea. I understand that the Albany Symphony intends to do
some of the past Pulitzer Prize pieces over the next few years. Somebody was telling me
this. Its a good idea.

BD: Are all of the pieces that win the Pulitzer Prize really worthy of winning?
LB: This is a very subjective question, and a very subjective answer would be yes, I
suppose. But theres an awful lot of variety in pieces that have won it over the years. I think
on the whole, they have all been really quite good. I dont know of any real lemons, for
instance. I know some that I like better than others. There are always complaints by various
people that the prize should have gone to something else, other than what did receive
it. Sometimes a very small piece of chamber music is pooh-poohed by people who wrote
orchestral pieces; they think the orchestral piece should have picked it off. The one this past
year is a fairly modest score George Perles Wind Quintet which is unusual. Of course,
we know Elliott Carters two String Quartets have won it over the years, so theres a lot of
variety. But it tends to go to the blockbuster piece; it tends to go to the piece that has made a
big splash, which usually means orchestral playing. [Names which are links refer to my
interviews elsewhere on this website.]

BD: How do you feel the afternoon of a big premiere, before the evening of a major work?

LB: Of a premiere, especially an orchestra piece, Im fit to be tied! [Laughs] My wife

says Im impossible! She just says I cant be put up with. Sometimes Ive been taken out to
dinner on the evening before the premiere, and you go to the restaurant and the service is
slow, and you realize youre going to have to leave before the thing is done. Then you dash
like mad to the hall, and so on. This can be absolutely unnerving! It just can wipe you out.

BD: Does it get any easier if its the third, or fifth, or eighth production of the work?

LB: Oh yes. After that, after the premiere or maybe two or three performances, the piece
has to go on its own. Youve cut it loose, and thats that.

BD: Do you ever tamper with it afterwards?

LB: I dont say never, but usually not. There are times when I change the metronome
marks and Ive added a couple of measures or a fermata or something to the score. Maybe I
will put in a ritard or something like this, which seemed to improve the piece.

BD: When youre actually working on the piece in your workshop, how do you know when
youve finished it? How do you know when its ready to be performed?

LB: I dont know how Id answer that. Its a matter of intuition, musical intuition. First of
all, you know how long the piece needs to be, more or less. If you get a commission for a
fifteen minute piece, you dont write one that lasts an hour. So you have to have some
control of the amount of time that youre dealing with.

BD: Well, how much leeway is there? Eighteen minutes would be okay?

LB: Yes, sure; three or four minutes, I think, on either side at the most. But your initial
conception of the piece is the shape of the piece. You cant start out just writing and then
just hope that you discover everything as you go along. I suppose its possible, but I think
its not a good plan. You need to know whether youre going to end with guns flashing, or
whether you fade off into the sunset. You need to sense where the climaxes are especially
the final climax and whether youve built up toward it long enough or whether its a
surprise. If its a surprise, then can you recover from the surprise in order to reassure
everybody that indeed the piece is fulfilled? In general, our first versions of pieces tend to be
too short, the endings tend to be too short. They tend to get there a little sooner than we
thought they would. So usually revisions that happened, with me at least, tend to be
extensions of the ending in one way or another.

BD: Are you ever surprised where the piece has taken you?

LB: Composing is just full of surprises at least for me it is. Thats one of the funs about
it. You never quite know whats going to happen! You will find spots where suddenly you
discover a beautiful sound which just sort of dropped in on you that you then, of course,
appreciate. Youre also trying to tie in this sound with earlier sound, so that theres a
syntactical relationship, a continuity of language, in your piece. But then there are surprises,
things that you didnt quite expect. The last orchestra piece I wrote, which is called From A
Source Evolving, does indeed that. It evolves from the initial sounds, but its a fourteen
minute piece all in one movement. I had not done a fourteen minute piece in one movement
for orchestra maybe forever. Well actually, the Variations are longer than that, but the
Variations somehow have segments in them. And this is quite unusual because I usually
write movements. I like movements. I think movements allow you to absorb the music that
you just heard and to pack it away before the next installment comes along. Then you feel
that people maybe have remembered a little better, instead of twenty minutes without break
of endless music, which is very hard to absorb.

BD: So its balance and contrast, in amongst all of this?

LB: Right, oh, yes.

New Ways Into the Brains Music Room
By NATALIE ANGIER NY TIMES
FEB. 8, 2016

Whether to enliven a commute, relax in the evening or drown out the buzz of a
neighbors recreational drone, Americans listen to music nearly four hours a day.
In international surveys, people consistently rank music as one of lifes supreme
sources of pleasure and emotional power. We marry to music, graduate to music,
and mourn to music. Every culture ever studied has been found to make music,
and among the oldest artistic objects known are slender flutes carved from
mammoth bone some 43,000 years ago 24,000 years before the cave paintings
of Lascaux.

Given the antiquity, universality and deep popularity of music, many researchers
had long assumed that the human brain must be equipped with some sort of
music room, a distinctive piece of cortical architecture dedicated to detecting and
interpreting the dulcet signals of song. Yet for years, scientists failed to find any
clear evidence of a music-specific domain through conventional brain-scanning
technology, and the quest to understand the neural basis of a quintessential
human passion foundered.

Now researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have devised a

radical new approach to brain imaging that reveals what past studies had missed.
By mathematically analyzing scans of the auditory cortex and grouping clusters of
brain cells with similar activation patterns, the scientists have identified neural
pathways that react almost exclusively to the sound of music any music. It may
be Bach, bluegrass, hip-hop, big band, sitar or Julie Andrews. A listener may
relish the sampled genre or revile it. No matter. When a musical passage is played,
a distinct set of neurons tucked inside a furrow of a listeners auditory cortex will
fire in response.

Other sounds, by contrast a dog barking, a car skidding, a toilet flushing

leave the musical circuits unmoved.

Nancy Kanwisher and Josh H. McDermott, professors of neuroscience at M.I.T.,

and their postdoctoral colleague Sam Norman-Haignere reported their results in
the journal Neuron. The findings offer researchers a new tool for exploring the
contours of human musicality.

Why do we have music? Dr. Kanwisher said in an interview. Why do we enjoy

it so much and want to dance when we hear it? How early in development can we
see this sensitivity to music, and is it tunable with experience? These are the
really cool first-order questions we can begin to address.

Dr. McDermott said the new method could be used to computationally

dissect any scans from a functional magnetic resonance imaging device, or
F.M.R.I. the trendy workhorse of contemporary neuroscience and so
 may end up divulging other hidden gems of cortical specialization. As
proof of principle, the researchers showed that their analytical protocol
had detected a second neural pathway in the brain for which scientists
already had evidence this one tuned to the sounds of human speech.

Importantly, the M.I.T. team demonstrated that the speech and music circuits are
in different parts of the brains sprawling auditory cortex, where all sound signals
are interpreted, and that each is largely deaf to the others sonic cues, although
there is some overlap when it comes to responding to songs with lyrics.
The new paper takes a very innovative approach and is of great importance,
said Josef Rauschecker, director of the Laboratory of Integrative Neuroscience
and Cognition at Georgetown University. The idea that the brain gives
specialized treatment to music recognition, that it regards music as fundamental
a category as speech, is very exciting to me.

In fact, Dr. Rauschecker said, music sensitivity may be more fundamental to the
human brain than is speech perception. There are theories that music is older
than speech or language, he said. Some even argue that speech evolved from
music.

And though the survival value that music held for our ancestors may not be as
immediately obvious as the power to recognize words, Dr. Rauschecker added,
music works as a group cohesive. Music-making with other people in your tribe
is a very ancient, human thing to do.

Elizabeth Hellmuth Margulis, the director of the Music Cognition Lab at the
University of Arkansas, said that when previous neuroscientists failed to find any
anatomically distinct music center in the brain, they came up with any number of
rationales to explain the results.

The story was, oh, whats special about music perception is how it recruits areas
from all over the brain, how it draws on the motor system, speech circuitry, social
understanding, and brings it all together, she said. Some researchers dismissed
music as auditory cheesecake, a pastime that co-opted other essential
communicative urges. This paper says, no, when you peer below the cruder level
seen with some methodologies, you find very specific circuitry that responds to
music over speech.

Dr. Kanwishers lab is widely recognized for its pioneering work on human vision,
and the discovery that key portions of the visual cortex are primed to instantly
recognize a few highly meaningful objects in the environment, like faces and
human body parts. The researchers wondered if the auditory system might be
similarly organized to make sense of the soundscape through a categorical screen.
If so, what would the salient categories be? What are the aural equivalents of a
human face or a human leg sounds or sound elements so essential the brain
assigns a bit of gray matter to the task of detecting them?
To address the question, Dr. McDermott, a former club and radio disc jockey, and
Dr. Norman-Haignere, an accomplished classical guitarist, began gathering a
library of everyday sounds music, speech, laughter, weeping, whispering, tires
squealing, flags flapping, dishes clattering, flames crackling, wind chimes tinkling.
Wherever they went, they asked for suggestions. Had they missed anything?
They put the lengthy list up for a vote on the Amazon Mechanical Turk
crowdsourcing service to determine which of their candidate sounds were most
easily recognized and frequently heard. That mass survey yielded a set of 165
distinctive and readily identifiable sound clips of two seconds each (listen to a
selection of them here). The researchers then scanned the brains of 10 volunteers
(none of them musicians) as they listened to multiple rounds of the 165 sound
clips.

Focusing on the brains auditory region located, appropriately enough, in the

temporal lobes right above the ears the scientists analyzed voxels, or three-
dimensional pixels, of the images mathematically to detect similar patterns of
neuronal excitement or quietude.

The strength of our method is that its hypothesis-neutral, Dr. McDermott said.
We just present a bunch of sounds and let the data do the talking.

The computations generated six basic response patterns, six ways the brain
categorized incoming noise. But what did the categories correspond to? Matching
sound clips to activation patterns, the researchers determined that four of the
patterns were linked to general physical properties of sound, like pitch and
frequency. The fifth traced the brains perception of speech, and for the sixth the
data turned operatic, disclosing a neuronal hot spot in the major crevice, or
sulcus, of the auditory cortex that attended to every music clip the researchers
had played.

The sound of a solo drummer, whistling, pop songs, rap, almost everything that
has a musical quality to it, melodic or rhythmic, would activate it, Dr. Norman-
Haignere said. Thats one reason the result surprised us. The signals of speech
are so much more homogeneous.

The researchers have yet to determine exactly which acoustic features of music
stimulate its dedicated pathway: The relative constancy of a musical notes pitch
or its harmonic overlays? Even saying what music is can be tricky.

Its difficult to come up with a dictionary definition, Dr. McDermott said. I

tend to think music is best defined by example.

Justice Potter Stewart of the Supreme Court likewise said of pornography that he
knew it when he saw it. Maybe music is a kind of cheesecake after all.
 Glossary of Musical Terms
Accidentals: The flats (@), sharps (#), or naturals (&) used to change pitch.

Alto: The lowest female voice or an instrument that plays in that range; or a type of C clef.

Arpeggio: The notes of a chord played in succession, not simultaneously.

Articulation: The way two consecutive tones are connected (legato) or detached (staccato).

Bass: The lowest male voice; or the F clef that is used to notate the tones below middle C.

Beat: The regular pulse underlying all metrical music; often confused with rhythm.

Binary: A musical form that is in two parts often separated by a full cadence.

Cadence: The rhythmic, melodic, and/or harmonic way a phrase ends.

Chord: Any three or more notes used as a harmonic unit; may contain 3 to 12 notes.

Chromatic: Music that frequently uses most or all twelve semitones within an octave.

Clef: A sign used to indicate the placement of notes on the staff. The ones in common
practice are the G clef (treble), the F clef (bass), and the C clef (alto or tenor).

Composer: An obsessive-compulsive individual who spends much of their life creating

music in a desperate attempt to let others know how they feel. They often die young.

Conjunct: Music that moves mainly by step and is usually easier to perform than
disjunct music. Conjunct music often feels smooth and controlled.

Consonant: Pleasant sounding harmony; music without tension.

Counterpoint: The art or craft of writing polyphony; or a line that accompanies the
melody. It is short for point-counter-point (note against note).

Density: The quantity of different notes or parts played simultaneously. It may range
from a solo to an immense orchestra and/or chorus.

Disjunct: Music that moves mainly by skip. The bigger the skips the more difficult it is to
perform or to follow as a listener. It may occasionally feel wild and crazy.

Dissonance: Harmonic tension. It is often followed by a resolution to consonance.

Dominant: The fifth note of a major or minor scale, or the chord built on that note.

Duet: Music for two individual performers who are, hopefully, playing in tune with each
other.

Duple: Refers to meter that has two beats per measure. Example: 2/4 time.

Duration: The length of a piece of music. It may range from seconds to hours.

Dynamics: The range of loudness as indicated by terms such as piano and forte.

Ensemble: A group of musicians performing the same piece at the same time.
Folk music: Music performed by ordinary people who are often vary talented but may be
musically illiterate or lack conservatory training. In America much of it is played on
stringed instruments such as the fiddle, guitar, or banjo by people with bad teeth.

Fool: Someone who struggles to begin learning music past the age of 21.

Harmony: The practice of combining different notes simultaneously; the use of chords.

Heterophonic: a musical texture in which everyone plays the same melody with slight
variations or differing embellishments.

Homophonic: Music that has one melody accompanied by chords.

Interval: The distance between two notes as measured in scale steps.

Inverted: A chord in which the root is not the lowest note.

Key signature: The flats or sharps at the beginning of a piece that indicate the key.

Key: Music that employs the notes of a major or minor scale is said to be in a key.

Keyboards: Instruments that have an array of black and white keys such as the piano,
organ, harpsichord, or celesta. The piano has 88; usually more than you need.

Major: Scales that use the following sequence of whole and half steps: W W H W W W H.
Perceived as happier than minor. Should be practiced every day.

Measure: The distance between the strongest regularly accented beats. In music notation
it is separated by two bar-lines.

Medium: The type of instrument or voice that is producing the music, either acoustic or
electronic. The medium is often a significant part of the message.

Melody: A succession of tones that seem to have a formal coherence; a tune.

Meter: The grouping of beats into regular patterns of accented and unaccented. It may be
duple, triple, compound, or mixed. Clapping the beats helps you find the meter.

Metronome: An instrument used to measure beats per second. Does not do rubato!

Minor: Scales that employ a lowered third degree. Perceived as sadder than major.

Monophonic: Music that contains only one line.

Music theory: An attempt to explain why music sounds the way it does. A masterpiece is
greater than the sum of the theories that try to explain it.

Natural: A note that is neither flat (@) nor sharp (#). Example: E&

Noise: A sound consisting of numerous random pitches; the opposite of tone.

Opus: Latin for work. A publishers numbering system. The plural is opera.

Pentatonic: A scale having five notes, two less than the seven of major and minor.

Performer: Often a highly skilled musician who thinks they know better than the
composer how a particular piece should be played. They are usually overpaid (popular) or
underpaid (classical and jazz), and often have egos that outstrip their talent.
Phrase: The musical equivalent of a sentence. It ends with a cadence and a breath.

Pitch: The sound of a note as measured in vibrations per second. A& is 440Hz (cps).

Polyphonic: Music that contains two or more lines. It is often hard to write properly.

Popular music: Music designed to reach the widest possible audience. It is often
associated with huge sums of money, illicit drugs, and hysterical teenagers.

Range: The distance between the lowest and highest notes that are sung or played.

Register: The range in which a collection of pitches are found. It may be high, middle, or
low; also the place where paltry profits are stored in jazz clubs and the like.

Rhythm: The relative duration of notes and the silence between them.

Root: The note on which a chord or triad is built.

Scale: A succession of step-wise tones that span an octave. It often goes up and down.

Semitone: The smallest scalar interval; a half step. Example: C to C# or E to E@.

Soprano: The highest female voice or the uppermost part in a harmony.

Staff or Stave: The five lines that are used in music notation. It contains four spaces.

Subdominant: The fourth step of the major or minor scale, or the chord built on that note.

Tempo: The speed of a piece as indicated by a word (usually Italian) or metronome

marking. It usually ranges from largo to presto with andante and allegro in between.

Tenor: The highest male voice, or a type of C clef. In opera he is usually the hero.

Ternary: A musical form that is in three distinct parts. It is often A-B-A.

Texture: The fabric of the music; the relationship of the parts. The way musical lines are
woven together. It may be monophonic, homophonic, polyphonic, or heterophonic.

Tonal: Music that uses the scales or harmonies of major or minor.

Tone: A sound of measurable pitch as opposed to a noise; or the quality of the sound.

Tonic: The first step of a scale; also a refreshing drink or hair product.

Treble: The G clef that is used to notate the tones above middle C.

Triad: A chord consisting of three notes built in thirds. Example: C E G.

Trio: Music that contains three individual parts, or three people who perform together.

Triple: Music that has three beats per measure. Example: time.

Unpopular music: Music designed for a small discriminating audience. This includes
most classical music and contemporary jazz. Tickets are either free or very expensive.

Volume: The loudness of the music as measured in decibels. 125dB really hurts!

Whole step: An interval that contains two semitones. Example: A B (bypasses B@).
 CAPRICORN 30 Quantz, Loeffler

31 Glass, Schubert

Dec 22 Puccini, Varese Feb 1 Herbert

25 W.F.Bach 3 Dallapiccola, Mendelssohn

28 Sessions 8 Gretry, J Williams

30 Kabalevsky 9 Berg

31 Revueltas 10 Kolb

Jan 2 Balakirev, G Read 12 Harris, Dussek, Powell

4 Pergolesi 15 Praetorius, Auric, Adams

5 Medtner 16 Wilder

6 Bruch 17 Corelli, Pacini

7 Poulenc, U.S. Kay

8 Lees PISCES

9 Keiser, Paine

11 Gliere 19 Boccherini, Pedrell

12 Feldman, Wolf-Ferrari 21 Widor, Delibes

15 Siegmeister 22 Gade, Chopin?, Blow?

16 Piccinni, Sims, Wernick 23 Handel

17 Badings, Gossec 24 Boito

18 Chabrier, Cui 26 Reicha, Bridge

19 Blacher 28 Carpenter

29 Rossini

AQUARIUS Mar 2 Smetana, Rands, Weill

4 Davidovsky

20 Piston, Chausson, Tcherepnin 5 Villa-Lobos

22 Gade 7 Ravel

23 Clementi, Serov 8 Leoncavallo, CPE Bach,

Hovhaness
24 Dello Joio, Kirchner
9 Barber
25 Lutoslawski
10 Honegger, Babbitt
27 Mozart, Kern
11 Cowell, Ruggles
28 Herold, Jirak
13 Wolf, Vladigerov
29 Auber, Delius, Nono
 14 Telemann 29 Ellington, Riegger

16 Del Tredici, Lopatnikoff 30 Lehar

18 Rimsky-Korsakov, Malipiero May 1 Alfven, Nilsson, Sowerby

19 Reger 2 A. Scarlatti

20 Zimmerman 5 Moniuszko, Pfitzner

6 Perle

ARIES 7 Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Graun

8 Gottschalk, Monteverdi ?,

21 JS Bach, Mussorgsky 9 Paisiello

22 Zarlino, Lissenko, Webber, 10 Liadov, Babbitt

Sondheim
11 Berlin, Still
25 Bartok, Hasse
12 Faure, Viotti, Massenet
26 Boulez
13 Sullivan
27 d'Indy, Bliss
14 Harrison
29 Walton
17 Satie, Mennin
31 Haydn, Durante

Apr 1 Busoni, Rachmaninov

GEMINI
3 Castelnuovo-Tedesco

5 Roussel, Spohr
22 Wagner
8 Tartini
27 Halevy, Keats
10 d'Albert, Mompou
28 Ligeti
11 Ginastera
29 Albeniz, Korngold, Xenakis
17 Carissimi ?, Nabokov, Naumann
30 Oliveros
18 Suppe, Rozsa
Jun l Paer, Glinka
20 Miaskovsky
2 Elgar

6 Khatchaturian, Persichetti, Perti

TAURUS
8 Schumann

9 Nielsen, Nicolai, C Porter,

21 Maderna Wuorinen

23 Prokofiev, Leoncavallo, 10 Khrennikov, Loewe

Meyerowitz
11 R. Strauss, Vivaldi
24 Martini
13 Chavez
27 Slonimsky
 14 Mayr 7 Bantock

15 Grieg, Leuning 8 Jolivet

17 Stravinsky, Gounod 10 Glazounov, Moore

18 McCartney 11 Arensky, Meyer

19 Stamitz 12 Legranzi, Sutermeister

20 Offenbach 15 Foss, Ibert

16 Pierne, Marschner

CANCER 17 Benoit, TJ Anderson, Porpora

18 Salieri

21 Haba 19 Enesco

22 MehuI 20 Peri

24 Partch, Riley

28 Rodgers VIRGO

29 Herrmann

Jul 1 Henze 22 Debussy, Stockhausen

2 Gluck 23 Krenek,Pachelbel ?

3 Janacek, Crawford 25 Bernstein, Wolpe

4 Foster 27 Giordano

7 Mahler, Menotti 31 Ponchielli

8 Antheil, Grainger Sep 1 Humperdinck

9 Respighi, Luytens 3 Locatelli, Banchieri

10 Orff, Wieniawski 4 Milhaud, Bruckner

18 Bononcini 5 Meyerbeer, Cage, JC Bach

6 Davies

LEO 8 Dvorak, Frescobaldi, Davies, Pijper

10 Jommelli, Mercadente ?

23 Berwald 11 Part

24 Adam, Bloch, Marcello 13 Schoenberg

25 Steffani, Casella 14 Cherubini

27 Dohnanyi, Granados, Markevitch 15 Martin, Parker, Brant

Aug 2 Bliss 17 Griffes, Mercadente, Yun

5 Cesti, Thomas, Leo 20 Pizzetti, JR Morton

 21 Holst 8 Bax

10 Couperin

LIBRA 12 Borodin

13 Chadwick

24 Panufnik 14 Copland, Hummel, Spontini, L. Mozart

25 Rameau, Shostakovitch, Le Jeune 16 Hindemith, WC Handy, Kasemets,

26 Gershwin 18 Weber, Paderewksi

28 Mattheson, Schmitt 19 Ippolitov-Ivanov

Oct 1 Dukas 21 Zappa

3 Reich 22 Obrecht, Britten, Schuller

6 Szymanowski

8 Schutz, Takemitsu SAGITTARIUS

9 St. Saens, Lennon, Verdi

10 Creston 23 Falla, Penderecki

12 Vaughan-Williams 24 Joplin, Sarti ?, Schnittke

14 Zemlinsky 25 Taneyev, Thomson

20 Ives, Pasatieri 27 Koechlin, Haubenstock-Ramati

21 Wellesz, Ran 28 Lully, Rubinstein

22 Liszt 29 Donizetti

Dec 2 Mayr

SCORPIO 3 Webern, Rota, Stevens

5 Jablonsky

23 Lortzing, Rorem 7 Mascagni, Toch

24 Berio, Crumb 8 Martinu, Sibelius

25 Hassler, Bizet, J Strauss Jr 9 Turina, Waldteufel

26 D Scarlatti 10 Messiaen, Franck, Gould

27 Paganini, Argento, Nancarrow 11 Carter, Berlioz

30 Pachelbel? 16 Beethoven, Kodaly, Boieldieu

31 Vitri 17 Cimarosa

Nov 2 Dittersdorf 18 MacDowell

3 Bellini, Scheidt, Ussachevsky 20 Hadley, Harbison, Holmboe

5 Sachs, Zador