thirteen ways

Previously, on Post-Classical fun…

As part of DePauw University’s Post-Classical Symposium, we gave a presentation on Saturday morning, which dealt with the 8bb’s use of staging and costume design. In his introduction Matt briefly outlined the history of the group’s integration of non-musical elements into performances (“It all happened pretty organically”), and emphasized the importance of audience communication in the decision. We showed three short DVD excerpts, presenting three ways the group has used staging and costume design in the past three seasons. The first was an excerpt from 8bb’s staging of Derek Bermel’s Bulgarian-influenced Tied Shifts. (You can see a clip here.) Following the screening, we asked for reactions.

Joe Horowitz immediately piped up:

“Quite frankly I didn’t like that. The movement seemed unnecessary; it seemed imposed on the piece and it distracted me from the music. It appears that you don’t trust the music to be able to speak for itself. I heard you do Stephen Hartke’s new piece yesterday; I thought it was a very good piece, and I hope you aren’t planning to add movement to that…”

“Um, well, yes, we very well might.”

Speaking up in defense of the DVD, Greg Sandow chimed in:

“Actually, I didn’t have any problems with the staging. I really enjoyed the performance. I think this is a case where you are coming from the ‘right’, Joe, and I am coming from the ‘left’.”

Joe hardly looked thrilled at the comparison.

(I admit to having been excited at the conflict. Two influential music thinkers and writers were butting heads over us! (Alert: Absurd comparison follows!) For five minutes 8bb was the high school sweetheart at prom, with two handsome blokes fighting for her attention…)

Following a short break, Joseph Horowitz delivered his keynote address, The Classical Music “Crisis” – How it happened and what to do about it. Joe is very much substance-over-style bloke: he appeared gruff, even a little stand-offish, but his presentation was commanding because of his love for and total command of his subject matter. The overarching theme was one that Joe has addressed in two previous books, Understanding Toscanini and Classical Music in America: A History of its Rise and Fall. In these books, the author posits that the pinnacle of American classical music came with the premiere of Dvorak’s 9th Symphony in New York in 1894. This time-period saw a genuine attempt by many creative figures to create a truly “American” musical tradition, one in which the composer/creator was central. The gradual move towards a cult of performance in the first part of the 20th century led to the artistic demise of classical music. Its nadir came with Toscanini, a superstar famed for robotic reproductions of the classics.

Greg’s follow-up talk was much more free-form: he took occasional notes out of his ever-present moleskin, talked over scene-setting background music (“I like this song – I might let it run”), and wandered casually around his speaking area. A self-appointed controversialist, Greg “lobbed some grenades”. He spoke of three well-nigh insurmountable problems facing classical music today: the aging audience; dropping ticket sales (especially subscription sales); fading philanthropic support.

An important theme of the talk was the irrelevance of classical music today, especially in the face of popular musicians like Lucinda Williams and Miles Davis, “great artists”, who could provide as much artistic sustenance as the great canonic composers of yore. Greg feels that there is a breadth in the styles and sounds in popular music that doesn’t exist in classical music, and popular music has its own conflict between “art” and “entertainment”. (I feel that he contradicted himself later in his presentation, when he commented that “popular musicians don’t even use a word like ‘art’.”)

Greg also lamented the fact that the Alt- phenomenon prevalent in popular music didn’t exist in classical music, and suggested a world of “Alt-classical”, where a creative take on classical music is key. His presentation ended with the playing of two music tracks that he felt illustrated something like this ideal world: A track from “freak folk”-singer Josephine Foster’s disc of cabaret-gone-mad versions German lieder; and the final two variations and theme from the Goldberg Variations, in Simone Dinnerstein’s ambient, sub-mystical recording.

As Greg noted in a recent blog post, there are problems with the “paradigm shift” he wants to take place in the world of classical music:

How will classical musicians make a living? The old paradigm gives you ways to do that (playing in an orchestra, for instance), even though there aren’t enough jobs for everyone who graduates from music school. But the new paradigm doesn’t seem to offer much.

This is a fascinating topic, one that is especially pertinent to an ensemble like 8bb, which survives as a full-time group because of its ties to university residencies. So while we were praised all weekend as an example of a truly “post-classical” ensemble, the truth is that we do a delicate dance with mainstream classical institutions to ensure our survival.

Both Joe and Greg agreed on several broad points. Firstly, they both expressed the view that orchestras can’t survive for long in their current, expensive, expansive, numerous form. Each had their own ideal worlds of freelance, per-service orchestras fulfilling fascinating, Utopian roles.

Another point on which the two agreed strongly was their frustration with the stubborn, virtuoso-centric, museum culture of classical performance. Joe has worked hard in his concert programming to support the work of little-known composers, both contemporary and from earlier eras.

Thirdly, and very importantly, both considered all musics are created equal. Classical music’s attempts to put itself in a position as popular music’s older, more knowledgeable and cultured brother have only hastened its cultural demise.

I was particularly interested by the two speakers’ different musical tastes. Joe comes at his love for new and obscure repertoire as a wonderfully knowledgeable classical music fan who is himself very excited by canonical western classical music: his eyes lit up with excitement and disgust at the mention of several recent Wagner performances; he passionately recommended to me Hans Hotter’s Schubert and Edwin Fischer’s Bach.

I find Greg’s blog irritating and illuminating in equal measure, and expected to meet an angry, bitter bloke, deeply resentful of classical music institutions. So I was surprised to discover that in person Greg is engaging, honest and easy to talk to; he speaks with passion but acknowledges his own idiosyncrasies and occasional bouts of hypocrisy.

Greg’s tastes in classical music are curious. A composer himself, he professes a strong dislike for a wide variety of “uptown” composers, and yet when he talks about Webern or the intellectual curiosities of a new string quartet he does so with great enthusiasm. Add to this the fact that the Italian bel canto tradition is one of his great passions, and you have a very interesting personality indeed.

Below, the final panel discussion participants (l to r): The Aussie, Scott Spiegelberg, Greg Sandow, Joseph Horowitz, Erich Stem, the Phot.

The whole gang (l to r): Eric Edberg, Carlos Carrillo, the Phot, the Duv, the Alb, Erich Stem, Greg Sandow, Joseph Horowitz, Scott Spiegelberg, the Aussie, the Kap, the Mac.