“A dissonant pitch occurring in a strong metrical position and resolving by ascending or descending step to a consonance in a relatively weaker metrical position” (Harvard Dictionary of Music s.v. Appoggiatura).

In my studies I had learned that an Appoggiatura was a dissonant pitch that was approached by leap and resolved by step. Well placed and performed, it sounds like a brief and emotional over-reach whose stepwise resolution is audible before it occurs. Apart from the approach, I think that this jibes well with the Harvard Dic.

Now, these discussions revolve around a story NPR did on Adele and her ability to make us cry. Well, they got the technical definition wrong and produced an apology. It is an interesting debate, if only because someone is paying serious attention to music. Here’s a timely rant about that (with which I completely agree!!!)

Anyway, I’m not really concerned about the musical appoggiatura here, instead, I’ve recently noticed the same expression visually, and it is quite beautiful. “Stay” by Sugarland is a traditional country song, stripped down (visually and aurally) but only to lay bare the sophisticated timbre, color and diction of Jennifer Nettles’ voice. Indeed, if silly terms like “appoggiatura” are all we’ve got to work with, this song’s power is a testament to how much work is yet to be done in melodic analysis. Anyway, give it a watch first and then read on….

Nice, eh?

Anyway, the part I’m most interested in occurs about 3:00 minutes in at the song’s B section, when visually she breaks down and stops singing (even though the voice in the recording continues.) It is shocking because the synching is so good until that point that when it is disrupted, it distrurbs your sense of the performance’s authenticity, as if for just a second you’ve “caught her” cheating. But then when she collects herself and continues singing, you can almost buy the performance–the “aura” of authenticity returns rather quickly and the fact that she broke down, even adds to it. That break-down, that momentary inability to sing, matches the heart of the expression of an appoggiatura, it is the visual accented dissonance. It is approached by visual leap and resolved by visual step. Check it out, I’ve excerpted the part, I hope folks don’t mind…

It’s nice that the form matches the content, and Nettle is quite the actress. I also like the moment at the end of the B section when she assembles the resovle to look her problem in the face (as shown by turning directly towards us).

I don’t know if the director Shaun Silva knows the term “appoggiatura” but he darn sure knows what it does.

However, there are also interpretive videos that go with these performances, coupled with short analytical descriptions. For example, the first movement, “Andante” is described  as “The work begins with the violin solo in an inclining line, “gathering” the pitches as it moves, that will be used throughout the work- twelve in total.  However, these twelve pitches are never completed in the first movement- Schnittke gives himself room to develop his musical ideas and lines with what pitches he has already presented us with.  The piano enters with a cluster chord, shocking the listener with the onslaught of twenty-four pitches sounding simultaneously- in comparison with other romantic or classical works for piano, which generally employ up to eight notes in a chord.  After its loud remark, the piano’s writing is increasingly sparse, outlining the violin’s inclining lines, as well as doubling and emphasizing certain bits of the phrase.  After the piano concludes its part in the movement with another cacophonous chord, the violin is left to finish with a devastating line, encompassing the entire range of the instrument.”

It is a very interesting and valid description, but the project goes even further, creating interpretive performance art videos for each movement. The third movement, for example, is shown with a burning cigar that “embodies the nervous stillness of the movement.”

This, like the videos for the other movements, use simple means such as balloons and tacks or a bottle running over to provide stripped down and often powerful visual interpretations, singular interpretations, of  what is going on in the music. At some levels it works quite well, these simple means. In fact, they gracefully articulate the reduced clarity in texture of the sonata (a characteristic of many of Schnittke’s late works). My only problem lies in the redundancy. I have played each of the videos several times, but I must admit I have only watched them once or twice. The visual element functions more like an interpretive essays than an artistic interpretation unto itself.

Compare Verdi’s operatic settings of Shakespeare. I can watch the opera Otello many times–for me it exists autonomously as a separate work from Shakespeare’s play (which I can read or watch often as well). Neither opera nor play grounds the other, nor are either (any longer) dependent on the other for continued existence as a work of art. These visual interpretations of Schnittke, on the other hand, are dependent; they don’t change the original enough to occupy an artistic space unto themselves, nor do they cling to the sonata enough to make it lackluster when they are removed. That said, they do enrich the experience of the performance, so I would suggest that you watch each once, and listen to them all often and hope the duo will release a CD soon! Here’s a link to the whole shebang….

]]> http://www.joemusicology.com/?feed=rss2&p=431 0 http://www.joemusicology.com/?p=425 http://www.joemusicology.com/?p=425#comments Mon, 03 Oct 2011 02:55:43 +0000 admin http://www.joemusicology.com/?p=425 As contingent faculty I have found that one of the most difficult aspects of bouncing from school to school, semester to semester, is the fact that you often spend hour upon hour creating a course website on the host university’s server for one class, only to have to recreate it at another university the next semester. Further, this different software has it’s challenges. Blackboard is great for basic content, but not very good for interaction. On the other hand, Webct has great interactive devices, but the basic content can be somewhat cumbersome. Worse is the fact that the two systems do not play well together! And worst of all, some schools don’t even host course management software (in this day and age!). Well, I found an alternative, MOODLE!. [I wonder if the free plug will earn me a T-shirt?] It is a nice course software that I host myself, on my own web space for (so far) around 6 bucks a month. I’m not a big fan of taking on the cost and IT support myself, but at least I don’t have to depend on someone with less education, who works fewer hours for more money to take care of my stuff. Here’s a screen shot of my Haydn course:

As you can see, I’ve got listening, readings, scores and such, all protected behind a nice password restriction. I can track use, keep grades, have online blogs, discussions, journals and such, but I’m not quite there yet. If I ever teach this course again, and I think I might, I will already be prepared, as if I were a little more than contingent faculty.

If there are any other bloggers that you think might be interested in this idea, please re-post to them or send them this way!

So, a few months back  Musikproduktion Jürgen Höflich sent around a call for authors to write prefaces for study scores of pieces written by some 19th century composers. Among them were Louis Spohr’s two big oratorios, Die Letzten Dinge and Des Heilands Letzte Stunden. Because Spohr was a contemporary of Weber and very important in the development of dramatic expression in the 19th century I snapped those two up. Thus, it was a strange moment this week when I realized that, while I was getting acquainted with Spohr’s Die Letzten Dinge (The Last Judgment) I completely missed the rapture! (Of course those who didn’t make the cut say it was postponed).

Predictably, when Johann Friedrich Rochlitz assembled the libretto that Spohr would use for his depiction, he skipped both the rapture and the Millennial Kingdom (the post-tribulation rule of Christ on Earth) as predicted by John the Revelator. Thus, Rochlitz passed up on a wonderful opportunity for depiction. However, adding a 1000 years of paradise on earth in the middle of a depiction of a terrifying final judgment would certainly be difficult. In any case, concerning the rapture, I can’t be sure but, either ALL of my friends are sinners or the rapture didn’t happen. If it did, it was quite subtle and happened quietly. I think that this is something that Spohr would understand, because he seems to be the master of the quiet but awful moment. See, for example, the moment when the dead are judged.

The text from Revelation 20.12-13: “And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Also another book was opened, the book of life. And the dead were judged according to their works, as recorded in the books. And the sea gave up the dead the were in it. Death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and all were judged according to what they had done.” The verses are scary, I remember them even from being very young and being terrified of all of these “dead” brought before God to be judged. What is interesting is that I’ve never imagined the moment as being terrifying loud, but instead quiet. Here is what Spohr does with the moment (excerpt taken from No. 18 Chorus, “Gefallen ist Babylon” mm. 62ff): Excerpt (click it!)

The number begins in G minor and holds steady in that key for most of the first part, but at the hour of judgment it pivots between plausible dominant harmonies, one on F (heading towards B flat, the relative major) and F# (heading towards G minor as a vii). Here in the given excerpt, the Lord arrives and the forte, martial, dotted rhythms and imitative counterpoint give way to a sudden quiet  homophony as the graves and sea give up their dead. In the bass, there are three tritone descents that are each repeated a step higher (from F to B in 72-74, F# to C in 76-78, and G to Db in 80-82). The quiet dynamics and stepwise descents nestled within a broader stepwise ascent are excellent musical depictions of how each event is contributing to the forward motion of the piece as a whole, and leading to the last judgment.

Compare, for example, Frederick Leighton’s And the Sea Gave Up the Dead which were in it from the end of the 19th Century (1892). By bringing up the dead for judgment, the Angel is in the process of fulfilling scripture, something that doesn’t happen all at once, but instead in stages. In Leighton’s work you can see the remnants of the Nazarene’s emphasis on the early Renaissance but he is clearly moving beyond that with his idealization of the human form. The angel and the dead are silent in their fulfillment of God’s plan.

Of course when the Romantics from the 19th century returned to religion, it wasn’t for the dogma, it was for the aesthetic and individual, spiritual possibilities-an artistic manifestation of 18th century Pietism. Where and when exactly the rapture would take place didn’t matter to them, they were too interested in the sublimity of it all.

This is despite the fact that people spend so much of their money on music and their time listening to music. Further, I am always struck when, at some point in the curriculum of a music appreciation class the students begin to take interest in the subject. By the end of the course (most of them)no longer question the purpose of the course, but are glad they have been introduced to new music. Why must we defend an interest which has proven itself time and time again for 2,000 years. Especially in light of the many and on going ways in which science has failed us. Remember phrenology?

I am also shocked by the attacks from musicologists, particularly those focused on the 20th century or popular music. Do they attack these orchestras because they feel that they are no longer representative of modern interests. For them it is a zero sum game, and all that money that would be spent on the orchestras can go to the production of a performance of the Helicopter Quartet or a doo-wop museum or some such. Unfortunately, that is not what would happen. That money would simply be gone and the overall result would be fewer productions of Stockhausen, Beethoven and Fuqua. Another recurring motif is the “overpaid musician.” Nice. When it comes to cutting wages, don’t you think we should start with the crooks on Wall Street that have failed us instead of those educated and accomplished musicians that help to keep our culture alive?

The economy seems to be improving, I hope those orchestras that can, will hold on just a little longer, and those that are forced to close their doors for a little while, will work towards returning to the stage when things get a little better. It is important work that you do.

(Added on May 2):
Apart from those who are either misreading what I’ve written (or playing with straw men), there also seems to be another kind of campaign against orchestras that I’ve missed, what I am calling the petty Shock Doctrinaires, derived from Naomi Klein’s Shock Doctrine. Which I am here defining as someone who harnesses a devastating situation “to prepare the ground for the introduction of radical free-market reforms.” How else could anyone read this sentence: “Our structural deficit has been created by a decline in ticket revenues, decreased donations, eroding endowment income, pension obligations, contractual agreements, and operational costs.” and decide that the “Structural Deficit” is not largely related to the recession? What does “…been created by” mean? Sure orchestras need to innovate, sure they should always try to seek new audiences, and educate. But they were already doing that when the bankers crashed our economic system. Hey! Chicken Little! the world isn’t ending. It isn’t the tipping point of anything. It’s just a really bad economy that is s-l-o-w-l-y recovering. With the recovery, the ticket revenues, the donations, and the endowment incomes will return and the pensions, contracts and operational costs wont seem as bad as they do right now. Do you remember a few years ago when they said the value of a house will never decline? Now they are saying that it will never come back. Has it occurred to you that they were wrong then and they are wrong now? And do you know what? The Detroit Symphony is playing again!

All was going well until this past February when I received a comment from one Powell Degange concerning the ongoing labor dispute in San Francisco. The comment was:

We have recently learned that the American Musicological Society is hosting their upcoming conference at the Hyatt Regency San Francisco.  On June 8, 2010 employees at the Hyatt Regency San Francisco went on strike and called for a boycott of their hotel.  We write to inform members of the AMS about the dispute and respectfully ask your organization to relocate the event to a different venue and to not eat, sleep or meet at the Hyatt Regency.

 

The members of Local 2 have been struggling to renegotiate a contract that secures affordable health care and retirement benefits.  In San Francisco, and in cities around North America, Hyatt Hotels is squeezing housekeepers, dishwashers, cooks, bellpersons, and others harder than ever, trying to lock in ever-higher profits as the hotel industry grows.  In wage and benefit agreements over the last several decades, we have forgone larger wage increases to keep our medical benefits affordable for ourselves and our families.  Now Hyatt is pushing proposals that would lock workers into a permanent recession even as Hyatt benefits from the economic recovery.

 

Recent multi-city strikes represent a major escalation in a labor dispute involving Hyatt and its billionaire owners—the Pritzker Family—who have been the target of a number of major demonstrations in more than a dozen cities across North America this summer.  Hotel workers have endured months of chronic understaffing and excessive injury rates.  Now Hyatt has become an obstacle to the recovery of working families.  While many hotel workers live in poverty, the Pritzker Family cashed out over $900 million in their sale of Hyatt shares in November 2009.

 

On January 18th, 2011 Hyatt workers took to the streets to defend their Legal Fund from Hyatt hotel management. The Legal Fund protects members from evictions and foreclosures and facilitates legal immigration (citizenship, work permits and family reunification).

In recent negotiations, Hyatt went backwards in their pension proposal and it has become abundantly clear that this labor dispute is going to continue well into next year.

 

The AMS and its convention patrons are caught in the middle of this contentious labor dispute.  The dispute will continue to escalate as will demonstrations, strikes, civil disobedience actions and the on-going boycott, until workers secure a fair contract.  AS members of the larger Bay Area Community we ask you to respect SF Hotel Workers and encourage your organization to avoid the labor dispute and meet at an alternate venue.

 

For more information about hotel labor disputes in San Francisco, you can visit our website at www.onedaylongersf.org.  Please contact us to address any questions and so that we may assist you in moving to a hotel not subject to a labor dispute.

At first I really didn’t know what to do with this. Many of my relatives are card carrying members of unions, and I believe that many of the positive things that have happened in my life can be attributed to the labor movement—so needless to say I felt I should do something, despite the fact that I doubted at the time I would even be able to afford to travel to San Francisco next year. Indeed, I have let my membership in the AMS slip simply because I can’t exactly justify the expense of the dues. However, I am still a member of the email list, so I sent it along to the membership thinking that at least the membership should know that they are about to cross a picket line and would respond.

After Dr. Judd, (the E.D.of the AMS) responded to my post by downplaying the dispute, and stating that “contrary to Joseph’s post” there was no strike.  To this, there was no response from the membership. In fact, the silence was terrifying. Could it be that the membership of the AMS might not really care whether or not they cross a picket line? Especially in the context of this, and this. By attacking state unions in Ohio and Wisconsin, these people are actually attacking musicologists. How in the world would it look if we stomped on someone else’s picket line? In the meantime I was quite worried that I had torpedoed my own career with an overtly political email.

Next, as they often do, the union raised the stakes by producing this video:

The video is rather well done. It ends with a Priest who describes the boycott as a “moral issue” and, most memorably, “do you like music? well, we are going to give you music when you come here…” You really should watch it!

I’m not sure how the AMS responded to the video. There is a link to “Information regarding the current labor dispute” on the society’s page, but “Due to the sensitive nature of information on this page” it requires a log in, and I am no longer a member. In the meantime, I sought instances where the AMS had backed any union or political organization through resolution or any other method (besides the now infamous resolution against torture). The only thing I could find, which I thought was wonderful at first, was a resolution supporting teaching and research assistants. Wonderful, that is until I noticed that the organization is called the “American Musicological Association” not “society.” One wonders if some grad students in Chicago made up the resolution absent support from the actual AMS. Anyway, it was all beginning to sound like the beginning of a tale by Bulgakov, but instead of writers, they are musicologists re. MUSOLIT. The ultimate question is whether or not a field that spends so much of its time seeking its own relevance would, when finally confronted with an opportunity to be relevant, cross a picket line?

Then the sun burst forth! No, really! I was first told by a colleague that there were some folks (I believe she said “they are trouble makers too”) out West who were not happy with the possibility that the professional organization that is supposed to represent us is going to stand against workers. When I saw the petition they were circulating, and all the wonderful names already on it, I actually went out in my front yard and jumped for joy! The petition reads:

Mounting evidence suggests the ongoing labor dispute involving workers at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in San Francisco will persist through the end of this year, and that there will be a picket during the AMS annual meeting in November. We the undersigned would be very reluctant to cross a picket line or violate a boycott. We recognize that our actions may affect the lives of workers with difficult jobs, little visibility, and an unstable position in the economy.
We strongly urge the AMS leadership to poll its members on the following question: “Would you cross a picket line to attend the annual meeting of the AMS?”
We further ask that the AMS leadership:
1. explain fully the terms of our contract with the Hyatt;
2. actively pursue the possibility of changing hotels. This should involve seeking advice from legal counsel, the local union (Unite Here Local 2), and other academic organizations that have faced similar situations.
Going forward, we ask that the AMS follow organizations such as the American Studies Association in:
1. using an event planner sympathetic to the cause of hotel workers;
2. adopting a policy of union preference in negotiating hotel and service contracts;
3. adding labor disputes to the standard escape clause in any AMS contract for convention hotels and meetings.
We express our solidarity with and concern for Hyatt’s hotel workers.

I love these people. The response (sent to the AMS list) acknowledged the petition and stated that the AMS board of directors will be meeting this weekend and will consider the petition very carefully. Even better, the SMT (Society of Music Theory) is also looking at their own process for holding conventions. Who knows what the board of directors will say when they come out of their secret summit, but I can think of nothing more positive for our field than this development! I do wonder why they have to be so secretive with discreet meetings and secret, log in protected webpages.

Since this all began, I’ve managed to pick up two classes and a job assisting another (and perhaps a VAP for next year) with the result that after I pay a bill or two I might be able to afford to rejoin the AMS and perhaps even go to San Francisco next year—whether to picket or convene is up to the AMS!

Well, the next day as I was watching West Side Story with my daughter, that got me thinking of the genius behind the Gym-Mambo scene. Particularly in the way the music can at times represent an idealized experience of the moment and at others the actual moment. Take the first minute for example, “a. Blues” the soundtrack and choreography try to represent a realistic depiction of the scene—taking many things for granted, not the least of which the fact that the orchestra playing this dance has an INCREDIBLE horn section:

At 1:30 a nice promenade, which, when you think about it is rather remarkable if only for how clearly characteristic it is (can you believe that neither the Grove Dictionary or the Harvard Dictionary have an entry on ‘Promenade’?). At 2:08, the moment of proposed integration, a Mambo breaks in before the singers call it. The dance begins non-diagetically (is this even a word?) and only after they call it does it become diagetic. 

These are nice effects, but the highlight is the next section when cinematic and operatic effects are mingled in the Pas de deux. At the moment that Tony sees Maria, the rest of the stage fades out, but the effect is not that the music has stopped, only that we can’t hear it anymore. The entrance of the new dance is an idealized realization the affections the two have for each other. Notice that they are not alone on the stage, there are other couples in the room experiencing a romantic moment, but there are significantly fewer dancers—these couples are a subset of all the dancers in the gym—the ones who are in love.

When Tony and Maria finally speak to each other (after the embedded video) the choreography of the dancers in the background slows down even further, time effectively stops and, of course, we hear the the Maria motive. The spotlight focus on the couple is a cinematic effect, but the melodramatic stoppage of time is operatic—a great scene (despite the lame dialogue Maria: “I have not yet learned how to joke that way, I think now I never will” -yuck.) Just as the couple kisses they emerge from the dream. Oddly, the music that is playing is the the Promenade, not the Mambo. Time has been moving in the other world, we just haven’t noticed.

Composer of the post: Stephan Paulus I just saw his Postman at B.U. last night, Wonderful!