I Wish I was Czech

This Thursday, I had my first rehearsal with the Chamber Orchestra. It was really a neat experience playing with some of my friends who I’d never played with. Dr. Davis passed out some really neat pieces, including “Czech Suite in D Major” by Antonín Dvořák.

I was familiar with Dvořák’s work, but I had never heard the piece, so I downloaded it on iTunes to give it a listen. I put it on my iPod and took it down to the practice rooms in the basement of the Music Building so that I could go over my part while listening. Very soon after it started, my head was no longer in the sheet music.

All I can say is WOW….what a ride! This piece is absolutely amazing! I really hope no one was watching me while I was listening; I’m pretty sure I was doing some sort of weird dance or something.

Last Saturday I saw the St. Louis Jazz Ambassadors featuring Clark Terry with my buddy Zac, also a saxophone player at Webster. What an honor to see a living legend! Clark’s not in great health, but just to be in his presence was surreal.

Happy Birthday Dweezil Zappa!

- Matt

Rehearsals and Turntables

Greetings!  It is good to be back in the swing of things with school, and good to be back in the blogging world!

Tonight, we had our first rehearsal for the Webster University Chamber Orchestra, which Matt wrote on in his post from yesterday.  It went very well, and it was great to be in a rehearsal again.  We read through some of the music that will be on the ensemble’s first concert (scheduled for Nov. 1st), including Haydn’s Symphony 104, and the Overture to Rossini’s “L’italiana in Algeri.”

I’m also glad to be a part of the New Music Ensemble this year, which is a small ensemble of composers and performers dedicated to performing new compositions and 20th century works.  I’ve found it to be highly enjoyable so far, as it allows the opportunity to work collaboratively towards creating a unique performance of new compositions.

I’m ready for a great school year!

-Colton

Recently listened to…

Bartok – Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion

U2 – No Line on the Horizon

Smetana – The Moldau

Frank Zappa – Eat that Question

Genesis – Keep it Dark

I don’t care too much for money, money can’t buy me love.

I’ve been thinking a lot about the remastered Beatles albums that are due out next week and I’ve been debating for quite a while now about whether or not to listen to them. I mean, from a musicological perspective, I want to listen to the songs in their original form so that I can understand more about the instruments and mastering processes of the day. The Beatles recorded the albums using the technology they had available at the time, and to change any of the variables that make those albums what they are might compromise the historical value of the music itself.

To me, it’s the same as going to see a performance of a Strauss tone poem or a Beethoven symphony, in that they wrote for the instruments that they had available at the time. A section of a Strauss piece as played on the instruments that existed 100 years ago would sound vastly different from the same section being played on million dollar, world-class quality instruments made recently. For this reason, I enjoy John Eliot Gardiner’s performances because he usually uses period instruments in order to capture the original feeling of the piece.

I understand the general argument for listening to these new albums: that they SOUND BETTER. Well, sound is a qualitative thing- perhaps the albums sound exactly how they band wants them to. In assuming that we are ‘making it better’ by changing it, it not only causes people to associate the original albums with imperfection, but it causes us to therefore assume that we can improve an artist’s music by applying current technology to it.

So, the question persists: Should we listen to the new Beatles albums? I created a poll on here to see what other musicians think. Take the poll and leave some comments- I’m interested to hear what you have to say!

- Adam Rothbarth

Back to Where I Belong

I, like Adam, am pleased to be a part of this great Webster University Department of Music blog! I will do my best to post some of the new and interesting happenings around the Music Department.

Last week was our first week of classes, and there were a bunch of new faces around the Music Building halls, most notably Dr. Paul Davis, the new conductor of the Webster Symphony Orchestra! I am extremely excited to see what Dr. Davis has in store for the WSO.

Dr. Davis has also created a  new group here at Webster, the Webster University Chamber Orchestra, which I will be playing clarinet in. Rehearsal is the day after tomorrow, and I can’t wait to find out what the group will sound like.

In other news, Monday was the first meeting of the Webster University Big Band, and already the group sounds great! I’m so glad to be back, playing with such a great group of musicians.

I’ll leave you with a recording of the Webster Wind Ensemble playing the second movement of Ferenc Farkus’ “Serenade for Wind Quintet” from last year’s final concert. I hope you enjoy it!

Until next time…

Download Webster Wind Ensemble – Serenade For Wind Quintet II: Andante Espressivo

- Matt McKeever

It had been a wonderful evening and what I needed now, to give it the perfect ending, was a little of the Ludwig Van.

Welly, welly, welly, welly, welly, welly, well. To what do I (we) owe the extreme pleasure of this surprising visit?

Thanks for visiting the new, improved Webster University Department of Music  blog! This year there will be more posts, more info and more writings about music, thanks to an all-star team of musical minds. I updated the ‘Meet Our Bloggers’ page, and will continue to add info as we find out more about who else is blogging. I also added a few links to some cool music websites.

A few things that happened this week at Webster:

- We had our first Saxophone Quartet rehearsal (the other groups met too)
- New practice room schedules started
- The Faculty Jazz group played a Chick Corea tribute concert last night, which was super good
- Marlettos served some tasty eggplant the other day

I need to end this post so that I can go report to work at the CMS. I’ll be on here at least twice a week, and hopefully others will be posting as well. Here’s something to keep busy with until next time. It’s Sviatoslav Richter playing Chopin’s Etude in C# minor Op. 10.

- Adam Rothbarth

“Unofficial Leningrad”

I saw a concert this week that was a recreation of a concert that occurred in Leningrad, USSR in 1961, which featured music of Volkonsky, Stravinsky, Lutoslawski, and Bartok. It would have been an interesting experience considering that the arts had loosened up from the tight control that Stalin had maintained during his time in power… with a little more space, works such as Volkonsky’s “Musica Stricta for Piano Solo” could be presented.

The program for this concert was preserved from the original:

“Musica Stricta for Piano Solo” – Andrew Volkonsky

“Sonata for Two Pianos” – Igor Stravinsky

“Variations on a Theme of Paganini for Two Pianos” – Witold Lutoslawski

“Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion” – Bela Bartok

Cage’s “As Slow As Possible”

If you are unfamiliar with John Cage’s organ work, “As Slow As Possible,” then I recommend the following NY Times article. It outlines the performance of the eight movement work, which will take around 600 years to perform (each movement lasts about 70 years, and at least one movement must be repeated).  Click here for the article.

-Colton

Film Scoring

One of the areas in music that has always interested me has been film scoring, mainly because after watching Star Wars, it didn’t seem like it could be the same film without John WIlliams’ music. Danny Elfman has become another favourite of mine, after growing up hearing his music in Batman cartoons. Now to watch Tim Burton movies that are scored by Elfman… the two of them work well together concerning what everything should sound like in the end.

I also found a post on the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra Blog with a video from last fall’s performance of Glen Branca’s “Hallucination City”… aka, the Symphony for 100 Guitars.  The performance also contained Zappa and Varese works, and featured guitar virtuosos Steve Mackey and John Patitucci.  See the post and video here.

-Colton

Symphony Magazine’s “All Together Now”

I was reading a fascinating article from Symphony Magazine’s (July/August 2008 Issue) recently about the tensions between the world of classical music and the world of rock/pop music. The article addressed the times over the past several decades when the two would have confrontations to times when they would try to work together. Recently, though, a number of indie rockers have been working small chamber ensembles or, in some cases, full orchestras into performances with great success. Symphony orchestras have been stepping out of the box, too.

The article addresses the blurring lines between the rock/pop and classical worlds citing such instances as Sufjan Steven’s work The BQE and the score for There Will Be Blood, composed by Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood. One of the definitive quotes in the article came from indie musician Sufjan Stevens: “I think some of these artists…who perform with orchestras are only doing what’s natural and within their creative scope…It probably has less to do with reconciling genres than with satisfying a creative vision. Their endeavors with the classical world are not a diplomatic move, but a creative impulse.”

I recommend the article as a fun, but not too lengthy read:

http://www.americanorchestras.org/july_august_2008/all_together_now.html

-Colton

Behold: The Computer!!!!

Check out this new music project at YouTube.com (link at end of post)!  Its dubbed “The YouTube Symphony Orchestra.”  Musicians record and post video of their parts and then the videos will be meshed together to form an ensemble.  THEN… the best performers will be invited to perform at Carnegie Hall.  The amazing part is that the internet factor allows this to be a global project.

The internet has really brought a fascinating new aspect to the music industry.  My uncle gave me some old music magazine’s recently, specifically around electronic music.  These magazines come from the early 90’s, and feature the top of the line equipment and methods from the time.  Many of them looked to the future asking questions of the role of the computer in music.

Cover story’s often involve recording technology and the advancement of computer.  But more often than not, the questions raised by the articles are not even sure WHETHER the computer would become an essential tool in music.  Naturally, looking back it seems that the PC and musicians where destined to cross paths in big ways, but at the time it had to be a killer question.

Unpredictablity and instability in technology meant that it couldn’t always be counted upon to work right every time (for the record, we still can’t count on the equipment to work every time, but it is far more reliable then it used to be).  So the questions asked were very valid questions.

The involvement of computers in music, and now the internet, has allowed for incredible communication between musicians… or even between musicians and their audiences.

Computers and the internet have allowed many things in music.  Below I have listed some of my top picks:

For the musician:

Ability to market and promote online

Ability to get material and promotion outside of a record label

Ability to create a fanbase

Ability to record and produce material from your basement

Ability to score music and sequence demo recordings

with programs and a MIDI keyboard.

For the audience:

Performance and tour dates can be found online

Tickets can be purchased online

Music can be purchased and downloaded online

The internet is conducive to discovering new music and artists

-Colton

Link to the YouTube Symphony Orchestra.