And here is the point that I call your attention to Alex Ross’s talk about applause/concert etiquette at the Royal Philharmonic Society in London and Tim Smith’s extremely astute commentary on the matter. I’ve not much to add to this discussion. In this instance, at least, I prefer that my actions speak louder than my words.
Okay, first read this quote from a post about the ‘burgeoning’ indie classical movement by Christian Carey over at Sequenza21:
In some critical circles, indie classical has, rightly or wrongly, been under the microscope for making pop into a ‘longhair’ genre, robbing it of its immediacy in favor of overt sophistication. I’d submit that this vantage point doesn’t give enough credit to indie audiences, who seem to be just fine grappling with orchestral arrangements by Pallett and electronic experiments by Animal Collective alike.
Now listen to Lil Jon’s (well, Dave Chappelle doing Lil Jon) response to this statement:
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Does this seem a little backward to anyone? I’ve definitely heard people bitching about this supposed stylistic marriage’s detrimental effects on new music. But what critical circles are complaining about indie rock becoming too sophisticated and cerebral AS A RESULT of the ‘burgeoning’ indie classical movement? (Play that Lil Jon mp3 again.) I think that goes a little far in terms of what kind of ‘influence’ this ‘burgeoning’ movement is having, especially on the genre it is stealing from. Do indie rock kids even talk about this?
In my Ignite talk last week, I mentioned that I thought it was high time we move on here in Baltimore from defining ourselves to the outside world simply by the quirky and irreverent parts of the city’s cultural life. I think those aspects are an important part of Baltimore’s artistic identity, but that defining the city’s arts scene with a strong and overbearing emphasis on the weird sends a message that we’re not to be taken all that seriously.
Then I read Deborah Patterson’s post on Open Society Institute-Baltimore’s Audacious Ideas blog, in which she expressed indignation at the fact that Austin, with its “Keep Austin WEIRD” slogan-campaign, topped the list of Best Cities for Artists and Designers with Baltimore not even cracking the top 25. Yeah, seriously, like WTF? In Deborah’s opinion, Baltimore has “never fully claimed its identity.” I’ll agree with that too. I just don’t think WEIRD is the brand we ought to be pushing.
I realize that’s kind of a provocative stance to take in this city, but I think defining Baltimore’s arts scene based primarily on it’s irreverence and quirkiness is a major hindrance to the scene’s growth and respectability. The comment section is open.
Should we ‘Keep Baltimore WEIRDER’ than Austin?
Is being weird ‘pure brilliance’ or just good marketing?
Do we want to go ‘all in’ with the quirkiness?
This guy did. Video footage surfaced this week from a Vijay Iyer show at John Zorn’s LES club The Stone, which shows some dude totally ripping off Vijay’s watch. [fig. 1.] Renée Fleming gets an indie makeover. The New Statesman is sponsoring a Young Critics Competition. Some UK classical taste-makers weigh in on how to sell classical music to the masses. And gays should be able to marry because of all the beautiful music they’d give birth to. Relax and take it all in: your weekly starred items.
• The best part about this Vijay Iyer watch heist video is what you might imagine this guy was thinking as he carried out the act. Like, he’s standing there text messaging something at first. Maybe his txt was like, “I m gonna jack this watch. TTYL.” And then he’s all, “Hey, yeah, I’m gonna check this piano out. Oh cool, I love playing chords in the really low register.” Then the quick glance around the room before snagging the watch and then gesturing that like “this is totally mine. I left it here before Vijay started playing. He asked me to.” when he realizes he might have been spotted. The little finger point is classic. But then! But then he’s like, oh, I’m gonna go to the bathroom and the door is already open because some girl was coming out when he was grabbing the watch. I love the little fumble as he tries to pocket the watch when he realizes this happened. What do you think he did when he got into the bathroom? Did he txt his friend again and say, “Just stole VIs watch. I m the man”? [Mind The Gap]
• The Peoples’ Diva Renée Fleming will release a new indie album called Dark Hope this summer featuring the music of Arcade Fire, Death Cab For Cutie, and The Mars Volta, among others. This has raised many important questions about the ‘burgeoning’ indie classical movement, including is it all over now? No word on what the album cover is going to look like yet though you are encouraged to speculate openly. [Guardian]
• The New Statesman, in association with the Royal Academy of Music, launched a brand new Young Music Critics competition this week. The competition is open to kids under 30 with an equal passion for music and the written word and hopes to cultivate a new generation of classical music critics who aren’t smug musicologists bent on telling you how much smarter they are than you. Among the members of the star-studded jury are BBC Radio 3 presenter Suzy Klein, tenor Ian Bostridge, and “America’s Own” Alex Ross. [New Statesman]
• Twelve British classical taste-makers were asked by The Times Online what they would do to start selling classical music to the masses. The responses ranged from the practical (make concerts later (10 p.m.) and/or earlier on the weekends) to the strange (keep the lights low so they can focus on the stage. N.B. that one was from Nicola Benedetti). My personal favorite, however, came courtesy of Marcus Davey, chief executive of the Roundhouse: “Authenticity is essential. If you’re doing Mahler’s First Symphony don’t put a rock band in the first 20 minutes just because you think it would engage a younger audience.” Glad to hear somebody else thinks that’s pretty much the dumbest idea ever. [Times Online]
• In the midst of California’s Prop 8 trial, there’s been a call for Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears to become the unofficial mascots of the same-sex marriage movement. Although same-sex couples can’t reproduce together biologically, their chemistry can result in the birth of lots of really beautiful music. There’s definitely not anything wrong with that. [SFist]
Figure 1.
The following is the transcript of my Ignite Baltimore talk, which was titled “Hybridity: Remaking Baltimore’s (New) Musical Horizon.” The event took place at the Walters Art Museum on Thursday, March 4, 2010 at 7 p.m.
Okay, so I’m a Peabody grad. And as a Peabody grad you get the Peabody magazine, which, you know, makes you feel pretty good about yourself because you’re connected at least by affiliation to all these amazing things that other Peabody people are doing all over the world. Anyway, as I was flipping through the latest issue one page in particular caught my attention and that was a page listing upcoming performances by some Peabody students, alums, and faculty in New York City and Washington, DC. And at the bottom of the page there were URLs for a listing of those events on the Peabody website. So, I went to the website and checked out the information, saw who was doing what and where they were doing it. Then, just as an experiment, I decided to replace ‘nyc’ and ‘washington’ in the web address with ‘baltimore,’ which then yielded, um, nothing.
So, I think this is a problem. It’s a problem because it sends a message that Baltimore isn’t a place where you can achieve success as a musician. Or, like, even if you’re doing something musically interesting or innovative in Baltimore, that it doesn’t count; that what’s happening in Baltimore doesn’t carry the same weight or credibility as something that’s happening in New York City or Washington, DC. Anyway, without getting too down on Peabody, because I think it really is a world-class conservatory, I’d at least like to think that an institution that lives in Baltimore would want to highlight the fact that this city has a pretty rich and vibrant musical culture. But, of course, that’s coming from someone who believes that Baltimore can be, should be, and actually is an important place for musical innovation.
About two years ago there was an article in the Guardian about the booming music scene in Brooklyn, NY, which talked about the role Baltimore had played in the borough’s so-called musical renaissance. Yeah, it was great for Baltimore to be recognized for its “curveball creativity,” but I was honestly more than a little offended by the notion that Baltimore was merely serving as Brooklyn’s farm team and couldn’t be a place where a hip and innovative musical culture could throw down roots and thrive. But that article was published almost two years ago and paradigms have shifted a little. Now more and more musicians who call Baltimore home are defying the stereotype that you need to live in a closet in a dingy Brooklyn apartment for a chance at notoriety outside of Charm City.
But in my musical ghetto, I mean, niche, which has been dubbed several things, for better or for worse, including, new music, post-classical, alt-classical, indie-classical, non-pop, up-pop, contemporary classical, modern classical, avant classical, totalist, newmusic with no space between words, and new-music with a hyphen, to name just a few, New York City’s reputation as the center of the universe still prevails among both musicians and the media. I mean, there’s a reason why, I suppose. There’s been a lot of innovation in New York recently, especially when you’re talking about the current trend in new music, which is basically built on the formation of a hybrid musical culture. But what I’m saying is that New York City isn’t the only place this can happen and I actually think Baltimore, with its strong do-it-yourself ethos and overwhelming sense of community within and across artistic disciplines, is perhaps even better suited to create this yet to be defined hybrid.
So can you tell that I’m a fan of Baltimore? Seriously. Like, that Live Baltimore organization should have me on its payroll because rarely do I miss a chance to extoll the city’s virtues to people who know next to nothing about the what’s going on here, which is something I’d like to explore for a brief moment. And that is, what do people think about when they think about Baltimore? Well, here are a few things: crabs, boarded up houses, shit-eating drag queens, and The Wire. Oh, indeed. And musically speaking, it’s been the crazies who have defined the city to a larger audience. Now please don’t get me wrong, I love the fact that there’s a scene, or multiple scenes, in Baltimore that are dedicated to the experimental, to the really out-there shit, to the irreverent, and to the quirky. That is great. It means that there’s a strong musical voice rooted in Baltimore. But I think we can turn the page on that being all there is.
Because the flip side of selling ourselves as quirky involves the outside perception of what Baltimore values musically and what it’s all about. I mean, if I’m an outsider looking in and if the majority of what I’m seeing is quirky and irreverent, I’m getting a pretty strong message that goes something like, “Hey! Don’t take us too seriously!” You know? Because in general, the whacked out shit in Baltimore is what people remember and has ended up defining us to everyone else. Yeah, I get it, Baltimore’s quirky and that’s how it’s been selling itself. I’m down with that. But what I’m saying is that that’s not all that we have to offer here and there are things that can be done, should be done, and need to be done to start changing perspectives. But everyone’s got to get on board. Especially the people who call Baltimore home and who have the ability to effect this kind of change to help bring the kind of credibility to the city that it deserves but even though they’re living here and are some of Baltimore’s biggest media darlings, continue to work primarily outside Baltimore and don’t seem to be all that interested in contributing to this city’s musical life. Anyway, that’s what I’m about. That’s what I’m trying to do. Thank you.
So although we know what music will be on Renée’s indie album, I don’t think we know what the album cover will look like. That’s why I’m sponsoring a “Design Your Own Renée Fleming Indie Album Cover” contest. Yall have some photoshop skillz, right? There are a few ways you can contribute.
1) Click here to download a template of the album cover you see above. Feel free to elaborate.
2) Click here to get a little more creative by taking a PNG file and having your way with it. Maybe we can even start a Snookieshop-ish meme with that one?
3) And if you’re feeling extra-creative, click here to pick out your own Renée photo for the cover art.
To submit your album covers, click here and upload. Please size your creations 520×520px. Let’s say that the winner will be chosen Friday, March 12. If your album cover is chosen, you’ll receive a $50 gift card to American Apparel so you can look your hippest at the next alt-classical event you choose to attend. Good luck!
Since classical musicians value authenticity in performance, will Renée get all ‘tatted up’?
What is this all about?
What do the indie songwriters think about this?
Does it make them feel more ‘legit’?
Are indies trying to reach a ‘broader audience’?
What’s in this for Renée?
Is she ’saving classical music’?
Will her tour include ’shows’ in ‘alternative venues’?
Should classical music stop trying so hard?
Does this signal the end of the alt-classical epoch?
Did you hear about the indie makeover that opera star Renée Fleming is getting? The People’s Diva’s next album, entitled Dark Hope (Decca, due out June 8, 2010), includes music by Arcade Fire, The Mars Volta, and Death Cab for Cutie, among others. And here’s a little quote from Renée lettin’ everyone know that she totally knows what’s up:
It’s become clear to me that lines are blurring in a way that promotes collaboration across musical genres. It’s not clear yet where this will lead, but the choices are endless. It’s possible I can well imagine that this type of collaboration will help classical music move out of the “museum” and into the 21st century, since for example some young musicians are using string quartets to form bands.
Damn. Doesn’t that kind of feel like if your mom told you she was really into whatever music you had thought until that moment was completely unknown to everyone but you and like only three teenage Japanese kids? Come on, Renée! There are well-defined rules to how things are deemed trendy and cool. Rule #1 being that if your mom likes it, it’s not cool anymore.
So on June 8, 2k10 when Renizzle Fleming drops her new album, is this whole indie/alt/un- classical thing over? Because as crazy, sexy, and cool as she is in that Katie Couric sorta way, isn’t she part of Big Classical Music? And you know like when The Man gets all colonial on the indies, the indies inevitably move on to the next undiscovered island.
Is Renée gonna ruin it for indie-classicists?
Will she single-handedly create a new class of bro-classical musicians?
What do yall think will be the next alt-classical trend?
Sometimes I feel like experimental improvisers can be a lot like alcoholics—they don’t know when to stop. I was going to keep these thoughts to myself but something happened during Mobtown Modern’s performance of Cobra last week that made me want to put it out there: I think I became the person that you’ll read about further down in this post. We’d been playing for close to an hour—not quite by my watch—and the performance could/might have reached a logical conclusion point. But I was so excited about what the group might be able to do if we did just one more cobra, I turned to the audience and asked, “Should we do one more?” And then there was this line from Baltimore Sun critic Tim Smith’s review of the show:
It might have been wiser to quit while they were ahead, though; by the time they played the last round, the diversity of contributions had lessened considerably.
Ugh. Let me explain a little more. I go to a lot of improv shows and there has been a high frequency of times I leave vowing to never speak of what I’d just witnessed and wishing for that 2 hours of my life back. Now that’s not to say that there couldn’t have been some supremely beautiful or bona fide compelling moments within that two hours, but I think that the old adage “you should leave your audience wanting more” should start being heeded. Maybe I’m being a little unfair, but if I’d heard a coherent, cohesive one-hour, or 45-min, or hell, even a 30-min improvisation recently I’d be less inclined to raise my voice.
In most of the long form improvisations I’ve heard in the not so distant past there seemed to have been several moments when the session could have ended to make a cohesive statement. Instead, these cadence points arrive and inevitably someone on stage gets a little too self-indulgent and mistakes the natural end of a piece for a big solo opportunity. What follows is generally a very similar process to what had just unfolded: 1) the players start mimicking the sounds that are already happening, 2) then they gradually begin introducing something contrasting, 3) and commence a really long build-up that may peak up to 10 times, 4) followed by a very slow decrease in activity and volume, and finally 5) the audience sits rigidly during an uncomfortably long silence praying that no one on stage is inspired any more. I love it when the musicians finish one of these long pieces and then look around at each other on stage and then invariably say, “Should we do another one?” That’s the best. Though I believe that nearly every audience member wants to scream, “NO!!!!!!” nobody ever says anything. Then the players decide to do a “short one.” And the band plays on. And on. And on.
But rather than just complain here, I’d like to make a sugggestion: what about a time limit? (David Byrne makes a really great point about time constraints here. Thanks to Bill Mill for that tip.) Rather than basking in the comfort that you can ramble on for over 30 minutes hoping that inspiration may strike if it’s failed to up to that point, why not try and aim to create a solid, focused, complete, and meaningful statement in, let’s say, 10 minutes? Hardcore folks probably won’t like this idea since it imposes an unwelcome parameter in a musical genre that tends to shun any kind of constraint. But I think that would be more challenging for the players. And likely more engaging for the listeners. Parameters like duration (of the shorter variety) might be worthy considerations for free improvisers who haven’t matured enough yet to sustain a long form session.
There are two types of experiences to keep in mind here—the experience of the audience member and the experience of the performer—and I’ve been on both sides. The joy and excitement you feel as a performer during an improvisation might not translate to joy and excitement to an audience member. How do you know when you’ve reached that point? Are audiences just stupid if they don’t “get” what you’re playing and can’t stay focused? Whose fault is it? When does self-indulgence become over-indulgence?
It took a little while for the Beatles to make contact with Karlheinz Stockhausen regarding his cameo on the cover of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Although they definitely tried to dot all their i’s and cross their t’s—legally speaking—maybe they should have checked their spelling. The Dirty Projectors have indie rock’s most highly educated backup band. Cyclists in Los Angeles ride for new music. Modern composers’ brains are more developed than yours. Christoph Eschenbach calls the Philadelphia Orchestra management a bunch of incompetent liars. And we contemplate what the musical theme of the 2012 Olympics should be. Now read this: your weekly starred items.
• Karlheinz Stockhausen was probably never more visible to the general public than from his cameo on the cover of the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album—his post-9-11 remarks notwithstanding. But he seemed to be a hard guy to get a hold of. Archived on the official Stockhausen website are several bits of correspondence between the Beatles and Herr Stockhausen, including a very formal initial request for the use of his likeness and a much more urgent telegram after his failure to reply. What if Stockhausen didn’t reply? Would that have altered the history of rock and roll? [Unquiet Thoughts]
• David Longstreth and his band Dirty Projectors got classy at the Allen Room courtesy of Lincoln Center’s American Songbook series, which presented the DP’s pseudo-contemporary-indie chamber opera last week with support form the conservatory-trained pit band Alarm Will Sound. Does this make Alarm Will Sound more indie than the NOW Ensemble? [NY Times]
• The Los Angeles-based new music series Monday Evening Concerts mounted a performance of Mauricio Kagel’s Eine Brise for 111 cyclists. Though LA Times critic Mark Swed didn’t think it was much for the ears—and surely he meant an Alpe d’Huez ascent—you gotta give props to the series for organizing over 100 cyclists without the promise of $20 cash premes and podium girls. [Culture Monster]
• In his new book The Music Instinct, author Philip Ball draws on the latest neuroscience research to explain why most people seem to hate modern classical music. The reason? They’re not smart enough. Well, sort of. It’s more that the brain finds patterns enjoyable, and modern classical music makes the brain have to work too hard. The most disturbing finding of this research: tone sequences in music by Schoenberg and Webern were LESS PREDICTABLE than random tone sequences. So much for logic and order. [Telegraph]
• In an interview with the German publication Die Welt, it appears that former Philadelphia Orchestra conductor Christoph Eschenbach forgot one or both of these two things: 1) that some English speakers—even Americans—can speak/understand German, and 2) they invented this thing called an online translator. Had he remembered either of those two things, he might have given a little more thought to publically calling out the Philadelphia Orchestra management as “incompetent” people who “lie” and whose mismanagement directly led to the orchestra’s current economic situation. [fig 1.] The moral of the story here is to check yourself before you unexpect yourself. [Adaptistration]
• The 2010 Winter Olympics may be coming to an end this weekend, but that just means you can start thinking about the 2012 games. Charlotte Higgins is taking a survey about what the musical theme of the next summer games should be. “London Calling” by The Clash? [Guardian]
Figure 1.
