The Baroque sonata form often contained a 3/4 or 6/8 meter movement, and horns would feature prominently. The horn can also sustain a pedal tone or sound the root of a chord to support the other four instruments.

There was lots ‘o repertoire written for woodwind quintet in the 20th century. There is a woodwind quintet nestled in with a string quartet, augmented percussion, and celeste in Benjamin Britten’s Turn of the Screw. Britten wrote the score for “eleven solo instruments,” and organized his twelve-tone row into triadic tonal centers so the ear hears common practice harmony.

Three of the woodwind quintet members double on other instruments. Flute/alto flute/piccolo, oboe/English horn, clarinet/bass clarinet and C clarinet. Britten’s orchestration is amazing. He creates a broader palette of pleasing sound than any other 12-tone composer.

The opera is based on the Henry James novella, and is every bit as scary. There are only four characters: a young boy and his older sister, the new governess, and two very sinister servants, a woman and a man. It’s a plum role for a boy soprano, and is not often performed.

I had a stupendous senior year in college. Actually two years. Sonoma State University in the late 70’s, faculty all Berkeley ph.d.s, slathered in non-western and experimental music. A lucky, lucky woman. I’ve been fortunate in having an arts management career on both the east coast and the west coast. Austin is not as fertile ground for me, or at least not yet. I’ve been fortunate in what I’ve found, and tonight I am very grateful for that.

This is the cool-down for The Good Musician, and I have learned quite a bit, especially about the pedagogy of blogging. Quite a challenge with a day gig, performing, and a tour. I’ll still write about music in my other blog (shameless promotion– http://friedokraproductions.blogspot.com), but you’ll have to put up with the rest of my nonsense if you dare.

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Gardner also illustrates the relationship of the chakras to the overtone series. When you produce a pure tone, either vocally or instrumentally, it sets up vibrations that are strong enough to be heard, occurring mathematically on a vibrating string. Going from the root to the octave, the fifth, fourth, third, and so on…

This is one of the most effective, quick warm-ups for a flutist, and a tip I give every student: Play a low C, then focus the airstream slightly to sound the octave, the fifth, through the overtones, ascending as far as possible and still maintain some tone quality, then descending, one breath. Don’t force, feel your way up and down until you can seamlessly adjust your embouchure in that especially challenging third octave. It will limber up your chops in less than 5 minutes.

Same thing with voice. Start as low as comfortable and hum into your nose as high as you can, smoothly turn around and come back down to the “fry,” or when your voice rumbles in your chest, like a monster talking. Same quick results as above.

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It’s a distinctive style that no one has been able to copy. But greats like Bonnie Raitt, John Mayall, Eric Clapton, The Who, The Clash, and Van Morrison love to cover his songs as much for the wry, quirky lyrics as the music. With titles like Your Molecular Structure, Middle Class White Boy, Your Mind is on Vacation, Parchman Farm, Seventh Son, Certified Senior Citizen, Everybody’s Crying Mercy, it isn’t difficult to figure out why. He is famous for his razor-sharp hooks and realismo humor.

Do yourself a favor and check out this remarkable musician. He is the best thing to come out of the Deep South since William Faulkner. I wrote that last line, then checked out some sites. I found two citations that referred to him as “the William Faulkner of jazz.” Guess they heard the same thing I did.

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My dear friend and choral conductor of Princeton Pro Musica, Frances Slade, studied with Hillis at Northwestern U music school, and sang soprano with the CSC. Slade admitted that Hillis expected the utmost from her singers, and as a result of her tutoring, Slade learned to be a better choral conductor. I certainly had a fabulous time singing with her.

The Volume 21, Number 3 issue of “The Voice of Chorus America” lists eight phrases that gives us a peek at Hillis’ thinking about music.

1. Voices are not made for music, music is made for voices. Serve the music!

2. The music is not on the page–only the notes.

3. Enjoy the phrase, don’t just be obedient.

4. Listen more.

5. The eighth note has been lost since the beginning of time.

6. “Piano” doesn’t mean passive.

7. Bar lines are like children: they should be seen and not heard.

8. You sing first with your ears, then your heart, mind, voice.

Works for me! The woman was a junior golf champion at twenty, and a civilian flight instructor in WW II. Her disciplined approach was balanced by her great love of music, and she was the best at making the chorus sound just as good as the orchestra.

Orchestra Hall–home of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus.

served by picapp.com

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1. Thou shalt attend thy rehearsals with steady faithfulness.

2. Thou shalt not touch graven metal with thy bare hands.

3. Thou shalt not take thy sharps and flats in vain.

4. Remember thy performance dates and keep them holy.

5. Honor thy director that thy days be long upon the land.

6. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s bell assignment.

7. Thou shalt not tap thy foot with exceeding loudness.

8. Thou shalt not steal thy neighbor’s pencil.

9. Thou shalt return thy bells to their cases, shiny and unscathed.

10. Thou shalt return thy director to his or her car, shiny and unscathed.

So saith the handbell director. These commandments will hold true for other instruments as well

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Dowd questions the validity of a 1993 UC Irvine research project completed by psychologist Gordon Shaw that gave rise to the belief that listening to Mozart improves IQ. An enterprising musician jumped on the idea and trademarked the term Mozart Effect in 1996.

The data was never reproduced, and troubling information began to come out of the original study. A subsequent German study found that music training did contribute to higher scores, concluding that it was the actual act of playing music that stimulated the brain, rather than passively listening to it. Not only that, positive effects were positive only because the participant was predisposed to enjoy that genre of music.

This is a cracking good read, illustrating how a flawed study can generate a copyrighted product, a popular myth fueled by the media, and a blind belief that is next to impossible to eradicate from the collective consciousness.

I prefer to listen to Mozart well away from men in white coats.

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1. Kiss Me Kate (1953) Howard Keel and Kathryn Grayson look fabulous and really wail on the Cole Porter score.

2. Psycho (1960) Pretty much the exemplar, taking strings to the edge, presaging the era of electronic film music

3. One Eyed Jacks (1961) Brando directs Brando, Karl Malden, and Katy Jurado to a score as searingly gorgeous as the Big Sur setting

4. A tie, for obvious reasons The Big Chill (1983) and
Forrest Gump (1994) All-time Boomer favorites–for good reason!

5. Stop Loss (2008) Kimberly Pierce’s laser precise film is a must see and hear. It’s an epiphanic anthem for the current generation of young men and women at war abroad who can’t turn it off when they come home, and the critical role of music in helping tell the real story of tens of thousands of severely wounded young men and women–body, heart, soul, and psyche–and the catastrophic consequences of this practice for America.

“Aha!” the alert reader will exclaim, “that’s six faves!” Technically, yes…but I never excluded a tie And that doesn’t include any favorite foreign flicks, animation, manga…so expect to see more Top Five Music lists coming up!

What are your top five film soundtracks? Send me a post, or a link to your list.

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Here’s Herbert von Karajan wafting down The Blue Danube Waltz.

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For instance, you could assign an octave in the middle range the instructions: place thumb tacks on the hammers of the black keys from middle C to C1. Then insert erasers among the white key strings from middle C to C1. Which reminds me of the cembalo we heard in Budapest.

ORGAN2/ASLSP As Slow as Possible is the longest, slowest composition ever. A special organ was built in the church of St. Burchardi in Halberstadt, Germany expressly to play this piece. The idea is that the piece will play continuously for the next 639 years (adjust for age of article) to commemorate the original organ in that church, which just so happened to be the very FIRST organ ever built, ever. So–the longest, slowest composition ever for the very first organ ever.

I think that is a dazzlingly cool idea. So then check out 4′ 33″

I played his Three Pieces for Two Flutes (1935) with a fellow flutist in college. An unexpectedly beautiful composition. I highly recommend it for students level 5-6 and up.

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King Wenceslas (Szent Vraclav) statue, Wenceslas Square, Prague, Czech Republic.
Photo by TGM.

Prazska Muzejni Noc

Web designers: Czech out this gorgeous Web site!

Anniversary of 5th Prague Museum Night, a collaboration among the National Museum, Prague Public Transport Company Inc., and Association of Museum and Galleries of the Czech Republic. 25 cultural institutions and 51 sites were involved. Happens on Thursday evenings. Admission and transportation are free, except for a free will donation to two national sites.

The evening also includes concerts, recitals, movies, theatre, and dance performances, public readings, lectures, and guided tours.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if every city in America did that? Can you imagine the upsurge in learning in our schools? The rise in the quality of our national intellect? When every child has access to quality instruments, instruction, music, investment of time and puts all that body of knowledge into creating more music? We would be better listeners. We would appreciate how music is inextricable from the human experience. That music sculpts vibrations into rainbows of sound.

It’s not political, it’s cultural. Nurture music and the arts wherever you are.

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