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.

Post from: The Good Musician

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

Post from: The Good Musician

It has nothing to do with judgment, grades, power trips, ego eruptions, the elitist attitude that frequently assaults music. It doesn’t matter what “kind” of music it is. It has to do with being one with The Vibration of the Universe. Literally. Tuning to the Ultimate Tone. Blissed out on sound.

When you are attentive to the detail, the nuance that makes that particular piece thrilling to you, you are best able to thrill your listeners. I think of myself as a string, or pipe–a musical conduit to channel what the composer wanted us to hear as well-tuned and compelling as I am able. Able through practice, by paying attention to the basics so that the sense of the music as described by the composer has captured me in its flow, and I am able to include my listeners in that flow. That goes for all music, written or not, structured or extemporaneous, solo or combo.

It doesn’t stop there. Your listeners take that flow and are transformed, radiating those vibrations everywhere they go. No worries about whether it was note perfect, who cares if there’s a kid in the background somewhere, it just means that you’re reaching an important audience. New minds to introduce to music.

I hold myself responsible as a good musician to be an exquisite human instrument, whether singing, playing, whatever–fully engaged in mindful musicianship.

So send me a hundred words on your Deep Thoughts about Music.

Post from: The Good Musician

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.

Post from: The Good Musician

Image details: Mendelssohn served by picapp.com

Neighboring Georgetown is building a nationally recognized mega-festival of the arts. The Georgetown Festival of the Arts is an exemplar of community involvement producing a highly educational, thoroughly interactive, fun place to be for all ages. Kids can explore an instrumental petting zoo, learn the history of the dulcimer, and play along during a performance. Art in the Park ran May 31-June 1, and featured two days of fine arts shows and sales in the lovely San Gabriel Park. Georgetown even has it’s own Festival Pyrotechnician.

This coming weekend, June 5-8 is all about Mendelssohn in Georgetown. Four jam-packed days with lectures, concerts, symposia and the gorgeous sounds of the gifted brother and sister composers during early nineteenth century Romantic. It is to die for. Handel, Haydn, and Schubert were featured in earlier festivals, and word is they were equally stunning.

Fortunately for all you Good Musicians, Southwestern University, one of the sponsoring organizations, and the primary Mendelssohn in Georgetown venue, added a world-renowned Mendelssohn scholar to their already stellar music faculty. Dr. J. Michael Cooper’s source-critical editions of works by Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy and his sister Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel are examined, discussed, and performed in non-stop action this weekend.

Ellsworth Peterson is the powerhouse impresario, along with The Georgetown Symphony Society dynamos–Penny Plueckhahn, Florence Gould, Nancy Bryan, and Bob Horick. These folks have contributed to the quality and success of the annual event.

Austin Vocal Arts Ensemble, directed by Dr. Kenneth Shepard, sings Cooper edition motets and an anthem for a Cathedral Evensong Friday, June 6 at 8:30 p.m. in the Lois Perkins Chapel, located right in the middle of Southwestern University. On Sunday, June 8 at 4:00 p.m. in the Klett Center for the Performing Arts at Georgetown High School, Dr. Shephard will conduct the Mendelssohn Festival Orchestra, Chorus Austin, and the San Gabriel Chorale in the Cooper edition of St. Paul.

Along with an astounding line-up of performances–the Miro Quartet AND the Shanghai Quartet, together, guys–this is the festival to attend for musicology of the highest caliber, grab a chance to make music in workshops with the pros, and get to hang with the VIPs. Visit The Georgetown Festival of the Arts site, or contact them at 512-639-0433 or www.GtownFestival.org.

Image details: German Pianist And Composer Fanny Hensel served by picapp.com

Post from: The Good Musician

Cornell Kinderknecht plays several kinds of flutes, sometimes with Tibetan bowls.

Paul Horn plays an alto flute, among other woodwind instruments, sometimes in exotic places, like the Taj Mahal.

R. Carlos Nakai plays a Native American wooden flute, sometimes with unexpected musicians.

Post from: The Good Musician

You will have to take the no frills-execution of the mechanical keyboard and shape it into real music. This is where the musicianship comes in. What is the emotional context of the music? If you’re singing Handel, Bach, the Baroque, it will be apparent in whether the composer wrote in a major or minor key, the rhythmic context–a sprightly 6/8 gigue, or a 4/4 funeral dirge?

What was the social context? A church or a court post? Did you know that Beethoven was the first major composer to institute the subscription concept to concerts and performances? Poor Mozart was caught between the old patronage structure and the new indie thing of having the general public pay to attend musical events.

Here’s Mstislav Rostropovich playing the Bach Cello Suite No. 2, VI.–Gigue.

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Post from: The Good Musician

Examining a musical component such as pitch, tone quality, dynamics, and the like helps build an aural framework that the musician can build on, and leads to competent independent learning.

Post from: The Good Musician

Traktor Topaz put out a very cool series of lessons for the tapper, you should definitely check out his in-depth pedagogy/musicology, delivered via the “Multi-String Shopper” newsletter.

The ultra fabulous Mobius Megatar dreams of taking over the world, one tapper at a time.

Post from: The Good Musician