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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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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The festival continues throughout the week.

Saturday, July 12, 3:00 pm
Austin Chamber Music Festival: Wild Basin Winds
Mathew Krejc flute, Ian Davidson oboe, Steve Girko clarinet, Thomas Hale French horn, and Daris Word Hale bassoon
Austin Children’s Museum, 2nd & Colorado
454-0026 / 454-7562 / 472-2499 $6/$4

Saturday, July 12, 7:30 pm
Austin Chamber Music Festival: Cecilia String Quartet
Sarah Nematallah and Min Jeong Koh violins, Caitlin Boyle viola, and Rebecca Wenham cello
Haydn, Brahms, & Belinda Reynolds’ “Static Motion”
Rollins Studio Theatre, Long Center, 701 West Riverside Drive
474-5664 / 454-0026 / 454-7562 $25

Monday, July 14, 1:00 pm
Austin Chamber Music Festival: Faculty Artists
Brentwood Christian School, 11908 North Lamar Boulevard
454-0026 / 454-7562 FREE

Tuesday, July 15, 1:00 pm
Austin Chamber Music Festival: Gryphon Piano Trio
Annalee Patipatanakoon violin, Roman Borys cello, and Jamie Parker piano
Brentwood Christian School, 11908 North Lamar Boulevard
454-0026 / 454-7562 FREE

Tuesday, July 15, 7:30 pm
Austin Chamber Music Festival: Gryphon Piano Trio
Annalee Patipatanakoon violin, Roman Borys cello, and Jamie Parker piano
Mozart, Dvorak, & Christos Hatzis’ “Old Photographs”
Dell Hall, Long Performing Arts Center, 701 West Riverside Drive
474-5664 / 454-0026 / 454-7562 $25

Wednesday, July 16, 7:00 pm
Austin Chamber Music Festival: Cecilia String Quartet
Sarah Nematallah and Min Jeong Koh violin, Caitlin Boyle viola, and Rebecca Wenham cello
Brighton Gardens, 4401 Spicewood Springs Road
454-0026 / 454-7562 FREE

Thursday, July 17, noon
Austin Chamber Music Festival: Steve Girko clarinet, Margaret Coltman cello, and Felicity Coltman piano
Central Presbyterian Church, 8th & Brazos
472-2445 / 454-0026 / 454-7562 FREE (lunch $5)

Thursday, July 17, 1:00 pm
Austin Chamber Music Festival: Meridian Arts Ensemble
Brentwood Christian School, 11908 North Lamar Boulevard
454-0026 / 454-7562 FREE

Thursday, July 17, 7:30 pm
Austin Chamber Music Festival: Tosca String Quartet
Leigh Mahoney and Tracy Seeger violin, Ames Asbell viola, and Sara Nelson cello
University of Texas Harry Ransom Center, 21st & Guadalupe
454-0026 / 454-7562 FREE

Post from: The Good Musician

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

Post from: The Good Musician

Tchaikovsky considered it crap. A sell-out. None-the-less, it is one of the most played compositions since its introduction to the US in the 1930’s.

Somehow, probably because Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops featured it on a Fourth of July concert, thinking the bells and cannons a nifty way to observe the occasion, we Americans have velcroed it to our summer consciousness in parks and auditoriums and concert halls across the country.

I wonder how many people know they are celebrating the birth of our country with music celebrating the defeat of Napoleon by the Russians?

Here’s Seiji Ozawa…

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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.

Post from: The Good Musician

Notenspur Music Trail opens fall 2008. It’s a 4.7 km signposted walking trail through musical wonderland. Sort of a pilgrimage to experience the homes and churches of an exceptional musical city. Leipzig was home to so many greats, poets as well as musicians and artists. But the city excels in nurturing music.

This relatively small area–the centrum being only a few dozen blocks or so, is lush with memories and memorabilia of J.S. Bach, Felix Mendelssohn-Bartoldy, Clara Schumann, Richard Wagner, Edvard Grieg, Gustav Mahler, et al. In amongst the plazas are the Leipzig Opera House, the ultra-modern Gewandhaus, and other cultural buildings.

Here are some photographs from Leipzig for your visual pleasure. Sample the music of the composers, educators, and performers who bloomed in Leipzig. All photos by The Good Musician.

Thomaskirche–Bach’s final posting. He is buried in the kirche.

A statue of the man himself, courtyard at thomaskirche.

One of these days I’ll learn how to mess with sizing images…

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Castle Hill, Budapest, Hungary. The largest spire is the Basilica of St. Mattias, one of the venues where AVAE was privileged to perform.

A bit of background

The Danube River separates Buda (west, Castle Hill) and Pest (east, government and commerce). Built in the first century B.C. by Celts, the Romans occupied the town as the eastern border of the Roman Empire. In the fifth century, Goths and other peoples on the run from the Huns overran the Roman defenses. These in turn were routed by Ostragoths and Huns. The name Attila is still popular today.

Over the following centuries, Buda and Pest were dominated by various populations, emerging as an important trade center between Europe and Constantinople in the 15th and 16th century. Cultural growth was particularly active during the reign of King Matthias, with the second Hungarian university established in 1395, and the first book was printed in 1473.

Composers and music

By the 19th century, Budapest emerged as a major intellectual center, and a rich environment for the simultaneous development of musical performance, composition, and pedagogy. Hungary produced Ferenc (Franz) Lizst, composer, wicked-good pianist, and founder of the (Hungarian) Academy of Music. That in turn fostered the famous Zoltan Kodaly (Ko-die) method, a brand-new musical pedagogy, culminating in the internationally-known Kodaly Institute.

Then you have Bela Bartok, musicologist, educator, and composer extraordinaire, teaching at the Academy at the same time as Gustav Mahler, one of the orchestral gods.

Coming up next…more about Hungary, Slovenia

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Photo by The Good Musician

The Austin Vocal Arts Ensemble (AVAE) recently completed a ten day concert tour of Central Europe. Under the direction of Dr. Kenneth Sheppard, twenty some-odd singers and various kids, moms, and significant others flew from Houston to Budapest, Hungary, with a short layover in London Heathrow Airport. Destinations included Szent Endre, Hungary; Bratislava, Republic of Slovenia; Prague, Czech Republic; Meissen, Dresden, Leipzig, and Frankfurt, Germany. We’ll examine each destination in a series of posts.

What does the Good Musician take along for a whirlwind experience of a lifetime? Well, the packing process begins well before departure, taking care of obligations and making preparations. Here are ten essentials for a successful singing trip abroad.

Week prior to departure:

1. You did make sure your passport was up to date, didn’t you? If not, you are SOL.
2. Pay bills due while you’re gone–don’t want to come home to an oven-hot house and dead plants or pets.
3. Arrange for pet/house/plant sitters, hold mail or have someone pick up.
4. Contact your bank, credit card companies to let them know to expect charges from overseas.
5. Currency–traveler’s cheques are not widely accepted in Central Europe. ATM cards are the most convenient way to get coin of the realm in any country. Euros are fine in Germany and the Czech Republic, iffy in Hungary and Slovenia (converting to euros in January, 2009). Most exchange places charge tax and/or a commission. BUYER BEWARE! Be sure you know what you’re getting before signing off–even the police can’t help you if you find an error after you’ve agreed to the exchange. We’ll look more closely at currency in a future post.
6. Review the airport security regulations re: liquids, what you are and aren’t allowed to carry on the plane. Can’t take your bottle of water, but you can take an empty bottle and fill up at a water fountain after you’ve cleared security!
7. Research your destinations and respect local customs. Good Musicians are musical ambassadors at all times, in every situation.
8. MAKE A LIST of items you absolutely must take, including official papers, guides, clothing, medications, toiletries, shoes, incidentals, music/folder, concert wear, luggage (including a small, soft pouch or bag to keep your passport, money, and other small valuables on your person). Then stick to your list!
9. Copy your itinerary, passport number, important phone numbers, emergency contact, and other personal information, and leave with a trusted relative or friend.
10. Pack lightly–you will have to schlep your own luggage, and it invariably gets heavier as you go along.

Next: The Good Musician packs for the trip.

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Organist John Schmidt chose the Sonata in A Major, Op. 65, No. 3 as the prelude to the evening. AVAE, under the leadership of Kenneth Sheppard, performed two motets in new editions by Southwestern University musicologist and Mendelssohn specialist J. Michael Cooper–the Magnificat, Op. 69, No. 1, and the Nunc Dimittis, Op. 69, No. 3. These are sung in English, as Mendelssohn intended in his original manuscript, which he managed to publish before his untimely death.

The highlight of the evening was a superb performance by Georgetown’s Trey Gurley in one of the most beloved boy soprano solo anthems, Hear My Prayer. His pure, clear voice displayed an exceptional grasp of tuning and musicality for a singer his age.

John Schmidt anchored the program with the Prelude and Fugue in C minor, Op. 35, No. 1. The piece is almost orchestral in nature, with an intricate fugue statement in a slightly unconventional rocking 6/8 meter. A fitting finish to a most satisfying musical evening.

Photos by The Good Musician. Coming soon: a series on the Chorus Austin Central European concert tour.

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