beware of luting

In today's Music 101 lecture, I was giving a very short description of early music continuo instruments - particularly the lute and archlute (aka. theorbo).

There are a couple of good pictures in our textbook - the one of the lute is shown below:




A few things strike me funny with the above photo - mainly the look on this poor girl's, or maybe young boy's face (you never can tell from these early paintings).  I just think it is the epitome of the "practicing sucks" look.  That and the fact there is a violin there, which makes me think "After I've done my three hours of lute, I have to do two and a half on this blasted violin!"

Below is a picture of the Archlute that is in our textbook as well.

The joke I attempted this morning?  "The Archlute is kind of like a lute, on viagra".  It was received with a moderate amount of laughter.

Sometimes, I should really think before I speak, before I am fired.

coming soon ...

I've been rather negligent as of late with blog posts - simply because, as many of you who are involved with choirs or University will know, this last week marks the start of our year, and I'm trying to stay ahead of the game with my preparations and lectures.  I'm also in the middle of yet another long job application process, which will go into the mail today or tomorrow.

I do have a few blog post ideas in the works though, and I should be able to start putting them down here in the days to come.

In the mean time - here is a fun article from the CBC.  A good reason not to be shy about having Twisted Sister and Quiet Riot in my collection of CDs.

Dixit Dominus - the TEXT

We seem to be spending a fair amount of time lately in rehearsal discussing the text of both Handel's Dixit Dominus and Bach's Cantata # 4 Christ lag in Todes Banden, and I thought I'd take the next few posts talking about them individually, and perhaps if my faithful few readers would like to comment on them - and shed even more light on them - that would be great!

One of my choristers, who is a PhD music student and theologian has made some interesting connections between the two works, even though the texts were written many hundreds of years apart (the music only a few years apart). The Handel, from the Psalms of David, and the Bach by Martin Luther after the protestant reformation. I'll talk about this in a later post, this evening though, I'll spend some time with Psalm 110 (or 109 if you are looking it up in the Vulgate)

The psalm is one of the five psalms commonly said or sung at the Roman Catholic office of Vespers, and is closely related to Psalm 2 ("Why do the nations so furiously rage together?"), each of them having been interpreted as a Messianic prophecy, however, what I find interesting is the context for which the psalm might have originally been written. There is no doubt that there is prophetical reference towards the birth of Christ - but perhaps it was written originally as a coronation psalm for an old testament time King? In the context of our concert, and in pairing with the Bach, it makes great sense to draw on the Messianic prophecy.
I've put the literal translation under the text in italics for each line, followed by a more "poetic" English translation in bold at the end of each verse. (translations taken from Ron Jeffers "Translations and Annotations of Choral Repertoire, Volume I)

1. Dixit Dominus Domino meo:
Said Lord to Lord my:

Sede a dextris meis
sit at right hand my

Donec ponam inimicos tuos scabellum pedum tuorum
until I shall make eniemies your stool of your feet

1. The Lord said unto my Lord: Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.

2. Virgam virtutis tuae emittet Dominus ex Sion
Rod of power your shall send forth Lord from Zion;

Dominare in medio inimicorum tuorum
rule in midst of enemies your.

2. The sceptre of your power the Lord shall send forth Zion: Rule thou in the midst of your enemies.

3. Tecum principium in die virtutis tuae
With you power on day of might your,

In splendoribus sanctorum ex utero ante luciferum genui te
in splendor of holy ones; from womb before light-bringer

3. The power to rule is with you on the day of your strength, in the splendor of the holy ones:

4. Juravit Dominus et non paenitebit eum:
Has sworn Lord, and not will repent of it

Tu es sacerdos in aeternum secundum ordinem Melchisedech
You are priest for eternity according to order of Melchizedech.

4. The Lord has sworn an oath and will not repent of it: You are a priest for ever, after the order of Melchizedech.

Dominus a dextris tuis confregit in die irae suae reges
Lord at right hand your, destroys on day of wrath his kings.

5. The Lord at your right hand destroys kings on the day of his wrath;

6. Judicabit in nationibus
He shall judge among heathen,

Implebit ruinas, conquassabit capita in terra multorum
he shall pile up ruins; he shall shatter heads on land of many.

6. He shall judge among the heathen; he shall pile up ruins and scatter skulls on many lands.

7. De torrente in via bibet
Of torrent in way he shall drink;

Propterea exaltabit caput
therfore he shall life up head

7. He shall drink of the torrent in his way; therefore he shall life up his head.

Gloria Patri...

(N.B. Handels's setting is in 8 movements including the Gloria, however he divides Verse 4 in to two movements, with the 5th movement starting at "tu es sacerdos in aeternum" and group verse 5 and 6 into one movement).

Very clearly, the Messianic prophesy in this psalm is easy to trace. There is much reference to the "king" sitting at the right hand of God (a line which is quite prominent in all Christian Creeds), and the line "You are a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedech" refers to the ancient "high priest" Melchizedech. Although Melchizedech is in biblical terms a very mysterious individual, he is though to have been the most "Christ-like" character in the time of Abraham, who brought with him to Abraham gifts of bread and wine - which is an unmistakable link to The Last Supper (keep this in mind when we talk about the Bach in a later post). The psalm prophesies "you ain't seen nothing yet" by placing the Messiah in the same league of Melchizedech.

The thing that interests me the most is that this Prophesy, is written in the present tense - which leads me to believe that, although it does have an undeniable reference to Christ, there must be a 2nd person involved here. Another King - in the time of David. Perhaps ... it IS King David? (Oh, it's not Abraham ... he sat at the LEFT hand of God apparently).

The most debated line in the whole psalm is the first line. "The Lord said unto my Lord". Who is the 2nd Lord? I've also seen a translation "The Lord said unto my master" which makes a bit more sense when talking about a King's coronation, for as we know, in the Christian and Jewish faith, there is but ONE Lord (and you shall worship none other etc...) So the translation of "Master" makes a bit more sense. However, the Latin is clear "Dixit Dominus Domino Meo" There are two Lords (capital L, Lords). Then again, maybe this was just a polite form of address of an inferior to a superior ("yes, my Lord") making the second Lord a "lesser" Lord. (The Hebrew, by the way, uses two different words for Lord, both meaning the same, and does not show hierarchy between the two - and besides, I'm not going to go there, as I have no qualifications to go there).

Obviously the text has been embraced by the Christian church for it's Messianic prophecy, being placed in such prominence to be sung at every evening service, and used as an antiphon at the same office. It has been set by numerous composers, including Palestrina, Pergolesi, Scarlatti, Vittoria, Zelenka, Michael Haydn and Mozart to name a few, and not surprising considering the Psalms regular use had strong potential for a repeat performance in the Catholic Church.

Next installment - the Text and the Music - How does Handel set the text?

The Perfect Acousitc

You really have to love science! I had to take my undergraduate course in musical acoustics twice because I just couldn't get my head around the math involved to figure out the speed of sound, reflection, harmonics and all that. I mean I understand the concepts, and I trust my ear and instincts when it comes to sound, blend and intonation, but I never think about the math involved. I didn't think I would need a course like this one to further my career in Choral Conducting, and for the most part, I've been right. There really is nothing I can do to change the acoustic in a given concert hall - and I'm not about to go out and design a new concert hall. A golf course, maybe, but not a concert hall.

However, I love to read about scientific research that could reflect in the enjoyment of music. This article on CBC.ca today caught my eye this morning. Imagine - a concert hall, or CHURCH wrapped up in a thin cloak that would remove all outside noises for perfect recording conditions! I wonder if I could convince some choristers to get a concert dress or tux made from the material of this "cloak"?

Another attempt at classical "Reality"

Thanks to Kenneth Woods from A View from the Podium (Edit: his post on this topic has been removed from his blog) for sharing this link from the Guardian about the latest in Music Reality TV.

It seems the majority of the classical music world will likely shun this latest attempt to bring classical music back into the mainstream. I, on the other hand, wish I had a direct satellite feed from Western Canada to the BBC so I could watch every episode of this! I mean, it can't be as bad as NBC's Clash of the Choirs, where celebrity "conductors" worked with "choirs" (I keep both "conductors" and "choirs" in quotations for a reason there - if I could visualize using two fingers on each hand to emphasize the value of the quote sarcasm, I would). I posted about this last reality show earlier, which received the most comments on my blog to date from the half-dozen or so of you who read this regularly.

Here's a few of my observations about the BBC Maestro reality show that will differ significantly from NBC's Clash of the Choirs. First off, it seems that the celebrity conductors are actually going to work with a REAL orchestra, and the winner will conduct at the Proms! They are also going to receive coaching from conductors, or as the Guardian puts it "young conductors" (I wonder how I can apply to be one of the mentors?). Whereas Clash of the Choirs had nothing to do with conductors, or, amazingly enough, Choirs.

The only thing that irks me about the article are the "Reasons" behind the production of this show, which come in the last paragraph:

The BBC insists that both Classical Star and Maestro are vital in their aim of bringing the classical genre to fresh viewers. Of Maestro, a BBC spokesperson said: "This programme is still in the pipeline at present, but if it does go ahead we hope that by following different people's journeys in learning how to conduct, it will succeed in opening up classical music to a completely different audience."

I'm not sure what the obsession is with groups trying to "open up classical music to a completely different audience". There are quite a few great posts about this around, none greater than that of Ron Spieglman's on Sticks and Drones about a month ago. How is a show like this is going to help? If anything, it might put a false sense of reality on what Classical music is all about. Those who watch the show might end up buying tickets to a symphony concert expecting to see a battle on the podium between the second horn and some celebrity conductor, and instead might be treated to a Shostakovitch Symphony - which will no doubt be great, but may not be the thing to bring that person back to another concert. People who enjoy classical music go to concerts. People who don't like classical music, don't go to concerts. It's pretty simple.

I always laugh at the marketing strategy where an audience at a concert is "polled" as to why they came to the concert, and what is it that they enjoyed, or didn't enjoy about the concert in an effort to bring more people to the next concert. It's like polling people at a Star Trek convention about why they are at the convention in an effort to bring people who know nothing about, or don't like Star Trek, to the next convention. You're far better off polling the people who DIDN'T go to the concert and find out why they didn't, and what would bring them to the next concert, although, we probably wouldn't like the answer.

The bigger question is - is classical music really in trouble? Have the average numbers in audiences really dropped drastically across the globe in the last hundred years? I actually don't know the answer to this - but if it has dropped, I'm not convinced this type of programing is going to help it any.

I, however, would be setting my PVR nightly to watch it!

Can you change your "taste" to like classical music?

In a recent post on Sticks and Drones titled "Yo!!..We put the ASS back in clASSical", Ron Spigelman, Artistic Director of the Springfield Missouri Symphony Orchestra rants on the current trends to attract a younger audience to the concert hall.

A few of the tricks I've seen used out west are memberships to an exclusive club for those who are under 25 years old, which include less-expensive tickets, and free pizza and pop during intermission. There was also an attempt made by our local opera company for people to "Come see opera in your Jeans". Spigleman writes of billboards that try to appeal to a younger generation "Try a few "bars" tonight" and "Ear Candy", and the examples go on, and are present in just about every "fine" arts organizations, and probably come up at every annual general meeting of all symphonies, choirs, art galleries, and theatre groups. The main flaw, essentially, as Spigleman points out is that the "product" does not change - once you have them in their seats, full of pizza and pop, it isn't going to make them suddenly love Tchaikovsky! Or as Spigleman says:

"not everyone likes caviar either, so does that make them unsophisticated? NO, IT MEANS THEY DON'T LIKE CAVIAR!!!!! "

Most people would say "How do you know you don't like it, when was the last time you've tried it?" I don't like Caviar, and I probably never will, and there are no billboards or "caviar tasting" programs out there that will probably turn my mind otherwise. I know this, because I've tried. However, there are many things that I didn't like, or more precisely wasn't interested in, that I am interested in now.

Excuse me while I go a big off topic - I'll come back again in a minute.

As a younger child, I had no interest of the study of Canadian History or politics. When I was about fourteen or fifteen years old, I had a teacher in high school who was a former city councilor, and member of provincial parliament. Half way through the term, he moved all the desks in the class so that there were two sides to the class room, one side facing the other, with about 5 rows of chairs on either side. He had us vote for the party we wanted to be in - Liberal, Conservative or NDP, our teacher made himself speaker of the House, and then for about a month WERE the House of Commons. I couldn't tear myself away from C-Span (the station which shows the house of commons live) for weeks. All I could talk about was Canadian politics, and how someday I would a Minister in the House. Life has taken me a different direction of course now, so I'm not likely to start my campaign, but an involvement in some kind of city, provincial, or national political cause is not out of the question - and I do believe I owe this to my high school history teacher - even if he WAS a member of the conservative party ... that's another topic all together.

Anyhow, my point is - yes, the efforts to try to persuade viewers with candy, pizza, or snazzy billboards with scantily clothed cellists might have an appealing, short-term effect, but it can't hold them in their seats. Eventually they will figure out that they were "tricked" into it. BUT, a good solid FUN education does wonders. If an understanding of the process of music - the structure, the "reasons" we have music, the history of it (and I emphasis FUN - no memorization of dates and scores - more emphasis on the stories behind the composers and the music), there might be a fighting chance to get most of them inspired in some way.

I'm always amazed at how after two months of teaching music appreciation at the University level, how many students go from "I'm just taking this for an easy grade" to "Do you have free tickets for the next concert, I absolutely loved the last one I went to", or "I can't believe there are so many free concerts on Campus, I'm addicted now", and I think it is mainly because they have a better understanding of the music itself. Why aren't there these educational opportunities at a younger age? Why are we so obsessed at teaching arts in such a clear cut organized manner, without the aspects of "touch" or "feel" to them. Shouldn't those who teach these subjects be excited about it enough to share this passion?