Sue Mudge and Tower Music

by Barbara Rose Shuler

Trombonist Suzanne Mudge--who now lives in Bend, Oregon--has been made her imprint on the Carmel Bach Festival as a superb architect of the outdoor Tower Music brass serenades. This cherished festival institution is inspired by the medieval tradition of announcing a special event with brass music from the tower of a castle or church.

In 1984, when Mudge came to the festival at the invitation of maestro Sandor Salgo, Tower Music used to be done “on the fly” with the brass players working their way through a stack of music and making decisions after they arrived in Carmel.

“It wasn’t last minute but it was never planned in advance,” she says.

A few years later, maestro Salgo asked Mudge to take part in the leadership of Tower Music.

“One of the things I wanted was to put some thought and care into planning Tower Music,” she says. “I really believe that it is a wonderful tradition. It’s so important for people. I take it very seriously. I am trying to expand our repertoire and plan for really interesting works like Peter Warlock’s Capriol Suite or the Procession of the Nobles by Rimsky-Korsakov that we did last year.”

Mudge says she thinks the original tradition of having four trombones play Tower Music started before maestro Salgo was hired in 1956.

“Tower Music took place in the second story of Sunset in a tower of sorts and was played over the parking lot,” she says.“It went from a trombone ensemble to a brass ensemble back in the 70’s.” .

In preparing the repertoire for the serenades, Mudge must first determine what night the individual players will be available. For instance, if the Bach’s B Minor Mass is being presented on a certain day, she won’t ask the trumpets to join the ensemble because they are going to be too tired. So she schedules trombones for that concert.

“Some years I try to think up themes on which to base programs,” she says. “A few years ago I did `Music: Ancient, Old and New.’ And, I have done more transcriptions of late to enlarge the repertoire.”

In her program notes this year, Mudge describes this process for the 2009 festival:

“Inspiration can come upon us in the most unpredictable ways. I usually seize on an idea during hard exercise or sometimes upon waking at 2am, but it was during an instant chat on Facebook with a local Carmel writer that inspired this year’s overall theme. She loves music from the Baroque era and is also a Tower Music groupie, so I threw a few titles at her as possible choices for this year. Two of those titles from Handel’s repertoire set me to thinking about the four elements.

“Suites from Handel’s Water Music and Fireworks Music will be featured as part of our repertory theme of the Four Elements — Air, Water, Earth, and Fire. In fact, we will have a bit of fun connecting these four elements with our repertoire choices and we hope you will enjoy the ride.”

An ideal evening to see the trombone section in action is Wednesday nights before the traditional concert at the Carmel Mission--a magnificent old world setting for the festival brass. Remember these delightful open air courtyard serenades, not only feature the innovative programming and musical direction of Suzanne Mudge, but they are free!

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Barbara Rose Shuler writes Intermezzo, which chronicles classical music, in the Monterey Herald's Go! Magazine each week. She can be contacted at wordways@comcast.net.
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