August 28, 1913
Richard Tucker, [Reuben Ticker], born in Brooklyn, New York, Tenor, New York Met Opera
Article about Richard Tucker on Wikipedia
Friday, August 28, 2009
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Review of Soles4Orphans benefit concert
The amazing Paulina Nguyen, 17, a senior at Santa Catalina School and a piano pupil of Carmel pianist Barbara Ruzicka, created a benefit concert at the Church of the Wayfarer in Carmel on August 23 featuring some of the finest young student musicians on the Monterey Peninsula.
We are lucky to have fine young people like Paulina in our community.
Follow this link to read Lyn Bronson's review of this great event.
http://www.peninsulareviews.com/
We are lucky to have fine young people like Paulina in our community.
Follow this link to read Lyn Bronson's review of this great event.
http://www.peninsulareviews.com/
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Even Better Booklist
Since its founding in 1935, the Carmel Bach Festival has always presented its music within a context of ideas and discussions. The development of all the arts in the 18th century mirrors and parallels the social, cultural and political developments of that century, and by placing the music into the continuum of human existence we can deepen our connection to it.
One of my happiest duties at the Carmel Bach Festival is researching and presenting the pre-concert lectures. In my informal talks I try to evoke a stronger sense of context and create a deeper understanding the human being who wrote the notes. What were the circumstances in which he lived and worked, who was he a person, and what brought about the creation of the music?
A few weeks ago I posted a short list of books that I used during the 2009 Bach Festival. Here is a longer list!
Download David's 3-Page Bibliography in pdf format
This downloadable 3-page pdf document lists 23 books that have been helpful to me in recent years and also books I’m currently using to prepare for the 2010 Festival. I must emphasize that this is a very personal list. It is by definition not broad in scope, and is primarily related to recent and upcoming repertoire at the Carmel Bach Festival. These are books which in recent years have helped me find a human connection to the personalities who created the music, and to the cultural, historical, and social context in which they lived and worked.
~ David Gordon
One of my happiest duties at the Carmel Bach Festival is researching and presenting the pre-concert lectures. In my informal talks I try to evoke a stronger sense of context and create a deeper understanding the human being who wrote the notes. What were the circumstances in which he lived and worked, who was he a person, and what brought about the creation of the music?
A few weeks ago I posted a short list of books that I used during the 2009 Bach Festival. Here is a longer list!
Download David's 3-Page Bibliography in pdf format
This downloadable 3-page pdf document lists 23 books that have been helpful to me in recent years and also books I’m currently using to prepare for the 2010 Festival. I must emphasize that this is a very personal list. It is by definition not broad in scope, and is primarily related to recent and upcoming repertoire at the Carmel Bach Festival. These are books which in recent years have helped me find a human connection to the personalities who created the music, and to the cultural, historical, and social context in which they lived and worked.
~ David Gordon
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
2009 Bach Festival Reading List
by David Gordon
The 2009 Carmel Bach Festival is over! It was an exhausting and deeply satisfying experience. Great audiences, responsive and appreciative. An ensemble working hard, and overtime.
I do lots of different things at the Carmel Bach Festival (most of us do), but this summer my principal activities included 1) twelve Festival lectures, 2) writing and narrating the “Haydn Seek!” concert, 3) translating and reading the Vivaldi sonnets on the Thursday concert, and 4) creating more than 600 new supertitle slides (for Haydn’s Creation, Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, Brahms’ Nänie, Mendelssohn’s Psalm 42, the “Haydn Seek!” concert, and Best of the Fest).
Lots of people asked me about a reading list. Here are some of the books that helped me this summer!
UPDATE AUGUST 18: since an expanded version of this list is now available for download as a pdf document, I have removed some of the details from this post.
Click this link to download the 3-page pdf bibliography.
IN PRINT Patronize your local bookseller!
The New Grove Haydn
by Jens Peter Larson
WW Norton, New York, 1983
Haydn: The Creation
by Nicholas Temperley
Cambridge University Press, 1991
Haydn Chronicle and Works
Volume III: Haydn in England 1791-1795
H. C. Robbins Landon
Indiana University Press, 1976
The Cambridge Companion to Haydn
by Caryl Clark (Editor)
Cambridge University Press, 2005, 340 pages
Four Seasons, The: A Novel of Vivaldi's Venice
by Laurel Corona
Voice Press, 2008, 400 pages
Vivaldi: The Four Seasons and Other Concertos, Op. 8
by Paul Everett
Cambridge University Press, 1996
OUT OF PRINT BUT AVAILABLE ONLINE
The Girl in Rose
Peter Hobday
Orion Books, London, 2004
A Social History of Music: Middle Ages to Beethoven
Music and Society: since 1815
Henry Raynor
Taplinger Publishing, New York, 1976
London Life in the Eighteenth Century
M. Dorothy George
Harper, New York, 1964
INTERNET RESOURCES
The Collected Correspondence and London Notebooks of Joseph Haydn
A selection of Haydn letters
200 Anniversary of Haydn’s Death
Blog and assorted Links
The Website of Beethoven-Haus, Bonn
Coming soon: suggested reading for the 2010 Carmel Bach Festival!
The 2009 Carmel Bach Festival is over! It was an exhausting and deeply satisfying experience. Great audiences, responsive and appreciative. An ensemble working hard, and overtime.
I do lots of different things at the Carmel Bach Festival (most of us do), but this summer my principal activities included 1) twelve Festival lectures, 2) writing and narrating the “Haydn Seek!” concert, 3) translating and reading the Vivaldi sonnets on the Thursday concert, and 4) creating more than 600 new supertitle slides (for Haydn’s Creation, Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, Brahms’ Nänie, Mendelssohn’s Psalm 42, the “Haydn Seek!” concert, and Best of the Fest).
Lots of people asked me about a reading list. Here are some of the books that helped me this summer!
UPDATE AUGUST 18: since an expanded version of this list is now available for download as a pdf document, I have removed some of the details from this post.
Click this link to download the 3-page pdf bibliography.
IN PRINT Patronize your local bookseller!
The New Grove Haydn
by Jens Peter Larson
WW Norton, New York, 1983
Haydn: The Creation
by Nicholas Temperley
Cambridge University Press, 1991
Haydn Chronicle and Works
Volume III: Haydn in England 1791-1795
H. C. Robbins Landon
Indiana University Press, 1976
The Cambridge Companion to Haydn
by Caryl Clark (Editor)
Cambridge University Press, 2005, 340 pages
Four Seasons, The: A Novel of Vivaldi's Venice
by Laurel Corona
Voice Press, 2008, 400 pages
Vivaldi: The Four Seasons and Other Concertos, Op. 8
by Paul Everett
Cambridge University Press, 1996
OUT OF PRINT BUT AVAILABLE ONLINE
The Girl in Rose
Peter Hobday
Orion Books, London, 2004
A Social History of Music: Middle Ages to Beethoven
Music and Society: since 1815
Henry Raynor
Taplinger Publishing, New York, 1976
London Life in the Eighteenth Century
M. Dorothy George
Harper, New York, 1964
INTERNET RESOURCES
The Collected Correspondence and London Notebooks of Joseph Haydn
A selection of Haydn letters
200 Anniversary of Haydn’s Death
Blog and assorted Links
The Website of Beethoven-Haus, Bonn
Coming soon: suggested reading for the 2010 Carmel Bach Festival!
Sunday, August 2, 2009
New Mozart Works Discovered
by Barbara Rose Shuler
Yesterday’s Best of the Fest brought the festival to a dazzling close, as usual, with Bruno’s charming, humorous, knowledgeable and deep-spirited narrative. More about that in the next blog but here is a newsflash of interest that appeared in my e-box from my friend Ger under the title Not Quite Bach.
“No doubt these early Mozartean fragments will be presented as soon as possible in our musically eager and sophisticated region--perhaps even a Bach Festival offering with David Breitman performing. The article comes from the Associated Press:
Researchers unveil Mozart piano pieces in Austria
SALZBURG, Austria – Mozart's momentous legacy grew still larger Sunday as researchers unveiled two piano pieces recently identified as childhood creations by the revered composer.
The works — an extensive concerto movement and a fragmentary prelude — are part of "Nannerl's Music Book," a well-known manuscript that contains the Austrian master's earliest compositions, the International Mozarteum Foundation revealed while presenting the pieces in Mozart's native Salzburg.
"We have here the first orchestral movement by the young Mozart — even though the orchestral parts are missing — and therefore it's an extremely important missing link in our understanding of Mozart's development as a young composer," Mozarteum's research leader, Ulrich Leisinger, said.
Mozart, who was born in 1756, began playing the keyboard at age 3 and composing at 5. By the time he died of rheumatic fever on Dec. 5, 1791, he had written more than 600 pieces.
Leisinger said Mozart likely wrote the two newly attributed pieces when he was 7 or 8 years old, with his father, Leopold, transcribing the notes as his son played them at the keyboard.
A series of analyses confirmed the writing as Leopold's, and at the time Mozart was not yet versed in musical notation. But Leopold himself was ruled out as the author of the pieces based on stylistic scrutiny, the Mozarteum said in a statement.
"There are obvious discrepancies between the technical virtuosity and a certain lack of compositional experience," it said.
At Sunday's presentation at the Mozart residence, Austrian musician Florian Birsak, an expert on early keyboard music, played the two pieces on the maestro's own fortepiano for a throng of reporters, photographers and camera crews.
Both works were identified as part of a larger investigation of the foundation's Mozart-related materials, including letters, documents and more than 100 music manuscripts — some in the hand of the composer, others transcribed by contemporaries.
While "Nannerl's Music Book" has been in the foundation's hands for more than a century, the pieces were considered anonymous creations until Leisinger and his team took a closer look.
"These two pieces struck us because they were so extravagant," Leisinger said, adding that the two works share a number of similarities but that the prelude — believed to have been written after the concerto movement — was "much more refined."
"One could almost get the impression that Leopold said to his son, 'look, you've written this crazy concerto movement, try to do it better, a little bit more concise,' and as a result we ended up with this prelude-like movement," he said.
Posthumous discoveries of Mozart pieces are rare but not unheard of.
In September, Leisinger announced that a French library had found a previously unknown piece handwritten by Mozart.
That work, described as the preliminary draft of a musical composition, was found in Nantes, in western France, as library staff members went through its archives. Leisinger said the library contacted his foundation for help authenticating the work.
The latest finds add "important details" to what we know about the young Mozart's work, said Christoph Wolff, professor of music history at Harvard University, who is also director of the Bach Archive in Leipzig, Germany.
"The Salzburg discovery offers significant insight into the earliest accomplishments of Mozart," Wolff said in an e-mail to The Associated Press.
The Salzburg-based foundation, established in 1880 and a prime source for Mozart-related matters, seeks to preserve the composer's heritage and find new approaches for analyzing him.”
--------------------------------------------------
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.
--------------------------------------------------
Yesterday’s Best of the Fest brought the festival to a dazzling close, as usual, with Bruno’s charming, humorous, knowledgeable and deep-spirited narrative. More about that in the next blog but here is a newsflash of interest that appeared in my e-box from my friend Ger under the title Not Quite Bach.
“No doubt these early Mozartean fragments will be presented as soon as possible in our musically eager and sophisticated region--perhaps even a Bach Festival offering with David Breitman performing. The article comes from the Associated Press:
Researchers unveil Mozart piano pieces in Austria
SALZBURG, Austria – Mozart's momentous legacy grew still larger Sunday as researchers unveiled two piano pieces recently identified as childhood creations by the revered composer.
The works — an extensive concerto movement and a fragmentary prelude — are part of "Nannerl's Music Book," a well-known manuscript that contains the Austrian master's earliest compositions, the International Mozarteum Foundation revealed while presenting the pieces in Mozart's native Salzburg.
"We have here the first orchestral movement by the young Mozart — even though the orchestral parts are missing — and therefore it's an extremely important missing link in our understanding of Mozart's development as a young composer," Mozarteum's research leader, Ulrich Leisinger, said.
Mozart, who was born in 1756, began playing the keyboard at age 3 and composing at 5. By the time he died of rheumatic fever on Dec. 5, 1791, he had written more than 600 pieces.
Leisinger said Mozart likely wrote the two newly attributed pieces when he was 7 or 8 years old, with his father, Leopold, transcribing the notes as his son played them at the keyboard.
A series of analyses confirmed the writing as Leopold's, and at the time Mozart was not yet versed in musical notation. But Leopold himself was ruled out as the author of the pieces based on stylistic scrutiny, the Mozarteum said in a statement.
"There are obvious discrepancies between the technical virtuosity and a certain lack of compositional experience," it said.
At Sunday's presentation at the Mozart residence, Austrian musician Florian Birsak, an expert on early keyboard music, played the two pieces on the maestro's own fortepiano for a throng of reporters, photographers and camera crews.
Both works were identified as part of a larger investigation of the foundation's Mozart-related materials, including letters, documents and more than 100 music manuscripts — some in the hand of the composer, others transcribed by contemporaries.
While "Nannerl's Music Book" has been in the foundation's hands for more than a century, the pieces were considered anonymous creations until Leisinger and his team took a closer look.
"These two pieces struck us because they were so extravagant," Leisinger said, adding that the two works share a number of similarities but that the prelude — believed to have been written after the concerto movement — was "much more refined."
"One could almost get the impression that Leopold said to his son, 'look, you've written this crazy concerto movement, try to do it better, a little bit more concise,' and as a result we ended up with this prelude-like movement," he said.
Posthumous discoveries of Mozart pieces are rare but not unheard of.
In September, Leisinger announced that a French library had found a previously unknown piece handwritten by Mozart.
That work, described as the preliminary draft of a musical composition, was found in Nantes, in western France, as library staff members went through its archives. Leisinger said the library contacted his foundation for help authenticating the work.
The latest finds add "important details" to what we know about the young Mozart's work, said Christoph Wolff, professor of music history at Harvard University, who is also director of the Bach Archive in Leipzig, Germany.
"The Salzburg discovery offers significant insight into the earliest accomplishments of Mozart," Wolff said in an e-mail to The Associated Press.
The Salzburg-based foundation, established in 1880 and a prime source for Mozart-related matters, seeks to preserve the composer's heritage and find new approaches for analyzing him.”
--------------------------------------------------
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.
--------------------------------------------------
Friday, July 31, 2009
Nearing the final Performance
by Barbara Rose Shuler
Back again after a break for deferred maintenance on home, family and non-Bach work. Every summer the usual rhythms and tasks of life are set aside for weeks, including time with my patient but neglected husband. By 12 days into the festival, I usually take a short break to buff up the house and garden, prepare for August work and spend time with family. The 12-day timing habit is apparently so ingrained that it took over even though it makes sense this year to push to the finish.
This week David Gordon forwarded to me a revealing time-lapse video showing the activity of the stage crew on a single busy Bach Festival day. There is no question, everyone works extremely hard during the festival including the musicians, artistic and admin staff, board members, volunteers and even patrons, many of whom try to fit as much as possible into their time.
So, it wouldn’t be fair to say the stage crew works harder than the fully immersed artists, staff and volunteers. However, these women and men do work hard and provide an essential ingredient that ironically goes unseen if done well—and their work is very rarely not done well—so most people don’t think about this behind-the-scenes work much or understand its importance to the smooth functioning of the festival.
Precise choreography takes place each day setting stages at the various venues, making sure every chair, music stand, keyboard, etc. is placed exactly where it needs to be followed by quick exact changes between sections of a concert or recital. Members of the production staff, led by longtime stage manager and festival treasure Michael Becker, undertake this complex scheduling and organizing.
Doug Mueller, who has been producing videos of the festival, created this time-lapse film of Saturday, July 25, the busiest day for the stage crew. It is posted on You Tube and worth a couple of clicks to get the idea of the quick changes and precision of the efforts to keep performances on the Sunset stage alone running smoothly.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDuLHnUXGk0
--------------------------------------------------
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.
--------------------------------------------------
Back again after a break for deferred maintenance on home, family and non-Bach work. Every summer the usual rhythms and tasks of life are set aside for weeks, including time with my patient but neglected husband. By 12 days into the festival, I usually take a short break to buff up the house and garden, prepare for August work and spend time with family. The 12-day timing habit is apparently so ingrained that it took over even though it makes sense this year to push to the finish.
This week David Gordon forwarded to me a revealing time-lapse video showing the activity of the stage crew on a single busy Bach Festival day. There is no question, everyone works extremely hard during the festival including the musicians, artistic and admin staff, board members, volunteers and even patrons, many of whom try to fit as much as possible into their time.
So, it wouldn’t be fair to say the stage crew works harder than the fully immersed artists, staff and volunteers. However, these women and men do work hard and provide an essential ingredient that ironically goes unseen if done well—and their work is very rarely not done well—so most people don’t think about this behind-the-scenes work much or understand its importance to the smooth functioning of the festival.
Precise choreography takes place each day setting stages at the various venues, making sure every chair, music stand, keyboard, etc. is placed exactly where it needs to be followed by quick exact changes between sections of a concert or recital. Members of the production staff, led by longtime stage manager and festival treasure Michael Becker, undertake this complex scheduling and organizing.
Doug Mueller, who has been producing videos of the festival, created this time-lapse film of Saturday, July 25, the busiest day for the stage crew. It is posted on You Tube and worth a couple of clicks to get the idea of the quick changes and precision of the efforts to keep performances on the Sunset stage alone running smoothly.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDuLHnUXGk0
--------------------------------------------------
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.
--------------------------------------------------
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Bachanalia (Commercial Break)
by Barbara Rose Shuler
And now for a look at tickets, raffles, auction, stuff to buy, videos, and more!
Main concert tickets are still available for Thursday's Vivaldi "Four Seasons'" program and the Haydn "Creation Oratorio" Friday evening and for Saturday's Best of the Fest concert.
You should still be able to purchase seats for the remaining daytime concerts: Heroic Beethoven recital on Thursday, Passing the Mantle on Friday, Viennese Matinee Saturday morning, and Saturday afternoon’s Vocal Fireworks celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Adams Vocal Master Class.
Executive director Camille Kolles says raffle tickets are selling well but you’ll want to get yours for a chance to win from among 100 artworks — watercolors, prints, oils and acrylics and three-dimensional artworks inspired by the natural beauty of Carmel and the Bach Festival experience. Raffle tickets are $5 each or seven for $30. Winners will be picked on Aug.2.
The silent auction is under way for bids on jewelry, fine art, travel experiences, dinners, wines and special tours. Bidders can bid online or in the lobby of the Sunset Center Theater during the Festival.
Don’t forget to visit the new Bach Boutique at Sunset Center featuring new T-shirts, new fleece pullovers, new mug design, music, books and much, much more.
From David Gordon, Esteemed Bach Festival Dramaturge
Just a reminder, for people who can't make it to the lectures: visit the unofficial Bach Festival video web page at:
http://www.dailymotion.com/carmelbach
The site also includes videos from previous years (which are also on the CBF site)
Of course these 2009 videos are also available on the Festival website as of yesterday.
www.bachfestival.org/index.cfm/education_video.htm
Sunset box office is open Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Sat. 10a.m.-4p.m. and 6p.m.-8p.m., Wed. 10a.m.-4p.m. and Sun. 12:30-:30p.m.
The Bach Festival office will be open 10 a.m.-4 p.m. now through Friday.
Contact the festival at: www.bachfestival.org or call 624-1521.
And now for a look at tickets, raffles, auction, stuff to buy, videos, and more!
Main concert tickets are still available for Thursday's Vivaldi "Four Seasons'" program and the Haydn "Creation Oratorio" Friday evening and for Saturday's Best of the Fest concert.
You should still be able to purchase seats for the remaining daytime concerts: Heroic Beethoven recital on Thursday, Passing the Mantle on Friday, Viennese Matinee Saturday morning, and Saturday afternoon’s Vocal Fireworks celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Adams Vocal Master Class.
Executive director Camille Kolles says raffle tickets are selling well but you’ll want to get yours for a chance to win from among 100 artworks — watercolors, prints, oils and acrylics and three-dimensional artworks inspired by the natural beauty of Carmel and the Bach Festival experience. Raffle tickets are $5 each or seven for $30. Winners will be picked on Aug.2.
The silent auction is under way for bids on jewelry, fine art, travel experiences, dinners, wines and special tours. Bidders can bid online or in the lobby of the Sunset Center Theater during the Festival.
Don’t forget to visit the new Bach Boutique at Sunset Center featuring new T-shirts, new fleece pullovers, new mug design, music, books and much, much more.
From David Gordon, Esteemed Bach Festival Dramaturge
Just a reminder, for people who can't make it to the lectures: visit the unofficial Bach Festival video web page at:
http://www.dailymotion.com/carmelbach
The site also includes videos from previous years (which are also on the CBF site)
Of course these 2009 videos are also available on the Festival website as of yesterday.
www.bachfestival.org/index.cfm/education_video.htm
Sunset box office is open Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Sat. 10a.m.-4p.m. and 6p.m.-8p.m., Wed. 10a.m.-4p.m. and Sun. 12:30-:30p.m.
The Bach Festival office will be open 10 a.m.-4 p.m. now through Friday.
Contact the festival at: www.bachfestival.org or call 624-1521.
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!
--------------------------------------------------
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.
--------------------------------------------------
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!
--------------------------------------------------
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.
--------------------------------------------------
Secrets of Classical Trombonists
Here is the article in from Herald, referred to earlier in this blog, which can now be release for Classical Music Matters readers. It is written by Loel B. Shuler, who attended the festival main concerts with me and helped with the coverage:
Having been down that path myself I know that to become a trombone player is to join a heavily male dominated club. When a young girl is choosing an instrument to be her primary musical focus, the slide trombone is far down the list of possibilities--ahead of the tuba but not much else.
So all the years that I, with thousands of others, have been a fan of the Carmel Bach Festival’s gorgeous Tower Music and its delightful director Suzanne Mudge, I have suspected that there are many fascinating stories connected with her life as a “girl” trombonist. We are a rare breed. And to have carried musicality as far as she has is uncommon for one of us
So I jumped at the opportunity to join Barbara for a sit down conversation with Mudge in a corner of the Sunset Center Lobby. By the way, being in the stillness of that beautiful, spacious milieu with no one else around is a special experience all by itself.
My first question: When, where, how, and why did she decide to take up this unlikely instrument?
“In the fourth grade I played a violin. The violin didn’t seem suit my personality although my Mother recalls the teacher telling her that I had near perfect pitch. I don’t remember what I did in fifth grade. Musical activities in her Laguna Beach elementary school were mostly after-school enrichment.
“In the sixth grade I switched to percussion.,” she says. “In Junior High, seventh and eighth grades, I started out with percussion and then my little circle of friends began talking about different instruments in the band and they decided that girls can’t play trombone, ‘of course not, that’s a boy’s instrument’.
Mudge said that really ruffled her feathers. She describes herself as a tomboy into athletics and sports.
“I had a great arm. I could throw a football as far as any boy,” she says. “`I said ‘of course girls can play trombone.’ I blew them off, went to the band director and asked to play trombone in the band.
“The band director sort of went ‘Oh! Okay!’ My parents didn’t bat an eye. They just went down town to the music store and rented an instrument for $10 a month. I made the switch. And by the eighth grade I was playing in the band.
“And I’m not sure yet if the joke is on them or me.”
That long, strong arm was significant. In order to play a slide trombone one must at a minimum be able to reach 6th and 7th positions. When you think about it, this makes it an impractical instrument for small short-armed people and very young children.
It turns out, however, that once hooked one can find the trombone a versatile, fascinating, and demanding instrument. It’s curious historical origins as a sacred instrument, oddly named “sackbut,”with only a few exceptions kept it out of ensemble and symphonic repertoire until Beethoven introduced it into his 5th symphony.
The trombone section of any symphony orchestra spends a lot of time listening enviously to composers such as Mozart from the warm-up room yearning to join their compatriots even if it only means counting endless measures. The satisfaction of being in the music is addictive, a high to which only musicians are privy.
Even while band playing in high school, Suzanne’s major interest was classical and symphonic music.
“When I started hearing things like Stravinsky, the Bruckner symphonies, the Mahler symphonies this really entranced me,” says Mudge.
She was not keen about the marching band and dropped out until a new director came along with the promise of more and better concert work in exchange for doing the football games, etc.
I wonder if there’s a trombone player anywhere today, in this country at any rate, who didn’t run the gamut of the marching band and the football game. Some of us loved it and some of us didn’t.
Mudge knew some musicians look down on female brass players.
“I always had this feeling that I had to play twice as good to get the job,” she says. “I was never a sensational player, not a prodigy. I was never a star. But I was a good player.”
Her biggest challenge with gender prejudice was in Los Angeles playing with a group called Bones West run by bass trombone player George Roberts.
“He would often bring into rehearsals players who were trombone legends,” she said. “And there were a couple of them who would come in and look at me and say, ‘What are you doing here? You should be home raising a family!’
“I did go through some stuff. One teacher, when I suggested I’d like to conduct, exploded ‘Don’t even think about it. Women will never be conductors!”
Today along with performing in numerous groups and teaching privately, Mudge also teaches beginning band in two elementary schools.
“As a teacher I have to be careful who plays trombone because if you don’t have a really fine ear it’s not going to be a good experience for anyone.,” she says. “With most instruments you strike or press the right combination of keys or valves and out pops the note. With the trombone you have to be able to hear the note to be and then put the slide pretty close to pitch.”
It can be nerve-wracking in an orchestra to sit through long stretches sometimes whole movements and then come in on cue, unwarmed –up, with a soft and beautifully toned perfect sound.
“It’s scary!” Mudge observes.
About teaching beginners she says, “I had to learn really fast how to teach all the instruments. Flutes, reeds, brass players I’m pretty comfortable with because I’ve grown up with them, but the woodwinds I‘ve had to work at.
“I always pooh-poohed teaching when I was younger. But, you know? Teaching rocks! It’s cool. I can’t imagine not teaching anymore. I love working with kids.”
Once they graduate from band to orchestra trombone players have to learn to play in tenor and even alto clefs as well as bass. And for their own edification they usually add treble.
“In graduate school” says Mudge, “I had a good friend who was a horn player. She was playing some really cool etudes and I wanted to play them myself. So I went into a practice room with her and learned how to transpose them.”
This is what a trombone player with a strong classical bent does. To play the wonderful music written for other instruments, you must adapt the score. This quickly becomes a passion. You might call it the secret life of a classical trombonist.
It’s this passion that brought Mudge to the Carmel Bach Festival during the tenure of beloved former music director and conductor Sandor Salgo almost a quarter of a century ago.
--------------------------------------------------
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.
--------------------------------------------------
Having been down that path myself I know that to become a trombone player is to join a heavily male dominated club. When a young girl is choosing an instrument to be her primary musical focus, the slide trombone is far down the list of possibilities--ahead of the tuba but not much else.
So all the years that I, with thousands of others, have been a fan of the Carmel Bach Festival’s gorgeous Tower Music and its delightful director Suzanne Mudge, I have suspected that there are many fascinating stories connected with her life as a “girl” trombonist. We are a rare breed. And to have carried musicality as far as she has is uncommon for one of us
So I jumped at the opportunity to join Barbara for a sit down conversation with Mudge in a corner of the Sunset Center Lobby. By the way, being in the stillness of that beautiful, spacious milieu with no one else around is a special experience all by itself.
My first question: When, where, how, and why did she decide to take up this unlikely instrument?
“In the fourth grade I played a violin. The violin didn’t seem suit my personality although my Mother recalls the teacher telling her that I had near perfect pitch. I don’t remember what I did in fifth grade. Musical activities in her Laguna Beach elementary school were mostly after-school enrichment.
“In the sixth grade I switched to percussion.,” she says. “In Junior High, seventh and eighth grades, I started out with percussion and then my little circle of friends began talking about different instruments in the band and they decided that girls can’t play trombone, ‘of course not, that’s a boy’s instrument’.
Mudge said that really ruffled her feathers. She describes herself as a tomboy into athletics and sports.
“I had a great arm. I could throw a football as far as any boy,” she says. “`I said ‘of course girls can play trombone.’ I blew them off, went to the band director and asked to play trombone in the band.
“The band director sort of went ‘Oh! Okay!’ My parents didn’t bat an eye. They just went down town to the music store and rented an instrument for $10 a month. I made the switch. And by the eighth grade I was playing in the band.
“And I’m not sure yet if the joke is on them or me.”
That long, strong arm was significant. In order to play a slide trombone one must at a minimum be able to reach 6th and 7th positions. When you think about it, this makes it an impractical instrument for small short-armed people and very young children.
It turns out, however, that once hooked one can find the trombone a versatile, fascinating, and demanding instrument. It’s curious historical origins as a sacred instrument, oddly named “sackbut,”with only a few exceptions kept it out of ensemble and symphonic repertoire until Beethoven introduced it into his 5th symphony.
The trombone section of any symphony orchestra spends a lot of time listening enviously to composers such as Mozart from the warm-up room yearning to join their compatriots even if it only means counting endless measures. The satisfaction of being in the music is addictive, a high to which only musicians are privy.
Even while band playing in high school, Suzanne’s major interest was classical and symphonic music.
“When I started hearing things like Stravinsky, the Bruckner symphonies, the Mahler symphonies this really entranced me,” says Mudge.
She was not keen about the marching band and dropped out until a new director came along with the promise of more and better concert work in exchange for doing the football games, etc.
I wonder if there’s a trombone player anywhere today, in this country at any rate, who didn’t run the gamut of the marching band and the football game. Some of us loved it and some of us didn’t.
Mudge knew some musicians look down on female brass players.
“I always had this feeling that I had to play twice as good to get the job,” she says. “I was never a sensational player, not a prodigy. I was never a star. But I was a good player.”
Her biggest challenge with gender prejudice was in Los Angeles playing with a group called Bones West run by bass trombone player George Roberts.
“He would often bring into rehearsals players who were trombone legends,” she said. “And there were a couple of them who would come in and look at me and say, ‘What are you doing here? You should be home raising a family!’
“I did go through some stuff. One teacher, when I suggested I’d like to conduct, exploded ‘Don’t even think about it. Women will never be conductors!”
Today along with performing in numerous groups and teaching privately, Mudge also teaches beginning band in two elementary schools.
“As a teacher I have to be careful who plays trombone because if you don’t have a really fine ear it’s not going to be a good experience for anyone.,” she says. “With most instruments you strike or press the right combination of keys or valves and out pops the note. With the trombone you have to be able to hear the note to be and then put the slide pretty close to pitch.”
It can be nerve-wracking in an orchestra to sit through long stretches sometimes whole movements and then come in on cue, unwarmed –up, with a soft and beautifully toned perfect sound.
“It’s scary!” Mudge observes.
About teaching beginners she says, “I had to learn really fast how to teach all the instruments. Flutes, reeds, brass players I’m pretty comfortable with because I’ve grown up with them, but the woodwinds I‘ve had to work at.
“I always pooh-poohed teaching when I was younger. But, you know? Teaching rocks! It’s cool. I can’t imagine not teaching anymore. I love working with kids.”
Once they graduate from band to orchestra trombone players have to learn to play in tenor and even alto clefs as well as bass. And for their own edification they usually add treble.
“In graduate school” says Mudge, “I had a good friend who was a horn player. She was playing some really cool etudes and I wanted to play them myself. So I went into a practice room with her and learned how to transpose them.”
This is what a trombone player with a strong classical bent does. To play the wonderful music written for other instruments, you must adapt the score. This quickly becomes a passion. You might call it the secret life of a classical trombonist.
It’s this passion that brought Mudge to the Carmel Bach Festival during the tenure of beloved former music director and conductor Sandor Salgo almost a quarter of a century ago.
--------------------------------------------------
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.
--------------------------------------------------
Monday, July 27, 2009
Eroica Reveries
by Barbara Rose Shuler
Last night, I attended the Beethoven concert again, the Eroica symphony and his 4th piano concerto with the fabulous virtuoso playing of David Breitman. When I first heard this concert, during the funeral march of the Eroica, a flood of sensations and realizations swept through me that seemed to reduce into a brief moment 18 years of intensive coverage of the festival for print and broadcast media. Hard to describe but it was something like drinking warm spicy spirits that distilled the essence/legacy of the Bruno Weil years at the Bach Festival.
Something similar happened to me in Venice a few years ago during a performance of a Vivaldi cello concerto. My inner field of awareness altered suddenly and the city of Venice seemed to be opening up her Soul in a whirl of images, recognitions and feelings that I tried to write about later.
These are interesting but quite disorienting experiences.
These inner whirlings during the funeral march led, among other things, to a realization of how quietly heroic Bruno has been at the Bach Festival--in that way Beethoven seems to be describing in his third symphony – of a person serving the purposes of truth, freedom, beauty and high human virtues. No Napoleonic grandiosity; just a steady, compelling motion toward greater excellence under a lamp held high shining with the light of these aspirations.
Sandor Salgo left a legacy of heroic greatness as well over his 36 years, lifting the Bach Festival to a first-rate event while cultivating its vibrant connection to the local community. When the torch passed to Bruno 18 years ago, he faithfully built on the Salgo inheritance drawing upon a new generation of 18th century scholarship and historical instrument virtuosos to take the ensemble to the next levels. He not only understood and treasured the unique spirit of Carmel Bach but he founded a festival in Europe in its image – the Klang and Raum Festival of Bavaria.
Looking back 18 years through a time lapse lens, you also could say Bruno conducted our new hall into being.
He certainly gave the downbeat when he said he had taken the music of the festival as far as it could go without an acoustically excellent space in which to play it and hear it--adding that he would not stay on at the Bach Festival unless a commitment to a new hall were made.
With the rallying call, “Acoustics! Acoustics! Acoustics!” consensus was built for the project, money raised, expert designers hired and in a few short years, we had a new jewel of a facility.
That and much more surged through me as Eroica played. I had planned a different piece about opening weekend for a Monterey Herald article. I was intending to emphasize schedule details, free stuff, the new format for the program book, the raffles, ticket sales issues, etc. More light and practical than thoughtful. But the Beethoven reveries altered my tone.
Here is a shortened version of that article, which has received positive comments:
Patrons gathered at dusk last Friday evening to celebrate the opening of the Carmel Bach Festival on the spacious terrace of Sunset Center. Brass Tower Music warmed the open air with courtly dances of John Adson and Peter Warlock while celebrants sipped champagne or Bellini cocktails and nibbled tasty bites.
Like an elf from a magical otherworld, a tiny young girl materialized under a camellia tree near the steps to the upper patio transfixed by the music leaning into it from her secret bower.
Friends greeted one another happily and basked in the harmony of the evening. The festival youth chorus sang a short set of works, directed by John Koza, sweet pure voices to delight the heart. These opening moments of music and greeting that come every summer touch into a tradition that reaches back 72 years.
As music director and conductor Weil says, the festival is unique in the world, a musicians dream come true. “It's the real friendships that grow that make it so special,” he says. “Nowhere else in the world I have I found this.” The secret of the great performances here, according to Weil, is that everyone pours themselves fully – heart, soul and spirit – into the music.
Poignantly, Weil, who cherishes the Bach Festival as the most personally rewarding work of his musical career, will be leaving at the end of the 2010 festival, making this year’s programs the beginning of the conclusion of his tenure of almost two decades. It is wise to leave at the height of accomplishment, he says, not the downturn.
So as the beautiful brass melodies caressed the breeze causing the little elf child to hug herself with delight beneath the camellia tree, a sense of change also filled in the air. Weil will have only one more opening night in Carmel as will his concertmaster Libby Wallfisch, mega-star of Baroque string playing. We don’t yet know who Weil’s replacement will be, though the search committee has narrowed the candidates down to a handful from which to choose.
Weil’s trajectory has always been towards greater perfection of the music. He has guided and improved the quality of the ensemble each year so that now he truly offers the best of all his years in Carmel. Friday and Saturday evenings were luminous musically, especially the Haydn Creation Oratorio. Weil seems to be reaching for the firmament to give us something deeper and more inspiring than ever on the eve of his departure.
It’s a precious experience we have here with the Carmel Bach Festival, a rarity in the world that even many local music lovers don’t realize. And it is about to change. These are among the last concerts of the Bruno Weil years and, sadly, due to the economically necessary decrease of performance weeks from three to two this season-- and next we are told--the opportunities to hear recitals and concerts are fewer than before.
Though the Bach Festival will continue building on the new excellence it has attained, Weil and Wallfisch will be with us for only a few short weeks this summer and next, As my Midwestern grandmother used to say, “It’s the last day in the afternoon.”
Don’t let this opportunity pass you by.
--------------------------------------------------
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.
--------------------------------------------------
Last night, I attended the Beethoven concert again, the Eroica symphony and his 4th piano concerto with the fabulous virtuoso playing of David Breitman. When I first heard this concert, during the funeral march of the Eroica, a flood of sensations and realizations swept through me that seemed to reduce into a brief moment 18 years of intensive coverage of the festival for print and broadcast media. Hard to describe but it was something like drinking warm spicy spirits that distilled the essence/legacy of the Bruno Weil years at the Bach Festival.
Something similar happened to me in Venice a few years ago during a performance of a Vivaldi cello concerto. My inner field of awareness altered suddenly and the city of Venice seemed to be opening up her Soul in a whirl of images, recognitions and feelings that I tried to write about later.
These are interesting but quite disorienting experiences.
These inner whirlings during the funeral march led, among other things, to a realization of how quietly heroic Bruno has been at the Bach Festival--in that way Beethoven seems to be describing in his third symphony – of a person serving the purposes of truth, freedom, beauty and high human virtues. No Napoleonic grandiosity; just a steady, compelling motion toward greater excellence under a lamp held high shining with the light of these aspirations.
Sandor Salgo left a legacy of heroic greatness as well over his 36 years, lifting the Bach Festival to a first-rate event while cultivating its vibrant connection to the local community. When the torch passed to Bruno 18 years ago, he faithfully built on the Salgo inheritance drawing upon a new generation of 18th century scholarship and historical instrument virtuosos to take the ensemble to the next levels. He not only understood and treasured the unique spirit of Carmel Bach but he founded a festival in Europe in its image – the Klang and Raum Festival of Bavaria.
Looking back 18 years through a time lapse lens, you also could say Bruno conducted our new hall into being.
He certainly gave the downbeat when he said he had taken the music of the festival as far as it could go without an acoustically excellent space in which to play it and hear it--adding that he would not stay on at the Bach Festival unless a commitment to a new hall were made.
With the rallying call, “Acoustics! Acoustics! Acoustics!” consensus was built for the project, money raised, expert designers hired and in a few short years, we had a new jewel of a facility.
That and much more surged through me as Eroica played. I had planned a different piece about opening weekend for a Monterey Herald article. I was intending to emphasize schedule details, free stuff, the new format for the program book, the raffles, ticket sales issues, etc. More light and practical than thoughtful. But the Beethoven reveries altered my tone.
Here is a shortened version of that article, which has received positive comments:
Patrons gathered at dusk last Friday evening to celebrate the opening of the Carmel Bach Festival on the spacious terrace of Sunset Center. Brass Tower Music warmed the open air with courtly dances of John Adson and Peter Warlock while celebrants sipped champagne or Bellini cocktails and nibbled tasty bites.
Like an elf from a magical otherworld, a tiny young girl materialized under a camellia tree near the steps to the upper patio transfixed by the music leaning into it from her secret bower.
Friends greeted one another happily and basked in the harmony of the evening. The festival youth chorus sang a short set of works, directed by John Koza, sweet pure voices to delight the heart. These opening moments of music and greeting that come every summer touch into a tradition that reaches back 72 years.
As music director and conductor Weil says, the festival is unique in the world, a musicians dream come true. “It's the real friendships that grow that make it so special,” he says. “Nowhere else in the world I have I found this.” The secret of the great performances here, according to Weil, is that everyone pours themselves fully – heart, soul and spirit – into the music.
Poignantly, Weil, who cherishes the Bach Festival as the most personally rewarding work of his musical career, will be leaving at the end of the 2010 festival, making this year’s programs the beginning of the conclusion of his tenure of almost two decades. It is wise to leave at the height of accomplishment, he says, not the downturn.
So as the beautiful brass melodies caressed the breeze causing the little elf child to hug herself with delight beneath the camellia tree, a sense of change also filled in the air. Weil will have only one more opening night in Carmel as will his concertmaster Libby Wallfisch, mega-star of Baroque string playing. We don’t yet know who Weil’s replacement will be, though the search committee has narrowed the candidates down to a handful from which to choose.
Weil’s trajectory has always been towards greater perfection of the music. He has guided and improved the quality of the ensemble each year so that now he truly offers the best of all his years in Carmel. Friday and Saturday evenings were luminous musically, especially the Haydn Creation Oratorio. Weil seems to be reaching for the firmament to give us something deeper and more inspiring than ever on the eve of his departure.
It’s a precious experience we have here with the Carmel Bach Festival, a rarity in the world that even many local music lovers don’t realize. And it is about to change. These are among the last concerts of the Bruno Weil years and, sadly, due to the economically necessary decrease of performance weeks from three to two this season-- and next we are told--the opportunities to hear recitals and concerts are fewer than before.
Though the Bach Festival will continue building on the new excellence it has attained, Weil and Wallfisch will be with us for only a few short weeks this summer and next, As my Midwestern grandmother used to say, “It’s the last day in the afternoon.”
Don’t let this opportunity pass you by.
--------------------------------------------------
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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