sounds like now

Bostonians have more to cheer about this year than just the World Champion Red Sox. They’ve also got James Levine as the new music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Anthony Tommasini’s piece in today’s New York Times wonders if Mr. Levine might love the BSO more than the Met. Well, he’s “turned on by . . . audaciously modern music, which he conducts with infectious excitement” and the BSO has embraced that, or so we’re led to believe. Lucky Bostonians, is right! (I still can’t believe I missed the Harbison and Wuorinen premieres while I was out out there.)

Around the blogosphere: Visit The Standing Room and In The Wings by Heather the pianist from Oakland, CA.

For some, being dubbed a crossover artist might carry just as much baggage as being branded a sellout. And whether she likes it or not, British harpist Catrin Finch bears that burden. How could she not be considered a crossover artist after performing on television with Bryn Terfel and recording arrangements of pop tunes for Sony? But unlike other artists who’ve done similar things, Ms. Finch can still win praise from critics and other harpists (at least that’s what I gather after reading Anne Midgette’s review of her YCA debut concert at Weill Recital Hall).

Crossing over isn’t that uncommon–Yo-Yo Ma has several such albums; the double-bassist Edgar Meyer has a new CD with Bela Fleck; the flutist James Galway plays the penny-whistle; the pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet has an Ellington album as well as a CD of tunes by jazz pianist Bill Evans; and the soprano Dawn Upshaw routinely sings songs that aren’t in German or French or Italian.

So why do I bring this up? Reading Helen Radice’s comments about Ms. Finch–she acknowledges both the respect and jealousy that harpists feel towards her–got me thinking about the issue on my own instrument. The saxophone is a versatile instrument and is comfortable in many different musical settings. It’s not uncommon to find a saxophonist who plays concert music (yes, there are people that do that sort of thing) as well as jazz or experimental improvisation or salsa, and so on. Well, there is a kind of crossover that happens sometimes in the saxophone world that really ruffles some feathers–the jazz artist who gets a big gig playing a standard saxophone concerto with a world famous orchestra. If you haven’t guessed yet, I’m talking about the saxophonist that saxophonists love to hate (no, not Kenny G): Branford Marsalis.

Last December Branford played Glazounov’s saxophone concerto with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by Andrey Boreyko. Branford’s no stranger to the concert saxophone world, having cut two CDs of classical music–Romances, a potpourri of short works; and most recently Creation, which includes Milhaud’s Scaramouche and La Creation du monde, as well as Jacques Ibert’s Concertino da Camera, all recorded with the Orpheus Chamber Ensemble as his back-up band. To some, this was an outrage–”Hey! That’s our music!”–while others embraced him as a player who was helping the concert saxophone’s cause by bringing repertoire to a wider audience, even if he is a jazz artist. The discussion over at the North American Saxophone Alliance (yes, go ahead and make your jokes, it’s NASA), got pretty passionate over the issue.

So what’s the big deal? Contrary to popular belief not all saxophonists play jazz. There’s a sizeable portion of the saxophone community that plays concert music–and only concert music. As a result, some folks get a bit territorial when an “outsider” plays on their turf. It’s understandable. A jazz saxophonist would probably snicker if a concert saxophonist (not one who also plays jazz) booked a gig at the Blue Note and attempted to play changes. But concert saxophonists–some of them–weren’t snickering at Branford on stage with the CSO, they were fuming.

Where do I come down w/r/t this issue? Well, I see it from both angles. The CSO wants to sell tickets and Branford is a big-name saxophonist. (The question would be, why would they program the Glazounov concerto anyway?) Yet Branford brings a different set of values to saxophone tone, technique, and interpretation than most concert saxophonists. And there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. However, at this point in the instrument’s history, I believe that concert saxophone playing stands as a viable–albeit, less lucrative or recognized–mode of music making vis-a-vis jazz.

Catrin Finch can cross over because she’s able to cross back over and not lose any of her musical intergrity in the process. And her crossover stuff displays the same stunning playing that she brings to the concert hall. Ok, so what do I think? Here it is: Not all classical saxophonists can play jazz. And not all jazz saxophonists can play classical.

There’s a neat animated analysis of Cornelius Cardew’s Treatise available as part of the Block Museum’s Pictures of Music exhibition.

Thanks to Jerry Bowles, Steve Hicken, and Tim Johnson for the shout-outs.

It was a slow day today in two ways–slow on the bike and slow with the words. It’s finally nice enough to ride outside and actually enjoy it. Unfortunately my concert schedule kept me away from training through most of February and March. But now I’m back in the saddle, spinning along in the small ring. The hardest part will be trying to stay aerobic for about a month in order to get the engine back in shape. Sights are set on the TT in Romulus, MI on April 30. A top finish might be out of reach at this point. But at the very least, I’ll get a good sense of my lactate threshold.

I’ve got about a week and a half before an onslaught of concerts, including a performance at the SEAMUS National Conference, a Non-Zero show at the Tenri Cultural Institute in NYC, and a performance with the International Contemporary Ensemble at Merkin Concert Hall. David T. Little’s new work written for NZ Red Scare Sketchbook arrived today. Looks intense.

Around the blogosphere: A review at ionarts of a Lang Lang concert at the Kennedy Center that takes up the issue of showmanship v. musical intelligence and sensitivity (something I’ve addressed a bit previously). And Helen Radice talks about a similar phenomenon plaguing the harp world.

This month’s edition of NewMusicBox is out with a science theme. And who better to talk about science and music than Alvin Lucier. Frank Oteri’s got an interview with Mr. Lucier, in which he addresses the topics of not fitting in, science vs. art, and unlearning and keeping an open mind, among other things. There are even video excerpts to watch. J. Mark Scearce’s article on the ethics of an education has Lawrence Dillon and the gang talking over at Sequenza21. And my friend, composer Keeril Makan, has an essay about a graduate seminar he conducted that dealt with the role of funding in contemporary music’s development in the United States.

The Carpenter Center at Harvard University. Le Corbusier’s only building in North America and one of the last to be completed in his lifetime. A collection of forms that read like a summation of the architect’s work–reinforced concrete, pilotis elevating a large mass off the ground, the ondulatoires from La Tourette, the brises soleils from the Marseille unite d’habitation, and the original Five Points from the 1920s articulated in a new way. Imagine the meeting of the minds to create the Philips Pavilion at the 1958 Brussels World’s Fair–Le Corbusier, who was employing Iannis Xenakis at the time, and Edgard Varese, who composed his Poeme Electronique for the installation.

Last Sunday’s New York Times is still providing grist for the mill. While everyone was busy salivating over the Wuorinen-Harbison-Levine summit, they might have missed another important piece. Anne Midgette’s article about how classical musicians’ plots to educate their audiences usually fall short makes some good points:

Too often, all those notes and lectures and, yes, even the concert hall itself effectively create an additional barrier, making the concert experience feel more like a college class than an evening of enjoyment.

The idea being that the more an audience knows about the music they’re listening to, the more they will appreciate it. Well, that’s usually not the case. And Ms. Midgette sites as evidence the fact that she routinely sees people looking at the wrong program in the playbill during a concert.

The fact that some musicians and musical organizations feel the need to lecture their audiences and extoll the virtues of some work or another, although extremely well-intentioned, only serves to reinforce the idea in some of the public’s mind that classical music is an elitist institution. I imagine that some audience members would be put off by a pre-concert lecture–as if they were being talked down to. Ms. Midgette’s right: who wants to be lectured to when you’ve come to enjoy some live music?

Like Ms. Midgette, I’ve often thought of the concert hall as something of a barrier. The performer has a role to fulfill as does the audience. Maybe lecturing to the audience isn’t the best way to try and break down that barrier. Some artists have enjoyed great success taking classical music out of the concert hall and into some pretty seedy places. The cellist Matt Haimovitz has perhaps done this the best of anyone recently. He’s toured around the country with all six of Bach’s cello suites and a more contemporary program called Anthem, which includes some newly commissioned works, in venues that might seem less than accommodating to his instrument–coffeehouses and rock clubs.

Classical musicians are trying to reach out to new audiences. Who can blame them? It’s something that I’m certainly actively involved in. If we’re going to succeed, I think Mr. Haimovitz provides the best model. And he does it without sacrificing any of his artistic integrity. So keep the lectures to five sentences or less and fill up the time with imaginative programming and compelling performances. People will respond.

Non-Zero plays Eastern Nazarene College in Quincy, MA tonight. Works by Hillary Zipper, Lou Bunk, Alvin Lucier, and a Cage-inspired improvised time bracket piece for alto sax, percussion, and laptop that Tim put together. (He put the piece together, not the laptop.)

Other miscellany: Pretty good article in USA Today, of all places, about new directions in programming and marketing by some classical musicians, including the cellists Yo-Yo Ma and Matt Haimovitz. Combing the blogosphere, I stumbled upon a blog with a title resembling mine–only one letter different. Composer Marcus Maroney’s Sounds Like New. Give a look to Jason Hibbard’s blog with the Lucier-inspired title–I Am Sitting In A Room. And thanks to Matt Burtner for taking note.

Is it me, or is Steve Jobs channeling John Cage? Apple’s ad campaign for the new iPod shuffle reads like PR for Cage’s ideals–”Give chance a chance,” “Life is random,” “Enjoy uncertainty.” Too bad Cage didn’t have Apple’s marketing machine.