It will be a family affair – this concert will be featuring composers from the area, including Barb Vant Erve, Stella terHart, and my awesome brother, Peter Crouch.  He and I will be performing together on a number of pieces, and my mother Lynne Davis will be accompanying us!  My flute buddy Katherine Watson, also from the Kawarthas, will also be performing.

The show will take place Saturday, May 5 at 7:30pm at Trinity United Church (42 William Street).  Stay tuned next week, for Homecoming Part 2: Kawartha Youth Orchestra Reunion!

Be sure to come out this Friday, April 20th to the acoustically superb Gallery 345 for A Pallette of Sound: Passport Duo and Blythwood Winds in Concert.  The concert begins at 8pm, and tickets are $15 general and $10 for students.  Come on out and support some great chamber music and celebrate with drinks and snacks!

One of the big issues surrounding all of this is the claim that modern composers have not found that connection with modern audiences, that there is yet to be a type of music that really reaches out to the masses.

I beg to disagree, but you will only agree with me if you consider film music to be part of the direct line of western classical tradition.  The fact is, the early film composers, like Wolfgang Korngold (who did the scores to so many Errol Flynn films), were up-and-coming composers in Europe before being displaced to America, even winning accolades from the likes of Mahler and Strauss (for those reading my blog who aren’t totally up to scratch on Western classical history, these two gentlemen were leading figures in composition).

Bernard Herrmann created some of the most original music to ever come out of Hollywood, with a career that spanned much of the century.  Some of my favourite music of his includes the score to Psycho:

He also did the score to one of the greatest films of all time, Citizen Kane, directed by the larger-than-life Orson Welles.  Welles ended up being a huge figure in musical life in the early 20th century, who understood that this music could either heighten emotion or bring out subtle undercurrents that were not present on stage/film (he was an opera buff).  Simply watch the opening scene to that movie, and you’ll understand what I mean.

Not mainstream enough, you say?  Well, you knew this was coming – along comes John Williams.  Williams started in jazz, like so many composers of recent memory, and his scores have never lost that rhythm. Comfortable in almost any style, Williams is able to take different influences and still produce music that is uniquely his (Mozart did exactly the same thing).  His melodies are memorable for a reason, and he supposedly takes a great deal of time thinking out which group of simple notes will have the maximum impact.  When Star Wars came out, the records flew off the shelves at a record pace that any composer would be envious of (well, any composer that actually WISHES to have their music heard).

Instead of one of his larger-than-life scores, here is a track called ‘Going to School’ from the movie Memoirs of a Geisha, with Yo-Yo Ma on cello.

Finally, to illustrate the type of talent that movie music attracts, we have Jonny Greenwood of Radiohead and recent Academy Award winner, Trent Reznor of Nine Inch  Nails fame.  Greenwood was recently in a New York Times article about the rocker’s recent move to use large orchestras in concerts, and also about his extremely effective score to There will be Blood, about a turn-of-the-century oil tycoon who epitomizes pure evil and greed.  If you don’t believe me, here is the track entitled ‘Henry Plainview’

You can just picture the tortured soul underneath.  He may not have come up with these modern performance techniques, but the fact that he got a larger audience talking about them and appreciating them is indicative enough of mass appeal.  Finally, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross are creating some incredible new sounds for movie soundtracks using guitars and sound-altering machines, and they were rewarded for their work on The Social Network.  Here is one of the funkier tracks from the new David Fincher film, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo:

Is this all considered high art?  Quite frankly, I don’t care, that phrase has too many negative connotations for the general public when it comes to 20th century composition.  Perhaps it’s time to employ some of this music in the concert halls (and not just the pops concerts), or perhaps it’s more successful because it is not the concert hall.  To continue to deny the obvious talent here is part of the current disconnect facing the industry.

A co-worker of mine mentioned this to me at work after I was lamenting the fact that there were so few people in the audience of the final concert in the New Creations Festival, put on annually by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra.

I’ve been involved with new music for much of my performing career, as well as being involved with marketing for several groups in Toronto that focus on new music initiatives.  There is certainly an appetite for new works, I have no doubt about that.  But there are groups that are finding it difficult to bring out audiences to hear world premieres, things that have never been heard on this earth before.  Is this not exciting enough?

People go out in droves to see the latest Hollywood blockbusters.  After the initial excitement dies down, the great ones stand the test of time, the others go to the bargain bin at HMV.  Granted, marketing plays a key role in this, but I would be ecstatic to have that situation in the classical music world.  Imagine, an entire festival where the works that receive the most enthusiastic responses are given an encore at the end in one blockbuster concert!  The fact is, it’s very simple to say ‘Why won’t people come out, this is great new music’.  To be honest, sometimes it isn’t.

But that is not the problem: the problem is these pieces are not even given a chance.  I return to my friend’s quote, it is a question of expectation.  When certain patrons at the TSO (the subscribers, let’s say), hear about a new music concert being performed, there is this immediate reaction in their mind that equates it to ‘frightening sounds’ –  in other words, not Brahms or Beethoven (and this certainly happens, as some of my poor friends can attest to in some of their conversations with ticket-buyers while telemarketing).

Like my previous post about booing and being more vocal in our opinions, perhaps this is a part of a bigger social issue.  Have we become so conservative as to not be open to new opportunities, new adventures in sound (ie. the traditional symphony audience)?  Or perhaps on the flip side, have concerts in new music gotten so far out of touch with everyday emotions and situations as to no longer be relevant?  There needs to be a connection somehow.

The fact is, the 20th and 21st centuries have provided a very diverse and colourful spread of music, as anyone who has read Alex Ross’s ‘The Rest is Noise’ can attest to.  Toronto is full of new and wonderful creations, of all styles, that are worth experiencing.  I am a little disappointed when I overhear a patron leaving a TSO performance of Bartok’s The Miraculous Mandarin claiming it to be too modern.  That piece is almost 100 years old.

Perhaps, instead of judging this music prematurely, we can take a few risks in our lives.

Please stay tuned for my next post, which will focus on bridging the gap between new creations and the general public (and whether it even needs to be a priority).

Several orchestras have begun allowing patrons to use their phones during concerts, to converse with each other and their followers to let them know what they think of the music being performed.  They have even begun to create ‘tweet-zones’, where all of the social media people can gather in the concert hall in one group of seats so as not to disturb other audience members (is this the same as cramming over-rambunctious children into the Sprite zone at the Air Canada Centre?).

In essence, the thought behind this is great.  It encourages discussion, and creates buzz for classical concerts.  It can even be a source of education for newcomers, if used correctly.

But at the same time, classical music concerts are a time to shut off the rest the world, to be totally immersed in a musical landscape that requires all of our attention.  Even if we are listening intently, how focused can we really be if we stop every few minutes in a lyrical cello solo to tweet about what we are doing?

Like everything, the answer must be a fine line in introducing these new initiatives, to find a balance of encouraging discussion, but perhaps not during the concerts themselves (more intermissions, anyone?).

You still have to applaud those groups that are forging ahead and at least experimenting with using twitter, and for starting this whole conversation.  Click here for a great article written in USA today about this topic.

One of the points I always come back to, and that Mr. Terauds alludes to, is that the need to withhold applause is simply a construct of the 19th century.  It was also at this time that music began to take on a feel of religiosity (which incidentally has led to the disconnect we have today).  Before this, audiences were quite open about how they felt about new compositions.

I’m not sure where I stand on the issue of ‘to clap or not to clap’.  It was exhilarating when I attended ‘Beethoven and your Brain’ at Koerner Hall two years ago, to have Edwin Outwater encourage the audience to clap when Beethoven’s 5th Symphony famously moves to a glorious C Major – it felt fresh and exciting.  But we were still being told to do it, it wasn’t spontaneous.  And there are times when you really do need to be quiet for the music to have the right effect.

More importantly I find is the need to be open about how we feel towards new pieces.  What happened to the boos and the riots when audiences were horrified by what they heard?  Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring is famous for having caused a riot in Paris, though this was also part of a larger social structure conflict.  People would walk out in hordes if a piece was really not to their liking.

Our society is a polite one, perhaps overtly so.  I’m not saying we should riot, pillage and plunder, look what happened after the Canucks did not take the Stanley Cup.  But what was telling in that situation was how passionate fans can be about hockey, whereas classical music fans are stuck in this culture of needing to be always polite, supportive, and to save what we really thought of pieces for snide remarks behind the backs of those we just congratulated.

It’s not just music, our society seems to do this for everything, and to me it’s a telltale sign of a lack of passion.  Clap, boo – let’s at least try and get out of our shells a little bit.

What is interesting is that for all of the talk of music programs being cut at school, the curriculum itself (and I’m speaking of Toronto specifically) is actually quite detailed and well thought out.  There is a heavy emphasis not just on classical music and learning the basics of the notes, but also a large focus on introducing world music.  The popularity of steel pan ensembles is example of this, something the kids love to play.

Also important is the appreciation of music.  It is not simply enough to memorize dates of when composers lived – this has no practicality in the world.  The students need to understand what they are listening to, understand the universal themes that are present in every piece, and apply it to their lives.  It doesn’t matter if they don’t end up liking classical music, there are many who don’t.  It is about exposing them to it, to give it a chance, and to display a different way of looking at the world.

More on this topic to come, as we discuss it at our Lean Music meetings, the next one of which will be taking place March 6, 2012 at 9:00pm, message me to find out more.  And now here’s a cute picture of Anthony Thompson and me performing for some Grade 1 and 2′s!

As a special treat, enjoy the second movement of Kevin’s cello concerto Foundation, entitled Water:

Recently, our wind quintet had the privilege of performing as part of the most recent Classical Revolution Toronto event.  It took place at a wonderful venue, Atelier Rosemarie Umetsu, which is located at Avenue and Davenport in Toronto.  Amazing hosts!

For those who don’t know, Classical Revolution is a movement that began in California, which takes on the disconnect between classical musicians and their audiences by tackling the issue of venue space.  As you can tell by the picture below, patrons are welcome to talk amongst themselves, walk around, and if they are really into the music, come up and watch over our shoulders.

A great post on this movement was recently written by Katherine Duncan for the CBC Music site, which you can check out here.

Be sure to join the Facebook group, where Edwin Huizinga is in charge and updates everyone for the next one – come join the revolution!

I’ve never been a huge fan of flute choir, it is simply too much for the ear to take – as Nancy put it, it can be too much ‘dessert’ for a listener.  However, there were a great deal of bass and alto flutes, along with the contra, that created a really great, rich sound.

A ton of people came out, more than they expected, and we got to try a lot of great new music.  A really fun experience!

Also, I’d like to leave you with a sneak peek into this coming Saturday’s Sneak Peek Orchestra concert, with a piece by Rob Teehan, Dreams of Flying.  This is our second rehearsal on it, and the orchestra is already sounding pretty stellar.  Enjoy!