pulsoptional: It’s Not Chamber Music (is it?)

A recent New York Times article from June (“Music That Thinks Outside the Chamber”) raised what I thought was perfectly valid question: is chamber music performance, as we traditionally know it, dead?

Many classical musicians might resent the idea that one of our most hallowed, enjoyable, and deeply satisfying artistic experiences is being given the “doomsday” treatment. Well, part of me is sensitive to this, but another part says, “Tough – deal with it!” Sometimes we performing musicians need to have our mental wiring shocked into accordance with present-day reality. The truth is, many people who otherwise like live music are not coming to (or supporting) the traditional, formal chamber music concert as much as they used to. (Take a look here for some thoughts on redirecting chamber music events towards the more informal.)

This is not to say that there is something wrong with traditional chamber concerts. Here’s a great example of a wonderful program for a typical chamber concert (this is taken from a program offered by the St. Lawrence String Quartet at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in November 2007):

Ernest Chausson, Chanson perpetuelle for Soprano and Piano Quintet, Op. 37
Cesar Franck, String Quartet in D major
Robert Schumann ,String Quartet in F major, Op. 41, No. 2
Roberto Sierra, Songs from the Diaspora for Soprano and Piano Quintet (CMS Co-commission, NY Premiere)

It’s a really terrific program: plenty of meaty classics from the Romantic era, a little variety in the instrumentation through the inclusion of voice and piano, and the obligatory new piece which lends the program contemporary resonance. OK, great for CMS; these established programs involving performance institutions like the St. Lawrence Quartet can bring in people who appreciate great chamber music. But what if there are simply too many of them, with too much of the same thing, in the same venues, with all of the same people on stage and in the audience? People will begin to yawn if this kind of event is replicated over and over again, which, with some notable exceptions, is precisely the situation anywhere chamber music is active. And sometimes people are just simply intimidated by chamber music culture. Don’t musicians who are armchair-administrators always talk about bringing in NEW and FRESH audience members? What about contemporary relevance, too? How can we bridge that gap – gain wider audiences, balance tradition with innovation, and most important, just get interested parties more excited about hearing live music in an intimate setting without fears of feeling inferior?

Into this arena walks a group like pulsoptional, a composer-collective outfit that operates in and around Durham, North Carolina. A good friend of mine, composer Marc Faris, is a member of the group (the rest of the members are Sydney Boquiren, Jennifer Fitzgerald, Todd Hershberger, Thom Limbert, Caroline Mallonée, John Mayrose, and Carrie Shull). He was kind enough to give me a copy of their debut album (self-titled pulsoptional) which was just released this year. pulsoptional is a great example of a group of self-sufficient musicians too busy to think about these issues because they are doing something about them instead. I wish the NY Times article author, Anne Midgette, could have known something about this group before she wrote the article. Though the groups she mentions (such as the Chiara String Quartet) are indeed exploring some valid ways of circumventing the often overbearing conventions of chamber music practice, pulsoptional goes much further in terms of “thinking outside the chamber”.

Here’s a description from the group’s own website:

pulsoptional, Durham, North Carolina's Band of Composers, challenges and enthralls audiences with its innovative new music programming. Since its inception in January of 2000, the new music ensemble and composers' collective has developed a diverse, devoted audience and continues to attract listeners new to contemporary music with its boundary/genre-defying, high-energy concerts. pulsoptional creates and performs new experimental works for its eclectic instrumentation, commissions new music by emerging American composers, and maintains a repertoire of experimental "classics" with an emphasis on the American experimental tradition. pulsoptional has performed in music festivals, rock clubs, dance spaces and other non-traditional venues, as well as prestigious concert halls. pulsoptional's commitment to performing in non-traditional venues has attracted audiences of diverse ages, ethnicities, and social and economic backgrounds. pulsoptional is a non-profit organization dedicated to presenting high quality performances in the Triangle area and beyond, especially music by young and/or lesser-known composers. By charging no more than $8/ticket, pulsoptional remains accessible to audiences.

They consider themselves a “band of composers” first and a “new music ensemble” second. Right away there is an acknowledgment of the terminology issues (and its concomitant PR consequences) raised in the NY times article. Second, they write AND perform their own music and seek out alternative venues for their performances. In other words, they are truly blurring the hard distinctions between the traditional notions of the chamber music group and the idea of a sophisticated rock band of musical innovators. Some of the members also function as the band’s public relations and development personnel. Third, there is the completely unique instrumentation of the group: electric guitars, electric bass, piano, bassoon, alto saxophone, percussion, violin, and oboe/english horn. Simply put, there are going to be sounds not heard before due to the diverse instrumental canvas. They are also versatile performers who explore improvisational settings, create live music for silent films, and are willing to submit to amplification.

But don’t think that they are completely turning chamber music on its head. They maintain a subtle link to the tradition by performing modern “chamber” pieces by established composers (such as Daniel Lentz, Steve Reich, and Alvin Curran), and they also arrange twentieth-century classics for the group’s instrumentation. See this page for more information on their current and past performances and programs.

I wanted to share all of this because I think that we can learn something from pulsoptional’s approach to re-defining the roles of composer, arranger, performer, and arts marketer in the twenty-first century. They certainly provide a great example for what varied skill sets modern concert groups need to incorporate to achieve progress in this field. And they are contributing to an ever-widening definition of what chamber music is, which is a net positive from my point of view. Chamber music certainly isn't "dead" when it gets enlivened by new ideas through a group like pulsoptional. (I hope the group’s members don’t mind me considering their activities as a more modern and accessible version of chamber music practice, so I certainly invite comment and discussion of this aspect.)

Since this post is getting a little on the long side, I have written about the music on pulsoptional's debut CD in another post. You can hear some samples of their music by clicking here. The CD is also available for purchase from that page.

Image from the pulsoptional website.

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Pollini plays "Feux d'artifice"

Legendary Italian pianist Maurizio Pollini performs Debussy's Feux d'artifice (fireworks) in Japan. This beautiful and exciting work is the last of the French composer's twenty-four preludes, which were finished in 1913. The video is completely out of sync with the audio for the first forty seconds, but appears to be more on target after this point.

Pollini's playing is completely economical here. Notice how his hands always display impeccable technical poise, and how often the fingers remain in contact with the keys even in the most agitated passagework. Particularly impressive is the delicate quality of sound during the soft glissandi in the middle of the piece (around 1:55 into the video).



Did you catch the distant-sounding fragment of "La Marseillaise" at the end? Remind yourself of this tune (it is the national anthem of France) and then watch again.

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Blogging as a Tool for Activism

See anything questionable about the cover art shown below?



It is the cover art used on a new CD released by the label Calliope of music by the Le Chevalier de Saint-Georges (1745-1799). If you are at all disturbed by this depiction of a musician of African heritage, please read William Zick’s recent post on why this cover art might not be in the best taste. (William Zick is the publisher and webmaster of AfriClassical, a great site I wrote about recently. He also just started the AfriClassical blog, which I think presents a unique opportunity for the advancement of musicians of African descent.)

You can read the email I wrote to Harmonia Mundi USA (the US distributor for Calliope) by clicking here. (Mr. Zick was kind enough to present my letter on his blog.) Maybe others would also like to write a letter of concern to Harmonia Mundi? Their email is info.usa@harmoniamundi.com

(My suggestion would be to keep letters respectful and polite. Since I am anti-censorship, I hasten to add that Harmonia Mundi/Calliope has a right to use whatever cover art they want. But they might want to think more carefully about the consequences this art choice could unintentionally generate.)

UPDATE 7/29/07: Check out the valuable, wide-ranging, and honest discussion about this cover art at On An Overgrown Path. (Yes, as you might expect, yours truly wrote one of the comments there.)

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Informal Chamber Recitals: After Effects

This is a follow-up to my post about a recent chamber music event I performed on Sunday, July 22 in Dayton, Ohio. This first post generated at least a little buzz in the music blogosphere (see Jason Heath’s comments on this post and my response, and Chris Foley linked to me), so I figured I should write a little bit about the post-performance scene.

Sheridan Kamberger Currie (principal violist of the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra), John Kurokawa (principal clarinet, DPO), and myself (as newly instituted principal keyboardist of the DPO) performed a well-rounded program of varied chamber music in a private home for a crowd of about twenty-five donors, board members, and other patrons and staff of the DPO. Executive director Curt Long and music director Neal Gittleman were on hand to give brief talks before the performance, which certainly lent the occasion some higher significance. (In fact, Neal graciously turned pages for me during the performance. No pressure there!)

The performance went very well. John spoke eloquently and instructively about most of the pieces on the program, and I talked a little bit about my piano solo. This is another skill that classical musicians of the twenty-first century need to cultivate: public speaking in front of audiences. Communication skills are becoming increasingly important in this business, and young musicians today avoid honing theirs at their peril.

After the performance, we musicians mingled with the guests over drinks and hors d’oeuvres. Here are paraphrases of some of the things I heard attendees say:

-We can’t wait to have another event like this. This should happen more often.
-I prefer this kind of private performance to seeing the full orchestra. (I heard this more than once.)
-It is incredible to see up close how musicians interact with one another during a performance to keep the music flowing and accurately timed.
-Can you show me that part in the music where (insert dramatic playing technique, such as tone clusters on the piano) happens?
-Welcome to the DPO family! We’re happy to have someone like you here.
-Where are you from? Where did you go to school? When did you begin your music study? What other roles do you play in your career as a musician besides being a DPO member?
-We really enjoyed hearing something different by (insert composer name). I think I’ll look into getting some more CD’s of that particular composer.
-It’s great that this event introduces you to people who enjoy funding the arts. It creates possibilities and connections. How do you feel about this kind of interaction?

Though these are paraphrases wrought from my own inevitably biased memory, I hope that the reader is getting a sense of how involved these people were in the music-making they witnessed and the curiosity, gratitude, and support they were expressing to the musicians. I certainly hope to participate in (or even help organize) more exchanges like this, and it would be useful for other artists and administrators to take note of what good can come from smaller-audience, socially interactive performance events. It's also just plain fun.

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Thinking about Practicing - 8 Ways (Plus One)

How do you think about practicing, as a student or a teacher? There are a number of ways to view the "practice" of practice, and Ed Pearlman supplies eight over at Music Teacher's Helper Blog. He lists some pros and cons to some of these approaches, which just goes to show that our purposes behind practice need to be fluid, dynamic, and in a state of constant rediscovery.

I would add another point of view to this list: Practice as a developer of self-reliance. This relates to Ed's #5 (practice as a mirror of lesson work), but I think it is important to clarify self-reliance as an important motivator and signifier of true independence in students. It is especially desirable to develop self-reliance in students when it comes to the realm of problem-solving.

There's not much more satisfaction to be gained from teaching than when a student comes to a lesson with a problem (technical, rhythmic, interpretive, etc.) fixed. For example, if a student can play that crescendo in her Beethoven Bagatelle without speeding up the tempo unnecessarily, I'll say something like, "Great job on that crescendo there! How did you keep the tempo from rushing in your practice this week?" Invariably, the student will supply me (and in her own words) with a descriptive practice technique that gets good results. Usually it will be one I've been trying to inculcate over weeks or months (such as using the metronome at a slow practice tempo, or counting aloud steadily as you play, etc.)

In other words, you will rarely hear a response to "How'd you do it?" that reflects a bad practice technique. The student will be actively realizing that she is internalizing better practice habits that get real-world results. The satisfaction I can see on a student's face when this happens is a big part of what makes teaching applied music rewarding.

I think the trick is to take advantage of a great psychological set-up: I put the student in a position to express her own competence without any preachy interference from her teacher. If a student is getting tangible results on her own, that student will veer away from bad habits and continue to explore self-reliant problem-solving with more confidence. Simple, right?

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