Six Clowns and a Bass Player Walk Into A Bar…

Last weekend, I performed at Classical Revolution Cincinnati, a monthly show at the Northside Tavern. There was a very good-sized crowd, a nice mix of classical music fans and hipsters. The atmosphere was just right – the audience was listening attentively but not stifling themselves (there were some quiet conversations going on too).

rick-tiny-tots-boy

 

Also on the program was Rick Robinson, former bassist with the Detroit Symphony, and director of that city’s chapter of Classical Revolution. I played in a string group with Rick and several others – we played some of his compositions (my favorite was “Pork and Beans“) and arrangements ranging from Beethoven’s 5th Symphony to a beautiful Duke Ellington piece about Martin Luther King.

Rick is bringing back a great classical music tradition with his work – arrangements like his were common back when these pieces were written, so people could play orchestral pieces in small groups at home or in coffeehouses. You can hear some of Rick’s original compositions and learn more about him on his website.

Rick spoke eloquently during our set about Classical Revolution’s mission of bringing music to the people. He also made a great point about how performances in casual settings like bars can complement the traditional concert experience, without replacing it.

This is crucial – the concert experience is wonderful, and will continue to be the main presentation of our art form to the public, but the music does just fine in other settings, and many new audience members can get to know it more easily with a beer in their hand.

I bet many classical music devotees worry that programs like Classical Revolution are a threat to the traditional concert experience, and that any departure from the ritual of the concert hall is somehow cheapening the music. All I can say is I wish they’d heard the evening’s final performance.

Six students from CCM took the stage next, with eye makeup that belonged on a KISS tribute band:

 

pierrotCR

 

They then gave a beautiful performance of Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire, a work which is perfect for a bar. The piece was first performed in 1912 with the singer/speaker in full commedia dell’arte costume and the players (including the composer) behind a screen.

The vocalist in Pierrot half sings, half speaks (a technique Schoenberg called “Sprechstimme”) and frankly sounds a little tipsy much of the time. The texts are pretty out there, too – my favorite stanza is “Black gigantic butterflies have blotted out the shining sun. Like a sorcerer’s sealed book, the horizon sleeps in silence.” Now if this isn’t drinking music, I don’t know what is.

Pierrot’s debut came shortly before that of Stravinsky’s ballet “The Rite of Spring” in 1913 – both works sparked great controversy. There was hissing from some in the audience at Pierrot’s premiere, and the riot which erupted at the premiere of “Rite” set the standard for music’s ability to provoke.

Nowadays, both pieces are standard repertoire, performed regularly in the hushed setting of the concert hall, where even a stray cough can be greeted with stares and shushing. For all those who worry about the need for absolute quiet during performances, you should know that the audience in the bar was incredibly focused on the Pierrot performance – the minimal amount of chatter was very quiet and didn’t seem to distract the players one bit.

Good performances like this one command attention and create the atmosphere they need to be heard, even in a bar – a good lesson for any performer accustomed to the mandatory silence of a concert hall.

Furthermore, the players’ face makeup added to the mood of the piece and made perfect sense – a small but significant enhancement, and a reminder that having a little bit of fun is ok, even when you’re playing music by this guy:

 

Arnold-Schoenberg

 

I think Pierrot benefited greatly from the bar performance – maybe orchestras could serve beer the next time they perform Rite of Spring, too! In any case, my Classical Revolution experience was further proof that great music holds its own just fine, even when competing with the sounds of dropped glasses and pool tables in the next room.

Till next time,

Nat

“Quit thinking like a classical musician.”

rogerdaltreylisztomania

 

 

“Quit thinking like a classical musician and start thinking like a rock musician.” So says Ivan Trevino, one of the cellists in the band Break of Reality. In a blog post on the website of The Strad magazine, Trevino shares his thoughts on how classical musicians can learn from the rock world.

His best observations are about the over-thinking we classical players do, and how it can hurt us. “Rock musicians understand rejection and don’t fear it. Most classical musicians don’t have that mindset…We believe, because it’s how we were taught, that there’s a perfect way to do things, and we can’t settle for less.”

Trevino urges classical musicians to play more gigs: “Just look at most local rock bands. They have show after show lined up. Every weekend, they are playing in a new bar or club. They’ve got their albums for sale, their email list out, and they are slowly but surely growing their fan-base. Meanwhile, classical musicians who have been playing their instruments for decades, who have invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in their musical training, don’t have this same mindset.”

Some savvy classical musicians have embraced this idea of getting out there more – the great cellist Matt Haimovitz plays Bach in bars regularly, and the Classical Revolution movement has taken off in many cities. But on the whole, we aren’t really succeeding in this area – we need to do more.

Trevino’s suggestion to “start thinking like a rock musician” got me thinking – when did we stop thinking that way? Some of the biggest names in classical music history thought (and acted) like rockers – Paganini, Mozart and Beethoven all come to mind.

Music is supposed to be challenging, in your face and uncompromising – all rock musicians know that. Beethoven certainly wrote his music with that mindset, and sometimes acted a lot like a rock star, throwing food at his housekeeper, etc. Mozart certainly partied like a rock star, and you could argue that he paid the price, dying at 35, at least in part because of his “lifestyle choices.”

Franz Liszt may have been the first rock star – at his concerts, women tore his clothes and fought over broken strings from his piano. He even got to be played in a movie by a rock star! The picture above is from it – Roger Daltrey of the Who portrayed the great pianist in “Lisztomania,” which also features Ringo Starr as The Pope (who knew he had such range?).

Let’s just say this movie is NOT an example of the inspiration I’m hoping classical musicians will get from rockers – skip it. Still, in 1975, someone thought enough of the idea to back it financially, and it got made – I doubt that would happen today.

Bad movies aside – no one performing Liszt’s concertos today gets the kind of reception he did – is that good or bad? So what happened? One possibility is that Liszt was a rock star because there was no “pop” music to compete with in his day – classical music was pretty much it, and everyone knew its stars. As other styles of music emerged over time, classical music became pigeonholed as something for certain people with “taste” and “sophistication” (an idea that Mozart and company would probably think was complete nonsense).

There’s a great book about how classical music (and other art forms) got separated from more “popular” styles – “Highbrow/Lowbrow – The Emergence of Cultural Hierarchy in America” by Lawrence Levine – required reading, in my opinion, if you care about great music and its future. Classical music doesn’t have to live in isolation – that’s a recent development, and a really bad one, I think. Trevino and others like him are trying to bring it back into the mainstream – let’s get to it! Please post your comments and thoughts about how we can (re-)learn from rock musicians!