venice beach today

venice beach,
originally uploaded by pbe.

spring break good

stale dogma

in kyle gann’s continuing description of the uptown/downtown aesthetic differences in new york i realize that these circumstances defined my early career as a musician and more recently as a composer. he sets the groundwork of what choices a young composer in training at a university must face.

There is a kind of student who begins to sense this early on. The classical music world, she realizes, is like a series of prefab molds, ready for your music to grow into. There’s the orchestra mold, the string quartet mold, the string trio mold - and now there’s what’s called the “Pierrot ensemble” mold: violin, cello, flute, clarinet, and piano, sometimes “Pierrot plus percussion.” In the glacial movement of classical music, this constitutes progress, that the entire 20th century managed to add one new mold to the list of standardized ensembles. Of course you can express some individuality within these molds - but ultimately, the medium is the message, and unless you have a strong talent for subliminal subversion, your orchestra music, or string quartet music, is still going to sound “classical,” with a European tinge. What’s more, when you write for orchestra, you are going to hand over your music to a powerful organization that cares little about your needs or artistic vision, and you are going to give up considerable control over your own art.

performers also face similar limitations on their creativity and expression. we grow up in high school, college ensembles, and chamber groups performing a wide variety of material to prepare us for the real world. unfortunately for a professional trombonist, the ensembles and opportunities that currently exist are musicially limiting at best. growing up in the shadow of the big band of combo jazz was very exciting in the 1980’s but now has stagnated. orchestral playing is limited by a repertoire that is not growing and is focused on performing for a shrinking audience each season. commercial music on the trombone is also limited by a kitschy style of playing that is defined by musical expression through farting noises.

i first felt something was very amiss when i moved to california in 1989. i had already come to the conclusion that playing in the orchestra was not for me. my experiences were mostly colored by observing other successful trombonists and my teachers who fostered a cult like devotion to knowing the latest equipment, trends, and appointments in the orchestra world. listening to them talk and prepare the same few excerpts seemed like they were limiting the trombone to a character actor status instead of practicing an instrument that is capable of a wide range of expression. many of my lessons on classical repertoire were consumed not with musical expression, but strategies and discussion of the various “schools and sounds” in the trombone world. if i were to have that career, i realized that i would spend much of my time imitating the popular sound that the current crop of conductors and music directors wanted to hear. this did not seem like a useful or interesting path to follow. shortly after i started my first real professional job playing at disneyland, i realized that performing popular music also had its drawbacks. like in the classical world, the commercial music that is played is based on what the paying public wants to hear. or more specifically what we think they want to hear. i have had many well meaning music supervisors limit the repertoire to what they think the public wants while quickly admitting their musical tastes are broader. i quickly found that at disneyland the options for performing music were extremely limited. i was only 21 and realize now that i was truly a hayseed from kansas, expecting the best and having my dreams crushed when confronted with the reality of the bottom line.

every year i run into excellent college musicians who are similarly dismayed by their future prospects as professional musicians. the music that they will be paid to perform seems to have no connection to the world and artistic culture they live in. what if the 100 year old vaudeville tradition was still the only way we could see comedy? obviously the comedy format has changed with the times but we are still stuck with the musical “traditions”. the orchestra has not cornered the market in being an obsolete ensemble. i also feel that wynton marsalis’s lincoln center jazz orchestra is also a new example of the jazz tradition being stuck in the past. because of the private support (money) these institutions have and the minimal market pressures they face, there is little reason to for them to grow artistically. am i saying that these groups should survive solely based on ticket sales? not really, but i am suggesting since they serve the elite of the community and not the general public they will not be agents of change. maybe somebody will break through, and the marketplace will follow. i hope that a new paradigm of music ensemble is spread so that musicians have more options and creativity in their careers. i feel that terry riley, steve reich, and philip glass started the ball rolling and many others have been pushing forward not accepting this stale dogma. kyle gann states this best.

But one should still recognize that classical music culture is a sharply defined culture, with centuries of accreted conventions that very few people in that world want changed. Some composers find the structures and conventions of that world just fine, and they grow into them uncomplaining. Others, however, find them oppressive and impossible and totally out of line with their personal imaginations. That does not mean they are lesser artists. To some of us, minority viewpoint though it may be, it means that they are the original, the sincere, the more honest artists, because from the beginning they did not compromise.

i am fortunate to have found my place in music and culture. it’s a wonderful challenge to be a participate in a battle of ideas.

update:

robert gable at aworks points out that comedian jay mohr went through similar circumstances when he was at saturday night live. why else would he leave such a great gig. i haven't read his book (except for the amazon 3-page excerpts) and felt the same way when while working at disney. this should be a great performing job; great money, steady hours, lots of contacts. but it turned into a nightmare pretty quickly.

other note:

the blogger backend is sucking today.... maybe its time to move to typepad. if you transfered to something better please let me know of your experiences and any advice.

acf-la composer's salon, sunday april 17th

the pbe has been asked to perform on april 17 at the upcoming acf-la composers salon. evidently somebody just cancelled at the last minute. whether its good luck or somebody noticed our recent good review in the la times, but i'll take it.

so far i'm planning to perform two mvts. of retrace our steps. i hear that don davis (matrix) will be workshopping something from his new opera.

i'm not sure who else is on, but we are each to keep to only 15 minutes so it should be interesting.

we are going back into rehearsals next week, thank god we had them planned before this came up. (i've finally made it to spring break) we should be firming up our may and june dates pretty soon.

tomorrow night i'm going to see matt play with his blues band sam sasso and kettle black
at the blue cafe in long beach.

cerritos center pictures are now posted thru flickr,

enjoy.


P1303487

channel surfing with mikel rouse

i just got back from watching mikel rouse's music for minorities at uclalive. ian krouse's new opera was just next door and we walked into it by accident. we were about to take our seats, but when i saw an orchestra in the pit i knew it was the wrong place. i also remembered the bad review of it in the la times this morning.

we went back across the hall from freud playhouse to mcgowan hall (which really is a 100 seat little theatre). it was a good venue for this concert, attendance was pretty good the hall looked 3/4 full. which is not bad for a 4 day run.

general observations

the most important information needed for the performance was the brief description mikel gave after the concert. he described music for minorities as small piece that has no central theme and viewing it is akin to channel surfing his home movies.

the piece was a well constructed mix of video interviews, staged scenes, still life montages, organized around rouse's loosely constructed pop songs

the piece had no real narrative that tied the videos together. although people told snippets of stories. i kept expecting the stories to be tied in or to have an "aha" moment that would bring some central theme of the human condition at the end.

in one way this style of composition is very much like the wagner/gesamtkunstwerk style melded with obliqueness of virgil thompson and gertrude stein's librettos. instead of the nonsense patter words that combined that have no overall meaning, but maybe an effect. these stories each have literal meaning, but have very little to tie together as a subject drama. on a whole its very oblique, each section has its own very short narrative, but like in channel surfing you do not find out how everything ends.

so what does that add up to?

i liked it

i thought it was well constructed, the lighting design tied together the video and live stage performance perfectly, mikel's performance was great.

playing to prerecorded tracks works well, after the performance he alluded to using the prerecorded tracks was better than finding the money to pay per diem to musicians on a tour. this setup is much easier to see more traveling productions like this. technology has made it easier to record and edit music and video within our own homes. rouse also stated without huge financial backing more of us have the tools to create for ourselves.

video production was spotty. i liked some parts better than other. some of the found images (tv commercials and video game excerpts) didn't seem to add anything to the music. other techniques worked really well. his split screen interviews and detourned CNN newscast were the highlights. it would be great to see him collaborate with somebody who has a strong background in film to fully realize his ideas. i think the ideas are strong, but the realizations are hit and miss. i also have similar feelings towards reich's latest video/music collaboration 3 tales, although the video is by reich's wife beryl korot. not taking in part the narrative arch, i think this is one reason why the the video in philip glass/geoffery reggio koyaanisqatsi films work better than the reich/korot and rouse video productions. obviously money and budget plays a big part, but to me the glass/reggio films are the gold standard for the realization of film and music.

i didn't really come away knowing anything about the people from louisiana, he had great stories that he told after the concert, which then i could make some of the connections he talked about. but the editing was so short that i could not process them into living people. that's probably why don't enjoy sitting around looking at other peoples vacation photos and home movies. they really are only snapshots of a time and place that you had to be there to enjoy.

stopping for a sidenote....

i am not a music critic, these criticisms/observations are of the highest level of a composer whose music i really admire. he knows who he is, has a strong voice and vision to try things with video, music and words. i'm much more interested in watching a piece that deals with music, video and words than the ars antiqua offerings that are still currently available at your local concert hall

in this genre he is working the same ground as meredith monk, robert ashley and laurie anderson (as well as others) while pushing the combinations of music/video/speech as non-narrative subject drama. watching his works makes me feel like the first time i watched a robert altman movie listened to monteverdi's madgrials of war and love as a whole. they all are dealing with real people and real life. this genre is the combination of things that rouse calls "opera verite" and to me is the most interesting new sandbox to play in. rouse might be working out the kinks of his art in public, but at least he is pushing forward and creating something that has honesty in the human condition.

i know i am projecting onto a composition what i would like to hear, especially since i have spent a lot of time thinking about this subject. although technology gives us access to more music than ever, i'm very fortunate to have the opportunity to be able to catch a live performance by a great composer. it makes me feel good to see a performance from somebody whose best days are yet to come.

where have you been paul bailey?

that is a good question, my blog posts have been few and far between for the last few months. (thanks to the fredosphere for nudging me out of my van down by the river) . After reading Ayelet Waldman's article in today's Salon i realized that i also fit a similar pattern (although without the suicidal and bipolar tendencies). blogging has been good for my soul, but working the details of your art online has some limitations. she captures the essence of this with:

At the same time, I was becoming convinced that all this blogging was having a deleterious effect on my writing. It was more than the hours I was spending posting to my blog, reading my comments page, reading other blogs, and checking my site meter. As a novelist, I mined my history, my family and my memory, but in a very specific way. Writing fiction, I never made use of experiences immediately as they happened. I needed to let things fester in my memory, mature and transmogrify into something meaningful. The fictionalized scene I ended up with was often unrecognizable from the actual event that had been its progenitor.

i think a big part of the process of creating is observing. i have spent much of the last few months getting back into touch with what my goals are. what do i what to write? perform? what do i really care about? its been great just hanging out with my wife, dogs and friends. this week its time to finally get the group rolling again. i've been plotting out the next couple years of pieces i would like to write, some original, some transcriptions. right now i'm transcribing two of lloyd rodger's pieces for upcoming concerts(bonedance and exit music). besides having other music to play (i never really think that concerts of single composers are really interesting) it allows me to work out orchestration ideas with my group. its always easier when its not your music and i'm not worried about the notes, or form, just what is the best way i can activate through my instruments. i'm also interested in doing some baroque transcriptions, i've been listening to a lot of locatelli's concerto grossi and i'm also thinking about arranging a pezel or pucelll chaconne. also we will finally get around to play my setting of weezer's sweater song! i heard the new album is coming out soon. if you have copy already, send it my way. i have other things to send back.

blogs are a great way to passively participate in the world and comment if you like. there are so many more voices that make me feel much more human. they also connect me to great new things like...

edmund wells (bass clarinets playing radiohead, duran duran, and spinal tap) i still need to check out their original music i just cannot stop playing creep! the multiphonics are f***ing great!!!!!!!!!!

other notes

thanks again to the fredosphere for the nudge.... the pbe is kind of a string ensemble, except with trombone, clarinet, vibes, electric guitar, electric bass and keyboard.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pbe/5568463/,

i cannot take credit for the stokowski quote, it's alex ross via the chansins biography

shit... it's monday at 6:00pm 6:30pm 6:45pm, i need to start my daily comp routine that usually consists of some or all of the following;

eartraining/transcription, counterpoint, piece construction (tonal planning, form, elements, orchestration, crying, begging and stealing) on most days i'm lucky to get an hour or two, weekends 3-4 depending on what is happening.

final gossip

i also heard that the diametric ensemble(no discernible website, they must be soo hip to have a secret one only the cool people who wear kilts while playing can join) and eight blackbird performed at cal state fullerton this weekend. i didn't go, tickets were pretty expensive and i'd rather see mikel rouse this weekend at royce hall. anyway... i heard both groups played all the greatest modernist hits from the 60's, 70's and 80's. my friend especially liked the performance of crumb's voice of the whale, but was puzzled by the rock concert style sale of t-shirts, temporary tattoos and stickers after the concert. i guess that's what made the concert cutting edge.

back to my van down by the la river

she's about four foot nuthin'

here's a great way to start your weekend. from the Fredösphere

concert etiquette, friend or foe

after reading alex ross's post on the history of concert etiquette i don't feel so bad. evidently the silence between mvts. is another "rule" that none of us got to vote on. it looks like much of the blame can be set at the feet of leopold stokowski who stated:

It has been the dream of my life to have a Temple of Music. This very minute I have the plans for such a temple completed at my House. Each of the audience would sit alone in a stall-like seat. No one would see his neighbor … Just before the music begins the light will be slowly dimmed so that the entire temple will be in darkness and the audience will be literally drenched in beautiful music.” (Kupferberg, p. 75). Stokowski actually made a trial run at the Temple of Music, and it turned out that the darkness was not quite total, as Abram Chasins relates: “Stokowski ordered the house lights extinguished and allowed only infinitesimal lamps over the orchestra stands, while a huge spotlight played upon the conductor from below so as to project mammoth shadows of his flashing, expressive fingers and hands onto the walls and ceiling of the stage.” (Chasins, Leopold Stokowski, pp. 104-5)

these strange rituals illustrate some of the barriers between audience and performer that alienates part of the audience. for new listeners its like going to a friends church and trying to mimic all their gestures and rituals, hopefully you will stand up and sit down at the right time, god forbid if you cross yourself wrong. i also agree the "silence" between mvts. is really about the power conductors have to focus attention on them.

as a teacher and music director i have been asked many times to explain to my students and parents what proper "concert etiquette" is. i have been pushed to ask the audience not to applaud between mvts, and a colleague even explained to me that we must make our community of parents and students more "civilized". it seems in opposition to our goals as musicians. the other day i was explaining to my students that in any performance our goal is to get beyond the physical and mental and communicate with each other (and hopefully the audience) on an emotional level. isn't it counterproductive to ask the audience to not participate, to deny one of the greatest nonverbal communications there is, the moment when everybody is transfixed and "it" happens. wtf!! is a civilized audience supposed to sit there and silently praise the magi?