Kenneth Woods- a view from the podium

I’ve written here before about the modern excesses of copyright law. Today, I came across this interesting article in the Boston Globe- it appears that legal scholars have found interesting models for the protection of intellectual property that doesn’t involve the expensive and litigious system now used by record companies and film studios. Have a read and see how stand-up comedians, chef’s and magicians handle issues of creativity without the courts. Also included in the article is an interesting historical overview of the evolution of copyright law:

The question of what level of intellectual-property rights should be extended to creators has dogged America from the start. Even as prodigious an innovator as Thomas Jefferson was reluctant to protect ideas too stringently, maintaining as a point of principle that “ideas should freely spread from one to another over the globe, for the moral and mutual instruction of man.” Yet Jefferson also realized that, in a world where original creations take time, money, and energy to produce but are easy to copy, creators need to be offered “incitements to ingenuity” if they are to keep contributing to the economic and creative health of the nation.
The Constitution was written to maintain this balance between private wealth and commonwealth, allowing Congress to grant to creators - authors, musicians, inventors, and so on - “exclusive Rights” to their creations “for limited Times.” This formulation, the author Lewis Hyde writes, “allows a market in cultural property but also puts an outer boundary on that market.”

For much of the country’s history, that boundary held relatively fast, and led the country through successive waves of innovation.

Yet in the information age, where ideas play a dominant role in the marketplace, the boundary has shifted markedly in favor of private interests. This is clearest to see in the case of copyrights - along with patents and trademarks, one of the three major classes of intellectual property. In 1790, copyright protection lasted a maximum of 28 years, after which the property reverted to the public domain, where anyone was free to make use of it. Between 1831 and 1909, the term was doubled to 56 years. Today, after successive extensions passed into law by Congress - most notably, the 1998 Copyright Term Extension Act, which tacked on 20 years - copyright protection lasts on average more than a century.

Why should we be worried about this? Perhaps because the maniacal greed of oligarchial mega-corporations controlling the mainstream media know no boundries? If you think I’m exaggerating, read this (from the Washington Post)!
 

Now, in an unusual case in which an Arizona recipient of an RIAA letter has fought back in court rather than write a check to avoid hefty legal fees, the industry is taking its argument against music sharing one step further: In legal documents in its federal case against Jeffrey Howell, a Scottsdale, Ariz., man who kept a collection of about 2,000 music recordings on his personal computer, the industry maintains that it is illegal for someone who has legally purchased a CD to transfer that music into his computer.

The industry’s lawyer in the case, Ira Schwartz, argues in a brief filed earlier this month that the MP3 files Howell made on his computer from legally bought CDs are “unauthorized copies” of copyrighted recordings.

 

Special thanks to Steve Layton at  Sequenza 21 for bringing this to my attention.

c. 2007 Kenneth Woods

I’ve been meaning to write this post for a long time, as I think it’s probably a useful thing (based on my experience of seeing some very gifted people shoot themselves in the foot) to go on record with some tips for soloists who want to have long and successful careers. I’ve hesitated a bit because I didn’t want to write too soon after working with anyone who might think I was writing this as a reaction to their work!

Also, any number of my most valued colleagues will quickly recognize one or two things on this list that they don’t do, so the first rule is this—fun collaborations are the name of the game. If you play well and are easy to work with, nothing else really matters.

I tend to work with a lot of very bright young soloists who are bravely out there trying to make it in a brutally competitive field. What I fear is that some of them are making mistakes they don’t know about- what a pity that one would spend all those years practicing to lose opportunities for lack of common sense. I realize some of this may sound condescending in print- my apologies in advance! 

Readers may recognize a great deal of this post if they studied with Dorothy Delay. I’m not really her biggest fan on a musical level, but nobody understood the business better, and I learned a lot from watching her coach young soloists for many years at Aspen and Cincinnati.

So, how to be a soloist in 11 easy steps….

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Canadian pianist Oscar Peterson has died at age 82.

I amassed quite a few of his recordings over the years and have marvelled at his performances on video whenever I could find them. Anyone who has ever made the effort try to master an instrument can’t help but be humbled beyond measurement by a musician like him. When one experiences mastery and the sheer poetry of motion in the service of music like his and are educated enough to be able to recognize it and understand some part of what went into it, that is when you are blessed to be a musician.

The New York Times  choose the day of his death to rehash old and small minded complaints about Peterson’s artistry, taking great care to remind us (and probably his friends, family and admirers) that there have always been critics too small minded to accept his unique combination of all conquering ability and gentle temperament.

How sad an expression of the destructive zeitgeist of our time that one feel the need to defend a departed legend from those who would still criticize him for a perceived excess of technique- for being able to play (and to improvise) too fast, too cleanly and to perfectly.

Peterson was surely an incredible talent- by his own account he was already an accomplished pianist at the age of 14 when he first heard Art Tatum, but great talents are born every year. A talent alone is not a virtuoso. Peterson maintained a career at the highest level for a long, long and always productive career. Where others flame out, burn out, give up, fade, lose their chops, sell their souls or run out of ideas, he kept going, always in service to music and his many fans. That takes more than talent, it takes self-discipline, determination, self-sacrifice and a love for music that keeps you practicing through illness, loss, happiness, busy years and times of transition. Even when fate took away so much of his pianism after his stroke, he kept going- forcing himself to continue to grow.

Peterson was never about the search for the next sound like a Miles Davis, but was about the search for excellence, for perfection, for ease, thrills, beauty, power and excitement. Why the paper of record feels that now of all times is the moment to rehash the assaults on his life’s work mounted by those without one tenth his talent, dedication or zeal is beyond me.

Finally, much as I’ve always admired Oscar Peterson, I’m not an expert on his playing or particularly knowledgeable about his discography the way I am about some other recording artists. However, I am lucky to know of him and to know his playing.

How sad that in an era when jazz history is not part of our school curricula and when most communities don’t have a venue for the professional performance of jazz, I would bet that the vast, vast majority of people reading that obituary will never have heard of Oscar Peterson, let alone heard him play. Just think of all the stupid jingles that everyone in western society knows, all the terrible pop songs we’re assaulted by every time we step onto the streets, then think that a great artist has died- a truly great, great musician, who was at the top of his field for sixty years, who recorded hundreds of records and played thousands of shows, and a huge number of our compatriots don’t know who he was.

I’m reminded of Dexter Gordon’s speech in Round Midnight- when will we have an Oscar Peterson Airport, or Sonny Rollins National Park, or even a Max Roach Highway? When are we going to put Duke Ellington on the 100 dollar bill?  

The Rose City Chamber Orchestra (KW principal guest conductor) has been nominated for the first Oustanding Achievement in Classical Music Award as part of the 2008 Portland Music Awards sponsored by Music Spectator Magazine. Other nominees include the Oregon Symphony, James DePriest, Portland Cello Project and Jon Pittman. The awards show is January 28th, 2008. 

Highlights of the orchestra’s recent work include a residency by composer Christopher Thomas (this is his film website- he also has a strong background in “legit” composition) including a number of premieres, and a multi-year exploration of the musical arrangements made for the Verein für musikalische Privataufführungen (or Society for Private Musical Performances) under ths supervision of Arnold Schoenberg. The most recent installment in this series was the Schoenberg arrangement of Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde with the American tenor Brennen Guillory and mezzo Alexis Hamilton. 

In 2005, the Rose City Chamber Orchestra undertook a major initiative in training young and emerging conductors when the musicians founded the Rose City International Conductor’s Workshop (KW director). In our first three years, the workshop has atttracted students literaly from all over the world, including many who are sure to be stars of the future. The workshop puts a uniquely high emphasis on accompanying and opera skills, regularly inviting professional soloists and singers to work in masterclasses with the student conductors. The Fourth Annual workshop takes place from July 22-27. 

The Rose City Chamber Orchestra was founded by, and remains entirely run by, musicians who wanted a group that gave them an opportunity to choose their own musical projects. I’m very, very proud to be associated with them, and very happy that their efforts have been rewarded with a bit of well-deserved recognition. The members of the committee put in hundreds of hours of work every year to keep the orchestra going, a degree of commitment and enthusiasm that’s all too rare today.Listen here to a small excerpt from our most recent concert

As I catch up with events of recent weeks, I just wanted to also follow up on the Mozart 41 performance with Surrey Mozart Players from last week.

I’d be remiss not to say something about the concert, as it was a memorable evening and I know well that quite a few members of the orchestra read Vftp regularly and I’ve been a bit lax in writing often enough about our collaboration.

I can imagine the odd sneer of some readers that I’m following a post on Messiah with one on Mozart 41. “How dull,” they might well moan, “those pieces are such over-worn affairs. Doesn’t Woods ever want to talk about fresher bits of repertoire?”

Well, the beauty of a blog versus a column in a  paper is that one isn’t working with limited column inches- I’m not forced to choose between writing about this or that. Over time, I can write about this then that.

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William from Phoenix emailed the following over the weekend-

“Dear Maestro Woods-

I’m a regular VftP reader and young conductor about to do my own first Messiah at my church this coming week. I read your posts about the piece, but was hoping you might write a bit offering some specific musical suggestions for someone like me working on the piece for the first time….” 

Well, William- since you are conducting this week, here, in haste, are a few basic concepts I hope will help guide your preparation. (more…)

I thought I would take a minute to follow up on my Bath Philharmonia Messiah, since I had previously mentioned my preparations for it. Of course, all my musician friends and readers are probably well sick of Messiah, since just about everyone I know has played, sung or conducted one this week.

Our concert took place in the idyllic and unspoiled village of Beaminster, Dorset in St Mary’s Church, a very beautiful building that seems exceptionally well looked after. Almost alone among UK churches I’ve worked in, it seemed to have a working heating system that had actually been turned on before our rehearsal so the musicians didn’t have to play in their parkas and gloves. The only remotely negative thing I could say about the venue is that it’s a pity that they chose to carpet such a large part of such an ancient building- it rather killed the acoustics, which one would hope to be wonderfully resonant with all that stone work everywhere.

(St Mary’s Church, Beaminster)

Nonetheless, we had a nearly full house for the evening. This was a chamber Messiah, an increasingly popular approach to the piece. Onstage was a string quintet, harpsichord, two oboes, two trumpets and timpani. In addition to the four youthful and very good soloists, we had a professional choir of 9 musicians- 3 sopranos, 2 male altos (which gave a wonderfully churchy color to the sound), 2 tenors and 2 basses. I’d been just the tiniest bit annoyed to find that several members of the choir were unable to make the single rehearsal on the day- you expect work conflicts with amateurs, but to me any paycheck means you clear your schedule for all of the work, not just take the bits that are convenient. However, in spite of the fact that my take on the piece is radically different from the other two conductors doing this tour, they were more than able to assimilate everything I wanted by the evening.
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One of the most asked questions I get from students and audience members is “how many pieces do you play/conduct in a year.” Well, we paid a conducting doctoral student $.50/hour to alphabetize my concert archive for this year now that I’m done– here is the list.

Since the 2007 list spans parts two seasons it’s not surprising that the list is a little unbalanced. Not surprisingly, Mahler and Beethoven seem to be the most featured. I was  sad to see no orchestral music of Debussy, and fewer new pieces than in most years, but 2008 has quite a bit of new music already planned. Pieces I’ve played as a cellist rather than conducted are marked with a VC after the title. 2007 had the least chamber music for me of any year in my life- that’s a terrible trend. Quite a few pieces got done two or three times. I haven’t differentiated here the few pieces that I workshopped or rehearsed without performing or that I taught.

So, for those with way too much time on their hands, the 2007 KW Repertoire Report.

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It was a blustery Friday night, and I had a lot on my mind already. One day away from the final Surrey Mozart Players concert of 2007, we had a great deal of ground to cover in the evening rehearsal, particularly on Mozart’s Jupiter Symphony. 

It’s always a long drive to SMP rehearsals, Fridays doubly so, and rainy, windy Fridays in the holiday season trebly so. As I ground out the long commute, you might well have thought I was using every available minute to prepare myself for a productive evening’s work on the Mozart.  However, fate had intervened when I stopped for petrol en route and bought a copy of The Independent because it had a special commemorative section on Led Zeppelin in honor of this week’s reunion concert.

Having grown up in an age when Zeppelin towered over everyone’s musical interests but had disappeared from the world’s stage, I had always been quick to grab anything written about them because it was such a rarity in the 80’s. Old habits die hard, so I inhaled the features while downing a quick cup of coffee.  By the time I’d finished reading, I was struggling to remember much about Mozart admidst my righteous indignation at what I’d just seen in print. (more…)

For those of you who were following my concert with Parrry Karp at the Surrey Mozart Players concert in October, there is a new review of his sonata disc “Late Romantic Music for Cello and Piano,” with Howard Karp at MusicWeb International. The critic, Jonathan Woolf, concludes-

Parry Karp is surely one of the most distinguished chamber cellists in America and together with Howard Karp he has fashioned a splendid conspectus of cello sonatas. Make an effort to seek out this two-disc set – it’s been well engineered and annotated into the bargain. 
 

On the disc are sonatas by Rachmaninoff, Magnard, Ireland and Enescu and the “Imrpovisation” from the Violin Sonata by Richard Strauss. It’s all great, but the Enescu is essential listening- a real masterpiece you’ve probably never heard, played at “melt your CD player” intensity.

Yes, in this context that means me 

LA based violinist Lindsay Deutsch has a foundation  called Classics Alive dedicated to encouraging young people’s participation in music and they’ve set up a fantastic kids website and newsletter. Their newest feature is Meet the Maestro- last month it was Borris Brott, who all my Canadian friends know well, and this month it is me.

Click here to go directly to the interview I did with a fascinating panel of young musicians and here to go the kids home page.

More thoughts to follow. One of the most influential and controversial composers of the 20th Century has passed. You may not have loved his music, but we’re all poorer for living in an age of market-tested platitude-music without his uncompromising intensity to keep possibility alive.
Here is the story from the New York Times…

I’ve recently been following a lively discusssion of the fascist beliefs of the conductor Reginald Goodall, which has, predictably, spilled over to discussion of Karajan and Furtwangler. After writing this about Furtwangler, I thought is was interesting enough to repost here. 

The most telling assesment of Furtwangler’s war-year activities and beliefs I’ve heard came from my chamber music teacher, Henry Meyer. Henry was the 2nd violinist of the La Salle Quartet and an Aushwitz survivor (he’d actually survived several different concentration camps).

Henry had been a child-prodigy soloist before the war and had often worked with Furtwangler. Henry told me that Furtwangler was a decent and unpredjudiced man who was sickened by the attitudes of the Nazi movement and who wanted to walk the fine line of protecting the cultural institutions, colleagues and heritage he held dear while maintaining enough power and influence to do so.

Henry felt that Furtwangler’s failing was not that he was naive or evil, but that he was “a very weak man.” His assesment was that Furtwangler would play the holy fool to avoid having to do something he was scared of or felt was too upsetting, and would sometimes blur the line between cowardice and principal.

To me, this rings truer- a weak man is responsible for his actions; while a naive can always claim “I didn’t know,” a weak man has to say “I could have and should have done more.”

It is the myth of an inherently good society that allows nations to fall into such evil outcomes. When one has spent one’s entire life believing that your culture represents the highest values of enlightened conduct and civilized behavior, it is easy to ignore or rationalize away unpleasant truths. Someone like Furtwangler might have feared the worst yet been able to convince himself that the worst couldn’t happen in Germany- that Germany was a special, inherently good and decent culture.

At the risk of going off-topic, one wonders how future listers will look back on musicians, writers and intellectuals of today who have continued to climb the career ladder in a culture that has legalized torture, spied on its own people and abolished habeas corpus. Can we stand up in fifty years and be believed when we say- “I didn’t think we needed habeas corpus, because America is an inherently good and decent society?”

Now, watch this stunning performance of Wagner’s Meistersinger Prelude in front of a swastika from a 1942 propaganda film and see if you can keep from feeling a little sick. Furtwangler said that if he’d left Germany during the war that the humanistic tradition of music making he saw himself as an ambassador of would have crumbled, that only someone of his prestige could protect the Philharmonic and its musicians. Of course, when someone of his prestige, a representative of a great humanistic tradition, stands in front of a giant swastika it gives cover to the very forces of evil he opposed.

For an earlier Vftp post covering much of the same ground, go here. For the most upsetting Beethoven 9 footage you will ever see, go here. It is music making of historically great quality, presented in service of pure evil by a man who opposed that evil but was too weak to fully confront it. This post on Metamorphosen also came to mind as I am conducting the Strauss Oboe Concerto this week, and the late music of Strauss- some of the most sublime music ever written- literally forces us to come to terms with the most painful questions.

c. 2007 Kenneth Woods

It’s often said that conducting is a lonely profession….

This week, I’m conducting the Surrey Mozart Players in (among other things), Mozart’s Symphony no. 41. Digging out a piece this well known when you’ve done it before imposes a certain extra degree of discipline on the conductor. The challenge in coming back to piece you’ve played gazillions of times and conducted  (from memory) often is to see if you can learn as much in returning to it as you did getting to know it in the first place.

Sometimes when I come back to a piece I’ve programmed it specifically because I have had a fundamental shift in how I understand it. In this case, the process of preparing for the rehearsals is much like learning the piece from scratch. You discard everything, and start over from the beginning.

That’s not the case this time- although I’ve learned a lot in the years since I last conducted the Jupiter, I still feel (at least today!) that my basic concept of and approach to the work last time around was largely valid.

This can be an even more treacherous state of being than learning a piece for the first time.

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