{"id":5728,"date":"2014-04-16T13:24:20","date_gmt":"2014-04-16T13:24:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/?p=5728"},"modified":"2014-04-16T14:49:54","modified_gmt":"2014-04-16T14:49:54","slug":"a-future-for-music-talking-our-way-to-transformation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/2014\/04\/16\/a-future-for-music-talking-our-way-to-transformation\/","title":{"rendered":"A future for music- talking our way to transformation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This week I will be conducting some of the incidental music composed by Edvard Grieg to accompany Ibsen\u2019s Peer Gynt. I haven\u2019t conducted any of Grieg\u2019s Peer Gynt music in over ten years, and I\u2019m very, very excited to be doing\u00a0 it again.<\/p>\n<p>There was a time when I didn\u2019t know enough about music or life to know how wonderful this music is. I remember attending the Round Top Festival many, many years ago as a student, and being slightly put off to see the Second Suite from Peer Gynt on the rep list. Round Top is a conservatory-level summer program for instrumentalists who aspire to play in great orchestras. I\u2019d played the Grieg several times as a teenager and the piece had definitely taken on the taint of being a \u201cyouth orchestra piece.\u201d I was in a &#8220;Peer Gynt\/Schmeer Gynt&#8221; mood. I wasn\u2019t alone in this- I don\u2019t think there were more than five players in the orchestra who were really thrilled to be playing it. It felt like an easy filler work that had been chosen to free up rehearsal time for the other, more &#8220;ambitious&#8221; pieces on the program.<\/p>\n<p>All of that changed one afternoon.<\/p>\n<p>We were invited to attend a talk on the Grieg given by the great musicologist Michael Steinberg, whose wife, Jorja Fleezanis (long-time concertmaster of the Minnesota Orchestra) was teaching violin at the festival. Attendance was voluntary, but I would guess a good thirty to forty members of our 80-piece orchestra showed up. The vibe as intentionally informal and laid back. We mostly sat on the floor, and Michael was his usual soft-spoken, gentle, brilliant self. The vibe was about as far from &#8220;educational&#8221; as you can get. For about an hour he talked about the music\u2019s roots in Ibesn\u2019s masterpiece. He talked about Peer\u2019s character flaws and personal journey, and read several relevant pages from the play. Over the course of the hour, \u00a0Michael gently persuaded us all that we were blessed that week to be engaging with two great masterpieces, Ibsen\u2019s play and Grieg\u2019s music, that touched on the very essence of the human experience.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"width: 120px; height: 240px;\" src=\"http:\/\/ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/widgets\/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&amp;OneJS=1&amp;Operation=GetAdHtml&amp;MarketPlace=US&amp;source=ss&amp;ref=ss_til&amp;ad_type=product_link&amp;tracking_id=aviewfromthep-20&amp;marketplace=amazon&amp;region=US&amp;placement=0195126653&amp;asins=0195126653&amp;linkId=G2F457RTNC5KV7GJ&amp;show_border=true&amp;link_opens_in_new_window=true\" height=\"240\" width=\"320\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>I think the highpoint of the session was when Michael read the scene depicted in \u201cAase\u2019s Death.\u201d Peer\u2019s mother, Aase, is dying. Peer, neither a great man nor a particularly good son, lovingly comforts her with stories as she slips away.\u00a0 That reading and that movement became the highlight of the week for me- possibly the highlight of the summer. In fact, I can\u2019t even remember what else was on the program that we thought was so much more interesting and important. You can bet there were a lot of tears around when Michael turned off the CD player at the end of the movement. From not wanting to play Peer Gynt at all, we all suddenly wanted to play the First Suite, too.<\/p>\n<p>I was telling a shortened version of this story to a colleague this morning- not just because we\u2019re doing the piece on Saturday, but because this is the sort of thing all of us need to do more of.\u00a0 So much of musical training is practical. So much of our marketing is driven by celebrity, trends and occasion. Musical education, training and outreach can be inspirational, literary, personal, creative and narrative. There was so much to learn from Michael that day- about life, about writing, about character, about how one genius inspires another. Most of all, there was the inspiration of Michael himself- his incredible love of music and depth of knowledge combined with his effortless ability to engage and communicate. He had the uncanny ability to engage his audience in such a way that our received barriers, points of resistance and arrogance simply fell away in the presence of his sincerity and wisdom. Michael became a friend and mentor and I learned so much from him about how to talk with people about music. If we want a future for music, we can\u2019t just focus on playing in tune, balancing our budgets and marketing our concerts. When you can get a listener or a musician to understand the human essence of a great work of art, the musician plays with a totally different level of artistry, and you can bet the listener will be there for the concert. If we want a future for music, we\u2019ve got to learn to sit on the floor with our friends, colleagues, neighbors and peers, play some tunes and talk about why we love them.<\/p>\n<p>http:\/\/youtu.be\/yYbNnPnyDTM<\/p>\n<p>AASE This bustle<br \/>\nis taking my strength away.<\/p>\n<p>PEER Look, there\u2019s the castle, we\u2019re closing,<br \/>\nthe driving will soon be done.<\/p>\n<p>AASE I\u2019ll lie back, rest my eyes, try dozing,<br \/>\ndepending on you, my son!<\/p>\n<p>PEER Grane my strider, get going!<br \/>\nThe castle is one great hum!<br \/>\nThere\u2019s a swarm at the gate to and froing.<br \/>\nNow here comes Peer Gynt with his Mum!<\/p>\n<p>What\u2019s that you say, Mr Saint Peter?<br \/>\nMa\u2019s not allowed to slip in?<br \/>\nYou\u2019ll have to look long to beat her<br \/>\nor to find such a decent old thing.<br \/>\nAs for me, least said soonest mended;<br \/>\nI can turn at the gate again.<br \/>\nIf you poured me one \u2014 that would be splendid;<br \/>\nif not, I must leave, that\u2019s plain.<\/p>\n<p>Like old Nick when he preached I\u2019ve been telling<br \/>\ngreat fibs, more than now and then,<br \/>\nI\u2019ve scolded my Ma for her yelling<br \/>\nand cackling like some old hen.<br \/>\nBut you show respect now you\u2019ve met her<br \/>\nand greet her with warmth and praise,<br \/>\nthere\u2019s no-one you\u2019ll come across better<br \/>\nfrom hereabouts, nowadays. \u2014<\/p>\n<p>Hoho! Here\u2019s God, now, the Father!<br \/>\nSaint Peter, you\u2019ll cop it, you\u2019ll see!<br \/>\n(in a deep voice)<br \/>\n\u2014 \u201cYou stop all this formal palaver,<br \/>\nand leave Mother Aase be!<br \/>\n(laughs aloud and turns to his mother)<br \/>\nYes, wasn\u2019t it just as I said? Things<br \/>\nwill dance to a different tune!<br \/>\n(in dread)<br \/>\nBut your eyes \u2014 why they bulge like a dead thing\u2019s!<br \/>\nHave you passed away Ma, so soon \u2014 !<br \/>\n(goes to the head of the bed)<\/p>\n<p>You mustn\u2019t just lie there, staring! \u2014<br \/>\nSpeak Ma; it\u2019s me, your son!<br \/>\n(feels her brow and hands cautiously; then he drops the cord<br \/>\non the chair and says quietly)<br \/>\nAh well! \u2014 Grane, rest from your faring;<br \/>\nfor right now the journey\u2019s done.<\/p>\n<p>(closing her eyes and bending over her)<br \/>\nThanks, Ma, for the cuddling and spanking,<br \/>\nfor all of your life beside! \u2014<br \/>\nBut now it\u2019s your turn to be thanking \u2014<br \/>\n(puts his cheek to her mouth)<br \/>\nso there \u2014 that was thanks for the ride.<\/p>\n<p>(Kari enters)<\/p>\n<p>KARI What? Peer! Then we\u2019re over the weeping,<br \/>\nthe worst of her grief and dread!<br \/>\nGood Lord, how soundly she\u2019s sleeping \u2014 \u2014<br \/>\nor is she \u2014 ?<\/p>\n<p>PEER Hush; she is dead.<\/p>\n<div id=\"wp_fb_like_button\" style=\"margin:5px 0;float:none;height:100px;\"><script src=\"http:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#xfbml=1\"><\/script><fb:like href=\"https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/2014\/04\/16\/a-future-for-music-talking-our-way-to-transformation\/\" send=\"false\" layout=\"box_count\" width=\"450\" show_faces=\"true\" font=\"arial\" action=\"like\" colorscheme=\"light\"><\/fb:like><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This week I will be conducting some of the incidental music composed by Edvard Grieg to accompany Ibsen\u2019s Peer Gynt. I haven\u2019t conducted any of Grieg\u2019s Peer Gynt music in over ten years, and I\u2019m very, very excited to be doing\u00a0 it again. There was a time when I didn\u2019t know enough about music or [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[930],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5728","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-a-future-for-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5728","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5728"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5728\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5738,"href":"https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5728\/revisions\/5738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}