{"id":1478,"date":"2008-12-01T05:00:13","date_gmt":"2008-12-01T13:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/?p=1478"},"modified":"2013-02-07T19:09:10","modified_gmt":"2013-02-08T03:09:10","slug":"a-couple-good-music-articles-on-the-web","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/12\/01\/a-couple-good-music-articles-on-the-web\/","title":{"rendered":"a couple good music articles on the web"},"content":{"rendered":"

First, violinist Holly Mulcahy<\/strong> over at The Partial Observer<\/a> writes an amusing (but very serious) article<\/a> about behaviors which musicians are apt to endulge in (but shouldn’t), entitled How to Alienate Your Audience in 10 Easy Steps: Musicians.<\/p>\n

Here’s a teaser:<\/p>\n

An engaged, enthusiastic, and diverse audience is one of the strongest measurements for justifying an orchestra’ value. During my years as a violinist in various orchestras around the country, I have witnessed audiences lose their enthusiasm for live concerts and turn their backs to orchestras as the result of behavior from those inside the ensemble.<\/p>\n

Last month’s article<\/a> showed how conductors alienate audiences through certain behaviors and this month is the musician’s turn. Of course, not every musician is guilty of the transgressions below but they happen often enough that they contribute to alienating an audience, so I’ve created this step-by-step guide to identify the problems along with some practical advice on how to avoid the traps.<\/p>\n

1) Never smile.<\/strong><\/div>\n

You are a serious musician who has spent hours honing your craft. Indeed, most concertgoers aren’t likely to understand the full depth of your artistic understanding. In order to make sure they understand this, it is best to project a brooding manner at all times. This is best accomplished by maintaining stoic expressions at all time, even onstage or when the audience responds to a truly triumphant performance with enthusiastic applause.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Granted, it is impossible to maintain a smile at all times during periods of intense concentration but an appreciative audience likes to know you are not pissed at them for showing up and enjoying a concert when they are applauding. It never hurts to remember that no one likes a martyr and you should respond to sincere applause with affirmative body language (yes, even a smile).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Next, Pulizter Prize winning critic Justin Davidson<\/strong> engages in a point\/counterpoint argument about the responsibilities of a classical music critic<\/a> with Pulitzer Prize winning composer John Corigliano<\/strong> over at Andante.com.\u00c2\u00a0 They’re pretty evenly matched, but I give the edge to Corigliano, only because I know the damage that can be done by sloppy criticism despite good intentions.<\/p>\n

Again, here’s a brief taste of the point and counterpoint:<\/p>\n

From: John Corigliano
\nTo: Justin Davidson<\/p>\n

Dear Justin,<\/p>\n

Reviewing a new work makes more stringent demands on a critic than reviewing familiar music does, and yet the stakes are considerably higher. A composer can puts months, or even years into the creation a work, the future of which is often influenced by the initial critical response.<\/p>\n

There are at least two issues that arise when dealing with a new piece \u00e2\u20ac\u201d one technical and one philosophical. Let me pose the technical one first:<\/p>\n

Just as a masterpiece of the standard repertoire can be distorted by an indifferent or inept performance, so can a new work be mangled. It is relatively easy to separate a piece from its performance if one is well acquainted with a work. It is absolutely impossible to do so if it is a new work and the critic cannot refer to a score to clarify where a problem lies. Unless the performers stop playing or play noticeably out of tune, the blame for a bad performance is almost always shifted to the composer. I have had quite a few performances in which the music was primarily an improvisation by badly prepared artists (some of them quite prominent) and quite unrecognizable from my original work. I have never had a critic notice what has happened.<\/p>\n

This is why it is essential<\/em> for a critic both to be able to read a score, and to have listened to the work at least once with a score. This could be at a rehearsal so the writer could listen again to the work \u00e2\u20ac\u201d this time without score \u00e2\u20ac\u201d at the concert. Without this no accurate judgment of the worth of a new work is possible.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

From: Justin Davidson
\nTo: John Corigliano<\/p>\n

Dear John,<\/p>\n

Your words sting, especially since my favorite part of the job is to hear and react to new music \u00e2\u20ac\u201d even new music I don’t particularly like. There’s something about the freshness of hearing a piece for the first time, the knowledge that there are no specialists in this work (well, maybe one: the composer) and that therefore every listener stands on the same ground. I see that as an exciting position for a critic to be in, and my hope is that I can relay something of that experience to readers who couldn’t be at the performance.<\/p>\n

Now you tell me that such an experience is invalid: my first time through a piece should be nothing more than a dry run. I should withhold judgment until I really know what I am listening to. Whatever emotions \u00e2\u20ac\u201d delight, revulsion or indifference \u00e2\u20ac\u201d I may experience on first contact with a composition I should consider merely provisional. The real question, if I read you correctly, is: Am I getting it right? (Incidentally, it’s not true that critics can never tell the difference between the performance and the piece: When the New York Philharmonic gave the world premiere of a work by Thomas Ad\u00c3\u00a8s two years ago, I wrote that the desperate performance made it impossible to judge the work.)<\/p>\n

Granted, in an ideal world, all critics would read music fluently, just as all new pieces would receive as much rehearsal as they require. Actually, while the second will never happen, the first mostly has. I haven’t taken a scientific poll, but the critics I know mostly do read music \u00e2\u20ac\u201d to the scorn of many professional musicians, the field is strewn with recovering pianists, musicologists and tuba players. (For the record, as you know, I was trained as a composer.) How well<\/em> they read music, though \u00e2\u20ac\u201d that’s another question. You’re not asking whether we critics have the chops to stumble through F\u00c3\u00bcr Elise<\/em>, but whether we can make sense of, say, a 30-stave page of a transposed orchestral score in which pianissimo<\/em> contrabassoons are meant to emerge from a wash of rippling, unmetered violin harmonics.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

First, violinist Holly Mulcahy over at The Partial Observer writes an amusing (but very serious) article about behaviors which musicians are apt to endulge in (but shouldn’t), entitled How to Alienate Your Audience in 10 Easy Steps: Musicians. Here’s a teaser: An engaged, enthusiastic, and diverse audience is one of the strongest measurements for justifying […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":303,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[148,225,183,115,2],"tags":[440,17,1160,547],"class_list":["post-1478","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-appreciations","category-bloggers","category-contemporary","category-music","category-the-orchestra-world","tag-classical-music-critic","tag-criticism","tag-holly-mulcahy","tag-john-corigliano"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa8kC-nQ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3100,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2009\/09\/11\/programming-in-crisis\/","url_meta":{"origin":1478,"position":0},"title":"programming in crisis","author":"Charles Noble","date":"September 11, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Holly Mulcahy has a wonderful article up at The Partial Observer about the rash of program\/artist substitutions prompted by the funding crisis at US orchestras.\u00a0 Here at the Oregon Symphony, there haven't been any mid-course corrections, as such, but guest artists have had their contracts renegotiated at lower rates, and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "administration"","block_context":{"text":"administration","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/the-orchestra-world\/administration-the-orchestra-world-music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12963,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2013\/09\/02\/where-for-art-thou-symphony-orchestra\/","url_meta":{"origin":1478,"position":1},"title":"wherefore art thou, symphony orchestra?","author":"Charles Noble","date":"September 2, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"What is going on with the symphony orchestra in America? Is it dying? There have been several high-profile bankruptcies in recent years, some resulting in the complete shutting down of operations. But there is the conviction that something has to be\u00a0done. There is talk of a business model that is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "administration"","block_context":{"text":"administration","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/the-orchestra-world\/administration-the-orchestra-world-music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1526,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/12\/11\/orchestral-hustle\/","url_meta":{"origin":1478,"position":2},"title":"orchestral hustle","author":"Charles Noble","date":"December 11, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Robert Levine writes a great response (as usual) to Holly Mulcahy's article on how to alienate your audience, and address in particular the issue of musicians not smiling during performances. Here's what he says: But two of her points were not as well taken, I thought. 1) Never smile. You\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "bloggers"","block_context":{"text":"bloggers","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/bloggers\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12959,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2013\/08\/26\/another-crisis-article-where-are-the-solution-articles\/","url_meta":{"origin":1478,"position":3},"title":"another crisis article – where are the solution articles?","author":"Charles Noble","date":"August 26, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Philip Kennicott has his first new article in three years up over at the New Republic, and it's a doozy. It ostensibly covers the 2013 edition of the annual meeting of the League of American Orchestras (the management counterpart to the International Conference of Symphony and Opera Musicians, or ICSOM)\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "administration"","block_context":{"text":"administration","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/the-orchestra-world\/administration-the-orchestra-world-music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"newrep","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/newrep-300x167.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":768,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/02\/12\/other-thoughts-on-oso-08-09-season\/","url_meta":{"origin":1478,"position":4},"title":"other thoughts on oso 08-09 season","author":"Charles Noble","date":"February 12, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"OSO violinist and Third Angle artistic director Ron Blessinger gives his thoughts on the 2008-2009 OSO season here. Blessinger praises the populist approach to programming and the leadership of Carlos Kalmar, but at the same time, he's already thinking about the future - literally - a stance with which I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "the orchestra world"","block_context":{"text":"the orchestra world","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/the-orchestra-world\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"p_blessinger.jpg","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/02\/p_blessinger.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5127,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2010\/07\/29\/severe-cuts-proposed-in-detroit\/","url_meta":{"origin":1478,"position":5},"title":"severe cuts proposed in detroit","author":"Charles Noble","date":"July 29, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"This came over the PRNewswire today (thanks to Elaine for bringing it to my attention): Detroit Symphony Musicians Targeted for Deep Slashes; Will Other Symphony Orchestra Musicians Also Be Under Gun? DETROIT, July 29 \/PRNewswire\/ -- Salary cuts upwards of 28 percent, drastic cuts in their health insurance, elimination of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "administration"","block_context":{"text":"administration","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/the-orchestra-world\/administration-the-orchestra-world-music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1478","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/303"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1478"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1478\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}