Friday Miscellanea

 "Reality is partial to symmetries and slight anachronisms..."

--Jorge Luis Borges

The Attributes of Music, 1770

Norman Lebrecht wonders "Have I seen the future of music?"

Possibly the last thing I expected to run into in this life was Yuja Wang playing Pierre Boulez at a David Hockney exhibition in a box-room behind London’s Eurostar terminal.

The incongruities are so fantastically disparate they defeat the act of criticism, which is helpful since the organisers made us sign a prior undertaking not to review the event. It was, they said, an experiment by the Chinese-US pianist, her repertoire decisions were spontaneous and the video elements might be controversial.

All of these arguments struck me as perfectly reasonable and I had no problem at all signing-up to the review ban. Up to the midpoint, that is, when I felt that what I was witnessing in the King’s Cross Lightroom might actually be the future of concerts for the rest of the century. 

Boulez attempted hitching music to a mainframe computer in Répons. Yuja Wang, on a concert grant [sic, probably meant to write "grand"], harnesses visual technology to play music in three dimensions for all five senses and an undifferentiated audience. If this is the music of the future, I like the sound, the sight and the inclusivity of it.

Sounds like an interesting and innovative concert, but rather like turning a miscellaneous collection of pieces into the equivalent of a pop music video.

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Alex Ross has one of his excellent pieces on a new production of Madame Butterfly in Detroit:

What I like most in this “Butterfly,” which has also played at Cincinnati Opera and will travel next to Utah Opera and Pittsburgh Opera, is its conjuring of stage pictures that are at once beautiful to look at and troubling to think about. Ozawa’s collaborators—the design collective known as dots, the costume designer Maiko Matsushima, and the lighting designer Yuki Nakase Link—festoon the scene with glowing lanterns, cherry blossoms, and the like, but the images have a tacky, C.G.I.-like glow. Sometimes figures freeze and lights flicker, signalling a breakdown in the smooth function of the fantasy. It wasn’t clear to what extent the audience grasped the deconstructive agenda; I heard confused mutterings at intermission. The message of the closing tableau, though, should have been unmistakable. After Butterfly stabs herself, Pinkerton rushes onstage and clutches her, only to be left holding her bloody garment as she strides away. At the final, shocking triple-forte chord, she fixes the audience with an icy stare.

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How Music Can Be Mental Health Care:

Research has shown that adding music therapy to a patient’s regular treatment, like medication and psychotherapy, can improve depressive symptoms when compared with standard treatment alone. Studies also indicate that music therapy can decrease anxiety levels and improve day-to-day functioning in people with depression.

More studies are needed to better understand why, but scientists do know that music engages multiple regions of the brain, like the limbic system, which helps process emotions and recollections. This may be partly why music is known to bring back memories.

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Also from the New York Times: How California Became America’s Contemporary Music Capital

The festival, Nov. 3 -19, was conceived by the music directors of the state’s three largest orchestras: Esa-Pekka Salonen of the San Francisco Symphony, Gustavo Dudamel of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Rafael Payare of the San Diego Symphony. But it grew to contain nearly 100 partnering organizations, who are presenting a host of world premieres and programs of contemporary music under the festival’s banner.

It’s an overdue pat on the back for a state that has long encouraged new music, providing freedom and a sense of possibility that has made it the center of gravity for composers who work with a spirit of innovation, a long list that includes Harry Partch, Lou Harrison and Pauline Oliveros in the past, and Terry Riley and John Adams today.

The festival is news, but that California has long had some of the most innovative composers is not.

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Rather slim pickings this week, so time to listen to some music. Let's have that famous aria from Madame Butterfly:

There have appeared several recordings of a piece by Leo Brouwer that I don't know, so I suspect it is fairly new:

It reminds me a bit of Un dia de noviembre, an older favorite:

Let's end with one of those innovative California composers: Harry Partch.

What the heck, one more.