Experience is the biggest teacher

I apologise for my normally over excited titles to these posts. I could go with Blog 1, 2, 3 etc. but that's just a cop out - so I am sticking with the slightly out there titles!

A week and a half ago I was down in London working with players from the London Chamber Orchestra and six composers as well as the two composer mentors, Diana Burrell and Steve Potter. We spent a day (as part of the East Festival) going through the works of James Luff, Chris Garrard, Solfa Carlile, David Futers, Anna Menzies and Tristan Rhys Williams. All of the works were inspired by architecture.

It reminded me yet again just how important experience is. The UK needs to give as many opportunities to its younger generations as its the best way to grow. Every time I come away from doing a concert or working with players I realise how much I still have to learn, how far (or not far!) I have come, and how much I have learned in those few hours I have been conducting, compared to the hours spent studying, watching, listening and reading.

It was of course fantastic for the composers and myself to work with such great musicians, and it had a big impact. However, I think it was just being able to hear their ideas being realised probably taught them more than anything - helped of course by the players realising them so well.

If you want to catch the LCO in concert - they are playing on March 24th (next Wednesday) at St John's Smith Square:

LCO Concert - Brahms, Glass, Chopin - March 24th

And come and hear the compositions in a mini concert on 26th May also at St John's Smith Square:

Six new works by young composers played by LCO musicians

F

New Music - a catching, cumulative disease?

Recently there have been two internet articles that have taken my attention about New Music and the problems of it being 'understood'.

Telegraph

New Music Box

It centers around the recently published book by Philip Ball - 'The Music Instinct' . Ashamedly I have not read it (its on a quite long to-do list!) Philip Ball supposedly argues, or provides support to the idea that a brain will comprehend the music of Bach, Mozart or Beethoven more effectively than that of Webern, Schoenberg or a post-tonal composer. The aforementioned composers present logical patterns and progression within their music that are easier for our brains to decipher and follow. Thankfully, Ball does say 'it would be wrong to dismiss such music as a racket'. So the discussion arising from the book is one that revolves around readily perceptible patterns, cultural conditioning and what is 'natural'. The Telegraph says it shows why joe-blogs cant understand the 'subtleties of the chaotic sounding compositions', and on the 'natural' front David Huron, an expert on music cognition from Ohio State University, says that 'predicting what happens next has obvious survival value' and that post-tonal music has 'no pleasure from accurate prediction'. Dr Timothy Jones of the Royal Academy of Music says that with atonal music 'certain people can learn to appreciate it'.

So what do I think: well the snippets taken out of context do disservice to the Telegraph article, which is probably on a more middling ground than I give it credit for. One of the things people say to me at the end of a new music concert, or 'non new music' friends who are talking about new music - is that they just don't understand it. I think comprehension is an important factor in this. But there are two main areas.

Firstly, I don't 'understand' new music it certainly doesn't make sense to me, but I am not sure much music does. That isn't to say it doesn't culture within me every feeling under the sun. For me listening and appreciating music is not about understanding it, it is about what it makes me feel and the better a piece is the more it makes me feel. This then leads on to my second area.

Confusion seems to cloud some peoples perception of new music. This, I think might be not only to do with the atonal aspect of the work but also due to the approach we take to listening. I think as a race we can try to hard. We live in a world where we continuously work at full tilt and must apply ourselves to everything we do. In terms of cultural enjoyment, we need to understand a film or play's plot, see what a picture is and what it stands for and be able to hum the latest tune.

I didn't 'understand' Rothko's art at all until about four years ago when I did an improvised performance in the Rothko room at the Tate Modern with the National Youth Orchestra. During this improvisation (which I wasn't keen on at the time by the way), I felt a real power coming from the art on the walls (permission to vomit). I think the music helped, but I realised I was looking at the pictures and not really trying to understand them and they just seemed to draw me in. I didn't try, I just let it happen (so to speak). I found it a really difficult thing to do, but it is now something I try and do with all things that I know there is no way I will be able to 'understand' on first hearing or seeing.

New music should be played more than once - or played before and after and in the interval of a concert to help our little grey cells - I find atonal music is a catching, cumulative 'disease'. You have the initial feeling, and then on second, third, fourth hearing it gets better and better (if I like it...) as I suppose I can predict what is coming and take satisfaction in waiting and and then my desire to hear point X in a work is satiated!

So try an experiment - take some Xenakis and don't 'do' just listen and 'feel'!

Step 2: listen to it once each day for a week and see how you feel at the end of the week as opposed to the beginning. Answers on the back of a postcard.

F

P.S effects are much better in a concert.

The Ross is Noise - concert dress, applause and ranting

This Monday Alex Ross gave the annual RPS lecture at the Wigmore Hall, entitled, 'Hold Your Applause: Inventing and Reinventing the Classical Concert'. The text to the talk is available here from the RPS website:

Hold Your Applause: Inventing and Reinventing the Classical Concert

Then on Tuesday Charlotte Higgins of the Guardian released a rumor about the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain allowing it's members to wear anything black for the concerts with the only restrictions being "no strapless, backless, leather or PVC":

"No strapless, backless, leather or PVC"

Ross seemed to concentrate mostly on the whole 'problem' of when to applaud and then more generally focus on broadly approaching the concert experience. For me, the best line is this:

'the radically different personalities of our composers, from Hildegard of Bingen to Jonny Greenwood of Radiohead, demand radically different approaches. The music is bigger than any kind of space we may design for it. '

What do I think of the concert experience? Well firstly it is a performance of a creation. Secondly, people normally have paid more than a cinema ticket to attend, sometimes much more. Thirdly the concert is presented for the audience. When I conduct, I have three major aims: 1. Honour the composer 2. Respect the audience and give them the best experience possible 3. Ensure the orchestra 'enjoy' the experience. I could and probably should add lots of sub-clauses to that statement but I am going to avoid the temptation. Anything that can be done to enhance those 3 points should be done.

Applause: In my perfect 'dream' performance of Tchaikovsky's 6th Symphony (Pathétique) the last movement would always erupt out out of raucous applause for the 3rd movement. It is as if Tchaikovsky wants all to seem perfect and ecstatic but then he surges from the grave, ripping open his shirt, baring his chest and saying 'NO - this is what I really feel'. The best experience is one that is natural - thus the no-clapping dictat enforces a sense of unnatural parameters on the given situation. People should clap when they want. Two really toe curling experiences in relation to audience behavior have happened while I have been at concerts at the Royal Festival Hall. The first was on the re-opening night, Jurowski had just started the Firebird Suite, and from the middle of the stalls came the electronic sounds of Mozart's Symphony No. 40. Jurowski turned around, scowled and restarted the piece. True, they should have turned it off, but it didn't warrant the response it got. He should have stopped and re-started with no glare. The second situation was recently when I was at Vanska's incredible LPO concert of 4th and 5th Sibelius symphonies. There was a lady two rows in front of me, who every time the man sitting in front of me turned the page of his program or moved the slightest inch she turned around in utter disgust. She made quite a lot of noise in the process, caused some amusement from my row and much worse by her actions distracted us all from the music, which is why we were there!

More focused lighting and a darker auditorium I think would help. However, the actual design of the auditorium is so important. I always feel I can relax at Symphony Hall in Birmingham, but not so at the Royal Festival Hall - non backbreaking chairs might help. I am not sold in bringing alcohol into the auditorium, but I do think that no programs are great - sometimes. I love the idea of the Night Shift, Club Karabits (at Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra) and Tonhalle Late:

Club Karabits Tonhalle Late Night Shift

However, the concert experience of overture, concerto and symphony really has its place as well. I am wary of using technology for the sake of being novel, but you don't know until you try. Its easy to add things on and say 'isn't this exciting' but the music must always be at the centre of everything you do - call me conventional, but isn't that the point? Talking is good, but sometimes how about playing it, talking, playing it again later on.

Now, concert dress. BBC Symphony Orchestra have their black suits, shirts and ties, which I think is pretty rubbish. There is your standard tails outfit and also all black open neck - the ladies have the 'luxury' of wearing smart all black. I love the last night of the proms dresses on the ladies in the orchestra but I wouldn't want it every day. Then there is the crazy dress used at one time by the new music ensemble bit20... (it is black but with rubber stamped patterns on!!)

The rumor of the NYO adopting a casual approach to concert dress, I find worrying on several levels. I am sure it is suppose to relax and open up the experience, allowing the music to be the main focus and get away from 'the old prim uniform'. Come on: black shirt, black trousers and the legendary NYO badge is not really prim - nor old - it was introduced about 4 years ago following on from the white shirt / red tie combo, that was pretty horrific and 'school-ified'. People have paid to come to a concert and they expect a level of professionalism. I hope most of the players go with a respectful approach. It could be interesting, but it could end up with a load of teenagers on stage looking scruffy, hair all over the place, and cheapen the whole effect. Also more importantly putting on your concert clothes puts you in a frame of mind, focuses your attitude and prepares you for what you are going to do. Also why black - is it moody? I love the NYO, not only because it gave me the best musical education/experience of my life but also because it performs great music really well. It gets on with the job and you can tell that what really matters is the music.

As a conductor I tend to wear black evening trousers and a chinese come arab shirt thing with no buttons and a collar, oh and red socks. However, when I conducted the Tokyo Phil in Japan I wished I had been wearing tails like them - some of the looks I received as I was coming out of the dressing room were quite telling!

Whatever happens to the concert approach there needs to be respect for what is being performed and who you are performing to and with. There is no quick fix and no right answer - each performance, piece, audience and event is different. What must never be forgotten is that the music you are performing is the most important thing.

F

Pushing things forward and helping along the way

So this Saturday I am conducting players from the London Chamber Orchestra in a composition workshop. We have chosen six pieces and each will be work-shopped by the players, Diana Burrell, Steve Potter and myself - as well as recorded filmed and then reperformed on May 26th at St John's Smith Square.

Having done a similar thing with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra and try to encourage this sort of process with new pieces played by Cambridge University's New Music Ensemble, it is a real pleasure (and I am very excited - I have a list of the players, and trust me I felt like a boy who had been given a new toy!) to be working with the LCO.

The workshop is part of a larger process that started in November with a day of talks around the idea of architecture in music, giving the composers 'food for thought'. The composers then went away and composed a work based on the day and submitted them for selection - we chose six and that's the stage we are at now.

Waiting to hear what a work will actually sound like, I find really unnerving, but also really exciting (I know I have already used that word...). It challenges my ear. Does the piece really sound how I hear it from the paper? It's also as if you are brining something into the world. OK so that is a bit 'arty farty' but it is true. It is like going to see a new work of art you have been reading about in the paper for a few weeks or an opera you have read reviews of. It is about bringing the 'other' or 'removed' into reality.

One of the best things about these types of workshops is the players get feedback from really seasoned (and good!) professionals. It is fine for another composer, teacher or conductor to tell you this or that about your work but when it comes from a player it seems to have more of an effect. If a teacher tells you, 'such and such' is impossible to play then you can secretly tell yourself that they are talking rubbish. But, if the clarinetist of the LCO and London Sinfonietta tells you it can't be played... the likelihood is that unless you get Kari Kriikku to practice it for a year it can't be done. Secretly I love it because it is the closest I get to actually composing - maybe I can suggest one or two things that will make a difference!

So come and listen to the day in conjunction with the East Festival in London:

http://www.lco.co.uk/RVE4c131004979e4324ac5ba14fdc1e09f1,,.aspx

F

Earshot Readings with the Colorado Symphony

I am waiting here in Denver international airport for my pick up back to Aspen. The last few days have really flown past in a whirlwind of excitement and incredible experiences.

The Earshot Readings, give four young composers the chance to work with a major symphony orchestra, conductor and mentor composers on a piece of theirs that has not received a public performance. In conjunction with American Composers Orchestra, the chosen symphony and other organisations, these composers receive a fantastic experience, something which really needs to happen in England. The Colorado Symphony could not have been better, the amount of effort they put into playing, feedback, and just making us welcome was inspiring. This all sounds very gushy but it was one of my best experiences with new music and the orchestral world. Many questions were raised, some problems were solved and great friends were made. I was lucky enough to be conducting one of the works, a piece by Tim Sullivan, and Delta David Gier conducted the other three (Yotam Haber, Angel Lam, Jeremy Podgursky). It is always interesting to see how composers react to suggestions but in this situation not only was the piece dissected by the orchestral musicians, but also three mentor composers, Rober, Derek Bermel, and Roberto Sierra, and the Vice President of the Colorado Symphony, Alberto Gutierrez as well as David and myself. I learnt a considerable amount, not only about the compositional process but about what the orchestra wants, needs and expects from new music. Hopefully this is a project that will continue to grow and develop over the coming years. It provides a real opportunity for major orchestras to converse with one another about up and coming composers and the needs of new American music in a really positive light.

One quick note about Colorado Symphony's Hall - Boettcher Concert Hall, part of the second largest arts complex in the US. Although the acoustics vary for seat to seat and there are problems with balance between orchestral sections, it is an amazingly intimate space where you feel so close to the stage and the musicians. It is one of the few large concert halls I have been in where modern music really works and where the space contributes to the experience.

Anyway I must catch my ride back to Aspen, and prepare Greensleeves. I'll say more about Aspen soon - I've got an opera scenes masterclass on Handel with Nicholas Kraemer coming up, so lots to look forward to.

F

Messiaen Part 2: his influence

Finally part the second is here!

Following on from my initial investigation into the early orchestral works of Olivier Messiaen, I have recently completed a study on Messiaen's influence as a teacher and whether he produced a school of composition. It can be found at:

http://issuu.com/ensemblecb3/docs/theinfluenceofmessiaen

F

A bit of a mixture - linking the digital and real

We are in the part of the year where orchestra’s and opera houses programmes for the next year are nearly all published and also in the midst of the various awards for classical music. Does it all make sense in this digital age? With blogs, twitter, spotify, the Berlin Phil’s digital concert hall and the likes, everything seems to becoming closer to the performer. But is this actually doing the opposite. By giving everything to the audience from within their own home and brining them so close to the performer, in such a personal fashion, does it negate the need to go to the concert hall. Or does it do the opposite? Does it create a yearning for the adrenaline of the concert hall, that tactile excitement it gives when sitting amongst a mass of people experiencing live music?

So many questions and I don’t think we will see real proof of either outcome for another five years, when people will have found more ways of creating ‘access’ to classical music. I certainly believe that the most important thing with increasing audience’s and bringing new generations to classical music is getting young people to a concert for the first time. This is where I think new music can really maximise on new audiences. Live, new music can be heart pumping and adrenaline creating. It is this excitement that is going to bring people in, in the initial stages of their appreciation of music.

What needs to happen is a bridge between the digital and the real: the computer and the concert hall. I don’t think that the Berlin Phil’s digital concert hall helps that problem. It does create a yearning for the real, but only once the real has been experienced.

Most things are now established they just need a bridge. The best way? Firstly, outreach which most orchestras in the UK seem to achieving impressively on the budgets they have. Secondly, filling empty concert halls with students and a real cooperation between orchestras and education, not just by outreach programmes, but by planning programmes with input from the education system. It’s being done in some places, but its success lies in making the concert hall and the orchestra’s friendly, by making them the friend of the community rather than dumming them down. The orchestra’s have to really become part of the fabric of the community. It’s harder to achieve in London but the Hallé seems to be leading the way. It’s getting the young to enthuse the younger. We’re getting there. Now let’s shout it from the roof tops and tell others rather than keep it to ourselves.

I haven’t answered my initial question, maybe for another time, but they seem to follow in the footsteps of ‘popular music’. They reward the hard work done and publicise some of the important hidden work of the real troopers in the business. Some rewards are obviously better to get than others and some are driven heavily by the recording industry. They add a bit of glam but perhaps they could do more. Could they be linked into the whole structure? We have all these separate pods of great goings on but if they could be linked maybe we would not only have something world class but really world leading.

Messiaen - Part 1

Ok, so I have got my act together and managed to publish my first Messiaen article on the Web.

It is entitled:

How important was orchestral composition (until 1933) in the early compositional career of Olivier Messiaen, and what role did poetry and religion play in the construction of those works?

It is available to read here:

www.issuu.com/ensemblecb3

Hopefully my second article, on Messiaen's influence as a teacher will be available to read on the same site in May.

Yours

Fergus

Things to come....

Ok - so still no Messiaen but that is coming, I might have to link it to a preview sight as my initial piece about Messiaen's early orchestral works is pretty long....but am working on another Messiaen article at the moment concerned with his teaching style and influence!

Also nothing about photos - but have had quite a few done recently for various things - John Batten at www.johnbattenphotography.co.uk is fantastic, I couldn't recommend him highly enough!

Have recently done an interview with Shropshire Life so in the next issue between sheep and cows there will be a bit about music!

Will write more about up and coming projects v soon!!

Ferg

Boulez and Luzern

In March last year I was invited to study conducting (along with 3 others) under Pierre Boulez at the Luzern festival for a week in August.

Boulez, is without doubt a phenomenal individual. Much of what the Luzern festival is, especially the Luzern Festival Academy, is because of him. There a few musicians of the 20th Century that one could call 'genius' but Boulez must number amongst them (as possibly does his teacher, Messiaen). Whether you appreciate his compositions or not is not the factor which I feel makes Boulez great (as an aside, if you dont 'like' Boulez then try listening to his Rituel in memoriam Bruno Maderna: 1974-75). It is his persona and understanding which makes him iconic. He was seen as a revolutionary in Paris when he was young, but he made the world stand up and listen and as result IRCAM and EIC now exist and new music is what it is today because of him. You only had to be in the hall at Luzern to see his effect, when he entered, on the 100 strong orchestra, fresh from the conservatoires of the world, to see that he will be loved by the generations of today and tomorrow, once he is gone.

His teaching has a very 'fatherly' approach. When he criticised what we did, which was most of the time, he always did it with a smile on his face. It was certainly constructive, yet after the first session with him, when he stopped you, you knew what he was going to say, yet he always found a different way of expressing it. He may have been seen as brash and big headed when he was younger, but now, in his teaching role at Luzern, it is as if he sees his one duty to the world is to shape and enthuse the musicians of the future about new music. He has criticised the past, moulded the present and now he has turned to the future to resolve the problem of new music education of the young.

It's true to say that he has a pretty easy audience, all the orchestra and conductors have applied to this course, and been selected from many, to work with Boulez and the EIC coaches on a heavily 20th Century programme. Boulez, has a conducting style that is small. It is not restrained. He feels the orchestra gives what it gives, it is his duty to correct and ensure that the orchestra plays as one. He is certainly no Dudamel in his actions, yet the quantity of energy that comes from the podium is easily as much. He stands there. Every movement his body makes is as concentrated and distilled as it could be, and so each movement delivers its maximum effect. He has the benefit of 80 years of experience but when he is on the podium he ensures that it is the composer who is central to the work.

It was certainly a life changing experience, mainly because of Boulez, but also from the insight of the analysis sessions with Theo Hirsbrunner, and the setting of the academy and the nature of the festival itself. However what was so beneficial was the group of conductors working on the Rite of Spring, Symphonies of Wind instruments and Concertino. Eva Fyodor, Pablo Herras Casado, Geoffery Patterson and myself were able to discuss openly our styles of conducting and the problems we saw with the conducting styles of our fellow participants, as well as offering maximum support to each other all the time.

One should always only speak as they find, a motto I think more of the music world could do well to adopt, and for me Boulez is a confident yet supportive, generous and understanding master of what he does.

www.lucernefestival.ch

GCSE MUSIC

An article in this months BBC Music magazine about the simple nature of obtaining a GCSE in music without being able to read music has caused discussion of the exam and the broader problem of the teaching of music in our schools.

Reportedly students can now achieve an A in music without being able to read a single note. It comes as no surprise as over recent years A level music has come more and more into disrepute. The situation has become so problematic that the likes of Oxbridge are considering whether an A level in music should be a stipulation tin applying to study music at an undergraduate level. However, it is true also to say that Music as a subject has changed hugely in the way it is studied as a subject at the highest level. No longer do composers learn their trade during a seven year apprenticeship with a senior composer. Nor does fugue or counterpoint play a critical part in a degree from Cambridge. Recently Oxford appointed a professor in music science and music as therapy and as a rehabilitative aid is becoming more accepted in the medical world. Thus should the qualification move with the times?

It is true to say that the qualification needs to adapt, and ensure it is not stuck in the dark ages. Yet it must keep the foundations of what it is trying to advance at the forefront of its teaching. As the cellist, Julian Lloyd Webber said, it is "like trying to study a language without learning the alphabet". The concept of teaching English at GCSE level without the students being able to read would be unthinkable.

Today in the world 'classical' music, accessibility to all are such buzz words that the exam boards seem worried to stretch the students by demanding from them what they should. Although not a theorist at heart and also being one who passed grade 5 theory just (getting the pass mark - all be it at the age of 9) it seems that theoretical knowledge is crucial to an understanding of music and a progression in the subject. It may be difficult to teach or 'boring' to learn yet no one would suggest not teaching times tables or spelling. By enabling people to understand theory not only does it allow them to study a major section of Western culture but opens the door to this 'exclusive' world of classical music, that so many politicians are convinced exists due to those who promote it. As Damon Albarn, the front-man of Gorrliaz and Blur said, "If you don't learn to read music, then there's a whole tradition that becomes very exclusive and shouldn't be."

It is important to be inclusive, and in a world where classical music has an aging population one needs to encourage followers, but not at the risk of loosing what is at the subject's heart. Maybe it is time for a separate GCSE to be developed; 'music appreciation' where one only has to listen and describe one's reaction on tape, therefore stopping the need of having ti be able to write to take the qualification.