The Kids Play Great. But That Music ...
Stephen Budiansky is the author of nine books about military history, science, and nature. He is a former Washington Editor of the international scientific journal Nature and is currently serving as correspondent for The Atlantic Monthly. Mr. Budiansky has written a marvelous column on music in the schools that appeared in one of the country’s most prestigious newspapers, the Washington Post. The piece contains thoughtful commentary about public school music programs that has prompted a great deal of response from many people, a large number who are professional musicians or music educators. I have reprinted this very important article with his kind permission. I urge you - please read it and then go to this link to read the follow-up that can be found at his web site: www.budiansky.com/music.html/.
The Kids Play Great. But That Music . . .
By Stephen BudianskyWashington Post, sec. B (p. 3), Sunday, January 30, 2005
If there is a medal awarded for conspicuous bravery in the form of sitting through countless elementary-, middle- and high-school concerts above and beyond the call of duty, I'd like the authorities to know that I am eligible for it.Unflinchingly, I have kept my face rigid through the most trying of musical ordeals. My kids are both in high school now, but every now and then my jaw muscles still hurt from the effects of one fourth-grade chorus concert.
I think only once in all those years did I give way to temptation and relate to the person next to me that bit from one of the Marx brothers' movies, where Chico is playing the piano and a man sitting next to Groucho says, "I love good music," and Groucho replies, "So do I. Let's get out of here."
I should hasten to add that I'm not really a curmudgeon, at least not when it comes to taking the normal, abundant parental pride in the efforts of my offspring. I've never actually dreaded all these school band and chorus concerts as far as the quality of the performers' efforts goes. Learning to play or sing is impossible without some squeaks or screeches or rhythms that occasionally wander away for a stroll on the erratic side, and I've always been genuinely impressed by how well the kids do.
No, the problem is not how they play. It's what they play.What they play is always That Piece, as I've come to think of it. That Piece is not written by any composer you have ever heard of -- not classical, not jazz, not pop, not rock, not blues, not folk, not alternative Czech heavy metal fusion, not nothing. You've never heard it on the radio, not even late at night at the bottom of the dial. It in fact exists nowhere in the known music universe -- except for the twilight zone of school musical performance.
That Piece is nearly always written by someone who (a) is alive and collecting royalties, and (b) has a master's degree in music education. It is always preceded by a very wordy description, read out to the audience by way of preparation, explaining that the piece (a) was inspired by a medley of Lithuanian folk songs and Gregorian chants that the composer heard while researching his master's degree; or (b) depicts the journeys of Lewis and Clark and, if you listen carefully, you will hear the American Indian motif that represents the faithfulness and courage of their young Native American guide Sacagawea and then in the saxophones the sound of the rapids as the raft approaches and then the warning cry from one of the men on the bank and then the raft plunging down the rapids and then the return to calmer waters and then another set of rapids approaching and then. . . , or (c) evokes the soaring ideals we can all aspire to. (Pieces in this last category usually have "eagle" in their titles.) If I've heard That Piece once, I've heard it a hundred times. Different composers, different titles, same bombastic banality.
There had been hints of what was coming, back when my kids were in elementary school. Instead of "Home on the Range" and "Jingle Bells," their school concerts were filled with rather slick but soulless numbers cranked out by the music ed publishing industry. I vaguely recall one sort of Disneyesque self-esteem-boosting number called "Possibilities," in which the fifth-graders informed us that they were "the future." There was also a song about recycling.
But I wasn't prepared for the extent to which such new and original works of great mediocrity have completely supplanted the real music -- classical, folk, Sousa marches, American popular music, Scott Joplin rags, Broadway show tunes -- that was once a staple of the American school music curriculum. And it's not a question of new vs. old: There's plenty of truly great contemporary music of all genres being written. This stuff just isn't it.
I've pored over publishers' catalogues and lists of recommended pieces from various state music educators' associations, and it's happening all across the country. In place of genuine folk music, there are compositions "inspired" by the folk music of the American South or West, or Korea, or Africa. In place of real rock numbers are "rock originals" by one of those school band directors with a master's degree. The closest thing I've heard to a real Sousa was a creation called "Sousa! Sousa! Sousa!" that (according to the publisher's description) "includes famous themes from 'Manhattan Beach' and 'El Capitan' along with just a hint of 'Semper Fidelis' and other Sousa favorites."
I do understand the pedagogic purpose behind this stuff. Beethoven didn't have to come up with music scored for middle school bands made up of 57 alto saxophones, 40 trumpets, 15 percussionists and one oboe. Fair enough.
But music education is supposed to be about more than just learning to make your fingers move the right way. It's also supposed to be about having the chance to experience firsthand the truly great music of all genres -- the great music that, after all, is the whole point of learning to play or sing.And, to put it kindly, it's hard to imagine anyone falling in love with music on a diet of band directors' compositions portraying the initial helicopter landing of the 1st Marine Division during the Korean War (yes, that really is one frequently played high-school band piece), or the one by the same composer that I heard at my son's all-district concert a couple of years ago: Pretentiously titled "Symphony No. 2," this turned out to be a blow-by-blow re-creation of Homer's "Odyssey," complete with musical depictions of the Trojan horse's squeaking wheels and the crackling fires of Troy burning. I know this because the guest conductor was the composer himself, and he spent 10 minutes describing to us what we would be hearing.
A bit of what is driving the dominance of all this pseudo-music are education-theory mandates that music education "connect" with other parts of the curriculum (this probably explains those elementary-school songs about recycling and self-esteem); a bit comes, too, from pressures for parent-pleasing or competition-judge-pleasing pieces that are showy and give the illusion of being more advanced than they are.
But the result is a terrible confusion of ends and means. One of the songs my daughter's all-county chorus sang at its recent concert had won a 1991 competition among choral directors in Iowa. Described in the program as a "blend of contemporary and madrigal styles," it was a nice enough, if completely unmemorable, piece. But why, I kept thinking, couldn't they sing a real Elizabethan madrigal? Or how about a Beatles song? Or anything at all that has inspired and touched and sent shivers down the spine the way great art does?
If high-school English teachers stopped assigning Shakespeare and Faulkner and instead gave their students the winner of the 1991 Iowa English teachers' novel-writing contest to read, I think we'd know where to tell them to get off.
I did glimpse one ray of hope at my son's most recent high-school band concert, though. Sandwiched between all the variations on Korean folk songs and musical depictions of erupting South American volcanoes came a performance by a small woodwind ensemble, made up of students who met on their own time after school. They had no director, no adult supervision, and had chosen entirely on their own the one piece they performed.
They did Mozart.© 2005 by Stephen Budiansky, as first published in the Washington Post To read the original article, go to: www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A46383-2005Jan29.html
Bill and I began the tour in Houston, spending the day at the High School for Performing and Visual Arts (HSPVA). We pay an annual visit to HSPVA to present a lecture/recital in the morning and performance workshops in the afternoon with both the big band and the small groups. Our good friends, Bill Habern and his lovely wife Connie, have for more than ten years sponsored our coming to HSPVA. He and I have been close friends since 1957 when he was a classmate of mine at North Texas. Habern is a well-known Texas lawyer who has established a national reputation, even arguing and winning a landmark case before the U. S. Supreme Court. He is also a musician and huge Jazz fan and fully understands the importance of inspiring young people, both as musicians and fans.
Following the morning duo concert, we spent the afternoon performing workshops with the HSPVA groups. This year, Director Warren Sneed, a fine saxophonist, had a bumper crop of young players. The big band sounded very good, and the small groups were quite advanced. There were some really fine young musicians among these groups. When we do workshops with musicians of this caliber, Bill and I always play along with them. Then we talk about what we have done and try to bring out things to which we feel the young players should be more sensitive. We also ask them to critique each other and point out those things they feel might be improved upon. This makes the students listen more attentively to the subtleties in each other’s playing, thereby making them more aware of these same qualities – or the lack thereof – in their own playing. This is a great teaching tool.
Our visits to Houston are also something Bill Mays and I look forward to because of our dear friends Bob and Helen Morgan. Bob was the former Director of Jazz Studies at HSPVA. I wrote about Bob’s being inducted in the IAJE Hall of Fame in the previous edition of Cadenzas. All of us love getting together to enjoy a good meal and – always - some excellent wines. These very enjoyable days at HSPVA plus our being able to visit with dear friends make our trips to Houston special in every way.
Following the day at HSPVA, Bill and I headed up to Dallas where we were met by Kelly Durbin, a fine pianist and leader of the Jazz ensemble at the University of Texas at Dallas (UT/D). I performed a workshop at the school, while Bill took some time out to write for a symphony concert he was to do in the near future. A word about UT/D: This school was established by the hierarchy of Texas Instruments, the technology company. Its primary goals are to serve those brilliant students who would one day become leaders in the field of research and technology. To qualify for acceptance into this school, one must possess a very high IQ and extremely high grades. The music program, like Fred Berry’s program at Stanford University, serves as a creative and “fun” outlet for the students; playing music helps them to decompress. I enjoyed spending the afternoon working with them.
The following day included only the afternoon sound check and evening concert, in which we were joined by Ed Soph and Dallas bassist John Adams. John is an excellent musician and has played with us many times when we performed in Dallas and Houston. Not knowing what to expect as to the turnout, we were surprised to learn that the audience was filled to capacity, and quite a few people had to be turned away. The group jelled from “note one,” and the concert was beautifully received. We got an excellent review in the Dallas Morning News which appears on the Performance Reviews page of this web site. And Bruce Tater who has an NPR Jazz radio show, “The Art of Sound,” on KETR-FM wrote:
Marvin Stamm was really holding the audience together with an excellent program, and he sounded mellow and warm and right on target. Bill Mays, pianist, is the perfect musician and creative musician in all settings. He should be much better known than he is on a national level. Ed Soph, drums, I never fully realized how good he is as percussionist and drummer. He could not have been better in any way or manner. John Adams, bass, as usual was superb and did not bore the audience with extended solos or solos on every number that was performed. Together they all played like they had been as a group for multiple years. They received several encores, standing encores, and the band reciprocated easily in kind. It was a true pleasure to have attended this gig and to have had the musical experience from it.When a group can elicit a reaction like this from their audience, it rewards all the travel and hard work that go into careers such as ours.Having a couple of days off before going on to Indiana, Bill and I spent the time with Ed and Carol Soph at their home in Denton, Texas. We always look forward to having a moment to just relax and “hang out” with the Sophs. We listen to a lot of music and have a lot of good laughs. Another factor in our enjoyment might just be Carol’s amazing cooking. This “down time” also afforded me the opportunity to spend an afternoon and share dinner with my trumpet teacher John Haynie and his wife, Marilyn. These occasions with the Haynies are special and mean a great deal to me
From Texas we traveled to Bloomington, Indiana, where we were to present a workshop /master class at Indiana University (IU) in the afternoon and a concert that evening. The concert was presented by "Jazz from Bloomington," a not-for-profit community organization based in Bloomington, Indiana. It just happened that Rufus Reid was doing a residency at IU that week, so he joined us along with drummer Steve Houghton, who is on now the faculty there.
On the evening of our arrival, a reception in our honor was given at TUBARANCH, the home of Harvey and Carol Phillips. Co-hosted by their son, Thomas, we, along with friends and faculty, were treated to a wonderful relaxed evening of great food and warm camaraderie. For those who may not know Harvey (if there is such an animal), he is without question one of the finest tubists to ever play the instrument. There is no style or kind of music with which he is unfamiliar, and his contributions to music and education are unparalleled. He is and has been an inspiration to so many over a great period of time.
The next afternoon found me and Bill, along with Rufus and Steve, performing a master class with a large group of Jazz students and faculty. We conducted this master class as a quartet, and the attendees received the benefit of input from all four of us. The thing I like most about working as a group is that, rather than getting feedback from one or two of us, the performers get the benefit of the whole quartet. We played quite a bit and also listened as various students performed for us. There are some excellent players at IU, and it is a pleasure doing a workshop there because the Jazz faculty under the leadership David Baker and Pat Harbison is excellent and the students are an inspired group. Many are excellent advanced players; they come to learn, and the questions they ask are insightful.
After the master class, Bill and I went to the IU Communications Center to appear on Joe Bourne’s NPR Jazz radio show. Joe is a real fan of Jazz and an intelligent purveyor of the music. We need so much for this music to have meaningful exposure. Unfortunately, excellent and knowledgeable Jazz DJs are not plentiful. It is a pleasure whenever we have the opportunity to work with someone like Joe.
The evening concert for "Jazz from Bloomington" was held in Waldron Auditorium, a lovely smaller hall that has an intimate feel to it and where no amplification is needed. What a pleasure it is to play naturally and be able to hear every nuance from each player. The concert was sold out, but people kept arriving, and chairs continued to be set up on the sides of the stage area to accommodate the new arrivals. It was a nice way to begin a concert, knowing so many people were eager to hear us play.
And, as in the Dallas concert a few days earlier, it was wonderful having three-quarters of my working quartet together. Bill was extraordinary this evening as was Rufus. No matter the time or place, or how the music might change, the level of creative excitement is always high - and from Bill and Rufus, this NEVER changes. Performances are always musically adventuresome, always challenging, but the sensitivity to the music and to each other never varies.
Drummer Steve Houghton is one of the truly fine drummers, having played a long time with Freddie Hubbard and others; he fit right “in the “pocket” with us. I have known and worked with Steve on a number of occasions over the years, and he is a real artist. Besides being a great Jazz drummer, he is an extraordinary classical percussionist. Steve and Ed Soph are contemporaries, both graduates of the University of North Texas. Though Steve is now “full-time” on the IU faculty, he still travels a great deal, performing all over.
Following this concert, many people came up to tell us how extraordinary and different our group is, and how deeply our music touched them. I know I have said this many times over, but knowing that our music reaches out and moves our listeners is, along with the wonderful feeling of creative freedom shared among the group, the thing we live for.
Next came a long day of travel for Bill and me as we headed north to Stevens Point, Wisconsin, to appear as guest artists at the winter Jazz festival at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point (UW-SP). We were to rehearse and perform with the Jazz ensemble led by pianist Matt Buchman and do a clinic for the high school students attending the festival. Bill and I also performed a short duo set on the concert. I also got together with several of Bob Kase’s trumpet students, and Bill and I spent some private time with other students.
I have known Bob Kase for a number of years, and he is a wonderful trumpet artist, both classical and Jazz. He is also a very fine teacher who has produced many fine students. He is also doing double duty as the Dean of the School of Music. I believe Bob is the person who suggested to Matt Buchman that Bill and I be their guest artists this year.
Matt is a dedicated teacher, and his Jazz ensemble at UW-SP is a fine group. When we worked with Matt’s students in workshops and rehearsed with them for the concert, they showed great interest and a desire to learn. I have spoken often of my experiencing students who appear to have little inspiration or motivation, students who care little about the quality of their performances or of learning from the professionals like Bill and me. This always makes me the question why anyone not possessing these qualities would want to major in music. But this was not the case at this university, and Bill and I really enjoyed working and performing with these students. The concert was a great deal of fun for all of us. Bill and I enjoyed our time in Stevens Point and, as always, we found working with this interested group of young people inspiring.
We had a day off between the UW-SP concert and our next engagement, a duo concert at Lawrence University. Lawrence is located in Appleton, Wisconsin, a two-hour drive from Stevens Point, so we rented a car and drove there. We have friends in Appleton - tubist Marty Erickson and his wife Alison, and John Daniel, professor of trumpet at Lawrence – so we made arrangements to have dinner and spend our night off with them. Our coming to Lawrence was initiated by John’s having presented the idea to Dean Jeff Stannard (also a trumpet player), who then made it all happen.
Marty, Alison, Bill, and I taught and performed in August 2003 in Kalavrita, Greece. Marty, formerly the tuba soloist with the U. S. Navy Band, now teaches at Lawrence, but he continues to tour and perform all over. Marty is also an amazing Jazz player, and I performed on his recent CD. Alison is a widely-recognized percussionist, touring and teaching both here and abroad. John Daniel, whom I came to know when he taught at Penn State, also travels widely to perform. Because so many of our musician friends tour a lot and are scattered all over, we don’t often have opportunities to visit together. It was nice having this time together.
The next day, Sunday, was to be the final concert on our tour before returning home. We performed in the Recital Hall at the university, a very nice room that allowed us to explore the full dynamic range of our instruments, from fortissimo down to the softest pianissimo. Working acoustically in a “live” hall such as this allows us to blend the sound of our two instruments and also to employ certain acoustic aspects of our instruments that might not be heard with amplification.
Our repertoire comprised a combination of standards and originals. Rarely do Bill and I decide what we are going to play until the last minute, and then this might change at the drop of a hat. We prefer to let the inspiration of the moment dictate what we will play. This program spanned the spectrum – Sonny Rollins’ “Airegin,” Scriabin’s “Etude #2,” Victor Young’s “Stella By Starlight,” Bob Mintzer’s “Re-Re,” and other pieces, including an original or two by Bill and me.
All I can say is Bill Mays is A-MAYS-ING! I feel that he, more than anyone, is the major catalyst whether in the duo or the quartet. I doubt Ed or Rufus would disagree with that statement. Bill and I have an uncanny magic going on between us. It’s almost as if we can read each other’s thoughts. On this concert, we seemed to reach a new level of communication. After the concert, we were presented with an archival recording of our performance, and if the sound quality was of a professional level, I would release it in a “New York minute.” It really is extraordinary. As pianist Dick Hyman said at one of the two concerts we performed in duo for him at New York City’s well-known 92nd Street Y concert venue, “Bill and Marvin’s duo is more like chamber music than two guys just playing together.” Bill is the most creative musician I’ve ever worked with, always artistic, always sensitive on the most consistent basis. I know I repeat myself, but he never fails to surprise and inspire me.
The flights home brought our winter tour to an end – a very satisfying one to say the least. A tour like this – one that leaves us with feelings as this one did – remains with us for a long time. It also gives us a great deal to look forward to in the future. And I can say this for all of us – Bill, Ed, John Adams, Rufus, and Steve Houghton – we have never lost those feelings that the music inspired in us, leading us to embark on this path, to take this journey. I am positive these feelings will remain in our souls until the last breath leaves our bodies. As musicians, this IS the breath of life.
Inspiration
(Editor’s note: People must wonder at times how artists in any field are inspired to do what they do. Of course, each individual finds inspiration in his or her own way and from many sources. What follows is a glimpse into one of my moments.)
What is it, this thing, this music, that at such unexpected moments reaches me on a level so deep as to separate me from the reality I know, transporting me to a place no one, but me can feel? Yes, those few others who can experience it as I do are able to feel it too, but only in their own place, not mine. This thing, this music, is so personal and I feel it so strongly that I many times wonder why everyone doesn’t feel it on the same level.What brings me at this moment to write about inspiration? Something as simple as turning on the TV to the PBS channel and hearing people whom I had never heard before sing and play in a language I could not understand, but with such emotion as to touch within me all the deep places inside. The emotion I experience as I write this encompasses all that I so deeply feel from all the music by all the musicians I have heard who have reached me so strongly – Miles Davis, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Clifford Brown, Bill Evans, Thad Jones, Hank Jones, Wynton Kelly, Dizzy, Coltrane, Cannonball Adderly, my dear friend Bill Mays, and so many others.
Why are we musicians so intensely moved by what we do and what we hear? Why does music stir a love so deep, raise such emotions within us that we live a life always seeking the joy, the sadness, that river of emotion that runs so deep within us, always moving us so strongly, making us feel so much? Why do we live for this, pursuing no matter what?
Words will never come close to expressing what the Jazz musician feels so profoundly. Most of them would never try, but why would they not? Is it because others might laugh or ridicule them for opening themselves up, letting others see inside? Are we afraid to reveal those delicate inner feelings that we might believe others may not have the capacity to understand?
I am at that point in life where it no longer matters what others think of my willingness to express what I feel most deeply. The music has left its mark upon me, and I feel what I feel. It is comforting to know that others share these feelings too, that we are brothers and sisters because of this – all that music makes us feel, the common bond we share.
Watching and listening tonight to these unknown musicians - Brazilian, I believe - whom I had never before heard sing and play brought forth from within me all the reasons I have lived a life of music. With each syllable sung, each note played, life and all that these people had experienced was etched upon their faces. To so unexpectedly look through their music and into their faces, into my own soul, and to confirm again why I do what I do was so powerful, such a joyous thing. I was blown away and immediately moved to sit down and write what I was feeling. I have many times shared these feelings with others while on the bandstand. There are those special ones now with whom I share that special bond – Bill Mays, Rufus Reid, Ed Soph, Martin Wind, and a few more.
Today in music – in Jazz - there seems to be so many other elements upon which importance is placed, none having to do with what the music is all about. Maybe that is why I feel it is so important that I try to express what it is like to feel the way those of us coming from the tradition feel. In the scheme of things, are my feelings important? Maybe only to me and those others who share them. But what if more people - within music or without – felt free to express without the shame what they feel, revealing their true inner feelings. How much more beautiful a place might this world be.
Milt Hinton on PBS
This week brought another inspirational moment from PBS. I tuned in and immediately came upon a program I had never seen, “Independent Lens: The Life, Music, and Photographs of Milt Hinton.” I later learned from Bob Morgan that this program was filmed around 1994, with some of the footage having been shot at the High School for Performing and Visual Arts in Houston at a time when Milt’s photos were on display at a gallery there. It is a warm and wonderful documentary featuring a journey through Milt’s life in photographs, film, and music.
Milt was given a camera around 1935, and through all the years of his career until his death he took pictures of musicians, documenting so much of the history of Jazz as seen through the eyes of the players who graced it. It is also a documentary showing many aspects of African-American life in this country, the good and the bad. Seeing the joyful photos and film clips and hearing so many of Milt’s friends and contemporaries like Clark Terry and Ray Brown speak of him and those times brought all those historic moments in Jazz to life. When I saw Milt’s pictures of the musicians, taken while traveling in the South - standing in front of restaurants, water fountains, and rest rooms with signs saying, “Colored only” or “Whites only” - it brought back the reality of those times to me, too, and saddened me deeply. But the documentary is really about Milt and all that he has contributed to this music over a long, rich career. It is a joyful tribute to this wonderful musician, this kind and humble person who was truly a giant in terms of human values and humanity.
I was privileged to know and work with Milt many times, especially in the first ten years of my life in New York. He, along with George Duvivier, was the first-call bassist in the New York studios, especially on so many of the Jazz recordings. But Milt was a well-trained musician who could play all styles, so he was part of large studio bass sections, played on all kinds of “pop” records, and really did everything. But when the electric bass became so prominent because of Rock ’n Roll recordings, Milt returned to touring and performing all over the world. Though you would never know it by his demeanor, he truly was a star and was accorded star status, but he never looked upon himself in that way. Milt was always warm and gracious to me, a newcomer; but then he was the same to everyone. That was just the way Milt was.
If you see this documentary - “Independent Lens: The Life, Music, and Photographs of Milt Hinton” - listed on your PBS station’s schedule, don’t miss it. It will take you away to a beautiful place filled with beautiful people, a world that exists now only in recordings and in some of our memories.
Orchestra Experiences
Recently I performed in my hometown, Memphis, with Jack Cooper and his Jazz Orchestra of the Delta (JOD) in concert with the Memphis Symphony. You may remember that I was a guest soloist along with vocalist Sandra Dudley on the JOD’s initial CD, “Big Band Reflections of Cole Porter.”
I flew into Memphis six days before our performance to make the two band rehearsals Jack had set before getting together with the orchestra on the day of the performance. I always like to be prepared for any performances, but orchestra concerts can be especially critical.
Jack had written some wonderful arrangements of the Cole Porter songs, plus a couple by other composers. We performed his arrangement of “The Lamp Is Low,” which was taken from the melody of Ravel’s “Pavanne for a Dead Princess.” The band sounded wonderful in rehearsal, and everything fell into place quickly. We were excited to get together with the orchestra.
Sandra Dudley flew in the day of the concert for the orchestra rehearsal, and again everything went very smoothly. Sandra is a wonderful singer, a real Jazz stylist. Like a lot of Jazz musicians, singers “aren’t my thing” unless they can truly sing! I guess we’ve all experienced too many of the “ingénues” in our careers, and a real singer is a treasure. Certainly, Sandra is!
The concert went off beautifully; the orchestra, with which I performed in 1995, is excellent and sounded great. The melding of the big band and the orchestra is a wonderful combination, and Jack Cooper wrote superbly for it. Cole Porter’s music is extraordinary repertoire from which to work, so these materials plus the musicians combined to bring off a concert of great Jazz that immensely pleased the audience. I hope there will be more of this kind of thing in Memphis, and that the orchestra management will recognize what a talent they have in Jack, right there in their own backyard.
I have been made aware by many of my friends in the orchestra world that the “Pops” series supports the subscription series. The unfortunate thing is how little thought management gives to programming this series and how little rehearsal time they allow for these concerts. While a subscription concert (classical) will usually afford the conductor and musicians three to four rehearsals, a “pops” concert will usually be assigned one. In our recent concert, Jack wanted to write orchestral arrangements for all the pieces, but because we were allotted only one rehearsal of two-and-one-half hours to cover everything, it was not possible. Rehearsing ten or eleven new pieces of an unfamiliar style in such a short amount of time would not work. Yet, those were the expectations, albeit unreasonable, of management. The lack of concern and attention paid to quality concerts like this are quite typical of the attitude much of management displays. As I have previously written in Cadenzas about my sometimes having to tell orchestras that I am as serious about my music as is Yo-Yo Ma about his, orchestra management should realize the same thing. Serious artists of any genre of music should be accorded the same respect and attention as any other. Otherwise, why would an orchestra invite them to perform?
One more thing: If the people who program symphony concerts - executive directors and musical directors - would think more creatively about Jazz, more “outside of the box,” trying to integrate programs like this into their “pops” series instead of some of the junk they put out there, they might find their audiences building instead of diminishing. Too many of these people are still trying to carry on with programming the same way they were forty-five years ago. And you know what? It doesn’t work any more. I go to symphony concerts. I’m sixty-five, and I’m among the youngest group of listeners. Survival of live music – whether Jazz, symphonic, or chamber music – depends on exploring new ideas, appealing to a broader audience, but with serious thought put into programming. This includes their taking America’s only original music seriously as well.
Disturbing Thoughts
My daughter Teal recently called my attention to a newspaper article citing a New York Times report that a number of IMAX Theaters, including some in science museums, are not exhibiting films that mention evolution or the “big bang” theory, fearing protests from religious groups. The Fort Worth Museum of Science and History has decided against showing the scientific documentary “Volcanoes” because some members of a test audience viewed it as blasphemous. Their conclusion was drawn from the film’s position based on the evolutionary concept of the earth’s development rather than the biblical concept. While I have deliberately stayed away from religious and political subjects because these are not what I care for this newsletter to be about, I am disturbed enough about this incident to express my view concerning coercion by one group toward another that holds a different viewpoint.
I respect people holding viewpoints at variance with mine. I feel the more points of view we get from one another, the broader the vista from which to observe a particular subject. I believe this is called an exchange of ideas, and if we are open-minded to the concept of sharing our thoughts, learning what others think, we might become more educated. We might even find ourselves occasionally changing our minds on a particular subject by becoming more educated about it. This is why I invite all of my readers to share their thoughts – pro or con - on my In Response page. I, myself, have learned many things by reading what others have had to say, at times changing my point of view because of this sharing of thoughts and ideas.
So what is so disturbing to me? This country was founded on freedom of speech - our being able to express our points of view without fear of coercion or punishment because our thoughts might be at variance with those of another person. I believe each person or group of people has the inalienable right to believe whatever they want and to express an opinion on any subject they wish. This includes the right to protest or boycott those entities with which they disagree. But I do not feel it proper that any group be allowed to frighten or coerce others, invalidating their thoughts and opinions, not allowing those opinions to be heard. Whether one believes in evolution or creationism is not the point. The point here is that those people or groups holding one opinion or point of view should not be allowed to invalidate or deny access to opposing positions. The Constitution guarantees ALL of us the right of free expression, but it demands we respect others' freedom of expression as well. This is one of our country’s founding principles.
Whether one is Democrat or Republican, or a member of any particular religion, it matters not at all to me. Everyone has the same inalienable rights to freedom of expression. When a group’s claiming that a documentary is blasphemous becomes so intimidating to a theater chain - especially one such as IMAX which shows mostly films of a scientific nature – that it cancels showings of scientific films because it doesn’t go along with that group’s religious beliefs, we have come to a dreadfully alarming state. I remember the McCarthy Hearings on Un-American Activities and what they did to this country. What we have now is akin to Religious McCarthyism or a Religious Police. Next maybe we will have a Thought Police … and then what? This all scares the hell out of me. It should frighten all of us – as well as the religious groups espousing these views – because if one group can do it, so can another. And this is exactly what the Constitution was designed to prevent – one group being able to invalidate the views of another.
We had better start paying attention to what is going on in our country these days – the intimidation, the invalidation, the coercion, the lying, and the fear. It has now come to the point that if lies are told loud and long enough they become the truth. The same is true of those trying to instill constant fear into the everyday lives of Americans, playing on those fears for political gain. These are the very tactics, historically documented, used by the Nazis and the Fascists. This is how it all started in Germany and Italy. Is this the kind of country we want to live in?
Respect for those rights guaranteed by the Constitution and the Bill of Rights are imperative. When we let others convince us otherwise, then our respect for the rights and opinions of others will diminish. And as this goes, so goes all the principles upon which this country was founded. Then America will be America no more.