The president of the distinguished New York Philharmonic, Zarin Mehta, recently announced that he will be resigning at the end of 2011-2012 season. By that time, he will have been the president for 12 years. However, the president is not the only thing that is changing about the orchestra these days.

More important than the change in the NY Philharmonic’s president, is the profound change in its philosophy. Just as every field is being forced to adjust to the “ever-changing world in which we live in” (as Paul McCartney puts it), orchestra executives are being forced to transform the industry. All the new technology brings with it many opportunities that the orchestra has already begun to exploit, as well as new challenges. For example, the Philharmonic has begun streaming live concerts on iTunes and a totally revamped website, http://nyphil.org. Despite these advances, the Philharmonic is facing a conundrum: how to engage audiences of the multi-tasking, social networking, ADD world.

Another pressing matter that the NY Philharmonic is having to address is the economic aftermath of the recession. Next September, when the Philharmonic’s contract expires, there will be chaotic contract disputes between the management of the orchestra and the musicians. The orchestra’s endowment has already dropped from $212 million to $170 million, which Mr. Mehta says is way below the necessary amount of between $250 million to $270 million. In fact, major orchestras around the country are struggling to deal with many of these same issues. The Detroit Symphony Orchestra is currently having a labor dispute, in which management is threatening to cut the salaries of musicians by one-third. As a result, the musicians are threatening to strike.

Throughout the country, orchestras are even attempting to change the definition of their musicians’ roles. Both the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and the Los Angeles Philharmonic are extending the roles of their musicians into the education sector. New responsibilities that musicians are accepting include “coaching youth orchestras, visiting schools, playing chamber music concerts, [and] giving talks.”

While the roles of the American orchestral musicians are evolving, so is the atmosphere of the orchestras themselves. “Video projections have come into the concert hall, as in the Houston Symphony’s program of Holst’s “Planet,” illustrated by NASA photos. Orchestras are streaming live performances live on the internet or in movie theaters; allowing audiences to vote for encores through text messages; or establishing preconcert happy hours.” Really? Who would ever have associated symphony orchestras with videos, text-induced encores, or happy hours? And that’s not all. After 168 years of excellence at the New York Philharmonic, it is now promoting itself on Youtube with humorous videos to attract potential ticket-buyers. Furthermore, the Philharmonic’s music director, Alan Gilbert, has attempted to create a more relaxed ambiance in the concert hall by speaking to the audience at times and setting up a blog on musicalamerica.com.

Well, it finally seems that the elitist culture of the high-class world of music is finally catching up to the rest of society’s radical changes. While some may claim that all of these innovations take away from the mystique of the orchestral setting, there is really nothing they can do about it. In fact, there is nothing the orchestras themselves can do about it. They are running low on funding and viewership, and are willing to do almost anything to become more relevant to the community.

Read the New York Times article

Read Alan Gilbert’s blog

Example of a non-formal NY Philharmonic Youtube trailer

Houston Symphony’s “The Planets” – An HD Odyssey (teaser)

Last year in my Music Theory class, I had to choose a musical artist and write a research paper on that person.  I am very into jazz, and especially love vocal jazz, so I chose to research Billie Holiday.  (I will not post the biographical information and career of Billie Holiday on the blog, but if you want to see it, I would be happy to show you my paper.)  However, I will say that Billie Holiday was an African American jazz singer during the early-mid 1900s.  One of her most famous songs — “Strange Fruit”– is known as one of the first ever anti-racism songs.  The song is about the lynchings in the South, and was so controversial at the time she came out with it that her record company (Columbia) would not even record it.  In stead, Holiday recorded the song with Commodore, and it quickly became popular.

What interests me about this song is not the voice per say, for I don’t think this song shows off Billie’s vocal talent as well as some of her other recordings.  But what makes this song (and the performer) stand out is the emotional power with which the song is sung.  Listeners can feel everything that Billie is feeling as she sings the song, and it evokes such strong emotions.  The following video is a live recording of Billie singing “Strange Fruit”.  The recording is simple–just voice and piano–but the phrasing, tone quality, and use of dynamics make the song into something very powerful.  As Billie sings this song, she does not really have a set tempo.  In stead, she leads as she feels, and the piano just follows along with her.  This helps paint the imagery of the lyrics in the song, especially the lyrics “black bodies swingin’ in the Southern breeze…” as the lack of tempo gives the song a “swaying” feel.

All of my music teachers in the past have told me that while I have good technical abilities, I sometimes lack the emotional power behind the music.  Incorporating emotion and feeling into the music can make or break a performance.  After watching this video, I became determined to add as much feeling into whatever piece I played/sung.  A difficult task, but one that makes all the difference.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4ZyuULy9zs

I wanted to blog about something I had a personal interest on so I thought beatboxing would be a good topic. I am sure many of you have heard of beatboxing and therefore know what it is. I was always fascinated with this form of “art”, though some people may not see it that way. I find that it takes certain skills for an individual to be able to make the sounds that come out of some of these beatboxers. The more technical term is vocal percussion. It is the imitating of drum sounds and beat patterns using your lips, tongue, mouth, throat, and voice.

Where did the term beatbox come from?
Human Beatbox literally means human drum machine and beatbox was originally used as two words ‘beat box’.

It is usually documented that beatboxing, as we know it, has its roots in the beginning of modern hip-hop, on street corners in placed like Chicago, the Bronx, and LA. However, vocal percussion – the art form from which beatboxing spawns – has been part of the music and urban scene for a lot longer than people think. This art goes back to the era of jazz, swing, and barbershop music. It has been well recorded that jazz musicians where the first group of artists who used their voices, and indeed, their whole vocal chords to imitate instruments. This art form contributed to a huge part of the hip hop community and has evolved it to what it is today. There were the three kings of beatbox of the 1980’s: Darren ‘Buffy’ Robinson, Doug E Fresh and Biz Markie. My personal favorite is Doug E Fresh especially his song, “La Di Da Di” collaborated with MC Ricky D. Another very well known beatboxer is Rahzel who was the first to ever simultaneously sing and beatbox at the same time, which is now a skill quite popular in the beatboxing community. This can also be categorized as multivocalism is a term used for artists who use beatboxing, vocal scratching, singing, MC-ing and poetry in their performances.

Doug E Fresh

Nowadays, there seems to be an increase in beatboxing artists especially with the Internet where many of these artists are able to share their talent with each other. There is even the “Beatbox Battle World Championship”, in which there are events all over the world in different countries for many artists to compete.
Browse through interviews of different recognized beatboxers from around the world.

Here’s the video of Doug E Fresh & MC Ricky D’s “La Di Da Di” (You might want to fast forward to 00:48 because that is when the song starts to pick up):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67us65nr7Uo

If you watched the 2007 film Juno, you either loved or hated the whimsical soundtrack. Two of the songs featured in the movie are by Belle and Sebastian.

Belle and Sebastian is a seven member band from Glasgow, Scotland. Since their arrival in the music scene ten years ago, they have released seven studio albums, and have received quite a cult following for their music, which has been described as “bookish songs rooted in ’60s folk-pop.” 2010 has proven to be a busy year for the constantly traveling band, for they worked on their new album, Write About Love. Based on the songs that have been released, this album seems to share the same quality of easy-listening that their former albums contain. A nice surprise is their song that is of the same title of the album, since it features guest vocals by actress Carey Mulligan.
Belle and Sebastian is currently on tour in the United States. They are performing on the Late Night with Jimmy Fallon show on Wednesday, September 29th, and have a concert at the Williamsburg Waterfront on Thursday, September 30 with Teenage Fanclub and their opening act.

You can enter to win on-stage tickets to see Belle & Sebastian perform on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon here. If you win, take me with you.

Here are three songs from Write About Love – “Write About Love”, “I Didn’t See It Coming”, and “I Want the World To Stop.” The album releases in the United States on October 12.

Write About Love – Belle and Sebastian

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UeFaayyw3o

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snailu0RnLg

Source

I’m sure all of you have heard of the TV show Glee, that just premiere its second season on Tuesday. I love the show and am a totally Gleek. Glee uses a pretty wide variety of songs from popular music to broadway to old songs. They re-sing it and give a nice glee spin to it. So I was wondering how do songs that are re-sang compare to the original? Not only music, but many other things as well, such as movies or plays. I know that some people have the notion that the original is always better, and I don’t necessarily agree with that. For example, I happen to like many of the glee versions of the song better than the original ones, but there are cases where the original is better (LIke frozen yogurt, I like the original favor.) It’s like the dances we talked about in class the other day, and while traditional ballet isn’t called original ballet, it’s like the same thing, and I’m a person who prefers traditional ballet.

Here’s a video of Wicked’s Defying Gravity:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlMBcTGJ4YM

Here’s a video of Glee’s Defying Gravity:

How do you think the two songs compare? Original? Or not?

Sandra Lau

Personally, I find it heartwarming to see musicians who once worked together reunite and perform again. This reconnection has sparked only recently within a 90’s indie/alternative band, Pavement. I have never heard of them before reading the New York Times article, but their story of revival intrigued me.

When the band released their fifth and final album Terror Twilight in 1999, they decided to promote it with a tour. Lead singer Stephen Malkmus continuously developed a negative attitude towards his other band mates, and soon confessed that he did not want to be a part of the group anymore. During their last show in London, he addressed the audience with a pair of handcuffs, saying that the item symbolized what being in a band over a long period of time is like.

Ten years later, Pavement reported and confirmed that they were performing at Central Park in New York City starting September of 2010. The musicians, however, did not promise a permanent reunion and/or career revival. This made no difference to dedicated fans; the show quickly sold out and the band had to announce additional performance dates to accommodate their ecstatic followers. They may have stated that they are not officially reuniting, but at this rate, they may reignite Pavement’s engine. The band certainly has enough of a following to confidently do so.

Here is Pavement’s “Spit On a Stranger.”
The official Pavement website can be seen here.

As a child, I attended my first Broadway performance of the Beauty and the Beast, which quickly became one of my favorites after seeing a couple of different shows. That’s why I was so interested in this article in the NY Times. I never could’ve imagined the innocent and sweet storyline of this beloved Disney tale being the basis for a dark opera.

Hannah Lash, a rising contemporary composer, has written a chamber opera (to be performed by a string quartet, countertenor and alto) by the name of “Blood Rose” that was performed on Friday night for the first time at Park Avenue Christian Church in Manhattan. Just from the title, it is clear that it doesn’t include the ending where Belle and the Prince live happily ever after. Apparently, there is a darker side to the traditional story of Beauty and the Beast, and these elements of hardship, distrust, great difficulty and conflict are the ones that Lash includes. Something important to note is that this opera was written by Lash directly after her laptop (with over ten years worth of her compositions and also personal diary saved on it) was stolen. Her countertenor, Mr. Brenner, even went so far as to call the writing of the opera “a grieving process” for her.  Personally, I would love to attend a performance of this opera. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find it on youtube but have included another piece of hers here. Enjoy!

… do you think of “gender bending rap“? Well, if you’re into in-your-face, loud, and electronic-tinged hip-hop (redubbed “bounce”), you’ll be oddly attracted to the genderqueer artist Big Freedia. Full disclosure: she’s not new, by any sense of the word, to the industry, and neither is she something you’d want to share with your parents. If anyone has even jokingly referred to you as a “prude”, avoid her albums like the plague.

Performing at the sports bar “Sports Vue” in New Orleans, the transgendered artist is visually as bombastic as her music. By day, Big Freedia runs an interior decorating business. If that strikes you as strange, that’s hardly the most bizarre thing about the artist: the video for her new single (which I’ve decided, for purposes of remaining PG-13, will remain unnamed) features a live performance in an, ahem, “gentleman’s club”, accompanied by fans and exotic dancers that hop on stage.

Big Freedia, however, isn’t only known for her music. She has created an artistic haven for members of the LGBT community in New Orleans, where they feel free to express themselves without constraints, as she has obviously been doing since 1999, and is considered a “superstar” by fans of the bounce scene.

by Drew Kozusko

Browsing through the New York Times online, I came across this article in the opinion section. The title immediately intrigued me and so I started reading. This article is written by R Luke Dubois, about himself. Throughout the year of 2009, yes every single day, he took time to himself to create and record some type of music electronically on his computer. His friend inspired him, reminding him of his creativity within which he had long since taken advantage of. Dubois then decided to take this big project upon himself.

Throughout the course of the year, Dubois realized what his music comfort zone was and he began expanding his horizons. He began experimenting with different genres and instead of this project remaining a daunting task, he enjoyed himself. He has posted online all 365 days of music for anyone to listen to. I think that this was a great accomplishment for him and I think it’s great that he took the time each day to channel his inner creativity and do this task.

Some of these MP3s sound eerie or are just interesting to listen to, so I suggest you go to this site and just randomly click on some 🙂
Here are a couple that I listened to that I liked:
1
2

Enjoy!

Michael Gordon first came to attention with a number of works performed by the Bang On A Can Ensemble, for which he has been one of the directors, I think since it began in 1987. Here is a link to an earlier piece of his. The piece we will hear on Thursday is a premiere.

You might also listen to this work “Music for 18 Musicians” by Steve Reich, an important “Minimalist” composer and precursor of Gordon’s style.

I recently came across a very interesting article while perusing the NY Times website. It was an article about a handful or rappers who have started to use jazz players in their live performances. While artists such as Kanye West, Timbaland, and Common could hire other types of musicians for less money, they choose to have jazz players as their “collaborative sidemen” because they hear something in the music that strikes a special chord(pun intended). I think that this is a great example of how two different genres can be integrated to create something beautiful and a little bit more unique. I tried to search for some of these live performances but was met with little success. I did however find some popular rap and pop songs covered by jazz bands. These covers were extremely interesting and were both eye and ear opening.
click here for article

OutKast-Hey Ya(Jazz Cover)- click here

Michael Jackson-Rock With You(Jazz Cover)- click here

In a recent New York Times article, Allan Kozzin discusses the evolution of music and the modern day “split in the classical music world between traditionalists and experimenters”. Kozzin questions the definition of music. He seeks to evaluate and understand the role technology has played in the modern music world. He discusses the contrast of the old and the new and the continuously growing riff between the “standard” traditional and the up-and-coming.

An interesting point which Kozzin discusses is the idea of “arrested development”. This author fears that musical evolution has the potentially of freezing. He proposes that “today’s composers have a difficult choice” and that often, composers will revert to the “traditional” for fear of otherwise not having their works heard.

The highlight of this article then shifts to those composers who have traveled towards the opposite end of the spectrum. With both visual and audio examples, Kozzin provides interesting insight into the modern music world. (Note to readers: The audio recordings are absolutely worth listening too, and are crucial to a fuller understanding of Kozzin’s discussion.)

Personally, I am not sure of my feelings on this struggle, but I do know that it is an important one and will define music for years to come. Kozzin’s article has encouraged me to be more open to different types of music and even if I may not necessarily like every “modern” piece, I can still appreciate the composer’s creativity and musical prowess.

Read article here.

We cannot doubt that mainstream music is a part of art, even if it is associated more with pop culture. This post may seem like a “fish out of water” amongst the works of art posted on this blog, but we cannot deny that it fills one or more of the qualities of art defined here.

It’s quite the feat that Nicki Minaj is currently mentioned in the New York Times, with her first album debuting more than a month away. Her fame and popularity has been exponentially rising, that many compare her to the likes of Lady Gaga, wigs and all.

Last month, Kanye West released a new single, “Monster,” from his upcoming comeback album that features Jay-Z, Rick Ross, Bon Iver, and Nicki Minaj. The latter has received much acclaim for her verse, which is provided in the video below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGR1CIC1fS0&feature=related

I can’t decide on whether or not I enjoy her music, or not. I admire her unconventional approach, but I question its tastefulness. However, you cannot deny that her singles are catchy. My conflict can be best seen in “Your Love.” I am addicted to its melody (some of it sampled from Annie Lennox’s ‘No More “I Love You’s”‘), but there are incorrect cultural references! She mentions about being a geisha, which is derived from Japan, but she fuses Japanese, Chinese, and Thai elements in this video.

Nicki’s album, Pink Friday, will be released on November 28, and it’s safe to say that her theatrics will be cemented for the long run.

Source

It is not uncommon for famous musicians to write and publish autobiographies once they reach an older age.  They have many stories to tell of their journey through life and the music business, and they long to share it with awaiting fans.  However, this is not quite the case for rock-and-roll guitarist Jimmy Page.  Page was a member of the Yardbird for a few years in during the late 1960s before founding the popular band Led Zeppelin.  Always a man of few words, Jimmy Page decided to publish a photo book representing his entire career, rather than write an autobiography.  The book consists of 500 pages of photographs chosen by Jimmy Page that he feels will best represent his musical career.  I was surprised to read that only 2,500 copies of the book are available, and for about $685 each!  This makes me think of an earlier post about how much people are willing to pay for a painting.

In an interview with Mr. Page about this new book, he said that “it’s the story of a kid who’s involved with music, but really the music involved itself with him. It’s this conjoining of music and a teenager, and off it goes.”  When asked why he didn’t include any pictures of him with his family or things of that sort, he claimed that he really wanted the music to speak through the pictures, and nothing else.  This was really interesting to me, and really spoke volumes about how important a role music must have played in Page’s life.  I had never heard of a picture-book version of an autobiography before reading this article, but I think it is a really cool idea.  It makes me think of what my own “picture-book autobiography” would consist of if I had the chance to make one.  What would my pictures tell about my life?

Check out the article here.

Seiji Ozawa is in the process of getting back to conducting onstage after having surgery for esophageal cancer, as reported by James R. Oestreich in the New York Times (his most recent article here). Mr. Ozawa, who just turned 75, only managed to conduct one movement of Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings before he had to step down due to sciatic problems (definition here). I honestly do not know much about Mr. Ozawa, other than the fact that he was the conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra for almost 30 years, and that he was once a student of the German conductor Karajan. Yet, his name has left an impression on my mind that will most likely never go away, and this was all due to a youtube video.  It was a video of Seiji Ozawa conducting Die Fledermaus Overture by Johann Strauss II.  At that time, I thought that it was one of the most beautiful things that I have ever seen and heard. The video actually managed to move me to tears. There was so much character brought out in the piece by both the orchestra and the conductor.  Also, it was a lively composition in itself.  I am glad that he is returning to the stage once more, so that there will be more chances to experience his conducting.

Shirley Mak

Seiji Ozawa Conducting Die Fledermaus Video Link

Seiji Ozawa while conducting.

While reading The Onion‘s sister online news site, the AV Club, I stumbled upon some very sad news about the death of the indie magazine, Paste. I honestly owe a huge part of my (sometimes embarrassing) taste in music to this magazine, which has covered some of the most seminal albums of the 2000’s. During it’s influential 8 year run, Paste has kept afloat in the dying print news industry by offering a subscription plan that only predicated that you pay as much as you want (something I remember doing a few years ago!) I’ll always remember how it was the only magazine that came with a free sampler CD, which I could use to pretend like I had heard about “that band” before they were famous.

Although I’ll miss the tangible magazine itself, with its endless supply of collage-worthy pictures and the greatest of playlists, I know Paste is in a better place now…

… Twitter, that is.

the article, via the AV Club

Even if jazz isn’t your thing I’m sure along the way everyone has had the experience of dusting off an old jazz record and throwing it on the turn table. No? Well then you ripped the mp3 off of limewire. Either way, even if you aren’t a jazz enthusiast I’m sure at one point you’ve listened to tracks from the swing and bop eras. While these recordings are great, they don’t change. Every time you listen to these recordings the tempos are the same, the musicians are always the same, and the solos don’t change. This takes away from a jazz experience because jazz is a music centered around improvisation and change. This is why jazz fans all over are excited about the discovery and remastering of “The Savory Collection”.

The New York Times article about the finding can be seen here.

“The Savory Collection” is a compilation of about 980 discs filled with live recordings of prominent jazz artists from the height of the Swing Era. These recordings were recorded by William Savory, an audio engineer mostly from radio broadcasts. The methods Savory used allowed him to record for much longer than most recording studios allowed at the time. This allowed him to capture extended solos and entire jam sessions of some of the most well known jazz artists in history including Lester Young, Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, Billie Holliday, and many, many more. As a jazz fan I’m excited to hear as much of this as I can. I’ve heard some of the saxophone recordings of Lester Young and I was very impressed. Over time these recordings may become just as common as the other jazz albums around but for now it’s a new look at some old school jazz. Since we can’t build a time machine (I’ve tried and failed several times) “The Savory Collection” is probably the closest we will come to a live performance by these jazz all-stars.

Another article with some sound clips can be found here