By Joel Thurtell
“Museum orchestras.”
That’s what retired Wayne State Univesity music Prof. Martin Herman calls most major orchestras in the U.S.
Founded by Germans, playing mostly music by dead Germans, according to Prof. Herman.
Now, I love Bach, Haydn, Händel, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Schubert and the rest of the unlaut gang of composers.
Hey, wait a minute! Wasn’t Mozart born in Salzburg? That would make him a dead Austrian!
Well, anyway, back in the day when I could count on performances of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra actually occurring as scheduled, I’d pick programs based on my favorite pieces by dead umlautists.
(What, you ask, is an “umlautist”? Why, it’s someone whose native language employs the umlaut, which consists of two horizontal dots over the vowels “a,”, “o,” and “u.” As in ä, ö, or ü. Far as I know, that language would be German.)
Let’s see, where was I?
Oh yes, dead German composers having their music played by live American orchestras.
I think there’s a flaw in Prof. Herman’s argument, but let’s follow it for now and see where it gets us.
Back to the days of yesteryear when my DSO program would arrive and I’d pick our concerts for the season.
Were they playing Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony?
Count on me.
Beethoven’s Ninth? Seventh? Third?
Oh, the blessed Third!
Mozart? The Requiem? The Fortieth Symphony? Any of the horn concertos?
I’ll be there.
But I understood Marty Herman’s point Saturday, February 26, 2011, when we listened to subgroups of the DSO known as the CutTime Players and CutTime Simfonica.
It was a concert to benefit striking DSO musicians, held at the First Presbyterian Church of Royal Oak in lieu of Orchestra Hall, where DSO musicians don’t have access because they’re picketing their prime venue.
The concert’s driving force was DSO double-bassist Rick Robinson.
While there were some pieces on the program by dead composers, none were Germans. But some of the composers were decidedly alive.
One of those living, breathing composers was Rick Robinson himself.
When I bought our tickets online, I didn’t know what the CutTime folks would be playing. Good enough for me that they are DSO musicians and the proceeds would benefit the musicians.
But I can’t help it. When I saw no death dates for some of the composers, I got nervous. How good can music by a live composer be? Really!
And four pieces by this guy Robinson!
Come on!
I braced for the inevitable — boredom interspersed with struggling against unpleasant noise.
As I say, now I understand what Prof. Herman was talking about.
Because I was not bored. Nor did I need to plug my ears.
Surprise! Classical music, or at least music in the classic style, is still being written.
Right here in metro Detroit.
I don’t think any competently composed music could sound bad in the hands of DSO people.
But this guy Robinson writes really good music.
The shame of it is that I needed a strike and a performance of DSO musicians not sanctioned and even condemned by DSO management to teach me the lesson.
Marty Herman’s point was that in the day when Haydn, Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, et. al., were writing music, their audiences expected them to produce NEW works. That is why they cranked out hundreds, even thousands of pieces of music, mostly first-class, great listening stuff.
They were expected to entertain people with brand-new music.
Not present old pieces written by dead composers.
Somehow, that tradition has been lost or forgotten at our major orchestras.
But for the strike, I probably would never have heard Rick Robinson’s marvelous “City Trees,” or his “Gigue” with DSO principal oboist Donald Baker. Based on a Bach ‘cello tune, “Gigue” is a masterpiece of counterpoint, and while it sometimes evoked the great master, it was an original musical offering.
Robinson grew up in Highland Park when that city had a strong string program. He is a local guy composing world-class music.
What a treat, to hear newly-composed music.
I’m afraid we’ve been trained to expect the oldie-goldie classical tunes, but I’ll start looking for programs with new pieces.
Beethoven’s Third?
Get it on CD.
Oh yes, the flaw in Prof. Herman’s logic?
Well, maybe not a flaw so much as my personal objection.
When I picked DSO programs with, say, a favorite Bach piece, I’d often be foiled by the orchestra program directors, who’d pair the classic gem with something either more modern, or some piece unfamiliar to me.
And most often, the “new” piece was a treat, unexpectedly exciting.
So in that sense, I was hearing “new” music, even if it was, according to Prof. Herman, a museum piece.
A piece by an 18th-century composer could be brand-new to me if I’ve never heard it before.
It’s great to hear new music, even if it’s old.
Give me the umlautists any day, rather than the cacophony of “modern” music [cacophony (meaning harsh, discordant sound; derived from ‘kakos,’ the Greek word for ‘bad’); also see ‘caca,’ the kids’ word for feces, from the Latin ‘caco’ (cacare: to defecate) ].
How can one leave the concert hall humming atonal music that has no “tune”? Similarly, how can one leave an opera hall humming recitative? Which is why opera lovers will return again and again to Beethoven’s “Fidelio,” Mozart’s “Magic Flute,” Humperdinck’s “Hansel and Gretel” and Richard Strauss’ “Rosenkavalier,” rather than sit through the ponderous recitative of “Boris Godunov” or “Prince Igor.”
And hey, you may include Mozart in the umlautists, since Austria’s official language is German. Actually, since there is more than one form of German language — see Hochdeutsch/Oberdeutsch (High German), Plattdeutsch/Niederdeutsch (Low German) — it can get quite confusing; Austria and parts of Switzerland speak a form of High German (the Austrians of course add their own lilt to it).
At any rate, yes, I’ll take the umlautists — and whatever few contemporary composers have learned enough from the umlautists to write music that may be distinctly their own, but still hummable.