The Indiana Wind Symphony Blog

Now in Theaters: The L.A. Philharmonic

Last night, I got to go my first concert of the L.A. Philharmonic at the Walt Disney Concert Hall. Well, I wasn’t actually at the Walt Disney Concert Hall; I was in an AMC theater in Castleton, Indiana. Building on the success of the Metropolitan Opera’s Live in HD broadcasts, the LA Phil has scheduled monthly performances that are broadcast live to movie theaters all over the United States and Canada. Last night was their first one.

The music was, of course, outstanding, so there isn’t really much point in my giving any sort of musical critique. I just want to offer my impressions of the experience. But here’s what they played:

• First up was “Slonimsky’s Earbox,” a piece written by John Adams in 1995 to memorialize Nicholas Slonimsky. (I wrote about Slonimsky’s Lexicon of Music Invective here.)
• Second was Leonard Bernstein’s First Symphony, “Jeremiah,” which included vocals by mezzo-soprano Kelley O’Connor.
• After an intermission came the concert’s centerpiece: Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony. Dudamel conducted this without a score.
• The applause didn’t stop afterward, so they performed Brahms’s “Hungarian Dance No. 1″ as an encore.

The price: I had a little sticker shock when I went in to buy my tickets. I was at a movie theater, expecting something in the range of movie theater ticket prices — maybe a little more. The price for a ticket was $22. If the idea behind these broadcasts is to expose a larger number of people to great classical music, this isn’t going to do it. It isn’t horribly difficult for a family of four to spend $80 at a movie theater, but that usually includes popcorn, candy, and drinks. So exposure to this concert is pretty limited to those people who can already afford to occasionally go to the symphony. I thought twice about buying tickets (money’s tight these days), but I did it.

The host: The broadcast was hosted by Vanessa Williams. I appreciate Ms. Williams’ involvement in and support for arts education, but her appearance here did little to enhance the performance. She ought to spend more time with her lines beforehand, too; she had more than a few vocal slip-ups during the course of the broadcast (including moiderizing the name Slonimsky). They might be able to save some money (and perhaps lower ticket prices?) by hiring a relative unknown who can do as good a job or better hosting the show.

Pre-performance discussion. Before each piece, Maestro Dudamel spoke (in his thick Venezuelan accent on a prerecorded video) about the piece — some history, some music theory, and some personal thoughts. He was personable, thoughtful, and at times funny. It was an enjoyable addition that really brought some personality to the performance.

The passion of the musicians: In college, my clarinet professor occasionally attempted to get me to be more still while I played solos — something about wasted energy. I was reminded of this especially during the last movement of Beethoven’s Seventh: During loud and fast moments, what I took to be the principal violist attacked her instrument like she was stabbing a badger that had latched onto her neck. It was a little distracting watching this one player’s sometimes violent contortions, but on the other hand, she made other of the more reserved players look cold and mechanical by comparison.

Regardless of how you feel about a musician’s body movements when they play, this points to one important idea: The sounds of the music that one creates are infinitely more important than how one looks when one creates it.

End-of-concert questions: During the course of the concert, movie-theater patrons were encouraged to text questions to Maestro Dudamel. After the encore, when Dudamel had retreated offstage, Vanessa Williams asked him a few of them. (What kind of music do you listen to other than classical? Why are the celli in the middle of the orchestra? Have you ever come close to crying onstage while conducting?) This was a nice little interactive bit of the show, but it was just a short thing tagged on at the end.

I’m not saying that we should have been given more of the Maestro’s time after the show. That would just be mean. But they certainly got more questions than just those three. Perhaps Dudamel, between now and the next on-screen concert, could sit down in front of a camera and answer more of them , and those answers could be incorporated into future broadcasts? It would make the hosts’ job less important and bring more music education into the mix.

The video work: What’s so interesting about the ceiling of the Walt Disney Concert Hall? From the amount of camera time devoted to showing the ceiling, I would have expected something interesting or important to be there. (Not even a chandelier!)

A number of different camera positions were used during the concert, focusing on individuals and sections of the orchestra, the conductor, and the entire orchestra at once. This last camera would often start at the orchestra and then slowly pan up, all the way to the ceiling. I grant that the architecture behind the orchestra is interesting, but the camera really doesn’t need to go higher than that. If they’re at a loss for “new” camera angles, shots of audience reaction (especially if you can catch someone dozing off!) would be more interesting than shots of the ceiling.

Audience reaction: I don’t know yet that there is really a standard etiquette for attending a musical concert in a movie theater. A few of the patrons applauded. My first instinct was to wonder, “What’s the point? The orchestra can’t hear you!” Perhaps this music-lover was so filled with musical joy, though, they they just needed some way to express that, get it out of their system, and clapping seemed like an obvious way to do that. No matter how good the music was (and it was amazing), I didn’t see a point to clapping.

Speaking of the audience, is there a virus going around the LA area, or is coughing in a concert hall really that contagious? Maybe it was just because I was experiencing it in a new environment, but the amount of coughing in the audience seemed excessive. During the break between the second and third movement of the Beethoven, there were no fewer than two dozen coughs from the audience, as everyone tried to get their throat cleared before the orchestra started up again. I was laughing, it was so ridiculous.

Would I do it again? Going to a movie theater to see a performance of an opera makes sense: an opera is as much a visual art as it is an aural one. Although seeing the symphony in action while they play does add a little something that I wouldn’t otherwise get from a CD, it just doesn’t have the oomph that an opera has. And experiencing a live symphony broadcast in a movie theater still isn’t the same as hearing them live in the concert hall. These broadcasts will certainly increase their name recognition, and maybe even enlarge the LA Phil’s fan base for future CD sales, but I don’t think symphonic broadcasts will have the same effect as the opera broadcasts.

For my money, there just isn’t enough value added in these broadcasts to justify spending more than the price of a CD that I can listen to whenever I want. I likely won’t be returning. I will, however, take a second look at the Met’s opera broadcasts. <i>Nixon in China</i> is scheduled for mid-February, and hearing “Slonimsky’s Earbox” has piqued my interest once again in this great American composer.

Posted by Andy Hollandbeck

Do you get the chills?

Do you find yourself getting chills when you listen to certain pieces of music? Earlier today, I read and posted an interesting article on my facebook that deserves a read!

Here is the link for the article, called “Messiah give you chills? That’s a clue to your personality.”

Essentially, it covers an interesting phenomenon whereby a specific piece of music or song induces the sensation of chills in a pleasurable sort of way. These chills, sometimes called aesthetic chills can happen all over the body in response to music.

The article goes on to discuss the how/why of this occurrence. Basically, the music that gives you a reaction is stimulating your hypothalamus which is basically the pleasure center of the brain. (But also controls involuntary responses like blushing and goosebumps) When something connects with you emotionally for whatever reason, it’s stimulating the hypothalamus and hence  inducing the goosebump reaction.

For me, what I found very interesting about the study done is two-fold:

1) The genre of music doesn’t matter, only the emotional connection does. If you have an emotional connection to something, whether it’s David Hasslehoff, Stravinsky, or Sting it generates the same reaction of the skin/body.

2) Some people have never experienced this reaction, and their personality may be to blame! Yes,  in fact among all the factors taken into account, being someone who is open to enjoying art, music, theater, etc, seemed to make these chills more common.

I know as someone who is clearly a musician and music lover, I have experienced these aesthetic chills lots in my life. Usually they coincide with large, impactful moments in music or sometimes a simple dissonance with a stress and release. Just recently, I’ve experienced this with Whitacre’s October as I had the chance to conduct the Butler University Wind Ensemble. For me the big climax point just connects with me emotionally, along with many other spots.

So, my question is: Have you ever experienced aesthetic chills? If so, are you a musician/not, and what song or genre do you notice it most with?

Posted by Angelo

Facebook Campaign Counters EAM with 4’33″

A Facebook campaign in the UK is attempting to make John Cage’s 4’33″ the number-one song this Christmas season. Tom Breihan at Pitchfork covers the basics well:

In the UK, the race to become the number one song in the country at Christmas is a big deal. Last year, a Facebook campaign succeeded in making Rage Against the Machine’s years-old track “Killing in the Name” the Christmas number one, upsetting X Factor winner Joe McElderry. This year, an indie-leaning all-star group of artists is attempting the same thing, with a “cover” of John Cage’s experimental piece “4’33″”, which famously consists of four minutes and 33 seconds of silence.

The group is calling themselves “Cage Against the Machine” — a well-placed pun if ever there was one. Check out their Facebook page. Proceeds from the campaign will be split among five charities, one of which is the British Tinnitus Association. (Tinnitus is a ringing in your ears that has no external source.)

I think this is a great campaign to counter EAM, Eardrum Assault Month. But it opens up a few cans of worms.

First of all, the idea behind that campaign itself: I love the idea of gaming the system — at least when it’s such a nonessential system. I also love the idea of a group of people working together and focusing on a single issue to produce something surprising. That is, after all, what a wind ensemble does. Flash mobs, random acts of kindness, and senseless campaigns like this are like individual sparkling stars in the vast black void of geopolitical history. They remind us that the course of humankind is governed solely by the rich and the royal. So, my hats off to the people who conceived this idea, and especially to those who are seeing it through.

Second, John Cage’s 4’33″: This piece is often brought up in the broad philosophical discussion of “What Is Music?” Is John Cage’s 4’33″ a piece of music, even though it consists entirely of science?

Here’s my take: 4’33″ isn’t music. Music is a controlled collection of sounds and silences, so this piece falls short by half. 4’33″ is, though, an artwork; it’s a performance piece. Like any good piece of controversial art, it makes you think about what you’re experiencing. It makes you question what you believe and why you believe it. It makes you part of the art.

The question of whether or not 4’33″ is music stems from the facts that a) it was written by someone known as a composer, and b) it is entirely concerned with the sonic. Artwork that deals solely in sound is normally in the purview of “music.” And so a performance of 4’33″ makes you wonder not only “Is this music?” but “What is music?” And you must decide the latter before you can decide the former.

So, given the alternative of those insipid, repetitive, happy-go-barfy Christmas carols, 4’33″ gets my vote. The next time you hear “The Twelve Days of Christmas,” just think how much better your life would be if you could just turn the noise off for four and a half minutes.

So what do you think of 4’33″? Would you, like me, prefer silence to Christmas music?

Posted by Andy Hollandbeck

Our First Crack at the Palladium

Last Wednesday, Dec. 1, the IWS had a concert of sorts at the nearly finished Palladium at The Center for the Performing Arts in Carmel. The purpose for this concert was to help the Palladium’s acousticians “tune” the hall for a group like ours. It also gave us a chance to hear what we sounded like and find the best seating arrangement for the band.

The performance was educational (we hope) all around. The Palladium folks got to hear us, we got to see what the new stage was like, and Charlie, our Musical Director, took the opportunity not only to introduce to Indiana Wind Symphony to a lot of people who had never heard us before, but to introduce the idea of the wind symphony and the various instruments found within it, which we hope the audience found both educational and entertaining; you know, edutaining.

After intial performances of Leroy Anderson’s A Christmas Festival and Sleigh Ride, we began doing some experimenting with the seating arrangement, which made a world of difference both to the audience and to the band. The audience, then, got to see and hear something concertgoers rarely get to hear: the effects of different seating arrangements on the sound of the hall.

After the concert, we asked for responses from both band members and concertgoers. Below are the responses we received.

Response from the Audience

From Emily Walk:

I was fortunate to be in attendance for the IWS tuning on Wednesday, December 1, at the Carmel Palladium. I have been to many IWS performances and they’re always excellent, but the tuning session was educational. They sounded pretty awesome to begin with, but after Charlie moved players around, it was amazing to hear the difference it made. Who would have known that just by moving tubas to the end, or moving other instruments closer together that it would make such a difference. I also thought it was great that Charlie kept the audience involved by explaining what he was doing, and by introducing the different sections and letting us hear how the different instruments sounded. It was a special evening for all.

One of the ladies with me had never heard the IWS before. She LOVED it! She says Charlie is a fantastic director. She wants to go to more concerts, and I have assured her that she will.

Oh, yes, the Palladium is fantastic and I’m happy that the IWS has found a home there.

From Matt Burke:

It was like floating on sound.

From Chris Bailey (husband of IWS flutist Ellen Logan Bailey):

How much more exciting does a rehearsal get than last night! Wow! Group sounded fantastic and they made the new Palladium look good too! Way to go IWS. You all have come a long way and I am so glad for your success. Also, flute section rocks! Yeah flutes!

From Mark Burke:

The sound last night in the Palladium was great. One thing I would say is that after the tubas were moved to the right side of the stage, it became pretty difficult to hear the trumpets. This was especially evident during the Christmas Festival piece. The trumpets had the melody, but were drowned out when the woodwinds would come in with their parts. Moving the tubas did give them more presence, but it was a bit too much presence. There were others seated around me that felt the same way.

Overall though, your group sounded great. Thanks again for the tickets.

From Josh Frank:

This was my first time seeing the Indianapolis Wind Symphony and I was blown away. The Symphony sounded amazing and the beautiful backdrop of the new Palladium enriched the experience even further. It was almost as if I was in another time. I highly recommend any music enthusiast to check out the Indianapolis Wind Symphony.

From Patricia Pan:

Thanks so much for the opportunity to hear the IWS at the Palladium. The venue was very impressive, and seeing the band members in “concert dress” made the event even more special.

I especially enjoyed learning about the types of instruments in the band and hearing how the sound changes when the players are moved to different parts of the stage.

As the band was playing, the words lush, ripe, and sexy(!) came to my mind as I thought about the shape of the sound.

I look forward to seeing more of the IWS at the Palladium!

From Beth Knapik:

Wow! I was not impressed by the first song but OMG the sound was incredible by the time you moved and tweaked!!!! You could hear all of the instruments by the end of the rehearsal. There was still a discrepancy between the jungle bells and the trumpets (I don’t think they could hear each other). I noticed, as did my parents, that the flutes were still drowned out. But overall, the sound was fantastic and I was quite impressed by the wind symphony. I will definitely go back to hear you/them again. Great job.

Now the Palladium on the other hand is a different story (says a tax paying Carmel resident). Ha ha!

Responses from IWS members

From contrabass clarinetist Don Poulsen, quoted from a letter he shared with members of the Indianapolis Municipal Band:

“In my opinion, the Palladium lives up to its hype, despite still being under construction. The interior is beautiful, but I didn’t get much of an impression of the exterior because it was dark outside. The concert hall felt pretty intimate in that none of the seats are terribly far from the stage. On the stage, it seemed as if I could hear other instruments and sections more clearly than most any other place I’ve ever played. The stage is definitely a concert stage and not a multipurpose stage. I expect the audience would be able to hear a reed drop on stage when the hall is quiet. And, when a piece ends on a loud note, you will notice the sound decaying afterwards.

“Overall, it felt as though I’d made it to the big time, both from the feel and acoustics of the hall. I’m sure it inspired me to play better. I’m also sure everyone in the IMB will enjoy the experience of playing on that stage at least once in their lives. (Between the Palladium and the ArtsGarden, we’ll end up playing at both ends of acoustic spectrum during December, in my opinion.)”

In addition, last night I had trouble falling asleep because I was still thinking about the experience.

From Hornist Jason Gardner, who wasn’t playing with us that evening:

I think the Palladium is a beautiful venue. Wish I would have brought my horn and tux and sight-read the concert.

I was sitting on stage left (Orchestra right) in row U.

From the light trap the first piece sounded great. Good balance. Then the ushers let us in.

For Sleigh Ride there was just way too much reverb throughout. After the last note I counted to six or seven before the sound completely dissipated. Trombones got lost in the mix (but I did hear the seven most important notes!). F Horns were clearly audible all night, but at the beginning their articulation wasn’t very clear due to the reverb. I think their placement on stage was perfect. To me, trumpets really stood out and I think the clarinets and flutes were the most prominent at the beginning.

As curtains were added and seats moved around the brass blend as a section improved (although euphonium stayed very strong all night and even overbalanced the trumpets at times). I thought bringing the tubas to stage left helped a lot. Moving them back from the edge was better. Trumpets were noticeably reduced when moved towards the center as were the saxes.

The woodwinds alone sounded wonderful! Great balance. When the brass were playing, however, only the highest frequencies from the woodwinds were heard; mid and low range clarinets were lost and only the piccolo and first clarinets were clearly audible.

The glockenspiel was way too loud during RCM [Alfred Reed's Russian Christmas Music]. I think it would be best to move the percussion to the center to blend in and to help with communication with the tubas.

I think adding a few more curtains in the second balcony would help clarify sound even more. There was still just a little too much reverb for my taste at the end, but adding the third balcony curtains all around was a huge improvement.

I think a little more fine-tuning is in order, but I heard much promise. The IWS sounded great! Can’t wait to play with the group again.

From clarinetist Amanda Dowell:

My parents were there. They said the sound of the ensemble did NOT come from the stage, as it usually does is an auditorium, but from the walls around them. Dad used the term “surround sound” to describe it. They thought it was just amazing!

The Center for the Performing Arts has some wonderful pictures of the Palladium on their Facebook page, including pictures of the IWS performance. Here’s my favorite:

The space is just beautiful, both visually and acoustically. It has a real high-class, European feel to it, and a lot (and I mean a LOT) of great marble in the lobby areas.

Though I will note that I heard a few band members comment on what they believed was an overuse of pastel colors.

Posted by Andy Hollandbeck