La Guitarra

By David Hennessee

Hello again dear blog readers. LTNB (Long Time No Blog). Patty was quite correct in writing that I’ve been very busy – this quarter I’ve been teaching two classes I haven’t done in a few years (British literature 1832-1914 and Great Books) so I’ve had to refresh my memory on texts and curriculum. An upside was that I got to revisit one of my favorite novels: Wilkie Collins’ “The Woman in White.” Published in 1860, it was the first “sensation novel” – a blend of the domestic novel (about love, marriage, and family life), the Gothic novel, and the detective novel. Think “Pride and Prejudice” meets “Twilight” meets “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.” I highly recommend it. It is, however, 635 pages long, so it takes commitment, and I didn’t think I could get away with blogging about what’s been on my mind: things like how Collins’ innovative narrative structure relates to changing 19th-century notions of gentlemanly behavior…

January was also a very busy month for me and many other symphony musicians. There was a Cal Poly student/faculty/local music scene folks all-Bach concert, then the Brandenburgs in the Mission, and then the February Classics concert with Shunske Sato. I had to miss the Damon Castillo concert but I heard it was a lot of fun. So much music!

Right now we’re getting ready for the next concert featuring guitarist Jose Maria Gallardo del Rey and violinist Anabel Garcia del Castillo. Jose Maria is well known to local audiences, but this is Anabel’s first time here. I did a little Googling and found this blurb about her:

“Una excelentisima violinista: una tecnica nitida y matematica, junto a una sonoridad de gran belleza y plenitud, asi como una diccion de incuestionable vigor comunicativo.” (Cataluna y Musica)

I had three years of Spanish way back when, so I kind of got the gist: she’s really good. With the help of a translator program, here’s what I think it’s saying:

“A most excellent violinist: a technique spotless and mathematical, along with a sound of great beauty and fullness, as well as a clarity of unquestionably unreserved power.”

This will be an exciting concert in part because we’re playing a world premiere, a piece called “Glosas,” written by Jose Maria for guitar, violin, and orchestra, and I hear they’re bringing a percussionist with them from Spain. That should help us a lot, as the piece is very flamenco-esque, and those rhythms can be difficult.

New music is fun to play; it’s like traveling to a foreign country: exciting, a little bit scary, and with a sense of adventure. It’s also challenging because there’s no “tradition” to fall back on. For example, bowings (I wonder if I can write a blog and NOT mention bowings…). In the standard repertoire, there are usually certain ways bowings are done, or at least there are a couple of familiar options. Not so with new music. You have to figure out the best way to do it, what’s in character with the music, and what will work technically. Fortunately for us, Anabel did most of the bowings for “Glosas,” though with bowings it seems like you’re never finished. Just this morning, as I was lecturing on imagery of light and dark in Joseph Conrad’s novella “Heart of Darkness,” I felt my phone vibrating in my pocket. It wasn’t Conrad calling to say “you’re getting it all wrong!” It was Mike Nowak calling to tell me about a bowing change.

I was reflecting a bit on what a versatile instrument the guitar is. It’s played everywhere from concert halls, to beer-soaked dive bars, kindergarten classrooms, around campfires or beach bonfires; it’s featured in life-affirming lesbian folk rock:

Back in the days when I went to beer-soaked dive bars to listen to life-affirming lesbian folk rock, people used to say “why don’t you bring your viola next time?” I just didn’t think Brandenburg #6 would work have worked in that context.

I attended a music school once that had a separate “guitar wing” of the practice rooms. This was done because the acoustic guitar is a quiet instrument, and the guitarists’ delicate plucking would have been drowned out if next door to a trumpet player blasting away, a pianist diligently practicing scales, or a violist talking about last night’s episode of “Melrose Place.” I used to hang out in the “guitar wing” when things got stressful; it was very relaxing and centering and a bit melancholy.

Which is the feeling one gets from the best-known work we’re playing, Rodrigo’s “Concierto de Aranjuez” with its famous Adagio.

Rodrigo was inspired to write this piece by the gardens at Palacio Real de Aranjuez, which makes sense as it definitely evokes nostalgia. It’s also one of those pieces that is very sad and very beautiful at the same time. I was interested to learn that Rodrigo’s wife Victoria wrote in her autobiography that the slow movement evokes the happiness of their honeymoon but also the sadness of the miscarriage of their first pregnancy.

Legendary jazz musician Miles Davis did a famous reading of this piece on his album “Sketches of Spain.”

Davis wrote in his autobiography (Miles, the Autobiography) that Rodrigo

“didn’t like the record, and he – his composition – was the reason I did ‘Sketches of Spain’ in the first place. Since he was getting a royalty for the use of the song on the record, I told his person who had played it for him, ‘let’s see if he likes it after he starts getting those big royalty checks.’ I never heard anything about or from him after that.”

See you soon! David

History of the San Luis Obispo Symphony – Part II

 

Alice Parks Nelson

THE SIXTIES: TRIUMPH AND TRAGEDY

Mrs. Nelson had a dream. She dreamed that there should be a music scholarship competition for the talented young people of San Luis Obispo County. To make her dream come true, Alice Parks Nelson needed several things: the cooperation of area music teachers, a sponsoring institution, and an orchestra of substance with which the winning competitors could perform and be recognized. All of these things, seemingly so formidable, were actually nearer at hand than she could have known.

Over at the Community Orchestra, meanwhile, there were other people with some formidable problems, namely, finding a Conductor, a Concertmaster, and a Manager. (Lucian Morrison had left for a sabbatical in Europe following the 1959-60 season, while Concertmaster Lois Morgan moved away and Manager and former Concertmaster Norman Babcock decided to hang it up.) After much discussion, it was decided to approach the Santa Maria Community Orchestra and its Conductor, Loren Powell.

Loren Powell

Powell was a fine musician, having been a violinist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and with MGM, and a conducting pupil of Sir Eugene Goosens. A novel agreement was worked out whereby Powell would conduct both orchestras, using the same music, and they would present their concerts together, first in one city and then in the other. Harry Tarr would be Concertmaster for the San Luis Obispo concerts and Wesley Foxen of Santa Maria for the concerts there, with each orchestra contributing a “half” Manager.
This arrangement was admittedly clumsy and it was mainly Powell’s vibrant personality which held it together. The instrumentation of both orchestras was greatly improved, nonetheless, and printed programs–not mimeographed–became standard. Business sponsors were also listed for the first time. Most importantly, perhaps, the Spring concert of 1961 featured a student soloist, Karen Banham of Atascadero, a high school senior and a pupil of prominent North County musician and teacher Dorothy Renton. She played the Warsaw Concerto.

The efforts of others had brought Mrs. Nelson’s dream much closer to reality. Now Alice took the initiative. First she enlisted the Monday Club to sponsor her music competition. Then she got her husband, businessman Stanley Nelson, to head a committee to incorporate the Community Orchestra. As shrewd as she was civic-minded, Mrs. Nelson not only included civic leaders on the committee but also a fine young lawyer, (later Judge) William Fredman, and the two most respected long-timers from the orchestra, Howard Barlow and Captain Arthur Druet. On September 7, 1961, the San Luis Obispo County Symphony Association officially came into being over dinner at the San Luis Obispo Country Club. Senator Vernon Sturgeon spoke, and the Association’s first President was Dr. John H. Woodbridge. Then, on June 7, 1962, John Visser of Arroyo Grande soloed in the opening movement of Mendelssohn’s G minor Piano Concerto as the first winner of the Monday Club Music Scholarship Award.

Despite some initial misgivings, the orchestra prospered under the new system. That same June 7 concert also included Schubert’s Fifth Symphony, complete, to be followed in the Autumn by Haydn’s “London” Symphony and Beethoven’s First Piano Concerto with John Visser. Dr. Allen Miller and Emanuel Heifetz (distantly related to Jascha Heifetz) each took a turn as Concertmaster. Fred Artindale switched from viola to cello, however, so Principal Viola duties were shared by Hancock College’s Christopher Kuzell and Luke Morrison, returned now from Europe. Most significantly, four concerts per season became the norm.

It all seemed almost too good to be true, and sadly, it was. On Saturday, May 15, 1965, while conducting the dress rehearsal for the season’s last concert, Loren Powell collapsed on the podium and died the same evening. The following afternoon a stunned and sorrowful band gathered to play their concert In Memoriam, with violinist and Association President Dr. Robert Butler pressed into duty on the podium all knew should remain empty.

Dr. Earle Blakeslee

Mercifully, summer was at hand and there was time to think. The fledgling Cuesta College now became the Symphony’s sponsor, its President, Dr. Merlin Eisenbise, and his lovely wife, June, the Symphony’s enthusiastic supporters, and the College’s one-man music department, Dr. Earle Blakeslee, the Symphony’s new Conductor.

Dr. Blakeslee was educated at the Eastman School and USC, and he had some decided ideas. Singers would now perform regularly with the Symphony, including soprano Mary Hanson and tenor Hendrik de Boer, a professional singer who had “retired” to his Atascadero dairy ranch and who also served as Association President. Youth, too, would be served with the founding of the County Youth Symphony in 1966 and the big orchestra’s Symphonies for Youth series in 1967. Then, in 1968, the orchestra moved into the newly opened Cuesta Auditorium.

Dr. Blakeslee’s wife, Diane, also had some decided ideas, only hers were about money. She became very active in fundraising, helping to launch the first telethon in 1966 and almost single-handedly obtaining the Symphony’s first grant from the County in 1969. Alice Nelson and June Eisenbise had some ideas, too, and on May 1, 1969, they co-chaired the founding of the Symphony Guild.

The deal with the Santa Maria Symphony had evaporated, of course, with the death of Loren Powell. Dr. Blakeslee’s leadership was a little sterner than Powell’s, but the orchestra responded and prospered anew, quickly outgrowing any need for the other group. Donna Weiss took a turn as Concertmaster, and there were soon enough violas, including Cal Poly dean David Cook, that Luke Morrison could switch back to violin. Lucy Noble had already taken up the cello so she could join Evard in the orchestra; now Cuesta’s Joe Brundage also joined the cellos, and trombonist Dr. George McGinnis served a term as Association President. About the only sad news was that the redoubtable duo of Barlow and Druet were gone, one transferred and the other retired.

As all things do, nonetheless, this period too came to an end. Following the 1969-70 season, Dr. Blakeslee, like Luke Morrison ten years before, left for an extended stay in Europe. As with each previous transition, there were troubles. Soon, however, there would also be new opportunities.

Copyright (c) 2000 by Edward Lowman

A look back…

Greetings SLO Symphony Blog fans! Patty Thayer here – Communications Director here at the Symphony. Our violist/English professor/blog expert David Hennessee has been very, very busy and we’ve been missing him terribly here on the SLO Symphony blog.  While we’re waiting for him to bring us more of his insights from a musician’s perspective,  I’ve decided to step in and post a little something.

Here we are, right smack dab in the middle of our 50th Anniversary Season. So…how’s it going?

In the words of Maestro Michael Nowak, our goal is “a yearlong celebration of great music, outstanding performers, and unique and exciting programs.” Judging by the record crowd at Pops by the Sea, sold-out concerts for Zuill Bailey and Maria Jette and the excitement of our audience at our first-ever New Year’s Eve POPS Concert… I’d say the celebration is definitely on!

This milestone anniversary year also affords us the opportunity to recognize those who have shared in the successes and challenges of building a wonderful community orchestra all along the way. And what better way to recognize those who have helped to make this Symphony what it is today, than by taking a look back at our fifty year history? For the next few blog posts here at slosymphony.wordpress.com, I’ll be posting selections from Edward Lowman’s history of the San Luis Obispo Symphony.  Ed was the general manager of the Symphony back in the sixties, then served a few terms on the board, including two terms as president. Finally, he settled in as our program note annotator. In 2000, Ed was commissioned to tell the story of our community orchestra and no one could have done it better. Ed passed away in 2004, but his words live on as we celebrate this 50th Anniversary year. When we hit 2001, I’ll chime in with what’s happened during the last ten years but for now, please join me for a look back at the history of our hometown orchestra through Ed Lowman’s eyes. We begin at the very beginning…

Seven, They Were Seven

It was such a tiny band, just seven strong, that began making music together in1953. There was ironworker Hal Harrington on “bull fiddle,” his trombone-playing friend Melvin Fewkes, trumpeter Ray Cunningham, a retired oilfield hand, and violinist Eleanor Randall and her daughter Amy, a highschooler who played piano and clarinet. The oldest of the group was cellist Bill Trusdall, a courtly widower, while the youngest – and the only one not from Morro Bay – was Jim Wagner, a nine-year-old violin pupil from Los Osos.

They had begun meeting at the instigation of a local music teacher named Harry Fetz, but Fetz soon moved away and left the group adrift. In the summer on 1954, therefore, Hal Harrington approached the conservatory-trained organist of the Morro Bay Presbyterian Church, Esther Hoisington, about helping them out. She agreed, and in Mrs. Hoisington’s living room the Symphony was born. (Please note: anniversary years date from incorporation in 1961.)

Johnson, who became the first Concertmaster, and Howard Barlow, the County’s Veterans Administration Officer, who became the first de facto Manager. They named themselves the Morro Bay Community Orchestra, and on August 5, 1954, they gave their first little performance, for the Morro Bay chapter of the Eastern Star.

As word of the orchestra spread, musicians began coming from all over the County, including hornist and new Assistant Conductor Richard Watts. Melvin Fewkes was elected the first orchestra President, rehearsals were moved to the social hall of the Presbyterian Church, and on April 17, 1955, twenty-one strong, they gave their first full length concert at the Morro Bay Veterans Building. Classical excerpts and popular medleys were necessarily the fare, highlighted by Watts playing the first movement of Mozart’s E-flat Horn Concerto, K.495.

With the orchestra so well launched, Mrs. Hoisington decided to step aside. For the 1955-56 season the baton would go to Watts and accompaniment duties at the piano to Linnea Waltz, a well-known journalist who had once been a piano teacher. The pattern of two concerts per season was confirmed, with the Spring concert of 1956 being typical: a suite by Lully, Andalucia by Lecuona, the slow movement from Brahms’s Second Symphony, and popular selections.

The 1956-57 season was much the same, but the next year, 1957-58, brought major changes. Dick Watts moved away and the Conductorship went to Lucian Morrison, a long time music teacher in the San Luis Obispo schools. Harry Tallman became Concertmaster, and there were now so many violins – fourteen – that Eleanor Randall, the only one left from the original band of seven, switched to cello. The first “official” Manager was named, Capt. Arthur L. Druet, U.S. Army, Retired, while the redoubtable Howard Barlow became President. Years later, Morrison would remember Barlow’s contributions warmly. “Howard really was my right hand man. The two of us were conductor, business manager, janitor, printer, everything else. We were ‘the works’ – kept it going.

Just as importantly, sponsorship of the orchestra was now taken over by the San Luis Obispo Adult College – the night school – whose administrator was the extremely popular, irrepressibly enthusiastic, party piano-playing William J. “Billy” Watson. The Spring concert of 1958 also featured the first appearance of concert pianist Wachtang “Botso” Korisheli, a musician and sculptor of Georgian (formerly USSR) descent who would become an important figure in the area’s cultural life.

The orchestra’s greater size and increasing experience also allowed the new conductor a richer choice of programming, a trend which continued during the 1958-59 season. On December 21 the orchestra gave its most ambitious Christmas concert yet, while the Spring program featured Weber’s Concertino for Clarinet and Orchestra performed by another local music teacher, Robert Grindle. The music still inclined to the light and easy – Rosamunde and dances from The Bartered Bride – but it was all genuinely orchestral.

Joey Fasano was Concertmaster for 1958-59 and Kenneth Mitchell, a trumpeter, was President. Howard Barlow served as Secretary-Treasurer, while Capt. Druet continued as Vice President and Manager. Although the concerts were still given in Morro Bay, the group now styled itself simply “Community Orchestra” because its nearly forty players came from all over the County.

Things would change even more in 1959-60, for the 1959 Christmas program would be the last one given in Morro Bay. It was also the first in which the orchestra was joined by a choir, the Morro Bay Community Chorus, Directed by Hildur Lindgran Helgason. Then the big but inevitable change took place: The Community Orchestra moved to San Luis Obispo, for both rehearsals and concerts. The Spring concert of 1960 was given on May 1 at San Luis Obispo High School, and it featured a complete symphony, the orchestra’s first, by Haydn.

Capt. Druet was President for 1959-60, while Norm Babcock took over as Manager. The Concertmaster was the very accomplished Lois Morgan, and there were several new players who were to become fixtures. Dr. Evard Noble, a kindly optometrist from Paso Robles, was Principal Second; Fred Artindale, a piano tuner and an internationally recognized maker of stringed instruments, was Principal Viola; and Elinor Kogan, who would found the Alta Vista School, joined as Principal Cello. Ev Noble, indeed, would be with the orchestra for forty years.

By the Spring concert of 1960 it was clear that an astonishing amount had been accomplished in just a few years. That same concert, however, would also mark the end of the Symphony’s first period of growth. Luke Morrison had earned a year’s sabbatical which he decided to spend in Europe. Lois Morgan moved away. Old hands Art Druet and Howard Barlow hung on, but Norm Babcock and Eleanor Randall left. Change was in the air; what no one could foresee was that events of the following season would lead to an entirely new chapter in the Symphony’s history.

Next week…”The Sixties…Triumph and Tragedy”

P.S. Brandenburgs at the Mission is this Sunday, January 30th at Mission San Luis Obispo. Tickets are still available online, but they’re going fast. Click here for all the details and we hope to see you then!

Bach Cello Suites

By David Hennessee

Maria Jette Being Glamorous

It’s been about a month since the last symphony concert with cellist Zuill Bailey, and coming up is the New Year’s Eve concert with Maria Jette, then in January the Brandenburgs in the Mission. I’ve been meaning to write a blog (or two) but this little matter of a day job keeps getting in the way. ☺ But now that I have some time off for the holidays, look out blogosphere!

Zuill Bailey Playing an E flat

It was such a thrill to play the Dvorak Cello Concerto – what a heroic, soulful piece of music as played by Bailey – and then his encore performance of the Prelude to the first Bach Cello Suite seemed a perfect parting gift.

The next day, a few lucky souls got to hear Bailey play all six Cello Suites at a house concert. James Cushing, reviewer for the Tribune, said this about that:

“At times, this writer sat less than a yard away from him and felt the physical “buzz” of the bow on the low strings. “I like to be able to dig into the earth,” he said at one point, and he dug straight to the essence of this music.

James Cushing Holding Forth

Bailey understands each suite as a narrative arc… [listeners] closed their eyes and heard the mind of Bach, browsing and striding through the forms his imagination invented. At one point there was a gorgeous sunset, but no one noticed. The music was that strong.”

The night before, after Bailey had finished playing the Bach, a few of the other violists and I had a little conference: “Did you see how he played it with separate bows, no slurs? What did you think? Did you learn it that way or with slurs? I learned it both ways. In the manuscript there are no slurs…” etc.

I thought it was interesting that a poet like Cushing would hear a “narrative arc” and “forms of imagination” while my musician friends and I heard the difference in sound and mood caused by a bowing technique. I think the contrast shows how music speaks to each of us differently — especially great music like the Bach Cello Suites.

JS Bach Holding a Piece of Music

As we know, Bach wrote everything from large-scale instrumental and choral works to compositions for a single instrument, like the Cello Suites. They were probably composed around 1717-1723 when Bach was Kappelmeister at Cothen. The Suites lingered in obscurity until the 20th century and were treated as etudes, or technical studies. Cellist Pablo Casals changed all that. At age 13 he found an edition of the Suites in a thrift store, began studying them, and not until he was 48 did he record them all.

Since then, the suites have become a staple of the cello repertoire, and they have also been transcribed for many other instruments, including the viola:

The string bass:

As well as the electric bass:

The saxophone:

The ukulele:

Other instruments that play the Cello Suites include the violin, viola da gamba, mandolin, piano, marimba, classical guitar, recorder, French horn, bass clarinet, bassoon, trumpet, trombone, euphonium, and tuba.

Interestingly, musicologists have recently suggested that the Suites were intended to be played on an instrument called the viola de spalla, which is like a baby cello held on the shoulder like a viola.

As if all this transcription weren’t confusing and wonderful enough, there exists no autographed copy of the Suites. That means we don’t have a version that Bach wrote out himself and signed that we can refer to as the “official” version (in order to resolve questions of slurs, phrasings, dynamics, etc.). There’s a manuscript that was copied out by Bach’s second wife, Anna Magdalena, that’s considered reliable.

Which brings us back to question of slurs in the Prelude to the first Suite. Here’s Mischa Maisky playing it with slurs:

And here’s Yo-Yo Ma playing it without slurs:

Rilke Living the Question

What do you think: to slur or not to slur? The first time I heard this piece was at music camp, played on viola, with slurs, and that’s how I learned it. Much later, a viola teacher suggested that I practice the suite with the original markings – separate bows instead of slurs – so I did that for a while. Now I’m on the fence; maybe, as Rilke said, I ought to “live the question” rather than find an answer.

Old Blue Eyes Doing It His Way

What I do know is that there’s a whole world in the Cello Suites, with each movement as its own country. This depth of invention is probably why they’ve been colonized by so many different instruments. There are as many different ways to play them as there are musicians. I’ve known cellists and violists who over time  develop their “way” of playing each one, and they play it that way every time. I’m a creature of habit, so that’s how I tend to play the movements I practice regularly; there are certain things I “do” that make sense to me.

By contrast, I heard Zuill Bailey say in an interview that his approach to the Suites is more romantic; he plays them differently depending on time and place and mood. For example, when he played the Prelude to Suite #1 at the November concert, he played the final arpeggios gently and quietly. A lot of people play them very grandly and loudly, as if to say “here’s the end! Clap soon!” (If you listen to the end of Ma’s version, that’s how he plays it.) I liked Bailey’s interpretation better though; instead of a goodbye filled with tears and bear hugs, it was like a fond glance and gentle handshake.

And with that, Gentle Reader, I leave you to your websurfing. Next up: N for Nerves, with a digression on Nancy Sinatra (not really, but who knows?). ☺

Mute Madness

By David Hennessee 

After a recent Festival Mozaic “Wintermezzo” concert, my Classical-Music-Loving, Non-Musician Friend asked: “What’s that little black thing they slide up and down on the strings?” I replied, “Dear CML-NMF, that is a mute,” and the idea for this blog was born. By coincidence, I’m up to M in “Playing in the Orchestra A-Z.” Isn’t it great when things connect? It’s like the Circle of Life or Invisible Hand or Wheel of Fortune or something.

Mutes exist because sometimes less is more. Rather like the mute button on a TV, mutes on instruments diminish the volume and resonance of the sound. How do they do this?

Well, sound on string instruments is produced when the strings vibrate, either from the bow being pulled across the strings or from plucking or hitting them. The bridge conducts the vibrations into the body of the instrument. The body acts as a sort of natural amplifier. A mute clamps onto the bridge and cuts down on the vibrations, thus causing there to be less sound. Here’s a demonstration:

Muting on brass instruments works somewhat differently. I think I have this right: with brass, sound starts where the player’s mouth and mouthpiece meet. The sound then passes through the tubing of the instrument, since brass instruments are basically very long coiled metal tubes. For example, if you unwrapped a French horn, it would consist of about 13 feet of tubing, or the length of a just-mature Great White Shark.

The sound on brass instruments emerges where the tubing stops, from the opening called the bell. So, if you put something in the bell — a hand, a mute, or perhaps a small child — the sound will be muted. Brass have a huge array of mutes to choose from for different effects.      

And they can make some really fun sounds with them:

Hamlet chats with Yorick

Prepared piano, a technique favored by strange modern composers like John Cage (just kidding), also works in a way akin to muting. How is sound produced on the piano? Blog readers (both of you) may already know this, but I’ll explain it anyway since I have a word count to meet, and there’s only so much to say about mutes; the rest is silence…

With a piano, pressing a key causes a hammer to strike strings inside the piano, making them vibrate. With prepared piano, on or between the strings little objects are stuck: nuts, bolts, little bits of rubber, martini glasses, small children… And an interesting sound results:

What about the woodwinds, I asked myself? All the time I’ve played in orchestras, I never wondered why they never seem to use mutes. They don’t mute, I learned, because most of their sound comes out of the little holes in the instrument’s body, though you can put a handkerchief in the bell, which mutes the sound a little bit (also convenient in case of a sneeze).

In my last blog on Mahler, I vented some frustrations about Mahler’s markings for mutes. The actual equipment can produce some challenges too. My viola teacher, Wayne Crouse, used to tell a story about mute madness. In the 1950s he played under Leopold Stokowski in the Houston Symphony. “Stokie” was by all accounts very… um… “definite” and “emphatic” about what he wanted from the orchestra. He got the idea that he wanted different kinds of mutes – leather, wooden, or metal – for different effects and tone qualities. The strings scrambled around to acquire all these mutes and to figure out methods of storing and accessing them, since sometimes a long piece – a Mahler Symphony, for example – might require all three.

By the next season the string players felt secure that they had figured out how to deal with these different mutes. Then the time came to play a muted passage, and the concertmaster respectfully asked Stokowski what kind of mute should be used. The conductor stared down at him incredulously and replied that they could use whatever mute they wanted. He’d forgotten all about the three-mute policy!

I’m a big fan of this little device, the heavy practice mute.

Heavy Practice Mute

It’s a big metal mute that makes the instrument sound not unlike a flying insect. It’s great for practicing late at night when others are sleeping. It’s also fun to practice with it for a while, then take it off – your instrument suddenly sounds like a Stradivarius by comparison. Very good for the self-esteem.

Inconvenient Wooden Mute

There’s a kind of old-school wooden mute that one still sees occasionally; it fits on the bridge, but then you have to find somewhere to keep it: your pocket, lap, or stand. It’s not very convenient.

Humans being inventive creatures, someone figured out that if you could store the mute on the instrument, life would be easier. So this little object was invented.

Bad-for-the-instrument Mute

However, it’s hard on the bridge and tends to wear out the strings since it’s made of metal.

The Mute that Rattles

This next mute represented a design improvement. The downside of this mute is that since it hangs out on the strings between the bridge and the tailpiece when not in use, it sometimes rattles around there.  For example, during my senior recital in college, while playing the Shostakovich viola sonata, my mute was rattling – there are some pretty loud, aggressive parts in the sonata. Out of frustration I took the mute off. Then I got to the last page and uh-oh! The piece ends with a really delicate muted part that sounds like Shostakovich’s acceptance of his death (the viola sonata was the last piece he ever wrote). I’d forgotten about that part, so I had to fish around in my coat pocket for the mute, and on the recording you can hear little pings as I put it back on the strings. Blerg!

I came across this marvel a couple years ago, however, and I think the mute issue is finally, for me, moot.

The Best Mute Ever

The No-rattle magnetic mute

It’s got a little magnet in it, and a small magnetic part that attaches to the tailpiece. So when you don’t need it, it rests securely on the tailpiece.  I can’t tell you how excited I was to get this mute. No more rattle! The mute madness is over!

Conductor Simon Rattle (unaffected by magnets)

Next time, N for Nerves. Just writing that makes me nervous, so here’s a moment of zen, one of my favorite muted pieces:

There’s Something About Mahler

By David Hennessee

In the The Accidental Tourist, travel writer Macon Leary teaches his readers how to take trips with the least possible discomfort. For in-flight reading, he recommends long, plot-driven novels. I took this advice back in the 90s when I started flying a lot. Some of the page-turners I’ve read on airplanes include The Woman in White, Tales of the City, Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, Twilight (yes, I did read Twilight, New Moon and part of Eclipse too…) and most recently, Gone with the Wind.  If one can get past the obvious and repulsive racism, Mitchell’s epic has some interesting feminist overtones. And it just goes on and on…  

Lots of 19th-century novels are similarly loquacious, and when I was studying them in graduate school, I learned about what’s called their “monumentality.” Through extensive plot, description, narrative commentary, and political content they’re attempting to present an all-encompassing view of their world. Some examples: Eliot’s Middlemarch, Dickens’s Bleak House, Thackeray’s Vanity Fair. Reading one of these “loose baggy monsters,” one gets a sense that “there’s a whole world there.”

I think the same is true of a Mahler Symphony. Listening and playing one reminds me of going on a trip, encountering all kinds of unexpected, interesting people and places; or it’s like exploring a large house or museum; you never know what surprising treasure lies around the corner.

There’s such variety and range in Mahler, so many different moods. Heroic and glorious:

Fun, raucous and folk-influenced:

Then there’s those really ethereal sections, when time seems to have stopped:

All this variety really keeps you on your toes as a performer. With many composers, you can sort of get into the groove (like Madonna used to do) – the writing calls for a certain kind of playing and specific techniques; but with Mahler, it’s about keeping up with the transitions, being ready to play something totally different from what you played one minute before.

Then there’s the difficulty with language. As we know, most tempo and expression markings are in Italian (allegro, andante, espressivo, rallentando). Some French composers use their native language, but it’s usually not hard to figure out (tres modere, espressif). Mahler, however, uses German, and he gives very detailed descriptions for tempo and style. I think he may have had control issues — which is good, because we know exactly how he wanted his music to sound. I pulled some of these markings from the viola part:

Im Anfang sehr gemachlich

Hier is ein frisches belebtes Zeitmass eingetreten (Hauptempo)

Immer noch etwas zuruckhaltend

Strich fur Strich    

(which always reminds me of legendary Broadway actress, Elaine Stritch)

I took two years of German, and most of the time I don’t know what these markings mean. Fortunately, they usually indicate either getting faster or slower, and I can figure that out by watching the conductor.

The language becomes an issue when it comes to mutes, however.  In case you don’t know, a mute is a little rubber or wooden device that string players put on the bridge of the instrument. Composers ask for mutes when they want the music to have a… muted quality. Usually this is indicated with “Con sordino” (with mute) or  “senza sordino” (without mute). Mahler, however, uses four different indications:

Ohne dampfer (without mute)

con sordino/mit dampfer/dampfer auf

Mit dampfer (with mute)

Dampfer ab (without mute)

Dampfer auf (with mute)

There’s also: Dämpfer abnehmen, Dämpfer absetzen, keine Dämpfer (all of which mean “without mute”)

This one is fun: Dämpfer nach und nach abnehmen (remove the mutes one by one) so that the section becomes unmuted gradually, rather than unmuting all at once.

All these markings for mutation (I just made that term up) can be confusing. I got mixed up last week by one part, where at the end of a long muted section, Mahler writes “immer mit dampfer,” which means “always with mute.” But then two measures later, it said “ohne dampfer” (without mute). He just said “immer,” and now it’s “ohne”?!  Fickle…

Here’s a useful glossary of terms from Mahler:

http://www.orchestralibrary.com/reftables/mahler2gloss.html

And here’s a taste of some of the notes from it:

An dieser Stelle wirken die Posaunen, Violinen und Viol. nur im Notfalle mit, wenn es gilt den Chor vor “Fallen” zu bewahren.

(In this passage the trombones, violins and violas should play only if necessary to keep the chorus from going flat.)

Die 2. Bässe nicht eine Octave höher, sonst würde die vom Autor intendierte Wirkung ausbleiben; es kommt druchaus nicht darauf an, diese tiefen Töne zu hören, sondern durch deise Schreibart sollen nur die tiefen Bässe verhindert werden, etwa das obere B zu “nehmen,” und so die obere Note zu verstärken.

(The 2nd basses not an octave higher, otherwise the effect intended by the composer will be spoiled; it is not a matter of hearing the deep notes, but this manner of writing is only to prevent the low basses from taking the higher B-flat, and thus overemphasizing it.)

druchaus zart (tenderly throughout)

Muss so schwach erklingen, daß es den Charakter der Gesangstelle Celli und Fag. in keinerlei Weise tangiert. Der Autor denkt sich hier, ungefähr, vom Wind vereinzelnd herüber getragene Klänge einer kaum vernehmbaren Music.

(Must sound so weak, that it in no way affects the melodic passage of the cellos and bassoon. The composer thinks here, roughly, of the isolated sounds of a scarcely audible music, carried over by the wind.)

And here, for entertainment purposes only, is the “New Mahler Glossary” again.

Langsam = Slowly

Schleppend = Slowly

Daempfer auf = Slowly

Mit Dampfer = Slowly

Allmaehlich in das Hauptzeitmass ubergehen = do not look at conductor

Im Anfang sehr gemaechlich = in intense inner torment

Alle Betonungen sehr zart = with more intense inner torment

Getheilt = out of tune

Von hier an in sehr allmaehlicher aber stetiger Steigerung bis zum

Zeichen = From this point on, the spit valves should be emptied with

ever-increasing emotion

Hier ist ein frisches belebtes Zeitmass eingetreten = Slowly

Haupttempo = Slowly

Noch ein wenig bechleunigend = slowing down with a sense of speeding up

immer noch zurueckhaltend = with steadily decreasing competence

sehr gemaechlich = With indescribably horrific inner torment

Etwas bewegter, aber immer noch ruhig = Somewhat louder, though more

inaudible than before

Gemaechlich = Intermission

Ganz unmerklich etwas zuruckhaltend = Slowly

Etwas gemaechlicher als zuvor = Slowly

Zurueckhaltend = Gesundheit

Von hier ab unmerklich breiter werden = As if wild animals were gnawing

on your liver

Ohne cresc. = Without toothpaste

Immer noch zurueckhaltend = slowly

Allmaehlich etwas lebhafter = Screaming in agony

Ohne Nachschlag = Without milk

Kraeftig bewegt = Slowly

Alle = Second violins tacet

Mit dem Holze zu streichen = like a hole in the head

mit Parodie = Viola solo

sehr einfach und schlicht = Slowly

Daempfer ab = eyes closed

Den ersten Ton scharf herausgegeben = Do not play until buzzer sounds

Am Griffbrett = As if in tune

Aeusserst zart aber ausdrucksvoll = Radiantly joyful despite the itching

Wieder zurueckhaltend = Increasingly decreasing

Noch breiter als vorher = Better late than never

Nicht eilen = No eels

Allmaelich (unmerklich) etwas zuruckhaltend = Much faster (slower) than

conductor

Lang gestrichen = Heads Up

Lang gezogen = Heads down

Die werden allmaehlich staerker und staerker bis zum fp = In the event

of a water landing, your seat cushion can be used as flotation device

Fifty Facts about Fifty Years Ago

By David Hennessee

The 50th Anniversary Season is here! In 1961 the SLO Symphony was born. What was the world like then, I wondered; what was going on that year? My first memory is from 1974, and it’s of an orange couch, so that’s not very helpful. I did some very sloppy research and came up with fifty facts about the world in 1961 (which is actually still 49 years ago, but — whatever). In 1961:

1. Some number one songs included: Elvis Presley “Are you Lonesome Tonight?” The Marcels “Blue Moon,” The Highwaymen “Michael Row the Boat Ashore,” Del Shannon “Runaway,” The Tokens “The Lion Sleeps Tonight.”

2. Patsy Cline was in a near-fatal car accident. Later that year she recorded “Crazy,” her biggest hit. She found the high notes difficult because of broken ribs. 

3. The Beach Boys formed their band.

4. Bob Dylan played on his first recording session (backup harmonica for folksinger Caroline Hester).

5. The Supremes signed with Motown Records.

6. At the movies: The Guns of Navarone, The Parent Trap, The Absent-Minded Professor, 101 Dalmatians, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, El Cid, The Misfits, The Hustler, West Side Story.

7. TWA showed the first in-flight movie.

8. On television: Wagon Train, Bonanza, Gunsmoke, Perry Mason, The Red Skelton Show, Andy Griffith, Candid Camera, My Three Sons, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Twilight Zone, Mister Ed, Car 54 Where are You?

9. Famous people born in 1961:

Fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi, gymnast Nadia Comaneci, actor Scott Baio (“Chachi” from Happy Days), Christopher Atkins (The Blue Lagoon), Jodi Benson (voice of Ariel, the little mermaid), Susan “I Had a Dream” Boyle, George Clooney, singer (?) Billy Ray Cyrus (later responsible for Miley Cyrus), Princess Diana, U2 guitarist the Edge, singer Enya, singer Melissa Etheridge, fashion designer/film director Tom Ford, Michael J. Fox, James Gandolfini (“Tony Soprano”), singer Boy George, hockey star Wayne Gretzky, actor Woody Harrelson, Peter Jackson (Lord of the Rings director) Jane Leeves (“Daphne” from Frasier), actor Heather Locklear, actor Virginia Madsen (“Maya” from Sideways), Survivor host Jeff Probst, Dennis Rodman, George Stephanopoulos, and

Barack Obama! Here’s what he looked like back then:

The San Luis Obispo Symphony is the same age as Barack Obama and the guy who played Chachi!

10. Teflon-coated frying pans were introduced.

11. Food items that came out in 1961: Carpaccio (an appetizer of thinly sliced raw beef — invented in Venice.) Life cereal. Total cereal. Mrs. Butterworth’s Syrup. Green Giant frozen foods. Sprite. Coffee-Mate.

12. Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking was published.

13. H.W. Lay Co. of Atlanta and Frito Co. of Dallas merged to form Frito-Lay Inc.

14. The average cost of a new house was $12,500.

15. Average annual income:  $5,315.

16. A gallon of gas cost 27 cents.

17. Average Cost of a new car: $2,850.

18. A pound of bacon cost 67 cents.

19. A dozen eggs cost 30 cents.

20. Pampers were introduced.

21. This happened:

22. Composition of the Senate: 64 Democrats, 36 Republicans

23. Composition of the House of Representatives: 263 Democrats, 174 Republicans.

24. Even though JFK (narrowly) won the Presidency, Democrats lost one Senate seat and 20 House seats.

25. The 23rd Amendment to the Constitution was ratified, giving voters in the District of Columbia a voice in Presidential elections.

26. Construction of the Berlin Wall began.

27. The Bay of Pigs invasion occurred.

28. First direct American military involvement in Vietnam.

29. The Freedom Rides began. Martin Luther King, Jr. was 32 years old.

30. Sodomy was a felony in every state of the U.S., punishable by imprisonment and/or hard labor.

31. Yuri Gagarin was the first human to go into space.

32. The PGA eliminated its whites-only only rule.

33. Dr. Ruth married Fred Westheimer.

34. Francis the Talking Mule was a mystery guest on “What’s My Line.”

35. Natalie Wood looked like this. She didn’t sound like this, though; her songs were dubbed by Marni Nixon.

36. Audrey Hepburn looked and sounded like this:

37. Cars looked like this

38. People thought that someday they would look like this

39. The Beatles looked like this

40. Nurse Barbie looked like this

41. Families looked like this

42. Computers looked like this

43. Telephones looked like this

(Not really)

44. President Kennedy asked Congress for money to send a man to the moon.

45. He also suggested that Americans build fallout shelters.

46. The Madonna Inn had been in existence for three years.

47. Bubblegum Alley had been around for about one year.

48. Cal Poly was still called “California State Polytechnic College.”

49. Women had been attending Cal Poly for 5 years (they were excluded 1930-1956).

50. Michael Nowak had been playing the violin for one year.

Anything else you remember from 1961?