Classic Ross Amico

Tag: The Lost Chord

Schickele Hijinks & My Writing Woes

Okay, so maybe I lack Peter Schickele’s sense of humor.

I think I’m generally a witty person, and I enjoy a good laugh, but when it comes to putting myself out there I can be fairly self-conscious. Therefore, I work hard to get it right, whether it be in my writing or in my editing for the radio broadcasts. At any rate, I do the best I can under the circumstances (which may include, among other things, tight deadlines, lack of sleep, impending holidays, and a worn-out voice that won’t cooperate).

Which brings me to this week’s newspaper article.

It looks like, in his or her haste to get to Thanksgiving, an editor altered my reference to Schickele being in Ewing for rehearsals last Thursday (was it too specific?), and in the process made gibberish of the original sentence.

Now, I realize it’s no big deal. I hate to whine about these things every Friday – last week, I kept mum about the cuts, because they didn’t mar the piece – but it is frustrating to have someone make careless or capricious changes to something I worked on very hard because I want it to read well, so that it winds up appearing to be full of potholes and hiccups. I’m not a vain person, but I think I have a sense of my own worth as a writer. Give me a word count, and all I really need is a proofreader.

I can live with the fact that they didn’t like “AAAAARRRRRGH!” in the upper case.

I have not seen the print edition, so I have yet to find out to what extent I should be ashamed to show my face in public for another week.

Anyway, enough about my smarting ego, and on to the content.

Schickele will be at the College of New Jersey on Dec. 5 for a concert titled “Choral Shenanigans and Other Musical Hijinks.” The concert will include works published under his own name and some attributed to his famous pseudonym, P.D.Q. Bach, including the “Grand Serenade for an Awful Lot of Winds and Percussion,” “A Consort of Choral Christmas Carols,” and “Three Choruses from E.E. Cummings.” Also on the program will be Robert Sund’s “The Drunken Sailor” and Robert Cohen’s “Ho, Hosanna.”

The event will feature performances by the TCNJ Chorale, College Choir, and Wind Ensemble. Schickele will introduce his works through brief and informal conversations with Wayne Heisler, TCNJ Associate Professor of Historical and Cultural Studies in Music.

Schickele will also be my guest this week on “The Lost Chord,” which will include a mix of his “serious” concert works and riotous comedy bits. You can enjoy it this Sunday night at 10 ET, with a repeat Wednesday evening at 6; or listen to it later as a webcast at http://www.wwfm.org. Because of Thanksgiving, the program was assembled P.D.Q.

Also on Dec. 5 (and 6), Westminster Opera Theatre will present Franz Joseph Haydn’s comic opera, “Il mondo della luna” (“The World on the Moon”).

Haydn’s science fiction opera, on a libretto of Carlo Goldoni, concerns a sham astrologer who plans to dupe a rich old man into believing he has been transported to the moon, with the aim of tricking him into granting permission to marry his daughter.

Music director William Hobbes will conduct students of Westminster Choir College in this fully staged production, in Italian with English supertitles. Performances will be held at Princeton Regional Schools Performing Arts Center in Princeton High School.

It’s the holidays! Be of good cheer (like me). Read more about Schickele and Haydn in my article in today’s Trenton Times.

http://www.nj.com/times-entertainment/index.ssf/2014/11/classical_music_choral_shenani.html

November 28, 2014
Support WWFM’s Fall Campaign & The Lost Chord

WWFM has begun its Fall Membership Campaign, on a harvest theme. I hope you will support the station, and that when you do, you will put in the good word for me and my shows. Also, please make sure that the phone volunteers take the information!

I will be there live on Wednesday, from 4 to 6 p.m. ET, followed by a rebroadcast of last night’s “The Lost Chord,” from 6 to 7. During the two-hour preamble, I will be playing past “Lost Chord” favorites and offering as a special thank you gift autographed copies of Robert Moran’s new album, “Game of the Antichrist.” (Of course, you can always opt for the tote bag or the station mug.)

This will be the first time I have been on the air, in a live capacity, since June. Thankfully, the station is still carrying “The Lost Chord” and “Picture Perfect,” made possible through member contributions from listeners just like you.

You can make a pledge at http://www.wwfm.org, or by calling 1-888-232-1212.

Thank you for your support!

October 27, 2014
Robert Moran: Composer of Chaos & Beauty

Whenever I interview composer Robert Moran, I’m reminded of Andre Gregory’s description of “the beehive” in “My Dinner with Andre.” Only more ribald.

Anyone who has followed Bob’s career is familiar with his merry prankster ethos. He’s written works for harpsichord and electric frying pan, and any number of performance art pieces, including one which involves people walking around a financial district in giant paper bags. Here it is – like just about everything else, it seems – on YouTube:

“For 39 minutes, 100,000 persons were tripping together.” Groovy.

Bob’s new album, “Game of the Antichrist” is being released this week – just in time for Hallowe’en – on the innova Recordings label. It is the featured work tonight on “The Lost Chord” (more information about that below).

Robert Moran was born in Denver, Colorado, in 1937. He studied composition with Hans Erich Apostel in Vienna, then earned his Masters Degree at Mills College under Darius Milhaud and Luciano Berio.

He himself has taught at a number of institutions, including the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and Portland State University. He’s been composer-in-residence to the city of West Berlin; at the Buffalo, NY, Center for the Performing Arts; and Northwestern University.

Early in his career, he gained notoriety for his compositions on a grand scale, incorporating entire cities (San Francisco; Bethlehem, PA; Graz, Austria; Hartford, CT) – their automobiles, airplanes, skyscrapers, radio and television stations, marching bands, dancers, theatrical groups and tens of thousands of performers.

He collaborated on the opera, “The Juniper Tree,” with Phillip Glass, and has composed many other works for the stage, including “Desert of Roses,” after Beauty and the Beast, for Houston Grand Opera, and “Alice,” after “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland,” for the Scottish Ballet.

Lest I give you the impression that Bob is all flash and no substance, I assure you he can turn around and write absolutely gorgeous music. Portions of “Desert of Roses” are so beautiful my heart could break. He also composed a lovely piece for youth chorus to commemorate the tenth anniversary of 9/11, the “Trinity Requiem,” on a commission from Trinity Wall Street, the co-called “Ground Zero” church in lower Manhattan. You can sample that on YouTube, as well.

This deserves to be repertory.

Bob’s works have been performed by the San Francisco Symphony, the Baltimore Symphony, the National Symphony, The Greater Trenton Symphony, Mendelssohn Club of Philadelphia, and Pennsylvania Ballet.

“Game of the Antichrist” is a choral/theatrical adaptation of a 12th century mystery play. It’s scored for vocal soloists, chorus, children’s chorus, winds (including recorders), brass, Alphorn, bar piano, synthesizer, harp, organ and percussion. If memory serves, I think there’s even a glass harmonica in there. Oh yeah, and puppets. Giant puppets.

Since the 1980s, Moran has made his home in Philadelphia. We had an opportunity to chat there, at his townhouse, last week, where he filled me in on some of the background to his new piece. Although I’ve edited the conversation to keep it within FCC standards (I hope), Bob still has his moments. You can listen in to his expurgated insights, as Bob is my guest tonight on “The Lost Chord.”

The program is slated to air at 10 ET. Because of the recent schedule change, the show will now repeat during the dinner hour, 6 ET, on Wednesday, smack dab in the middle of our autumn pledge drive! If that doesn’t cost me my job, nothing will. So please be generous with your support on Wednesday. To further scandalize the phone volunteers, you can even say you are pledging in honor of “the Antichrist.”

I’ve been invited to do a live preamble on Wednesday, from 4 to 6, to talk up the show and play some of my “Lost Chord” favorites from years past. Bob has generously signed and contributed ten copies of “Antichrist,” which I’ll be offering as thank you gifts exclusively during those two hours.

You can listen and make your contributions here: http://www.wwfm.org; or call Wednesday, between 4 and 6, at 1-888-232-1212. Thank you for your support!

“Game of the Antichrist” on Innova: http://www.innova.mu/albums/robert-moran/game-antichrist

You can see the giant puppets here: http://www.innova.mu/sites/www.innova.mu/files/album/files/251_itunes_booklet.pdf

More about Bob: http://robertmorancomposer.com/

PHOTO: Would you trust this man?

October 26, 2014
Franz Liszt and WWFM’s New Broadcast Times

I wasn’t going to break the news until Sunday, but apparently I’m a week off. Beginning this week, WWFM is rebroadcasting its specialty shows at new, more accessible hours.

Where I’m concerned, that means “The Lost Chord,” first aired Sunday at 10 p.m. ET, will now repeat Wednesday at 6 p.m., and “Picture Perfect,” first aired Friday at 6 p.m., will repeat Saturday at 6 a.m. (!)

It ought to be interesting to hear the reaction when listeners get to enjoy Sir Peter Maxwell Davies’ “St. Thomas Wake” during the dinner hour or Jerry Goldsmith’s “The Mephisto Waltz” on their clock radios.

Speaking of the “Mephisto Waltz,” today is the birthday of Franz Liszt (1811-1886), one of the great pianists, of course, but also one of the most innovative musical thinkers who ever lived.

Among his innumerable achievements, Liszt pioneered a technique known as thematic transformation, in which a basic theme is put through incessant permutations and shifting moods to arrive at a kind of structural unity, as an alternative to traditional classical form. He is also credited with the creation of the symphonic poem.

Without Liszt, there would have been no Wagner as we know him. In fact, Romantic music would have had to find its own way. His later music at times anticipates the experiments of Debussy and Arnold Schoenberg.

It was Liszt’s ambition to “hurl my lance into the boundless realms of future.” In that, he certainly succeeded.

Happy birthday, Franz Liszt!

Georges Cziffra performs “Les jeux d’eaux à la Villa d’Este” (“The Fountains of the Villa d’Este”):

Sviatoslav Richter performs “Nuages gris” (“Grey Clouds”):

And don’t forget to tune in tonight at 6 to hear a rebroadcast of “Mad Max,” a belated 80th birthday tribute to Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, on “The Lost Chord.” You can find out more about it at http://www.wwfm.org.

PHOTO: Liszt was seldom listless

October 22, 2014
Peter Maxwell Davies Mad Bad Genius at 80

Mad, bad and dangerous to know.

Lady Caroline Lamb coined the phrase to describe Lord Byron, but it might have been just as applicable to Peter Maxwell Davies in his younger days, when he delighted in tweaking both the musical establishment and audience expectations.

It would be easy to claim the intervening decades have mellowed him – he served ten years as Master of the Queen’s Music, and he’s written ten symphonies (so far) built on organic structures in the tradition of Sibelius. Also, he scored one of his biggest hits, “An Orkney Wedding with Sunrise (with a bagpiper standing in for the rising sun), writing for the Boston Pops.

But I say it would be a mistake to turn your back on a man who would offer to serve protected swan terrine to the police. No, at 80 years, Max still hasn’t lost his glint.

Join me for “Mad Max: English music’s angry young man turns 80,” a belated birthday tribute to Sir Peter Maxwell Davies,” on “The Lost Chord,” this Sunday night at 10 ET, with a repeat Friday morning at 3; or listen to it later as a webcast, at http://www.wwfm.org.

October 18, 2014

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