74: The Power Behind the Bench

Classical music’s worst job and a dulcet new disc

Name That Tune

This week’s Name That Tune is a Maestro Will special. Here’s your hint: this track featured in the soundtrack of my most preferred film of 2018.

As always, your goal is to provide as much accurate analysis as possible. First try to get the nationality, year, and genre, then make educated guesses about the composer and — if possible— the piece. If you know the piece immediately, send us an email at toneprose@substack.com instead of commenting so the rest of us can have fun guessing. 

Last Week’s Results
Tone Prose 73
Mozart, Violin Concerto No. 1

Let’s all thank Joey for flattering the normies among us, because there was many a bang-on answer in the inbox this week, including Listener Jeremy, Listener Kevin, and your own humble Maestro.

Think you can stump your fellow Listeners? Go ahead and try!

Head to our Google Form to upload a 30-second clip of an unidentified piece of classical music for us to try to identify.

Turning a New Leaf

I (Joey) was recently tapped to turn a pianist’s pages for a concert at Weill Recital Hall in New York, giving me the chance to reflect on the thanklessness of this particular task. 

The basic job is to turn a pianist’s pages so that they need not remove their hands from the keyboard for even a moment — after all, both hands are usually doing something all the time. Interestingly, page turners are only used by pianists/keyboard players, and by them only in chamber music and some solo repertoire (though pianists tend to memorize this). I suppose this is because for other instrumentalists, they can usually avail themselves of at least one free hand, and their parts may not be as continuous in texture.

As a pianist myself, I have strong thoughts about what a good page turner ought and ought not do. Here’s my list:

Dos:

• Do minimize yourself. The audience should barely register that you’re there, and ideally, the pianist should also forget about you as an entity.

• Do read the music through beforehand, and check in with the pianist about things like repeats. (“Looks pretty straightforward. Anything unusual I should know about?”)

• Do make your pianist comfortable in your reading ability, so that they can focus on the task at hand.

• Do stand up to turn the page early enough to get a good grip on one page of the music. Things could be disastrous if you turn too many pages or turn too late!

Don’ts:

• Don’t bow with the performers. Remember — you’re striving for non-existence on stage (a tricky proposition, to be sure).

• Don’t turn the page at the conclusion of a movement; it looks tacky. Rather allow the pianist to do this themself.

• Don’t sit too close to the pianist. When I’m playing, I like to feel room on both sides, especially if I’m going to be playing in the lower register a lot. When I’m turning, I also would prefer not to be jabbed by an errant elbow during a left hand leap.

• Don’t sit too far from the music to read it comfortably.

With the advent of the iPad, musicians have increasingly been turning toward turning their own pages via foot pedal, and as such, the page turner may be slowly going extinct. And fair enough — why spend the money or cash in the favor when you could use your left foot to turn the pages at your exact desired time?

In memory of the humble page turner, here is a YouTube compilation of the dangers of turning the physical page, whether you’re attempting to do it yourself or you have someone else involved.

[Maestro Will: the only thing I’ll add is that the image I included at the top of this column is from a deranged French movie called La tourneuse de pages which I recommend everyone watch (and which, it seems, someone has uploaded to YouTube in its entirety!)]

Album Review: Goldberg Variations Arranged for the Harp

Though this album is more than 3 years old, Listener Christopher put Will and me (Joey) on to a 2020 recording of Bach’s Goldberg Variations by Parker Ramsay. Here’s the catch: Ramsay plays them on the harp!

Before getting into the details of the recording, a brief note on Parker Ramsay: I had never heard of this man before, but his biography on Spotify’s “About” section paints him as a quasi-genius multi-instrumentalist who can play any period of music. From the first paragraph: 

Parker Ramsay’s career eludes easy categorization, being unique in its integration of projects and performances on the harp, organ and harpsichord. Equally at home on modern and period instruments … Parker will undertake a residency at IRCAM in Paris throughout the 2022-3 season… After receiving his bachelor’s degree in history at Cambridge, he pursued graduate studies in historical keyboards at Oberlin Conservatory. In 2014, he was awarded First Prize at the Sweelinck International Organ Competition. He then studied modern harp at The Juilliard School.

Quite the guy!

Anyway, about the album: in short, it sounds great. I’m always kind of amazed when harpists do anything outside of my personal conception of what a harp sounds like. Ramsay’s playing is fluid, clean, and sounds easy. As I expected, the product of almost 30 variations in G Major played on the harp is a bit monotonous after a while. Nonetheless, this is the kind of music that truly deserves the stale descriptor applied to so much classical music, “beautiful.” It is gorgeous, even if in a background way. It’s the kind of music that should find its way on to all sorts of playlists like “Music to Study To,” “Music for a Peaceful Sunday Morning,” “Relaxing Harp Music” — you know the type.

As a pianist, the Goldberg Variations have been a staple of my listening for a long time. To my ear, Ramsay does the music justice, with thoughtful phrasing and creative ornamentation apparent throughout. My main criticism is to do with the instrument, more than with Ramsay’s playing, which is that some of the more rhythmically active variations are a bit muted in comparison to performances on the piano or harpsichord.

Once again, this is beautiful music and you should give it a listen. Thanks to Listener Christopher for the recommendation, and please let us know if you have other albums or videos you’d like us to review!

Tone Praise

So much of Alberto Ginastera’s music is a wonderful look into the world of Argentine folk music, and this chamber piece for cello and piano is no exception. There’s everything you would expect, in the best way, from rhythmic vigor to gaucho-style declamation.

Tone Prose is a co-production of William White, Joseph Vaz, and the Listeners (i.e. you.)