81: Stars and Stripes

A job comes open; who should fill it?

Name That Tune

This week’s Name That Tune was submitted by Listener Jeremy. Here’s your hint: This composer is WELL known to Will, and has been mentioned a few times in TP history. Take that as you will!

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 80
Messiaen, Fête des Belles Eaux for six Ondes Martenots

Listener Kevin wrote in with the exact piece, and while that’s commendable (and almost unsurprising at this point) I want to give pride of place to Listeners Eric and Jeremy, who both worked out the correct answer using logic and reasoning. (You can see their workings-out in the comments.) Bravi fellows!!

This one caused a bit of confusion. Listener Ginny and First Mate Joey thought the instrument in question was the theremin, and that was a very good guess, for the theremin and the Ondes Martenot — both early synthesizer instruments from the 1930s — are basically indistinguishable in terms of their timbres.

Listener Tammy came in with the Glass Harmonica, and while not correct in reality, it was correct in spirit, you know?

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.

Musical Chairs

The big news this past week was the announcement that Esa-Pekka Salonen would not be renewing his contract as music director of the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra. Per the New York Times:

“I have decided not to continue as music director of the San Francisco Symphony because I do not share the same goals for the future of the institution as the Board of Governors does,” he said in a statement. “I am sincerely looking forward to the many exciting programs we have planned for my final season as music director, and am proud to continue working with the world-class musicians of the San Francisco Symphony.”

The rift between Salonen and the board appeared to be over efforts to cut costs, which include reducing the number of concerts and commissions, as well as putting tours on hold. The orchestra is also seeking to make unspecified shifts in programming to drive revenues. That approach raised broader questions about whether Salonen could achieve his expansive vision for the orchestra.

Ignoring, for the moment, the issues that EPS brings up, this of course means that the USA Maestro Sweepstakes are heating up: there are currently or soon-to-be openings for the top job in San Francisco, Chicago, Cincinnati, Seattle, and the LA Opera, and that’s just off the top of my (Will’s) head.

Hire American?

With yet another opening at a great American orchestra, this other Times article from a couple weeks back has gained extra relevance. Here’s the pitch:

Four of the 25 largest ensembles in the United States have an American at the podium, and at the nation’s biggest, most prestigious orchestras, American music directors are entirely absent.

“It means that we’ve got a lot of work to do,” said Jonathon Heyward, who grew up in South Carolina and began serving as the Baltimore Symphony’s music director last fall. “We have to continuously think about ways to better relate to an American community.” (Heyward is one of those four American maestros at the largest ensembles today, along with Michael Stern in Kansas City, Giancarlo Guerrero in Nashville and Carl St. Clair at the Pacific Symphony in California.)

This has been a frequent bugbear of Marin Alsop; whenever she was asked about the lack of women as music directors of major American orchestras, she has often retorted with “What about the lack of American conductors at major American orchestras?”

The article above goes on to note that the classical music world is an international institution and that Americans do end up as music directors of foreign orchestras. A lot of the article is given over to the discussion of how staff conductors (assistants, associates, residents) at American orchestras are not given the opportunity, visibility, and promotion necessary to launch major professional careers.

I (Will) can certainly attest to that from my own experience. But aside from a lack of vision and interest (widespread in the industry) there are also structural issues, namely geography, at play. The industry power brokers are all in New York — the agencies, managers, etc. (and most of those are only the US branch of British agencies.) The talent, though, is scattered all over the country. That means that anyone who gets their conducting career started along the Acela corridor is going to have a way easier time catching the attention of the people whose attention can change trajectories.

Tone Praise

Philippe Hersant, Métamorphoses

Folks, it’s 2024, and we’ve got to get Philippe Hersant trending on the western side of the Atlantic. I (Will) became acquainted with his music through his cantata for early instruments, choir, and soloists, Cantique des trois enfants dans la fournaise, which I know I waxed rhapsodic about on the CGF podcast at some point or another.

Hersant is now 76, and though his career is firmly established in France, his music is of a quality that deserves to be recognized globally. Métamorphoses is a great piece for solo cello and choir (plus a couple surprise “instruments” popping up) and it’s just one of the many, many engrossing works he’s written. He does all the genres, including opera. Let’s do this!

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