95: Nice Talking To You

Hot Take Summer installment #3

Name That Tune

This week’s Name That Tune was submitted by Listener Jeremy. Here’s your hint: This composer’s name is made up of two first names.

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
While Will’s away for the summer, check the comments section.

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.

Talkback

“Let’s go to the pre-concert lecture” — I (Will) bet there’s not a phrase in the English language that could fill a normie with more dread. And I get it: if you already think classical music is boring, the only thing more boring than listening to it is listening to someone talk about it. It’s like how I feel about sports.

That’s why, generally speaking, pre-concert lectures are not attended by normies. They’re attended by curious, open-minded people who want to get the best parking spots at the concert hall.

Seriously though, the attendees at pre-concert lectures range from total noobs who genuinely want to learn something to hardcore users who want a bigger hit of their favorite entertainment. Anyone who shows up to a talk is definitionally operating at an above-average level of engagement with the music and with the organization presenting the music, and for that reason, organizations should take these engagements very seriously. 

In my experience though, they really don’t.

I’ve been doing pre-concert talks professionally for fifteen years. I’ve done them for three major orchestras – the Chicago Symphony, the Cincinnati Symphony, and the Seattle Symphony – and for several less august institutions, including my own Harmonia Orchestra & Chorus. Given that the number one problem for orchestras is that they can’t get first-time ticket buyers to buy a second ticket, pre-concert talks need to be accessible and welcoming to total neophytes. A positive, welcoming experience at a pre-concert talk can be the difference between someone creating a lasting relationship with an orchestra and someone never walking through the door again.

I coach people on doing these kinds of talks, and while I believe very much that they must be inclusive of the dilettantes and the cognoscenti alike, the thing you don’t want to do is talk down to your audience. Assume that anyone who comes to a talk is smart, though some of them may be ignorant.

There’s a big difference there. A smart person who is ignorant of your subject can learn it quickly. So when I coach people, I tell them that it’s ok to use a little bit of jargon here and there, so long as whatever term you use is given a brief definition.

To me, the two features that every talk must have are: 1) story-telling and 2) active listening. 

Storytelling sounds like something you do casually around a campfire, but boy does it take a lot of work. Even though I affect an off-the-cuff demeanor in these talks, I pour hours of research and preparation into every single talk I do. The stories are there, but you have to find them. You might find them in the works themselves, or more likely in the composers’ biographies, but sometimes you have to dig deep. The key is to find the most interesting bits and string them together. Don’t allow yourself to say anything uninteresting or unentertaining.

Active listening is a big one. This is where clips come in, and you’d better make damn well sure that your clips are well prepared, persuasive, and engaging. Every clip needs to be preceded by a description of what’s going to be heard, why it’s pertinent to the story, and how to listen to it.

Part of the reason I’ve been away from the newsletter for the past three weeks is because I was off giving talks in Chicago. Now, I suppose that the fact that they keep inviting me back after all these years when they’re well aware of the fact that I live on the West Coast is that they think I’m good at it and they want to keep me on their roster. But interestingly, Chicago is the least formal place I’ve ever done my talks. As the pre-concert lecturer, you literally just walk in through the front door, tell the usher that you’re there to do the lecture, hop up on stage, and do your thing. There’s nobody there to greet you or to run quality control on your presentation. They don’t even test the mics!

But you, dear Tone Prose readers, won’t let your local pre-concert lecturers go unappreciated. You’re the cream of the crop, the smartest, most attractive music lovers in all the land. By the same token, you shouldn’t accept anything less than the best. Get your orchestras to hire me.

Tone Praise

Robert Schumann, “Schön Hedwig” op. 106

Did you know that a “melodrama” is an actual genre of classical music? It’s an instrumental piece with narration specifically timed to interact with the music. Beethoven’s Fidelio has a melodrama in it, as does Berlioz’s Lelio. It was a popular form of parlor entertainment in the 19th century.

The most famous melodramas, as far as I know, are those of Robert Schumann. If you don’t speak German this might not be the most engaging listening experience you’ve ever had, but I just thought you should know about it.

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