CGF Newsletter 51: The Doctor was a Pianist!
Hyperion comes online; Joey gets the white glove treatment; Aspen is bliss
Name That Tune
This week’s Name That Tune was submitted by Listener Jeremy. Here’s your (BIG) hint: this composer was a member of Les Apaches. No Googling!!
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 classicalgabfest@gmail.com instead of commenting so the rest of us can have fun guessing.
Last Week’s Results
Since I (Will) am off galavanting, I’m not tracking the NTT responses, but let me just say this: Joey and I are ready to kill off this feature of the newsletter (along with an upcoming rebrand) because we’re not sure that it appeals to anyone except the two of us and Listener Jeremy. And that’s fine—it may be a feature that just doesn’t transfer well from the podcast medium to the email medium. On the other hand, it is the only feature that drives any commentary at all, so perhaps we shouldn’t kill the one engagement engine?
If you want to keep Name That Tune a part of your weekly ritual, now is the time to clap for Tinkerbell (or weigh in in the comments.)
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.
Hype Machine
Hyperion Records, the British giant among classical music labels, has finally made the move to make its catalog available on streaming. As managing director Simon Perry is quoted in this article, “The world is moving very quickly towards a different way of accessing music … This seems to be the way forward, as it’s what people want.” He’s not wrong, and is in fact quite late to the party! Undoubtedly, his realization was spurred by Universal Music Group’s acquisition of Hyperion earlier this year.
Of course, there are countless excellent arguments against the streaming model of music, most of which are based on the microscopic payments that the musicians receive per stream, as opposed to per record bought on CD/etc. However, it is undeniable that the recording industry has made huge changes in the past decade, and streaming is the mode du jour. Let us hope that if it is the future, musicians can figure out a way for it to be a more profitable endeavor!
Documentation
I (Joey) have embarked upon research for my dissertation. Having completed coursework for my D.M.A. (Doctor of Musical Arts—the music performer’s less academic version of a Ph.D) in the Spring semester, all that remains for me to become Dr. Vaz is to complete some exams and write a dissertation (as well as give a recital of music related to my dissertation).
I will be writing about the piano music of Ed Bland (1926-2013), an American composer with roots in both African-American genres and Western academic music, who was a family friend and who was very influential to me when I was a young musician. [Ed: he still is.]
To begin, I wanted to gather as much information on Bland as possible, although my final document will be composed primarily of analyses of specific pieces. Two archival resources exclusively dealing with his life and music exist: one at Columbia College Chicago’s Center for Black Music Research and the other at Yale University’s Beinecke Library (pictured below). Since the former is closed for renovation until 2024, I began my work in New Haven this July.
As one would expect from a private Ivy League research institution such as Yale, the experience was a researcher’s dream. Using an online database I requested an appointment to come in and handle materials in their archive, and when I arrived, there were lockers for researchers, a beautiful research room in the basement (for which security constantly opened the door for me), and friendly archival assistants to cater to my every need. I was positively pampered, despite the fact that all I was doing was digitizing various handwritten scores, notes, and letters (by digitizing, I simply mean I was taking pictures with my phone—no flash allowed!)
Though I have yet to really dig in to the materials, Yale provided a very auspicious start to my dissertative career.
Mile High Summer Club
The reason I haven’t had the time to really get into the materials I collected at the Beinecke Library is that I have been a student at the Aspen Music Festival for the past two weeks. As one of the largest classical music festivals in the United States, the AMF serves around 600 music students from many countries (though certainly the US is the primary nationality of most). The weather here is gorgeous, the high-quality concerts are daily, and the bears are nowhere to be seen.
Music students here are basically seasonal workers for the wealthy classes who summer (and presumably winter when they’re in the skiing mood) in Aspen. This goes so far as our lodging, in cabins and apartments inhabited by ski workers during the winter. But in return for our performances, we get to learn and play alongside musicians from excellent American orchestras, conservatories, and universities. And of course, music festivals are the place to network with the next generation of musicians.
Personal highlights from my time at Aspen:
A piano recital of repertoire by Haydn and Ravel by Jean-Efflam Bavouzet (see Classical Mixtape from a couple weeks ago)
A performance of Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3 by Yunchan Lim, 19-year old piano star who won the Van Cliburn last year
Studying with my teacher, Julian Martin, and hearing the other excellent pianists here
Biking around Aspen with the gorgeous Rocky Mountains as the backdrop
Hearing fellow students busking (with institutional backing!) around the downtown area of Aspen
Pickleball with an enthusiastic piano professor here, again with a gorgeous backdrop:
Classical Mixtape
York Bowen, Oboe Sonata
Music festivals always demonstrate the small size of the music world, and when I discovered that an old college friend Leo was here studying oboe, we decided we had to perform something together. He introduced me to this luscious oboe sonata by English composer York Bowen, and I have come to really love the rich harmonies featured throughout.
The Classical Gabfest Newsletter is a spin-off of the now-defunct Classical Gabfest Podcast. It is a co-production of William White, Joseph Vaz, and the Listeners (i.e. you.)