Kol Nidre
The classical angle on Israel; A North Carolina nothingburger; Obvious solutions that just might work
Name That Tune
This week’s Name That Tune was submitted by Listener Jeremy. Here’s your hint: this composer once served as Dean of the Faculty of Music at the University of London.
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 57
Liszt, Festklänge
Well it appears I (Will) ended our streak of Listener success with this one, and I’ll freely admit it was tricky!
Listener Tammy heard a certain Czechitude in the clip, and she went with Dvorak, Smetana and Fucik (!) But she wasn’t the only one, because Joey bandwagoned with her and added Rimsky-Korsakov and Gottschalk.
Joey thought that my clue was no clue at all, but folks, you’ve got to remember that Franz Liszt was the great populist star of 19th century Europe. He invented the piano recital and he was so popular that he made people actually enjoy it. Others came close (notably, Clara Wieck Schumann) but he was “the guy.”
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.
NEWS!
Naturally, the war in Israel has not left the world of classical music untouched. The Israel Philharmonic has canceled all performances through at least October 18 as has the Israel Camerata Jerusalem, and the Cleveland Orchestra has canceled a tour to Israel (its first ever in that country.) There is no word as of yet about the Israel Phil’s tour to Türkiye, scheduled for the end of the month.
Daniel Barenboim, founder of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, a group whose purpose is to foster peace and understanding across cultural divides in the Middle East, released this statement:
I have followed the events of the weekend with horror and the utmost worry as I see the situation in Israel/Palestine worsening to unimaginable depths. Hamas’ attack on the Israeli civilian population is an outrageous crime, which I condemn fiercely. The death of so many in southern Israel and Gaza is a tragedy that will loom for a long time to come. The extent of this human tragedy is not only in lives lost but also hostages taken, homes destroyed, and communities devastated. An Israeli siege on Gaza constitutes a policy of collective punishment, which is a violation of human rights.”
Edward Said and I always believed that the only path to peace between Israel and Palestine is a path based on humanism, justice, equality and an end to the occupation rather than military action, and I find myself today grounded in this belief more strongly than ever. In these trying times and with these words, I stand in solidarity with all victims and their families.
The Culture War at Home
On August 31, the station director of Raleigh, NC’s WCPE Classical 89.7 mailed a survey to the station’s listeners that was preceded by a letter so wild that I will quote it nearly in full:
Our Station’s working guide to our presentations recognizes the authors and works which have gained widespread esteem over time. We strive to broadcast the classics which have earned the highest standing above all others, which are outstanding in their nature, quality, and eminence; and, have stood the test of longstanding and widespread popularity, widely recognized as true classics.
[...] Not airing modern, discordant, and difficult music is one concern.
The Metropolitan Opera for generations has presented the best, not only in the quality of their productions, but in the careful section of their titles [...] Recently, this tradition has been changing. We declined to broadcast the Met’s presentation of The Champion [sic] because it contained vulgar language and a theme unsuitable for a general audience. Please consider this note from one of our listeners:
“I love to have classical music playing in my home as background music for my children. Your program is the best I have found. I am happy to have such a friendly way to get quality classical music filling my home!” - Jennifer in Idaho
We must maintain the trust of listeners like this mother for the sake of her children and the many other parents with families who trust us, not only in North Carolina, but across our Nation.
Mrs. Proctor (I’m not kidding) then goes on to list the operas that the station will not broadcast along with some color commentary: Florence e el Amazona (sic) is deemed “not okay,” Dead Man Walking causes her to vividly imagine the murders committed by the main character; X “addresses adult themes and contains offensive language plainly audible to anyone,” as does Fire Shut Up In My Bones; El Niño uses non-biblical sources in its libretto; and The Hours includes a scene that culminates “in an actual death.”
Has Deborah Proctor ever been to the opera?
The backlash was swift, with William Grant Still’s granddaughter Celeste Headlee posting an absolute banger of an open letter on current.org that gently points out Proctor’s hypocrisy and generously points out the racial bias in her choices of which pieces are to be banned.
All’s well in the world now, I guess, since the decision has been reversed. Olivia Giovetti has a great analysis of the whole situation over at VAN.
My (Will’s) take is that, in spite of the fact that I myself am a bit of a pearl clutcher who does not care to hear foul language in public (particularly in the presence of children), I’m on the side of airing the operas. But I also just don’t think that this whole thing really matters what gets aired on Raleigh public radio in an age where everything is so easily available online. The people who want to hear these operas can easily find them, and the people who don’t want to hear them could easily turn to something else.
It just makes me sad that the discourse is so thoroughly saturated with bullshit (!!) culture war chum. And yet here I am including it in the newsletter, because it’s not uninteresting and it reminds me of one of my favorite things, namely this.
In Praise of the Basic
The news for classical music is usually bleak, but the industry’s favorite “thought leader” Aubrey Bergauer has a nerdy, data-driven report about what three small-scale orchestras have done to turn around their lagging metrics. If you’re in the biz, this may be worth a read.
I don’t think there’s anything revolutionary in here. It turns out that if you work hard on good advertising messages, communicate thoughtfully with your audience, and do populist programming, people in small towns will go to your concerts. Am I being too flip? Read it and tell me.
I would never want to undervalue Bergauer’s analyses, since she’s introduced some great strategies to the classical world. More recently she’s gotten into the corporate thinkfluencer space with a podcast that’s just a little to horny for LinkedIn, but she’s basically smart and innovative and we should all learn from her while maybe not wanting to adopt her style.
Tone Praise
Handel, Alcina, “Ah mio cor”
I (Will) am going to see a production of Alcina at the Seattle Opera in a couple weeks and I have to say: I wish it were this production! The puppetry here is just exquisite, as is the musical performance by soprano Julia Kirchner.
I’m not so much a baroque opera guy, but now I’m really looking forward to experiencing this piece live!
Tone Prose is a co-production of William White, Joseph Vaz, and the Listeners (i.e. you.)
Wow, in Alcina not only does the soprano assist with the puppetry, but she correctly looks at the puppet. From the little I know about puppetry this is one of the fundamental keys to making puppets come alive, but I have often seen performers with a non puppetry background directing their gaze with the puppet's gaze or at the audience instead. Sometimes this is even a conscious decision to try to make the performer co equal with the puppet. But here there is a humble dedication to making the puppet the focus and it absolutely pays off.
Hmmm this NTT sounds strikingly familiar, but not so familiar that I could claim I know it just by hearing it.
Neoclassical thing for winds and piano. Probably French. It screams ‘Poulenc’. But would Joey load up another Poulenc excerpt so shortly on the heels of his last one?
When something sounds like Poulenc but you think it’s maybe not Poulenc, Jean Françaix is always a safe bet, so I’m adding him to my bucket.
That’s all I’ve got.