Hear No Music, Be a Subpar Composer

Sean Newhouse made his conducting debut leading the BSO in Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 9.  Show above is a picture from a different performance, displayed at the conductor's website (http://www.seannewhouse.com).

That is why I was enrolled in some kind of music history course for seven out of my eight semesters at MIT, and why I am continuing to study music history in graduate school despite my major being composition.  (To be fair, some of the music history courses I have taken over the years have fulfilled requirements; but I would have taken them anyway.)  Studying the music that is already out there is a crucial part of being a composer not because all music is recycled, but rather because one has to be aware of the preceding tradition.  New composers need not follow any traditions they may observe or even see themselves as part of one, but they can’t be taken seriously without knowing about who and what have come before them.

Part of being a good composer-listener is attending concerts.  For even with the most advanced technology in sound engineering and the most expensive headphones and speakers, nothing can replace hearing music live at a concert (classical, or otherwise).  To elaborate briefly, I’ll share the opening paragraph from my first-ever concert report in my first-ever formal music class from October 2006:

Despite the new and innovative “QuietComfort 3 Acoustic Noise Canceling” headphones released by Bose this past year, there is still no better way to experience music than to hear it in person.  There is some magical element of live performances that recordings cannot capture and personal audio devices simply cannot recreate.  Perhaps the enchantment comes from the involvement of all five senses – listening to the music fill the performance hall, seeing the conductor waving his arms and the orchestra responding, smelling the pages of the program, feeling the seats and the armrests, and tasting refreshments during intermission (if you’re lucky).  Or maybe the excitement arises due to the fact that a live performance can only happen once – after the concert concludes, the show becomes a part of the past, and while multiple concerts may feature identical programs, each performance is unique.  In fact, even if the same audience showed up two nights in a row to hear the same pieces played by the same orchestra led by the same conductor at the same place and time, the performances inevitably would be different.  Although it may be impossible to pinpoint the spark behind the thrill of a live concert, and though each individual concertgoer has his or her own reasons for attending, there is no doubt that being present at a live performance is a highly favorable strategy for bringing music to life.

In the past week, I attended two different concerts.  The first was a preview of the upcoming 11th Annual Women Composers Festival of Hartford, which I attended with my colleagues in the Music Since 1950 class that I am currently taking.  This performance included pieces (or previews of pieces) by Sang Mi Ahn, Julia Werntz, Jessica Rudman, Eun Sook Baek, and Gilda Lyons.  There was a wide variety of style; the major drawback was that most of the pieces presented were only snippets (easily solved by attending the concerts featuring the previewed works).  I did enjoy hearing the new music though -- as exciting as it can be to hear live performances of pieces you know and love (see below), it is also important to stay in the loop with the newest music available.  (Attending the relatively small concert I have just discussed does not qualify as “staying in the loop,” of course.)

The second concert I was at took place in my beloved hometown of Boston, Massachusetts.  With my friend and colleague Tim Coprus (who gets credit for having the idea to attend the concert), I heard the Boston Symphony Orchestra perform Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 9 at Symphony Hall.

Mahler’s Ninth (and last completed) Symphony is an incredible piece of music and is undoubtedly worth the hour-plus it takes to listen to in its entirety.  I had never heard the piece live before, and it’s quite likely that I’d never listened to the whole thing all at once, in part because of its length and in part because I love falling asleep to this piece.  (Though I will not go into the details of the work at present, I previously made a handout of the second movement, which you are more than welcome to view.)

The performance was special not just because of the content, but also because it marked the professional debut of BSO assistant conductor Sean Newhouse, who was filling in for music director James Levine at the last minute.  Having to conduct Mahler 9 on short notice is like pinch-hitting with the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth with two outs and your team down by a few runs.  It’s a feat of strength and concentration (the first movement alone is almost a half hour) and Maestro Newhouse had to do a lot more than just wave his arms.  I spent most of the concert following along in my Dover miniature score, but I will say that this rendition truly brought the music to life.  If you read this before 8 PM tomorrow (March 1, 2011), you can see Mr. Newhouse conduct Mahler 9 again!

That is all for now; updates on what I have been working on will be coming soon...