To everyone who squeezed into the Idler Academy for the Classical music crash course last night, it was good to meet you and thanks for your rapt attention and interesting questions ... Scroll down on this blog for a closer look at the glossary of terms relevant to each era. Since many of you expressed interest, I'm hatching a plan for a full-blown Classical music lecture series at the Idler Academy, each of them examining a musical era in much more detail than last night, which was a mere taster. This might get going as soon as the next few weeks, but I'll keep you posted with a post here as the plan crystallises. In the meantime, if you have any feedback or queries, or if you'd to put your email address on the mailing list, do drop me a line here. And here's a reminder of what it was all about.

For my Classical music crash course at the Idler Academy I''ve prepared a
quick glossary of the four key periods I''m covering, with a brief overview
and definitions of five key terms that are relevant to each. Enjoy!

 
Baroque music: c1607 to 1750

Essential elements? Dance-like feel behind much of the music; rhythmic drive; often still a polyphonic approach to composing; some extremely expressive music, with flamboyant vocal writing and extraordinary poetry; craftsmanship rather than self-expression.

Terms:

Tonic, dominant and relative minor:– the tonic is the home key, and the
dominant its closest relative, on the fifth of the scale. Relative minor is
the closest minor key to a major-key tonic, starting on the sixth of the
scale.
Pedal point: a device used towards the end of a piece when a note is held
to anchor the harmony; usually in the bass, and usually on the dominant.
Fugue: From the Latin fuga, its name describes how one voice chases another
in an imitative way, in this musical form based on imitation.
Polyphony:– music in many parts which act independently.
Stretto:– in a fugue, when a theme enters before the previous one has
finished in another part.

Classical era: c1750 to 1820

Essential elements? Balance and beauty; clear, elegant discussion of musical
ideas, avoiding extremes; plenty of conventions, often subtly contravened.

Terms:

Chamber music:– music with one instrument per part.
Compound duple time:– 6/8. Two beats in a bar, subdivided into three within
each beat.
Cadence:– two closing chords, like an Amen.
Sonata form:– the arrangement of an opening movement into three sections of
a musical argument: exposition, development and recapitulation.
Codetta:– a short passage that rounds a section off.

Romantic era: c1820-1910

Essential elements? The rise of the artist; combining music with other
arts; celebrating nature and individual nationhood; pushing the sound world
of opera and orchestra to the limit, and doing the same with the tonal
system.

Terms:

Programme music: music that's designed to tell a story or paint a picture
(as opposed to absolute music).
Gesamtkunstwerk: Wagner''s idea of bringing several disciplines together to
make a perfect, all-embracing art form.
Thematic transformation: transmogrifying a musical theme during the course
of a musical drama.
Leitmotiv: in a dramatic context, a recurring musical theme that's always
associated with a particular character or idea; aka idée fixe.
Tone poem or symphonic poem: a piece of narrative programme music painted on an orchestral canvas.

C20th era:

Essential elements? Music being pushed to the brink and a whole variety of
approaches emerging, some radical and others conservative: expressionism,
neo-classicism, serialism, electronic composition, modernism,
post-modernism, minimalism, post-minimalism …...

Terms:

Timbre: – the quality of a note produced by a musical instrument.
Bitonal:– having more than one tonal centre.
Ostinato: – a repeated rhythmic figure.
Diatonic: – based round a tonal centre.
Serialism: – a procedure that orders the 12 notes of a chromatic scale as the
basis for a piece of music; also known as twelve-tone composition.

New Year, new grasp of sonata form and retrograde inversion? I'm getting
together with the Idler Academy in Notting Hill to present a crash course in
classical music on Thursday 12th January. It's aimed at intelligent adults
who are looking for a way in to the greatness of classical music. I'll be
tackling four key areas of classical music – Baroque, Classical, Romantic
and twentieth-century – in the course of the evening, and focussing on a
major work from each. And I've had fun picking these! :

JS Bach: Prelude & Fugue in C major (Well-Tempered 
Clavier Book 1)
Mozart: B flat String Quartet K458, "the Hunt"

Mahler: Symphony no 1 

Stravinsky: Le Sacre du Printemps/Rite of Spring

I'll look at the cultural context in each case, analyse the music,
illustrate some salient moments, and provide a glossary of key terms. This
symposium will give you a clear understanding of the essential elements of
music in each era; after it, you'll be able to listen to music with fresh
ears and greater understanding. Think of it as an overture to a Classic
Discovery lecture series later in the year, which will explore classical
music in more detail in a six-week course.

Classical Music Crash Course starts at 6.30pm for 7pm on Thursday evening 12 January 2012, at The Idler Academy, 81 Westbourne Park Road, London W2 5QH. Tel: 0207 221 5908. It costs £30, including wine and nibbles. To book click here. And to ask me any questions about it – for example, "why on earth didn't you choose Schoenberg's Variations op 31?" click here.

In the build-up to my first St John Passion (downloadable poster below), I've been reflecting on the essence of this extraordinary piece, and how best to do justice to the score. The St Matthew, which we're performing as part of our long-running Bach project this coming February, is the more expansive account of the Passion story - and, to be honest, up until now it's been my preferred
Passion of the two. So what does the St John have going for it? The answer to that is that it's intensely dramatic; – there's acres of Evangelical recitative, punctuated by stunning outbursts from the chorus, variously in the guises of chief priests, Jews and Roman soldiers. So key to getting it
right will be the pacing of the narrative, which it seems to me should maintain its momentum right up to the moment of Jesus's death on the Cross (no.31).

Leading us through the drama are the solo singers, or "concertists", although they have more than just one role to play. The bass soloist for example has not only the words of Jesus to sing, but also the arias and choruses; – that much is clear from Bach's original intentions in the original manuscript part. Quite a challenge for a solo singer to switch personas in this way, and even more so for the chorus to be an out-of control mob baying for Jesus to be crucified one moment, and grieving contemporary Christians the next (as in the transition from no 21d "Kreuzige!" and no 21f "Wir haben ein Gesetz" to the radiant chorale no 22 "Durch dein Gefängnis, Gottes Sohn." But that doesn't mean that we should duck the issue by asking soloists to sit out the chorus sections, or for chorales to be played rather than sung for the sake of dramatic convenience, as was the case in a recent Passion staging. On the contrary, – this shift in perspectives between third and first person, and between the Passion story and the present, is one of the things that make this Passion narrative so startling and vivid, and so relevant to today.

If I'm emphasising the drama at the expense of the music here, that's because it's clear to me what should take priority. Everyone know what a supreme musical craftsman Bach was, but the standout feature of the St John Passion isn't the music at all;– it's the way he puts his astonishing musical skills entirely at the service of the Passion story. This is a gripping, at times terrifying, narrative -– for me the way Bach illuminates the account in John's Gospel of Jesus's betrayal, trial, crucifixion and death is more vivid than any other musical work before or since.

The performance of JS Bach's St John Passion takes place at 8pm on Sunday 16th of October. I''ll be joining forces with the West London Bach Consort and Players,– veterans of our complete Bach cantata cycle which ran from 1997-2010. Once again it will be a privilege to work with an excellent team of vocal soloists, instrumentalists and ensemble singers,– each of them giving their services for no fee, to raise money for a deserving local charity:– the Upper Room.

A few days before the concert I'm hosting two Classic Discovery evenings which take a close look at the St John Passion, and reflecting further on the spiritual qualities of the work and its exceptional dramatic power. These take place at 8pm on Wednesday 12th October in the Parish Hall of St Anne's Church Kew Green, and at 8pm on Thursday 13th October in the Michael Room, St Michael and All Angels Church, Chiswick, London W4 1TT. Tickets are £10:– pay on the door.

Click here to download:

Bach St John Passion Poster.pdf (1.86 MB)

(download)

Click here to download:

Bach St John Passion Poster.pdf (1.86 MB)

I rarely play chamber music, and rarely wear tails. But am resolved to do
both more often after a memorable evening with La Folia, playing Schubert's
Trout Quintet. The one on the end, grinning? C'est moi

During the 1880s and 1890s, Leighton's 'musics' as they became known were a
high point of the London social and cultural calendar. They were effectively
salons, combining music and art within a beautiful setting, namely Lord
Leighton's own studio on the edge of Holland Park in Kensington. What made
them remarkable was that some of the very finest nineteenth century
musicians took part, including violinist Joseph Joachim, cellist Alfred
Piatti and pianist Charles Hallé – not to mention Leighton himself, who sang
with a light and charming tenor voice. There was a real sense of the
creative arts reaching across to each other – all in the informal and
intimate atmosphere of Leighton's studio, with his work in progress all
around them. Fast forward to the present day, and Leighton House has asked me to curate
and present an Aesthetic Concert, inspired by the wonderful repertoire and
great artists that took part in the 'musics' in Lord Leighton's day. The
programme includes Schubert's great piano trio in B flat, one of Handel's
violin sonatas, and some of Leighton's favourite songs by Gordigiani,
Schubert and Maud Valérie White. Richard Edgar-Wilson steps into Lord
Leighton's shoes as the tenor for the evening, with Kathryn Parry (violin),
Joely Koos (cello) and Simon Marlow at the piano.

The evening takes place at Leighton House on Tuesday July 12 2011 from
7.00pm to 10.00pm; the music starts at 7:30pm. Tickets are £35.00 including
refreshments. To book tickets, call 020 7471 9153 or email
noe.auvelius@rbkc.gov.uk. The online ticket link is here:
https://www.wegottickets.com/event/124282

Leighton House Museum, 12 Holland Park Road, London W14 8LZ

Esperanza Spalding's Chamber Music Society at the Barbican Centre on Friday 8th April 2011 - pre-concert interview

(download)

Click here to download:

esperanza_shorter.wmv (80.34 MB)

Orchestral rehearsals generally - and understandably –- concentrate on
getting the right sound and the right notes, but hardly any time exploring
what the music is about, where it came from, what it does in formal terms,
and what it means. Hence the idea of leading an insight event, not for an
audience, but with an orchestra for an orchestra, with me acting as both
conductor and analytical guide. The Junior Guildhall Symphony Orchestra have
Mahler's Symphony no 1 as the main work in their summer concert, and the
Guildhall is letting me loose on the orchestra to lead the first couple of
sessions on this piece. In session one, I'll be looking at how the
programmatic symphony developed in the nineteenth century by rehearsing,
analysing and discussing passages from some of the most important examples,
including Beethoven's Choral Symphony and the Symphonie fantastique by
Berlioz. And in session two, the focus turns to Mahler's First Symphony
itself; the storylines that Mahler adopted and discarded, the gypsy and
Jewish soundworlds, and the funeral march - including the eerie minor-key
Frère Jacques that gets it under way. I'm looking forward to sharing ideas
with the Guildhall players, getting a debate going, and learning from them
in the process too!

This follows a successful trial with the Junior Academy Symphony Orchestra
of the Royal Academy of Music last year, and is part of my evolving Classic
Discovery project. As the website takes shape, click here for details.

Classic Discovery with the Junior Guildhall Symphony Orchestra is from
2:30-4:30 pm on Saturday 26th February and Saturday 5th March 2011.

Ok, I promise to stop blogging about Bach soon, but there's the imminent
performance of the Mass in B minor to deal with first. This Sunday at 7:30pm
at St Michael and All Angels, several of the key performers of the
long-running cantata cycle which ended in December will be gathering once
more - this time to take our Bach project onto a new level, turning from the
cantatas to one of Bach's great sacred masterpieces. Does that description
go far enough? For the work's first publisher Hans Georg Nägeli this was
"the greatest musical artwork of all times and peoples", and it's been
lauded in similarly high-flown terms ever since. In more recent times the B
Minor Mass has been totemic for different reasons: – it was with his 1982
recording of this work that Joshua Rifkin dropped his musicological
bombshell: that almost all of Bach's music was intended to be performed
with single voices. This standpoint, deeply controversial at the time, was
rearticulated in Andrew Parrott's book The Essential Bach Choir – -
provocative, but to my mind deeply convincing.

So if we accept that Bach's choral music was largely a one-to-a-part affair
(and with period instruments to match, obviously), where does that put us
present-day interpreters? While I go along with Rifkin and Parrott, I feel
it would be wrong to apply their findings to a project such as ours, which
is fundamentally about a community of musicians coming together and sharing
Bach's music, raising money for those in need in the process. Replacing our
modern instrument players and choral forces with HIP specialists is
something I've tried before during this Chiswick project, but won't be
repeating. For this reason: in this day and age, classical music should be
about including people rather than shutting them out. So our B Minor Mass
will be one of steel strings rather than gut, and around eight to each
choral part rather than Rifkin's single voices.

Whatever the lineup though, the essence of the music needs to remain the
same: dancing rhythms which drive so many of the movements, from the Gloria
through to the Osanna in excelsis; clear diction and carefully weighted
phrasing, essential to allow the text to be heard (no easy matter in most
church acoustics!); and the sense of storytelling, especially important
throughout the Symbolum Nicenum, which outlines the essential elements of
the Christian narrative.

Modern instruments and a large choir make this more difficult, but I'm
convinced we can do it. How to make it happen, though, is my big challenge.