I'm moving my blog activity to a new address:
http://hellafrisch.wordpress.com
Please come check out the new site and tell me what you think!
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Sunday, June 14, 2009
I'm not quite back from the ISB convention yet (various flight delays have marooned me in Denver, for the moment), but I think I'm slowly coming down from the 6 days of bass insanity. Crunching the numbers, I believe I saw:
25 classical recitals (including 9 that were entirely contemporary music)
7 jazz concerts
9 solo competition performances, and 5 orchestra competition auditions
5 lecture/demonstrations
3 masterclasses
That's probably twice as many bass recitals as I saw in my entire 6 years of college and grad school. Who's counting, though?
25 classical recitals (including 9 that were entirely contemporary music)
7 jazz concerts
9 solo competition performances, and 5 orchestra competition auditions
5 lecture/demonstrations
3 masterclasses
That's probably twice as many bass recitals as I saw in my entire 6 years of college and grad school. Who's counting, though?
Tuesday, June 09, 2009
hella frisch at the ISB
I've been posting some reports and commentary from the ISB convention at Penn State this week. Please check it out at my satellite site, here.
Thursday, April 16, 2009
redundancy
I'm not sure if I had heard the expression "to make someone redundant" before a few weeks ago. Here is an example from the British show "The Office":
"Don't make me redundant, please. I've changed my mind, I don't want redundancy, I don't want that. And I haven't signed anything, so..." As funny and as tragic as that scene is, I think we've all known someone who has been "made redundant" recently, without any choice (except perhaps whether they'll stay through the party on Friday or not.)
As a (thankfully still employed) member of an orchestra string section, I think I'm a bit redundant to begin with. That's part of our job description, in fact: most of the time I play the same part as 5 other people, and the closer we get to duplicating the same rendition, the better we've done our job. Of course, there are plenty of exceptions and reasons why six bass players is the bare minimum for an orchestra of the CPO's size. Still, it makes me a bit leery that some human resource manager is going to walk into a rehearsal one day, look at all the people doing the same work, and decide to make us redundant permanently.
This actually happened while I was with the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, the Chicago Symphony's training orchestra. It was in 2001, right after the "dot com bubble" had burst, and the administration decided that all the string sections would be cut down. The bass section went from 8 to 6, while the violin sections were each reduced by a couple of stands. It happened between seasons, so no one had to be taken into the little room like David Brent -- nevertheless, it was a blow to everyone's morale, and to the orchestra's quality.
The euphemism in the orchestra is "reduction", when some are asked not to play. Normally, this will only happen in cases of severe balance problems. More players will not necessarily make the orchestra sound louder, since we can play just about inaudibly if asked. If a solo voice or instrumentalist is consistently being drowned out, though, it's silly to have everyone on stage playing at a whisper. And sometimes, there is just not enough rehearsal time to make all of the necessary adjustments, and so the orchestra is reduced as a time-saving measure.
I think what's lost is pretty significant -- the depth and character of an orchestra is not the same with half the players, even if they play brilliantly. It's much easier for a singer to project over a reduced orchestra, but the cushion of sound that supports the voice is made thinner, more meager sounding. The sound of many players at their ultimate limit of softness is one of the wonders of an orchestra, an effect just as thrilling as an orchestra playing at its maximum dynamic. When I'm reduced off an aria, I often find myself thinking what only David Brent would have the courage to say: "Please, don't make me redundant!"
"Don't make me redundant, please. I've changed my mind, I don't want redundancy, I don't want that. And I haven't signed anything, so..." As funny and as tragic as that scene is, I think we've all known someone who has been "made redundant" recently, without any choice (except perhaps whether they'll stay through the party on Friday or not.)
As a (thankfully still employed) member of an orchestra string section, I think I'm a bit redundant to begin with. That's part of our job description, in fact: most of the time I play the same part as 5 other people, and the closer we get to duplicating the same rendition, the better we've done our job. Of course, there are plenty of exceptions and reasons why six bass players is the bare minimum for an orchestra of the CPO's size. Still, it makes me a bit leery that some human resource manager is going to walk into a rehearsal one day, look at all the people doing the same work, and decide to make us redundant permanently.
This actually happened while I was with the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, the Chicago Symphony's training orchestra. It was in 2001, right after the "dot com bubble" had burst, and the administration decided that all the string sections would be cut down. The bass section went from 8 to 6, while the violin sections were each reduced by a couple of stands. It happened between seasons, so no one had to be taken into the little room like David Brent -- nevertheless, it was a blow to everyone's morale, and to the orchestra's quality.
The euphemism in the orchestra is "reduction", when some are asked not to play. Normally, this will only happen in cases of severe balance problems. More players will not necessarily make the orchestra sound louder, since we can play just about inaudibly if asked. If a solo voice or instrumentalist is consistently being drowned out, though, it's silly to have everyone on stage playing at a whisper. And sometimes, there is just not enough rehearsal time to make all of the necessary adjustments, and so the orchestra is reduced as a time-saving measure.
I think what's lost is pretty significant -- the depth and character of an orchestra is not the same with half the players, even if they play brilliantly. It's much easier for a singer to project over a reduced orchestra, but the cushion of sound that supports the voice is made thinner, more meager sounding. The sound of many players at their ultimate limit of softness is one of the wonders of an orchestra, an effect just as thrilling as an orchestra playing at its maximum dynamic. When I'm reduced off an aria, I often find myself thinking what only David Brent would have the courage to say: "Please, don't make me redundant!"
Monday, April 13, 2009
classical music's brave, hip new world
Greg Sandow has seen the future of classical music, and it's a sophisticated mishmash of "baroque/techno/grime/classical/avant-garde," playing at trendy clubs. He writes about it in a recent Wall Street Journal article:
It's an exciting idea, and it certainly wouldn't be the first time that classical music has ridden the coat-tails of a popular music scene to achieve its own goals. At the New World Symphony, I frequently shared a stand (and briefly, an apartment wall) with Matt W., a bass player who was also a club DJ. I would joke that in 20 years, while most of us would be struggling to make ends meet with low-paying orchestra jobs, Matt would be principal DJ with the New York Philharmonic, spinning remixes every night of Mahler symphonies and Debussy tone poems.
For now though, I'm still a bit nonplussed by the trend. This might be because I personally don't go to clubs, and so the etiquette there -- the protocol of what to do and say, how to behave, when to applaud or shout or just chill -- is as mystifying to me as a symphony concert for the uninitiated. Even if I am curious about the music and the performers, I'd rather hear them in a setting where I'm comfortable.
Being told to talk, clap, or grab a drink if it suits my mood, seems like too many choices for me -- I'd rather just enjoy the music, without all the social dimensions. That would seem to be the one choice you're not given at these concerts, since other audience members are sure to char, mill around, or maybe even to "get rowdy" as one performer instructed the crowd.
Or are they? Sandow describes another concert at the same club: "Earlier this year I heard Messiaen's austere Quartet for the End of Time on a bill with two ambient electronic pop acts. The crowd -- many of whom wouldn't even have known who Messiaen was -- sat in rapt silence, and roared their approval at the end." That sounds a lot like the classical music audiences I'm used to at conventional, un-hip classical chamber music concerts: respectful, attentive, but quite enthusiastic. Maybe as performers, we get the audiences we deserve -- and as audiences, we get the musical performance we deserve, no matter how hip the setting and scene.
Read Greg Sandow's article here: "A Young, Hip, Classical Crowd"
So there I was not long ago at Le Poisson Rouge, a New York club, for a classical-music show, and the guy in the DJ booth was telling all of us to "talk and clap when you like. And go to the bar if you get bored."He goes on to describe the audience, the atmosphere, and the music: "everything was strong and savvy, and much of it was purely classical, inhabiting indie pop territory in its DNA without showing any signs of that externally. A lot of it was gently dissonant, and sometimes roughly dissonant, often surprising, always cogent and thoughtful." It seems to have been a brilliant success, marred only by the excessive length, over three hours. If the New York Phil or Carnegie Hall would just loosen up and hold this type of show, Sandow speculates, they "might attract 1,000 newcomers" to a concert of obscure experimental music.
It's an exciting idea, and it certainly wouldn't be the first time that classical music has ridden the coat-tails of a popular music scene to achieve its own goals. At the New World Symphony, I frequently shared a stand (and briefly, an apartment wall) with Matt W., a bass player who was also a club DJ. I would joke that in 20 years, while most of us would be struggling to make ends meet with low-paying orchestra jobs, Matt would be principal DJ with the New York Philharmonic, spinning remixes every night of Mahler symphonies and Debussy tone poems.
For now though, I'm still a bit nonplussed by the trend. This might be because I personally don't go to clubs, and so the etiquette there -- the protocol of what to do and say, how to behave, when to applaud or shout or just chill -- is as mystifying to me as a symphony concert for the uninitiated. Even if I am curious about the music and the performers, I'd rather hear them in a setting where I'm comfortable.
Being told to talk, clap, or grab a drink if it suits my mood, seems like too many choices for me -- I'd rather just enjoy the music, without all the social dimensions. That would seem to be the one choice you're not given at these concerts, since other audience members are sure to char, mill around, or maybe even to "get rowdy" as one performer instructed the crowd.
Or are they? Sandow describes another concert at the same club: "Earlier this year I heard Messiaen's austere Quartet for the End of Time on a bill with two ambient electronic pop acts. The crowd -- many of whom wouldn't even have known who Messiaen was -- sat in rapt silence, and roared their approval at the end." That sounds a lot like the classical music audiences I'm used to at conventional, un-hip classical chamber music concerts: respectful, attentive, but quite enthusiastic. Maybe as performers, we get the audiences we deserve -- and as audiences, we get the musical performance we deserve, no matter how hip the setting and scene.
Read Greg Sandow's article here: "A Young, Hip, Classical Crowd"
Friday, March 20, 2009
tilting at bass mutes
This weekend the CPO performs Don Quixote, the Strauss tone poem that is really more like a tone-novel. It's hard to think of another piece of symphonic music that ties together so many stories, characters, and conversations -- all while maintaining a fairly straightforward theme and variations structure, though with some odd twists.
Among the odd things in the bass part of Don Quixote is the indication on page 1 that the section should put on mutes. The mutes remain on through two pages of loud, melodic bass lines, covering a wide register. You would think he made a mistake, as we're asked to play fff (basically as loud as humanly possible), but he repeats the instruction, two more times: mit dampfer, meaning keep the mutes on!
Unlike brass mutes, bass mutes often won't cut the sound a great deal. What they do is to alter and impede the vibrations of the bridge, and so they have a greater effect on the color of the instrument. When played softly, as they most commonly are, mutes give the bass a somewhat subdued, veiled tone. When a bass is played loudly with a mute, however, there's an almost comical quality of struggle and tension, like a duck squawking madly. During loud playing, the vibration of the bridge may actually dislodge a wood mute and send it flying off the instrument. More often, we use rubber mutes which stay on the bridge a little better, but won't change the sound as much.
I think that Strauss was looking for that quality of hapless squawking, the orchestrational equivalent of tilting at windmills -- and so I'm a bit disappointed when we ignore the mute indication and just play it normally. Sure, it's a strange and senseless think to demand, and only the most perceptive and informed listeners will notice the difference -- and yet it's a brilliant way of depicting a strange, senseless person who makes a habit of struggling against inanimate objects. (Which would be a fairly accurate description of bass players in general...)
The concert tonight features a fantastic soloist, our own principal cellist Phil Hansen. Tickets may still be available, check out the CPO website for more information!
Among the odd things in the bass part of Don Quixote is the indication on page 1 that the section should put on mutes. The mutes remain on through two pages of loud, melodic bass lines, covering a wide register. You would think he made a mistake, as we're asked to play fff (basically as loud as humanly possible), but he repeats the instruction, two more times: mit dampfer, meaning keep the mutes on!
Unlike brass mutes, bass mutes often won't cut the sound a great deal. What they do is to alter and impede the vibrations of the bridge, and so they have a greater effect on the color of the instrument. When played softly, as they most commonly are, mutes give the bass a somewhat subdued, veiled tone. When a bass is played loudly with a mute, however, there's an almost comical quality of struggle and tension, like a duck squawking madly. During loud playing, the vibration of the bridge may actually dislodge a wood mute and send it flying off the instrument. More often, we use rubber mutes which stay on the bridge a little better, but won't change the sound as much.
I think that Strauss was looking for that quality of hapless squawking, the orchestrational equivalent of tilting at windmills -- and so I'm a bit disappointed when we ignore the mute indication and just play it normally. Sure, it's a strange and senseless think to demand, and only the most perceptive and informed listeners will notice the difference -- and yet it's a brilliant way of depicting a strange, senseless person who makes a habit of struggling against inanimate objects. (Which would be a fairly accurate description of bass players in general...)
The concert tonight features a fantastic soloist, our own principal cellist Phil Hansen. Tickets may still be available, check out the CPO website for more information!
Wednesday, March 04, 2009
recital this Sunday
I'm performing a recital this coming Sunday, which happens to also be International Women's Day and daylight savings time day. So if you decide to come, set your watches forward first, and try to bring some women with you!
Here's my poster:
and the program will be:
Duo no. 1 in G major, trans. for viola and double bass / Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Papageno Variations, for bass and piano after W.A. Mozart / Milton Barnes
Matt Heller, double bass; Cody Obst, piano
Piano Quintet in A major, D. 667 (Trout Quintet) / Franz Schubert
Here's my poster:
and the program will be:
Duo no. 1 in G major, trans. for viola and double bass / Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
- I. Allegro
- II. Adagio
- III. Rondo: Allegro
Papageno Variations, for bass and piano after W.A. Mozart / Milton Barnes
Matt Heller, double bass; Cody Obst, piano
Piano Quintet in A major, D. 667 (Trout Quintet) / Franz Schubert
- I. Allegro vivace
- II. Andante
- III. Scherzo: Presto
- IV. Theme and variations: Andantino, Allegretto
- V. Allegro giusto
Thursday, February 19, 2009
armchair audition critic
I seem to have abandoned my blog at just the moment when my main subject -- preparing and taking orchestral auditions -- may be on the verge of hipness. I'm referring, of course, to the YouTube Symphony Orchestra project, and the recent flurry of interest in the brave souls who decided to post their audition videos online.
One of them happens to be my friend, violinist Donovan Seidle. To watch Donovan's video, surf over to the YouTube Symphony audition site and then search for:
Navonod3542
I won't tell you how to vote, since the blogosphere is a democratic place, after all. However, if you do happen to vote for Donovan, and he gets chosen for the orchestra, there's a chance he might let me post an infamous recording of a contrabassoon audition -- I start to crack up just thinking about it, and so it would be a great thrill to have it here.
For me, watching YouTube auditions is fascinating and at the same time frustrating. There is such a variety of musicians, pieces, and recording conditions, at first I wasn't sure how I would begin to judge them. It quickly becomes easy to eliminate people, however, either for poor intonation, or for flawed rhythm. Even in these finalist videos, most I watched had noticeable rhythmic problems -- dotted rhythms were swung, long notes were shortened, etc.
It seems as though these problems would be easy to fix. If I wanted to be a prick, I could message those people right now, point out the problems, and improve their audition chances immeasurably. If someone doesn't notice it themselves though, I wonder if anything I can say will help them much. Oh well.
One of them happens to be my friend, violinist Donovan Seidle. To watch Donovan's video, surf over to the YouTube Symphony audition site and then search for:
Navonod3542
I won't tell you how to vote, since the blogosphere is a democratic place, after all. However, if you do happen to vote for Donovan, and he gets chosen for the orchestra, there's a chance he might let me post an infamous recording of a contrabassoon audition -- I start to crack up just thinking about it, and so it would be a great thrill to have it here.
For me, watching YouTube auditions is fascinating and at the same time frustrating. There is such a variety of musicians, pieces, and recording conditions, at first I wasn't sure how I would begin to judge them. It quickly becomes easy to eliminate people, however, either for poor intonation, or for flawed rhythm. Even in these finalist videos, most I watched had noticeable rhythmic problems -- dotted rhythms were swung, long notes were shortened, etc.
It seems as though these problems would be easy to fix. If I wanted to be a prick, I could message those people right now, point out the problems, and improve their audition chances immeasurably. If someone doesn't notice it themselves though, I wonder if anything I can say will help them much. Oh well.
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