Volume 21 Issue 4 - December 2015/January 2016

FOR OPENERS | DAVID

FOR OPENERS | DAVID PERLMAN On Earlids –The Absence Thereof “Our ears are constantly on the alert” says the voice, as the camera cuts away from the sunstreaked interior of the dilapidated Ontario barn. “This adventure with Murray Schafer made me sharply aware that while we may have eyelids we have no earlids. The deaf alone know a world of total silence and isolation.” The voice belongs to Yehudi Menuhin (whose 100th birthday will be celebrated at Koerner Hall January 28), narrating one particular segment of The Quiver of Life, part one of the eight-part documentary series, The Music of Man, filmed and broadcast in the late 1970s. It is an episode that has stuck in my mind ever since I first saw it, in 1978. In it, Schafer walks Menuhin through the fields and woods of Schafer’s farm, alternately talking and stopping to listen: “This is what I would call a hi-fi soundscape in which the signal to noise ratio is very favourable,” Schafer says. “There are very few noises here and therefore every sound that is around us can be heard at a great distance...The city by contrast is really a very low-fi soundscape – that is to say there are so many noises that it is very hard to determine what the signals are. It’s very confusing. Here...if we stand here we can hear sounds from all around us, at a very great distance.” A few moments further on, the two of them are seated at opposite ends of a rough-hewn seesaw, in the middle of the barn, providing the motive power for a giant sound sculpture created, Schafer says, expressly for Menuhin’s visit. Their mutual glee in that moment is unforgettable, their laughter inextricably interwoven with the endless complexities of tone and overtone generated by Schafer’s great mad sound machine. What had sent me scurrying off to YouTube to find The Quiver of Life was the coincidence of hearing the same “no earlids” phrase spoken twice, by two different people, on back-to-back days, Monday November 7 and Tuesday November 8. Schafer himself spoke the words on the Monday. On the Tuesday, they were spoken at the Palmerston Library Theatre, just before leading her audience out on a blindfolded “sound walk” in the rain, by Jessica Thompson whose resume describes her as an assistant professor in Hybrid Practice at the University of Waterloo, and whose passion is investigating “spatial and social conditions within urban environments through interactive art-works situated at the intersection of sound, performance and mobile technologies.” Thompson knew she was quoting Schafer and can doubtless trace in detail the connections (and disconnects) between her own work and his. The Monday event at Gallery 345 was a concert/gala in Schafer’s honour, hosted by New Music Concerts – a benefit to raise funds for the re-release by CentreDiscs of a 1978 recording of a Schafer opera called Loving/Toi completed in 1965. The Tuesday event at the Palmerston library was the third of four in a series of events called New Music 101, presented by the Toronto New Music Alliance (and hosted by me), designed to take new music into new places – in this case into the Toronto Public Library system. This particular little essay comes to no grand conclusions. But at this particular time of year where the low-fi din of piped so-called “seasonal music” makes most of us wish we had earlids, it’s worth thinking about the idea that the difference between sound and noise (the one being musical and the other not) resides as much in the freshness of the listening we bring to things, as in the things we listen to. We wish you in the new year an infinite capacity for delight. publisher@thewholenote.com The WholeNote VOLUME 21 NO 4| DECEMBER 1, 2015 – FEBRUARY 7, 2016 Centre for Social Innovation 720 Bathurst St., Suite 503, Toronto ON M5S 2R4 PHONE 416-323-2232 | FAX 416-603-4791 Publisher/Editor In Chief | David Perlman publisher@thewholenote.com Chairman of the Board | Allan Pulker directors@thewholenote.com EDITORIAL Managing Editor | Paul Ennis editorial@thewholenote.com Recordings Editor | David Olds discoveries@thewholenote.com Social Media Editor | Sara Constant editorial@thewholenote.com Listings Editor | John Sharpe listings@thewholenote.com Club Listings Editor | Bob Ben jazz@thewholenote.com SALES, MARKETING & MEMBERSHIP Concerts & Events/Membership | Karen Ages members@thewholenote.com Record Industry Sales/Marketing | Thom McKercher thom@thewholenote.com Directory Sales and Services | Adrienne Surtees adrienne@thewholenote.com Advertising/Production Support/Operations Jack Buell | adart@thewholenote.com Classified Ads | classad@thewholenote.com Website/Systems | Bryson Winchester systems@thewholenote.com Website/Systems Support | Kevin King kevin@thewholenote.com Circulation/Subscriptions | Chris Malcolm circulation@thewholenote.com SUBSCRIPTIONS per year + HST (9 issues) THANKS TO THIS MONTH’S CONTRIBUTORS Beat Columnists Hans de Groot, Jack MacQuarrie, Brian Chang, David Olds, David Podgorski, Wendalyn Bartley, Ori Dagan, Bob Ben, mJ buell, Andrew Timar Features Howard Dyck, Lydia Adams, Steve Wallace, Paul Ennis CD Reviewers Wendalyn Bartley, Stuart Broomer, Raul da Gama, Hans de Groot, Daniel Foley, Janos Gardonyi, Richard Haskell, Tiina Kiik, Roger Knox, Pamela Margles, Lesley Mitchell-Clarke, Christina Petrowska Quilico, Ivana Popovic, Ted Quinlan, Cathy Riches, Annette Sanger, Michael Schulman, Adam Scime, Bruce Surtees, Andrew Timar, Robert Tomas, Ken Waxman, Elliot Wright Proofreading Vanessa Wells, Jennifer Liu, John Sharpe, Paul Ennis Listings David Perlman, Bob Ben, Kevin King Tilly Kooyman, JennieLea McLeish, Ruth Atwood, Simone Desilets, Jennifer Liu Circulation Team Abram Bergen, Andrew Schaefer, Beth Bartley, Bob Jerome, Dagmar Sullivan, Dave Taylor, Garry Page, Gero Hajek, Jack Buell, Jeff Hogben, Joan Andrews, John Dodington, Lorna Nevison, Mark Clifford, Micah Herzog, Niamh Malcolm, Patrick Slimmon, Paul Ennis, Randy Weir, Robert Faulkner, Sharon Clark, Tiffany Johnson, Tom Sepp, Vicki Stainton, Wende Bartley Layout & Design Bryson Winchester an Ontario government agency un organisme du gouvernement de l’Ontario Upcoming Dates & Deadlines Free Event Listings Deadline 6pm Friday January 8 Display Ad Reservations Deadline 6pm Friday January 15 Classifieds Deadline 6pm Friday January 22 Advertising Materials Due 6pm Tuesday January 19 Publication Date Tuesday January 26 (Online) Thursday January 28 (Print) Volume 21 No 5 covers Febrary 1 to March 7, 2016 WholeNote Media Inc. accepts no responsibility or liability for claims made for any product or service reported on or advertised in this issue. 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Academy Concert Series 51 Acclarion 66 Alexander Rapoport 47, 48 Amadeus Choir 30, 44 Analekta 66 Aradia Ensemble 36 ArtsMedia Projects 64 Associates of the TSO 16 ATMA 5 ATMA Classique 68, 83 Attila Glatz Concert Productions 4, 45, 46 Aurora Cultural Centre 49, 50 Bach Children’s Chorus 40 Bruce Lofgren 66 Canadian Children’s Opera Company 61 Canadian Opera Company 49, 52, 88 Cantemus Singers 37 Cathedral Bluffs Symphony Orchestra 40, 53 Christ Church Deer Park Jazz Vespers 59 Church of the Holy Trinity 35 City of St. Catharines 54 Claude Watson Secondary Arts Programme 25, 50 Daniela Nardi 81 INDEX OF ADVERTISERS Eglinton St. George’s United Church 42 Ensemble Polaris 50 Esprit Orchestra 22, 49 Gallery 345/Adam Sherkin 34 Horizon Tax 64 I Furiosi 46 Junction Trio 23 Kindred Spirits Orchestra 41, 53 Li Delun Music Foundation 46 Living Arts Centre, Miss. 26 Liz Parker 64 Long & McQuade 15 Madeleine Shapiro 70 MasterPerforming 64 Mississauga Symphony 44 Mooredale Concerts 41, 48 Music at Metropolitan 35, 37, 46 Music at St. Andrew’s 24 Music Toronto 9, 39, 46, 47, 48, 52 Musicians in Ordinary 38, 45 Musikay 44 Naxos 68, 70, 81 New Horizons Bands 63 New Music Concerts 38 New Music Concerts / Music Toronto 17 No Strings Theatre 45 Ontario Philharmonic 13, 50 Orpheus Choir 31, 42 Pasquale Bros. 64 Pax Christi Chorale 12, 29, 38 Peggy Baker Dance Projects 18 Peterborough Singers 55 Remenyi House of Music 17 Royal Conservatory 11, 50, 51 Sacred Harp Singing 62 Sine Nomine 43 Soundstreams 21 St. Anne’s Music & Drama Society 51 St. James’ Cathedral 32, 36 St. Jude’s Celebration of the Arts 51 St. Michael’s Choir School 36 St. Philip’s Jazz Vespers 12, 59 Steinway Piano Gallery 15 Suzanne Yeo 47 Syrinx Concerts 20, 23, 37, 47 Tafelmusik 2, 3, 35, 43, 45, 48, 52 Talisker Players 47 Tapestry Opera 53 That Choir 42 Toronto Chamber Choir 40 Toronto Children’s Chorus 44 Toronto Choral Society 43 Toronto Consort 7, 33, 39, 53 Toronto Masque Theatre 43, 44 Toronto Operetta Theatre 19 Toronto Symphony 43, 49, 50, 53, 85, 87 U of T Faculty of Music 13, 49 Universal 70, 81, 83 Univox/Florivox choirs 39 Village Voices 41 Voca Chorus 40 Voicebox: Opera in Concert 20 Volcano Theatre 22 Western U, Don Wright Fac Mus 56 William Aide 68 Wychwood Clarinet Choir 43 Yorkminster Park Baptist Church 37, 42 DON’T EVER STOP MUSIC IS FOR BLUE PAGES LIFE The Blue Pages The Canary Pages The Green Pages Guide To Summer Music Musical guides online, all the time thewholenote.com/ resources thewholenote.com December 1 2015 - February 7, 2016 | 7