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8 years ago

Volume 9 Issue 7 - April 2004

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  • April
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1!1e pinnacle; as a

1!1e pinnacle; as a composer you finish forrmnce of it she ever gave, right there one ~rk and m:we on to the next." · in my classroom!" IF A_ COMPOSER WRITES not only . ~ng his _own ~chers were the for his or her own personal satisfac- illustnous Danus Milhaud and Nadia lion but also for an audience I asked Boulanger. What, I asked, were the. CEREMONIAL MUSIC fit for a what does the world need fu)m com: most important things he gained from king? Handel's "Royal Fireworks" posers? His answer was very simple: them? Milhaud, he said, did not suffer (ApJjl 14) as played by Tafelmusik "Every piece of music needs a good foo~ _gladly, had no patience with com- . Ba~oque Orchestra, celebrating tune, a melodic line that an audience IJ?Sttlon students who did not bring their 25 years of music-making. can grasp, a thread that will hold the him new work, and, with those that They will also perform their own ~teners' attention. It can be just a se- -~d, crossedouteverythingthathecon- set of 25 variations on the "Folia" nes of notes, but it needs to be there s1derednon-essential. Nadia Boulang- theme, composed by members of the 0 for a composition to make sense. If er_ was gentler: she would say of some- orchestra and other well-known comyou have that you don't need counter- thing he had written, "It is weak here; posers and musicians. The popular point! Many young composers don't Ithinkyoucanfixit."Hewouldwork "Folia" theme was used by many understand counterpoint: the Jines must ?n the passage in question and bring it baroque composers, including Vivalall go separate ways and yet be part'Of m the next week and she would en- di, Corelli and Geminiani, to create a well-conceived whole. Free 90unter- ~ourage him to keep working at "fix- exciting variations for solo instrupointis acollisionofnotes;wlienBach mg" it, never, however, telling him ments and for orchestra. wrote counterpoint the notes collided what she thought needed to be done. · Co EARLY MUSIC by Frank Nakashima ·to make hanmny. In the 2od1 century "~~ doing this she taught you to be a MING SOON, there are two per- Schoenberg destroyed the use of the cntlc to yourself, which is vitally im- forman~es of Bach's magnificent hanmniclanguageinuseforcenturies portantforacomposer." "St. John Passion" to choose from by introducing a new melodic/contra- She· also taught focus and concen- ( or better still compare): The Exulpuntal method that lacked a hanmnic tration. Every Thursday morning from tate Singers (April 2) under the dibasis. What we need now is a new nine until noon she held a keyboard rection of John Tuttle, with Michie! hanmnic sense, a hanmnic language ~ny c~s. The participants were Schrey in the role of the Evangelist used by everyone. We can't go back required to sight read the piano part of and the Aradia Ensemble (website: to the hanmnic language of the pa~t Schubertliederamajororminorthird www.exultate.on.ca); or Les Viobecause music based on it is not rec- above or below the key in which they Ions du Roy (April 3) with La ognized as being of our time. Couse- were written while singing the voice ·Chapelle de Quebec, directed by quently every composer has to invent ~· They sight-~ Stravinsky two- Bernard Labadie, and soloists Benhis or her own hanmnic language. piano sc_ores and had to memorize jarnin Butterfield (tenor), Stephen Pierre Boulez said, we can't write music around eight bars of music by Stravin- Varcoe (baritone), Rosemary Joshin the key of C any more. On the other ~ky in which the key signature changed ua (soprano), David Daniels ( counhand Nadia Boulanger said that there ~every bar and then conduct it. Clos- tertenor), Alan Bennett (tenor), and are lots more pieces to be written in the mg one's eyes while others were con- Curtis Streetman (bass). Visit key ofC:. So, there are differences of ducting was strictly against the rules! www.masseyhall.com opinion on this matter!" "Those things required focus and con- BE SURE TO TAKE a few extra Hemusthave been an engaging and centration" he commented wryly. Kleenex if yo~'re planning to hear challenging teacher. I asked him about "They were the longest three hours of the Musicians in Ordinary, sohis approach to teaching: "Whenlwent my life!" prano Hallie Fishel and John Edinto the classroom I shared everything "She also taught me humility, be- wards, theorbo and Baroque guitar, I knew with my students and I was cause she knew everything about mu- performing their program of early honest with them I told them that only ~ic. After a lesson with her you felt as 17th century Italian Baroque music about ten percent of them would actu- if your knowledge was about like (April 3) - Not One Lady Failed to ally make a living in music. Some of ~·" he said, holding his thumb and Shed a Tear. According to contemmy students are musicians; some have mdex finger about a centimetre apart. porary accounts, this new affective become journalists, administrators and When on one occasion she played a style could even make the rocks teachers.Someldidn'tneedtoteachat -~eethoven~g-ingquartetonthepiano weep. The great composers to be all. In one of my classes a student it actually sounded like a string quartet, heard will include Monteverdi, Cacnamed Jane Coop sat down at the pi- not a piano! "Aftertakingcriticismfrom cini, Marini, Piccinini and others. ano and played Alban Berg's Piano a ~rson like h~r the comments of the This concert features the rich vi­ Sonata. She.was about nineteen at the cntlcs really didn't mean anything at brant sound of the theorbo, basicaltime and it was probably the best per- all!" • ly a giant lute. This giant instrument PHILIP L. DA VIS Luthi er formerly with f.J. Schroder: Frankfurt, West Germany A Fine Selection of Small and Full Sized Instruments and Bows • Expert Repairs . (416) 466-9619 67 Wolverleigh Blvd., Tomnto, Ontario, M4J 1 R6 WWW. THEWHOLENOTE . COM Gary An Toronto's Center I for Clarinets and Oboes SALES * REPAIR * RENTAL h~s a second neck, making it over six feet long. "The instrument was invented by singers to give.them adequate support ih the new operatic style," says John Edwards, quickly adding, "Singers .also knew they would never have to carry them on the streetcar. "Their website is at www.musiciansinordinary.ca CONTINUING IN the Toronto Earlf Music Centre's free presentations, Music for Voice and Theorbo (April 4) introduces soprano Jenni Hayman and accompanist John Ed­ ":ards (who else?) performing music by Sebastien le Camus, Michel Lambert, Benedetto Ferrari Frescobaldi, and others . ' Next month, Duo L' Intemporel (Mylene Guay, baroque flute· David Sandall, harpsichord) discus~ and illustrate the dilemma surrounding the use of keyed and non-keyed flutes at the end of the 18th century - "To key or not to key" - that is the question! (May 2) The Aradia Ensemble presents "A Return to Versailles" (April 8) in collaboration with baroque dancers Marie-Nathalie Lacoursiere (Montre~l) and Edgar Tumak (Ottawa). This noon-hour presentation features a blend of court, country and theatre dance from 17th-century France interspersed with musical intermezzi and commedia dell'arte sketches. SOPRANO Suzrn LEBLANC sings the title role of "Calisto" by Francesco Cavalli (April 16, 17) when The Toronto Consort presents Cavalli's masterpiece of erotic ~sadventure. Calisto, a nymph of Diana, sworn to chastity, is se- . duced by Jupiter disguised as Diana herself. Comic touches abound as inevitable mixups follow on the ~od's. cross-drc:;ssing, but the opera itself ts clothed in some ofCavalli's most sensuous music. ng Wood~inds Ltd. " 1612 Queen Street West ( east of Roncesvalles)

The Academy Concert Series will transport you to Europe in the late 18th century in the program "Music to Stir the Heart," a feast of music for woodwinds inspired by the style galant - featuring works by C .P.E. Bach, Haydn, Devienne, Vanhal, and Reicha (April 17) - performed . on original instruments by Nicolai Tarasov, clarinet; Dominic Teresi, bassoon; Laura Jones, cello and Sharon Burlacoff, fortepiano. Their website is at www.academyconcertseries:com THE VIVID RECORDS kept by 15th-a:ntury German Dominican friar Felix Fabri of his travels through central and eastern Europe, and around the eastern Mediterranean to Jerusalem, have inspired this next program, "The Friar's Pilgrimage - Germany to Jerusalem" in which Sine Nomine Ensemble for Medieval Music presents some of the richly varied repertoire that Brother Felix might have heard on his travels (April 23). Their website is www.pirns.ca/sinenomine COMPOSED BY Jean Baptiste Lully for Louis XIV, Persee is widely recognized as Lully's greatest creation and was considered the crowning achievement of 17th century French music theatre. Opera Atelier's original production of Persee premiered in the fall of 2000. French ·conductor Herve Niquet returns to conduct the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra and Chamber Choir (April 23, 24, 28, 30, May 1 and 2). Haute-

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