My Irish Valentine and Leroy Anderson
The New Haven Symphony Pops! season culminates with My Irish Valentine on February 12th at East Haven High School, February 13th at Hamden Middle School and February 14th at Shelton Intermediate School. Some of our favorites of the featured pieces are from Leroy Anderson’s Irish Suite. Anderson, who lived in Woodbury, CT until his death in 1975, practically invented the symphonic “Pops” sound.
Anderson came along just in time to provide the perfect music for classical orchestra “pops” concerts. A talented musician, Anderson graduated with honors from Harvard and worked as an organist, bassist, and choirmaster and began arranging for Arthur Fiedler’s Boston Pops Orchestra in the mid-1930s. Fiedler encouraged him to write his own pieces for the Pops. Finally, in 1938, Anderson complied, with Jazz Pizzicato and Jazz Legato, both immediate audience favorites.
Over the next 25 years he composed some 50 more light classics, which virtually defined the sound of the American pops orchestra. Most of these works are humorous–like The Waltzing Cat, which turns schmaltzy string sighs that are standard fare in a Strauss waltz into meows–or show pieces, like Bugler’s Holiday, in which three trumpeters show off (although the parts are actually written to sound more difficult than they actually are–high school orchestras with three good trumpters often play it), or simply light and listenable, like Blue Tango, his most-covered song. Anderson is best-known for his works incorporating gadgets as solo instruments, such as Sandpaper Ballet, The Syncopated Clock, and The Typewriter, which features the sounds of that venerable machine–tapping keys, grinding shifts, tinkling margin bell–although these are probably unfamiliar to today’s computerized generation.
Many know his tunes as they were incorporated for TV shows and commercials. The Syncopated Clock later became the theme of many a late-late movie show. He recorded a number of collections of his own tunes, and his single of Blue Tango was a #1 hit in 1951. His holiday season instrumental number, Sleigh Ride, has, over the years, become a standard piece for Christmas concerts and has become his most-covered composition. He also wrote a number of serious contemporary compositions, including the Irish Suite, Suite of Carols and the Concerto in C for Piano and Orchestra, and the score of a Broadway musical, Goldilocks, in 1958, but putting words to music wasn’t his forte.
Anderson continued to compose, almost exclusively for the Boston Pops, until his death. His works are still in print and a staple of pops orchestras around the world.
(Excerpted from spaceagepop.com)
For tickets to the NHSO Pops! please click here: https://www.choicesecure01.net/mainapp/eventschedule.aspx?Clientid=NewHavenSymphony
Fiddle Faddle: from the mouths of the artists
Fiddle Faddle performers (from left to right): Artemis Simerson, Jim Andrews, Bill Dillof, and Paula Bradley
On January 30th at 2:00pm in the Omni Hotel Ballroom in downtown New Haven, the NHSO will present Fiddle Faddle as part of our Family Concert Series. The program features traditional Appalachian fiddle music played by the duo Moonshine Holler and are joined by NHSO musicians Artemis Simerson (violin and NHSO Assistant Concertmaster) and Jim Andrews (bass). Here is what Artemis, Jim, and one-half of Moonshine Holler, Paula Bradley, had to say about the program when they performed back in September.
Artemis: When NHSO Education Director, Hauk Graham, first contacted me about playing with Moonshine Holler, it didn’t take me long to decide what piece of music to play – the Romanian Folk Dances by Bela Bartok! Although this collection is normally treated as part of the “classical” genre, it’s really a crossover piece as the name implies. It’s also a real crowd pleaser…I went nuts when I heard it as a kid, and I still love it after all these years.
I’m also looking forward to playing once again with Paula, Bill, and of course my double bassist friend Jim. They’re really fun folks, and their creative energy is contagious! It was a real thrill when, at the end of our last performance, Paula turned to me and said “Why don’t you join us for this one? We’re in A major – let’s go!”
Jim: I cross over to jazz, blues and country all of the time so it wasn’t that unfamiliar. I enjoy playing in all venues of music and enjoyed playing with the group.
Paula: When the NHSO first asked us to team up with classical musicians to present a children’s music performance showcasing the fiddle/violin, we were intrigued. Although we know the differences, which really involve how the instrument is played and its context, this was our first opportunity to collaborate with classical musicians for a “hands-on” (pun intended!) exploration. By teaming up with Artemis (violin) and Jim (bass fiddle) we were both delighted and enlightened at the same time!
Moonshine Holler’s aim is to give children, through sing-alongs, clap-alongs and other participation, a sense of the fiddle’s place as primarily a dance instrument in American folk music. With the fiddle playing the melody, and joined by banjo, guitar, ukulele, fiddlesticks, triangle and clog dancing, as well as Jim’s fine bass, we explore the Scots-Irish and African influences on traditional American fiddling, as well as regional differences, such as Cajun and Southern Appalachian.
This, demonstrated alongside Artemis playing pieces from the classical composer Bela Bartok, who often used folk rhythms as his inspiration, highlights the parallels and differences between “folk violin” and “classical violin”. Artemis also does a great job of demonstrating classical technique and contrasting it with traditional fiddling.
One instrument: two approaches–and a lot of fun!
The Instrument Discovery Zone begins at 1:30pm and there will be complimentary refreshments after the performance. Please bring a new or gently used children’s book to donate to Read to Grow.
The baritone who forgot his pants, and other crazy classical music stories of 2009
Happy New Year friends! We hear at the NHSO hope you all enjoyed the holiday season and had a happy and safe new year. We are back from holiday recess and are gearing up for the remainder of the 2010. Check back often for up-to-the-minute information.
With 2009 behind us, here’s a recap of classical music’s greatest blunders and follies last year.
This article was originally publised in “The Seattle Times,” written by columnist Melinda Bargreen
As 2009 slips away, it’s once again time for … the Classical Music Believe It or Not! And while the calendar marches toward 2010, may you enjoy the follies of the past year, with tidbits gleaned from actual news items, just as much as we’ve enjoyed collecting them for you. Here goes:
Leaping from the stage: It’s been quite a year for spectacular stage accidents. Conductor David Ott survived a 14-foot fall at the University of West Florida in September, returning to the orchestra pit after a performance when the lights were off and plummeting into the basement below the pit. He miraculously avoided serious injuries.
Earlier, soprano Ana Maria Martinez fell headfirst into the orchestra pit during a performance of “Rusalka” at Britain’s illustrious Glyndebourne Opera, landing on a luckless cellist. Martinez also suffered no ill effects.
Less fortunate, however, was mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato, whose tumble at London’s Royal Opera House during “The Barber of Seville” ended in a broken fibula. She gamely carried on to finish the performance, later continuing in a wheelchair and cast for the remaining shows.
Singing to the cows: Italian tenor Marcello Bedoni has been singing operatic selections to cows in Lancashire, England, on the theory that “soothing sounds or music can reduce stress” (according to the National Farmers’ Union). Bedoni calls the cows “a great audience.” Presumably they remember to shut off their cellphones beforehand.
Watch those batons: A 17-year-old California girl used her marching-band baton to beat off two muggers who grabbed her coat and demanded money several months ago. She punched one in the nose, kicked the other in the groin, and beat them both with her band baton before running away. You don’t mess with the marching band.
Really Terrible Orchestra: You don’t mess with the Really Terrible Orchestra, either, without incurring the wrath of founder (and novelist) Alexander McCall Smith. The Edinburgh-based orchestra, founded in 1995 and billed as the world’s worst, has trademarked its name to fend off attempts by rival tribute orchestras to cash in on its reputation. The RTO claims its success is due to short performances and free wine for listeners. McCall Smith says, “It does not matter that on more than one occasion members of the orchestra have been discovered to be playing different pieces of music by different composers, at the same time. We are The Really Terrible Orchestra and we shall go on and on.”
An opera about … Sarah Palin? The much-parodied voice of Sarah Palin has inspired composer Curtis Hughes to write an opera (“Say It Ain’t So, Joe”), for the Boston-based Guerilla Opera. Based on “the exact pitches that were spoken” during the Palin-Biden debates in last year’s Presidential campaign, the opera also features Joe the Plumber, for whom Hughes says his “word-painting tends to get a little more crass.” Hughes told one interviewer, “One of [Palin's] arias concludes with her informing the audience, ‘I am your future.’ I’d like to think that the music at this moment could be understood as either ominous or joyful, or perhaps both.” Perhaps.
“Twitterdammerung”: Yes, it’s billed as “the first Twitter opera,” premiered in September at London’s Royal Opera House, based on some 900 tweets and predictably panned as “a cheap gimmick” — though one reviewer cited “humour by the bucket load.” One can only imagine.
We can hardly wait: China is planning a new opera version of Marx’s 1,000-page “Das Kapital,” with an economist overseeing the project to “ensure that it remains intellectually respectful of Marxist doctrine.” Count us in for opening night!
Another violin left in the cab: Psychologists might have a field day with the long list of major musicians who have left ultravaluable instruments behind in taxicabs. To that list we now add New York Philharmonic concertmaster Glenn Dicterow, who left the orchestra’s 1727 Guarneri del Gesù violin in a New York taxi last February. The cabbie quickly arranged for the violin’s return. Not to be outdone, South Korean-born virtuoso Hahn-Bin left his 18th-century Giovanni Francesco Pressenda violin in a Manhattan yellow cab after an August performance. Fortunately, the cab had a GPS tracker, and the instrument returned to Hahn-Bin, who cried, “My baby!”
The baritone forgets … his pants?: Yes, noted baritone Bryn Terfel set out for the concert hall from his Seoul hotel wearing a pair of shorts, but forgetting to pack his concert trousers for the evening’s performance last April. Arriving with just minutes to spare, and with no time to return to the hotel for his clothes, Terfel was saved by a speedy loan from a South Korean opera lover the same size as the 6’4″ singer. Sort of gives a new meaning to the phrase, “Flying by the seat of one’s pants.”
The curse of the Ring: The Metropolitan Opera had its hands full this past spring with Wagner’s four-opera epic, “The Ring of the Nibelung,” when the company had to find three substitute singers for the key role of Brünnhilde. It also needed last-minute replacements for four other important roles, as well as a last-minute conductor when James Levine got sick.
Los Angeles also experienced unpleasant Ringing sensations, when the $32 million production suffered a computer glitch, causing a malfunction in the Nibelungs’ cavern. And at Seattle Opera’s “Ring,” another computer problem twice delayed the start of scenes in the finale, “Götterdämmerung.” Opera fans were heard to utter “Götterdämmerit.”
Department of operatic excesses: A Berlin production of Gluck’s “Armida” in April featured scenes of bondage, rape, simulated sex, murder, a live python and several naked bodybuilders. Meanwhile, over in Cologne, a third of the cast walked out of rehearsals for a violent staging of “Samson and Delilah,” reportedly claiming that “the scenes of rape and massacre [were] making them sick.” The Berlin patrons, accustomed to the outré, responded with “polite applause,” according to news reports, but in Cologne many ticketholders wanted their money back.
Roll on, Beethoven: A Caltech computer-systems grad student named Virgil Griffith has used Facebook data to measure the musicians most often listed as a user’s “favorite music” against the average SAT score for the school the user attended. At the top: Beethoven (average SAT score 1371, out of a possible 1600); at the bottom: Lil Wayne (889). Don’t tell us you’re surprised.
The hazards of teaching: Last February, a 13-year-old Italian schoolboy stabbed his violin teacher with a kitchen knife during a lesson at a middle school near Venice, leaving the knife embedded in the teacher’s back when he ran away after the attack. Music teachers, it may be time for those Kevlar vests.
