Music Monday - Composing music at age 70.

This weekend our family celebrated a milestone for Robin Pascoe – he turned 70. In many ways it is hard to believe – he is still teaching and writing (words, not music) at the same energetic pace. 

But the calendar does not lie, and the mirror also gives the occasional brutal clue as well!

As we reminisced over his three score years plus ten, I found myself thinking of my favourite composers. Sadly, many did not make 70; however, I did find four favourites who published works at 70 or above.

1. Stephen Sondheim (1930-) Bounce written in 2003, later retitled Roadshow in 2008.

2. Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992) Saint-Francois d’Assise, Opera in 3 acts, written between 1975-83.

3. Aaron Copland (1900-1990) Wrote Night Thoughts in 1972 for the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition

4. Richard Rodgers (1902-1979) Two By Two (1970), Rex (1976), I Remember Mama (1979)

Can you add to this list? Please do so in the comments section below.

Music Monday

The past few days have been more optimistic ones for women and people of colour across our planet.

In an election result which left the world breathing a collective sigh of relief, Kamala Harris was elected to the role of Vice President of the USA – making her not only the first woman to hold that office, but the first person of colour as well.

It is sobering to recognise that the election of a woman to that office comes exactly one hundred years after women were first given the vote in the USA. 

Change for women worldwide is a painfully slow process and for women of colour, so much more so.

But what a good day for girls and young women of colour in the USA to see that anything is possible.

Today in Australia, the cast for the 2021 Australian production of Hamilton was announced. This has been a joyful cause for celebration, not just in my waapa workplace from where a number of the cast originate, but across Australia. What a good day for diversity!

Yesterday I helped out at a local Solo Vocal Festival – an annual opportunity for secondary school voice students to perform a solo song in front of an audience. Given that there has been so little live music performance this year, this too was cause for celebration. As I looked around the (socially distanced) performers and audience yesterday afternoon, it was so good to see students from many ethnic and cultural backgrounds, all sharing in their common love of singing.

Music really does have the power to bring people together, to heal divisions and to promote empathy and understanding. People of all skin colours sing together – the vocal folds and larynx do not discriminate race. People make music together with little concern about their differences.

Importantly, this week is NAIDOC (National Aborigines and Islanders Day Observance Committee) Week in Australia. 

The 2020 theme is Always Was, Always Will Be.

Across Australia, schools and communities are celebrating local indigenous people, indigenous practitioners in all of the arts are sharing with the wider community.

Many music teachers teach songs from the original custodians of the lands on which their schools sit. It is worth noting that, while many Aboriginal people encourage wadjelas (white fellas) to sing their songs, some are sensitive. Always best to check with your local indigenous elders for guidance on this.

As we hopefully move towards healing from years of political divisions, racial inequality and oppression of women, let us always use music to connect people, never to divide.

Music Monday

Recently I heard a news report about a local city council in Western Australia implementing a program to teach and encourage teenagers to put aside their mobile phones and devices and relate to each other person to person. The program so far has had an enthusiastic response from the trial study participants who are now talking to friends in their school break periods rather than sitting together texting each other or others.

It is a sad downside of our modern tech-driven world that skills like these need to be taught; however it did set me thinking about the importance of the Arts – and music in particular – in engaging young people person to person.

At one of my teaching campuses the high school students are music theatre specialist kids. In rehearsal there is enormous connection with each other and the director, choreographer and music director. Phones are used for recording difficult musical phrases or videoing sections of tricky choreography but relationships are based on shared hard fun – person to person.

Arts teaching at its best is hard fun. It is a people activity and practice. And nowadays more than ever it is so fundamentally important to children’s education!

Music Monday - The Bassarids

The Bassarids

Music Drama in One Act by Hans Werner Henze

Berlin 

On a recent brief visit to Berlin we wanted to see at least one piece of theatre and hear some music. In the end we got both on one ticket at The Bassarids; ironically at the Komische Oper, (ironic since there was nothing comic about what we saw). However, what we did experience was a powerful piece of opera, and along the way made some interesting observations about the differences between our theatre-going experiences in Australia and our night out in Berlin.

The Bassarids was written in 1966 by Hans Werner Henze with libretto by WH Auden and Chester Kallman. It is inspired by Euripides’s “The Bacchae” and it is sing in English (with that very rounded form of the language often heard in opera.)

This production has been directed by Barrie Kosky.

It is a complex and gruesome story concerning the conflict between Pentheus, newly appointed king of Thebes, and the god Dionysus;  and Pentheus’s subsequent murder at the hands of Dionysus’s intoxicated followers (including Pentheus’s mother, Agave). These intoxicated followers of Dionysus are the Bassarids. It has been described as a drama of extremes.

We were lucky enough to get reasonably priced tickets on the day of the performance. Our seats were in a centrally placed box in the part of the theatre we would call the dress circle. We assumed that ticket sales were not going well and were therefore surprised to find the theatre almost full.

The performance ran for 2.5 hours without interval. Would an Australian audience cope with that?

We counted over 60 musicians, both in the orchestra itself and in other parts of the theatre and on stage. Would any Australian theatre budget cope with this?

The chorus numbered more than 100 – with the majority involved in movement on a heavily raked stage. Quite a physical and vocal challenge. And again, an indication of a healthy budget.

The soloists were of a very high order indeed, both vocally and as actors.

The music is compelling, moving between moments of  heart-wrenching lyricism and moments of spiky drama. 

The final scene builds to a blood-soaked and horrific ending. The blood on the stage floor was discretely covered by a black mat before the bows started.

The bows went pretty much as we do here in Australia – but what we had forgotten was that in Germany, once the bows have finished and the audience keeps on applauding, they start right over again and take the bows’ sequence from start to finish once more. Only then do they move to whole company bows until the rapturous applause subsides. 

As we moved out towards the foyer after an amazing night, there was one more surprise. Huge platters piled high with little single chocolate truffle boxes. And here’s the thing – in order to open the box and get to the yummy German chocolate inside, you pretty much had to read the company’s contact and social media details. Brilliant!

Professional theatre is alive and well in Berlin.

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