Music Monday - The use of popular music in adaptations of classic plays.

On Saturday evening we attended a performance of Checkov’s The Cherry Orchard, presented by Black Swan State Theatre Company. The performance took place in one of the buildings and in the grounds of the Sunset Precinct, a heritage site in Dalkeith in Perth.

This is not a review of the play as such but some observations about the extensive use of pop music from the 1980s in this production, which was modernised and set in that decade in Manjimup, WA - the Western Australian cherry-growing district. (Ironically, the food and drinks served at interval remained distinctly Russian.)

Music was used to create context, develop a sense of character and to create a sense of place and time. The audience responded positively to the music and often seemed eager to tap, clap and even sing along. The choices of songs were recognisable, enhancing the audience’s identification and enjoyment. There were some terrible songs written in the 1980s – did we need to be reminded?!

In music theatre, music advances character and situations. Does it work the same way in a straight play? It is a fine balance. Get the balance wrong and music could be seen as just filling time. There were a few times on Saturday when I felt this was the case.

Music can also create mood and atmosphere. It was interesting in this performance, that the final act was without music. In a film there would have been underscoring throughout this scene. However, strangely, I found this final act the most satisfying of the performance.

I guess the challenge for a director is to know when to pull back.

Music Monday - Music’s healing power and cultural foundations

On Saturday I listened to The Science Show with Robyn Williams on ABC Radio. It was a fascinating discussion about the effect of music on the brain and on emotion  - very apt for Valentine’s Day.

The speakers were:

Psyche Loui, Associate Professor and Director MIND Lab, Northeastern University, MA, USA

Elizabeth Margulis, Professor of Music, Princeton University, NJ, USA

Daniel Levitin, Dean of Arts and Humanities at the Minerva Schools, San Francisco, USA

At Stagepage we have often referred to the benefits of music to brain development in children, in particular the wonderful work at Bigger Better Brains.

This was more of a look at music affects the brain overall.

I would urge you to have a listen to the whole show – it’s less than 30 minutes. 

Here, in points form, is what resonated most with me:

1. Musical anhedonia, an inability to experience pleasure from music, and the difference in the brains of those who have it – estimated less than 5% of humans. They are not ‘tone deaf’ or ‘worse at music’ – they simply don’t like it.

2. The rewards in the brain from experiencing music is linked to social bonding.

3. Our perception of music is strongly linked to culture and context. The famous Washington Post experiment (where a concert violinist busked in the subway and the majority of passers-by did not recognise his talent) was quoted, as was the perception of atonal music by western cultures with a tradition of tonal centres as opposed to people in say, rural China.

4. The variability in timing and amplitude that musicians use naturally, strongly affect the perception of the listener.

5. The entire brain is involved in music. Recent research seems to indicate that music uses older pathways in the brain – more resistant to transmission difficulty. 

6. Music is a unique stimulus to the brain; different parts of the brain are used for rhythm, melody, harmony, form and expression and different parts again bring them all together.

7. Point 6 may explain the effect of music in Alzheimers patients. Even after the pathways that affect speech and facial recognition have failed, the effect of familiar music can be a way to get at the brain of Alzheimers patients and help them recognise themselves.

8. The as yet underexplored area of the possible effect of music on health. For the past 2 decades there has been research but not empirical or rigorous. That is apparently changing.

9. The systemic interplay between prediction and reward when you listen to music that you enjoy.

10. Preliminary research into how music could help wounds heal faster. Music enhances mood. We have about 100 neurochemicals in our brains but scientists know only 8 of them so far. One of the famous ones – serotonin – is activated by music. Boosting levels of serotonin increases the T and K cells, the ‘James Bond’ of the immune system. Inflammation is a significant issue in wound healing and in some situations music can reduce inflammation.

I could go on, but you really need to listen for yourself and draw your own conclusions.

Like all music lovers, I have from a very young age, found certain pieces of music so achingly beautiful that they are almost too painfully beautiful. Many piano concerto slow movements fall into that category for me. I think I was drawn to this podcast because it explains some of this addiction to music.

Music Monday - Masked Music Teaching

In Western Australia, teachers and students returned to school today after a snap lockdown of the Perth and South-West for the week before – the week which should have been the first week of term. 

For this past week, Western Australians have been very diligent about mask wearing. After 10 months of not needing to wear masks, it was almost as if we as a community thought, “Right, let’s put these masks on and make sure we don’t have further community spread”. And this was based on one case of Covid-19. 

The strategy warranted an article in the New York Times last week.

At the end of the week, after no further cases emerging, the South-West region had all restrictions lifted and the Perth region had lockdown lifted, but with some restrictions – masks to be worn in all public places, 4 square metres distancing between people in any venue and the maintenance of 1.5 metres between people elsewhere.

And so, I returned to my secondary school singing teacher position today.

Music teachers of wind and voice had been given permission to have their students out of masks during lessons. I found that a challenge, given the ongoing research into the aerosol transmission of Covid-19 and the heightened level of aerosol involved in singing. I elected for my students to remain masked.

Each lesson started with an acknowledgement that our masked situation was a good reminder of what life has been like for most of the rest of the world for nearly a year. The students got it. I got it. Masks are incredibly annoying.

Because it was week one, I was able to avoid a certain amount of singing by talking through the course outlines and assessment procedures. I recorded backing tracks on piano for those students who needed it. We sang some muffled scales through our masks. One group tackled their first set song. The lessons were not significantly different from what I would usually do in week one.

One aspect of mask wearing that I hadn’t thought of is how little you see of a person’s features in a mask. I met a new class of year 8 students and really would not recognise them again next week – masked or unmasked.

It is highly likely that we will all remove our masks in WA at 12.01am on Sunday the 14th February. If so we remain incredibly fortunate and should not forget it.

But what if we had to do many weeks of music teaching in masks? Class music is fine. Many instruments are fine. I guess I’m asking my voice and wind instrument colleagues from elsewhere about strategies they are using. What do you do?

Music Monday - Mismatched

This evening, Robin and I, with friends, attended the final performance of Mismatched in the Perth Fringe World Festival. The photo, taken after the show, is of me with the show’s pianist, Tommaso Pollio, who makes a reasonably average electric keyboard sound almost as good as when he (more often) plays the Fazioli grand piano at WAAPA. The final note on piano in tonight’s Maria, (more important in the score than the final sung note in my opinion), was every bit as evocative as you’d expect to hear in the Bernstein orchestration. Bravo Tommaso!

Mismatched describes itself as ‘a musical celebration of unlikely couples, starring cabaret veterans: Penny Shaw, Robert Hofmann and Tommaso Pollio’. It’s a slick and musically satisfying hour. The singing is top shelf from both singers, with just the right amount of operatic tone to please the audience. It is suggestive without being sleazy. It is middle of the road rather than edgy. The audience loved it, as did we. 

One line in the show particularly resonated with me. Penny Shaw talks of leaving a UK season of Phantom of the Opera to follow a relationship to Perth, Western Australia. She talked of being happily married here now for 20 years and asks the audience, “Who would have believed me twenty years ago, if I’d said that in 2021 there would be more work for singers in Perth, than on Broadway, the West End and the rest of the world combined?” 

Strange times indeed. 

Perth, one of the most isolated capital cities in the world (and to a large extent because of that) feels almost normal during this Fringe.

And so, we must remind ourselves again, that the rest of the world is far from normal.  As far as we can, we must work to support our fellow artists, not only here, but across the world. Otherwise, they may not be there when the pandemic ends.

We arts workers are not ‘essential workers’ but (again quoting from the show), we are where essential workers seek escape when they finish work.

Music Monday - Happy New Year, Happy New Anthem?

Happy New Year to all music teachers. May this be a year which slowly improves on 2020 and may we all resume choir singing and directing without fear of spreading Covid-19.

Over the past few days in Australia, discussion has again started on our Australian national anthem, Advance Australia Fair. It’s a bit of a dirge musically and the words have long been seen as inappropriate to Indigenous Australians as well as those who have come here from all over the world. Our conservative prime minister, Scott Morrison, announced that as of 1st January 2021, one word of the anthem would be changed – from ‘For we are young and free’ to ‘For we are one and free’. Almost as though this simple change will solve the many other issues with the text of the song. And to be honest, in a crowd singing the changed line, who would really know? 

I took another look at the complete verses of Advance Australia Fair, written by Peter Dodds McCormick in the 1870s. Verse 2 is particularly irksome, especially to Aboriginal Australians, the original custodians of this land:

When gallant Cook from Albion sail’d,

To trace wide oceans o’er,

True British courage bore him on,

Til he landed on our shore.

Then here he raised old England’s flag,

The standard of the brave;

“With all her faults we love her still

Britannia rules the wave.”

In joyful strains then let us sing

Advance Australia fair.

Surely we can do better than this? 

Personally, I think an obvious time to change the anthem would be at the end of Queen Elizabeth’s reign – when I hope we will finally become a republic. In the meantime though – is a one word change enough?

Music Monday - Changing perspectives on performance

We are all familiar with the standard licensing agreements for school performances that stipulated  no recordings, etc. 

The world of the Coronavirus COVID-119 Pandemic has quickly changed all of that. Music Theatre International has just sent out this message.

What are the new “rules”?

What can and can’t be done?

For example, there is an asterisk about Broadway Junior plays: *(Excludes Disney’s Aladdin JR., Disney’s Aladdin KIDS, Disney’s Frozen JR., Disney’s Frozen KIDS, Disney’s The Lion King JR., Disney’s The Lion King KIDS, and Disney’s Moana JR.

You might check out:

Live Streaming: The Show Can Go on with an Online Audience

Streaming Previously Recorded Performances

It is great to see the licensing agents are responding to the needs of schools performance during the current pandemic. Will this last beyond the current situation?

What are the implications for rehearsing?

What are the questions we now have?

Music Monday: Oklahoma

I’m sitting in the foyer of the State Theatre Centre, excited to see a preview of Oklahoma at Black Swan State Theatre Co.

There is a feeling of excitement and celebration all around me, as friends and strangers alike greet each other, all happy to be back in the theatre after what seems like the longest year. And everyone seems very mindful that most of the world is still unable to go to the theatre, so many theatres worldwide are still dark and desolate at this time.

Interval. There is energy, vibrancy and some fabulous singing in this reimagining of Oklahoma. The production seems to have taken inspiration from the now famous Circle in the Square production in New York. Except that this reimagining has Curly and Laurie as two girls and Aunt Eller played quite gender neutral. But no lines have been changed, so Curly is still referred to as ‘he’. It is slightly confusing- or perhaps deliberately unsettling. Or maybe they simply couldn’t get the rights to alter the words.

The star of the show for me is the music arranging. The songs are the same but the orchestration is in bluegrass style. It’s very appealing and appropriate. Jud Fry’s “Lonely Room” which always feels completely different from any other song in the show, is wonderful in this arrangement. The tension is heightened by the orchestration, and further by the actor singing from offstage with video projections into the smokehouse.

End of show. As we left the theatre, the famous mock courtroom scene carried extra resonance in the current American political climate.

This show is really worth seeing. Nine actors cover all the roles and ensemble with some backup vocals from the band. You will love it - or perhaps, long for the original version- but you won’t be unaffected by it.

From splendid to surreal: reflections of a weekend at an online national singing conference

From last Friday evening until late Sunday afternoon, I was online on my laptop, attending the 2020 ANATS National Conference. This conference of Australian singing teachers was originally planned for Adelaide, but after Covid-19 rendered a face to face conference out of the question, the planning shifted to a virtual conference. I was part of the organising committee and therefore experienced the weekend both as a delegate and organiser.

Conferences are certainly not new to me; over my 30+ years of singing teaching I have attended many, both nationally and internationally. I have assisted in the planning and running of several. But this was my first fully online conference.

It was refreshingly relaxing not to have to pack a suitcase and race to the airport after teaching classes up to the last moment. But I missed the flying and the opportunity those few hours in the air give to separate oneself from work at home and into conference mode. For the same reason, I missed the whole hotel experience – the catchups with colleagues over breakfast, late night drinks in the bar while going over the next day’s schedule and so on.

We did have a welcome reception on Friday evening. When planning for a conference in Adelaide, the Beatles famous appearance there in the 1960s, provided a theme. One venue which was considered in the early stages of planning was the Adelaide Town Hall, on the balcony of which the Beatles famously appeared on June 1964, to the largest crowd of fans of their Australian tour. Thus, the conference title “Come Together” was born and even when the conference planning moved towards an online format, the title and theme remained. 

At the welcome reception, delegates changed their computer screen backgrounds to Beatles themes, dressed in Beatles and / or 1960s inspired costumes and poured their own drinks at home. The inimitable Pat Wilson wrote and performed (with a little help from music theatre students at Elder Conservatorium) a song welcoming us all to the conference and showing us what we were missing in Adelaide. Delegates turned off their mics and sang along to “Come Together”. Random break-out rooms were created twice during the reception so that delegates could chat in small groups. This was a very popular activity. Vocalocity – Amelia Nell’s singing ensemble from the Blue Mountains, sang for us and provided a link between the previous conference and this one. Another link was provided by a video of the song composed by Di Hughes for, and recorded at, the previous conference in 2018.

An important aspect of any conference is the networking that happens during meal breaks and various social activities. The Beatles theme provided some opportunity to engage in asocial way despite being online; for example there was a photo competition for the best photo referencing to a Beatles song. Delegates were very creative with their photo submissions.

The conference took place over a conference app – Whova – with Zoom used for larger sessions. Delegates engaged easily with the app and were able to send messages to presenters and other delegates during sessions and throughout the conference. Similarly, the Chat function on Zoom was used both for personal messages and professional questions. Most of the keynotes were delivered live but papers and other presentations tended to be pre-recorded.

The 3 keynote speakers came from the USA, UK and Australia and during their sessions I felt a strong sense of being at the conference. But at the morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea breaks, it felt surreal to duck out and into my own kitchen to boil the kettle. I missed the chat with conference friends and colleagues. 

On the Saturday afternoon (we were 2 hours behind in WA) delegates from WA gathered at a bar in South Perth for a conference get-together. That was fun and a chance to chat with colleagues. Interestingly, many had not yet watched any of the conference. With the conference app, all sessions will be available for one month after the conference. The upside of that is that, unlike face to face conferences when one has to choose between concurrent sessions, with this one, all sessions can be watched eventually. 

Overnight on Saturday, some Australian states moved into daylight saving time. That meant that in my state of WA the Sunday 9.30am session started at 6.30am. Differing time zones is certainly an issue to be considered in virtual conferences.

This conference attracted around 300 delegates which is big for an ANATS conference. We had delegates from New Zealand and the USA – again unusual. Management of large groups online can be challenging; for example in the special interest group which I chaired, there were 4 screens of participants and I found it quite stressful to constantly scroll across screens to spot delegates with hands raised to speak, while at the same time focussing on the discussion.

In a post - Covid world there is likely to be an appetite for more online conferences – or at least  an online option or component in future conferences. Just as teachers have upskilled in online teaching this year, I am sure we will all become better at engaging in the virtual conference world.

Music Monday - Resilience in music teachers during Covid.

I have been thinking a lot lately about what it means to be an effective and resilient Australian music teacher in 2020.

The ground has shifted multiple times this year and each shift has found music teachers seeking new ways to find balance and stay effective in the job.

First there was the lockdown- which of course is still in place in parts of Australia. In the early pandemic lockdown days teachers learned to adapt and implement online learning over a variety of platforms. Those of us engaged in teaching singing quickly found the frustrations of the lag on every online platform. We started to prepare and issue backing tracks so that our students could experience accompaniments in real time when singing for us. Ideas and tips were shared.

Zoom fatigue became a thing- after a day of online teaching in front of a laptop screen our necks were locked and our brains exhausted. But then we would turn to watching videoed self-tapes submitted by students for our critical response.

When some states returned to face-to-face teaching we felt relieved. But then a new reality kicked in. Teaching rooms needed to be sanitized between students. Piano keyboards were sanitized between players. Social distancing rendered some of our teaching spaces unusable. Points of assessment missed in first semester were scheduled into a much tighter time frame. At the secondary performing arts school I work in, we scheduled two senior school musicals in the space of two weeks with a fifty percent capacity audience in keeping with the level of restrictions still in place in WA.

Our final year secondary students who are applying for places in tertiary music performance courses find the rules changed here too of course. Instead of live auditions in November - after final academic exams will be over- most tertiary institutions are requiring self- taped videos to be submitted from the end of August. This has significantly reduced the preparation time.

And of course, running underneath these shifting rules is the consideration of ‘what if?’ What if there is another wave (as there has been in Victoria) and we are locked down again? Will 2021 be the year in which most students in elite performance courses - like NIDA, WAAPA, VCA to name only three- are sourced from their home state rather than interstate and overseas? So many ‘what ifs’.

In the meantime teachers are dealing with understandably stressed students.

There has not been one week this year when I have not had at least one student at the secondary or tertiary level in a state of stress which has significantly compromised their work. I get it- none of us knows what the way out of this pandemic really looks like. None of us were around in 1918 for the last one.

But as teachers we are the guides, the strong ones, right?

But who looks after us? And if we are responsible for that, how do we do it?

Among my colleagues I have observed several approaches. One friend took a term of leave and has returned to school refreshed. Several friends are drinking more alcohol in the evenings than in non- Covid times. Yet another colleague has abstained from alcohol altogether and looks and feels fantastic. I have started knitting- nothing complicated, just long scarves with uncomplicated stitches. I find it curiously calming and meditative.

As I write this I am reminded of a radio interview on mindfulness and resilience which I heard in my car early on in the pandemic. A three point approach was encouraged:

1. Each evening think of one thing which went well in your day.

2. Each day make contact with someone in your address book- by phone, by text message, by an act of kindness or a social media post.

3. Spend 10 minutes a day being mindful- eg walk around your block focussing just on the sounds in your immediate environment.

What are you doing to stay healthy and strong in these challenging teaching times?

As always, we encourage and welcome your comments.

Music Monday - staying vigilant

Yesterday the WA Chapter of ANATS (Australian Association of Teachers of Singing) held its AGM. We are the only state to hold our AGM in person this year, and at the meeting there was a real sense of how very lucky we are on the west coast of Australia that currently we have no community transmission of Covid-19. Life feels pretty normal right now.

And yet the situation could change in a matter of days. All it takes is a single breach of the rules from a returned international traveller or staff at a quarantine hotel doing the wrong thing and the virus could take off again.

And there is a potential danger in the kind of complacency we are starting to feel in the west.

In the past few days I have observed a number of behaviors which would be risky with even a slightly larger higher viral load here.

I attended a high school music theatre performance on Friday evening. It was SO good to be back in the theatre. But although the theatre seating had been sold at only fifty percent of capacity (in line with the current restrictions) there was no actual separation of patrons inside the theatre. We were seated next to each other with no spare seats between. Of course, there was less congestion than usual in the foyer, but any virus here would have had ample opportunity to spread during the show.

Furthermore, at both of my workplaces recently I have had the awkward experience of being in a toilet cubicle when the cubicle alongside was vacated- then no sound of water running at the wash basin followed - ie no hand washing.

I too have definitely caught myself being less constantly vigilant about frequent hand washing and hand sanitizing lately. But FaceTime chats with our daughter and her husband in the USA are a stark reminder of how much worse things could be. And tend to pull me back on track.

As arts workers we make close physical contact with each other on a daily basis. Singing and woodwind playing produce significant aerosols. Many pianists play the same piano. Dance routines often involve touch. So many scenes in plays involve embracing and kissing.

In order to inch slowly towards being able to do all of these things again we must stay vigilant in doing what science tells us to do in this pandemic: wash our hands regularly, avoid touching our face, keep a social distance from each other and where required- wear a mask.