On Sunday, November 13, 2011, 3:00 p.m., the New Century Chamber Orchestra (NCCO) led by renown violinist and recording artist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg will be performing live in concert in the Shea Center for Performing Arts as part of the Vistas Series. FREE Rear Loge tickets are available for students on a first come, first serve basis beginning at 12:30 p.m. the day of the concert. If perhaps the allotment of free tickets run out, there are affordable tickets still available ranging from $15 - $25. That is more than half the price that they would pay at the New York venues and other larger metro area venues.
But wait...there is more. The New Century Chamber Orchestra has agreed to an outreach component related to their performance. You and your students are invited to the open rehearsal and Q & A session. The rehearsal will start at 1:15 p.m., and the Q & A with Parker Monroe, NCCO’s Executive Director, will be from 2:00 – 2:30 p.m. the same day of the concert. Students, who are attending the open rehearsal, are required to have a ticket for the evening performance. The Shea Center Box Office will be open to coincide with the open rehearsal. Therefore, students can obtain their free and/or paid tickets at the door during that time. Instructors may obtain advance tickets for their classes by contacting Lou Hamel at 973-720-2783 or hamell@wpunj.edu beginning November 1st.
October 20, 2011
October 19, 2011
September 20, 2011
Music and Art Criticism
Like everyone else in my field I use the good quotes when they come in and I ignore the bad ones. The good ones look nice on my website and it feels good to be keeping up with the Jones, but as time goes on it’s harder and harder for me to believe that music criticism is worth much. That goes for art, dance, and film too. (In this post I’ll use “art criticism” as a general term that encompasses music, art, dance, film, poetry, etc.)
This isn’t sour grapes. Like I’ve said, I’ve enjoyed a lot of good reviews from major news outlets. But since I’ve been on both ends of the critical spectrum my skepticism is informed. I used to write music criticism for American Record Guide. I poured over a dozen or so CDs a month and published a column titled “The Newest Music.” It was a good gig. I earned a few bucks and got an excellent survey of the field. I also honed my ability to discuss esoteric music with a lay audience. But after three years I threw in the towel. So many of the discs I was getting were from friends and colleagues that it became a conflict of interest. I couldn’t reasonably write anything objective.
Supposedly art criticism serves as an objective filter so that the public can make better decisions about where and how to spend their time and money. But most of the critics have their favorite styles and tend to stick with them, thus precluding any objective survey of what’s really going on in our incredibly diverse artistic world. Furthermore, many critics are friends with the artists they’re writing about. No matter how objective they may try to be, there’s no doubt that the line between criticism and PR becomes blurry at times.
Aside from those issues, the biggest problem I’ve found is that art criticism is often polemical and simple in a way that doesn’t reflect the complexity of an individual’s output. For example, here’s a passage from a recent New Yorker regarding the Royal Danish Ballet’s reception in recent years:
. . . . Partly, this was because the critics were then facing the full onslaught of Europe’s so-called ‘contemporary ballet’: rage, despair, panties. Such ballet, in the hands of Kenneth MacMillan, John Cranko, Maurice Bejart, Roland Petit, and others, stressed excitation above all: great whirlings and twirlings and pitchings of self and others onto the floor.
I’m not an expert on modern ballet, which is why this passage struck me. It’s not the content, but the form. Or, more precisely, it’s the lack of content. How is it that four accomplished choreographers’ life works can be summed up in one sentence as “great whirlings and twirlings and pitchings of self and others onto the floor?”
It’s no different in the musical world. For example, David Lang, Julia Wolfe, and Michael Gordon are often lumped together. That’s not entirely unfair as they’ve worked as a trio for over twenty years to build the Bang on a Can empire with the music marathon, record label, summer festival, etc, but in fact they write profoundly different music. Sure, there are some basic sonic similarities in Michael and Julia’s music, but when you get to the details that count they’re really entirely different composers. And David’s work is different in all respects.
I’ll also admit that I did the same thing when I wrote for ARG. “Isms” are convenient. Modernism, minimalism, post minimalism, whathaveyouism make writing criticism a snap. Lump, knead, write, and you’re all set. The writing part is the fun part. I suspect many art critics are frustrated poets who have found an outlet. They love to write and they love what they write. However, it’s doubtful whether any of that verbiage has anything to do with the complexity and nuance of art.
~ Dr. Payton MacDonald
This isn’t sour grapes. Like I’ve said, I’ve enjoyed a lot of good reviews from major news outlets. But since I’ve been on both ends of the critical spectrum my skepticism is informed. I used to write music criticism for American Record Guide. I poured over a dozen or so CDs a month and published a column titled “The Newest Music.” It was a good gig. I earned a few bucks and got an excellent survey of the field. I also honed my ability to discuss esoteric music with a lay audience. But after three years I threw in the towel. So many of the discs I was getting were from friends and colleagues that it became a conflict of interest. I couldn’t reasonably write anything objective.
Supposedly art criticism serves as an objective filter so that the public can make better decisions about where and how to spend their time and money. But most of the critics have their favorite styles and tend to stick with them, thus precluding any objective survey of what’s really going on in our incredibly diverse artistic world. Furthermore, many critics are friends with the artists they’re writing about. No matter how objective they may try to be, there’s no doubt that the line between criticism and PR becomes blurry at times.
Aside from those issues, the biggest problem I’ve found is that art criticism is often polemical and simple in a way that doesn’t reflect the complexity of an individual’s output. For example, here’s a passage from a recent New Yorker regarding the Royal Danish Ballet’s reception in recent years:
. . . . Partly, this was because the critics were then facing the full onslaught of Europe’s so-called ‘contemporary ballet’: rage, despair, panties. Such ballet, in the hands of Kenneth MacMillan, John Cranko, Maurice Bejart, Roland Petit, and others, stressed excitation above all: great whirlings and twirlings and pitchings of self and others onto the floor.
I’m not an expert on modern ballet, which is why this passage struck me. It’s not the content, but the form. Or, more precisely, it’s the lack of content. How is it that four accomplished choreographers’ life works can be summed up in one sentence as “great whirlings and twirlings and pitchings of self and others onto the floor?”
It’s no different in the musical world. For example, David Lang, Julia Wolfe, and Michael Gordon are often lumped together. That’s not entirely unfair as they’ve worked as a trio for over twenty years to build the Bang on a Can empire with the music marathon, record label, summer festival, etc, but in fact they write profoundly different music. Sure, there are some basic sonic similarities in Michael and Julia’s music, but when you get to the details that count they’re really entirely different composers. And David’s work is different in all respects.
I’ll also admit that I did the same thing when I wrote for ARG. “Isms” are convenient. Modernism, minimalism, post minimalism, whathaveyouism make writing criticism a snap. Lump, knead, write, and you’re all set. The writing part is the fun part. I suspect many art critics are frustrated poets who have found an outlet. They love to write and they love what they write. However, it’s doubtful whether any of that verbiage has anything to do with the complexity and nuance of art.
~ Dr. Payton MacDonald
September 5, 2011
What I Did This Summer
What I Did This Summer (2011), by Payton MacDonald
People who don't teach typically assume that the summer months are a vacation for professors. No doubt there are lazy professors out there who sit around and do nothing during the summer months, but many of us are pretty busy. I certainly was.
I keep a disciplined schedule. I'm at the computer by 6:00 a.m. I warm up with about a half hour of email and then I dive into composing. This summer I finished a large-scale work for chamber orchestra called METADRUM. I wrote it for Alarm Will Sound, an amazing chamber orchestra that I co-founded ten years ago that specializes in contemporary classical music. METADRUM is 20 minutes long and is basically a double percussion concerto. It involves a lot of fast, complex drumming, executed by myself and Chris Thompson, my colleague in Alarm Will Sound. It's an intense piece and very ritualistic. I also composed a 14-minute piece for string quartet for the JACK Quartet. That's a lot of music. Each day I'm lucky if I get 20 or 30 seconds of material down, and that takes about three hours.
Around 9:30 or 10:00 I would start getting fidgety so I would then do my workout. I run marathons and race triathlons, so I usually work out anywhere from one to three hours a day. After the workout I would clean up and eat lunch, and then start practicing my percussion instruments by about 1:00 or so. I had numerous concerts to prepare for this summer, as well as this fall, so I usually practiced for three or four hours. The music is very complex and hard, so the practicing is slow and tedious. I enjoy it because I enjoy playing percussion instruments, but honestly many days are pretty boring. It's not like I'm just playing along with Led Zeppelin records or something.
Around 4:00 or so I went back upstairs to my home office and spent at least an hour or two working on the endless business matters that consume the life of a musician, including hustling gigs, booking recording sessions, organizing rehearsals, applying for grants, filling out paperwork, downloading audio files, editing audio files, emailing audio files to people, burning CDs, printing scores, etc, etc, etc. Several times a week I also went to the post office, bank, or other errands.
I also spent time each day dealing with university matters. In May and early June I taught an online class, which I usually handled in the mornings, after composing and before my workout. For the rest of the summer there is advising, equipment maintenance, ordering music, studying scores, talking with students on the phone about various issues, etc, etc, etc. Even though I'm not teaching I'm still working. I usually did that in the afternoons.
But some days I did none of that and spent the entire day in the recording studio. I finished two CDs this summer: Payton MacDonald: the solo marimba commissions, volume 1 and Payton MacDonald: solo marimba improvisations volume 1. And of course there were a few weeks this summer when I was on tour with Alarm Will Sound. Those days are even longer. I would usually start composing around 5:30 a.m., then do my workout around 7:00. Then rehearsals from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., then after dinner I would practice for a few hours and go straight to bed.
When I was home, though, I tried to finish each day by 6:00 or 6:30 at the latest so I could devote some time to my two beautiful young daughters (ages 1.5 and 3.5) and my super awesome wife. Minus the workouts and lunch, I worked an average of nine hours a day, six days a week. That's approximately 54 hours a week, more than 14 hours more than a standard 40-hour per week corporate job. Next time someone makes a comment about "summer vacation" for university professors, please show them this blog post! (And remind them that we get paid much less than corporate employees.)
So it was a busy summer and very productive with two big pieces finished, two recordings, a class taught, and five triathlons. But I'm looking forward to seeing my students. I love them dearly. They're funny and smart and talented and they inspire me as much as I (hopefully) inspire them. William Paterson University Music Department is a special place and I'm glad to be there.
Dr. MacDonald
www.paytonmacdonald.com
People who don't teach typically assume that the summer months are a vacation for professors. No doubt there are lazy professors out there who sit around and do nothing during the summer months, but many of us are pretty busy. I certainly was.
I keep a disciplined schedule. I'm at the computer by 6:00 a.m. I warm up with about a half hour of email and then I dive into composing. This summer I finished a large-scale work for chamber orchestra called METADRUM. I wrote it for Alarm Will Sound, an amazing chamber orchestra that I co-founded ten years ago that specializes in contemporary classical music. METADRUM is 20 minutes long and is basically a double percussion concerto. It involves a lot of fast, complex drumming, executed by myself and Chris Thompson, my colleague in Alarm Will Sound. It's an intense piece and very ritualistic. I also composed a 14-minute piece for string quartet for the JACK Quartet. That's a lot of music. Each day I'm lucky if I get 20 or 30 seconds of material down, and that takes about three hours.
Around 9:30 or 10:00 I would start getting fidgety so I would then do my workout. I run marathons and race triathlons, so I usually work out anywhere from one to three hours a day. After the workout I would clean up and eat lunch, and then start practicing my percussion instruments by about 1:00 or so. I had numerous concerts to prepare for this summer, as well as this fall, so I usually practiced for three or four hours. The music is very complex and hard, so the practicing is slow and tedious. I enjoy it because I enjoy playing percussion instruments, but honestly many days are pretty boring. It's not like I'm just playing along with Led Zeppelin records or something.
Around 4:00 or so I went back upstairs to my home office and spent at least an hour or two working on the endless business matters that consume the life of a musician, including hustling gigs, booking recording sessions, organizing rehearsals, applying for grants, filling out paperwork, downloading audio files, editing audio files, emailing audio files to people, burning CDs, printing scores, etc, etc, etc. Several times a week I also went to the post office, bank, or other errands.
I also spent time each day dealing with university matters. In May and early June I taught an online class, which I usually handled in the mornings, after composing and before my workout. For the rest of the summer there is advising, equipment maintenance, ordering music, studying scores, talking with students on the phone about various issues, etc, etc, etc. Even though I'm not teaching I'm still working. I usually did that in the afternoons.
But some days I did none of that and spent the entire day in the recording studio. I finished two CDs this summer: Payton MacDonald: the solo marimba commissions, volume 1 and Payton MacDonald: solo marimba improvisations volume 1. And of course there were a few weeks this summer when I was on tour with Alarm Will Sound. Those days are even longer. I would usually start composing around 5:30 a.m., then do my workout around 7:00. Then rehearsals from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., then after dinner I would practice for a few hours and go straight to bed.
When I was home, though, I tried to finish each day by 6:00 or 6:30 at the latest so I could devote some time to my two beautiful young daughters (ages 1.5 and 3.5) and my super awesome wife. Minus the workouts and lunch, I worked an average of nine hours a day, six days a week. That's approximately 54 hours a week, more than 14 hours more than a standard 40-hour per week corporate job. Next time someone makes a comment about "summer vacation" for university professors, please show them this blog post! (And remind them that we get paid much less than corporate employees.)
So it was a busy summer and very productive with two big pieces finished, two recordings, a class taught, and five triathlons. But I'm looking forward to seeing my students. I love them dearly. They're funny and smart and talented and they inspire me as much as I (hopefully) inspire them. William Paterson University Music Department is a special place and I'm glad to be there.
Dr. MacDonald
www.paytonmacdonald.com
August 22, 2011
Midday Artist Series Fall 2011
MIDDAY ARTIST SERIES
Shea Center for the Performing Arts
Thursdays at 12:30 P.M.
FALL 2011
September 15 UPTOWN FLUTES
UpTown Flutes presents original works and arrangements composed for the entire family of flutes: piccolo, C flute, alto and bass flutes. UpTown Flutes actively commissions and is dedicated to bringing new music to a wider audience. The group's innovative programming features varying ensemble sizes, genres, and styles. "UpTown Flutes...loved it. Good music and good playing from this excellent group." -Sir James Galway "UpTown Flutes...is one of the best groups I've heard all year...UpTown Flutes deserves major attention as they are top-notch and one of a kind." -Anthony Aibel, NY Concert Review
22 NILS NEUBERT, tenor ● YURI KIM, pianist
William Paterson University voice faculty member Nils Neubert in concert together with his wife, pianist Yuri Kim present works by Beethoven, Grieg, Duparc and Tosti. Tenor Nils Neubert was born and raised in Germany and trained in the United States. He performs frequently in opera, oratorio and recital, both in the United States and abroad. Yuri Kim serves on the piano faculties of the Mannes College of Music and the Aaron Copland School of Music at CUNY Queens College. The couple performs and teaches regularly in the United States and in Europe.
29 PAYTON MACDONALD, percussion
Payton MacDonald will perform a recital of contemporary music for marimba, including world premiers of works by WPU faculty Jeffrey Kresky and Pete Jarvis. He will also play pieces he has commissioned from Stuart Saunders Smith and Elliott Sharp. MacDonald is a founding member of acclaimed Alarm Will Sound, and also tours and records as a soloist. As a composer he is currently working on commissions from JACK Quartet and the University of Iowa Dance Program.
October 6 JAZZ CONCERT
13 MADISON STRING QUARTET with pianist ITAY GOREN
The Madison String Quartet, praised for its energetic performances and inventive programming, is bringing a new side of classical music to the New York metropolitan area. Drawing on the international experience of its members (violinists Evelyn Ostava and Gabriela Rengel are products of “El Sistema” of Venezuela) the Quartet “has carved a niche out for themselves by exploring Hispanic literature from both sides of the Atlantic” —Paul Somers, Classical New Jersey. Venezuelan-born composer Reynaldo Hahn’s Quintet and the Brahms Quintet in F Minor are featured on today’s program.
WPU MUSIC DEPARTMENT 50TH ANNIVERSARY CONCERT SERIES
William Paterson University began offering music courses in 1961 (then called Paterson State Teachers College). Alumni spanning the last 50 years of the music department's history will appear in three concerts performing diverse solo and chamber music works.
October 20 WPU MUSIC DEPARTMENT 50TH ANNIVERSARY JAZZ CONCERT
27 WPU MUSIC DEPARTMENT 50TH ANNIVERSARY CLASSICAL CONCERT
November 3 WPU MUSIC DEPARTMENT 50TH ANNIVERSARY CLASSICAL CONCERT
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