Your Classical Coffee Break

Your Classical Coffee Break returns to the topic of what artists must do to support themselves. We listen to Giovanni Gabrieli's Canon in 12 in Echo and discuss his success in working within the Church structure. Then we turn to JS Bach and discuss how he made a living through playing the organ and composing. We listen to a number of Bach's pieces (Cantata #150, Concerto for 2 Violins, and St. Mathew Passion) and explore the various patronage positions he took to keep afloat. Was Bach such a groundbreaking composer that potential patrons just didn't get it? Art isn't easy.

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This coffee break begins the discussion on how artists support themselves as they pursue their passion. To explore this subject, at least pertaining to Western Culture, Mr. Somers goes back 1,000 years to see how artistry and the Church were intertwined, when secular music evolved and who supported that evolution. We listen to music spanning at least 400 years, from Gregorian chants to Guillaume Du Fay's Mass for St. Anthony.

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This coffee break follows the evolution of the twelve-tone movement right into the post-Webern period. First off, we listen to Eliot Carter's Concert for Orchestra and a composition by Milton Babbitt to hear how abstract the sound had become in reaction to Webern. Then we explore Leaves are Falling by Warren Benson and other compositions which take the sound in a different, anti-post-Webern, emotional direction. Art Isn't Easy.

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This coffee break we take a listen to Alban Berg's startling opera Wozzeck, called an "emblematic opera of the 1920s, a harbinger of the unease and aching void of the 20thcentury, haunted by war and death, the misery of the human condition set to a music," as per Opera Online. We also listen to the works of Anton Webern and contrast his style and impact versus Alban Berg's.

Here is a clip from Alban Berg's Wozzeck: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8WeX8MrThU

This coffee break tries to find it's way home in the twelve tone composition world by listening to music by Arnold Schoenberg, particularly pieces that seem like waltzes and marches, and particularly his highly influential Pierrot Lunaire. We explore how these compositions don't have the foundations provided by major and minor keys. We listen to Alban Berg's Violin Concerto and its stirring connection to the lose of a loved one.

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We put together two concerts of our choosing in this coffee break using Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 and Antheil's Ballet Mecanique as the main section. There are a number of factors to take into consideration: What other pieces of music do we include in the concert? Should the music be in the audience's comfort zone or should we challenge them with newer sounds? How do we keep the costs down especially if we are a per service orchestra? Do we have a budget for royalties for new music? How do we market to attract the most attendees? Nothing is easy.

Welcome our new sponsor nKoda, 30 million pages of digital sheet music, at https://www.nkoda.com/

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This coffee break continues its exploration of how different artists interpret the same music, starting out with the opera Verdi's Don Carlo, the scene -- Il Grande Inquistor! We hear how the scene is staged and what the artists emphasized to maximize the experience. We continue the analyses of artists' interpretation with three pieces composed by Mr. Somers and get a chance to dig deep and hear how individual musicians approach the works.

Here's the staged Grande Inquistor scene:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pNxU4ck8BI

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We change topics with this coffee break by listening to how the conductor and/or musician interprets the composition and how that interpretation changes the musical experience. First, we listen to two different performances of Sibelius' Lemminkäinen Suite to determine how speed affects how the listener perceives the music. We stay with Sibelius and check in on two versions of The Tempest and listen for differences in tone.

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This coffee break continues the exploration of music composed during the Third Reich by first listening to Werner Eck's ominous Waffentanz (Weapon Dance), a state-commissioned piece, and Carl Orff's Carmina Burana. Hans Pfitzner's career was stifled because his opposition to antisemitism; we listen to a piece of Symphony in C. Paul Hindemith escaped to Switzerland and had a career; we hear a bit of his Mathis Der Maler. We close our exploration with Richard Strauss who was able to compose extraordinary music while living in the throes of Nazism and listen to Die Liebe der Danae and Sonatina #2 in E Flat.

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This somber edition continues the theme of composing music under authoritarian regimes, this time under the Third Reich. We listen to pieces written by numerous composers, some who survived World War II and some who did not. We begin with with Pavel Haas's powerful Study for Strings and then Hugo Distler's God is Our Sure Defense; neither composer survived though for different reasons. Next we listen to Kleines Konzert by Alfred Uhl, a composer and soldier who survived the war by working at a POW camp. Karl Amadeus Hartman was completely unknown during the war and later emerged as a major musical figure. We listen to his Concerto Funebre, as well as Anton Webern's Langsamer Satz, a composer who survived the war, but was killed accidentally soon after.

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