Richard B. Gibson.
MH352WI Dr. Granade
Einstein on the Beach by Phillip Glass and Robert Wilson
As an opera singer I find myself attracted to composers such as Verdi, Puccini, Mozart, Bizet and even Wagner. Needless to say these composers are some of the greatest ever to put pencil to paper. And their music is very well known amongst fellow opera singers. Yet I openly admit my lack of experience in what is called "New Music" simply because it is not in my repertoire. And so, when choosing the music for my final Listening Journal, I thought that Phillip Glass’ Einstein on the Beach would be a good choice for helping me expand my opera vocabulary.
When I listen to a new piece of music I first let my ears search out the texture, timbre, tempo, melody. Once the voice enters I listen for the timbre of the voice, the legato line, phrasing, dynamics, pitch accuracy, diction, placement of the voice and flexibility. In my personal opinion, if all of these elements are in order and executed well, it makes the most beautiful music in the world. Hence my appreciation for all of the great composers of the past. But when I listened to Einstein on the Beach I heard nothing resembling what I would consider good texture, or timbre in the instrumentation. It might have been because the most used instrument throughout the piece is the electric organ. Even when it was just the violin playing I feel that Glass took the beauty right out of the instrument with the lines that he wrote for it. Very fast and choppy most of the time with the same repeated theme over and over and over again. Truly, how long can a person listen to the same six-note theme repeated over and over again until the next scene? And then when the next scene starts the new repeated theme is just a variation on the old repeated theme. It gets very old, very quickly and all I want to do is switch it off, turn it back into the library and try to forget about ever hearing that cacophony of sound.
Glass wrote the four hour and forty minute opera for the electric organ, violin, flute and voice, to include a sixteen-strong chamber choir, soprano and tenor soloists in four acts and five "knee plays."(A knee play being a brief interlude that also provides time for scenery changes.) The electric organ acts as the main source of sound for most of the opera with the flute never playing alone, as to say that there always are more than one flute playing at a time. One of the most interesting features of the instrumentation is how Glass uses the violin. The violinist is actually dressed up as Albert Einstein and Glass openly admits that the violin has the most important musical material, though he never ways why. Personally I think it is because when Glass and Wilson got together to write an opera they wanted to write about the life of a historic figure. They passed up Ghandi, Chaplin and Hitler to finally settle on Einstein. And with Einstein being the main character I think they wanted the most important music to be coming from that character as well.
It is rather difficult to discern the plot in Einstein on the Beach. The opening is the electric organ playing the same six-note theme repeated over and over again. To give you a sense of how redundant it gets Glass originally had the opening scene at forty minutes, but since he was going to put it on LP discs he simply reduced the number of repeats and cut it down to just over twenty minutes. The text consists of numbers and solfege syllables. Cryptic poems are also used; the catch being that they are from Christopher Knowles. Mr. Knowles is not a great librettist. He is a young, neurologically impaired man with whom Mr. Wilson has worked with in the past as an instructor of disturbed children. I am not saying that disturbed children cannot write great works, but when I am used to listening to operas with great librettists I find myself greatly disappointed in the choice of Glass and Wilson to use these cryptic poems. They talk about going to the grocery store and how stealing is a crime, then it switched to robbing a bank is punishable by spending twenty years if federal prison. I find it very difficult to be moved by having this same statement repeated time and again. Also, now is the audience supposed to know that the references made about bank robbery are about Patricia Hearst who was on trail for bank robbery during the creation of the opera? What makes it even more confusing is that just after this Glass brings in the numbers being repeated, no higher than eight though. In the next scene the vocals are now solfege syllables. Not the most brilliant writing as you can tell. In the defense of Glass and Wilson, they do attempt to combine the aural works of Glass with the visual works of Wilson to tell the story of Einstein. I might have gotten more out of my experience if I could have watched it, but something tells me that even if I saw it live I would have walked out after ten minutes.
Listening to the greatest composers of opera I find myself doubting that they had a mathematical system for each theme they used. I personally think that they stayed within the confines of proper musical theory and at the same time pushed the boundaries to create new sounds that still take the audiences breath away. Glass, however, does not use this technique. To write this opera he uses two techniques that he developed during the 1960’s: additive process along with cyclic structures. Additive process is the expansion and contraction of small musical modules (five notes repeated, then six notes repeated, then seven notes repeated, etc.) What this is supposed to do is allow a simple figure to maintain the same melodic idea while at the same time tampering with the rhythm. These are all supposed to arrive back at the starting points all together and that will equal a complete cycle, hence the cyclic structures. To me, comparing the old classics to Glass’ Einstein on the Beach the mathematical structure that he uses simply does not add up. There is no solid continuity, legato is apparently a thing of the past, the singers do not have to use a good vocal technique to be able to produce the sounds, and the texture throughout is very thin. Einstein on the Beach, in no way, should this be allowed into the Classical Music Canon. I do not believe that it even qualifies as music. That is a point that musicians can argue and debate for centuries, but the only moving of the soul that it does is one of confusion and wonder. Not wonder in the awe-inspiring way, wonder in the way that you wonder what was going through his head when he composed this.
Delving more deeply in the structure of this opera Glass and Wilson use three recurring visual themes throughout the entire four acts, the Train, Trail and Field. The first theme is the "Train," and it is based upon the super-imposition of two shifting rhythmic patterns. One is fixed while the other shifts around. There is an addition to the Train, and that is the Night Train. All that Glass does to change it up is reworks the Train a bit and layers more voices on top of it. I’m still wondering what the Trial is referring to, although it does and an actor that plays a judge in it. What the Field refers to a nuclear holocaust symbolizing what could happen, and did happen in Nagasaki and Hiroshima, due to the theories of Einstein that lead to the splitting of the atom. That is the only part of the opera where you can openly see a plot. The rest of it is a bit too hazy, if you will, on what the plot is about.
With all of the aspects of this opera, the weak libretto, the thin texture, the lack of skill needed in the voices and the fact that the main character is a violin it was extremely hard for me to listen to the whole work. I found the electric organ playing the same notes over and over again in my ear to be so distracting that I would put my headphones down and take a breather. Then when I felt like I might miss something I was afraid to put them back on. Expecting, and praying to God, to hear something different I was constantly let down. It was almost as bad a car alarm that won’t shut off in the middle of the night. I do consider myself to be more "old-fashioned" in my musical taste, so this was a completely different project than what I have ever been used to before. If you enjoy the type of music that Phillip Glass is known for, then you might enjoy this. It is different from anything he had done before it. He is quoted as saying:
"In its own way, the pre-Einstein music, rigorous and highly reductive, was more
‘radical’ in its departure from the received tradition of Western music that what I have written since. But as I had been preoccupied at the point with that more radical-sounding music for over ten years, I felt I could add little more to what I had already done. Again, it is surely no coincidence that it was at the moment that I was embarking upon a major shift in my music to large-scale theater works that I began to develop a new, more expressive language for myself."
Although he thought he might be reaching a pinnacle in his expressiveness, I wish he had not. I find it obtrusive to my ear and nowhere near being in the category of "Music." It didn’t take very much skill to repeat the same six-note theme time and time again. The melodic line, well, there was none, and I apologize if this offends but an opera without a melodic line is not an opera. My ears will hopefully never hear this work, Einstein on the Beach, ever again. Furthermore, I suggest that if you see it on a book shelve to purchase or listen to that you run away as fast as you can. This should not be in the Canon and should be stripped of the title ‘Opera.’
Tim Page. ‘Einstein on the Beach’. Grove Music Online, 2008
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Thursday, April 3, 2008
Heitor Villa-Lobos Bachianas brasileiras No. 9
Richard B. Gibson.
MH352WI Dr. Granade
Heitor Villa-Lobos Bachianas brasileiras No. 9
Out of the two pieces that I picked for the listening journal for Mr. Villa-Lobos I chose his No. 9. Mr. Villa-Lobos attempts to join Bach with Brazil with this piece by using a continuos fluid movement to represent Bach and Brazilian folk tunes for the melodic line. It includes a "Prelude: Vagaroso e mistico" that runs for only 2:37 orchestrated for strings and also a "Fugue: Poco apressado" that lasts 6:32, which is orchestrated for only strings as well. I can see why this piece does not make it into the Canon of classical music due to the rather simplistic nature of these two movements. There is nothing to really grab your attention throughout the entire two movements which leaves you wanting more. It starts out slow and remains that way until the end. Although that is not saying much because its total running time is only 9:09. Please do not get me wrong, it is a very enjoyable piece, but not one that I feel should belong in the Canon.
Villa-Lobos begins with a chord establishment in the strings with the cello sustaining the note while the violin plays a pretty melody. This is the way it goes, with a beautiful and tranquil melodic line in the violin until the dissonance is brought in. No other instruments just yet, just the main strings. Throughout the "Prelude: Vagaroso e mistico" the cello does not receive a lot of attention. It is mainly there to keep the key established and to add just a small layer of texture. I will say, however, the way Villa-Lobos has the violins play descending minor thirds gives it a very sultry sound that is appealing to the ear. It is almost as if he kept taking different little themes and playing with them in the violin to make it more interesting. To me it almost sounds like a variation, something like Rachmaninov would write in that it has a flavor of romanticism with the fluidity of the lines and the flare of modernism due to all of the dissonance. It is a very lethargic movement, with hints of suspension, because the cello mainly plays the same note the entire time and everything layered on top of that can only give you a nice 4-3 suspension every once in a while. I feel that this movement lacks stylistic uniformity as a whole. It just keeps changing themes after it embellishes the last theme a little bit. Only every once in a while does it feel like a uniform piece.
The "Fugue: Poco apressado" starts out much differently. It is much more upbeat, faster and louder and it gives the movement the contrast that has been lacking. There is some nice syncopation right away that keeps your ears perked up listening for what is next. Villa-Lobos does seem to stick to the original theme in this piece more than before. Yet how he tries to remain there often times gets away from it because it holds no semblance of the theme after the theme is first repeated, much like the "Prelude: Vagaroso e mistico." The biggest difference tempi-wise is all of the syncopation. Villa-Lobos does not get very inventive with it, but it is so different that your ear holds onto it. You want to hold onto it actually because it gives it a much different texture and feel. Now it feels like a waltz type dance. It is only at the end of the movement that he builds everything up to this lovely crescendo that takes you away to another place. If only he could have written everything to fluidly come to this point so that it would seem the crescendo has purpose, then maybe it would belong in the canon.
It is obvious why this work did not make it into the classical music Canon once you hear it. It lacks uniformity, there is almost no musical flow leading down a distinct path and the texture is lacking. There is not very much contrast within the individual movements and the melodic lines get old and boring after a short time. With that said, I feel that if Mr. Villa-Lobos could have used a little more imagination with the themes he could have made a masterpiece. It is hard for me to imagine that Villa-Lobos didn’t have a better choice of traditional Brazilian folk tunes to choose from that would have given this movement a more interesting line. He could have played with the melodic lines to draw them out more and give them more structure. That way he wouldn’t have to bore us with repeating the same boring short melody. He could also give more contrast to the dynamics and used the dissonance to bring out more even more contrast. All of this would have given the piece the texture it lacks and made for a greater flow of the whole piece.
MH352WI Dr. Granade
Heitor Villa-Lobos Bachianas brasileiras No. 9
Out of the two pieces that I picked for the listening journal for Mr. Villa-Lobos I chose his No. 9. Mr. Villa-Lobos attempts to join Bach with Brazil with this piece by using a continuos fluid movement to represent Bach and Brazilian folk tunes for the melodic line. It includes a "Prelude: Vagaroso e mistico" that runs for only 2:37 orchestrated for strings and also a "Fugue: Poco apressado" that lasts 6:32, which is orchestrated for only strings as well. I can see why this piece does not make it into the Canon of classical music due to the rather simplistic nature of these two movements. There is nothing to really grab your attention throughout the entire two movements which leaves you wanting more. It starts out slow and remains that way until the end. Although that is not saying much because its total running time is only 9:09. Please do not get me wrong, it is a very enjoyable piece, but not one that I feel should belong in the Canon.
Villa-Lobos begins with a chord establishment in the strings with the cello sustaining the note while the violin plays a pretty melody. This is the way it goes, with a beautiful and tranquil melodic line in the violin until the dissonance is brought in. No other instruments just yet, just the main strings. Throughout the "Prelude: Vagaroso e mistico" the cello does not receive a lot of attention. It is mainly there to keep the key established and to add just a small layer of texture. I will say, however, the way Villa-Lobos has the violins play descending minor thirds gives it a very sultry sound that is appealing to the ear. It is almost as if he kept taking different little themes and playing with them in the violin to make it more interesting. To me it almost sounds like a variation, something like Rachmaninov would write in that it has a flavor of romanticism with the fluidity of the lines and the flare of modernism due to all of the dissonance. It is a very lethargic movement, with hints of suspension, because the cello mainly plays the same note the entire time and everything layered on top of that can only give you a nice 4-3 suspension every once in a while. I feel that this movement lacks stylistic uniformity as a whole. It just keeps changing themes after it embellishes the last theme a little bit. Only every once in a while does it feel like a uniform piece.
The "Fugue: Poco apressado" starts out much differently. It is much more upbeat, faster and louder and it gives the movement the contrast that has been lacking. There is some nice syncopation right away that keeps your ears perked up listening for what is next. Villa-Lobos does seem to stick to the original theme in this piece more than before. Yet how he tries to remain there often times gets away from it because it holds no semblance of the theme after the theme is first repeated, much like the "Prelude: Vagaroso e mistico." The biggest difference tempi-wise is all of the syncopation. Villa-Lobos does not get very inventive with it, but it is so different that your ear holds onto it. You want to hold onto it actually because it gives it a much different texture and feel. Now it feels like a waltz type dance. It is only at the end of the movement that he builds everything up to this lovely crescendo that takes you away to another place. If only he could have written everything to fluidly come to this point so that it would seem the crescendo has purpose, then maybe it would belong in the canon.
It is obvious why this work did not make it into the classical music Canon once you hear it. It lacks uniformity, there is almost no musical flow leading down a distinct path and the texture is lacking. There is not very much contrast within the individual movements and the melodic lines get old and boring after a short time. With that said, I feel that if Mr. Villa-Lobos could have used a little more imagination with the themes he could have made a masterpiece. It is hard for me to imagine that Villa-Lobos didn’t have a better choice of traditional Brazilian folk tunes to choose from that would have given this movement a more interesting line. He could have played with the melodic lines to draw them out more and give them more structure. That way he wouldn’t have to bore us with repeating the same boring short melody. He could also give more contrast to the dynamics and used the dissonance to bring out more even more contrast. All of this would have given the piece the texture it lacks and made for a greater flow of the whole piece.
Gian Francesco Malipiero, Vivaldiana
Richard B. Gibson.
MH352WI – Granade
Gian Francesco Malipiero, Vivaldiana
During his life Malipiero not only studied in Bologna and Venice, but he also taught at Conservatory of Parma, at the University of Padua, and also in Venice. During those years he did extensive research on composers such as Monteverdi and Vivaldi. As the title indicates, Vivaldiana, this is his tribute to Vivaldi. I have heard works by composers that have attempted to pay tribute to fellow composers that have gone before but that have failed miserably in their attempts. Malipiero, however, does not fail. It is a very melodious piece that consists of a 6:22 "Adagio – Allegro," a 4:37 "Andante piu lento un poco" along with a "Allegro - Allegro molto" that runs for 3:42 and is orchestrated for a full symphony. Its total running time is 14:41 and it is a piece that I believe everybody should listen to. It might behoove a person to find a relaxing place that they love to meditate, grab a nice glass of wine, close their eyes and envision what comes to mind when they hear the strings begin to play.
To me Malipiero begins it perfectly with the counterpoint in the opening sequence between strings. Nothing too elaborate, but just enough to set you up for the brief interlude and duet with the horns. It is a bit louder with its opening forte than what you might expect from a piece that anyone can relax to, but Malipiero shows wonderful contrast by bringing the dynamic level down almost as soon as he brought in the horns. There is just the right amount of suspension with the pulsing cellos underneath the violins and violas. It almost seems that Malipiero knows exactly what happened with your day and he is matching it with the texture of the movement. Malipiero remains heavy on the strings as he quickens the tempo a bit to a dance pace. The strings are sequenced very nicely and the theme is long enough so you do not get bored with hearing it over and over again. After some time with just the strings Malipiero brings in the woodwinds to help finish out the Allegro part of the "Adagio – Allegro." He does not keep them in for very long, but continues to bring them back to repeat their theme and I must say that it is just the right mix of strings and woodwinds. The texture of the two is solid, yet fluid and refined at the same time.
Malipiero gives us some colorful contrast with his "Andante piu lento un poco." He begins with only the strings, one at a time. First the violin, then the cello and finally the viola. They strings are piano, almost as if floating there, like Malipiero wanted us to feel like we ourselves are floating on a cloud. Malipiero keeps this feeling of floating, due to the lighter texture of fewer strings, going on for the entire "Andante piu lento un poco." It is so relaxing that you can almost feel yourself begin to meditate. There is a little change of pace when Malipiero uses a little bit of dissonance between the violins and violas that gives you a sense of moving forward. It really helps the piece not to stall but to keep moving on, as if Malipiero was trying to say "You have thought about that idea long enough, time to move on to the next idea." Also, the fact that there is no counterpoint, no counter melody helps you to relax into the piece and simply enjoy it. The melody is carried out mainly by the violins yet is doubled by the woodwinds when they come in about two-thirds of the way into the "Andante piu lento un poco." Malipiero continues to help the movement along by pulsing the beat with the cello and the violas and violins floating the melody line above. The ending does just what you would expect it to, it floats off as if on a wisp of a cloud and you feel completely relaxed.
Just as soon as you are finished with your meditation, Malipiero brings you into the "Allegro - Allegro molto." Beginning with octave jumps in the strings and horns, then continuing with the same pulsing beat in the cello and layering instruments one at a time on top of it. The strings begin to play with descending scales that give you a sense of playfulness. This same theme is matched by the flute, which gives the movement an even more interesting texture. Yet, to give the movement even more contrast, Malipiero also puts the theme and melody in the clarinet for a very short time. The strings then go on to answer the clarinet in the same fashion that they opened with. There is a rest that Malipiero uses, about a quarter of the way through the movement, that helps give the "Allegro - Allegro molto" a greater contrast and super-charges the next melodious idea that Malipiero brings out. The strings begin at a quickened pace, as you would suspect any Allegro molto to. Malipiero subdivides the beat in the strings and then the woodwinds to help push the piece along. This same theme is used for the remainder of the "Allegro - Allegro molto" but with a different texture to it. There are more horns than before and they play for a much longer period than what Malipiero had them playing earlier. To finish out the movement Malipiero brings out the flute with a lovely melody line that you can tell they love to play. Fun and upbeat with a colorful sequencing of scales that he used in the opening of the "Allegro - Allegro molto."
I truly believe that Malipiero’s Vivaldiana belongs in the classical music Canon because of its interesting contrast of melodic lines, dynamics and texture. Malipiero gives great honor to Vivaldi with how he continually moves this piece along using colorful contrast and interesting texture throughout. It is a work that anyone would be proud to own in a private collection, and I highly suggest that you make it a part of yours.
MH352WI – Granade
Gian Francesco Malipiero, Vivaldiana
During his life Malipiero not only studied in Bologna and Venice, but he also taught at Conservatory of Parma, at the University of Padua, and also in Venice. During those years he did extensive research on composers such as Monteverdi and Vivaldi. As the title indicates, Vivaldiana, this is his tribute to Vivaldi. I have heard works by composers that have attempted to pay tribute to fellow composers that have gone before but that have failed miserably in their attempts. Malipiero, however, does not fail. It is a very melodious piece that consists of a 6:22 "Adagio – Allegro," a 4:37 "Andante piu lento un poco" along with a "Allegro - Allegro molto" that runs for 3:42 and is orchestrated for a full symphony. Its total running time is 14:41 and it is a piece that I believe everybody should listen to. It might behoove a person to find a relaxing place that they love to meditate, grab a nice glass of wine, close their eyes and envision what comes to mind when they hear the strings begin to play.
To me Malipiero begins it perfectly with the counterpoint in the opening sequence between strings. Nothing too elaborate, but just enough to set you up for the brief interlude and duet with the horns. It is a bit louder with its opening forte than what you might expect from a piece that anyone can relax to, but Malipiero shows wonderful contrast by bringing the dynamic level down almost as soon as he brought in the horns. There is just the right amount of suspension with the pulsing cellos underneath the violins and violas. It almost seems that Malipiero knows exactly what happened with your day and he is matching it with the texture of the movement. Malipiero remains heavy on the strings as he quickens the tempo a bit to a dance pace. The strings are sequenced very nicely and the theme is long enough so you do not get bored with hearing it over and over again. After some time with just the strings Malipiero brings in the woodwinds to help finish out the Allegro part of the "Adagio – Allegro." He does not keep them in for very long, but continues to bring them back to repeat their theme and I must say that it is just the right mix of strings and woodwinds. The texture of the two is solid, yet fluid and refined at the same time.
Malipiero gives us some colorful contrast with his "Andante piu lento un poco." He begins with only the strings, one at a time. First the violin, then the cello and finally the viola. They strings are piano, almost as if floating there, like Malipiero wanted us to feel like we ourselves are floating on a cloud. Malipiero keeps this feeling of floating, due to the lighter texture of fewer strings, going on for the entire "Andante piu lento un poco." It is so relaxing that you can almost feel yourself begin to meditate. There is a little change of pace when Malipiero uses a little bit of dissonance between the violins and violas that gives you a sense of moving forward. It really helps the piece not to stall but to keep moving on, as if Malipiero was trying to say "You have thought about that idea long enough, time to move on to the next idea." Also, the fact that there is no counterpoint, no counter melody helps you to relax into the piece and simply enjoy it. The melody is carried out mainly by the violins yet is doubled by the woodwinds when they come in about two-thirds of the way into the "Andante piu lento un poco." Malipiero continues to help the movement along by pulsing the beat with the cello and the violas and violins floating the melody line above. The ending does just what you would expect it to, it floats off as if on a wisp of a cloud and you feel completely relaxed.
Just as soon as you are finished with your meditation, Malipiero brings you into the "Allegro - Allegro molto." Beginning with octave jumps in the strings and horns, then continuing with the same pulsing beat in the cello and layering instruments one at a time on top of it. The strings begin to play with descending scales that give you a sense of playfulness. This same theme is matched by the flute, which gives the movement an even more interesting texture. Yet, to give the movement even more contrast, Malipiero also puts the theme and melody in the clarinet for a very short time. The strings then go on to answer the clarinet in the same fashion that they opened with. There is a rest that Malipiero uses, about a quarter of the way through the movement, that helps give the "Allegro - Allegro molto" a greater contrast and super-charges the next melodious idea that Malipiero brings out. The strings begin at a quickened pace, as you would suspect any Allegro molto to. Malipiero subdivides the beat in the strings and then the woodwinds to help push the piece along. This same theme is used for the remainder of the "Allegro - Allegro molto" but with a different texture to it. There are more horns than before and they play for a much longer period than what Malipiero had them playing earlier. To finish out the movement Malipiero brings out the flute with a lovely melody line that you can tell they love to play. Fun and upbeat with a colorful sequencing of scales that he used in the opening of the "Allegro - Allegro molto."
I truly believe that Malipiero’s Vivaldiana belongs in the classical music Canon because of its interesting contrast of melodic lines, dynamics and texture. Malipiero gives great honor to Vivaldi with how he continually moves this piece along using colorful contrast and interesting texture throughout. It is a work that anyone would be proud to own in a private collection, and I highly suggest that you make it a part of yours.
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