I read A Bach Salute to the Fallen in the New York Times a few days ago by music columnist James R. Oestreich about the emotional power of music, in particular the performance of Bach’s Air on the G String (from his Orchestral Suite No. 3) at the memorial service for the firefighters who died fighting the warehouse fire in that city on June 18th.

The article is a short read and on the surface an endorsement of classical music and a brief nod to one of its functions in American culture. However, as a musician, I was struck by this paragraph:

Musicians are never entirely sure what to make of such extramusical baggage, and the matter is not widely discussed. But it is part of what lends music its power, makes it alive and relevant: a give and take with the broader world, a give and take with the listener’s intimate personal experiences. Deeply meaningful music can take on even more meanings from a listener’s many associations with it.

I have a hard time accepting the first sentence of this paragraph. I think musicians do know what to make of the extramusical “baggage” and do discuss the power of music to move the listener. I know that I have had any number of conversations about my favorite classical works, and in each case, I back up my opinions not only with praise for the technical aspects of the work, but also for the intangibles that make the work so powerful to me. For example, like many of you out there, I revere Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and among the many brilliant moments in this work, there is one in the final movement (where the four soloists come together for the first time) that moves me beyond all the others.

Furthermore, as a composer, I always try to be cognizant of what the audience may “feel” when they listen to my music. I don’t always have perfect control over it, but I always know what I’m trying to evoke in my listener, even if it’s only interest.

Finally, one more anecdote to support my thoughts:

A few months ago, I mentioned Daniel Hiestand, a music education professor and director of bands that I was fortunate to have played and studied under as an undergraduate. Hiestand was quite a character and there was this one rehearsal where I clearly remember him telling us that when he passed away, he wanted to die on the podium after conducting William Walton’s Crown Imperial. Though we didn’t know that he was already in the final years of his life, we all thought it a nice, slightly morbid, story and offered our appreciative chuckles. Just a year or two later and after his death, I was in the band that played his memorial concert. During the performance of Crown Imperial there were moments where it was tough for me to focus on the music through the clouds of emotion and I’m absolutely sure I was not the only musician to have that problem that evening.

I wonder what Eero Tarasti would have to say?

Today was our wedding anniversary. It has only been four years, but they’ve been great.

I will post some musical thoughts tomorrow.

Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Sofia
June 2007

We’ve been in Greensboro since Friday afternoon and already Marta has played one concert (more to come on this) and has a chamber performance tomorrow night. I have plenty to blog about, including the conclusion to our Bulgarian odyssey as well as my thoughts (positive, of course) about EMF, several news items as well as a whole bunch of blogs that I need to catch up on.

In the meantime, I wanted to offer a free plug for Panasonic and say that we are really digging our new Lumix camera, which took a number of great pictures this summer, including this one of the golden domes of the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Sofia, which is, according to the Rough Guide to Bulgaria, “one of the finest pieces of architecture in the Balkans.”

I would agree with that assessment.

We are wrapping up our Bulgarian stay with a few days in Sofia for Marta to complete some research so this marks the beginning of our travels back to the United States and ultimately to Greensboro, North Carolina for the Eastern Music Festival. It’s hard to believe how quickly time has passed and even harder to believe that a week from now we will have flown back to St. Louis, had 2 days to recover and will have arrived at the festival.

Needless to say, I’ll be taking a week off from the blogging.

MILAN, June 11 (Reuters) - Arezzo council have asked Italy’s soccer federation to investigate Juventus’s 3-2 defeat by La Spezia on Sunday which relegated their town’s club from Serie B.

So it appears that the Arezzo football club is set to be relegated to Italy’s third division after a combination of a poor season and a deduction of points following the Italian match fixing scandal that broke across the news last summer.

Though it’s really a reflection of my own ignorance about Italian news, this marks only the second time I’ve been aware of headlines that involve Arrezo.

Sadly, the team does not have a player named Guido, thus preventing me from making a joke about how I thought that they needed a hand with his left foot.

George W. visited Sofia yesterday, just two days before Marta and I will arrive there. Apparently the center of the city was closed during his visit, causing a bit of frustration and no small measure of consternation among the locals attempting to go about their lives. One Sofia resident, when interviewed by the television, quipped that Bush passed by the crowds on the side of the street believing that they were greeting him, when in fact they were simply waiting to cross. Others had less good natured comments, including one women who (quite fairly) asked if they would shut down Washington D.C. if the Bulgarian president were to visit.

Have to love when we Americans make friends in ‘furrin’ places…

Among other things covered in the television news was a clip of Bush struggling to pronounce Georgy Purvanov’s (the Bulgarian president) surname before switching to his Texas drawl and deadpanning: “He calls me George and I call him George.”

Polite chuckle.

I was cruising the internet today and came across the story of Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Chad Johnson’s charity race against a horse. I understand that the race was for a good cause and I know that Johnson has never met a camera or a microphone that he didn’t like, but after being away from the American sports scene for over a month, I have to say that I find Johnson’s flamboyant orange and black track suit a bit absurd… M.C. Hammer and Vanilla Ice absurd, to be precise.

(Is it odd that I have no qualms about the nature of the race itself, but rather am amused by the apparel?)

Tonight the Smoky Mountain Brass Quintet will be performing my work Persistent Echoes in the Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall. Though the work is relatively short (ca. 7′) I am fairly happy with it and wish that I could be there. However, I made the decision to be with my wife and her family during the only extended travel window that we have and unfortunately it coincides with this concert.

My best wishes to the SMBQ for a successful concert and my sincere thanks to them for their decision to program my work. If you happen to be in the city, the performance starts at 8:00 p.m.

So I watched the finale of Music Idol tonight (in cased you missed it, this is the Bulgarian version of American Idol) and Nevena Tsoneva was voted the winner with a whopping 65% of the vote.

We took a weekend trip into the Rhodope Mountains of southern Bulgaria this past weekend. One of our stops was the delightful village of Shiroka Luka,a postcard perfect example of a genuine Rhodope village. It also happens to be the location of the School of Folk Instruments and Music, dedicated to teaching the traditional music and dance of Bulgaria.

We tried to go into the school only to be met by a rather stern woman who told us that exams were under way and we would not be allowed to enter. I think Marta should have played the “I’m a music professor in America” card to gain access, but she politely kept quiet about our background and we were turned away at the door.

We will definitely return to this remarkable place and when we do, we will make our arrangements to visit the school in advance.

(If you don’t know much about the folk music of Bulgaria, I strongly urge you to pick up a copy of Timothy Rice’s May it Fill Your Soul and if possible, listen to a recording or two. It is a remarkable musical tradition full of virtuosic ornamentation and complex asymmetrical and additive meters.)