Mark A. Lackey

Why are we doing this?

2011-03-11T19:30:00.004-05:00

There was not a hint of dissatisfaction in the question. I suppose we were an unusual little group, seven musicians aged 18 to 80 with experience ranging from school music student to community orchestra member to professional concert artist. And I suppose it was an unusual thing for all of us to be spending our Saturday on: seven generous people scheduled three hours on a recent Saturday to read through my Sinfonietta for Strings so that I could record the reading, since it was impossible for me to record the performances a few months ago.
The original idea was to put together a recording I can send to other community and youth programs to promote future performances of the piece, and a recording the Carroll County String Project may also use for promotion. We still plan to do that, and that was my reply whenever the question came up. Perhaps I will post some bits of that recording here at marklackey.net sometime soon.
After a while, though, I started to realize that it did not really answer the question. Ultimately, we were doing this for the satisfaction of doing it. For me it was a chance to follow my composition into rehearsal and see it in a new way. It was an excuse to make the two-and-a-half hour round-trip to a neighboring county to be a peripheral part of a rehearsal in a church basement. And I would like to think the players were there for the satisfaction of getting to know their new piece, a composition written for their community string program, understanding how it all fit together. We were all there for the pleasure of creating something new.

The "Value" of Higher Education - NYTimes.com

2010-12-15T07:01:00.008-05:00

How far are we willing to go in devaluing culture?

The Browne Report: “Students are best placed to make the judgment about what they want to get from participating in higher education.”

Stanley Fish: “No, they aren’t; judgment is what education is supposed to produce; if students possessed it at the get-go, there would be nothing for courses and programs to do.”

The Browne Report: Courses of study that “deliver improved employability will prosper,” while those that don’t “will disappear.”

What do we value?

What enriches our lives and makes us more human?

Does our civilization recognize any sort of value that can not be commodified?

--

After Now and 130% Surround Sound

2010-08-15T07:45:00.004-04:00

Following a year without visible activity, our composer-led organization After Now presented a richly rewarding program of fixed-media electronic pieces. The evening was part of the 130% Surround Sound series during the month of August 2010 at the newly renovated Red Room.

The program was notable for its range of different sound worlds. Andrew Cole's Staring at the Sun conjures beautiful things that blur the distinction between organic and synthetic sound. C.R. Kasprzyk had blogged that he was noticing how we are surrounded by literal electromagnetic fields, so he captured them (as RF interference? not sure) and used them as his materials. I like the idea of calling attention to something invisible we take for granted, especially when it's something we need to think about for the well being of our ecology, and Kasprzyk assembled those sounds into a really coherent piece. Samuel Burt's intense high-frequency tones were admittedly hard to listen to, but the interference between the tones, differing only slightly in pitch, created a curious sensation of being immersed in a truly three-dimensional field. The effect in quadrophonic sound was extraordinary. Burt introduced his other short piece "Unwound Surround" as if to say we should not take it seriously, but it seemed really well crafted and great fun to listen to. Special note is due to guest composer Jeff Carey's contribution, an electronic work on a symphonic scale in the way the piece unfolds and in the depth and variety of textures.

I was sincerely grateful to be included on such a strong program. My own work, Outside-in, was influenced by a couple of pieces by Luc Ferrari, "Music Promenade" and the Presque Rien pieces from the 60s and "Tuchan-Chantal" from the 70s. Another influence was the Frankenstein Symphony (1997) by Francis Dhomont. The sounds of Dhomont's recent work are not limited to natural sounds, but there are numerous long takes of natural sound. Thinking about long takes also got me thinking about films by Andy Warhol and Michael Snow. What all these things have in common is that they foreground the framing gesture, the projection of presence.

I decided to attempt a musique concrète piece with a kind of documentary aesthetic, resisting my usual inclination toward frequent edits and aggressive processing, but still giving myself some flexibility to assemble the takes and, occasionally, to call attention to the artificiality of recording.

The piece explored pairing different stereo recordings to try to create the illusion of being inside and outside the same space. Then sometimes I would violate that illusion by putting one longer take against two or three different things. For example, a muffled conversation is first paired with children playing, then construction noises replace the children while the conversation continues. The illusion is also consciously broken by using recordings with obvious microphone wind noise, and occasionally by isolating and repeating brief sounds.

I had been noticing the little sounds of coffee in my life, and so coffee activity is heard throughout. I chose three different locations: our apartment in our little "village" of Hampden in Baltimore; a cabin that my wife's parents own in rural WV during a thunderstorm; and then back to Hampden for street and coffeehouse sounds. A trumpet player, traffic, and a jackhammer and other construction noises were all recorded at different times from our front porch. The conversation took place on our front porch, so I recorded it from just inside. The children playing on a school playground can be heard just outside our apartment also, but I walked around the corner to record them more clearly. The birds were at about 5:30 a.m. in my in-laws' back yard, also rural WV. I thought they served to punctuate the change from urban to rural and give the ears a break from the boxy sound of the Hampden recordings.

Listening to this concert in a darkened room with a small audience seated in two concentric circles surrounded by four loudspeakers offered a very satisfying kind of engagement, a "suturing-in." Be sure to catch the remaining 130% Surround Sound events at the Red Room, and watch the websites of all these composers - and AfterNow.org - for more music.

Exchanging gifts with strangers

2010-06-30T18:07:00.006-04:00

I express my congratulations and best wishes to ALL the contestants I heard and saw last night in the preliminary round of the Maryland Hispanic Youth Symposium Talent Competition!

It was a real pleasure to hear and see the performances. The symposium is hosted by Towson University, and that's how I learned of it. About 135 students were present, chosen from about 650 applicants. I am grateful that I could serve as a judge in the preliminary round of the talent competition, which is a competition for scholarship money. I appreciate the wide-ranging gifts and the work that I saw in poetry, dance, instrumental performance and song.

Even more, I appreciate the character that was on display. Everyone was generous and encouraging -not to mention patient - during the long evening.

I have been thinking about the idea of gifts as it relates to the performing arts. Judging this contest really brought these ideas to the front of my mind. It is a commonplace for people to single out performers and say that they have a gift, as if entertaining were on a par with Peter raising Tabitha from the dead. I'm of two minds about that. Yes, I believe in a Creator who is the Father of Lights, the Giver of all good gifts. But that boundlessness is also the problem, because our tendency is to ignore other less showy gifts that are deeply valuable. Something good in your life? Gift.

But there's another sense of the word I really want to think about. I don't want to take anything away from the beautiful simplicity of artists as thankful recipients, freed from the burden of thinking we grew ourselves. But there is another giving that happens in the arts: from the artist to the audience.

It is interesting to think about when something is a gift, and when it is just a transaction. Seth Godin says (here) that "a gift costs the giver something real. It might be cash (enough that we feel the pinch) but more likely it involves a sacrifice or a risk or an emotional exposure. A true gift is a heartfelt connection, something that changes both the giver and the recipient."

A sacrifice. A risk. An emotional exposure. A heartfelt connection that changes both giver and recipient. That's a tall order! And yet I think artists work toward that all the time. (Maybe it's true of all people of faith, too - but I'll stop sermonizing.)

So I want to thank the young people at the Maryland Hispanic Youth Symposium for taking that risk, and for really giving. Thank you.

Keep your mind set on excellence, on truth, and on the things that are really worth it. I wish you all the very best.

Nothing motivates quite like a deadline!

2010-06-24T07:30:00.015-04:00

The summer is off to a very productive start.

Last week I tweeted/ buzzed/ fb'd the announcement that the Sinfonietta for Strings is completed, but I want to write a little more about the undertaking and why I am excited.

In the summer of 2009 I taught at McDaniel Orchestra Camp for the first time, and met camp founder Margaret Motter "Peggy" Ward - professional violist, dynamo of central Maryland's cultural life, torchbearer of music education for young people.... She asked me if I had written any string music for young people and I replied, "not yet." I am always interested in new opportunities to compose, especially when they are tied to possible performances.

What Peggy Ward had in mind was a new work for the Carroll County String Project, a new non-profit community music school (which she also founded). She was interested in something for the students to play in the ensemble program, which may range from a chamber group of one-on-a-part to a small chamber orchestra, depending on the normal fluctuations of enrollment.

It was an opportunity to learn something about the world of young string players and how the pedagogical literature is graded for difficulty. I am spoiled, having enjoyed the privilege of writing for professional and conservatory musicians on a regular basis, knowing that I could put practically anything on paper and they would be up for it. Writing for "students in Suzuki Book II and above" would be a new challenge to me as a composer. It would affect the techniques I could ask for, the melodic leaps that would be manageable, and even the specific notes and rhythms I could write.

But I find that unusual parameters can be a great motivator. Infinite creative choices can be paralyzing!

Adding just a little more pressure, Peggy Ward wanted something in the range of 20 minutes. There's the pressure I put on myself, too; I wanted to write something that would be interesting for 20 minutes - interesting to the students and to me - and something that would stretch them and introduce them to some new ideas and new sounds, without writing something they or their folks would think was just weird. After all, I could certainly write something that was interesting to me, but to non-specialists it might sound like it was from another planet. Or, I could write something very playable but vapid. I hope I have avoided both extremes.

The new 20-minute work for string orchestra (minimum seven players: 2,2,1,1,1) is now a reality. A 30-page, 383-measure reality! In the two weeks after spring semester ended I am thankful to say I was able to compose the piece, prepare the parts, have everything printed, and deliver the big box of scores and parts, ready for rehearsal.

The Sinfonietta for Strings is programmed for the outdoor concert on Saturday, August 14 at 3:00 p.m. in the Carroll Community College Amphitheater, and the formal concert on Sunday, August 15, also at 3:00 p.m., at St. Paul's United Methodist Church in New Windsor, MD.

More good news: these young players will be privileged to have violinist I.G. Bagus Wiswakarma (co-founder and Music Director of the Jakarta Philharmonia) coaching them in rehearsals. Also, my friend and colleague Eli Wirth (Music Director of the Frederick Regional Youth Orchestra, Director of Music at Carroll Community College in Westminster, MD, and fresh from a visit to study Venezuela's very successful El Sistema youth orchestra program) will be the guest conductor.

America's Only Hope?

2010-03-29T13:17:00.020-04:00

Just a moment ago I received a "special offer" - a yard sign that reads as follows.

Prayer
America's Only Hope
2 Chronicles 7:14

Now, my problem with this sign is not what you might expect.

First, I do believe in prayer - and not just because it lowers blood pressure. If that's all you need, get a dog.

The second line is also good; our ultimate hope should not be in a party or a program or an economic model (though they all have their important places).

No, it's that third part that's bugging me. And it is very unusual for me to have a problem with anything that encourages people to go read the scriptures!

This particular scripture is completely out of place on this sign.

"If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land" (2 Chronicles 7:14, NIV).

When did the original secular republic - the nation that drove the final nail in the coffin of theocracies - become the United States of God's People Who are Called by God's Name?

The promise was not addressed to the United States of America. If we take this promise given to the ancient Hebrews and apply it to our own nation, we make a grave error. We make the mistake of thinking that the U.S. is God's Chosen Nation.

Remember, Jesus died so that there would be neither Jew nor Greek, but, rather, we would all be one in Christ Jesus (Galatians 3:27-29).

---

Via pulchritudinis

2009-12-03T07:58:00.012-05:00

On November 22, 2009, in the Sistine Chapel, Benedict XVI delivered an address to an audience of 250 singers, musicians, writers, painters, architects, sculptors, actors and film producers. The address, "You Are the Custodians of Beauty," suggested the possibility of "a via pulchritudinis, a path of beauty which is at the same time an artistic and aesthetic journey, a journey of faith, of theological enquiry."

Not surprisingly, the pontiff affirmed the work of artists in bringing beauty into the world and elevating our gaze above its negative elements, combating the decline into resignation and despair. He emphasized the importance of the arts in the realm of faith and vice versa.

As I began to read the address (in translation), I admit that I braced myself for a reduction of art to the attractive and pleasant.

I am thankful to say that I was pleasantly surprised. While Benedict XVI did use the word "beauty" or "beautiful" forty-four times in the short speech, and while his only mention of music was "in the service of the liturgy," it is to his credit that he affirmed even more art's power to challenge and shock, using this quote from painter Georges Braque: "Art is meant to disturb, science reassures."

He went on to say that art "pulls us up short, but in so doing it reminds us of our final destiny, it sets us back on our path," and stated explicitly that he is not promoting easy, escapist art. This acknowledgment of difficult art was balanced by a rejection of "gratuitous provocation" and of "seductive but hypocritical beauty that rekindles desire, the will to power, to possess, and to dominate others."

I wonder how many artists feel, as I do, a constant struggle to find what it can possibly mean for me to make art that could lead hearts toward the infinite. Perhaps there is some help to be found in Benedict XVI's words: "The way of beauty leads us, then, to grasp the Whole in the fragment, the Infinite in the finite, God in the history of humanity."

Could it be in the nature of art itself, the effort to create something meaningful and share something about the nature of being alive--could it be intrinsic to making art? Surely not, or all art would draw us deeper in faith. Is it some mysterious transference of my struggle toward faith that finds its way into my work without any direct intention on my part?

No, I think artists make decisions. Not always--there are surely many mysteries, many happy accidents. But I think it is possible for me to choose to make a destructive work, a work that discourages, that incites rage, and so on. Likewise, I think it is possible for me to make a positive work, not merely "happy" but a work that engages with the nature of life and meaning in some small but beneficial way.

To whatever degree I make these choices, I want to make good ones.

Shane Prine, eximposition.
Michael O'Brien, You Sought Me.
Anonymous, Jesus graffiti on a pier.

Kodak (Hall) Moment: the world premiere of OCTOBER SUNRISE

2009-11-12T09:48:00.015-05:00

I am very happy to report that the Eastman Wind Orchestra gave a beautiful world premiere performance of my October Sunrise on the 21st of October, 2009.

Conductor Mark Davis Scatterday programmed the work for the Eastman Wind Orchestra, the first- and second- year students at Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY, rather than the Eastman Wind Ensemble because the work is less challenging than the repertoire typically studied by his student musicians in later years of their undergraduate studies. Mark Scatterday said he would consider October Sunrise a work of difficulty level 4, meaning that it would be appropriate for the stronger high school wind ensembles. He had very complimentary things to say about the work and had clearly bought into it long before putting it on stage, as the group sounded very well prepared when I was invited to eavesdrop on their rehearsal.

On the morning of the performance I had a couple of free hours. I wandered into the music library at Eastman and discovered a large display of ephemera from the early history of the wind program at Eastman. The idea of a virtuoso Wind Ensemble, as distinct from a large military-style band, was pioneered by Frederick Fennell, starting with his establishment of a band program during his student days in the late 1930s and evolving into the first modern Wind Ensemble by the early 1950s. (Continued after the jump.)

If I wasn't already excited about the EWO performing my music, I was certainly moved when I stopped to reflect on the group's history, to read letters from Fennell outlining his goals for a wind program at Eastman School of Music, to see early photos from rehearsals, and to see commercial recordings of the group from the 1950s onward.

I admit it: the placement of the word OCTOBER on this large banner near the entrance to the hall was not, in fact, to announce the performance of my OCTOBER SUNRISE. The Eastman Theatre, built in 1922 by Kodak founder George Eastman as a concert hall and movie palace, had its grand reopening just a couple of weeks prior to my performance there. The restored hall, renamed Kodak Hall, is breathtaking. The acoustics are a bit bright for wind ensemble, favoring the percussion more than might be ideal, but of course the hall is also home to the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra whose complement of strings is probably very well served by the rich high-frequency reverberation. Still, the Eastman Wind Orchestra are settling into their remodeled home and I very much enjoyed the beautiful, rich sound palette they create in that space.

Ironically, there are signs prohibiting photography in Kodak Hall! No one seemed to mind my taking a few snapshots of the group, the conductor, and myself before and after the event, so I will assume that is intended to discourage photography during performances. I will post a few small interior images here. In any case, my blurry snapshots could not do justice to the space. For better photos, I would refer the reader here.

I express my thanks to Mark Scatterday and every member of the Eastman Wind Orchestra for an excellent performance of October Sunrise, and to a very gracious Rochester audience for welcoming the piece into the world.

I also want to thank Dr. Harlan Parker and the Peabody Wind Ensemble for reading through the work in rehearsal shortly after I wrote it; your reading gave me a better sense of scale that led me to clarify the pulse at the beginning, and was very musical and rewarding in its own right.

October Sunrise is friendly, accessible music; my friend and fellow composer Samuel Burt teasingly accuses me of being a populist. Perhaps it is telling that my least experimental composition to date has also earned the highest-profile performance to date, and I have no complaints about that. I built a series of unfolding musical ideas into this little piece that I find interesting, and wrapped them in what I consider an appealingly honest, straightforward sound. I am very grateful to have heard that sound realized in a public performance.

And, for the record, I am slightly taller than Maestro Scatterday; he stood on his toes just before the photo was taken.

(More snapshots can be seen on flickr.)

I'm in! Walden School NY Composers Forum

2009-11-08T09:31:00.006-05:00

It appears my name has been added--in facebook posts, anyway--to the list of "featured composers" on the upcoming Walden School Alumni Composers Forum in New York.

The Walden School is an amazing program, connecting musicianship pedagogy with the nurturing of creativity. I am an alumnus only second-hand, having attended two Teacher Training Institute sessions, but Walden has a very fond place in my heart and I am deeply grateful to be included.

If you are in New York City on the afternoon of November 15, please join us, 3 to 5 p.m. at The Gershwin Hotel, 7 East 27th St.

American Consumers Orchestra?

2009-11-08T09:26:00.005-05:00

It isn't often as a composer that I feel that I am faced with an ethical dilemma over multinational corporate sponsorship.

But american composers orchestra has managed to give me pause, with this new partnership with LVMH - the French holding company for Louis Vuitton (luxury leather goods and accessories), Moët (mass producer of champagne) and Hennessy (favorite cognac of rappers and of Kim Jong-Il).

It's not that I think any of these storied products is inherently wrong. But these companies sell a "livin' large" consumerist lifestyle image that is the opposite of thoughtful new music. Of course, from their bottom-line perspective, we avant-nerds are just a gap in their market share. I'm debating whether I should bother to voice my disappointment to ACO.

Facebook your way out of any problem!

2009-10-29T11:23:00.003-04:00

Huh?

Two girls in Australia posted their facebook status as "trapped in a storm drain" and they were rescued? Wow, fb is the solution to everything!

Status: "is late for work" - and someone will come along with a helicopter!

Status: "is not yet finished grading those papers" and all my students would skip class! (Actually, that might work too well.)

Obama should post "is battling unemployment and trying to provide health care," and the Oval Office would be overrun by brilliant economists and investors with viable solutions! (I wonder how much help he could marshal with "is battling intransigently partisan politicians"?)

Tsvangirai should post that he won a democratic election but his economy is dysfunctional and a dictator refuses to abdicate and the military is a vast mafia. Maybe the west would notice if he posted it on fb.

Maybe Christ's followers need to post, "struggling with lukewarmness." I know I do.

~m

Like ears to my music

2009-10-20T21:47:00.004-04:00

Alright, I know I am probably being silly about this, but it is sort of a big deal to me, and I am very very thankful for it: in a matter of hours my October Sunrise for wind ensemble will receive its world premiere from a fantastic group, the Eastman Wind Orchestra. It is my first performance of a "work for large forces" (and don't get me started on the military metaphors in music organizations).

If I start listing all the people and things I am thankful for I will sound even sillier--no one is handing me an Oscar--so I won't do that.

I got a call a couple of hours ago from the conductor, Dr. Mark Scatterday, and he tells me rehearsals have gone well and the performers really like the piece, which is just about the best possible news to me--like ears to my music! A week ago I was still worrying that something might go wrong in rehearsal that would lead them to drop the piece--one must worry about something, I guess--and maybe I still don't quite believe it that this little piece will finally have a performance!

If this performance doesn't go well, then the piece probably does not work--but I'm pretty sure it will. I can be confident, not because I think it is a profoundly great piece, but because I was fairly conservative. Sure, I asked for some difficult things--just not all at once. And of course I can be confident because Eastman invented the wind ensemble.

They said they're enjoying it, right? Which means it's working, right? They're not having to fight with the piece to try to make music out of it, right?

Such a strange thing, to be so deeply involved with the music and yet completely disconnected from it.

The Exeter Sacred Harp Singing: a capella heavy metal!

2009-06-14T15:51:00.008-04:00

Jennifer and I did something new yesterday. Or, to be more exact, we did something very old, which was new to us. We drove up into rural Pennsylvania to the Exeter Sacred Harp Singing and Dinner on the Grounds. It was so fun! We really appreciate Elizabeth and Ted Stokes and the Pennsylvania Sacred Harp singers for organizing the event.

Even though I'm originally from north Alabama, an area with a long history and an ongoing practice of Sacred harp singing, also known as a "fa-so-la" singing or "shape note" singing, and even though I had heard of it at least since college, I had never gotten around to checking it out. Last week I decided I wanted to go explore.

This all-day Sacred Harp singing in Pennsylvania was in a small white wooden church building, a Friends Meeting House built in the early 1900s. The old hardwood pews were built in a "hollow square" arrangement, so that the leader stands in the middle (near the stove that still heats the building in winter) with all the singers facing the middle. The trebles, altos, basses and tenors sit by section, on the four sides of the square. The tenor has the primary melody, but that melody is buried in a contrapuntal texture so that all the parts are more-or-less equally important melodies.

There were about 60 people there, which filled the building. Those very old a capella songs are sung with a strong beat, and everyone sings at the top of their lungs! Also, the desired sound is nasal, bright and reedy and very exciting.

Today I have been thinking about that sound, and about the visceral appeal of the music. The contrapuntal texture and intense, focused vocal projection make a wall of sound, and the practice seems to favor making the sound as loud as possible. The music has a strong beat, and many of the singers keep the beat with their arms as they sing. Leaders tend to lead the songs rather quickly, and they also take turns very quickly, so that the sound comes in bursts of just a couple of minutes, with very little pause between.

An intense wall of sound, as loud as possible, with a powerful beat--my response would be very much the same if you asked me why I enjoy certain heavy rock music. It makes me think - and this is purely conjecture - that there is something deeply pleasurable about both because that's how our mind-body works; that there is something about us that finds that kind of intensity pleasurable.

I have also been thinking about how this intense experience (and I'm sure it won't be my last Sacred Harp singing) will influence my composing. More thoughts about that later. ~ML

Orchestra Stops Mid-Performance, Composer Sues

2009-06-11T18:58:00.005-04:00

If the story circulating in the press follows the general outline of events, it reflects astonishingly unprofessional orchestra management.

It's old news now, but somehow (something to do with finishing my DMA! Yippee!) I didn't hear about it at the time: noted composer Nathan Currier hired the Brooklyn Philharmonic to perform his massive new work of higher ecological consciousness, The Gaian Variations, in April 2004. Currier believed that all the performance details were settled. At the second intermission, the orchestra's CEO pulled him aside and explained that, contrary to their prior communications, the work was going to keep the orchestra on the job past the standard three-hour union call, requiring overtime pay that the organization simply didn't have. She insisted that he make cuts to the score on the spot. The biggest disaster, though, was that, instead of using his cuts, the orchestra resumed performing after intermission and then... just... stopped.

Currier, who paid the orchestra $70,000 for their performance, is suing them, but insists he will drop the suit if they'll give the work another performance.

Paying the orchestra out of pocket for a performance (rather than just a recording) is not unheard of when a composer has lots of money and wants a particular performance badly enough. As I understand it, the absolute top-shelf orchestras and organizations--NY Phil, the Met--will not take on that sort of arrangement, for fear it undercuts their credibility. That's not to say that the Brooklyn Phil are slouches; for 55 years they've been an important part of the NYC music scene, with very famous directors giving important premieres of major new works.

The NY Post article gives the impression that this was Nathan Currier's "big break." That's not exactly accurate. Currier has won major awards and gained substantial recognition, with a commission from the Berlin Philharmonic and performance by the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, an American Academy of Arts & Letters award, the Rome Prize, the Guggenheim Fellowship, and on and on.

But getting a performance of a huge composition is a very big deal, and very hard to get. It's not as if composers normally write more than a handful of super-long works in a lifetime. Most orchestra composers, even those who are getting performances, generally shoot for the 15-30 minute range, not 2-3 hours!

It seems unwise for Currier to be stating publicly that he will drop the charges if they will perform the work again. He's giving away his bargaining position.

What would you ask for? I'm not the litigious sort. Or, rather, I am learning that defending my rights is not the way to happiness.

But it seems he'll need more than just another performance if he hopes to undo the damage. Rightfully or otherwise, this unpleasantness will surely attach to him, even if he was clearly in the right, making other performing organizations reluctant to work with him.

If he is serious about a suit, I would think he should be asking for three or four rehearsals, then a performance, plus non-exclusive audio- and video-recording rights so that he can re-purpose this work and have a little more control over the way it is presented next time--plus an apology in the Times and other statements from the Brooklyn Philharmonic.

Of course, I haven't seen the contract. Who knows how he got himself into this.

In any case, tragically, it will probably be impossible for the orchestra to make this right even if they want to. The Brooklyn Phil is broke, and, for the foreseeable future, closed for business.

~m

Dora at Baltimore Theatre Project (review)

2009-04-26T08:53:00.004-04:00

The Peabody Chamber Opera's production of Dora by composer Melissa Shiflett and librettist Nancy Fales Garrett (Baltimore Theater Project, April 23-26, 2009); review.

Saturday's cast gave Dora an excellent performance, with superlative singing and fine acting through the story's considerable emotional range. The orchestra likewise provided estimable support in their reading of the conservative tonal score. Expert vocal writing showed the singers to good effect in solo arias and ensemble numbers, with the sextet "What Do Women Want?" an especially well-constructed example. The use of violin harmonics beneath the disturbing revelations of the K's children was a notable touch of effective orchestration in an otherwise thickly homophonic and unvaried texture.

Regrettably, by intermission it was clear that Dora's creators had missed the opportunity to engage with the profound implications of Freud's work, choosing instead to reduce one of the great thinkers of modern times to the usual caricature of a walking double entendre. I declined to stay for the second act, having seen that theatrical impact in Dora was achieved at every turn by the crude rather than the thoughtful, and artistic director Roger Brunyate missed no opportunity to foreground the lurid still further. (For an example of profound treatment of a great mind, consider Philip Glass and Robert Wilson's groundbreaking Einstein on the Beach.)

Even more troubling than the failure to offer intelligent insight into psychoanalysis is that Dora, in exaggerating the offenses of our cultural phallocentrism, re-inscribes and reinforces those offenses by objectifying women, quite literally in the conclusion of Act I and in only slightly more subtle ways throughout. Woman is presented as either frigid corpse (Frau Bauer), virgin (Dora) or whore (Frau K), projected through costumes of black, white and red. Taken together, even these color choices tacitly associate the feminine with the demonic.

Freud's Fragment of an Analysis of a Case of Hysteria still awaits a truly perspicacious treatment, and I look forward to hearing and seeing the extraordinarily gifted Peabody Chamber Opera staging more discerning works in the future.

Happy Easter!

2009-04-12T09:07:00.002-04:00

Be strong and take heart,
all you who hope in the LORD (Psalm 31:24).

Re-focusing

2009-04-08T17:29:00.003-04:00

Hello, world,

Prior posts to this blog have ranged from the arts to politics to economics to faith to religion and back to the arts, to who-knows-what. Today I am turning over a new bloggy leaf and focusing a little more on the artistic-spiritual-creative life, since this blog is an extension of my "online presence"--makes me feel like a ghost--my online presence as a composer (www.marklackey.net). For me, the artistic-spiritual-creative life connects to practice, in forms such as prayer, and so a prayer can still have a home here, as I envision this. I still have political opinions, but I'll put them somewhere else. And, no, that's not an invitation for you to tell me where I should put them. :)

~MAL

A Prayer in Time of War--A Prayer for Nine-eleven

2008-09-11T17:11:00.004-04:00

A Prayer of Remembrance and Mourning

by Brandon L. Fredenburg
September 14, 2001

O God, Who created all persons in your image, to you we pray on this day when the United States of America pauses to remember and mourn.

Help us, O God, to remember to pray for our enemies as Jesus commanded.

Help us, O God, to remember to bless our enemies as Jesus commanded.

Help us, O God, to remember that our enemies are those for whom Jesus died.

Help us, O God, to remember to be merciful upon the just (whomever they are) and the unjust (whomever we are), just as You are.

Help us, O God, to remember that we, as your Church, are called to wage supernaturally-enabled peace, compassion, and love as our warfare.

Help us, O God, to remember that the forces of naked wickedness and evil are arrayed against all creation, not merely the nation we live in and those our nation endorses.

Help us, O God, to mourn the dead, both theirs and ours.

Help us, O God, to mourn the loss of innocence, both theirs and ours.

Help us, O God, to mourn pride, both theirs and ours.

Help us, O God, to mourn hatred, both theirs and ours.

Help us, O God, to mourn cruelty, both theirs and ours.

Help us, O God, to mourn revenge, both theirs and ours.

Help us, O God, to mourn the evils of rulers, both theirs and ours.

Help us, O God, to mourn nation-state idols, both theirs and ours.

Help us, O God, to mourn attachments to all things less than You, both theirs and ours.

Enable your Church, O God, to be a constant witness with integrity against sin, idolatry, and bloodshed, both theirs and ours.

Help us, O God, to look at all persons, both them and us, through eyes blood-red -- not with rage and anger, but sorrow and tears.

In the name of Him who said, at the most atrocious act in all of cosmic history, "Father, forgive them, they do not know what they are doing."

Amen.

********

Brandon Fredenburg is Assistant Dean and Associate Professor of Bible in the College of Biblical Studies and Behavioral Sciences at Lubbock Christian University. (He is also my friend of long standing. ML)

How Would You Spend $6 Trillion?

2008-06-03T11:09:00.007-04:00

A new Senate bill would require dramatic cuts in climate-changing greenhouse pollution. President Bush is threatening to veto the Senate climate change bill, claiming that it “would impose roughly $6 trillion in new costs on the American economy.”

Never mind the fact that Bush ignores the costs of climate change, and never mind the fact that Bush offers no basis in reality for the figure. Let's consider this six trillion dollar figure.

Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz and Harvard economist Linda Bilmes put the true cost of the US invasion and occupation of Iraq at $3 trillion so far. Factoring in other costs like the interest on debt, future US borrowing for war expenses, the ongoing cost of a continued military presence in Iraq and lifetime health-care and counseling for veterans, they project that the wars are likely to cost between $5 trillion and $7 trillion.

Does anyone remember when Donald Rumsfeld assured us that Iraq's own financial resources would offset the cost of the war? Paul Wolfowitz went so far as to say that "We are dealing with a country that can really finance its own reconstruction.” Near the end of 2002, the Bush administration estimated the total cost of the war would be about $50 billion to $60 billion.

They were wrong by a factor of 100.

This administration estimated that the war would only cost you, personally, $200.00, then ran up a bill on your account. Whether you are a retiree, a student, a working adult or a young child, you now owe $20,000.00 to pay for Bush's wars.

President Bush took office in a climate of cautious economic optimism centered on the possibility of restoring national solvency. But five years of war has taken its toll in countless ways. Looking merely at the fiscal impact, Rhode Island Senator Sheldon Whitehouse compared Bill Clinton's budgets with the budgets of George W. Bush and found that the Bush deficit amounts to $7.7 trillion dollars. Notice that this figure is roughly consistent with expert estimates of the eventual total cost of the wars.

Hmm. That alleged "$6 trillion" that Bush doesn't want to spend to slow down global warming? I suppose the Republicans have wiser ways to spend it. McCain might need it to "Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran." Even Hillary Clinton might need that cash so she can "totally obliterate" Iran.

Look around, America. How would you like to spend it?

My thoughts as I research

2008-04-16T20:38:00.005-04:00

(My thoughts as I research - with the flu.)

"Grrmph-mmmmmm aaaah, uh, okay, so, what was that again? Wye Allenbrook on 'topoi.' Is that a native American tribe? A food? Oh - a synonym for the word 'topics.'

"OH, it's AllAnbrook... A-L-L-A, not E... nothing... nothing... stuff by other people... let's nab that article from... somebody... that looks like it says something about Wye Allenbrook and topoi...

"OH, so it needs to be Wye ***J.*** Allanbrook because I guess Wye is such a common name, just like Allanbrook...

"What a wicked thing to do to your kid... 'what's your name?' 'Wye?' And isn't that the way you write the name of the letter Y?

"Okay, now we're getting somewhere... there it is, the book that's supposed to be the greatest contribution to musicology in the past 30 years that I've never heard of... grrrmph...

"WHAT? No full-text version I can read online???

"Eisenhower stacks, yuck -- oh, WAIT, yes, there's an Amazon button - it'll be here in a couple of days. I mean, it came out in 1983, then paperback, so it's probably dirt-cheap, and everyone seems to think it's so great, so, okay, it's -- $183.03. Used. When I feel better I'll hike over to the Eisenhower stacks...."

You didn't make it to MoMA on March 2?

2008-04-07T18:02:00.013-04:00

The emf department of Towson University is hosting a free screening of Catherine Pancake's Black Diamonds at WAMMfest (Women and Minorities Media festival) at 8:00 p.m. on Saturday, April 12. There will even be a Q&A session with director and creative dynamo Catherine Pancake.

Surface mining is poisoning water supplies, annihilating forests and leaving vast gouges in the Appalachian mountain range. Black Diamonds: Mountaintop Removal and the Fight for Coalfield Justice is a compelling portrait of an American region fighting for its life, caught between our appetite for cheap energy and enduring values of local culture and natural beauty.

Black Diamonds is the winner of the 2007 Spadaro Documentary Award and one of the selections for Documentary Fortnight 2008 at MoMA. If you didn't make it to MoMA last month, see Black Diamonds for free this weekend in Towson, Maryland.

As if free tickets to an award-winning documentary film and a conversation with the film maker were not enough, a select group of student works will be presented at 5:30, and there will be a reception from 7 p.m. until 8.

5:30 p.m. -- Student works
7:00 p.m. -- reception
8:00 p.m. -- Black Diamonds and discussion with Catherine Pancake

WAMMfest promises to be an interesting annual festival of new works in electronic media.

-ML

HurdAudio: Three Times After Now

2008-03-11T13:38:00.003-04:00

HurdAudio: Three Times After Now

I really appreciate Mr. Hurd's engaged listening and thoughtful comments. Please visit afternow.org and check out our archive ("PAST") where you can see and hear for yourself. You'll find notes about the pieces on the March 8 concert, plus complete audio and video of the entire concert.

Best,
~ML

Mozart, at all costs...

2008-02-04T16:17:00.000-05:00

...and at all price points, it seems. While the Packard Humanities Institute is distributing Mozart's entire catalog - the entire Neue Mozart-Ausgabe - for free here, they're selling bound facsimiles of the manuscripts of his operas here "at a price that is affordable to lovers of Mozart’s music everywhere." That price is $175 for each opera.

Your choice. It seems to me that "free" is a price that is affordable to lovers of Mozart's music everywhere.

Incensed

2007-06-22T17:18:00.000-04:00

I love the way incense smoke curls and moves, like some extraordinary mathematics; I love the ever changing, exquisite point at which it starts to wobble, the point at the top of a thin ribbon of hot vertical smoke where there is the first hint of struggle against the cooler air, where that thin, hot, confident ribbon blooms in ways that it couldn't have imagined: in quick pulses, in waves, in the architecture of spirals and curlicues that remodel my room with fragrance. ~ML

I've thought about a blog for my prattle, but... who'd read it?
So I'll just put it here. :)