Layout 3

DECEMBER 2006
Bob Michael atop the future Mt. Mahler, May, 1968
Naming Mt. Mahler
In 1968, Bob Michael was a graduate
student at the University of Wyoming
and a lover of Gustav Mahler’s
symphonies. As a mountain-climber,
Bob was swept off his feet by the
symphonies, which made him picture
mountains in his mind. He wrote a letter
to the Board on Geographic Names of
the Department of the Interior,
suggesting that “Colorado Peak 12,493'”
(as yet unnamed), in the Never Summer
Mountains on the northwest border of
Rocky Mountain National Park, which
he had just climbed, be named after
Gustav Mahler.
The head of the Board on Geographic
Names wrote back as follows: “Dear Mr.
Michael, your request is denied because
we see no connection between Mr.
Mahler and this mountain.” Bloodied
but unbowed, Bob dropped the idea—
for 35 years!
Then, in October 2003, Bob was leafing
through a 1987 topographic map of
Rocky Mountain National Park
published by the US Geologic Survey.
And there, to his great surprise was not
“Colorado Peak 12,493'” but “Mount
Mahler.”
by James B. Kimberly
What happened? Apparently some
anonymous, music-loving cartographer
took Bob’s suggestion to heart and in
the ancient tradition of “Don’t ask, don’t
tell,” just stuck it on the park map when
his supervisor was otherwise engaged.
Chris Mohr, a longtime friend of Bob’s,
and a composer in his own right, then
did some digging and found out that a
mountain name on one map does not
necessarily make it official. That takes
lobbying. So Mohr wrote the Colorado
Historical Society, the Jackson County
Board of Commissioners, both US
Senators, and all applicable
Representatives, urging them to make
the name official.
As a result, Mount Mahler is likely to
appear on the map titled “Mount
Richthofen Quadrangle” in the seven
and a half minute series. Bob says that
getting it into the 7.5” series will make it
final, and that it is just a matter of time.
At that point, Colorado Peak 12,493' will
become Mount Mahler and the only
peak in America, so far as he can
determine, named after a composer.
James Kimberly, a professional fund raiser,
sings bass, plays drums and lives in Santa
Barbara, California.
Inside
The In Box
page 2
Fun, Food and Folk Music in
Bavaria
page 3
Forming a Chamber Ensemble
page 4
Taking Responsibility
page 5
Electric Bass: The Classical
page 6
Connection
Learning Popular Song Chord
Progressions from Arthur
Godfrey
page 7
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The In Box
WORKSHOP GUIDE COMING A MONTH EARLIER
Responding to a growing number of workshops that have early
application deadlines, the 2007 Music Workshop Guide will
appear in print January 2 as our January-February issue. It will
contain descriptions, dates, rates and contact information for
over 500 music workshops on every continent, plus a map, a
classified index and many photos. Subscribers will get it free; gift
orders ($15.00) may be placed at www.musicworkshopguide.net.
CHILDREN’S CHOIRS HELP AFRICAN ORPHANS
The Amani Celebration, a collection of holiday music from
children’s choirs in North America, was recently released as a
limited-edition CD by the Amani Children’s Foundation. The
introduction to the CD was contributed by Maya Angelou, poet
and writer. The proceeds from the sale of The Amani Celebration
will go to care for orphans in Africa. The CD can be purchased in
stores across the country, at event locations, and at
www.amanimeanspeace.org.
PERFORMANCE SPACES IN CHICAGO
Arts at Large is a fledgling non-profit that bridges the gap
between musicians and local audiences in the Chicago area by
presenting performances in small, accessible venues. Contact
Anne Breeden, Arts at Large, 3318 N. Lake Shore Dr. #100
Chicago, IL 60657, 773/248.1667, [email protected].
MURAL MYSTERY SOLVED
Florence Wong of Stillwater, Minnesota, was the first reader who
correctly identified last month’s Mystery Mural as an excerpt
from Ravel’s “Gaspard de la Nuit” which overlooks the parking
lot of what was formerly a Schmitt Music store in downtown
Minneapolis, Minnesota.
photo by Ben Ostrowsky
Music for the Love of It Vol. 19 No. 6, December 2006 , ISSN 0898-8757.
Published at 67 Parkside Dr., Berkeley, CA 94705, 510/654-9134
www.musicfortheloveofit.com, © 2006 Edgar (Ted) Rust
Ted Rust, Editor-Publisher, Janet Telford, Co-Editor
Bi-monthly, six issues/year. Workshop Guide $15, other issues $5.
Subscription $30/year in U.S., Canada and Mexico, $40/year
elsewhere. PDF version as email $20/year, $30 with archive access.
2
MUSIC FOR THE LOVE OF IT
Fun, Food and Folk Music in Bavaria
by Jennifer L. Price
Ask a typical American youngster
what they think of polka music and the
accordion, and you’ll probably get a
big frown. Ask any youngster who has
been to the Fraundorfer and heard
Friedl Förstner play the accordion, and
you’ll definitely get a grin. He has
been supplying diners with good times
and good memories of the Gasthof
Fraundorfer for more than 39 years.
Before you even reach the door to the
Gasthof Fraundorfer, there are signs
that you are close. There might be a
crowd of people waiting to get inside
or you can smell the fried potatoes and
roasting pork wafting down the street,
making your stomach rumble.
Another sign that you are close to this
popular restaurant is the music that
greets you. People are singing and
clapping along to traditional German
folk songs played by a man in the
traditional leather overall shorts called
lederhosen, playing an accordion,
yodeling, and, of course, drinking a
liter of beer while he performs.
Born in Austria, Friedl Förstner moved
in 1967 to Garmisch-Partenkirchen, an
idyllic alpine village in Germany, and
immediately discovered the familyowned Gasthof Fraundorfer. The
owner’s flexibility and friendliness
drew him in, and since then he has
been sharing his love for music with
DECEMBER 2006
the international clientele of this wellknown restaurant six nights a week.
When asked why music was important
to him, Herr Förstner grinned,
revealing a few small wrinkles around
his eyes, and gave a simple answer “Es
ist mein Leben.” “It’s my life.”
Traditional music is an important part
of life in Germany. I asked Herr
Förstner why music is important to
Bavaria and Bavarian people and he
answered, “It just is.” Yodeling, polka,
and other forms of folk music can be
heard at festivals and in beer halls all
over the country, particularly in the
Southern area of Bavaria. Parades
through cities always include big brass
bands dressed in traditional German
clothing. Many German children learn
dances such as the popular
schuhplattler (a series of jumps with
rhythmic slaps on the hips, thighs, and
feet) at a very young age.
Friedl Förstner was no different. He
learned to play the accordion at school
at thirteen and taught himself yodeling
when he first heard it in Bavaria. By
trade, he was a salesman and often
took the accordion with him while
making sales.
He enjoys playing the traditional
polkas and oompah songs for the
guests of the Fraundorfer, but he also
enjoys playing what the crowd wants.
He is able to play almost any kind of
music that his guests desire, ranging
from American marching songs to
French love songs, all learned by using
his ability to simply hear a song a few
times, practice a bit, and then perform
the music himself.
The request heard most often, though,
is for his yodeling. His ability to shift
his voice from the deeper chest voice to
Gasthof Frauendorfer, GarmischPartenkirchen, Germany
the higher head voice so quickly is
impressive. While listening to his
yodeling, images of lush green fields
nestled beneath tall alpine mountains
fill your mind.
For the past 39 years, most evenings
have been the same for the Gasthof
Fraundorfer. When it begins, Herr
Förstner stops at the bar to pick up his
liter of a beer and water mix, moves to
the seat of honor along a wall covered
in various pictures, and pulls out his
accordion. Guests who have been
busy devouring the wiener schnitzel,
potato soup, and flavorful beers sit up
and turn their attention towards the
musician. Children’s faces light up;
they stare at his quickly moving
fingers and begin to bounce along with
the rhythmic music. As the night
continues, guests begin to sing along
with the music and yell requests. Herr
Förstner, who loves being able to cater
to such a wide range of guests, obliges.
Diners leave the restaurant with a belly
full of fantastic food and a mind full of
fun memories. Friedl Förstner also
leaves the restaurant satisfied. He
played his beloved accordion, sang
traditional songs, and shared his love
of music with a large audience.
Jennifer L. Price is a writer and
photographer currently living in
Garmisch, Germany.
3
. . .each of us hails from a different country and, like
turtles, each carries her worlds where ever she goes.
Triple Time: Forming a Chamber Ensemble
by Melody Amsel-Arieli
Meeting someone familiar is an
unexpected pleasure, especially at a
new place of work. Familiar yes, but it
took me a moment to place her. It was
Orly, a clarinetist with whom I had
once played professionally, now
turned religious, wearing modest dress
and a head covering. Who would have
thought that twenty years hence, she
and I would both be teaching at
Jerusalem’s Ron Shulamit Orthodox
Conservatory?
Though the orchestral days of our
youth were behind us, we both still
longed to perform. So when Orly
suggested a sight-reading session with
her pianist, I jumped at the chance.
That first meeting, three professional
musicians on a lark, felt so right that
we decided to continue. And thus, on
the spur of the moment, our flute,
clarinet, and piano trio was born.
Though we launched into Bizet’s Jeux
d'Enfants, a delightful set of twelve
pieces, and Saint-Saens’ stormy
Tarantella with great aplomb, we
quickly realized our need for common
ground—musically and otherwise.
Like many here in old-new Israel, each
of us hails from a different country
and, like turtles, each carries her
worlds wherever she goes. Irena our
pianist, an immigrant from the former
Soviet Union, was raised on Russian
soul music such as Tchaikovsky and
4
Rachmaninoff. I, who studied flute in
the French flute tradition, sometimes
seem bland in comparison. Thank
goodness, Orly, our Israeli-born and
bred clarinetist, vigilantly monitors
balance and tempos, averting an allout cultural clash.
Though our lines of communication
may seem tangled in theory, in practice
we’re working out the knots. Irena
may count her beats in Russian and I
plot my entrances in English, but we
all know our way around in Hebrew.
And of course, bellissimo Italiano is our
lingua franca. Truthfully, negotiating a
mutual sempre forte or diminuendo is far
simpler than extracting ourselves from
our frequent verbal forays into Israel’s
religious and political minefields. In
fact, tea and cookie breaks aside, the
less we talk, the better we play. A
shared breath when starting a phrase, a
raised eyebrow at an impending
cadence, or a slight sway during a
rubato speaks louder than words.
While interpretation poses few
problems, finding suitable repertoire is
something else. Our first program, in
addition to Jeux d'Enfants and
Tarantella, included Botessini's Theme
and Variations and Shostakovich's Three
Waltzes, all composed for our
combination of instruments. By our
second season, however, though we
scoured local libraries, we found little
else originally written for flute,
clarinet, and piano. Although we
generally round out our programs
with solo pieces like Poulenc’s Sonata
for Flute, Schumann's Romance, Op. 94
for Clarinet and Piano, or Scarlatti's
piano sonata, we realized at that point
that we would have to sacrifice
musical purism for practicality. We
begged Orly to transpose Baroque
violin and oboe parts for clarinet.
Initially, she was reluctant to bobble
Baroque arpeggios on her definitely
un-Baroque instrument. But she finally
came around, improving her tonguing,
finger technique, and transposition
skills along the way. Today in fact,
when pressed, Orly allows that she
enjoys performing Baroque music
almost as much as listening to it.
So these days, we unabashedly open
our concerts with Loeillet or Telemann
trio sonatas featuring flute, piano and
clarinet. Or we go where many fear to
tread, performing unorthodox
arrangements of Bach trio sonatas,
occasionally alternating the flute and
violin (oops, clarinet) parts to
accommodate our tessituras.
Undoubtedly many composers, past
and present, have arranged or written
compositions expressly for our
ensemble, but in Israel, they are hard
to come by. And, as it turns out, not
just in Israel. A fly-by-night trip to
Patelson’s Music House in New York
City offered much promise but yielded
only one prize, Michael Webster’s
arrangement of Bizet’s Carmen
Rhapsody (International Press). Michael
Webster himself is a clarinetist in a trio
like ours. That says a lot.
To sum it up, over the past three years,
Orly, Irena, and I, each very different,
have become fast friends. Our lively
rehearsals, discussions, and
performances have not only deepened
our musical pleasure, but also
deepened our understanding of one
another’s lives.
© 2006. Melody Amsel-Arieli.
Flutist Melody Amsel-Arieli was raised in
New Jersey, educated in Manhattan and
lives near Jerusalem, Israel.
MUSIC FOR THE LOVE OF IT
. . . I find myself smiling because this piece is
such a grand ride, even though I’ve fallen off.
Taking Responsibility
by Christine Stone
If I don’t know those last two or three pages now I never
will, certainly not in time for the eleven o’clock service.
I’m not sure it matters. The section leader and two or
three others are the first soprano section; the rest of us are
along for the ride. And I was all right at the orchestra
rehearsal, with the support of the other sopranos. So why
am I in my office at two in the morning with the boom
box in my lap and the music propped up on the computer,
pinning down every last note as if my entire relationship
with music depended on it?
A number of people in the church appreciate a superior
performance and notice flaws, but nothing I do will make
any audible difference. For that matter, if a third of the
sopranos came in on the D that we thought was a
misprint and then decided wasn’t; another third sang the
E that we tried using instead; and the other third didn’t
sing anything, I'm not sure Bach himself would notice it at
Playing with the Professionals
PLAYWIP is the blanket title for three workshops
offered by Intermusica in the Czech Republic. Top
professionals with considerable pedagogic
experience play WITH amateur musicians
throughout.
Four ensembles, a new approach (PLAYWIP 1) is
organized by Verein Bergsträsser Musikseminare
(VBMA) and features the Martinu Quartet of
Prague. Contact Christian Boller,
[email protected], telephone +44 114
2304 308.
Playing with the Czech String Trio (PLAYWIP 2),
Chamber Music in a Czech Castle (PLAYWIP 3) and
the VLTAVA Project (for orchestral wind players)
are organized by MusicEnterprise
(www.intermusica.org, click
on MusicEnterprise).
In addition ,
MusicEnterprise can provide
information on other
courses in this country,
entirely free. Contact Geoff
Piper, MusicEnterprise,
[email protected].
Castle Lnare, West Bohemia
DECEMBER 2006
this tempo. It certainly won’t matter if I don’t take personal
responsibility for every note.
Bach’s high notes and hard parts are often buried in the
densest part of some fugue where nobody is likely to be
aware of them. When I lose my place in those pages I’m
struggling with and try to pick the soprano part out of the
mass of sound, all I can hear clearly is the orchestra, TA-tata-ta, TA-ta-ta-ta, TA-ta-ta-ta, TA-ta-ta-ta. Picturing
“Sunday Concert in London” (detail), British, 18th c.
from Early Music Vancouver 2006 calendar
gentlemen in knee breeches and periwigs sawing away
furiously, I find myself smiling because this piece is such a
grand ride, even though I’ve fallen off. Nothing is more fun
than galloping through one of these Baroque pearls neck
and neck with the orchestra: racing strings, thumping
continuo, tympani, the high trumpets that Paul McCartney
incorporated into Beatles songs. It’s well worth the effort of
learning all those notes.
Bach’s late, encyclopedic compositions—the Goldberg
Variations, the Art of Fugue, the Mass in B Minor—weren’t
part of his job. Their purpose seems to have been to sum up
everything he knew about writing music, and many of
them contain elements that the listener isn’t expected to be
aware of.
In the St. Matthew Passion, after Jesus tells his disciples that
one of them will betray him, Bach sets the answering
phrase “Is it I, Lord?” exactly eleven times (Judas, the
twelfth disciple, doesn’t have to ask). Presumably, he did
this because eleven repetitions was correct, not because
anyone would be counting during performance.
Perhaps a similar sense of abstract principle prompts me to
insist on subduing every last eighth note even if nobody
knows the difference but me, because, as someone else
remarked in another context, it’s there.
Christine Stone was author of “Hark, the Krummhorns” and
“Panic in the Choir Loft.”
5
Electric Bass: The Classical Connection
by Ben Santora
For many of us who play electric bass,
classical music can seem like an irrelevant
genre. You may enjoy listening to
Beethoven once in awhile, but it may never
have occurred to you to explore this music
with your electric. I did this recently and it
opened up a new world for me.
1968 Fender Jazz Bass
Sibila Savage photo, courtesy of
JayRosen.com
I had decided to try and take my
musicianship up a notch by learning to
sight-read on my electric bass. I know the
notes on my fretboard well and can read
the bass clef, so I got started. I began
looking for a piece of music that would
keep me at it. There’s really no point in
learning to sight-read, say, “Green River”
by Creedence Clearwater Revival. It’s a
great song with a simple, elegant bass line,
but it can be learned by ear in minutes. I
needed something that would keep me
interested while I forced myself away from
my long (and enjoyable) habit of playing
by ear. I needed learn-something classical.
Classical music is very thoughtfully
composed and precisely written. To
reproduce it well and keep its spirit intact,
you need to get a copy of the orchestral
score and study it along with the music.
Studying this one piece of music gave me
many new places to explore on my bass
and really improved my left hand
technique. I learned different ways to
phrase, and how Mozart used long
sustained notes in certain passages to
ground the music. It really justified the
small amount of time I had put into
practicing sight-reading in order to learn it.
I put on a recording of my favorite
symphony—Mozart #40—and followed
the bass staff on the score, first without my
bass. I did this four or five times before
attempting to play along on my bass.
Sight-reading is a skill in itself and if it’s
new to you, it can be tough just
learning to keep track of which
measure you’re on.
technique: learning to control each
note, how long to hold it, how loud to
But I learned that bass is a great way
play it, its musical name. Listen well,
to approach classical music. It’s about
play carefully, and you can do justice
as easy as it gets in sight-reading. It
to any music.
has a limited range, few chords and
yet it’s the foundation of the music.
As an electric bass guitar player, I
And Mozart’s bass lines do not
would never compare myself to a
disappoint!
double bass player. The incredible
Classical music can easily be played
and enjoyed on an electric fretted bass,
once you get past the idea that the
electric bass is some kind of lesser
instrument. This prejudice against our
beloved electric irritates me. A good
bass player can get a good bass sound
from any instrument. It’s a matter of
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skills immediately, simply by playing
along with such an incredibly well-written
composition. The technical precision
necessary was overwhelming at first. After
the freedom of playing rock for so many
years, playing so exactingly was tough-I
felt constrained. But the music hooked me.
I knew Symphony #40 well as a listener,
but playing it made it accessible to me for
the first time as a player.
physicality required puts playing this
giant in a class by itself. Dedicated
double bass players who wrestle that
big beautiful fretless neck are working
with a totally different animal.
My goal was not to become a classical
bassist, but rather to learn to sightread on my electric. I developed new
A double bassist can keep a note going
indefinitely by bowing. We can’t do this,
but with good left-hand control and a
subtle attack with the right hand fingers
can keep the sound going. You can even
learn to use your amplifier more musically
as part of the sounds you need to create. By
reading precisely and practicing, I was able
to play along with a symphony orchestra!
I’m sure many purists will scoff at all of
this. But I’m not suggesting replacing
double bass with an electric, only that you
can play Mozart on your Fender electric
and should try. It’s great fun, an excellent
sight-reading and ear-training exercise,
and an immediate intro into Mozart’s
genius. Give one of his bass lines a
try—you won’t regret it.
Find other classical pieces by
composers that you enjoy as a listener
and try them too. Chances are good
that if you like the music, you’ll like
the bass lines.
And if playing classical music starts to
feel a bit too stuffy, too rigid, too lofty,
take Creedence Clearwater Revival ’s
advice and: “If you get lost, come on
home to Green River.”
Ben Santora lives in Brighton, MA. His
“Finding Your Own Musical Personality”
was in our October, 2005 issue.
MUSIC FOR THE LOVE OF IT
Here’s the trick: Tunes have chords
which function like members of families.
Learning Popular Song Chord Progressions from Arthur Godfrey
by Florence Calderone Blake
One redhead, wielding one tiny
instrument, intrigued my generation.
In 1950, television was in its infancy
and live shows originated in New York
City. Many early TV stars had
graduated from radio. Arthur Godfrey
was one personality to make that
radio-to-TV changeover. Dominating
the airwaves with his Talent Scouts
and other variety shows, Godfrey also
presented a local show we watched
after school. A frequent vacationer in
Hawaii, he’d constantly tout his
affection for the Islands destined to
become our 50th State.
A Hawaiian souvenir he brought to his
afternoon show was the ukulele.
Godfrey gave daily instructions
on playing this four-stringed
novelty, creating an
unprecedented spike in uke sales.
Soon, along with many school
kids aged six to sixteen, we
compared blisters and ridges in
our fingers from uke practice.
The author’s brother
Emil Calderone in 1952
The trend evolved into a
fascination with the uke’s sixstringed big brother, the guitar,
and boosted its sales as well.
Godfrey’s instructions imparted
the tools for learning to play by
ear. Those of us who learned
from him gained valuable skills
DECEMBER 2006
often missing in traditional music
lessons. Unfortunately, his techniques
seem to have all but disappeared in the
shuffle of modernized music studies.
His premise was that most regular
tunes are written in predictable
patterns. Although a few “irregular”
tunes are exceptions, the pattern works
with everything from hillbilly to Grand
Opera. Here’s the trick: Tunes have
chords which function like members of
families. I’ve summarized them in a
little chart (below). The chart works
fine for ukelele: just ignore the bottom
two strings.
If the song is written in the key of C,
the C triad (C-E-G) is the tonic chord,
the head of the family. Regular songs
can successfully start and end with the
tonic.
The dominant chord (always a 7th
under this premise), is the next family
member in importance. Except with
the pesky keys of B and F, you’ll find
the dominant by counting four notes
past the tonic, and adding the third,
fifth and 7th. So, the dominant in the
key of C is G7.
The next family member is the subdominant. Count back one letter from
the dominant and you find the
subdominant. So, the subdominant
in the key of C is F. (A subdominant
in this system never has an added
7th.)
The turn-around (link) chord is the
tonic triad with an added 7th. If
you use it when you’re moving
from the tonic to the subdominant,
it sounds prettier. So when going
from C to its subdominant F chord,
play C, C7, and then F.
Another member of the family is
the relative minor. It’s easiest to use
the transposition chart for all the
keys, and families, or to memorize
which relative minor belongs with
what key. Simply by keeping the
chords in their families, those who
grasped Godfrey’s methods could
strum and transpose almost any
song.
Florence Calderone Blake has moved on
from ukelele to guitar and mandolin.
She has composed about a dozen sacred
songs and has had over 120 articles
published in magazines, anthologies
and newspapers including Boston
Globe and Guideposts Books.
7
MUSIC FOR THE LOVE OF IT
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DECEMBER 2006
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