Peter Billam's Mail

Peter Billam has contributed to the piano-l mailing list:

and to the lieder-l mailing list:

Date: Wed, 18 Nov 1998 22:12:28 +1100
To: Piano-L@uamont.edu
Subject: Re: Review of Barbara Nissman Concert (long)

I speak as a composer, but not for composers, of course ...

Lyn Bronson wrote:
> ... the solo piano recital has declined in recent years so that a
> majority of solo piano recitals are presented at universities and colleges.
>
That's true here, too, and also for violin and piano, cello and piano and
voice and piano.

> Most observers point the finger of guilt at twentieth-century composers
> who have failed to write music that is attractive to pianists and their
> audiences. Few contemporary composers love the piano or have any skill
> in writing music idiomatically for it.
>
Or indeed, "few contemporary pianists show any interest in composing or are
any good at it", depending which way you want to see things.  Either way, or
both ways, it's a big change from last century, and it's serious.

> Additionally, many twentieth-century works for the piano are so difficult
> that they are beyond the reach of the average pianist. Many can manage the
> easier Beethoven Sonatas and some of the Nocturnes and Waltzes by Chopin,
>
This, I think, is the key ! music to be played, not just listened to;
to be done, not just consumed. My experience of music is that I sit
down at the piano, open the Art of Fugue or the Schubert Song Cycles,
choose anything at random and start reading and the notes sound great
when you play them together.  Playing them is a certain amount of work,
but not too much, and the beauty of the notes is reward enough to want
to keep playing. It's more vivid than CD's, more fun than concerts.

Music to be played in concert is different.  It has to allow the performer
to impress other people, and it doesn't have to be fun for them to practice.

So I think the problem is older than the twentieth century, I think it
began in the era of the travelling virtuoso.  Up to what we still fondly
refer to as 'the last war', the emphasis on virtuoso concert music was an
imbalance that could be tolerated because composers are unpredictable,
they can do different things for a while if they want, fashions come and go.

> but they would be hard pressed or show little
> enthusiasm to play works by Karl-Heinz Stockhausen, Crumb or Xenakis.
>
Undeniably something went seriously wrong after 1945, in what we still
fondly refer to as the 'post-war era'.  Until then, the century had been
going quite well; we had had Mahler, Strauss, Debussy, Ravel, Stravinsky,
Bartok and many others, great composers whose achievement pretty much
withstands comparison with that of the time of Beethoven and Schubert.
Also, composers of diverse styles and nationalities, which made it look
as if music had spread, and taken root widely, and was now robust.

Then suddenly after the war the only music house publishing new music is
Universal Edition, and the only style allowed is post-Webern serialism !
A terrible loss of diversity.  It happened to all composers, it was much
bigger than composers. It was done to composers, they were the primary
victims.  Funding was only for performance in serialist concerts, and the
idea that notes should sound sufficiently good when played together that
it made it worthwhile to play them became not even a memory any more.

> Because of this lack of replenishment, the piano repertoire has stagnated
> and modern audiences have become jaded from listening to the same standard
> repertoire year after year.
>
And not just the piano, unfortunately.  It's a huge issue for the whole
tradition, which is defined by its printed music, by that division of
labour between composer and player.  Composition is not an optional
extra, it's half of the deal which forms the tradition.
These thousands of young people that emerge from the conservatoria of
the world every year, having learned to translate printed music into
sound - what are they supposed to play ?

My take on these things is that composing will recover when composers
can live again by selling scores to people who buy them because
when you play a wrong note it always sounds worse than the right one,
because the notes make really interesting patterns that stay interesting
no matter how many times you play the piece, and the pleasure for the ears
is greater than the work that the playing costs.  The primary deal should
be between the writer of the music and the reader; any audience is a
secondary issue, forget the audience for a bit.

There's a music-publishing side to that, and there's a composing side,
and they both have to be solved, and that's why I do what I do.

                  o                      Regards,  Peter Billam
          o                o
    o             o             o        P J B Composing
           o             o               http://www.pjb.com.au
 \_O__o                         _O_/     Tel: (03) 6236 9410
   |                          o/ |       GPO Box 669, Hobart
  / )                           ( \      TAS 7001, Australia


Date: Thu Dec  3 16:16:26 1998
To: lieder-l@listserv.uh.edu
Subject: Re: attracting bigger audiences for lieder

Alain & Laura Bernay wrote:
> I am on the committee for our local lieder society and it is our
> constant problem that we cannot seem to attract bigger audiences.
> Soon we are meeting to brainstorm what strategies we might adopt
> to combat this.
>
2c worth:
Make sure people understand the words, it's not just a pretty tune,
there's a _meaning_ to it.  (controversy warning...) Lieder tackle
a lot of modern themes, especially sex, drugs and incurable STDs.

Schubert, Heine, Müller, Wolf, Schumann all had syphilis and it
was a dominant fact in the lives of these very expressive people.
To the AIDS generation no repertoire could be more relevant than the
Winterreise, Am Meer, der Doppelgänger, Ich Grolle Nicht, all the
way through to La Vie Antérieure (Duparc) and Die Zeitlose (Strauss).

A key word is Traum, which of course means 'dream', just as the
word 'trip' also means 'voyage'.  There's Nacht und Träume,
Träume (Wagner), Apres un Rève, Die Lotosblume, Extase (Duparc)
and you could make a whole evening of it, though it gets a bit too
soporific, perhaps.  My favourite is Das Lied im Grünen, where
Reil gets out his old hippie colours and nails them to the mast.

And as for love, well, Die Schöne Müllerin still happens to young
people all the time.  I don't see how you can understand the words
of this stuff and not be moved by it. There's so many songs in this
category I won't even start. I can't resist Heimliche Aufforderung,
though. Nor the Italienisches Liederbuch.

So I suggest, make sure there's a good (fluent rather than singable,
for these purposes) translation in the programme, and you could
even consider projected supertitles, like they do at Glyndebourne.
Or get someone who really _loves_ the music to write a blurb for
the local press, or for handbills, or for a short but enthusiastic
introductory talk. A coherent theme to the subject matter of the
songs in the concert will make it easier to publicise.

Also, as you're in .AU, don't forget the english-language stuff
like Butterworth, Britten and Barber.  Or even Billam ...

> standards which are to bring fine quality art song to the public and
> give opportunities to professional singers to present them.
>
I'm jealous. I wish we had one of those in Hobart ...

                  o                      Regards,  Peter Billam
          o                o
    o             o             o        P J B Composing
           o             o               http://www.pjb.com.au
 \_O__o                         _O_/     Tel: (03) 6236 9410
   |                          o/ |       GPO Box 669, Hobart
  / )                           ( \      TAS 7001, Australia


Date: Fri Dec  4 10:08:36 1998
To: lieder-l@listserv.uh.edu
Subject: Re: attracting bigger audiences for lieder

> Peter Billam wrote:
> A key word is Traum, which of course means 'dream', just as the
> word 'trip' also means 'voyage'.  There's Nacht und Träume,
> Träume (Wagner), Apres un Rève, Die Lotosblume, Extase (Duparc)
> ... My favourite is Das Lied im Grünen, where
> Reil gets out his old hippie colours and nails them to the mast.

> Barbara Baker wrote:
> I hadn't realised the 'hippie' aspect - thought of it as a sort of
> Viennese bush-walking, bush-lying-around-and-dreaming,
> -making love, - making plans, - making jokes, -thinking deep
> thoughts type song.
>
Well, that fits ...

> Celia A. Sgroi wrote:
> I have to admit I have never thought of the song as a "hippie"
> statement. Are Horace, Plato, Wieland, and Kant meant to be
> understood as a quartet of counter-culture heroes?
>
The interest in things philosophical fits too.

The key is not just the free love 'denn leicht ist die Lockung,
empfänglich das Herz im Grünen, im Grünen', it's that word
'Traum' again, as the climax of the poem and of the song:

   Grünt einst uns das Leben nicht fürder,
   so haben wir klüglich die grünende Zeit nicht versäumt,
   und wann es gegolten, doch glücklich geträumt,
   und wann es gegolten, doch glücklich geträumt
   im Grünen, im Grünen.

'Traum' here obviously doesn't mean sleeping; and it doesn't mean
vague hoping and time-wasting, because that meaning couldn't bear
the weight of being the high-point of the poem (and the song).
It's a nostalgic song, it's looking back and being glad that he did
when he could.

( I should add that Das Lied im Grünen is just my favourite song
  in this category, not my all-time favourite; that's currently
  La Vie Anterieure (Baudelaire/Duparc) though it's a hard choice.
)

> Barbara Baker wrote:
> If I may timidly suggest that really the projected audience
> probably needs a bit of German ?
>
Sure, it helps a lot, but two things... There is great repertoire in
other languages too, and, pragmatically, if you want bigger audiences
in an english-speaking country then teaching the population german is
likely to be too slow a strategy for your purposes; you'll also have
to make it fun for non-german speakers.

> Hit the German language students with Lieder as
> part of their courses, even in secondary school?
>
Very good idea, the poems tend to be short and clear with lots of
human interest.  They might also fall in love with the pretty tunes !
But shifting curricula can also be slow work.

                  o                      Regards,  Peter Billam
          o                o
    o             o             o        P J B Composing
           o             o               http://www.pjb.com.au
 \_O__o                         _O_/     Tel: (03) 6236 9410
   |                          o/ |       GPO Box 669, Hobart
  / )                           ( \      TAS 7001, Australia


Date: Tue, 22 Dec 1998 09:15:52 +1100
To: Piano-L@uamont.edu
Subject: Re: Temperament (was: On the abuse of "color")

Ed Foote wrote:
> We are considering a "Well-Tempered Schubert" CD as a follow-up for the
> Beethoven we did, and have listened to several temperaments.  So far, the
> Young seems to be the best. For Mozart, a 1/6 comma meantone works quite
> well ...
>
I don't know these temperaments by these names ...  What I call the Van
Biezen temperament is what I'd recommend for Mozart, Haydn, Clementi, etc,
and it involves six fifths 1/6 comma smaller than perfect, and six perfect
fifths.  Does this sound like the same thing as your "1/6 comma meantone" ?

This all starts to raise the question of using non-Equal Temperaments to
make pieces sound better, even if they were written for Equal Temperament.
For example, Shostakovitch's C major Fugue from op 87 sounds better, or at
least more in tune, with a Kirnberger temperament.

For most pianists, this will not be practical, but on a CD, who knows ?
It's not very original-instrument-oriented. It is legal; is it ethical ?
After all, there's more to music than keyboards. Strings, voices, and
the like will play as in-tune as they can, and adapt to individual pieces,
to individual bars, even.

The Kirnberger has a perfect third between C and E, so it sounds great in
C major.  It sounds awful in B, F# or Db.  That wasn't a problem in Baroque
times because other instruments (eg flutes) also favoured the home keys,
and pieces in B, F# or Db were rare.

If you have a more modern piece in B major that doesn't modulate too much,
there's no reason why you shouldn't set a pseudo-Kirnberger temperament
with a perfect third between B and D#.  I've never heard of this happening.
Of course such a temperament wouldn't have been useful in Baroque times;
but doesn't that make it wrong.

Likewise, you could set an inside-out Van Biezen temperament, so that
the remote keys of Ab, Db, F#, B and E sounded better than D, G, C, F
and Bb. This could 'improve' lots of pieces in remote keys, by people
like Scriabin.  It's a real can of worms ...

              ===Insert Suitable Festive Greeting Here===

                  o                      Regards,  Peter Billam
          o                o
    o             o             o        P J B Composing
           o             o               http://www.pjb.com.au
 \_O__o                         _O_/     Tel: (03) 6236 9410
   |                          o/ |       GPO Box 669, Hobart
  / )                           ( \      TAS 7001, Australia


Date: Tue, 29 Dec 1998 09:48:27 +1100
To: Piano-L@uamont.edu
Subject: Re: Tone color, older temperaments

Neil McKelvie wrote:
> Who was "van Biezen" ? I'm not familiar with this name for a temperament.
> 
I got this temperament from a Dutch harpsichord-tuning course. I can't
remember much about Van Biezen except that he devised it quite recently,
perhaps in the 1960's, and that it was considered unknown at that time.
It has since been found apparently referred to by one of the old Italian
violinists, Tartini I think, it began with T anyway. It was recommended
as a tolerant general-purpose temperament, good for fortepianos and organs.

So that it can be identified with the same thing under other names, I'll
give some instructions here.  This assumes you have an electronic tuner
for equal temperament (ET), callibrated in 1/100's of a semitone (cents).

 1 Use the tuner to set D and Ab (=G#) as for ET.  Switch the tuner off.
 2 Use perfect fifths from Ab to set Eb then Bb then F
 3 Use perfect fifths from G# to set C# then F# then B
 4 You now have eight of the twelve notes.  Switch the tuner back on and
   check that B is 5.7 cents flat of ET and F is 5.7 cents sharp of ET.
 6 Fill in A and E equidistant between D and B, so that A is 1.9 cents
   flat of ET, and E is 3.8 cents flat of ET.
 7 Fill in G and C equidistant between D and F, so that G is 1.9 cents
   sharp of ET, and C is 3.8 cents sharp of ET.

Hope this helps . . .

                  o                      Regards,  Peter Billam
          o                o
    o             o             o        P J B Composing
           o             o               http://www.pjb.com.au
 \_O__o                         _O_/     Tel: (03) 6236 9410
   |                          o/ |       GPO Box 669, Hobart
  / )                           ( \      TAS 7001, Australia


Date: Thu, 31 Dec 1998 10:25:41 +1100
To: Piano-L@uamont.edu
Subject: Re: Tone color, older temperaments

Jan Pedersen wrote:
> The symmetry of this (Van Biezen) tuning with respect to the layout of
> the keyboard is a thing of beauty, and unforgettable.
>
Yes, it is neat, symmetrical about the D-Ab axis in the cycle of fifths.
The missing comma is shared among six of the twelve fifths; this relates
to ET where the missing comma is shared by all twelve fifths, and to the
Kirnberger temperament where the missing comma is shared among the four
fifths C-G-D-A-E (approximately).

> Seems like it might be a good tuning for jazz, too, thinking of playing in
> keys favored by Bb and Eb winds.
>
Jazz can mean a lot of different things, but I'd want ET for jazz, the chords
are too wide-ranging and complex, they don't stay in Bb.

> The symmetry can obviously be inverted, surrounding D with perfect fourths
> and fifths on the white keys, spacing Db and Gb evenly between Ab and B,
> and spacing Eb and Bb evenly between Ab and F. Since this would match the
> pythagorean tuning of bass (E A D G), strings (C G D A E), and guitars
> (E A D G B E), I suspect it would be highly suitable for folk, country,
> and rock music.
>
I think you'd be better off with the Van Biezen the normal way round,
because the thirds are the bigger issue.  Shrinking the white-key fifths
is not good in itself, it's aimed at flattening the home-key major thirds.
So in Van Biezen, C-E, F-A, and G-B all have a pitch ratio of 1.2542, which
is a lot more in tune than ET at 1.2599 (the pure third is 1.25 of course).
The home-key fifths are 1.4966 in Van Biezen, which is slightly worse than
ET at 1.4983 (pure fifth is 1.5) but is still pretty good.  The thirds are
why Van Biezen sounds better than ET in the home keys.

In remote keys, Van Biezen sounds worse; e.g. Gb-Bb is 1.2656, which is
only just bearable, worse than ET at 1.2599 ... Bluesy thirds are flat,
but this is sharp.  The fifths might be perfect, but as soon as there's
a third in the chord it will sound unpleasant.  Four pure fifth's do not
quite make a pure major third, that's the problem.

> a fascinating bit of theory; I wish I had some way to experience it. Hmm...
>
Get a harpsichord or a virginal, perhaps, then you're obliged to tinker
with temperaments ... Pianos have too many strings to experiment with;
the treble goes up so many octaves, and three strings to each note too.
You wouldn't want to reset a piano more than a couple of times a year,
you'd have to dedicate it to home-key repertoire for at least 6 months.

Just on a personal note, my harpsichord is currently in Kirnberger
because I'm playing Handel recorder sonatas and the Bach trio sonata
in G; if I were playing in Eb or worse it would be in Van Biezen.
My piano is in ET; I read a lot of Brahms, Wagner, Scriabin, R.Strauss
etc on it (just the easy bits, mind).  And, most important, I don't like
composing on any non-ET temperament, it feels like playing billiards on
an undulating table, the balls always collect in the same places.
To dance, you need a space in which you can move freely, I reckon.

                  o                      Regards,  Peter Billam
          o                o
    o             o             o        P J B Composing
           o             o               http://www.pjb.com.au
 \_O__o                         _O_/     Tel: (03) 6236 9410
   |                          o/ |       GPO Box 669, Hobart
  / )                           ( \      TAS 7001, Australia


Date: Sun, 10 Jan 1999 09:58:11 +1100
To: Piano-L@uamont.edu
Subject: Re: Inner Hearing

cynthia macias wrote:
> Does anyone have suggestions about how to develop inner hearing in
> students, and get them to actualize it on the keyboard?
>
They're not going to like this; I wish I knew a better way, but this is
all I've discovered.

 * Lots of sight reading; at least ten minutes a day for ever, preferably
   more.  In sight reading, you look at the dots, find the keys with the
   fingers, and play them.  Then your brain compares the resulting sound
   with the sound that those dots ought to have made, and checks for errors.
   It's this last step which forces your brain to know what sound the dots
   ought to make. It gives you lots of practice.  There's no substitute for
   sight-reading.  Consume Vocal Scores of operas, Piano Reductions of
   concerti; and don't look at the keyboard or you lose the crucial step.

 * play along with recorded music by ear; get as many voices as you can.

 * play two- or three- voice stuff, whistling one voice and playing the
   other(s) on the keyboard.

 * play lieder repertoire, singing the vocal line too.

 * copy scores, whistling as you go.

 * do lots of sight-read singing, e.g. in choirs.

 * when listening to music, follow it in score.  Try to read ahead of the
   sound, to know how the lines and harmonies will go before you hear them.

 * learn to sight-read from a figured bass; this gives you a good feel for
   harmonies.

 * while reading music, fail to turn the page, and keep going by improvising
   for as long as possible.

 * start as young as possible and never stop.  It doesn't matter how good
   you get, there's still infinite scope for improvement . . .

"Ich habe fleissig sein muessen ; wer ebenso fleissig ist, der wird
 es ebensoweit bringen koennen."  Johann Sebastian Bach.

Everyone knows the feeling of listening to a piece of music in your head;
it's a nice feeling and everyone can do it sometimes, and that's why the
Beatles sold so many records.  That's not an elite thing.  It's rather
harder to do it when you wish, to summon up a piece on demand.  But that's
all just reproducing music that already exists, like a CD player does.
What you're looking for is the ability to play that internal orchestra
like a piano, to determine what notes will come.  That seems like it ought
to be a small step, but it's not. It's very very hard, it's a lot of work.

If you find any short cuts, please please let me know.

                  o                      Regards,  Peter Billam
          o                o
    o             o             o        P J B Composing
           o             o               http://www.pjb.com.au
 \_O__o                         _O_/     Tel: (03) 6236 9410
   |                          o/ |       GPO Box 669, Hobart
  / )                           ( \      TAS 7001, Australia


Date: Thu, 06 May 1999 14:48:01 +1000
To: Piano-L@uamont.edu
Subject: Re: distributing scores

Walden Hughes wrote:
>
> I'm looking for the best way to distribute scores attached to email.
> Do any of you use Adobe Acrobat?  I wonder how it would work to convert
> Finale files to PDF files to attach to emails and the recipient could
> print from Adobe Acrobat Reader.  Any better ideas?
>
The conclusion I reached was that raw Postscript is a better all-round
choice. Postscript is a publicly defined language. If the client has a
Postscript-capable printer they don't need any other software, free or
otherwise.  If they don't, well ghostscript is just as free as Adobe's
PDF reader.  Postscript is immortal, PDF is subject to commercial
manipulation against our benefit.

Just MHO ...

Regards,  Peter Billam

Peter Billam ,    http://www.pjb.com.au/mus ,    Tel: (03) 6236 9410
mailto:music@pjb.com.au ,    GPO Box 669, Hobart TAS 7001, Australia
Compositions, and Arrangements of works by Bach, Schubert, Brahms...
On-line Delivery, On-line Payment, the New Era in Music Publishing !


Date: Date: Thu Mar  9 13:33:39 2000
To: lieder-l@listserv.uh.edu
Subject: Lieder 1900-1999

Greetings.  I've been trying to put together an overview of the
repertoire that we, and future centuries, inherit from the 1900's.  

   http://www.pjb.com.au/mus/lieder_writers.html

I particularly want to see the compositions sorted by date, so as
to grasp the trajectory of the century as a whole.  The rules are
flexible, but I'm not particularly interested in pieces that can't
be obtained in score form (by purchase or in the public domain).
I'm interested in music that people can _do_, not just stuff that
they can listen to a recording of someone else doing.  I'd also
prefer to stick to pieces that you would actually want to do of your
own free will, not just stuff that you'd have to be paid to do.

So from each piece, I'm trying to collect Composer, Title, Poet,
Date of composition, and Publisher; any opinion or judgement you
might have on the piece would also be welcome.

The above URL is still very incomplete, and I'd welcome suggestions
from the list's Collective Wisdom to make it more complete.
I've got some questions of my own (as usual) to start off with:

When were Strauss' Four Last Songs written ?  Also the preceding
three songs without opus number, Das Bächlein, Blick vom oberen
Belvedere and Sankt Michael ?

Schott's catalogue includes a very substantial output by Hermann
Reutter, about 25 opusses (opi ?) all containing several songs.
I've never seen any of them.  What kind of stuff is this ?  Can
it be sung for pleasure ?  When was it written ?

If you know of the dates of composition of lieder by Hindemith,
Tippet, Françaix, or anyone else that should be in there, please
let me know...

Regards,  Peter Billam

Peter Billam ,    http://www.pjb.com.au/mus ,    Tel: (03) 6236 9410
mailto:music@pjb.com.au ,    GPO Box 669, Hobart TAS 7001, Australia
Original compositions, and Arrangements of Bach, Schubert, Brahms...
On-line Delivery, On-line Payment, the New Era in Music Publishing !


Date: Sun Mar 12 10:14:26 2000
To: lieder-l@listserv.uh.edu
Subject: Re: Lieder 1900-1999

Greetings.  Thanks for all your helpful information;

   http://www.pjb.com.au/mus/lieder_writers.html

now covers Berg, Tippett, Debussy, all of Barber and Schoenberg, and
mentions Hindemith, Ireland, Kilpinen, Nystroem, Reutter, Reimann,
Sallinen, and Schoeck.

I haven't done Reutter justice yet; I do have Schott's catalogue, which
mentions titles, poets and some opusses (opera ?), and I'll put these
in soon.  But no dates ...  Also I haven't yet chased up the URLs
for Kilpinen and Schoeck.

Publisher data is missing on Hindemith, Ireland, Kilpinen, Lilburn,
Nystroem, Poulenc, Sallinen, Schoeck, and Shostakovic.

Date data is missing on Britten, Heggie, Hindemith, Kilpinen, Leguerney,
Nystroem, Reutter, Reimann, Sallinen, Schoeck, Shostakovic, Tippett,
and Vaughan Williams.

I'm amazed by how _hidden_ this (I would have thought) basic information
is; scores rarely mention dates, CDs rarely mention publishers,
publishers never mention other publishers, etc.  So all help still
very gratefully received ...

Because of all the missing date data, the overall picture given by
sorting into decades could still be misleading; but it is beginning
to emerge.  You can see the damage done by the two world wars, but the
most striking feature is the missing 1980-1989 decade, quite scary.

Regards,  Peter Billam

Peter Billam ,    http://www.pjb.com.au/mus ,    Tel: (03) 6236 9410
mailto:music@pjb.com.au ,    GPO Box 669, Hobart TAS 7001, Australia
Original compositions, and Arrangements of Bach, Schubert, Brahms...
On-line Delivery, On-line Payment, the New Era in Music Publishing !


Date: Mon Mar 13 20:28:02 2000
To: lieder-l@listserv.uh.edu
Subject: Re: Lieder 1900-1999

Greetings again.  Thanks to all your helpful information, and Bernac's
wonderful book,

   http://www.pjb.com.au/mus/lieder_writers.html

now also covers Auric, Delannoy, Françaix, Hahn, Honegger, Ibert,
Jolivet, Krenek, Lesur, Messiaen, Milhaud, G.Mahler, and Sauget;
also Reutter now gets better treatment.

Publisher data is still missing on Hindemith, Ireland, Kilpinen,
Lilburn, Nystroem, Poulenc, Sallinen, and Schoeck.

Date data is now missing on Auric, Britten, Delannoy, Françaix,
Hahn, Heggie, Hindemith, Honegger, Ibert, Jolivet, Kilpinen, Krenek,
Leguerney, Lesur, Messiaen, Milhaud, Nystroem, Reutter, Reimann,
Sallinen, Sauget, Schoeck, Shostakovic, Tippett, and Vaughan Williams,
so if you can help with composition dates for any of these composers,
please feel free to mail me.  This will make the breakdown by decades
much more accurate.

I've started a breakdown by publishers, too.

Regards,  Peter Billam

Peter Billam ,    http://www.pjb.com.au/mus ,    Tel: (03) 6236 9410
mailto:music@pjb.com.au ,    GPO Box 669, Hobart TAS 7001, Australia
Original compositions, and Arrangements of Bach, Schubert, Brahms...
On-line Delivery, On-line Payment, the New Era in Music Publishing !


Date: Mon Mar 13 20:28:02 2000
To: piano-l@uamont.edu
Subject: Re: Interesting vocal accompaniments

David Rogers wrote:
> I'm planning to audition for an accompanying & chamber music diploma
> program at the beginning of May.  Any suggestions from the list for
> vocal works with prominent and interesting piano parts?  My favorite
> singer is a mezzo-soprano and a good musician ...  but don't limit your
> suggestions too severely.
>
These'd be my pick ...

Schubert - Fischerweise, Franz v. Schlechta, Dover (59 Favourite Songs)
   A confident, a young man's song, and the most pianistic accompaniment
   you can imagine.

Brahms - Ständchen Op 106 no 1, Franz Kugler, Dover Complete Songs IV
   More demanding than it sounds; the singer will want to take this
   just that bit faster than your fingers will want to, and you need
   to match rubati very well.  But it's catchy.

Fauré - Clair de Lune (Menuet) Op 46 no 2, Verlaine, Dover
   So sweet and charming you'll never recover from it.

Wolf - Der Rattenfänger, Goethe, Peters
   Catchy _and_ thrilling.
   "The piano part, which rivets attention from the very first notes,
   has the rhymical strength and urgency of Schubert's "An Schwager
   Kronos" or "Erlkönig" enhanced with a brilliance that is pure Wolf"
   Eric Sams (The Songs of Hugo Wolf)

Wolf - O wär' dein Haus durchsichtig wie ein Glas, Italian Songbook, Dover
   Luminous, crystalline transparency, based on a irresistable repeated-
   -note motif.

Strauss - Heimliche Aufforderung Op 27 no 3, John Henry Mackay,
   International Music Company or Master's Music
   Very out-going.  You did ask for a prominent piano part ...

I'd better stop now because there's several hundred more tapping me
on the shoulder.  Especially so many from Schubert...  This is just
the most wonderful repertoire, because of the way you get such great
music _and_ such great poetry.  All the best with it ...

Hope this helps,  Peter Billam

Peter Billam ,    http://www.pjb.com.au/mus ,    Tel: (03) 6236 9410
mailto:music@pjb.com.au ,    GPO Box 669, Hobart TAS 7001, Australia
Original compositions, and Arrangements of Bach, Schubert, Brahms...
On-line Delivery, On-line Payment, the New Era in Music Publishing !


Date: Mon Apr 10 11:30:18 2000
To: piano-l@uamont.edu
Subject: Too many giving up

Greetings.  The cello angle is a artefact, this applies just as much
to the way we train pianists ...

Story #1:
I was talking with an aquaintance here, a cellist, who's just given
up music.  She's an accomplished professional, played in several top
orchestras.  She's quitting professional music largely because she's
tired of being criticised; it starts with your first lesson, it
continues all through conservatorium, from the teachers, from the
other students, and from yourself, and the better you get the worse
it gets; you get a job in an orchestra and there's the conductor -
you become a touring virtuoso and then there's the critics ...

Of course she became a musician because she fell in love with music as
a child, but now she's unable to play the cello for pleasure because that
just sounds amateurish to her; she's been trained to be a professional,
not a dilletante.  There's no pleasure in music-making for her, that's
been trained out of her, it's an elite competitive performance discipline.

It's all very different from the way I experience music-making, which is
that I consume scores like other people consume CD's, because they're
much more enjoyable than CD's, the experience is more vivid, it's more
rewarding, you can play them dozens of times and they remain interesting;
Casals is great indeed, but Bach is greater.  Music for me is something
that you _do_, not something that you pay other people to do for you.

But I've checked with other fine young musicians I know, pianists
included, and they can all identify with the cellist's experience.

Story #2:
The year before last, I was back visiting Switzerland, where I lived
for 11 years.  In Biel in the late 70's, I lived a very musical life
in the company of dozens of young pianists, guitarists, singers, etc.

Of all those young musicians, the only one still playing professionally
is a cellist, who now plays Free Jazz on a 5-string electric cello
and writes film music.  One guitarist teaches three-chord strums to
trainee school-teachers, a couple of pianists still teach, everyone
else has stopped playing.  Typically, for a decade they organised
concerts and practised, and found that fame was fleeting and show-biz
is competitive and concerts are not a growth area.

It all raises some big issues ...

It relates to the 'Work or Play ?' thread we had recently, and to
to Stravinsky's 'Executant' v. 'Interpreter'.

Beyond the disruption to the individual lives of musicians, there is
the cultural genocide issue. It seems that the way we're taking the
kids that have fallen in love with music and training them to be
professional is not going to keep the culture going.

It's as if we're trying to maintain the pinnacle of the mountain in
place, but with no mountain underneath it.

It's not just music - it's part of a whole re-orientation of
Universities over the last few decades away from knowledge for its
own sake and towards professional formation.

Sport, also, has increasingly turned from something that you _do_
into a couch-potato thing that highly selected and trained elite
performers do, you just watch them on television.

And it even relates to the perils of vicarious pleasure (over to Dylan):
  You never turned around to see the frowns on the jugglers and the clowns
  When they all come down and did tricks for you
  You never understood that it ain't no good
  You shouldn't let other people get your kicks for you

This is my longest post ever :-( and it seems very rambly,
I hope you can get the gist ...


Regards,  Peter Billam

Peter Billam ,    http://www.pjb.com.au/mus ,    Tel: (03) 6236 9410
mailto:music@pjb.com.au ,    GPO Box 669, Hobart TAS 7001, Australia
Original compositions, and Arrangements of Bach, Schubert, Brahms...
On-line Delivery, On-line Payment, the New Era in Music Publishing !


Date: Tue Apr 11 16:07:09 2000
To: piano-l@uamont.edu
Subject: Re: Too many giving up

Neil McKelvie wrote:
> nearly all the NASTY criticism (as opposed to the kind of helpful
> comments from those trying to give genuine advice) came from mediocre
> people.
>
Could be, but I think my cellist's problem was just as much with
the incessant helpful comments and genuine advice.  She found there
was no end to them, because this cycle of spot the imperfection and
eliminate it is how you get yourself to a professional standard.

My concern is not so much that she's not playing in orchestras any
more as that she's unable to play for her own pleasure.  I think
that's a terrible loss.  She's been trained to feel distressed by
imperfections and she can't bear to play music at an amateur level.

Peter Billam wrote:
> It's as if we're trying to maintain the pinnacle of the mountain
> in place, but with no mountain underneath it.

People pay money even just to listen to music; indeed the whole concept
of music as a profession is predicated on this.  But in my experience,
it's even more fun to play music yourself than to pay other people to
play it for you and then listen to them.  The experience is much more
vivid, the individual voices are much more distinct, you get to try
out different things every time, you can feel yourself improving as
the weeks pass, there's a whole social side to it, you get the reward
of bringing a beautiful sound into the universe where before there
was just black ink, and it's even much cheaper.  Also, I enter into
direct communication with Bach and Schubert etc, no intermediaries;
Volodos and Kissin are great, but Bach and Schubert are greater.
Therefore it bothers me when people come out of training with all the
necessary fingers, but unable to play music for their own pleasure.

Dick Norton wrote:
> music, the way it is currently pursued, is just too hard. Look
> at any of the good "standard" Piano trios, Mozart Beethoven or
> Haydn string quartets, etc, and consider how much time one needs
> not only to perform it in even this informal setting,
>
Folks coming out of conservatoria can play most of this stuff, though;
the trouble is they then give up music, because the 'playing music for
enjoyment' ideal has been trained out of them in an effort to turn
them into professionals.  This is the nub of my gripe.

Perhaps conservatoria should keep statistics on whether their ex-
-pupils keep playing ?  I get the feeling that the figures would
be alarming.


Regards,  Peter Billam

PS.  I have no TV ...

Peter Billam ,    http://www.pjb.com.au/mus ,    Tel: (03) 6236 9410
mailto:music@pjb.com.au ,    GPO Box 669, Hobart TAS 7001, Australia
Original compositions, and Arrangements of Bach, Schubert, Brahms...
On-line Delivery, On-line Payment, the New Era in Music Publishing !


Date: Thu Jun 15 10:26:44 2000
To: lieder-l@listserv.uh.edu
Subject: Mayan glyphs

John Burke wrote:
> I don't think we should favor "dumbing down" the music; if it
> can't be saved otherwise, then I fear it's going to die out like
> the ability to read Mayan glyphs, another "elite" skill that didn't
> survive a major cultural change.
>
That's the crux, the ability to read.  I don't think our music can be
saved by CD-collecting, or by attending concerts.

Musical traditions tend to be distinguished by "where do you get the
notes from ?".  In our case, they were put together by a Composer,
and are Printed, on Paper, and Published.  Our musical tradition is
defined precisely by that division of labour between composer and
player, between writer and reader.

Therefore, it can't be saved by CD-collecting; CDs can be collected
of illegible music.  If it lives, it lives by being read, because
of the pleasure it gives to the reader.  DFD is great, but Schubert
is greater, so deal with Schubert directly, no intermediaries.
The commodity of our art is the score, not the recording, and the
fundamental connection is between the writer of the music and the
reader.  Any subsequent show-biz activity is nice, I guess, it's
just not the main issue.

 "As long as men can breathe, and eyes can see, so long lives this ..."

Just MHO ...   Regards,  Peter Billam

Peter Billam ,    http://www.pjb.com.au/mus ,    Tel: (03) 6236 9410
mailto:music@pjb.com.au ,    GPO Box 669, Hobart TAS 7001, Australia
Original compositions, and Arrangements of Bach, Schubert, Brahms...
On-line Delivery, On-line Payment, the New Era in Music Publishing !


Date: Mon Jun 19 10:39:37 2000
To: lieder-l@listserv.uh.edu
Subject: Re: Mayan glyphs

Peter Billam wrote:
> The commodity of our art is the score, not the recording, and the
> fundamental connection is between the writer of the music and the
> reader.  Any subsequent show-biz activity is nice, I guess, it's
> just not the main issue.

John Burke wrote:
> I think this is true as far as it goes, but incomplete.
> I agree that the ability to read musical notation is vital to
> keeping concert music alive, and that recordings can't replace
> it. But there must be a relation to an audience, whatever form it
> takes. ("Audience", from Latin "audio"= "hear.") I shudder to think
> of a world in which this music would only be *read* by scholars (like
> Mayan glyphs now, a thousand years after Classic Maya civilization
> fell apart) but never realized in performance or heard by living ears.

I shudder in agreement !  If our music is only read by scholars,
then we have suffered complete defeat, complete cultural genocide.
Our music must circulate on paper not as rare manuscripts read by
scholars, but as a commodity read by consumers.

> We need to keep *all* the social practices of concert music alive
> and healthy - teaching, reading, composing, recording, performing,
> and listening. 

To call it "concert music" is, well, incomplete, because it sort of
excludes playing it at home, which I think is the whole point.  Let
me quote from Yehudi Menuhin:
  "One of the joys of the string quartet is that it can be played by
   amateurs, enabling them to become acquainted with some of the
   finest music ever written. The quartet belongs essentially to the
   home.  It is music for music's sake, and for the sake of those
   who play, and the few who may be listening.  For all these reasons,
   the string quartet is the purest form of music."
That also applies to our Schubert lieder, and to piano duets, and the
Bach W.T.C. and cello suites and so on and on.

As a vicarious experience, as a part of show-biz, as something that
consumers don't do themselves but they pay money to get other people
to do and then just listen to the result, then our music exists just
like the Spice Girls; it can make profits and losses, be a growth
area or get dropped from the catalogue just the same.  That strategy
offers excitement and glamour, but not long-term survival.

What we can offer that other styles cannot, is music as something
that people can _do_, for themselves, not something vicarious that
they pay specialists to do for them.  On that ground, on home ground,
on real pianos in real living rooms, nothing competes with what we
can offer.

Concert music is the peak of the mountain.  Where there is a mountain
there will always be peaks.  But be wary of attempts to hold the peak
in place with no mountain underneath it.

Just MHO,   Enjoying the thread,   Regards,   Peter Billam

Peter Billam ,    http://www.pjb.com.au/mus ,    Tel: (03) 6236 9410
mailto:music@pjb.com.au ,    GPO Box 669, Hobart TAS 7001, Australia
Original compositions, and Arrangements of Bach, Schubert, Brahms...
On-line Delivery, On-line Payment, the New Era in Music Publishing !


Date: Fri Jun 16 09:11:34 2000
To: piano-l@uamont.edu
Subject: Stuart report

Greetings.  I heard my first Stuart piano a couple of days ago, at
the Hobart conservatorium, and I found it very impressive.  (Neil
McKelvie reported on them 20jan99)

The tone was quite characteristic, very mid-range-centered, neither
tweeter nor woofer.  Very consistent through the registers, it gave
the impression of one instrument, with its own voice.  The dynamic
range was very large, and the tone responded well all the way, becoming
harder in ff but not breaking up (of course it's a new piano, with
the felts still as their maker intended) and keeping its mid-range
resonance.

The new bridges, which keep the string vibrations in the vertical 
plane, make chords sing very evenly, very stable, very simple and
unconfused.  This, together with the consistent tone, gives the
piano a neutral character, it responds to the pianist and does
not impose.  The pianists love it, it's a delight to play.

Visually stunning, an eye-opener for those raised on boring black
boxes.  After the recital, half the audience rushed to the stage
and swarmed round it, gaping and drooling.

The big disadvantage is the price.  Hobart conservatorium has spent
most of this year's money on this thing, and have cut back on other
stuff like routine tuning and maintenance for all the old Steinways.

If there's any e-billionaires on the list, hesitate no longer...

Regards,  Peter Billam

P.S. But who is going to innovate in the home upright market ?

Peter Billam ,    http://www.pjb.com.au/mus ,    Tel: (03) 6236 9410
mailto:music@pjb.com.au ,    GPO Box 669, Hobart TAS 7001, Australia
Original compositions, and Arrangements of Bach, Schubert, Brahms...
On-line Delivery, On-line Payment, the New Era in Music Publishing !


Date: Sat Sep  9 09:44:31 2000
To: piano-l@uamont.edu
Subject: Upright Desiderata

Greetings.  This is a vote, a petition perhaps, which I hope will one
day find its way to the ear of someone with the power to produce pianos
in quantity for a reasonable price.  I'd like to see some serious new
design effort devoted to the home upright market; for example ...

 * A _much_ lighter action.  Just to fill my own living room, why
   should I have to lift enough weight to crush an orchestra ?

 * Lighter overall weight, for ease of moving.  This fits with the
   lighter action; if the piano didn't generate such an excessive volume,
   then it wouldn't have to be enclosed within a box of 20mm-plywood.

 * Two strings per note, not three.  Quicker tuning, lighter frame,
   and also contributes to the next point ...

 * An una corda pedal that actually works.  I know it's hard because
   the strings aren't so parallel, but with just two strings per note
   the extra spacing should make it possible.  The piano doesn't have
   to be lower in height, that doesn't save any floor space.

 * An optional middle (sostenuto) pedal.

 * An adjustable music stand.  A tall person should be able to adjust
   the top of the score to eye level.

(end of petition)

Regards,  Peter Billam

Peter Billam ,    http://www.pjb.com.au/mus ,    Tel: (03) 6236 9410
mailto:music@pjb.com.au ,    GPO Box 669, Hobart TAS 7001, Australia
Original compositions, and Arrangements of Bach, Schubert, Brahms...
On-line Delivery, On-line Payment, the New Era in Music Publishing !


Date: Wed Sep 27 16:14:19 2000
To: lieder-l@listserv.uh.edu
Subject: Re: "Tinkle, tinkle, little star"

Celia A. Sgroi quotes Hilary Finch in the Times:
> Twice the work, half the pay, and people invariably forget your
> name. Who'd be an accompanist? . . . Well, not many, it seems.
> Recent visits to song competitions have revealed that all too
> few young accompanists of quality are coming forward.
>
That's the 2nd time in a few days that I hear this complaint.
I'd like to say a couple of things in favour of accompanying and
accompanists.  Any pianists listening ?

 * If you look for recordings of the really supreme creative musicians
   when they're playing piano, you will find them accompanying, not
   playing solo.  You'll find Bartók accompanying Szigeti, Britten
   accompanying Rostropovic and Pears, Poulenc accompanying Bernac,
   Furtwängler accompanying Schwarzkopf, and so on.

 * When you accompany things like voice, violin or flute, you're able to
   learn important things that pianists aren't otherwise forced to learn,
   about phrasing, and about the significance of different registers.

 * You learn a rhythmic steadiness, and a control over rubato, that
   solo pianists tend not to have.

 * In particular when you accompany song, you learn things about
   _meaning_, that other pianists don't learn.

 * You play a broader repertoire, and meet the greatest poems by the
   greatest poets, and learn several languages, all of which matures
   a musician greatly.  (The pianist has to understand the meaning of
   the poem syllable by syllable, just like the singer does.)

> there is the current vogue for singers to further their careers by
> choosing - and being chosen by - "real" solo pianists of stature.
> Andras Schiff, Alfred Brendel, Imogen Cooper and Vladimir Ashkenazy
> are just a few of the dangerous names.
>
A good move on the part of these fine pianists, to deepen and broaden
themselves. Several of them would have conducting aspirations.

A major new trick you have to learn is the different balance: it's
terribly simple, but it goes against years of habit. When you play solo,
the loudest voice is the tune, in the 4th and 5th fingers of the right
hand; the 2nd loudest is the bass, in the 4th and 5th of the left hand.
When you accompany, most of the time the soloist has the tune, so your
loudest voice has to be the bass, in the 4th and 5th of the LH; the RH
4th and 5th must be much quieter than usual.  Then during the gaps in the
solo line, the RH 4&5 step forward and become much louder for a few beats.
As accompanists, most solo pianists tend to play the bass too weakly.

Roger Vignoles:
> But some singers don't realise that it's our job to dictate, to
> create the structure.
>
The pianist sets the tempo, and, yes, creates the structure; but must
do so for the benefit of the song, not for the piano part.  That's an
extra level of responsibility.

If you as a pianist feel that your competitive advantage over other
pianists is cultural and musical, rather than athletic, then
accompanying will allow you to use this advantage.  If, on the other
hand, you feel culturally and musically challenged, then accompanying
will allow you take up that challenge and strengthen your weak points.
So hesitate no longer.

Vignoles makes good points about the time needed to develop technique,
and about no man's land between the piano faculty and the singing school.
Institutions are necessarily clumsy, in comparison with individuals.

(steps off soapbox)  Regards,  Peter Billam

Peter Billam ,    http://www.pjb.com.au/mus ,    Tel: (03) 6236 9410
mailto:music@pjb.com.au ,    GPO Box 669, Hobart TAS 7001, Australia
Original compositions, and Arrangements of Bach, Schubert, Brahms...
On-line Delivery, On-line Payment, the New Era in Music Publishing !


Date: Wed Feb 28 10:01:17 2001
To: lieder-l@listserv.uh.edu
Subject: Re: Cabaret Style Songs - esp. French

Danielle Woerner wrote:
> For a new classical/cabaret program in the thinking stages, I'd like
> listers' input:  what are your favorite cabaret or cabaret-style songs
> by classical composers ?  Especially interested in French repertoire -
>
The richnesses really open up if you can bend the 'classical composers'
requirement a bit, and get to the repertoire of Yvonne George, Frehel,
Damia, and even back to Yvette Guilbert and Aristide Bruant.

I'd suggest, from Yvonne George,
 "J'ai pas su y faire", Cartoux, Costil and Yvain
 "C'est pour ça qu'on s'aime", Telly, Borel and Clerc
 "Le Bossu", anon
 "Toute une Histoire", Henri Jeanson
 and she also recorded "Je te veux", Satie
 Yvonne George often sings accompanied just by a pianist, eg Jean Wiener
 or Georges van Parys (sic) and their accompanying is exceedingly good.
and from Frehel,
 "J'ai l'Cafard", Eblinger (a great, dark masterpiece)
 "Comme un Moineau", Hely and Lenoir
and from Damia,
 "La Veuve", Jouy and Larrieu
 "Le Fou", Barde and Larrieu (a murder described in first person, from
   the point of view of the murderer; uncomfortable, chilling)

and many others.  I can't help you much with Guilbert and Bruant.
I don't know how you get scores of this stuff, but some recordings
are available from Chansophone: Georges on Chansophone 114, Frehel
on 100 and 125, and Damia on 123.  Useful books might be
 Toulouse-Lautrec and the Fin-de-siècle, David Sweetman, Hodder & Stoughton
 Les Folies du Music-Hall, Jaques Damase, Spring Books

The clarity of diction of these singers is quite wonderful, well worth
study, and so is the characterisation, and so is the intense, long-term
concentration on working and re-working every detail of a song's performance.

The artistic connections are also very rich, with Toulouse-Lautrec,
Picasso, Cocteau, Van Dongen, Desnos, Kiki, Man Ray and a cast of thousands. 

Regards,  Peter Billam

Peter Billam ,    http://www.pjb.com.au/mus ,    Tel: (03) 6236 9410
mailto:music@pjb.com.au ,    GPO Box 669, Hobart TAS 7001, Australia
Original compositions, and Arrangements of Bach, Schubert, Brahms...
Special Offer ! Everything Free ! And, coming soon . . . the opera !


Date: Mon Jul 23 16:15:27 2001
To: lieder-l@listserv.uh.edu
Subject: Guten Morgen, schoene Muellerin

Greetings.

At this point, our young hero is love with the miller's daughter
(Dein ist mein Herz !), dearly wants to know if she loves him too
(sag' Bächlein, liebt sie mich ?), and is so naïve that he hasn't yet
noticed that she already has a boyfriend - the possibilty probably hasn't
even occurred to him. So here he is, all scrubbed up and ready for work,
waiting outside her door, torn between nervousness and desire, hope and
the fear of humiliation, as one is at that age in these circumstances,
and already late for work probably.  At last she appears ...

   Guten Morgen, schöne Müllerin !

She's looking very tired, has obviously spent an exhausting night,
and this dreadful little scrubbed nerd that her father dragged up
from who knows where is just the last thing she needs at this moment ...

   wo steckst du gleich das Köpfchen hin,
   als wär dir was geschehen ?
   Verdrießt dich denn mein Gruß so schwer ?
   verstört dich denn mein Blick so sehr ?
   So muß ich wieder gehen.

The text is filled with dramatic ironies, like "als wär dir was
geschehen", "Hat es die Nacht so gut gemeint" and "ihrer stillen
Wonne", as Müller dips his nib into our young hero's heart.

So as I read it, the gap between the first and second lines is the
turning point of the cycle, the moment where his naïve hopes first
taste the humiliations which will end him.

I'm no great CD-collector, the versions I have are those by Schiøtz
and Moore, Wunderlich and Giesen, and Schreier and Schiff.  Of those,
Schiøtz and Wunderlich both sing serenely through the first two lines
in one melodic arc as if nothing had geschehen at all; with Schreier
there is perhaps a tiniest inflection of the voice ...

I would take the first line as a cantabile arc, but then take a
luftpause, and sing the remainder of the verse with a little more
urgency, and full of confusion turning to rejection borne with dignity.
I know this is not opera and there's no obligation to act everything
out, but this poem does consist of words actually spoken out loud by our
hero to the Müllerin.  The first line is part of his prepared speech,
but the others are on-the-spot reaction to setback.

Am I really misreading the action here ? Or why do these great singers
pass up the opportunity to present the meaning of the words at this
crucial point in the story ?  How do the other big names tackle the
transition between the first two lines ?

Regards,  Peter Billam

Peter Billam ,    http://www.pjb.com.au/mus ,    Tel: (03) 6236 9410
mailto:music@pjb.com.au ,    GPO Box 669, Hobart TAS 7001, Australia
Original compositions, and Arrangements of Bach, Schubert, Brahms...
Special Offer ! Everything Free ! And, coming soon . . . the opera !


Date: Sun Nov 18 15:04:53 2001
To: lieder-l@listserv.uh.edu
Subject: The Histogram of the 20th Century

Greetings.

I've just been through http://www.pjb.com.au/mus/lieder_writers.html
counting into decades the songs whose dates of composition are known
to me.  (Disclaimer: many dates are unknown to me, including most of
Kilpinen, for example, whose output of 767 songs could reshape the
graph single-handed).  Cycles are counted as multiple, so that e.g.
Das Buch der Hängenden Gärten counts as 15 (some of the cycles I had
to guess).  Quantity is of course no measure of quality.  That being
said, the curve is stark ...  The question is, do the 90s mark the
beginning of a rally ?  Watch this space (for a few decades :-) ...

1900s 350 XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
1910s 281 XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
1920s 278 XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
1930s 118 XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
1940s  60 XXXXXXXXXX
1950s  56 XXXXXXXXX
1960s  16 XX
1970s  18 XXX
1980s   6 X
1990s  56 XXXXXXXXX

Regards,  Peter Billam

Peter Billam  http://www.pjb.com.au music@pjb.com.au  (03) 6236 9410
GPO Box 669, Hobart TAS 7001, Australia.  Original compositions made
to be played, and Arrangements of Bach, Schubert, Brahms...  Special
Offer ! Everything Free ! And, soon . . . November at the Carousel !


Date: Sun Dec 19 15:04:53 2001
To: lieder-l@listserv.uh.edu
Subject: Re: Zemlinsky Sechs Gesänge (1)

Hans van der Laan  wrote:
> Zemlinsky's "Sechs Gesänge nach Gedichten von Maurice Maeterlinck"
> (opus 13) are supposed to have a central theme of "Death" ...
> It is at the sixth song that I start feeling uncomfortable with
> this description.  I will cite the text here:
>
>     Sie kam zum Schloss gegangen,
>     - die Sonne erhob sich kaum -
>     Sie kam zum Schloss gegangen,
>     die Ritter blickten mit bangen
>     und es schwiegen die Frauen.
> ...
> Is death feminine ?
>
Yes, in the symbolism of the time, Death was frequently depicted as
a sort of female angel, often with black wings and carrying a
large scythe; very calm, balanced, strongly built, unanswerable.
See, for example, the paintings by Jacek Malczewski "Thatanos I" (1898,
Muzeum Narodowe, Warsaw), "Death" (1902, ditto) and "Death" (1911,
Muzeum Narodowe, Poznan) (see "Symbolism", Michael Gibson, Taschen).

Or the painting by Carlos Schwabe "The Grave-digger's Death" (1900,
Louvre, Paris).

Or Jules Jouy's song "La Veuve", as sung by Damia to her underworld
audience of WW1 soldiers on leave and Montmatre drug addicts:

   Car ses amis claquant du bec
   Dès la première épreuve
   Ne couchent qu'une fois avec la Veuve ...

(Scary, eh ?  On CD Chansophone 123)

> Is "die Fremde" Death itself ?
>
Yes, presumably.

> Why are the "Ritter" frightened and are the women silent only ?
>
Good question.  We need a Maeterlinck expert.  Any Maeterlinck experts
out there ?

> A friend of mine entitles this Lied as "the lesbian song".
>
To give a poem two meanings wouldn't be beyond the reach of a good poet ...
How did Maeterlinck represent the Angel of Death ?  Any experts on the
Representation of Death in Early-20th-Century Symbolism out there ?
( There are probably more than you think, there are probably Annual
Conferences and Journals and so on :-)

Remember also Berg's "Fünf Lieder nach Ansichtskartentexten von
Peter Altenberg" Op. 4 (1911-1912) which undeniably end in death:

  Siehe, hier sind keine Menschen, keine Ansiedlungen.
  Hier ist Friede ! Hier tropft Schnee leise in Wasserlachen ...

Beautiful, eh ? Not personified as a female Angel of Death in that one,
though.

Regards,  Peter Billam

Peter Billam  http://www.pjb.com.au music@pjb.com.au  (03) 6236 9410
GPO Box 669, Hobart TAS 7001, Australia.  Original compositions made
to be played, and Arrangements of Bach, Schubert, Brahms...  Special
Offer ! Everything Free ! And, soon . . . November at the Carousel !


Date: Sun Dec 22 15:04:53 2001
To: lieder-l@listserv.uh.edu
Subject: Re: Zemlinsky Sechs Gesänge (1)

Maurice Maeterlinck (transl. Friedrich von Oppeln-Bronikowski) wrote:
   Sie kam zum Schloss gegangen,
   die Ritter blickten mit bangen
   und es schwiegen die Frauen.

Hans van der Laan  wrote:
> Why are the "Ritter" frightened and are the women silent only ?
>
The women remind me of the only other bit of Maeterlinck I know, Pelléas
et Mellisande.  In the last scene, as Mellisande is about to die:
   Gradually the room is invaded by the serving women of the castle,
   who steal silently in, ranging themselves along the walls, waiting.
Golaud is immediately angry:
   Que venez-vous faire ici ? Personne ne vous a demandées...
   Que venez-vous faire ici ? Mais qu'est-ce que c'est donc ? Répondez !
but the serving women make no answer.
Then a couple of minutes later, just after King Arkel's great line
   Mais la tristesse, Golaud...
   Mais la tristesse de tout ce qu'on voit...
the serving women, still against the wall, suddenly fall to their knees.
Arkel, turning round, says
   Qu'y-a-t-il ?
but the Doctor, approaching the bed and touching the body, says
   Elles ont raison...

It's as if, in Maeterlinck, concerning matters of life and death, a
sufficient community of women just Know these things.  Whether they
step into the role of the Greek chorus, or whether as givers of life
they have inside knowledge of death too, I don't know.
( NB: Maeterlinck is a Symbolist, not a social commentator.  Peter
Altenberg is the social commentator... )

> And now we still need a Maeterlinck expert ...


> > ... "La Veuve", as sung by Damia to her underworld audience of WW1
> > soldiers on leave and Montmatre drug addicts ... CD Chansophone 123
> I'll try and find this CD.
>
Check out Yvonne George and Frehel while you're there.
I have already enthused about these ladies;
see http://www.pjb.com.au/mus/mail.html#20010227

Regards,  Peter Billam

Peter Billam  http://www.pjb.com.au music@pjb.com.au  (03) 6236 9410
GPO Box 669, Hobart TAS 7001, Australia.  Original compositions made
to be played, and Arrangements of Bach, Schubert, Brahms...  Special
Offer ! Everything Free ! And, soon . . . November at the Carousel !


Date: Sun Feb 17 07:47:35 2002
To: lieder-l@listserv.uh.edu
Subject: Re: Warner Classics (and others)

Greetings.  <soapbox_mode=on>

The "business model" that has fed classical music for the last fifty
years is changing.  It's not the first time, and fifty years isn't a
bad run by historical standards.

CDs only cost a dollar to make (or to copy), there's no money in it,
and with our static repertoire we're not going to survive through
record companies.  Even very fine performers are making their recordings
available free on the net, for kudos, for the joy of sharing.

With our static repertoire we could still survive as a branch of
athletics; I mean they still run over 100 meters, still throw the
same hammers.  Perhaps there should be a classical music olypmics,
maybe we should be integrated into the rest of the olympic movement.
Wouldn't be of deep interest to me ...

Because classical music is now so implemented in institutions like
conservatoria and competitions the inertia in the system is very high,
and adaption will be slow.  Meanwhile it will continue to take the kids
who have fallen in love with music and train them be be professionals,
who can aspire to win a few competitions, clamber up the ladder of
success and eventually get a record contract.  The people in the system
have already noticed, but the system itself will be slow to realise that
the top rung of the ladder is now missing.

Happily, music as something non-showbiz, that you make for yourself
rather than purchase, is not affected by any of this, because the
pleasure that you get from playing these pieces is as great now as ever.
This at least cannot be taken away from us.

I've gone on about these things before, see for example
http://www.pjb.com.au/mus/mail.html#20000619 ...
  As a vicarious experience, as a part of show-biz, as something that
  consumers don't do themselves but they pay money to get other people
  to do and then just listen to the result, then our music exists just
  like the Spice Girls; it can make profits and losses, be a growth
  area or get dropped from the catalogue just the same.  That
  strategy offers excitement and glamour, but not long-term survival.

  What we can offer that other styles cannot, is music as something 
  that people can _do_, for themselves, not something vicarious
  that they pay specialists to do for them.  On that ground, on
  home ground, on real pianos in real living rooms, nothing
  competes with what we can offer.

More fundamentally, the problem is the composing; the amazing
creativity that we had a hundred years ago has reappeared in other
fields during the last fifty.  Only creativity can solve that problem,
and that can't be bought, can't be institutionalised; when it
is ready, it will come unwanted, from beneath, from outside.

Regards,  Peter Billam

Peter Billam  http://www.pjb.com.au music@pjb.com.au  (03) 6236 9410
GPO Box 669, Hobart TAS 7001, Australia.  Original compositions made
to be played, and Arrangements of Bach, Schubert, Brahms...  Special
Offer ! Everything Free ! And, soon . . . November at the Carousel !


Date: Fri Oct 25 08:49:27 2002
To: lieder-l@listserv.uh.edu
Subject: Re: Roger Quilter (rubato)

Prof David K Smythe wrote:
> What strikes one immediately is the freedom that these early 20C
> singers had with the note values (rubato), rhythm and tempo changes,
> all the while retaining a beautiful arching line and legato. ...
> Since the composer himself was at the piano, these rhythmically
> elastic interpretations must have met with his approval.  Valerie
> gave us modern singers ... for comparison; and although we could
> all agree with their excellence, I feel we have lost something.

It's a huge issue which touches all fields, especially solo
piano where there is no need to match tempi with others.
The more musicians there are, the more work rubati involve.

There are many inter-related causes, like music becoming more a
branch of training, more metronome practice, more competitions,
more travelling hence more need for plug-compatible interpretations.


The deepest cause, I think, is the state of composing in the cold
war years, which separated composing from performance, so that
performance became more oriented to preserving past compositions;
preservation values fidelity more than creativity.

> It's as if we're now terrified of the printed score, and are petri-
> fied into following it precisely, with little room for individuality.

Yes, the modern approach is the more defensive posture, so that if
you are challenged "why do you play it like this ?" you can always
reply "Ah, I was just obeying orders ..."

> ... I feel we have lost something.  After hearing the 'old guys',
> the contemporary interpretations seem rather 'straight' and
> (slightly) boring in comparison.

We have lost something, but it's something deeper than can be
regained just by faithfully copying rubati off old recordings.

Regards,  Peter Billam

Peter Billam  http://www.pjb.com.au music@pjb.com.au  (03) 6236 9410
GPO Box 669, Hobart TAS 7001, Australia.  Original compositions made
to be played, and Arrangements of Bach, Schubert, Brahms...  Special
Offer ! Everything Free ! And, soon . . . November at the Carousel !


Date: Sun Dec  8 06:55:04 2002
To: lieder-l@listserv.uh.edu
Subject: The most undeservedly unavailable ?

Greetings.

As you probably know, there are a number of arrangements typeset in
electronic form and published (free) on www.pjb.com.au ... For one
of the next ones I'm considering doing not an arrangement, but just
a typesetting and publication, of some song from the public domain
(e.g. published before 1923) which has become very hard to get (in score
form) and which deserves a better fate.  So I'm looking for nominations,
especially if someone can snail-mail me a photocopy of the score ...

What songs published before 1923 and now unavailable in score form
would most deserve republication ?

( http://www.pjb.com.au/mus/lieder_writers.html#decades might
 help with some hints, but its publication-date data is flimsy.)

Regards,  Peter Billam

Peter Billam  http://www.pjb.com.au music@pjb.com.au  (03) 6236 9410
GPO Box 669, Hobart TAS 7001, Australia.  Original compositions made
to be played, and Arrangements of Bach, Schubert, Brahms...  Special
Offer ! Everything Free ! And, soon . . . November at the Carousel !

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