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Brian Groner has been music director of the Fox Valley Symphony since 1995. From time to time he will share his thoughts with you right here in his blog.
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Basics
Mar. 16, 2010
As it is in every profession and avocation, there is a lot to know about the business of an orchestral performance. There seems to be some basic questions which people new to the orchestra world have that tend to keep. Sometimes it keeps them from feeling comfortable with simply listening to the music and enjoying the amazing energy that flows over you in a live performance. I will try to answer a few of them. These are questions which I have been asked many times. Reminder: there are no stupid questions. The only stupid questions are those which people fail to ask.
Is a violin the same as a fiddle?
In essence, yes. Fiddles and violins are the same string instrument. The way they are played, and often the music they play, is different. Many times violinists fondly refer to their instruments as fiddles.
When do I clap?
The easy answer to that question is: clap at the end of a full piece and avoid clapping between the movements of a multi-movement work. The slightly longer answer is that when some of the pieces which an orchestra plays were originally written, the audience often clapped between each movement. In fact some pieces were rewritten to ensure more enthusiastic applause between movements. In today’s world audiences expect to hear the whole piece before showing their appreciation to the performers with their applause. And that leads us to…
What is a movement?
Works of larger duration e.g. symphonies and concerti, are typically divided up into large sections, each of which highlights a different character or tempo.
What is a concerto?
A concerto is a piece written for a solo performer (sometimes performers) who is accompanied by the orchestra.
I will answer a few more of this sort of question the next time I post on this blog. If you have a question for me, feel free to write. Just go to the "Contact Us" page and ask away. |
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Mixed Blessing
Feb. 18, 2010
Our newest addition to the family (the 6 month old tortoise shell cat named Ella Norrigbee) is a charming, wonderful little creature. She is incredibly cuddly and shows amazing persistence as she continues to try and get some sort of positive reaction from our older cat Maggie.
There is one thing that she has started to do that I find a bit unusual. In the middle of the night she quietly walks up onto my pillow and lies down above me, snuggling against my large expanse of bald head. It is a kind of warmth that I have not felt since I was 21, the last year in which I had an adequate supply of hair. She then treats my head as if it were another cat to groom and she thoroughly cleans it. For the time being it is a sweet and wonderful expression of affection and I hope that I do not grow to resent its intrusion into a good night’s sleep. I will try to look at this situation as something endearing, as I do find the purrs which accompany her actions to be a good background noise as I fall back asleep. |
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Happy Holidays
Dec. 30, 2009
It is quiet right now in the Groner house. Teresa is listening to public radio as she knits in the living room. She still has a few more days off before resuming her performance schedule with the Lyric Opera. Andrea is answering email from the computer in the next room. She is at home for a couple of months before she begins the next adventure in her life. And I am sitting at my computer, listening to new repertoire, planning more concerts, sorting through information which has been sent to me from potential soloists and impatiently waiting for responses to a couple of important emails. Each of us is moving at a different speed which feels right to them.
This time of year the weather is far too cold for me to feel physically comfortable. I have always felt that it is man’s destiny to live within a stone’s throw of a good warm beach. But, since that is not a possibility for me (or for the majority of the earth’s population) I thankfully accept the solace and quiet of a nice comfortable house. Happy Holidays to all.
Brian Groner
http://www.briangroner.com |
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Searching for a space
Nov. 8, 2009
It has been a while since I posted anything new to this blog. The recent tempo of life has been prestissimo. I will endeavor to share more of my thoughts with you very soon.
Those of you who know me well know that I am very fond of cats. Unfortunately our dear Giselle passed away almost two weeks ago. She was a diabetic and we kept her going in reasonably good health and great spirits for over three years after her diagnosis. Much of our lives these last three years was structured around the two injections she received each day. She was a real trooper and learned to come into the kitchen when she heard the insulin bottle being placed on the counter. The small treat which she got after her getting her medications seemed important to her. There were other supplements in both pill and liquid form which she grudgingly took, all of which helped her stay active and healthy right to the end. She is very much missed.
On a very different note, last week I was in New York helping my daughter move out of her apartment. One morning, while competitively searching for a coveted parking space, I rolled down the window of my vehicle and listened to what was going on around me. During my half hour quest for a simple place to park I heard at least five different languages, overheard two cell phone break ups and then saw two Tele-Tubbies walking down the street. I love New York. |
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Part of the Programming Process
Oct. 6, 2009
Programming for an orchestra is a wonderful creative challenge. Hopefully I can shed some light on how I choose the music for a concert season.
There are thousands of wonderful pieces which are considered to be in standard orchestral repertoire. In the most prominent reference book on the subject, David Daniels’ Orchestral Music, there are 431 pages of detailed listings of pieces which are considered very much in the “standard literature”. With 15-25 entries per page, this reference guide shows that there is a lot of music out there. And to make it more interesting, there are countless pieces which have not yet made it into this publication.
When selecting music for a concert (and a concert season) I think of the process as a type of artistic jigsaw puzzle. When all of the pieces are assembled it should (in a perfect world) fit together seamlessly and tastefully. During the process I ask a lot of questions. Some of those questions are:
Is the piece something that the audience will enjoy? People tend to like music that is in some way familiar to them. I feel that there should be something on every program that is recognizable to the typical listener.
Is the piece something that the audience would enjoy discovering? If we hear only the same top 50 most performed works all the time we are in danger of losing our ability to appreciate the subtle differences of musical expression.
Does the piece help build the orchestra? Many pieces are added to a concert season which help develop the orchestra technically or musically.
Is the piece in a contrasting key to other works on the same program? We all experience listener fatigue when we hear music in the same key for too long. There has to be variety so that we can keep listening with fresh ears.
Has a specific piece been played within the last few seasons? There are a lot of different opinions among my conducting colleagues regarding how frequently a piece of music should appear on an orchestra’s season. Some have the seven year rule; no piece of music may be on a program more often than once every seven years. Others realize the orchestra building value of performing pieces more often and may decide to bring back one or even two pieces from the prior orchestra season. I look at it this way. If there is a compelling reason to bring a piece back inside the seven year boundary I will do it, but it has to be one of the truly outstanding pieces in the literature.
Is the work the right duration for a specific spot in a concert? A notable mentor of mine once told me that the perfect concert should have 76 minutes of played music. That is just an abstract number but it has stayed with me for a long time and enters my thoughts whenever I assemble concert programs. Of course, when you perform some of the Bruckner symphonies or Mahler 2 (the last time I conducted the piece it clocked in at 82 minutes), you have to be flexible. If a piece I’d like to program is not the right length to help keep a reasonably balanced first and second half, I keep looking for the work that is the right character and the right duration.
Is there enough variety of style on the concert? Except for those concerts which are intended to be a showcase for one composer there must be enough variety to keep the listener engaged and to please the divergent tastes of the audience.
We don’t all enjoy the same music. That is a good thing. We also take away something slightly different from each piece performed, and that is also good. Hopefully, when the questions are answered, the programs are planned and performed, the audience leaves the hall feeling renewed by the power of what they have heard. There is a grand variety of music out there. Ah…so much music, so little time. |
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Eat your beets, they're good for you
Sep. 11, 2009
One of the small joys of summer is the growing of produce in one’s own yard. This year Teresa and I experimented a bit and grew more than our normal tomato and basil crops. One of the things which we planted in our newly constructed raised bed was two varieties of beets. One was a cylindrical shape but in the typical purple color, and the other was the traditional shape and a deep golden color.
We have often roasted beets and other vegetables in the autumn, usually with fresh sage and cloves of garlic. This year, when the beets came ripe in July we started doing a bit of research. I seemed to remember that the greens could be used much like spinach. After a short but productive Google search I discovered that I could use the often discarded greens in exactly the manner I have with spinach (sautéing them in olive oil and garlic, with a splash of lemon). Another way that we used the greens was in a beet green and feta cheese quiche. We made two of them and one is still in the freezer. I was thrilled to discover that the taste in a quiche is to me better than spinach.
The beets themselves were good too. One of the batches I roasted on the grill and then chilled them overnight. After chopping them into small cubes we added a really good balsamic vinegar, olive oil, feta cheese and orzo. Another batch got chopped up and added to some really good short grain brown rice and turned into a beautiful salad with some scallions, also from the garden.
What I really, really liked about this experiment in planting was more than just growing the good food. What I enjoyed the most was that we found a way to use all of what we grew. The stems, the greens, the beets themselves all found their way to the table. |
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Winus Serendipitus
Aug. 2, 2009
Teresa and I just got back from our all too short vacation in Northern California. The second day that we were there we attended an open rehearsal at the Mendocino Music Festival. At the rehearsal break I walked up to one of the violinists who had been playing and said “Hello Baker”. As it turns out, he (Baker Peeples) had been a graduate student at Northern Illinois University when I conducted the orchestra there. It was an odd experience to actually know someone in a place where neither of us had been before.
The next day we drove to Geyserville (yes, to look at a geyser). On a whim, we stopped at a small tasting room for “Route 128 Winery” and had a wonderful talk with the woman at the counter. She and her husband own the winery and their home (and vineyards) were about one hour away. For the past two days, as Teresa and I had been driving to and from the cottage in which we stayed, we had admired the vineyard directly across the highway from us. You guessed it. It is their vineyard and their home on the top of that hill.
We then inquired about the location of any viewable geysers and were pointed in the direction of one of the few active and still uncapped geysers in the area. So, off we drove. As we turned onto the narrow lane where the geyser was located we turned to each other in wonderment. Unbeknownst to us the geyser we were searching for was next to one of our favorite wineries, Summers in the north end of the Napa Valley. We of course went in and had a great conversation with the couple behind the counter. As it turns out, their daughter is a musician who has just finished up her degree at Northwestern University in oboe performance. They started to mention her teachers, and we discovered that she has studied with 3 good friends/colleagues of ours in the Chicago area. By the way, Summers Cabernet is a real thing of beauty.
It’s a smaaaaall……….smaaaaall………woooooooooooooooooorld………… |
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..that's a big potato...
July 14, 2009
Sunday’s adventure started at the gym. After working out and sweating copiously, Teresa suggested that we go to a small market that we had never been in. We walked inside and took a look around. One of the first things we saw in the produce department was a stack of monstrous sweet potatoes. We ended up buying one sweet potato that weighed in at almost four pounds. I am not kidding, four pounds. It was like something out of a science fiction movie and we, the humans, were the tiny aliens. The owner of the grocery walked by us and mentioned that we had found the biggest potato of the lot. As we worked our way through the store strangers kept coming up to us saying “wow, that’s a big potato”. What a fine conversation starter.
As we continued shopping, we ended up in the wine aisle. As we browsed the selection the owner again walked by us and talked about the display behind him. It was a collection of wines whose name was the same as the name of the market. As it turns out, the winery is owned by his nephew in Greece who is making wines in the same way his family has been making them four well over two hundred years.
It was all a great discovery, a new place to find interesting things. Whether it is a sweet potato the size of Montreal, a wine made by the nephew of a new friend or a new piece of music, it’s all good. |
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