Search results for U.S.A.

Jennifer Thomas talks about why creativity is everything to her and that if young people want to go into Classical music as a career, there are so many things you can do with it other than teaching or performing.

What does music mean to you personally?

For me, music is a form of expression. And since I am not just a performer, but a composer as well – it goes even deeper because the music I am sharing with the world comes from a place within me that bares my very soul. When I “offer” my music to the world, it is like offering a piece of myself – my pride and joy, my greatest work and expression of the world inside myself, my heart, and my mind.

Do you agree that music is all about fantasy?

This is an interesting notion. I suppose that a lot of why we listen to music is to escape, to take our minds to another place. We want something to make us feel more than we can conjure up on our own. But music is also a very real form of realism, sometimes to what is current in our lives or in the world. Out of the darkest times in history have come some of the greatest pieces of art – both for the sake of interpretation, and also escape to a fantasy world.

If you were not a professional musician, would would you have been?

I love video editing, and so definitely I would have tried to go into professional film editing. Fortunately I still do get to do quite a bit of this with my music career as well. I’ve done a lot of editing for content on my Youtube channel over the years, but typically had a professional editor handle my official music videos. But I recently had the opportunity to finally edit one of my music videos for my channel, and it was a great joy to do that. I look forward to doing more, and continuing to improve my skills in that area.

The classical music audience is getting old, are you worried about your future?

I think that the future of Classical music is already on it’s way to finally integrating itself into a more modern way of living and breathing, and because of this it’s finding a younger audience. As more orchestras start streaming their concerts live online, performing music from living and modern composers, and also collaborating with artists that aren’t just inside the Classical world – it will continue to thrive.

Here in Seattle, the Seattle Symphony has had a tradition of performing the film score from The Lord of the Rings films in concert every summer (composed by Howard Shore), while projecting scenes and images from the movie on a gigantic screen for the audience. I know that this has been one of their biggest selling concerts of the season, year after year. They have also collaborated with modern artists from pop to rap, and the audience has found it quite refreshing to see classical renditions of pop songs. To know that these types of concerts do quite well is easy to see that today’s audience is yearning for a more modern concert program that pleases a wider audience.

What do you envision the role of classical music to be in the 21 century? Do you see that there is a transformation of this role?

Well, I think that there is a give-and-take situation going on with Classical music at the moment. While many popular artists are creating music with Classical influence and bringing that music into the limelight, Classical music is also taking a thing or two from the modern world and integrating that as well.

As far as the role it will play, I hope that it continues to be a strong influence and a foundation in the world of music. Even though the way it is being presented is ever-changing, the fact remains that the music is there and will hopefully always be so.

When I say that classical music is searching for new ways or that the classical music is getting a new face, what would come to your mind?

Well, to be honest what first comes to mind is my entire way of approaching my own music and composition process. I started lessons on both piano and violin at age 5 and continued all the way through college. I endured years of adjudications, competitions, chair auditions, concerto competitions, and more. I remember it actually being quite stressful.

Eventually I found my own way through the Classical music world and realized that I could take these skills I had worked so hard on for so many years and actually create new music, and modern music at that. I feel like what I am doing with my own music today is giving Classical music a new face. I am taking the foundation I have in Classical, and creating new music for the new generation that hopefully not only appeals to the younger generation but to the older Classical lovers as well (well, maybe not the purists, ha). And it is not just me, there are several other artists out there right now doing the same thing- from 2Cellos, The Piano Guys, Tina Guo, and many others – we are modernizing a genre of music and making it more accessible. There are those in the younger generations who are now being introduced to Classical music through our music, who might otherwise not be.

Do you think that the classical musician today needs to be more creative? What’s the role of creativity in the musical process for you?

Yes. I do think that Classical musicians need to be more creative. I think that more originality needs to happen, and less imitation. People are tired of hearing the same set of standard classics over and over, they want to hear fresh new music or fresh interpretations.

The role of creativity for me is EVERYTHING. As a composer, I need it. Without it, my music has no life. For me, sometimes it involves taking time to be in the outdoors and enjoy the beauty of the forest, or the ocean – and then the music starts to trickle into my mind in the form of ideas, styles, and more.

I think music is so much more than just an auditory experience. It’s visual, emotional, physical, and spiritual. I think the only thing it isn’t is physically tangeable but perhaps that will even change – maybe one day someone will create a virtual reality app where you can see, hear, and feel what a pianist experiences while performing a Beethoven Sonata.

Do you think we musicians can do something to attract young generation into the classical music concerts? How will you proceed?

I think it has everything to do with the choice of music that is on a concert program, and how it’s presented. The Classical purist in me says “Stick to the format of the past.” But the modern composer in me says “Don’t forget to add some content that appeals in a more popular way.” And I know that is sometimes hard to digest for the Classical music world that have done things a certain way for so long.

When I put out an album, I would say 90% of the songs are ones I wrote and chose because I loved them and wanted them on the album. But the other 10%? Definitely there because of popular vote and what my audience wants to hear – even if it’s not exactly what I think it should be, or even what I think will do well. But in my experience, it’s the 10% that sometimes gets people in the door to one of my concerts, or attracts them to buy one of my albums - and then they stick around long after.

Tell us about your creative process. Do you have your favourite piece (written by you) How did you start working on it?

One of my own favorites from my compositions is a piece that I wrote called “Eventide” from my Illumination album. When I wrote the song, I had an 11 month old and a 3 year old, and my husband was working long hours. So in the evenings, after the day was over and I finally had an opportunity to sit down at the piano, it was my time to relax, meditate, and wash the day away.

At the time, my piano was positioned in a big bay window where I could see the entire starry sky if I looked up and out. It was quite beautiful, and I found many moments of peace and tranquility from my late night piano sessions. This song came from one of those, and while it is a very simple song, it is very emotional for me. I orchestrated it with strings and choir, and actually right before I was getting ready to send it off to my mixing engineer, I was listening to it late at night while driving in my car. I kept humming the theme from Sheherazade (Rimsky-Korsakov) with it, and eventually was inspired to add a violin solo to it that plays that theme. It was a perfect match – and just by the way, a great example of how classical music can be used in modern music in new ways.

The song has ended up being one of my more popular songs on Pandora Radio, and I still use it as an un-winding song in the evenings.

We, Moving Classics TV, love the combination of classical music with different disciplines: music and painting, music and cinematography, music and digital art, music and poetry. What do you think about these combinations?

Oh goodness, I LOVE them all. I feel like music is essential in creating an emotional presence, and brings so much more to these other forms of art as well. I have scored a few films and it’s amazing when a director gives me a cut of a film with no music and allows me to watch it and feel inspired and be able to add music to it that will hopefully have an impact on the audience in a certain way. I especially love music and dance, of course. It is one of the most beautiful combinations in my opinion.

Can you give some advice for young people who want to discover classical music for themselves?

Yes! Well for starters, I think perhaps young people have heard quite a lot of Classical music without actually knowing it.  From cartoons like Bugs Bunny (the use of Wagner), to commercials about beef (Copeland), or Disney films like Sleeping Beauty (Tchaikovsky) – they have already heard quite a bit but just don’t associate it with “Classical music”. This is a great starting point – to realize that Classical music doesn’t have to be sitting in a concert hall, or made to feel rigid or boring. It’s exciting, and beautiful, and there for the exploration and taking!

Again, I would also suggest finding modern artists who are using classical music as an influence and if they happened to find a particular song catchy or exciting, they can search more about that song and learn about it and listen to it in it’s pure original form. As I mentioned before, there are many of us Classical-Crossover artists out there who are performing Classical works in a new and modern way – and opening up the doors into this world for the younger generation who might not otherwise have an interest.

Also, lastly, I feel it’s important for younger people to know that if you do want to get into Classical music as a career, there are so many things you can do with it other than teaching or performing. When I was in school, it seemed to be the emphasis and I had to choose between them, but now there are so many more options from engineering, producing, and so much more.

Now it is a common practice in the media to talk that the classical music is getting into the consumption business, do you agree? We are speaking about the supply and demand rules and how to sell your “product” in your case your compositions. How do you see it?

Well, this is an interesting topic, and it might vary a bit for me as a modern composer/recording artist (so I can’t speak directly for Classical musicians). But yes, I definitely have experienced a “supply and demand” pressure – from making sure your album has certain content or criteria – for example, to meet a certain chart for placement on your debut release week. However, in my experience in the end it also doesn’t make too much of a difference. Whether one debuts at #1 on the Classical music charts, or doesn’t chart at all – it doesn’t win anyone an award, or make them more money.

There is also a huge supply-and-demand right now for cover songs, whether it’s a cover of a pop song, or a cover of a film soundtrack, or Broadway play. It seems to be sort of a necessity that every artist do at least one cover in their repertoire. I too have followed this trend on one or two occasions (I recently released a cover of the Prologue music from Beauty and the Beast). However, don’t throw rocks at me but this is a trend that I personally would like to see a little less of, and see more original content arising out of the woodworks. But again….supply and demand. And sometimes this is part of that 10% I talked about that gets people through the door, and hopefully afterward you can let them fall in love with your own original work.

More than anything, I think we as artists should really concentrate on just making the absolute best music that we can and staying true to our own artistic vision.

Do you have expectations what regards your listeners, your audience?

I’m not sure I completely understand this question, but I’ll take a stab at it. If you are asking me what, if any, expectations I have from my listeners/audience –and I think I speak for all artists and musicians, we just really appreciate those who genuinely appreciate what we are doing. The little compliments, a note, a message, an Amazon review outlining what they specifically enjoyed about a song. These things actually mean a LOT to us. People who go out of their way to make sure I know that the music I am “offering” to the world has an impact and is meaningful – gives me SO much joy and motivation to continue making more.

What projects are coming up? Do you experiment in your projects?

Right now I am finishing up a project that delves into a new genre for me – as I’m working with a talented spoken word/rapper from the Los Angeles area. I can’t be quite certain if one would even classify it as “rap”, but definitely more along the lines of poetry being said very rhythmically. I have composed a very epic orchestral song, in which he has written lyrics and we will be filming a music video for it this summer. We plan to release it as part of the 4th of July celebrations here in the U.S.

I’m also re-writing and re-orchestrating one of my first originals (off of my debut album), which was inspired by the MacDowell 2nd Piano Concerto, and will be filming a music video for that this summer. We are hoping to find a beach where we can put my grand piano and film some lovely ocean waves.

And then for the remainder of the year until next, I will be turning into a hermit and saying no to most projects as I work on creating a new album that I’m hoping to release by mid-2018. One of the major works on this new album is a two-piano duet that I’ve co-written with a talented pianist named Kimberly StarKey. It is written in the style of a modern short double piano concerto, and we will be recording with the Ensign Symphony and filming a video for that as well early next year.

Thank you for having me here, it’s been a pleasure to talk about the Classical music world and how it is transforming, and also effecting me as a modern Classical composer/performer!

Country:

Posted in Piano, Uncategorized and tagged , ,

Though "invisible" is usually associated with things we see, aspects of music can also be invisible to our ears. Robert Adams explains how tonality can be invisible.

MrAMusicPlace Image

When we think of something being invisible, surely things that cannot be seen come to mind. The air we breathe, for example, is invisible because we cannot see it (though we can see the effects of it moving an object on which it blows). We know air is all around us because we breathe it to stay alive and because of what we see the air doing. We do not have to see air to know it is there.

A similar situation can exist with tonality. Notice I said can exist, because it does not always. In much of the Western art music repertoire, tonality is clearly heard every time we hear the stabilizing effect of the tonic chord providing respite from harmonic tension, or bringing the music to a temporary or concluding rest. While all this is so, there is also the invisible yet ever present aspect of tonality. Whether or not we are hearing the tonic chord, we nevertheless are constantly aware of what the tonic is. We know this because we audiate the tonality of the music we are listening to regardless of what chord we may be hearing at any given moment. So when the tonic chord is not being heard, the tonality is still there, invisible yet present because of our audiation.

As tonality became less explicit in the late nineteenth century, composers became more and more reliant on the listener’s ability to retain the tonic in mind while physically hearing it less and less. The whole concept of chromaticism and impressionism relies on this very thing. If we were not able to audiate the tonic amid chords stretching further and further away from the tonic, the tension, angst, and beauty of those chords and their dissonances would not be possible. As long as a composer gives listeners enough indications of a tonality, they can hear a piece as tonal and be aroused by the scarcity of physically present affirmations of that tonality. To the extent that a composer does this, he or she has created invisible tonality; tonality that is heard through audiation but not explicitly in the music itself.

Composer Piotr Lachert has written music that has invisible tonality in abundance. If you listen to his music, you will find that you rarely hear a tonic chord, yet always seem to know what it would be if you were to hear it played. He gives you just enough indication of a tonality to enable you to audiate what he has left out–the tonic. I’ve provided a link to a performance of his “Three Preludes” for solo piano. I hope you enjoy them.

Country:USA

Posted in Piano and tagged , , ,

Poetry can be enjoyed in a poetic context. Robert Adams discusses musical semantics and structure, explaining how they are similar to poetry.

MrAMusicPlace Image

We all know that music is comprised of sound; however, many have argued that all sound is not music. Stravinsky advanced this view convincingly when he explained that when we simply hear the rustle of leaves or the sound of a brook, we are not hearing music nor are we utilizing musical ability to hear or even enjoy these sounds of nature. These sounds are “promises of music; it take a human being to keep them: a human being who is sensitive to natures many voices, of course, but who in addition feels the need of putting them in order and who is gifted for that task with a very special aptitude. In his hands all that I have considered as not being music will become music. From this I conclude that tonal elements become music only by virtue of their being organized, and that such organization presupposes a conscious human act.”

How do humans organize sound so that it becomes music? Stravinsky specifically mentions tonality, and that is one way in which we organize sound into music. Tonality is a culturally learned concept. Western cultures organize tones into major and minor tonalities, and less often into others such as Dorian or Mixolydian. Eastern cultures organize music into very different tonalities, but tonalities nonetheless. While Stravinsky’s observation of music as a human constructed entity, restricting ourselves to tonality will be of little help in a discussion of music and poetry, because poetry, as spoken language, has no tonality, at least in Western culture.

There are other ways that humans organize music. The two most significant ones are rhythm, meter, and phrases. These are elements that are critical to both music and poetry. In both disciplines, sounds are made that are of variable durations that are perceived in patterns. Whether we are performing a music, or reading aloud poetry, the notes or words respectively are heard in patterns of durations that we naturally form into groups of sounds that make sense to us, and make what would otherwise be a barrage of noise into intelligible and enjoyable art.

These rhythmic patterns in music, combined with tonal elements, result in musical phrases that end with a pause that marks the end of the phrase and signal the immanent beginning of the next phrase. An example of this is the famous “Ode to Joy” theme from Beethoven’s ninth symphony. The antecedent phrase ends with the longest duration heard thus far on a tone from the dominant chord, and the consequent phrase ends on a duration of equal length but on a tone from the tonic chord which in this case is also the tonic tone. That tonic note of finality punctuates the phrase with the musical equivalent of a period, whereas the end of the antecedent phrase on the dominant punctuates the phrase with the musical equivalent of a comma. Both phrases are of equal length and are comprised of identical rhythms. The structure provides a high degree of predictability that brings stability to our perception of the music. The effect is the same as a rhyme scheme in poetry. Rhythm, meter, and the rhyming pattern also bring predictability, at least that a rhyming word is coming, and of when the rhyme will occur within the established meter and rhyme scheme. In both music and poetry, when the predicted tone or rhyme, respectively, does not occur, tension is built; a tension that remains until the expectation is met.

There is an aspect of the similarity between music and poetry that goes beyond structure. I refer to the expressiveness humans achieve with both art forms. Leonard Bernstein discussed this extensively in his Norton Lecture, “The Unanswered Question” at Harvard University. Music can never have the literalness that language does, because no music has literal meaning. Musical meaning is always more abstract, and is come to through the interaction with not only the organizing mind, but the creative imagination. Prose, on the other hand, falls far short of such expressive abstraction, but not poetry. Poetry, like music, thrives on abstraction, illusion, and even at times whimsy. Poetry utilizes language in a way that replaces relative precision with literary suggestion that appeals to the human imagination.

If you are interested in reading more on this subject, I suggest Poetics of Music in the Form of Six Lessons by Igor Stravinsky, and The Unanswered Question by Leonard Bernstein. Both were lectures later published that each gave when they were honored with the Charles Eliot Norton chair at Harvard University.

Country:USA

Posted in Piano and tagged , , , , ,

Robert Adams discusses some causes of "stage fright" and offers some advice on how to minimize the nervousness that can sabotage a musical performance.

MrAMusicPlace Image

Anyone who is a performing musician, and in fact anyone who has given a speech or presented anything in front of an audience, has probably experienced what is commonly referred to as “stage fright.” At its core, stage fright is the fear of making mistakes or failing publicly. I for one have accepted a certain amount of such fear as normal, and something that needs to be handled and contained so that it doesn’t take over and decimate a performance. But this is much more easily said than done. How does one go about winning the battle against stage fright?

As I have done before, I turn to my ongoing efforts to learn to shoot a respectable score in the game of golf. This game can quickly become unnerving, and whatever good results I’ve just had can quickly evaporate. After going through this cycle several times, I’ve noticed something important. When I have my mind think about the target, my mind occupies itself with solving the problem of projecting the golf ball in the right direction.This sets Crowd Listeningmy mind to thinking about the result it is charged with achieving, and gives my mind the task of solving the problem of how it will engineer bringing this about. When, on the other hand, I have my mind think about the task of hitting the golf ball with the club, I forget about the target, and invariably hit a bad shot. In making the ball the target, I have sabotaged my brain’s ability to bring about the result I desire. The brain and the nervous system it directs is designed to implement what is needed to hit the target. It is not designed to be micro-managed every step of the way.

Now let’s apply this golf lesson to music performance. If you stop to think about it, I’m fairly certain that you will realize that when your nervousness has gotten the best of you in a performance, it was while you were thinking about the details of what you were doing or had just done. You were thinking about a mistake you just made, or about how your playing or singing was going at that moment. The result of such thinking is that the stage fright got worse, and more mistakes were only a breath away. Now think about when your performance was going really well. Chances are you were not thinking of those procedural, technical issues. Instead, you were thinking about the sound and phrasing you wanted in music at which you had not yet arrived. You were thinking of the goal, the target, which was sound, tone, phrasing, or an upcoming cadence. You left the business of how to achieve those things to your brain, without micro-managing the details.

Feed Your Brain MusicMy point is that when nervousness or fear overtakes a musician in performance, it is because that musician is not allowing his or her brain to work as it was designed to work. We know that after practicing, our brains take over the execution of rapid fingerings on an instrument, and that the music is “in our fingers;” every note does not have to be consciously thought of and placed with a fingering. The brain does all this because we have spent hours teaching it to execute hundreds of motor commands that get the right fingers to the right keys without our having to make an effort to think of every note. In fact, were we to try to think about every single fingering, we would never be able to play the music properly. Stage fright is in large part the result of using our brains improperly. Make the musical outcome, and not the technical matters the focus of your attention, and you will have much less on your plate to make you nervous and fearful.

Country:USA

Posted in Piano and tagged , ,