“You’re a rare bird….a very rare bird.”
That wasn’t a compliment. It was a grave warning from a Philadelphia psychiatrist friend shortly after I moved there from that city of rare birds, New York. The Philadelphia Inquirer music critic position, which I took in 2000, offered a chance – the first in my multi-decade journalism career – to do the work that I knew I was capable of, and to use that hard-earned master’s degree in musicology from New York University.
After USA Today (where I’d had a good 17-year run as theater and music critic, mostly based in New York), the Inquirer wasn’t a disappointment – and it still isn’t, even as the journalism world crumbles beneath us. The Inquirer encourages me to jump off the high dive every day.
That’s what I’ve been looking for, ever since I left the sedate Illinois cornfields where I grew up, gradually moving east via Muncie, Indiana (where I was police reporter/music critic) and Rochester, N.Y. (where I was music critic/snow shoveler).
Now, this ArtsJournal blog is a chance to go further. I can write about exactly what intensely interests me, whatever and wherever it may be. I return to New York often, visit arts festivals along the Northeast Corridor and occasionally go mountain-hiking in odd corners of Europe. But much of my writing will have a Philadelphia point of view – whatever that means, in this paradoxically complacent-yet-bad-ass place.
“When we love you, we hate you,” explained one native Philadelphian. “And when we hate you, we really hate you.”
That will keep you on the edge. A few days before moving, one of my Brooklyn gym buddies offered to give me a Tarot reading. Most of the cards came out either upside down or had images loaded with swords. Oh dear.
“But it’ll be a good place to get your work done,” she said.
And she was right. So here’s the work.
As the world manages to evolve in your world of journalism, you are finding new ways to bring your world of the written craft to current and new readers, much in the same way the world of music continues to evolve. Along with many of my colleagues, we are always finding new ways to reinvent the musical wheel–in composition, or performance of music. One good thing I have found, to come out of the dust of the 20th century mindset of ‘what classical musicians should play to avoid stereotype’, is that the walls of such notions have nearly fallen. Good! The training I personally received at The Juilliard School, although based on the old style of ‘what classical musicians should perform’, allowed me to think ‘out of the box’ (now an old expression). Don’t you agree–if you were a musicology major, as you were, you wrote about subjects that related to your learning experience. Don’t you feel that, in 2011, the writing curve is much wider? Same for me. In the 1980s and 1990s, if I offered works for piano and orchestra that were not in keeping with traditional values, did I risk not being asked back to perform? Certainly. And now, doing so, makes an orchestra jump to program music which is new or unique in the fact that it is by a composer they would like to see listed on their season brochure. Social networking has opened the walls of fire to allow people to share and evolve. Is it a mystery to readers that Neil Sedaka, the pop icon, has a piano concerto on the market? Yes he does. Am I going to offer it to orchestras? You bet! Will it stop me from playing Brahms Concerto #2 next season? Not a chance. So, your writing about what intensely interests you, whatever and wherever you may be, is a wonderful thing. I am happy for you, me, and our colleagues, our reading or listening audiences, that in 2011, we are able to share our voices in all guises, in all subjects, with any composers, to bring our craft to further evolution. Good luck to you in your new blog!
Tell us about the Neil Sedaka piano concerto. I always thought he had immense craft as a songwriter. Very winning personality.
Long story short: When I met Adele Marcus for the first time in 1977, she shared the story that one of her students was the legendary singer songwriter, Neil Sedaka. He had missed several lessons at The Juilliard School, and, when he came for a lesson, he apologized, and shared that he and his friend had sold 75,000 copies of a new song, “Stupid Cupid”. She asked him to play it, and he did finally after being prodded. Adele had no idea of this immense gift and beautiful voice (which he still has). Artur Rubenstein dubbed him one of the best high school students in NYC and thought he played a terrific Chopin g minor Ballade. After 40,000,000 records sold, and a big comeback in the 1970s, and career spanning several decades, Mr. Sedaka has become a role model and iconic figure for many pop artists. In 2001, I met with David Foster in LA. Everyone who knows David knows how much he loves the classics, Chopin, Puccini, Beethoven etc. Neil had phoned David that day, and David spoke about me to Neil and that we were both students of Adele Marcus at Juilliard. A few years later, I met Neil at a showcase for a terrific singer in New York. It provided the groundwork in conversation about our shared history. Two years ago, I met Neil again at a party in NYC hosted by David Foster, and we all performed (I played Chopin’s ‘Polonaise in A-flat and Neil played a wonderful medley of his music), and Neil shared with me that he was in the process of writing his piano concerto and would let me know when it was ready. Fast forward to May 2011…I receive an email asking me to call Neil’s assistant…the concerto is complete. Neil has performed it several times and wants to present it to me to see if I would find it interesting to add to my repertoire. Neil and I shared several phone calls, and “Manhattan Intermezzo” is sent to me. I adore the piece. It is a pastiche of New York, a rhapsody of short sections weaved together, each owing to the ethnic diversity of New York City. With Neil’s love of Russian music, it is apparent in the main theme, which also appears in the middle section briefly and again at the end. With deep respect and humility, I had asked Neil for permission to ‘beef up’ the piano part slightly, and met with him in NY last week to present my adaptation. The music and measures remain the same, only with added piano writing to fill out the texture. Neil approved it and I am scheduled to perform the concerto for the first time in September. There is nostalgia and New York pulse in the concerto, obviously a tribute to the city where Neil grew up and made pop music famous from 1959-1964 and then beyond. Neil’s tremendous gifts of melody, harmony and rhythm as a songwriter appears in his concerto. For programming purposes, I can easily pair the concerto with Gershwin (another New Yorker who paid tribute to New York with his ‘Rhapsody in Blue’), Leroy Anderson’s light classical ‘Concerto in C’, or pop icon Keith Emerson’s ‘Concerto #1’, and Chopin’s ‘Andante Spianato et Grande Polonaise’. I am sure many successful pop writers have roots in classical training–perhaps they will do the same, which would be a very interesting addition to the repertoire, and interesting for many orchestras and their audiences who may be and fans of Neil Sedaka. Surely they would have the unique wonder to listen to this new composition. Seems to me that Mr. Sedaka has gone full circle to his roots, but he continues to write pop songs, which is in his blood.
Congratulations on your blog! I will surely read it weekly!
So glad to see this! Will be following you, for sure!!
Welcome, David! Now you’ll have a whole new set of deadlines to worry about: your own. But we happy readers won’t care…
Congratulations and good luck, David. With the fast demise of many newspapers and other publications, we are left with only blogs such as yours to keep us informed and interested in things cultural. Your Condemned to Music is a lifelong sentence I share.
You are a ‘Rara Avis’ indeed, and I do mean it as a compliment. I will look forward to reading your insights and perspecitves on music … as well as on life, the universe, and everything….into the fray!