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The
Importance of Being
Commissioned
By
David Amos
In
the 18th and 19th centuries, people attended music
concerts expecting to hear a few old favorites, and at the same time, to sample
newly composed music. Many of the most celebrated concerts in history featured
nothing but new music.
Somehow,
starting in the 20th century, we have lost our way. Concertgoers
attend programs with the sole purpose of basking themselves by hearing the
classics from the past that they know and love. Call it “comfort music,”
much like bread is comfort food. But, nutritionists will tell you, man can not
live by bread alone.
Possibly
the strident sounds of modernity in the serial and atonal music which started in
the early 1900s created a strong resistance to anything that hinted of new music, or contemporary,
or music of our times, to say nothing
of Avante Garde and other scary
implications.
It
all comes down to this: Concert halls are becoming museums, and not shrines that
showcase a living art form. No wonder that we are suffering from shrinking,
graying audiences for classical music. Our beloved concert music has changed
from being a vibrant, evolving art form, to a stagnant homage to glories of the
past. In most instances, modern music is not even given a chance, and when it is
played, it is rarely heard more than in the premiere performance.
The
late Karl Haas told me a few years ago that he received many letters from
listeners to his immensely popular radio program Adventures
in Good Music. Many of these letters unequivocally let Mr. Haas know that
“the moment that you announce that you are going to play music from the 20th
century, I turn off the radio before listening to a single note.” Reality can
be most unfair.
Serious
music is well on its way to extinction. If we want classical music to survive,
the above must change.
But,
on the other hand, I must admit that even for me, a blindly loyal supporter and
performer of classical music, the idea of attending a live concert that features
nothing more than the same tired warhorses, becomes a silly ritual of sameness
and redundancy; this is in spite of who the performers are, and of the prospects
of a real good rendition of the music.
Where
do we go from here?
As
I see it, the first obvious step is to encourage, promote, and commission
living composers to create new works. But keeping in mind the already built-in
resistance to new music, it is most important to guide composers to create works
that will not repel the listeners like the plague, while at the same time, not
compromise the composers’ creative spirit. Such a happy medium is quite
possible, without pandering to popular tastes and lowering of standards.
Composers
have to understand the concept that pleasing the audiences is part of their job.
If more composers take the attitude of Aaron Copland, who said that if the
public did not like some of his more “difficult works,” it was of no concern
to him, people will eventually stop attending concerts and record companies will
no longer issue any albums except those with the “greatest hits.” We will
have to close shop in a few decades in the future.
To
this end, during the last 25 years, I have commissioned, or have been involved
in the creation of new, serious music that is accessible to the general public.
And yes, some of these works really sound “modern,” yet, when properly
presented, can generate enthusiasm from the audiences.
These
works have been successfully performed by my community orchestra, and some
compositions have eventually been commercially recorded in Europe with world
famous orchestras for worldwide distribution. And they have received quite
favorable critical acclaim.
A
partial list of these composers include Paul Creston, David Ward-Steinman,
Arnold Rosner, and Tzvi Avni. For the millennium, we commissioned five different
works. Three years ago, we commissioned and premiered Harvey Cohen’s Columbia
Suite, in honor of the fallen astronauts, Tim Simonec’s Anne
Frank, The Story, and Laurence Rosenthal’s Prophetic
Voices, a Double Concerto for Violin, Percussion, and Orchestra. Last year
was the world premiere of Voices of
Shekhinah by Valarie Morris, a large work for four female voices and
orchestra, celebrating Jewish women in history and the present.
There
have been many premieres of substantial pop arrangements, and for next season, a
new composition based on music by George Frederick Handel.
I
have thoroughly enjoyed conducting and promoting lesser known music by Alan
Hovhaness, Morton Gould, Gian Carlo Menotti, Norman Dello Joio, Vittorio
Giannini, Nicolas Flagello, Walter Piston, Henry Cowell, Isidor Achron, Ernest
Bloch, and many other worthy masters.
But,
keep in mind: I do not like most modern music I hear; just because it “sounds
modern,” it may have incomprehensible rhythms and token dissonances, and it
will not please me. But I will always give new music a chance and welcome its
performance. Once in a while, I am surprised and pleased. What music needs to do
is create an emotional response from its listeners, preferably a good one. But
this is the chance we take. Call it the happiness of pursuit.
The
more music we hear, traditional and new, the more discriminating we become, and
can differentiate between the wheat and the chaff. This evolving process must
continue in the concert hall and in recordings.
Let
us not forget that the classics we revere from the past are the results of
natural selection, the survival of the fittest. During the times of Bach,
Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, and our many other musical heroes, there
were hundreds, if not thousands of other composers and compositions that are not
heard today. What we do hear is the best that has survived, with a few
exceptional worthy discoveries here and there that become part of the repertory.
Obviously,
not all the music of today will survive, or deserves to be heard again.
But for this process to continue, we must all do our part. That is, to
commission composers, have the works performed and recorded, and most
importantly, to listen to them with an optimistic ear. Let history be the judge, and
let us be the immediate beneficiaries.