The Well-Tempered Ear
Is it pretentious for the NFL to use Roman numerals for the Super Bowl?
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By Jacob Stockinger
Today — Sunday, Feb. 12, 2023 — is Super Bowl LVII.
Or as we say in ordinary English — “57.”
(It airs at 5:30 p.m. Central Standard Time on Fox.)
The Ear thinks it is pretentious for the NFL to use Roman numerals, which are esoteric and incomprehensible to many members of the public.
Does anyone else think so?
Using the Roman numerals in sports also seems unpractical.
Imagine the NBA using the same antiquated number system to record LeBron James’ new record for a lifetime basketball score — 33,388 points. According to Google, it would be XXXIIICCCLXXXVIII.
How convenient! And silly, no?
It seems the same kind of pretentious authenticity The Ear hears too often in Classical music where authentic foreign pronunciations often seem a sort of status symbol that says “Look at what I know and you don’t, but should.”
Not exactly the kind of effort at reaching out that classical music needs to draw bigger and younger audiences.
It’s like when non-Hungarian, American speakers say “Budapesht” when in English it is simply Budapest. And this often comes from the same people don’t usually say München for Munich, or Roma for Rome, or Paree for Paris.
Can American speakers just speak plain American English for the sake of clarity and simplicity?
And can the NFL just use either English numbers or, like the Olympics, the year to show which competition it is?
Anyway, despite such preciousness and pretentiousness, we can enjoy today’s 57th or 2023 Super Bowl championship game in Phoenix between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Kansas City Chiefs.
Here’s another easier equivalency: a beautiful long pass and a beautiful javelin throw.
Which why The Eater is offering the classical music piece “Javelin” in the YouTube video at the bottom, played by Yoel Levi conducting the Atlantic Symphony Orchestra.
Written on commission for the Atlanta Olympics by the Wisconsin-born composer Michael Torke, it soars with a grace and an energy that is made all the more understandable and moving for its lack of words and numbers.
Whatever quarterback does it, winner or loser, here’s to the thrower of the most beautiful pass today.
What do you think of the music? And of the comparison between passing a football and throwing a javelin?
And what do you think about using Roman numerals is sports and foreign pronunciations in classical music
The Ear wants to hear.
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Beethoven helps LeBron James break a big basketball scoring record
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By Jacob Stockinger
Sometime this coming week — maybe even by the time you read this — basketball superstar LeBron James (below) will break the all-time scoring record for the NBA.
The current record of 38,387 points is held by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (known earlier in his career as Lew Alcindor) who he broke the previous record held by Wilt Chamberlain on April 5, 1984. Abdul-Jabbar, who is famous for his “skyhook,” retired at 42 in 1989 and is now 75.
At 38, James — who is just 63 points away from the record as of this writing — still has many years to play and score.
Based on what the James (below, in action) — who is also the first player to become a billionaire while playing in the NBA — usually scores each game, professional sports watchers expect he will surpass Abdul-Jabbar at a game against the Milwaukee Bucks this coming Thursday night, Feb. 9, in Milwaukee.
When he does, you will no doubt hear about it. It will be big news since the previous NBA scoring record has lasted for almost 34 years.
James, who plays for the Los Angeles Lakers, is known as a very disciplined, even obsessive, player who even follows a special diet to stay in shape.
What’s more, according to reports, James — who took his first piano lesson from the famous Chinese pianist Lang Lang — also listens to classical music. He especially likes to listen to Beethoven (below) after he listens to hip-hop while in the weight room, and then leaves to get ready and “calm down” before a game and heading out to the court.
Here is a link to that story on ClassicFM:
What Beethoven pieces do you think LeBron James listens to in order to calm down before a game? Symphonies? Concertos? Chamber music? A lot of Beethoven seems more aggressive than relaxing to The Ear. But the slow middle movement of the Piano Concerto No. 5 “Emperor” (played by Lang Lang in the YouTube video at the bottom) seems like a good choice.
Maybe James will even somehow read this and let us know his favorite works by Beethoven and other classical composers.
Do any other readers or athletes listen to classical music as part of their athletic training, preparation and activity? Do a lot of the runners who are listening to something through ear buds listen too classical music?
The Ear wants to hear.
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Classical music: A busy Sunday at the UW is highlighted by a FREE band concert and a public reception to mark the retirement of legendary band master Mike Leckrone
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ALERT: The Madison-based Avanti Piano Trio will give two FREE public concerts this weekend. The first one is TONIGHT at 7 p.m. at Capitol Lakes Retirement Community, 333 West Main Street, off the Capitol Square; the second one is on Sunday at 1 p.m. at the First United Methodist Church, 302 Wisconsin Avenue. Members of the trio are violinist Wes Luke, cellist Hannah Wolkstein and pianist Joseph Ross. The program includes works by Leon Kirchner, Ernest Bloch, Claude Debussy and Johannes Brahms.
By Jacob Stockinger
As the semester and academic year come to a close, concerts usually get packed into the schedule.
This coming Sunday, April 28, is no different – except that one event is clearly the headliner.
Mike Leckrone (below, in a photo by UW Communications) – the legendary and much honored director of bands and athletic bands at the University of Wisconsin-Madison – is retiring after 50 years.
Sunday marks a last appearance. He will conduct the UW Concert Band one last time and then be honored with a public reception.
The athletes and athletic fans love him. The students and band members love him. The alumni love him.
And, yes, the School of Music loves him. After all, not many band directors do what he did when he asked the late UW-Madison violin virtuoso Vartan Manoogian to perform the popular Violin Concerto by Felix Mendelssohn with a band instead of an orchestra. But Manoogian agreed — and said he loved the experience.
Also, not many band directors could start an annual spring concert in Mills Hall with an audience of some 300 and then saw it grow decades later into a three-night extravaganza that packs the Kohl Center with some 50,000 people and gets seen statewide on Wisconsin Public Television.
One time years ago, The Ear — who was then working as a journalist for The Capital Times — interviewed Leckrone. It was a busy year when he and the Marching Band were going with the football and basketball teams to the Rose Bowl and the March Madness tournament.
Mike Leckrone was charming and humorous, open and candid. The interview was so good, so full of information and human interest, that it was picked up by the Associated Press and distributed statewide and nationally.
That’s how big Mike Leckrone’s fan base is. Other schools and bands envied him.
All honor, then, to this man of action and distinction who was also creative and innovative.
Here is more information – but, alas, no program — about the FREE band concert on Sunday at 2 p.m. in Mills Hall:
https://www.music.wisc.edu/event/uw-concert-band-spring-concert-2/
For really detailed biographical background about Mike Leckrone and his achievements, go to:
https://news.wisc.edu/mike-leckrone-a-legendary-career/
And here is a statement by Leckrone himself about his approach to teaching and performing as well as his plans for retirement. (You can hear an interview Leckrone did with the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
http://ls.wisc.edu/news/hitting-the-high-notes
Now you may think Leckrone can’t be followed.
But just this past week, the UW-Madison announced that Corey Pompey (below) is Leckrone’s successor. Here is a link to the official announcement, with lots of background about Pompey:
https://news.wisc.edu/new-marching-band-director-to-take-the-baton/
What else is there to say except: Thank you, Mike!
On, Wisconsin!
As for other events at the UW on Sunday:
At 4 p.m., in Mills Hall, University Bands will perform a FREE concert. Darin Olsen, O’Shae Best and Cole Hairston will conduct. No program is listed.
At 8 p.m. in Mills Hall, the Madrigal Singers (below top) will perform a FREE concert. Bruce Gladstone (below bottom, in a photo by Katrin Talbot) will conduct. No word on that program either.
Tags: #AcademicYear, #AssociatedPress, #AvantiPianoTrio, #BadgerBasketball, #BadgerFootball, #BadgerSports, #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #BruceGladstone, #BuckyBadger, #CapitolLakes, #CapitolSquare, #ChoralMusic, #ChristianChurch, #ChristianReligion, #ClaudeDebussy, #CollegeStudent, #ConcertBand, #CoreyPompey, #ErnestBloch, #FacebookPost, #FacebookPosting, #FelixMendelssohn, #FirstUnitedMethodistChurch, #HannahWolkstein, #HumanInterest, #JohannesBrahms, #JosephRoss, #KohlCenter, #LeonKirchner, #MadrigalSingers, #MarchingBand, #MarchMadness, #MikeLeckrone, #MilwaukeeJournal-Sentinel, #MilwaukeeWisconsin, #OnWisconsin, #OrchestralAccompaniment, #PianoTrio, #RoseBowl, #ThankYou, #TheCapitalTmes, #TheMusicMan, #UniversityofWisconsin-Madison, #UWMarchingBand, #VartanManoogian, #ViolinConcerto, #ViolinVirtuoso, #WesLuke, #WisconsinPublicTelevision, academic year, action, alert, announcement, Associated Press, athlete, athletic fans, audience, Avanti Piano Trio, Badgers, band, base, basketball, big, biography, blog, Bruce Gladstone, Bucky Badger, Capitol Lakes, Capitol Square, cellist, Cello, choral music, Christianity, church, Claude Debussy, Concert Band, concerto, conduct, Corey Pompey, creative, director, distinction, envy, Ernest Bloch, event, Facebook, fan, fans, Felix Mendelssohn, First United Methodist Church, football, forward, free, Hannah Wolkstein, human interest, innovation, innovative, interview, Johannes Brahms, Joseph Ross, Kohl Center, Leon Kirchner, like, link, Madison, Madrigal Singers, March Madness, marching band, member, Methodist, Mike Leckrone, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Milwaukee Wisconsin, nation, nationally, NCAA, NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship, official, On, On Wiscosnin, Orchestra, performer, performing, Pianist, Piano, Piano Trio, public, reception, Religion, retire, Retirement, retiring, Rose Bowl, semester, share, sing, singer, Sports, Spring, statement, statewide, Student, Sunday, tag, teaching, thank you, The Capital Times, The Music Man, time, Trombone, University of Wisconsin, UW Marching Band, Vartan Manoogian, Violin, Violin concerto, violinist, virtuoso, Wes Luke, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Public Television, work, WPT
Classical music: The Ear listens with eyes open and finds interesting photos at concerts
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By Jacob Stockinger
It was the famous 20th-century composer and pioneering modernist Igor Stravinsky (below) who advised us to listen to music with our eyes open.
For one, it fosters our appreciation of the sheer physicality of making music. Musicians are, as the pianist Vladimir Horowitz once observed, athletes of the small muscles.
If you listen with your eyes open you can see a lot of things.
You can see how musicians give each other cues.
You can see the expression on their faces, the joy and pleasure that making music gives them.
You can observe how different members of the audience react differently to different music.
You can appreciate the many kinds of instruments with the eye-catching shapes, sizes and colors.
And you can see patterns that make for good photographs – if taking photos is allowed.
Of course even if it is, there are rules to follow so that the musicians and other audience members are not disturbed: no flash and no shutter sound are the main ones besides the rule of intellectual property and the forbidding of taking photographs – kind of a difficult one to enforce these days, what with all the smart phones out there.
But some musicians and groups are very friendly and open to photographing, especially if the photos are strictly personal and not for commercial use to earn a profit.
At the last regular concert this summer by the Willy Street Chamber players a little over two weeks ago, The Ear found two that showed patterns for good composition.
It’s just fun. But productive fun that can capture the fascination with music and musicians, especially if you sit close to the performers.
Here they are.
First is “Three Clarinets,” a portrait of guest artist Michael Maccaferri, from the Grammy-winning chamber music group eighth blackbird, with the three clarinets he used in the Argentinian-Jewish composer Osvaldo Golijov’s “The Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind.” The black verticality of the clarinets is heightened by the same quality of the music stands.
The second is “Two Cellos and One Violin,” taken during the bows after the string sextet version of Mozart’s “Sinfonia Concertante.” The shapes and shades of brown wood draw the eye.
Tell The Ear of you like this kind of photo essay and want to see more of them on the blog.
The Ear wants to hear.
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Classical music: More World Cup soccer this weekend means more music by Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos. Here is installment No. 3.
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By Jacob Stockinger
It is the second-to-last weekend for the FIFA World Cup of soccer -– or football, as the rest of the world calls the sport –- in Brazil, especially now that Brazil has survived by defeating Colombia and that Germany defeated France.
As I have said before, for The Ear the famed athletic competition has become a great excuse to explore a composer who is also world-class but whose music is too often overlooked.
I am talking about the 20th-century composer Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos. So here is another morsel to whet your appetite, to tease you into listening to — and maybe even playing more of –- the music of Villa-Lobos (below).
Once again you can hear how he incorporates folk music – folk songs, tunes and dance rhythms – into his concert hall music. In this one you can even hear how he tries to bring in Bach to Brazil. It is neo-Classicism at its best.
At the bottom is the gorgeous first movement from the Bachianas Brasileiras No. 4 for solo piano, as played live by Brazilian native Nelson Freire (seen below with Martha Argerich).
It is slowly and deeply moving, Amazonian Bach that I find is haunting and stays with you, making you want to listen to it again and again. It reminds The Ear of a Chorale Prelude by Johann Sebastian Bach (below), especially the ones reworked in piano transcriptions by Ferruccio Busoni; or maybe a Prelude from The Well-Tempered Clavier or an organ work, perhaps the prelude to a toccata; or maybe even a slow movement from one of the French or English Suites or the Partitas; or one of the variations from the “Goldberg” Variations.
Here are links to the Cello Choir concert of the annual Summer National Cello Institute that is held each summer at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music and that gave rise to the Villa-Lobos postings.
And here are the links to the first two installments that feature the Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5 and No 1, which both deserve repeated hearings:
And finally here is the link to the YouTube video with today’s installment of the greatness of Heitor Villa-Lobos music, the neglect of which is yet another sign of how Eurocentric the concert hall programming usually is:
Tags: Arts, athlete, athletic, Bach, Bachianas Brasileiras, Brazil, Busoni, Chorale, chorale prelude, Classical music, Colombia, English Suites, Ferruccio Busoni, FIFA World Cup, football, France, French Suites, Germany, Heitor Villa-Lobos, Jacob Stockinger, Johann Sebastian Bach, Madison Opera, Music, Nelson Freire, organ, Piano, Prelude, soccer, Sport, Sports, transcription, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, World Cup, YouTube
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