The Well-Tempered Ear
Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra’s new CD and Friday night concert champion racial diversity
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By Jacob Stockinger
“Musical Landscapes in Color” is a five-year initiative by the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra with its award-winning, composer-in-residence Dr. William Banfield (below), who has produced a body of work in the past 25 years that includes music, books, teaching and creative work that contributes to contemporary arts leadership.
The cultural undertaking aims to elevate the voices of an array of living, diverse composers of color throughout the United States. The project represents a significant step towards diversifying the classical music landscape through compositions and audiences, according to the WCO.
The first of several installments (below) — “Harmony in Black” — has just been released by Albany Records.
The album is available in a physical format and for digital streaming on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music and YouTube, where you can sample it at the bottom.
Performed and recorded live on Friday, Oct. 13, 2023, it features excerpts from three compositions: one by four-time Grammy nominee Patrice Rushen entitled “Mine Eyes Have Seen The Glory”; and two by renowned composer Banfield entitled “Testimony of Tone, Tune, and Time” and “Symphony No. 8: Here I Stand.”
Their three compositions do not quote spiritual melodies directly, but do embody the spirit of those songs by drawing either on direct quotations of speeches or writings.
Multi-Grammy-nominated artist Patrice Rushen (below) is admired by many for her groundbreaking achievements including serving as Musical Director for the 46th, 47th and 48th Annual Grammy Awards.
CONTENTS:
Patrice Rushen: Movement 1: ”Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory”
Dr. William Banfield: (starting at 8:10): “Testimony of Tone, Tune and Time” — Symphony No. 8
Performers are: retired City of Madison, Dane County and State of Wisconsin Judge Paul Higginbotham (below) as the narrator; saxophonist Matthew Sintchak; and the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra under conductor and music director Andrew Sewell.
For more background, including a release reception, go to a story in Madison 365:
A WORLD PREMIERE THIS FRIDAY NIGHT
The project continues with a concert that takes place this Friday night, March 22, at 7:30 p.m. in the Capitol Theater of the Overture Center features the WORLD PREMIERE of Banfield’s Symphony No. 14 “Revelation.”
Guest artists include the Madison Youth Choirs, the Festival Choir of Madison and the Edgewood College Chamber Singers. Soloists include soprano Angela Brown, tenor Ben Johnson and baritone William Volmar.
Opening the 90-minute concert is Symphony No. 1 in G major, Op. 4 (1901) by British composer Edwin York Bowen, whose music shows influences of Rachmaninov, Chopin and Tchaikovsky.
Tickets are still available and cost $34.50, $75 and $95. For more information and tickets, go to: https://wcoconcerts.org/
Have you heard Banfield’s music?
What do you think of it?
The Ear wants to hear.
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Is the math-music link real?
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PLEASE HELP THE EAR. IF YOU LIKE A CERTAIN BLOG POST, SPREAD THE WORD. FORWARD A LINK TO IT OR, SHARE IT or TAG IT (not just “Like” it) ON FACEBOOK. Performers can use the extra exposure to draw potential audience members to an event. And you might even attract new readers and subscribers to the blog.
By Jacob Stockinger
The blog post before the last one was about solving the “beautiful mathematics” in the music of Johann Sebastian Bach.
Here is a link: https://welltempered.wordpress.com/2024/02/18/solving-the-beautiful-math-in-bach/
But does a link between math and music really exist?
And if such a link does exist, how strong is it?
Can one discipline be used to teach the other?
Many readers have no doubt heard of how devoted Albert Einstein (below) was to his violin, even playing string quartets at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J. He said he thought about physics in musical terms and found his greatest joy in music. He also played duets with physicist Max Planck, who was an accomplished pianist as were Werner Heisenberg and Edward Teller.
Dr. Francis Collins, the well-known geneticist and former head of the National Institutes for Health, is known for playing the guitar. As the 2020 winner of the Templeton Prize for scientific and spiritual curiosity, Collins accompanies superstar soprano Renée Fleming in the Stephen Foster song “Hard Times, Come Again No More” in the YouTube video at the button.)
Locally, the late pioneering University of Wisconsin-Madison geneticist Jim Crow (below) played the viola, even sitting in with the Pro Arte Quartet.
The Ear also knows of many middle schoolers, high schoolers and UW students, especially undergraduates, who pursue dual majors in music and math, science or medicine — often to pursue a more practical and better paying career than being a professional musician.
Personal anecdotes can be dramatic and convincing.
But anecdotes and evidence are not the same thing.
Here is a more formal study:
https://www.iflscience.com/is-there-really-a-link-between-math-skills-and-musical-skills-73069
What do you think?
Are math and music linked?
Do you know of other famous examples?
What has been your own experience with math and music?
If you are a music, math or science teacher, have you noticed such a link among your students?
What do students themselves — for example, those in the Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras (WYSO) — say about such a math-music link?
The Ear wants to hear.
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