The Well-Tempered Ear
Classical music education: Here is a shout-out for Susan Cook, director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, who defended music education and music performance as part of the Wisconsin Idea that is now under attack by state Republicans.
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By Jacob Stockinger
If you attended the recent concert by the winners of the UW-Madison School of Music Concerto Competition, you heard something extraordinary besides terrific music by Johann Strauss, Francois Borne, Ernest Chausson, Charles Gounod, Sergei Rachmaninoff and UW-Madison graduate student in composition Adam Betz from the four soloists, two conductors and the UW Symphony Orchestra.
At the beginning of the concert Susan Cook (below), who is a respected musicologist and the relatively new director of the School of Music, stood before the large house and defended music education and music performance as part of the Wisconsin Idea.
That long-celebrated idea that was formulated in the Progressive Era – that the publicly funded university exists to serve all the citizens of the state –- is under attack from anti-intellectual, budget-cutting Republicans who are being led by presidential wannabe Gov. Scott Walker.
Clearly, Walker and the conservative Republicans are once again picking on public workers — this time university professors — as overpaid and underworked scapegoats.
In addition, they are insisting that the university has to do more to foster economic development with the implication that the arts and humanities are not doing their fair share compared to the sciences, the professions and engineering. Why not turn the UW-Madison into a trade school or vocational school?
So they seem determined to dismantle the great University of Wisconsin or reduce it to a second-rate institution. And they are annoyed and disapproving that UW-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank is playing politics right back at them by marshalling alumni and faculty, staff and students, to fight back against the record $300 million budget cut.
Too bad the state legislators don’t rank as high among state legislatures as the UW-Madison does among public universities. They should be taking lessons – not giving them.
Anyway, Susan Cook (below) eloquently defended music education and music performance. She pointed out the diversity of the students in the School of Music. She pointed out the national distinctions that the school and its faculty have earned. And she pointed out how many of the school’s teachers and performers tour the state, and even the country and world, to share their art and knowledge. Surely all of that fulfills the ideals of the Wisconsin Idea.
In addition, the growing body of research studies show that music education plays a vital role in all education and in successful careers in other fields. But one doubts whether the Republicans will consider that as central to economic development -– even though businesses lament the lack of a prepared workforce.
Cook got loud and sustained applause for her remarks.
She deserved it.
Cook stood up and, as the Quakers say, spoke truth to power.
So The Ear sends a big shout-out to Susan Cook and hopes that all music fans will second her views and protest and resist what the governor and state legislature want to do to gut the UW-Madison.
Brava, Susan Cook!
The Ear says leave a Comment and show both the politicians and the School of Music that you stand with Cook and want to preserve the quality of the UW-Madison, in the arts and humanities as well as in the sciences and technology, to be maintained.
Tags: Arts, Arts and Letters, Chamber music, Charles R. Van Hise, Chausson, Classical music, composer, concerto, conductor, conservative, economic development, Francois Borne, Gounod, history of music, humanities, Jacob Stockinger, Johann Strauss, liberal arts, Madison, Mission statement, musicology, Orchestra, professions, Progressive Era, public universities, Public university, Quakers, Rachmaninoff, Rebecca Blank, Republicans, science, Scott Walker (politician), symphony, technology, university, University of Wisconsin System, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Idea
Here is some classical music for voting in a presidential and Congressional election and waiting for the results.
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ALERT: This Friday night at 8 p.m. in Mills Hall, UW cellist Parry Karp (below), who also plays in the Pro Arte String Quartet, will perform a FREE concert. He will perform with pianists brother Christopher Karp and father Howard Karp. The program features “Angélus! Prière aux anges gardiens” from Third Year of “Years of Pilgrimage” by Franz Liszt; the WORLD PREMIERE of MADISON-BORN AND UW-MADISON-EDUCATED COMPOSER Nils Bultmann’s Suite for Solo Cello, an homage to J.S. Bach‘s Solo Cello Suite No. 1; “Lasst mich allein,” Op. 82, No. 1, by Dvorak; Sonata in D major for Piano and Cello, Op. 102, No. 2, by Beethoven; Hungarian Rhapsody No. 5 “Héroïde-Élégiaque” by Liszt; and the Sonata in F minor for Piano and Clarinet, Op. 120, No. 1, by Johannes Brahms and transcribed by Parry Karp.
By Jacob Stockinger
Well, it’s too bad, isn’t it, that we don’t have the American equivalent of British ceremonial music for coronations and other major public events.
After all, today happens only once every four years.
It is Presidential Election Day in the U.S. with the entire world watching whether incumbent Democratic President Barack Obama (below top) wins reelection or whether Republican Party challenger Mitt Romney (below bottom) successfully unseats him – to say nothing of how the US Senate and House end up going.
Such an event would seem to invite music.
But although Baroque composer George Frideric Handel (below) wrote such occasional or ceremonial works as the “Water Musick” and the “Royal Fireworks Musick,” he apparently never got around to penning “Election Musick.”
Of course, democratic elections were not very common when he was composing music back around the 18th century in Germany, Italy and England.
But recently NPR’s outstanding classical music blog “Deceptive Cadence” feature a couple of entries that are pertinent to the special day and event.
One post featured music and the reader quiz about the relevant issue of POLITICS, even with kings and royalty portrayed in opera:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/deceptivecadence/2012/10/23/163497857/the-politicians-in-opera-puzzler
The other posting, using a lot of opera, focused on THE WHITE HOUSE and its parallels in art and opera:
As for me, I don’t really know what music to choose.
But it should be something American, don’t you think?
The pundits and polls say the presidential race is tight, as are many others, and we will all be awaiting word, uplifting or depressing, about the winners. So The Ear thinks that the oh-so-Yankee mysterious and haunting piece “The Unanswered Question” by Charles Ives (below) is a fine choice (see at bottom).
But if you can think of other appropriate classical music – NOT Sousa marches, patriotic songs, doggerel jingles or campaign songs, please –– than please leave a message and a link n the COMMENT section.
Have a good Election Day and don’t forget to get out and vote.
Then listen for word of the winners — and to the beauty of Ives.
Tags: Années de pèlerinage, Barack Obama, Cadence (music), Charles Ives, Democratic Party (United States), Election, Electoral College, George Frideric Handel, Hungarian Rhapsody No. 5, Johannes Brahms, Mitt Romney, NPR, Parry Karp, President, Republican Party, Republicans, United States
Classical music: The Ear gives a hearty “shout out” to the politically progressive musicians in the Minnesota Orchestra who publicly support marriage equality and oppose a proposed state constitutional ban against same-sex marriage.
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By Jacob Stockinger
Here’s a well-deserved shout out!
The Minnesota Orchestra has done some remarkable work and made noteworthy and prize-winning recordings in recent years under the direction of Finnish conductor Osmo Vanska (below). They include acclaimed cycles of Beethoven, Jean Sibelius and Anton Bruckner symphonies and concertos.
But to The Ear, the musicians of the Minnesota Orchestra (below) were especially brave when, as a group that depends on public sponsorship and public patronage, they publicly went on record as supporting marriage equality and opposing a proposed constitutional amendment that would ban same-sex marriage in the state of MInnesota.
Here is a link to the story:
http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2012/07/27/mn-orchestra-publicly-opposes-marriage-amendment/
That is the enlightened and compassionate stand to take, and I say congratulations to them for taking a progressive stand in a progressive state that has lately earned a reputation as a conservative Republican state because of Tea Party favorite Michele Bachmann and possible Mitt Romney vice-presidential choice, Gov. Tim Pawlenty.
Minnesota Progressives, including Hubert Humphrey, would be proud!
And so is The Ear.
Classical music news: U.S. House and Senate — plus President Obama — cut back on funding for the arts and humanities, even as Congress grows richer while we get poorer.
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By Jacob Stockinger
Well, guess what?
SURPRISE!!!!!
The U.S. House of Representatives (below) and the U.S Senate – both of which have been so-o-o-o popular and so in tune with the American public lately – last week passed a bill to cut back on the arts and humanities (specifically, the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities) even though those organizations might benefit their own constituents and their own children.
Instead the House and Senate have favored a time-honored historical group that is more conservative and less adventurous about new and contemporary culture: The Smithsonian Institution (below). And it looks like President Obama will sign the bill into law as a compromise measure.
That venerable historical institution of course benefits the city of Washington, D.C. — the very area where the Congressmen and Congresswomen spend so much time dithering in inertia.
Well, they need some place to go unwind and to pretend to be cultured, don’t they?
Do you think it has to do with the anti-intellectualism and pseudo-populism of the Republican Party and the Tea Party?
Good question.
Do you think it has to with federal debt and spending, so many will no doubt say?
Or do you think maybe those same groups see independent or critical thinking skills or art and beauty as dangerous to their agenda and underlying ideology?
Certainly The Smithsonian seems a safer and less creative choice, although no one can deny it is certainly a deserving institution with great many valuable artifacts and exhibitions. (See the photo os its interior below.) And the new Museum of African American History is sure to add to its reputation.
But don’t these cuts also reek of the same know-nothing, take no prisoners partisanship that leads the House majority party to want to defund public radio and public television?
More good questions – especially for a Congress that, as we learned this week, has seen its net worth increase a lot while the average net worth of most Americans has declined.
Read all about it the citizen-politician wealth gap right here:
And here are links to read all about it the budget cuts to the arts and humanities:
Read it and then let me know what you think.
The Ear wants to hear.
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