Sound On

Here I must confess that I find “organized sounds and silence” to be a bit limiting so far as the definition of music. Also I cannot call art “the experience of beauty,” because a tree that falls in a forest makes a sound no matter if anyone hears it or not.

Hung Up On Lyrics

Dyske Suematsu’s blog on Why Americans Don’t Like Jazz stirred up some comments on reddit. Suematsu argues that most Americans only listen to lyrics and cannot grasp the abstraction of melody. Someone on reddit commented that lyrics are the meaning of a song, and another that art has meaning or is otherwise inspired. Chiming in, I noted that many people seem to get hung up on the meaning of art just as they get hung up on the lyrics of music. There is more to music than lyrics, and there is more to art than meaning.

Hung Up On Meaning

If art does not need to be meaningful in order to be art, and it does not need to be inspired, skillfully authored, or framed in a museum, then what, pray tell, is art? Simply, art is everything, everywhere, all the time. What do I mean by that? Take one of my favorite quotes from John Cage: “Which is more musical: a truck passing by a factory, or a truck passing by a music school?”

People are afraid to accept this simplistic definition of art. They are afraid that it removes things which are great from their pedestals and throws them down into the mud with the mundane grind of daily existence. The reality is that if you can sensitize yourself to something as strange and unnatural as a band playing, then certainly you can become sensitive to the sounds around you every day, and further, every experience. (Consider how strange a band is: highly complex modern instruments producing otherworldly tones, parting the huge expanse of pitch possibilities into a narrowly distinct 12 divisions per octave.) Imagine the joy of life in appreciation of the art that surrounds you every day. However, art is not burdened with the weight of human experience. Art is still art, no matter if anyone experiences it or not.

The Artist’s Job

The artist’s job is simply to create. The artist need not interpret their own work; a philosopher may do that job. The artist may also simply draw people’s attention to the art which otherwise surrounds them. There can also be a meta-artist, who provides opportunities for other artists to create art (e.g., a jazz composer who writes for improvisation).

“Modern” Art

While it is true that art is often created by art historians for art historians, no one should fear modern, or post-modern (if you believe in such a thing) art. Aside from historical context, there is nothing to “get.” There are no secrets. If you like it, enjoy it; if not, move along.

People who have narrow views of what constitutes art probably do not spend a lot of time with their art. After you have seen one thousand portraits, portraits become less interesting. After you have seen one thousand still-lifes, still-lifes lose their edge. While the artist who can be creative within their historical context is thoroughly appreciated (see Cyrus Chestnut and Kevin Mahogany), after you have seen enough of one thing, you want to see something new and fresh. Photography freed artists from the need to merely record, and allowed more abstract creativity to take center stage.

What you see in a modern art gallery is simply the result of hundreds of years of people looking for something new and fresh, reacting to the art the came before them, and discovering life.

To Persuade Or To Inform

Though I hope this blog entry has informed you of my views regarding the definition of art, it is not my role to push my views upon you. Even if you do not agree with me, please ask yourself: what is art?

Humans choose and cultivate their sensitivities. You can develop sensitivity to absolutely anything. Why not choose to appreciate the beauty that surrounds you every day, all the time? If you enjoy listening to music, and every sound could be music, how happy would you be?

Don’t let the title mislead you – I actually attended this performance because I saw John Corigliano’s name on the program. More on that later; but first, I should note that this performance was packed. A couple announced that only 50 tickets were left unsold, and of those were their two. It was a reassuring sign that big orchestral music productions are alive and well on Saturday, February 17, 2007 at Kleinhans Music Hall in Buffalo, NY.

The Hall

Kleinhans was designed in the 1930s by Eliel and Eero Saarinen, with acoustic consultant Charles C. Potwin. Reverb was way out of style at the time. Interestingly, it still is.

Copland

Aaron Copland’s Music for Movies, conducted along with the rest of the tunes by JoAnn Falletta, provided a lightly orchestrated fun and boisterous introduction to the concert. This programming is historically significant as Copland had an enormous influence on film music for his time (1940-1960).

Corigliano

John Corigliano’s Three Hallucinations (based on the film score Altered States) continued the film music theme as well as the “composers whose names start with the letters C-O” theme. He uses extended techniques extensively, having coached the orchestra all week on the unusual tone production methods involved. Amidst all this, Corigliano never fails to coax warm, well voiced sounds from the orchestra. In one of my favorite passages, an off stage out of tune piano and off stage organ distantly paint a creepily contrasting aura against the orchestra’s lively theme. Corigliano’s near rock-star status in the orchestral world comes down to this: he really knows what he’s doing, and impresses with his ability to lovingly guide the orchestra in a display of genuine artistic integrity.

The following day, I had a chance to tell Mr. Corigliano how much I enjoyed his piece. He graciously accepted my praise and encouraged me to have music students compose. I really hope to hear more of his tunes played around here. He encouraged me to return for the Bob Dylan Tone Poems which will be performed by the BPO with Hila Plitmann on March 3^rd and 4^th, 2007.

André Watts Performs Rachmaninoff - Piano Concerto No. 2

Mr. Watts got his start at the age of 16 with the New York Philharmonic in their Young People’s Concerts, broadcast nationwide on CBS-TV (an extension of the film motif?). He played beautifully. Overall, the piece nearly flatlined (emotionally) until the last five minutes, when expression seemed to swell. Because I don’t know the piece well, I can’t say if this was characteristic, but I believe it was done on purpose and to great dramatic effect. Most of the audience members were busy wiping tears after their standing ovation.

The Young Composers’ Forum

The following day, the BPO hosted the Young Composers’ Forum, which was a free reading session for three select individuals. The benefits not only included a live performance of the piece, but also John Corigliano’s personal commentary. Keep your ears open for Jennifer Bellor, a Masters student at Syracuse University. Her beautiful piece exhibited a rhythmic, tone clustery Philip Glass style. I hate to think how difficult it is to break into hundreds of years of established orchestral repertoire, but I don’t think the orchestra music scene will want to pass this one up.

The BPO

The Buffalo Philharmonic was founded in 1935 and continues to provide over 100 enjoyable musical experiences each year under the direction of JoAnn Falletta. Tickets are available at the box office, online, or by phone at (716) 885-5000.

Mark Shuttleworth’s Ubuntu, a computer operating system in competition with Apple’s Mac OS X and Microsoft’s Windows, has been gaining ground. The GNU/Linux distribution comes on a live cd that boots into a fully functional environment. Installation is a breeze. Out-of-box polish and functionality is beyond anything GNU/Linux users have encountered in the past. Perhaps this time, I could switch for good…

One App To Rule Them All

Propellerhead Reason is a closed (no third party plugins) sequencer/synthesizer/sampler application with a consistent interface, high quality sample libraries, and generous licensing. It’s one of my favorite Windows/Mac music tools. My switch to GNU/Linux would be contingent upon my ability to get Reason working acceptably.

Wine

Wine is a Windows compatibility layer for GNU/Linux. Reason wouldn’t install because its splash screen was in the way of the controls. This was fixed by running winecfg and having wine manage the windows (as opposed to gnome). After this fix, Reason installed perfectly, and I could set winecfg to have gnome manage my windows once again. Reason kept crashing on launch until I ran it as root under sudo. After that, almost everything worked perfectly!

Almost Everything

Reason on Wine in GNU/Linux is almost perfect. Functionality is nearly 100%, with the only cosmetic blemish being some gray (instead of colored) icons. Files open, play, and can be manipulated. Except for, ah yes, one little caveat: midi controllers. While my USB midi controller showed up in Reason’s lists, autodetect failed, as did entering the parameters manually. I tried routing the midi data around with alsaconfig to no avail. I’m afraid that Reason without a midi controller is like a car without a steering wheel.

Vmplayer Doesn’t Play

In a strange experiment, I decided to boot my windows partition into a virtual machine using vmplayer (warning: Windows wanted to be reactivated, various software licenses broke, etc.). Reason would not boot, even after uninstalling and reinstalling in the virtual environment. For an unrelated reason I ended up booting into safe mode, and on a whim tried to launch Reason. It worked – with one catch. There is this thing called latency (delay). In a virtual machine it is severe. Play note, wait, hear sound. While Reason retains all of its functionality in the virtual machine, trying to play along with a preexisting track is nearly impossible. It’s like playing an organ from the back of an orchestra, only worse. It is for all purposes completely useless. This is no fault of Reason, but rather of the latency that builds up as you layer computer on computer with the virtual machine.

Wired On The Horizon

There is hope for GNU/Linux and me in the future. Wired, an up-and-coming program for GNU/Linux promises a sort of Reason-like feel, with the addition of live audio recording functionality and an open plugin architecture. Combined with distributions like the also up-and-coming Ubuntu Studio, GNU/Linux promises to become a powerful platform for musicians. Wired comes out of a project at Epitech, the European Institute of Technology.

Propellerhead Software

Propellerhead Software, makers of Reason, Recycle, and Reload, is located in Stockholm, Sweden. Reason is available at major retailers for $400. Reason Adapted, a trimmed down version of Reason, is available with various Korg and Digidesign products.

The trumpet can be quite a beast. Endless hours are spent practicing. Because of that, most trumpet players would like to see progress like this:

When in reality progress looks more like this:

Because the trumpet is such a beast to play, many players are looking for any sort of help they can get to increase their rate of improvement. Because it’s relatively inexpensive and easy to change, many players turn toward a new mouthpiece.

The True Role of the Mouthpiece

The shape and size of the mouthpiece change the character of the sound. A mouthpiece that is too small will give you a tone that is not your best. However a mouthpiece that is too big will often encourage you to work too hard. Trumpet players start to do weird things (unconsciously) to compensate for fatigue. So the best mouthpiece to play on, for most mortal earthlings, is in the middle of the road. Everything else should be considered specialized equipment.

Middle of the Road

By middle of the road, I mean a (Bach sizes:) 7C, 5C, or 3C (Schilke sizes: 11, 12, 13C4, respectively).

Bach Size Notation

In Bach size notation, the number is the cup diameter (higher number – smaller rim) and the letter is the cup volume (A is big, F is small).

Schilke Size Notation

Example Schilke size: 13C4c; 13 is the cup diameter (bigger number = bigger diameter), C is the cup volume (A=small, B=large), 4 is the rim contour (1=rounded, 5=flat), and c is the backbore (a=tight, e=large). Because standard sizes are omitted, this size would actually be written 13C4, because c is the standard backbore.

Specialized Equipment

The whole idea of trumpet equipment is this: you want to approach the instrument the same way all the time, but change your equipment to facilitate the appropriate tone quality. You want the right tool for the job, because otherwise you are going to end up creating a strange unnatural technique to make up for it. The 3C-7C is going to be fine for 90% of people doing 90% of playing. A very advanced high school student who happens to play lead in jazz ensemble might consider, under the guidance of a private instructor, a smaller mouthpiece to facilitate a bright tone to carry through the ensemble and a smaller cup volume to facilitate extended upper register playing. I play a Schilke 12A4a for lead and a Bach 7E for piccolo trumpet.

For 95% of playing I use a 7C. While I may be able to get slightly more overtones in the sound with a 3C, I am shooting for perfect technique and I don’t want to make a big compromise in technique for a small benefit in tone.

Also, I play on gold plated rims. Contrary to popular belief, it has nothing to do with aesthetics; I am allergic to nickel which is a common ingredient in silver plating. If you are not allergic to anything, save your money and get the usual silver plating. I also have a plastic mouthpiece which is especially nice for playing out in the cold.

Roadkill

It’s important to have an accurate aural model of a good trumpet tone in order to develop good playing technique. When I was younger, I listened to a lot of flugelhorn playing and really enjoyed the warm, mellow sound the instrument made. While you should not try to control your sound (you should discover your own natural tone using good technique), consciously or not, I began to imitate the flugelhorn sound with my trumpet playing. I ended up playing with my slide pushed all the way in and using the biggest mouthpieces I could find; a Bach 1”X” (larger cup volume than A) and after that a Monette B1-5D (often confused for a toilet bowl). This helped me get that warm, dark, flugelhorn-like tone I was looking for. It also led me to a tone very uncharacteristic of a trumpet and strange habits to compensate for my quick fatigue, as I was swimming in those mouthpieces! They would be appropriate for a professional orchestral player who knew how to use them, but not for me as a lowly high school student. I would have saved a lot of energy and frustration if I had just invested in a flugelhorn mouthpiece at the time to get that flugelhorn sound.

Roadkill Café

Sometimes younger students have old equipment that has survived from a relative’s days in the school band. A raw brass horn is ok, but be careful of a mouthpiece whose plating has worn down; it is very possible to get lead poisoning from an un-plated brass mouthpiece. Even if the equipment is well plated, if it is strange or otherwise unidentifiable, I always steer students to the middle of the road.

Goldilocks and the Three Trumpet Mouthpieces

Why are you still reading this? You should be practicing! I was just joking, but in reality, any time spent mulling over the question, “will this new fangled piece of equipment help me get better, faster?” is time better spent practicing.

No new piece of equipment is going to turn you into Maynard Ferguson or Wynton Marsalis.

Your equipment should help you and work for you; make sure you are not the one working for it.

If you are a mature player working in a special situation, then you need specialized equipment. If not, just get your 3C, 5C, or 7C and get to work practicing.

Listen to live, un-amplified trumpet performances regularly (even if it is just your instructor) to help you develop a strong, sound aural model of what a trumpet really sounds like, but otherwise let go and discover your true sound on the instrument.

If you really want to sound more like a flugelhorn, just get a flugelhorn already! Short of that, a flugel mouthpiece will dramatically alter your tone.

Ultimately, stay in the middle of the road and don’t let students play on anything unnatural. Good luck and happy practicing!