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The WholeNote
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Newsroom -
Editorial and Op-Ed
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Written by David Perlman
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Thursday, 02 May 2013 14:55 |
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If, as i suspect, my regular readers did a quick double-pump past the letter on page four so as not to miss our regular little chat, then neither of you will have the foggiest idea what the “Help The WholeNote Thrive” panel to the left of this is all about. And even less of a clue what I’m talking about when I explain that we chose the number 3,000 for the campaign because its 1/10 of the number of copies we regularly print.
So I will make a deal with you. Go back and read the letter on page four, and when you come back I will not say another word about any of all that. Promise.
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Written by Webmaster
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Wednesday, 08 May 2013 20:05 |
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Click the photo for the full size image
The best laid schemes o' Mice an' Men,
Gang aft agley,
An' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain,
For promis'd joy!
(The best laid schemes of Mice and Men
oft go awry,
And leave us nothing but grief and pain,
For promised joy!)
Robert Burns, To a Mouse (Poem, November, 1785)
Scottish national poet (1759 - 1796)
We Goofed, Pure and Simple, and We are Sorry
The Friday June 7 “Star of Robbie Burns” ad above although submitted in good time as part of a carefully planned campaign was inexplicably omitted from the May issue of The WholeNote.
Like Burn’s proverbial “Red red rose, newly sprung in June” “Star of Robbie Burns” promises to be a lovely leap into the summer. Stay tuned for more details about the event, including an opportunity to win tickets, by liking us on Facebook, following us on Twitter, or registering on our website to receive our regular “e-letter.” |
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Newsroom -
Features
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Written by David Perlman
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Thursday, 02 May 2013 12:09 |
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So why is it that a cappella singing feels less intimidating than singing in a choir?
AARON JENSEN, artistic director of SING!:When many people hear the phrase “a cappella” they think Glee — visions of spirited high school students recklessly brandishing “jazz hands” (or the even more saccharine, “spirit fingers”) and belting out triadic auto-tuned harmonies with bravado — but the term has much older roots. “A cappella,” literally meaning “in the manner of the chapel,” refers to all vocal music performed with no instrumental accompaniment. This umbrella term covers the music of countless styles, genres and cultural backgrounds.
Even though SING! is an a cappella festival, we’ve branded ourselves as a “vocal arts” festival to best represent this diversity. Under our roof, patrons can hear all manner of a cappella including: classical choral groups, vocal jazzers, gospel choirs, world ensembles, live-looping artists, pop vocal bands, barbershop quartets, collegiate glee-clubbers, vocal improv collectives and even a cappella comedy troupes.
So does a festival like SING! help to bridge the gulf (if there is one) between solo and choral singing? What’s in it for people coming from a more formal (if that’s the right word) choral background? And on the other hand, for bathtub divas what does it say about the potential joys of showering with a few friends?
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Current Reviews -
Vocal and Choral
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Written by Janos Gardonyi
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Thursday, 02 May 2013 10:57 |
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In the 19th century when no TV, radio or celebrity-driven pop music existed, musical theatre was the chief entertainment for the newly formed middle classes and its creators became the celebrities. The greatest of these emerged simultaneously: Verdi and Wagner, both born in the same year, 1813. Verdi continued the tradition of writing operas as musical entertainment, albeit raised to a level of perfection. But Wagner took it as his purpose in life to revolutionize the genre by the infusion of his own ideas, ambitions, problems — all that occupied his thoughts — and turning the music and drama, with a new emphasis on the orchestra, into one coherent unit. The end result was a distillation of his thought processes set to music that became a new entity, with words no longer depending on someone else but written by himself. So each of the works became autobiographical in a sense and dealt with universal issues giving them a timeless quality. There are dozens of fine recordings for every one of these operas, but in the following paragraphs I have selected just one CD set for each. Most of these are my favourites or, if more recent, are considered the best by renowned authorities.
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Musical Life -
Education
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Written by Sterling Beckwith
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Thursday, 28 March 2013 10:09 |
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Dear David,
Congratulations on breaking through the “Education Barrier” at last! The inaugural version of the Orange Pages in your March 2013 issue is a long-awaited step forward for your magazine, and for all of us in the GTA who have come to depend on its monthly calendar of musical events. Great to see the less glamorous but still essential activities of teaching and learning finally represented — so readably, and nicely illustrated too — as an integral part of The WholeNote.
Almost every one of your readers, I would bet, is involved somehow or other in music education. These days, most working musicians, whatever their specialty, probably derive at least part of their livelihood from giving music lessons; while the number of publicly or privately supported schools offering music instruction in every corner of the GTA seems to increase each year. Anyone attempting an exhaustive catalogue of musical training opportunities here would probably need a whole volume of orange-hued issues to cover them all.
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Newsroom -
Features
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Written by Paula Citron
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Thursday, 28 March 2013 10:06 |
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Wayne Koestenbaum in his seminal 1993 book, The Queen’s Throat: Opera, Homosexuality and the Mystery of Desire, defines “diva” as “a woman opera singer of great fame and brilliance.” While the main focus of the book is the link between opera and homosexuality, Koestenbaum also gives illustrations of radical fandom and diva worship.
My absolute favourite story in Koestenbaum’s book concerns the English sisters, Ida and Louise Cook, who developed fanatic attachments to Amelita Galli-Curci and Rosa Ponselle, both of whom they befriended. The best part of the story is that the Cook sisters were instrumental in smuggling Jews out of Nazi territories during World War II. Yet rather than basking in their heroism, Ida, in her memoir, We Followed Our Stars, lamented that their war-work “cost us Ponselle’s Donna Anna, Carmen, Luisa Miller and Africana. That was what mattered.”
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Newsroom -
Features
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Written by Paula Citron
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Friday, 01 March 2013 12:52 |
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How do you celebrate the 100th anniversary of the birth of a composer?
Corporal John Weinzweig at the piano, Rockcliffe Station 1943–1945.
The obvious answer is with a concert, or even two, both of them freebies. And why not commission a new work in his name while you’re at it? You can also mount a symposium of scholarly papers, create a website in his name to perpetuate his legacy, and even have the historical society put a commemorative plaque on the building where he grew up.
John Weinzweig (1913–2006), the recipient of these tributes, is not just any composer. There are three words that everyone who knew him uses to describe the Weinzweig legacy: composer, teacher and activist. These are not separate threads. Rather, they are woven together into a single tapestry. The man and his music in all its guises are inseparable.
He was a force of nature. In terms of composition, Weinzweig was a true pioneer, a voyageur of art who introduced 12-tone serialism to Canada, and with it, the aesthetic of New Music. As a teacher, first at the Royal Conservatory, then at the University of Toronto (1939–77), he is the acknowledged doyen of Canadian concert composers whose legion of devoted former students literally spans the country from sea to sea.
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