19:
[Charles Ives has been granted permission from Rosemary Brown to correspond with Rufus Wainwright and Roger Bourland via instant messaging software. This is a transcript of their correspondence from this morning.]
CI: Hello, hello. Mayday. Do you read me?
RW: Yeah, hi. I’m here. Hello Mr Ives.
CI: Call me Charlie.
RW: You can call me Rufus.
CI: I will NOT call you Rufus. What kind of composer would be called Rufus? Listen to me boy, take my advice. I told Aaron Copland early on to change his name from Kaplan to Copland. He never regretted it and told me so. Change your name to Ralph. Now that’s a man’s name. “Rufus?” that’s a dog’s name. Ralph. A good masculine name. Ralph, yeah, Ralph.
RW: But that’s not my name, and I don’t care how masculine it is or isn’t.
CI: Shut up boy. When you are working with me, you’ll take my orders like a man and say yes sir.
RW: (blushing) Yes sir. (Eyes roll to the ceiling.)
CI: Alright Ralph, I’m new to this inter-astral communication and I’m feeling a bit light headed, so let’s continue our communication later this week.
RW: I can’t wait. (Rufus offers a rude finger gesture to the computer screen.)
CI: Good to hear it. I’ll check in with you later, RALPH.
RW: Thank you Charles.
CI: Call me Charlie. Charles is too formal. Say, do you know Roger Bourland?
RW: No, I’ve heard he’s writing a book about me but I have no idea what it’s about.
CI: No, the Roger Bourland I know is a VP for Mutual of New York Insurance Company. I doubt he’s alive now. We’re old fishing buddies.
RW: Nope, I don’t know him either.
CI: Alright, well Roger-and-out!
RW: xoxoxo
CI: Huh?
RW: Goodbye Charlie.
CI: Goodbye for now.
18:
Rosemary Brown at the piano; Franz Liszt looks on.
I was recently contacted by the famous, or infamous British weekend pianist and spiritualist, Rosemary Brown (1916-2001). Rosemary spent much of her life channeling new compositions by a variety of deceased composers including Liszt, Schumann, Beethoven, Debussy, Chopin, Grieg, and famous music writer, Sir Donald Tovey. (For more information on Rosemary, read here, here, and here.)
I know you are looking at me suspiciously thinking “contacted you?” Well, yes. I use an instant messaging program where I keep in touch with friends and colleagues in real time. Yesterday, a new name popped up on my screen: “Rose Brown” and a message that said “Roger, are you there?” I clicked the ACCEPT button and replied “who IS this? Do I know you?” Here is a transcript of our conversation.
Rose: My name is Rosemary Brown–you can call me Rose. You know me. You have my LP “A MUSICAL SEANCE” and my book “UNFINISHED SYMPHONIES.”
Roger: Aw c’mon, who is this really?
Rose: I told you, Rosemary Brown. I have come to commission you to carry on my work.
Roger: Rosemary, er, Rose, I have no interest in channeling other composers music, much less trying to convince the world that I am doing so.
Rose: I don’t want you to do that. I wish to use you as a mouthpiece of composers who are still in Fermatatory, what you refer to as Purgatory. Each of them has unfinished business before they progress onto their next spiritual step, a tempo-ness, not unlike your concept of atonement, but with less baggage. These spirit-beings do not have the skill or power to materialize on your planet, but they have been able to adapt to your internet simply by using their minds. I am not typing on a keyboard to you right now, I am envisioning the words and they are appearing on your screen. I have been appointed the coordinator for this project. We tested you last year when you almost unwittingly began to channel Hector Berlioz for the purpose of offering Rufus Wainwright composition lessons. We were pleased with your work and were authorized to transfer those responsibilities to Charles Ives.
Roger: You mean it was YOU behind all that? Like Stravinsky and Le Sacre, I was but the vessel through which that information passed. I simply entered a trance state and wrote down what came through. Wow, I’ll have to think about this.
Rose: No, you do not have an option. You WILL be the mouthpiece of this stranded band of composers. I will authorized communication channels for them to contact you directly on your computer. I know that Mr Ives has received Rufus’s package of materials and will be in touch with him directly. I’ve asked him to CC you and me as well. I know that you will take this duty seriously. If you need to contact me, google my name and I will get it, as I have a direct feed from Google (they bartered with me).
06:
My Dear Rufus,
Silence is an important compositional element. Pepper it throughout your music and you’ll find it helps the music breathe. Phrases chunk better. Silence can range from complete silence that lasts for just a moment, to a long silence that lets a powerful chord or orchestral stab reverberate throughout the auditorium.
Think carefully about the time between your songs on your CD. Avoid inserting a blanket time between each song. Some songs need to hang in the air a bit longer. Think about “Her Majesty’s a Pretty Nice Girl” at the end of ABBEY ROAD. That amount of silence between sonic events was brilliant, and very original. Something as simple as an eighth note rest, wittily placed in the right place, can make a theme unforgettable.
I spoke a famous SF composer today who is fond of your music. He accuses you of not knowing what is good and what is not in your own output. I wasn’t sure what to say to him. I can’t say that everything you write is my cup of tea, but so what? He told me to encourage you to be more self-critical. Do with that as you will.
Last week I chatted with Charles Ives and told him about you. He didn’t know of you but claimed that he was busy revising more pieces from the ’20s. I asked whether he would be willling to give you some lessons. He said that he would but couldn’t promise to give you “proper” lessons, to which I told him I didn’t think you would mind. I did NOT tell him that you are queer. But he DID bail Henry Cowell out of prison, so perhaps he is more tolerant than he acts. He kept shouting obnoxious phrases like “take your dissonance like a man.”
Oh, I must tell you: he is prone to angry fits. Once I phoned his home and his wife (Harmony) answered. In the background I heard loud shouting, paper ripping, and other odd sounds. Harmony put down the phone and I heard her say “Charlie, Charlie! Please calm down”
“This goddam Robert Browning Overture is pure hogwash. I’ve written a huge flop.” More ripping and paper wadding. She came back to the phone and asked that we talk “a bit later.”
Don’t let that scare you, he is a great fellow––most of the time. He asks that you send him a package of your scores and recordings as soon as you possibly can. I think it is a wonderful opportunity for you, take it!
Good luck!
your,
Hector Berlioz
11:
Rufus,
I overheard some students working on their harmony exercises at the cafe last night. One said “No! You can’t do that; that’s parallel 5ths.” The other sighed in disappointment.
I don’t recall your telling me why you couldn’t tolerate being a music student, but if this is what they were feeding you, I don’t blame you! Look at ms. 45-46 [above] in Beethoven’s Op.28 D major piano sonata (1) and see the naughtiest parallel 5ths you can imagine.
In my day, as we studied harmony and counterpoint, parallel 5ths were always marked wrong, and we felt like complete idiots if our teachers found them. Now days, I am shocked that nothing has changed. Do they not know of my young brothers Claude and Erik who shattered that silliness once and for all? But no! They insist on perpetuating this silly rule. Granted, if a student wants to parody music of the classical era (and WHY would one want to?), yes, they should avoid parallel 5ths. Think how less interesting the musical world would be if Henry Mancini had not written “The Pink Panther” theme––all in parallel 5ths. Don’t listen to that silly rule, m’boy. Celebrate parallel 5ths!
Yours,
Hector
10:
[Scribbled on a postcard with a hand-cancelled French stamp on it]
Cher Rufus,
Knowing you to be the drama queen you are, you must promise me to write for the contrabassoon. It tone is an exotic utterance that is unique in the dark, murky underworld of the orchestra’s bass. There is nothing like it when you want a bass melody to pop out. The tuba can be too fat sounding and the double bass can’t really give long sustained melodic lines the way that a contrabassoon can. But like most exotic instruments, don’t overuse them! Trust me.
Je t’embrace,
Bz.
03:
Hector Berlioz (1803 – 1869), channeled by Roger Bourland
My Dear Rufus,
As I am not falling asleep this evening, I realized I need to tell you about the beauty of the oboe. Oboists can sustain the longest line of any of the wind or brass instruments. For that matter, they can sustain a line longer than string instruments, as string instruments must “breathe” through their upbows and downbows. Oboist must actually EXHALE air at the end of their lines.
If I had to say that YOU were an instrument in the orchestra, I would say that you could be an oboe, or maybe an English horn on opium, but same effect: long lines, like your tunes.
Compose more instrumental lines. Close your eyes, fix the sound of the instrument in your inner ear, take a breath, and go. Your melodies do not need to hang on words. Free yourself.
Even though I go on about the glories of the oboe, I must confess that for many years, my host, Roger Bourland, could not stand the sound of the oboe and always replaced it with a soprano saxophone. [This was the day BEFORE Kenny G, when Dave Koz was still my student in an electronic music class at UCLA, and Rikk Stone was my idol of soprano saxophone sound in the early 80s. (RB)]
Remember what I have always taught you:
Music takes over where words fail.
It is time for my opium, so I’ll sign off. Speaking of which, I am becoming less and less social, so I prefer to continue our lessons by post until I can kick this nasty habit.
Ever yours,
Prof Berlioz
[Author's note: Roger does NOT take opium. Hector Berlioz, the resurrected composer whom I am channeling for the benefit of Rufus Wainwright, was known to take opium. How much, I have no idea. "Symphonie Fantastique" was allegedly written under its spell.]
07:
A new composition by Prof Berlioz!
My dear Rufus,
Thank you for the postcard from Berlin. I’m happy to hear that you are happy and healthy and musically productive.
I have something I would like you to become extremely sensitive to. I want you to start paying attention to counter-melodies. You already have a great gift for melody, the primary melody, but your counter-melodies can be stronger. You dabbled in it while improvising your multilayered vocal tapestry, but I want you to sit down with paper and pencil, AWAY FROM THE PIANO, listen to your song, hear the counter-melody and write it down. The counter-melody has the role of the listener. It rhythmically stays out of the way of the melody, but complements it.
I don’t think you need to compose Baroque fugues, but you should study them. As I’m sure you know, the primary melodic material for the composition is a “subject.” After the voice has stated the subject, it gets out of the way for the next voice to come in. What it then does is to state a counter-subject, the listening riff. Each has a character, each fits together like a hand in glove. When one voice holds the other moves and vice versa. Sometimes they move together.
Your music is melodically based. When your choruses come in, they do so in the tradition of popular musics of the past 50 years. Don’t leave the counter-melodies to your arrangers or orchestrators. Put more testosterone in your counter-melodies. Study Bach counter-subjects. Listen to Puccini love duets. Listen to opera, but make it a rule for one month: you can ONLY listen to the counter-melodies. Then listen to your favorite musicals and do the same. Become more opinionated about how you support your melodies.
yrs,
Prof. Berlioz
31:
My dear Rufus,
I read with interest that you are including a string quartet in your recent recording sessions. I also have read that you will be producing your next album as well. I hope that soon you will stop relying on others to orchestrate your music as well. The best way to learn how to orchestrate, is to do it yourself. No amount of reading or hiring someone else will EVER teach you as much. Find out what works, what doesn’t work first hand.
The article I read implied a frustration in the recording session with the string quartet. If you were draping the piano with a heavy cloth, it sounds like there was a balance problem. I’d like to just remind you of a few quick principles that may come in handy while you discover your orchestral voice.
The string section sounds great playing as a section. Yes, the firsts are the “alpha” instruments of the orchestra, and as such need to sound strong and able to pump a melody regardless of difficulty. The firsts are a section, not a solo. It is WE, not ME.
The concert master should have little solos that are inherently soloist, personal, and sometimes virtuosic, but keep them to a minimum as this is not chamber music. I learned that it takes ten more violins to double the volume of a single violin, not two. The section, and this applies to all of the string sections, SOUNDS like a section because everyone has their own interpretation of pitch: granted, it is a very narrow band, but the sound itself has ten different versions of the pitch, the attack of the bow on the string, the volume, the vibrato, the overall shape, and so on. In the strings, every utterance is like a snowflake. There are no two alike, except on a computer emulation of a stringed instrument.
Never fall in love with computer playback of your music. The intonation is deceptively perfect. Strive for writing idiomatically for the instruments. It should rarely be awkward. Your music should be fun to play, and that means music for the second trombone as well as the second violins. Put your soul into every line. Even when sustaining as single note, one of my teachers, Wm. Thos. McKinley, encouraged me to put a word next to it, explaining ‘how’ to interpret it: “crying,” “sighing” “with force” –– all give much more information than just a plain whole note.
Always be open to suggestions from instrumentalists on how to achieve something in a more idiomatic fashion. They’ve been playing their instruments their whole lives, trust me, they are the best teachers, sometime brutal, but essential.
Don’t ever treat the string section like an organ by sustaining endless chords, it’s stupid orchestration and insulting. Orchestras who play for television and film know who to go into a zen trance with sustained notes and know the clock is running, so they could care less about sustaining notes. Classical musicians expect something musical to DO. Study how string orchestras manifest chord changes. Every composer does it differently. That harmonic orchestrational habit becomes part of YOUR orchestral sound. That’s why I say WHY give it to someone else? You can do it yourself, and you should.
Don’t be misled my the terrifying power of the “low bass” sounds in movies: they are ALWAYS enhanced electronically to give it the acoustic power. You can mike the hell out of an instrument to make it sound louder, but in an acoustic space, YOUR orchestrational chops have to be able to stand up, be heard, be projected and heard in a live space. Don’t ever imagine that a string quartet could emulate that kind of sound. The cello only goes down to C below the bass clef. (The contrabass with a C extension goes down an octave below that. Synthesizers can take that sampled sounds and have it rattle an octave below that!).
There are two examples of string quartet writing in the 60s that I’ve alway thought worked well: George Martin’s work on Paul McCartney’s “Yesterday” and “Eleanor Rigby” and Jack Nietzche’s work on Neil Young’s first album “Whiskyboot Hill.” Review those as examples of good writing that don’t draw too much attention to themself, and stylistically work next to rock n roll.
Then go purchase the Dover Edition of the complete string quartets of Ludwig von Beethoven and study them for the rest of your life. Then buy the complete score to Sibelius symphonies and every opera Puccini ever wrote and bathe yourself in the orchestration. Turn your input valve on full.
You play guitar, watch HOW the strings are playing their lines and intervals and chords. Stretch your inner ear to actually hear all five sections of the string orchestra: the firsts, seconds, the violas, the cellos, and the basses. And remember that throbbing behind each instrument is a human being who has devoted their lives to that instrument, and ready to give you their all. Throbbing behind each musical line is an arm that plays a downbow, then an upbow; downbow followed by an upbow. And they do this millions of times in their lives. My point is this: the upbow is a great “inhalation” emulator. The downbow emulates an exhalation. Players can put anywhere from one to many notes under each bow, so that the overall effect of that constant upbow-downbow action, is like constant breathing. Don’t forget that element in effective string writing.
Don’t write a melody, and then just GIVE it to the violins, when you compose for the violins, the melody should have been composed HEARING the violins play it, brought into being AS a violin melody.
Stravinsky supposedly hated the organ: “the monster never breathes.” Let this monster breathe –– and speak and cry and sing!
I trust that your summer has been a good one,
Prof. Berlioz
[Photo credit: this picture was sent to me and, I assume, taken by Ian Elmslie, the chap I just sold my Rufus/Judy T-shirt to. Contact me for his email if you wish to use this photograph.]
26:
Dear Prof Bz
As you know, I’m on tour in Europe. I’m working on a whole variety of things and incorporating the things you ask me to consider, I’m just having a hard time doing “assignments” you know, I was a terrible student and I guess I still am. Cut to the chase: let me take the summer off for our assignments and then continue when the temperature drops.
Hugs,
Rufus
My Dear Rufus,
I understand, the weather is hot here as well. Our air conditioner broke and I live in front of a fan. I concur wholeheartedly. I’m not in the mood for correcting assignments either. Let me drop you a lesson from time to time online. Take what you will, spit out the rest.
Today, I’d like you to consider the musical texture of two violins. This is the first of 44 duos for two violins written by Bela Bartok and published by Boosey & Hawkes. This is from the first volume. I highly recommend you buy and study both volumes. (You can purchase them at jwpepper.com).
I will use this music as an opportunity to address other issues besides writing for strings. Notice that the first system is indented so as to facilitate the ENTIRE name of the instrument. In some scores, abbreviations will appear on subsequent pages. Titles are normally centered; the title of this set, “44 Duos” is centered. In this collection, the editor has decided to put the individual titles flush left preceded with an arabic number.
Notice that the dynamics are BELOW each staff. The first violin is asked to play dolce, or sweetly, but the 2nd is not. This is a difference the instrumentalists will work out themselves.
The first brace in front of the two instruments is INCORRECT. The curly brace like that is for instruments played by two hands like piano, harp, marimba, harpsichord, and so on, but NOT two violins. (Shame on Boosey.) It should have been the straight brackets. You’ll notice that they chose to extend the barlines through both systems. I prefer the barlines ON the staff only.
The tempo is important. Don’t assume anyone knows what allegro means. Bartok didn’t.
The piece changes keys twice. Normally, publishers will put a double bar in front of these key signature changes. I encourage my students to do so. Bartok likely chose not to because they are such short pieces. Double barlines often denote sectional partitioning.
Glance over the first violin part. You’ll notice that every note has a separate bow. You can tell this because there are no slurs. Now look over the 2nd violin part. You see slurs as well as longer note values. This is meaningful because these two elements result in a softer or quieter sound than the 1st violin. So even though both violins are told to play “p” the first is inherently louder by virtue of the material it is playing, which is in this case more quarters and less half notes.
Look at the architectural shape of the piece. Harmonically it is ABA. The registral shape of the piece is ABA, A being the high sections, B the low. The dynamic shape of the piece is ABA, or “p” “mf” “p.” Melodically the piece is monothematic, but the accompaniment in the middle section provides textural contrast, so the effect is also an ABA.
Look over the motivic elements, you’ll see the piece is very tight.
In the second system, notice whenever there are two voices in one violin, the bowing for the upper and lower notes/strings MUST be identical. The two voices in the 2nd violin at the beginning of the 2nd system has the lower D in half notes tied, and againt it is a falling D to an A that is slurred. The slurred period is equal to the sustained period. Two measures later you see 2 quarters slurred against a sustained half note. The bow is drawn over both strings with the same stroke in the same direction. Double stops are easier when one has an open string, which is the case in the 2nd system 2nd violin part — the D is an open string.
In this three part little piece, observe how he slows down and liquidates the music to silence at the end of the 2nd section just before returning to the opening music.
Remember: effective manipulation of contrast is one of the most important elements in art.
07:
Prof. Berlioz made the mistake of eating a chocolate dessert at dinner time and, like clockwork, woke up at 3 am. It occurs to him that he should introduce his young student to the great violinist, Paganini.
Rufus:
It occurs to me that I can trust you to be advanced enough to throw some spice into the mix. Not too much, but better to take a risk than to run the risk of boring me. Here is some music you may or may not like, but it’s important to examine technically to see what is possible.
The famous violinist, Joachim, who premiered the Brahms Violin Concerto, referred to the part as being written “against” rather than “for” the violin — implying it was extremely difficult music to play. This could easily have been written about Nicolò Paganini (1782-1840) as well, that famous viloinist/composer who might as well have been the first rock star. Rob Walser might even suggest that Paganini is proto-metal musician. He played the violin 15 hours a day, had a genetic quirk that gave his fingers a flexibility rarely seen. Paganini had a difficult time resisting virtuosity in his own compositons. I’m not going to tell you that I think he was a truly great composer. I think his best piece is the Op.1, 24 Caprices, the last one being a set of variations that many composers have orchestrated and expanded upon. I have scanned a few excerpts I’d like you to examine.
Before we look at some advanced examples of solo violin writing, let’s take a look at the total range of the string section. Here is a conservative approximation of the whole ensemble. The double basses SOUND an octave lower than notated.
The homogeneity of the string section is a very powerful one, and one that has a tremendous blend. Orchestral string writing is usually less intricate and difficult than composing for a single instrument. Remember this when you look at the examples below.
Here is an example of parallel consecutive intervals: thirds, and “big thirds” or tenths.
I love this next texture quite a lot. It is a great accompanimental pattern and generates a lot of momentum. It is an apreggiated figure using mostly 4-note chords. The bow is drawn across the strings in one direction, lo to hi, 4-3-2-1 and then goes back the other way, hi to lo, 1-2-3-4. There is a slur over the first four notes, indicating that the bow does all in one directions, and the next four notes. In this example, there are staccati over the notes, which is likely the work of the editor and not Paganini. The staccati indicate to me, a little air between each note. The symbol above the first note indicates a downbow. The numbers are suggested fingerings by the editor.
This next figure is usually only found in solo work in that the violinist is accompanying themself with little two note tremolo chords. It’s tricky but effective if you can bring it off.
My sleeping draught is kicking in, so I’ll leave you with one last example of fun violin writing. In solos, sonatas, and especially concertos, the soloist has a cadenza where s/he can show off their virtuosity. In this passage, there is no meter. The “little” notes, or grupetti, or grace notes, are played out of time and usually as fast as possible. In this cadenza, the name for the solo, you’ll see scales and arpeggios. All good string players have spent their childhood playing such figures, so it should be no surprise that they can play them at blazing speeds!
I’m looking forward to seeing your work. Good night!
Prof. Bz.
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