Sowash: 2nd movement of ‘Little Suite for solo cello”
2016/08/31 06:49
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Sowash: 2nd movement of ‘Little Suite for solo cello”.
A teacher said to me, “I saw on your website that you have CDs. So, are you a singer?"
Her school was hosting me, for one day, as a Visiting Author.
An author?
Well, yes. I’ve written several books about Ohio for older elementary school children. Books about Ohio’s heroes, animals, geography, folk lore. Schools sometimes invite me to be a Visiting Author.
I’m a One Day Wonder!
I present assemblies, I host a “Lunch with the Author” for the school’s best student-writers, I spend happy half-hours with each of the older grade-levels, trying my best to inspire the kids by showing them “the secret tricks that writers know” so that they can have the fun of "putting pictures into other people’s brains."
Music focuses kids' attention. I punctuate my points with improvisations on the piano or funny little tootles on my soprano recorder.
Composing, my true calling, is not part of my Author’s Visits. Not even the teachers know that I have put far more creative energy into composing music than on writing books … unless they read about it on my website, as this teacher had done.
“Well, I can sing, yes,” I told the teacher. "I sing tenor in my church's choir. But I am not a soloist and I don’t sing on the CDs you saw on my website."
“So then, if you’re not singing, are you playing the piano on those CDs?”
“No. I get musician friends to play the music on my CDs. They play better than I do.”
“But what songs do they do?”
“Well, it’s my music but they’re not songs; they’re instrumental pieces. It’s chamber music.”
"So it's mostly cover songs, then?”
Unintentionally, I gave her a look. She wasn’t getting it.
“No. I wrote the music. The tunes are original. I chose the harmonies; I decided which instruments would play what.”
“But if you’re not performing on these CDs then why is your name on the covers?”
“Because I’m the composer. You know, like Beethoven? I wrote the music.”
She still didn’t get it. She nodded, then changed the subject.
She wasn’t stupid. There are many intelligent, educated Americans who don’t grasp what it means to be a composer. Author? Painter? Yes. Composer? Not so much.
Why is this? We are a nation of music lovers but most of the music we love did not come to us from American classical composers. It came from performers, improvisers, singer/songwriters.
Being both an author and a composer has allowed me to experience, first hand, the differing American attitudes and assumptions about those two artistic professions.
I’ve experienced the discrepancy many times. The passenger next to me on the airplane asks that classic American question, “What do you do?”
If I say, “I’m an author,” he lights up and asks about my books.
But if I say, “I’m a classical composer,” he’s at a loss. Pause. Sometimes a stranger will come back with, “Oh, then where do you teach?” When I tell him that I don’t teach music, that I have never taught music, I just write it … bewilderment sets in.
Europeans know about composers. In France, I’ve seen parks, streets, schools and even apartment buildings named for classical composers. Before the Euro, Debussy was featured on the French two-franc note. In French public spaces there are statues of Berlioz, Chopin, Gounod, et al.
So far as I know, in all of America there are only two statues of composers and, strictly speaking, neither of those two musical geniuses were composers; they were great song-writers, not composers. There’s the statue of George M. Cohan on Times Square and a statue of Stephen Foster here in Cincinnati’s Alms Park.
We do have a George Gershwin Elementary School. Where? You’d guess NYC? Nope. Chicago. Go figure.
There Is a Samuel Barber Road in Jackson, Georgia.
Do you think we’ll ever see Aaron Copland’s homely mug smiling up at us from a two-dollar bill? Me neither.
I’m not complaining, mind you. Just sayin’.
In any case, if you’d like to hear Teresa Villani playing the 2nd movement of my Little Suite for solo cello, click here:
http://www.sowash.com/
To see a PDF of the score, click here:
http://www.sowash.com/
A teacher said to me, “I saw on your website that you have CDs. So, are you a singer?"
Her school was hosting me, for one day, as a Visiting Author.
An author?
Well, yes. I’ve written several books about Ohio for older elementary school children. Books about Ohio’s heroes, animals, geography, folk lore. Schools sometimes invite me to be a Visiting Author.
I’m a One Day Wonder!
I present assemblies, I host a “Lunch with the Author” for the school’s best student-writers, I spend happy half-hours with each of the older grade-levels, trying my best to inspire the kids by showing them “the secret tricks that writers know” so that they can have the fun of "putting pictures into other people’s brains."
Music focuses kids' attention. I punctuate my points with improvisations on the piano or funny little tootles on my soprano recorder.
Composing, my true calling, is not part of my Author’s Visits. Not even the teachers know that I have put far more creative energy into composing music than on writing books … unless they read about it on my website, as this teacher had done.
“Well, I can sing, yes,” I told the teacher. "I sing tenor in my church's choir. But I am not a soloist and I don’t sing on the CDs you saw on my website."
“So then, if you’re not singing, are you playing the piano on those CDs?”
“No. I get musician friends to play the music on my CDs. They play better than I do.”
“But what songs do they do?”
“Well, it’s my music but they’re not songs; they’re instrumental pieces. It’s chamber music.”
"So it's mostly cover songs, then?”
Unintentionally, I gave her a look. She wasn’t getting it.
“No. I wrote the music. The tunes are original. I chose the harmonies; I decided which instruments would play what.”
“But if you’re not performing on these CDs then why is your name on the covers?”
“Because I’m the composer. You know, like Beethoven? I wrote the music.”
She still didn’t get it. She nodded, then changed the subject.
She wasn’t stupid. There are many intelligent, educated Americans who don’t grasp what it means to be a composer. Author? Painter? Yes. Composer? Not so much.
Why is this? We are a nation of music lovers but most of the music we love did not come to us from American classical composers. It came from performers, improvisers, singer/songwriters.
Being both an author and a composer has allowed me to experience, first hand, the differing American attitudes and assumptions about those two artistic professions.
I’ve experienced the discrepancy many times. The passenger next to me on the airplane asks that classic American question, “What do you do?”
If I say, “I’m an author,” he lights up and asks about my books.
But if I say, “I’m a classical composer,” he’s at a loss. Pause. Sometimes a stranger will come back with, “Oh, then where do you teach?” When I tell him that I don’t teach music, that I have never taught music, I just write it … bewilderment sets in.
Europeans know about composers. In France, I’ve seen parks, streets, schools and even apartment buildings named for classical composers. Before the Euro, Debussy was featured on the French two-franc note. In French public spaces there are statues of Berlioz, Chopin, Gounod, et al.
So far as I know, in all of America there are only two statues of composers and, strictly speaking, neither of those two musical geniuses were composers; they were great song-writers, not composers. There’s the statue of George M. Cohan on Times Square and a statue of Stephen Foster here in Cincinnati’s Alms Park.
We do have a George Gershwin Elementary School. Where? You’d guess NYC? Nope. Chicago. Go figure.
There Is a Samuel Barber Road in Jackson, Georgia.
Do you think we’ll ever see Aaron Copland’s homely mug smiling up at us from a two-dollar bill? Me neither.
I’m not complaining, mind you. Just sayin’.
In any case, if you’d like to hear Teresa Villani playing the 2nd movement of my Little Suite for solo cello, click here:
http://www.sowash.com/
To see a PDF of the score, click here:
http://www.sowash.com/
上一則： Sowash: "Arid Heat” from “ Memories of Corsica”, for violin, clarinet, piano
下一則： Sowash: “ The Green Knight” for violine, trumpet, cello and piano
下一則： Sowash: “ The Green Knight” for violine, trumpet, cello and piano
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