The State of the Art

School is almost over, summer approaches and recitals are afoot. I remember piano recitals as a kid.  They scared me so-o-o badly.  I remember being 10 or 11 and performing a Mozart piece (Probably the C major Sonata K. 545).  The previous days of silent, dreading anticipation. Fidgeting through the other kids’ performances.  My knees where shaking uncontrollably.  I was wearing an uncomfortable suit and the summer NYC heat  was making me sweat through it.  The long walk up the aisle to the piano.  The only sounds were the shuffling of concert programs and sporadic clearing of throats.  Eyes upon me, an eternity passed before I got to the stage.  Then the worst moment:  the moment immediately before sounding the first notes.  But after that it was only the music.  The only recourse to the fear was losing myself in the music.  The fear faded away and I was allowed to enjoy what I was playing.

So now, many years later, I have to send kids up that proverbial aisle to the piano.  But without the fear.  The kids were well prepared and I went out of my way to not make a big deal out of it.   The seemingly casual approach resulted in: no tears, no terrified, last minute refusals to play, and unexpected memorization of pieces, great improvisations, surprise pieces, and great playing.  I believe that they got an empowering performance experience.

Before I started teaching I was a little afraid of it.  My thoughts ranged from: I may not have the patience, to I don’t know what to teach, to I can’t handle kids, to it might take away from my career as a musician… But, very soon after starting my first lesson 3 years ago, I discovered that none of that was true and that teaching is the most rewarding job I have ever had besides performing.  I get to hang out with cool people and share my love and knowledge about music and the piano with them.  I learn so much about interacting with people, for example: how to communicate the same idea in different ways according to who the student is, how to deal with different types of personalities.  Teaching solidifies the knowledge one has and encourages growth.  If I can’t answer a question a student has, I search for the answer and we both learn something.  Awesome.

Sometimes I encounter what I like to call “The Elasticity of a Half Hour.” Sometimes it seems that we just started working on a tune or concept and boom, time is up.  Other times, it seems like hours have passed, but the lesson is only half way done.  Now there seem to be many reasons for these things.  If the 1/2 hour seems short it can be because we are working really hard, having a lot of fun, or covering a lot of ground.  And oddly, sometimes it seems it is hard to get rolling, but the time is up and it flew by for no apparent reason.  If the 1/2 hour seems long it can be because the student is having a tough or over-stimulating day and is not into the lesson, is generally not into piano lessons (this happens, sometimes piano is just something to do between other extra-curriculars and one has to do their best at providing a positive musical experience regardless), and sometimes we are covering a lot of ground but the lesson seems to last a lo-o-o-ng time. Sometimes I can’t seem to find the thing that will connect the student to the material.  And yes, sometimes teacher is having a bad day, but being a professional means you have to put aside your own stuff for the sake of the student.  I believe this to be one of the most important qualities in a teacher.

The students feel this too.  Sometimes you get “How much longer?” after 5 minutes.  Sometimes you get “Is it really over?” So, what are your thoughts on this?  If you are a teacher, what are effective ways of connecting a student to the material.  If you are a student, what makes you excited and really involved in your lesson?

On May 15 Jack Straw Productions is presenting a complete performance of Erik Satie’s Vexations. Vexations is an enigmatic solo piano work with vague intentions.  Here is the composer’s note at the beginning of the piece:

““Pour se jouer 840 fois de suite ce motif, il sera bon de se préparer au préalable, et dans le plus grand silence, par des immobilités sérieuses.”
“In order to play the theme 840 times in succession, it would be advisable to prepare oneself beforehand, and in the deepest silence, by serious immobilities.”

You read that correctly — the piece is to be played 840 times in succession.  Thankfully, I do not have to do it by myself.  Jack Straw contacted a cast of some of Seattle’s finest pianists including: Dawn Clement, Karin Kajita, Kelly Wyse, Wayne Horvitz, Robin Holcomb, Roger Nelson, Amy Rubin, Julie Ives, Gust Burns and others, to each take a half hour shift starting at 4pm, May 15th and ending some 18 – 24 hours later.  According to Jack Straw this is the first time Vexations is being performed in Seattle.  It will be broadcast live by Hollow Earth Radio at www.hollowearthradio.org.  My shift will be 8:30-9pm on May 15th. This is a free event, although a donation would be appreciated.  All proceeds go to support Jack Staw’s Youth Arts programs.

So now, why do this seemingly masochistic performance?  This has vexed me for a while and the answer I come up with is twofold.  One, because it is there. Two, why not? I think that when art is concerned, these are often the only justifications needed. In doing some research on the piece, it seems to me that Satie was intentionally unclear to the meaning/intention of the piece.  Wikipedia (our all-knowing alter of passive study) suggests: “There is no indication that Satie intended Vexations for public performance (and certainly not as a “tour de force” of endurance to impress – or bore to death – a public) – the introductory text he wrote, as quoted above, rather indicating it was intended as a one-person experience (e.g. as a restrained way to work off anger, or, in order to get one’s ears tuned to an unconventional harmonic system and meter). Satie made no effort to get either Vexations published during his life, scarcely, or not at all, communicating about their existence.” There you go.  Make of that what you will.

Here is my initial read through of the piece and a PDF of the sheet music ( I apologize for the hiss in the recording.  This was done very quickly in my living room.):

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Vexations PDF

My academic take on it (MUSIC NERD ALERT): Structure: an omni-present theme in the bass that is played alone then with either an A or B section. Repeat 840 times. The B section’s right hand part is just an inversion of the A sections right hand part. (fellow nerds: take a look at the sheet music you will see what I am talking about). This piece is very hard to read.  A lot of enharmonic spellings that play tricks on you ( in layman’s terms: Satie notates the same thing in different ways to make it more challenging to read). There is no indication of time signature, dynamics, phrases, or emotional quality.  Just a tempo indication of very slow.  The right hand plays a succession of parallel tri-tones, whilst the left hand plays a theme based on a C half-diminished scale with 3 added notes (not quite a 12 tone row).   The only consonant interval in the right hand part is the second chord which is a major 3rd. Actually in context, this usually super consonant interval sticks out like a sore thumb to my ears.  What is most fascinating to me is the intervalic/harmonic relationship between the left and right hand parts.  Consistently, the interval between the bass part and the lowest note of the treble part is a third or some version thereof (i.e. a sixth or a tenth of some sort).  Purely consonant.

My personal take.  This piece drives me bat-shit crazy.  Co-incidence or not, I will sit down to practice Vexations and inadvertently the phone rings, the cat want attention, someone knocks on the door, something happens to interrupt.  I can deal with that, but then the piece itself messes with you. This very tightly controlled, limited pallet exposes every single imperfection in my quality/consistency of tone and volume, metric deviations (even though there is no meter, sometimes the time I play feels off for the piece and I can’t seem to get it where it should be). Something so deceptively simple is a test of control and will power more than musical chops. And I am not even going to get into the weird shit passing through my mind as I practice the piece. That is more appropriate for personal conversations over cocktails.   My wife made a very good observation about the piece as I was expressing my vexations with Vexations. Maybe it is a meditation device.  A rote activity one’s body performs in order to let thoughts pass though one’s mind without rumination to achieve stillness.  All in all, I have a lot of respect for Erik Satie. If nothing else, he figured out how to truly fuck with people from beyond the grave.

Well here we are.  Thanks for taking the time for reading my first foray into the blogosphere.  My intention of this blog is pretty much exactly what the title says.  It is the State of the Art.  My art and the art I experience around me. What this entails is musings on art and process, sketches of work in progress, reviews of shows/exhibits (not in a snooty way, mainly I just want to talk about what inspires/impacts me), commentary, dialogue, chronicling…  All the miscellany of being a working artist.

Being a musician is an unusual profession.   The continual search for work, the interactions with many people who have varying perceptions and notions of what you do, talking about yourself in the 3rd person for press materials, the drunk uncles at weddings (God bless you.  You are a well-spring of entertainment).  I get to meet all sorts of people, play in all sorts of random, fancy, scenic, cool, scary, dive-y, and weird places (Once, I had to play a piano that was put on top of a huge table and surrounded by a buffet. In a Santa suit.).  So I can have some pretty entertaining stories.   And yes it can be done. You can make a living as a musician.

On a more serious note: I wrestle with what it means to be a composer in our post-modern era.  As I understand it, post-modern thought says that there are no more original ideas.  Today’s creative ideas are just re-interpretations, re-combination of what came before.  Is this true? Is musical exploration still possible (not one’s own personal exploration of music, but exploration of new musical horizons in a movement sense, i.e. Baroque to Classical to Romantic, etc)?  If it is possible, is it my responsibility to search for the proverbial “lost chord?”  Is it a composition when I put a group of incredible musicians in a room and tell them to improvise a certain thing?  Where is the trend  of musical hybridization heading (this is a big one for me, because it is a lot of what I do)? Does “serious” music have a responsibility to entertain? There are many answers to all these questions and the answers will certainly raise more questions.

Also no blog can be complete without segments and guest bloggers.   My first recurring segment will be Metal Guy Jazz Reviews. Every week or so my friend Metal Guy will review a jazz record.  Metal Guy is a black metal guitar player in Hammerfest, Norway.  I met him about  11 years ago at a Dimmu Borgir concert near Nuremburg, Germany. We have kept a correspondence over the years. He sends me the latest European Death Metal and I send him the jazz. Metal Guy is quite an astute listener, prolific writer, the voice of his generation, and has some very keen observations of the great American art form.  Stay tuned.

So please leave a comment, suggest a topic, provoke philosophical arguments, and send me dirty jokes. Let’s dish!  If I can make you think or piss you off, I have done my job.  Please do the same for me.  And for the record, I believe Comedy and Satire to be some of the highest forms of communication.  Keep that in mind and this will go swimmingly.  Thanks for reading!

- Michael Owcharuk