Jonathan Neufeld | College of Charleston (original) (raw)
Papers by Jonathan Neufeld
Logos & Episteme, 2011
In the previous issue of Logos & Episteme, Alex Bundy defends epistemic abstemiousness and critic... more In the previous issue of Logos & Episteme, Alex Bundy defends epistemic abstemiousness and criticizes our tales of epistemic abstention to martyrdom and conversion. Here we will briefly reply to Bundy's criticisms and then diagnose what we think the trouble is with the going versions of epistemic abstemiousness.
Logos & Episteme, 2012
In "On Epistemic Abstemiousness," Alex Bundy has advanced his criticism of our view that the Prin... more In "On Epistemic Abstemiousness," Alex Bundy has advanced his criticism of our view that the Principle of Suspension yields serious diachronic irrationality. Here, we defend the diachronic perspective on epistemic norms and clarify how we think the diachronic consequences follow.
Logos & Episteme, 2010
An intuitive view regarding the epistemic significance of disagreement says that when epistemic p... more An intuitive view regarding the epistemic significance of disagreement says that when epistemic peers disagree, they should suspend judgment. This abstemious view seems to embody a kind of detachment appropriate for rational beings; moreover, it seems to promote a kind of conciliatory inclination that makes for irenic and cooperative further discussion. Like many strategies for cooperation, however, the abstemious view creates opportunities for free-riding. In this essay, the authors argue that the believer who suspends judgment in the face of peer disagreement is vulnerable to a kind of manipulation on the part of more tenacious peers. The result is that the abstemious view can have the effect of encouraging dogmatism.
Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 2007
Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism
Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 73.2 (May 2015) It this paper I explore a concept of ... more Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 73.2 (May 2015)
It this paper I explore a concept of artistic transgression that I call aesthetic disobedience. By using the term “aesthetic disobedience,” I mean to draw a parallel with the political concept of civil disobedience. Acts of civil disobedience break some law in order publicly to draw attention to, and recommend the reform of, a conflict between the commitments of the legal system and some shared commitments of a community. Acts of aesthetic disobedience do the same in the artworld: they break an entrenched artworld norm in order publicly to draw attention to, and recommend the reform of, a conflict between a artworld commitments and some shared commitments of a community. I argue that considering artistic transgressions under the concept of aesthetic disobedience highlights features of modern artworld practices that are often overlooked. Most significantly, it draws attention to the ways in which a wide variety of citizens of the artworld, including not just artists and performers but also members of the audience, can participate in the transformation of the rules and boundaries of the artworld itself.
Contemporary Aesthetics, Oct 2014
Contemporary Aesthetics, Volume 12 (2014). The ontology of musical works is often taken to set... more Contemporary Aesthetics, Volume 12 (2014).
The ontology of musical works is often taken to set the boundaries within which evaluation of musical works and performances take place. Questions of ontology are therefore often taken to be prior to and apart from the evaluative questions considered by either performers as they present works to audiences, or to an audience’s critical reflection on a performance. In this paper I argue that, while the ontology of musical works may well set the boundaries of legitimate evaluation, ontological questions should not be taken to be prior to or apart from critical evaluation. Rather, ontological claims are a species of critical evaluation made within musical practices. I argue that philosophers of music might learn from the debate in political philosophy about the difficulty of setting the limits of public reason in a way that remains open to a plurality of legitimate evaluative perspectives. Just as pre-political or metaphysical identification of the boundaries of public reason fail to accommodate the fact of pluralism in contemporary democratic polities, so too does a metaphysical identification of the boundaries of legitimate evaluation of musical works and performances fail to accommodate the fact of pluralism in contemporary musical practices. To adapt John Rawls’s formulation of political liberalism: musical ontology should be critical, not metaphysical.
Opera Quarterly, Feb 2013
While Billy Budd's beauty has often been connected to his innocence and his moral goodness, the s... more While Billy Budd's beauty has often been connected to his innocence and his moral goodness, the significance of the musical character of his beauty—what I will argue is the site of a struggle for political expression—has not been remarked upon by commentators of Melville's novella. It has, however, been deeply explored by Britten's opera. Music has often been situated at, or just beyond, the limits of communication; it has served as a medium of the ineffable, of unsaid and unsayable truths (and lies), of an expressive power beyond language and reason. It is this expressive but communicatively problematic role that Billy embodies and that Billy Budd sets into political motion. In this essay, I would like to suggest that Billy's musical beauty can only be fully appreciated, and assumes full significance, when considered within the context of the various conceptions of beauty, and corresponding conceptions of authority, presented in the novella and in the opera. In particular, I will argue that Billy's beauty is a modern one that calls for the active participation of its audience.
This modern conception of participatory beauty is set against two other competing conceptions found in both novella and opera. The first is the premodern auratic beauty exemplified by the charismatic Lord Nelson in the novella. The second is the modern utilitarian beauty of the manipulative Claggart in both novella and opera. Neither of these two conceptions of beauty allows for the autonomous participation of audience members. Rather, each depends on members of the audience either being awed or manipulated into service to an end determined heteronomously—an end decided by someone other than the appreciators of the beauty. Billy's musical beauty is at the very least compatible with his audience's autonomous participation and, I will suggest, even demands it. The men hear and struggle to give their own voices to Billy's song, only to be silenced by the order that Claggart imposes on the ship. The demand of Billy's music is one that Vere can feel but is unable to reconcile with his conception of authority, let alone to act upon. Britten's Billy Budd thus presents a vivid account of the political stakes of listening by making communicative conflicts—between what is said, what is expressed, and what is heard—audible.
teorema, Aug 2012
"Published in teorema, Vol. XXXI/3, 2012, ISSN: 0210-1602, [BIBLID 0210-1602 (2012) 31:3;] Phi... more "Published in teorema, Vol. XXXI/3, 2012, ISSN: 0210-1602, [BIBLID 0210-1602 (2012) 31:3;]
Philosophers of music commonly distinguish performative from critical interpretations. I would like to suggest that the distinction between critical and performative interpretations is well captured by an analogy to legal critics and judges. This parallel draws attention to several features of performative interpretation that are typically overlooked, and deemphasizes epistemic problems with performative interpretations that I believe are typically blown out of proportion and ultimately fail to capture interesting features of performative interpretation. There is an important distinction to be made between critical and performative interpretation, but its source lies in a difference between the authority of critical and performative interpretations. "
Journal of Aesthetic Education, Apr 2011
It is widely assumed that there is a blanket norm requiring the performer to present the work “in... more It is widely assumed that there is a blanket norm requiring the performer to present the work “in the best light possible,” and that the performer “make the ends of the work his own” or “live the work” in performance. Through careful consideration of a particular performance, I suggest that this is an inadequate conception of a performer’s obligations. I argue that the form of identification between performer and work commonly propounded by philosophers, musicologists, music teachers, and performers alike is illuminated by what I take to be an exemplary metaphor deployed by Roger Scruton: the life in music. The problems with requiring a performer to identify with and affirm a work are made vivid by careful consideration of the requirements of “living the work,” or understanding the “life in tones.” I argue that this call for identification and affirmation ultimately denies the performer the capacity for critical interpretation and amounts either to a denial of modernity or to a desire to step behind it.
Contemporary Aesthetics, Feb 2009
Musical formalism, which strictly limits the type of thing any description of the music can tell ... more Musical formalism, which strictly limits the type of thing any description of the music can tell us, is ill-equipped to account for contemporary performance practice. If performative interpretations are in a position to tell us something about musical works—that is if performance is a kind of description, as Peter Kivy argues—then we have to loosen the restrictions on notions of musical relevance to make sense of performance. I argue that musical formalism, which strictly limits the type of thing any description of the music can tell us, is inconsistent with Kivy's quite compelling account of performance. This shows the difficulty that actual performances pose to overly rigid conceptions of music. Daniel Barenboim unannounced performance of Wagner in Israel in 2001 shows that the problem of the boundaries of musical relevance is no mere philosophical puzzle. It is a pressing problem in the musical public sphere.
Encyclopedia entry on musicologist Carl Dahlhaus
Logos & Episteme, Mar 2012
In “On Epistemic Abstemiousness,” Alex Bundy has advanced his criticism of our view that the Prin... more In “On Epistemic Abstemiousness,” Alex Bundy has advanced his criticism of our view that the Principle of Suspension yields serious diachronic irrationality. Here, we defend the diachronic perspective on epistemic norms and clarify how we think the diachronic consequences follow.
Logos & Episteme, Sep 2011
In the previous issue of Logos & Episteme, Alex Bundy defends epistemic abstemiousness and criti... more In the previous issue of Logos & Episteme, Alex Bundy defends epistemic abstemiousness and criticizes our tales of epistemic abstention to martyrdom and conversion. Here we will briefly reply to Bundy’s criticisms and then diagnose what we think the trouble is with the going versions of epistemic abstemiousness.
Logos & Episteme, Dec 2010
An intuitive view regarding the epistemic significance of disagreement says that when epistemic ... more An intuitive view regarding the epistemic significance of disagreement says that when epistemic peers disagree, they should suspend judgment. This abstemious view seems to embody a kind of detachment appropriate for rational beings; moreover, it seems to promote a kind of conciliatory inclination that makes for irenic and cooperative further discussion. Like many strategies for cooperation, however, the abstemious view creates opportunities for free-riding. In this essay, the authors argue that the believer who suspends judgment in the face of peer disagreement is vulnerable to a kind of manipulation on the part of more tenacious peers. The result is that the abstemious view can have the effect of encouraging dogmatism.
Conference Work by Jonathan Neufeld
Aesthetics Work Group meetings and events since 2011. The Aesthetics Work Group is an interdisc... more Aesthetics Work Group meetings and events since 2011.
The Aesthetics Work Group is an interdisciplinary group of professors and students who meet periodically to discuss theoretical works about and in the arts. The work is often (usually) something in progress by members of AWG and visitors from other institutions. It is led by Jonathan Neufeld in the philosophy department and is regularly attended by students and faculty from German, Spanish, English, Religious Studies, Music, Art, Art History, African American Studies, Political Science, Jewish Studies, and Psychology. Visiting presenters are in bold.
In meinem Vortrag werde ich den möglichen Gemeinsamkeiten und Unterschieden zwischen dem einigerm... more In meinem Vortrag werde ich den möglichen Gemeinsamkeiten und Unterschieden zwischen dem einigermaßen etablierten Begriff des zivilen Ungehorsams und dem erst noch genauer zu bestimmenden Begriff des ästhetischen Ungehorsams nachgehen. Dabei gehe ich in drei Schritten auf Fragen der Definition (welches sind die Merkmale der jeweiligen Form des Ungehorsams?), der Rechtfertigung (welche Gründe können für sie angeführt werden?) und der Rolle (welche Bedeutung kommt ihnen für die politische bzw. ästhetische Praxis zu?) ein. Abschließend werde ich die Überlappungen zwischen beiden Praktiken in Form der ästhetischen Dimension zivilen Ungehorsams sowie der zivilen Dimension ästhetischen Ungehorsams an jeweils einem Beispiel veranschaulichen.
Book Reviews by Jonathan Neufeld
Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Nov 1, 2011
Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 2008
In Public Art: Thinking Museums Differently, Hilde Hein ambitiously attempts to give a conceptual... more In Public Art: Thinking Museums Differently, Hilde Hein ambitiously attempts to give a conceptual, historical, and normative account of recent steps made by museums toward ephemerality and interactivity. Museums are relinquishing their claims to the immutable and universal. ...
Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Apr 27, 2007
Logos & Episteme, 2011
In the previous issue of Logos & Episteme, Alex Bundy defends epistemic abstemiousness and critic... more In the previous issue of Logos & Episteme, Alex Bundy defends epistemic abstemiousness and criticizes our tales of epistemic abstention to martyrdom and conversion. Here we will briefly reply to Bundy's criticisms and then diagnose what we think the trouble is with the going versions of epistemic abstemiousness.
Logos & Episteme, 2012
In "On Epistemic Abstemiousness," Alex Bundy has advanced his criticism of our view that the Prin... more In "On Epistemic Abstemiousness," Alex Bundy has advanced his criticism of our view that the Principle of Suspension yields serious diachronic irrationality. Here, we defend the diachronic perspective on epistemic norms and clarify how we think the diachronic consequences follow.
Logos & Episteme, 2010
An intuitive view regarding the epistemic significance of disagreement says that when epistemic p... more An intuitive view regarding the epistemic significance of disagreement says that when epistemic peers disagree, they should suspend judgment. This abstemious view seems to embody a kind of detachment appropriate for rational beings; moreover, it seems to promote a kind of conciliatory inclination that makes for irenic and cooperative further discussion. Like many strategies for cooperation, however, the abstemious view creates opportunities for free-riding. In this essay, the authors argue that the believer who suspends judgment in the face of peer disagreement is vulnerable to a kind of manipulation on the part of more tenacious peers. The result is that the abstemious view can have the effect of encouraging dogmatism.
Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 2007
Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism
Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 73.2 (May 2015) It this paper I explore a concept of ... more Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 73.2 (May 2015)
It this paper I explore a concept of artistic transgression that I call aesthetic disobedience. By using the term “aesthetic disobedience,” I mean to draw a parallel with the political concept of civil disobedience. Acts of civil disobedience break some law in order publicly to draw attention to, and recommend the reform of, a conflict between the commitments of the legal system and some shared commitments of a community. Acts of aesthetic disobedience do the same in the artworld: they break an entrenched artworld norm in order publicly to draw attention to, and recommend the reform of, a conflict between a artworld commitments and some shared commitments of a community. I argue that considering artistic transgressions under the concept of aesthetic disobedience highlights features of modern artworld practices that are often overlooked. Most significantly, it draws attention to the ways in which a wide variety of citizens of the artworld, including not just artists and performers but also members of the audience, can participate in the transformation of the rules and boundaries of the artworld itself.
Contemporary Aesthetics, Oct 2014
Contemporary Aesthetics, Volume 12 (2014). The ontology of musical works is often taken to set... more Contemporary Aesthetics, Volume 12 (2014).
The ontology of musical works is often taken to set the boundaries within which evaluation of musical works and performances take place. Questions of ontology are therefore often taken to be prior to and apart from the evaluative questions considered by either performers as they present works to audiences, or to an audience’s critical reflection on a performance. In this paper I argue that, while the ontology of musical works may well set the boundaries of legitimate evaluation, ontological questions should not be taken to be prior to or apart from critical evaluation. Rather, ontological claims are a species of critical evaluation made within musical practices. I argue that philosophers of music might learn from the debate in political philosophy about the difficulty of setting the limits of public reason in a way that remains open to a plurality of legitimate evaluative perspectives. Just as pre-political or metaphysical identification of the boundaries of public reason fail to accommodate the fact of pluralism in contemporary democratic polities, so too does a metaphysical identification of the boundaries of legitimate evaluation of musical works and performances fail to accommodate the fact of pluralism in contemporary musical practices. To adapt John Rawls’s formulation of political liberalism: musical ontology should be critical, not metaphysical.
Opera Quarterly, Feb 2013
While Billy Budd's beauty has often been connected to his innocence and his moral goodness, the s... more While Billy Budd's beauty has often been connected to his innocence and his moral goodness, the significance of the musical character of his beauty—what I will argue is the site of a struggle for political expression—has not been remarked upon by commentators of Melville's novella. It has, however, been deeply explored by Britten's opera. Music has often been situated at, or just beyond, the limits of communication; it has served as a medium of the ineffable, of unsaid and unsayable truths (and lies), of an expressive power beyond language and reason. It is this expressive but communicatively problematic role that Billy embodies and that Billy Budd sets into political motion. In this essay, I would like to suggest that Billy's musical beauty can only be fully appreciated, and assumes full significance, when considered within the context of the various conceptions of beauty, and corresponding conceptions of authority, presented in the novella and in the opera. In particular, I will argue that Billy's beauty is a modern one that calls for the active participation of its audience.
This modern conception of participatory beauty is set against two other competing conceptions found in both novella and opera. The first is the premodern auratic beauty exemplified by the charismatic Lord Nelson in the novella. The second is the modern utilitarian beauty of the manipulative Claggart in both novella and opera. Neither of these two conceptions of beauty allows for the autonomous participation of audience members. Rather, each depends on members of the audience either being awed or manipulated into service to an end determined heteronomously—an end decided by someone other than the appreciators of the beauty. Billy's musical beauty is at the very least compatible with his audience's autonomous participation and, I will suggest, even demands it. The men hear and struggle to give their own voices to Billy's song, only to be silenced by the order that Claggart imposes on the ship. The demand of Billy's music is one that Vere can feel but is unable to reconcile with his conception of authority, let alone to act upon. Britten's Billy Budd thus presents a vivid account of the political stakes of listening by making communicative conflicts—between what is said, what is expressed, and what is heard—audible.
teorema, Aug 2012
"Published in teorema, Vol. XXXI/3, 2012, ISSN: 0210-1602, [BIBLID 0210-1602 (2012) 31:3;] Phi... more "Published in teorema, Vol. XXXI/3, 2012, ISSN: 0210-1602, [BIBLID 0210-1602 (2012) 31:3;]
Philosophers of music commonly distinguish performative from critical interpretations. I would like to suggest that the distinction between critical and performative interpretations is well captured by an analogy to legal critics and judges. This parallel draws attention to several features of performative interpretation that are typically overlooked, and deemphasizes epistemic problems with performative interpretations that I believe are typically blown out of proportion and ultimately fail to capture interesting features of performative interpretation. There is an important distinction to be made between critical and performative interpretation, but its source lies in a difference between the authority of critical and performative interpretations. "
Journal of Aesthetic Education, Apr 2011
It is widely assumed that there is a blanket norm requiring the performer to present the work “in... more It is widely assumed that there is a blanket norm requiring the performer to present the work “in the best light possible,” and that the performer “make the ends of the work his own” or “live the work” in performance. Through careful consideration of a particular performance, I suggest that this is an inadequate conception of a performer’s obligations. I argue that the form of identification between performer and work commonly propounded by philosophers, musicologists, music teachers, and performers alike is illuminated by what I take to be an exemplary metaphor deployed by Roger Scruton: the life in music. The problems with requiring a performer to identify with and affirm a work are made vivid by careful consideration of the requirements of “living the work,” or understanding the “life in tones.” I argue that this call for identification and affirmation ultimately denies the performer the capacity for critical interpretation and amounts either to a denial of modernity or to a desire to step behind it.
Contemporary Aesthetics, Feb 2009
Musical formalism, which strictly limits the type of thing any description of the music can tell ... more Musical formalism, which strictly limits the type of thing any description of the music can tell us, is ill-equipped to account for contemporary performance practice. If performative interpretations are in a position to tell us something about musical works—that is if performance is a kind of description, as Peter Kivy argues—then we have to loosen the restrictions on notions of musical relevance to make sense of performance. I argue that musical formalism, which strictly limits the type of thing any description of the music can tell us, is inconsistent with Kivy's quite compelling account of performance. This shows the difficulty that actual performances pose to overly rigid conceptions of music. Daniel Barenboim unannounced performance of Wagner in Israel in 2001 shows that the problem of the boundaries of musical relevance is no mere philosophical puzzle. It is a pressing problem in the musical public sphere.
Encyclopedia entry on musicologist Carl Dahlhaus
Logos & Episteme, Mar 2012
In “On Epistemic Abstemiousness,” Alex Bundy has advanced his criticism of our view that the Prin... more In “On Epistemic Abstemiousness,” Alex Bundy has advanced his criticism of our view that the Principle of Suspension yields serious diachronic irrationality. Here, we defend the diachronic perspective on epistemic norms and clarify how we think the diachronic consequences follow.
Logos & Episteme, Sep 2011
In the previous issue of Logos & Episteme, Alex Bundy defends epistemic abstemiousness and criti... more In the previous issue of Logos & Episteme, Alex Bundy defends epistemic abstemiousness and criticizes our tales of epistemic abstention to martyrdom and conversion. Here we will briefly reply to Bundy’s criticisms and then diagnose what we think the trouble is with the going versions of epistemic abstemiousness.
Logos & Episteme, Dec 2010
An intuitive view regarding the epistemic significance of disagreement says that when epistemic ... more An intuitive view regarding the epistemic significance of disagreement says that when epistemic peers disagree, they should suspend judgment. This abstemious view seems to embody a kind of detachment appropriate for rational beings; moreover, it seems to promote a kind of conciliatory inclination that makes for irenic and cooperative further discussion. Like many strategies for cooperation, however, the abstemious view creates opportunities for free-riding. In this essay, the authors argue that the believer who suspends judgment in the face of peer disagreement is vulnerable to a kind of manipulation on the part of more tenacious peers. The result is that the abstemious view can have the effect of encouraging dogmatism.
Aesthetics Work Group meetings and events since 2011. The Aesthetics Work Group is an interdisc... more Aesthetics Work Group meetings and events since 2011.
The Aesthetics Work Group is an interdisciplinary group of professors and students who meet periodically to discuss theoretical works about and in the arts. The work is often (usually) something in progress by members of AWG and visitors from other institutions. It is led by Jonathan Neufeld in the philosophy department and is regularly attended by students and faculty from German, Spanish, English, Religious Studies, Music, Art, Art History, African American Studies, Political Science, Jewish Studies, and Psychology. Visiting presenters are in bold.
In meinem Vortrag werde ich den möglichen Gemeinsamkeiten und Unterschieden zwischen dem einigerm... more In meinem Vortrag werde ich den möglichen Gemeinsamkeiten und Unterschieden zwischen dem einigermaßen etablierten Begriff des zivilen Ungehorsams und dem erst noch genauer zu bestimmenden Begriff des ästhetischen Ungehorsams nachgehen. Dabei gehe ich in drei Schritten auf Fragen der Definition (welches sind die Merkmale der jeweiligen Form des Ungehorsams?), der Rechtfertigung (welche Gründe können für sie angeführt werden?) und der Rolle (welche Bedeutung kommt ihnen für die politische bzw. ästhetische Praxis zu?) ein. Abschließend werde ich die Überlappungen zwischen beiden Praktiken in Form der ästhetischen Dimension zivilen Ungehorsams sowie der zivilen Dimension ästhetischen Ungehorsams an jeweils einem Beispiel veranschaulichen.
Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Nov 1, 2011
Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 2008
In Public Art: Thinking Museums Differently, Hilde Hein ambitiously attempts to give a conceptual... more In Public Art: Thinking Museums Differently, Hilde Hein ambitiously attempts to give a conceptual, historical, and normative account of recent steps made by museums toward ephemerality and interactivity. Museums are relinquishing their claims to the immutable and universal. ...
Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Apr 27, 2007
Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews, Feb 8, 2006
The performance of Afram ou la Belle Swita at Spoleto exemplifies some of the core characteristic... more The performance of Afram ou la Belle Swita at Spoleto exemplifies some of the core characteristics of Charleston. It is a piece of history brought to life by artists with one eye on the past and the other on the future, and with both feet planted firmly in the present. It is of local interest—the composer, Edmund Thornton Jenkins played a central role in local music as he grew up playing in his father’s Jenkins Orphanage Band. The jazz of the early twenties Jenkins took part in composing and performing is a piece of the foundation of American music. But Jenkins is a cosmopolitan composer as well who draws easily and effectively on late nineteenth and early twentieth century European composition techniques. This distinction he shares with the great William Grant Still and, of course, George Gershwin who was so influenced by (and contributed to) this distinctively American musical tradition.
Grace Notes has so many resources at play, it feels a bit like an unfinished draft overflowing wi... more Grace Notes has so many resources at play, it feels a bit like an unfinished draft overflowing with ideas. The work wasn’t even contained by the beginning and end of the performance—a trumpet improvised in the lobby, and the pit orchestra started playing as the audience was being seated. At the end, large round balloons like those used in a dance by Francesca Harper we released into the audience, who batted them around during the ovation. I originally thought this unfinished-feeling detracted from the work, but the more I think about it, what is democratic action other than unruly, unfinished, and engaging work?
There were a number of happy symmetries in Friday’s performance of Steve Reich’s iconic Music for... more There were a number of happy symmetries in Friday’s performance of Steve Reich’s iconic Music for 18 Musicians. This year is Reich’s 80th on earth. He wrote Music for 18 Musicians in his 40th. It seems appropriate that the 40th anniversary of the work would be marked by a performance in this, the 40th, season of the Spoleto Festival. There is really nothing deeply meaningful about this. I just like the harmonic coincidence of it, the repeated echoes of 40 years of life in a living performance of repetition and echo.
100 Philosophers 100 Artworks 100 Words piece on the performance of Landfall at the Brooklyn Acad... more 100 Philosophers 100 Artworks 100 Words piece on the performance of Landfall at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in September of 2014.
I eagerly participated in the Nashville Opera's multimedia experiment Friday night. Artistic dire... more I eagerly participated in the Nashville Opera's multimedia experiment Friday night. Artistic director John Hoomes and a number of the cast and crew podcast a commentary based on tapings of last weekend's productions of Romeo and Juliet to be listened to during the performances this weekend. It was not without a certain excitement that I clicked "play" on Friday night...
Bernhard Gueller and the Nashville Symphony presented an impressive lineup of composers on Thursd... more Bernhard Gueller and the Nashville Symphony presented an impressive lineup of composers on Thursday. While the concert began with the Pulitzer Prize winning composer and pivoted on Beethoven, the musical spirit of Wagner animated, and at times weighed on, the performances throughout the evening.
While Charles Wadsworth was warming up the audience with charming and funny chit-chat during his ... more While Charles Wadsworth was warming up the audience with charming and funny chit-chat during his concert at Ingram Hall last night, he commented on the concert title: “Chamber Music with Charles Wadsworth and Friends.” He said that that the players on stage really were friends, and had known each other for15 years or so. He said that sometimes you say, “…and Friends” because it is easier than saying “…and some people that Charles Wadsworth happens to know and sometimes play with.” And it really did feel like a night among friends.
I regret not bringing cough drops to the concert on Thursday. A ticklish throat turned into a cou... more I regret not bringing cough drops to the concert on Thursday. A ticklish throat turned into a coughing attack that forced me to get up and leave just as Hugh Wolff and the Symphony was off to a dramatic, taut, and cinematic-feeling start to Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances.
This is a pity, because I suspect it would have been the highlight of the evening, edging out Horacio Gutiérrez’s tense Beethoven piano concerto. The first piece on the program, Steven Macke’s Turn the Key, provides the audience with a smorgasbord of rhythms and tones. It is one of the only pieces I can think of where the audience opens the piece. After Wolff raised his arms and the orchestra was poised to begin, two lone claps were heard, alternating at the back of the hall. It turns out that there were two percussionists walking slowly to stage clapping, and encouraging the audience to clap along. Wolff eventually encouraged more and louder clapping that swelled as he turned back to the orchestra for them to begin.
Herbig and Armstrong light up Symphony What a pleasure to hear one’s hometown Symphony sound l... more Herbig and Armstrong light up Symphony
What a pleasure to hear one’s hometown Symphony sound like new. Günther Herbig transformed the Nashville Symphony on Thursday night. The Symphony is, of course, normally excellent. But under Herbig’s baton, they played with an enthusiasm and clarity that sounded utterly fresh.
Bruckner Symphony Ideal for Schermerhorn—Berg Less So At the Nashville Symphony concert Thursd... more Bruckner Symphony Ideal for Schermerhorn—Berg Less So
At the Nashville Symphony concert Thursday evening, Giancarlo Guerrero said that Bruckner’s 7th Symphony was the first work he thought to program for his new hall. Listening to the performance, the reasons were clear. Bruckner’s huge sonorities and broad-brush Wagnerian drama, along with exposed but clear and full-voiced wind ensembles, come off extremely well in the richly toned Laura Turner Concert Hall. The same could not be said of the intensely expressive but intricately detailed Berg Violin Concerto.
The young pianist Stephen Beus should not be missed this weekend. His performance of Franz Liszt... more The young pianist Stephen Beus should not be missed this weekend. His performance of Franz Liszt’s famous first piano concerto is the centerpiece of the Nashville Symphony’s light and playful “Sorcerer’s Apprentice” program.
Itzhak Perlman and the Nashville Symphony received the most spontaneous and enthusiastic ovation ... more Itzhak Perlman and the Nashville Symphony received the most spontaneous and enthusiastic ovation that I have seen in years. Perlman led the orchestra both from his position as violin soloist in the Beethoven Romances for violin, as well as from the conductor’s podium in Brahms’s Variations on the Theme by Haydn and Tchaikovsky’s dramatic 4th Symphony (read the program notes here: http://www.nashvillesymphony.org/res/program_notes_perlman.pdf).
Alias’s winter concert on Thursday night continued their ... more Alias’s> winter concert on Thursday night continued their tradition of exciting programming and excellent playing. The program included a two contributions to their “Emerging Voices: Women Composers Past and Present” series. First was a little piece, Manhattan Serenades, for cello and piano by contemporary composer <a href=‘http://www.schirmer.com/Default.aspx?TabId=2419&State_2872=2&composerId_2872=2388’>Gabriela Lena Frank, whose works have been played in recent years by both the Nashville Symphony and Alias. The first and last movements, “Uptown” and “Downtown” showcased Matt Walker’s light touch and improvisational skills. Combined with Melissa Rose’s sprightly accompaniment, the gently angular and jazzy piece came off well. The second movement was touching and ended in such a contemplative mood that it felt a bit out of place between the two more playful movements. In fact, it made the cheer of the opening of the last movement sound almost forced. The second emerging voice was that of <a href=’ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lili_Boulanger’>Lili Boulanger. Her coloristic but propulsive D’un Matin de Printemps for violin and piano was crisply played by Rose and Allison Gooding.
Pianist Orli Shaham and violinist Gil Shaham performed a remarkable program Sunday night in Laura... more Pianist Orli Shaham and violinist Gil Shaham performed a remarkable program Sunday night in Laura Turner Hall. Except for Mozart’s D-major violin sonata, all of pieces were written in the first half of the twentieth century. It wasn’t for this reason that the Mozart didn’t quite fit, though. Mr. Shaham’s tone, especially paired with Ms. Shaham’s big open Steinway, is beautifully lush and rich and sacrificed some of the lightness of Mozart. This is a matter of taste, however—it was a virtuosic and passionate Mozart that filled the hall. They captured all of the humor and gentle playfulness of the third movement’s cadenza-like ending.
On Saturday night, the winter concert of chamber group Alias was a delight filled with brightness... more On Saturday night, the winter concert of chamber group Alias was a delight filled with brightness, energy and humor.
20th century Czech composer Bohuslav Martinu’s Three Madrigals for violin and viola started the night off well. Daniel Reinker’s gigantic viola sound—warm, rich, even, ringing—was well complemented by Jeremy Williams’s dryer, crisp-sounding violin. The first movement is a bounding, sparkling allegro where technically demanding motifs, filled with dangerous and unforgiving shifts, are tossed back and forth between the two instruments for fun. The moodier, more textural second movement allowed both players to sing a bit more freely. Again, Reinker’s tone was extraordinary. The pair’s delicate tempo changes were seamlessly integrated into the open, countryish, and slightly frisky final movement.
Readings from different years of Honors Western Civ at the College of Charleston. Course is co-ta... more Readings from different years of Honors Western Civ at the College of Charleston. Course is co-taught by an interdisciplinary group of 6 professors.