his "canary-in-the-coal-mine theory of the arts"
"I was perplexed as to what the usefulness of any of the arts might be, with the possible exception of interior decoration. The most positive notion I could come up with was what I call the canary-in-the-coal-mine theory of the arts."
-- K.V. (who else?), a full half-century ago -- see below, just a bit
ALL RIGHT, TIME TO GET TO WORK
Music Sample No. 1
Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center: Wu Han, piano; Ani Kavafian and Arnaud Sussmann, violins; Paul Neubauer, viola; Fred Sherry, cello. CMS Studio Recordings, recorded in New York City, April 2007
NOW, EXCERPTED FROM MR. VONNEGUT'S "Address to
the American Physical Society, New York City, February 5, 1969":
by KenMany of you are physics teachers. I have been a teacher, too. I have taught creative writing. I often wondered what I thought I was doing, teaching creative writing, since the demand for creative writers is very small in this vale of tears. I was perplexed as to what the usefulness of any of the arts might be, with the possible exception of interior decoration. The most positive notion I could come up with was what I call the canary-in-the-coal-mine theory of the arts. This theory argues that artists are useful to society because they are so sensitive. They are supersensitive. They keel over like canaries in coal mines filled with poison gas, long before more robust types realize that any danger is there.
The most useful thing I could do before this meeting today is to keel over. On the other hand, artists are keeling over by the thousands every day and nobody seems to pay the least attention.
(appended in Vonnegut: Novels & Stories 1963-1973, Vol. 2 of Library of America's four-volume Kurt Vonnegut Edition)
Okay, so I've missed yet another Sunday, in case it matters, which of course it doesn't -- and, oh yes, a Monday, Tuesday, and I guess Wednesday too, if you insist on counting every last gosh-darned day. But since I more or less had the components of this, er, post ready to go, or at least readyish, I've somehow summoned the determination to proceed, on the slim (slimmest?) chance that it might somehow matter, or come to matter. Somehow.
I'm pretty sure you don't want to go there, though. How 'bout instead we listen to more music? Perhaps a somewhat larger and sort-of-semi-self-contained chunk.
Music Sample No. 3
London Symphony Orchestra, Pierre Monteux, cond. RCA-Decca, recorded June 24-25, 1958
Philharmonia Orchestra, Sir John Barbirolli, cond. EMI, recorded May 1962
Hallé Orchestra, John Barbirolli, cond. EMI, recorded 1947
BBC Symphony Orchestra, Andrew Davis, cond. Teldec, recorded April 1991
DARE WE PRESS THIS ONE MUSIC SAMPLE FURTHER?
Sure, why not? Let's go for it. Call it Music Sample No. 4 (and No. 4A).
Music Sample No. 4, March
New Symphony Orchestra of London, Sir Adrian Boult, cond. Reader's Digest-Chesky, recorded July 1960
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Sir Yehudi Menuhin, cond. Virgin Classics, recorded December 1989
Music Sample No. 4A, "Land of Hope and Glory"
Land of Hope and Glory, Mother of the Free,From the 2009 "Last Night of the Proms" (including the conductor's "Last Night" speech, Royal Albert Hall, Sept. 12)
how shall we extol thee, who are born of thee?
Wider still and wider shall thy bounds be set;
God, who made thee mighty, make thee mightier yet,
God, who made thee mighty, make thee mightier yet.
BBC Symphony Chorus and Orchestra, Sakari Oramo, cond. From the 2017 "Last Night of the Proms" (including the conductor's "Last Night" speech, Royal Albert Hall, Sept. 9)
WELL, THAT WAS KIND OF FUN, NO?
(ER, JUST A LITTLE, MAYBE?)
To be sure, some of us may find it the teensiest bit embarrassing, especially if we're not British -- or maybe that should be, specifically, "if we're not English." I'm not sure Sample 4A is a source of unalloyed joy for all non-English Brits.
HEY, HOLD ON! WHAT HAPPENED TO MUSIC SAMPLE NO. 2?
Good point. You're probably thinking it's a simple deficiency in this blog's ability to count as high as "2." But no, in fact there is a Music Sample No. 2, so numbered because it's inextricably linked with Music Sample No. 1, but earlier I didn't think we were ready for it, as I think you may appreciate in a moment. Before we get to it, though, let's listen again, maybe even twice, to --
Music Sample No. 1
Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center: Wu Han, piano; Ani Kavafian and Arnaud Sussmann, violins; Paul Neubauer, viola; Fred Sherry, cello. CMS Studio Recordings, recorded in New York City, April 2007
And again --
Harriet Cohen, piano; Stratton String Quartet (George Stratton and Carl Taylor, violins; Watson Forbes, viola; John Moore, cello). EMI, recorded Oct. 1, 1933
OKAY, I THINK NOW WE'RE READY TO HEAR --
Music Sample No. 2
Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center: Wu Han, piano; Ani Kavafian and Arnaud Sussmann, violins; Paul Neubauer, viola; Fred Sherry, cello. CMS Studio Recordings, recorded in New York City, April 2007
Huh??? WTF is this? This has gotta be some kind of mistake, no? Maybe it's a "speech" (for want of a better word) by President Trump played backwards?
Okay, so the piano is doing, er, something -- something that, whatever it is, I don't think you would call it a "theme," really, would you? It's more like, I don't know what it's like, maybe some kind of random, mindless noodling. But slow noodling. Or does it maybe sound like we're coming in in the middle of, well, whatever-this-is? Meanwhile the strings are doing . . . well, what in Zeus's name are they doing? Some kind of pinpricky yet squooshy belching? Maybe some kind-of-trying-to-get-off-the-ground-if-only-just-a-little thing?
Let's listen again, and this time look at some of it as well, noting how carefully the composer has notated rhythm, articulation, and dynamics.
Music Sample No. 2: encore presentation, with visual added
Harriet Cohen, piano; Stratton String Quartet (George Stratton and Carl Taylor, violins; Watson Forbes, viola; John Moore, cello). EMI, recorded Oct. 1, 1933
If anything I'm even less happy with this performance, despite its historic significance -- the seriously ill composer was deeply gratified to learn that EMI was recording this 15-year-old work, which obviously mattered to him, and the company's Fred Gaisberg made sure he received a set of pressings as soon as they were available. Still, what's missing to my ears is any audible sense that the music actually exists as music, that it comes from somewhere. Which is to say that what I hear in both our performances is just notes, missing everything that makes the notes music, something that communicates expressive intent to a listener.
JUST FOR FUN, LET'S HEAR MUSIC SAMPLES
NOS. 1 AND 2, ONE RIGHT AFTER THE OTHER
And for even more fun, what say we flip-flop 'em?
Music Samples Nos. 2 and 1, with visuals
Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center: Wu Han, piano; Ani Kavafian and Arnaud Sussmann, violins; Paul Neubauer, viola; Fred Sherry, cello. CMS Studio Recordings, recorded in New York City, April 2007
Harriet Cohen, piano; Stratton String Quartet (George Stratton and Carl Taylor, violins; Watson Forbes, viola; John Moore, cello). EMI, recorded Oct. 1, 1933
I trust it's clear that we've now got the two clips in correct order -- that together they form a little unit, with the tiny exception that they intentionally overlap by one bar. What may have appeared, when we first heard our so-called Sample "No. 1," as a bar of introduction to the lyrical theme turns out to be, when heard in context, the final bar of the kooky Sample "No. 2," which is in fact the opening of this Piano Quintet.
The question is: Does this opening make any more sense, convey any more communicative intent, than it did before when it stood alone? My answer is: Um, you know, not a whole lot, really.
WHICH WAS NOT AT ALL THE CASE --
in the performance of the Piano Quintet that seized my attention at a memorable February 2018 concert of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, titled "Through the Great War," where it was played by the violist of the 2007 CMS recording, Paul Neubauer, along with violinists Cho-Liang Lin and Alexander Sitkovetsky, cellist Keith Robinson, and pianist Orion Weiss. As it happened, that concert came at a seriously sticky point in my life, and I've been wanting to write about it ever since, but so far have gotten only as far as a pair of posts some months later, on June 24 and July 1.
And it so happened that the life-stickiness I was afflicted with at the time was directly connected to the very issue that Kurt Vonnegut addresses with his "canary-in-the-coal-mine theory of the arts." Which will land us, next time (I hope), right smack in the question of whether any of this matters.
* * * * *
FOR FURTHER LISTENING:
Wanna hear the whole Variations on an Original Theme
out of which Music Sample No. 3 has been ripped?
Well, we can do that! I've got a complete performance ready to go. First, however, let's listen to just the "Original Theme" of which the XIV variations that follow -- including Variation IX, our Music Sample No. 3 -- are, you know, variations. Let's start with the same performance we sampled earlier.
Theme (Andante)
London Symphony Orchestra, Pierre Monteux, cond. RCA-Decca, recorded June 24-25, 1958
This is, it should be noted, a noticeably energetic introduction. Which seems fine to me. After all, what the composer is giving us here is just a relatively unadorned statement of the "Original Theme" from which he's concocted the wildly assorted variations that follow. And when I listen to this Monteux performance, as with so many Monteux performances of music ranging widely across boundary lines of time, geography, ethnicity, and style, I have the sensation that this is just how I want to hear whatever-the-music-is.
That said, here are the slightly broader introductions to of two really notable recordings of this piece:
Philharmonia Orchestra, Sir John Barbirolli, cond. EMI, recorded May 1962
BBC Symphony Orchestra, Andrew Davis, cond. Teldec, recorded April 1991
Now, if you were of a mind to do so, you could really slow down the introduction, stretching it into something like these:
London Philharmonic Orchestra, Leonard Slatkin, cond. RCA, recorded Mar. 15-16, 1988
BBC Symphony Orchestra, Leonard Bernstein, cond. DG, recorded April 1982
Whether you should want to do this is an interesting question, one we'll take up when we hear an assortment of performances I've gathered of our Music Sample No. 3. One obvious question will be whether it's really a good idea to make the introductory statement of the theme sound as if it's already, you know, Music Sample No. 3. Doesn't this risk spoiling the surprise, hohummifying the expansive grandeur of that glorious variation?
That's an issue for another time, though. For now --
LET'S PLUNGE INTO OUR COMPLETE PERFORMANCE
It's one I snipped out of an online podcast. If I were being diligent, I would have parsed the complete-performance MP3 clip to furnish you start times for each variation. Who knows? Maybe I'll yet be inspired to do so. For now, I did the minimum: locating Variation IX (i.e., Music Sample No. 3) for you.
Variations on an Original Theme
Theme: Enigma: Andante
I, C.A.E.: L'istesso tempo [at 1:25]
II. H.D.S-P.: Allegro [at 3:21]
III. R.B.T.: Allegretto
IV. W.M.B.: Allegro di molto
V. R.P.A.: Moderato
VI. Ysobel: Andantino
VII. Troyte: Presto
VIII. W.N.: Allegretto
IX. Nimrod: Adagio [at 12:42, about 3:58]
X. Dorabella: Intermezzo: Allegretto
XI. G.R.S.: Allegro di molto
XII. B.G.N.: Andante
XIII. * * *: Romanza: Moderato
XIV. E.D.U.: Finale: Allegro
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Sir Yehudi Menuhin, cond.
[This is just how the podcast credits the recording. We know from the Menuhin-as-conductor section of the online Yehudi Menuhin discography that Menuhin and the Royal Philharmonic made at least two recordings of this piece, for Philips in July 1985 and for the RPO's own label in May 1994; I don't know which (if either!) this is.]
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