Scherzo For Goofing Off In F Major

I have an image blog today. Enjoy!

The Choir Hostile Takeover Ploy

It is a curious thing how the small things can bring back the oddest memories.

I tend to work ahead (or at least plan ahead) for my photoblog, taking photos in advance so I’m not scrambling at the last minute to put something together. Christmas is going to be interesting, though- I’ll have to get some photos in the few days beforehand for some posts, but the ideas are already there. And as it turns out, I’ve already taken some shots for those few days.

Such was the case in late November, on a brooding day when I passed by the National Arts Centre here in the city. It’s a concert and performance centre in the heart of the city, and through December happens to be holding various concerts and performances related to Christmas in one way or another. I took several shots of billboards promoting those concerts, including a couple of this one. I’ll be posting this with the others before Christmas over at the photoblog.

You might be hard pressed to find someone who hasn’t heard at least parts of Handel’s Messiah. It’s become a Christmas tradition to have concert performances with choirs, both in large cities and small towns. This despite the fact that the thematic material of the music probably fits better with Easter. The National Arts Centre always puts on performances in December of the oratorio. I’ve seen it performed several times over the years, including here, but also in church sanctuaries.

The first time I saw it was in Georgetown, the closest town to where I grew up in southern Ontario. A church hosted a concert by a local choir, the Georgetown Choral Society. It’s been around since 1971, under the leadership of a fellow named Dale Wood. Mr. Wood is a well respected music director in the area, and has spent some of his time as a private teacher for pianists and organists- my father took lessons from him, so knew him quite well. Wood has taken the Society on tour in Europe several times, so for a town choir, the Society has a good reputation. They put on the Oratorio that night in a concert I attended with my parents.

Thinking of that made me think of another matter where the Society was concerned. In the mid-nineties there were plans to tour the Netherlands to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the liberation of the nation in the Second World War. There was someone in the area, an organist and sometime conductor who we’ll call Mr. Van Ego for now. He was a businessman who’d opened organ and piano shops in southern Ontario after immigrating from the Netherlands. According to what my parents knew about it (aside from knowing Wood, they knew members of the Society as well), Van Ego wanted to muscle in on the Society for their Netherlands tour as the director, basically supplanting the actual choral director.

His reasons? Well, he was Dutch and Wood was not. Oh, and basically because he thought so highly of himself and everyone should just bow down and follow his commands. Hence my nicknaming the egotistical bastard Van Ego. I could have called him Richard the Third in a nod towards the whole supplanting the rightful king, but that would be an insult to Richard.

Essentially the Choral Society told him in a polite way to go to hell, standing with their music director. That’s to be expected- my impression of Wood has always been that of a decent fellow with a refreshing lack of ego. Such a person had earned the loyalty and respect of the singers who worked with him. Something we can’t say about Van Ego, who decided that underhanded tactics were perfectly acceptable if it meant having his ego stroked.

As it turns out, Van Ego didn’t much like being soundly rejected. Instead of walking away from it and learning from the experience (like an adult would), he decided he’d just try to show up the Choral Society by organizing his very own choir. With his very own tour of the Netherlands to mark that anniversary. And he even decided to co-opt the theme of liberation by incorporating it into the name (with his name firmly front and centre on all promotional material).

Van Ego’s still around, it turns out. He spent fifteen years running his personal choir, and still has his hands in all sorts of things. And still, no doubt, is that same egotistical twit who thinks so highly of himself.  His website is active, and sure enough, he’s clearly still in love with himself. What is it in an egomaniac? Are they so small, so petty, so insecure a person that they have to overcompensate in such a grandiose way?

Some day both of these two will shuffle off that proverbial mortal coil. How will they be remembered? Mr. Wood will be remembered for his love of music, contributions to the community, and the respect others hold for him.

Van Ego, on the other hand, will have a funeral in which the only people who turn up are there to make sure the old sod’s dead, and where the minister will wonder how he’ll be able to keep up a straight face while eulogizing the egomaniac.

Maestro, It's Time To Kill The Wabbit

Business to see to first. Have a peek over at Norma's blog, where she's showing off some of Collin's memes. He's done these with regularity for her Facebook page, and she's showcasing some of his humour on her blog. And check out our joint blog, where we've set up a series of funny pics following up on that whole royal birth thing. 

Now then, onto today's mischief...

"Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy." ~ Ludwig von Beethoven

"Never look at the trombones, it only encourages them." ~ Richard Wagner

"Classical music has been based on works people love and come back to for aural comfort." ~ Leila Josefowicz

"I just can't listen to any more Wagner, you know. I'm starting to get the urge to conquer Poland." ~ Woody Allen

"The classical musical world is so snobbish." ~ Andre Rieu, conductor and tormentor of anyone with good taste

"Andre Rieu should be cast back into the seventh circle of hell from where he came." ~ William Kendall, miscreant and scoundrel

My paternal grandparents were not musically inclined. I think their musical appreciation was, to put it mildly, extremely limited. The story goes that my grandfather wondered what the purpose of a conductor was. "Anyone can go up there and wave a stick around for an hour," he'd say. So it was a bit ironic that my dad ended up playing four different musical instruments (unfortunately, not one of them was the bagpipes). Though like his parents, Dad has something of a limited range of musical appreciation. Aside from hymns, he likes march music, Strauss waltzes, and for some inexplicable reason, accordion music (accordions should be cast back into the seventh circle of hell along with Andre Rieu). And speaking of Rieu, Dad does like his concerts, though from my point of view, the Smiling Idiot makes a mockery of the music, has his audience acting like trained seals, and turns everything into a sideshow. He calls his orchestra the Johann Strauss Orchestra. The ghost of Strauss needs to sue him for slandering his name.

Mom, on the other hand, had a pretty well developed appreciation for music, mostly through exploring the world of classical music on her own. She could also appreciate other genres, of course, but classical music was what she loved. I think I picked up quite a bit of my own fondness of it from her over time. I like the sound of a fully developed orchestra, so the earlier works from the Baroque period don't particularly appeal to me. But the full blooded sound of Beethoven and onwards, now that's music.

Mom mentioned the conductor Seiji Ozawa from time to time. Born and raised in Japan, he's conducted orchestras all over the world. He came from a culture of emotional restraint, and over time he learned the value of emotional expressiveness. So you see a difference in him from footage early in his career to late in his career, a full range of expression in his face during a concert. It's one of those things I've been thinking about as of late... perhaps it's been the sheer amount of classical music I've been listening to while working...

On Canada Day here in Ottawa, the National Arts Centre plays host to a concert each year, open freely to the public. It's a mix of classical, choral, and traditional Canadian music.  This year the concert was held in one of the other halls in the complex, and my seating was on the far right... close enough to the bass players to read their music notes. That is, if I were able to read sheet music.

The National Arts Centre Orchestra performs this annual concert along with massed choirs and a solo musician as of late. Last year it was the fiddler Natalie MacMaster. This year it was Sarah Slean. If you haven't heard of Sarah before, she has a sultry and playful voice, and a rich storyteller's talent in her writing. Her music also lends itself well to orchestral accompaniment, and she and the NACO played together. 

The orchestra has more than one conductor. Pinchas Zuckerman is the primary conductor, one of the best in the world, and a renowned violinist in his own right. Since he started with the NACO, he has taken the musicians across the country and the world regularly, into classrooms, engaging youth, building up the talent base of young musicians. On Canada Day, the conductor of the day was a Canadian, Alain Trudel. I watched as he conducted the orchestra, the concentration on his face. One of the other works being played that evening was the final movement of Dvorak's New World Symphony. Again, my grandfather would have watched him conduct, and said, "Well, anyone can do that." Sorry, Grandfather, but that's work.

I can listen to many different kinds of music and find something to appreciate in most of it (with the exception of hip-hop, rap, and metal). It's still my mother's influence that gets me to love the sound of classical music though. So I can watch something like Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, and say that it's the closest to perfection any human being has ever gotten to.

It's been said that if you can listen to Rossini's William Tell Overture without thinking of the Lone Ranger, then you can count yourself as an actual classical fan, as opposed to someone who saw way too many westerns as a kid. Since that show was before my time, I don't particularly associate the two together. Incidentally, that music does turn up in Hans Zimmer's score for the movie remake. Go figure.

Though yes, I will admit to it... too many viewings of Looney Tunes cartoons has had its influence. When I hear the familiar bars of Wagner's Ride Of The Valkyries, I inevitably find myself thinking, Kill The Wabbit, Kill The Wabbit, Kill The Wabbit!!

Benefits of a misspent youth, I know.

So what about you? Do you listen to classical music? Or is it fingernails on a blackboard to you (heathen!! Heathen, I say!)?