Dorothy Rudd Moore
Alvin Singleton
William Levi Dawson
Primous Fountain
George Walker
Carman Moore
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor
T. J. Anderson
(Clyde May, New York Times)
(Clyde May, New York Times)
Adolphus C. Hailstork
Ulysses Kay
Dominique-René de Lerma:
A NOTE TO NPR PRODUCERS AND OTHER DJs
A
half-century ago, while spending time in New York, I came across the
monthly program guide for WQXR and was astonished by the vast repertoire
then available to the area's radio listeners. As a test, I looked to
see if a work I then thought as obscure, would be getting a hearing (it
might have been the oboe concerto by Richard Strauß) and yes, it was
programmed. This was in the days when those of us in the provinces had
to rely on our own collection of 78rpms or a score to become familiar
with most works beyond the old chestnuts (all of which are now even
more ubiquitous). I had gone for a decade avoiding the Beethoven
symphonies which, when my fasting was over, I found had improved
enormously meanwhile.
This
was during a period of the advent of the LP and the anniversary of
Bach's death, when we were encountering the world of the Baroque -- and
finding the old man really was as great as we had believed all along.
But "Baroque" has become the magic word with the radio programmers, who
still believe that Vivaldi was an equal rival, never noticing, but for a
few works (which Bach knew), this music consists almost totally of
embarrassing ritornellos and predictable sequences, with very little
real music.
Well
before my time, even before recordings, only those in the major cities
of the West could hear any music not being performed at that moment.
Even in New York, Boston, Paris, St. Louis, or Berlin could any specific
symphony of Haydn or Mozart be heard, and only when it was scheduled
for performance; it was not a matter of choice. The listener might
never have known one of Schubert's completed symphonies, most of the
late piano concertos of Mozart, the works of Berlioz or Handel (other
than Messiah), maybe not Otello and hardly Tristan. That applied to organ works, chamber music, songs, and opera perhaps to an even greater extent.
Now,
with no traffic, admission charges, or tuxedos (is this having an
effect on live music?), we night easily run into two broadcasts of
Dvořák's last symphony on consecutive days (also heard the previous
weekend in concert) --and that could the same situation with Peer Gynt, Finlandia, Egmont, Romeo and Juliet, Blue Danube, Rhapsody in blue, the Schumann and Grieg piano concertos ...
Of
course, these are among the works one must hear for the first time, and
we should not prevent the new listener from that introduction, but why
must these be repeated again and again, and then once more when the
station is having a fund drive? (As a diversion, my local PBS channel
suspects Lawrence Welk would generate contributions!)
What
a pleasure it is to become acquainted with a new voice or to hear a
previously unexposed work! And that inevitably would bring forth music
from Cuba, Brazil, Ghana, Ukraine, Canada, Israel, Japan, Egypt. Our
horizons of aesthetics, regional pride, and perspectives would be
enriched.
American
music -- and more than Copland and Gershwin! -- has been the basis for
thematic concerts and festivals, and February has been the time to
confess there really have been Black composers. Yet even here we have
too many voices unheard: Dorothy Rudd Moore, Alvin Singleton, Primous
Fountain, William Dawson, George Walker, Julia Perry, Carman Moore,
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, José White Lafitte, T. J. Anderson, Moses
Hogan, José Mauricio Nunes Garcia, Hale Smith, Adolphus Hailstork,
Wendell Logan, Amadeo Roldán y Gardes, Michael Abels, Undine Moore,
Harry Burleigh, Jonathan Holland, Robert Morris, John Work, even Ulysses
Kay ... these are just a few figures whose music has never been
broadcast in my own daily experience with the "good music" stations.
Familiarity
breeds contempt. That adage is well-earned by TV commercials (and they
don't seem to know it). It would be a shame were this to happen to
Beethoven.
---------------------------------
Dominique-René de Lerma
http://www.CasaMusicaledeLerma.com
Comment by email:
Thank you, Bill. Hope all is well. Best wishes, Alvin [Alvin Singleton]
Comment by email:
Thank you, Bill. Hope all is well. Best wishes, Alvin [Alvin Singleton]
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