London Symphony Research Articles

State Capitalism vis-à-vis Private Communism

This essay compares two organizations, the British Broadcasting Corporation Symphony Orchestra and the London Symphony Orchestra. I argue that the former is a capitalist enterprise exploiting waged labor to generate a privately held surplus while the latter is a communist enterprise, where the performers of necessary and surplus labor control the production, appropriation, and distribution of the surplus they produce. This analysis reveals the shallowness of categorizing enterprises based exclusively on whether they are in the private or public sector. Funding and ownership are only two of the many characteristics needed to specify the social relations of production within firms.

Preface

Preface Michael C. Jordan, Editor Two signifcant contemporary works of art that participate in the Catholic artistic tradition, each in its own distinctive way, were presented (coincidentally) within a few blocks of each other in downtown Los Angeles during mid-January 2015: the first performance in the United States of Henryk Górecki’s Fourth Symphony by the Los Angeles Philharmonic in Walt Disney Hall, and the first West Coast presentation of Andy Warhol’s Shadows at the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art Grand Avenue, described by the museum as “a monumental painting in 102 parts.”1 The Roman Catholic roots of Górecki’s work as a composer are well known; the influence of Andy Warhol’s upbringing as a Byzantine Catholic and his continuing practice as a Catholic have been widely discussed since his death in 1987. There is much drama in the story of the composition of Górecki’s Fourth Symphony, even apart from the oft-told story (but I will not repeat it here) of the surprising rise in popularity starting about 1992 of his Third Symphony: Symphony of Sorrowful Songs composed in 1976. The Fourth Symphony was scheduled for its world premiere in London in April 2010 and for its American premiere in Los Angeles [End Page 5] in January 2011, but the performances were cancelled when Górecki was unable to complete the work because of failing health. He died on November 12, 2010 leaving the work unfinished, and its fate was unknown for several years thereafter. It was eventually determined that the composer had completed the work in piano score, and his son, Mikolaj, who is a composer in his own right, was able to orchestrate the work according to indications of his father’s intentions. The London Philharmonic Orchestra first performed the work in London in April 2014, conducted by Andrey Boreyko, and Boreyko then conducted the Los Angeles Philharmonic performing the work in Los Angeles on January 16–18, 2015. In a talk given prior to the Los Angeles performance on January 17, Boreyko speculated that Górecki was well aware of his failing health and perhaps his impending death as he composed the piece. When asked by interlocutor Christopher Russell about common elements found in Górecki’s Fourth Symphony and Shostakovich’s Fifteenth Symphony (his final symphony), each quoting the funeral march from Wagner’s Siegfried and ending on an A major chord, Boreyko speculated that each symphony was indeed a kind of farewell to life but that the two composers approached the awareness of death in contrasting ways. Noting that in general Górecki did not feel an affinity for the music of Shostakovich, Boreyko suggested that he found a significant contrast between the underlying foundation of Christian hope embedded in Górecki’s symphony and the feeling of despair that he sensed in Shostakovich’s final symphony. Górecki’s Christian faith establishes a key to his Fourth Symphony, in Boreyko’s opinion. While cautiously noting that he did not think the symphony has a necessary program that the listener must follow, Boreyko nonetheless disclosed that after considering the importance of quotations in the work from the funeral march from Wagner’s Siegfried, from Karol Syzmanowski’s Stabat Mater, and from the final movement of Modest Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, titled “The Great Gate of Kiev,” he found the work to be “a musical ritual with a deep religious background.” He also suggested [End Page 6] that the work might be thought of as Górecki’s Passion, with sections suggestive of the via dolorosa, the lamentation of the mother, and the Resurrection, among other moments. This account of the symphony so far produces an inaccurate picture of the work as a whole because the elements that most directly suggest the religious background of the composition are embedded within the modernist musical framework that is also an important part of Górecki’s compositional style throughout his career. The work is built on a short initial theme whose notes are derived from the name of Polish-born composer Alexandre Tansman, and much of the first movement involves what music critic Alex Ross...

RECORDINGS IN REVIEW: COLIN DAVIS

1 6 9 R R E C O R D I N G S I N R E V I E W D E W E Y F A U L K N E R Colin Davis, who died on 14 April 2013 at age eighty-five, was one of a generation of orchestra directors born between 1924 and 1936 whose glory years fell after the passing of the great ones: Wilhelm Furtwängler, Arturo Toscanini, Fritz Reiner, George Szell, Bruno Walter, Thomas Beecham. The younger group’s early prominence overlapped that of their immediate predecessors, such as Leonard Bernstein, Herbert von Karajan, Dimitri Mitropoulos, and Georg Solti. And they are now beginning to pass. Lorin Maazel and Claudio Abbado, born in 1930 and 1933, respectively, both died in 2014. Charles Mackerras (b. 1925), Klaus Tennstedt (b. 1926), Gustav Leonhardt (b. 1929), and Carlos Kleiber (b. 1933) predeceased them. So the questions of their legacy and their work’s quality now come to the fore. All of our group left a body of recorded performances, both live and studio-created, in far better sound than was given their predecessors . Davis’s first recordings were in stereo in 1959, and eventually he recorded digitally on both LP and CD. He made surroundsound recordings in the ill-fated Quadrophonic LP format, several of which have been remastered on CD by Pentatone, and in the Super Audio CD format, mostly in five-channel surround sound. 1 7 0 F A U L K N E R Y There are also pirated and in-house recordings, primarily of his operatic work. So it is relatively easy to hear what Davis’s performances sounded like at all periods of his career. Much the same is true for the rest of the group, if not in quite this variety of formats. Davis’s career spanned work with orchestras and opera houses in England, the United States, and Germany. He came to prominence in October 1959 when he conducted a London public performance of Mozart’s Don Giovanni with the cast of Carlo Maria Giulini’s famed EMI recording. Giulini had replaced Otto Klemperer on short notice but was unable to perform the concert, allowing Davis to become an overnight star. In 1959 he also first conducted the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO). Then in 1960 he suddenly replaced Sir Thomas Beecham in Mozart’s Die Zauber flöte at Glyndebourne. His justified reputation as an important Mozartean was now established, and he was much in demand. As a young man, Davis was both ambitious and intolerant of those less dedicated to music than himself, especially orchestral musicians. From 1961 to 1965 he was director of the Sadler’s Wells opera company, but his goal was to lead the LSO. The LSO players were not impressed. In 1964 they passed over him and selected István Kertész as their principal conductor. As a rather nice consolation prize William Glock, controller of music for the BBC, soon o√ered Davis the BBC Symphony Orchestra (BBCSO) and the summer season of the Henry Wood Promenade Concerts. This gave Davis resources unavailable to most of his peers to conduct large-scale works, such as Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 and Hector Berlioz’s Requiem and Te Deum. Meanwhile, Davis came to America, where in 1967 he conducted Tyrone Guthrie’s stunning new production of Benjamin Britten’s Peter Grimes as part of Rudolf Bing’s gala opening season at the new Metropolitan Opera House. In 1969 he would return to the house with Grimes and add Alban Berg’s Wozzeck; in 1972 he conducted Claude Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande there. This and his London accomplishments brought him to the attention of both the New York Philharmonic and the Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO), both of which were seeking conductors. Consequently, in October 1968 Davis gave four series of concerts with the Philharmonic , opening with an all-Berlioz evening. As with the LSO, the New York players balked, delivering only average playing until R E C O R D I N G S I N R E V I E W 1 7 1 R the last item...

Górecki Symphony No. 4, London Philharmonic Orchestra; Royal Festival Hall, London (12 April 2014)

It's not the premiere of every Polish symphony that's greeted by a near sell-out audience at the Royal Festival Hall, but then it's not every composer whose previous symphony had the success of Henryk Górecki's Third, his Symphony of Sorrowful Songs. The Upshaw/London Sinfonietta/Zinman recording of this work has sold over a million copies.

An Orchestral Audience: Classical Music and Continued Patterns of Distinction

This paper considers the key findings of a year-long collaborative research project focusing on the audience of the London Symphony Orchestra and their introduction of a new mobile telephone (‘app’) ticketing system. A mixed-method approach was employed, utilizing focus groups and questionnaires with over 80 participants, to research a sample group of university students. This research develops our understanding of classical music audiences, and highlights the continued individualistic, middle-class, and exclusionary culture of classical music attendance and patterns of behaviours. The research also suggests that a mobile phone app does prove a useful mechanism for selling discounted tickets, but shows little indication of being a useful means of expanding this audience beyond its traditional demographic.

Peter Maxwell Davies's Symphony No. 10, LSO and chorus, Barbican Centre, London

Sir Peter Maxwell Davies' Tenth Symphony was given its premiere by the London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus at the Barbican on 2 February 2014. The work concerns itself with both the architecture and the death of Francesco Borromini; while perhaps an unusual subject for a symphony, there is precedence in Maxwell Davies's work, as the same man is the subject of his Third Naxos Quartet, and the Third Symphony takes Brunelleschi as its subject. Maxwell Davies has suggested direct links between Borromini's creations and his own – in the programme note we discover that ‘the precise parameters and proportions by which a huge basilica of Borromini's was constructed’ control portions of the work – and indeed the architect's presence pervades the symphony. As well as guiding Maxwell Davies's constructive parameters in the instrumental movements, Borromini is the subject of the chorus' music throughout and almost becomes a character in an operatic scena in the final passage, as he plays out his own suicide to the backdrop of the chorus intoning the names of his most celebrated work. Yet this new symphony rarely betrays its rigorous origins, and aside from passages for percussion mimetic of building activity (hammers, vibraphone, anvils and so on) many aspects in fact suggest a softer, smoother musical language.

Orchestral Works by George Butterworth (review)

COMPLETE ORCHESTRAL WORKS OF GEORGE BUTTERWORTH George Butterworth. Orchestral Works. Edited by Peter Ward Jones. London: Stainer and Bell, 2012. (Musica Britannica, 92.) [Pref. in Eng., Fr., Ger., p. xvii-xix; introd., p. xxi-xxxiv in Eng.; the sources, p. xxxv- xliii; editorial notes, p. xliv; acknowledgments, p. xlv; facsims., p. xlvi- xlix; score, p. 3-145; notes, p. 147; textual commentary, p. 148-49. Cloth. ISMN 979-0-2202-2325-9; ISBN 978-0-85249-924-5. £86.]Musica Britannica has in its ninety- second volume finally made it to the twenti- eth century. Admittedly, the two volumes surveying the song repertories of Hubert Parry (vol. 49, published 1982) and Charles Villiers Stanford (vol. 52, pub. 1986) con- tain a few numbers composed after 1900, but with the present volume there is a clear departure from the early explicit intent to publish British music from earlier than the twentieth century which has not been made available to the public by commercial pub- lishers (quoted in Julian Rushton, Voice of Britain, Musical Times 136, no. 1831 [September 1995]: 472). This edition would not pass that standard: the music is too recent, and-thanks to the efforts of the composer's father-almost all already published posthumously in generally faith- ful editions, albeit nearly a century old and now freely downloadable. In this light it is difficult to see the present volume as neces- sary for much more than canonization, and it is curious to note that it was a rather late entry to the Musica Britannica rolls, judg- ing from the preceding volumes' lists of volumes in preparation.The significance of George Butterworth (1885-1916) in British music history is se- cured principally on the high esteem in which Ralph Vaughan Williams held him (long intending, indeed, that his own es- tate would benefit the Butterworth Trust; in the end, he opted to establish the RVW Trust, but he would certainly have been de- lighted that it in turn has subsidized the production of this Butterworth volume). Augmenting this was his poignant fate to be cut down in battle-and so to become one of The lads that will die in their and never be old, to quote a memorable A. E. Housman line that Butterworth set in his Six Songs from Lad (1911). But was he in his glory at all? Did he ad- vance beyond just the first glimmers of early maturity? It is difficult to know, be- cause in an effort to set his house in order before going off to the trenches, he de- stroyed the manuscripts of many of his early works. whole of Butterworth's ex- tant orchestral oeuvre is represented by the four short works (plus a fragment) in- cluded in this volume. Why it was not made twice its size, to encompass the balance of his Nachlass (songs, a few choral pieces, and a single string quartet-and all dating from the last seven years of his short life) is diffi- cult to say, and there is no indication that a future Butterworth volume is planned. This is a missed opportunity. Butterworth materials reside principally at the Bodleian Library of Oxford University; Peter Ward Jones, who spent a long career as music li- brarian there, is as knowledgeable as any- one on these sources. (Such a comprehen- sive volume would not have been the first for Musica Britannica: volume 8 presented the complete surviving works of John Dunstable.)The most frequently performed among the four complete orchestral works is his single work for large orchestra, the title of which evidently gave the composer some trouble. At first (1911) it was Land of Lost Content (a Housman reference), and subsequently Cherry Tree (as it borrows substantial motivic material from Butter- worth's setting of Housman's Loveliest of Trees). When it was published by Novello in 1917 the title page read SHROP- SHIRE LAD / RHAPSODY / FOR FULL ORCHESTRA and it has been generally known as simply A Lad. Musica Britannica opts for the version ultimately preferred by the composer, the slightly but significantly different A Shropshire Lad Rhapsody, a title which diminishes the pro- grammatic character and puts it in the company of generic titles qualified by a fill- in-the-blank nickname (as with Vaughan Williams's roughly contemporaneous A Sea Symphony and A London Symphony, and the later A Pastoral Symphony, all with the indefi- nite article in the title). …

Negotiating Liveness: Technology, Economics, and the Artwork in LSO Live

In 2000, following a decade of steadily decreasing investment in classical recordings, the London Symphony Orchestra launched its own label, LSO Live. By combining live recording with an innovative business and rights management model, and aided by falling distribution costs through the development of MP3 files and the internet, the orchestra was able to offer recordings at budget prices. Yet the success of the label, which ‘even penetrated the hallowed shelves of the Sainsbury’s supermarkets chain, normally occupied only by pop CDs or crossover albums’, was the product of a carefully crafted publicity campaign. Traditionally considered second best in the record industry, live recording had to be justified by the musicians for themselves and the outer world. This article, based on interviews and observations of the LSO while recording during the 2007^8 season, examines the aesthetic discourses that came to the fore while making sense of the less than ideal working conditions. As I aim to illustrate, the conflicting expressions of classical music emerging during this period are concisely captured by Lydia Goehr’s dialectic of the ‘perfect musical performance’ and the ‘perfect performance of music’.

ОСОБЛИВОСТІ ВЗАЄМОДІЇ КОМПОЗИТОРА ТА ВИКОНАВЦЯ У ЖАНРІ МУЗИКИ ДЛЯ ІНСТРУМЕНТА СОЛО (на прикладі духового музично-виконавського мистецтва

The author of this article gave problematic representation interactions of composer and performer in the genre of music for instrument’s solo. The writer does it on an example of wind performing arts. As a rule, music only begins with musicians. These are composer and player. They make creative contents of piece, determine its style, quality of reverberation and sound, configuration, all means of expression. The genre of music instrument’s solo is very popularity among musicians on the wind instruments. Composers and performers need knowledge about particularity of this genre. One of main questions is interaction writer and player of music compositions. History of music performing art have got very many famous musicians’ names who combined play instruments with compose of music. These are Niccole Paganini, Henrik Winiawskiy, Louis Spohr, Eugene Ysaye. Among the instrumentalists of wind performing art these are flutist Johann Quantz, clarinetist Anton Stadler, hornist Frederic Duvernoy, oboist Frederic Ramm. Performers’ musicians wrote a lot of compositions for their instruments. That were music in famous genre of concert, sonata, suite and also music for instrument’s solo. Hornist Yan Stich’s skill got high mark from L. Beethoven. French horn player Joseph Leutgeb acknowledged V.A. Mozart. Clarinet player Anton Stadler had respect from V.A. Mozart too. Flute player Johann Quantz was loved by Domenico Scarlatti. Legendary composers transcribed very many piece for well-known musicians on the wind instruments. Great knowledge of all wind instruments, their means of expressive makes the foundation for high work of composers. Performers’ creative work and composers’ original think find special unification into the genre of music for instrument’s solo. As a rule, musician integrates these two categories of creative activity. Bella Kovach is a professor of clarinet at the F. Liszt Academy of music Budapest. He was a clarinetist’s solo at the Hungarian State Opera House and the Budapest Philharmonic orchestra. Instrumentalist is also very famous composer. He wrote a lot of artistic works for clarinet’s solo. Among them series Dedications where each of the pieces devoted to famous composer (J.S. Bach, N. Paganini, C.M. Weber, C. Debussy, M. de Falla, R. Strauss, B. Bartok, Z. Kodaly, A. Khachaturian). All of them are very popular on the concert stage, at very many students and teachers of clarinet. Malcolm Arnold is one of popular composers at the round of performers on the wind instruments. He is also famous trumpet player. Musician was solotrumpetist at the London Philharmonic orchestra and BBC Symphony Orchestra. Malcolm Arnold’s creative list has a lot of compositions for instrument’s solo. The author of this scientific article emphasizes series Fantasies for wind instruments’ solo. They were written special for International competition of musicians on the wind instruments in Birmingham (England) in 1966. At that date Malcolm Arnold composed Fantasies’ solo for oboe, flute, clarinet, bassoon and horn. Composer very well knew the dramatic means of wind instruments because long time he played on the trumpet into the highly professional orchestras. Famous clarinetist Ivan Olenchik is a professor of music at the Gnessin State Music College (Russian). He is winner of many international competitions. Instrumentalist also played on the clarinet at the State Academic Symphony Orchestra of the Russian Federation (Svetlanov’s Symphony Orchestra) and the Moscow State Symphony Orchestra (Kogan’s Symphony Orchestra). Twenty caprices for solo clarinet take special place in his musical list. Composer uses creative folk music based on the melodies from the world. As a rule, very strong musician play these caprices. Composer and performer always complement each other. Each of them leans very much new peculiarities about the expressive means of instrument, his creative capitals, strong and beauty of sound, timber and intonation. The creative unions of writers and players are very popular in the modern music. For example we can tell about brilliant artistic combinations of composer Edison Denisov and bassoonist Valeriy Popov, composer Vladimir Runchak and clarinetist Andrey Dyomin and others. The author of this article used historical, comparative, deductive methods of research. Compositions of this genre strongly activate emotional and creative potential of instrumentalists and composers. Central factor the genre of music for instrument’s solo is integrated and bright creative operation of composer and performer. Music for instrument’s solo is synthetic genre of modern music performing art.

Partnership working and possible selves in music education

Between 2008 and 2010, the internationally acclaimed London Symphony Orchestra worked in partnership with the Guildhall School of Music & Drama and 10 East London Music Services, delivering a range of music education projects that involved professional musicians, classroom teachers, primary school-aged pupils and college students. This article considers qualitative and quantitative findings from an evaluation of the partnership and explores the extent to which participation influenced the aspirations and self-concept of those actively engaged stakeholders. The data are interpreted through the “possible selves” construct (Markus & Nurius, 1986), which offers a framework for understanding the partnership as the medium through which the formulation of aspirations and goals may be interpreted.

Liverpool, Philharmonic Hall and London, Barbican and Regent's Hall: Mark-Anthony Turnage

In a baffling case of unhelpful scheduling, major new works by Mark-Anthony Turnage were showcased by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and the London Symphony Orchestra in concerts held at the Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool and London's Barbican, respectively, on the same evening – 7 February 2013. Apart from necessitating an explanation for the composer's absence from the RLPO concert in their season's programme book, this double booking resulted in audiences being unable to experience live performances of two of Turnage's most substantial recent orchestral pieces. Surely one of these significant premières could have been rescheduled to another date – or, if not, a different time of day, creating a sporting chance to experience both events? Fortunately, the LSO concert was broadcast, enabling those of us who chose to attend the Liverpool concert to catch the London première retrospectively.

The London Symphony Orchestra: The First Decade Revisited

ABSTRACTThe early history of the London Symphony Orchestra and its association with Richter and Elgar have been well documented, yet there is much still to be learnt about the 1904 break with the autocratic Henry Wood and about the artistic and commercial decisions facing the new self-governing orchestra. From the start, the LSO confidently allied itself with international standards and cosmopolitan repertoire, and a roster of celebrated conductors to match. But financial security was less easily gained. Detailed analysis of the finances of the prestigious subscription series shows initial eclecticism giving way to concentration on the Austro-German canon in reaction to commercial and social pressures. British music came in and out of focus, despite the nationalistic mood of the time, and the analysis places in sharp relief the successes and failures of the link with Elgar. Furthermore, in an extraordinary sacrifice of self-interest, the freelance members decided to renounce normal fees for the subscription series in order to gain lucrative engagements elsewhere: thus the orchestra acted more as an agency than as a stable business proposition. Nevertheless, the innovative governance structure, underpinning a combination of resolute management, entrepreneurial energy and communal decision-making, eventually proved a viable and sustainable model that has remained influential up to this day.

André Previn: A Bridge Between Two Worlds (review)

Reviewed by: André Previn: A Bridge Between Two Worlds John L. Clark Jr. André Previn: A Bridge Between Two Worlds. DVD. Directed by Horant H. Hohlfeld. Berlin: C Major, 2010, 2008. 703208. $24.99. The title of this DVD (separating the worlds of Jazz and concert music) is somewhat misleading - while Previn began his public career as a teenaged jazz pianist, that part of his musical life has taken a backseat to his activities as a classical performer, composer and conductor since the 1960's. The sheer variety of his work since then is presented here through a series of clips and interviews—although "conversations" is perhaps a better way of describing them. Sequences with Mia Farrow, Renée Fleming, Anne-Sophie Mutter, and Tom Stoppard are enhanced by Previn's participation—he frequently turns the questions on the interviewer. This active curiosity is a crucial part of the personality that is the focus of this documentary. Conversations with his sons Fletcher and Lukas and reflections on the difficulties of maintaining family ties for a touring musician are fascinating, especially considering the obviously warm relations between them. A distracting part of the production is that about a third of the interviews (with Mutter and a long biographical monologue by Previn) are conducted entirely in German, so for those without a reasonable proficiency, an ability to navigate the language menu and activate the subtitles is key. At the beginning of the film, the languages ping-pong back and forth from scene to scene, which interrupts the flow to a considerable degree. Perhaps the greatest contribution of this film comes through Previn's observations about his performance philosophies. Scenes of him conducting a rehearsal of the Vienna Philharmonic and archival footage with the London Symphony emphasize his genial demeanor and personal interaction with musicians. His humor is further demonstrated with a clip from his memorable appearance on the Morcambe and Wise show for Thames Television in the 1970's which has found frequent reissue in British comedy retrospectives. Previn's thoughts about the similarities and differences between jazz and classical performance are also enlightening. The sympathetic interplay between players in jazz is explored through his 1974 duet with pianist Oscar Peterson and his more recent partner, bassist David Finck, while the communication between members of a chamber group is clearly in evidence on the bonus tracks of this DVD—two Mozart piano quartets he recorded in Salzburg in 2000. Rehearsal footage of Previn conducting his orchestral piece Diversions, Concerto for Violin and String Orchestra (with Mutter) and his opera Brief Encounter is also included [End Page 145] to illustrate his dealings with musicians on a number of creative levels. This documentary presents Previn as one who has never been content to remain still—even in his eighties he continues to explore new avenues of intellectual endeavor and accept new challenges. This curiosity has been an integral part of his professional development in all fields but which, as several of those interviewed here point out, may have kept him from becoming known as preeminent in any one of them. While this could be seen as regrettable, Previn himself obviously does not think that way, preferring to ally himself to an almost extinct form of intellectual progressivism that emphasizes diversity as the greatest expression of ability. John L. Clark Jr. Connecticut College Copyright © 2012 Music Library Association, Inc.

Benefits of continuing professional development (CPD) programmes in music for KS2 (primary) teachers through the example of the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) On Track programme

Between September 2008 and August 2010 24 KS2 classroom teachers were involved in a two-year programme of continuing professional development (CPD), delivered by the LSO in partnership with Local Authority Music Services. The teachers indicated that they embarked on the CPD programme looking forward to opportunities to share good practice, gain new ideas for teaching singing and composition, gain knowledge of musical styles and concepts and enhance their confidence as music teachers. The scheme was found to be successful in fulfilling the teachers' aspirations and in equipping them with skills for integrating music into cross curricular activities, as well as for designing lesson plans in music that met the needs of their specific classrooms.

The Orchestration of Civil Society: Community and Conscience in Symphony Orchestras

This article explores the symphony orchestra's potential to contribute to the making of civil society. It highlights orchestral attempts to reach new communities through repertoire choices, outreach projects, interactive digital technologies, and initiatives addressing poverty and environmentalism. Metaphors of the ‘orchestra as society’, which have been shaped by notions of social relations, are outlined to provide a platform for considering the institution as a social agent in the contemporary world. The social conscience of symphony orchestras is illustrated with ethnographic case studies mainly from the British context: the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra's tribute concerts for the qawwali singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and the ‘Rafi Resurrected’ recordings, the London Symphony Orchestra Gamelan community project and the Philharmonia Orchestra's digital project, ‘Re-Rite’. Orchestral advocacy and the quest for contemporary social relevance stand in contrast to pessimistic views in the late twentieth century on the future of the orchestra as a musical institution. Key concerns are the symphony orchestra as a socio-political actor, orchestral interaction as a mode of civic collaboration and orchestral participatory projects.

RECONCILING OPPOSING FORCES: THE YOUNG JAMES MACMILLAN – A PERFORMANCE HISTORY

James MacMillan was 50 years old on 16 July 2009 and his birthday was celebrated by musical institutions not just in Britain, but internationally. As a composer and conductor in residence for the BBC Philharmonic he led performances of his Symphony No.3: Silence and The World's Ransoming. The Royal Northern College of Music staged a three-day celebration of his work while The Sixteen toured his music under conductor Harry Christophers. His recent St John Passion was performed in Berlin and Amsterdam by the London Symphony Orchestra and in Rotterdam concerts of his music were given by the Rotterdam Philharmonic, Rotterdam Chamber Orchestra and the Hilliard Ensemble. The widespread regard for MacMillan's music evidenced by these performances is the culmination of a steady rise in popularity, undisputedly catalyzed by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra première of The Confession of Isobel Gowdie. In a 1993 Tempo article on MacMillan, music critic Stephen Johnson describes the premiere thus: ‘there have been warm receptions for other new works at Promenade Concerts, but the thunderous, ecstatic welcome given to James MacMillan's The Confession of Isobel Gowdie at the 1990 Proms was unprecedented’.

Making music with images: interactive audiovisual performance systems for the deaf

This paper describes the technical and aesthetic approach ­utilised for the development of an interactive audiovisual performance system designed specifically for use by children with multiple learning difficulties, including deafness and autism. Sound is transformed in real-time through the implementation of a Fast Fourier Transform and translated into a moving image. This image is adapted so that relevant information can be understood and manipulated visually in real-time. Finally, the image is turned back into sound with only minimal delay. The translation process is based on research in computer music, neuroscience, perception and abstract film studies. The system is achieving a significant user base amongst the deaf and disabled community through projects involving the British Broadcasting Corporation and the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Alongside continuing collaboration with the Sonic Arts Network, the system has now been made freely available to the public, and is being developed as a speech therapy tool.

Rethinking Critical Communication

In a column revisiting 1975 premiere of One Flew Over Cuckoo's Nest (Milos Forman, 1975), film critic Roger Ebert asks whether it is a great film because it is manipulative, or is it great because it is so superbly manipulative? 1 This is not a philosophical question, but it points to a knotty cluster of questions about epistemology of aesthetic verdicts, or judgments about aesthetic value of artworks. For example, we commonly express what I shall call motivating reasons, or factors which we understand to explain or justify our verdicts. We think and say things like, Saturn is a great painting because it is so viscerally or The quiet tranquility and deep soulfulness of second movement of Williams's London Symphony make it a great piece of music. 2 Still, it remains to be seen whether such verdicts admit of normative reasons, or relevant factors that lend some rational support, independently of their motivating reasons. If Saturn is viscerally horrifying, does this make it a great painting? Is this a good reason for anyone to affirm that Saturn is great, such that they ought to do so, whether they actually do or not? If so, then what sort of reason is this, how does it underwrite verdict, and how does it fit into broader epistemological picture of reasons per se? Philosophical analyses of these issues tend to focus on what Arnold Isenberg called the question of validity, or whether there is any valid argument from descriptions of artworks to verdicts about those works. 3 Nearly sixty years after appearance of Isenberg's landmark essay Critical Communication, a survey of current literature reveals same tendency, as several recent papers argue that positive verdicts follow deductively via inference from certain descriptions, such that if, for example, Goya's Saturn is viscerally horrifying, and any such artwork is good, then so is Saturn. 4 This affirmative answer to question of validity is characteristic of aesthetic generalism, thesis that normative reasons must be general reasons, or reasons that admit of generalization into principles.

THE CONSTRUCTION OF NATURE IN THE MUSIC OF E. J. MOERAN

It is generally accepted that many composers of the British musical renaissance were strongly stimulated and influenced by nature, but questions such as how and why this influence actually worked, how it manifests itself in the music, how variously composers perceived and reacted to nature, and how ‘nature’ might be defined in the first place (particularly as expressed in a work of art) seem less clear. Although discussions of nature's influence on art have been attempted for centuries, only recently have commentators begun analyzing the exact function of nature in its various guises in the inspiration, creation and shaping of music. Concepts of nature itself differ widely for both composers and musicologists; while ‘nature’ (as a social, cultural or personal construct) in early 20th-century British music tended to be rural, idealized and rustic, it may more generally be understood as the material world in its entirety. Thus Vaughan Williams's London Symphony is just as valid ‘nature music’ as the Sea and Pastoral Symphonies that came before and after.

The Entrepreneur-conductors and their Orchestras

The story of the orchestra in the nineteenth century usually focuses on two types of orchestras: theatre orchestras – such as La Scala, the Queen's Theatre (London), and the Paris Opéra – and concert societies – such as the Vienna Philharmonic, the London Philharmonic, the Société des Concerts du Conservatoire (Paris), and the New York Philharmonic. It concentrates on the conductors who led these orchestras, many of whom were also famous composers, such as Weber, Spontini, Berlioz, Mendelssohn and Wagner, whose works form a large part of today's ‘classical’ music repertory. This story is not wrong, but it is incomplete.