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    High Notes and Low: 300 and a Few More Whimsical Anecdotes Concerning Music and Musicians
    High Notes and Low: 300 and a Few More Whimsical Anecdotes Concerning Music and Musicians
    High Notes and Low: 300 and a Few More Whimsical Anecdotes Concerning Music and Musicians
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    High Notes and Low: 300 and a Few More Whimsical Anecdotes Concerning Music and Musicians

    By Ray W. Moore

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    About this ebook

    Everyone loves to laugh, to wonder, and to be amazed. High Notes and Low presents interesting and unusual anecdotal information about classical music and musicians in a down-to-earth, easily readable form. Free of technical jargon, the book is appealing not only to the musician but to the general reader as well, and offers information that all can enjoy. The book is divided into six sections that provide general categories of anecdotes – Composers, Performers, Critics, Conductors, Compositions, and This and That – and encompasses information from all periods of music history. Whether it's camels onstage during the performance of an opera, a conductor's faux pas with a queen, an enraged wife burning her husband's only copy of a symphony, or a look into the many complexities of the Metropolitan Opera building at Lincoln Center, readers will find a vast assortment of fascinating, unexpected, and often unusual facts to keep them enthralled. No other book on the market provides such a wide, enthusiastic, and all-encompassing look into the facts and foibles of classical music. Originally designed for broadcast on KLRE-FM, Arkansas' premier classical music station, High Notes and Low proves that the world of the classical musician is indeed a wonderful, and sometimes zany, place to visit!
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRowmanLittlefield
    Release dateAug 1, 2012
    ISBN9781574674194
    High Notes and Low: 300 and a Few More Whimsical Anecdotes Concerning Music and Musicians

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      Book preview

      High Notes and Low - Ray W. Moore

      Copyright © 2012 by Ray W. Moore

      All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, without written permission, except by a newspaper or magazine reviewer who wishes to quote brief passages in connection with a review.

      Published in 2012 by Amadeus Press

      An Imprint of Hal Leonard Corporation

      7777 West Bluemound Road Milwaukee, WI 53213

      Trade Book Division Editorial Offices

      33 Plymouth St., Montclair, NJ 07042

      Book design by Publishers’ Design and Production Services, Inc.

      Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

      Moore, Ray W.

      High notes and low: three hundred and a few more whimsical anecdotes concerning music and musicians / Ray W. Moore.

      p. cm.

      1. Music—Anecdotes. 2. Music—Humor. I. Title.

      ML65.M68 2012

      780.9—dc23

      2012026389

      www.amadeuspress.com

      To my son, Dr. Christopher Moore, without whom this book would not have been possible

      Contents

      Preface

      1: Concerning Those Who Write It Down

      2: Performers, or Those Who Try

      3: Critics, Soothsayers, and Charlatans

      4: People Who Wave Their Arms Around

      5: Notes to Make Music From

      6: This and That and Some of the Other

      Preface

      For some time I have been compiling, editing, and recording Notes on Music , short spots broadcast periodically on KLRE, the classical music public radio station in Little Rock, Arkansas, for the general amusement and appreciation of the station’s dedicated listeners.

      I now present many of these anecdotes to you for your enjoyment—and perhaps to generate a few chuckles. The various bits of information are taken from a great variety of sources, academic and otherwise, and are placed in six general categories, but in no special order, other than simple serendipity. While it may help to know a bit about music, these tidbits should prove to be entertaining to the non-musician as well. As far as I can ascertain, all are true, and, as they eminently testify, they are ample proof that our musical world is indeed a varied and interesting place to visit!

      1

      Concerning Those Who Write It Down

      Legend has it that in 1814, a mother hid with her newborn son in a church belfry in Parma, Italy, while soldiers ransacked the village, forcing open the church doors and killing all the women and children in sight. Had it not been for this brave woman, the world of music would have lost such operatic treasures as La traviata , Aida , and La forza del destino . The child was Giuseppe Verdi.

      Verdi founded a Casa di Riposo (House of Rest) in Milan for elderly musicians.

      George Gershwin once wrote to Igor Stravinsky in Paris asking how much he charged for private lessons, to which Stravinsky replied, How much is your annual income? To this Gershwin replied, About $100,000. Stravinsky then sent a cable stating, Am coming to America. How much do you charge for private lessons?

      Arnold Schoenberg feared the number thirteen! Born on the thirteenth of the month, he consciously omitted thirteen from the numbered measures of his compositions, and shortened the title of his opera Moses and Aron, by removing an a from Aaron when he realized the letters totaled thirteen. It is ironic that he died on July thirteenth, thirteen minutes before midnight, at the age of seventy-six, the two numbers of which, when added together, equal thirteen.

      A baritone singing the part of the toreador in Carmen disliked the aria Bizet had given him and demanded a rewrite. Bizet, disgusted that his leading lady had already forced him to redo her entrance aria a number of times, sat down and dashed off the immortal Toreador Song, grumbling, If they want rubbish, they shall get it.

      Philip Glass, born in 1937 in Baltimore, is considered one of the most influential composers of the late twentieth century. His music is often referred to as minimalist in style, although he prefers the term music with repetitive structures. While he was a student at the Juilliard School of Music in the late fifties, he drove a New York City cab to help with living expenses. Many wonder what kind of influence this may have had on his music.

      The composer Samuel Scheidt once said of modern music, I am astonished at the foolish music written in these times. It is false and wrong. No longer does anyone pay attention to what our beloved old masters wrote. I hope this worthless ‘coinage’ will fall into disuse! What makes this quote so remarkable is its date, January 16, 1651.

      Igor Stravinsky had a meticulously neat writing desk, but some of his other habits appear a bit strange. He enjoyed standing on his head (he said it cleared his brain) and nude sunbathing, and often wore a tattered green beret to bed. And, being quite superstitious, he would also wear sacred medals pinned to his underwear.

      Perceived secrets within the Catholic Church have only been made more intriguing by such books as The Da Vinci Code and Holy Blood, Holy Grail, which imply that the secret society called the Priory of Sion has been instrumental in hiding information that could upset the Church’s authority. It is very interesting that one of the Grand Masters of the Priory during his lifetime was none other than Claude Debussy.

      Composer Erik Satie had a very quirky personality, and although he dressed quite dapperly, he was always poor, a state of which he was quite proud. His brother referred to Satie’s apartment as an immense spiderweb, and after his death found that it contained no bed, only a hammock. And in the closet were twelve velvet suits, six unworn, and two hundred umbrellas.

      Many composers have met death in unusual circumstances. Michael Wise, a seventeenth-century English organist, composer, and choirmaster, after having a bad argument with his wife, rushed out and attacked the

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