Volume 23 Issue 9 - June / July / August 2018

Beat by Beat | Early Music
CONOR HORGAN FOR THISISPOPBABY
done. I think you’ll
find a lot of connection
to Toronto audiences
because of the territory
it covers and because it
is so entertaining.
And because of the
contrast in style with
everything else?
That’s why we are
running it a bit longer
– so it has a chance
to bridge a lot of the
other works that are
taking place.
The whole festival
is longer this year. Is
there extra programming
or are you
spreading things out?
It’s more about pace,
allowing there to be
some air in between, so
hopefully people can see
Up & Over It in Riot.
more but also connect the
various aspects of the festival. It’s also structural: with only two weekends
you begin and you end; with three weekends now we have a
beginning, middle and end, and we’re telling a story.
Luminato runs from June 6 to 24 at various venues around Toronto.
Follow our online blog for more previews and reviews of music
theatre around Ontario this summer.
Quick Picks
June 1 to 10: Frame by Frame. A new collaboration between international
theatrical innovator Robert Lepage with Canadian choreographer
Guillaume Côté, celebrating and showcasing excerpts
of Canadian filmmaker Norman McLaren’s groundbreaking films.
National Ballet of Canada at the Four Seasons Centre, Toronto.
June 6, 7: Soundstreams finishes its 35th season with an exciting
two-part music theatre program, the world premiere of James Rolfe’s
I Think We Are Angels, with a libretto based on the poems of Else
Lasker-Schüler, and a new theatrical version of David Lang’s The Little
Match Girl Passion led by music director John Hess and stage director
Jennifer Tarver. At Crows Theatre, 345 Carlaw, Toronto.
June 16: Tony Award-winning Scottish actor Alan Cumming (of The
Good Wife and many other shows) comes to Massey Hall for one night
only with his new cabaret show Legal Immigrant, built around stories
and songs of his life and loves in his adopted homeland, the USA.
June 26: A rare chance to see Canadian stage and film star
Christopher Plummer live at the TSO, in Christopher Plummer’s
Symphonic Shakespeare, at Roy Thomson Hall, Toronto.
July 13 to August 12: Rosalynde (or As You Like It). Driftwood
Theatre places one of Shakespeare’s most musical comedies in Canada
in 1918, with the songs given new musical settings to fit the period
by music director and composer Tom Lillington. In parks around
Ontario; see driftwoodtheatre.com/bards-bus-tour for details.
Toronto-based “lifelong theatre person” Jennifer (Jenny)
Parr works as a director, fight director, stage manager and
coach, and is equally crazy about movies and musicals.
The Summer
Music Road Map
Has No Wrong
Turns
MATTHEW WHITFIELD
Music and nature are closely intertwined, the beautiful sights,
sounds and smells of our planet inspiring musicians for
centuries, even millennia. The ancient philosophical concept
of a Harmony of the Spheres as proposed by Pythagoras suggests that
the sun, moon and planets all emit their own unique pitch frequency
based on their orbital revolution, and that the quality of life on
Earth reflects the harmony of celestial sounds which are physically
imperceptible to the human ear. Although Aristotle later contested
this theory, the idea of Harmonia mundi continues to be reinvented
and interpreted by composers in new and exciting ways. For
example, in 1996 the Dutch composer Joep Franssens premiered his
massive Harmony of the Spheres for chorus, combining minimalist
and spectralist approaches to create a work that captures both the
profound immensity of the universe and the bright shimmer of
far-off stars.
Between Pythagoras and Franssens lies a wealth of nature-inspired
music, from silly and serene to severe and stormy. Birds in particular
have been a source of inspiration: German Baroque pipe organs
contained special stops such as the nightingale, which produced a
fluttering, high-pitched whistle (the organ at Metropolitan United has
a nightingale stop, a generous donation from an organ aficionado),
while French Baroque musicians such as Daquin and Rameau wrote
imitations of birds in works such as Le Coucou and La Poule. Perhaps
the greatest ornithological composer in history is Olivier Messiaen,
who faithfully transcribed bird calls noting the species and location,
and wove these threads into masterful pieces of music. It is nearly
impossible to find a late work of Messiaen that does not incorporate
bird song as an integral and essential component.
Bach and Handel used the pastoral as a musical model, illustrating
idyllic scenes of shepherds tending their sheep. Mozart wove birds into
The Magic Flute through the character of Papageno, an earthy birdcatcher
who, when he finds his perfect match in Papagena, rejoices
with an imitation of bird-like courting sounds. Beethoven and
Brahms both enjoyed long walks through the woods, put to paper in
Beethoven’s case in Symphony No. 6, “Pastoral,” portraying everything
from bubbling brooks and bird calls to a violent thunderstorm.
Mahler used his mountain retreat as his summertime escape from
Vienna, hiking, walking, rowing and composing his greatest works
in a nearby hut, mirroring the intensity of his temperament and the
immensity of the mountains in his large-scale symphonies.
Summer continues to be a time of escape and refuge for many,
whether braving traffic on Highway 400 to reach a familiar lakeside
cottage hideaway or taking a road trip and exploring new and exciting
places. While many use the summer months as a chance to get away
and recharge, musicians sometimes seem to grow busier over July and
August, as evidenced by the plethora of festivals and concert series
that continue to increase in number and scale each year. A quick
glance at the Green Pages in this issue of The WholeNote provides
some idea of the sheer number of exciting opportunities available
to hear new, old and endearingly familiar masterpieces. Regardless
36 | June | July | August 2018 thewholenote.com