Should High Culture

Should High Culture Be Dead and Buried:
The Problem of "Classical" Music
in Left Cultural Politics

The Left in the United States and everywhere where U.S. cultural influence is felt has collapsed its advocacy of music to the realms of popular and protest music. This has partly to do with popular suspicion of any culture that has historically been dependent on elites for funding and audience, which is the case for classical music, western and nonwestern, and all but a handful of works of "serious" fiction. Should claiming the whole range of humanity's cultural heritage, both "high" and "low," be an issue for the left? Or should the entire realm of the high be ceded to the right?

A Symposium and Concert
(including Bach's Fifth Brandenburg Concerto)

November 12, 2005 Graduate Center, CUNY

Elebash Recital Hall
Symposium: 11:00 am 6:00 pm
Concert 7:00 pm

Symposium:
The Problematic of American Classical Music, Jazz: Americas Classical Music?
Left Populism, Cultural Elitism, and the National-Popular

Panelists include:
Stanley Aronowitz, Martin Brody, Sorrel Hays, Randy Martin, Melissa de Graaf, Michael J. Thompson, Charles Kronengold, Steve Holtje, Beth Griffith, Michael Sahl, Bern Nix

11:00 am – 12:50: The Problematic of American Classical Music
Chair: Stanley Aronowitz, Graduate Center, CUNY
Melissa de Graaf, University of Connecticut, Storrs
Martin Brody, Wellesley College
Lenore von Stein, 1687.org
Sorrel Doris Hays, composer and pianist

2:00 pm – 3:50: Jazz: America’s Classical Music?
Chair: Gregory Zucker, Logos Journal
Bern Nix, 1687. org
Steve Holtje, jazz critic
Anthony Coleman, jazz pianist
Charles Kronengold, Wayne State University

4:00 pm – 5:50: Left Populism, Cultural Elitism, and the National-Popular
Moderator: Julia Rothenberg, Eugene Lang College
Stanley Aronowitz, Graduate Center, CUNY
Randy Martin, Social Text
Michael J. Thompson, Logos Online Journal
Martin Brody, Wellesley College
Melissa de Graaf, University of Connecticut, Storrs
Sorrel Doris Hays, composer and pianist

Concert: Innovations Then and Now

Dedicated to the memory of Sumner M. Rosen
J. S. Bach

Sonata a viola da gamba e cembalo obbligato in DMajor, BWV 1027
Adagio – Allegro – Andante – Allegro

Judith Davidoff, viola da gamba
Eric Canepa, harpsichord

Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 in D Major, BWV 1050
Allegro – Affettuoso – Allegro

Sandra Miller, flauto traverso
Nancy Wilson, violino principale
Aaron Brown, violino in ripieno
Margret Hjaltested, viola in ripieno
Myron Lutzke, violoncello
Heather Miller Lardin, violone
Eric Canepa, cembalo concertato

Ruth Crawford Seeger
Preludes Nos. 6, 8, and 9

George Crumb, Selections from Makrokosmos, Volume II, Part 2
Ghost-Nocturne: For the Druids of Stonehenge (Night-Spell II)

Gargoyles
Tora! Tora! Tora! (Cadenza Apocalittica)
A Prophecy of Nostradamus

Frederic Rzewski, Selected Variations from The People United Will Never Be Defeated!
Thomas James Osuga, piano
Charles Ives, West London and Shall We Gather at the River
Hanns Eisler, Song of the Invigorating Effect of Money
Marc Blitzstein, I Wish It So (from Juno) and The Cradle Will Rock
Margaret Willig Crane, mezzo soprano
Larry Woodard, piano

Song of the Invigorating Effect of Money

Money is held in low esteem on this earth
yet, without it, the world is cold
and it can be warm and friendly
suddenly through the power of money.
Everything that seemed so hard to bear
Is now bathed in a gleaming golden glow.
The sun is melting what was frozen.
Everyone has what he needs.
Rosy beams light the horizon.
Look up: the chimney smoke is rising.
Yes, all at once this world seems quite
different.
Firmer beats your heart, your glance sweeps
wider.
Richer are your meals, finer your clothes.

Man himself becomes another man.
Ah, how very sorely they’re mistaken,
They who think that money doesn’t count.
Fruitfulness turns into famine
When its kindly stream gives out.
Everyone starts to scream and grabs what he
can.
Just a moment ago things were not so hard.
He who isn’t yet hungry just scrapes by.
Everything is heartless and loveless.

Father, Mother, Brother – they’re all fighting!
Look up! The chimney has stopped smoking.
Thick, unpleasant air –
Everything full of hatred now and envy –
No one wants to be the horse, all would be
riders
And the world becomes an icy world.

So it goes with all that’s great and worthy.
In this world it’s quickly spoiled, indeed.
For when feet are bare and bellies empty
One isn’t disposed to greatness.
Gold, not goodness, is what people need.
We’re spurred on now by timidity.
But when goodness has a little money
There’s a basis for being good.
You who are about to commit a crime:
Look up: the chimney smoke is rising!
Faith in the human race grows bright again.
Man is noble, good, and so on and so forth.
Sentiment awakes. It had weakened.
Faster beats your heart. Your glance sweeps
wider.

We know who the horse is, who the rider.
And once more it’s clear that right is right.

Lied von der belebenden Wirkung des Geldes

Niedrig gilt das Geld auf dieser Erde
Und doch ist sie, wenn es mangelt, kalt
Und sie kann sehr gastlich werden
Plötzlich durch des Gelds Gewalt.
Eben war noch alles voll Beschwerden
Jetzt ist alles golden überhaucht
Was gefroren hat, das sonnt sich
Jeder hat das, was er braucht.
Rosig färbt der Horizont sich
Blicket hinan: der Schornstein raucht!
Ja, das schaut sich alles gleich ganz anders an.
Voller schlägt das Herz. Der Blick wird
weiter.
Reichlich ist das Mahl. Flott sind die Kleider.
Und der Mann ist jetzt ein andrer Mann.

Ach, sie gehen alle in die Irre
Die da glauben, dass am Geld nichts liegt.
Aus der Fruchtbarkeit wird Dürre
Wenn der gute Strom versiegt.

Jeder schreit nach was und nimmt es, wo er’s
kriegt.
Eben war noch alles nicht so schwer.

Wer nicht grade Hunger hat, verträgt sich
Jetzt ist alles herzund
liebeleer.
Vater, Mutter, Bruder: alle schlägt sich!
Sehet, der Schornstein, er raucht nicht mehr!
Überall dicke Luft, die uns gar nicht gefällt.
Alles voller Hass und voller Neider.
Keiner will mehr Pferd sein, jeder Reiter
Und die Welt ist eine kalte Welt.

So ist’s auch mit allem Guten und Grossen.
Es verkümmert rasch in dieser Welt
Denn mit leerem Magen und mit blossen
Füssen ist man nicht auf Grösse eingestellt.
Man will nicht das Gute, sondern Geld
Und man ist von Kleinmut angehaucht.
Aber wenn der Gute etwas Geld hat
Hat er, was er doch zum Gutsein braucht.
Wer sich schon auf Untat eingestellt hat
Blicke hinan: der Schornstein raucht!
Ja, da glaubt man wieder an das menschliche
Geschlecht.
Edel sei der Mensch, gut und so weiter.
Die Gesinnung wächst. Sie war geschwächt.
Fester wird das Herz. Der Blick wird breiter.
Man erkennt, was Pferd ist und was Reiter.
Und so wird das Recht erst wieder Recht.

– Bertolt Brecht, Die Rundköpfe und die Spitzköpfe

In Memory of Sumner M. Rosen

With love and gratitude, we dedicate this concert to the memory and spirit of Sumner M. Rosen -- scholar, activist, colleague, mentor, and friend to so many of us in this room and across the globe. An outspoken socialist and advocate for poor and workingclass people everywhere, Sumner believed strongly in decent work and full employment as human rights. Above all, he believed in the innate dignity of people. Human dignity was the heart and endpoint of everything he did, and those of us who were lucky enough to know him have been permanently shaped by his deep, humanistic vision -- a vision of dynamic change informed by solidarity and the joyful affirmation of life. He died at home at the age of 82 on August 17, 2005, surrounded by his family and friends. Sumner is survived by his daughter Rebekah RosenGomez, his son Max Rosen, and his wife, Judith Davidoff, a distinguished musician who shares her abundant musical gifts with us this evening.

Biographies of Participants

Speakers

Stanley Aronowitz is a Distinguished Professor of Sociology at the City University of New York Graduate Center and Director of Center for the Study of Culture, Technology and Work. Author or editor of 23 books, including False Promises (1973), Education Under Seige (1985) with Henry Giroux; Science as Power (1988); Postmodern Education (1991) with Henry Giroux, Roll Over Beethoven (1993), The Jobless Future (1994) with William DiFazio, From the Ashes of the Old (1998); The Knowledge Factory (2000); Paradigm Lost (edited with Peter Bratsis, 2002); Implicating Empire (edited with Heather Guatney, 2003) How Class Works (2003), and Just Around the Corner: The Paradox of the Jobless Recovery (2005). In 2004 Sage published four volumes, edited with an introduction by Aronowitz on the critical reception of C. Wright Mills. He is currently working on a biography of Mills for Columbia University Press. He has written more than 250 articles for encyclopedias, book chapters, journals, magazines, and newspapers including The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Newsday, The Nation, The Progressive, Le Monde Diplomatique, and various academic journals.

Martin Brody has received awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the National Endowment for the Arts, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and commissions from the Fromm Foundation. He has been resident composer at the American Academy in Rome, La Mortella in Ischia, and the Ligurian Study Center. In addition to concert music, Brody has collaborated on numerous film and television scores, especially the films of John Sayles. He is Catherine Mills Davis Professor of Music at Wellesley College, where he has been on the faculty since 1979.

Anthony Coleman is a composer-keyboardist who has performed and recorded throughout the world, both with his own projects and with numerous other ensembles. His projects include the piano trio Sephardic Tinge, which has released 3 discs: Sephardic Tinge, Morenica, and Our Beautiful Garden Is Open (all Tzadik) and has performed at the Sarajevo Jazz Festival (with support from Arts International), North Sea Jazz Festival, Saalfelden Festival, and the Krakow and Vienna Jewish Culture Festivals. His Selfhaters Orchestra has issued 2CD’s: Selfhaters and The Abysmal Richness of the Infinite Proximity of the Same (both Tzadik) His compositions for other ensembles include Latvian CounterGambit for chamber orchestra, commissioned by the Crosstown Ensemble, Mise en Abîme, commissioned by the Bang On A Can AllStars/Jerome Foundation, Goodbye and Good Luck, commissioned by Neta Pulvermacher and Dancers/Meet The Composer, as well as commissions from Relache, Aspen Woodwind Quintet, David Krakauer/Concert Artists Guild, Kitchen House Blend, etc.

Melissa de Graaf is a Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of Connecticut. She completed her doctoral dissertation, “Documenting Music in the New Deal: The New York Composers’ Forum Concerts 19351940” at Brandeis University, where she earned a joint masters degree in Music and Women’s Studies. Her articles on Aaron Copland, Ruth Crawford Seeger, and Marc Blitzstein are published in Musical Quarterly, MLA Notes, and several essay collections. The recipient of the American Fellowship of the American Association of University Women, she is currently working on a biography of the ultramodernist composer Johanna Beyer and an edition of selected Composers’ Forum transcripts with commentary.

Sorrel Hays began her career as interpreter of Henry Cowell’s iconoclastic piano music and performer of other 20th century composers. In 1985 she began composing dramatic music for radio, video, and stage. She documented in art audio and video women’s protests at Greenham Common and Seneca Women’s Peace Encampment. She began work in the experimental drama department of Westdeutscher Rundfunk at Cologne with a much-performed protest piece titled Celebration of NO. The Bee Opera is the fourth of Ms. Hay’ s dramas concerned with gender places and spaces, and was premiered at Medicine Show Theater, New York City, October, 2003.

An editor since 1987 (Creem, CDNOW.com) and a music critic since 1990, Steve Holtje is also currently a buyer at Sound Fix, an independent Williamsburg record store, and the content editor of Culture-Catch.com. Among his publishing credits are the Schirmer book MusicHound Jazz: The Essential Album Guide. He is also composer; a number of New York performers have sung excerpts from his song cycle.

Charles Kronengold has published on Western art music, popular music (soul, funk, disco, electronic dance music), film, and such philosophical subjects as Theodor Adorno’s aesthetics, the role of accidents in theory, and composers’ intentions. His work on the Western art tradition focuses on 20thcentury music, especially Schönberg, Varèse, John Cage, and Elliott Carter. Some of his research has been anthologized, and more will appear in his Live Genres in Late Modernity. The book seeks to discover what late-modern musical practices can add to current discussions of identity formation, political space, and the nature of history. Its basic question is how and why artworks can still matter. Kronengold teaches music, film and cultural theory at Wayne State University in Detroit. He is also a composer whose works have been performed by, among others, the Arditti String Quartet.

Julia Rothenberg recently completed her doctorate in Sociology at the Graduate Center, CUNY. Her dissertation, Between Utopian Critique and the Politics of Affirmation: Art and Social Change in the Early Twenty-First Century, considers the position of the avant-garde from the perspective of social theory. Julia has published work on the impact of 9/11 on the role of artists in New York City as a chapter in Wounded City: the Social Impact of 9/11, edited by Nancy Foner and published by Russell Sage. Her essay on “Adorno, Feminism and Performance Art” is forthcoming in the journal Telos. She has also published articles in the journals Radical Society and Social Justice. She is currently on the faculties of Eugene Lang College and FIT.

Michael J. Thompson is the founder and editor of Logos: A Journal of Modern Society & Culture (www.logosjournal.com), director of the Logos Public Sphere Project, and Assistant Professor of Political Science at William Paterson University in New Jersey. He has written on aesthetics, cultural criticism, political theory, and social thought. His new book, Confronting Neoconservatism: The Rise of the New Right in America, is forthcoming from NYU Press.

Lenore Von Stein: I've been making what I call, “living paintings” using improvised and composed music and words. Most of my childhood was spent in a public housing project in NYC. My childhood included: art/artists, politics, poverty, racism, violence, a variety of authentic music and lots of stupid stuff. Since I was very young I've been interested in being myself, real reality. I feel most at home in music the abstract, closer to inner, nonmaterial associations that promise to make real sense.

Gregory Zucker is the Managing Editor of Logos Journal (www.logosjournal.com) and Assistant Film Editor at The Brooklyn Rail (www.thebrooklynrail.org). In addition to Logos and the Rail, he has also written for New Politics and Democratic Left. He is also a filmmaker. His experimental shorts have been featured at Anthology Film Archives and shown at The Monique Goldstrom Gallery.

Performers

Australian violinist Aaron Brown began his university education in New York City attending the Juilliard School and Mannes College of Music. He has performed under the direction of Ton Koopman and received chamber music coaching from harpsichordist Albert Fuller. He has toured as a concertmaster and soloist with the New Bach Players chamber orchestra, with concerts in Luxembourg, France and Belgium, and is featured on their recording J.S. Bach: The Complete Keyboard Concertos. In the New York area, he has performed with the periodinstrument ensembles Artek and Point d’Arret, and has appeared at Carnegie Hall, Zankel Hall, Alice Tully Hall, and Avery Fisher Hall. He is the recipient of the Lord Mayors Performing Arts Scholarship (Australia) and was a finalist in the Australian National Youth Concerto Competition.

Eric Canepa was the director of the Socialist Scholars Conference and the Left Forum from 2001 to 2005 and coordinator of the 1998 Manifestivity held at Cooper Union. In 198182, he was artistic director of Spazio Musica Antica in Florence, Italy -- at that time the premier early music concert and seminar series in Tuscany. As a harpsichordist, he has played numerous recitals and concerts in the U.S., Belgium, Germany, and Italy, appearing as a soloist with HansMartin Linde and Bruce Dickey. As a musicologist specializing in 13th-century music theory, he is completing an edition of an important treatise of the period (the Ars musice of Lambertus).

Margaret Willig Crane, a New York based mezzo soprano, is an enthusiastic interpreter of popular and classical songs spanning several centuries, styles, and continents. She made her New York recital debut at Alice Tully Hall in 1984 and subsequently offered recitals at the National Gallery of Art, the Corcoran Gallery, the Center for InterAmerican Relations, and numerous other venues across the United States and Canada. With a particular affinity for 20th century vocal music, she has presented numerous premieres, including works by Miriam Gideon, Joel Mandelbaum, Ronald Roseman, Tania Leon, Roberto Sierra, and Thomas Crane, among others. Her awards include a fellowship to the Bach Aria Group Institute at SUNY Stony Brook and the New York Singing Teachers’ Award. Today, Ms. Crane works as a medical editor and writes about science and medicine for diverse publications.

Judith Davidoff, a native of Boston, has pursued a dual career as cellist and gambist. Her musical activities have taken her to five continents. She has performed several times with the New York Philharmonic as viola da gamba soloist in the Passions of J.S. Bach. She is the artistic director of the New York Consort of Viols, and is a member of the music faculties of Sarah Lawrence College and Columbia Teachers College. Her doctoral research has resulted in the creation of a catalogue of 20thcentury music for the viol. Ms. Davidoff’s recordings reflect her versatility in music of many genres and periods, from The Play of Daniel to Schönberg’s Verklärte Nacht. She was a member of the former New York Pro Musica, a pioneering early music ensemble.

Violist Margret Hjaltested is an active performer and teacher in the New York area. She has joined such orchestras as Concert Royal, the American Classical Orchestra, the Opera Orchestra of New York, and the Westchester Philharmonic. Since 1998, Margret has toured the Far East annually with the New York Symphonic Ensemble. She is currently on the faculty of the Queens College Preparatory Division and the United Nation International School. She is a graduate of the Juilliard School of Music and the Mannes College of Music.

Heather Miller Lardin is a double bassist and viola da gambist currently pursuing a D.M.A. in Performance Practice at Cornell University (expected May 2006). Her dissertation work is on Michel Corrette's 1781 double bass treatise. She has appeared with the New York City Opera, the New York Collegium, Philomel, ARTEK, and The Publick Musick, and as a modern double bassist was a member of the Virginia Symphony from 1996 until 2002.

Myron Lutzke is well known to audiences as a performer on both period and modern cello. A graduate of the Juilliard School, he is currently principal cellist of the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, the New York Collegium, and the American Classical Orchestra. He is also a member of the St. Luke’s Chamber Ensemble, Loma Mar Quartet, Mozartean Players, the Aulos Ensemble, the Bach Ensemble, and the Esterhazy Machine, and performs regularly with Santa Fe Promusica, Smithsonian Chamber Players, and the Portland Baroque Orchestra. Since 1979 Mr. Lutzke has been an artistinresidence at the Caramoor Festival and has appeared as soloist at the Caramoor, Ravinia, Tanglewood, and Mostly Mozart Festivals. He has numerous recordings to his credit and is presently on the faculty of Mannes College of Music, where he teaches baroque cello and performance practice.

Dynamic artist and pianist Thomas Osuga embraces works from both the established and emerging concert repertories. Cofounder of Aurista Chamber Music, he has numerous new music performances to his credit, and was recently nominated by the JapaneseAmerican Citizens League (Cleveland) as JapaneseAmerican of the Biennium for his performance of music by JapaneseAmerican composers. He has offered premieres by such composers as Robert Rollin, Steven Sacco, and Christopher Lim, and he has appeared as featured soloist for Pianists for the New Millennium, the Composers Collaborative’s Solo Flights Series, Trinity Church Noonday, ConcertsToGo, Music for All Seasons, and the SiYo Society, among others. Mr. Osuga is currently a Ph.D. candidate at NYU and a member of the faculties of “Pianophoria!” Summer Festival at Hunter College, the Children’s Orchestra Society, and the DillerQuaile School of Music. Additionally, he is the piano department’s Cochair in the Preparatory Division at Mannes College of Music. He will be performing Eleanor Cory’s “Pas de Quatre” with Sue Ann Kahn, flute, Eriko Sato, violin, and David Finckel, cello, at Mannes on November 16.

Nancy Wilson is known as one of the leading baroque violinists in the U.S. A founding member of many of America’s foremost period instrument ensembles, including Concert Royal, the Bach Ensemble, and the Classical Quartet, she performs regularly with Aston Magna and has worked extensively with the Smithsonian Chamber Players. She has worked as concertmaster and soloist with leading conductors in early music, Jaap Schroeder, Christopher Hogwood, and Nicholas McGegan among them, regularly leads period orchestra performances the New York City metropolitan area, and has over 50 recordings to her credit. As concertmaster of the 1985 Boston Early Music Festival she had the honor of playing on one of Bach’s own violins from the Thomaskirche in Leipzig, its first appearance outside of what was then the Iron Curtain. More recently she appeared as soloist with Philadelphia’s Philomel Baroque Orchestra in Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. She teaches at the Mannes College of Music and at Princeton University, where she directs the Richardson Baroque Players.

Pianist and singer Larry Woodard has performed all over the world, at such venues as Carnegie Hall, the United Nations, and with the New York Philharmonic. He has headlined in New York at the Algonquin Oak Room, the Firebird Café, and the former Russian Tea Room, and is a winner of the prestigious MAC award and the BackStage BISTRO award. He has recorded spirituals with Metropolitan Opera star Florence Quivar for EMI, rare Cherubini arias for MFR Records, and has recently completed a solo cabaret recording, “Lucky to Be Me,” for JM Records. Mr. Woodard serves as Minister of Music at Harlem’s St. James Presbyterian Church and Choral Director at the American Musical and Dramatic Academy, and maintains a busy voice teaching studio in his Manhattan home near Lincoln Center.