Becoming A Musical Semiconductor

I couldn't help but take note (no pun intended, of course) of this heading, which turned up on an old Internet file relating to the year 1997, as far as I could tell. It was for a course at the famous Massachusetts Institute of Technology - in their Independent Activities Period series.

Becoming A Musical Semiconductor
Larry Isaacson

Tue, Thu, Jan 7-28, 4:30-6pm in Killian Hall; Jan 30, 4:30-6pm in 4-364. Preregister immediately. Enrollment limited to 25. Prereq: Music reading ability. Not for credit.

Have you ever wondered about the role of the conductor who leads a music ensemble? This class will cover the conducting basics of keeping time and reading a score. Through use of conducting exercises and a selected list of music, we will seek to develop a "vocabulary of gestures'' which can be used to communicate with musicians in an orchestra. Classes will start with some verbal instructions and then focus on getting people to the podium and actually practicing the art of conducting. No previous conducting experience is required, but an ability to read music is a must. Participants are encouraged to bring their instruments and play for their classmates. A video recorder will be available to capture the moment when you transform into the next Leonard Bernstein or Seiji Ozawa!

No previous conducting experience is required, but an ability to read music is a must. Crikey, I'd think it probably was! And note that participants are encouraged to bring their instruments and play for their classmates. What the heck music would they be working on if an ad hoc group just showed up? Hey, we all play piano...conduct us! There are four classmates with their flutes...conduct us!

Maybe that's why it was a semiconductor class.

Stravinsky conducting

Quite by accident I came across a video of a very venerable Stravinsky (whose birthday yesterday was honoured on Google by a specially-decorated version of their logo) conducting the last part of The Firebird. It's black and white, and he was apparently 82 when it was made.



'Conducting' might be a bit of a misnomer; there are times when he's barely moving anything more than his eyelids, and even in the big moments his conducting consists of a bit of arm-waving accompanied by a grin. Who cares. The orchestra obviously knows perfectly well what it's doing (as I suspect most decent orchestras do most of the time), and they just get on with the job.

It's about nine minutes long - though the last couple of minutes are all applause, and Stravinsky being rather more animated than he had been during the conducting, as he bows continually to the audience, and everyone else in sight.

John Adams - composer

I’d never heard of the American composer, John Adams, until today, and now it’s obviously time to catch up with the man. He writes operas, symphonic works, chamber music. He conducts. He’s regarded by some as America’s greatest modern composer. He has a sense of humour. He still regards his Grand Pianola Music as music that must have ‘doubtless have seemed like a smirking truant with a dirty face, in need of a severe spanking’ because it crashed across the seriousness and abstractness of much music, where lack of melody and harmony and lack of accessibility were often the norm.
I heard the finale of this piece on the radio today, coming home from the supermarket. It’s a bit like a music group at a Pentecostal church in a praise time, stuck on the same three chords, but happy to be there, and happy to keep hammering away at those three chords because in the midst of it all is an exuberance and life and energy and enthusiasm that’s often missing in the day to day world.
I don’t suppose Adams thinks of it in those terms; in fact, on the radio he claimed the inspiration for it had come from an LSD trip where pianos transformed into stretch limos. His explanation of its origins on his website are somewhat different but has similar imagery. But the pianos are in the music - two of them - as well as three wordless sopranos, various wind and brass instruments and lots of percussion. It’s something I’m going to have to track down on CD, and get to hear properly.