Jack writes:
At King FM you're always going on about chamber music, especially in summer. I don't get it. We all play stereos. Who actually makes music at home anymore? It's a dying art. Why should I care?
You should care, Jack, because the very existence of chamber music is a sign of hope for humanity, diplomacy, tolerance, and evolution, exclamation point! Grandiose talk? Maybe, but how do you explain the armies of people - regular people - fighting to keep this intimate art around?
1. Chamber music is big in Seattle, and well-funded. The beauty of this area attracts people who want a dialogue with nature. Nature, as Pythagoras knew, is music. Put a Northwest summer together with world class musicians and the best produce in America, and you get civilization. Take your pick, and picnic well.
2. Chamber music never died. It just got renamed. Your neighborhood's rock garage bands are chamber music. They gather in homes and play for friends, just like in Bach's day. Sometimes mentors sit in, and sometimes they go on tour, just like in Brahms' day. What the classical form of chamber music holds over current pop music is its contrapuntal nature: each player gets to play the tune at some point, and has to learn when to stand out and when to back off. Point, counterpoint. It's a gorgeous and fluid art that takes time to learn. It's not about waiting for your solo.
3. Chamber music is the most personal music in the western tradition. Composers reveal themselves with brutal honesty when they can't hide behind the wall of orchestral sound. Want to know Brahms? (Yes, say yes!) Then listen to his exquisite first Trio in B major, Opus 8. Never has lustful youth, insecurity, and ambition sounded warmer, more validated. If you can't make a live performance this summer, get my favorite recording, by the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio. If that's dying art, I'll gladly die with it.
4. Go to concerts! They're hot! And I'm not talking about the weather. It's not unsexy to see this young superstar generation swoon and flip copious hair onstage, each fighting to prove that their supermodel looks had nothing to do with getting them there. It's an irony of today's music industry: the same glam youth snatched so edaciously by recording labels, precisely for their sex appeal, must now prove their looks are irrelevant, if they are to be taken seriously. Catch the next crop live and swoon away.
5. Chamber music teaches young people diplomacy. Remember diplomacy? When kids play chamber music, they quickly learn they can take passages by force, but nobody will want to play with them again. When they grow up, the lesson sticks. See if you can guess who never played chamber music as a kid. Seattle is creating diplomats. A proud moment for me this year as MC of a fundraiser was watching money pour into a heroic local organization that gives high school age kids a chance to rehearse chamber music, under the coaching of world-class musicians. No concert pressures, just the joy of learning the art together. In coached rehearsals, the delight is palpable as students learn how to hear like a true musician, not just how to sound like one.
6. With chamber music, the closer you get physically, the better it gets. Not so with orchestral music. Sit in the brass section during a Mahler symphony and you'll strain to hear what's happening in the harp, then without warning, get tromboned* into submission! No, be glad for your seating out there in audience row Z. But chamber groups are inviting listeners to sit among them today. "Any closer and you're licking varnish," advertises one Seattle chamber web site. This is your chance, Jack! Not only does it sound great up close, but it can be a thrill ride. Imagine standing under the net at a pro volleyball game, ducking when a smash comes your way. It can feel that exhilarating. The small team means that no individual can afford to blink. It's 100% focus, 100% of the time.
7. King FM's Northwest Focus keeps you in touch with this area's abundant chamber music talent, through live broadcasts and concert recordings. Visit King.org to hear our interviews with the artists.
*I love trombones. I submit willingly.
Sean MacLean can be heard weekdays from 3 to 7 p.m. on king.org and 98.1 KING-FM. Questions? Email SeanM@King.org.
