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It looks like the dormant pianist in me has awakened. In late April, at a local concert, I will debut a piano solo called Madison Sketchbook by John Bilotta, an award-winning Bay Area composer. There will also be other works performed by area composers, but my performance will be the premiere of this spirited work. Madison Sketchbook is a twelve tone composition, and since many of you may hear the elusive term “twelve tone” at parties or events but its meaning still escapes you, I explain below. Contrasting to some of my recitals in grade school and high school, this will be my first formal performance, showcasing the composer’s work for the first time (hence the word “debut”). This is a concert to promote composers- not a recital, in which case the focus would be on the performer.
Twelve tone music, sometimes called “serialism” or even “dodecaphony,” is just one of countless types of 20th century classical music, and its defining characteristic is its “atonal” sound. Twelve tone composers use of all twelve notes of the chromatic scale (C, C#, D, D#, etc.) repeatedly in a particular order while denying the audience a specific base key. As a result, this music is very calculated and sophisticated, which proves difficult to capture an audience with its performance. And voilà, I couldn’t ask for a sweeter challenge!
Hooked on Dodecaphonics
Arnold Schoenberg is generally credited with the invention of this type of music, although several 19th century composers before him began using tonal ambiguity and whole tone style, such as Liszt, Scriabin, and even the love 'em, hate 'em Wagner in Tristan und Isolde. Many followed Schoenberg’s lead, and the list of twelve tone composers is impressive and continues to grow with time: Alban Berg, Anton Webern, Paul Hindemith, and Ernst Krenek. Twelve tone socities sprang up in almost every cultural center of the world, including the United States! American twelve tone composers reinterpreted Schoenberg’s methods, including Milton Babbitt, Roger Sessions, Leon Kirchner, George Perle, and even Aaron Copland in his later years. And this list now includes John Bilotta. From what I research so far, Bilotta’s works attempt to preserve 19th century romantics while still adhering strictly to twelve tone rows and interesting 20th century brutality.
Twelve Tone Days of Christmas
Unfortuately, twelve tone classical music isn’t very marketable, since the masses just can’t understand or absorb this music. That’s why most performers steer clear of serialism. Could you imagine Celine Dion producing a twelve tone album for the holidays? Fortunately, there are a few endowments and even corporations that recognize the genius of this school of music and occasionally offer grants to composers to produce music. The most notable is the Ford Foundation’s grant to Milton Babbitt to produce Philomel, which was one of the first compositions for analog synthesizer in the 1960s. You can read my review of Philomel and listen to excerpts here on Amazon. Remember, it takes a very open mind to listen to this! And no, there are no hidden satanic messages or hypno-communist crap in Philomel. It is meant to sound absolutely ghastly for the art of it all. But because of the unapproachable quality of neoclassical works, most foundations and associations don’t go near the newest classical music anymore, which is only a small setback for modern composers. Most of them, including the ones I know, have a second career, which they use to stabilize themselves and their passion for the arts.
Hopefully my April performance will be the start of a burgeoning engagement in music for me. It will never replace my interests in computers or aviation, but it’s a great way to tame the engineering side of my life. The musicians and composers I have met so far have already enriched my being, and I plan to make our local music scene a daily indulgence for the artist me.
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(By Daniel Culveyhouse | See the 2 comments | comment here)
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 | | Proud Cancer Survivor |
My nephew was a fighter. He remains a soldier, even after his chemotherapy regimen which, in conjunction with his own willpower, saved his life. Andrew Culveyhouse, 15, was diagnosed with Ewing’s Sarcoma in early 2003. Ewing’s Sarcoma is a rare bone cancer often found in children around the age of puberty. His right humerus was the site of a cancerous growth that would have to be treated through a plan involving constant clinical care, chemotherapy, radiation treatments, and bone surgery.
The rest of my family prayed for Andrew, while I relied on my confidence in his own will to survive, and a bit of science and technology to pull him through. He was quite lucky to be born into such an era where the medical community now has enough hope to pull children through such a demoralizing affliction. Unfortunately, cancerous growth is indiscriminate, whether it be the 55-and-older age bracket or adolescents who dream about the lives ahead of them. Twenty years ago, saving Andrew would not have been possible, and for that, the Culveyhouses are grateful, considering our bi-generational cancer risk.
Andrew paid frequent visits to Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis, Indiana. There he received the compassion and perseverance of physicians determined to give him another shot at a long, fulfilling life. Because the cancer resided in his right humerus, he had to minimize motion of his arm, thereby compensating with his left. From the sounds of it, I now have an ambidextrous nephew! The last surgery involved bone reconstruction by harvesting portions of one of his fibula (whose common name is the shin bone). The fibula is a largely expendable stretch of bone that comes in very handy when performing reconstructive surgery like this. Surgeons at Riley were able to use this tissue and secure it with a system of steel rods. Besides these surgeries and learning to write with a different hand, it took 18 months of chemotherapy, radiation treatments, and TLC to eradicate his cancerous growth. But in the end, his treatment at Riley and at home was a complete success!
Just last week, Andrew broke the still fragile humerus below the steel reinforcements. Perhaps a break like this was inevitable, since the entire cancer regimen weakened Andrew’s pituitary gland and other hormone centers responsible for bone growth. Luckily, it happened relatively close to a hospital, and the pain was minimal. This accident didn’t require a special trip to Riley Hospital as my family had expected, so this must be a fairly common occurrence. I could see why physicians would not elect to divulge this probability, perhaps due to the stress and worry that it would cause the already concerned mothers and grandmothers!
The general attitude toward cancer should not be that of fear or resentment. From my years of researching longevity, I can report an interesting phenomenon in cancer cells that will soon benefit humanity. In our body, cells divide on a regular schedule, and nearly all of this human tissue can only divide a “pre-programmed” number of times, which is the precursor to what we know as aging. The few types of cells that can divide indefinitely are – you guessed it – CANCER! Although this certainly wasn’t reinforcing to the medical community in the 50’s and 60’s while scrambling for an effective treatment, we can now view this characteristic of cancer cells with awe. By studying cancer cells, many of which have an indefinite lifespan, we will eventually use this insight to understand human aging, and perhaps use this knowledge to counteract aging and promote extreme longevity in the future.
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(By Daniel Culveyhouse | See the 1 comment | comment here)
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