This week I’m playing trombone in a pit orchestra for a community theater production of Andrew Lloyd Webber‘s Jesus Christ Superstar. I was introduced to this show as a teenager and immediately fell in love with it. When I was 16 I played it on piano for a professional theater, and often sang it with friends karaoke-style. However, this was 20 years ago.

The music has been on my mind this week, and not just because I’m actively participating in it. It’s kind of like visiting your old high school or hometown. It might look the same, or maybe it’s completely different. Maybe the visit fills you with nostalgia, or perhaps with hatred, love, confusion, or maybe even a oceanic connection to the past and future. But let’s not get carried away here.

The question I want to pose here is, why do we find this overture easy to swallow (musically speaking) whereas John Adams‘ Dr. Atomic symphony (a post from last week) is much more difficult?

I’m not sure I’m ready to give an answer, but here are some of the questions I’m ponderings and my thoughts:

• Is JCS “Art Music” or “Consumer Music?”
• Are my personal feelings (of nostalgia) clouding my judgment of this music (IE am I giving this piece more credit than is due because I loved it as a teenager) ?
• Am I giving Dr.A more credit than is due because my conservatory education says I should like it?
• Both pieces use highly accented pitch clusters in a rhythmic landscape, and are either atonal or have tonality ambiguity.
• JCS uses a lot more percussion – the familiar drum patterns make it easy to follow the shape of the piece, perhaps making the “ugly” pitch clusters more acceptable
• JCS also uses short, motivic melodic fragments that are later sung to words. Does the word-association with the motifs help us to accept them, even if they are discordant?
• Does the lack of a “rock” drumset in Dr.A make it “highbrow” and the inclusion of one in JCS make it “lowbrow”

Both pieces are actually very similar in my mind. I find much to like in each, though I can also identify their shortcomings. Dr. A is much more interesting, with a wider variation of material and broader palette of musical colors and styles. JCS is beautifully concise and balanced, and the melodic fragments are bite-sized, not overdone – which is a great virtue.

Your thoughts are welcome – listen to the JCS overture, and then the first 4 minutes (or more) of the Dr. Atomic Symphony:

On this day, in 1945, the first nuclear weapon, codenamed “Trinity“, was detonated in Alamogordo NM, as part of The Manhattan Project. The project’s leader, J. Robert Oppenheimer, lived a wild life as magical and worthy of any ancient Norse saga. It’s hard not to read about him without invoking an air of mysticism. For one, the codename “Trinity” came from a devotional poem by John Donne: “As West and East / In all flatt Maps—and I am one—are one, / So death doth touch the Resurrection.” and “Batter my heart, three person’d God.” More than that, Oppenheimer said the bomb test brought to mind words from the Hindu poem, Bhagavad Gita: “Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.”

American composer John Adams was commissioned to write an opera titled Doctor Atomic, in which Oppenheimer was to be portrayed as a modern-day Faust. The opera’s text was taken from declassified military and scientific documents, and sacred poetry. This politically edgy opera made quite a scene when it premiered in 2005, and was later performed at the Met (which is a HUGE deal for any contemporary opera.) Adams later adapted a “Dr. Atomic Symphony” for orchestral concert use. Musically, its style incorporates elements of neo-romanticism, film music, and post-minimalism (ok, I admit, I just made up that last word!)

On this day, in 1804, the legendary duel between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr took place.

Personal note – I am a direct descendant of Aaron Burr. Yup.

Right now, the world is all about Hamilton the Broadway musical. I haven’t seen it, though I hope to one day, once the ticket price drops below the cost of a flight to Tokyo. In the meantime, I’ll enjoy this duel scene from Tchaikovsky‘s only lasting contribution to the opera world, Eugene Onegin. If you want to read about this particular duel, check the Wikipedia page. I can sum it up for you here though – don’t be stupid and don’t challenge someone to a duel, especially one of your friends. No matter what happens, it will turn out nasty.