A random act of culture

What if you were shopping in a crowded Macy's and the person next to you suddenly started singing Handel's "Hallelujah" chorus? Right. I'd begin shuffling away as quickly as possible. But what if it wasn't just one shopper, but 630? And what if they were accompanied by one of the most famous organs in the world?

Now that's a different situation.

The Knight Foundation has been funding a series of guerilla performances under the rubric of "Random Acts of Culture." The idea is take the arts out of the stage, concert hall and other venues where they're isolated from the general public, and place them right where ordinary people congregate.

The "Hallelujah" chorus project was the foundation's most ambitious project to date. The Macy's Departmant store in Philadelphia is home to the Wanamaker Organ, the world's largest pipe organ. Over 600 trained choristors (the core coming from the Opera Company of Philadelphia) from the area were recuited to mingle among the holiday shoppers. When the organ started the introduction, magic happened -- as you can see from the following video. Sorry I don't live in Philadelphia!

Beethoven: The Darth Vader Variations

Richard Grayson is a talented pianist and composer who's just burst onto the Internet. The video below has been making the rounds through the classical stations in the public radio system.

As a composer and performer, Grayson's equally at home with high and low culture, and has developed a fairly unique talent -- in his concerts and recitals, he often improvising ina classical style, transforming popular tunes in the process.

The following video is a good representation of Grayson's art. The subject of this theme and variations is "Darth Vader's Theme" by John Williams. The treatement is pure early Beethoven, and the result, while perhaps not strictly classical, is a very enjoyable listening experience and great fun besides.

Sound quality isn't the best, but just let the video run. It won't be long before you'll hear through the distractions.

Alt-Classical Aston

The interface between popular and classical music always holds the promise of innovation -- a promise not often realized. Brahms wrote waltzes, the popular dance form of the day. Leroy Anderson created short orchestral bonbons that spoke the vernacular of tin pan alley. Gershwin easily moved between the opera house and Broadway, and so on.

A group of music students in Australia bring their classical training (and chops) to the world of pop. And the result (I think) might possibly be considered alt-classical. While covering current Top 40 hits, Aston doesn't simply play a note-for-note recreation. Rather, the original song is merely the starting point.

Aston features an unusual line up that's more in line with a contemporary chamber ensemble rather than a pop group. And that results in a neo-classical sound that's not out of line with contemporary classical music.

So give it a listen. The less familiar you are with the original, the more "classical" this may sound. Alt-classical, indeed.



Here's the original of Lady Gaga's "Telephone" for comparison.

Alt-Classical and WTJU

Greg Sandow coined the term "alt-classical." What is it? As Sandow says, it describes a different kind of modern classical music, different than the academic musings that fails to attract the next generation of listeners.

"[It's] another kind of new music that a young audience really does like, and that's what Mason Bates writes, and I'd think also what Anna Clyne writes. I've called that style alt-classical in endless posts... pointed out that it has an audience (in New York, quite a large one), and challenged mainstream classical music institutions to wake up and start programming it."

Jessica Duchen agrees, citing several examples in the UK (like James MacMillan) and Norman Lebrecht's poll of living composers whose music will survive.

Talking with my colleagues in the Rock Department at WTJU, I know that there is something to this. Pierre Boulez isn't high on their list, but Steve Reich is.

There's this living, breathing, vital alt-classical genre bubbling just under the surface, appealing to younger, primarily non-traditional classical audiences. So where does WTJU stand with alt-classical music?

Well, I can only speak for my own program -- Gamut -- but with a show that "runs the gamut of music from the Middle Ages all the way up to the present day," I think I've given alt-classical a fair shake.

Skimming some names from my master playlist, I've aired multiple works from:

John Adams
Thomas Ades
Gavin Bryers
George Crumb
Henri Dutilleux
Philip Glass
Henry Mikolai Gorecki
James MacMillan
Magnus Lindberg
Arvo Part
Einojuhani Rautavaara
Evan Zyporyn

- as well as many others living composers who skirt that alt-classical designation. And let's not forget Bang on a Can, Kronos Quartet, Evelyn Glennie, and other artists and ensembles whose recordings sell very well outside the classical reservation.

I don't present this music sequestered off in some corner someplace where it won't frighten away too many listeners. Rather, I make alt-classical part of the show's mix, rubbing shoulders with all the works from all the other sub-genres created over classical music's two-thousand year history.

Alt-classical may still be finding its audience (at least in the concert halls), but as for WTJU? We're alt-ready there.