No, I don't think we need to start getting all highbrow here at Daily Kos, but I was invited to a "soiree" tonight that involves some of my favorite things - music and people. My down-the-alley neighbors, Mark and Barbara, regularly host Saturday Night Patio Music get-togethers to introduce people to up-and-coming recording artists that we otherwise would not have a chance to meet. These are often singer-songwriters in the folk/Indie/World Music tradition, and as the evening wears on, acoustic instruments materialize and the people at our end of the alley are serenaded with some pretty darn good acoustic jams. When I saw va dare's picture of her picking on her new mandolin last week, I got inspired to take out my Flatiron that has patiently waited in its case for these many months, and started re-learning "Wildwood Flower" and "Soldier's Joy" and other fiddle tunes.
So join me below the fold, and let's talk about chamber music and some of its New World offspring.
The backyard serenade, the porch music, living room jams all come to us from the Western European body of classical music we call "chamber music".
(photo courtesy of Northwestern Universty, 1952)
As snooty as that sounds, chamber music refers to music that was to be performed by a small number of musicians in a small room. Chamber music is performed by at least two musicians; there is the occasional "break" for a solo instrument, but most chamber pieces are ensemble pieces.
When people think of chamber music, the basic instruments associated with it are the violin, the viola, and the cello. Because of its volume and timbre, a violin is the contender for carrying the melody; hence, "the fiddler calls the tune". All instruments in string groups tune to the "soprano" violin.
The lower-pitched instruments, the "mezzo soprano" viola and the "alto" cello provide background and texture.
The keyboard instruments that we associate with classical chamber music, the precursors of our piano, are the harpsichord and the clavier. These are basically string instruments, the sound is produced by leather picks plucking the strings as the keys are pressed. Harpsichords and claviers, although lovely to listen to, are a little limited in their expression. They cannot play very loudly, in comparison to the violins, so they are often muted "percussion" tones in the ensemble chamber music composition, except for the solo breaks.
The modern piano - or "pianoforte" was a major advancement for keyboard instruments, in that it can be played soft (piano) or loud (forte), and with its damper and muting pedals, instead of being relegated to background or soft percussion, the piano surpasses the violin as a solo instrument - the fiddler must yield to the larger, louder (and much more difficult to tune) piano when the piano is part of a chamber ensemble.
But back to our time. I have sat in many kitchens, living rooms, around campfires at bluegrass festivals listening, and finally getting the courage to play in modern versions of chamber music duos, trios, quartets.
There is a subtle structure to these jams - if there is a fiddle, you tune to the fiddle. The rest of the musical instruments (mandolin, guitar, banjo)are as important, but.... The choice of tunes goes clockwise around the circle, and if you know the song, you play along; if you don't you watch, take mental notes, and chime in softly on the chorus or on the one or two chords that you can identify. When the time for the "break" would come around the circle, that next musician w takes his or her chance to shine in a solo instrumental. If you are lucky enough to have a really good player in the circle, these sessions offer a wonderful opportunity to learn - it is perfectly acceptable to copy their chords, their tuning, and the really good ones are extremely generous with their time and talent, teaching riffs during beer breaks or whatever.
An instrument that I fell in love with at bluegrass festivals is the stand-up bass. I never imagined that a girl could actually look sexy or saucy playing a stringed instrument that was taller and wider than she was, but they can! And the wonderful thing about a standup bass is that a person who can play a mandolin or a guitar does not have to learn a whole new instrument to play it - yes, the instrument is larger, the calluses are larger, but since the tuning is the same as a mandolin, I could just adapt my knowledge of the smaller instrument to the larger one. Also, since the bass line is by necessity simpler - basses don't need no fancy tremolos - as long as you know the notes and the beat, the bass is easy to play!
Only problem is that the stand-up bass, even half-basses, are not exactly very portable instruments. I have managed to carry my beloved Kay wedged between the back seat of my VW Beetle with the sunroof open, the neck coming out the top! I get lots of "thumbs-up" signs from truckers on the Interstate!
So the living room/back yard/porch music sessions are chamber music of a sort. I don't know if Bach or Handle traded harpsichord riffs, or the Stradivarius-wielding violinist really did take the time to show a less-accomplished player a particular flourish, but it is sort of nice to think that they did.
I'll be heading down the alley for the evening's music now, but I'll be back to make sure you behave in the comments.
Are we the Kossack Chamber Music Ensemble, or what? If not - what's YOUR fuckin' problem?