By
Stephanie Chase
Guest
Columnist
New York,
NY, USA
It is my privilege to have performed several
times with Thomas Crawford, the Artistic Director and Founder of the highly acclaimed
American Classical Orchestra and at the forefront of American conductors
championing historically accurate performance styles in Baroque, Classical and
Early Romantic music.
Originally from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Mr.
Crawford holds a Bachelor of Music in composition and organ performance from the
Eastman School of Music, where he studied choral and
orchestral conducting under Samuel Adler. After graduation, he studied with
Hugo Fiorato, then the conductor of the New York City Ballet Orchestra, and
earned an M.A. in composition from Columbia University.
During the 1980s, Mr. Crawford founded and led
two Connecticut orchestras: the Fairfield Orchestra and the Orchestra of the
Old Fairfield Academy, which featured internationally-recognized period
musicians. In 1999, he renamed the latter as the American Classical Orchestra.
Through his work with these orchestras, Maestro Crawford has attracted top
guest artists and produced recordings with, among others, the great American
pianists Malcolm Bilson and Keith Jarrett.
As a passionate activist determined to bring the
beauty of period music to a wider audience, Thomas Crawford is additionally recognized
for the orchestra’s dynamic music outreach to New York City schoolchildren, and
for his lively and informative pre-concert talks.
W.A. Mozart - Concerto in G Major, K 107, No. 2 Allegretto–Theme and Variations
Malcolm Bilson -Piano
STEPHANIE
CHASE: Would you describe your path
towards becoming a musician?
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| Thomas Crawford |
THOMAS
CRAWFORD: My father was an amateur
musician and both my parents loved music. I started music lessons at six, after
noticing that I had goosebumps listening to certain music. I was first a rock
musician, then turned to jazz, all the while getting classical training.
STEPHANIE
CHASE: I’m surprised by the rock
background – on the other hand, I listened to a lot of it when I was a kid!
THOMAS
CRAWFORD: True confessions, I still
listen more to rock than classical.
STEPHANIE
CHASE: And I have a current earworm –
“The Man” by The Killers!
THOMAS
CRAWFORD: By the time I enrolled in the
most rigorous conservatory, Eastman, I was eager to pursue a career in music.
As a composition and organ major in college, I received much recognition at an
early age via prizes and commissions. This gave me great additional
encouragement. Always, whether going through growing pains or life's challenges,
my deep love of the music vibrations never wavered, to this day.
STEPHANIE
CHASE: That is one of the great
rewards of music, that it is so personal and that we can develop lifetime
relationships with a work and still be inspired to search further into its
interpretation.
How would you define “original” or “period”
instruments, and what first attracted you to this performance style?
THOMAS
CRAWFORD: Something in me has always
favored the authentic, the original, the source experience. At Eastman, I
happened to be a student at the time when the authenticity movement was
thriving in Europe. My organ professors were among the first in America to
explore baroque articulation techniques. As a student who had grown up playing
all literature in the same style – late romantic, that is – and a composer
myself, I was instantly aware that these historical discoveries were much
closer to the composer's world. For example, we scrapped most of our electric
action pipe organs to replace them with mechanical action instruments so that
the player has more physical control over the keys.
STEPHANIE
CHASE: I have a cellist friend who describes
it as the composer’s “sound world.” And it seems as if your jazz background,
with the emphasis on improvisation, might have contributed to the appeal of
Baroque music, which encourages improvised ornaments.
What are some of the unusual issues that you as
Artistic Director might encounter with a period-instrument orchestra?
THOMAS
CRAWFORD: Working with players and
singers who are devoted to the passion and education of historical performance
practices is a joy from start to finish. As a conductor of such an ensemble, so
many of the competitive problems one experiences with modern instruments are
not applicable. It “just works.” The blend, the balances, the textures, all
these things must be adjusted and negotiated with modern instruments because
these instruments evolved without regard for how their advancements might compromise
their compatibility. Period instruments are more organic, coming from the same
era, the same needs, the same goals of blending. Players therefore come to the
music with the tools, their instruments, and the mindset, their training, to
work together in ways that I have never experienced with modern instruments. It
is a more collegial environment in which to make music of the past master
composers. No one has to overplay, to compete for musical space.
W.A. Mozart - Symphony No.14 in A major K.114 Allegro moderato
STEPHANIE
CHASE: I agree with you about the
musical balances being as the composer intended, without effort. For example, I
remember being at the Marlboro Festival and playing a Haydn trio with Rudolf
Serkin. I was honored and inspired to play with him, but it was a real strain
to make it as large-scale as he wanted! I find, too, that the lower pitch of
the historic instruments contributes to a sense that the music is really
breathing; there is literally less strain on them.
THOMAS
CRAWFORD: I am probably unusual among
period instrument conductors in that for twenty years I was Music Director of
the Fairfield Orchestra, a cracker-jack modern ensemble that commissioned new
music and engaged superstar soloists the likes of Yo-Yo Ma and Itzhak Perlman. These
great musicians were playing on modernized Stradivari instruments, so our
conversations at rehearsal breaks were quite interesting! In the early days,
many modern instrument establishment players eschewed the use of period
instruments and rejected restoring their own strings to the original set-ups
[principally gut]. The movement has progressed steadily since then, however.
Now, most every major city has a period orchestra and most music schools have
full degree programs in historical performance. It has been a wonderful time to
be on the forefront of all this artistic freedom.
STEPHANIE
CHASE: I’m going to follow up on this
a bit later, but for now: do you have a favorite composer or musical period?
THOMAS
CRAWFORD: J. S. Bach. Period.
STEPHANIE
CHASE: Okay, and I’m with you on that
one, but what are some of the reasons?
THOMAS
CRAWFORD: Admittedly, it is because I
happen to be an organist, and Bach’s organ music is far superior to that of any
other composer before or since his time. But as a composer, I recognize that Bach
was the ultimate craftsman. Yet, other than in the theoretical compositions
late in life, he managed to achieve both the technique and the art
simultaneously. As such, it is the deepest and most satisfying music to play or
to hear. It encompasses the widest range of human emotion and thought.
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| Thomas Crawford conducting the American Classical Orchestra |
STEPHANIE
CHASE: For an organist, to play his
music must be a revelation. Lately I’ve been revisiting his Sonatas and
Partitas for violin solo, which has been a wonderful experience in that, unlike
most other violin music, they are complete works unto themselves. There is
always more depth to discover and each violinist is in a position to interpret
them in his or her own singular way. Bach leaves the dynamics largely up to the
musician, and I find his use of deceptive cadences amazing. And he often
resolves a movement harmonically but then adds a coda that is full of tension
before once again reaching the cadence that completes the movement.
Additionally, I’ve been pondering the movements’
tempo relationships and pulses – in pre-metronome times this relates to things
like the heartbeat and breathing. There are so many aspects to his music that
reveal genius, and I am always impressed that his longest fugue was written for
violin; in other words, four fingers, four strings and one bow versus the
possibility of an organ work played with ten fingers and two feet!
What are some of the interpretive distinctions that
you make between the music of, say, J. S. Bach and Beethoven?
THOMAS
CRAWFORD: While only a generation apart,
the two composers worked in drastically different environments, and their music
reflects this. Both composers had vast pallets of human emotion and intellect. But
Bach worked for the church or the court, with deep Christian purpose, and
humility toward God. Beethoven never worked for an institution, had higher
humanitarian aspirations than traditional churchmanship, and sought to break
forth with a romantic revolutionary spirit.
STEPHANIE
CHASE: Also, the nature of music and
the instruments used for it was changing dramatically during Beethoven’s
lifetime. For instance, it was only just prior to 1800 that the fortepiano
began to surpass the harpsichord in popularity, in part because the sustaining
pedal had evolved. This also coincides with the development of the so-called
modern style violin bow, which can more easily produce a sustained sound than
the Baroque or transitional bows.
THOMAS
CRAWFORD: Yes, sometimes I lament that
the period instrument movement, in order to gain wider favor, has tended to
lump ALL music prior to the late nineteenth century as period music. But the
truth is that a baroque oboe is as different from a classical one as it is from
a modern one. My American Classical Orchestra is the only orchestra in the U.S.
principally devoted to the Classical repertoire and its instruments; that is,
Haydn, Beethoven, Mozart.
STEPHANIE
CHASE: Yes, that’s an important
distinction. The Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, which is based in the Bay
Area, offers historically informed performances of several styles of music but
is generally focused on Baroque music.
THOMAS
CRAWFORD: But it is virtually expected
that we can mount baroque works just as easily, and with the same players
performing on baroque instruments instead of classical. It is not so simple. The
bows are different, the reeds are different, the sound is different!
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| Thomas Crawford |
STEPHANIE
CHASE: On this topic; until fairly
recently, pitch standards – by this I mean the frequency used for tuning – were
regionalized and were likely influenced by local measurement standards. At the
end of the 19th century, Verdi advocated for A=432 cycles per
second, but over the 20th century it was raised, to the extent that
Austria and Israel are at least A=443 cps and most other countries are between
440 and 442 cps.
What is so informative about the early
instruments is that, unless they’ve been altered, they can reveal quite a lot
just through their construction. Most period players now use A=432 for
Classical era performance and A=415 for Baroque music, but French Baroque pitch
is even lower. For string players, and I suspect everyone else, this affects
the placement of semi-tones. It can make intonation a bit of a challenge, but
if this is overcome there is something especially beautiful in the purity of
the pitch.
THOMAS
CRAWFORD: Actually, we know most about
historical pitch from the pipe organs and the wind instruments. While a string
instrument can be tuned to widely varied pitches, a baroque oboe cannot, and of
course the large, stationary organs had pipes that were set at a certain pitch
with only slight capacity to alter that basic pitch.
STEPHANIE
CHASE: Sometimes pipes were added or
moved in an organ to alter the pitch, but usually this change is pretty
noticeable to a pitch detective!
THOMAS
CRAWFORD: Yes, and we do know that pitch
varied from town to town and organ to organ. The standardization of baroque and
classical pitch to exactly 415 and 432 cps is unfortunately a “chain-store”
factor in modern times. Even though there is evidence that some of Bach’s music
while in Weimar was actually performed at a much higher pitch than our modern
day 440cps, that was an exception. In general, sadly, pitch has crept up over
the centuries, with some opera companies in Germany clocked at 447 cps, much to
the singers’ protest.
STEPHANIE
CHASE: That must be so difficult for
guest artists coming in to sing, who are accustomed to the notes being produced
with a certain technique but then have to alter it!
And apropos of pitch; I learned, not all that
long ago, that as part of his platform the politician Lyndon LaRouche strongly
believes that musical pitch should be regulated to 432 cps. His followers in
Houston often come to my concerts with the Music in Context ensemble, where we
play Classical-era music at that pitch standard. It’s an unusual fan base.
I would imagine you have many career highlights,
but for me a very remarkable concert was the one you conducted at the Cathedral
of St. John the Divine in New York, which featured Beethoven's majestic Ninth
Symphony performed by the ACO. It
was an immensely moving event. What was it like for you?
THOMAS
CRAWFORD: People tease me that they
heard the concert nine times, referring to the nine seconds of echo in that
huge cathedral. A sophisticated sound system helps, but the purpose of this
concert was to celebrate the ACO's 25th Anniversary, my own long-time use of children's
choirs – three fine choirs joined forces – and I added dancers in the
aisles! We sold-out the huge
cathedral for the event, which was gratifying. But this year, seven years later,
we played the Beethoven Ninth again, at Geffen Hall, this time to the greatest
ovation of my career: nine minutes
of bravos. It felt like a certain coming of age of the early performance
movement in NYC. Period instruments and the Ninth Symphony stir the emotions as
no other music can.
STEPHANIE
CHASE: Congratulations for this great
success, it must be so gratifying! And while we’re talking about Lincoln
Center, are you encouraged by the fact that The Juilliard School, for instance,
has quite recently developed a Historical Performance program?
THOMAS
CRAWFORD: So much so that I am purposely
incorporating these young graduates into our orchestra little by little. The
main reason I founded the ACO way back in 1984 was that clearly there was not enough
paying work for players. Learning the craft of performing classical music with
integrity needs to be more than just a passing pursuit, as players graduate and
need to find enough work in order to continue to hone their skill.
W.A. Mozart - Symphony No.14 in A major K.114 Andante
STEPHANIE
CHASE: What a wonderful opportunity
for these young players. I remember the old days at Juilliard, when everyone’s
apparent goal was to be a soloist and playing in an orchestra or chamber music ensemble
were, for the most part, tolerated but not viewed as desirable careers. Your
remark reminds me of a wonderful comment in the foreword of a book that I have
on the history of mathematics, which makes a distinction between training, or
learning to manipulate numbers and ideas, and education, in which the context
is equally important. In music, this would be a distinction between a player
with technical facility but little musicianship – or as you say, integrity –
versus someone who uses the technical expertise as a means to a musical end,
that being a mature, personal and carefully considered interpretation.
THOMAS
CRAWFORD: The meeting of heart and mind,
soul and technique are at the center of an artistic experience. We all wrestle
with the readiness to transmit and receive vibrations at any point in our
lives. In music, we’ve all known technically proficient players who leave us
cold, and untrained amateurs who move us to tears. For me, I don’t have to
worry about my capacity to be swept away by music because that gift is a strong
in me as it was in childhood. But, generally speaking, the more knowledge I
acquire and more I work at things, the merging of my heart and mind leads to a
richer experience. I’m told that I am a good communicator with both
professionals and amateurs alike, hence the new ACO Concert Preview program at
our concerts. People come early by the hundreds to hear my explanations and
demonstrations of the music they are about to experience at the concert.
STEPHANIE
CHASE: That is a real art in and of
itself, because you are giving a context that can deeply enhance their
listening experience.
What are some of your upcoming projects?
THOMAS
CRAWFORD: Next up we do our first-ever
performance of Mozart’s greatest choral work, the C Minor Mass K. 427. The
blend of voices with period instruments is a profound thing, a revelation of
where this music came from: the human voice, then the instruments made to
perfectly blend with singers, not compete.
STEPHANIE
CHASE: The inspiration of the voice,
for many composers, is such an important idea. And in an exchange of letters
between Wolfgang Mozart and his father, Leopold, who was an important violin
pedagogue, they discuss the vibrato and how it should sound like a naturally
emotional voice; this is also interesting in that clearly musicians were using
vibrato at that time!
As a violinist, lately I have really gotten into
the whole idea of cantabile music and
how we need to play it the manner of a great singer, from shaping long sounds
to shifting with portamento [literally,
“carrying of the voice”] and avoiding a break in the sound’s timbre.
To change the subject: Like many nonprofits, the
American Classical Orchestra has an outreach program in which you visit various
New York City schools and give “informances,” or a combination of speaking and
playing for the students. What are you goals in presenting these?
THOMAS
CRAWFORD: ACO has an award-winning
children’s program called Classical Music for Kids, now in its 18th
season. Among the many rewards of doing this work, highest on the list is to
see the reaction of children who have never heard Mozart. Why? Because of
course their parents wrote off classical music themselves. But the children
don’t know and don’t care when the music was written, or who wrote it. As far
as they are concerned, Vivaldi is still alive, and indeed he is!
STEPHANIE
CHASE: Your comment reminds me of a
concert, some years back, presented by the violinists at the High School for
Violin and Dance in the South Bronx. This is a charter school that replaced, in
part, what had been the Morris High School. The students displayed tremendous
discipline – and pride – in their presentations, which started with simple
Suzuki tunes and advanced to things like Vivaldi and even jazz, and I’ve never
forgotten two boys who took to the stage with a swagger and played Vivaldi like
it was the greatest rock music ever. In reading the program I learned that they
were just completing their freshman year – in other words, they had made an
amazing advancement in that they were total beginners the previous September
and by June were playing this music! Something really clicked for them.
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| Thomas Crawford |
THOMAS
CRAWFORD: A few years ago, we did a
Beethoven program at an adolescent charter school in Harlem, and since all the
students came into the room with preconceived “attitude,” I quickly realized
that I needed to completely reset my method for reaching them. They were no
more interested in a dead-white-European-male than the man on the moon. Being a
rock musician who listens to heavy metal music and rap, I decided to appeal to
their love of music and pride in culture. I said that I had recently listened
to a rap song by a famous rapper, that I was into it, but that when I listened
to additional tracks by this same artist, I was bored. I explained that the
artist's emotional range was extremely narrow: literally all of the songs were
in the same key, in the same exact tempo, in the same dynamic, and in the same
texture of voicing and instruments. In short, the only thing really different
from song to song was the words and skill of the rapper's use of words.
I then appealed to the students that if they
love music and life, they might consider that music like life exists over the
entire spectrum of human feelings, thoughts, and reaches. This is the ideal
entree to Beethoven. He can be violent. He can be tender. He can be in your
face. He can be reclusive. He can be loud. He can cause you to strain to hear
to softness. Do you want your music
to be so limited as to only draw one emotion from you? Look deeper please, if
you are so proud of your love of music. Well, that time it worked: the room
went quiet. They listened to what Beethoven had to say for the first time in
their lives. Truth is, of all the labels we reject, it is the one that “classical
music all sounds the same” that offends the most. What?
STEPHANIE
CHASE: Exactly! And what an inspiring
story, on so many levels – you really hit the nail on the head about some of
the limitations of popular music. For me, even the amplification of live
concerts tends to erase any sense of nuance.
Well, from Baroque to rock music and a lot in
between, we’ve had quite a journey! It is an honor to have this conversation
with you, and I am so grateful for the opportunities you have given me to
perform with you; they are always a wonderful and stimulating experience. And
as the ACO nears its 35th anniversary, best wishes for the next 35!
On
February 8, 2018 in Alice Tully Hall in Lincoln Center, Stephanie Chase will
appear as guest soloist and leader with Thomas Crawford and the American
Classical Orchestra, in music by Bach, Corelli, Handel and Vivaldi performed on
Baroque instruments.
(Audio recordings courtesy of the American Classical Orchestra)
(Photos of Thomas Crawford conducting the American Classical Orchestra credit: Helena Kubicka)
(Photos of Thomas Crawford conducting the American Classical Orchestra credit: Helena Kubicka)
Links:
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| Stephanie Chase |