Mid Summer Modern: Hong Kong New Music Ensemble and Paul Zukofsky

July 26^th, 2011

Loke Yew Hall, The University of Hong Kong

Igor Stravinsky             Septet (1952-53)

                                    Allegro

                                                Passacaglia

                                                Gigue

Milton Babbitt              Composition For Four Instruments (1948)

Arnold Schoenberg      Suite, Op. 29 (1924-26)

                                    Ouverture [Overture]

                                                Tanzchritte [Dance Steps]

                                                Thema mit Variationen [Theme with variations]

                                                Gigue [Gigue]

                       

Hong Kong New Music Ensemble

Conductor: Paul Zukofsky

As a student of philosophy, I dread formal logic; as a student of literature, I dread structuralism; as a lover of music, I dread serialism.  It was therefore with some trepidation that I went to the Hong Kong New Music Ensemble’s concert of 20^th century works by  Igor Stravinsky, Milton Babbitt and Arnold Schoenberg, the first in the Hell Hot New Music Festival 2011.

As it turned out, the thoughtful programming helped the audience find its way more easily into what might sound “chaotic” to the untrained ear, as one listener put it during the post-concert discussion.  Conductor Paul Zukofsky’s advice on learning to appreciate this type of music is to keep an open mind and listen repeatedly.

The New Music Ensemble struck a beautiful and balanced tone in the opening work, Stravinsky’s Septet, completed in 1953, which is chronologically the most recent composition among the three on the programme.  Said to be a transition from the composer’s hitherto neo-classical style into serialism in later works, the Septet is charming, short and sweet.

The Allegro is almost in sonata form, with a seven-note theme that appears again and again in different guises.  The Passacaglia is dainty and elegant, and the Ensemble’s treatment of the dialogue between clarinet and cello launching the movement highlighted these qualities.  The viola opens the Gigue with a confident statement that gradually builds up into an exposition for all the instruments.  Mr Zukofsky’s direction kept the instruments in fine balance, with none dominating the work.

The obituary in the New York Times on Milton Babbitt when he passed away early in 2011 described him as “an influential composer, theorist and teacher who wrote music that was intensely rational and for many listeners impenetrably abstruse”.  I found his Composition For Four Instruments quaint and interesting.  A rather jerky opening on clarinet paved the way for the flute played with a tremolo similar to the purring of a cat, and a succession of near monologues or cadenzas by the individual instruments seldom playing together. 

Musicologists have a field day analysing the structure of the work and its exposition of twelve-tone serialism, but it makes quite heavy demands on the listener to “connect the dots”.  In the end, stretching the feline analogy, I decided that it could best be likened to four nimble cats jumping up and down vying for the attention of their owner.  There is good reason why Babbitt didn’t name the work a “quartet” but simply a “composition for four instruments”.  The composer is said to have described it as “applying the pitch operations of the twelve-tone system to non-pitch elements”.  Herein, perhaps, lies the problem for the general listener.

The final work in the programme, Arnold Schoenberg’s Suite, Op. 29, chronologically the most ancient of the three, returned to a style, which although quite distinct even from that of contemporaries such as Richard Strauss, remains approachable for the general audience.  Without intimate knowledge of the fine structural intricacies of the twelve-tone system, I was fascinated by its vibrancy and almost playfulness.  The colour the bass bassoon added to the piece particularly intrigued me.

The Overture: Allegretto, opening with a rapid-fire, urgent theme and an emphatic rhythm, traverses an undulating landscape without a dull moment.  Lively dance rhythms continued in the second movement Tanzchritte (Dance Steps).  In the third movement, Theme and Variations, the pace slowed somewhat, with the wind instruments and piano being slightly more assertive.  Like the Stravinsky Septet, the closing movement is a Gigue, opening with a lively and almost chirpy tune on clarinet, and after a happy saunter, stops rather abruptly in suspense.

Mr Zukofsky’s sensitive touch and the tender harmony of the New Music Ensemble made the evening of modern works a most enjoyable musical experience.  They deserve kudos for helping bring such important works to the general public, particularly in the year of the Hong Kong University’s centenary.

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News of The World - A moral crisis in the making?

The printed media industry, like the music industry, has been under pressure in recent years. Convenient and timely electronic access to a wide variety of content has all but rendered traditional methods of delivery irrelevant. When you can get breaking news as it happens, as long as you are on line, why would deadlines for inclusion in printed newspapers matter?

Reeling under conditions of hyper-competition to survive, let alone thrive, many big-name magazines and newspapers have had to find ways to differentiate themselves. These include news “scoops” which are possible only through clandestine tactics involving invasion of privacy and rampant disregard for human decency. Hacking into voicemail accounts of murder victims and celebrities is par for the course if it provides an edge on stories that pique the interest of readers.

On the surface, moral outrage against such practices has brought down UK’s Sunday tabloid News of The World (NOTW). The abrupt decision by Rupert Murdoch’s media empire News Corporation to close the newspaper raises a number of questions in its wake.

The decision announced by News International’s Chairman James Murdoch that the edition of NOTW on July 10^th, 2011 is its last appears at first sight to be admission of, if not atonement for, culpability in the phone hacking accusations. In his statement on the closure, Murdoch says: "The good things the News of the World does, however, have been sullied by behaviour that was wrong. Indeed, if recent allegations are true, it was inhuman and has no place in our Company.”

Murdoch sugar-coats the decision by claiming to take the moral high ground, but even commentators who are not die-hard cynics have reason to believe that other motives are behind it. Terminating a 168-year-old institution is a momentous decision that cannot be taken lightly, especially when many jobs are involved, and even in the context of the allegations of outrageous practices by its staff, surely can be but the last resort.

First, there are commercial considerations. Like many other brands in recent times publicly dragged through the dirt of scandalous behaviour, for example, Tiger Woods, NOTW is likely to face mass desertion by commercial benefactors such as advertisers, at least in the short term, damaging its commercial viability. Yet as the dominant Sunday tabloid with a circulation of 2.6 million readers, NOTW is probably profitable, and can withstand a little pressure before sinking into red ink. Besides, shrewd businessmen such as the Murdochs don’t just give up a profitable venture that easily.

Many point to Murdoch’s intention to launch a title that mirrors the highly successful The Sun, which doesn’t publish on Sunday. On July 5^th, two days before the NOTW closure was announced, two URLs, TheSunOnSunday.com and TheSunOnSunday.co.uk, were registered. Could closure of NOTW be a convenient way to re-brand it as The Sun?

Second, closing NOTW is a masterstroke of guilt denial. By cutting off what might be a rotten branch, James Murdoch is clearly trying to distance himself and the rest of News International from the culprits as the tree that remains unspoiled. Yet Rebekah Brooks, the editor in charge when NOTW committed the alleged offences, remains a trusted executive of News Corporation. Rupert Murdoch is said to have expressed “total support” for her as CEO of News International. Could she be the one bad apple?

Third, even if the Murdochs are genuinely ignorant about about the outrageous practices in NOTW, as leaders of the organisation, they must take responsibility for the root cause of such behaviour – sacrificing moral standards in a relentless drive for commercial results. Even if they don’t overtly condone the behaviour of a handful of NOTW staff, they cannot deny endemic failure to maintain moral standards in the organisation.

Debates about the closure of NOTW will continue for months. Some will concern the commercial brutality facing newspapers in general; others will focus on the symbiotic relationship between politicians and the media. In my mind, the most important questions we need to answer are:

Are we facing a moral crisis in general, and if so do we even know?

The media survive only if they provide what readers want. NOTW obviously did this well. Many readers interviewed by stv claim that despite the phone hacking practices, they continue to buy NOTW. Are we so inured to injustices in the world that all we look for is the next cheap thrill, and in response are the media right in serving us everything that we want? If not, are they going to survive? What wider responsibilities do the media have in defending moral standards and human decency, in the same way as they shape public opinion?

What is the responsibility, if any, of commercial executives to balance the drive for results and maintenance of moral standards?

Commercial enterprises exist to generate profit for shareholders and economic benefits for the wider population. Many regulations prevent behaviour detrimental to some segments of society, for example unfair competition, price fixing and misleading product descriptions. Yet many commercial practices are legal but morally questionable. How do leaders in these organisations choose between the ignominy of missing commercial targets and defending moral standards?

What lessons are we going to teach the next generation about NOTW debacle?

The financial crisis of 2008 has taught the world nothing about the fiduciary duty of bankers to protect customers’ life savings. In fact, banking leaders have shown no remorse for taking, and then passing on, incalculable risks. Worse still, they feel entitled to millions in bonus payments in return. As economies in developed countries suffer severe budget cuts resulting from decades of profligacy, it is inevitable that comercialisation of education will intensify. We have already shown an avid appetite for vocationally friendly courses at universities (cf. my comments on Middlesex University’s abolition of philosophy courses). Are we likely to reflect on the NOWT case and pause to think about the need for moral education as a fundamental requirement?

Until we have fully considered and answered the above questions, those who have lost their jobs in NOTW will have done so in vain. They deserve our sympathy.

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Musical "How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying"

As a professional actor, Daniel Radcliffe gets full marks for boldness.  In the span of five years, he has morphed from being an apprentice wizard in the Harry Potter movies, to a horse-obsessed teenager in a psycho-drama stage production of Peter Shaffer’s Equus.  His latest attempt at breaching the boundaries is in the Broadway musical How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (Al Hirschfeld Theatre,  8th Ave. & 45th St., New York) playing a mailroom upstart who weasels his way through a corporation to become chairman of the board.

How to Succeed is by far the most demanding.  It not only tests his dramatic, but also his musical and dancing skills.  He has demonstrated that he can hold an elusive melody together without being out of tune, and he is clearly an agile dancer with a good sense of timing.  Nevertheless, his star value as a teenage heartthrob is not enough to make him credible for the role of J. Pierrepont Finch.  But then, since when has credibility been important in a Broadway musical?

Although Frank Loesser’s parody of the chicanery in the corporate world of the 60s now appears somewhat dated, there is still some truth in the premise that many achieve corporate advancement through scheming and mouthing platitudes corporate leaders like to hear.  Radcliffe’s boyish looks and handsome innocence work against him in a role that requires cunning and manipulation.

The story is simple enough, in fact somewhat facile.  Window cleaner J. Pierrepont Finch (Radcliffe) slavishly follows the advice of a how-to manual on corporate success, and manages to find his way into the mailroom of the World Wide Wickets corporation by exploiting chance encounters with secretaries to key executives.  Once inside, he uses a range of counter-intuitive tactics and manipulative schemes to get ahead.  In a classic tactic of advancing by retreating, as in Sun Tzu’s Art of War, he turns down the offer to be head of the mailroom in favour of Bud Frump, the nephew of J. B. Biggley (John Larroquette), the company’s president.

It is not only through pure sleight of hand that Finch gets ahead.  He does his research and has a great knack for good timing.  Knowing that Biggley is quite proud of his alma mater, the Grand Old Ivy, and knits to relieve stress, he allows Biggley to find him in the office on a Saturday looking as if he had been there working all night.  Finch exploits this rare face time alone with Biggley and lets on that he is also a graduate of the Grand Old Ivy and knits.

After advancing to be head of advertising, he embarks on a disastrous promotional event that causes havoc, trouncing the company’s share price.  He appears in front of the board of directors and takes full responsibility for the debacle.  Insinuating that the idea for the promotion came from Bud Frump (Christopher J. Hanke), he shifts part of the blame.  He implores the chairman not to make a scapegoat of anyone as “all men are brothers”.  Wally Womper (Rob Bartlett) the chairman, whom Biggley’s mistress Hedy La Rue (Tammy Blanchard) has snared, miraculously hands over the reins to Finch.

Radcliffe’s diminutive stature against Larroquette’s towering presence, exploited fully in frog jumps in the song “Grand Old Ivy”, is otherwise awkward.  Aside from this, the cast generally works well together.  The rotund Rob Bartlett, doubling as the head of the mailroom and Wally Womper the chairman, does an outstanding job.  Bud Frump is too slick to be frumpy, and not nearly dumb enough to be running to his mother for help all the time; nor is Tammy Blanchard’s Hedy La Rue empty-headed enough as the dumb blonde mistress of Biggley.

Musically, How to Succeed is nothing to write home about.  With the exception of “Happy to Keep His Dinner Warm”, “The Company Way” and “Grand Old Ivy”, the melodies are contrived and not very memorable.  Several numbers, however, do allow the cast to showcase some nimble choreography.  “The Company Way”, with boxes flying everywhere and action taking place on stage and on the mail sorting table, demands precise timing.

The staging is quite remarkable.  The main backdrop is a steely see-through catacomb that doubles up as split-screens for simultaneous action in different rooms of the office.  It opens up as sliding doors to the side of the stage.  Office desks slide onto and off the stage on tracks.  Costumes are also quite imaginative, reflecting the fashions of the time and fit for the occasion.

How to Succeed is a slick production of a somewhat dated script, with very good choreography, passable music and clever staging – reasonable entertainment for an afternoon nevertheless, as long as you temper your expectations.

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