Beyond the Cartesian Paradigm by Craig Addy

Why am I a musician?

Why have I created my business Under the Piano and why am I a member of the Amicus Music Duo.

The simple answer is I believe in beauty, expressing beauty, and contributing beauty to others. When I say beauty I mean aesthetic beauty. I mean beauty which engages our senses – sight, sound, touch, smell & taste. There are many different kinds of beauty and there are many different opinions about what is beautiful. Stay with with me and I will touch on that issue later. From now on, whenever I say beauty I mean aesthetic beauty.

So, why do I believe in beauty and why would the presence of more beauty in the world make an important difference?

I believe we live in a world that has largely forgotten the value of beauty. But beauty is important. Beauty is invaluable because in the presence of beauty we are transported into the moment. In that moment all our fear, anxiety, anger and concern disappears and we are present to who we are and what really matters. The only thing that really matters is the moment you are in right now and in that space we are free to dream, adventure, explore what’s possible, and go beyond the boundaries and constraints that hold us back. In that space we are naturally present to love and being connected with the world outside of us. We are no longer alone.

As a musician, I express and contribute beauty in various ways. I compose music, I improvise music, I perform at events, I create intimate salon concerts, and I do Under the Piano sessions. Of all those expressions, the last two most powerfully fulfill on what I believe about beauty, but especially Under the Piano. When I improvise at the piano during an Under the Piano session, beauty and connection become present to me and the individual or couple under the piano in a remarkable way. Because they are “physically” under the piano they physically become part of a experience that far exceeds being near the piano. This physical connection, both to me and the piano, envelopes them in the experience mentally, emotionally, physically and for some spiritually. They are no longer bystanders to be enticed, cajoled or drawn into the beauty of the music. They are the music.

I dream of a world where beauty is a prime, if not THE prime, consideration in our actions, choices and decisions. That may seem like a fantasy, but I know it is possible. It happens everyday in the face of unbelievable and dire situations. It is not an all or nothing proposition. Adding just a little more beauty will make a difference. But what if we add a lot more? What actions would we take regarding industrial growth in the context of beauty and the environment? How would we build our cities? How would we create our businesses and why would we create them if beauty was a prime factor in all our actions and choices? What would the world look like? I know I would want to be in it.

Also consider that in honouring beauty we are guaranteeing something. We are guaranteeing integrity. In the presence of beauty we know we are in the presence of something that is whole and complete. So if we applied the principle of beauty to all that we create we could not help but have a world that works better.

You might be asking, “But how do we all agree on what’s beautiful?”. Agreement would be helpful, but consider that perhaps agreement does not matter. Acceptance of each other’s ideals of beauty would be just as useful. What does matter is that each of us care that all we create in the world is authentically beautiful to us individually. Then, workability of the world will expand exponentially because everything we create will have integrity within the context in which it was created.

This is why I am a musician. This is why I am passionate and inspired by Under the Piano. My participation and contribution is much much bigger than me alone. I invite you to start looking for beauty and to start acknowledging and honouring beauty in your life. I invite you to create more beauty in your life now.

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Thank you to Tracy Zavadil of  Hire a Hand Enterprises for sharing this delightful little video from The Fun Theory website, an initiative of Volkswagen. Imagine a staircase and an escalator side by side. Most people choose the escalator to get up to the next level. Watch how adding music to the activity of going upstairs changes human behaviour and dramatically increased the number of people choosing the stairs over the escalator. The location is Odenplan, Stockholm.

From The Fun Theory’s website:

”Take the stairs instead of the escalator or elevator and feel better” is something we often hear or read in the Sunday papers. Few people actually follow that advice. Can we get more people to take the stairs over the escalator by making it fun to do? See the results here:

Visit The Fun Theory for plenty more examples of fun.

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Howard and I are selecting music for our next concert. We have wanted to do a concert featuring 20th Century music which is “beautiful” for some time now and we are finally getting down to it. When thinking of 20th century music (specifically music written for the Symphony or Recital hall where Classical music fans hang out) you might think of the cacophonous and discordant sounds of 20th century greats such as Bartok, Schoenberg and Stravinsky. Where, might you ask, is the “beauty” in that. Well Howard and I are quickly discovering that the interesting question and the interesting idea to explore in this concert is “What is beauty?”

What is beauty?

Howard and I have already identified four ways that determine how one might come to see something as beautiful.

Intrinsic Beauty

Scientific evidence reveals that our brains are hardwired to find particular combinations of sounds (harmonies) appealing. Did you know that when you were born, your brain was not developed enough to understand highly complex or dissonant harmonies and yet it was developed enough to understand and appreciate simpler consonant harmonies. To make matters even more intriguing, a different region of the human brain processes dissonance than consonance.

A closer look at the physics of sound also reveals that the harmonious major scale upon which most of today’s popular music and all Western music up until the late 1800′s is founded  is derived from the natural series of overtones that occurs in Nature’s sound garden. Our brains are already designed to understand and appreciated those sounds.

I’ll be posting more on Intrinsic Beauty as I research further.

Associative Beauty

When we are young and particularly when we are in our teens and taking a more active interest in music we start connecting life events with music that was popular at the time. Then whenever we hear that music in the future we are transported back to the associated event from earlier in our life. If the event was a positive one, our experience and evaluation of the music is likely to be positive as well.

Learned Beauty

We are all born into a unique environment and culture that promotes specific sounds, rhythms, timbres and harmonies. Inevitably we learn to appreciate certain combinations of sounds as we are exposed to them over and over.

Intellectual Beauty

This is also a form of “learned beauty” except that this type of beauty is appreciated and learned very consciously. Listening to a Bach Fugue is a prime example of this. Sometimes when I listen to Bach’s fugues, it is not a beautiful melody or harmony that brings me to tears but the sheer brilliance of how he has constructed the music. My personal knowledge and musical training plays a big part in how it occurs as beautiful to me. Intellectual Beauty is the domain of hardcore music enthusiasts, students, educators, performers and composers. It is also the type of learning that enables one to hear beauty in less readily accessible music and it is also probably the source of unpleasant conversations about elitism and what’s good and what’s not good.

Putting it all together

I think we each apply our own unique mixture of listening experience when we  evaluate music and decide if it is beautiful or not. Do you see where you fall amongst these categories? I have discovered I have a very heavy preference for Intrinsic Beauty with a good dose of Intellectual Beauty thrown in. My preference for Intrinsic Beauty got me into some good difficulties when studying music at the University of British Columbia. When I applied to major in composition the vote was split and I was not granted the pleasure of being a composition major – the critique I got was that my music was too easy to listen to – too pretty. I’ve just kept composing anyhow and still revel in the beauty of  harmonies based upon natures overtone series. When my piano has just been tuned, I can be inspired and moved by a simple major chord as I listen to all the magical overtones floating in the air.

The Beauty In the Beast Concert

Howard and I both have a strong commitment to intrinsic beauty and we think you will be pleasantly surprised at how beautiful most of the music we select is. We will of course be throwing in some more dissonant sounds as well. Too much consonance becomes down right boring. The difference we plan to make is that you leave the evening having discovered some measure of beauty in what you previously might have thought was a beast.

I’ll be sending out details on the Amicus Music Duo’s “Beauty In the Beast” concert soon. It will be either mid September or October.

We’ll be sharing music by Arvo Pärt, Debussy, Ravel, Prokofieff, Britten, Bartok, Addy, Meadows & Satoh (that list might change a little as we discover more about beauty)

What music do you find beautiful?

I’d like to know.

Sources:

This is Your Brain On Music by Daniel J. Levitin

The Rest Is Noise by Alex Ross

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Howard and I had a great time mixing musical genres during our Crossing Over performance on June 17th. We mentioned a couple of resources and musical figures during the concert. This post will allow you to experience or explore those further if you desire. When we named this concert Crossing Over, we belatedly realised that the words “Crossing Over” can be interpreted as dying and passing on to the afterlife. We of course, were alluding to the term Crossover, which in music refers to an artist or composer who delves into a musical genre different than the one with which they are normally associated.

There was one point in the evening when the words “Crossing Over”, as in passing on, were entirely appropriate. It was when we performed Chopin’s Prelude No. 4, Op 28. Before performing it, we mentioned that we were playing it in memory of the great Canadian contralto Maureen Forrester – she had died just the day before on June 16. We also mentioned Benjamin Zander as an inspirational speaker about music and life and that he has a passionate, engaging, funny talk that can be seen on TED.com. The link between Maureen Forrester and Benjamin Zander is the Chopin Prelude we played. It is this prelude that Zander uses to illustrate his ideas and passion about music and life. Before he performs the piece, he invites each audience member to think of someone they love or treasure who has passed on. This is why I thought of Maureen Forrester before playing the Prelude.

I highly recommend taking 20 minutes to watch Benjamin Zander’s TED.com talk before listening to the two examples of Maureen Forrester that I have included here. It will alter your listening and experience of the music.

Benjamin Zander on music and passion

Benjamin Zander has two infectious passions: classical music, and helping us all realize our untapped love for it — and by extension, our untapped love for all new possibilities, new experiences, new connections. A leading interpreter of Mahler and Beethoven, Benjamin Zander is known for his charisma and unyielding energy — and for his brilliant pre-concert talks.

If you have never heard Maureen Forrester’s voice before here is your opportunity. I first discovered this great Canadian musical treasure in the 80s while attending music school at UBC. I was in the Music Library’s listening room playing through a listening list for my music history course. I put on this recording of Maureen Forrester singing Ombra mai fu from Handel’s Serse. I was stopped in my tracks by this ravishing voice. How fortunate that this very recording has been posted on YouTube so I can share it with you.

Maureen Forrester sings Handel’s Ombra mai fu

Her performance of Gustav Mahler’s Urlicht with another great Canadian legend conducting – Glenn Gould – is heartbreakingly beautiful.

Maureen Forrester & Glenn Gould performing Mahler’s Urlicht

To listen to some actual recordings of music from the Crossing Over concert visit my blog post Some Musical Moments from Crossing Over

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Howard and I got our act together and actually recorded our Crossing Over performance at St Andrew’s-Wesley Church. Here are 3 pieces from the evening.

1) Piano Improvisation by Craig Addy

Improvisation from Crossing Over – Craig Addy, Piano

2) An improvised Waltz by the Amicus Music Duo

Performed by the Amicus Music Duo
Howard Meadows, Clarinet and Craig Addy, Piano

An Improvised Waltz from Crossing Over – The Amicus Music Duo

3) Drawing Blanks
Performed by the Amicus Music Duo
Composed by Craig Addy

Admittedly not my cleanest performance, but the energy was great!

Drawing Blanks – The Amicus Music Duo

Craig

For additional information about the Crossing Over concert see my blog post  Afterthoughts on Crossing Over

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Did you know that George Gershwin distinguished himself in being a composer and musician who created music that belongs both in the realm of serious classical music and popular music? In the face of daunting disapproval from composition teachers, he persisted in creating “popular” music with the same level of care and commitment that classical composers of his day and the past did. He slaved over each music score, whether it be a popular Broadway tune or a large orchestral work for a symphony orchestra. Historian Milton Cross said this about Gershwin. He… “proved that there was artistic importance to the popular style, if treated with dignity and with conviction.” That’s precisely what Gershwin accomplished. The works of Gershwin, who only lived a meagre 39 years, impacted composers of his day and beyond. You can hear the influence of Gershwin’s music in works by Ravel, Kurt Weill and Aaron Copland. 73 years after his death, his music is as popular as ever with listeners, performers and composers dedicated to innumerable music genres. To illustrate this, have a listen to 3 renditions of Gershwin’s Summertime by a famous Jazz artist, a famous Rock artist and a famous Classical Artist.

Ella Fitzgerald: Jazz

Janis Joplin: Blues-Rock

Kathleen Battle: Classical

Something Howard and I love about Gershwin, aside from his wonderful music, is that he irrefutably proved that the divisions and barriers we create between genres of music are simply fabrications and conversations that we become attached to or make far too significant. It’s ALL music in the end.

Not only a supreme example of a crossover musician and composer, Gershwin was also a crossover artist between different art forms. Few know this, but Gershwin was a talented painter. In fact he was so talented that several distinguished art critics believed he would have become a great painter had he lived longer. This is Gershwin’s own self portrait.

George Gershwin Self Portrait

This Thursday, Howard and I will be performing some of Gershwin’s most popular works – Summertime, They Can’t Take That Away from Me, and Howard’s own abridged arrangement of Rhapsody in Blue for solo clarinet.

Crossing Over – Dancing between Classical and Jazz
Howard Meadows, Clarinet – Craig Addy, Piano
Thursday, June 17, 2010- 7:30 pm in the St. Andrew’s-Wesley Narthex
1022 Nelson Street, Vancouver, British Columbia V6E 1H8
(enter on Burrard Street at the entrance near the alley)

Tickets and information
http://amicus-crossing-over.eventbrite.com/

604-662-3053

Learn more about George Gershwin.

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On Thursday, June 17th, the Amicus Music Duo – that’s Howard Meadows and myself – is performing its new “Crossing Over” show. While we are classical musicians at heart, we both love playing a little in the realm of jazz and broadway showtune arrangements. And of course, we both love to improvise. So, it only made sense to create a show which was an inquiry into “Crossover” music and performance. When I looked into the term “Crossover”, I discovered that it has a variety of meanings. Here is what I discovered on Wikipedia.

Crossover is a term used in the music industries in a number of ways.

• It can be a term for a performer appearing on two or more of the record charts which track differing musical genres or tastes.
• It can refer to particular works of classical music that become popular among individuals who mostly listen to popular music. Some classical works that achieved crossover status in the twentieth century include the Canon in D by Johann Pachelbel, the Symphony No. 3 by Henryk Górecki.
• In some contexts the term “crossover” can have negative connotations, implying the watering-down of a music’s distinctive qualities to accommodate to mass tastes.
• Within the classical recording industry the term “crossover” is applied particularly to classical artists’ recordings of popular repertoire such as Broadway show tunes.The Three Tenors was a landmark concert in which Pavarotti, Carreras and Domingo brought a combination of opera, Neapolitan folksong, musical theatre and pop to a vast television audience. This laid the foundations for classical crossover as we know it today. Collaborations between classical and popular performers have included Sting and Edin Karamazov’s album Songs from the Labyrinth. An iconic collaboration between the late Freddie Mercury and Montserrat Caballé resulted in the worldwide hit “Barcelona”.Sarah Brightman, called the best-selling soprano of all time, is considered a crossover classical artist,[3] having released albums of classical, folk, pop and musical-theatre music. Brightman dislikes the classical crossover label, though she has said she understands the need to categorize music.Italian pop tenor, Andrea Bocelli, who is the biggest-selling singer in the history of Classical music, is sometimes described as the king of Classical Crossover.

Howard and I will be examining the latter two aspects of “Crossover” with an emphasis on crossing over from the Classical genre to the Jazz genre and vice versa.

Crossing Over – Dancing between Classical and Jazz
Howard Meadows, Clarinet – Craig Addy, Piano
Thursday, June 17, 2010- 7:30 pm in the St. Andrew’s-Wesley Narthex
1022 Nelson Street, Vancouver, British Columbia V6E 1H8
(enter on Burrard Street at the entrance near the alley)

Tickets and information
http://amicus-crossing-over.eventbrite.com/

604-662-3053

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Here I am with Christmas just around the corner releasing a new CD, this time a “Christmas CD”, with less than 2 weeks to go. Not a brilliant marketing and sales strategy. My explanation is simply a very full and exciting fall with more projects on the go than I can handle effectively. What makes this even sillier is that this CD was completed in December of 2008 and I sagely advised myself to hold off until next year to release it so that it could be done in a wise and timely fashion. Ha Ha!

I remember many Christmas eves with my family. It is late and the lights are dimmed. The house is decorated, polished brass and silver gleams, and many candles are lit. Everything glitters and glows and the aromas of pine and cedar fill the room. Then my parents play beautiful and peaceful Christmas carols on the stereo. The magic of that annual experience remains with me powerfully still. The essence of those wonderful memories are what I bring to these improvisations on some of my favourite traditional carols. Originally, I intended to create just one improvisation for each carol. In the end I had two to four improvisations for each carol and was happy with most of them. I’ve enhanced and expanded some of the carols with orchestrations to further differentiate each improvisation’s unique character. I wish you peace and joy during your holiday season.

Contents of the CD:

Listen to Silent Night No. 1

1. Coventry Carol No. 4
2. Silent Night No. 2
3. Away In a Manger No. 1
4. Coventry Carol No. 3
5. In the Bleak Mid-Winter No. 2
6. Silent Night No. 1
7. Away In a Manger No. 2
8. O Come, O Come, Emmanuel
9. In the Bleak Mid-Winter No. 1
10. Silent Night No. 3
11. Coventry Carol No. 1

This CD is dedicated to my parents, Ruth & Gerry Addy

This CD may be available as a digital download from CD Baby before Christmas. You can order it directly from me now. Contact me at 604-662-3053 or Craig@UnderThePiano.ca

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Back in February, just as I was starting the business of Under the Piano, I commandeered help to move my grand piano to a new location in my living room. Rajan, Sarah, and Eric arrived to save the day. Accompanying Sarah and Eric was a recent addition to their family – their 2 month old son Nate. When we were done, someone had the brilliant idea to see how babies might respond to being showered by the vibrations of the piano. So under went Nate and I created this gentle little piano improvisation for him. Luckily Eric had the foresight to capture the experience on video and he kindly offered to let me use the video on my website and blog. Clearly Nate loved this. As of today the official age range for Under the Piano clients is now 2 months to 83 years.

Piano Improvisation by Craig Addy
Video by Eric – Nate’s Dad

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I remember many Christmas eves with my family. It is late and the lights are dimmed. The house is decorated, polished brass and silver gleams, and many candles are lit. Everything glitters and glows and the aromas of pine and cedar fill the room. Then my parents play beautiful and peaceful Christmas carols on the stereo. The magic of that annual experience remains with me powerfully still.

Even many of those who are not classical music aficionados have heard Tchaikovsky’s ballet The Nutcracker. On December 17, the Amicus Music Duo will be creating a festive and atmospheric musical evening. Excerpts from the Nutcracker Ballet will be a central feature. Round that out with some traditional Christmas arrangements, some light jazz arrangements and of course our trademark improvisations – this time on Christmas Carols.

A Nutcracker Christmas with Amicus

What’s the twist? Well, as always, improvisation is a twist – at least it is in the context of a “Classical” music event.

The second twist is dialogue. Howard and I are committed to our audience leaving with an enriched understanding and experience of music. Dialogue, in which the listener gets to contribute and ask questions is the best way to create that.

The third twist is the location. This musical occasion will take place in St. Andrew’s-Wesley Church’s Narthex. The Narthex is a small intimate space and we take care to create a living-room-like environment. The bonus, is that despite having just room for 30 – 35 people, we get the great reverberant acoustics that you expect from a great old church.

Believe me, that all adds up to an experience of the music that is quite different than listening passively. Come and see and listen for yourself.

St. Andrew’s-Wesley United Church Narthex
1022 Nelson Street, Vancouver, British Columbia V6E 1H8
(enter on Burrard Street)
Thursday, December 17, 2009
7:30 pm

Howard Meadows, Clarinet – Craig Addy, Piano

Pay at the door:
Adults: $27
Senior/Student: $22

Seating is limited so reservations are recommended.

The benefits of reserving and paying online:
Knowing who’s coming in advance makes life a lot easier for us, so we would like to reward you for reserving early.

1) reserve your seat(s) online* before December 1 and save $4 off ticket prices.
2) reserve your seat(s) online before December 10 and save $2 off ticket prices.
3) reserve and purchase your tickets online and save $1

* Don’t like paying online? That’s okay. You can choose the option to reserve online and then mail us a cheque. Your reservation is your agreement to pay whether or not you show up for the concert.

Reserve you seats now at:
www.amicusnutcracker.eventbrite.com

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