Different graduate perspectives

This week I interviewed graduate students Yvonne Wu and Siu-Hei Lee. Yvonne is a composition student and Siu-Hei is a musicology student. Yvonne no longer performs, but attends and thinks about concerts/music regularly. Siu-Hei still tries to perform, but admits to not being as comfortable with it as others may be even though he did complete undergraduate and graduate studies in piano performance. He also loves pop music, especially Asian pop (mostly canto and mando-pop) which he grew up listening to alongside classical music.


 YVONNE WU:

Growing up, what kind of music did you listen to and/or study?

Yvonne: "I started piano at 5, so it was mostly pedagogical materials in terms of studies. It wasn't until I was 17 when I began hearing new music. I mostly listened to what my parents did on the radio: mostly easy listening, Taiwan popular music tapes, and normal radio stuff. It wasn't until maybe early teens until I started listening to Classical.

Have you always attended concerts? How is it different for you compared to recordings?

Yvonne: "Attending Interlochen music camp at 16 was an eye-opening experience for me as far as live concerts go. It was probably my first time listening to live orchestras and first introduction to chamber music. It was really mind blowing. The presence of performers, watching how a professional string quartet moves together, seeing the gestural language of the music being performed in front of you...as a teenager clarified a lot for me. It gave me another dimension to the listening. For the orchestra, just the exhilaration of having so many musicians in front of you...the sound feels richer. Sometimes listening may be better in a recording because there are a lot of social distractions in live recordings: wind, noise, people around you..., it may not be as deep getting into the sound, but the fact that it's happening live is exciting. This moment can't repeat, you can't go back and listen to that moment. It's urgent that you pay attention."

What do you think, on a societal level (at least our society), is the point of the live performance?

Yvonne: "I think a lot of people feel the same way as I do. We have to remind ourselves that recordings are a documentation and less authentic. I've heard people say that live performance is the only way to listen to music. In visual art, even if you see a painting in a book..even a good representation, is totally different than seeing the real thing. Seeing a Van Gogh in person is very different in person. It's so much more radiant, the texture means something, and it just resonates in a completely different way. I think it's the same way with music. Even though we can say that our recording technology is so good and so prevalent, we, as a society, need to not forget that...but honestly there are a lot of crappy recordings out there, or they listen through crappy laptop speakers. It drives me nuts. On one hand, I don't want to put anything online because I know people are listening to it through really low quality means and that's frustrating. Nothing can replace live performance for both the reasons I explained earlier: being exhilarated, engaged with the music, seeing the performers make the sounds and being part of the social experience of everyone being actually captivated by the same thing and shared. There's a lot of power to that compared to listening to your own in your car. Not that that's wrong. It fills a different role."

Have you attended concerts outside of the Western art tradition?

Yvonne: "haha...um....I went to Mark Dresser's Telematic concerts - 2 of them! I go to watch a few jazz concerts or my friends in a band here and there."

Did you notice any finer details in the experience and dynamics between those different genres?

Yvonne: "Actually, different kinds of bands (bluegrass or popular or something) is more exciting live. The difference is greater. I suppose the charisma of the performers is more important - it's part of the show...the energy that they convey and the energy the audience receives that's more important in the fabric music, so it's even more exciting. The social experience is supposed to be part of it as opposed to just sitting there and being quiet in concert where any distraction like unwrapping a piece of gum becomes amplified and is a bad distraction. In popular music, you roll with it and it's ok. The space in other concerts seems more integrated with the environment. It's not just performer-audience, but includes the venue, the bar, the coffee.."

Do you approach classical and new music differently as a listener?

Yvonne: "Well new music is my job...that's the reason I'm here. So I'm always ready to hear it when I go. With the old stuff, even if I don't know the piece, I basically know what's going to happen. It's a very familiar language to me and in a way, it can potentially be more boring if it's not that great of a piece. Comparatively, as a composer and not a performer, I mostly hear the piece and not the performer, so my judgements are usually based on that. With new music, I'm really listening as a composer - for the journey through the music. I'm working harder as a listener as there are so many ways to listen and we need to find out how in each piece - what issues are relevant. It's part of the fun...figuring out the piece and finding ways to enjoy it. It's more work, but that work is more interesting."

Me: It's probably similar for most other people, but for them, it's too much work and out of their comfort zone.

Yvonne: Of course. That's hard when you don't have the tools, the context, and you don't know where to place things. Being exposed to more, you have more reference points. Going into your first 20th century piece, you have nowhere to put it in your mind, nothing to compare it to so you don't know what they're trying to do.

Me: Haha I took on the task of interviewing audience members. While program notes and the mini-lecture helped, I think a lot of people just couldn't get past the sound itself. They said it made them feel anxious, it was disharmonious and it was out of their comfort zone. "E" liked the Strauss because it was predictable...it's comfortable....(spiel about music history...) It's a completely understandable perspective where they're coming from. I loved Amerique, but if you had asked me 5 years ago, I probably would have hated it too. It surprised me, well not really, but most people said they liked the Strauss, which sounds like an 18th century piece written in 1942. For me, I had a harder time connecting to it given the context. So my question is whether you think that Western art music takes too much education to be fully appreciated...too elitist even."

Yvonne: Oh yeah...and that's an issue as it seems to only appeal to a portion of a portion of a population. And that goes back to back our question of whether music has to have a certain function. *** said it must communicate something to a wide audience. *** said it brings people together and has meaning within a society. But is it 'wrong' when certain music doesn't do that? I think everybody just has to answer that on their own. If it makes people feel uncomfortable, then they probably shouldn't engage with it. Does that make those who do so guilty of being elitist? There are certain problems with that like why we teach only this tradition to music majors--a lot of music majors don't know that's what they're signing up for. Does that make what we do as wrong? I don't know...it's a question I ask a lot."

For most others that I've talked to, they attend concerts here either because they have to because they want to support a friend. Do you feel similar or do you attend the concerts for the music itself?

Yvonne:  "Yeah..I go to listen to the pieces. I feel like it's part of my education here.

When I know that an event promises to be very experimental, especially ones by certain grads here, another element of the excitement of attending is to find out: "what is going to HAPPEN?"

We're not as far out as the hippies during the 60s and 70s, say, like those who were part of the Fluxus movement, who did performance art, and who went to "Happenings" and not concerts. However, sometimes there really is some degree of intrigue. Even if I know some of the elements of the performance or what the main concept will be, I still don't know what they will do exactly, how it will feel watching them perform, and exactly what will happen over the course of the event. So there is a sort of fascination, of not wanting to miss out on a completely unique event (knowing that so much of what we do here will not be repeated--ever), and, as mentioned, the excitement of sharing that unique experience with others in the musical community, others who also witness and participate in a once-in-a-lifetime event."

SIU-HEI LEE:


Growing up, what kind of music did you listen to and/or study? 

SH: Cantopop (dad plays older style songs) Classical music (dad buys CDs). Starting from middle school i started buying CDs in both categories. Now I listen to these two + mandopop. not really contemporary music... except when I have to know them, or when I go and support my friends for concerts.

What kind of audiences do you draw to your concerts? Are there different people depending 

on what type of music you're playing? And can you speculate why they may come watch you 

perform? 

SH: "When I came to UCSD, I had a goal to make friends with international Chinese students to pick up their music and share it with their friends. That way I get to perform, learn about students, and attract more people to concerts. I adjust my program a little bit according to the event and audience, but still try to play something for myself as well. People come mostly for friendship. The concert report group was extra and unexpected. It was awesome. I told the backstage crew to let people go in and out during my performance. I don't really mind because I know the audience is not used to this and I don't have the heart to 'educate' or 'civilize' them. Just let it be. But I wouldn't let it happen for a more serious concert."

Do you ever feel nervous while performing and do you think your levels of anxiety changes according to different criteria?

SH: Of course. One time I was playing for my ex-piano teacher at his house and the music was perfect. That was the only time in my life since 6 that I played without wrong notes. No matter what type of music I play, I always start nervous, get into a little bit, then play wrong notes because I get too relaxed. That makes recording for me difficult because I'm not so great technically.

Do you approach performance differently depending on the music or audience?

SH: yes, Depending on the occasion I will talk to the audience about the music I'm going to play.

Me: I attended your recital and was surprised by your inclusion of pop music. Are there reasons that you did so? How do you think this affected the audience?

SH: I did that because I love pop music and it makes me happy to play it. Behind the music selections, there's a story with my friends. A lot of memories and some of my friends cried while I played it.

I've talked to many audience members of different concerts about their perception of "new" music and was met with unenthusiastic responses about it. How do you feel when performing/presenting new music? (if you even do so, of course) Do you find that there is a lot of pressure to engage the audience?

SH: I rarely present new music. I will play...Webern, but that is not new music by UCSD's standards. I hope to present more new music in the future because the music may suit the general idea of my program. With the Webern , I played his piece between J.S. Bach and Franck because they all used the "sighing" motif, but in very different ways. I may also do so to support my composer friends or because the occasion calls for it (say the Rochester Women in Music Festival).