Perseids, Pärt and Intimate Public Goods

CMT: The Perseid meteors last night were beautiful.

DSM: Nice, too, to have the natural display accompanied by chamber music—Beethoven’s String Quartet Op. 18, No. 1; Dvorak’s ‘Bagatelles’ Op. 47; Handel’s Trio Sonata Op. 5; Arvo Pärt’s ‘Fraters’ and ‘Speigel im Spiegel.’ Anne Verticchio (violin), Ted Hoyle (cello), Katie Gallagher(violin), and Daniel Gladstone (viola) performed beautifully.

CMT: This sort of performance is, like so many others in chamber music, a labor of love. The dozens of attendees were appreciative, but the headcount was, you’ll admit, dozens not hundreds. Hard to cover expenses that way.

A  national identity is a public good—a non-instrumental one. Avant-garde art has, even though the artists tend to deny this, an intrinsically enriching aspect, in particular an innovative meaning for people’s lives. As a public good it is therefore a proper state concern [even if there is not a private-sector economy to support it]. A minority culture may embody a form of life that is available nowhere else and is worth preserving—not only for its members but also for humankind. Is conserving classical music less important than conserving whales or other endangered species?”
  — Govert den Hartogh, The Good Life as a Public Good, p. 23.

DSM: They get extra marks for novelty, though. ‘Spiegel im Spiegel’ is particularly atmospheric—compatible with star-gazing and meteor-looking. The instruments mirror one another (‘spiegel’ is German for mirror), with notes added to the scale with each repetition. The iterations evoke a mathematical or physical process rather than a human one. Impossible to describe in its loveliness, each voice is like a commentary on the cosmos, a narrative concerning the laws that govern it.

CMT: Ted Hoyle’s cello lent an extra mellowness. But the overall texture of the piece evokes a celestial mood, a meditation on the expanse of the sky, a reverie on the inconsequentiality of human beings.

DSM: Pärt’s minimalism is astonishing in juxtaposing simplicity with a relentless and mathematical complexity.


    [Spiegel im Spiegel #1, 5MB MP3 clip]


    [Spiegel im Spiegel #2, 4MB MP3 clip]


    [Spiegel im Spiegel #3, 5MB MP3 clip]


CMT: Ted Hoyle holds a BM from Eastman, a MM from Yale University, and a DMA from the Manhattan School of Music. For 15 years he was cellist in the Kohon Quartet. His two solo recordings are published by Spectrum and Albany Records, and he has performed with the American Symphony Orchestra, the Princeton Chamber Orchestra, and the New York City Ballet Orchestra. Hoyle still teaches cello, theory and chamber music at Kean University, doesn’t he?


DSM: Hoyle has performed extensively as a solo recitalist, in chamber ensembles, and with orchestras, including the American Symphony under Leopold Stokowski, the Princeton Chamber Orchestra, and the New York City Ballet Orchestra. In 2006 he served on the faculty of the Southampton Festival of Strings. He’s currently on the Board of Trustees of the Greenport Music Festival. As a member of the Kohon Quartet, Mr. Hoyle made many recordings with the Vox, Desto, CRI, and Orion labels. His performances for the ‘Hear America First’ series at Carnegie Hall were recorded by Spectrum Records and the Musical Heritage Society. He also performed on recordings of such popular music performers as Barbara Streisand, Barry Gibb, Grace Slick, Dionne Warwick, Dianna Ross, and Tony Bennett. Hoyle was chair of the Music Department at Kean University from 1987 through 1996. Semi-retired or not, I hope Hoyle will continue to appear in venues like the one last night—art with nature as a back-drop. Perseids and chamber music on a cool clear night in August are a perfect combination.

CMT: A dark night sky can be so thought-provoking that it’s no wonder that such a sky is associated with so many facets of history, philosophy, religion, societal development, poetry, music, mathematics, and science. It follows that, to fully achieve an understanding of the past and to appreciate what’s at stake for the future, clear views of the night sky are an important conservation priority—an important public good, just as music itself is an important public good.

DSM: Last night, just standing in the quietness, watching the slow revolution of a sky sprayed with stars—more than I’d ever seen before—conferred the privilege of wilderness, of wildness, on us. Even close to home, away from city lights, there are still plenty of places to be immersed in stars and darkness. Countless possibilities, boundless inspirations. Thank you, Ted, Anne, Katie, and Daniel.

• International Dark Sky Association website
  
• Sky & Telescope interactive chart (requires login/free registration; requires Java plug=in)
  
• Jack Horkheimer, Star Gazer PBS program website (theme music is Debussy's Arabesque No. 1)
  
• Custer Institute and Observatory, 1115 Main Bayview Road (South of Rte. 25), Southold, NY
  
• Kean University Dept of Music, 1000 Morris Ave, Union NJ
  
• Anne Verticchio (violin), Ted Hoyle (cello), Katie Gallagher(violin), and Daniel Gladstone (viola)
  
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