Misplaced Pages

#399600

44-646: Robert Paul Commanday (June 18, 1922 – September 3, 2015) was an American music critic who specialized in classical music . Among the leading critics of the West Coast , Commanday was a major presence in the Bay Area music scene over a five-decade career. From 1964 to 1994 he was the chief classical music critic of the San Francisco Chronicle , following which he became the founding editor of San Francisco Classical Voice in 1998. As

88-632: A champion of local composers and musical organizations". His colleague Jon Carroll at the San Francisco Chronicle noted that he "always seemed to know more about his subject than he could fit into an article". Commanday retired from the SF Chronicle in 1994, and was succeeded by Joshua Kosman—whom he had handpicked—as chief classical music critic. Commanday reportedly quipped that he "flunked retirement"; following his SF Chronicle tenure, he aimed to launch an online news site for

132-530: A critic, Commanday held high standards, though his writing was interspersed with humorous comments. His focus concerned American music in general, but particularly ensembles, performers and events in San Francisco . Also a music educator and choral conductor, Commanday held brief teaching posts at Ithaca College and the University of Illinois , before a decade of teaching music and conducting choirs at

176-426: A new generation of critics began to widen their consideration to other aspects of music than its pure representative aspects, becoming increasingly interested in instrumental music. Prominent amongst these was E. T. A. Hoffmann , who wrote in 1809 That instrumental music has now risen to a level of which one probably had no inkling not long ago and that the symphony , especially following...Haydn and Mozart, has become

220-426: A new generation of critics began to widen their consideration to other aspects of music than its pure representative aspects, becoming increasingly interested in instrumental music. Prominent amongst these was E. T. A. Hoffmann , who wrote in 1809 That instrumental music has now risen to a level of which one probably had no inkling not long ago and that the symphony , especially following...Haydn and Mozart, has become

264-604: A specific local culture) was relatively new at the time, and the site served as a model for various other websites, including the Classical Voice of North Carolina , Classical Voice New England and Classical Voice North America . Described by Janos Gereben of the San Francisco Classical Voice as an "inspiring gadfly to generations of musicians, audiences, and journalists", Commanday was a music critic, music educator and choral conductor. Among

308-473: A systematic or consensus-based musical aesthetics has also tended to make music criticism a highly subjective issue. "There is no counter-check outside the critic's own personality." Critical references to music (often deprecating performers or styles) can be found in early literature, including, for example, in Plato 's Laws and in the writings of medieval music theorists . According to Richard Taruskin ,

352-416: A temporal dimension that requires repetition or development of its material "problems of balance, contrast, expectation and fulfilment... are more central to music than to other arts, supported as these are by verbal or representational content." The absence of a systematic or consensus-based musical aesthetics has also tended to make music criticism a highly subjective issue. "There is no counter-check outside

396-412: Is a branch of musical aesthetics . With the concurrent expansion of interest in music and information media since the turn of the 20th century, the term has come to acquire the conventional meaning of journalistic reporting on musical performances . The musicologist Winton Dean has suggested that "music is probably the most difficult of the arts to criticise." Unlike the plastic or literary arts,

440-576: Is common coin in life and literature: the note C has nothing to do with breakfast or railway journeys or marital harmony." Like dramatic art, music is recreated at every performance, and criticism may, therefore, be directed both at the text (musical score) and the performance. More specifically, as music has a temporal dimension that requires repetition or development of its material "problems of balance, contrast, expectation and fulfilment... are more central to music than to other arts, supported as these are by verbal or representational content." The absence of

484-576: The Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung , edited by Friedrich Rochlitz (1769–1842), began publication in Leipzig , and this is often regarded as the precursor of a new genre of criticism aimed at a wider readership than qualified connoisseurs. In subsequent years several regular journals dedicated to music criticism and reviews began to appear in major European centres, including The Harmonicon (London 1823–33), The Musical Times (London, 1844-date),

SECTION 10

#1732798353400

528-465: The Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung , edited by Friedrich Rochlitz (1769–1842), began publication in Leipzig , and this is often regarded as the precursor of a new genre of criticism aimed at a wider readership than qualified connoisseurs. In subsequent years several regular journals dedicated to music criticism and reviews began to appear in major European centres, including The Harmonicon (London 1823–33), The Musical Times (London, 1844-date),

572-688: The Revue et gazette musicale de Paris (Paris 1827–1880, founded by François-Joseph Fétis ), the Berliner allgemeine musikalische Zeitung founded in 1825 by A.M. Schlesinger and edited by A. B. Marx , and the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik founded in 1834 in Leipzig by Robert Schumann and Friedrich Wieck , and later edited by Franz Brendel . Other journals at this period also began to carry extensive writings on music: Hector Berlioz wrote for

616-463: The Revue et gazette musicale de Paris (Paris 1827–1880, founded by François-Joseph Fétis ), the Berliner allgemeine musikalische Zeitung founded in 1825 by A.M. Schlesinger and edited by A. B. Marx , and the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik founded in 1834 in Leipzig by Robert Schumann and Friedrich Wieck , and later edited by Franz Brendel . Other journals at this period also began to carry extensive writings on music: Hector Berlioz wrote for

660-595: The University of California, Berkeley . Robert Paul Commanday was born on June 18, 1922, in Yonkers, New York . Of a Russian-Jewish family, his parents "loved music and prized education above all". The family regularly traveled to Manhattan for a variety of classical music performances, including the premiere of Gershwin's Porgy and Bess . In addition, the family also attended operetta performances of works by Sigmund Romberg as well as Gilbert and Sullivan . Commanday studied flute in his early youth with John Wummer,

704-558: The chief classical music critic and a dance critic of the San Francisco Chronicle , succeeding Alfred Frankenstein . Up to that point, his writing experience mainly concerned program notes and academic articles. He credits being an "inveterate letter writer" as important to the growth of his style of criticism. His predecessor Frankenstein also influenced Commanday by way of the stylistic freedom and humor that characterized his writing. Adopting such aspects into his own writing, writer Janos Gereben noted that "[Commanday]'s sense of humor

748-426: The 'language' of music does not specifically relate to human sensory experience – Dean's words, "the word 'love' is common coin in life and literature: the note C has nothing to do with breakfast or railway journeys or marital harmony." Like dramatic art, music is recreated at every performance, and criticism may, therefore, be directed both at the text (musical score) and the performance. More specifically, as music has

792-459: The 1750s, the Querelle des Bouffons (the dispute between supporters of French and Italian opera styles as represented by Jean-Philippe Rameau and Jean-Baptiste Lully respectively) generated essays from Jean-Jacques Rousseau and others, including Denis Diderot 's Rameau's Nephew (1761). The English composer Charles Avison (1709–1770) published the first work on musical criticism in

836-798: The Deems Taylor Award for Music Criticism in 1975–1976 and he won the 1975 John Swett Award from the California Teachers Association . Both the Il Cenacolo society and the Harvard Club of San Francisco recognized him as 'citizen of the year'. In his later years, he continued writing musical essays for publications such as the San Francisco Classical Voice and Classical Voice North America . Commanday died on September 3, 2015, in Oakland, California . He

880-566: The English language – an Essay on Musical Expression published in 1752. In it, Avison claims that since the time of Palestrina and Raphael , music had improved in status whilst pictorial art had declined. However, he believes that George Frideric Handel is too much concerned with naturalistic imitation than with expression, and criticises the habit, in Italian operas , of that egregious absurdity of repeating, and finishing many songs with

924-606: The Parisian Journal des débats , Heinrich Heine reported on music and literature in Paris for the Stuttgart Allgemeine Zeitung , the young Richard Wagner wrote articles for Heinrich Laube 's magazine Zeitung für die elegante Welt and during his 1839–42 stay in Paris for Schlesinger's publishing house and German newspapers. The writer George Henry Caunter (1791–1843) was called "one of

SECTION 20

#1732798353400

968-404: The Parisian Journal des débats , Heinrich Heine reported on music and literature in Paris for the Stuttgart Allgemeine Zeitung , the young Richard Wagner wrote articles for Heinrich Laube 's magazine Zeitung für die elegante Welt and during his 1839–42 stay in Paris for Schlesinger's publishing house and German newspapers. The writer George Henry Caunter (1791–1843) was called "one of

1012-602: The active concert life of late 18th-century London meant that "the role and the function of arts criticism as we know it today were the creations of the English public." However, the first magazines specifically devoted to music criticism seem to have developed in Germany, for example, Georg Philipp Telemann 's Der getreue Music-Meister (1728), which included publications of new compositions, and Der kritische Musikus which appeared in Hamburg between 1737 and 1740. In France in

1056-471: The classical music scene of San Francisco. He was motivated by the decline in the circulation of print newspaper, as well as his claim that much important and relevant information was ignored by local newspapers. Having secured preliminary funding from businessman Gordon Getty , he worked with his wife, Mary Stevens Commanday, to create San Francisco Classical Voice (SFCV) in 1998. The presence of an online classical music news website (particularly pertaining to

1100-482: The concurrent expansion of interest in music and information media since the turn of the 20th century, the term has come to acquire the conventional meaning of journalistic reporting on musical performances . The musicologist Winton Dean has suggested that "music is probably the most difficult of the arts to criticise." Unlike the plastic or literary arts, the 'language' of music does not specifically relate to human sensory experience – Dean's words, "the word 'love'

1144-726: The creations of the English public." However, the first magazines specifically devoted to music criticism seem to have developed in Germany, for example, Georg Philipp Telemann 's Der getreue Music-Meister (1728), which included publications of new compositions, and Der kritische Musikus which appeared in Hamburg between 1737 and 1740. In France in the 1750s, the Querelle des Bouffons (the dispute between supporters of French and Italian opera styles as represented by Jean-Philippe Rameau and Jean-Baptiste Lully respectively) generated essays from Jean-Jacques Rousseau and others, including Denis Diderot 's Rameau's Nephew (1761). The English composer Charles Avison (1709–1770) published

1188-402: The critic's own personality." Critical references to music (often deprecating performers or styles) can be found in early literature, including, for example, in Plato 's Laws and in the writings of medieval music theorists . According to Richard Taruskin , the active concert life of late 18th-century London meant that "the role and the function of arts criticism as we know it today were

1232-439: The first musical critics in the metropolis [London]" . In 1835 James William Davison (1813–85) began his lifelong career as a music critic, writing 40 years for The Times . Music criticism The Oxford Companion to Music defines music criticism as "the intellectual activity of formulating judgments on the value and degree of excellence of individual works of music , or whole groups or genres". In this sense, it

1276-416: The first part; when it often happens, after the passions of anger and revenge have been sufficiently expressed, that reconcilement and love are the subjects of the second, and, therefore, should conclude the performance. Typically, until the late eighteenth century, music criticism centred on vocal rather than instrumental music – "vocal music ... was the apex of [the] aesthetic hierarchy. One knew what music

1320-416: The first part; when it often happens, after the passions of anger and revenge have been sufficiently expressed, that reconcilement and love are the subjects of the second, and, therefore, should conclude the performance. Typically, until the late eighteenth century, music criticism centred on vocal rather than instrumental music – "vocal music ... was the apex of [the] aesthetic hierarchy. One knew what music

1364-496: The first work on musical criticism in the English language – an Essay on Musical Expression published in 1752. In it, Avison claims that since the time of Palestrina and Raphael , music had improved in status whilst pictorial art had declined. However, he believes that George Frideric Handel is too much concerned with naturalistic imitation than with expression, and criticises the habit, in Italian operas , of that egregious absurdity of repeating, and finishing many songs with

Robert Commanday - Misplaced Pages Continue

1408-578: The major music critics of the U.S. West Coast , His career spanned over 50 years and he was unofficially known as the "Dean of the Bay Area's music press corps". Commanday wrote numerous entries for various editions of The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians and the subsequent Grove Music Online . He was president of the Music Critics Association of North America two times, first, from 1981 to 1985. The ASCAP awarded him

1452-522: The rest of his life. Following the war's end, Commanday attended Juilliard for piano from 1946 to 1947, and had two teaching stints, at Ithaca College (1947–1948) as well as the University of Illinois (1948–1950). The composer Andrew Imbrie , who Commanday had met during the war, invited him to the University of California, Berkeley , where he received a Master of Arts in 1952 for musicology . During and after his study, from 1951 to 1961, he also taught music at UC Berkeley, and, from 1950 to 1963, led

1496-461: The same time, the proportion of new music to 'canonic' music in concert programming began to decline, meaning that living composers were increasingly in competition with their dead predecessors. This was particularly the case in respect of the rise of Beethoven 's reputation in his last year and posthumously. This gave rise both to writings on the value of the 'canon' and also to writings by composers and their supporters defending newer music. In 1798

1540-461: The same time, the proportion of new music to 'canonic' music in concert programming began to decline, meaning that living composers were increasingly in competition with their dead predecessors. This was particularly the case in respect of the rise of Beethoven 's reputation in his last year and posthumously. This gave rise both to writings on the value of the 'canon' and also to writings by composers and their supporters defending newer music. In 1798

1584-683: The then–principal flutist of the New York Philharmonic . By his teens he had become an enthusiast of jazz music , and frequented the Village Vanguard jazz club. He enrolled at Harvard University to study music theory and music history , receiving a Bachelor of Arts in 1943. That year, he joined the U.S. Army for World War II , where he served as a cryptographer of encoded Japanese . Stationed in Washington, D.C. , he remained able to speak and read Japanese for

1628-465: The ultimate form of instrumental music – the opera of instruments, as it were – all this is well-known to every music-lover. A further impetus to the direction of music criticism was given by the changing nature of concert programming with the establishment of the European classical music canon; indeed it is at this period that the word 'classical' is first applied to a received musical tradition. At

1672-409: The ultimate form of instrumental music – the opera of instruments, as it were – all this is well-known to every music-lover. A further impetus to the direction of music criticism was given by the changing nature of concert programming with the establishment of the European classical music canon; indeed it is at this period that the word 'classical' is first applied to a received musical tradition. At

1716-714: The university's choral association. The groups he engaged with were the university's Glee Club and the Treble Clef Society; with the former, he toured Japan in 1957 as the first American choral group to do so after the war. Later he directed the chorus of the Oakland Symphony Orchestra (1961–1965), as well as the choir of the Cabrillo Festival around 1963. "I don’t regret or withdraw a single carping article or castigating review. The standards I had held to were not set by me but by

1760-587: The works and the art form first and then by the artists and performing institution themselves. They also are measured by what we have come to expect of them and what they claim and aim to be." "In that sense, evaluating is an act of respect. A symphony, opera or ballet company can’t aspire to be "world class" (a ridiculous term in any event) and profess it in the publicity and then feel it should not be judged on those terms." Robert Commanday, June 1993 Sunday Pink section, SF Chronicle Commanday's first major music criticism position came in 1964, when he became

1804-571: Was cherished by all (but aggrieved performers) who knew him." In Grove Music Online , Patrick J. Smith describes him an "erudite and informed writer", while Joshua Kosman of SFGate stated that he had "exacting standards". Topics of particular interest to Commanday included the San Francisco music scene since 1850, music education and American music, especially American music after 1950 and American opera . His writings were often inextricably tied to San Francisco; according to Smith, he "was

Robert Commanday - Misplaced Pages Continue

1848-410: Was expressing." The last years of the eighteenth century reflected both a change of patronage of music from the aristocracy to the rising middle classes, and the rise of Romanticism in the arts. Both of these had consequences for the practice of music criticism; "the tone of the critic was lowered as his audience expanded: he began to approach the reader as a colleague rather than a pedagogue", and

1892-410: Was expressing." The last years of the eighteenth century reflected both a change of patronage of music from the aristocracy to the rising middle classes, and the rise of Romanticism in the arts. Both of these had consequences for the practice of music criticism; "the tone of the critic was lowered as his audience expanded: he began to approach the reader as a colleague rather than a pedagogue", and

1936-567: Was survived by his wife Mary, as well as daughter Michal, and son David, who conducts the Heartland Festival Orchestra of Peoria, Illinois . Among his stepchildren was the diplomat J. Christopher Stevens , who died in the 2012 Benghazi attack . The Online Archive of California of the California Digital Library contains a substantial collection of papers by Commanday. Music critic With

#399600