Obama takes power classically

Barack Obama became the 44th president of the United States of America exactly at noon today Eastern time in a fashion unlike any of his predecessors.  The ceremony ran a couple of minutes late, and as the clock struck, Obama had not yet been sworn in.  Rather power changed hands as he sat quietly on the steps of the Capitol and -– along with much of the rest of the world -- listened as violinist Itzhak Perlman, cellist Yo-Yo Ma, pianist Gabriela Montero and clarinetist Anthony McGill performed the world premiere of “Air and Simple Gifts” by John Williams. (You can watch and hear it below.)

Power changed hands just as the sober introductory air segued into an animated riff on the Shaker tune “Simple Gifts,” on which Aaron Copland famously wrote a set of variations for his ballet “Appalachian Spring.”

An African American assuming the highest office in a once segregated land is a moment I wasn’t sure I’d ever live to see, although I have always been convinced that it would one day happen.  But I had never dared dream that so momentous an occasion –- indeed an inauguration of any president -– would be signaled by classical musicians playing on the Capitol veranda.

We have reason to believe we have an arts president.  So now, let’s get to business.  Williams’ four-minute quartet struck an apt tone of seriousness and celebration.  It was Americana through and through.  Politics were served by a violinist born in Israel, a cellist of Chinese heritage born in Paris, a pianist from Venezuela and an African American clarinetist from Chicago.  None is a stuffy classical player but likes to collaborate widely.  That’s all to the good. But ... 

Frankly, the Williams quartet was a bit hokey.  For Obama to be an arts president he will have to think higher and even further out of the box.  If he really wants change, he will have to have the courage to listen to artists who can’t be controlled, whose vision is greater than his and his handlers.  We need artists not merely to sing our achievements but to communicate new ideas and to spread our voice through the land and the world.  Obama must mobilize the arts to help him change the mood of our nation and raise our energy.

To that end, I offer a list of music people (not merely musicians but poets, video artists, stage directors and others who have connected valuably with music in one way or another) I would like to see at the White House:  Elliott Carter (get him while you can, he’s 100), the Kronos Quartet, John Adams, Gustavo Dudamel, Peter Sellars, Ornette Coleman, Steve Reich, John Ashbery, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Bill Viola, Yusef Komunyakaa, Robert Ashley, Osvaldo Golijov, James Levine, Philip Glass, Frederic Rzewski, Terry Riley, Dawn Upshaw, David Robertson, Ned Rorem, Kent Nagano, Robert Wilson, Laurie Anderson.
Many more might be added to the list, but these are rich, wise, inclusive original voices.  And, Mr. President, I guarantee your life will be richer and the tone of America will rise if you listen to them.

First, though, I fear arts education must begin with the media.  I recorded “Air and Simple Gifts” off NPR in order to hear it again.  Announcers, too busy reporting on responsibility to be bothered to practice it, gabbed through Montero’s opening piano solo and broke once more during the middle of the score. 

-- Mark Swed

Photo: Itzhak Perlman, from left, Yo-Yo Ma and Anthony McGill during the inauguration ceremony for Barack Obama. Credit: EPA/Justin Lane.

Comments

[Bill Cosel]

Hokey? Hardly. This four minute musical reflection, realized by four outstanding and world class players, was lovingly hand crafted for this huge occasion by a gifted American composer who chose to quote (as did Aaron Copland) the beautiful hymn SIMPLE GIFTS.
Where so much new music has the burden of winning listeners on a single hearing, John Williams brilliantly gave millions and millions of people (an audience size he's very comfortable reaching throughout the world) an immediate
signal for all of us to share, in such a classy way, this historic moment with intelligence and with our hearts.

[DukeLaw]

After Appomattox, Philip Glass should be taken off any list for consideration as an "artist". Awful libretto and staging. Only time, I've ever walked out of an opera house early......

[Arnie]

There he goes with the Salonen hero-worship again. It's like watching Matthew Brock adore Bill McNeil on NewsRadio reruns. And the rest of that list of 1990s trendoids. Criminy.

[Sam Adams]

Mark, please take your head out of your -- hands. Yo Yo Ma hokey? Yo Mama. Together with Perlman, Montero and one of the few first-chair African-American musicians in the nation, he performed one of Williams' best works (I'm no fan of his), full of echoes of history. Simple Gifts of course is the theme of Copland's Appalachian Spring, choreographed for Martha Graham, which premiered in wartime DC in 1943 at the Library of Commerce. The new piece is melodious, unlike the work of some of the people on your laundry list of future WH guests to hope for, replete with American memory, iconography and the same hopes in a time of struggle generated by that classic of modern dance. It also speaks to Obama's intentions to make the arts a part of his presidency. You obviously don't give a damn about the future of the arts in America or you might have mentioned that this is a possible foreshadowing of the addition to the cabinet of a Secretary of Arts and Culture. You are, in short, as I've suspected for a long time, in over your head.

[Maurizio]

It's not the first time Mr. Swed whiplash John Williams' music, so I'm not that surprised. However, I found very rude his claim that Williams' is a musician with a limited vision and only able to sing the achievements without being original or "new". This wasn't the occasion where any composer could have thought to be selfish. Williams chose to put the spotlight not on himself or his own music, but on the actual meaning of the ceremony. His piece is a simple, beautiful and honest act of great artistry. It's deep and meaningful without being heady or pretentious. It's, well, a simple gift of music. I know Williams is hardly tolerated by the world of classical purists because in their eyes he's just "a film music composer". But the reality is that he's one of the most accomplished, sincere and talented composer of our era.

[Nathan Robinson]

The John Williams piece struck me as...boring. Very similar to the hundreds of arrangements avaliable for school wind, string, and vocal groups. Hokey indeed. Copland could get hokey too (usually in slow movements/sections) but I feel that his variations at the end of A.S. were/are quite original...any American composer riffing on simple gifts will obviously be measured against them. And this isn't a dis on the whole Williams oeuvre...just this crappy piece. Yo, I got mad love for Hedwig's Theme.

[JM]

I stopped reading Swed's reviews some time ago. He really bring nothing to the table with his comments.

[Jane Q. Public]

Did it ever occur to you that Obama wanted a piece that was moving and accessible to the billions of people watching who never ever listen to classical music - reporters included. I would say 95% of the people on the Mall had no idea what the piece was or how masterfully it was or was not performed. I would celebrate this high profile exposure for the simple fact that it was a high profile exposure.

Perhaps if you had allowed yourself to just sit and take in the moment instead of tearing it apart, you would've been swept up in the beauty of it as well.

I was.

[Tom Gossard]

I thought the piece was boring - no, I should say I was like b-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-red by it. It may have been a little hokey, too, I could hear that. But, on reading so many comments to the effect they were touched or moved, I'll revise: it was boring, a little hokey...and apt, a good fit for the occasion. It wasn't offensive, it did feature amazing world class musicians, had a world class film composer as its author, and it sounded duly Copland-esque. Someone posted to YouTube a 2005 performance of A Lincoln Portrait, with Barack Obama as narrator. That suggests to me Obama himself, or his fine arts transition group, or an individual with personal insight into Obama's thinking and aesthetic, suggested the thematic raw materials, and Williams took the direction faithfully.

Whatever, it was ok. I can't remember a line of it other than Simple Gifts, and I still wonder what Yo-Yo was thinking as he swiveled about, practically giddy with delight, but it was O. K.

[Andreas G]

Yes, we can nitpick about whether the piece was the greatest piece of music ever written or not. I tend to agree with Mark Sved from a musical standpoint, but of course context is important as well. Given that this was a Presidential Inauguration watched by the whole country (and the world), a certain amount of "hokeyness", invoking American traditional music and Copeland is quite appropriate. John Williams would not have been my composer of choice for my tastes (he is most noted for his film scores), but that they played music by an actual living composer is already progress.

I share Mr. Sved's hope, but I am not very optimistic about the prospects for music and the arts in the coming years. However good Pres. Obama's intentions may be, the economic climate will only worsen the existing trend of gutting arts education and funding.

[patrick]

What,no Maya Angelou or Bono?lolololololololololol
though Im sure everyone can add some people, Anthony Braxton,Don Byron, Lawrence Ferlinghetti[hes 88, it's about time time],Terry Riley,Bill Porter[Red Pine} Joanne Kyger come to mind...

[P Nakasone]

Please remember the "media" president played perfectly on the small screen of internet/TV to the world watching. Who would have been better that John Williams? A small step for ...
Thanks,
pn

[Jm Gerardo]

Uh, you missed some:
BANG ON A CAN... how could you miss Michael Gordon, David Lang, & Julia Wolfe... and I highly disagree with comments here: Reich - Did you hear Daniel Variations? Appomattox was a POWERFUL piece, a very timely piece of allegory for the the times (the last Administrattion)!!!

Hmmm, simple? Approachable? But it sounds too much like a soundtrack then it's cheezy... yet, I am a firm believer that we need to promote compositions by LIVING composers who PUSH the envelop, WHO can incorporate the NEW, and keep challenging us listeners... more of the same?

Otherwise it's BORING!!

Hmmm, I was trying to avoid listening to this piece.. ya know it's ok (it could have been worse...) I prefer Copland's variations of 'Simple Gifts'.
(Uh oh... are there reports it was pre-recorded?)

[Jesse]

The Williams piece and the performers almost brought a tear to my eye. What a wonderful new melody in the "air" sections and what an interesting and complex arrangement of the old folk tune, simple gifts. Williams is underrated in the classical purist scene. He is too popular for his own good. He's much more inventive than he's given credit for, especially to those who just know the themes that people like the most. Just because people associate him with his more familiar sounding material doesn't mean the bulk of his music isn't totally unique.