Missouri Classical Music News and Notes

In the death of musicologist Stanley Sadie, the classical music world has lost not only one of its most knowledgeable and enthusiastic scholars, but also a writer who could communicate his passion to a wider public . . .

Sadie’s greatest achievement was the 20-volume The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, which he edited from 1970 onwards, along with a number of companion titles including The New Grove Dictionary of Opera. He also worked on its successor, published in 2001, having been made emeritus editor in 1999.

Mr. Sadie had spent three weeks at a hospital in London, but was intent on returning home in time for the first concert in a music series that he and his wife run in a church near their home. The concert, on Sunday evening, was an all-Beethoven program performed by the Chilingirian String Quartet. Mr. Sadie was able to stay for the first half, but felt unwell and went home to bed. At the conclusion of the performance, the quartet went to Mr. Sadie's house, set up quietly in his bedroom, and performed the slow movement of Beethoven's Quartet No. 16 in F (Op. 135) as he drifted in and out of sleep.

Dr. Mia Hynes
Central Missouri State University
Department of Music
Hudson 119
Warrensburg, MO 64093
660-543-8900
hynes@cmsu1.cmsu.edu

A US team from Dartmouth College, reported in the journal Nature, played volunteers tunes with snippets cut out.

They scanned for brain activity and found it centred in the auditory cortex - which handles information from ears.

When familiar tunes played, the cortex activity continued during the blanks - and the volunteers indeed said they still mentally "heard" the tunes.

After the experiment, the volunteers reported hearing a continuation of the song during the silent gaps when the tune was familiar, but not when the song was unfamiliar to them.

When the researchers looked at the brain scans they found the individuals had more activity in specific regions of the brain during the silent gaps when the song was familiar, than when it was an unknown tune.

The musicians of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra have ratified a new contract.

The 56-36 vote was announced Tuesday and came after two months of what the St. Louis office of the National Labor Relations Board last week called an illegal strike. The contract gives players a modest pay raise in each year of a 3 1/2-year agreement. A recent gift from an anonymous donor allowed the Symphony to give musicians a signing bonus of $2,500 each and a "stay bonus" of $4,000 each at the contract's end.

"We have a deal," said orchestra President Randy Adams. He smiled and shook hands with Jan Gippo, chairman of the musicians' negotiating committee, after a photo-op contract signing in the lobby of Powell Symphony Hall on Tuesday afternoon.

Gippo, the orchestra's piccolo specialist, cited the need to stay competitive with peer orchestras, keep the musicians it has and attract new players of high quality.

"This agreement did exactly what we want," Gippo said