Missouri Classical Music News and Notes

Danielpour's inspiration for "Pastime" came from the poem "Blackjack," about Jackie Robinson. At the artist colony Yaddo, Danielpour asked poet Michael Harper to write other baseball poems so he could set them to music.

"He didn't really react too much," Danielpour said. "Then after another week, I tossed him a baseball and said, 'See if this will help.' I said, 'Consider it the grain of sand that gets into your shell.'"

Within a week or so, Harper wrote nine, of which Danielpour used five.

"Pastime" was commissioned by the Pittsburgh and Atlanta symphonies and the Brooklyn Philharmonic to honor the three baseball legends who played in those cities. The Pittsburgh premiere was on the 60th anniversary of Gibson's death; it will be performed in Brooklyn in July 2008.

Written in the style of Gershwin's "Porgy and Bess," the piece starts with a swaggering introduction, complete with percussive strikes that conjure images of a pitch slamming into the catcher's mitt. The epilogue has a gentle, sentimental theme that is sidetracked by arrogant motifs, including a grotesquely distorted reference to "The Star-Spangled Banner" that suggests a lamentation for baseball's loss of innocence.

For their worship the English Puritans chose the Psalms of David, sung in unison, unaccompanied. The metre into which the Psalms were translated was ballad metre, and the music was syllabic - that is, using one melody note per syllable. In 1643 the Westminster Assembly of Divines enacted "that for the present where many of the congregation cannot read, it is convenient that the minister or some other fit person appointed by him, and the other ruling officers do read the psalm, line by line, before the singing thereof." Lowland Scots took well to ballad metre, which was familiar to them in folksong, and 'reading the line' became so much part of the church’s praise that it came to be regarded as a venerable Scottish custom. Later church music reformers campaigned to abolish it, and it gradually became extinct, except in Gaelic speaking areas. . . .

The person who read the line became known as the precentor. Nowadays it is the precentor’s duty not only to let the congregation hear clearly the text it is to sing next, but also to give a hint of the melody line by pinpointing its more important notes. . . .

On hearing Gaelic Psalm Singing for the first time, some who are entirely outside the culture find it an intensely moving experience. For the privileged few who have been nurtured in it, each good performance has the attraction of familiar, secure, unchanging things, as well as that of the powerful beauty of the sound.

The 94th General Assembly adjourned at 6:00 p.m., on Friday, May 18. Many of the high profile bills gained final approval on the last day of session. The Senate passed 8 percent, 57 of the 710 bills introduced at the beginning of the legislature. The House passed 5.8 percent, 76 of the 1,292 bills introduced. Many of the bills were rolled into "omnibus" bills dealing with specific issues. The problem with this tactic is the omnibus bills often die because of the numerous amendments added during debate.

The Governor considered it a successful session, citing the passage of MO HealthNet - the state's new Medicaid plan and MOHELA - the college capital bill, as key victories.

Following is a summary of the legislation important to Missouri Citizens for the Arts (MCA) this session.

BUDGET - Missouri Arts Council (MAC)
The session started out as a turbulent one after a lawsuit was filed by the Kansas City Symphony against the Governor and the State General Assembly. Although the lawsuit is still pending, the Governor took the high road and recommended the largest increase in history to the Missouri Arts Council.

During Governor Matt Blunt's State of the State Address, he recommended a $4.5 million increase for the Missouri Cultural Trust Fund, in addition to their core funding of $3.3 million. There were many legislative appropriation hoops to jump through between his recommendation on January 24, and May 11, when the budget had to be finished and back on the Governor's desk.

House Appropriations Chairman for Economic Development, Representative Charlie Schlottach, R- Owensville, and House Budget Chairman, Representative Allen Icet, R-Wildwood, along with all members of both committees and the House of Representatives approved the Governor's request. And even rarer, the Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman, Senator Chuck Gross, R-St. Charles, and his committee also approved the recommendations. This eliminated having to go to Conference Committee for the second year in a row!

The Governor and legislature also approved $1.3 million for each of the Cultural Partners - Public Broadcasting, Humanities Council, Library Association, and Historic Preservation.

BUDGET - FINE ARTS ACADEMY
The Governor recommended core funding for the Missouri Fine Arts Academy, at $618,460. While the House approved a $171,015 increase for FY08, the Senate did not. When the item came up in Conference Committee, Representative Ed Robb, R- Columbia and Senator Tim Green, D-North St. Louis County fought to add the increase; however, the Chairs went back to the core appropriation.

Missouri Citizens for the Arts will continue to fight for a supplemental appropriation during next session. Without the increase, the academy will not be able to bring in quality guest artists and conductors, or serve as many children.

FINE ARTS MAP ASSESSMENT
The funding for the Fine Arts MAP Assessment was not included in the budget for the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE). MCA has been working with the Missouri Alliance for Arts Education, and DESE to decrease the cost of administering and giving the test. This year the department raised the request to $850,000. MCA is working with new technology to send the test via Internet, eliminating the cost to duplicate the VCR tapes or DVD's.

FILM TAX CREDIT
Senator Jason Crowell, R-Cape Girardeau and Representative Ed Robb, R-Columbia introduced legislation for film tax credits. This act modifies provisions of the film production tax credit program by lowering the minimum expected in-state budget expenditure, from $300,000 to $50,000 for qualified film production projects less than thirty minutes in length or to $100,000 for a project longer than thirty minutes, for tax years beginning on or after January 1, 2008. The act removes the limitation on the amount of tax credits which may be issued annually per taxpayer for all tax years beginning on or after December 31, 2007. The annual aggregate cap on all tax credits certified under the program is increased from one million five hundred thousand dollars to ten million dollars.

These bills were held up when Representative Trent Skaggs, D-North Kansas City offered an amendment stating: "No tax credit shall be issued for any film production that does not promote Missouri values which shall include, but not be limited to, the sanctity of marriage and abstinence from illegal controlled substance usage". This language is not included in the final version of the bill.

House Bill 327 is on the Governor's desk awaiting his signature.

TOURISM
Currently, the Division of Tourism Supplemental Revenue Fund will expire on June 30, 2010. The legislature approved in several bills language to extend the expiration date to June 30, 2015. Revenue received from this tax must be used solely for the promotion of tourism.

THEATER, CULTURAL ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT DISTRICTS
Currently, only St. Charles County and its municipalities are allowed to establish a theater, cultural arts, and entertainment district. This bill allows the governing body of any county or city that has transect-based zoning, and the counties of Boone, Clay, Franklin, Jackson, or Jasper and their municipalities to form a district.

MISSOURI JUNETEENTH HERITAGE AND JAZZ FESTIVAL AND MEMORIAL
Representative Juanita Head Walton introduced House Bill 1126 that would allow the Missouri Juneteenth Heritage and Jazz Festival and Memorial to receive ten percent of the nonresident entertainer and professional athletic team income tax. The ten percent would come from the sixty percent of the money appropriated to the Missouri Cultural Trust Fund, with the agreement that the cap of $10 million for the arts would be removed. This legislation was heard in the House Tax Policy Committee, but never came to a vote.

Current law requires any funds appropriated by the general assembly for this event shall be used to establish a statewide festival and monument to commemorate the struggles and hardships endured by those who had been enslaved.

If you have any questions, or would like additional information or copies of legislation, please contact Kyna Iman, at (314) 651-1185.
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Missouri Citizens for the Arts
email: mo4arts@swbell.net
phone: 314.383.6644
web: http://www.missouricitizensforthearts.org

Operatic updates are tricky things, and prone to fiasco. But Gilbert & Sullivan’s "The Mikado," seen Saturday night in its opening at Opera Theatre of St. Louis, updates hilariously to present-day Japan (and America), its satire now encompassing cell-phone users, presidential candidates (they’d none of them be missed), op-ed columnists and bloggers, among other well-chosen targets.

Stage director Ned Canty, with the aid of set designer Mikiko Suzuki MacAdams and costume designer Linda Cho, gives us the town of Titipu as a high-rise suburb of Tokyo, with a chorus of identically dressed businessmen and schoolgirls in sailor suits (all singing, all dancing), Nanki-Poo as a Elvis-esque punker, three Anime-inspired little maids, and Pish-Tush as a technogeek who glides around on shoes equipped with wheels in their heels.

You might expect a classical conductor to be called Lawrence or Laurence or even Lorenz.

But Larry?

Larry Rachleff is a gangly and unprepossessing guy who looks vaguely nerdy onstage. He sometimes stands with his feet turned out like a ballet dancer’s, though the resemblance ends there.

For all that, Rachleff might be the greatest American conductor you’ve never heard of.

He has a mastery of the orchestra that translates into detail, conviction and a sort of unwitting charisma.

The balcony brawl at Symphony Hall Wednesday night drew international attention, including jokes on "The Tonight Show." Conductor Keith Lockhart briefly stopped the opening night performance while officers escorted the two fighters out of the hall.

Twenty-7-year-old Matthew Ellenger says the incident began when he told 44-year-old Michael Hallam to be quiet during the performance. Ellenger says after some continued bickering, Hallam punched him. We haven't heard Hallam's side of the story yet.