West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Telling West Virginia's Story
The lush, dark, and atmospheric sounds Twin Cities band The Pines evoke the steely autumn breeze coming off the shore of Lake Superior, where this week’s premiere episode of Mountain Stage was recorded.
Find your local affiliate and listen to the entire show this week.
This week’s premiere broadcast of Mountain Stage with Larry Groce features the banjo-clad indie pop of Thao & The Get Down Stay Down. Roots rock heroes The Bottle Rockets close out the show with some new songs and old favorites like “Thousand Dollar Car” and “Radar Gun.” Kentucky native and cello master Ben Sollee fuses chamber pop, hip hop, classical, and jazz. Energetic string band The Howlin’ Brothers make their first visit to the show, and electric lap steel guitar players The Slide Brothers bring their church-bread style of playing to the airwaves.
Listen this Sunday at 2 pm on West Virginia Public Radio, or on one of over 130 stations across the country.
Roots rock heroes The Bottle Rockets return to Mountain Stage with a love song – and a story – inspired by a new guitar, and frontman Brian Henneman’s wife’s favorite discount shopping location.
Find your local affiliate and listen to the entire show this week.
West Virginia Public Radio’s part time classical music announcer, Frank Stowers, was among the 2013 class of inductees into the West Virginia Broadcasting Hall of Fame on October 12.
The remaining eight inductees are: Jack Kane, Ralph Allen, Charles Baily, Shirly “Kitty” Bocock, the late Tom Hicks, Kay Murray, Emil Varney and George Woody.
Stowers’ first job in radio was after World War II as an announcer at WHIS Radio in Bluefield. A graduate of Duke University, he later worked in Human Resources at Union Carbide in Charleston from 1956 until his retirement in 1985. He was one of Carbide’s media relations contacts and did narrations for company film and TV productions. Since retiring, he has spent the past 28 years doing what he loves — working at West Virginia Public Radio as a part time staff announcer. A job he continues to this day.
The West Virginia Broadcasting Hall of Fame is located at the Museum of Radio & Technology in Huntington. It’s mission is to commemorate exceptional broadcasters, who through talent and dedication, have brought great honor to the state or contributed the most to its cultural heritage by entertaining, informing, or otherwise enhancing the means of broadcasting; and to provide a repository at the museum for a collection of broadcasting memorabilia to keep alive the memory of those we celebrate so that their examples of excellence may educate and inspire future generations.
Notables who have been inducted into the West Virginia Broadcasting Hall of Fame since its inception eight years ago include Soupy Sales, Don Knotts, Little Jimmy Dickens, Bob Denver and Larry Groce, host of West Virginia Public Broadcasting’s Mountain Stage.
West Virginia Public Radio Presents is broadcast Thursdays at 9 p.m. and features a variety of insightful programs that explore life, politics, and culture in and around the Mountain State.
Produced by Larry Groce (host of Mountain Stage) these three one-hour programs dramatize five of the short stories from G.D. McNeill’s book, “The Last Forest.”
October 17 The First Campfire Back in the 1880’s when this story takes place, the author was a 10-year-old boy living on a mountain farm nestled up against one of the last virgin forests in the eastern United States. It was a life bounded by the seasons and the sun, a life enriched by the tall tales, legends, and family memories recounted over long winter nights by the fireplace. This story tell of his first fishing trip across the mountains to the Cranberry River wilderness.
October 24 The Battle at the Whirlpool & The Last Campfire This is a fish story told at a time when the native Brook trout streams of the Gauley country were struggling to survive. Logging and waste during the first two decades of the twentieth century killed off many good trout fisheries. The Battle at the Whirlpool is a quest-story about a young boy seeking to catch the last great brook trout in the Gauley country. In The Last Campfire, 50 years after The First Campfire, a group of old friends reunite to travel to the old wilderness where they spent their youth. It’s a story of loss and renewal, as the group of friends faces the reality of the destructive hand of man, and the ability of nature to be restored.
October 31 The Mystery at Gauley Marsh & The Duke of Possum Ridge In these stories, G.D. McNeill tells the story of the Gauley Marsh, based on the real-life Cranberry Glades, a sub-arctic wetlands environment that was left behind when the last Ice Age receded from the Allegheny Mountains. In the spirit of Halloween, this is a murder mystery inspired by a real story from McNeill’s day. The Duke of Possum Ridge is a tale of greed about neighbors who took advantage of those around them during the boom times when the railroads, timbering and mining began to exploit the cheap land and resources of the state.
A curriculum guide is available at The Last Forest Website from the Pocahontas Communications Cooperative. Made possible in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the West Virginia Humanities Council.
How should you act at a classical concert? Are there rules you should follow? Is everyone around you asleep or lost in reverential contemplation?
My colleague, Matthew Jackfert, send me this link– an article by Richard Dare, CEO and Managing Director, Brooklyn Philharmonic and Entrepreneur, about the perceived restrictions of a live classical music concert.
At first, I thought this post, considering the source, was playful jest. Perhaps a small poke at those who believe classical concerts are more akin to funerals than exciting live music, but I think the author is sincere:
"But this was classical music. And there are a great many "clap here, not there" cloak-and-dagger protocols to abide by. I found myself a bit preoccupied — as I believe are many classical concert goers — by the imposing restrictions of ritual behavior on offer: all the shushing and silence and stony faced non-expression of the audience around me, presumably enraptured, certainly deferential, possibly catatonic; a thousand dead looking eyes, flickering silently in the darkness, as if a star field were about to be swallowed by a black hole. I don't think classical music was intended to be listened to in this way. And I don't think it honors the art form for us to maintain such a cadaverous body of rules."
This fanciful depiction of a classical concert might be an observation by an unruly teenager, but for a 49-year-old globetrotter cum managing director of a symphony orchestra, this observation seems immature and awkward. That aside, let’s address what’s being put forth.
What’s the sound of one idiot clapping?
Mr. Dare and maybe some concert goers seem a bit mystified at the appropriate time for clapping. Here’s a handy rule: Applause is reserved for the end of the piece and not between movements. I think we’ve all been at concerts where a sudden smattering erupts after a vigorous allegro and is quickly extinguished. Nothing wrong with that, but to yell out when something excites you or to clap whenever you feel the urge is to disrespect the music, the space, audience and performers. Save your rhapsodic enthusiasm for the end of the piece. The performers will appreciate it more.
What is appropriate to one concert is not to another.
Mindfulness is something that carries us through many situations. There is a definite lack of mindfulness of concert goers in general and this clueless behavior can nearly ruin a performance. When at the Peter Gabriel concert last year, audience participation was encouraged by the artist, but I doubt anyone really treasured the loud, disruptive person who had, shall we say, “high spirits” during quieter moments of the show. At a classical concert, he might have been forced to leave. Probably he wouldn’t have been there in the first place.
Lifting the “rules” of a classical concert are not going to increase ticket sales or transform a financially strapped organization (many symphony orchestras have hit the rocks) into a shiny, popular money machine. Mr. Globe-trotter should know that.
The good old days weren’t all that good.
Dare writes: Joseph Horowitz in his wonderful new book, Moral Fire, describes audiences "screaming" and "standing on chairs" during classical concerts in the 1890s. The New York Times records an audience that "wept and shouted, strung banners across the orchestra pit over the heads of the audience and flapped unrestrainedly" when listening to their favorite opera singer at the Met in the 1920s.
In the same section, Dare tells us that Beethoven would have approved and expected shouts and cheers during his music and then tells us that Beethoven was a revolutionary; although his music was not received without harsh criticism. Then we learn that Beethoven today would have hated the reverential, pre-packaged greatness masquerading as exciting live concert programming.
My guess would be that the old boy might be shocked that his music was still being performed, let alone remembered.
Back then or here now, nothing’s really changed in my opinion. When composers come up with really new ideas, they are set upon by those who believe they are protecting the hallowed canon of classical works. That never lasts long either. If the music has some value, it will start a slow climb of 50 years or so until finally it becomes “accepted.”
Classical audiences are glacial in accepting new music.
In 1973, composer Steve Reich caused a near riot when debuting “Four Organs” in New York. Philip Glass has been the object of scathing hatred by critics and audiences alike. Both composers are now accepted into the classical canon.
I am all in for living composers to get a piece performed by a symphony orchestra, but I don’t have to answer to board members or other monetary concerns. Maybe Mr. Dare can start a trend of performing nothing but music from the 20th century as well as contemporary composers. Will audiences go for it?
Making it more “fun” isn’t going to work either.
Dare is suggesting that the perceived awful way classical audiences listen, sitting silently, is one reason why classical music is seen as taking a downturn in ticket sales, attendance, etc. He also states that orchestras play the same works over and over.
Not being responsible for a season of concerts that results in making profit for a symphonic orchestra precludes for me making any suggestions in this area, but I would say that the audiences, mostly of a mature age, expect music that they have heard before. If they are buying the season passes, it’s a losing proposition to do otherwise.
Getting young people interested in classical music and concerts.
With music education and arts and culture practically nil in the school systems (at least that’s what I’ve been told), how are future generations going to discern between music of the formulaic variety and that which is ultimately worth the concert hall?
All I can say is that I try to do my part on public radio to introduce music which is more harmonically and rhythmically relevant to younger ears. Do I get blasted for it? Yes, on occasion. Will I stop? No, because it is serving a higher purpose than just to please by playing by the rules.
In conclusion, I would be surprised if this Richard Dare is still managing director of the Brooklyn Philharmonic or any other musical organization because he’s going to realize (maybe) that making music isn’t the same as making money; although we all wish it was.
