University Daily Kansan, March 21, 1985
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World marks Bach's 300th
By PEGGY HELSEL
The world is lifting its glass to toast the anniversary of the 300th birthday of composer Johann Sebastian Bautz.
Staff Reporter
From California to North Carolina, in music festivals and concerts, strains of the Baroque master's music may be heard drifting through parks and concert halls.
And in Europe, the birthplace of Bach — and George Frederick Handel and Domenico Scarlatti, two other composers born in 1865 — the Parliament of Europe established a program under the title "The European Music Year."
CLOSEER TO HOME, Lawrence is throwing its own party for the birthday honorees. A slew of concerts and radio programs featuring music by the three composers is scheduled for coming weeks.
James Moeser, Althaus distinguished professor of organ and dean of Fine Arts, said Bach ranked high on the U.S. list of best colleges.
"He's certainly in the top three or four in Western civilization." Mposer said.
Richard Reber, professor of music, said Bach was a master at counterpoint, or fitting melodies together. This quality plus the clarity of the music makes it a joy to play as well as listen to.
Bach, born in Eisenach, in what is now East Germany, was the most famous member of a family musical dynasty of 14 brothers, sons and other relatives.
"IT'S VERY CLEAR," he said. "Very gratifying and satisfying to play his music."
He was a prolific composer. During his 65 years he produced over 250 cantatas alone, plus scores of chorale preludes, fugues, the Brandenburg Concertes and the Mass in B Minor — works that are as beautifully inspiring today as they were in the 18th century.
BACH SPENT HIS career in the employ of dukes and churches, as court organist, chamber musician and
In fact, Bach's works are more appreciated today than they were during his lifetime. Bach was a noted organist in his day, but his musical genius was not recognized until a century after his death, when Felix Mendelssohn brought Bach into vogue with the rediscovery of the "SB Matthew Passion."
As his interest in music evolved from producing pieces for single organs to instrumental and vocal ensembles, Bach lost favor with his patron at the time. He was replaced by another organist, organist, and Bach's music was not what he wanted.
Rather than conform to the duke's wishes, Bach chose to pack his bags and find another duke.
The first duke was dismaged by Bach's leaving that he imprisoned him for a short time for "too stubbornly forcing the issue of his resignation." The duke also with the equivalent of a dishonorable discharge.
Bach was a hot-tempered perfectionist who demanded perfection in others. He once criticized a bassoonist whose playing, in Bach's opinion, sounded
like a goat bleating. The disagreement ended in the town marketplace where knives were drawn before it was resolved.
Bach's life was filled with tragedy. He was orphaned as a young boy, and his mother was killed when he was 20, and has 20 children survived him.
But despite the losses he incurred, Bach still was able to write music that achieved his aim and final reason, and probably will continue to do so for another 300 years.
TODAY
The festivities for Bach's birthday, this week and next include:
11 a.m. — Radio station KANU-FM 92 will air the broadcast premiere of 33 Bach organ chorale preludes recently discovered by Christoph Wolff, chairman of the music department at Harvard. Moeser said the discovery shed an important light on the early development of the musical genius.
*2:30 p.m. — Reber will offer a recital of Bach music in Swarthout Recital Hall in Murphy Hall. He will play 15 sinfonias and provide short commentaries on each.
- 5:30 p.m. — KANU will present an all-Bach edition of Music by Candlelight.
8 p.m. Moeser will present his inaugural
leadership at Plymouth Congregational Church,
935 Verners Town.
The presentation, titled "The Secret Art of Johann Sebastian Bach," includes a commentary by Moeser and performance of Bach's Passacaglia in C Minor and Major. The major. The recital will be broadcast on KANU.
- 8 p.m. The Salamagundi Ensemble will perform several Bach pieces in a concert at Swarthout Recital Hall in Murphy Hall. Also performing will be the KU Chamber Choir, directed by James Ralston, professor of music. The 30-voice choir will sing Cantata No. 106.
9 a. 9m. to 11 p.m. — Bach-a-thon, a 14-hour musical marathon, will be presented by the KU student chapter of the American Guild of Organists at Plymouth Congregational Church.
SATURDAY
SUNDAY
*7:30 p.m. — Pianist Rita Sito-Gottlieb and violinist Mark Peskanov, who came to the United States from Russia in 1873, will play works by Bach. The show will be located in the central court of the Spencer Museum of Art.
Also performing are Baroque flutist Rebecca Stuhr-Rommeirem and a chamber ensemble comprised of violinists Chris Harden, David Gottlieb, Carolyn Young, and Lynnita Harris; violins Mary Tuven Hoag and Karel Blaas; cellists Scott Neumann, Emily Powell and Jill Poulter; and double-bassist Charles Hoag. The suggested donation for the event is $3.
MARCH 31
KU magazine to observe 20th year with commemorative issue
- 3:30 p.m. — The KU Chamber Choir will give a repeat performance of the Cantata No. 106 plus Handel's Dixit Dominus in "A Concert Celebrating the Tercentery of the Births of Bach and Handel" in the Crafton-Preeyer Theatre in Murphy Hall.
By RICK ZAPOROWSKI Staff Renorter
Frequent readers of national literary magazines may rarely see works written by Midwestern writers. However, some of the best local and regional art and literature of the past 20 years will be collected soon in one publication.
Featured in the issue will be a short story by Robert Day, the magazine's founder, and poetry by KU alumnus William Stafford. The issue also will include nearly 50 poems, six
The 35th issue of Cottonwood, the KU literary magazine, will be released in May and will mark the publication's 20th anniversary. The book is one of the best works from its first two decades.
short stories, a collection of photography and an article on Kansas literature by KU alumnus Tom Averill.
ERLEEN CHRISTENSEN, LECTURER in English, stepped down as the magazine's editor in January, but temporarily remained with the magazine to compile the works for the retrospective issue. She said collecting the literature took several months.
She said she had decided to exclude from the anniversary issue past interviews and book reviews. She also included only works that were published originally in Cottonwood.
"I started out by reading all the issues over the last 20 years," she said. "I marked the ones that looked as if they'd work, then went back and reread them. I did set some artificial parameters before I started, to make things easier."
CHRISTENSEN, WHO HAD been editor since 1982, said that about 70 percent of the manuscripts the magazine received were from outside Kansas. The magazine, however, often has featured the works of many Kangas writers.
'I think that the magazine has done well over the years in finding and publishing works of high quality. I think there's been a steady growth in the quality of submissions.'
George Wedge
Cottonwood editor
George Wedge, associate professor of English and linguistics, is Cottonwood's current editor, although the magazine is run mostly by students. He said his election as editor in December reflected concern of the staff about the high turnover rate among
"Over the years the magazine has gotten better and better known," she said. "Sometimes I suspect our reputation has been better outside of campus."
Cottonwood has survived some financially tight periods. The magazine has existed on sales revenues, aid from the department of English and the Graduate Student Council and grants from the Kansas Arts Commission and the National Endowment for the arts.
students. The staff wants to preserve some continuity in the magazine's format.
WEDGE SAID HE planned to follow the magazine's established traditions of publishing fiction, poetry and interviews with well-known writers.
"We have no big editorial changes in mind," he said. "I think that the magazine has done well over the years in finding and publishing works of high quality. I think there's been a steady growth in the quality of submissions."
The magazine's 100 to 125 subscribers mostly are in Kansas, Wedge said, but the magazine has a strong national reputation reflected by its contributors, as well as its
"They come from all over the country," he said.
Piano playing tickles woman's fancy
By SHARON ROSSE
Staff Reporter
Rita Sloan-Gottlieb has performed in Carnegie Hall and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. But the opportunity to take her music to such locales as Protection, Kan., and Sandpoint, Idaho, has been her mark of success.
"I've been to places I defy you to find on the map," Sloan-Gottlieb said. "But I want to take classical music to places where it usually never goes."
SHE ORGANIZED THE benefit to celebrate the tricentenial of johnniens Sebastian Bach, George Frederick Handel and Domenico Scarailti and to raise money for the restoration of the 1880 Bechstein piano now on the museum. Donations of $3 will be requested.
Sloan-Gottlieb, a Lawrence pianist, will perform a benefit concert with Mark Peskanov, a Russian violinist, and several Lawrence area musicians at 7:30 p.m. Sunday in the central court of the Spencer Museum of Art.
"If you go into this profession just for the fame, you will be disappointed," she said. "There can be only one Iltzhak Perlman."
Making it to Carnegie Hall and Kennedy Center would be enough for many pianists, she said, but fame and recognition aren't the only rewards Sloan-Gottlieb seeks.
"I have played concerts where they forgot my name on the program or put on someone else's name instead of mine. But I really don't care. I probably get a little upset if I never got my name mentioned, though."
DAVID GOTTLIEB, HER husband and a KU professor of law, performs as a concertmaster violinist with the Lawrence Symphony Orchestra. But he insists there is no musical competition between them.
music because she loves the music. If you don't love it, you don't do it."
"tutta's a professional," Gottlieb said.
"I'm an amateur. If no money or recognition were involved, she would still play chamber
She said her parents' situation in Europe may have affected the way she plans her life now.
Sloan-Gottlieb was born in a Russian labor camp in 1943 where her polish parents were
"A situation like that, I think, marks you irrevocably," she said. "I don't make long-range runs. The general feeling was to look too far into the future because it's risky."
Her talent soon became obvious, however,
and she was playing solo recitals by 13. She
performed with the Detroit Symphony
Orchestra at 15.
Slaan-Gottlieb said she began playing piano when she was 7 years old because her father thought it was a necessary part of education.
"I was definitely hooked young." Sloan Gottlieb said. "My parents threatened to stop our piano lessons if we didn't practice. My younger sister said 'fine,' but it worked on me because I loved the music more than I hated to practice."
BUT HER PARENTS emigrated to the United States and settled in Detroit. And they worked to forget the past and build a more stable life, she said.
FORTUNATELY FOR HER students,
Sloan-Gottlieb said, she "would not be
caught dead teaching like that." She teaches
part time at Missouri Western State College
during the school year and at the Aspen
Music Festival during the summer.
Her first teacher was an old Polish pianist who ranted, raved, screamed and yelled to motivate his students, Sloan-Gottlieb said. But he knew his music.
Margie Cameron-Jarrett, graduate student at Missouri Western, said Sloan Gottlieb was blunt, direct and dominating, but never intimidating.
"I think of myself as a dominating person," Cameron-Jarrett said. "But she is
so powerful and confident. I thought she would be intimidating, but she's not."
But Sloan-Gottlieb's three children, two of whom play musical instruments, might not agree with their mother's students about her patience, Sloan-Gottlieb said.
DANIEL, 12. PLAYS the violin and Michael, 8, plays the cello. Sarah, 3, doesn't play an instrument yet, but has been occupied for now with a small plastic violin.
Sloan-Gottlieb said, "1 hate practicing with my kids. They find every way in the book to practice the wrong way. I end up laughing and asking for a hug, usually laughing. They know I'm a soft touch."
Both Shaan Gottlieb and her husband said they had never pushed their children to be professional musicians.
Gottlieb said that he would rather see them as doctors, lawyers or computer scientists before they became professional musicians.
“It’s a lousy way to make a living,” he said. “We want them to play music not so they will be like Rita, but so they will be like me, so they'll have this wonderful hobby when they're older.”
SLOAN-GOTTLIEB AGREED that the music profession took more than a love for music. Her studies at the Julliard School of Music in New York City taught her to be realistic, she said.
"It it put a lot of realistic humility in me," she said. "I realized how many good pianists there are and how many can play rings around me."
But Sloan-Gottlieb, who said she had a reputation for being a loner as a child, said she found acceptance at Julliard.
"There were people like me at Juillard," she said. "In high school, I was miserable. I practiced four hours a day, got out of classes early to perform and played classical music. I found out at Juillard that I wasn't the only weird person in the world."
Veda Owens/KANSAN
Rita Sloan-Gottlieb, left, a Lawrence pianist, and Mark Peskanov, a Russian violinist, will perform in a benefit concert at 7:30 p.m. Sunday in the central court of the Spencer Museum of Art. "I have played concerts where they forgot my name on the program or put someone else's name instead of mine." Sloan-Gottlieb said. "But I really don't care."