December 02, 2005

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Classifieds

Palo Alto Online

Music for the masses

by Rebecca Wallace

Rob Kapilow has written a terrible piece of music.

He's sapped all the life out of "Something's Coming" from "West Side Story," creating a new version with a plodding rhythm. One -two-three, one -two-three, he pounds out on the piano. Maybe he should call it "Something's Hammering Me on the Head."

Fortunately, Kapilow's goal was to create dreck -- and to educate a listener about music by demonstrating how to fix it. He gives the rhythm of his creation a firm tweak, and the song perks up. It's approaching the original Leonard Bernstein composition, but not quite.

"It's almost the same," Kapilow says breathlessly, "but there's that (missing) note in the left hand. It's what makes it wonderful. That dissonance."

He adds the note. "Something's Coming" bursts into its true, glorious shape, and Kapilow's energy is just as vibrant, even though he's being interviewed over the phone. His words tumble over each other. "The difference between boring and great is tiny and huge at the same time."

You don't have to be an expert to appreciate the details that make a piece of music grab the ear and endure, Kapilow believes. And so the New Jersey conductor and composer crisscrosses the country with a mission of giving audiences musical epiphanies, all the while de-stuffying the classics and offering new insight into American songbook standards.

In his "What Makes it Great?" presentations, which he debuted on National Public Radio about a decade ago, Kapilow delves into famous musical works through lively discussion, demonstration, audience participation and performances by noted musicians. Now he's bringing the program to Stanford Lively Arts for the first time.

On Dec. 7 in Dinkelspiel Auditorium, Kapilow will focus on "West Side Story," with the help of singers Michael Winther and Sally Wilfert. Kapilow will return to Stanford for a second program on Jan. 8, exploring Aaron Copland's "Appalachian Spring" together with the Stanford Chamber Strings (the St. Lawrence String Quartet and its handpicked ensemble).

"What Makes it Great?" had its genesis during a time when Kapilow had a split personality -- musically, that is. While a professor at Yale University, he was conducting Beethoven at Yale by day and heading to New York to conduct on Broadway by night.

Conductors face away from the audience, but they often have a keen sense of how a piece of music is going over. And Kapilow was struck by the difference between his two types of crowds. Broadway audiences knew the songs, rolled with the plot, and knew when to clap and cheer. With Beethoven, though, "there was more polite applause," he recalled. "They didn't get it."

The big challenge most people face in understanding classical music is following the plot, he said. It's a lot easier to trace what's going on when there are words, when Maria's singing about her burgeoning feelings for Tony.

Appreciating classical music, on the other hand, is often just about recognizing a coherent sequence of events, Kapilow said. "Appalachian Spring," for example, starts with a graceful chord and later repeats the notes from the chord, playing them separately in dappled sequences. If you don't know the progression is there, you might not appreciate the beauty of it, Kapilow said.

The perpetually upbeat and fast-talking Kapilow is the very definition of accessible. If one interview is any indication, he seems like he could give just about anyone a way into classical music. He compares it to rugby, a friendship that takes time to nurture, and an episode of TV's "CSI." (It's all about piecing together the clues, er, chords to find a sequence of events, he says.)

Kapilow has also made fans out of folks who might not seem like your typical classical music buffs. A writer for the Philadelphia Inquirer once wrote: "At the end of one of Kapilow's points, the J. Crew teenager behind me said aloud and to no one in particular: 'Wow, that was awesome!'"

Acclaim has also come from more high-brow sources: the New York Times dubbed a 2002 "What Makes It Great?" program on Leonard Bernstein at Lincoln Center one of the top 10 theater moments of that year.

Bernstein is a special favorite for Kapilow, particularly because the composer and conductor was not afraid to mix classical and Broadway music in his career, even when classical purists sniffed at the heresy.

"Bernstein was one of those people who said, 'There's room for all. Music is music.' It's an important legacy," Kapilow said.

Following in those footsteps, Kapilow enjoys speaking on both Schubert and Gershwin, symphonies and "Cheek to Cheek." And the warmth he feels for Bernstein is apparently mutual; he has received a lot of cooperation from Bernstein's estate in developing "What Makes It Great?" programs.

For instance, the estate gave Kapilow permission to use earlier versions of "West Side Story" songs. Although those incarnations were ultimately rejected, they can educate listeners on the creative paths taken by Bernstein and lyricist Stephen Sondheim -- however winding the paths may have sometimes been.

With a grimace in his voice, Kapilow quotes early lyrics from the song "Maria": "Are you shy, are you quick, do you like the color blue? Who and what are you? Tell me."

Glimpsing the early missteps of the masters gives even rookie musicians hope, Kapilow says good-naturedly: "All of us could write something that bad."

Chuckling, he adds, "It looks like the stuff (classic pieces of music) got handed down from the heavens intact, but it comes from humans revising and revising."


What: "What Makes It Great?," two events led by Rob Kapilow, including discussion, demonstration, audience participation and performance, about Leonard Bernstein's "West Side Story" music and Aaron Copland's "Appalachian Spring."


Where: Dinkelspiel Auditorium, Stanford University


When: The Bernstein evening is at 8 p.m. on Dec. 7, and the Copland event is at 2:30 p.m. on Jan. 8.


Cost: Tickets are $30/$24 for adults and $15/$12 for Stanford students.


Info: Call (650) 725-ARTS or go to livelyarts.stanford.edu.

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