Orchestrate Hawaii ' s musical life

I grew up listening to my father's jazz records, and, on the radio, on late 1960s rock and what, in those days, they called Standard Pop. In a typical city in the late 1960s, there would be one AM rock station blasting late Motown and early Crosby Stills & Nash and "Whole Lotta Love" and "I Am the Walrus," and one FM progressive station playing Frank Zappa and the Emerson Lake & Palmer version of "Pictures at an Exhibition." Then there would be three "full service" stations playing standard pop like "MacArthur Park" and Tiny Tim's "Tiptoe Through the Tulips" and the themes to "Route 66" and "Breakfast at Tiffany's" and Sinatra and his ilk. Even on the Atlantic Coast, if a station played Dean Martin, it also played Don Ho. My dad cut back on his record buying when I was born in 1953 so the jazz records I played were no later than the Norman Granz "Jazz at the Philharmonic" concerts and the Sauter Finnigan Orchestra. As a little boy I particularly liked the Benny Goodman Sextet, boogie woogie and stride piano. It wasn't until my early twenties that I began to really explore classical music. But I quickly realized I had been exposed to it more than I realized. So much of it had been used in cartoon soundtracks! "Kill da Wabbitt" was Wagner! "Elvira Madigan" was Mozart! "Beautiful Dreamer" and "Brahms' Lullaby" turned out to come from the same symphony. "This is My Beloved" and "Baubles, Bangles, Bright Shiny Beads" were from the same Borodin quartet. The theme to NBC's Huntley-Brinkley Report was the scherzo to Beethoven's Ninth. As I grew older I realized that "original" music to the movies was much inspired by classical masterworks. How much of the music from science fiction films would have been possible without "The Planets"? And John Williams clearly got the theme to "Superman" from Richard Strauss's "Death and Transfiguration." Ultimately it became clear to me that the soundtrack to our lives is, to a great degree, orchestrated. So many Detroit Symphony musicians added unforgettable if uncredited parts to Motown hits. And if you've attended a Honolulu Pops concert you have seen what a freakout it is for an established Hawaiian artist who hear his or her songs performed with a full orchestra in back of them. A life full of music, even if it is all movies and pop without much overt classical repertory, needs to be orchestrated. But in cities across America, symphony orchestras are endangered. They are expensive to maintain. Ticket prices rarely cover more than a third of the cost of a concert, and orchestras do a great deal of educational outreach for which they do not charge. In a situation analogous to public radio and public television, they rely on extra support from people who get it sufficiently to get the need for funds. In a series of columns between now and the end of the year, I am going to discuss the role of a symphony orchestra in the community, and the importance of scrounging up some monetary support for the Honolulu Symphony. The orchestra has again fallen behind on payroll and needs to raise millions of dollars by the end of the fiscal year next June. More pressingly, it needs to raise $700,000 before the end of the year, and the sooner the better. Board members of the orchestra will be reaching out to the community in search of money to keep the organization from slipping back toward the precipice, but in my own case I have decided to do something more analogous to public radio pledge drives, and seek new givers, people who have not previously offered an outright financial contribution to the Honolulu Symphony but who believe a great city deserves great art. To make a gift, go to http://www.honolulusymphony.org and look for "support the Symphony" in the toolbar at the top of the home page. If you decide to do this, let me know by email so I can thank you on the air!

Comments

[michael]

The correct website URL is:
http://www.honolulusymphony.com

[Chuck]

Howard, I would appreciate information on how Symphonies in other cities fund themselves. I ask this because I found the near extinction, and then the overt panhandling for the symphony to be ... demeaning. I have never attended symphonies in other cities who were required to do that.

In my opinion, the Symphony is a benificial utility and asset for the community. It brings value, both monetary and esoterically. A community our size should support this program, entirely. But leaving that, what is the comparitive level of support the State, City, and County provide, compared to other municipalities our size?