How do you teach music online?

I will be wrestling all summer with the question

"How do you teach music online?"

And no, I don't even mean Applied Music. There are definitely some issues and questions that arise with that one. I am referring to teaching "about" music. Or, more specifically, a Music Appreciation class.

For me, the main objective in a Music Appreciation class is to have the students come away with a new ability to listen to music. You see, most students who are non-musicians (and even some who are) do not actually listen to music. Oh, they hear it all right. It is on all the time. Usually too loudly and in situations where its broadcast is inappropriate. (No, I do not want to listen to your favorite R&B artist's newest "romance" song on your tinny sounding iPod speakers in the gym locker room, thank you.) But to hear the elements of music at all is not a skill that most of my students have even thought to develop.

But how can you teach the requisite skills in an online environment? 

The easiest thing in the world is to make Music Appreciation a glorified music history class for non-majors. It satisfies all the i-dotters and t-crossers in the assessment game. It is clear-cut information that the instructor has and the student does not. But when it is limited to that kind of exchange, I think it misses the point. The better and more fun class is where a student learns HOW to listen.

I think the basic element of this process is structure. The bones of any musical piece. That is my next piece to chew on.

Les Miserables (the film) – My take

First of all, is there anything better than going to a movie in the middle of the day? I think not. Add in some of your best girlfriends, and this is already a good experience.

The film as a whole

… was epic. From visually stunning to gorgeously scored, the film tells the story of the suffering and generally unfair lives of the poor souls who had the misfortune to live at this time in history. Nobody escapes your eventual sympathy. Even Javert, who I always hated, gets a little bit of understanding from me in this film.  The technical aspects of the movie-making unobtrusively help with the storytelling here. The obviously squalid conditions of the places where our characters existed hit just the right note so that you understood but they didn’t take over the story and make it about the conditions. (I mean, you could almost smell the sewer on Valjean in that scene at the end. Yuck!)

I also liked that they didn’t apologize in any way for this being a SUNG musical. Almost every line is sung. Did you notice that? Very, very few spoken lines. You have probably already heard that instead of recording the soundtrack in a studio ahead of time and lip-synching the filming, they fed live piano accompaniment to the actors through ear pieces and recorded their singing on set while they were acting the scene. An unusual, if not brand new as they claim, practice, this gave authenticity and immediacy to the vocal performances which is, in my view why the film succeeds so strongly. And at least to my ear, there was very little if any, post-production messing around with the vocals. There were times when people were a little bit under pitch, or their voice didn’t sound “perfect” for whatever reason but it served the story and so it was there. To me, this immediacy was much more effective than any attempt at vocal perfection. (whatever THAT is)

Jean Valjean's teeth tell us there was no dental insurance in the French Revolution.

Edward Redmayne (Marius) has leading-man teeth!

I also really appreciated the make-up effects. Again, the authenticity and immediacy were paramount here. One thing that struck me really strongly was the teeth! Turns out most of the actors who had to have bad teeth – (even rich people had bad teeth in the pre-dentistry days) – had thin veneers made specifically for them that just fit over their real teeth. That was particularly effective. However, you can ALWAYS tell the romantic lead in a movie by his perfect and perfectly white teeth. (Hello, Edward Redmayne) Here is an interesting interview of the make-up supervisor for the film. I like what she has to say about building a character and how that philosophy shows in her discussion of Sascha Baron Cohen’s make-up plan.

One by one…

Jean Valjean/Hugh Jackman

Hugh Jackman is no stranger to Broadway.

I went into the viewing knowing Jackman’s credentials from his time on Broadway in Boy from Oz. And he certainly did not disappoint. His performance was nothing less than ---- well --- EPIC. The scene in the convent at the beginning moved me so deeply. Jackman showed us both Valjean’s inner struggle and his transformation so clearly but to HEAR him doing this with his voice is what made it for me. It’s not that he is an actor who sings or a singer who can act, he is acting with his singing voice.

This made for such a strong contrast with …

Russell Crowe/Inspector Javert

Inspector Javert/Russell Crowe:

I was expecting to cringe while listening to Russell Crowe sing. I didn’t. Actually, he wasn’t half bad in terms of technique. The sounds he was making were absolutely unobjectionable if you ignore a little gruffy vocal fry every now and again (which I found easy to do). No, what was lacking in his performance was any sort of understanding of how to be musical. How to express an idea through music and melody and words at the same time. I remember thinking during “Stars” (which, incidentally, is a REALLY moving song and really hard to mess up emotionally) that someone needs to tell Russell Crowe that scooping to every note is not the same thing as being musical. Unfortunately for Crowe, the directing style of the movie was really about static shots (when he wasn’t changing camera focus quickly to another actor - but I digress) that allowed the emotionality of the music and the actor’s singing to take center stage. Well, since Crowe didn’t really have much of that, his acting appeared wooden and one-dimensional. We have all seen him do more than this as an actor. Sadly, his lack of vocal/musical expressive ability prevented us from really seeing what he could have done with this great character.

For another take on Javert that uses the musicality in the score and melodic line, please listen to Norm Lewis – who ALSO doesn’t do much on stage.

Edward Redmayne/ Marius

Marius/Edward Redmayne:

Here is an example of the opposite of the above, great acting and musical expressiveness but PAINFUL vocal technique. His Kermit-the-frog, constricted, closed-pharynx singing made my throat hurt and watching him muscle his way through the score just made me tired watching him. Here is an example where some good technique could also added SO MUCH this performance. He was so sympathetic, so believable, so expressive, so musical, but ouch.

The Thessoniéres

Thessoniéres

Monsieur Thessoniére/Sascha Baron Cohen

Is there anyone less sympathetic than the innkeeper Thessoniére? He is mean to Cosette. He steals from his patrons. He basically sells Cosette to a perfect stranger. Yet, in the film, he is almost like-able as Baron Cohen plays him. How is that even possible? I can’t even put my finger on it. I have been sort of anti-Sacha baron Cohen since Borat since I felt like he was making fun of people without their knowledge - taking advantage of people for the sake of some cheap humor. But now? I think he might be a genius. There was a rumor going around that he was going to play Freddie Mercury which I guess is actually going to happen. That will be something to watch.

Speaking of the Thessoniéres…

Madame Thessoniére/Helena Bonham Carter

She was fine. But haven’t we seen this same character before from her?

Speaking of fine…

Samantha Barks as Eponine

Eponine/Samantha Barks

Samantha Barks was in the West End production of Les Miserables in London so I was expecting a lot from her performance. Alas, it left me a little flat. She sang really well. She was very expressive. There wasn’t one thing that I can put my finger on that was lacking. I just didn’t care that much about her character. And her song should be one of the showstoppers of the evening (or morning in my case) but it just - - - wasn’t. Her whole character is sympathetic – she does what she does for Marius whom she loves so much that even when it works contrary to her own wants and needs, she does what will benefit him. We should have been thrashing about on the floor in tears when she died.

I also really liked

Aaron Tviet as Enjolras

Enjolras/Aaron Tveit

Loved his voice. Loved the acting. Believed him. Wish he had been on screen/stage more.

HATED

Big Cosette/Amanda Seyfried

Which surprised me because I loved her in Mamma Mia (film). Vocal flaws and all. Her Cosette was another study in one-dimensionality and the part was too high for her to express anything other than cheeps and squeaks. This part, more than any other in the show in my opinion, requires a so-called “legit” singer. One reason is that is rests so dang high. Unless you are a freak like Linda Eder, you can’t belt in that range. Even if you could, it would completely change the nature of the character. Cosette needs to grow up and become a woman through the course of the action. She goes from “There is a castle on a cloud” to “A heart full of love” in a very short time. We have to hear that she has grown up by the sound of her voice. Otherwise, the story doesn’t make as much sense from her point of view. In order to get that womanly quality in the voice, we need to hear someone who has a well-developed head voice/head-mix than has some strength in the upper register AND who knows how to modify a dang vowel in the upper register! This is usually associated with a classical approach to vocalism. Preferably, with some MT aesthetic/vowel choices as well, it would be (is) weird to hear an opera singer in the middle of Les Miserables. Amanda Seyfreid didn’t sound much different (in fact didn’t sound as GOOD) as the little girl playing the child version of her character. So, just like Russell Crowe and Edward Redmayne, she is limited in her ability to portray this character fully.

This couldn’t be more UNTRUE for

Fantine/Anne Hathaway,

If she doesn’t win a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for this role someone needs to SUE THE ACADEMY. Anne Hathaway’s performance is absolutely gripping. The scene which includes “I dreamed a dream” was brutally honest, exceptionally immediate and completely authentic.

And done in one long shot.

Did you notice? There were no cutaways. 

That was a perfectly timed and honest performance that would hold up anywhere. Not only that, but she sounded right. She expressed the music with her singing voice. As she said “…I just decided to apply the truth to the melody and see what would happen….” It was like a masterclass in how to do just that.

Loved her so much that I can hardly talk about why.

So there you go. My take on the 2012 film version of Les Miserables.