After months of deadly trench warfare, on Dec. 24, 1914, German and British soldiers in Belgium suddenly ceased hostilities and, through the singing of carols, celebrated Christmas together. This film documents their spontaneous musical truce with eyewitness reports, proving that "people who make music together cannot be enemies, at least not while the music lasts" (Hindemith). 
The Christmas Truce DVD, available from Music in Motion, documents this incredible event, when music transcended the ravages of war to unite foes in a spirit of common  humanity to discover true meaning of Christmas.

American folk singer John McCutcheon immortalized the 1914 Christmas truce in his moving ballad, “Christmas in the Trenches”:

I heartily recommend the following illustrated book for children, which tells the true story of the Christmas Truce in a language children can understand:

In Flanders Field

By Norma Jorgensen and Brian Harrison-Lever. On Christmas morning, the guns stop firing. A robin is caught in the barbed wire of no-man’s land on the front. The soldier makes a choice that transforms into a peaceful moment of sharing Silent Night across enemy lines. The famous World War I title poem of John McCrae is a fitting conclusion to this illustrated book for children.
Hardback 2496  $16.95 (available at Music in Motion)

Also recommended is The Story of Silent Night DVD. It recounts the history of the carol Silent Night and includes a re-enactment of a spontaneous World War II music-induced Christmas Day truce between the Germans and Americans, similar to the WWI Christmas truce at Flanders Field:

The Story of Silent Night DVD

A live-action retelling of how the best-loved carol was written on a snowy night in 1818, and how it has affected generations since. Filmed in an Austrian winter wonderland, it features the Vienna Boys Choir.
The transcendent power of music is revealed in a deeply moving (and true) episode on Christmas Eve during World War II. American and German soldiers lay down their arms for a shared moment of peace, uniting their voices in this universal carol. For all ages! 80 min. DVD 5491  (avail. at Music in Motion)

Personal Note: My young nephew just shipped to Afghanistan. My thoughts and prayers are with him and all the troops in Afghanistan and Iraq, and wherever lives are at risk in battle. May the spirit of the “Silent Night” Christmas truce be with them. "People who make music together cannot be enemies, at least not while the music lasts" (Hindemith). (Oppressive dictators have always known this, which is why music is often banned in times of repression, as it was under Taliban rule of Afghanistan and during Mao’s Cultural Revolution in China.)

Born Sept. 25, 1906 in St. Petersburg, Russia
Died Aug. 9, 1975 in Moscow, Russia

A product of the Bolshevik Revolution, Shostakovich was the most famous of all  Soviet composers. He led a politically and personally troubled life, yet produced some of the century’s most celebrated and frequently performed works even today .

Born into a politically explosive era, with a revolutionary grandfather, leftist trade unionist father and a piano teaching mother, is it any wonder his political and musical wires were crossed? The demons of his life were the political fears and threats which constantly hovered over his career. He was the “darling” of the Soviets one moment and branded a “counter-revolutionary” in his music the next moment. His tumultuous relationship with Stalin was a yoke he could never shed, and his music always involved a dreaded dance with the devil of Soviet censorship and artistic control. His works were officially denounced in 1936 and 1948, and were periodically banned. Yet the ever popular Shostakovich received many accolades during his long career, from both the Russian people and the official Soviet state.

Shostakovich composed 15 symphonies, among them the popular “War” Symphonies Nos. 4 – 9 (which some thought were his musical protest against the crimes of Stalin), 15 string quartets, 6 concertos, numerous other chamber and orchestral works, piano pieces including 2 sonatas and 24 preludes and fugues for piano (like Bach),  2 operas and an operetta, 3 ballets, songs, cantatas, oratorios, stage and film music. His music ran the emotional gamut, from “warlike” and harshly propagandist to lyric and personal.  Probably because of his “pact with the Soviet devil,” Shostakovich’s place in musical history is controversial. While musicologist David Fanning in Grove writes that “he succeeded in forging a musical language of colossal emotional power,” Pierre Boulez dismissed him as a second or  even third-rate Mahler. English composer/musicologist Robin Holloway described his music as "battleship-grey in melody and harmony, factory-functional in structure; in content all rhetoric and coercion." But the reality of Shostakovich’s musical achievement should be judged apart from harsh political reactions to the man who, as many perceived, lacked the courage of his private convictions in standing up to Communist censorship and control. Please enjoy the richness and the inventiveness of his music, and judge not the man in political hindsight.

TESTIMONY: STORY OF SHOSTAKOVICH DVD

Tony Palmer’s film stars Ben Kingsley as Shostakovich. The film dramatizes the life of the Russian composer who opposed the directives of Stalin and defied him with his music. Palmer sensitively uses Shostakovich’s music to enhance the drama, and to deepen our understanding of how the composer felt about what was happening in his homeland. With excerpts from 11 symphonies and more, performed by the London Philharmonic. 151 min. DVD 5943 $29.95
                  (available at Music in Motion)

An interesting footnote to musical history:

A lighter side of Shostakovich was his passionate love of soccer, as heard in his 1929 ballet The Golden Age when he recreates an actual soccer match. Enjoy Shostakovich’s energetic soccer match–a first in music history and a thrillingly athletic display of programmatic music.  (In this Soviet ballet the Communist team travels abroad to compete with the “capitalists,” and you can guess who wins!)

Don’t underestimate the power of either sports or music when it comes to exciting a crowd. Even as a tormented composer writing under the harsh restrictions and demands of Communism, in his 1929 ballet  The Golden Age big-time soccer fan and sometime soccer referee Shostakovich recreated a soccer match. In this ballet, a communist soccer team travels to the West to compete against the evil “capitalists” (real boiler-plate geo-political plot!).  Listen to his brilliant recreation of a fast-paced soccer match:

I would love to have seen this ballet scene. Wonder if the choreographer was a soccer fan too? Probably so. . .

Tips for Music Teachers:

1. Play this musical soccer match for your students, and see how many can guess what sport is being depicted. 

2. Ask students to guess why the composer chose to include this work in a ballet, rather than a symphony, opera, or choral work.

3. Ask students to choreograph & perform in teams their own interpretation of Shostakovich’s soccer match.

4. Ask students to research other examples where composers have depicted sports events in their music (and share them with us!).

5. Ask students to describe what music and sports have in common.

6. Show students the vuvuzela, the obnoxiously loud, monotone horn used at this year’s World Cup.  This is a great seque to open the discussion on noise pollution and hearing protection! (Hope they ban the horn for the next World Cup!)

These are hard times, especially in nearly bankrupt California. But are we content to see the California legislature gut the heart (i.e., the arts) out of education? The arts and foreign languages are fundamental to education, especially in the world we live in today. If creative thinking and global communications were ever needed in this world, we need them now. And the beleaguered California legislature chooses to eliminate these high school graduation requirements for what reasons? Is there really much money to be saved by going after educational fields that are laughably underfunded to start with? According to the author of this legislation, “the intent … is to increase high school graduation rates, which is an ever-pressing issue.” Is he serious? Is the goal of “graduating” more students overriding the goal of educating them? But this unfortunate piece of legislation passed the California Assembly 76 to 0, and is now headed for the state senate. Email them a copy of our Declaration of Music and the Arts to remind them of all the ways that the arts are essential in education.

Take the LA Times poll on whether California should drop arts and language requirements for high school graduation. Read more about bill AB2446 then send a message to the politicians who are playing with our kids’ education, which seems to be getting dumb and dumber. Even if you are not from California, this is a dangerous trend in education that is not confined to that state. Everyone should rally and send a loud and clear message, like we did in Texas: “Don’t mess with our arts.”

President John F. Kennedy hit the nail on the head on the importance of arts in a nation:

“The life of the arts, far from being an interruption, a distraction, in the life of a nation, is very close to the center of a nation’s purpose and is a test of the quality of a nation’s civilization." 

Born June 28, 1491, London, England
Died Jan. 28, 1547, London, England

Henry VIII, despite the image of the old, grossly obese tyrant and wife killer most of us retain from our spattering of English history in school, cut quite a dashing figure in his youth. Six feet tall, handsome, athletic, charming, intelligent and well educated, he was a lady killer (please pardon the pun) in every sense of the word. As described by a contemporary, he was “one of the goodliest men that lived in his time, in manners more than a man, most amiable, courteous and benign in gesture unto all persons.” But my oh my, how time, history, and six wives can change even the “goodliest” man. While travelling in England, I have encountered Henry’s looming historical presence wherever I go. Visiting the castles at Hever, the childhood home of Ann Boleyn, and Knole, the Archbishop of Canterbury’s home until Henry conviscated it, I realize that Henry still casts a tall shadow throughout the land. So I thought I would share some of my discoveries.

Not everyone knows about Henry VIII’s softer, more humane side. He was a poet, linguist, talented musician, accomplished composer, and a huge patron of the arts. He loved the musicians, acrobats, magicians, and jesters who provided lively entertainment for the court (oddly, not unlike the subjects fellow lady-killer Picasso loved to paint five centuries later). Henry might have joined the Cirque de Soleil had he been born 500 years later.  He could play the harp, viola, lute, organ, virginal, fife, and drums, and was a gifted dancer and singer as well, especially skilled in sight singing with his courtiers. What’s not to love in a tall, handsome, talented musician? He certainly must have had his share of court groupies. For more on Henry the musician read this lively blog on Henry VIII: A Machiavellian Musical Monarch.

Listen to some musical examples of Henry VIII’s compositions.

In the meantime, don’t lose your head over a handsome musician who wields a crown.

The scene was straight out of Hollywood. As my husband Jim and I left our small hotel room on 49th Street we had only 20 minutes to go before the curtains rose at Broadway theaters throughout the district. I had only 30 minutes earlier purchased tickets at TKTS (the half-price ticket booth on Times Square—see note below) for Martin McDonagh’s latest dark comedy “A Behanding in Spokane” starring Christopher Walken. Being a fan of both the young Irish playwright and the always quirky Walken, I figured this had to be an unbeatable combination for the first night of our trip. So it was with considerable irritation that we faced policemen barricading Times Square and saying nonchalantly to turn around as we headed toward the theater. The excited crowd was snapping photos of policemen on horseback, and I inquired of a friendly policewoman what was going on, expecting that some politician or celebrity was gumming up the works, slowing us up from reaching our theater two blocks away on 45th St. with only 5 minutes till curtain time. She hesitated, then said it was a fire. Moments later, even after hearing rumors in the crowd about the bomb scare, we headed with the rest of the herd around the block, then cut through the lobby of the Edison Hotel and raced toward 45th. But all routes to 45th were blocked, and we were told all theaters on the block were closed. (Details of the failed car bombing later came to light on the non-stop “breaking news” coverage that lasted throughout the night). But the mind of an inveterate theater goer works in funny ways. My husband and I, along with the rest of the Broadway throng of tourists and theater goers, never registered fear or panic, which might have been expected in post 9-11 downtown Manhattan when word of the attempted bomb threat spread. In a twisted version of Coleridge’s “willing suspension of disbelief” (which is appropriate when faced with the unreality of a poem or play or novel), we proved the flip side of that old adage is also true. The mind doesn’t willingly accept reality when the truth is too frightening to bear. A sort of willing suspension of “belief” sets in when the rational mind is faced with an awful truth, and we wrap ourselves in the more comfortable fiction that what we are really seeing or hearing is not really happening. How ironic is the human brain: in a play we accept outlandish events through “a willing suspension of disbelief” while in facing a real-life crisis the brain recoils into a fetal position of “willing suspension of belief”: this can’t really be happening so it must not be true. The brain has a little theatrical buffer zone that spares us for a few minutes from facing reality. In reflecting on my thwarted night on Broadway, I should have run from the scene, but at the moment all I had on my mind was getting to the show on time. After all, hadn’t I always accepted that “the show must go on?” Sadly, post 9-11, that is not always true.

Tip to thrifty theater lovers who buy tickets at the last minute: At this point I must share a tip for theater-bound tourists who throng the half-priced ticket booth on Times Square before show time. Sometimes the line snakes for a block or more, and with or without inclement weather, this long, slow-moving queue is never a happy sight. Quite by accident, the last time I faced the snail-like pace of the half-priced ticket line on a previous trip to New York,  I heard some curious passerby mutter in a stage whisper, “I wonder why none of these people are using the express line.”  At this point, I asked the person behind me to please save my place (which I had earned laboriously after over 30 minutes in line) as I raced forward to see if this overheard tip was fact or fiction (or merely dramatic irony fueling desperate hope into my feverish brain). To my astonishment, it was true. The Saturday night crowd, always clamoring for the latest, hottest musicals in town, usually neglect the more serious plays for which an express line (with few if any people standing in line) is always available at ticket booth No. 1. So the moral of this tip is: See the big musicals on weekdays when the ticket lines are shorter at the half-priced booth on Times Square, and concentrate on plays on the weekends, where you can avoid the queue and get cheap tickets in “a New York minute.”

MAO’S LAST DANCER:  Complete Autobiography

Mao’s Last Dancer, the autobiography of one of the world’s best ballet dancers, is among the most exciting and inspiring stories you will ever read about a performing artist. Li Cunxin, from a desperately poor northern Chinese province, is chosen at age 11 from millions of children to attend Madame Mao’s Beijing Dance Academy during the Cultural Revolution. Though painfully difficult, Li persists and his training pays off when he is chosen to travel to America to dance. Seizing his opportunity for freedom, he courageously defects. Told by Li, this book offers a great insight into Chinese culture and an individual’s personal determination to gain political and artistic freedom. 490 pp. Paperback 6739  $17.00  order now

MAO’S LAST DANCER: Young Reader’s Edition

This young reader’s edition of the true story of ballet dancer Li Cunxin is well-edited and has plenty of exciting detail for Gr. 6-9. 304 pp. Hardback 6738  $16.99  order now

DANCING FOR FREEDOM: The True Story of Mao’s Last Dancer        

This children’s book, illustrated by Anne Spudvilas, tells the story of Li Cunxin for ages 4-8.  “As a boy in China, Li identified with the trapped frog in one of his father’s stories: ‘Even though the frog jumped and hopped, the well was just too deep.’ Li’s own leaps proved more successful; his selection for a rigorous dance-training program led him from his impoverished village to ballet stardom” (review from Booklist). Hardback 6737  $16. 95  order now

MAO’s LAST DANCER: The Movie

The movie and DVD has not yet released in North America, but Music in Motion will make it available as soon as it releases.

FILM SYNOPSIS/TRAILER from the official Mao’s Last Dancer website:

“From internationally acclaimed Australian film director Bruce Beresford comes the inspirational true story of a small boy’s extraordinary journey from poverty to international stardom, from a grueling apprenticeship as a classical dancer in communist China to the glory of creative freedom in America. But, there is a painful price to be paid for his quest for self expression. Mao’s Last Dancer captures the intoxicating effects of first love and celebrity, the pain of exile, and ultimately the triumph of individual endeavor over ideology. Filmed in China, the US and Australia and with a brilliant performance from Chi Cao as Li Cunxin, Mao’s Last Dancer is an exhilarating exploration of what it means to be free.”

HIDING IN THE SPOTLIGHT: A Musical Prodigy’s Story of Survival 1941-46 

A vivacious 14-year-old girl  finds her idyllic world shattered when Nazi troops invade her Ukrainian village.  In the bitter winter she and her family join others in a death march to Drobitsky Yar, the gaping ravines which will, in a few short days, swallow 15,000 executed Jews.  How she escapes is miraculous, but how she survives the cruel realities of war for another 5 years–by her wits and prodigious musical talent– is an even  greater miracle.  Adopting a new identity and forced to entertain SS officers and enemy soldiers with her music, she lives in constant fear of exposure by informants. This is a story you will never forget, revealed to her son after many years of silence on the subject of the Holocaust.  Her harrowing experiences never kill her spirit or the music within her.  Hiding in the Spotlight tracks the journey of a little girl who must fulfill her father’s last words to her: “I don’t care what you do, just live!” When that courageous and difficult journey leads to Juilliard, her father’s words still ring in her ears.  This book renews our wonder at the power of music to sustain the human spirit. 
Hardback 7701  $25.00  order now

Praises for Hiding in the Spotlight:

“The story is unflinching not only in its tales of turmoil and peril, but in its unstinting and never-failing sense of pride, survival, and utter joy that can only be the fruit of musical love.” - Christopher O’Riley, NPR host of From the Top

“Summoning all the colors of a Chopin prelude, Greg Dawson has painted a vivid picture of his mother from her fairy tale childhood in the Ukraine to her final escape from the Nazis and her triumphant voyage to America.” – Mona Golabek, host of The Romantic Hours, Grammy-nominated pianist, and author of The Children of Willesden Lane

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I am passing on this urgent alert I received today from the League of American  Orchestras:

Act TODAY to Extend the IRA Charitable Rollover

December 7, 2009, Washington, D.C. - Please contact your members of Congress TODAY! An important incentive to charitable giving is in jeopardy as 2009 quickly comes to a close. If Congress does not act before the end of this year, the IRA Charitable Rollover provision will expire on December 31. The IRA Rollover spurs new and increased giving to orchestras and thousands of other nonprofit organizations.

The House is scheduled to vote Wednesday, December 9 on extending a number of tax provisions. It is essential that your member of the House and Senators hear from you before Wednesday. Once the House completes action, the Senate will need to move rapidly to clear the extension before the IRA Rollover expires.

In this tough economy, every incentive for charitable giving is essential to supporting America’s nonprofit community. More than 30% of financial support for orchestras is derived from charitable giving. Without this support, public access to the arts would be greatly diminished. The IRA Rollover provision, which allows donors to make tax-free charitable contributions directly from their Individual Retirement Accounts (IRA), was enacted in August 2006, expired in December 2007, and was reinstated in 2008.

The League has prepared an easy-to-use advocacy tool for your use, linked below. Please be sure to personalize the sample message with information about your orchestra. Thank you!

Contact Your Members of Congress Today!

Ben Stevenson, Artistic Director of the Texas Ballet since 2003, celebrates during their 2009-2010 season his 40th year as one of the most influential figures of American ballet.  A native of Portsmouth, England, he received his dance training in London, joined the Royal Ballet, and later became principal dancer with the London Festival Ballet.  In 1967 at the English National Ballet he directed and choreographed his first full production, The Sleeping Beauty, starring Margot Fonteyn.

Following his highly successful staging of Sleeping Beatuy, he was invited to New York to direct the newly formed Harkness Ballet. Subsequently, he served as Co-Artistic Director at the National Ballet, before finally settling in Texas with the Houston Ballet in 1976. During his 27-year tenure as Artistic Director, he transformed the small, regional Houston  Ballet into one of the world’s most acclaimed companies. Appointed by the U.S. government as a cultural ambassador to China in 1978, be became instrumental in introducing Western dance forms including jazz and modern dance at the Beijing Dance Academy. The Houston Ballet became the first American ballet company invited to tour the People’s Republic of China. While visiting China, Stevenson  discovered an amazing Chinese dancer, Li Cunxin (Mao’s Last Dancer), who became one of the first two Chinese dancers to visit America during the Mao regime. While visiting Houston, Li Cunxin dramatically defected to freedom, aided by then Vice-Pres. George Bush Senior. Cunxin joined the Houston Ballet for the next 16 years,  where with Ben Stevenson’s support and training Cunxin became one of the most prominent dancers in the world. (see my blog on Mao’s Last Dancer, along with children’s books and a newly released film)

As a choreographer, Ben Stevenson has created breathtaking ballets including Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, Romeo and Juliet, Cinderella, The Nutcracker, Coppelia, Don Quixote,  Peer Gynt, Cleopatra, Dracula, and The Snow Maiden. He has staged his productions throughout the world, including The English National Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, Paris Opera Ballet, National Ballet of Canada, La Scala, Munich State Opera Ballet, Joffrey Ballet, London City Ballet, Ballet de Santiago, and many more.

As a teacher, he has taught and inspired  thousands of dancers,  many of whom have achieved international careers. And he continues to train young dancers through the educational programs of the Texas Ballet.

The 2009-2010 Texas Ballet season includes Stevenson’s magnificent productions of The Nutcracker, Romeo and Juliet, and The Sleeping Beauty.  I can vouch for the The Nutcracker, which I saw this week at the new Winspear Opera House in Dallas. It can also be seen at Bass Performance Hall in Ft. Worth. Except for the controversy of no live orchestra, this production is utterly magical.  Read The Dallas Morning News’ excellent review by dance critic Margaret Putnam.