Room for discussion?
Posted by: Kaite Stover
While attending a reading Saturday night, I was struck with an idea for my book group to enhance a discussion, but I’m not certain we’d have time for book chat when all is said and done. The event I attended was a deft mix of author reading, discussion of the author’s work and performance of four short pieces by a chamber quartet of works selected to go with the literature.
Now you might think that this is an expensive idea that will eat a programming budget. But what made me think this could work is something a member of the chamber group said. She told the audience that while all the musicians were members of the Kansas City Symphony, they were performing that evening as part of the Community Connection program where Symphony members work with area arts organizations, especially libraries (!), to bring classical and contemporary music to the community.
If your city has a symphony or chamber group, this might be a great way to marry literature and music in a program and enhance awareness of two different, yet related, groups. Consider asking if a small quartet or duet could play some music they deem suitable for a book group selection. Getting the author to read aloud from the work and then discuss it might not be possible, but that’s okay. After the musicians play a composition or two, everyone, readers and musicians, conductors and facilitators, can discuss how the music informs the reading and why or why not it fits with the selected title. The conductor might want to address why a particular piece was chosen for the performance or why another piece was rejected. What connections do the musicians and/or readers see between the written and musical works?
For those interested, this particular reading featured four Kansas City Symphony string musicians playing works from Scott Joplin, George Gershwin, and Antonin Dvorak and readings and discussion of The Last Cattle Drive and other works by Robert Day, facilitated by the author.
It was an intriguing way to mix my two favorite mediums, books and music.
September 15th, 2008 at 6:21 pm
What a fascinating story! This is a truly compelling concept. I have linked to the post from AfriClassical Blog, whose companion website, http://www.AfriClassical.com, profiles Scott Joplin. He is one of 52 classical composers and musicians of African descent from the past 500 years who are featured. Over 100 audio samples are included at the site, so reading and listening can be combined at the website as well!