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If every weeknight for an entire year you tuned in to Bill McGlaughlin’s syndicated radio program on WFMT, Exploring Music, you’d end up resolving augmented sixth chords in your sleep. The composer, educator, conductor and performer might be the most absorbing classical-radio personality today, tearing into scores with the mind of a tenured musicologist but presenting them with the curiosity and wonder of the Crocodile Hunter. We spoke with McGlaughlin as he prepared for some lessons on Americana at Grant Park.
Time Out Chicago: Why is so much American classical music drawn from pop?
Bill McGlaughlin: There are other kinds, too, like the spiky, academic stuff from the ’50s and onward, like Elliott Carter and Charles Wuorinen. But yes, the American element contains a rhythmic liveliness and energy within it. It’s kind of a dance-related, American way of approaching rhythm. Like, [Sings] 1-2-3 shake yer leg! Yet you can do it at a very exalted level.
TOC: In addition to six years of Exploring Music, you’ve hosted Saint Paul Sunday, directed the Kansas City Symphony, and now you’re an active composer. Is it difficult to juggle all these roles?
Bill McGlaughlin: It’s fun! Kind of like holding a plywood platform with a lot of ball bearings rolling around. Steve Robinson of WFMT called me in 2002 and asked me to do [Exploring]. Garrison Keillor told me, “Don’t do it. Not enough money.” I did it anyways! I’m walking from one studio to another.
TOC: How was it following in the footsteps of Adventures in Good Music radio host Karl Haas?
Bill McGlaughlin: He was an amazing legend for 50 years, but I wanted different production values. It’s very hard to talk about music on the radio unless you can hear a sound, so I said I need a piano. Instead of saying “a minor third,” I can play it. I wanted to make certain that what you could hear was prominent.
TOC: What music hasn’t been so kind when you tried to “explore” it?
Bill McGlaughlin: Elliott Carter I really admire, but there’s no real easy way to present his music because of its length and complexity.
TOC: Should there be more informality at classical concerts?
Bill McGlaughlin: After the third movement in Tchaikovsky’s Sixth, everyone claps and I think they have to! But after that is one of the most tragic adagios—I don’t want to clap or make any sound. I was living in Oregon and hanging with Ken Kesey. Grateful Dead kept coming up [from San Francisco]. There’s so much audience interaction at Dead concerts: people dancing, helium parties in the halls. That sort of thing might get in the way of listening to [Bach’s] St. Matthew Passion.
TOC: Name a record in your collection you’re hesitant to admit you like.
Bill McGlaughlin: I just bought an iTunes track I’m embarrassed about. Ann Telnaes does animated cartoons for The Washington Post and she did one with Bush and Cheney squatting around a drum called “Iran.” Bush starts to sing “the beat goes on” and Cheney joins in with “la-da-da-da-di.” My sweetheart [jazz singer Karrin Allyson] told me that was an old Sonny and Cher song, so I bought that one.
TOC: Since you brought up politics, do you have strong feelings about any of the candidates?
Bill McGlaughlin: Yeah, I do. For a long time I’ve been a big supporter of your senator. For me the issue is the war, and that “beat goes on” satire kills me. The country has a lot of hope riding on Obama’s shoulders, and for the first time since Bobby Kennedy was killed I’ve really wanted to vote for somebody.
TOC: And what about the CSO nabbing Riccardo Muti?
Bill McGlaughlin: I told CSO president Deborah Card, “Way to go, girl.”
Bill McGlaughlin comes to Grant Park Saturday, Jul 5.
