'COMING TO TERMS' WITH CLASSICAL MUSIC

In a domain where most written information is conveyed through notes on a scale, classical musician Miles Hoffman is an expert on words.

Specifically, he is interested in words that are used and sometimes misused when people talk about music. Words like crescendo and repertory, many of them sprung from foreign languages.

His quest through his "Coming to Terms" segments on National Public Radio's "Performance Today" is to define words that left unexplained can lead to "a classical music insecurity complex," he says.

Words may concern him but Hoffman is foremost a musician. He is the founder and violist for the American Chamber Players, an ensemble which will perform at 8 p.m. Friday at Academic Auditorium.

Hoffman originally wanted to call his commentary "Jargon-Busters." Much of the jargon to be found in classical music consists of foreign words that create an unnecessary barrier between audiences and classical music, he said in an interview from his home in Washington, D.C.

"When people feel ignorant they tend to stay away from whatever makes them feel ignorant."

For instance, continuo basso is a term often heard on radio stations that play classical music. People often think it sounds like an instrument but it in fact describes a part of a piece with a continuous bass line plus harmonies.

The word crescendo is an example of a term that is often misused, he said.

"Crescendo is a process of getting louder. But people use it to mean climax. Lots of otherwise very good writers use it to mean climax. But you can't reach a crescendo. You can make a crescendo," he said.

The viola is less commonly heard as a solo instrument than the violin, piano or cello because it doesn't project quite as well. But Hoffman is in demand as a soloist as well as as leader of his ensemble.

A graduate of Yale University and the Julliard School, Hoffman formed the American Chamber Players in 1985 from a group of artists who performed at the Library of Congress Summer Chamber Festival, which he ran at the time. It includes some stellar players: Violinist Min-Young Kim, a Harvard and Julliard graduate who has performed at the Marlboro Music Festival and the Tanglewood Festival; Peabody and Julliard graduate Michael Mermagen, a faculty member at the Aspen Music Festival and principal cellist of the Aspen Chamber Orchestra; Julliard graduate Edward Newman, a pianist who has been a soloist with the Cleveland Orchestra and the Baltimore and Utah Symphonies and is a professor of piano at George Mason University; and Sara Stern, solo flutist of the 20th Century Consort in residence at the Smithsonian Institution and a solo recitalist at the Kennedy Center and Carnegie Hall.

This will be the American Chamber Players' first concert of the new season. They will play music by Schumann, Weber, Durufle and Mendelssohn.

"Performance Today" is broadcast weekday mornings on KRCU 90.9 FM.