It’s still July 20th somewhere on this planet.
Another birthday passes by for little pocket universe – always on the mind, but never quite as cared for as it should be.
Greetings from Massachusetts, where I am attending the Tanglewood Music Center. It’s been a very long day, a very busy time here thus far.
So for now, just a happy birthday.
July 21 2011 | music and musings and travels | 3 Comments »
The meaning of life just might be in the key of B-flat Major. Specifically in Beethoven’s Piano Trio, Op. 97 (“Archduke”), especially if performed by du Pre, Zukerman, and Barenboim.
Staring out the window at some nature (instead of completing homework!) while listening also helps.
April 11 2011 | music and musings | No Comments »
Back in Miami, one of my favorite pastimes was to choose someplace with a window that served caffeinated drinks, typically a cafe of some sort (though never a Starbucks), and just sit in it. My only company would be a book or some homework, maybe some bowings that needed marking; other times it might have been the shifting environment of people, servers, and sparse nature (It is Miami, after all.) By no means a unique activity, a dear friend nonetheless often affectionately commented on and was bemused by my habit, which always extended to any city I was staying in for prolonged period of time. Namely, she would point out its essential solidarity. But when she herself began to go through a particularly trying personal period, I couldn’t come up with any decent suggestions for finding some quick inner peace except finding a cafe and haunting it for a bit.
Today brought another rejection in an absurdly long losing streak, and this one, by far, has hurt the most. I don’t feel like I have many chances left, if any. Recovery is not one of my strengths. To feel like my beloved profession and world is closing me off is approaching insanity. My next bid will likely suffer if the all-consuming uncertainty is not destroyed. While I’m lucky to be in a safe place, timeline-wise, safe is not the same as desired. I am terrible at accepting my failures and words which tell me I am not “strong” enough, not “good” enough. Here is a textbook moment of flailing.
I thought back to the cafes. When I was there, I was exactly where I wanted to be in all respects, and nothing told me I could not be there. I functioned and, with the purchase of coffee or somesuch drink, was a part of the functioning environment. And so I would keep going back. If I can’t believe in myself, it doesn’t matter how much or how many others believe in me.
I need to get out more.
March 20 2011 | food and music and musings and travels and waffle | No Comments »
transplanted and unedited from the Wikipedia entry “Glossary of Musical Terminology” [link]
con affetto: with affect (that is, with emotion)
con amore, or (in Spanish and sometimes in Italian) con amor: with love, tenderly
con anima: with feeling
con brio: with spirit, with vigour
con dolore: with sadness
con forza: with force
con (gran, molto) espressione: with (great, much) expression
con fuoco: with fire, in a fiery manner
con larghezza: with broadness; broadly
con moto: with motion
con slancio: with enthusiasm
February 27 2011 | music and musings | No Comments »
February 09 2011 | musings and travels | No Comments »
Between targeted ads, Facebook stalking every action in order to target, and now the discovery that beloved Google’s glitches may be directly responsible for many of the stresses in my world, the hermit profession I predicted for myself back in grade school is more appealing every day. And I hope the damage already done is not irreparable.
As a little topper to my Internet qualms, I have been receiving some very strange, if not amusing, spam in my inbox lately. First there was one allegedly sent from [Captain William Adama], and then another from a man who shared the same name as a friend’s dad (My friend confirmed that his dad was in no way involved with selling “enhancements.”) The most recent one of interest opened with this tidbit: “dear miss, I hope I am offending you by writing this…”
“Samira Cole”, your sentiment and honesty are well appreciated.
November 16 2010 | musings and semi-facts | No Comments »
In Classical Music, there is a curious phenomenon that sometimes happens: a beautiful piece of music will have been written by a well-known composer, but it is rather overshadowed by his/her other great works. Because of this, there tend to be less recordings of these pieces by the greater ensembles on the planet.
Johannes Brahms is a composer whose works I have always had a tumultuous relationship with. The Piano Quintet in f minor has been one of my favourite compositions since grade school, but his orchestral works, often performed in youth orchestra phase, were less appealing. Their textures and emotions were too thick, and the neverending syncopations were – for lack of a better word – annoying. In my junior year of college, I studied his Piano Quartet in c minor, but it took a few years for me to truly appreciate the beauty of the work. I still did not care for any of his symphonic pieces. As Schubert was for [Nodame], Brahms was just very difficult for me to communicate with.
Lately, though, that has started to change a little. Maybe it’s experience, maturity, or simply sophistication. For my final graduate recital, I performed three of his Hungarian Dances and was required to research them extensively for a paper. During this time, Brahms’s complicated character and motivations became clearer to me, and perhaps as a result, I’m more forgiving to his music. Any man that likes Beethoven as much as he can’t be all that terrible.
At Aspen, I met the Serenade No. 1 in D Major for the first time, and it solidified my appreciation for Brahms. However, because the library was working so much during the time period when it was performed, my impression was created through the tiny snippets that made it through the door. A revisit was finally accomplished tonight, but due to the lack of a decent recording to stream online, I am not sure I still have a full grasp of the piece.
The first movement contains all these Beethoven flourishes mixed with the typical Brahms harmonic progressions that makes it horrendously tough to tune, apparently, since no recording was in tune (especially the oboe solo that permeates the entire movement.) The Adagio has these unexpectedly wonderful key changes without which the entire work may have been unimaginative. Any conductor who ignores these gems deserves to be kicked off his podium. And then the fifth movement Scherzo Trio is absolutely fun to listen to (and I’m sure to perform.) The rest of the movement again calls back to Beethoven (Edward Downes would argue me that the work leans more to Haydn and Mozart, which I don’t necessarily disagree with, but my mind nerdily attaches to Beethoven first.) and features some fabulous counterpoint. The woodwind solos and ensembles throughout the entire work are somehow heartfelt as opposed to splashy or soloistic – but God help the musicians when it’s out of tune. All the movements are susceptible to becoming overly heavy-handed and plodding if performed without the correct momentum from either the podium or orchestra.
…Brahms is difficult!
This October, I will (hopefully) hear a program of the Symphony No. 2 and 4 by the Philadephia Orchestra. Honestly- and not to criticize as the artistic direction probably had some musical point in programming it that way- the Serenade No. 1, or its more well-known companion Serenade No. 2, would make a better companion to one of the symphonies. The Serenade No. 1 is an inoffensive and well-composed cousin to the symphonies, but equally demanding to perform and present to do all those the intricacies justice. Why don’t orchestras perform this one more often? Meanwhile, the symphonies are growing on me, if only movement by movement (Movement III of Symphony No. 2 is a particular favorite, but the part that makes me happiest is a few measures in the opening of the fourth movement that incidentally relies on a bit of syncopation.)
That all being said, if anyone knows of a fabulous recording of the Serenade No. 1 or the Samuel Barber Sonata for Cello and Piano, please let me know. I would love to hear these compositions in their full glory.
September 15 2010 | music and musings and travels | No Comments »
There are worse things to do on a day off than play Nintendogs while listening to Leon Kirchner. (Would this behavior have been considered rebellious in some particular time period? Kirchner’s music sounds like it could probably have been the Classical equivalent of the Sex Pistols at some point in terms of cultural reception.)
I somehow stayed on a Yo-Yo Ma and David Zinman kick, listening through the 1996 album of cello and orchestra works by Richard Danielpour, Leon Kirchner, and Christopher Rouse. The last movement of the Danielpour has a motif that mirrors Hitoshi Sakimoto’s main theme from RomeoxJuliet, which was first aired in 2007. I wonder if Sakimoto had heard this concerto before writing the score. It certainly fits both pieces. The Kirchner is quite pretty and expressive, and Zinman has such a respectfully affectionate portrayal of him in the liner notes.
What has become surprising to me, personally, is how much more attuned my ear has become to listening to these kinds of compositions. I remember feeling confused by these three works upon first listening. But they make sense now and I can hear actual structure and ideas. It probably started with either the Barber Violin Concerto of the Corigliano Violin Sonata: pieces that I could somehow make sense of despite their dissonances and unexpectedly musical harmonies. Now, after performing not a few works abiding by these same principles, this way of listening has improved? I suppose I can’t complain about it.
When I took off my headphones, Dvorak’s Violin Sonatina Op. 100 (Itzhak Perlman) was streaming through my dad’s computer in the adjacent room. It’s still such a cute piece after all these years. I should get around to learning it properly sometime.
June 01 2010 | games and music and musings | No Comments »
FreeCell is for listening to new music. It’s just barely stimulating enough.
One major benefit of being back at my parents’ house is being able to riffle through all the albums my dad owns but I never paid enough attention to when I was younger (He owns approximately 14 copies of the Dvorak Cello Concerto and I’m almost positive some have fallen through the cracks.)
Tonight listening is the Barber Cello Concerto and Britten Symphony for Cello and Orchestra (Yo-Yo Ma, David Zinman, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. ) – both of which I’ve never heard before (though Barber’s Violin Concerto is hands down my favourite violin concerto.)
Barber could definitely have made this concerto more “modern.” I’m glad he didn’t; My dad probably wouldn’t have bought it if it was. What an amazing recording.
May 31 2010 | games and music and musings | No Comments »
There is no more special or powerful being anywhere than a real mother. It probably takes more skill to be a mother than run a country. For starters, it’s not really an office you can leave once you’ve stepped inside. For afterstarters, they’re so very very scary when they are angry.
But some of us get lucky too. I will never forget my mother teaching me to read and do math. Or the fact that her best dishes are impossible to replicate perfectly and I miss them terribly sometimes. Or the time she explained to me how babies are made, but only on a cellular level (When I asked how the cells meet, she gave me a medical textbook and a smile.)
Or stealing back the N64 from my apartment because she was in MarioKart64 withdrawl.
Happy Mother’s Day, Mum.
May 09 2010 | food and games and musings and semi-facts | No Comments »