Major Changes

A self-centered post...

I've decided that after my stint this summer in Colorado, I'm going to move out to California and make it happen. I'm not really happy with the pace and nature of things in Jacksonville, and the West Coast has been where I've known I have to end up anyway. It wasn't the wrong decision, per se, to come down here instead of Los Angeles last year, but I feel that I've gotten all the professional experience out of this area that I'm going to really use toward my ultimate ambition. Staying here any longer I think would cost me getting started as soon as possible in Southern CA , without any actual rewards here in Jacksonville. If I were to stay here next year, I'd be doing the same things that I've been doing this year, and that doesn't whet my palette (sp.?) in the slightest.

Playing with the big band here seriously rocks though. It's an incredible band, and I don't know if I'm going to have that sort of opportunity again for a long time. But playing 10 times a year with a great band isn't enough of a reason to stay and put off my dreams any longer. I've learned far more than I ever expected coming down here, and I'm on top of my craft as a result.

And maybe that's the reason I came here - to start playing in the bigger game even though my chops were just barely there. The musical transformation from September is remarkable - I've come ten times as far as any progress I made in college or high school. In Florida I've played, conducted, music directed, recorded, written and arranged for the best in the business (and some not so near the top) - and it's been the most intense crash course in professional music that I could handle. Everything I'd learned before Florida I used when I got here, and I expect that everything I've learned in the Sunshine State I'm going to use in the real big leagues in Los Angeles.

So I know where I'm going, and I know how to get there. On any other day - some day where I wasn't going through significant unrelated personal issues - it would be a great feeling. I've learned just what is the type of work in the professional field, and how to get it. In April, I'm taking a trip out there to get things moving.

I have a goal and a direction again, something I've been missing for I don't know how long... too long. It's that feeling of being in your native state, the one where you're inspired, and you're inspiring as a result. This is going to be difficult, but I can't think of anything else I'd rather do.

Keeping Current

The backing tracks process is nearing its terminus, which means I'll be able to get back to posting regularly next week. A young professional musician's life comes in clumps of projects and deadlines, with several ending up in a single week, followed by a drought of work. The "clumps" don't predispose themselves to consistent weblog maintenance.

People keep writing about Lang Lang. "The Tiger Woods of classical music." Give me a break. Earl Wild, a real pianist if there ever was one, deemed him "the J-Lo of the piano." But he's lionized on 60 Minutes - that was probably the last straw for me with that show. In some circles he's rightly known as "Bang Bang," such as in a great newsgroup quote from someone who shall name anonymous (since I'm using it without permission):

I'd like to hear a Lang Lang Winterreise with Bocelli. Bo Bo meets Bang Bang. Schubert dies again.

Lang Lang's sideshow act completely lacks any substance, artistic introspection or intrinsic value. How dare he call himself a pianist. This is what classical music would sound like if Russell Watson, or Vanessa-Mae, or Charlotte Church were to take up serious literature. And the deaf media fawn over him because he plays fast and is animated at the instrument... Charlatan! Hack!

He hijacks the music by glossing over all detail and forethought that went into the material, and placing the focus squarely on him, the selfish, self-indulgent performer. I have no more admiration for him than I do for vapid, tasteless singers who insist on injecting their own self-aggrandizing cadenzas into opera literature.

The reason this is all so offensive is that the intent is to promote himself, not great music, and it's clearly evident in the way he plays; the elicited reaction is supposed to be "My God, is he going to make it?" or "I can't believe he can do that!" instead of transporting the audience to a place that only the music can take us. Music and artistry are completely lost in his playing, and he should be ashamed of himself for it. And he's sloppy. And musically immature. I read a Gramophone interview where he came up with such original and insightful gems as "Classical music should sound as fresh to us today as it did when it was written" and "This chord here - this is the farmer."

This tirade has been brought to you by an article appearing in the Globe and Mail yesterday - "Music's symbol of a China rising." Right. If anything, Lang Lang is a symbol of a superficial China, a poster boy for counterfeit musicality. He continually defecates in the artistic reservoir, and the media celebrates him for doing so.

In other news, Slate is reporting in a shocking new development, that weapons sites in Iraq were plundered immediately before and after the invasion. I guess this was completely unexpected... Not only that, but now the equally surprising possibility is floating around that said weapons were stolen by other Arab dictators.

Darwin Pictures

The hamster is turning out to be an expensive endeavor - I bit the bullet and got a camera... so lo-res pictures of Darwin are here and here. He's really cute.

And someone's going to get sued for this.

A Beautiful Picture

This is fabulous.

Go to the website advertised at the bottom of the billboard, and take a look at the main picture. You'll see why.

Maybe David Frum was right - after legalizing gay marraige, Dutch society (for ducks, at least) is falling apart.

Bush to U.N.: Drop Dead

Fred Kaplan thinks it's a bad idea to appoint John Bolton as the U.N. Ambassador.

Speaking as the medium for this blog's favorite cartoon character: "I adore this man!" - Reasons why here.

What was Kerry's line? "Speak truth to power" I believe it was... (Yes, it's actually a Quaker axiom).

Darwin

It's been a few days since I've been able to post, and this one will be a short one, but I made a new friend this weekend...

His name is Darwin, and he's a Winter White/Siberian Dwarf Hamster. Again, pictures would be forthcoming if I had a camera. On Saturday I went to Petsmart to get climbing logs for the hermit crabs, but I walked past the rodent cages and he caught my eye.

I first noticed this especially active hamster with really big eyes and ears that perked forward in the most endearing way, so I stopped to take a look. Not only was he interested in meeting me through the glass, but after he'd finished with me, went back to the purple plastic igloo in which everyone else was sleeping, flipped it over (nearly crushing the other hamsters in the process) and shoved it up against the wall. This was a hamster I could respect. On top of that, though, he did this to use it as a ramp to get to the upper half of the cage wall where there were more air vents which he used as climbing holds. He climbed around up there and made it up to the ceiling, where he ran around upside down for a few minutes.

"This is some sort of mutant genius hamster," I thought. "He must be mine."

I didn't buy him right there, because I wasn't sure that I was going to be able to take care of him the way he needed. So I went home and slept on it, and went back the next day to get him and all of the finest hamster accoutrements. $85 later I have a hamster who continues to entertain me.

He doesn't seem to play in the wheel very much, but he does play with the wheel. I've never seen another animal do these things:

One activity I've seen him do pretty frequently so far is what I have to call "upside-down running." He crawls under the wheel, flips over, and spins it with his paws. The other way I've seen him play with the wheel is to crawl up to the second story, sit on the edge, and spin the wheel with his front paws. Strange.

I thought for the last 24 hours that he could be deaf, but it looks like he was just ignoring me when he wanted to. I found him asleep today, and as I was talking to him, he flinched with my vocal modulations. Which is another strange thing...

He was asleep at the bottom juncture of the tall tube, where it makes a 90 degree turn upward. I found him all spread out in there, not moving, and I imagined him falling from the top and dying, or worse yet, paralyzing himself. So I rudely awoke him. He obviously didn't want to get up, but I didn't know that at the time and thought he was really dead or quadriplegic or something. Then he started flinching to my voice. "Well he's not deaf, but now he's paralyzed." He finally got around to moving which was a relief.

That's all the time I can afford to take now. Hamster aside, I feel like I've been doing nothing but working the last four days, and only fallen further behind. The forecast is for another hell week. If it weren't for the backing tracks, life would be easy. Then again, if it weren't for the backing tracks, I'd be destitute...

C'est la vie. Summer can't come soon enough.

The Pentagon Budget Is Too Small

Sunday morning conspiracy fix:

"Behold: The USAF Top Secret Nuclear Powered Flying Triangle Thingy in all its glory." (via Fark)

I think this is clear evidence that we should give the Defense Department whatever money it wants.

UK Election

Just as debates on the floor of the House of Commons have a real quality of debate and the discussion of ideas, in contrast to the wholly disengaged stump speeches that come out of the U.S. legislature, British campaigns seem to act as a forum for actual issue discussion, and again not just the deaf speeches and soundbytes that result from the (much, much longer) American elections. The Scotsman's article from earlier today expresses this.

The only thing I could find on the Observer's site pertaining to the referenced interview is here.

There's another issue here, though. The British dread becoming what America is:

Mr Blair said that the fears of public service workers over the potential for a US-style litigation culture had made a deep impact on him.

Pet peeve. England sees what we are, why don't we? Is there any way, or even possibility, that we could undo what lawyers and judges and basically liberals overall have done to this country? Some of the most popular daytime shows are "Judge Judy" and "Judge Mathis" and "Judge Selfimportantjerkchannelingdrlaura." I remember a few years ago I played at a junior high school for a music class, and when I told them my age, they didn't believe me. Fine. But half the kids demanded to see my driver's license. Is my word not good enough? Must you have government documentation in order to believe me? This follows the abdication of responsibility, personal or otherwise, that necessarily accompanied LBJ with his disgraceful "Great Society." Yeah, I blame him and the socialism he ushered in. No, I don't capitalize socialism or liberalism.

New House

The hermit crabs got a new house today. They were in a small-ish (circa six gallons) tank made for amphibians - now they're in a ten gallon fish tank. Had to go to the beach to get more sand which I microwave to sterilize, and found some great shells while I was there. I would attach pictures, but I don't have a camera.

When I put them in the big tank with all the sand and space and bigger climbing sticks, they emerged from their shells, and the three of them did a slow 270 looking around. Then they just sat there and stared. They couldn't believe their eyestalks.

They've already done some redecorating with the shells, and plenty of burrowing of course. All of them - Snowman, Winterscene and Greenguy - seem much happier. After the initial shock of the new flat they promptly scooted to three separate corners. Maybe they had a fight in the shoebox. But I think they need some more entertainment, so I'm going to get some climbing logs from the pet store.

Here you can watch the ultimate shredder eat anything from paper to a boat, to a refrigerator, to a couch, to railroad ties...

NRO Coming Around Too?

Intelligent Design is a load. That is all.

Following up on a previous post, Druze Muslim leader of the Lebanese Opposition Walid Jumblatt tells the Washington Post:

It's strange for me to say it, but this process of change has started because of the American invasion of Iraq. I was cynical about Iraq. But when I saw the Iraqi people voting three weeks ago, 8 million of them, it was the start of a new Arab world. The Syrian people, the Egyptian people, all say that something is changing. The Berlin Wall has fallen. We can see it.

Read the American Spectator article here.

"What have the Americans ever done for us? Liberated 50 million people..."

Exciting Stuff

Bradley Lehman's new article (PDF) in Early Music magazine poses a Da Vinci Code-like theory on Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier: The "Well" Temperament (an inexact translation from German) that Bach used was actually scribbled in shorthand at the top of the title page!

We've known that the WTC tuning was different from our contemporary equal temperament, but it was presumed that the intended tuning scheme was the one Bach picked up from Werckmeister. Not so, according to this article - he specified an altered one on the title page (here or here).

One of the important points of this theory is the "C" on the second squiggle from the right (just above the "C" in "Clavier"):

That provides for how to tune the C, and you can work outward by 5ths from there. I'm not going to get into the the process for translation here, but the answer which the author worked out was: five 1/6th comma 5ths F-C-G-D-A-E; three pure 5ths E-B-F#-C#; three 1/12th comma 5ths C#-G#-D#-A#; end. The key below explains it - it's upside down (rotated 180) because it's easier to copy by hand that way:

In 1722 when Bach applied for the teaching and supervisory position at Leipzig, he prepared final copies of the Well-Tempered Clavier, the Aufrichtige Anleitung, and the Orgel-Buchlein (among other pieces) as a curriculum vitae for his written audition. While Bach composed none of these works especially for the Leipzig audition, it appears that the final copies were drawn up expressly for submission.

The reason this is important is that Bach was applying for a position which called for a total musician, and he was looking to convey that he was just that. From composition, to teaching, to performance, to organizing a program, to tuning, he had to demonstrate that he was knowledgable and facile in all these disciplines. The position was formerly held by Kuhnau, and the wording in the middle of the title page is a parody of Kuhnau's Neuer Clavier-Übung (1689, 1692). By writing pieces in all the keys that Kuhnau didn't, and attaching the appropriate tuning scheme through which to hear his work, Bach was hoping to demonstrate that he was everything that Kuhnau offered and more.

There's a lot more to this theory and tale, but I'm not going to rewite what has already been elaborated upon brilliantly in the article itself. It may not be possible to definitively prove or disprove it, but check it out - it's fascinating.

Soderberg

The reason Democrats face a steep uphill climb - as well they should.

You might have thought that carpal tunnel was a problem before, but Siemens is determined to exacerbate it. (Didn't someone already try this?)

Déjà Entendu

Six new CDs from Borders today!! Though I've only sampled three, those alone warrant a post.

Leif Ove Andsnes/Norwegian Chamber Orchestra: Haydn Piano Concertos Nos. 3, 4 & 11

Leif has been a real mixed bag to me. On one hand, his technique emboldens his clear and large interpretative decisions, on the other his interpretation can be very rubbery (see his compulsory Grieg/Schumann concerto release). But I've never been let down by his Haydn - he even made the D Major "Chicken Dance" sonata sound new and exciting.

I was particularly interested in this 2000 release because I picked up the score to the PC No. 11 in D (Hob. XVIII:11) with half an intention of learning it for my next project... I'm still actually torn between that one and the Mozart PC No. 24 in Cm, K. 491.

Anyway, Andsnes takes the "Vivace" marking with the alacrity I've come to expect of him - that's a great thing. As always he demonstrates a supple and playful technique, and on this recording it's complemented with the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra's purity and directness of tone. There's a moment during the development of the first movement where, high above the sturm und drang 1/16th arpeggiated triads in the piano, the flute emerges from the dusky latitudes as a pristinely clear beacon out of the agitated development, nearly turning the black notes on the page white. This movement is a string of beautiful moments like that, and I can't wait to hear what they do with the rest of the movements and concertos on the disc, once I get around to listening to them!

The soloist's pliability and orchestra's straight-tone playing never convey a Mozartean sensibility, though. Except were appropriate, the performers follow every phrase through to the bitter end, making no apologies on the last note. That's the straightforwardness I've really come to respect in Haydn the last few years. Richter said that he loved playing Haydn for that reason, moreso than Mozart. He contended that you could write the easiest scalar passage possible, but if you put Mozart's name above it, it becomes the most difficult thing you've ever encountered. Not so in with Papa Haydn. Those declamatory orhcestral passages introducing the soloist need not be imbrued with nuance - the music speaks for itself.

Speaking of nuance...

Murray Perahia/Academy of St. Martin in the Fields: Beethoven String Quartet No. 12, Op. 127; Piano Sonata No. 28, Op. 101

Some complain about the cultivation in Perahia's playing, deeming it "effeminate." I'll suffer none of that. In this recording, Perahia brings the same subtlety of character and apparently infinite nuance that he performs with on the piano to the podium, conducting a string orchestra transcription of Op. 127. The result is wonderfully musical and expansive. The Adagio movement is, well, miraculous. I can't do it justice in words - take a listen to it yourself and you'll see what I mean.

The quality of the transcription itself is equally outstanding. The basses are added at the perfect moments, and to my delight, not always doubling the cellos! This music (along with just about anything Beethoven wrote) translates extremely well to the larger format, taking on a symphonic depth with these forces.

Perahia's performance of Op. 101 (to which I'm listening right now) clearly benefits from his recent counterpoint studies during his medical reprieve from recording. From the genesis of his career, his playing has always been beautiful and profound, but on this album especially, one is really able to savor the distinct organisms thoughout the work, and the the intercalary masses which exceed the sum of their parts. Even the running thirds speak to each other and the audience with a distinct personality in each voice. Maybe I'm fooling myself - but I don't think so.

Nickel Creek: This Side

Beethoven to Bluegrass? Yeah. I'm not going to explain. I saw this group open for Bela Fleck at Ravinia in June of 2002. That was the summer I spent 32 beautiful evenings at Ravinia. At that show I absolutely adored their instrumental timbre, vocal blend and harmony, and palyful rhythmic texture. It wasn't just Bluegrass either - it was something more. Some Jazz influence, I guess, but that wasn't it. Just great music.

This disc, dated from the same year, is definitely distinctly Nickel Creek, but much of it is darker and more pop-oriented than what I'd expected. The beautiful voices and mandolin/bouzouki texture are there though.

On the tracks that trend closer to the pop-bluegrass feel I'd expected, the music is relentlessly pleasant. It's a treat to listen to, and I sense I'll warm up to the other tracks once I have some time to digest them.

Next post: Lutoslawski, Reiner/CSO Russian Showpieces and the Dave Holland Big Band: Overtime.

Big Developments on the Riverfront

No, not the St. Johns River either - the Chicago River. Came across pictures of the Sun Times building demolition - equipollent with the Equitable building as one of Chicago's ulgiest - and its Trump replacement.

Whenever I crossed the Michigan Ave. bridge, I'd see the barge-like Sun Times sitting there in the shadow of the Wrigley complex, the Wendella docks below it, and the same thought would recur that preoccupies me when driving in the suburbs: What inspired such wretched designs between the 1950s and 80s? Yes, the notion of form following function was the hot trend, but was everyone blind?

If anyone's seen mockups of the new skyline with the Trump tower in it (like they've done in New York with the WTC replacement), I'd like to take a look.

Europe Coming Around?

We've been witnessing some great things the last few months: Libya voluntarily disarming, the death of Arafat, elections in Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia and Iraq, Team America, and now the resignation of the pro-Syrian Lebanese government. So although civil rights have been taking a beating here at home, it looks like other parts of the world are moving in the right direction. Luckily Kerry wasn't elected, otherwise he'd claim responsibility for much of this, just as the left blamed W for the recession inherited from Clinton. But I digress.

The Mid-East is on the slope toward democracy, and Bin Laden's getting frustrated, so does this mean Bush (well, his administration) was right all along? Absolutely. Even the left is starting to see it. (Thanks Brett) Today's Leader for The Times echoes the slow realization:

Suddenly, there is a whiff of 1989 in the air. The Middle East, one of the last regions in the world to cling to repressive government by corrupt and self-perpetuating elites, has been touched by democracy. One by one, regimes that seemed as entrenched as they were unresponsive have accepted demands for greater democracy and accountability — demands that only a few months ago would have brought persecution, arrest and even torture to those voicing such sedition. As with the collapse of communism, the challenge to authoritarian Arab governments has appeared suddenly, has emboldened once cowed protesters and has been largely inspired from outside.

It's about time that the opposition is starting to own up to the latent legitimacy and justice in the administration's Mid-East policy. It also appears from his interview with the Guardian that Tony Blair has no intentions of tempering his support of U.S. Administration policy or the war on terror.

On a not-entirely unrelated note, many things please me. One of them is watching Chomskyites getting pummeled. It's a good thing for freedom.

The Weekly Standard's Olivier Guitta discusses "Confronting Saudi evangelism in Kuwait, Europe and the United States." Do we really have to stop with "Saudi" evangelism? I hope not.