From the monthly archives:
Here is a piece I love to hear (but not all the time). “Pierrot Lunaire” conducted by the composer, Arnold Schoenberg (exerpts here). I’m just imagining what his face must have looked like while he was conducting this. I love the wild energy of this piece. (The eccentric singing style is called sprechstimme.)
Opus 21, from [...]
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Russell Steinberg invited me to visit a few of his classes at the Milken School. There is one room that is “the music room” and both classes were there. The students were smart, ranged from 9th grade to 12th, and had all been studying an instrument for 8 to 11 years. I spoke to them [...]
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This weekend I am able to be in Palm Springs for a composing weekend. No dogs, no husband, no books and music and videos and other activities I do to avoid composing. Earl Kim used to tell us that he would rearrange the books in his bookcases in order to avoid getting to work. Yesterday, [...]
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Our late friend Martin Nathan was classmates and old friends with Michael Crichton in Harvard Medical School and subsequently in Los Angeles. My partner at the time, Bruce Westland and I went to the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics with Marty and his partner Sam, and Michael and his wife and had a memorable time.
Marty and [...]
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Proposition 8 succeeded here, so it appears my marriage is dissolving before my eyes. Yes, it’s not clear what the future holds for the 18,000 lesbian and gay couples that got married this year, but still, I’m really saddened by it. It’s hard to be angry at 5 million California voters. It was really close, [...]
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