I confess to having watched the great American TV show, American Idol, only a few times. I’ve seen more excerpts of Simon’s blistering critiques than the actual shows. What I am baffled by is why the hell anyone cares what these three judges think? It seems that they consistently find the same type of singer [...]
I mentioned James Horner’s score for The New World a few weeks back. I’ve lived with his soundtrack for a while and had a few revelations.
The director used more non-Horner than Horner. The Wagner was a brilliant choice, the Mozart less so. He should have tossed it and had Horner compose more. Horner made a [...]
[This just in from conductor, organist, Thomas Neenan who premiered my
"Night Train" last year with his St Matthews Chamber Orchestra]
The Eastman School is justifiably proud of the 17th century (meantone) Italian Organ they have procured for their collection, restored and put into a beautiful new hall. But this excerpt from Toccata Settima by Michelangelo Rossi [...]
As a composer I have had different kinds of “heroes” at different times in my life. As a young rock musician, I became obsessed with different songwriter/performers at different times in my life. I have been obsessed with the Chad Mitchell Trio, Peter Paul and Mary, the Kingston Trio, the Beatles, the Byrds, Buffalo Springfield, [...]
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This year (2005-6) I received a UCLA Distinguished Teaching Award. This is a video of the ceremonies that were held last fall.
My partner, Daniel Shiplacoff, insisted that I post this video for the benefit of my family who couldn’t be there. And my Rufus pals can see old Berlioz in action, or kind of… [...]
I am someone who loves audio books, especially when I drive, or commute. The traffic doesn’t bother me because I’m hearing a story. I dare imagine that most people do like to hear stories. In that wager, I’ve made a category called “The old radio” where I will put interesting stories or readings by various [...]
April Winchell has a treasure trove of found objects. Ok, they’re not, she has a whole repository of peculiar and wonderful songs. Here is one of some dude named Shooby Taylor who, in April’s words: “showed up at a studio one day with a bunch of LPs, and proceeded to record himself scatting over them [...]
“Peach Trees” and “Memphis Skyline” were on the agenda for today.
“Peach Tree in Bloom” by Vincent Van Gogh
We started with “Peach Trees” and I confessed I didn’t understand it. Fortunately, one of the class is from Manhattan and his explanation helped with putting the song into context. Bryant Park is a place where people [...]
The newly discovered 10th planet, UB313, turns out to be larger than Pluto! [Astronomers and astrologers: you've got a lot of updating to do...]
Image source: NATURE
And in case you have not been giving Pluto its fair shake, our formerly most distant planet has two moons and some unique rings (that look more like a milk [...]
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