I teach a seminar in electro-acoustic composition at UCLA. It is morphing into the first course of a three term seminar in film composition for our new MA degree. Jerry Goldsmith taught film music at UCLA some years back and when he gave assignments to his young film-composers-wannabes, he insisted that everyone work with the […]
“Let no one read me who is not a mathematician.” [Da Vinci]
A bookplate on the inside cover of an early 16th century version of The Annals of Ulster (MS. Rawlinson B. 489) - a chronicle of medieval Ireland from 431 AD.
Visit Speech Accent Archive for an overwhelming study and aural museum of speech accents.
Rhino Records has just released a 3-CD set of music by David Crosby that spans his career from the Byrds through his current work with CPR. The publication is a stunningly beautiful document lovingly curated by Graham Nash and Joel Bernstein. The first two CDs includes music from the Byrds, Crosby, Stills and Nash, and […]
One of my favorite things to do is to take a hot bubble bath. I use some aroma-therapeutic product made by Kiss Your Face, and add one drop of patchouli. I like to read, or do a Sudoku puzzle, or just sit and think.
For my 50th birthday, many of my friends chipped in and bought […]
I borrowed a reel-to-reel tape recorder from work to begin transferring performances I’ve had from tape to digital. As I reacquainted myself with this old technology, streams of old terminology thankfully came back into my memory: rock to stop, head out, tail out, 7 1/2 and 15 ips, big reels and small reels, DBX, and […]
Here is a smoky video of the Beatles “You’re Gonna Lose That Girl” from what sounds like the original recording session.
The beatlesUploaded by Hanvak
Flipping through the ever entertaining collection Levy Sheet Music I found this fun cover that sums up my week (Well, I wasn’t able to find one that said “Friends, Friends, Friends” or “Martini, Martini, Martini” or “Food, Food, Food”). This cover reminded me that I’ll get to sit down with friends and a tasty bottle […]
This is the silliest thing I’ve seen in a while but is worth sharing. No, music, just silliness.
Herfstgeneurie - Opus 35 - music by Cath van Rennes ; words by Willem Kloos ; illustration Theo Goedvriend. 1900. [Via BibliOdyssey]
The art and craft of appraising, critiquing, and suggesting improvements to a piece of music in progress by a student composer has become a new experience for me after watching the blunt, insensitive, and sometimes right but sometimes just for entertainment critiques offered up by the panel on American Idol or Tim from Project […]
“Gates of Eden” is a great early Dylan song and one I’ve always loved to play. I was interested to hear the four very different versions of this song, all sung by Dylan. Folk music changes over time, as much music that is passed down aurally is. But Dylan puts his music through some filter […]
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