It occurs to me as I watch many musicians perform expressively, that this behavior might be perceived as a similar act to being erotic with one’s lover. The caress of a breast, the touch of a finger on a key; the approach of a kiss, raising your instrument high in the air and letting the [...]
I’ve been in Palm Springs for the last five days, re-orchestrating FLASHPOINT/STONEWALL using my Mac Pro tower with a large screen monitor. The computer doesn’t have wifi, so the only way that I’ve been connected to the internet is through my iPhone. M.D. tells me that devices that small will be the future of computing. [...]
I mentioned that our friend Julia Shin died last week. As you might imagine, her husband, Tiko (27), is devastated. One can be strong in such life drama for only so long. When my brother died, Daniel and I went to spend time with the family: just being with them, we figured, would be a [...]
On Sunday night we decided to have a party for Matias and Jenny. But Julia died and things changed; so we invited friends of Julia — her husband, Tiko, his parents, and other close friends of theirs — to our Matias-and-Jenny party.
One of the great things I discovered at the evening party/wake for my brother, [...]
As I mentioned below, it’s been a busy time — what with the end of the term and other pressing deadlines. Here’s a picture of one of them:
Matias and Jenny are staying with us for a while with little Katy (9 mos) who is just learning to crawl. [Daniel is her Godfather; I'm the Dogfather.] [...]
It’s the last week of our term and finals are coming; and spring break. I have a million things to do and juggle and look forward to a break from the pace. I hope to go to Palm Springs and bake and compose and recharge.
I’ve sat through a lot of great meetings in the last [...]
I realized that I spend 60 hours per academic year with the Freshman class of Music History, World Music, and Music (performance, MusEd, and composition) majors. [120 hours if I teach them over two years.] Statistically, during the academic year, I probably spend more time with this first year class than they do with their [...]
Today my music theory class, mentioned below, started with a YouTube playback of Elizabeth (”Liba”) Cotten singing her own “Freight Train.” I was offended to read in the folk music anthology that I own (that the publisher claims that THEY own the right to, which I trust only refers to the imprint — and not [...]
Tomorrow in my music theory class, we start with a performance of “Shenandoah” for mandolin and guitar with 3 part harmony; after singing and analyzing “Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern” we will harmonize a chorale tune in the style of JS Bach. After the break we will do a group sing, with harmony of “Freight [...]
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