Roger Bourland
writes about music and life

A fun and funny commercial about the Second Viennese School.

Die Zwölftonmethode - totgeschwiegen und totgeredet, geliebt und verehrt, verhasst und verdammt - ist eine jener Mysterien der Musikgeschichte, die unser Leben wie kein anderes in den Bann ungeahnter tönender Dimensionen zu ziehen vermag. Lassen wir uns erklären, wie unser Alltag durch Anhörung der herausragenden atonalen und dodekaphonen Werke von Arnold Schönberg, Alban Berg und Anton Webern eine höhere Dimension erlangt. Die Metaphysik der Töne - in ein einziges Album gebannt. Nie war diese Musik zwingender als jetzt. Suchtgefahr!

Audio: a production, done in 1977 by Robert Conrad, the founder of WCLV classical radio in Cleveland, Ohio, USA. The script was written by conductor Kenneth Jean and Mathias Bamert is said to have had a role in the production.
Video: ascvideo (Arnold Schönberg Center, Wien)

And for those of you who have always wanted to know what 12-tone music IS, this video does a good job of explaining it — it oughta: it’s from the Schoenberg Center in Vienna.

I was very happy with my lecture yesterday. Rather than just teaching counterpoint — here are the rules –do this, don’t do that, avoid this, and don’t do this because it’s not in the style — I presented a variety of kinds of chants and analyzed how we would imitate it if we wanted to. Besides the wolf howl and the whale songs, we looked at Zen Buddhist chants, a Kol Nidre chant, a Native American chant and an Arabic chant. Then I presented a whole variety of songs/compositions where chant was used as an element in modern times. Then we did some practice first species exercises on the board. Tomorrow, Mitchell Morris will be our guest speaker and will lecture on Gregorian Chant and have the class sing from the original scores.

My commercial for the day was WEAR SUNSCREEN; PROTECT YOUR SKIN no matter what color you are, and that clothing and hats are our friends in sunny SoCal.

My parents have both had various facial skin cancers. It was only a matter of time before it was my turn. The phone rang and the caller ID said: SM UCLA Dermato. I knew it was Dr. Kim.

It is cancer. It’s the kind that is not life threatening and very slow growing basal cell carcinoma (common in fair folks like me), so I’ll have it removed in two weeks. One on my nose, one on my chest. The grim reaper won’t take me here. This is easy. I know, if I were a cave man it would eventually take me down. But we can cut it out now. Right?

So, tonight, I went for a spin in my new car. The leather smelled great. The evening Hollywood smell was intoxicating. The colors were vibrant. Life was even better.

[Photo: Still Life © Roger Bourland]

I’m teaching species counterpoint again, but this time, in addition to teaching chant, that is Gregorian (Christian) Chant, I’m exploring all the different kinds of chanting that exists in other sacred traditions. For that matter, I’m playing whale songs and wolf howls as examples of animals’ uncontrollable urge to sing. Here is a baby wolf: she can’t help but howl, even though she doesn’t know exactly what she’s doing. I know the feeling.

Flypaper sings Rejection

After much introspection
It’ud be dereliction
Not tellin’ you what turns me on
(Baby)

Profound inspection
And sheer detection
Makes obvious what turns me on
(Baby)

Tear up my letters
Don’t return my calls
Spurn me every which way
See how this sucker crawls

Rejection!
Love it to death
Oh yeah
Rejection
Who needs crystal meth?

When he’s finished, lost the fire
And wants out, wants me to die
Planning my demise something dire
That’s the joy, that’s the high

Rejection
Planning some escape plot?
Oh, yeah
Rejection
Give me all you got

(Download me baby…)

© by Mel Shapiro and Roger Bourland

[Photo: backstage snapshot of one of Jessica’s performance]

After an intense year being chair of the music department and writing a musical, it seemed like an easy transition: just chair? no problem! All of a sudden, my TO DO list has become formidable. And having this list just sit there is very stressful knowing that I am going to have to do most of it. Yes, I delegate, and delegate wherever possible. But sometimes ya just gotta do it yourself.

I haven’t written any music all summer long. In that I wrote almost every day last year, I think it’s ok to take some time off. Recharge the batteries. I have no guilt: i feel good about it.

Ahead of me is a new orchestration of FLASHPOINT/STONEWALL for men’s chorus, soloists, and replacing four live synthesizers with piano, bass and two orchestral instrument (stay tuned).

Another piece I will be writing this year is a “companion” piece to the Goldberg Variations. This is for a solo piano recital by Lana Chwe, who will be performing the GV on the first half, and my piece on the second half. So I share the program with Bach. I can’t imagine doing another set of variations––it would probably just give everyone hiccups. I’m thinking post-Rachmaninov.

I find that after NOT composing for a while, it’s like going for a long time without sex––you get really, really horny. So, I get really horny for writing music, and BAM! i set the piece in motion. I love it!

–

Today was the first day back at school. I taught a large “music theory” class–the first of a full year course with freshmen from ethnomusicology, historical musicology, and music majors, and later, individual lessons with graduate students in composition. Intense. My aloha spirit–left over from our fab vacation in Kauai–got me through it. But man, I’m beat.

zzzzzzzzzzzzz

Today we’re hosting a party for faculty, staff and families from the departments of Music, Musicology and Ethnomusicology. We’re anticipating around 80 people. Not everyone can make it but those that will be here should have a good time. A warm day is in store and there is enough shade in our backyard to keep us all happy.

Here we go!

The people in the southwest portion of the US were warned about killer bees slowly coming up from Mexico. We were all terrified. I can’t say I’ve seen any yet––just the mellow honey bees that are always hitting on one flower or another around here.

But what I HAVE seen is an amazing rise in killer ants. No, these are not really killer ants, but teeny little ants that are very good little eaters. Now, maybe I need to contact an exterminator, which I will likely do, but these little critters are out of control. These are protein seeking ants, not sweet seeking ants. If I leave out one teeny crumb of cheese or meat, there will be a superhighway on the way there within the hour. Likewise if I leave any protein-based garbage in the trash, a mega superhighway of ants is there in minutes. Calixto, our gardener, said that whenever these little ants are around, you don’t have to worry about termites––they eat all the babies and eggs. I told him that I thought they preferred protein, he disagreed: “they eat everything.”

Yesterday I was watering the yard and the ants HATE water, so they were crawling up my shoes, into my shoes, over my socks, up my legs and into, well, it was just creepy. I had to go take a shower.

There is an upside to this infestation. One of my neighbors seems to be poisoning rats. The rats then decide to come up in our basement, climb into the walls and die. This happened to us twice before with a disgusting 4 or 5 weeks of rotting rat wafting through your house. This summer, I detected that unforgettable smell wafting up from the walls. But it only lasted two days. I happened again a month later: two days and gone. The little varmints had eaten the dead rat. Halleluiah! This was confirmed when I saw the skeleton of a rat in my back yard, still covered by ants. Even the cartilage was gone! Just a fine little skeleton, splayed out across the dirt.

I bet that if I dropped dead in the kitchen, there would be very little left once someone found me.

Is this actually a cover-up by the authorities? They don’t want us to panic about a new infestation of killer ants?

Difficult times lately. The economy sucks, the earth has even MORE carbon dioxide surrounding it this year, family members with some real health challenges, budget cuts at work, but this ol’ world keeps on turning ’round and I still love you.

A mosaic of Jupiter’s ring system, acquired by NASA’s Galileo spacecraft when the Sun was behind the planet, and the spacecraft was in Jupiter’s shadow peering back toward the Sun. (NASA/JPL/Cornell University)

I just participated in one of the American dreams: to put a hundred down and buy a car. Well, it was over a thousand and I’m leasing it (2008 Acura TL, black with beige interior). I’m gambling that there will be a great selection of electric or hybrid cars at the end of the three year lease and I’m not ready to get a Prius. When Steve commented to me that he drove with a friend to Las Vegas, and with air conditioning on the Prius got 39 mpg, and his TL got 31. Mark likes his Prius but hates the seats. R&P sold their Jaguars (sic) and bought two Prii (Priuses?) with all the bells and whistles. We almost got the electric Aptera but I was nervous about its ability to handle tall people, so I’ll wait until 2.0 comes out.

Until then, I can talk on the phone and shout commands to my car and it minds me completely. Sigh, I guess I’m finally an adult.

School starts for UCLA on Thursday. I’ve been planning my big class and getting ready for the year to begin. I hope to get my blogging rhythm back up to speed and subscribe to the paper all week instead of just the weekend.

Sung by Rufus Wainwright, Martha Wainwright, and Teddy Thompson (2001),