Whichblog

I just put the finishing touches on a new piece- a trio for 2 oboes & English horn imaginatively titled....Trio. Like the last few pieces I have written I'm not sure how pracitical it is. I am eager to get feedback from any groups that perform it. If you want to pass along any title suggestions for future pieces that would be great, too.

Some levity, from Steve Martin's article "In the Bird Cage"

Working on a college project about Charles Ives, Phil landed an interview with Aaron Copland. However, he would have to drive from Los Angeles to Peekskill, New York, to conduct it...
Three days after we left Los Angeles, Phil and I arrived at Copland's house, a low-slung A-frame with floor-to-ceiling windows, in a dappled forest by the road. We knocked on the door, Copland answered, and over his shoulder we saw a group of men sitting in the living room wearing what looked like skimpy black thongs. He escorted us back to a flagstone patio, where I had the demanding job of turning the tape recorder on and off while Phil asked questions about Copland's creative process. We emerged a half hour later with the coveted interview and got in the car, never mentioning the men in skimpy black thongs, because, like trigonometry, we couldn't quite comprehend it.
- The New Yorker 10/29/07

Some insight into the angry young man - Fellow Elvis Costello fans will want to check out Elvis' new podcast, The First 10 Years. It's available free from iTunes or you can download it from Elvis' media page.

Sometimes I almost feel just like a human being.

Little reminders of relationships found in used books - the rest of the story is there for us to fill in. There was love and appreciation there once. But we get rid of things: books, when we run out of shelf space, and people, when we no longer have room for them in our lives.

found in Bryson’s A Walk in the Woods –

Dear Dad & Mom,
This delightful book is what got us interested in the “AT”.
We wanted you to have this. We thought it might help you to follow us in spirit.
Love,
---

found in The Reader’s Companion to Mexico –

For ---
For no reason at all except affection.
---

found in Webster’s Spanish/English Dictionary –

Plug phone into phone & electric outlet. Needs to charge up for 18 hours before it will work.
Call me, or I’ll call you.
I’m Here.
Love
---

Whitman:
I will leave all and come and make hymns of you,
None has understood you, but I understand you,
None has done justice to you, you have not done justice to yourself

The tragic story of tenor Jerry Hadley.

Celebrated tenor Jerry Hadley was taken off life support Monday, nearly a week after an apparent suicide attempt left him with a severe brain injury.

Folks mention the joy and vitality that Hadley brought to his roles. They mention his accomplishments and discography; they list the highlights of his résumé while asking how- with all that success- he could have done such a thing. Music schools and practice rooms across the world are filled with musicians fighting to get to a point in their professional life similar to the one Mr. Hadley had gotten to. Often their little journeys are so incredibly focused and single minded that other parts of their life are tossed aside along the way. "Why would he do such a thing?" People who ask such things want to believe that that kind of success is enough. But if we look at our own lives and priorities most of us can come up with an answer. For some it's on the surface, others will have to do some soul searching. Talent is not enough. A calling is not enough. There has to be something else there to give that talent meaning, to make it worthwhile. Some of us, no matter how small our worlds are, just want someone to play for. I don't know what that something was for Mr. Hadley. That is as it should be. It's not for us to know.

To me, Mr. Hadley was Candide. His performance on the Bernstein-conducted recording is wonderful. Returning to Voltaire's novella after listening to Bernstein's operetta, I couldn't help but impose Hadley into my own vision of the text. The world weary naif, the traveler, the fool in love, the gardener. For me, whatever it is I am and will turn out to be, I wanted to believe that a person like that could exist. I imposed this fictional creation on a real person, a person I never met or knew the slightest thing about. Why would he do such a thing? I like to think that when I ask the question I am being less superficial and maybe a bit more enlightened than those I mentioned above. This is not so. My question is not based on reality, but rather on a blend of art, fiction, and dreaming that says more about my own experiences and desires than I would ever admit outright.

Just completed a new piece - Bagatelle for Albert, a short little ditty for 2 flutes and 2 saxes. Poor Albert.

Honest I do. Honest I do. Honest I do.

From the BBC - an article on the Zimmers, the oldest rock band in the world.



And from Boston, a retrospective of the work of Edward Hopper, a master at depicting the unique, heartbreakingly sweet brand of American longing and isolation.


image from mfa, Boston

Whitman : "Talk honestly, for no one else hears you, and I stay only a minute longer."

From The Nation - a bit on the CRB's attempt to kill Internet radio.
And a plug for my two favorite Internet radio stations : Kyle Gann's PostClassic Radio, and Pat Matthews' Beatles-A-Rama.

He's very clean...

To Timothy Hurtz and the Pennsylvania State University Double Reed Ensemble, who will be performing my Scherzo Angustia at the upcoming IDRS convention.

A belated thank you to Steve Geibel (flute), Dan Willett (oboe), and Brian Tate (bongos) for their wonderful performance of my Diversion for the Odyssey Chamber Music Series.

Be careful who you shush - a fight breaks out at a Boston Pops concert, during Gigi, of all things. And more on the douchebags courtesy of the Bostonist, including a link to the YouTube video.

Say Joshua Bell decides to play his fiddle in a busy Washington, D.C. Metro station during the morning rush. How much dough would he rake in? See for yourself.

Artist Sol Lewitt died today at the age of 78. I first encountered Lewitt's work in Randy Coleman's Trends in Contemporary Music. (It was the most thought-provoking and engaging class I have ever been involved in, and it came at exactly the right time in my education. I would thank Mr. Coleman if I thought he would remember me.)

I still carry around a copy of Lewitt's Sentences on Conceptual Art:

1) Conceptual Artists are mystics rather than rationalists. They leap to conclusions that logic cannot reach.
5) Irrational thoughts should be followed absolutely and logically.
10) Ideas alone can be works of art; they are in a chain of development that may eventually find some form. All ideas need not be made physical.
20) Successful art changes our understanding of the conventions by altering our perceptions.
24) Perception is subjective.
25) The artist may not necessarily understand his own art. His perception is neither better nor worse than that of others.
26) An artist may perceive the art of others better than his own.
32) Banal ideas cannot be rescued by beautiful execution.
33) It is difficult to bungle a good idea.