I’m listening to Chanticleer’s Christmas cd “Let it Snow”, released last year. Some of it is good, and some it is awful. I mean really awful. And this is saying a lot, because Chanticleer is, hands down, my favorite professional choral group. Better than The King’s Singers.
For goodness’ sakes, when you’re known for beautiful performances [...]
Archive for the ‘music’ Category
fish out of water
Posted in music on December 6, 2008 | 1 Comment »
procrastination=disaster!
Posted in language, life, music on September 9, 2008 | 2 Comments »
The longer I’m in graduate school, the less I feel motivated to finish. Unfortunately, it’s also true that the longer I’m in graduate school, the more urgent it becomes that I finish soon. The end of this academic year would be great, says my long-suffering advisor who just wants me to graduate already. When are [...]
was that note an accident?
Posted in music, teaching on July 25, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
I had one of those classic piano lesson moments today during a lesson with my seven-year-old student. He started a piece called “The Unhappy Dragon” which had sharps and flats scattered throughout. The illustration for this piece included a couple of smoking volcanos and a weeping dragon…typical kid piano book stuff.
Me: “So M, what kind [...]
this is the song that never ends
Posted in church, music on April 14, 2008 | 3 Comments »
Occasionally, historical accounts can be quite amusing. Take this one, for example—Charles Burney’s description of some seriously long-winded singing in The Present State of Music in Germany, the Netherlands, and United Provinces (1775):
I visited the Thumkirche or cathedral, belonging to the Lutherans, where I found the congregation singing a dismal melody, without the organ. When [...]
hymns, hymns
Posted in church, language, music on February 20, 2008 | 2 Comments »
Strange things make me happy. For example, the fact that an 1897 copy of the Kirchen-Gesangbuch Fur Evangelisch-Lutherische Gemeinden (Church-Songbook for Evangelical Lutheran Worship) published by Concordia (ie, Missouri Synod) should be appearing in my mailbox in the next couple of weeks. Admittedly, it’s for a paper and ultimately for my thesis, but aside [...]
theatrical pianism
Posted in music, piano on February 6, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
The NY Times just published a great article about excessive drama in piano performance. Seriously, I’ve had this experience on more than one occasion. Sometimes the musical experience is worthwhile but the pianist’s gymnastics are entirely too painful to watch. The word is ‘distracting’.
Bernard Holland does a nice job of summing up “the differences between [...]
old title, new meaning
Posted in language, music on January 22, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
As evidence that the meanings of words change over time, I offer the title of a hymn found in the American Lutheran Hymnal (1930)—Before Jehovah’s Awful Throne. I don’t know about you, but when I say something is awful, I don’t mean “filled with awe.” Unless I’m filled with awe that it’s, well, so awful.
taking stock
Posted in life, music, pop culture on January 18, 2008 | 2 Comments »
Weeks ago, I was accused of being a “hipster” in regard to my popular music taste. I immediately resented the label, but I don’t know, maybe it’s appropriate. What does being a “hipster” signify, anyway? I like to pride myself on having diverse popular music tastes, but there probably is some underlying similarity to the [...]
what it takes
Posted in music on January 9, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
I generally avoid the whole piano performance scene because I still remember how stressful it felt to be under so much pressure. The whole business still makes me recoil inside, even two years after my last semester as a piano major. However, I do try to be supportive of my pianist friends, so I ventured [...]
overrated accuracy
Posted in music on October 11, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
It looks as if the current trend towards “accurate” historical performance is not limited to classical music.
The Real Sound of Shakespeare?
The more I get into this musicology degree, the more it seems funny to me that so many modern musicians are obsessed with the “right” way to perform historical works. It is interesting and engaging [...]
