TGIF

It's been a full week, with our visiting guests for Music of the 21st Century coming in on Tuesday or Wednesday. I led a question-and-answer convocation with Jake Heggie yesterday, which was fun if a little stressful to prepare for. Jake is very chatty, so it was easy once we were out there. It also helped that we had lunch before the convocation, so I had an idea of what questions Jake would like.

My weekly film screening (Citizen Kane) prevented me from attending the concert last night, so I watched some of the coaching sessions that afternoon to make up for it. But then I had to walk over to the hardware store to get some tree-trimming tools (say that 5 times fast) so my parents could fit their RV in our driveway. My dad came to the screening, though he didn't particularly care for the movie. It was too stylized for him, with all of the odd camera angles and close-ups.

Monday marks a definite shift in both my Film Music class and Theory IV classes. In Film Music we are shifting from analytical theory to history, starting with the birth of cinema (Dec. 28, 1895). In Theory IV we are shifting from formal analysis to harmony, looking at more unusual uses of augmented sixth chords.

And to finish off random thoughts for the week, the new issue of Music Theory Online is up. I haven't had a chance to read the articles yet, but I did want to point out a new feature of MTO. Now it has dynamic listings of jobs, calls-for-papers, events, and other announcements. Thus it is worth visiting between new issues.