As DePauw conquers the blogosphere

A DePauw student has started two blogs: Music and Music Education and Composition Blog. Chris Simerman is a trombonist, music education major, and budding composer. The first blog is mostly on his old music ed. assignments, something that should make my colleagues very pleased. The only post thus far to the Composition blog is by Chris' co-blogger, Kyle Wernke. I'll be curious to see what happens with both blogs.

Composition Competition

I received an announcement of a new composition competiton from Joel Hoffman, Professor of Composition at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.

Music07 and eighth blackbird are pleased to announce a competition for composers:

There will be one prize, which consists of a performance by the premiere new music ensemble EIGHTH BLACKBIRD during Music07 (10 through 16 June, 2007 in Cincinnati, OH) and $500 in cash. One or more honorable mentions may also be awarded at the discretion of the judges (These awards do not include a performance or a cash prize).

Applicants can either apply to the competition or to Music07 or both.

The application fee for the competition is $25 (payable by check to“University of Cincinnati” and marked “Music07 competition fee”). The application fee for Music07 Is $25 (payable by check to “University of Cincinnati” and marked “Music07 application fee”). Each submitted composition must be accompanied by a separate application form and application fee. The competition reserves the right to not award any prizes. The decision of the judges is final and no correspondence will be entered into.

The competition will be judged by members of eighth blackbird and by the directors of MusicX. The competition will be judged anonymously; the score and CD should be marked only with a pseudonym. Accompanying the submission should be an envelope marked with the pseudonym on the outside and the application form with application fee on the inside.

The receipt deadline is 20 March, 2007. Results of the competition will be announced by 15 April. The instrumentation of eighth blackbird is: flute (piccolo, alto flute), clarinet (b-flat, a and bass), violin (viola), cello, percussion and piano. Composers are welcome to submit works either for the whole group or any sub-set of it. Participants may be citizens of any country, and there is no age limit. All submitted works should be 8-15 minutes in length. Submitted compositions cannot have been performed during previous editions of MusicX in Cincinnati.

Submission materials:
-Score (parts will be requested only of the winning composer)
-CD, either of a live performance or MIDI
(submissions without CD will also be considered)
-Application form (downloadable at www.ccm.uc.edu/musicx) and application fee, both of which in an envelope marked only with the pseudonym on the outside
-SASE, if you wish your materials returned

Music07 is the latest installment of the annual new music festival hosted at the University of Cincinnati. If you have questions, email Prof. Hoffman or eighth blackbird.

Update: Read the comments here and this post for arguments against this competition.

Heading to Groningen

I just found out that my proposed paper was accepted to the 9th International Conference of the Dutch-Flemish Society for Music Theory. As the link indicates, the subject of the conference is Improvisation: Analytical, Theoretical, and Critical Approaches". I'll include the abstract for my paper below, and would appreciate any questions or comments.

The ultimate goal of any improvisation pedagogy is the engendering of quick creativity. The ability to create with innovation and coherence is developed through the development of various cognitive skills. The improvisation pedagogy presented is based upon recent
cognitive studies, identifying what skills are necessary and how best to develop them. This method for stylistically-neutral improvisation is intended to fit within a core two-year aural skills sequence in post-secondary studies. Students learn to improvise in a collaborative environment, one that also encourages the development of keyboard skills. Working in pairs, the performers trade soloing and accompanying duties. This provides a safer environment for exploration, and frees the professor to evaluate performances. It also provides varied experiences from the different duties and from the alterations and imperfections inserted by the partner during practice. Studies such as Pressing (1984), Berliner (1994), Sarath (1996), Johnson-Laird (2002), and Mendonça and Wallace (2004) have stressed the importance of temporal cognition in improvised performance. Thus rhythmic and metric accuracy is placed at the forefront of this improvisation pedagogy. Memory is also a key component of improvisation. Performers must be able to remember what they already played and the form of the improvisation. Kenny and Gellrich (2002) describe eight cognitive processes during improvisation, including three temporal levels each of recall and anticipation. Memorization of self-composed melodies and mimicking exercises help to develop these skills. Sarath's (1996) concept of cognitive event cycles is taken as an important measure of improvement. Greater frequencies of cognitive events, as measured through numbers of possible solutions to a given musical event, give rise to more creative responses to stimulus from the improviser and from collaborators. This is evidenced by variety demonstrated in multiple performances of the same exercise. Pressing (2000) provides an estimate of the expected limits for "improvisational novelty" at ten actions per second, based upon error correction times measured by Welford (1976). This paper summarizes the various cognitive models of improvisation and the framework for the pedagogical system. Sample exercises are demonstrated for both instructional and assessment purposes.

Berliner, Paul. 1994. Thinking in Jazz.
Johnson-Laird, P.N. 2002. How jazz musicians improvise. Music Perception 19(3), 415-442.
Kenny and Gellrich
Mendonça, David, and William A. Wallace. 2004. Cognition in jazz improvisation: an exploratory study. 26th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society.
Pressing, Jeff. 1984. Cognitive processes in improvisation. In Cognitive processes in the perception of art, (ed. W.R. Crozier and A.J. Chapman). North-Holland, Amsterdam.
Pressing. 2000. Improvisation: methods and models. In Generative processes in music.
Sarath, Edward. 1996. A new look at improvisation. Journal of Music Theory, Vol 40, No. 1, 1-38.
Welford, A.T. 1976. Skilled Performance.

Looking out for #1

Inspired by John Scalzi's list of the top 51 SF/F personal blogs, I decided to compile a list of the top 51 classical music blogs. I decided not to count aggregators like Jeff Harrington's New Music reBlog or BlogNoggle, and used rather arbitrary lines on whether a blog wrote enough about classical music to count. I did not include any blogs that have been defunct since the beginning of 2006. I note that being a professional writer does not guarantee a high ranking, nor does the musical output of the blogger. I have decided to stick with 51, to continue a tradition that will befuddle e-archaeologists in centuries to come. The technorati ranking is listed, and a designation of Academic Musicologist or Theorist (A), Composer (C), Critic (Crit), Operablog(O), Listener (L), or the instrument of the author. It is amazing how many opera blogs there are, justifying their own category. Please let me know if I missed any blogs that have a higher ranking than 285,000. Update: Marc Geelhoed pointed out that I misranked his blog. Rather than correct every single number after his, he gets a special ranking of 21a.
Update #2: ANABlog, a group blog of the Analog Arts Ensemble, holds the coveted 20a slot with a ranking of 89,361.
Update #3: Two more blogs brought to my attention: Dr. Dick's Blog (180,464 Dick Strawser radio director) and ClassicallyHip (264,567 John Clare violin). Please also let me know if there are any mistakes with name, rank, or designation. In fact, I've decided to renumber the list, cutting off the bottom ones to stay at 51. ClassicallyHip just misses the cut now, but I'll definitely keep this blog in mind. I'll do a new list after the spring semester, perhaps a regular feature.
Update #4: NewMusicBox would be in the #2 position if I included it (22,637). Should I include these e-magazine types of blogs?

1 The Rest is Noise: 6,577 Alex Ross (Crit)
2 Sequenza21: 23,260 Jerry Bowles (C)
3 On an Overgrown Path: 25,137 Bob Shingleton (producer)
4 Ionarts: 27,639 Charles T. Downey (A)
5 PostClassic: 31,123 Kyle Gann (C)
6 Sandow: 36,793 Greg Sandow (Crit)
7 Sounds and Fury: 44,607 AC Douglas (L)
8 La Cieca: 45,144 James Jorden (O)
9 The Rambler: 50,718 Tim Rutherford-Johnson (A)
10 Adaptistration: 54,276 Drew McManus (orchestra management)
11 Night after Night: 56,128 Steve Smith (Crit)
12 Think Denk: 57,134 Jeremy Denk (piano)
12 Jessica Duchen: 57,134 (Crit)
14 Aworks: 58,196 Robert Gable (L)
15 Oboeinsight: 59,315 Patty Mitchell (oboe)
16 Terminaldegree: 60,452 (kazoo)
17 Musical Perceptions: 78,160 Me (A)
18 The Well-Tempered Blog: 80,219 Bart Collins (piano)
19 Red Black Window: 84,277 Roger Bourland (C)
20 The Concert: 86,494 Anne-Carolyn Bird (voice)
21 ANABlog: 89,361 Analog Arts Ensemble
22 The Standing Room: 97,231 Monsieur C (L and voice?)
23 Deceptively Simple: 97,392 Marc Geelhoed (Crit)
24 Classical Pontifications: 100,373 Professor Heebie McJeebie (C TANDY)
25 Listen: 100,373 Steve Hicken (C and Crit)
26 Meanwhile, here in France: 103,674 Ruth (cello)
26 Soho the Dog: 103,674 Matthew Guerreri (C)
28 The Iron Tongue of Midnight: 107,080 Lisa Hirsch (Crit)
29 Sieglinde’s Diaries: 110,824 Leon Dominguez (O)
30 Dial “M” for Musicology: 114,825 Phil Ford and Jonathan Bellman (A)
31 My Favorite Intermissions: 119,158 Maury D’annato (O)
32 Wellsung: 119,158 Alex and Jonathan (O)
33 Eric Edberg: 123,899 (cello)
34 In the Wings: 128,993 Heather Heise (piano)
35 Renewable Music: 134,457 Daniel Wolf (C)
36 Classical Music: 134,457 Janelle Gelfand (Crit)
37 Kenneth Woods: 154,184 (conductor)
37 Trrill: 154,184 Nick Scholl (O)
39 Twang twang twang: 161,853 Helen Radice (harp)
40 Fredosphere: 170,319 Fred Himebaugh (C)
41 Opera Chic: 170,319 (O)
41 On a Pacific Aisle: 170,319 Josh Kosman (Crit)
41 An Unamplified Voice: 170,319 JSU (O)
44 Vissi d’Amore: 170,622 Ariadne Obnoxious (voice)
45 Felsenmusick: 179,647 Daniel Felsenfeld (C)
46 Dr. Dick's Blog: 180,464 Dick Strawser (radio director)
47 Tears of a Clownsilly: 190,048 PWS (student?)
48 NY Opera Fanatic: 201,435 Roy Wood (O)
49 Campbell Vertesi: 228, 958 (voice)
50 Café Aman: 244,758 Anastasia Tsioulcas (Crit)
51 Tomness: 245,375 Tom Meglioranza (voice)

I Blame Timothy Hutton

via Eric, a wonderful rant on Pachelbel's infamous Canon in D. One of Eric's commentor's asks whether the piece is really a passacaglia rather than a canon, and the answer is yes and no. A passacaglia has a recurring bass line with varied melodies, and Rob Paravonian points Pachelbel's recurring bass line out quite effectively. A canon has multiple parts playing the same melody in imitation, which the upper three parts in Pachelbel's piece do. Fun facts about canons: The melody doesn't have to be in the same key for all the voices, resulting in canons at the fifth or ninth, and it could be played backwards (crab canon) or upside-down (mirror canon). The imitated melody could also be played at twice or half the length of the original, called a mensural canon.

Resources

With the candidates for our dean search coming in these last two weeks, we music faculty have been contemplating what kind of students we want to attract and how we want to teach them. Eric has researched entrepreneurship options at schools of music. I have been thinking about the academic skills I want to impart. One of my students asked why they need to learn library skills when they can ask a librarian for help. While an initial reaction is that the student was exhibiting laziness, the question could also be in pursuit of efficiency. We stress to our students that time management is very important. Now, bringing up efficient use of time is a double-edged sword. Librarian access is a limited resource. If a class of twenty is assigned research papers due in a week, all twenty will want help from the music librarian. Some of those twenty will have to wait several days to meet with the librarian, and if they wait several days to start the research, that is not an efficient use of time. But perhaps we need to be teaching our students how better to use the human resources of the university. Perhaps library instruction should focus on how to use the librarians, i.e. what types of questions the students should craft to ask. We have been wrestling with the design of our First Year Seminar in the School of Music. I think an important component should be on how the students should use professors, tutors, staff, fellow students. What are appropriate ways to ask for help from a peer, without cheating on the assignment? What is the best way to develop a relationship with a professor, and for what reasons?

As I think more about this, the more it relates to Eric's research about entrepreneurship. Carving out a market involves networking with potential funders, potential clients, potential workers. Making music involves dealing with audiences, fellow musicians, etc. Even research, that potentially hermetic practice, necessitates interactions with editors, program committees, collaborators. While there are facts and practices, the mysteries of the music discipline, that must be imparted to the students, there are also the joys of interactions that also should be taught, and the ethics that govern those interactions. (The latter could make a nice tie-in to the coming Ethics Center.) Life should not be lived alone.

All I want for Christmas is my new Yule Tunes

Chad Orzel is asking for suggestions to increase his meager Christmas song collection. I suggest Wynton Marsalis' Crescent City Christmas Card, especially the arrangements of Silent Night and We Three Kings.