Switch to Beta

I've switched to the new Blogger Beta, and updated my template. I debated whether to make a radical change in the design of the blog, but decided that I like the old version. I do like the new system of listing archived posts, and the Trackback "Links to this post" works now. I've added more categories to the blogroll and the music sites. What do you think.

Stocking Stuffer?

This will only encourage Patty, but here is the latest toy sensation that will be under all holiday flora this year, the Talking Trombone Teacher Doll.

Sample phrases include:

* "I think you should go with a bigger mouthpiece"
* "Nobody's playing 88H's anymore"
* "You'll never win an audition if you play it like that"
* "You need to get a Thayer conversion"
* "I'm sick of teaching, let's go get a beer"

What I'm doing this semester

I haven't written much about my teaching life lately, mostly because I've been so busy with my teaching life lately. But all my grades are turned in, and now I am done until August 22. Surely that is a typo, you are thinking, or DePauw has the longest winter break ever. But it is no error, and many DPU students and faculty will be back on campus January 3rd for Winter Term, or January 29 for the Spring Semester. The reason I have such a long break is because DPU has the most civilized approach to tenure, including a wonderful pre-tenure leave. This pseudo-sabbatical is taken in the fourth or fifth year to help bolster the files for tenure. I will be finishing four journal articles, heading off to the Netherlands, and hopefully starting a book (though the latter is not officially part of my sabbatical project). I am up for tenure next fall, so the extra time I have to do research and prepare my files will be put to good use. Hopefully the results will be as happy as Chad's.

Speaking of "humor"

Galen H. Brown has written the theory geek's version of The Night Before Christmas, entitled "A Visit From J.S. Bach". I think I will start using these various jokes as tests in theory classes, since that is the purpose of education anyway.

Just put me on the naughty list now

Over at Soho the Dog, Matthew has investigated Christmas hymns with statistical vigor, finding that many carols start on scale-degree five. He is uncertain as to why this is, though it is quite simple:

to celebrate the winter Sol-stice.

Billions of memorials

Today is the tenth anniversary of Carl Sagan’s death. In honor of him, Joel Scholsberg has announced a memorial blog-a-thon. Keeping to my area of expertise, I have decided to write about the music included on the Golden Record sent on the Voyager space probes. Carl Sagan chaired the committee that selected the images, sounds, and music recorded on the record. Wikipedia lists the musical selections, confirmed(?) by this Latvian site. The majority of the pieces are World Music, with a sprinkling of classical works (Holbourne's Fairie Round; Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 2, Partita No. 3 and Well-Tempered Clavier Prelude-n-Fugue; Mozart's Magic Flute; Beethoven's Fifth Symphony and String Quartet No. 13; and Stravinsky's Rite of Spring) and three pieces of popular music (Louis Armstrong's "Melancholy Blues", Blind Willie Johnson's "Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground", and Chuck Berry's "Johnny B. Goode"). And those three popular pieces span jazz, blues, and rock. The newest composed piece was "Johnny B. Goode" as far as I could tell. I'm not an expert in ethnomusicology, so I don't know the history of most of those songs. So in 1977 the newest piece was over 20 years old, and by now it is over fifty years old. Dr. Sagan and his committee had only six months to pick the music, and clearly had been given the mandate to be as multicultural as possible, as evidenced by the fifty-five languages on the record. I'm sure the lack of new music was due to a fear of picking the '77 equivalent of Brittney Spears (the Bee Gees?) to send on a billion-year journey.

In related news, a student composer at Sagan's old stomping grounds of Cornell composed a tribute to him. Peter Salvi composed In Memoriam Carl Sagan in 1997 for flute, clarinet, and bassoon.

Gentlepersons, start your scores

I've received an announcement of another composition contest, this time via snail mail. The sponsor is the Music Department at California State University, Northridge. The details can be found here, but based on the discussion of the previous contest, the important facts are as follows:

1) There is an entry fee of $20 for each work submitted (maximum of 2 per composer allowed).
2) There is a cash prize of $1000, and a performance with the CSUN Symphony.
3) If you want your score or recordings back, send a SASE.
4) The scores are submitted anonymously.
5) The judges are Dan Hosken, Daniel Kessner, Liviu Marinescu, John Roscigno, and Elizabeth Sellers.
6) The only other criteria are the length (7-15 minutes) and the instrumentation (orchestra or chamber orchestra, no soloists).

The fee is less and the prize is more, but is that enough? Now fifty entries are needed to cover the cost. What are appropriate criteria to publish for judging a composition contest?