Mario!

I was busy for the last two weeks, first going to upper Wisconsin for a final tribute to my grandpa, then spending a week getting certified to teach Speaking/Listening intensive courses. And I wrapped it up with a perfect evening spent with my kids. First, I picked my son up at his new school with my bike and his tag-along for the first time. Then my daughter joined us to take Weasley for a walk in our finery before we headed to Indianapolis for a perfect dinner at P.F. Changs and a very interesting concert by the Indianapolis Symphony. It was called Video Games Live, arrangements of video game music for orchestra (and choir when appropriate). What I didn't expect was that this concert was held in conjunction with Gen Con. I first realized this with the sign at PF Changs, plus all the people at the restaurant wearing Blizzard or Bioware shirts. The crowd at the concert was mostly orchestra neophytes, but very enthusiastic about the projected video game clips and especially a visit from this guy:

As you can hear, he is competent, but his touch lacks nuance. And the flatness of amplification made it even less desirable. In fact, there was too much amplification overall, which made the concert lose the immediacy of live music, a real shame. This is not a good example of reaching out to new audiences for the purpose of exposing them to the joys of live orchestral music.

But my kids loved it, and the whole evening gave us a chance to talk about school, games, music, and life. So I'd happily go to this concert again.

Musical Architecture

An article in the latest Journal of the Acoustical Society of America made me aware of this rather cool thing. Vitthala Temple, located in Hampi, India, has 56 pillars designed to sound specific pitches when tapped. Here is a video demonstrating them:

These musical pillars are also called the SaReGaMa pillars. Sa Re Ga Ma are Classical Indian solfege syllables, used for learning the ragas. I can imagine using the whole temple to accompany great musical rituals.

Anish Kumar, T. Jayakumar, C. Babu Rao, Govind K. Sharma, K. V. Rajkumar, Baldev Raj, and P. Arundhati. (2008) "Nondestructive characterization of musical pillars of Mahamandapam of Vitthala Temple at Hampi, India" Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 124/2, pp. 911-917.

The Best of the Rest: 8-2-08

Today I did my first campaign volunteer work, pounding the doors of my neighbors. Everyone I managed to talk to said they're voting for Barack Obama, which is great news. Here are some highlights from around the bløg¥sphére.

1. Feast of Music: Peter Matthews provides pictures from John Zorn's performance at Brooklyn Bridge Park, and pictures from this year's Bang on a Can Marathon.

2. Sounds Like Now: Brian Sacawa announces the return of "chamber music insurgents" Mobtown Modern, and makes an important correction to the name of their podcast.

3. The Detritus Review: Empiricus has the newest edition of Composer of the Day, featuring Olly Wilson. Dr. Wilson is certainly new to me, though now that I think about it I think I read a mention of his ethnomusicological work in my improvisation research.

4. Classically Hip: I have to read John Clare's San Antonio-based blog to find out that the local Indianapolis Symphonic Band is offering a dog-friendly concert right now. It's not that local, so I won't be able to bring Weasley to it this time. However, I will be going to Fort Harrison State Park in October for another half-marathon.

5. Eric Edberg: My colleague gave his first recital with the newly-restored Pallotta cello, and reports the results.

FriPod: Fruit

I just transferred my iTunes library to an external hard drive (250G WP Passport), freeing up 30G on my laptop hard drive that was desperately needed. If you do this yourself, follow these instructions, no others. I made the mistake of trusting another article I found, and had to start over after wasting several hours of manual fixes. In staring at dreaded exclamation marks next to my tracks, I noticed that there were several fruit-named songs.

1. "Apple Honey" by Woody Herman, performed by his Thundering Herd on The Thundering Herds 1945-1947.

2. "The princesses play with the golden apples" from The Firebird by Igor Stravinsky, performed by a) Philharmonia Orchestra with Esa-Pekka Salonen, b) Igor Stravinsky conducting some French orchestra.

3. "Stealin' Apples" by Fats Waller, performed by Roy Eldridge with the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra on Little Jazz.

4. Suite from The Love for Three Oranges by Sergei Prokofiev, performed by a) Empire Brass [arranged], b) Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra.

5. "Aranci, Ninnoli! Caldi I Marroni E Caramelle!" from La Bohème by Giacomo Puccini, performed by Luciano Pavarotti, Mirella Freni, Etc., Herbert Von Karajan; Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. [Oranges, Ninnoli! Hot Chestnuts and candies!]

6. "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" by Whitfield and Strong, performed by Marvin Gaye.

7. "Tangerine" by Johnny Mercer, V. Schertzinger; performed by The Dave Brubeck Quartet on The Great Concerts: Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Carnegie Hall.

8. "Lemon" by U2 on Zooropa.

9. "Pineapple Rag" by Scott Joplin, arranged by Marvin Hamlisch for The Sting soundtrack.

Barackmaninoff

This last weekend I went to Terre Haute to take part in the opening of the local Obama/Democratic Party campaign headquarters, one of twenty here in Indiana. It was amazing to see how many of us were new to campaign volunteering. I'm doing it because Barack Obama treats us like adults. He isn't afraid of nuance, and shows that he has both learned a great deal about all the relevant issues and is open minded to learning more. His speech on race relations sold it for me, and made me decide I want to work hard to help him get elected. In 2000 I was living in the very red North Dakota, so had no hope that my vote would help Al Gore get elected. In 2004 I was living here in Indiana, and again had no hope that my vote would help John Kerry. But this year, Indiana's 11 electoral votes could actually go to Barack Obama. Polls are running neck and neck. So I'm volunteering, and set up a fundraising page. Go donate $25, and take power away from the "Pioneers" who bundle over $100,000 to buy influence with the politicians.

The Best of the Rest: 7-26-08

Since this is new, a reminder: These are all blogs that are NOT on my lists of the top 50 Classical Blogs. However, since those lists are merely about links, not about quality, I'm doing my part to expose lesser-linked blogs to the bright light of ... my readers?

1. Mahler Owes Me Ten Bucks: Chantal explains why she has this blog, how it is different from her professional reviews, and why her legs turn to jello when she is listening to Mahler 6.

2. Music Matters: Henkjan Honing has two posts about the recent Music & Language conference held in Boston. In the first, he talks about how influential Lerdahl and Jackendoff's book, A Generative Theory of Tonal Music was in bringing music theory to scientists. In the second, he points to a Boston Globe reporter who asked whether the conference attendees could help him decide what music to play for his infant son.

3. Feast of Music: A good mini-review of David Lang's "American Shelter," part of a Bang on a Can collaboration. "It was shimmering, transcendent, the most mystical experience of the entire weekend. Take that, kids. And run with it."

4. ThoughtLights: Dan B. muses on how to determine quality. He looks at views by Greg Sandow, Kyle Gann, and a NYTimes article on reading, before coming to his own conclusions.

5. The View from Here: In between music reviews for the Chicago Sun-Times, Andrew Patner posts about the new Poet Laureate, Kay Ryan.

FriPod: Animals

I'm taking care of Buster and Gracie this weekend, so the house is full of animals.

1. Animal Ditties by Anthony Plog (lyrics by Ogden Nash), performed by the Summit Brass on Colors for Brass. Movements are I. Turtle, II. Porpoise, III. Python, IV. Dog, V. Ant, VI. Centipede, VII. Rhinoceros, VIII. Mule

2. "IV. The Animal Realm" from The Six Realms For Amplified Cello And Orchestra by Peter Lieberson, performed by Michaela Fukacova, Odense Symphony Orchestra, Justin Brown.

3. Strange Imaginary Animals album by Eighth Blackbird. "Evanescence" and "Violence" by Gordon Fitzell, "Friction Systems" by David Gordon, Indigenous Instruments by Steven Mackey, "Zaka" by Jennifer Higdon, "Strange Imaginary Remix" by Dennis DeSantis.

4. "Git Along, Little Dogies" performed by Pete Seeger on Children's Concert at Town Hall.

5. "Dog Eats Dog" from Les Miserables by Claude-Michel Schönberg, Alain Boublil, Herbert Kretzmer, original Broadway Cast.

Can you believe I don't have any tracks with Cat in any form or language?

Update: Peter Kaye helps me out with this video: