Code your name

Now that Kyle Gann has had his name encoded, perhaps I can provide a system to allow anyone to set their name in music:

A - G as is, except B is really Bb (blame the Germans).
H = B natural (again, those Krauts)
I = tonic triad (let's assume a generic C major)
J = Gb, if Jee is normal, Jay is flat.
K = B4 (1000 Hz approximately)
L = the Leading Tone Exchange of the previous chord, assuming a triad in the key of C if it was just a note (if it was a major triad drop the root of the chord by a step; if it was a minor triad raise the fifth by a step. So the C major triad would become an E minor triad, an A minor triad would become an F major triad).
M
N = Neapolitan chord (Db major in our chosen key)
O
P = the Parallel mode of the previous chord.
Q
R = the Relative major/minor of the previous chord.
S = Eb (German Es) or the Subdominant chord (F major)
T = B natural ("Ti")
U = C ("Ut")
V = Dominant chord (G major)
W = C sharp (close to U)
X
Y = E major triad (Greek E, let's make it different)
Z

I'm drawing a blank on the others. I think O could be from some European or Russian theory symbols, but not sure. Help me out, people.

Spiegelberg = F major (IV), F minor, C major, E, G, E (minor), C major, Bb, E (minor) G major, G
Starts ambivalently, but the chromatic line from A to Ab to G lends strength to the tonic chord, which is embellished with arpeggiation. A little neighbor motion in the bass (C - B - C) follows. Adding the Bb to the previous C major triad sounds like a V7/IV, but resolves like a German Augmented Sixth to the E minor triad (second inversion, natch), suggesting that the previous E minor triad was a foreshadowing of a modulation. However, the supposed cadential 6/4 in E minor is pulled back to the dominant of C, for an inconclusive ending.

Movie Clichés

Amanda Marcotte, substitute teacher at Michael Bérubé Online, has started something with a post on the most egregious movie clichés. The Little Professor followed up with some clichés specific to academics portrayed on film. So what are the worst ways in which musicians are shown on screen? My ideas include:

• the shy person becomes a big hit singer, with nothing needed but confidence
• the stuffy classical musican finds his/her true love for music with a good pop tune
• drugs, drugs, drugs
• a group of students pull together a complex show perfectly, while all of their time seems to be spent on vairous hijinx

Chiaroscuro

Tonight we went to a concert in the Bloominton Early Music Festival. Chiaroscuro is a chamber group consisting of violin, cornetto, sackbut, dulcian, and organ. I was, of course, attracted to the cornetto, played by Kiri Tollaksen. Her playing was beautiful, so agile and delicate that even my wife was won over. I'm going to take some lessons with her next year, as she will be teaching at IU's Early Music Institute part-time. The concert, "Eavesdropping at the Collegium," featured music by 17th century German composers, especially Matthias Weckmann. The whole ensemble played with passion and nuance (Mary's word), though I wasn't crazy about the solo organ piece. There were also solo pieces for the violin, sackbut, dulcian, and one work that featured Kiri playing the mute cornetto. While I prefer the sound of the standard cornetto, I was very excited to hear the mute cornetto for the first time. The concert was very well attended, over 100 people at St. Mark's United Methodist Church, including three colleagues making the one-hour drive from DePauw. I was inspired enough to practice for over an hour when we got home, and now must go to bed before Mary kills me.

Aagh! Another addiction

Thanks, Patty. Now I find myself up at 12:30 doing Sidokus. (I finished the dodecaphonic one, and two other easier ones. I thought the 12-tone one would use a Second Viennese School piece for the hint, but I was wrong.) I think I will print out some of these for my Musicianship I students next semester. Perhaps some extra credit...

Writing

I'm currently in a five-day workshop to become certified as a W-instructor. DePauw has three competencies required of all its students: W (writing), Q (quantitative reasoning), and S (oral communication). Various courses across the disciplines fulfill these competency requirements, based upon some basic course content and the certification of the professor. After this workshop I will be able to offer W courses. I plan to offer my Film Music course as a W in the future, probably in three years.

But I am also taking the workshop to get ideas for my First Year Seminar (Writing About Music). Thus far I have decided that the students should all read the same materials for the major writing projects, so they can discuss those readings better. I'm also going to have them blog about those readings before class, to make the in-class discussion more fruitful. And finally, I know that the capstone project must be changed. Previously, I've had the students construct a portfolio of their writings. I think I'm going to force them to take one writing project and expand it into a 6-8 page essay, with at least one draft turned in for feedback before the final product.

To bring some music into this post, I'm currently enjoying the 30 years at the Lincoln Center special on PBS. Beverly Sills is showing what a real coloratura sounds like, and looking simply adorable while doing so (The Barber of Seville from about 1965). Wynton Marsalis, however, should stick to the trumpet. His phrasing is good, but his voice is missing that body which would give it real character.

Done!

All the grades have been tabulated and submitted. I am a free man! Untill tomorrow afternoon when I start a five-day workshop on teaching writing-intensive courses.

Here are the pieces that my Theory IV students analyzed for their final papers (no particular order):
Beethoven - Piano Sonata no. 15, "Pastoral"
Mozart - Flute Concerto in G major, K 313
Quantz - Flute Concerto in G, QV 5:174
Berlioz - Les Nuits d'Été
Grieg - Piano Sonata in E minor, Op. 7
Haydn - Symphony No. 48 in C major, "Maria Theresia"
Beethoven - An die ferne Geliebte
Haydn - Trumpet Concerto in Eb
Schumann - Dichterliebe
Vivaldi - "The Four Seasons" violin concerti, Op. 8
Mozart - Violin Concerto No. 3 in G major, K 216
Dragonetti - Bass Concerto in A major
Dvo˘rák - Symphony no. 9 in E minor, "From the New World"
Mozart - Piano Sonata No. 6 in D major, K 284
Beethoven - Piano Sonata op. 81a in Eb major, "Das Lebewohl"
Mozart - Piano Sonata No. 2 in F major, K 280
Schubert - String Quartet in D minor, "Death and the Maiden"
Dvo˘rák - String Quartet No. 12 in F major, "The American"
Schumann - Frauenliebe und Leben
Beethoven - Symphony No. 7 in A major, Op. 92
Mozart - Symphony No. 40 in G minor, K 550
Mozart - Sinfonia Concertante in Eb major, K 297b

The assignment was to analyze a multi-movement piece, showing how each movement/song works by itself and as part of the entire piece.

The news in music

Teresa Nielsen Hayden tells us about the Aural Times, a website/podast that sings the news. This reminds me of Jonathan Lethem's Gun With Occasional Music where the news is broadcast indirectly as music rather than with direct words. Of course, I am reading Lethem's The Fortress of Solitude, so it isn't surprising that his work is on my mind.