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Great Voices
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2j9wvUy5FmA] Above: “Le Soleil et La Lune” by Charles Trenet In 2010, NPR is going to do a recurring series about the world’s best vocalists. Of couse, that’s a highly subjective and ultimately crazy goal, but in the time being, they’ve got an interactive tool to help them pare the list down with biography, photos,…
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Musical Moment of the Day
The main chord progression from Radiohead’s “Everything in it’s Right Place”… [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdcriLDmos4] …is the same as the string riff in Marlena Shaw’s “California Soul.” [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmk30mvVz3Y]
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Organ Case File #1: St. Andrew's Church
I started taking organ lessons at the beginning of the semester. The organ, partially because of its liturgical use and partially because of its fundemental complexity, exists in its own hermetically sealed sphere; there is a tremendous amount to learn about every aspect of the instrument. One of the most useful things an organ student…
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Quartet for the End of Time
These two videos (each illustrating one movement from Olivier Messiaen’s A Quartet for the End of Time) are truly remarkable. They feature artist Zack Smithey, and were produced by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center for an upcoming concert. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QrGzES0UNk] [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNbjQTSkin0] Listening to these pieces in the context of the video was interesting for…
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I hate it when I'm exactly like everybody else #223: The Rite of Spring
I have a fickle relationship with mass opinion. I’m not talking about boom-and-bust buzz, like the sucess and subsequent backlash towards Juno. Rather, I really enjoy looking for things to read, listen to and watch, but once something passes a certain threshold of critical acclaim, or “belovedness” I get almost afraid of it (closely related…
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The Van Cliburn
One of the ideas that has been hardest for me to accept is the idea that not everybody looks at music in the same way that I do. Still, it frustrates me a little bit when people have no curiosity about the centuries of music that have come before us. I mean, nobody would consider…
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Keith Green and the commercialization of Christianity
As I have mentioned before, I was raised in a Christian home and even though I am not today, a lot of my perspective on things is informed by and tied to that fact (indeed, I recently finished Craig Thompson’s graphic novel Blankets that deals with this very subject). I am not talking about the…
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'Meh'st Week Ever! Special Back From The Dead Edition
Now that I am done with school, with the exception of the pedagogical afterbirth that is finals, I’m back on my game. Here’s what my four readers come here every Sunday to see: 1. Memetastic Specialty Blogs! Men Who Look Like Old Lesbians Awkward Family Photos …only the awkwardest! And there’s so much more!
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Some Bullshit
Now, I’m as nostalgic for old crappy shit as anybody else, but this article from the Telegraph that breathlessly reports on the coming resurgence of cassette tapes is among the top ten most wrong things that have ever been egregiously false. The article charges that: “Demand for blank audio cassettes has soared as music fans…
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Oregon Symphony, Hannu Lintu and Horatio Gutierrez
On Monday night, I had the privilege of scoring free tickets to the Oregon Symphony. I had been wanting to go that weekend, mostly to hear Rachmaninov’s sublime Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini, and when the offer came up, I jumped at it. It was my first time at the beautiful Arlene Schnitzer Concert…
