The choir sounded good again yesterday at service. I think I have actively interested the group in producing their voices better, blending and singing pure vowels.

I also was pleased with my performance of the two Schubert piano sonata movements. I had done some seriously thinking and rehearsing of both of them which came to some pretty good fruition from my point of view.

I listened to others recorded performances of both of them and was surprised at the liberties other performers took with the written dynamics. Schubert seems in both of these movements to distinguishing between moving gradually and suddenly between loud and soft.

In one passage that I heard a distinguished performer perform, repeated sections were treated as strict echo passages, that is playing the second section softer than the first. Interestingly, Schubert notated the “echo” passage with diminuendo which utilized the repetition in a less obvious way and in my opinion was sort of charming. So instead of repeating the passage as an echo, the  repetition faded away.

Anyway.

Pages of the Allegro I played for the postlude were loose in the book. I asked Eileen at the last minute to turn pages for me in case they were to fall as I was playing. She did so admirably. But at one point she reached over in front of me (wearing her choir robe) and covered the section of the keyboard that I needed to use. I had to pause and tell her that she needed to move her arm so I could continue.  (smile) It was a funny moment.

Parishioners paid a bit more attention than usual to the postlude. One plopped down next the piano. There was scattered applause afterwards (much appreciated).

As far as I could tell none of the music professors paid it the slightest attention. Whippy skippy.

I told Eileen that in order to perform well I had to rid my mind of my petty professional jealousies and awareness of my outcast status with this group. The music is most itself in my opinion when it is performed live for listeners. I wanted to purge it of any thoughts other than the musical statements I was making. It’s harder to do with professional musicians in the room, but actually it’s something I have had to do for years dating most onerously back to my work as a grad teaching assistant at Notre Dame (where creepy profs would be sitting in attendance and judgement on my work in the weekly chapel services).

How one thinks when one plays is so critical to the excellence of the performance.

There was one section in the postlude that was just beyond my ability to learn in a week. I adapted it by leaving out a couple of octave doublings. I worked that section over quite a bit in my prep. Interestingly when I performed it, I barely noticed the section. What struck me most was how quickly it had passed after (literally) hours of prep on it. Heh.

But I walked home satisfied with my performance.

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Rub Out The Words: Letters from William Burroughs | Online Only | Granta Magazine

I’ve read and enjoyed Burroughs since I was a kid. He died in ’97.

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What happened when he went to the store for bread

In Praise of the Great Bull Walrus by Alden Nowlan | The Writer’s Almanac with Garrison Keillor

I seem to have found a new poet in Alden Nowlan. I inter-library loaned a few of his books yesterday.

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As a life long reader (“common reader”in Virgina Woolf’s phrase), I have only read a few book length poems: Moses by Anthony Burgess, Homer, and probably a few others that don’t pop to mind right now (old age).

But William Carlos Williams’ Paterson just seems to work for me. I continue to be drawn in and seem to make sense of what he is saying. I think it helps to have read a bunch of James Joyce. Williams even mentions Joyce at one point. Paterson in some ways is like Finnegans Wake and Ulysses since both of Joyce’s books celebrate a city (Dublin) and Williams’ Paterson is also a city in New Jersey.

Paterson is also mentioned in the twelfth line of Part 1 of Allen Ginsberg’s poem Howl.

Paterson is the setting of many of Junot Diaz’s short stories and novels, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, and John Updike’s 1997 novel In the Beauty of the Lilies.

Found this info here.

I have read Howl, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao And In the Beauty of the Lilies and am glad to know they take place in Williams’ Paterson.

I just ordered this book. I found the titled referenced in a wikipedia article on Patterson which says “Williams’ book In the American Grain is claimed to bePaterson’s abstracted introduction involving a rewritten American history.”

Excellent! Right up my alley for my non-musical reading these days.

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Abbas Says Arab Rejection of Partition Plan Was Error – NYTimes.com

The 1947 Partition plan, that is. Good grief.

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America’s Exploding Pipe Dream – NYTimes.com

Another good article by Charles Blow. Link to this chart is in article. As you can see this is what it shows:

Social Justice in the OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development).

USA: Overall – in the bottom 5;

Poverty prevention,
overall poverty
child poverty
and income equality – in the bottom 5;

Senior Citizen poverty,
Pre-primary education
and Health Rating – in the bottom 10;

inter-generational justice rating – in the bottom 15 (our highest rating).

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What a Family Faces After a Murder – The First Week – NYTimes.com

This article details what it’s like after your Mom is murdered in New York. Good writing.

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James Hillman, Therapist in Men’s Movement, Dies at 85 – NYTimes.com

Author I have read and sometimes admired.

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The Path Not Taken – NYTimes.com

Paul Krugman

“Iceland’s very desperation made conventional behavior impossible, freeing the nation to break the rules. Where everyone else bailed out the bankers and made the public pay the price, Iceland let the banks go bust and actually expanded its social safety net. Where everyone else was fixated on trying to placate international investors, Iceland imposed temporary controls on the movement of capital to give itself room to maneuver.”

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Common Errors in English Usage

Interesting list

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My oldest daughter living in New York has been active in the Occupy Wall Street activities there. She narrates this newer slicker production of a video of one of her recent projects. I am so proud of her. It is interesting to see back and forth comments from her and her relatives on Facebook. Myself, Eileen, Sarah, Matthew and Jeremy; my brother’s fam; and my Mom seem to support what she is doing. But the rest of her relatives are either silent or reactionary to what is going on. Not surprising since the reactionary voice is so prominent in much of the public air waves and internet.

I have begun checking on this radio station which my son listens to out of curiosity.

Radio and TV do mostly spin in my opinion. There is very little careful information coming from these sources. I prefer journalism like the web sites of the New York Times, The Washington Post, The Christian Science Monitor, and others. I pick up a hard copy of the Wall Street Journal occasionally because they restrict access online.

I also find that historical knowledge doesn’t inform a lot of the talk. That’s why I’ve been doing some reading in history lately. I keep learning stuff from US history. I have a basic knowledge of history but of course it can always benefit from more focus and information.

For example, this morning I read this sentence which put a bunch of events near each other, most of which I was aware of but did not realize how close they occurred.

“The political struggle in Poland
the Moscow conference of the Council of Foreign Ministers
in April 1947,
announcement of the Marshall Plan in June,
the Czech coup in February 1948,
the Berlin Blockade and airlift,
and the beginning of the Korean War in June 1950
all dramatized the irrevocable drift into ideological and strategic polarization.”

You can tell I’ve been up reading poetry and history already.

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THE GOVERNMENT VS. THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT

I regularly listen to this program online.  You can stream this weeks program but transcripts don’t go up for a few days. The USA must be the only country that feels it should have a law to let it lie. Other countries probably just lie. I love my country!

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MOG

This is another streaming web site I just found out about. Not sure I need another one besides Spotify and Naxos, but it’s interesting.

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Moving Beyond Civil Rights – NYTimes.com

I wish more reactionaries would pitch their criticisms of entitlements the way this author does:

The problem is not simply the judiciary. The attempt to achieve collective justice through individual entitlements is inherently conflicted. Litigation driven by individuals often produces perverse effects. For example, because laws prohibiting age discrimination outlaw mandatory retirement, older executives and professionals who suffer little if any discrimination can extract lucrative “golden handshake” retirement incentives from their employers. But because job seekers rarely sue over the job that got away, those laws don’t address a bigger problem: age discrimination in hiring.

I find this much more compelling than spin.

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Huddled Masses, Turned Away – NYTimes.com

Immigration and Customs Enforcement received more than $1.6 billion for removal and deportation in the last fiscal year. It can cost $23,000, by some estimates, to remove someone from the United States.

Though it has assured Congress that it concentrates on those who pose a danger to public safety, the agency often deports immigrants guilty only of technical violation of the immigration laws. A study group based at Syracuse University analyzed 187,000 immigration cases that were completed in the 10 months that ended on July 31. Of those cases, 81 percent involved only procedural, not criminal, wrongdoing. Of all the accused foreigners, only two were charged with terrorist activities. Neither was ultimately convicted of terrorism, and the immigration court even granted one of them permanent resident status.

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Bargain or Fight? Advice for Obama – NYTimes.com Letters to the editor

To me, Big Government has always stood for compassion for the poor, the homeless and the huddled masses, as the poet of our liberty claimed, and not the callous greed being exposed by Occupy Wall Street; for improving the living standard for everyone and not just the top 1 percent; for confronting the plutocrat-generated fear of America’s decline constantly offered by Republicans over the soul-enhancing hopes and aspirations for all that Mr. Obama originally campaigned on and has now seemingly joined Occupy Wall Street in embracing once again…

PAUL M. WORTMAN

…Frustration with government incompetence is not a measure of ideological allegiances. Studies have found no consistent relationship between trust in government and policy preferences.

IRENE TAVISS THOMSON

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Up early reading poetry and history this morning. Poetry = Paterson by William Carlos Williams. History = Among Empires by Charles S. Maier. I suspect that reading instead of blogging over my first cup of coffee is helping to relax me more. At least my blood pressure has been more normal for the weeks I have been doing this.

I have been turning to some guilty musical pleasures for treadmill listening lately.

I still have the vinyl of a two record set of the Yardbirds. I tried to use Spotify to listen to cuts off it. This particular collection did not come up. When I tried to reconstruct it I found that certain cuts were not available on Spotify. Interesting. I found enough to make up more than the 40 minutes I treadmill so I was pretty satisfied.

If you don’t recognize the Yardbirds, you might be interested to know that at one time the guitarists included Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page.

Their work with the Yardbirds always interested me.  Solid writing and interesting production (especially for the time).

In a previous session treadmill session I pulled together tracks by another guilty pop pleasure of mine (I have classical ones as well): Janice Ian. I no longer seem to have any vinyl by her. I bought her first album new when I was sixteen (above). I remember because I noted that she was also sixteen when she made it.

Here she is on Johnny Carson. I have seen this clip. Probably not live. At the time, I was struck by how she made Carson and McMahon seem so funny with her calm sincerity. In retrospect I think I probably had a fan crush on her.

I pulled together tracks I recognized by her on Spotify.

I used to own all these vinyls as well:

I still think her song, “When the Party’s Over,” is a pretty good song.

Eileen and I saw her live at the Ark a few years back. I still admire her abilities and think she makes a great old lady.

http://www.janisian.com/index.php

She has a good web site as well and routinely gives away free recordings.

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Qaddafi and the Lives of Tyrants – NYTimes.com

I disagree with the notion that Quaddafi murder was “fitting.” But this is a fascinating enumeration of deaths of tyrants

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Crony Capitalism Comes Home – NYTimes.com

Nicholas Kristoff:

“… [I]n recent years, some financiers have chosen to live in a government-backed featherbed. Their platform seems to be socialism for tycoons and capitalism for the rest of us. They’re not evil at all. But when the system allows you more than your fair share, it’s human to grab. That’s what explains featherbedding by both unions and tycoons, and both are impediments to a well-functioning market economy.”

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Charles Hamm, Author on American Popular Music, Dies at 86 – NYTimes.com

I have watched academic scholarship go from grudgingly embracing non-classical music to enthusiastically pursuing it.

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Maghami Expelled From Corsica Chess Meet – NYTimes.com

Iranian refuses to play an Israeli in chess meet. Sheesh.

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China Proposes New Curbs on Entertainment and Bloggers – NYTimes.com

China fears the Arab Spring and may end up contributing to its own problems with taking away popular entertainment.

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In between classes yesterday, I decided to perform two Schubert piano sonata movements for Sunday’s prelude and postlude.

For the prelude, I decided to perform this lovely movement. It is one I quite like and have been playing on and off for my own enjoyment for years.

Then I decided it might be nice to play a quick Schubert movement on piano for postlude. Postludes are listened to very much by my congregation. A few people seem to be sitting around and listening. It’s hard for me to tell, because I’m deliberately trying to concentrate on just my playing while the chaos of 200 people leisurely chatting and leaving a room ensues.

This guy plays it faster than I do. I put both of these movements up yesterday. I discovered that the YouTube version of the fast one would not allow embedding. So I just deleted it. I will put this one up instead.

I just tried and it doesn’t seem to want to embed this morning either. Screw it.

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My daughter Elizabeth linked me in to this video. I’m very proud of it and her! She’s the good looking narrator.

Scenes from an occupation (OWS) « Not Your Sweetie

This is a blog post of hers with pics.

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Point Hope, Alaska, Is Split by Oil-Drilling Plan – NYTimes.com

This article has some interesting interviews with people living in Alaska.

With the Obama administration having lifted a moratorium on offshore drilling in the Arctic and elsewhere, Shell Oil has received preliminary permits to drill exploratory wells off the coast of Alaska as soon as next summer.

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Tunisia Liberals See a Vote for Change, Not Just for Islamists – NYTimes.com

Thoughts on the first election resulting from the 2011 Arab Spring.

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Ben Jonson | Ian Donaldson | Review by The Spectator

New book on Jonson. I admire his work (Jonson’s).

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E. O. Wilson’s Theory of Everything – Magazine – The Atlantic

I’m also a fan of Wilson’s.

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I’m reading two books that complement each other in fascinating ways right now.

Among Empires by Maier takes the long historical view of America and other empires. The Limits of Power by Bacevich is helping me understand how America’s power political structure evolved to the point of the incoherence I have witnessed in my life time.

I just used up my Amazon gift certificate from my brother and his wife (Thanks again, Mark & Leigh!) and ordered several titles by Bacevich and one bio of someone I had never heard of before, James Forrestal, Driven Patriot: The Life and Times of James Forrestal by Townsend Hoops and Douglas Brinkley.

According to Bacevich, Forrestal’s rise to power in the inner circles of the so-called Wise Men that the US governmental executive calls on marked a turn away from a “cadre of distinguished” rich influential citizens to “pseudorealists” equally distinguished but who combined a “sense of alarm’ with a drive for action.

The “influential citizens” he typifies in a man named Henry L. Stimson who served several presidents beginning with Roosevelt.

These forerunners were people who at their worst were “parochial, hidebound, and given to snobbery,” but at their best represented “trust, truth, justice, virtue, the reign of law, the call of duty, [and’ the shining example.”

But the first of the later group (which Bacevich insists has stayed influential ever since gaining credibility since the 1040s) was the man, Forrestal.

His type culminated in Paul Wolfowitz.

I am interested to learn a bit more about how this all came about and I think the Forrestal bio might have some interesting insights.

I spent most of yesterday looking at choral anthems for Advent and Xmas. Have now chosen 6 out of 7. Pretty complicated trying to find music that will fit my small, talented group; be relatively easy to learn, well written and possibly attractive to the ears of the congregation.

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BBC News – Viewpoint: Is the alcohol message all wrong?

This is a very odd look at the culture of alcohol in the U.K. It seems to ignore some pretty basic facets of alcohol consumption, but it contains some very British observations about drinking.

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The symphony and the novel – a harmonious couple? | Books | The Guardian

I disagree with a lot in this article by novelist, Will Self. It presupposes a canonical approach to both music and literature which can be useful but I don’t think is an entirely accurate way to approach either.

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Sex Offender Registry: First, Do No Harm | Michigan Radio

This article interested me because I’m reading Lost Memory of Skin by Russell Banks.

It is the story of a young sex offender who is struggling with the rules (like not living within 1000 feet of where children gather) to make a life after his conviction.

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My second ballet class was canceled yesterday because the instructor was ill, so I had a lighter day than usual. I took advantage of this and made chili – two kinds one with meat for Eileen and one without for myself.

I also made cornbread to go with it.

Eileen and I were able to have lunch together since she was out and about traveling from her old job to her new one in the middle of the day. That was nice. I also had a chance to speak with Elizabeth on the phone.  I have been missing chatting with her, so that was particularly pleasant. After we hung up, my daughter-in-law, Cynthia, called and we chatted.

Spent a lot of time with Schubert and Scarlatti on the piano yesterday. I am being drawn deeper into both composer’s works for different reasons: lyricism of Schubert and the vitality and rhythm of Scarlatti.

I also discovered that Zappa did an album with Jean Luc-Ponty of Zappa’s music called “King Kong.”

I quite like the versions of Zappa’s pieces on it. It dates from 1969 the year after Zappa released Uncle Meat which has the tune “King Kong” on it.

Bless Spotify.

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Robert Pierpoint, 86, Dies – Correspondent for CBS News – NYTimes.com

I wasn’t going to bookmark this obit and then I reached the story of this pic:

In his memoir “At the White House: Assignment to Six Presidents” (Putnam, 1981), Mr. Pierpoint wrote that he had hurriedly received a story assignment but was about to play tennis with Ron Ziegler, President Nixon’s communications aide. He changed into a tennis outfit he kept in his locker at the White House, in anticipation of the match, while keeping the suit jacket on.

He wrote that when a photo of his full frame later appeared in a book and newspapers, “my superiors were far from pleased, apparently feeling that tennis shorts, a jacket and tie did not provide a dignified image.”

Marta Pierpoint said her father had relished that episode and would be buried in a suit jacket and tennis shorts.

I love it: “Buried in a suit jacket and tennis shorts.”

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Paul Leka, a Songwriter of ‘Na Na Hey Hey,’ Dies at 68 – NYTimes.com

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Seven Billion – NYTimes.com

Memorable quote from this article:

Providing modern family planning methods to all people with unmet needs would cost about $6.7 billion a year, slightly less than the $6.9 billion Americans are expected to spend for Halloween this year.

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Economists See More Jobs for Machines, Not People – NYTimes.com

I sometimes wonder about this…… how tech has affected jobs….

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Yesterday was a good day for music at church. I had chosen music I was proud to play for the prelude and postlude:

“Homo Quidam” by Langlais, a surprisingly beautiful and subtle setting of a Gregorian chant melody in F# major.

and the last movement of Handel’s first organ concerto.

I played them both reasonably well.

For the first time this year, I spent about fifteen minutes on vocaleses with the choir.

Somehow, they made splendid sounds all morning.

Part of it had to be the time spent on warm-ups. One soprano (the only soprano actually) pointed out to me that she had been doing 6:30 warm-ups for weeks prepping for her role in a local musical. That had to help as well.

Anyway, I thought they sounded great. I could spare the 15 minutes because the anthem was simple and I thought they knew it.

After church, the sound persisted and we had a good rehearsal. Now to finally pick out Advent and Xmas music.

Earlier this week, when I was looking for music to treadmill by, I remembered an old album by pianist, George Duke. I still have the vinyl. I pulled it up on Spotify and quite enjoyed listening to it a few times. Many years ago, I used this recording to demonstrate a stereo I was selling in Oscoda at our used bookstore. Later I pulled a tune off it (Capricorn) for use with my church instrumental ensembles. I looked through the Real Book indices a prof gave me and couldn’t find this tune in any of the many Real Books that are available. Too bad. I quite like this tune even years later.

Zappa was where I first heard George Duke. He’s the one with the Afro in the pic above. I once heard him play live with Zappa and Jean-Luc Ponty.

It’s a concert that sticks in my memory. It was mostly instrumental with very little of Zappa’s usual stage shows that people remember now.

Finally I notice that Charles Maier (author of Empire one of the books I am reading) keeps alluding to poetry. This morning he quoted from this poem.

Short Ode

by Stephen Vincent Benet

It is time to speak of these
Who took the long, strange journey overseas,
Who fell through the air in flames.
Their names are many. I will not name their names
Though some were people I knew;
After some years the ghost itself dies, too,
And that is my son’s picture on the wall
But his girl has been long married and that is all.
They died in mud, they died in camps of the flu.
They are dead. Let us leave it so.
The ones I speak of were not forced, I know.
They were men of my age and country, they were young men
At Belleau, at the seaports, by the Aisne.
They went where their passion took them and are not.
They do not answer mockery or praise.
You may restore the days
They lived beneath and you may well restore
The painted image of that fabled war,
But not those faces, not the living ones
Drowned in the water, blown before the guns
In France or Belgium or the bitter sea
(And the foreign grave is far, and men use the name,
But they did not go for votes or the pay they got
Or the brave memorial speech by the D.A.R.)
It is far, the foreign grave. It is very far
And the time is not the same.
But certain things are true
Despite the time, and these were men that I knew,
Sat beside, walked beside,
In the first running of June, in the careless pride.
It is hard to think back, to find them, to see their eyes
And none born since shall see those, and the books are lies,
Being either praise or blame.
But they were in their first youth. It is not the same.
You, who are young, remember that youth dies.
Go, stranger, and to Lacedemon tell,
They were shot and rotted, they fell
Burning, on flimsy wings.
And yet it was their thought that they did well.
And yet there are still the tyrants and the kings.

I continue to be amazed how the reality of war is expunged from public discussions.

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Right, Less Might – NYTimes.com

I found reading Sam Tanenhaus’s analysis fascinating when I lay it next to Bacevich’s take on the last 5 or 6 decades of American foreign policy in The Limits of Power. Bacevich sees it in terms of American framing its actions since FDR in terms of national emergency and security at the expense of the rest of the world. Tanenhaus’s essay is much narrower in scope and understanding. Necessarily since Bacevich wrote a book and Tanenhause wrote an essay.

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Clarence Thomas’s Brand of Judicial Logic – NYTimes.com

I continue to marvel at the mediocrity of Thomas’s performance as a Supreme court justice. This is a critical look.

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The Man Who Stayed Behind – NYTimes.com

Kristoff tells an interesting story of an evangelical U.S. Christian missionary who became entirely committed to the people in Sudan.

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Metro and State | Snyder vows to push bridge plan ahead despite rejection | The Detroit News

Call me cynical, but I was surprised that Gov  Snyder’s pet project didn’t fly. I figured that was one of the reasons he was supported by powers that be.

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A handy fact to remember in life is that most data we are presented with is things put together by other humans.

Whether web sites, books, music or systems of information, it’s good to ferret out origins.

Humans are frail creatures and so are their creations.  The more one can examine the care and motivation of those who provide information the better one can process and use it.

Case in point is music notation.

A decidedly admirable trend in the publication of historical music like Bach and Haydn is the blending of the scholarly and the practical in preparing editions of their music for musicians to use.

When one is moving from web site to web site or from page to page of printed music or books, it is good to consider the many choices that go into to building what is presented to our brains.

We deal with this presentation in a cursory manner in order to better reason. But it helps to reflect.

I always look at the URL when I consider a link. This of course is does not completely assure credibility, but it’s where I begin.

The extra knowledge we bring when we take in ideas helps us evaluate its strengths and weakness, its accuracy and its mistakes (or even deliberate misleading facts in the case of many URLs).

This extra knowledge can include ascertaining what humans were involved with creating, assembling and editing what we are reading (or in the case of music, playing).

All of this is a preamble to the idea that I am replaying through a couple of major works of Bach in new editions: Clavierubung III and the first volume of the Well Tempered Clavier. Both are stellar in their currency of their credibility and care in preparing these final editions.

Both involved careful examinations of a staggering number of versions of these pieces, both published and hand-copied by Bach, his students and others who came later.

Since music usually exists in multiple versions, any printed page is a sort of snapshot of someone’s opinion about how one might play a particular piece. In the 19th century and early 20th century, this was often an idiosyncratic look at a piece from a highly opinionated musician which resulted in distortions of how we think of much music now.

Editors thought nothing of adding to and/or subtracting from the original music. The idea of presenting a pristine accurate version was rare until about mid-20th century.

Interestingly, Brahms (who is definitely a child of the 19th century) was himself a careful editor and did not usually distort music he edited. Case in point is the lovely edition he did of the French baroque composer, Francois Couperin in which he preserved the complex ornate original music. His contemporaries reduced Couperin and Bach to the vision of highly emotional and romantic sounding music by adding all sorts of crescendos, incorrectly and unnecessarily confusing written out ornaments, dynamics and so on.

The 21st century trend in music editing is encouraging. Editorial decisions are carefully noted and alternate readings are often given. May this continue.

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Our ‘Broken System’ of Criminal Justice by John Paul Stevens | The New York Review of Books

This is an excellent essay that refutes those who say racism is dead in America. Retired Supreme Court Justice, JP Stevens, provides a carefully reasoned critique of The Collapse of the American Criminal Justice by William Stuntz.

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In Memoir, Condoleezza Rice Tells of Clashes With Cheney – NYTimes.com

I just might have to read Secretary Rice’s new tome.

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Robert Bork on Obama, the Supreme Court, Nixon & Being Mitt Romney’s Adviser – The Daily Beast

Still grumpy and radical, but interesting! Provides some interesting affirmation of Joe Nocera’s recent condemnation of all parties for the current partisan mess:

• The Ugliness All Started With Bork

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After working on music that I am planning to perform Sunday (Langlais & Handel), I have found myself turning back to Calvin Hampton’s work.

I think I am enamored not only because I enjoy the sound of his music, but I also know from reading his bio that he was an active rock and roller in New York while at the same time serving an Episcopal parish.

I guess I relate to someone who  straddled musical worlds.  I sometimes wonder if many of the classical musicians I know (organists especially) think I’m a dang rock’n’nroller and if more relaxed musicians (rock’n’rollers?) think I’m a snobby classical music person.

Reading in the Hymnal Companion to the Episcopalian Hymnal (Hymnal 1982), I was surprised to learn that Hampton’s church music contemporaries in the Episcopalian world thought that the MUSIC he wrote was rock and roll. I find this pretty laughable. Hampton was a monster player. The more I study his music the more I think it is significant work.

Significant to who? Me,  I guess, for one.

So I have returned to his “Five Dances for Organ.”

I previously learned and performed his elegant little dance, “An Exalted Ritual” (number 4 of the 5). Despite being fatigued and ready to quit practicing at the end of a rehearsal at the bench, this week I kept playing through the first of the 5: “The Primitives.”

This is a very ironic title. I like the sound of the piece. It is, of course, a bit on the devilish side technically as are most of his organ pieces I have looked at.  It’s “primitiveness” brings to mind Stravinsky. At least to my it does so for me.

This morning I perversely began analyzing this movement. This means I numbered the measures and began trying to understand sections. One detail I worked over (the bass line) revealed an astonishing organization of recurring pitches. I especially like stuff like this when I have already decided it sounds cool.

Understanding this kind of organization seems to help me play pieces better. Learning music often means seeing the patterns, organizing your performing thoughts along the lines of what the composer may have thought or at least put into his/her music.

My ease of working these little puzzles out seems to come from my interest in composition and analysis. Most classical musicians I have known (who were not composers themselves) seem a bit intimidated by this approach. At least they seem not to use it much when I ask them about how they think the music they are playing is working.

I see this as a failure of education. Often it’s just a matter of connecting a few dots with words that intelligent performers have already connecting with their playing.

Anyway, today is a day off for me, so I deliberately started my day with some fun analysis followed by some careful reading in Empire: American Ascendancy and Its Predecessors by Charles S. Maier. Even took down some notes. Just ordered a used copy on Amazon…..

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Police Eyes Hovering Over New York Muslims — Gotham – NYTimes.com

Yikes.

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Newark Lawyer, Paul Bergrin, Defends Himself in Murder Trial – NYTimes.com

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Chimp to Human to History Books – The Circuitous Path of AIDS – NYTimes.com

This is a revealing investigation of the pre-1981 progression of this disease. Surprising amplifiers of its process include inoculations for other diseases.

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#OWS, The Other 98%, US Uncut & Rebuild the Dream: A Look at the Shoes That Didn’t Drop | techPresident

Daughter Elizabeth recommended this, but haven’t gotten to reading it yet.

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Had a very busy productive day yesterday. I was so busy I didn’t have time to treadmill.

I sort of co-taught a small portion of  the review for the Ballet I class. The professor again this year asked me to explain meter to the class, specifically triple and duple.

It’s nice to be treated as a semi-colleague by others. This happens rarely to me these days (this excepts of course my current boss at church!).

Today the same prof has requested me to play for her mid-term (changing my Friday class from my previously scheduled teacher).

My treatment by the Ballet department profs and my boss is in such stark contrast with the way most other local musicians treat me (when they even bother to acknowledge I’m around). Sorry if this sounds a bit bitter but, recently the local theater tried to hire me last minute for the pit for a musical. They offered me $75 for three performances. That’s $25 an evening. I don’t need more things to drain my elderly energy at this point and would have probably turned them down any way. But I found their offer a bit depressing.

But speaking of colleagues, I had a short but productive meeting with my boss yesterday.  Then later I had a pleasant phone conversation with my old organ teacher at Notre Dame regarding the ongoing organ project at my church.

He explained to me that sometimes (due to profit margins) a builder can make more money on a small project like ours by charging less (100K instead of 150K). I was having trouble understanding some of the builders objections to my creative ideas of pipe placement (trying to get the pipes to speak more directly into the room).

He offered to stop by sometime when he’s in the area and take a look at our room (the church). I promised to take him out to eat if he did so.

Gave my student his last lesson for the season. He changes his residence to Washington DC at this time of year.  My one student is an octogenarian and a pleasure to teach. At my suggestion he subscribed to Naxos (an online streaming catalog).  We also discussed the new trend in editions of music that combine scholarship and practicality. I will miss teaching him until he returns in the spring.

Got home just in time to prepare supper: home made tomato soup, cheese bread and apple cranberry crisp.  Streamed Ginestera string quartets performed by the string quartet, Enso, from Naxos as I cooked.

By the time Eileen got home I had Chopin streaming from Spotify and was waiting for the bread and crisp to finish baking. I hate to keep repeating myself in this space, but life is good.

Got up this morning and read in Among Empires by Charles Maier and then finished chapter 1 “The Crisis of Profligacy” in Bacevich’s The Limits of Power.

Maier has an exceptional mind.

The history of empires and frontiers is not a central interest of mine. But I love the way this man moves throughout history and illuminates much of the madness that is going on today.

Discussing America’s global influence and presence he writes:

“Such a radiation of influence raises anew the question already posed whether America enjoys a post-territorial empire. However, it suggests a further question as well: whether the diffuse agents—banking, business, universities, media—that are based in the United States should even be seen as part of American national power. The first is a question about the contemporary evidence of frontiers and territory, traditionally conceived.

The second is an inquiry about the relationship of formally private and formally public institutions.”

This paragraph is typical of the book.

Bacevich quickly footnotes Maier in his beginning pages.

He is writing specifically about America’s crisis regarding the tension and inter-relatedness between foreign and domestic policy.

He believes that America has been denying the choice it has made between domestic responsible behavior and exploitative behavior abroad to support irresponsible consumption at home.

He cites Maier’s ideas of America as  “Empire of Production” morphing into an “Empire of Consumption” in the latter part of the 20th century.

His criticisms are bi-partisan and focus mostly on leadership from Jimmy Carter to George W. Bush (the book was published in 2008…. I’m sure he would add Obama to this list now).

“Is freedom just another word for many things to buy?” asks an article in a 2006 NYT magazine.  Do we as a country hide our eyes from the choice we have made: “We have two choices. Either we change the way we live, or we must change the way they live. We choose the latter.” The words of Donald Rumsfeld as Secretary of Defense in Oct 2001 after 9/11.

I have come to the wisdom in my life that the only person I really can truly affect and change is myself. I wonder if there is some sort of corollary lurking around in world politics. Bacevich at least believes that we have ignored the solution to our internal troubles by modifying our consumption and sought solutions to our insatiable needs for consuming outside our borders (in importing goods, credit and oil).

Profligacy is defined as “utterly shameless immoral or dissipated ; thoroughly dissolute” or “recklessly prodigal or extravagant.” Even accepting the milder definition, I feel like this describes American attitudes. I can even see it in myself. I feel extravagant that I have a good life. I have a place to sleep, excellent food to eat, invaluable companionship and love from people, and a passion for a musical life.

And I’m on the margins of our powerful country. Food for thought.

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In Paris, Bells at Notre Dame Will Be Replaced – NYTimes.com

Interesting dilemma examined from several points of view.

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An Indiana School System Goes Digital – NYTimes.com

I was talking to my wife about this one over dinner last night. She wondered (and I didn’t see this in the article) if they still used paper and pencil to solve equations.

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Elizabeth Warren’s Fighting Words Draw Return Fire From G.O.P. Rivals – NYTimes.com

Elizabeth Warren seems to me to be accurately pointing to problems in our society. Odd behavior for a politician.

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Civil Rights and Resisting Arrest – NYTimes.com

People who defend policemen would say this guy is a bad apple. True. But I also see it as evidence that racism is a live and well in the good old USA.

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I have noticed a trend. I keep reading things that bring historical perspective to current events and then point out how history is being ignored.

It does occur to me that the age of image and perception in which America seems to be living not only allows for but encourages distortion, amnesia and outright false claims.

I am especially enjoying the historical perspective in  Among Empires:  American Ascendancy and Its Predecessors by Charles S. Maier.

Andrew Bacevich (whose book The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism I am also reading) mentioned the Maier in his interview with Bill Moyers in Bill Moyers Journal: The Conversation Continues.

What I find fascinating about this book is the way Maier draws on all of known history of humankind, not just Western Civ. Before I visited China I read a history of China and was fascinated by the convoluted and long past there.  Having read this history I was prepared for Maier’s use of Chinese relations with the Manchurians and also Chinese expansion to the south. I’m not as familiar with many of the epics he draws on (like the Ottoman empire). He jumps from the extremely distant past of Egyptian civ to the present in the same paragraph.

This use of so many civilizations helps put his complex ideas about empire and frontier into a new perspective for me. Unlike Bacevich (who is much more polemical) Maier is not putting forth a clear indictment of the U.S. Rather, he is asking some historical questions.

Both his insights and Bacevich’s seem to be way below the Fox news type radar.

(Side note: I was very satisfied when Max Fisher, an associate editor of the Atlantic Magazine, not only admitted to Brook Gladstone on a recent On the Media report that he didn’t watch cable news, at the end of the report when Gladstone teased him about this, he refused to begin doing so. I feel the same about most news on American TV.)

Here’s a typical passage in Maier:

“Rome instructs because forms remain while functions change, in ways that seem at least superficially parallel. Legislative institutions claim majesty and importance, but their independence, the vigor of their internal debate, and the independent base of individual legislation weakens.

Voting as an institution remains central, but the voting becomes more plebiscitary—that is, geared to bimodal decisions of approval or rejection.

The executive claims to speak for the people as a whole,

and the representative body is stigmatized as speaking for particular interests.

Sometimes, as in Rome or the early days of the Third Reich (or in the foundation of George Lucas’s imagined intergalactic empire of the Sith), the representatives turn over their power without much overt resistance.

More generally, the empire opens up the formal claims to participation in public life or citizenship but reduces the substantive role.”

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The Return of Bowne & Co., Hand Printer at the South Street Museum – NYTimes.com

“Mr. Warner, 55, sounded as if he had been told once too often that a printer was a machine connected to one of those newfangled computers.

“The printer used to be the person who ran the presses,” he said.

…

Eighteenth-century printers, it turns out, used urine on the leather tools that spread the ink on their hand-operated presses. Soaking them in urine kept the leather supple after the printers had washed off the ink. Mr. Warner has a pair that look like maracas, but with an almost flat top.

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Stanford Researcher Finds Lots of Leaky Web Sites – NYTimes.com

If you type a wrong password into the Web site of The Wall Street Journal, it turns out that your e-mail address quietly slips out to seven unrelated Web sites. Sign on to NBC and, likewise, seven other companies can capture your e-mail address. Click on an ad on HomeDepot.com and your first name and user ID are instantly revealed to 13 other companies.

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Tunisia Elections Roiled by Dispute Over the Film ‘Persepolis’ – NYTimes.com

Another interesting cultural clash.

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Samuel Alito’s Effort to Balance the Law With What’s Fair – NYTimes.com

Struggles for fairness from the right.

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Yesterday I retreated into Simenon and Mozart to try to relax.

Mondays are a tough day for me now, having to get up at 8:30 and do a morning of ballet classes after Sunday (which usually leaves me a bit devastated in many ways).

I may have been a bit hung over as well.

I say this because I felt a bit better as the day went on, especially after exercising.

I didn’t measure my martinis the night before and I sometimes pour them with a bit heavy hand if I’m not measuring. Anyway, I feel much better this morning.

I recently read an article about Simenon in the New Yorker.

I won’t bother to link it, since it’s subscriber only (Makes me crazy). It got me to thinking about how much I enjoy this man’s writing. At the same time, BBC began running its dramatizations of some of the Maigret novels.

They’re really quite good. They use the dramatic conceit of George Simenon interviewing his character, Maigret, about the case in the story.

So yesterday I dragged out one of my many unread used copies of Simenon’s novels and buried myself in it.

My copy of Sunday by Simenon actually looks more like this:

It happens not to be a Maigret novel, but no matter, it’s still quite good.

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St. John’s College Puts Emphasis on What Teachers Don’t Know – NYTimes.com

Having profs teach as they learn a new area….. best quote: “We don’t have departmental politics — we don’t have departments!”

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Krista Branch’s ‘I Am America’ Aims to Be Tea Party Anthem – NYTimes.com

Music in the news. Unfortunately, it’s a lame tune.

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Elizabeth Warren’s Appeal – NYTimes.com

Warren makes sense to me.

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A Sensible Path in California – NYTimes.com

Jerry Brown once again moves his state in a direction that looks humane and responsive.

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Hollywood Dishonors the Bard – NYTimes.com

Saw trailers for “Anonymous.” Repellent.

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Good News! No, Really! – NYTimes.com

Bill Keller, former editor now feature write at NYT, actually finds some good news stories in the world in Slovakia, Liberia, Peru, Somalia, and Myanmar.

1. The Triumph of Dogma

Reich muses on the futility of partisanship.

2. PrideSource – First openly gay bishop talks death threats, 9/11

Interview by my nephew, Benjamin Jenkins. Makes me proud!

3. My Advice to the Occupy Wall Street Protesters | Politics News | Rolling Stone

Haven’t read this one yet. Recommended by a friend (he really is my friend) on Facebook.

4. College Diversity Nears Its Last Stand – NYTimes.com

Upcoming ruling by Supreme Court likely to alter the landscape in America’s colleges and universities.

5. Democracy’s Collateral Damage – NYTimes.com

Observations on how modern Democracies have only come into being with some pretty awful side effects.

6. The Violinist Hilary Hahn at the Stone – Review – NYTimes.com

This article has been on mind since I read it on Saturday. It has gotten me thinking a bit about how many of the musicians I know in Western Michigan seem to view music as the property of experts. The idea that ordinary people can and should make music seems foreign to them. I disagree with this notion vehemently and admire Hahn and Swafford for engaging the audience. It’s one of the ideas that keeps me connected to church music despite my misgivings about religion. I think it’s cool that a bunch of ordinary people come together each week and sing.

Yesterday,  I was amused when a parishioner (an amateur musician) engaged me at coffee hour in an enthusiastic discussion of Keith Richards’ new autiobiography. Later I reflected that the several, more accomplished musicians in the room would quite possibly not know who Richards is.

7. ‘MetaMaus’ by Art Spiegelman – Review – NYTimes.com

I’m a fan of Spiegelman. Probably won’t purchase his new book, though.

8. Maurice Sendak: ‘I refuse to lie to children’ | Books | The Guardian

Finally read this article yesterday. Although I disagree with Sendak about Rushdie, I found most of his comments entertaining.

The gentle cold rain in the dark morning reminds me of a poem I love.

Western wind, when wilt thou blow,
The small rain down can rain?
Christ, if my love were in my arms
And I in my bed again!

Eileen had to work yesterday so instead of having a day off with her, I did tasks all day. I started off with cleaning the kitchen and never got around to doing a blog yesterday.  Ran the dishwasher twice, balanced Mom’s checkbook and ours, did Mom’s bills and ours, farmers market, grocery store. Sheesh.

I did manage a couple of hours at the organ console. Recently purchased two volumes of Handel’s organ concertos.

Yesterday as I worked I played Simon Preston’s recordings of them on Spotify and made note of his tempos. The edition I purchased was Herman Keller from 1954. I suspected his suggested tempos were a bit odd and sure enough they were much different from Preston’s.

I seem to be in a bit of a funk this week.  Not depressed or melancholy so much as blank and unmotivated. This too shall pass I am sure. In the meantime, I do read quite a bit. Here’s today’s links.

1. Professor of Philip Garber, N.J. Stutterer, Defends Actions – NYTimes.com

A follow up to a previous link. I find this story engaging. It makes me wonder how two people (the professor and student) who seem so connected to their lives ended up on the opposite sides of this controversy. I do ponder how much of it has been manufactured by the reporting.

2. The Bleakness of the Bullied – NYTimes.com

Confessional column by Charles Blow. Still heart rending to me, even if a bit over the top.

3. The 1930s Sure Sound Familiar – NYTimes.com

The 30s don’t seem to sound familiar to people in power in the US right now. Making the same mistakes.

4. Russell Banks Talks About ‘Lost Memory of Skin’ – NYTimes.com

Novel about a group of convicted sexual offenders who are forced to live in a homeless camp.  People on the margins always interest me. They seem to have a unique understand of what it means to be alive. I put my name on the wait list for this new book at the library.

5. bootypop.com

New concept for me. One of my ballet instructors began talking about “booty pops” in class. Who knew?

6. New York Times Plans Staff Reductions – NYTimes.com

The terrain of news gathering and reporting continues to shift.

7. Builders of Corn Mazes Hope to Lose Visitors, and One Actually Did – NYTimes.com

Farmers use software to design corn mazes.

Eileen and I attended a performance by Enso String Quartet last night.

They are superb performers. They performed Bartok’s String Quartet No. 2, Op. 12. I have been listening to and studying these quartets for ages. I have a lovely little hardbound copy of them that my brother gave me.

During the second movement, I leaned over and asked Eileen if she recognized the music. She didn’t. I suspected she might because I play the recording occasionally.

I looked up the Haydn quartet they performed as well. I was intrigued by the harmonies in the minuet.  If you click on the YouTube, the interesting harmony occurs in between :05 and :06 seconds.

I looked up the score online and this beautiful note is not in the printed score I found. How interesting. I printed off the entire quartet to study (link to PDF of it).

Reading about it online I discovered that it has very irregular phrases. The minuet would be impossible to dance a minuet to. Very cool.

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Local News | Educating Gabriel, 13, an off-the-charts prodigy | Seattle Times Newspaper

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PhotoBlog – Underwater volcanic eruptions cause large green stains on sea’s surface

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Great TED talk. Kudos and thanks to Carrie Hodson for posting it on Facebook. Hazelwood is involved in some interesting projects not least of which is the Paraorchestra (His daughter has Cerebral Palsy and he got interested in the musicality of “disabled” people – more info here: Let’s hear it for the Paraorchestra | Life & Style. If you don’t take the time to watch the TED video, at least watch this very cool trailer of a Hazelwood project.

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One Girl’s Courage – NYTimes.com

Another gritty inspiring story from Kristoff.

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Tehran’s Foes, Unfairly Maligned – NYTimes.com

Insights from former FBI director, Louis J. Freeh.

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Maurice Sendak: ‘I refuse to lie to children’ | Books | The Guardian

Sendak is a cranky old man. Great interview.

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Political Wisdom: GOP Debate Takeaways – Washington Wire – WSJ

A bit belatedly I post this link of reactions to Wednesday’s debate.

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I love this video of images from Mars.

Back at it yesterday, accompanying ballet classes. I was flattered by the teacher, Angie,  in front of the her class. She had requested that I do her class yesterday. She wanted to tape her class (something they do to analyze their own technique) and had found my accompaniment before the break helpful to the dancers. She told her class yesterday that she wished I could be their accompanist every class. At this point I (and the other pianist) move back and forth between the three teachers who have class on MWF at 8:30 AM.

I’m not sure what I do that this teacher approves of. I know that I tend to play rhythmically and change the music to fit the movements. I don’t usually use a lot of pedal on the piano (this might make the sound a bit more percussive). And my improvs tend to the simple so that dancers are sure to know where they are in the 8 measure phrases.

Who knows? I do know it’s satisfying to be treated with such respect by people who are good at what they do. I was talking about this with Amanda (one of the other teachers) yesterday in regards to the dance department itself. She asked me how my class with Angie had gone in the morning (I do Pointe class with Amanda on Monday and Wednesday).  I told Amanda that I had enjoyed it (I had) and that I enjoyed working with all three teachers. Amanda remarked that they were all a bit crazy and enjoyed working together. I told her that was excellent and unusual in the world of music and colleges.

I guess I’m not sure how unusual it is. I just have seen up close and personal several universities where studios of different music teachers are engaged in mini-wars. And at this point, I feel very isolated from other musicians. I regularly see musicians from Hope and Holland. They tend to keep me at arms length. I think this makes sense because I represent a bit of a threat or an unpredictable and confusing presence as a musician.  Whippy skippy.

This brings me to this article in The Anchor, Hope College’s student newspaper.

I think this is an interesting break down. (I also can’t believe that the Anchor doesn’t have an HTML online version online a pdf one. Good grief.) It seems to confirm my own impression that Hope is a typical provincial conservative small liberal arts college.

This is another of the graphic books (it’s not a novel) I checked out the other day. I was disappointed in this one. It’s not really “stories” or “tales.” It’s more like visual essays about the nature of mental health treatment. I put it down after reading about half of it. It has nice pictures, but I didn’t find any true stories in it, just some descriptions interspersed with lots of insider talk.

I have to stop and go to work.

I was reading Andrew Bacevich’s interview in Bill Moyer’s The Conversation Continues yesterday while waiting for my Mom (appointments and shopping).

Here’s a quick bio of Bacevich from wikipedia:

Bacevich graduated from West Point in 1969 and served in the United States Army during the Vietnam War, serving in Vietnam from the summer of 1970 to the summer of 1971. Later he held posts in Germany, including the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment, the United States, and the Persian Gulf up to his retirement from the service with the rank of Colonel in the early 1990s. He holds a Ph.D. in American Diplomatic History from Princeton University, and taught at West Point and Johns Hopkins University prior to joining the faculty at Boston University in 1998.

On May 13, 2007, Bacevich’s son, 1LT Andrew J. Bacevich, Jr., was killed in action in Iraq by an improvised explosive device south of Samarra in Salah ad Din Governate. The younger Bacevich, 27, was a First Lieutenant in the U.S. Army, assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 8th U.S. Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division.

[link to source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Bacevich]

I found his interview with Moyers focused some of my own questions and posed some I hadn’t thought of.  Concerning our current political crisis Moyers quotes Bacevich:

“Here is what I take to be the core of your analysis of our political crisis. You write, ‘The United States has become a de facto one-party state, with the legislative branch permanently controlled by an Incumbents’  Party.’ And you write that every president ‘has exploited his role as commander in chief to expand on the imperial prerogatives of his office.’

“One of the great lies about American politics [Bacevich continues] is that Democrats genuinely buy real diazepam uk subscribe to a set of core convictions that make Democrats different from Republicans. And the same thing, of course applies to the other part. It’s not true.”

After reading the entire interview, I interlibrary loaned Bacevich’s latest book.

I found Among Empires: American Ascendancy and Its Predecessors by Charles S. Maier on the shelf at the library. Maier is an author that Bacevich admires and points out Maier coined the phrases (both to describe the US) “empire of production” and “empire of consumption.”  I’m on chapter 3.

These men are thinking clearly and from the context of the military and social history. I find 20th century history confusing and am glad to find some credible sources to help organize my thinking a bit in these areas.

Couldn’t resist picking up a few other books while I was in the library.

I do like graphic novels (memoirs, whatever). Ironically, last night I sat with a a martini and read The Alcoholic by Jonathan Ames and Dean Haspiel. I thought it was pretty good.

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Professor’s Response to a Stutterer – Don’t Speak – NYTimes.com

A person with a stutter who responds resiliently to other people’s stupidity.

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Britain – Aging Big Ben Has Slight Stoop – NYTimes.com

The leaning clock of Britain.

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Chipping Away at Gridlock in the Senate – NYTimes.com

NYT finds a glimmer of hope in recent rule shuffle in Senate. I can only hope they are right.

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This Time, It Really Is Different – NYTimes.com

The Way Forward | NewAmerica.net

Nocera’s column and a link to the source for a way of seeing what is happening in the economy as new and unique.

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Getting Naked in the Massachusetts Senate Race – NYTimes.com

An insightful analysis of the worthiness of two opposing candidates in Massachusetts.

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