The last few days I have been sorting the many boxes of stuff left on my porch from my Mom’s last move from her apartment. Since that move my front porch has been sort of a storage area for a bunch of stuff. Last week I thought it might be nice to have my porch back in a usable state. So I started making stacks of stuff to take to the local thrift shop. Also going through many papers and deciding if they can be recycled or need to be kept. Most of it goes into the recycle bag, but I have run across some things I think are important like my Mom’s diplomas and charming letters from my kids to my parents.

I also took four huge old computer monitors (only two of which I believe were my parent’s) and an old TV to Goodwill which accepts and supposedly reuses computer equipment.

This is sort of a melancholy task because both of my parents were in shaky mental states when they last had their hands on their stuff. Dad was deep into his disease (Lewey Body Dementia) and was making little sense. Mom was at her wit’s end and feeling very inadequate and crushed by Dad’s demands. All of this is evidenced by the their random stuff laying on my porch.

I am making headway and would love to sit on my porch some this summer.

When Linda Graham the choreographer was visiting me this week to discuss the upcoming Global Water dance music, she noticed my harpsichord sitting in my dining room. It’s kind of hard to miss. She was surprised that I was a harpsichordist and immediately asked me if I would be interested in helping her with a class at Hope. I told her that the harpsichord has been sitting in parts since last fall. My goal this summer is merely to get its refurbishing started again. I also told her that harpsichord music is another of my passions and I would be glad to help, even though Hope already has qualified people.

We had a frank discussion about Hope’s harpsichord and its reluctance to share it with departments. I tried to make this a constructive conversation since my experience of Hope and Holland in general is one of small minded provincialism. And I’m not feeling very positive about the area in which I live this morning since the Holland City Council voted 5 to 4 against recommending a non-discrimination policy regarding sexual orientation.

Linda said to me recently that when she moved to Holland in 1983, the college was more liberal and the city more conservative.  Now she thinks this is reversed. I think that much of  the entire country has shifted into shallow angry  reactionary behavior that has little to do with the notion of freedom (liberal) or preserving (conservative).

I think we need both notions.  My father used to describe himself as a “progressive conservative.”

Recently ran across the book, Acts of Faith: the story of an American Muslim, the struggle for the soul of a Generation by Eboo Patel.  Patel has been described as both the kind of person who has vision and can also implement it. His notion is that hate is taught to impressionable minds in our country.  His vision is to educate our young people into tolerance and away from hate.  I agree.

In addition I think we desperately need to educate ourselves period. I find fuzzy thinking and lack of simple factual knowledge often predominates public and private conversations. Education has been largely reduced to preparation for earning an income. The skill of learning and acquiring knowledge is less important then ever (When was it ever that important? I wonder).  Words, themselves, slip into  “frames” of manipulative intent or obfuscating smoke screens  not coherent content, communication and understanding.

But I digress. I think sorting my parents stuff has made me a bit sad. Example: I found an old check book for an investment account. In my Dad’s shaky writing there was a sticky on it that said: “I don’t know what this is.”

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Justices Turning More Frequently to Dictionary, and Not Just for Big Words – NYTimes.com

Interesting thoughts about the relationships of words and meaning. Isolating words in a dictionary meaning not always fruitful. Also dictionary usually describe usage not prescribe meaning.

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Effort Fosters Tolerance Among Religions – NYTimes.com

This is the article that led me to Eboo Patel (above).

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Carl Gardner, Lead Singer of Coasters, Dies at 83 – NYTimes.com

Coasters did “Yakety Yak Sax” and “Charlie Brown.” Great stuff.

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Pundit Under Protest – NYTimes.com

Conservative commentator David Brooks accurately bemoans current election and political rhetoric.

“Covering this upcoming election is like covering a competition between two Soviet refrigerator companies, cold-war relics offering products that never change..”

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Rescuing the Real Uncle Tom – NYTimes.com

This makes me want to read the book.

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Ebb and flow by jupiterjenkins

Finished this composition yesterday. Linda Graham came by and seemed to think it was okay. I sent off the scores to the musicians and  made 3 Midi recordings including the one above and emailed them to Linda for use in rehearsals with her dancers.

I made a version without repeated sections and one with repeated sections. Also, Linda requested one that was just the repeated rhythmic section at the end repeated over and over.

In order to make even a crappy MP3 midi version of the piece I had to specially alter the score so it would make the random sounds and trills that I was instructing the players to make at certain point.

This morning before uploading it to Soundcloud, I put a fadeout at the end.

I guess I’ll put it up on Facebook. I pretty much abhor self-promotion. But I think it’s silly not to share when several people seemed interested in the first movement when I put it up.

I also got my Mom back and forth to the Pain doctor yesterday. Despite the fact that I have tried to connect this office with Maplewood Resthaven where Mom lives, they instructed Mom to stop by a pharmacy and pick up a prescription. One of the things I am very happy about Maplewood is that they have professional staff to dispense Mom’s drugs.

After a little discussion with the pain doctor staff, they gave me a prescription to give to the nurse staff at Maplewood. I have had difficulty with this office. I’m a little leery of how easily this doctor gives meds to his patients and don’t really have confidence that he is monitoring its interaction with other meds the patient is taking. Plus he unreasonably (in my opinion) insists that anyone driving a patient wait for the entire 2 1/2 hour appointment in the waiting room so there will be someone to assist them when they are groggy from his injections. I always tell my Mom I will come and wait for for an hour or so but not the full time. She can always call me on my cell if she needs me before that. Medical people like this make me crazy. But they have the patient at a disadvantage, so I just put up with it as long as there’s no harm to Mom.

I also picked hymns and organ music for this Sunday yesterday. By the end of the day I was exhausted again. Sheesh.

Eileen and I celebrated our 36th wedding anniversary by going out to breakfast together. We’re going to continue celebrating this evening and go out to eat. It’s what we like to do.  Heh.

Finished a rough draft of “Ebb and Flow” yesterday. Despite the deadline I am still attempting to do some relaxing. Finished reading a mystery novel that is soon to be overdue from the library:

The choreographer quickly responded to my email last night. She is anxious of course to hear the piece and get a recording for rehearsals. Whew.

Today is Eileen’s and my 36th wedding anniversary.  Marrying her was one of the smartest things I ever did. I love living with her.

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Book Review – The Filter Bubble – By Eli Pariser – NYTimes.com

Another review of this book, this time by Evgeny Morozov. He intelligently and gently challenges the weaknesses in Pariser’s argument.

“Unlike such human filters as critics and editors, algorithms do not “think” — they compute. And while computing the “is” (i.e., relevance) is something they can accomplish, computing the “ought” (i.e., our information duties as citizens) is a much more contentious and value-laden process that is also made impossible by the limitations of artificial intelligence.”

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Leo Greenland, an Unconventional Adman, Dies at 91 – NYTimes.com

Another great obituary. Greenland was unconventional because he thought that advertising was at its best when it was honest.  Lots of great stories in the obit, including this one.

“One of Smith/Greenland’s most challenging campaigns was Penthouse magazine. In a bid to persuade skittish advertisers that people really did buy Penthouse for the articles, the agency prepared a series of ads, to appear in trade journals, that focused on the magazine’s investigative journalism.

One ad, which invoked an article in the magazine about the workings of the Ku Klux Klan, pictured two white-hooded figures.

The caption read, “Not everyone under a sheet in Penthouse is in the mood for love.”

BTW yesterday was another advertiser’s birthday, Dorothy L. Sayers.  According to the Writer’s Almanac site:

“She worked as an advertising copywriter from 1922 to 1931, and came up with the “zoo” series of Guinness ads, which have become classics. She’s also credited with coining the phrase, “It pays to advertise.”

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Claudio Bravo, Artist Who Blended Hyperrealism and Classical Elements, Dies at 74 – NYTimes.com

During the postlude yesterday, a large elderly lady came up to me and began yelling, trying to engage me in conversation. This is always simultaneously amusing and baffling. The piece was a bit complicated, lots of quick notes that moved in interesting and unpredictable ways. At one point, I raised a hand with one finger pointed up and quickly said, “Just a minute.”

As I finished playing I vaguely wondered in the back of my mind if someone who would try to talk to a musician as he was playing would have the attention span to wait two minutes while he finished the piece.

It turns out this lady did. She asked me if I was from something like “Invasion Haven.” I said no. Then she asked me if I had ever heard of the phrase. I admitted that I had not. She said it was a gospel group from Benton Harbor with men who had beards and long hair.

The last hymn which we had just sang was “There’s a Sweet, Sweet Spirit in this Place” by Doris Akers, a gospel tune. I had played gospel piano accompaniment and apparently had reminded this elderly visitor of a group from Benton Harbor, Michigan. I can’t actually remember the name she yelled at me (she continued yelling even after I stopped playing, but it was noisy with the post service chats going on). I googled gospel music and Benton Harbor but didn’t recognize any of the names. It’s possible it was “Invasion Haven,” but I think it was something different but equally goofy.

Thus ended my 2010-11 choir season.

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Don’t Quit This Day Job – NYTimes.com

I found this article pretty frustrating and narrow. Karen Sibert, an anesthesiologist believes strongly that doctors should not have private lives, they should be totally dedicated to their patients. “Part-time doctor” is a contradiction in terms to her. I found the whole thing annoying and coming from a different place in life than I am.

I particularly found it annoying that she felt that the government’s subsidization of medical education was being short changed by women who went part time as doctors to have a life.

Ay yi yi.

By reducing doctors’ vocations and lives to implied transactions and responsibilities as this person does, seems to me to actually perpetuate stereotypes and dehumanization she ostensibly opposes.

Jes sayin.

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Entering Darkness by Sam Anderson – NYTimes.com

Article on caves. Starts with a description of a new movie by Werner Herzog. Good writing.

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Watch Documentaries and Animated Films Online – NFB.ca

A Canadian friend put this link on Facebook. It’s the National Film Board of Canada and he says there’s lot of interesting stuff there. Haven’t poked around in it.

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I am waking up to a better cup of coffee. A year or so ago, I watched a video of a doctor talking about lowering her own blood pressure by switching the manner in which she made her coffee: from French press (which I had long used and adored) to more conventional filtered drip method. So I when I spied a nice used Krups drip coffee maker at a local thrift shop, I bought it and began making my coffee with it.

Now it has been a while and the manner in which I make my coffee does not seem to make a difference in my blood pressure.

A few days ago I went to pour coffee from my drip coffee maker and it seemed to be empty. I peered into the basket and noticed it was holding the coffee. The thing was blocked. So I wiggled the filter and it began to drip properly. I poured a cup and it was very strong. I loved it. It reminded me how I missed decent coffee.

So this morning, I decided to go back to the old method. Mmmmm. Much better.

A recent article in the Guardian (link) mentioned David Brooks fondness for Anthony Trollope. The article told how Brooks recently gave a talk to the New York Anthony Trollope society about the book, The American Senator.

I have read a shit load of Trollope. He was prolific. But haven’t read this one. I downloaded a free copy to my netbook and began reading it.

I am enjoying the Kindle interface. It highlights quite nicely. And I can add notes. Plus last night I was reading and thought that the word, “squire,” had been misprinted as “quire.” I found an option that allowed me to report an error. I did so and noticed that doing this also resulted in the error being corrected in my copy. Very satisfying.

I played the Debussy pretty well at the wedding yesterday.

It was fun doing the dynamics correctly.

In both pieces I played, soft predominates.

Soft. Very soft. And very very soft. I managed to get the huge Steinway grand to whisper a bit. Very satisfying. I swear the crowd got a bit less noisy, but I could have been making it up. Or it might have been simply because the time of the wedding was drawing near.

I have to admit it was fun playing a decent organ and piano.

It’s too bad I’m sort of on the outs with the organ prof there. It would be fun to play his wonderful instruments once in a while.

So one more choir Sunday. I end the season still enjoying working with this crew. But I am tired and need a break. This morning I will lug my little Marshall amp over to church.

I promised the guitar player he could plug in when I asked him to come and play. He is coming today to help me with my “Van Morrison” version of Veni Sancte Spiritus.”

I mostly invited this person to play recorder on the Irish sounding anthem we are singing today, “O Come and Dwell with Me” by Arlen Clarke. That will be a nice way to end the season.

Tried to relax a bit more yesterday. Did bills, cleaned house, organized cupboards, did some laundry, practiced, read. I am finding what few days I get off lately are critical. I need time to recuperate so that I can cope with my schedule.  This is all about to change (I hope). Sunday is the choir’s last Sunday. It has been an unusually long season due to the lateness of Easter and subsequently the lateness of Pentecost.  It makes sense to run a liturgical choir at least through Pentecost.

Today I have only one scheduled event: a wedding at 2:30 at the chapel at Hope (Dimnent). It’s a bit more challenging than usual as the couple has requested some real piano music in the prelude: Arabesque (No. 1) and Clair de Lune by Debussy.  There is a soloist singing the psalm and the Alleluia. Also my friend Amy is playing violin. We decided to add some Loeillet and Telemann to the prelude. It should be nice.

Planning to mosey on over to the Farmers Market in a bit. Then grocery shop. I think that would make a good routine for the summer: market first then grocery store. Considering cooking out for Eileen and me after the wedding. We’ll see.

I gave myself the day off composing yesterday. I may do so again today. I can’t really convene the instrumentalists next week, since Jordan has indicated he’s not available. Not sure how this is going to work, but at least I know I have a few extra days to keep working on the composing of “Ebb and Flow.”  I haven’t had to work with too many last minute deadlines in my life. I prefer to plan ahead. Maybe today I can get a few more measures finished on this piece.

Tomorrow I am playing music by a friend of mine from the past, Robert Hobby. This is him:

We had a pretty decent friendship in grad school. But after that we gradually spoke to each other less and less. He, like 99 % of America, has continued to drift to the right politically and even religiously. He married a woman from a the very conservative Lutheran Missouri Synod. (Bob was raised in and continues to work for the ELCA which is the liberal branch of the Lutherans, but he is definitely on the conservative side. Still, he is a very bright and articulate dude. I miss him.)  They have kids and a good life. Bob has continued to publish and lecture. I used to call him about once a year to say hi. But I haven’t done so recently. I do continue to buy his music and perform it occasionally. It is always well constructed if somewhat restrained.

Anyway his organ piece on the Pentecost hymntune DOWN AMPNEY is just the ticket for this Sunday’s prelude. I’m doing the postlude by another Lutheran composer I admire, Jan Bender. It’s also based on this tune. It’s a bit more challenging than Bob’s tune, but I have been rehearsing both of them every day this week.

It’s a lovely rainy day in Western Michigan (actual photos taken today with my spiffy new netbook).

I was a bit happier with my playing with the quartet last night.

I made an effort to be more solid and a tiny bit more aggressive. This amounts to nothing more than not following some of the players when they messed up.  I tried to play to the drummer and think a lot about rhythm and tempo as we played. Plus I was much happier with my comping and improvs.

I have been thinking quite a bit about Jazz theory. One thing that occurs to me is the imprecision of the notation. Here I’m thinking mostly about chords and the use of shorthand for complex ideas that often differ from usage to usage. I used to think that Jazz musicians (pianist especially) possessed a kind of preternatural harmonic instinct. I still think this is true of the great players like Peterson, Shearing, Tatum, and the many others I admire. But for us non-virtuoso “working” musicians, it now seems to me that the “code” of Jazz harmony is not that complicated as I used to think. A lot of the harmonies I am using in the quartet repertoire startle me because they are not as far-fetched or intricate as the harmonies of transcribed geniuses at the piano. Instead they relate directly to what I think sounds good and already occurs to me when I play.

My piano trio read through more Mendelssohn yesterday. We’re working on more movements of the D minor piano trio. The slow movement is not hard except that M does some fascinating things with moving back and forth from duple to triple rhythms that interlock better when the entire ensemble is expecting them. That was going much better in yesterday’s rehearsal. Then we read through the Scherzo. This movement will take some doing to learn. But when it’s done we will have a lovely Mendelssohnian scherzo under our belts.

I recently ran across this quote that shows that my understanding of Mendelssohn as a classicist was shared by Robert Schumann.

“He [Mendelssohn] is the Mozart of the nineteenth century, the most brilliant musician, the one who most clearly sees through the contradictions of the age for the first time reconciles them.”

Robert Schumann

Greg Vitercik puts this quote at the beginning of his essay, “Mendelssohn as progressive” in The Cambridge Companion to Mendelssohn, edited by Peter Mercer-Taylor

I did manage to work a bit on “Ebb and Flow,” the music for the Global Water Dance. In addition to just “resting-up” a bit in general I am trying to give myself some “creative” space for coming up with more specific ideas now that I have the structure designed. I’m hoping I can fill it in with ones that I like. This takes some of that stare out the window and watch time “ebb and flow” stuff.

I bought a Kindle edition of a book I am reading so that I can have it on my netbook (I use the Kindle for PC software). That way I could treadmill yesterday and pick up The Brothers Karamazov where I left off in the real book which has a type face I find difficult to see as I exercise. This is my second time through this book, at least. But I like the translation by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky quite a bit.

I wonder how many people purchase ebooks and “real” copies of the same book like this?

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Ancient Assyrian Dictionary Completed by University of Chicago Scholars – NYTimes.com

“It opens up for study “the richest span of cuneiform writing,” he said, referring to the script invented in the fourth millennium B.C. by the earlier Sumerians in Mesopotamia.

This was probably the first writing system anywhere, and the city-states that arose in the Tigris and Euphrates River Valleys, mainly in what is present-day Iraq and parts of Syria, are considered the earliest urban and literate civilization. The dictionary, with 28,000 words now defined in their various shades of meaning, covers a period from 2500 B.C. to A.D. 100.”

The whole thing is actually available for free online in PDFs!

Oriental Institute | The Assyrian Dictionary of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago (CAD)

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Brain Calisthenics Help Break Down Abstract Ideas, Researchers Say – NYTimes.com

This article reminded me so much of my wife that I sent her the link. She has taught me to think conceptually and intuitively about abstract things like numbers and math.

We are having squirrel infestation. Eileen has battled them over her plants. The squirrels weirdly uproot all strawberry and corn plants they can get their paws on. Eileen finally resorted to a motion detector sprinkler which seems to be helping. But it looks like the turtle is back in the pond which means there are destroyed plants in that area. Sprinklers don’t work with turtles.

Something has been coming through the screen  on the back door to eat seeds Eileen left there. The last two mornings I have gotten up and found holes in the screen. I then proceeded to repair it (in a very half-ass Steve way). This morning it seems to have made it through the night intact.

It’s a lovely cool morning in Western Michigan. The sky is just beginning to light up. I am pretty drained. Still in bad need of some time off, but realizing how lucky I am to be able to be doing so many things that I truly enjoy.

The list includes composing for actual performance, having the new experience of consulting with a choreographer, and playing with a little jazz quartet. Speaking of, we perform this evening at the silly Thursday night Holland Street Performer series.

I continue to love my church work even though I feel a few ticks past burned out right now. At staff yesterday, the boss said we were to take our recently submitted job description and rate things we don’t like doing with a 1, would prefer not to do – 2, like doing – 3. To her apparent dismay, I said it would be easy since I didn’t really want a job at all, I could rate everything 1. It’s not true. But it’s the first thing to come to mind.

I also am playing a wedding Saturday at Hope College Dimnent Chapel. I went over yesterday and registered the music (this means picked out which sets of pipes to play pieces with). I found a note in one of the lovely romantic solo stops that didn’t work. This surprised me. I then decided to strum the grand piano to see how it was doing. It was a bit out of tune (not surprising) but seemed to be in working condition.

I feel like Hope College is hostile territory for me. I know it’s my own subjective stuff. But it’s not without some basis in fact. First of all, they disapprove of gay people and non Christians as a matter of policy. This bothers me. There’s other stuff, but I have decided it’s probably best if I not put it the blog. Better not rehearse other people’s old bad behavior and give them the benefit of the doubt, not to mention a chance to change. Silly me.

The Skinner is a nice romantic organ. I’m not a fan of the genre. But I do like quality organs no matter the design or intent. It was fun to play it a bit, even though they seem to have a new policy of limiting preparing organists to one hour of free time with the idea they will charge for anything over that. I was out in forty minutes.

Eileen and I had a lovely meal at the pub. When we arrived we were surprised that there was no one sitting outside. This changed quickly.

I need to stop and clean the kitchen. I have been ignoring it since I have been so busy.

Very cool. Yesterday I used my alloted Fregal Sony free music downloads to get three tracks I have on vinyl in MP3 form. Fregal allows three DRM free downloads a week.

The record is “The Varese Album.” It’s a two record set issued in the 60s and conducted by Robert Craft. There are ten tracks. I downloaded “Ionisation, for 13 Percussionists,” “Density 21.5, for flute solo,” “Deserts for brass, percussion, piano & tape.” I played these yesterday and Eileen commented that she liked them. They are abstract works and do like them quite a bit.

Varese was a favorite of Frank Zappa’s and I’m reasonably sure that’s how I was introduced to his work. Zappa used to put a quote by Varese on his albums: “The present day composers refuse to die.” I always thought it was a joke. Of course they refuse to die. By definition they are alive if they are in the present day. But apparently Zappa was quite serious about it.

As a young man, Zappa telephoned his idol, Varese, who was living in New York.

Here’s his description from a 1971 Stereo Review article:

“On my fifteenth birthday my mother said she’d give me $5. 1 told her I would rather make a long-distance phone call. I figured Mr. Varese lived in New York because the record was made in New York (and be- cause he was so weird, he would live in Greenwich Village). I got New York Information, and sure enough, he was in the phone book.

His wife answered. She was very nice and told me he was in Europe and to call back in a few weeks. I did. I don’t remember what I said to him exactly, but it was something like: “I really dig your music.” He told me he was working on a new piece called Deserts. This thrilled me quite a bit since I was living in Lancaster, California then. When you’re fifteen and living in the Mojave Desert and find out that the world’s greatest composer, somewhere in a secret Greenwich Village laboratory, is working on a song about your “home town” you can get pretty excited. It seemed a great tragedy that nobody in-Palmdale or Rosamond would care if they ever heard it. I still think Deserts is about Lancaster, even if the liner notes on the Columbia LP say it’s something more philosophical.”

I love that story.

So I met with Linda Graham, the mastermind behind the local expression of the upcoming Global Water Dances. Even before we discussed my piece, I could see that she needed something different for the dance. So I came up with the idea of writing another piece for her dance design.

Now I am thinking of the new piece as a second movement of three. “Easy on the Water” would make a good first movement. I am calling the new piece, “Ebb and Flow.” Haven’t worried too much about what the third one will be because I need to concentrate on getting “Ebb and Flow” written quickly so it can be learned and rehearsed, hopefully with the dancers.  At this writing I have worked out the four sections of the piece the dancers will need. FWIW, here they are:

I. The Dance Begins

Dancers join as the dance moves back and forth.

II. Thought Moment

Individual dancers drop out and freeze and then rejoin.

III. Dance Moment

Individual dancers drop out and dance, then rejoin.

IV. Dolphins Dance

All burst into the water!

I have the first section done. For the other sections I have a measure or two written which I now need to flesh out.

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Wills watching by Michael McDonald – The New Criterion

“Wills” is the author, Gary Wills. “Wills watching” is what the staff of William Buckley’s National Review used to call keeping track of him after he defected from the right to the left.

This is a review of Wills’s new memoir, Outside, Looking In. Though McDonald certainly sees Wills (and the world for that matter) much, much differently than I do, it is an interesting review. I read the introduction and part of the first chapter online. It looks like a good read to me.

I found this little tidbit interesting:

“… [I]n his new book, Wills castigates Buckley for having “poisoned the general currency” of the word “oxymoron.” Buckley, per Wills, thought it was a fancier word for “contradiction” and, as a result, legions of conservatives are now wont to say, as Buckley first did, that an “intelligent liberal is an oxymoron.” But Wills observes that the Greek word means something quite different: something that is surprisingly true, a paradox, a “shrewd dumbness.” Point taken: definitional precision matters.

I didn’t know that about “oxymoron.” Very cool.

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Letter of Hitler’s First Anti-Semitic Writing May Be the Original – NYTimes.com

I find historical research and artifacts fascinating.

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I did something I rarely do yesterday. I showed my composition to people the same day I finished it. I prefer letting a new work sit for a bit. Then return to it and see how it hits me.

Yesterday I put up a midi rendition of it on Soundcloud.

Then I foolishly decided that, what the heck, I was emailing “Easy on the Water” to the dance person, I  could easily “share it” on my web site and Facebook via Soundcloud. The rest of the day I felt like my nerves were on the outside of my body. I was frazzled to say the least.

I also emailed the trumpet, sax and bass parts to the people who have agreed to play them on June 25th.

Then I emailed all members of Barefoot Jazz Quartet with a repertoire list and proposed that we develop a set list for our gigs.

After attending a worship commission meeting at which I failed to keep my mouth shut, I was the typical introvert whose actions had left him feeling exposed and foolish. Ah well. The price of doing shit, I guess.

One of the things about Facebook that I like is how it juxtaposes people from different times of my life and different geographic locations. Two people commented on “Easy on the Water.” One of them now living in Traverse City, Michigan, the other living in Montreal. The first, Mary Jane Cotta, is someone I met when I first moved to Holland in 1987. She and her (now ex) husband were very gracious in welcoming Eileen and me to Holland. They were both involved in singing groups in the area. As the years passed her, I saw less and less of her. Recently, she came and sang in my choir at church before moving away to Traverse City.

The other person, Kenneth Near, I knew when he lived in East Tawas and I lived Oscoda Michigan (in the 70s). He was  a newly ordained priest in the Episcopal church then. Ken had found Jesus in the pit orchestra of a touring version of Jesus Christ Superstar.  He played french horn.  People to talk to in northern Michigan were rare and we became buddies of sorts. He’s still a priest.

Two other people clicked the “like” button on my music. One of them is a musician/film maker living in Chicago that I knew when he was in high school here in Holland. The other is my daughter-in-law living in California.

I think it’s kind of cool that I can keep track of all of these people and show them a recording (however embarrassing) of my work.

Finally purchased the PDF Software 995 suite yesterday. I have been using a free version of part of it for several years. It allows one to use the print function to create PDFs. Very handy.  The 29.95 package contains several other pieces of software, a couple of which I think look handy for converting document formats (Omniformat)

and editing pictures (Photoedit995).

I have found Picassa defies me as a once in a while user. So I’m looking forward to trying another piece of software to edit pictures. It looks like something in between a simple Photoshop and the stupid Microsoft Paint program which I also do not find intuitive.

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Boy’s Death Highlights Crisis in Homes for Disabled – NYTimes.com

This is a heart breaking story of badly managed state health care facilities in New York.

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When a Nobel Prize Isn’t Enough – NYTimes.com

Story of congressional rejection of expert information when they anticipate they will not agree with the results.

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Musicians Protest ‘Quiet Zones’ in Central Park – NYTimes.com

I am conflicted about this one. I like buskers and I like the sounds of nature. Surely there is a compromise in there somewhere.

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At Venice Biennale, a Patina of History on Contemporary Art – NYTimes.com

This sounds like a fascinating show in Venice. They juxtaposed historical and contemporary art.  As a musician, this interests me because it’s something I do all the time: connect with the past and the now in music. Both are necessary. I feel strongly that to neglect a human expression like art and music is to be a bit impoverished and to live an artistic life that could have been fuller. Jus’ sayin’

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AAUP: The Professors, The Press, The Think Tanks—And Their Problems

This is by someone I admire, Eric Alterman. Haven’t finished reading it yet, but it starts out with some of his personal history and then starts talking about two thinks that I have read and am interested in: Walter Lippmann and John Dewey.

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Easy on the water by jupiterjenkins by jupiterjenkins

OK. I hate midi. But here’s a work in progress recording of what I have been blogging about for a few days. Just emailed this to Linda Graham, the dance department chair for her consideration for use.

Once again I popped out of bed early this morning and began working on “Easy on the Water,” the trio for trumpet, sax and bass I am writing. I would dearly love to have it done by tomorrow. I am expecting the Barefoot Jazz Quartet to have a rehearsal tomorrow afternoon. I’m hoping to have a read through of the trio as well if there’s time.

This morning I adjusted the main theme to be a bit more interesting.

I’m happy with the structure and development of this piece. I was surprised at how easy it was to go back and change the basic initial motivic melodic idea and not only NOT do violence to the unfolding of ideas in the piece, but actually to connect them better.

This kind of composing combines intellect with intuition. Often I write something intuitively and then afterwards intellectually see the rationale or coherence. I find that a bit reassuring.

I performed two organ pieces by Healey Willan yesterday as well as his choir/organ setting of “God has Gone Up with a Shout.”

Willan crafts his music carefully. I remember my late teacher, Ray Ferguson, wasn’t enamored of all of Willan’s writing. Curiously I can’t remember if Ray disapproved of the choral and liked the organ compositions or the reverse.

At any rate, I have decided that I like both Willan’s organ writing and choral writing.

Yesterday even as I performed his pieces I noticed little coherent connections that are more apparent to my mind than my ear. In this he is like Bach, working out musical ideas with such care. I find that satisfying.

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Finally getting around to putting a few links in my daily blog. I recommend the following link.

The Death Sentence That Defined My Life – NYTimes.com

Mark Trautwain, the author of this article, has been living with HIV/AIDS for thirty or more buy valium philippines years. But that’s not the thing that impressed me about his article. I liked the idea that he found a more clear and wonderful reason for living not despite his “death sentence” but because it made him more aware of life as a temporary gift. Very cool.

“On that day I walked from the hospital knowing I had “it,” I was given a great gift: the realization that we all dangle from that most delicate of threads and that the only way to live a life is to love it.”

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Our Fantasy Nation? – NYTimes.com

By examining other countries like Pakistan, Kristoff asks if education, health care, security and even electricity should be public or private goods.

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In Book Circles, a Taming of the Feud – NYTimes.com

Jennifer Schuessler discusses literary feuds.

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Lyle Lovett on Theaters With Magic – NYTimes.com

Interesting to read Lovett’s comments about rooms he has played in.

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Ray Bryant, Jazz Pianist, Dies at 79 – NYTimes.com

This obit intrigued me so much that I purchased MP3s of his first album. Good player.

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Abramson Named Executive Editor at The Times – NYTimes.com

Abramson along with present Editor, Keller, are interviewed in this week’s On the Media.

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U.S. Questions Europe’s Using Antibiotics Against E. Coli – NYTimes.com

“This bug has been seen before,” said Dr. Robert Tauxe, deputy director of the division of food-borne, bacterial and mycotic diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. That the strain may have genetic material that makes it resistant to antibiotics, however, is intriguing, he said.”

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Poland – Auschwitz Sign to Hang Indoors – NYTimes.com

What’s real? What’s not? The famous sign that reads “Arbeit Macht Frei,” or Work Sets You Free, now hangs indoors, while a replica hangs in its place. I recently attended a funeral where a recording was played of a woman singing who sat silently in the front row while it played. What’s real? What’s not?

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It’s about 7:10 AM on a Sunday and I have been up for an hour composing. The past hour I have been deep in the “zone.” This means when I look up from work I have to take a second to re-orient myself to time and place.

Oh yes. I have to leave in a bit and go do church.

There are levels of “zone” in composing. The deepest one is when you get a kernel of an idea or even a burst of ideas that fit together. When that happens you can understand how humans use the idea of “muse.” The inspiration does seem to come from somewhere else, that’s for sure.

But right now, I’m working on drafts of a piece. In fact the first thing I did this morning was organize files so that I could easily identify old drafts from current ones. I find that it sometimes helps to return to previous drafts when working.

This morning I am revamping the composition so that it proceeds more logically. Actually returning the beginning to my original idea and then allowing the composition to show the development of the idea. Not terribly original to be sure but I think it might work out.

Woke up at 5 Am with ideas for a trio. Managed to stay in bed for a while despite this attack of ideas. Then got up and and got to work. Just finished a rough draft of an 88 measure piece. I am calling it “Easy on the Water.” It’s scored for trumpet, sax (probably alto) and string bass. I have asked Keith Walker to play the trumpet part,

Jordan VanHemert to play the sax

and Nate Walker to play the bass.

They all agreed.

Hoping this is the piece I can use for the June 25th Global Water Dance at Tunnel Park. I have to talk further with Linda Graham, the organizer of it and see if what I am writing fits the bill.

Anyway, no time to blog. On to treadmilling.

So it seems that the Herrick library resource page was just experiencing a glitch yesterday when Eileen and I failed to access the free music page. Later in the evening we were more successful.

As near as I can tell “Freegal” is a library service provided (sold?) to libraries by Sony Music. It allows library card owners to download three trax a week free. Sony really does have an extensive catalog and much of it (if not all) seems to be part of this service. I recommend you check out your library (if you in the US) and see if your library card privileges include access to this service.

I downloaded two of my weekly three last night. I chose recordings of two Ligeti piano etudes.

I think it’s a clever idea because it limits library card holders to three trax. Three trax are actually not very many. At that rate, it would take several weeks to download an entire album. In the meantime, their music is on your machine. Which to my way of thinking it the best kind of advertising and distribution. Consumers (for that dear reader is what we are the eyes of Sony and other recording companies) will be prodded to “consume sound commodities” when they are attracted to it. How will they be attracted if they cannot hear it?

Little extracts are not enough. How does the piece begin, proceed throughout and end? I find myself liking something and then being disappointed in how it is worked out. On the other hand familiarity in music does not necessarily “breed contempt” and is often an integral aspect of how we enjoy music.  So that sometimes I find myself more drawn into music after a few repetitions.

I also started exploring the public library online databases access. Camio stands for Catalog of Art Museum Images Online. Again one is required to have a library log on and then one has access to images of several musuems’ online collections including the Detroit Institute of Arts.

Lynda.com is not just for library users. It is a fascinating collection of online information videos a good number of which are free to anyone who goes to their website.

It began as a software tutorial project and expanded into other interesting, even technical, instructional videos. I found several on the music mixing software, Pro Tools. wow.

I found Lynda.com in my libraries list of databases.

I also found these two:

Amazing really.  Both of these are search engines but also include access to numerous entire articles. Again I say “Wow.” I’ve linked in information sites on both of them. You will again need to access them via your library.

So after looking at this stuff my head was spinning. I spent the rest of yesterday giving a piano lesson, playing with my piano trio and practicing organ and piano. Lots of Mendelssohn yesterday for some reason. Just in the mood.

Ended up the day by making a nice supper for Eileen and me. Made blueberry cobbler, grilled fish and veggies and made fresh lemonade. Not bad.

Then laying in bed, read Debating the Value of College in America : The New Yorker out loud to Eileen until she asked me to be quiet so she could read her own book. Heh. Still. I recommend this article highly.

A little slow getting going this morning.  Got up and made coffee and started goofing around with some left over unread articles from yesterday beginning with David Brooks: What’s the big idea? | Books | The Guardian. In this article, David Brooks the NYT columnist surprisingly describes himself as a “socialist,” admittedly with some qualifications.

This article mentioned the fact that Brooks is unusual because he likes Trollope’s novels. As do I. This led me to begin downloading some free ebooks to my new netbook. My old one was full of them. I began with the book that the Brooks article actually mentioned: “The American Senator” by Anthony Trollope (link to free download page for this book).

I went ahead and downloaded it in the Kindle format because that’s already installed on my netbook.

After noticing on the Writer’s Almanac page that today is Thomas Hardy’s birthday, I pulled down a collection of his poetry, “Time’s Laughingstocks,” and read the first poem, “The Revisitation.”

My wife has been talking about the web resources available through the local library. I tried to check it out today. But it frustrated both of us that I could not quite get their free downloading of music page to work.

Then I went to the ebook page and decided I should try that out.  This led me to download and install the free  Adobe ebook reader software.  This reminded me that U of Chicago had released an interesting title for their free ebook of the month.  I was reminded because it is Adobe ebook format. So I pulled that off their site and even stuck it up on Facebook because I thought it might interest several  “friends” on Facebook, including my beloved nephew Ben who is a bit of history buff. This book seems up his alley.

Interestingly, I had a “friend” comment who seemed to think this book wasn’t worth checking out. Hm. I found myself a bit defensive and tried to respond without sounding too reactive.

Discovered that the digital New York Times subscription does not include its crossword puzzle. I wonder if that will  raise the likelihood that fewer people will do crossword puzzles. I know in my case it is just a mild annoyance that I can’t do the puzzle without paying an extra 40 bucks a year and completely kills my own motivation to do New York Times crosswords which admittedly was pretty weak anyway.

When I google “free online crosswords,” I get over 5 million hits. Hmm.

I was pleasantly surprised to read on Susan Tomes blog yesterday that she also sees Mendelssohn as a sort of classicist. I wonder if this comes from the fact that we both like and play the D minor piano trio and other piano works by him (she’s a pianist).

I’m about halfway through Sensation by Nick Mamatas. I propped my netbook up on the piano last night at auditions and during the inevitable “hurry up and wait” periods read it. Very funny.

Not sure this “book trailer” makes much sense if you don’t know that the book is about wasps and “spiders” taking over bodies of people and animals.
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Ratko Mladic: The West’s failure to confront Serbia prolonged the violence. – By Christopher Hitchens – Slate Magazine

Interesting background on this dude.

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One Set of Study Data, but Many Translations – NYTimes.com

Some practical illustration of how one communicates results affects people’s reaction and actions .

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A Conversation With John Paul Stevens – Bill Barnhart – National – The Atlantic

I think this retired Supreme Court Justice’s upcoming book might be a good read for history and court fans.

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A Good Night’s Sleep Isn’t a Luxury – It’s a Necessity – NYTimes.com

Jane Brody strikes again. I own and frequently consult several of her nutrition/cookbooks.

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Well I have actually had two days off in the last few days, so that’s good. Still tired enough for some vacation time, but shouldn’t really complain.

Today I have a rehearsal with a wedding soloist and then Phantom of the Opera  auditions from 3 – 5:30, break, 6 – 8:30. Same audition schedule for tomorrow.

I bought my first Kindle book to put on my new netbook. This entailed installing “Kindle for PC” software. Cory Doctorow recommended the new novel “Sensation” by Nick Mamatas on Boing Boing recently. The description of a young married woman in Brooklyn being invaded and taken over by mutant wasps sounded pretty interesting to me so I checked out the first chapter. Was intrigued enough to purchase and start reading last night.

I also tangled with the New York Times Reader (also a PC app). I had troubles with this on my old netbook.  When I emailed the help people, they suggested I uninstall and re-install. Never got around to that, but thought it might be a good idea to have it working so that I can read the New York Times on my netbook even if I can’t get access to a wifi connection.

It wouldn’t let me log-on. Dang. Double checked the user and password. Then I finally noticed the error message. Something about “check the time and date on your computer.” I did that and discovered that my netbook thought it was tomorrow. Corrected this and it worked. Sheesh.

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O’Bama and Netanyahoo’s Duelling Speeches : The New Yorker

I agree with Hendrick Hertzberg’s take on Netanyahoo as acting like a Fox commentator when he ignored the total content of Obama’s 1967 border comment.

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Technology Provides an Alternative to Love. – NYTimes.com

Jonathan Franzen has some interesting critiques of Facebook and other tech forms of love.

Example:

“There is no such thing as a person whose real self you like every particle of. This is why a world of liking is ultimately a lie. But there is such a thing as a person whose real self you love every particle of. And this is why love is such an existential threat to the techno-consumerist order: it exposes the lie.”

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The Weak Foundations of Arab Democracy – NYTimes.com

Some interesting historical perspective from Timur Kuran.

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Passive in the Senate – NYTimes.com

Yes. Yes. This editorial takes theDemocratic Senate to task for its lack of courage and reactive governing.

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‘Run,’ a Verb for Our Frantic Times – NYTimes.com

I put this one up on Facebook. I do love words.

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Amazing footage of a very brave teacher.

Linked from Global Voices Online web site which provides this description:

“The video recorded by the teacher on a cellphone shows a classroom full of very young children lying on the floor. The teacher is heard gently asking her students to keep their heads on the floor while shots are heard in the background. She reassures the children that everything is ok, and that they’ll be safe in the classroom, reminding them to keep their heads down. To distract them, she starts singing with them. She selects the Raindrop Song from the Barney show: in Spanish, it wonders about what would happen if raindrops were made out of chocolate and how you’d open the mouth wide to catch them all. By getting the children to sing the song she managed not only to keep them calm but also to have them stay with their heads on the floor, as she prompted them to turn over and look up to the sky with their mouths opened wide.”

I drew a circle in the air at the recording session last night.

“This is my energy pie. It’s empty.” I told the rest of the band and the manager/producer/”dad of the bass player.” I went on and complained that what we were doing was really what I wanted to use my energy on.

So this morning I’m laying in bed, drinking coffee, blogging and reading the New York Times online in an effort to rest.

I was surprised when the band wanted to begin our session with my tunes. We rehearsed “You must be the animal.” All of the other musicians helped me in the 2010 premier of this entire piece, “Deadman’s Pants” of which this is the final section. It’s not that easy a tune to pick back up, so I suggested we rehearse it and not worry about recording it.

We went on and recorded instrumental versions of “Why did the elephant cross the road?” and “Moneyland.” This again surprised me because I was anticipating (with a bit of dread) having to sing these for the recording.  I told the band that I was grateful not to have to sing but was willing to if that’s what they wanted. Also that I hadn’t anticipated that these tunes would hold up as instrumental pieces. I guess they do. Especially with the added feature of band members improvising on them. I especially liked that.

Then we turned to Jordan’s “Tune for Reilly.” I suggested that we listen to a recording of it he made with his college group. I had listened to this earlier and wondered how we would get from the one line typical lead sheet to the style that he obviously had in mind for it.  Jordan and I briefly discussed the limitations of the notation practices of Jazz musicians. I think he basically agreed that the charts themselves could contain more information which would make their realization more practical.

I think that Jazz has become as codified as Classical Music and it’s practitioners as literate. So why not notate phrases and dynamics? The only reason I can think of for not doing so, is that it might clutter up a clean page used mostly to remind one what the recording(s) of a piece sound like.

After the session we retired to a local restaurant where Keith the dad bought everyone supper. I at least managed to buy this guy a beer. I love having someone else in charge! In very few situations like this have I not been part of the logistical organization.

On the church front yesterday, I got up realizing I had forgotten to email members that the pregame was backed up a half hour to 9:15 AM due to the fact that we began the summer schedule of Eucharist at 10 AM instead of 10:30 AM. I kept expecting people to dribble in but by 9:30 I basically had the group that ended up singing. Afterwards several people skipped the post-service rehearsal.  Ah, the life of the church musician.

Took the day off yesterday but still feeling a bit frazzled today. Part of my concern is this afternoon’s 3 PM recording session. Keith Walker asked  me to bring along some of my own tunes. Jordan and Nate have both mentioned tunes of mine they would like to perform. One of them is “Why Did the Elephant Cross the Road.” A quick glance shows that I don’t have this tune up on my web site anywhere. I looked at my Finale copy this morning. This tune requires a lot of energy from me to sing. I wonder if they are thinking of me singing it. Today. Yikes.

Oh, I see. I just found a more recent version (pdf) that mercifully is transposed down a third and is already arranged for C, Eb and Bb parts. Thank goodness. Also going to bring along Moneyland and the third section of Dead Man’s Pants called “You Must be the Animal.” That should be plenty for today.

I have been asked to write some music for the local expression of the world wide “Global Water Dance.”  The performance is scheduled for June 25th at Tunnel Park. This means that it would be best if the music was written for instruments easily played outdoors. I am going to ask members of the Barefoot Jazz Quartet if they are interested in playing. Also the manager, Keith Walker who plays trumpet. I notice on the Barefoot Jazz Quartet shared google calendar that the drummer is on tour that weekend. Dang. I was thinking it would have been pretty cool to have him play snare or congas or something.

Anyway if the rest of the group agrees, I could have sax, trumpet and string bass. It seems to me that Nate the bass player might also play bassoon. I think it would be more interesting to use bassoon. Anyway, I’ll run it past them. I keep thinking it would be fun to drag the marimba out to the park. But then I think what a hassle plus I would probably have to practice anything I wrote pretty thoroughly.

I also have my eye on using oboe. A final ensemble might look like sax, oboe, trumpet. Once I have the instruments committed I will start writing this in earnest. The closer the date gets the simpler I am thinking of making it. I think it would be cool to write a rhythmic melody and treat it in trio or quartet form. That would be pretty simple.

When Linda the chair of the Dance Department at Hopeless College asked me to do this, I made some notes on some melodies and rhythms. I will return to that once I have a clear idea of what instruments I will be writing for.