Returning to the Cantos

This morning I decided to go back and read a bit of Pound’s Cantos. Copies of this book have been on my shelves since I was a student at Ohio Wesleyan. I have read in it and sometimes find it exceedingly dense. At the same time, It seems like it might be a good addition to my morning poetry read. Right now I’m reading the complete poems of Amiri Baraka and Derek Walcott. These two are helpful to me in different ways. Both are African American and are skilled in their genre. I like Baraka because he has a heavy debt to the “beats” (that’s the Allen Ginsberg group) and also puts lots of jazz and biting political references in his poems. When I purchased the book, I began reading simultaneously from the back and the front hoping to meet somewhere in the middle. I did this because I was very interested in Baraka’s last poems before his recent death which as expected turn an astute critical eye on Amerika.

Walcott sees himself, I believe, as a bit more literary although still brutal in an elegant way. I’m also working my way through Leonard Cohen’s collection, Book of Longing. It will probably remain significant to me that I was reading this collection when he died.

Pound draws me back toward some of my own predilections. The first canto is largely based on Book eleven of the Odyssey. Here’s the Schmoop site with much explication concerning Canto one. Although couched in annoying “user-friendly” language, I still found it helpful. I’m still very interested in Homer, although my Greek text is presently taking me through Aristophanes which has to be a bit more on the frivolous side.

In the present chapter I am working on, the text introduces via the play, “The Clouds,” two new verb tenses bringing to four that it wants me to know by now. It’s very clever how the excerpts of the play flit logicaly between tenses. I am slowing down a bit right now and reviewing the first three readings in the chapter to ensure that I truly have absorbed these tenses and, of course, new vocab before proceeding to the final reading in this chapter.

Music note for this Sunday

We are singing an SAB setting by Hugo Distler of “Savior of the Nations, Come.” In addition I am playing the Toccata, chorale and bicinium of Distler’s organ partita on this tune. I thought it might be a good idea to give listeners a notion of where this music comes from and some of what it’s trying to do. Here’s what I came up with and submitted a few minutes ago.

Music Note Hugo Distler, the composer of today’s prelude, choral anthem, and postlude, is noted for his tragic death at his own hand after being persecuted by the Nazis. But what is more important about him is that his compositions in the years leading up to the war in Germany were directed at restoring church music as art of the highest quality. Although denounced by the Nazis as a creator of “degenerate art,” in fact, Distler aimed at elevating church music. Much like Bach, one of his models, his sacred music is an important contribution to both church music and the wider musical world. Distler created a unique language that can surprise us with its originality.  Like all great music, it helps to listen closely. Both the organ music and choral music today are also based on the hymn tune, Nun Komm, der Heiden Heiland (#54 in our Hymnal). The original Gregorian Advent Chant, “Veni redemptor gentium” is attributed to St. Ambrose, It was adapted by Martin Luther as one of his own first vernacular hymns. It is the basis of several organ works by Bach as well as his Cantata BWV 62. Thus today we tap into the heritage of Christian musical art beginning with Ambrose in the fourth century to Luther in the 16th to Bach in the 18th and to Distler in the 20th. submitted by Steve Jenkins, Music Director

Comments, corrections welcome. The sooner, the better.

Suite from Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland: Prologue – Joby Talbot – YouTube

This is a playlist of this ballet. Interesting stuff.

 A Reflexive Liar in Command: Guidelines for the Media – The Atlantic

More good info about good info.

Fidel Castro, Cuban Revolutionary Who Defied U.S., Dies at 90 – The New York Times

Long obit. I’m about half way through it.

Thinking about Musical Performance

Overall church went well musically yesterday. I had several absences in the choir. Eileen, herself, was too ill to go to church. The anthem had some high notes for sopranos so I had to delay rehearsing it until their voices were warmed up. We were a small group of singers but they did a very credible job on a lot of new stuff for Advent including a charming little anthem, “O Comfort, Now My People” by Thomas Pavlechko.

Unfortunately, I had a couple of bad moments in the famous Bach Wachet Auf organ piece. I was disappointed. I understood that though the parts that I found difficult and had rehearsed the most went well, there were other new mistakes in at least two sections. I would like to attribute this to being distracted but think it’s probably preparation.

In our last worship commission meeting, I thought we had decided to ask all people involved in the upcoming Eucharist as leaders (readers, acolytes, choir members) to do their organizing and talking in the commons area just outside the church and to keep their presence and talking at a minimum in the back of the church. This was not only to help it be quieter, but also to address the fact that this area becomes easily congested as people make their way into the room for church.

Accordingly I have instructed the choir the two Sundays since this meeting to keep talking to a minimum in the choir area and to wait until the prelude is over before descending to the back of the church to line up for the procession.

It would seem that ours is the only ministry which is trying to do this. It was talking and movement around the back of the church by worship leaders which was my distraction yesterday. I try to brace myself for this kind of distraction by immersing myself deeper into the music. That failed yesterday for sure. My distraction was increased by the silly discussion in the worship commission, so that not only was I distracted by the movement and sound, but also by the fact that ministries were ignoring (weren’t informed of?) this idea.

On Sunday afternoons, it’s easy for me to feel glum, to lose confidence in my abilities and to even feel like a failure. It’s just part of the territory. When I complained about my disappointment in my playing, Eileen said that I was too hard on myself. I responded if I don’t pay attention, then no one will be paying attention to how well I play.

Mom’s nursing home was on lock down again. I decided to walk over to church and practice organ. I was still stinging from my morning performance. Also, I haven’t been exercising (feeling a bit ill myself) so a second walk over to church would give me some more exercise.

I spent a couple hours there. I re-played through the Bach Wachet Auf pretty much convincing myself I could competently do so. Then I worked on the first trio sonata in Eb by Bach, all movements. I was inspired to do this after reading about them in Peter Williams book on Bach’s organ music (see the next section in this blog). I finished up rehearsing upcoming Distler and discovered a wonderful prelude and fugue by Krebs.

I own a couple volumes of Krebs organ music. I have read through some of volume one. Recently I have been reading through stuff in volume two and finding it very attractive and interesting. The prelude and fugue I read yesterday from my used copy had been carefully marked up for performance by the previous owner.

So not only was I in the presence of the musical mind of Bach’s student, Krebs, I felt like someone besides me found value in the music and had preceded me and helped me with it.

After coming home, I told Eileen that she was right. I was too hard on myself. I realized that if someone else had made mistakes like I had that morning, I would have no problem with it and encourage them to look beyond it.

I read recently in one of my music books about the idea that recording has had the effect that musicians are more sensitive about performing accurately in public. This leads them to prepare their notes more thoroughly so that audiences won’t dismiss a performance with a mistake in it. But consequently performers also will be less adventuresome and take less musical risks to avoid  not sounding like a recording.

Sheesh.

Figuring out how to read music scholarship

A footnote in Bernard D. Sherman’s interview of John Butt (Early Music p.182, f. 16) alerted me to the fact that I already owned at least one good musicology book from this century: Peter Williams one volume revision of his previous two volumes on Bach’s organ music (The Organ Music of Bach: Second Edition,  2003).

I happily pulled it out of my collection and added it to my stack of daily reading on music. Sitting alone in my living room in Holland Michigan, I am learning how to read carefully books like Williams’s and essays like ones by Butt (the Bach scholar I have recently discovered) and Sherman’s meticulous interviews. I almost always read footnotes. But when I looked up John Butt in Peter Williams in the index and found several pages where he was mentioned, I learned more about how to cross refer and understand the erudite arguments and observations of a scholar like Williams.

I looked in vain for mention of John Butt on the pages in the index. Finally after several readings, I realized that the mention was in a shorthand citation that looked like this:  (Butt, 1990). I then turned to the bibliography and understood that this was referring to a book by Butt published in 1990. Williams also cross refers to stuff like the critical apparatus of the Barenreiter edition of Bach (KB = Kristischer Bericht, the little volumes in German that accompany the larger “works” of Bach volumes that are the standard for scholars these days) and (Peters I 1844) refers to the ancient Peters edition of Bach’s organ music that many of us organist own along with more current editions.

I managed to sleep in a bit this morning. I am thankful for that but now have a bit less time to blog.

I continue to delve into my new music books. I tell a story about imagining J.S. Bach and his sons performing together in a coffee house. I was pleasantly surprised to read this idea in print. Regarding Bach’s Concerto for Four Harpsichords

“… in the years around 1730 Bach had several highly gifted harpsichordists among his pupils who could be called upon to take part in performances of these works: among potential players were his sons Wilhelm Friedemann and Carl Philipp Emanuel, who remained under the parental roof until 1733 and 1734 respectively, and Johan Ludwig Krebs, who studied with Bach between 1726 and 1735. It may have been these three students, together with the composer himself, who appeared as soloists in the first performance of his concerto for four harpsichords.”

Werner Breig, “Composition as arrangement and adaptation” in The Cambridge Companion to Bach, John Butt, ed. p. 166

I couldn’t help but post this wonderful video on Facelessbooger. Very cool.  The little discussion at the end between the harpsichordists is worth watching as well.

Jupe goes into a stall

Once in a while, I feel like I lose my usual motivation. Not passion, mind you, but motivation. These are days when I don’t get moving, I sit and read and play piano. The time passes very quickly and before I know it most of my day seems gone.

Yesterday was a bit like that. I see these “stalls” as possibly a correction provided by instinct.

My passions often drive me to what I’m practically certain is over functioning. I attempt to temper this with turning down my outward communication (body language and speaking) as much as I can. I probably fail in this.

Murray Bowen, the founder of the family systems approach to psychology, was described as having a gruff, non communicative manner. This makes sense if you, as Bowen did, believe that if we watch each other’s behavior close enough especially in relation to our position in our web of systems, we can reveal tons about ourselves that we would probably prefer not to telegraph.

Didn’t want to practice, did anyway

Part of being in a stall, is loss of motivation to prepare music I am planning to perform in public. I finally dragged myself over to church yesterday in the afternoon.

Beforehand I phoned my Mom’s nursing home. According to the person who answered the phone, they were still on lock down. The person on the phone had recently visited my Mom and reported that she was doing a bit better but was still not feeling well. I asked her to tell Mom hello and said I would skip the visit today and call tomorrow to see how things were going.

The Mom visit is often what I use to kick off my afternoon of practicing. It gets me going. Yesterday I motivated myself by deciding to read through some of Bach’s organ transcriptions. That got me over there and got me started. I managed to rehearse Sunday’s organ music and then gave up and came home.

practice versus passion playing

I rarely am unmotivated to play music, however. Yesterday in the midst of these slight doldrums, I played lots of music at home on the piano: CPE Bach, William Bolcolm, Scott Joplin. It’s hard to imagine not playing music, not so hard to imagine hiding in my living room from the world and seeking the beauty of music unfolding under my hands.

surrounded by sickies

Eileen is still not feeling well. We skipped our Friday night pizza. She basically has been sitting around playing with her phone.

In addition, Edison the cat has been acting out of sorts. He’s on a regimen of antibiotics, and although he seems to be getting better, he’s still not 100 %. Lots of sneezing and a bit of throwing up. I am surrounded by sickies

Inside Early Music: Bernard D. Sherman’s Website

I continue reading this man’s book of interviews.  Quote for today:

Over the past few centuries, our art-music culture has given performers less and less latitude in determining what notes to play or how. But since about 1800 our culture has also put far more emphasis on individual expression and creativity than in pre-Romantic times. Performers are supposed to express the composer’s emotions and intentions, not their own; but they are also supposed to be original, insightful, and creative.

Missing pieces of your Music Education | MusicSpoke

 

Last minute turkey dinner for Eileen

Eileen insisted she felt up to eating a Thanksgiving meal yesterday despite her sore throat. So, I trundled off to Meijer and picked up stuff to make her a traditional meal: a turkey loaf, stuffing, a little pumpkin pie. I also bought myself some silly stuff like Wild Rice, Cranberry sauce, and fake chicken strips.

I do enjoy preparing food so it was fun to put this together for us. We already had potatoes, green beans, anadama bread, whipped cream, dried shitake mushrooms (for my exotic stuffing).

Eileen was satisfied.

Dello Joio and Bolcolm

So we had a calm day which was good since I was exhausted from the previous two days.

I skipped going to see Mom (locked down over there anyway) and skipped going to church to practice organ. I had planned to practice on Thanksgiving morning since I hadn’t made arrangements to get access to an organ while we were staying at Mark and Leigh’s house. It wouldn’t be too likely that I would be able to on the Friday after Thanksgiving anyway. But since we called in sick, I didn’t need to go in yesterday since I will have time today and tomorrow to prepare Sunday’s organ stuff.

Instead, I spent a lot of time with the new Dello Joio piano music I purchased used and also William Bolcolm’s piano rags. I figured out a way to play the Graceful Ghost Rag of Bolcolm. There is a stretch in it that my old arthritic hands cannot reach. This occurs in the fourth note of the melody marked by the red arrow below.

It’s doesn’t seem like that would be too difficult since I can usually stretch a tenth in both hands. But the two notes on the bottom are on a black and white key respectively. This bunching up seems to contract my stretch so that I can’t play all three notes at once. Yesterday it occurred to me that I could omit the lower C and the essential sounds would still be there. this worked like a charm.

Then I worked on “Fields of Flowers” by Bolcolm which is quite charming.

 Getting back in the musicology conversation

I recently purchased Bernard D. Sherman’s Early Music: conversations with performers. I was reading in it yesterday and found more books that I am interested in reading. But sheesh, I am already reading John Butt’s collection of essays, The Cambridge Companion to Bach (see below).

So instead of purchasing more books, I interlibrary-loaned books yesterday that look like must reads.

Bernard D. Sherman suggests that in Playing with History, John Butt “brings the debate on historical performance to a new level of sophistication and insight.”

Sherman cites David Schulenberg’s Music of the Baroque as “now the first book to read on that era, with excellent discussions about performance as well as history and musical structure.”

Sherman says that Rosen’s book on Beethoven piano sonatas is “an important addition” to the discussion. All three books are coming to me via interlibrary loan. However, when making this blog entry and getting the image of Rosen’s book, I recognized it. Yesterday I checked my books by him and couldn’t find it. This morning it occurred to me to check under Beethoven and there it was. Cool.

I have now pulled it to continue reading in it.

learning about analysis from Bach transcriptions

This morning I read more in Butt’s Cambridge Bach book. I’m reading Werner Breig’s essay on transcriptions (as I have mentioned here lately). This morning I pulled down two more transcriptions and put them on my tablet (BWV 972 and BWV 978), one mentioned by Werner Breig and the other by Christoph Wolf in his essay, “Vivaldi, Bach, and the process of ‘musical thinking.'”

Brieg cites the Wolf essay. I own Wolf’s collection of essays on Bach and read this essay this morning. In the course of my reading I made a play list of both Vivaldi’s originals and Bach’s transcriptions on YouTube. I also played through the downloaded Bach transcriptions.

I’m pretty much in pig heaven with all this stuff. Both Brieg and Wolfe contend that by noticing how Bach converts Vivaldi’s string pieces into keyboard pieces you can see how Bach understood Vivaldi. The phrase, ‘musical thinking,’ comes from Forkel’s famous bio of Bach. Scholars think that he probably got the phrase from Bach’s sons Wilhem Friedman and CPE and that they got the phrase from Bach himself.

This is Forkel’s quote.

“The change necessary to be made in the ideas and passages composed for the violin but not suitable for the clavier taught him [J.S. Bach] to think musically.”

And I am finding that examining Bach’s transcriptions is very enlightening regarding his compositional process.

Turkey Day 2016 or the best laid plans

Eileen and I were planning to have midday meal with my Mom at her nursing home today and then jump in the car and drive to my brother’s home near Ann Arbor for a Jenkins Thanksgiving there and then spend a few days. Things are not shaping that way.

Eileen had a burst of energy yesterday and did the grocery shopping, balanced the checkbook and made Anadama bread.  But she was starting to get a sore throat when I left in the afternoon to see my Mom and then prepare for the evening choir rehearsal.

I arrived at the nursing home to find the entire building in lock down.

Multiple residents were coming down with severe gastric conditions: diarrhea, vomiting. Unfortunately one of these residents was my beloved Mom. I told her we would stop by today and say hi, but obviously we wouldn’t be joining her in a Thanksgiving meal since the lunchrooms were closed and residents were taking meals in their rooms to avoid spreading the sickness.

When I came home, Eileen’s sore throat was worse. She didn’t feel up to choir rehearsal last night. And though she is sleeping now, I doubt that we will be going to my brother’s house for Thanksgiving. Best laid plans.

Supreme Court Interviews – LawProse.org LawProse.org

 Bryan Garner seems to have interviewed all the sitting justices before Scalia’s death and (edit: Souter’s) replacement by Sotomayer. I think these are fascinating and am slowing working my way through them on YouTube.

Telling Mosquitoes Apart With a Cellphone – The New York Times

An app to distinguish the different species by their wing beat hums.

Land Mine Casualties Jump 75% as Funding for Their Removal Declines – The New York Times

Another terrible result of human wars.

Media Blackout As Millions Of Muslims March Against ISIS In Iraq

This really wasn’t covered when i googled it at the time. Good Muslims aren’t on Trumpland’s radar.

Maneuvering a new reality for US journalism – Columbia Journalism Review

An experienced journalist tells us what to expect in our immediate future in the USA and  recommends approaches to covering demagoguery in your country’s government.

Emerging briefly from invisibility

It was kind of odd yesterday to have an audience paying attention to my words and my music. During the course of my work at church, I am often under the impression that the choir doesn’t always listen to the words I say and that the music we make is often not on the radar of many listeners. So yesterday at the nursing home, it was an unusual experience for me to have a group of people not only listening but obviously appreciative. Sunday I asked the choir to keep talking to a minimum after they came to the choir area in the church. Despite several of them ignoring this request, it was markedly quieter. That also felt like a brief lapse in invisibility of my work. Weird.

Neither Town nor Gown

It occurred to me recently that in that classic divide between locals and the college I don’t really have a niche here in Holland. Many of the “townies” are enmeshed in church politics of the Reformed denominations. At least the ones I know about are. I continue to find Hope College distasteful in its bigotries and not just of the few students who now feel free to hate a bit more publicly.

Dark times in the USA

It seems that the USA continues to move to the right. Yesterday Trump called Brietbart a “conservative” news outlet. Maybe it is inevitable that we as a country continue to move toward these extremes. Negativity works in political campaigning. Outrage easily gets the megaphone. Single issue voters and thinkers move us away from wisdom. I still think it’s possible to attempt to inform oneself but can’t help but speculate that few people take the time to do it. These extremes on the right also seem to have an effect on people I agree with. most of whom are mildly liberal in my view. The strong hatred of Trump is as distasteful to me as any kind of hatred. It feels that the people I agree with have lapsed into a Manichean outlook, a version of the famous “you’re either with us or against us.” So. When I see the “not my president” signs, I think, oops, unfortunately Trump is our president. And I clearly see the USA as “our” country. It is a dark time, that’s for sure. But I find it incoherent to hate in the name of democracy. But of course, what do I know?

The Miracle of the Interwebs persists in Jupe’s life

I know. I know. I’m a fucking broken record regarding the wonders of instant access to stuff that interests me. But I love it. I decided to read Werner Breig’s essay in The Cambridge Companion to Bach, “Composition as Arrangement and Adaptation.” I was disappointed when he indicated he would only be considering instrumental originals, since I am very interested in transcriptions of cantata movements (like the famous Wachet Auf which I am performing this Sunday). But I persisted in reading the essay. After he outlined the movements from Reinckin’s Hortus Musicus that Bach converted from small ensemble to keyboard, it occurred to me to search for Bach’s transcriptions by BWV number. And of course, they came up online. I played through the seven movements of BWV 965 and the one fugue of BWV 954. These pieces are basic keyboard pieces. I had never seen or heard of them before. Cool! So far I have limited myself to reading Breig’s essay about the original works. But I just checked and sure enough the original works that Bach transcribed are also sitting on line. Here’s Reinckin’s version of a fugal section (starting at the Allegro).   Here’s what Bach came up with. I think it’s interesting to see that Bach drops the original bass line. Breig talks about how Bach and contemporaries were evolving a new and different kind of keyboard idiom. One can certainly see this in these transcriptions. I love the interwebs

Mom’s ninetieth

Today is my Mom’s ninetieth birthday. My brother, Mark, and his wife, Leigh, are coming over so that we can have lunch with Mom today at her table at the nursing home. After that my piano trio is playing for the November birthday party this afternoon.

Eileen and I need to go pick up a birthday treat to bring along for everyone in Mom’s lunch room. I also need to pick up my suit from the cleaners.

I probably won’t have time to submit the info for Advent II today as I usually wood. Maybe tomorrow.

wimpy Jupe

Being the person who is in the best mood in the room is not always easy. I sometimes wonder if my attempts to be non anxious mainly result in me being invisible or making room for other people’s thoughtlessness. But it is the way I want to behave regardless of this.

And then there’s the corrective to the gender politics in our time. Man have power. Women don’t. A gentle man who is seen as a wimp is to me preferable to a man who is unconscious of his privilege and operates in  aself centered and even vain way. Especially if this wimp is named Jupe.

Short blog today

So, since I have so much to do (including prepping my scores for today’s gig) this is all for today’s blog. Weirdly I notice that yesterday I had about 70 visitors to this blog (this is a rare high).

NASA Team Claims ‘Impossible’ Space Engine Works—Get the Facts

I love these kinds of experiments. An engine with no exhaust. Wow. It’s a cool idea even if it proves not to be true.

My copy of The Cambridge Companion to Bach arrived in the mail Saturday. After doing some reading in very expensive books like Peter Walls’ Baroque Music ($259.47 and up) I scoured Amazon used books to see what I could afford that might update me a bit. Butt’s collection of essays was published in 1997. In his introduction, he points out that the field was exploding at that point and his goal as an editor was to present essays that brought readers up to date and pointed the way to future discussion. So when I found a used copy for about nine dollars I instantly ordered it.

This morning reading in it, I once again felt very lucky to be able to have daily intimate contact with the mind of Bach mostly via playing his music. Yesterday I also ventured into the works of CPE Bach, his son. I have played my way through three volumes of CPE that represent some solid editorial work. But I also have a more dated two volumes of his work in a Dover edition. Yesterday I was noticing that there were many pieces unique to the Dover edition. I have been playing through them as well.

CPE is, of course, much different than his Dad, but I enjoy reading his work as well. Tomorrow at the birthday party at the nursing home, my trio will play two movements by CPE of a violin sonata that is reminiscent of a little Brandenburg (at least it is to me). I will draw a picture for the listeners of J.S. Bach and his sons performing the multi harpsichord concertos with a Bach at each instrument in the coffee house of his day. it seems that this work by CPE is a deliberate nod to Dad. You can judge for yourself in the following video. We are only playing the first two movements. The slow one first then the first one. I like the tempo these people take for the first movement, but the slow movement is much much slower than we play it.

I love John Muir whose words are read aloud in this video. I always read him when we travel to California. He wrote about and wandered the mountains there that I love.

Inanity

This morning even the BBC seems to have descended into inanity. Most of the World News Round up was about Trump, Pence, and the musical, “Hamilton.” Grammar Girl, a podcast I listen to, was about the meaning of the phrase, “by the wayside,” and the pronunciation of the word, “biopic.”

After doing morning dishes, making coffee, and doing Greek, I turned to some of the poets I have been reading: Amiri Baraka, Derek Wellcott and Leonard Cohen. I don’t think I’ve opened Cohen’s Book of Longing since he died. This group jerked me back into reality.

Baraka’s poem, Real Life, is a surreal picture of Ted Kennedy, Richard Nixon, Pat Nixon, and Gerald Ford.  I love the way Baraka plays with words. This poem is largely about the “dick” in “Chappaquiddick” and “Dick Nixon.” Derek Wallcott’s Mass Man moves easily from circus metaphors to the dancing in the air of a lynched man. Finally Cohen’s wit as an old man pulls me back completely into the moment.

“The Remote

I often think about you
when I’m lying alone in
my room with my mouth
open and the remote
lost somewhere in the bed.

Talking to the Shrink

I like talking to Dr. Birky. We had a good conversation Friday at my appointment. One of his areas of expertise is marriage counseling. He approves of the steps Eileen and I have taken to adjust to her retirement. We have re-instituted our family meeting. Now we call them “check-ins”. We use them also to provide a time when we can have serious discussions about any topic. We came up with this because of my inability to be spontaneous about talking about practical matters. By this I mean that when I come home from whatever  I have been doing I can’t switch gears to talk about putting a roof on the garage (example). Also Birky approved of our Boggle games.

As I put on my coat to leave Friday, I happen to glance up at the bookshelf. There was the DSM III.

I remarked on it. “You guys are up to DSM IV now, aren’t you?” Birky assented. “As soon as you can find me in it, I guess we can be done with this stuff, eh? Remember I told you I wanted to find out what kind of crazy I am?” He laughed.

 Michael Flynn, Anti-Islamist Ex-General, Offered Security Post, Trump Aide Says – The New York Times

Flynn facts and contradictions.

Fake News in U.S. Election? Elsewhere, That’s Nothing New – The New York Times

Indonesia and other places have already succumbed.

I just played through this waltz twice. I like it a bit slower. It sounds more “dreamy” that way to me.

To be or not to be (continued).

Yesterday I wrote about omitting “is” in sentences, but I forgot to add that it struck me that this of Classical Greek. I have had to learn to intuit the verb when missing. How ’bout that?

jupe shares a Clarence Thomas video

I’ve not been very impressed with Supreme Court Justice Thomas. I watched his confirmation hearings and was not convinced that he had not misbehaved with Anita Hill. So it was easy to slip into figuring that he rarely spoke during oral arguments before the supreme court was a result of him not only being inappropriate with women but also lacking some jurisprudence competence. This interview I stumbled on with Bryan Garner shows some different and, to me, convincing arguments. Who’d thunk it?

Shaking confirmation bias or i.d.ing fake news

I’ll just put this here again. I linked into a doc that Professor Professor Melinda Zimdars has made available online about Fake News. According to an interview in today’s episode of On The Media, she has been gaining notice and notoriety

False, Misleading, Clickbait-y, and Satirical “News” Sources – Google Docs

I keep this doc open on a tab when I’m surfing.

It’s the last bit on this On the Media show (link).

Much of Zimdars suggestions are things I do regularly like look carefully at URLs, click on “about” tabs, do further research on the actors and organization.

sick cat

Edison was obviously off his game yesterday. Starting night before last he didn’t come and visit us (me) in the middle of the night. When I got up yesterday he was laying down in the master bedroom. He spent most of the day moping around. He didn’t seem to be eating or drinking. His poop was not encouraging looking. So we set off for the vet this morning.

The vet gave him a thorough going over, drew blood and eliminated obvious stuff. He sent us home with antibiotics and shot Edison full of meds and hydration stuff. This seemed to leave him temporarily stunned, but he eventually got up out of the cage and moved to the bedroom.

He jumped up when i went in to take his picture, but has now returned to rest. They are running more tests on his blood for Leukemia and AIDS. We’re supposed to keep an eye on him and start a round of antibiotics tomorrow.

affordable care act action

My friend Erin Davison put this up on Facelessbooker. I called. It took several calls with much silence on the Ryan’s robot’s part. Persistence pays off. Do this and pass the word via social media and mouth to mouth.

Opportunity for action
Action alert: Paul Ryan is conducting a phone poll on the ACA (Obamacare), hoping to get overwhelming opposition to it.
If you want to express your support for the Affordable Care Act, call (202) 225-3031. Press 2 to choose ACA as the issue you’re calling about. You’ll hear a brief recording about HR-3762, Paul Ryan’s heroic proposal to gut the ACA, and President Obama’s use of his veto power to stop it. Then, you will have a chance to indicate your opinion with the press of a button. Press 1 if you support Obamacare.

Functioning well when tired

Despite exhaustion, I soldiered on and prepared scores for next Tuesday’s afternoon birthday party at my Mom’s nursing home. My piano trio will play two movements of a CPE Bach sonata, a piano trio  transcription of Fauré’s Après un rêve. Then several pop songs including “I left my heart” and “Sunny Side of the Street” (I wrote out parts for these two tunes). Then end with a hymn sing. Somewhere in there we’ll sing “Happy Birthday.”

It was interesting working with my retired symphony cellist. She’s okay with pop music but both she and the violinist had slight difficulty negotiating Vocal score renditions photocopied from Jazz Fake Books. But I think we’re set for next Tuesday.

To Be or Not To Be

I was listening to Lexicon Valley’s podcast yesterday. They talked about the way recent US Presidents have used language. When they got to Bill Clinton, they discussed the verb, “to be.” You know that famous evasion: “It depends up on what the meaning of is is.”

What interested me was the idea that though the idea of omitting the verb in a sentence such as “She my sister” can sound wrong to the ear, it is the practice in some languages. McWhorter cites the fact that  this omission is normal in Russian, Indonesian, and Biblical Hebrew.

In addition there are other vernacular uses in English that omit the verb this way besides Black English. The example he gives is some dialects of Irish, but apparently there are others.

Nukular or Nuclear

In the same podcast they discuss George W. Bush’s pronunciation of “nuclear.” McWhorter explains the logic behind Bush’s mispronunciation. It comes from thinking of “nukes.” He also points out that other US Presidents (including Eisenhower) used this mispronunciation.

Garner’s Modern English Usage, Fourth Edition has an entry on this mispronunciation. Garner encourages the correct pronunciation and rates this language change as “Stage 2: Widely Shunned.” Garner has five stages of integrating a change into the language, the final stage being “Fully Accepted.”

He also writes that in 2012 when he asked George W’s chief of staff, Andrew Card, if this was ever discussed in the Oval Office, Card replied, “Endlessly.”

Here’s an embed and a link for this podcast.

John McWhorter on language lessons from past presidents

Jupe’s breakfast squash microwave casserole

I’ve been using up my squash with a good concoction. Here’s the basic idea, amounts vary.

3/4 C cooked squash
1 T chopped onion
1 T Parmesan cheese
1/4 C cooked corn (I used canned)
1/4 t garlic powder
1 Egg, beaten
salt to taste

I mash the squash, then add onion, cheese and corn. I beat the egg, then mix all ingredients well. I put in a small bowl sprayed with olive oil. Microwave for about 2 minutes.

The Rule of Power and the Golden Rule | John Tiemstra | LinkedIn

This guy subs for me. Good guy. Teaches econ at Calvin College.

Did not embarrass myself

According to my boss I didn’t embarrass myself Monday evening at Worship Commission. I usually wonder how I handle myself in these situations. It can be tricky. I have worked at trying to become more self aware for years. But it takes constant vigilance especially in an age of so much sensitivity.

I do enjoy working for Jen Adams. Another way I’m lucky.

Thursday exhaustion

The kitchen was full of dirty dishes this morning. I got up tired which makes sense, Wednesdays is one of my actual work days. There were more dishes because I made myself a delicious egg plant stir fry yesterday in the wok.

It sometimes takes me a bit to remember why I get up and feel like shit. This morning besides the usual exhaustion from the night before, I am still a bit ill and, of course, I’m still old.

I just played several times through Bach’s D minor prelude from the Well Tempered Clavier volume II. This music soothes me.

changed Advent I organ music

We are singing a little piece by Hugo Distler on Advent II.

I was thinking of playing a postlude by Distler on Advent I.

I have changed my mind. Instead I’ll play a couple of chorale prelude variations by Walther on Wachet Auf for Advent I and schedule some of Distler’s partita on Nun Komm der Heiden Heiland. This is the melody of the little Advent choral piece we have been practicing.

In a better mood today

It was probably a combination of over exposure to church stuff, a persistent cold, and general old age that contributed to my grumpiness yesterday.

Seeing a therapist encourages me to watch and modify my behavior so I hope I didn’t give in to these feelings too much yesterday. Self pity is a killer.

reconnecting to my cousin

I noticed recently that facelessbooger offered up my cousin Jerry as a possible “friend.” I sent a request and he okayed it. Since then he has been very active on my “feed.” I like this.

When I was a kid we used to travel regularly to my Mom’s family in South Charleston. I have many fond memories of cousin Jerry. He was a strong influence on me and introduced to me to many things I have cherished all my life like the Bach inventions. I don’t think I was much more than a blip in his life, but am glad to reconnect.

Here’s a pic of Jerry with his wife Sherry on their 21st wedding anniversary back in October of this year.

Sherry and I have been connected via social media for a while now.  I don’t think I have met her, but she seems pretty cool.

feeling reconciled to my outsider status

Sometimes I wish I was a little more connected to people. But, I know that my life is good. I am lucky to live with Eileen whom I love and who loves me. I enjoy my times of solitude which I spend with my music and books. it’s sort of like playing a prelude or a postlude when people are talking loudly and ignoring me. When that happens I try to go deeper into the music where I meet beauty and the creator of the music face to face. When I see the glazed eyes, the averted glance of people that I know I have stuff in common with, it’s time to spend more quality time with the stuff I love and connect with minds in that manner.

distler and bach for Advent I

I discovered yesterday that I have neglected to pick hymns for Advent. So I sat down and submitted Advent I. I have been goofing off with the Schubler chorale prelude settings of Bach. I do love these. They are a bunch of transcriptions made by Bach of movements from his cantatas. Just like I enjoy the Violin Sonatas of Mozart and Bach and longed to have first hand experience of them as a keyboard player before meeting my piano trio violinist, Amy, I also love the cantatas and would enjoy conducting and/or performing them. So the Schubler chorale preludes are instant contact with this great music.

I am planning on playing the famous Wachet Auf setting by Bach for the prelude that day.

And a little piece by Distler on the same chorale for the postlude.

We are singing this hymn on Advent I.

 False, Misleading, Clickbait-y, and Satirical “News” Sources – Google Docs

This is a link to an excellent list of biased sources. I like what the author recommends concerning gathering information on current events:

The problem: Even typically reliable sources, whether mainstream or alternative, corporate or nonprofit, rely on particular media frames to report stories and select stories based on different notions of newsworthiness. The best thing to do in our contemporary media environment is to read/watch/listen widely and often, and to be critical of the sources we share and engage with on social media.

Melissa Zimdars author of the link

A Guided Tour of the ‘Alt-Right,’ by the Trump Campaign Chief’s Website | FAIR

Walking through the new terrain.

“the tour of the alt-right given by Breitbart: Essentially, it’s racist intellectuals, natural racists, people who make racist jokes and Nazis.”

Trump in the White House: An Interview With Noam Chomsky

Bookmarked to read. I have followed Chomsky for years. I think it helps to remember that while he is an experience commentator his area is linguistics not history or politics.

It will have to be a quick one this morning since I’m running behind. Eileen’s Mom and sister are coming for a lunch together today. I promised Eileen that I would get the living room more straight before they arrived. I spent a good deal of my morning doing that.

Plus I’m grumpy.  I think I’ve had enough of church for a while. We had a worship commission meeting last night and it went fine. But a side discussion of whether we should get a baby grand piano or an upright bummed me out.

A parishioner who shall remain nameless (but is a musician himself) basically said in front of the group that baby grands do not sound as good as a large upright, since the upright usually has longer strings. While there is some truth to this (the strings are sometimes longer on the baby grand, and the sound board sometimes larger),  there is enough differences in the actions of the two that a technician I was reading this morning says they’re practically different instruments. And I still think my church’s room deserves the sound of a baby grand. A good one. It’s all moot anyway. There’s no budget for it.

I was madly working on submitting the music for Advent I this morning when i discovered that the church has still not paid it’s subscription to this service. This means we are not using it to report usage. I think I’ve had enough of church.

On the upside, a friend I knew a million years ago emailed me and asked me was I Mark Jenkins’s brother. She and I (and Mark) worked together on a diocesan commission of music and liturgy. She said she was at the 8 o’clock at my church and saw my name on the bulletin.

Here’s some Haydn I was listening to this morning. Bach and Haydn help.

Hey! Those were the guys Alex Ross liked

On Oct 22nd of this year, I embedded  a video of a string quartet in my blog entry. “greek study, books, music and a movie.” I didn’t realize that this group was coming to Holland to perform. I didn’t even recognize them when I went and heard them. I noticed that they had some of the attributes I admired in the Alex Ross recommended quartet. Things like enthusiasm and convincing passionate playing.

I like that  Geoff Nuttall said that the quartet had grown to deeply love Haydn’s string quartets and were confused that other students and musicians they knew did not share their enthusiasm. I like that he described this as one of the reasons for the quartet’s unpacking Haydn deliberately in a section of the concert they called “Haydn Discovery.”

As I said yesterday I found this attempt inspiring.

As I was studying the material the quartet played on Saturday night, I made another interesting discovery. There is a bit of an intellectual rhyme in programming both the last movements of Haydn’s Op. 33 No. 2 and Beethoven’s Op. 135. The Haydn ends as it begins, literally. The Beethoven asks a question at the beginning which is answered at the end.

Muss es sein?(Must it be?), Es muss sein (It must be!). The whole movement is headed “Der schwer gefaßte Entschluß” (“The Difficult Decision”).

I discovered that I have a piano four hand arrangement of this quartet.

Plus there is a piano transcription sitting online.  When I went to add this to my tablet’s sheet music reader, I discovered I had already downloaded it. Similarly when I looked at my string quartet score of this, my notes are all over it. I guess I’ve thought about this quartet before, eh?

keeping churchiness at bay

The congregation was buzzing as we began church yesterday. The energy belied the underlying anxiety, fear and disappointment of many of our members. I was still ill. I noticed one of our Republican members sneaking in late to service.

I try to not let church into my soul where the music is. This worked for me yesterday. I played a good service with a lot of interesting improv. Since we are doing my so called Jazz Mass as service music, I feel like we know it well enough that I can improvise my accompaniment. I did a lot of that yesterday as well as other improvised moments. I like th spontaneous stuff.

My boss preached a good sermon, but I don’t find the churchiness very helpful either these days or in the past. I only try to do  a good job at leading and performing.

Autocracy: Rules for Survival | by Masha Gessen | NYR Daily | The New York Review of Books

Daughter Elizabeth posted this on Boogfacer yesterday. I just got off the phone with her. It was posted under the rubric “Legit Hysteria.” I phoned Elizabeth to let her know I wasn’t able to support this approach to the post election period. What I need is clarity not hysteria. She, of course, completely understood.

The author of this article has a done a lot of good, especially it seems for Russia. She’s living in New York right now. She fled her home country fearing for the well being of her children, since she is a lesbian mom in a hostile environment. I support all this, of course. But addressing our recent election without mentioning the wild inconsistency and incoherence of Trump and confusion of identifying his constituency (a media and echo chamber failure) leads me to think that Gessen understands Russia better than the USA. She holds dual citizenship.

Red, Blue and Divided: Six Views of America – The New York Times

This looks like an attempt to redress some of the NYT’s recent insularity to people outside the beltway. I especially like this quote:

In some ways, the echo chamber was the winner of this election. Here we are, deeply connected. And yet red America is typing away to red America, and blue America is typing away to blue America.

Ha Jin’s Latest Novel Shows Off His Funny Side – The New York Times

This looks interesting.

Lies in the Guise of News in the Trump Era – The New York Times

Not hysterical, but definitely wary of misinformation.

When Borders Close – The New York Times

Some history lessons. Not encouraging ones.

When Republicans Take Power – The New York Times

Some interesting observations from a Republican writing on the pages of the NYT.

Went to a concert last night

I made this playlist this morning. It approximates last night’s program. However, I had to substitute a John Adams work for the Second String Quartet because it’s performance on YouTube was “unavailable due to copyright restriction.” I checked and couldn’t find it on Spotify either. Frankly it wasn’t that great a work. Like the “Absolute Jest” piece I have included in this, Adams draws heavily on Beethoven for his ideas. Of course, he transforms them and what we heard was lovely. But if Adams and the people who own the copyrights to this music don’t want me to hear it again, so be it.

I just checked and it doesn’t seem to be on Amazon as a recording, either.

I was very impressed with how Geoff Nuttall walked the audience through an explanation of the first piece on the recital. In my playlist he does something similar. Refreshingly, although his presentation on the video begins the same, he has obviously adapted for his audience. What he does on this video seems to indicate that the quartet is playing for students and musicians. Last night, although he did use some formal language (“exposition,” “development,” “recapitulation”), he was charmingly accessible.

He is doing what I think performers need to do for audiences: “Lead them in to the music.” When he talks (as he does in the video and did last night) about the inadequacy of allowing “the music to wash over you,” he is directly addressing the sole way many listeners approach all music these days. I think most listeners (myself included) do this. But it is so much more rewarding to get inside what is happening in the music. Eliot Carter called this “the conversation.” Whatever.

An added benefit last night was that I was sure that this particular audience carried these listening skills they had just be alerted to into the other pieces on the program. How cool is that?

Still ill

Unfortunately, my cough prohibited from staying in the hall for the entire concert last night. I spent most of the evening standing in the back by the exit so I could quickly slip out and cough. I still heard most of it. I have to admit that this new Hope College recital hall sounded splendid last night.

Blue Feed, Red Feed – WSJ.com

A little interactive take on what is showing up in feeds on Facebook. Thank you to daughter Elizabeth for sharing this. Very interesting to see what constitutes conservative and liberal media in the minds of the Wall Street Journal.

Noam Chomsky Predicted Trump’s Presidency? : snopes.com

If you need any more frightening takes on what’s happening to us in the USA, this is an article for you. The interview described in this dates to 2010.

Jupe reevaluates his bubble

The election has left me with a sense that I’m not getting good information. I think I need to expand how I learn about current events. The first thing I did was add some of the BBC radio station to my podcast software that allows me to stream them. I have been listening to their news summary podcasts on a fairly regularly basis.

Their reporters on the ground in the USA report differently and often with a helpful perspective.

Then this morning I got up and added several apps to my tablet: a reddit app, another reddit button which takes me to their world news section, Real Clear Politics (which I have used but didn’t use much in the last year), and Vice News.

These are all in a row on my tablet home page. I already had buttons for The Guardian, Google News, Reuters, and Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting.

But I think that I need to adjust my own thinking as well. I heard Nate Silver say insistently that Trump had a 30% chance of winning. I don’t think I grasped what this and other stats were saying: that it was a close election. To me this means that there are many people outside my circles who are having a much different experience of life in America than I am. I try to be slow to lump them all into categories of terrible people like haters, white supremacists,  or sexists. But maybe not slow enough. I “follow” a good number of people  on Facebooger with whose politics I disagree. The discussion there is not one I have found helpful. Neither do I think it will be helpful in the future.

But what is helpful is to try to assume that many people who voted for Trump are quite possibly reasonable citizens with whom I both have some common ground and also disagree.

Right now I also find myself in disagreement with the soft left (as I think of Hilary/Sanders supporters). The demonstrations against Trump don’t make much sense to me other than as acts of venting. After Trump has done something, they would make more sense.

For example, I didn’t see any demonstration with a theme of protesting Pence’s assumption of the Trump White House transition team.

Anyway, I have resolved to watch a little more closely and try to understand a bit better what is happening.

Musicology books

Yesterday I picked up three books I interlibraryloaned. I am finding Stephen E. Hefling’s 1993 book, Rhythmic Alteration in 16th and 17th Century Music, very engaging. I have performance questions about this very subject. Hefling seems to have come with a calm discussion of something that has consumed many musicians in my lifetime.

Jupe makes work for himself

I am planning on making some scores for my piano trio to use at my Mom’s nursing home. It occurred to me that I could look at some sheet music of tunes and steal the bass line from them for the cello. This might make for a more listenable arrangement than asking my cellist to simply bang away on the chord root tone (which she could obtain from lead sheets….). This means spending some time making scores. But the good thing is once I do this we will have these arrangements for future nursing home type gigs.

Eileen and I stopped off at the Gathering Place (the room where we will perform) at Mom’s nursing home yesterday. I picked up three hymnals for us to play from. Then I strummed the piano. I thought it looked new as I have passed this room visiting my Mom. It is a Yahama baby grand. After querying the activities director I found out that they have had this piano for about nine months. It seems like a pretty good piano. (I rarely say things like that).  It means this gig will be a bit more fun with a decent instrument.

5 Free Chrome Add-Ons That Are Crazy Useful – Medium

So. The add on “Honey” alarmingly tells the user that it needs “to read and change all of your data on the websites you visit.” I think this blanket permission while not as radical as some is still a bit worrying for such a silly little app. I declined.

Mostly election related links

Many people seem hysterical about the election. I know I am tired of it. Nevertheless I have been reading some of these links and think some of them have some pertinent stuff to say.

I Answer Your Questions About Predicting President… | Scott Adams’ Blog

Dilbert’s creator has been a Trump supporter all along. Worth reading to understand what’s going on.

I said Clinton was in trouble with the voters I represent. Democrats didn’t listen. – The Washington Post

Rep. Debbie Dingell from Michigan was talking but few were listening.

Piano Trio Rehearsal

My violinist was very stressed about the election yesterday. She confessed to having been depressed and angry because of it. I met with her alone first. We chatted for quite a while. Finally I suggested we do some playing. It would be comforting for her I thought and after all that’s why we were meeting. We launched into a wonderful movement of Mozart and were playing when my cellist arrived.

We then quickly figured out what we could play at the upcoming little November birthday party at my Mom’s nursing home. I mentioned that often at this late date before a performance I would choose music with the criteria of “could I perform it today?” My violinist especially liked this.

We chose two movements of the CPE Bach sonata we have played previously.

Here’s a lovely recording of the first movement being played on the oboe.

I can’t resist embedding the love second movement which we are also planning to perform.

This is beautiful stuff and was thought to have been composed by J. S. Bach for many years. That’s why it has a BWV number.

We also decided to perform a transcription of Fauré’s “Après un rêve.” This is not a great recording of it, but it is the arrangement we are using.

My former student,  Rudy, loves Fauré and has taught me an appreciation of his work. We also play his Piano Trio but it didn’t meet the criteria of “could we  perform it today?”

In addition we will play some forties popular music and hymns. I have to get to work on making parts for violin and cello for those. It will be fun to prep for this gig.

Norman Dello Joio in Holland

I asked my violinist why Dello Joio stayed at her house. Holland used to have its own March Festival in which the Holland Chorale director brought in significant choral composers. Dello Joio was one of them, Alice Parker another. So they hosted him for that.

Astute observations or Jupe learns from other people

In the podcast embedded above, Susan Davis makes an astute observation about the different behavior of these two men in the campaign and yesterday: “It is the difference between politics and governing.”

Speaking of astute observations, during my discussion with my violinist yesterday she commented that she had already decided before the election that it was probably too soon for our country to elect its first woman president since it would be directly after electing our first African American one.

Gritting Our Teeth and Giving President Trump a Chance – The New York Times

Some very wise words from Kristof.

Choir rehearsal was interesting last night. The mood was subdued. I had only about half the choir and several of these came and went. There’s a lot of sickness in the group. Maybe someone gave me what I have now (a bad cough and cold) or maybe I gave them my disease.

I could tell that people were dealing with the election. At first I ignored this and let the singers immerse themselves in singing. I do a good deal of singing at every rehearsal. I try not to talk to too much or waste much time. However, I did respond when one singer mentioned the election and tried to joke a bit. (I told about one of my facebookless “friends” who posted that he had to go to gastroenterologist yesterday, the day after the election. On the form he had to feel out, there was a question if he had “sense of impending doom.”) This brought out laughter and some general discussion of the election. It was interesting to me that everyone in the room assumed that all there had voted for Hilary. While this is likely, with over 70 per cent of our voting community in Holland voting for Trump, it is also likely (certain in fact) we have members of our church who quietly voted for Trump.

When I said to my group that they were assuming that I had not voted for Trump they did not seem find that funny. In fact, they were a bit hostile (“If I thought that was true…….). But hostility from singers is nothing new in my life.

It has been interesting to read commentary in the immediate aftermath of what looks like a disaster for our country.  I haven’t seen much that sheds too much light this soon after the shock. Pundits seem to be unable to cease navel gazing and clearly look around them at our country.  I watched Clinton and Obama make public statements yesterday. They, of course, emphasized a gracious transfer of power.

But there were demonstrations in several cities in our country last night. One pundit in an NPR broadcast put it clearly: around 50 % of possible voters (registered or just simple of age?) voted, half for each side. This means that roughly one fourth of them elected Trump or that three quarters of this group of us either voted for Hilary or did not vote at all.

I of course don’t have a clue what this will mean for us and the world. Trump has caught a lot of people off guard, while vindicating those who said that the polls were wrong. The polls were wrong but not that wrong. What was most wrong was the interpretation of a lot of the media including sources that I trust and rely on like the NYT.

I try to step out of my echo chamber once in while usually not via TV but through trolling conservative web sites. There is an amazing amount of misinformation available from the absurd to the vaguely misleading. It’s very tricky to navigate.

What I’m doing in my head right now is mostly waiting for concrete actions and post election rhetoric on the part of Trump. Until then to paraphrase Brooks Gladstone I try to remember that history did not vilify Hitler for making speeches but for what he did.

Smoky Eggplant Miso Soup – Cook’s Science

In the meantime, this is an intriguing little recipe. I have copied the ingredients into my grocery list for future checking out at Meijer.