Go to My Humble Opinion and Other Works
- Add a comment
- Go to My Theory: Rock 'n' Roll is the Direct Result of Automotive Noise Pollution
Solo and Twainman
I've just come across all the comments in here again.
Isn't it absolutely appalling, and a true measure of the depths of triviality and barabrism into which we have sunk that millions eulogise, and idolise, singers who haven't an itoa of talent and songs that are total rubbish.
You comment, Twainman was a ray of light. But few I fear will heed it ; far less be uplifted by it.
Carmina Burana ; oh yes, what a tour de force! But it depends very much on the performers, doesn't it? Some make it sound like wishy washy mush. Where's the bawdiness and vigour?
Has anyone in here ever heard the original, anonymous, Carmina Burana? Listening to that, one can appreciate just what a feat Orffe's version is.
Maybe we three ougtt to post a three way series on our favourite music, eh? Wotcha think?
posted by
ariel70
on January 20, 2007 at 10:17 AM
| link to this | reply
Twainman,
I might also mention how very much I enjoyed touring with a girl's choir in Germany and our co-production with the city choir, orchestra and ballet of Carmina Burana by Carl Orff. The cathedrals brought our little group to the sound level of angels, and I'll never know an exhilaration more profound than the singing of great works dedicated to God.
posted by
Jenasis
on January 15, 2007 at 10:55 AM
| link to this | reply
Twainman,
Well, my first serious music teacher was Japanese, Mr. Koun Tsujimoto, whom we called Mr. T. It was through his precise, gentle spirit that I learned to appreciate the Japanese people and their sincere efforts.
As for my favorites, I've always appreciated the works of Vivaldi, a passionate Italian composer of many violin and string pieces. Small ensembles are to me the most enriching to both play and hear, and I've learned that you can be led astray in music by trying to outplay the best. What's important to me is the beauty and the enjoyment of the art.
Thank you for your comments.
posted by
Jenasis
on January 15, 2007 at 10:50 AM
| link to this | reply
posted by
Blue_feathers
on January 14, 2007 at 6:13 PM
| link to this | reply
Solowriter, a fellow musical fan greets you and has a suggestions far below
Hi, Solowriter,
I just read you musical biography, and you are a very fortunate person having been introduced to the classics as a young child. I'm a total eclectic, having been invited at 17 to back up Elvis and Hank Williams at the Louisiana Hayride radio show (I did not know what the band did in Shreveport every Saturday at the time, and left for the Christian Brother's novitiate ignorant until about ten years ago as to what the offer entailed.) I have never regretted the choice I made.
Later I composed a score for The Dancing Donkey at NYU for the famous Lowell and Nancy Swortzell, my profs just down from Yale to found the Youtheater (no, they were not cannibals, in spite of their enterprise's moniker.)
I was hired here at Assumption University of Thailand after an audition of my "Sedes Sapientiae," which the president asked me to write. I'm still nagging him (again, Jan. 17 at 9:00 AM) to intersperse it with the Pomp and Circumstances’, which you will admit draws the tears but is getting to be a cliché, even in Bangkok!)
You'd be amazed by our music conservatory, which offers everything from ancient Thai music on the old instruments to contemporary composition, and is headed by a Japanese luminary, Maestro Sasaki, a pianist, and my friend from NYU's school of music, Ted Lewand. The university started over thirty years ago as a commercial business administration school, and led by the visionary Brother Martin Komolmas, fsg, PhD, who designed both campuses, sculpted the image of Mary and Jesus called "Sedes Sapientiae," and played a piano concerto with the Bangkok symphony to dedicate the new Bang Na campus, which houses the music school), and is now still with us as President Emeritus, the school has blossomed into the most prestigious and multicultural international university in South East Asia (look for Bang Na and music at www.au.edu.)
I have never been a real musician, just a very talented amateur with a ton of training, starting with harmonica at about 6, piano at 9, and folk guitar at 14. I've written music sung in the US, Germany, Canada, and Thailand, and even produced a sad little folksong tribute by two Jesuit HS boys after JFK's death. It rose to #6 on the Washington D.C. radio charts.
I've been doing science ed most of my 45+ years in school, with lots of adjunct speech and English comp classes for U Maryland, etc., a stint at LSU as coordinator of the NSF/LSU Physical Science Program 1995-97.
Currently, I'm an editor for the Office of the President, checking his addresses before learned societies, large gatherings, bulletins for the Registrar's Office, and teaching three Chinese undergrads how to master English.
I love my work, love swimming, and love my wonderful wife, Mao Sim, who graduates next Saturday with her MA, finishes her PhD in philosophy (we hope) before 2008, and moves with me to her next challenge, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Her ambition knows no limits, and is a delight to me.
Being from the rice fields on the Mekong, she has had no exposure to classical music, so I relish the thought of leading her into it one halting footstep at a time.
If it were not for you, I would not have had a chance to look back over my musical experiences, and would perhaps not have been as excited about introducing Mao to the Western classics.
You are a true gem.
By the way, when the mass suicides occurred under the influence of the strange man at the University of Houston, I got a call from an old fellow ex-brother, Ned Hogan, who was financial director or something like at the Univ. of Houston. Now I find you mentioning U of Houston too. I took one of my M.E.’s at St. Mary's in San Antonio. Small world!
One suggestion, though, have you tried old ballads like the John Jacob Niles recordings, or the marvellous old New Orleans funky stuff from the likes of Professor Longhair, the current "Dr. John" (a high school teacher and niche icon), and the wealth of early Cajun recording and contemp. sounds like the Magnolia Sisters, and the world famous pianoaccordion-fiddle-triangle-bass and synthesizer Zydeco music, a kind of boobiewoogie in French by Black Louisiana musicians? And what did you think of Stravinski's Lamentations of Jeremiah? I was fortunate to hear him direct it at the Santa Fe NM Cathedral years ago. I was not a fan of atonal music, but his work was fascinating and compelling, coming just 12 years or so after the Holocaust.
TWAINMAN
posted by
Twainman
on January 14, 2007 at 12:43 PM
| link to this | reply
mark ~
That's adorable. It's true; you can't play a violin or cello successfully unless you are a musical genius or start as a child as the offspring of a musical genius.
posted by
Jenasis
on January 14, 2007 at 8:33 AM
| link to this | reply
ariel ~
Haha! Thanks for pointing out my typo there. The baby was distracting me. I'll check out that music sight.
posted by
Jenasis
on January 14, 2007 at 8:31 AM
| link to this | reply
I play the bagpipes.
Talk about noise pollution to some people! Heck, I've even been paid NOT to play them.
I also played the cello when I was a kid. About fifteen years ago I bought a second-hand violin, just to see if I could still squeek out a tune. Key word there is "squeek". Several cats and some wildlife ran for the hills.
posted by
mark2556
on January 14, 2007 at 7:08 AM
| link to this | reply
Solo
You might want to change your word to 'pollution'
But that's a minor cavil about a beautiful post! I'm also a classical music fanatic ... well, not really, 'cos my tastes are extremely eclectic. They range from Hildegard of Bingen, Thomas Ravenscrofte, Bird, Tallis et al to Janacek, Sibelius, Dvorak, Vaughan Williams and everyone between.
But what I can stand at any price is modern scrapyard music ; it's an insult to my musical intelligence
If you want to find what is probably the most eclectic music station in the wold, try this link ; it's the Spanish Radio Clasica, that I listen to most of the day. I don't have a sound card right now, but I guss that if you do, you can listen to/download any item from their programacion.
http://www.rtve.es/rne/rc/programa/index.htm
Your post is a ray of light in a dark world of musical barbarism, amigo!
Maybe we oughta post a few pieces on our tastes in music, eh?
Think there's by much interest in here????
el Tel
posted by
ariel70
on January 14, 2007 at 7:05 AM
| link to this | reply
Good post .
posted by
afzal50
on January 14, 2007 at 6:52 AM
| link to this | reply