The New Year (2010)

Well, 2009 - it's over. I kind of see it as a decent year. I think the highlight of my year was my completing the Buffalo Wild Wings Blazin' Wing Challenge (along with Angelique Poteat). Here's my picture to prove it:

Anyway, for lack of ideas, I'm going to list some New Year's Resolutions in three different categories (and I stole this from the WSJ, btw.)

Isaac Schwartz, Soviet Composer, Dies at 86

In my youth I used to be a little more obsessed about film composers (I used to work for one), but I've slacked in my film composer knowledge. Of course, I never kept up on my Soviet film composers (unless you count Shostakovich).

Here's a very short AP news release about Isaac Schwartz's death. Even better: YouTube has all of White Sun of the Desert (with English subtitles) in eighth parts. Enjoy! (And enjoy the music.)

The Joys of Imposition (Part 1)

Parts & score are due in a couple of days (3 to be exact), so I thought it would be nice to procrastinate a little bit and proclaim my hatred toward Adobe and Kinkos.

Yes, I know these are fightin' words, but I'm sticking with them.

About a month ago I was at my friendly neighborhood FedEx Office (Kinkos) asking one of the employees to convert my letter-sized composition into a letter-sized booklet. I thought I would save money this way because I wouldn't have to pay for the spiral binding, plus I wouldn't have to worry about squeezing a spiral-bound score in a packaging envelope if I were to submit my scores someplace.

She was quite nice and helpful; due to her assistance she pointed out a new charge that would be added.

If you are to ask Kinkos to rearrange the order of the pages to create a magazine or booklet (known as imposition in the printing world), they tag on a $5 fee (?!). The woman asked if I still wanted to go ahead with the project, and I said, yes, well, I don't have the Adobe plugin, which I think costs $400.

I was wrong; the plugin (called Quite Imposing) doesn't cost $400; it costs $475, which is about the same price as Adobe Acrobat Pro.

So, I know what you're thinking - $5 doesn't sound as bad as $475, right? Except Kinkos tags on this fee FOR EACH DOCUMENT.

Let's do some math, shall we?

End-of-Year/Decade Lists

I didn't compile my "Best of 2009" or "Best of Decade" list for this blog, but I thought I'd compile some of these lists here.

NPR's Hitting The Sweet Spot: Best Classical of 2009 - I didn't think there would be any mention of new music here, but there is: Chen Yi's Sound of the Five is listed.

Sequenza21 Best of the Decade - Here Jerry Bowles has a teaser list of his best of the decade, and others have chimed in.

The 25 Best Albums of the Decade by americansongwriter - In my quest to be cooler than I really am, I'm proud to report I have one of these albums. I also want to check out Wilco: I hear they're a pretty cool band, and Glenn Kotche has been up to some pretty cool stuff. I first saw Glenn Kotche at Cincinnati's Music NOW festival in 2008 where he and the BoaC All-Stars probably played the best version of Andriessen's Worker's Union I'll ever hear.

Okay, this post is a little more cheerful.

I will happily be making a mincemeat pie while you watch this. Happy Holidays!

What the What?!

A friend of mine pointed me to this article yesterday about the CCM Faculty giving the Dean (Douglas Knehans) a vote of no confidence.

More than 100 faculty members have complained that

...Knehans does not communicate well, has failed to raise enough money to fend off budget cuts and that several smaller programs, such as jazz and music education, are in danger of being marginalized.

However, some have come out in defense of the Dean.

“Now we have a dean who wants to make big changes during the worst financial crisis in the university’s history, and of course, in the state and country,” said Eugene Pridonoff, professor of piano and artist-in-residence. “It’s very easy to make him the scapegoat of difficulties that are occurring and people are scared, because he truly wants to make some major changes that are necessary.”

This was a bit of a shocker. Especially before Christmas.

For those at CCM (like myself), what do you think?

The Best (Secular) Christmas Song of All-Time

Here is a WSJ article about the origins of Irving Berlin's White Christmas. The writer goes into the details of the creation, history, and text-setting. My favorite quote:

While others might have stressed "dreaming" and "Christmas," for example, "Berlin deftly emphasizes the seemingly unimportant 'I'm' with a whole note, then races over the other syllables" before the next whole note, "white."

Yes, we get it. There's a subliminal subtext: you're white.

But seriously, a couple of my recent favorite Christmas tunes are The Waitresses's Christmas Wrapping (it came out the year I was born) and this new one that was released a couple years ago:

Anything with a Mariachi tidbit makes me happy.

Crunch Time & Advice to Young Composers

Okay. I have 18 days until Motordom (that's what I'm calling my wind ensemble piece) is due with parts. I have about 8 minutes of music written, 4 minutes of it is 80% orchestrated. It will be done, now that I don't have to deal with (ahem) classes or teaching. (On that note, I should probably submit grades to the registrar. Breathe.)

In the meantime (while you look at my subpatch from one of my computer music projects), here is an article from the New York Times written by Annie Gosfield listing her advice to young composers.

This series is part of The Score, which is part of the Opinionator Blog on the NY Times website. I'm not exactly sure how this blog works. The Opinionator Blog has "exclusive online commentary from the Times," and in The Score, "...composers discuss their work and the issues involved in creating music in the 21st century, as a traditional notion of 'classical' continues to be reconsidered, revised, rejected and reimagined."

I thought this would be a cool RSS feed to link, but when I do, the entire Opinionator Blog RSS is listed, including the latest post relating to professional basketball. I have listed it in the "How I Waste My Time Section" just in case the occasional new music post surfaces.

Stanford's iPhOrk and Fluid Pianos

In honor of the crazy idea to take TWO computer music classes in the same quarter, here are a couple of articles I'm putting in the awards category of:

Who's cooler than me now?

Something that Stanford University (and even the University of Michigan) is getting into:

Stanford's iPhone Orchestra
From Pocket to Stage, Music in the Key of iPhone

On a different but related note, the new (or new-to-you) Paul Lansky perspective of electronic music. I heard about his speech at this year's ICMC, but this has his opinion in writing from 2008. The times, they are a-changin'.

Also, the world's first fluid piano (you can adjust the tunings instantaneously). You absolutely must watch this video.

Grammy's Category 106

Here are the nominees for Best Classical Contemporary Composition.

Crumb, George: The Winds Of Destiny
George Crumb (James Freeman)
Track from: Crumb: American Songbooks 2 & 4
[Bridge Records]

Higdon, Jennifer: Percussion Concerto
Jennifer Higdon (Marin Alsop)
Track from: Alsop Conducts MacMillan, Adès, & Higdon
[London Philharmonic Orchestra]

Pärt, Arvo: In Principio
Arvo Pärt (Tõnu Kaljuste)
Track from: Pärt, Arvo: In Principio
[ECM New Series]

Sierra, Roberto: Missa Latina 'Pro Pace'
Roberto Sierra (Andreas Delfs)
[Naxos]

Wyner, Yehudi: Piano Concerto "Chiavi In Mano"
Yehudi Wyner (Robert Spano)
Track from: Wyner, Yehudi: Orchestral Works
[Bridge Records]

Why I love Vicki Ray and Piano Spheres

As part of the West Coast, Left Coast festival, here's what Piano Spheres contributed:

Music Review: Toy Pianos and Piano Spheres at Disney Hall