I’m seeing some poetry at some rather popular (I think) music sites. Poetry that I know isn’t in the public domain yet. So maybe I was wrong when I blogged about it being illegal to put poetry up at our sites. I wonder. Anyone out there know? I’m just curious because of course I’d post poetry here if I knew I wasn’t breaking any laws.
Yes, I’m picky that way. Some of my friends would say I’m a bit nuts, in fact, about following rules.
Or maybe I’m nuts about everything. Could be.
But for now here’s a Very Bad Poem™ for you:
I don’t care what he might say—
I’ll take Mozart any day.
In other news …
The rehearsal was great fun this morning. Turns out the concert is nearly sold out, too! Not bad. But having a 10:00 rehearsal has really zonked me out. I’m going to shut my eyes for a time so that I don’t shut them during oboe lessons. Sleeping on the job is such a bad idea! I did hear one story about a teacher who really did fall asleep during a lesson he was teaching. Ouch. I can’t imagine the student felt good about that. Unless she hadn’t practiced. In that case maybe she was merely relieved.
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… and now I’m off to a rehearsal. On the schedule: Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante, K364 and Symphony No. 1, K16. WIth these folks.
Adio for now!
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Mozart in his music was probably the most reasonable of the world’s great composers. It is the happy balance between flight and control, between sensibility and self-discipline, simplicity and sophistication of style that is his particular province… Mozart tapped once again the source from which all music flows, expressing himself with a spontaneity and refinement and breath-taking rightness that has never since been duplicated.
-Aaron Copland, Copland on Music (1960)
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Pliable, over at On An Overgrown Path blogs about music blogging perks … and I’m jealous! I’ve not received any CDs in my mailbox. Sniffle sniffle.
This isn’t fair … is it? (And yeah, “Life isn’t fair” was something my poor kids heard me say a lot as they were growing up. But shoot … I was talking about them. Surely it should be fair when it comes to my life. Right?)
So send those CDs! Send those cards and letters! Send reeds! Heck … send cash if you’d like. No one’s stopping you! :-)
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My dearest Papa!
I cannot write Poetically; I am not a Poet. I cannot arrange my words so artfully that they reflect shadow and light; I am not a painter. I cannot even express my feelings and thoughts through gestures and Pantomimes; I am not a dancer. But I can do it with the sounds of music; I am a Musikus. Tomorrow at Cannabich’s I will play a whole congratulatory arrangement on the Clavier for both your Name Day and Birthday. Today I can only wish you with all my heart, Mon Trés cher Pére, what I wish for you every day, mornings and evenings; goode health, a long life, and a cheerful heart.
-Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (November 8, 1777)
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Two for the price of one. (Of course since no one is paying me anything I’m not sure what this means!)
Because of Mozart, it’s all over after age seven.
-Wendy Wasserstein, playwright (The Heidi Chronicles, The Sisters Rosensweig)
Mozart is the greatest composer of all. Beethoven ‘created’ his music, but the music of Mozart is of such purity and beauty that one feels he merely ‘found’ it—that it has always existed as part of the inner beauty of the universe waiting to be revealed.
-Albert Einstein
Both found at the SLSO blog. Here and here.
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“He wants every last click of a bassoon’s keys, each scrape of horsehair on catgut to be heard,”
There’s some lovely writing in this review of the Gardiner concert, but I’m trying to understand why the key clicks of a bassoon are desired.
I prefer not to hear the key clicking. I think most of us like our instruments to be quiet, aside from the music we produce (and I don’t consider key clicking to be musical). But is this just me?
I was listening to a recording of a bunch of French woodwind music and the key clicking was incredibly distracting. It sounded as if the microphone was attempting to pick up the key clicks as much as the notes. And now, reading Davidson’s review of the Gardinner, I’m wondering if maybe the recorded key clicks were a deliberate choice.
Thoughts?
Reading this from A Monk’s Musical Musings (Are you really a monk? I’m guessing not! But I’m so gullible I’ll believe you if you tell me you are. And, by the way, your “Favorite Books” scare me!):
Anyway, it’s now on its way back to me. What I find most irritating however, is that my $2,000.00, one-of-a-kind, custom made, fretted eleven-string Glissentar electric classical guitar SAT OUTSIDE ON HIS PORCH ALL WEEKEND!!!
I’m reminded of the time my husband spotted my oboe sitting by our front door, having been shipped back from the repair shop. It did have “Signature Required” on the box, but UPS has never bothered with that sort of thing. Maybe their drivers can’t read. I dunno. But this has happened far too many times so I vowed, from then on out, to drive the two hour drive (one way, mind you) to pick up my dear friends.
Hmmm. Speaking of which, “Oboe A” has been in the shop since January 9. I guess I should call and see what’s up. I just hope it’s not that it need major work. $500 on “Oboe 1″ was expected, but “A” appeared to be in fairly good shape.
Today at UCSC is a “field trip” day. Remember those? I loved them when I was in elementary school because we often went to places that gave us free stuff. I didn’t care what the “stuff” was. It was free. That was all that mattered. In junior high and high school I liked them because I usually got to hang with friends and of course skipped school at the same time. Those were the days.
But this is university … field trips don’t really happen, do they? But we are doing one anyway. We are going to the library. I hear it’s a walk away from the music building yet I’ve never been there. So Sara will guide me and then we will look at some books I’ve been interested in. I want to see what’s in the music library—UCSC is always ready and willing to purchase music and I know we need some additions to the oboe stash there. So I’m looking forward to this!
The thing is, I didn’t bring my oboe and music since I knew we wouldn’t be playing. Wouldn’t you know it, I really would like to leave “my” coffeeshop and go practice. Now.
I always want to practice when I can’t. Go figure.
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I’m really enjoying reading Mozart’s Letters, Mozart’s Life. He is now 21 in my reading, and is, as anyone who has read about him knows, quite a character. He’s not exactly nice, and has quite the potty mouth too. But I wonder if maybe everyone wrote that way, since one thing he writes is actually a (crass, in my opinion) German saying from the time. But reading this book puts more of a personality with the music. Interesting.
Not that I need the composer’s personality to enjoy a work (or to not enjoy it). But I must say that reading this backstage while listening to his Piano Concerto #22 was fun! It was almost as if he was right there. Maybe that sounds silly, though? (Remember … it is just silly old me!)
A friend and colleague said she didn’t think she’d really like him if she were to meet him. I wonder.
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This Graf is a brother of the two Grafs who live in The Hague and Zurich. Stein insisted on taking me to see him right on the spot. And what a Noble Gentleman he is indeed. He was wearing a dressing gown, which I wouldn’t mind wearing in public; he pronounces his words as if they were sitting on stilts, and, for the most part, he opens his mouth before he knows what he wants to say—and sometimes it falls shut again without anything having emerged from it. He performed, after much coaxing, a concert for 2 flutes. I had to play the First violin. The concert was like this: not good for the ear; not natural; he often marches into his tones with too much—Heaviness; and everything was without the slightest bit of magic. When it was over, I paid him many compliments because he actually deserved it. The poor Fellow must have had a plenty of trouble writing it all, he probably had to work on it quite a bit. At last, they brought out a Clavicord from a backroom, one built by Herr Stein, it was good, but full of dirt and dust. Herr Graf, who is music Director here, stood there like Someone who had always thought that he was somebody special in his Journey through music, and now finds out that somebody else can be even more special, and that without assaulting anyone’s ears; in one word, there were all quite amazed.
-Mozart (Age 21. From a letter to his father, telling a story about Friedrich Hartmann Graf.)
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I had mentioned emusic a while back, and told readers that they could get 100 “songs” for free if they signed on via a Cardio Vascular Disease site. Yeah, I think it’s a bit odd too, but heck, 100 free tunes is 100 free tunes (and you can quote me on that!).
After downloading my free fifty tunes (I didn’t know about this other deal until it was too late) I went on for another month because I forgot to cancel. Truth be told, though, there were a lot of things that were worth downloading. One of those was the Alex Klein double CD set that included Martinu and Yano. I mentioned a few weeks ago that there was a glitch in my burned CD, though. Ah well. I hoped it was just a burning problem.
Not so.
I went to listen to the actual download and it has the same problems. Ah well. I wrote to them but haven’t heard back.
Yesterday I went for at least another month of emusic; I needed a recording of the Cimarosa for a student (hi Madeline … I now have the recording!), and shoot, it’s a whole lot quicker than ordering something online and having it mailed to me! I’ve also found that I can then go to naxos.com for any downloads that are theirs and I can get program notes. Cool! But as I was listening to yet another download it had a glitch. Say what!? Maybe emusic needs some hired listeners to assist them? I’d gladly offer my services. I have a good ear. Honest.
So anyway, this long ramble is to remind you all, once again, that you can get some music for free. But just be prepared for a few glitches along the way. Still, it’s worth it for me; I’ve found recordings that I needed to study and what a speedy way to get them!
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