A Post About The Rewards of Being A Good Student (Sort Of).

I’M SO BUSY! Bagel, class, lunch, class, rent a tuxedo for orchestra concert, study for a test, class tonight. This semester is crazy. Don’t ever take 21 hours, no matter how badly you want to graduate (or study in Vienna…). I suppose the best way to deal school is to take it one day at a time, and also to remember to take small breaks throughout the day. For example, I have 1001 things to do in the next week, but right now I’m sitting here, enjoying the rain and having a coffee, listening to Britten’s ‘Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra”. It’s the little things that make the difficult things worthwhile, I suppose. Or something like that.

So. Reason #17 to be a diligent student: FREE STUFF! I never thought that just by checking my email hourly and by hanging out at the music building all the time that I would get a bunch of free stuff, but I was wrong. Yesterday, I got an email from Dr. Carter about free tickets to the SLSO this weekend. The email said that the first two people who responded would receive the tickets, and since I spend most of my free time on the internet, I was the first person to respond. Booyah, now I’m going to the SLSO for the third week in a row.

Also, there are many free scores to be found in the music building. I’m not saying that you should take every score that you see lying around, however the library often donates boxes of scores to the music department for student use. In the past few years, I’ve been extremely fortunate to find many GREAT scores and books, including (but not limited to): the Symphonie Fantastique score, all Brahms’ symphonic scores, a few Beethoven and Haydn symphonic scores, Book II of the Dover collection of Strauss’ Tone Poems, the full score to Mahler II, etc. I’ve also picked up a lot of awesome theory, orchestration and history books.

I feel pretty lucky to be in a program that has so much to offer me. It’s not even the actuality of having free things, as much as the fact that Webster really gives me a lot of opportunities to have great cultural experiences. Between the Film Series, getting tickets to the SLSO, studying abroad, the MCISA, and other things that happen around campus, it really pays off to keep an eye out for information about events that you might enjoy.

If there is a moral to this post, it would be: “Always check your email from Dr. Carter, and spend a lot of time at school so that you can get free stuff.” I’m going to see about having that engraved above the front door of Thompson.

- Adam

P.S. The last minute of this Britten piece is REALLY awesome- you should check it out if you don’t already know it.

I’ve Done Almost Nothing This Week But Listen To Mahler and Watch Dexter.

There’s always a reason I’m up this late. Tonight, it’s equal parts Mahler 1 and Beethoven 7.

It’s been an eventful week, both playing and listening. Last weekend, I had the pleasure of seeing the SLSO’s first concert of the season. I have to say, without reservation, that it was one of the finest concerts that I’ve seen there. They opened with Golijov’s ‘Azul’, which was a totally incredible piece of music. Part neo-Romantic, part post-minimalism, ‘Azul’ was a beautiful arrangement of sounds, colors, and ideas. I thought the hyper-accordion added a lot to the piece, as did the percussion. And the cello was unspeakably good.

And Mahler 5… what can anyone even say about it? Susan Slaughter totally nailed it (and my musical mind immediately makes the connection between her nailing her part, and nailing a coffin because the first movement was a funeral march… sorry… NOT FUNNY!) But seriously, it’s an unbelievable symphony, and the SLSO offered one of the most intelligent and inspired performances I’ve heard of it.

I feel like Matt said what needed to be said about the Webster Symphony Orchestra. Playing with them is going to be a pleasure.

Concert forecast: Tonight I’m driving to Columbia to see Grizzly Bear. This weekend, SLSO is doing a great program, which I will paste from their website instead of rewriting it (because I’m lazy):

COPLAND Fanfare for the Common Man
PROKOFIEV Piano Concerto No. 2
HARRIS Symphony No. 3
JANÁČEK Sinfonietta

Also, the Wind Ensemble concert is on Monday. It should be pretty cool, so check it out if you have a chance. That’s about all I know at 2:30 a.m.

- Adam

P.S. Derick Tramel got me hooked on the T.V. show Dexter. I hate T.V. and never watch it (except for Lost), but I’ve gone through these DVDs pretty quickly. I have to say, the show is really exciting. Check it out if you have hours and hours to waste (I don’t, but somehow I’m making the time this week). I started Season 1 earlier this week, and I’m now almost through Season 3. Reading that, I’m embarrassed. Goodnight.

I’m Tired Why Am I Writing This Go To Bed.

Man, it’s so late. Listening to Radiohead after midnight should be prohibited in this country… Anyways, I really should go to bed, but I wanted to share something first.

I frequent the blog of concert pianist Jeremy Denk. I think he really has a lot to say, both as a pianist and a musical thinker . Reading his blog makes me really appreciate the internet- I think it’s great that we can have instant access to the lives and minds of great musicians. It’s interesting to consider how the avenue of musical thought has progressed in the past 200 years; it was in the early 19th century that musicians moved past the idea that music was just another job that one did to earn a living. I mean, while Bach is considered one of the greatest musical minds in history, he wasn’t exactly rockin’ the boat in the ‘music=art’ department. On the cover page of the Well Tempered Clavier, he wrote: “for the profit and use of musical youth desirous of learning, and especially for the pastime of those already skilled in this study.” For the pastime! For PASSING TIME! Clearly, one of the most revered musical compositions of the common practice era wasn’t written just for passing the time!

Enter Beethoven, who wanted more. His music, especially symphonies, provoked even the most knowledgeable musicians to wonder if there was really more to music than just passing time. Somewhere in this beautiful music was a hidden message, as if to say “this music is ABOUT something!” Not quite programmatic, but definitely not purely vocational, Beethoven falls into a class all by himself, perhaps at the crux of one of the most important transitional periods in music history. And now, 200 years later, we sit at the computer and read what musicians have to say about other musicians’ work. Because it means something.

I really didn’t mean to write that much. Just inspired, I guess. Here’s a link to Jeremy Denk’s site. Some of his posts are hysterical, others are incredibly intuitive. Enjoy.

http://jeremydenk.net/blog/

- Adam

A Bach Joke, Some Musical Outings, Bach The Serialist.

Some studio producers are making a movie about the lives of J.S. Bach and W.A. Mozart. They want to hire some big name actors to play the roles, so they call Arnold Schwarzenegger and Tom Hanks. The studio doesn’t care which actor plays which composer, so they let the two actors decide. “Which one do you want to be?” Arnold asks Tom. “Oh, I don’t care at all, you should decide,” Tom says. “Ok,” says Arnold. “How about you be Mozart and I’ll be Bach.”

Bad joke. I guess that one only works if you say it out loud.

Last night I went with some friends to see The Dusty Brothers- a band that includes both current and former Webster Music students. They were playing at The Pageant, which is a pretty big deal for student musicians. I thought they played very well; they didn’t appear nervous at all. Guitar solos were rippin’, drum fills were bangin’, and the vocal harmonies were solid. All in all, a really fun and exciting show. It’s really cool to see people your own age (from your own school!) getting out there and succeeding in music. Serious props to Mike Murano, Nate Gilberg, Nick Kargacin, and Dan Roth.

Then, I went with some buddies over to the Delmar Lounge, where we heard the best live jazz band I’ve seen in a long time. I don’t know the name of the group, but we watched them for almost three hours. They even had a vibraphone player, which is a real treat to see live. The bass player was unbelievable, and the drummer was great. Their ages ranged from young to old- the vibes player was probably in his 40s and the drummer looked like he was 80. They had a younger guy stand in on bari sax for a few tunes, and he was probably  16 years old. They played a lot of stuff that I didn’t know, but I did recognize Afro Blue and A Night In Tunisia. The Delmar Lounge is a totally good place to see quality jazz shows on weekends. Plus they have tasty food and cheap drinks. What more can you ask for out of a Friday night?

Today, I heard an interesting story on NPR. They were talking to a musicologist who found a tone row in Bach’s Prelude in A Minor from WTC Book II, and he was discussing whether or not Bach did it on purpose, or if it was just a coincidence. It’s certainly an interesting idea, but I feel like if people have been playing Bach in the past 100 years since serialism was invented, many people have already come to this conclusion. The story didn’t go into the theory of that particular theme, or discuss anything about the links between Bach and serialism. But who knows, maybe this is a huge discovery. I’m certainly no Bach scholar. Either way, it’s a cool story to listen to if you have a few minutes, it’s only about 3 minutes.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=112602288

I don’t care too much for money, money can’t buy me love.

I’ve been thinking a lot about the remastered Beatles albums that are due out next week and I’ve been debating for quite a while now about whether or not to listen to them. I mean, from a musicological perspective, I want to listen to the songs in their original form so that I can understand more about the instruments and mastering processes of the day. The Beatles recorded the albums using the technology they had available at the time, and to change any of the variables that make those albums what they are might compromise the historical value of the music itself.

To me, it’s the same as going to see a performance of a Strauss tone poem or a Beethoven symphony, in that they wrote for the instruments that they had available at the time. A section of a Strauss piece as played on the instruments that existed 100 years ago would sound vastly different from the same section being played on million dollar, world-class quality instruments made recently. For this reason, I enjoy John Eliot Gardiner’s performances because he usually uses period instruments in order to capture the original feeling of the piece.

I understand the general argument for listening to these new albums: that they SOUND BETTER. Well, sound is a qualitative thing- perhaps the albums sound exactly how they band wants them to. In assuming that we are ‘making it better’ by changing it, it not only causes people to associate the original albums with imperfection, but it causes us to therefore assume that we can improve an artist’s music by applying current technology to it.

So, the question persists: Should we listen to the new Beatles albums? I created a poll on here to see what other musicians think. Take the poll and leave some comments- I’m interested to hear what you have to say!

- Adam Rothbarth

It had been a wonderful evening and what I needed now, to give it the perfect ending, was a little of the Ludwig Van.

Welly, welly, welly, welly, welly, welly, well. To what do I (we) owe the extreme pleasure of this surprising visit?

Thanks for visiting the new, improved Webster University Department of Music  blog! This year there will be more posts, more info and more writings about music, thanks to an all-star team of musical minds. I updated the ‘Meet Our Bloggers’ page, and will continue to add info as we find out more about who else is blogging. I also added a few links to some cool music websites.

A few things that happened this week at Webster:

- We had our first Saxophone Quartet rehearsal (the other groups met too)
- New practice room schedules started
- The Faculty Jazz group played a Chick Corea tribute concert last night, which was super good
- Marlettos served some tasty eggplant the other day

I need to end this post so that I can go report to work at the CMS. I’ll be on here at least twice a week, and hopefully others will be posting as well. Here’s something to keep busy with until next time. It’s Sviatoslav Richter playing Chopin’s Etude in C# minor Op. 10.

- Adam Rothbarth