sounds like now

A short delay at the airport. What better way to pass the time than eavesdropping and clicking around the internet. Overheard at MDW:

Female twenty-something: “So, like we got this new girl in the office. Yeah, she’s from the LA Times, she’s really nice, and she’s really good. Those kinds of people really worry me.”

And:
Kids’s letter to Bush
Nobel! The Musical

Good Vibrato, the occasional blog of Ronen Givony’s forward-thinking Wordless Music Series, pairs paintings with all manner of music, including my recording of Piece in the Shape of a Square by Philip Glass. Check it out here.

Flying from Chicago to Boston tomorrow for rehearsals and this Sunday’s Microtonal Society concert. I’m thankful for connecting flights.

(a/k/a SLN’s biannual microtonal post.) So I’m practicing James Bergin’s new piece today for next Sunday’s concert with the Boston Microtonal Society, and I’m suddenly inspired to draft a post about learning and practicing any new microtonal piece. Then I think to myself, Wait a second, don’t I get inspired to write a post about microtonal things every time we’ve got a concert coming up (which happens to be twice a year)? Yes. Yes, I do. However, for past BMS concerts, I’ve always been familiar with the works I’m preparing. Not so this time. James’s piece is brand new, and as a result the steps I go through to learn a new microtonal composition were very apparent. Really. It was like reading the instructions on how to assemble a bunk bed from IKEA. So I thought it would be a great service if I imparted this wisdom and (ssssshhh!) shared the secret.

So here it is. Brian Sacawa’s guide to learning a(ny) new microtonal composition:

1. Pick your microtonal fingerings.*
2. Write your microtonal fingerings above the notes.^
3. Practice.†

Just follow these steps and you too can learn a microtonal piece!

Footnotes
* An important first step, and one that must be effected with each new microtonal composition you learn. True, one may have in one’s fingering repertoire many “stock” microtonal fingerings—that one that you use to lower that high C# (1, 2, plus palm key D and side Bb) when you’ve got that note as the third of a major triad because everyone knows that the third of a major triad must be played 14 cents low, a virtual microtone—but in some situations, say like when you’ve got to have three microtones between each semitone, let’s say 16, 33, and 50 cents high/low, there’s a little tinkering that needs to take place.

^ Also an important step that, if effected with each new microtonal composition you learn, is proven to alleviate extreme anger and sudden obscenity laden outbursts.

† Repeat step 3.

Phil Kline’s Christmas masterpiece, Unsilent Night, makes a triumphant return to Baltimore next month (Friday, December 21 at 8 p.m., to be exact). New for 2007: check out the brand new website and be sure to catch the Unsilent After Party, featuring HGP and DJ Dubble8. Stay tuned for more info as the date approaches.

Has anyone (besides my lovely assistant) been following the dialogue between Alex “Savior-of-Classical-Music” Ross and Ben Ratliff over on Slate? I found this comment by Alex, which kind of ties in to a couple of my recent posts, interesting (well, more like, good because it jibes with what I said):

A jazz club finds the perfect middle ground between the aren’t-we-serious atmosphere of some concert halls and the aren’t-we-having-fun-now vibe of your more poseur-ridden pop venues. There is a lack of pretense. People are listening closely, and yet there’s a looseness about the whole thing.

I was extremely flattered to learn last week from my esteemed record company that American Voices is being considered for a Grammy nomination in two categories—Best Performance by a Soloist (without Orchestra) and Best Contemporary Classical Composition for Keeril Makan’s Voice Within Voice. Voting members of the Academy have to cast their ballots by today. Hopefully, it will be an honor to be nominated.

(On a blustery 35-degree morning.)

Middle-aged woman in short sleeves: Great weather for the first week of November, eh?

Second middle-aged woman: Oh, ya. I remember last year this time when it was cold.

***
Update: Phil Blackburn from innova responds:

“Yes, you have discovered how we recycle back catalog; the CD plastic is all biodegradeable and has the taste pets prefer (except for some of the former string quartets, those get stuck in the teeth…).

You also discovered why we don’t have innova.com…”