Folias Music

And now some words of wisdom from Andy B in the Uintah Wilderness…

“It is so nice to be in the backcountry away from things because I feel like there are no temptations, such as:

no place to spend money
no place to go out
no Martha’s Vineyard

no computer to waste time googling useless things (like what I’m writing here)
no indoor climate control

no beer to drink too much
no pizza around the corner
no wine (like that 05 Bordeaux that looks so good)

I can just focus on my surroundings and my oatmeal isn’t even good enough to want more.”

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Here is some solid advice I read this morning from jazz trumpeter Dave Douglas that untangles the cultural climate in which musicians, artists, and other creatives are working out their livelihoods.

Dave Douglas: “Niches Brew”: Musicians Creating a Way Forward.

Check out the Greenleaf Music label for some inspiration!

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It’s 20 minutes till 11pm. Andy and I are finally eating dinner after a long day and we want to make up for some lost practice time. So, we started “Music Nibbles” a short music study session while we eat. We pulled out the score to Berg’s Lyric Suite along with a recording by the Kronos Quartet with Dawn Upshaw.

What Andy learned:

• That Berg’s motivic development is similar to Beethoven’s
• Dawn Upshaw is the best singer in the world and Kronos is awesome, don’t talk trash because they do crossover stuff
• Berg’s scores are meticulously marked

What I learned:

• We don’t play anything even as remotely intricate as any movement of this piece (nice perspective on what I thought was difficult for us).
• I had a similar experience as when I heard Elliot Carter’s works last spring played by the Chicago Symphony. This piece made sense on a audible level. The first movement of Berg’s piece uses a twelve tone row. I used to only understand twelve tones rows as a concept based on pitch content printed on a score, now I am hearing pitch content as a set, and conceptually it doesn’t sound different than if the piece was based on tonal structures. I guess tonal and twelve tone concepts both end up as pitch sets either way…

Alban Berg and Anton Webern

Their height is proportionate to their music? Can you guess who is who?

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