Probably my last post of the year

And i really just dont have that much to say. Vacation is nice, but it makes me lazy. Ive written a number of tiny little piano pieces specifically tailored for beginners. Its the only kind of composition i can really tolerate right now. I think I've written about 8 of these little things. They're nice, maybe i'll post them sometime.

um. What else. Ive continued to browse youtube on occasion, i stumbled upon a good performance of Shoenberg's gorgeous Verklarte Nacht. ( I found that after listening to Blondie... hahaha.) And realized that the wierd and unpleasant world of blindingly ignorant youtube trolls makes its way to shoenberg videos too. Bizarre and stupid comments litter this video of six nice musicians just doing their job... (and doing a great job that would make Schoenberg proud) I cant really say much in the face of so much stifling idiocy (its more a problem of "where to start tearing down this monolithic tangle of crap?") So i just generally ignore what people post on youtube.

Probably the best for my sanity.
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So thats the last post for the year of 2007. Onto 2008.

When did my perception of the passage of time become so warped? I swear time seemed to pass slower when i was little. The years just seem to speed up as they go.

End of Quarter Laziness

im just sitting around, being rather un-productive. eating, surfing Youtube,etc. Anyway, the other day I found a video of my favorite work of Philip Glass, Music in a Similar Motion ( its broken into two videos, actually, since it goes over youtube's video time limit.)

And its lovely. During my roadtrip across California and Oregon this summer it was music that kept me calm in stressful moments of (generally California) driving. My passenger was not always pleased, but he was able to deal with it, and i think it might have even rubbed off on him.





So here are some pics from said roadtrip..
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The Collective Memory Of Men With Beards

I think it'd be a good band/song name.

and their first album could be entitled Waterboarding.

...it would be about surfing, of course.

An Ethnomusicological Moment

Did you know that the Chicken Dance of french origin? INDEED IT IS. It even has words too. In french, however, it is called the Duck Dance (Le Dance des Canards)

Regardez:

Yesterday i found this so beautiful i couldn't help but start crying like a baby



Sometimes i do that and its kinda embarrassing. Oh, and then i write posts about it and put it on my public music blog for everyone to see. Kinda pathetic, but i think its sincere, and there are only maybe 3 people who read this anyway. i hadnt heard this amazing music in over a year, so maybe thats why. Or maybe im just a big sob.


I love bulgarian women.

Terry Riley- Music for the Gift III

I stumbled upon this little gem on Youtube just today, so i thought i'd share it. Im no expert on Riley's music, but i do love it, and every now and then something just appears online that really just faciniates me, like this little piece. Its tape-looped jazz quartet from 1963, and this avant-garde work really sets the stage for what came directly after it- In C, and consequently the entire minimalist "idea". Whats surprising is how early it was made, and yet its still so refreshing. These kinds of pieces support my thinking that Mr. Riley is one of the most under-rated of major composers from the last 50 years

Some Music from al Magrebia.

I thought, since i dedicated the post below to morocco in pictures, i should post a few words, too, so i'll do that now-

North african music was a highlight of my travels, Berber music in particular, which was played loudly in front of restaurants and cafes, in front of shops and in houses in the High Atlas. Im certainly not the first to be surprised by its beauty and freshness, theres a lot of study by ethnomusicologists (For good reason!) of the beautiful and alluring art they create there.

People sing in north Africa, and they dance; music is embedded in the culture. The elaborate echoing Adhan sent out from loudspeakers on the mosque every morning (woke me up always at 5:30, particularly on fridays) calls the faithful to prayer (and they do go! oh they do). Then they ring out 4 more times before days end, every day framed with short musical prayers. It reminded me i wasnt in france anymore, and that in fact i was somewhere far more interesting.

Currently im listening to the gorgeous music of Larbi Imghrane (the link is a good preview of his music) which fuses traditional berber songs with more modern instrumentation and electronics. The rich in lyricism and beauty. The CD i own, is Series of immortal songs, volume 1: The best of Raiss Ahmed Bizmaven- bought in Marakech's Djemaa El Fna square (photos 5 and 6 in the previous post). Mr. Imghrane is pretty famous in morocco, so its possible to find lots of his music online, thankfully. Unfortunately i cant read Arabic, so i dont know the name of my favorite song on my Cd, track 4, but i can assure you its really lovely.

A section from the first track of my CD HERE, forgive the cheesy video. Its in a Berber dialect, by the way, not Arabic, so most Moroccans probably dont know the words either.