Interchanging Idioms

This isn't necessarily a post about music, but as I am taking the Graduate Record Examine(GRE) next Monday in order to complete my application to Yale I thought I'd include some of my thoughts about the study process here. The GRE is a test of analytical and verbal skills. As I have been writing term papers for university, posts on this blog and various other articles, I'm not particularly concerned about the verbal side of the exam. I have gone over some of the topics for the Analysis portion (analysing a short statement). It's the analytical portion of the test (maths) that has me concerned. I understand all the math necessary for the test, but a good portion of it I've not used since I was in high school (nearly 30 years ago). The biggest concern for me is the quadradic equation. I remember working with the quadradic equation back in Algebra 2, but until I was reviewing the study guide for the GRE, I hadn't thought about it since then. If you'd...

There is an interesting article in the Scotsman today. It's title: " Popcorn Opera - The Met: Live " by Kenneth Watson. The basic premise of the article is to taut how wonderful it is to be able to see live performances of the Met in Cinemas around the world. The sub-plot is to engage the concept that more and more opera companies are looking at this sort of outreach to gain audience share. San Francisco Opera is taking a similar approach, although the performances are not live, but recorded and edited before showing. Perhaps the most interesting thing about the Scotsman article is hidden in the text, the idea that numerous people who would otherwise never go to see an opera are being attracted by the art form and actually enjoying to the point of shouting "‘Brava’ at the screen." The Met's performances are not just opera, but “The experience should be like watching a sporting event,” says Julie Borchard-Young, the Met’s director of worldwide HD distribu...

Julian Lloyd Webber posts a tirade against the use of "Western" when associated with Classical music and he's spot on in terms of justifiable iritation with the term. He talks about how Eastern (namely Russian) composers are included in the "Western" music world. But he misses out on all the music by composers like Claude Debussy, Béla Bartók and Olivier Messiaen who incorporated World music elements from Gamelans to congas into their compositions. Mr Webber speaks of the programs in China and Venezuela bringing "Western" music to thousands of children, but misses out on Tan Dun who comes in a very "Western" style, and is thoroughly Chinese. Or Stewart Wallace ("The Bonesetter's Daughter") and Judith Weir ("Night at the Chinese Opera") who incorporate Chinese style music into their operas and yet are thoroughly Western (American and British repectively). We have a love of labeling to the point of distraction. We...

The Copyright Royalty Board is expected to increase the royalty rates for songwriters and publishers to 15 cents per track purchased from online music stores, up 66 percent from the current 9 cents per track. According to Devin Leonard of Fortune, if the ruling happens Apple is threatening to shutdown its iTunes Music Store. Currently iTunes sells songs for 99 cents per track. They are complaining the hike would make selling music at this rate unprofitable. HOW??? The people who made the music, put the time and effort into creating the songs that Apple sells are only currently earning only 9%. Apple gets all the rest, for what? running a download site? How many other companies out there are running download sites with little or no revenue stream? It seems to me Apple is just being greedy, and not wanting to share. But this is nothing new - they don't like sharing their technology either. If you want a Mac, you have to purchase a Mac from Apple because there is no "clone...

In an article posted by The Herald , James MacMillan, a Scottish composer is quoted as saying, "The main casualty is the innate curiosity of the young. They are discouraged from making discoveries in music and much else. All they get is what is flung at them through the usual, sanctioned, and controlling media. "Popular culture, in spite of its protestations of the opposite, seems to curtail and limit natural curiosity, and can lead to uniformity, conformity and narrowness, the very things that pop culture claims to be against." According to an article by Martin Beckford of The Telegraph suggests MacMillan "...accused pop culture of inhibiting musical curiosity in the young and leading to greater conformity." These comments came when MacMillan spoke at the Royal Institute of British Architects to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the Sandford St Martin Trust last night. James MacMillan I was not at the talk last night so it is difficult to dis...

Bernard Rands had a new piece premiered last night at the Lincoln Center in New York. A review by Lorin Maazel does a nice job of reviewing this new music, "Chains Like the Sea." There is also a video on YouTube where you can listen to bits of the piece as well as the composer talking about the music and the process of composing. His site (linked above) has lots of excerpts of other pieces to get an idea of his style. Canti Trilogy sounds similar to some of Britten's vocal work, although his String Quartet No. 2 has a very different edge to it. Tre Canzoni senza Parole has a Holst like feel to it, very similar to "Neptune" from The Planets in use of alternating tritone chords.

Philip Glass is to write a new opera about Walt Disney. It will be based on Peter Stephan Jungk's German-language novel "Der König von Amerika" from the point of view of a fictional animator named Wilhelm Dantine. The premiere is scheduled to open the 2012-13 season of the New York City Opera. For more information read NYCOpera's own press release .