Life, School, and a whole lot more…
Thursday November 20 2008
Life has been extremely busy for me, particularly since the end of the school trimester is coming to a close which means concerts! My quintet played on a recital last week, a program which we performed the Sweelinck Variations on a Folk Song (this youtube is not us) and the Muczynski Quintet. Last weekend, the Wind Ensemble also performed Holst Suite no. 1, and the West Side Story Synphonic Dances, an arrangement which just came out a month ago and was created to be as close to the original parts as possible. Let me just say that piece was perhaps the hardest piece in Wind Ensemble I’ve ever played. After playing for 27 minutes, you get to play a ppp solo which starts on high Bb, and just goes high, hanging out on high Db, Eb, and finally ending with a decrescendo up to high F! Yeah— Right— Glory me.
This Sunday we’re doing Death and Transfiguration and Corgliano’s Gazebo Dances. I’m just playing English Horn on the Strauss, but that piece goes onand on and on and on— What a chop killer!
For my “Oral Traditions in Music” class, I’ve been researching for my final project which will be on the topic of Korean Pansori. It’s a musical storytelling artform originally taught orally, but nowadays with technology, it’s been written down, notated, taught with textbooks, CDs, and video. I’m not only writing about what it is, but the current state of transmission of pansori, and how using technology has helped or hindered the artform. Tuesday, I presented the topic for about 45 minutes, and when I get back, I need to complete my 30 page paper, due December 12th.
The project comes at a good time since Monday, I’ll be leaving for Korea for a week and a half for my brother-in-law’s wedding. The wedding itself is a bit tough, since I’ll get back December 3rd, just in time to take my finals and play my jury, but such is life.
Meanwhile, I’m trying to get all of my ducks in line, and reed orders on the way before I leave. My wife left Wednesday morning to spend some extra time with her family, and I’m looking forward to seeing them soon enough.
Nov 20, 2008
Are you taking Oral Traditions with Anne Dhu? She offered that seminar for the first time a few years ago when I was in my last year there. I enjoyed the class.
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