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this week's featured
recording for Monday, May 29, 2023
from the Sewickley Presbyterian Church
"Word Sung" service of May 21st, featuring
Mozart's "Coronation" Mass. You can watch the
whole service on their Youtube channel (click
on the Youtube logo at the bottom right of the
video player), but this week I've cued up the
"Gloria" movement.
If you'd like to see the explanatory video
that went out to the church the week before
our special service, it is available
here. I spend about half an hour
exploring the connections between Mozart's
mass and our weekly worship service, and
some things to listen for in Mozart's music.
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Now What?
It's been a wild semester for your webmaestro.
If you've been watching this space you will
know that updates haven't come often, the
reason being that this web site is run by an
actual flesh and blood human being, who
strings these words together by tapping
plastic buttons with his fingers to form
patterns that can be decoded by other actual
human beings. It may only be a matter of time
before this website becomes AI chatting with
other AI but in the meantime, it's still
person-driven, aimed at a people audience.
Anyhow, this person has been a little busy.
The new job has, for a number of reasons,
taken up much of my time, and even ore of my
energy. Anything without a hard deadline tends
to be a casualty under those circumstances. My
experiences during this semester may find
their way to this page: there is certainly
enough there for several posts. In the
meantime, let me sum up by saying that things
have gone very well. So well, in fact, that it
will soon be time to grapple with a new
problem: increased expectations. If you've set
the bar high right out of the box, what do you
do for an encore?
Many years ago I was writing a piece of music.
I came to a particular moment in the
piece--early in the structure--and found an
interesting harmony, A voice in my head told
me I ought to save it because it was
sufficiently interesting that if I used it up
early I was going to have to come up with
something even better when I got to an
analagous spot later on. But the other members
of my in-head compositional committee told me
to risk it. Go for it, use it up now, and when
you get there, you'll come up with that
something better. I plunged on ahead with no
actual idea what that was going to be. But
when the time came, I found it.
I sure hope that works as a long term
strategy. I don't have any idea if it will,
but somehow I'm confident. Strike while the
iron is hot, says the old adage. And: doors
willl open that wouldn't open if you play it
safe all the time. That's not an old adage,
but it does come from experience. Listen,
learn, adapt, and don't try to recapture the
past. Let it all hang out.
Ok, enough with the platitudes. I'm going to
go make some music.
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an old article on
Mozart--kind of--to go with this week's
recording above:
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Says you!
If a great
composer says something, do we
have
to take his word for it?
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One of the
dangers of reading pianonoise is
that you get encouraged to
think. I mean really think, not
think the way most people use
the word most often, as in I
think I'll have a sandwich or I
think it's sunny out. I mean
cogitate, think for yourself,
puzzle it out, and if somebody
is presenting an opinion,
consider whether you ought to
adopt it first before you click
on accept. Read the fine print,
figure out their agenda, try to
find out where their ideas have
come from, and whether or not
you think they are still valid.
It's not a popular concept,
believe me. Or not.
And if that
isn't obnoxious enough, we model
it here by sometimes coming to
blows with the august dead. For
instance, here is a page about
something Bach said
and why he might
have said it. And another one.
Bach didn't say
very much, and he didn't
generally explain himself
either. Mozart, on the other
hand, wrote a lot of surviving
letters, had lots of opinions to
share with lots of people, and
as such is an authority on
practically everything.
read on |
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[email protected]
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