Music for music's sake

Last night, I couldn't sleep, and so my mind thought about many different subjects last night. My thoughts went back to a girl I was talking to during the Orff class who just had finished an interview. She said that the interview went quite well, except for the last part. There were three people in the interview. A teacher, an involved parent, and the principal. The principal decided to ask about a scenario that was basically along the lines of what do you do with a student with bad math scores that doesn't want to do music. The girl gave her answer and the principal didn't like that answer and told her what she thought her answer should have been. Do you know what that answer was? You tell the student that if they do music your math scores will improve.

*Trueblat steps up on soapbox*

Come again?!? I find so many things wrong with this statement I don't know where to start. My first reaction being, so basically, you're telling me and the student that music is only important because it improves you're math skills. Gee, that's the reason I went through four years of college, practicing 3 hours a day, and learning everything I can about teaching music, so I can improve a kid's math scores?

Sorry, music is it's own subject, and should be treated as such. It should receive an equal amount of time as other subjects. To me, it's just as important to learn music as it is math and science. Teaching music for the sole purpose of supposedly improving scores in other areas is degrading to music and beyond that, is a farce. The correlation may be there, but there are other factors that are involved in that.

Sometimes I get sick of the way music has to be defended, providing all these petty little excuses about why we need to have music in our schools. We shouldn't need to use them. Do we provide reasons anymore about why we do math or science in our schools? No. We do them for math's or science's sake, not some lame petty excuse. Music should be the same way.

*steps off soapbox*

PDQ Mahler

In our Orff methods class today, we decided to play with pennies. How, you might ask. Somebody conducts using the penny, while everyone follows what the penny does with their voice by saying the word "penny". So if you held the penny high, we said it with a high pitch, low was low. Bouncing it fast repeatedly, you say it repeatedly. We found many different methods to conduct using a penny. The teacher then turns us loose to create our own song, using a penny. We were allowed ten minutes to plan the song and use whatever creative tools we felt necessary. My group used Pacabel's Cannon mixed with urban rap. Quite unique, but the real gem was the group that went before us.

Their group consisted of about nine people. They walked in like it was a serious performing choir group. Once up they started off with the guy with a deep rich voice on the first beat of every measure doing "Penny". Each person continued to be added with their own parts. They layered about eight different parts with varying words, rhythms, pitches, etc. Then they developed it even more, and changed parts, creating such complex layering. The climax was the girl who was belting out something is a high operatic voice, just making it full out power across all levels. It was absolutely magnificent. They even got a standing ovation from a couple of the other students. I so wish I had a recording.


And I'm sorry, very few people will understand the title of this. But as the class was discussing the performance afterwards, this term so aptly fit the discussion. We had a good laugh about it, but hardly anyone here will understand it *sigh*

Not really interested?!?

I'm increasingly becoming frustrated with the man who is in charge of my student teaching. It doesn't help that I've lost all respect for him through the last two years I've had to take his class, and now he owns me for the entire next semester. So the way we set up student teaching is to divide it between a general music elementary class and a middle school band class. So I was able to set the elementary school class up pretty easily. The lady in charge of general music recommended one specific person and we set it up. This man didn't give any type of direction or give me any ideas about where to set up a middle school. With all the credit hours I was taking and everything that was going on, I never got to explore my options in that area. It also didn't help because I am fairly ignorant about the teachers in the area and what would be best. In this area, he would know better than I would, but he did nothing to help this search. So I sent him an e-mail recently concerning what was going on. Here's his response...

"The problem is, most potential supervising teachers in the instrumental area don't want a student teacher who is not really interested in that area. So, let me
know what you want me to do. You can't have your cake and eat it to."

Did I ever say that I wasn't interested in the area?!? This man is just clueless about me. I've written many posts on the subject and my thoughts on the subject, and how restrictive I beleive those programs are, but I never did say that I was not interested. I'm concerned about all levels within music programs. I want to find the best means possible for me to learn and improve music as a whole. For me, this starts at the elementary level. There may come a time that I understand what I need to at that level to move on and figure out the workings of middle school programs. Is it entirely possible for me to teach middle school band with the same passion that I have right now about general music. Of course. Just because I'm focussing on one aspect more than others doesn't mean I'm disinterested in that subject.

So he's taking my inconclusion of the subject thinking I'm disinterested in it, as opposed to my lack of knowledge who to do my student teaching under since he offered absolutely no guidance for it.

Marching band serves a purpose

If there is one thing that almost any marching band member can do as far as a dance, it is the waltz. The hours spent learning how to keep your upper body from moving as you are while playing an instrument transfers quite well. We've already developed that framework more than any other group of people, well, except for maybe dancers. My sister and I were talking about the waltz in particular, which in and of itself is pretty sad, considering our history of dancing. But people who had danced with my sister were surprised that her 5'2/5'3 frame could take an exceptionally large first step without any difficulty at all, and without any of the bounce that you would expect to see from somebody of her small stature. I've only recently picked up dancing. Mainly because This Girl got me interested in it, and it could be a great tool for the classroom as well. The best dance I do is the waltz, there isn't even a contest with other types. I've got the rhythm down for any type of dance. That part is obviously the easiest for me. I'm fairly well-balanced which helps with learning the steps, and six years of soccer and eight years of marching band helps with that as well. So the next part is learning everything outside of the basic steps. The waltz seems to be the most structured of any of the types of dances and therefor the easiest one for me to pick up. My problem is that I know the basic steps and that's it. This Girl really can't teach me the guys part and I really don't have a chance to learn it. All that has to be done is show it to me, and I'll pick it up pretty quickly. After a couple of tries, I usually get this down, but I tend to forget them rather quickly. So hopefully I'll learn sometime. Bandjam better bring something with her to teach me when she comes home this summer. That would be fun, and I'll see if I can take you out contra dancing. I went English Country Line Dancing yesterday. I don't know if we'll be able to do that either when you come. I'd also really like to learn how to polka. That looks fun. This Girl is afraid to try it with me, because she doesn't really know it. The steps look pretty easy though. My mom was mentioning that my dad loved to do that. That would be fun to watch, but I don't think he's done it since his college days. Oh well.

Dies Irae

Last night I was able to see the Verdi Requiem(my brother says I didn't see the Verdi Requiem, but that's a subject for another time, and actually being discussed on BB). I didn't have a program because they ran out, but I'm pretty sure the section I'm talking about is the Dies Irae. This movement is usually the most favorite of any requiem masses. You probably even recognize most of the Dies Irae sections without realizing it. I went to this concert with Weasel(non-music major) and he actually recognized that section from cartoons and movies and what-not. I didn't recognize it myself, but I could definitely see it being used. A great example of Dies Irae being used is in X-Men 2. The scene where Nightcrawler makes an assassination attempt. That music is from Mozart's Requiem, although the orchestration has been expanded to include more instruments.

The rest of the Verdi Requiem was alright. There were some really good parts, but there were parts that seem ill-fitted to a requiem, and parts that just didn't seem all the great. I also still have problems listening to 4 operatic singers acapella, and trying to actually hear something other than an octave-wide vibrato. I must admit that I also fell asleep through more than I care to admit. Oh well. It has its moments and they were quite good.

Old ladies playing games

I completely forgot to write about this, and it still deserves a place on my blog even though it was last week. I went an Orff Workshop this weekend. For those who wouldn't know what that means, it's basically a method of teaching children general music. We focused mainly on different types of games to promote movement while singing. So basically, for four hours we played a bunch of games that involved singing.

The funniest part of this was the game that was similar to duck-duck-goose. You can't imagine the sight I saw when two ladies, whose combined age is over 100, chase each other around this circle with grim determination on their faces that they're going to win.

It was a fun four hours, but I must admit to myself that I wouldn't consider this the best possible means to teach kids. I can't really go into too much at this point about the Orff method because I don't know how much is involved with its entirity. This summer, after I take the Level 1 Orff workshop, then I can begin to find strong and weak points about this method, and how I plan to use it. Fun, yes, but I don't see it to be too intellectually stimulating for kids. I would think that there would be more of a balance, even for elementary school. We'll find out just how involved it is afterwards I guess. This was just one element of Orff anyway.

Disconnected Thoughts

So after institute last night, This Girl and I were sitting there talking... till they kicked us out of the church. We drove over to my apartment, listened to You're A Good Man Charlie Brown, while talking even more till a little after 1 in the morning. My brother sat there and played computer games and listening to us talk for over two hours. After This Girl left, I asked my brother, "Are you sick of us yet?"

To which he replied, "When wasn't I?" Good stuff.

It's interesting when I talk to this girl. Whenever I am talking to her, and she really wants to know how I feel about something, I tell her. But I'm not just telling her, I tell her, and find this passion there that I didn't know existed. Last week, she wanted to know my favorite books and why. If a family member asked that question, I would have routinely answered it is some basic way. But with her, it's deeper and more passionate. Feelings that I didn't know existed in me about these subjects other than music. She has this uncanny ability to draw it out of me. With everybody else, I am reserved, and keep with me the calm exterior that I've developed over the course of my life.

Today, I was riding with other tuba-euph students to a performance. On the way home, they wanted to listen to a CD. They checked with me first to make sure I wouldn't be offended in any way by it. I told them to go ahead and play it. I ended up really liking the group, which I think surprised them.

The view of most of the tuba-euph students have of me must be a weird one. I tend to be so reserved and quiet, coupled with the fact that I am LDS, that they consider me a lot more conservative than what I really am. The fact that they thought I would be offended with a CD that I ended up really liking is just one example. I do have my limits, yet they tend to not realize what and where they are, and for the most part stay well away from those limits. That's not necessarily a bad thing, I don't have anyone really trying to push those limits then.

Yet another disjointed thought to all of this madness. It's amazing how much I don't know about music. I understand the theory, the classical, and a lot of other categories, yet I don't know a lot of music. There are so many bands, songs, and genres out there that I don't have a clue about. I have a few favorite groups and outside of that, I know nothing of modern rock bands or musicals. Our institute director and This Girl carried on a conversation about all these musicals and who played in them, and how well they were done, and I had no clue what any of it was. It was easy for me to follow the conversation, but I couldn't contribute unless they played an example for me of what they were talking about.

I've run into many people who understand all these different rock bands and styles, influences, etc. I don't have a clue, and in these conversations, there are even parts I can't follow, surprisingly enough. A movie that has so many jokes that I would really like to know what they're talking about is High Fidelity. I see the jokes flying right over my head. I just am ignorant to modern rock music. While listening today to that CD with the tuba-euph students, there's just so many groups that I probably should know about. That's what I was thinking. The group, which I can't remember the name, was a progressive rock group. Something like Cabeen and Cambiata. I think that's their name. This is yet another untapped resource for music education, the modern stuff, that is. While they get enough of it, we could at least get them to think somewhat intelligently to what they're listening too. I'm sure there are also many songs in this category which have a decent message and correspond to what your trying to teach them. Granted, I wouldn't go to the point of School of Rock does, but still, it's not a bad idea to include that, since it would be something they are familiar with, and build a basis of knowledge off that.

I need to focus on words more. I'm such a focused instrumentalist that I tend to ignore many of the words. The hymnbook for instance. This Girl and I got on the subject of hymns and our favorite ones. Of course I have a hymnbook at my apartment, so I drag it out, and explain my favorite hymns, and why, which tended to be the harmonically complex hymns, and many aspects that dealt with music. When she shared hers, and really got into the words explaining why she liked them and the way they impacted her, it was amazing. I wish I could do that. It's very tough for me. I don't understand poetry, I get things totally wrong all the time.

I need to learn how to teach basic music terms. This was rather funny. When sharing my favorite hymns and why, I started off by saying, "I really like the start of this one because the harmonies that coincide with the pedal point..." I lost her at that point. Pedal point was easy to explain. 4-3 suspension took me about 10 minutes(I had no piano to reference to). Cadence took a while too. I wasn't going to try V of V. As a music major, these terms flow so naturally, that they've become the basic words that I use to explain more complex musical terms. I don't know how to simplify them anymore. Course it probably would have helped if I had set a foundation up, instead of going straight to the complex. At some point I mentioned formata, to which she replied, "Is that the one-eyed smiley?" It was really funny. I've forgotten that most people don't know these like I do. Out of curiosity, who remembers the term for "train tracks" or possibly "railroad ties"? I forgot the real term. That's what my band director always used, so I don't remember the real term.

Anyway, sorry about the random jumping from topic to topic with no real purpose. It's just what I've thought about today.

TMBG

I'm in a good mood right now. Regardless of the fact that I've been doing enough the past couple of days, that I actually feel stressed, and I'm getting sick, thank you Mid, for sharing that. But I'm really happy right now. I've got a lot done, I'm on a spiritual high, my sleeping seems somewhat normal, I got to talk to This Girl(I really need to find a better name). I've decided that I'm not going to read her blog anymore, because I would much rather hear it from her, and she feels the same way. So I wanted to listen to some happy music. I really don't have all that much music, let alone happy music. So I pull out TMBG's Lincoln, while I do dishes.

I love this CD. I just wanted to point out my favorite parts. Cowtown, love the percussion ostenato at the end, it's awesome. My favorite song of the CD, Pencil Rain. Have you ever visualized that song literally in your head. It's one of the funnest songs to picture and create a story to in your head. Shoehorn, I don't remember if that's the name, I love the sax ensemble parts of this piece, it's so fun. The World's Address, the chromatism is awesome. I love it.

I'm happy, sick, exhausted, and loving life. I'll stop before members of my family start gagging at my happiness.

More on music... go fig

Today in my music education class we were discussing grading of a high school band/orchestra program. Sorry, no vocals, they do a separate class. Actually discussing is the wrong rule. More like the teacher imposing his tyrannical rule over us. Well, we also had a paper to turn in which I managed to disagree with him on a number of issues. So now I have to organize my thoughts a little better so I can defend what I say. Hence this post. Afterwards he read a few from the class and let us make comments about them(of course no comments on his thoughts). They all basically had some mixture of participation, attendance, and playing tests. This reinforces to me, the weakness that these programs have in teaching music.

First off, let me post the national standards of what students need to know about music...

1. Singing, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music.
2. Performing on instruments, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music.
3. Improvising melodies, variations, and accompaniments.
4. Composing and arranging music within specified guidelines.
5. Reading and notating music.
6. Listening to, analyzing, and describing music.
7. Evaluating music and music performances.
8. Understanding relationships between music, the other arts, and disciplines outside the arts.
9. Understanding music in relation to history and culture.

While I tend to agree it needs to be reformed to make it a little more clear and concise as Bennett Reimer has put it, since this is what is currently in use, I'll base my argument off that.

Take any typical orchestra, band, and chorus class. Relate which standards are mainly used by teachers in their full capacity. Standards 1 and 2. That's it. Yes there are parts of others that are used, but never to the extent that they should be learned. Some are lightly touched upon, or not at all. So the question remains, is it possible to teach all nine standards in a music class of these types. I would say it is possible, and would take an amazing teacher to be able to do that.

So how is it so restrictive, you ask? We are so focused as music educators on the performance. It is the easiest trap to fall into. This is the date of our performance, and we must know the music by that point like the back of our hands. The teacher then continues to teach everything those students need to know for the performance. What does this consist of? Usually the music is passed out, rehearsed and critiqued by the teacher. The teacher makes the necessary adjustments to get the students to sound the way she wants, do the performance, then start the process all over again. That's great, you've taught them how to play notes and listen to you telling them how to interpret it. Let's find out what has been left out. #3 Improvising... Well, no place in there did I see any improvising. Does this need to be left just to the jazz band, or soloist? Can it be taught in these classes though? How difficult would it be? #4 Composing and arranging... Students never get a chance to do this. Maybe the top music students will do this once in a while, but all students need to be able to do this. #5 Reading and notation... There is a reason I have put this in here. Do students learn to read music? Yes, they do. But to what extent? How many tuba players can read treble clef? How many flute players can read bass clef? How many vocalists memorize the music or follow the pitches around them and never actually learn to read a note? It's disappointing to me the number of music majors that enter college without a clue how to read music at a scale that I believe everyone should know, not just music majors. #6 Listening... This one may be used, depending on the teacher. Has your teacher ever told you to sit down with the music and find out for yourself what the composer has intended? Very few occasions in my case. Or can they just play what you tell them to? #7 Evaluating... This one too, may be used, again depending on the teacher. Our teacher did a little bit of this, but it was geared towards analyzing ourselves, never was it to go out and listen to different types of music and evaluate it. #8 Relation between arts, and outside of arts. I've only had the opportunity to really do this once, and that was at Governor's School for the Arts. A very selective setting, in which we can be exposed to this, yet again, it is rarely associated in the band orchestra setting. #9 Music in relation to history and culture. You may get a little of this, but certainly not in the music classroom. Maybe a humanities class.

So teachers end up falling into that trap of performances when so much more gets left out. Do we know why? It's easier. We've listened to music all our lives, we can critique music like it's nothing, especially a bunch of middle and high schoolers trying to learn how to play instruments. We know everything about the music, and instead of teaching about the music, we tell them how to play it. They get really good at imitating you and figuring out how to play what you want, and mindlessly blow through the song that they've repeated for the last 3 months. Another thing, can we tell them where that song came from, why the composer wrote it, what time period is it from, the style? We may actually have to research that stuff. Oh, no. All we know how to do is make music. What would happen in a band class if you told them to put up their instruments because we're going to study music? It frees us from the performance. The seven standards that are restricted by instruments can be taught. I wonder what a music educator would do if he had no performance to focus on... would they actually teach then... hmmm.

Man, I could go on for days about this. There's a lot of different views I wish I could explore, but there's so many of them and my day is already too full for me to sit here thinking about music when I should be practicing for my performance in March :P I guess I can fall into that trap as well.

Music Major Rant

This is a topic that sadly enough only I would care about or even notice. I don't even think music majors would catch this as well as I would. My organist at church has the habit of adding notes during the hymns that aren't part of the hymns. Now this in and of itself isn't bothering to me. I do the same thing. What bugs the crap out of me is he adds thirds, too many of them. Any time there is a cadence he adds in an extra third. Do you realize how bad that sounds. Oh... the worst is when he's ending a piece, and like most things should end, they end in a perfect authentic cadence, but nnnnoooo... he has to add a third above it, do you realize how grating that is to the ears. Well, my ears anyway. This is the downside to being a music major with good ears, I catch way too much that should be ignored. It's so petty yet drives me up the wall. At least I can find the humor of how stupid I'm being when I think thoughts like this.

He did redeem himself though. We sang Ring Out Wild Bells, and I messed up in interpreting the timing on it, and in talking to him about it, he mentioned that if you take it at a much more accelerated pace it becomes a pirate song. It works really well to, listen it like that. I got a lot of amusement out of singing it to myself throughout church the rest of the day. Thankyou for sharing organist, you have redeemed yourself from your ungodly habit of adding thirds.

Feeling Special

You know, with finals week being a joke for a music major, and studying is at a minimal, I've written quite a lot of things on this blog. More than every other day. I'm already so bored out of my mind that I'm ready for next semester to start, and finals aren't even over. At least that'll probably change as I get used to it and when I head out to see my sister.

Anyway, onto my blog. So yesterday, after writing up my slight changes of career plans, I head out to Kroger's to buy groceries. It's also my brother's birthday, and he wanted an ice cream cake. I looked but to no avail. I just had no clue where to get one, and had to give up on that search.

Anyway, as I'm looking around Kroger's a little girl comes joyfully up to me and starts talking to me. Now, I've been to about 10 different elementary schools and taught at at least four of them this semester. So my mind is racing to figure out where I know this child from. She said, "Remember, you got me up in class to measure my height." I used her to measure how tall a trombone is in the little brass demenstration. She was so excited to see me and talk to me. I just thought, "That is awesome." It made me feel pretty good. It's been almost 4 weeks since I'd even last seen them and she pointed me right out in the store.

The only thing that concerned me was how long it took me to remember her. I'm absolutely terrible with names, so bad that I never use names, even among the people I'm around daily. I couldn't tell you her name, and if that's what I'll end up doing. I could end up with 600 names of kids that I'll need to remember. But for now, I'll bask in the knowledge that this little child remembered me and the lesson I gave enough to greet me and talk to me in Kroger's.

End of Semester Summary

Misaneroth sent me an article titled "The Juilliard Effect: Ten Years Later" This in a large part sums up part of what this semester has been for me. I have never been so completely involved that I didn't keep other options(in a way). Let's face it, if I had the opportunity to play with an well-known orchestra, I would do that in a heartbeat. Yet, knowing exactly what this can involve, the risk, the time, the relations, the personality, I decided I'd do the music education degree and play like a performance major. I've pretty much held to this until this semester. And to a degree I still hold to that. Yet my focus has shifted quite a bit this semester. My long-term carrier goals at the beginning of the semester involved performing in an orchestra while teaching at the college level. Much the same as my teacher here. If you had asked me why, at that point I would said because I like music. Could I have given you a better answer than that, maybe, but it definitely wouldn't have come from my heart as much as what you would want to hear. I had no purpose to taking that route. If you've read my blog for a while, you've probably seen that shift. So I don't repeat myself, let's just say I've got a different outlook now and there is a purpose behind it, a love behind it, and a philosophy behind it, which was never there before. I was talking with a grad student about music philosophy and other related subjects at the band banquet, she congratulated me on finding that sense of purpose that so often evades music majors who just love music and do it just because of that.

Now this has caused some things to change for me. I no longer desire to practice so many hours on my tuba as I have done in the past. It was a huge struggle for me this semester to play the amount I did. It was sheer self-discipline that I did it. My passion has left that aspect of music. Why? It was serving no purpose. If I taught any grade level between K-12(K-5th is specifically what I would want to teach), my musicianship is developed to the point that there is no further need for me to work on the technicalities of the tuba. I still enjoy it, yes, but there is no passion there, however ignorant it might have been previously. I just hope to hold out till my senior recital in March. In a way, I'm glad I lost my job last summer or else I would have spent another $7,000 for another instrument that at this point, would be useless.

Another reason of that has caused this shift of thought is just my performance abilities. I don't understand why, but any time I am in a solo situation or an audition situation, my playing has consistently been subpar. For concert band auditions, I'm always about two chairs below where my true musicianship is. My last two juries have been poorly executed and sightreading terrible. I still get an A-, but that is unacceptable. I don't know why, I'm never nervous, it's just things never work out for me in those situations. In the practice room, I am great, things work well. The other students in the studio here have heard me, and know where I'm at. My work ethic for practicing is also the best in the studio and usually the most improved of all of them, I can just never execute it for when the situations are critical.

Well, so it's definitely been a useful semester and one that I've learned a lot and my life has gone a slightly different direction from where I thought it would go, but I'm glad it's gone the direction it's gone and that I have a sense of purpose to what I'm doing, instead of just liking it for what it is.

If you've read the article, what I'm curious about is to see how many other majors are as bad at not keeping their majors employed in that field.

Multitasking

It's 2 in the morning and I can't sleep, so I must blog.

When L'afro mentioned multitasking within music, it got me to thinking of all my favorite pieces and what exactly is happening at those points of music when all is forgotten about by the sheer joy of listening to music. With most pieces I listen to, to me, it's all picked at and eaten apart by my mind. Separating parts, intonation, mistakes, form, etc. When pieces multitask, as L'afro was calling it, that's when I can no longer comprehend it all and just enjoy it. In Advanced Theory, when we're going over a piece by Bizet, I so wish I could remember the piece. It had two separate melodies that were rather simple and well done, and as the piece reaches it's climax it combines both themes with just massive orchestration. It's just raw power coming through. None of it was changed. The exact same melody and harmony, put over top of each other without regard to the other. And it worked well. I wish I had that piece. Mahler's 1rst Syphony, at the climax of the first movement, bitonality(actually I don't think it's true bitonality, but that's another topic) is introduced to the piece. The orchestra is playing one chord, while the trumpets blare out a huge sextuplet passage on a totally different chord. Marching band, we played a Del Borgo piece. At one point, the woodwinds were doing a folk melody, the brass a choral, and the tuba players doing a baseline with just power. It was bliss. Ben Folds and his ability to just unleash on a piano and provide just raw emotion into his pieces. Charles Ives, for the same reason. Have you ever heard an original recording of Charles Ives? It's absolutely amazing, you can't analyze it, it's just too much, besides that fact that it is unanalizable. To some people he probably swings too far to the left of the pendulum of emotion verses intellect within music. I could go on and on, but I'll spare you any more, plus I should try to sleep.

That's not to say that other parts aren't nice. As I have listed, one of my top four favorite songs is TMBG's Dr. Worm. My favorite part in that piece in when it's just a nice simple voice with nothing else followed by the contrasting section afterwards that adds everything. You gotta have that contrast and blend to make the piece worthwhile. With a lot of songs I hear today, the nice simple introductions are the best parts. Once they open their mouths and break their guitars out in chords, it destroys the musical aspects of what was started. Anyway, I was just enjoying listening to climaxes of songs in my head and wanted to write it down. So stupor, bliss, whatever you call it, here's to multitasking, which unfortanantly I'll probably have to do a lot tomorrow, or I guess today. Deadlines, gotta love em. Last day of actual classes here I come. Okay, now I'll try to get some sleep.

Hymns

In reading the response that Epigrammarian the Discordant had about hymns, I decided to write up some of my thoughts about hymns in general and more random ramblings. First of all, I really enjoyed what he had to say about them. I've had the opportunity for the past year and a half to be in charge of all of the music. So I've had my experiences and my sisters to go off from.

Some of these I do think vary from ward to ward as far as what's played and what isn't. At this point, I've probably played through every hymns several times, so I am familiar with all of them from a musical standpoint. The words are a different story. Being an instrumentalist more often than not, I tend to ignore the words too much, and focus on the music. So here's my two cents on all of the hymns. As a general rule for all hymns, take the tempo up about 20 clicks.

#1 The Morning Breaks - Never played or rarely to my knowledge. I think I did it once in sacrament. Main reason is the range, the song is fairly easy, but how many in a congregation can belt out a high F.

#2 The Spirit of God - In my home ward it was way overplayed quite a few years ago, yet to me it seems this song is now used for more sacred and special occasions than as a sacrament hymn.

#3 Now Let Us Rejoice - I usually don't mind this one too much, although I can't stand singing the base parts pedal tone, or the alto part. It gets annoying. I don't mind the tenor voice so much. On another note, this song's tempo is off by a large margin. It should be in 6/8 timing. So quarter note about 160 to avoid the bogging down as Epigrammarian mentioned.

#4 Truth Eternal - I can't say I have an opinion about this one, largely because I can't hear the melody or harmonies in my head as I'm listening to the Pixies right now. Standard run of the mill stuff, from what it looks like. Although it is one I can honestly say people don't do.

#5 High on the Mountain Top - Played often enough to be familiar with most people. Tastefully done, something other than a typical base part. I feel this one's done about the right amount.

#6 Redeemer of Israel - Easy and overdone.

#7 Israel, Israel, God Is Calling - Same as above.

#8 Awake and Arise - I have a story to go with this one. As a youth, they allowed me to choose the hymns for a stake priesthood meeting. Well, I decided to be funny and choose this as the intermediate hymn. This is why you don't let little immature kids choose what to do in a program. I was supposed to play piano too, but I found this one beyond my level at the time. Now I look at it and it's a joke. It isn't played often enough though. I think two times in my lifetime I can remember. Both times I chose it.

#9 Come, Rejoice - Good one, not done often enough. Ignore where it says in unison. I say this for anything unison though.

#10 Come, Sing to the Lord - Melodically and harmonically not too pleasing to me. Pretty standard hymns, although it's another that's never played. I think I've done it once.

#11 What Was Witnessed in the Heavens - Here's a good story for this one. I chose this to sing back in March. Our organist didn't show up for church, so I had to sit down at the piano and play and let some girl conduct for me. Well the piece starts with just the men singing and I was sightreading. So I hack through an intro, and the chorister starts us off, and since she didn't start off with the men's part, no one entered. So while sightreading through the piece,(or better yet, playing it for the first time within the past year) I started to sing out at the top of my lungs before the congregation finally caught on. Needless to say, I made a ton of mistakes trying to keep everything together. Not a bad one, and some range issues too.

#12 'Twas Witnessed in the Morning Sky - I'm listening to Weezer now, so I can't hear it in my head. It looks interesting enough to offer some merit. Yet another one never played.

#13 An Angel from on High - I do enjoy this one. It has a change of meter, and makes it more fun, with some decent harmonies. I feel it should be played more often.

#14 Sweet Is the Gospel Brings - This is a nice little ditty. This may get some playing time in wards, not a hard melody, and I think it's pretty recognizable.

#15 I Saw a Mighty Angel Fly - I gotta respect Ralph Vaughan Williams as the first composer to seriously write a tuba concerto with orchestra. So I give this one my approval. Nice little melody, easy, recognizable, and I think it's done about right, that or I recognize it right off hand more than others. Epigrammarian(who shall now be known as Epi so I don't have to write it out every time) felt it was underplayed so if you don't know it, get your ward to do it. It definitely should be done.

#16 What Glorious Scenes Mine Eyes Behold - Harmonically very typical, very few jumps within the melody, easy. I doubt it's played often enough.

#17 Awake, Ye Saints of God, Awake! - Another one that's pretty typical, although he does do some things out of ordinary. Range is a little high. I think this one is played a little bit.

#18 The Voice of God Again is Heard - This one should be recognizable to most people and is probably played the right amount.

#19 We Thank Thee O God for a Prophet - As I said, I should pay attention to lyrics more often, but more often than not, this is overplayed. It isn't even harmonically interesting, so it must be the lyrics and somewhat the melody.

#20 God of Power, God of Right - Also pretty typical of hymns. Although the V of V doesn't follow the typical principles of threes. Also if you look at true voice leading, it does have its mistakes, but not like anybody's going to notice that.

#21 Come, Listen to a Prophet's Voice - Sung often enough. Really no need to comment.

#22 We Listen to a Prophet's Voice - This is one that the primary sang a few years ago and learned all the verses to. So I'd say it receives the right amount of singing time that it should.

#23 We Ever Pray for Thee - I don't believe this one is sung very often. I may have heard it in sacrament, can't remember.

#24 God Bless Our Prophet Dear - A few jumps, so if unfamiliar, the congregation will really need someone to follow. That's the problem with leading music, I have to sing the melody and never harmony so everyone knows what they're supposed to be singing. Anyway, I rarely hear this one too.

#25 Now We'll Sing with One Accord - This is one of two I actually needed to use a piano before I could say anything about it. I quite like this one. Now that my memory has come back to me, I'm fairly sure I've done this in sacrament meeting. The melody is familiar enough in parts. I just needed to make sure the end of the third and fourth lines weren't messed up. I'd say it's underplayed though.

#26 Joseph Smith's First Prayer - One that's known, although I've had bad experiences with it. Like a companion that wanted to sing it at 1rst discussions and was incredibly flat the entire time and kept dropping keys.

#27 Praise to the Man - This I feel is overdone. I enjoy it, but it's also one that is played over and over. One of it's redeeming qualities is that it's a Scottish folk song, possibly a drinking song as well, and works well for other things as well. Actually a lot of church songs I can picture being drinking songs once the lyrics have been changed. It's also a melody that I've heard outside of LDS culture, though as with most folk songs, there are slight alterations of the melody.

#28 Saints, Behold How Great Jehovah - I think I've done this song several times in sacrament. I really do enjoy it. I'm not sure if it is considered underplayed or overplayed in other areas. I think it gets some amount of time.

#29 A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief - I feel it is played about the right amount. If not then overplayed. But I do enjoy it, although I've yet to remember hearing all seven verses. If I think about it, I don't believe I've done this in sacrament yet.

#30 Come, Come Ye Saints - At least where I'm at, I haven't heard it so many times that it's gotten annoying, so I have no qualms against this one. I wait, I do have one. During the bicentennial when they introduced the orchestra with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, I didn't particularly care for the arrangement. It was very much more geared to the choir than the orchestra, but I'm a very biased person too, so that's not too surprising, considering how new the orchestra was. Most of the music from that I didn't care for too much. It's improving though. It does have the redeeming quality of having different meters. We American's are so square and everything has to be 4/4 or 3/4 or some other common meter. We never change things up as far as our culture goes. I know there are exceptions and I could name some, but in general.

#31 O God, Our Help in Ages Past - A little typical hymn. Obviously rarely played. I don't know if I've done it or not. It's so typical of these little ones to sound very much alike.

#32 The Happy Day at Last Has Come - Nice joyful little piece. Underplayed.

#33 Our Mountain Home So Dear - Another one that wouldn't be played that often. Looks like it could get bogged down if too slow. Although he does better in the 3rd phrase as far as the harmony goes.

#34 O Ye Mountains High - I think I've done this once. I can see that if ever played a lot, it could get old quick. But not bad once in a while.

#35 For the Strength of the Hills - It's played often enough that I think it's recognizable and played about the right amount.

#36 They, the builders of the Nation - I think this one's played about the right amount too. I enjoy it.

#37 The Wintry Day, Descending to Its Close - I actually considered this one back at the beginning of spring. I had to decide against it. My organist would have had a heart attack and the congregation would be at a loss. Much the same as Epi was saying. Perhaps I can find a several talented individuals to do a quartet while I play it for a special number.

#38 Come, All Ye Saints of Zion - This is yet another one that I feel gets the right amount of time during meetings.

#39 O Saints of Zion - I think this one also is known and sang the right amount.

#40 Arise, O Glorious Zion - I don't think this is as well known as the ones mention before, it might be played now and again, but not often enough. The piece doesn't seem voice friendly though.

#41 Let Zion in Her Beauty Rise - Nice melody, just from listening to that in my head, I believe it's underplayed. I might have done it once in sacrament meeting, but I don't remember.

#42 Hail to the Brightness of Zion's Glad Morning! - Based on the name alone, I already don't like it without even looking at the music. Why can't they give pieces actual name of what they're about instead of giving the first line as the title of the piece. That's basically a cop-out. I really don't care for it. Somebody can call me out on that if they want, but I feel way too many hymns have the first line as a title regardless of what the contents talking about. This is a rant for all hymns in general, this just happens to have a worse name than usual. It's rarely sung to my knowledge.

#43 Zion Stands with Hills Surrounded - I've done this one once. It has a okay melody. Almost reminds me of a kid's song. The opening motif at least. I think it does get sung though, not quite sure.

#44 Beautiful Zion, Built Above - I don't care too much for the song. I started to say why, but it ended up being really, really conceited, so I'll just leave it at that. I think it gets played though.

#45 Lead Me into Life Eternal - This is another pretty typical short ditty. Enjoy it, sing it at least every now and again, and move on.

#46 Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken - I think I've done this hymn twice since I've taken this calling. I do enjoy it. It should be sung more often. As far as the comment about this being Haydn, I just want to make mention that this is the only song by Haydn in the LDS Hymnal. I wish he were an exception, but the hymnbook does leave out a lot of decent songs that could be used. On a side note, I'm probably the only person who has spent sacrament meetings studying the hymns, meters, rhythms, composers, authors, harmonies, etc.

#47 We Will Sing of Zion - See #45.

#48 Glorious Things Are Sung of Zion - AABA form, uses the principle of 3 that I mentioned earlier. Should be really easy for a congregation to pick up because of it, but I'm pretty unfamiliar with it, outside of sitting here sight singing it. So it probably should be sung more often.

#49 Adam-ondi-Ahman - If I remember correctly, this was done during general conference, I thought it was very nice. I agree that it needs to be played more.

#50 Come, Thou Glorious Day of Promise - I know I've done this at least once in sacrament, and just last week, I was playing it for prelude in institute. It's a nice melody, perhaps a little hard for congregations to pick up the melody as there are quite a few leaps in it. It probably doesn't get played as often as it should.

#51 Sons of Michael, He Approaches - Doesn't sound too bad in my ear. Perhaps a little hard for congregations, but looks fun from my perspective to do. I think it would be considered underplayed though, for a reason. I don't many congregations singing that high. I do like how the composer allowed for more complexities in the music while leaving the melody simple for the congregation.

#52 The Day Dawn Is Breaking - I feel this one is done enough. A couple of problems. Learn to write it in 6/8. It will flow much better. In this case, 80 for dotted quarter. If you chose to have the chord structures and harmonic motion more than once every four measures(okay I'm exaggerating), then your tempo will work, otherwise pick it up a notch.

#53 Let Earth's Inhabitants Rejoice - For some reason this piece isn't flowing naturally for me. Frankly, I think it's better to take in 1/1 with the tempo at about 60. Just by looking at it, you know it isn't played in sacrament meeting near enough.

#54 Behold, the Mountain of the Lord - Not a bad little melody, he did break some voice leading rules quite blatantly that leads to some bad harmony, In general I like the harmony, just the way he written it. I think it should be played more.

#55 Lo, the Mighty God Appearing! - This one sounds familiar to me, and I think it does get some playing time. I could be wrong on this though.

#56 Softly Beams the Sacred Dawning - This one doesn't get playing time because of the fact that it is in D-flat. I believe it is the only one to have that many. I played it a couple of times, but I'm not sure if I've used it in sacrament. This hymnbook has been made so user friendly. If you find an old hymnbook, other more unfamiliar keys are used and the difficulty of pieces was much harder. This is probably one of the last remnants of that era.

#57 We're Not Ashamed to Own Our Lord - We Own the Lord? I'll blame this on my illiteracy and incompetence of not knowing what he's talking about and move on to the music. The harmonies are nice and different, some sequences make it easier to learn, don't believe it's played though.

#58 Come, Ye Children of the Lord - A melody that is well-known, so I believe this one does get playing time as it is familiar with more than just LDS.

#59 Come, O Thou King of Kings - The harmonies in this rub me the wrong way. I think it's just too much parallel motion for me. This tends to hold true for the sunshine songs too. I does get played though. Probably the right amount.

#60 Battle Hymn of the Republic - This is the most fun hymn to play in minor really loud and fast. I have fond memories of a vocal major and I playing all the hymns in minor while she's belting out the melodies very dramatically. The Relief Society meeting that was going on down the hall didn't really like us at that point. I think it gets overplayed, though its redeeming quality of being awesome in minor makes up for it in my book.

#61 Raise Your Voices to the Lord - Another very typical short hymn.

#62 All Creatures of Our God and King - I really enjoy this one a lot. It's one of my favorites as far as harmony. As much as I enjoy it, I've only done it once during sacrament, and unfortunately, I had a performance the same day and couldn't attend church to lead one of my favorites.

#63 Great King of Heaven - see #61

#64 On This Day of Joy and Gladness - It sounds joyful and glad, but also goes high for a congregation, hence I don't think it gets played as it should. I really doesn't look too bad though.

#65 Come, All Ye Saints Who Dwell on Earth - I'm not sure how I feel about this one. The rhythm is quirky, and I can't decide whether I like it or not. Everything else about it is pretty standard. I think I've done this in church once.

#66 Rejoice, the Lord Is King! - Very well known, might be to the point that it's overplayed. That might just be the fact that I've done it more than a couple time in sacrament. I do like it.

#67 Glory to God on High - Another one that is known. It's okay. Probably played the right amount.

#68 A Mighty Fortress Is Our God - Latro changed this song for the rest of my life by his thoughts on the title. So much that I couldn't resist seeing how well it would actually work and playing around with it. So without further delay:

1rst version: This version is the one that can be sung during sacrament meeting without interrupting the song. I don't recommend the pianist or organist trying to follow it, just the occasional singer. I'm not sure how Latro's been singing it, but this is how it's been running through my mind. I'm sorry it's not clearer, I'm still new at this picture stuff, don't have proper tools and converted these so many times that they're pretty screwed.

 


2nd version: The previous example doesn't do Latro's words justice as they pass by in a fleeting second. So something had to be done about it. So we can just let each syllable have it's own quarter note.

 


3rd version: Let's face it, singing it that last way was boring and monotonous. And the phrasing of it is absolutely terrible. I was trying to decide how I could stay true to the composer's intent while adding Latro's words, and keep the phrasing somewhat decent. Note: this is impossible. I had to give 'ideological' it's own phrase. By the time you actually finish singing it, you've probably already forgotten what it started with. This must be why you never see any really large words in hymns. But here's what I finally came up with. I just elongated the form and included two extra phrases, making it A,B,A,B,A,B,C,D,E,F,B, instead of A,B,A,B,C,D,E,F,B. That's probably not correct, but I'm just using the formatas as the form, just to make it easy. So anyway, I'll quit saying what I was thinking and just post it.

 


 


#69 All Glory, Laud, and Honor - Pretty typical, although a little high. This would be why nobody knows it. The starting interval also seems a little weird, outside of Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Start, very few songs open with a fifth. And even then twinkle has no pickup, this has a pickup that starts on the I and goes to V. Weird.

#70 Sing Praise to Him - Doesn't sound too bad, rhythmically, not many congregations would be able to follow it without a strong organist and conductor.

#71 With Songs of Praise - Seems pretty typical, I can't say I've ever done this in sacrament or not. So it's probably underplayed.

#72 Praise to the Lord, the Almighty - I like it, although it does go a little high. I think it's done the right amount. Enough to be known, and not overdone.

#73 Praise the Lord with Heart and Voice - Fairly simple hymn, easy melody, not known though. I don't remember doing this one or not.

#74 Praise Ye the Lord - Another pretty typical hymn with no real defining features.

#75 In Hymns of Praise - Nice little melody, not difficult and I believe it is actually played. I wanted to see about when this piece was written, but they left the dates of the author and composer.

#76 God of Our Fathers, We Come unto Thee - This one is recognizable if just for the end. Easy and doable, I think it's played the right amount.

#77 Great Is the Lord - I think this would work better if a little lower in pitch. I can't belt out anything higher than an E, so an F, I think would be out of the question for a congregation.

#78 God of Our Fathers, Whose Almighty Hand - Story time. My organist really likes this one. After weeks of torment doing new and obscure hymns, when I had this one for sacrament, the volume was ten times louder and the speed was fast enough that I barely could keep up with him. This one should be done more often.

#79 With All the Power of Heart and Tongue - Doesn't seem like a bad one. I think it's done every now and again. I'm sure I've done it.

#80 God of Our Fathers, Known of Old - This is the second it the first 85 hymns that I'll need a piano. It looks decent. I think the beginning it alright. I'm hesitant to say anything about it till I hear the 9th and 10th measures. I can't hear it in my head, and it is analyzable, I just am not sure about its sound. I may get back to this one later.

#81 Press Forward, Saints - I do enjoy this one. It might be overdone in some places, but I think it tends to be done the right amount.

#82 For All the Saints - More story time. I was attending my sister's ward down in Berea when she assigned this as one of the songs. Well she realized afterwards that verses 1, 2, and 5 are separated from 3 and 4. So the bishopric announced that they're just doing 1, 2, and 5. The organist was also scared of trying to play this piece and left to go practice at home. I decided to play prelude, and the guy just assumed that I'd play all of sacrament, so I got to sightread this number for them. Surprisingly the congregation did very well for having never heard it before. It should be sung more often, and with all five verses.

#83 Guide Us, O Thou Great Jehovah - This one should be well-known but not overplayed. Nice little melody and you do get some fun things in the base part.

#84 Faith of Our Fathers - I think this one is usually done as well. It seems okay.

#85 How Firm a Foundation - This is probably overplayed if anything. As a side note, there are different versions to this song. I was checking out a Baptist version of it, and the chord structures seemed relatively the same, but the melody had it's differences. I wished I had a chance to hear it, but we were performing with the tuba-euph ensemble.

#86 How Great Thou Art - We actually sang this last week. Pay attention to whether the congregation actually sings the correct rhythms. It's absolutely butchered, and there's not too much you can do to prevent that.

This concludes my views of the first fourth of the hymnbook. I'll do the rest throughout the month. Another reason I'm doing this is so I can see different aspects of the hymns and compare them as a whole so I can go ahead and make out the sacrament hymns for next year over the break. The past year, I really didn't keep a good balance of what was being sung, so hopefully this will help me decide what to use.

Educating the Masses

So Friday I was able to teach 3rd-4th graders and K-1rst graders in the classroom setting for the first time, and really the first time I've ever taught both those age groups. It was a really good experience for me. I just had the time of my life teaching them. Granted teaching brass instruments to elementary school is a lot easier than other subjects.
There were a couple of things that made it a lot easier. First off, after following my schedule as much as possible, by the time Friday rolled around, the lack of sleep finally got to me, so I was pretty slaphappy. You know how it's usually a late night slaphappy, nope, 10 in the morning. We were doing our final teaching for MUS 360 and since we're technically being kids for these, so I acted the part. Everything went downhill from there. At least by the time I got to where I had to teach, I was pretty much on the level of the kids, and I guarantee they could easily relate.
So anyway, onto the lesson. I was able to set up everything before the class enters, so I kept all the instruments in their cases. I started off reviewing all the different types of instruments and the differences between each. They learned that the week before from their actual teacher. I also discussed where you would hear the instruments at with them. They had a pretty good idea. I then showed them a rubber tube, and asked if this is an instrument, then series of questions to help them think through the process of how to make a sound on the instrument. It did take quite some effort for before one finally recognized that vibration was needed to make a sound. I used several visuals from strings to show that and get the idea of sound. They didn't get the buzzing concept though until I told them. Then I showed the defining factor of what a brass instrument is, the mouthpiece, and placed that on my rubber tube to make a brass instrument. Then I showed a picture of a brass instrument, and asked them to name what else is missing from my 'instrument'. Surprisingly, one of them said valves. I couldn't believe they got that one. Although I didn't have a way to add valves to my instrument. I just showed them that it was the bell. I explained what the bell was for and then added a funnel on the other end. You know, that's a fun instrument to play with. With as much flexibility as you have, you can turn it ever which way and so eventually I spun the instrument while I was playing it. They had a fun time listening to that.
The next section was getting them to do it themselves and understanding the idea of making a sound on a brass instrument. So I had different sizes of PBC pipe smoothed down so the kids could buzz on them and experiment. I also showed the concept of short versus long by adding and taking away lengths of PBC pipes to get higher and lower pitches. So I got them all experimenting with the instruments and making sounds, one kid in particular was really good and had a nice strong buzz. So I got them to repeat after me for a little bit. Then we finally get to the instruments. I took out the trombone first as it's the most visual one to see the changes of pitch. So afterwards I could relate it to the valves, which they picked up on rather quickly. So after explaining it, I played When the Saints for them, they enjoyed that. The next was trumpet. They already knew this one fairly well and knew that taps and things were played on it. So I played taps and a couple of versions of it for them. Next was French horn. I played the theme from Superman for them. I really wanted to do the theme from Harry Potter. In my head it works exceptionally well on French horn, but the only versions I could find on CD were electronic keyboards that had a similar sound to French horn, if even that. French horn was by far my weakest performance. I couldn't get a mouthpiece until the day before, so I didn't have a chance to redevelop some French horn chops. The next I showed was euphonium. That was one they weren't familiar with at all, and had trouble remembering the name. I played "My Old Kentucky Home" for them. The only popular euphonium lick is Mars, and that isn't very characteristic of a euphonium. Then I finally broke out the tuba. This is the instrument I actually ended up played the ride on, although I did it with music in it's proper key of B major. Ugly, but it worked rather nicely.
I then played a CD of different movie themes and had them tell me the instruments being used. They did really well at that. Much better than I expected. I played 2001, Indiana Jones, Superman, and maybe a couple of others.
It was amazing. For an entire hour, I held the attention of these kids without a hitch. They really wanted to be involved, and some a little too much involved, but it was great.
With the K and 1rst graders I didn't have as long because of a school assembly, so I only had time to show and tell with the brass instruments and nothing else. Only with them I took requests on all the brass instruments and played the dragon solo on tuba for them. The dragon solo is a Wagner excerpt where basically a dragon wakes up, scares the people, then goes back to sleep, so while I played it, I had the kids act it out and be sleeping dragons, wake up and scare people, then fall back asleep. They absolutely loved it, so much they wanted to do it again, but they had an assembly to go to. All in all, a really good experience for me. The kids wanted me to come back and teach more. So I guess that's a good sign I'm doing something right. It was a great way to end the day, that's for sure.

"I don't care about your moral lives!!!"

This was the funniest thing I heard on Wednesday. It was absolutely hilarious. The string methods teacher here is probably the most serious guy you'll ever meet. Any time you ask a question, he gets on a soapbox for about 15 minutes, and rants and raves about how things should be done within music. All the while, he continues in extreme seriousness and it's ironic that it's one of the highlights of my day because it's just so funny. The question that eventually prompted this saying was, "Can you clarify what we're supposed to do for the assignment due Friday?" This leads to him talking about why he's having us do the assignment, followed by more random thoughts, followed by asking us if we've ever done church choir. Nobody has a chance to raise their hands yet, so he yells out "I don't care about your moral lives!!! I just want to know if you've done church choir before!!!" I busted out laughing. This guy doesn't try to be funny, but he is the funniest. You may have had to be there.

Don't get me wrong, this guy is an outstanding teacher and an awesome guy. I've never seen someone so passionate about teaching string methods. It's like he expects you to actually go and teach strings after you take his class, actually he probably does. His goals are very clear and focused, and his reasons why are very clear. He is a man with a purpose. But he's definitely a funny man.

Today's Excitement

It's amazing how much of America is ignorant of concert etiquette. It's now Octubafest at UK. Basically we've got six concerts over the period of two weeks. Well today's was the graduate and upperclassmen solo recital. So I'm about midway through the program when I play my solo. Doing a pretty good job of it. All of the sudden, right at the bottom of the stage a photographer appears and starts snapping away. While surprising, I tried not to think about it as I'm trying to play through the cadenza of the Hindemith, but I still managed to make quite a few mistakes as this distraction continues, but really I didn't give it too much more thought about what was going on. I finish my solo, bow, and walk off stage.

Now here's where things get interesting. The next performer gets on stage, and before it starts, the photographer snaps another picture. The tuba professor then got quite irate, actually that's way too nice, let's try absolutely ballistic on this guy. He just ripped this photographer a new one and then some, right in front of the entire audience where everyone could here. I couldn't hear it backstage, but I was able to listen to the recording afterwards. It was ugly. The poor photographer was just at a loss. He was just a student getting pictures for the school's newspaper who had absolutely no clue about the arts or concert etiquette. Anyway, he took off rather quickly after that. On a side note, my professor then chewed out the employees for not doing their job quickly enough.

Anyway, that's the story, the rest of this is just my thoughts on the matter. I felt this whole incident was very unprofessional on all sides. First of all is the ignorance of the photographer. The very unprofessional attitude my professor took towards the matter, and the employees for not doing their job properly. I'm trying to think of where to start, and it all leads to the direction I want to go with music though.

People are very uneducated about concert etiquette, especially in this great state of Kentucky. Unfortunately, we are not doing a great job at educating them. Here's a student, trying to get some pictures for the paper, going into an area he's never been before in complete ignorance, and maybe some curiosity, to provide publicity to the arts program here, and what happens? He gets quite an unforgettable experience. Well there goes another person who will have no appreciation for the classical arts. I hope experiences like this aren't as common as I think they are. I guess we'll just keep classical music for those elite few who already know about it. For those anal musicians out there, yes I'm using "classical" very broadly. I know at times I can be a pretty anal musician, but frankly, I'm quite embarrassed by the actions of my professor. If that photographer had any type of rash bitterness in him. I can just see the front headlines with a picture of me blowing away on my tuba with "Musicians are Assholes" right under it. Fortunately his voice sounded more like the deer in the headlights type, and he probably got rid of the film as soon as he could and block it from his memory.

So who's fault is it that this incident happened? Is is the university newspaper's, the administration of the performing center? My professor, who holds everything and everyone to the highest standards possible, and if you don't meet them, you might as well leave?

More and more, I feel it is the fault of school administrators and our music educators. Most of the elementary school programs that I have observed and experienced have one hour, one day a week dedicated to music. A good one is considered to be three times a week for a half hour each. If you take a look at the national standards of what a child should know about music at the end of their fourth year in school, it is not possible with this limited amount of time, but it is absolutely possible if time is given. Most other cultures seem to have this down better than America. Some countries provide two hours a day of just music for their children within the schools. The citizens know and understand music in ways that most of us, even those specializing in music here have a hard time grasping some of the different concepts of music, myself included.

Now do I mean that everyone has to be able to play an instrument and perform at high levels. No. There is so much more to music than that. Within the standards, there are nine categories that are addressed to have a well-rounded person within music. You have performing, composing, arranging, and improvising. These are generally associated to musicians and those of us who are music majors. America does a decent job in these areas. The other areas are those that make a well rounded person within music. I can't remember them all, but they include listening, critiquing, something dealing with history and culture, wow, I can't remember them at all. This shows you how well they're being taught. It just shows that we're so bent on the performance aspect of it that we are losing the world in our search for the perfect performance.

So how do we correct this. I think it starts back at the beginning. It's going to have to be a process between the school administrators and music educators to reevaluate each individual school to find out how best to really educate the society on what music is. The standards have been set, but who's rising to the occasion? Not many, that's for sure. Now obviously this is a very idealistic goal, as much as I wish it were that easy, it's not. But this shows why I'm very much considering a career as an elementary school teacher, because I feel the difference will be made there, not as grown adults.

Who cares if you listen?... Apparently I do

You know... sometimes I really wonder if we are being effective in our progression of music. Today in my private lessons, I was working on the Hindemith Sonata, I get to perform it in a student recital here in three weeks. We worked specifically on the first movement and spent the entire lesson on the first movement discussing interpretations, what the composer intended, obscure words used to describe music, ect. Now I can go into all the details of what we talked about... but I really don't want to bore you to death... actually, you know what, this is my blog, who cares what you think of my rambling. If you don't care to read this part, ignore the next paragraph.

All right, first off we discussed the type of composer that Hindemith is. Hindemith is a neoclassical composer, which implies that he uses the general forms and structure of classical music. Where he is different is basically in the modern harmonies well and melodies for that matter. That being said, the phrasing of the piece should as symmetrical as possible. The first movement follows an ABA pattern. The second section is more agressive than the first section, but still is more of the same style. As we get to the climax of the first piece, there is a matter of personal interpretation as far as what the composer wants you to do, or what, oh let's say what Roger Bobo did in his recording. If your a tuba player and don't know this name, well, your not a tuba player then, if you aren't a tuba player, well I'll get to that later. Anyway, the composer wrote Poco largamente in the part, let me run get my music dictionary really quick... okay, maybe not, must be in my office, alright, I'll do it from what I remember, poco is little and largamente means broader, larger, without variance in tempo. I got reamed in my lesson for not having my music dictionary with me at all times. Anyway, Bobo's interpretation of it is for a molto rit. His choice, he doesn't have to follow the composers strict adherance to classical rules. Anyway, the part that might be a little contradictory to some people is the fact that for the recap, without having a tempo change he puts "a tempo" basically return to the origonal tempo. Now why would he put that if the poco largamente doesn't change tempo. Well apparently in classical form, with the return of the A theme, their is an implied rit. signaling the recapitulation. Hindemith expects us to be competent in classical forms and expects us to know this on our own. Now let's go to the coda. The tempo change has dotted half = whole note. Alright, the starting tempo is dotted half = 76. Now at this point in the piece half note = 76. So a whole note would be 38. So the value of a dotted half is now equal to 38, which I boubt very many people could keep time without subdividing, so we find out what the quarter no would be, basically 114, much more reasonable. I betcha didn't know so much math was involved with music, huh?

Now, as I look through all of what I just talked about, the little voice in my head screams, "WHO GIVES A FLYING RAT'S BUT ABOUT THIS!?!?!" I can already tell you how this student recital is going to go. I go on the first set of three student recitals. The six of us playing the first night will all get up there and play our pieces that we've spent countless hours preparing. The audience is consisted of.... big surprise, all the tuba and euphonium players who aren't playing. Oh wait... is that... is that... oh, okay it's just the people who are required to come becuase they're in the tuba methods class, and that kid over there is here for recital attendance. Just who in the world are we performing for? Are any of us there really getting something out of these performances, is the rest of the world benifitting from the recitals? You know what? I absolutely hate recitals whenever I attend them. They are the most absolutely boring thing I can think of. Now, if I don't enjoy them, how in the heck is the rest of the world ever going to enjoy listening to them. I went to one that I really enjoyed. It was Oystein Baadsvik's concert, absolutely phenominal player, and the only full-time soloist in the tuba world. Guess who was at the concert? I don't even have to answer, I think you know. Now, when I'm up their playing, I'm obviously enjoying myself, I'm performing and showing just how much I've accomplished practicing three hours a day for the past month. There's obviously a sense of pride and accomplishment in that, but really does anyone benifit from that? Some of the others actually do enjoy these things, for the life of me I can't see why. I have absolutely no personal attachment to them at all. They evoke absolutely no emotional response in me, so why would it evoke a response from somebody who doesn't know anything about it? There's a subject for another day, that last sentence, but let me continue on. So what are the benifits of these recitals.... we hear new pieces for tuba, we have a chance to perform, improve our musicianship, and so we'll actually sound decent when we've got an audience and playing the Bydlo lick from Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition at an orchestra concert, or whatever highlight in orchestral literature a tuba has. But really is it all that necessary. Most people probably wouldn't be able to tell any difference whatsoever, outside of us tuba players who purposely sit on the "tuba player" side of the orchestra, so we have the best possible seats to listen to the tuba and critique their performance. So what's the point? Why do we have all these music majors practice hour after hour on peices that enhance our abilities that absolutely no one but ourselves even care?

It's thoughts like this that have got me leaning more towards teaching general music to elementary students instead of teaching at the college level, maybe I just feel I can make a difference while everyone's still young. But these are thoughts for another day.