A fine day for indie classical...

Both of these tidbits lifted from Nylon, my cultural Bible...

• Ex-Strokes frontman Julian Casablancas apparently got inspiration from relatively obscure, early 20th-Century Brit composer Benjamin Britten for his debut solo album Phrazes for the Young. I have my doubts, but I haven't heard the album yet, so let's see.Huh.
  

• Bryce and Aaron Dessner The twin brothers behind The National "dabble in everything from composing neo-classical works for Kronos Quartet to playing on In C with American minimalist Terry Riley." The documentary film The Long Count, which premiers at the Brooklyn Academy of Music's New Wave Festival 10/28-31, is their most ambitious creative statement yet. The multimedia piece explores the notion of symmetry as only twins can perceive it, featuring vocals from Kim and Kelley Deal of The Breeders and and Shara Worden of My Brightest Diamond. As disparate as themes including the hero twins of Popol Vuh (a Mayan creation myth) and the '77 World Series may seem, it's all held together by the sculpture, film and animation of visual artist Matthew Ritchie.
  

Wow, dude. The "low"-culturally omniscient boyfriend recently referred to the National as the defining band of our generation and argued that they'd be playing arenas in the next year. And I've enjoyed all the songs by them I've heard. But I didn't know they had one foot into the best part of art music! (Not that playing In C is a huge accomplishment...been there, done that, though not with Terry Riley himself.)

Currently listening to "Even the Good Wood Gone" off of Why?'s latest, Eskimo Snow. It's about a mummy! What's not to love?!

WTF MUSIC

Gleaned from Pitchfork:

Apparently, George Gershwin's estate has given cray-cray Beach Boy Brian Wilson the right to complete some of Gershwin's unfinished works. The estate is also thinking of releasing the Wilsonized songs on a tribute album.

This is so WTF-worthy to me. Are we talking like big ol', Rhapsody in Blue kind of works? Or ditties like "I've Got Rhythm?" I'm very intrigued. And I think Wilson is super talented (otherwise he probably wouldn't be so cray-cray), but...I just don't understand why the Gershwin estate would pick him. I guess both Gershwin and Wilson's music harbor a certain Americana-nostalgia thing. So, you know. Why not?

(I was at the gas station yesterday and "Surfin' USA" was playing. Do you think the Beach Boys actually knew how to surf? They seem so different than the surfing douchebags of today.)

(I haven't been practicing because midterm season is driving me effing batty, and I've been doing things like skipping class and flying off to Indianapolis for the evening. Right now, it's still worth it, but I know my guilt will kick in eventually.)

Oh, and remember when I blogged about Gustavo Dudamel in Vogue? Yeah, well, my letter is going to be published. I'm in Vogue. Bitches.

ldj

maquarre-22
damase-17


i'm sick and fried, if you mess with me i'll just walk away and take a nap.

a very special log du jour.

I practiced before an ensemble concert.

I think this is the second time I've ever done that. Ever.

Pop the champagne.

Here's the log itself:

17 minutes of long tones, etc. 28 of Maquarre (I have all the flats done! Whoo!). 20 of the Damase etude (laaaaaaaaaame), 22 of Sancan (not as laaaaaame) and 12 of Liebermann. Awesome. Except that I didn't really take any breaks this whole time, so by the time I got to Liebermann, I was just kind of flubbing along. But it was fun.

Go me!

Sorry I've been such a bad blogger; I promise to have some less personal and more insightful posts up soon.

Blah thursday

Yesterday was good...11 minutes of long tones and melodies, 22 of Maquarre (it's better now. We're all patched up. I am set with the first two pages now, woohoo). Then 19 minutes of the first half of the etude and 16 of Liebermann! It's amazing. I think it'll be easy to memorize too.

That's it. I'm going to go to sleep now (it's 6:15PM). If I wake up and it's still today, I'll practice. Either way, I'll probably still practice whenever I wake up. I'll be nice and rested. Mmmm.

Thoughts on awesome William Kincaid

Non-flutist readers are allowed to skip this.

Last week I read Kincaidiana, which I found to be rather...lovey. And adoring. And...eh.

However, this week I read his "Notes on Flute Performance", which I'm going to keep forever and ever, because it was so blunt and declarative, and like, "now you know how to play the flute. You're welcome."

Some of the bits clearly reminded me of my own teacher's style. In fact, at my DePauw audition, she taught me some phrasing suggestions that have stuck with me ever since, and it turns out they're straight from Kincaid. It's rather hard to explain in the blogosphere, but it involves starting phrases with the second note in a measure instead of the first note. It moves the phrase along better. Another example is slapping the G key while a low note is articulated to make the note speak better.

It's actually kind of hard to blog about this essay (or whatever), because it was so filled with all these little tricks and suggestions--inaudibly practicing low attacks in orchestra before your entrance, alternate fingerings, and taking dynamic liberties in baroque pieces.

Anyway, I understand why someone would write an adoring book about the techniques of Kincaid, because they're awesome. But they're also matter-of-fact and there is no sense of pride in his teachings--it's just an instruction manual. And it's awesome.

Listening to Okkervil River: "John Allyn Smith Sails" from The Stage Names

Log du jour.

11 minutes of long tones/melodies (something off was going on with my tone today...we'll see...), 19 minutes of Maquarre (getting better, I found a new little thing in the pattern that's helping me out with the memorization), 20 minutes of the first Damase etude (a little crazy but not much more difficult than the Andersen Artistic Etudes), and 10 minutes of Sancan (I had a lesson on it today, which kind of destroyed the honeymoon phase I was in with it.