happy shanksgiving! OR why not a youtube video populated with repeated picturesque vistas from what i can only assume is Utah?

Here's a great performance of winter from the Weber State University Chamber Choir in Utah. This piece is one of the more cranky ones in my catalog and they perform it SO well. Happy Thanksgiving everybody!

new toy

I was helping my friend, Eric, move this summer and during the trek from Former Home to New Home a motorcycle passed us as we were driving a van packed full of stuff down the highway. This particular motorcycle was really, really loud and, since we were going through a tunnel at the time, it was that much more offensive to mine ears.

I don't get the fetish of loud automobiles and I never have. Because of this I made some snarky comment about the uselessness of machismo and asked Eric what the appeal was. Of course, it turns out that owning something like that is just like wanting a new toy when you're a kid.

Still nothing from me.

This then prompted a discussion about what I would do if I had to spend a million dollars.

How about a sports car?

What's the point? Why would I ever want to spend money on something like that?

What about a nice house?

Like a house that costs a million dollars?

Yeah.

Why would I need all that room?

There's nothing that you want that could cost all that money.

I guess I would just pay off all my loans, buy a decent house and a decent car and then just give the rest away.

That's incredibly boring. There isn't a single toy that you don't need that you could use that money for. What about guitars?

Oh. That actually sounds like something I might buy.

So that's your 'toy' then. You're a guitar guy.

Shit. I think you might be right.

So feast your eyes on my newest toy: a beautiful Fender Telecaster. I got it for a ridiculously small amount of money on Craigslist.















And it plays like a dream. One of the reasons I've always wanted a Telecaster is because the sound is so clear. You can play an acoustic gig with just a little reverb and a microphone or you can turn up and wail.

I don't have a name for this thing yet but my guitar collection is complete for the time being.

dominick argento vs. 80's aerobic goodtimes

Jocelyn and I went to the Minnesota Opera's production of Dominick Argento's opera buffa Casanova's Homecoming last night (that's a lot of apostrophes in one sentence) and it was a fantastic show performed impeccably. The best part was the opera-within-an-opera thing in the first act that worked frickin' perfectly. Since the action takes place in Casanova's Venice the music had to be reminiscent of opera from that time period. It must have been fun to "try on" that harmonic language and style while manipulating it to his own devices.

I found a picture of the set design from that particular scene on the Internets. Here you've got the opera's opera being performed in the middle and then the actual plot happening in the boxes on either side (Casanova is on the left and the antagonist, the Marquis de Lisle, is with his crew on the right).














Okay, now I'm about to throw something mildly sacrilegious out here--at least here in the Twin Cities--so everybody take a breath. I don't really like Argento's music all that much. Some people flip out over his vocal works and, honestly there are some pieces out there that I really like ("Walden Pond" and "Dover Beach Revisited" are amazing choral works) but I've never heard anything that made me feel certain that I liked it on the very first hearing. Casanova's Homecoming changed this for me because the entire thing was designed to make the audience have a great time.

And that's exactly what I had. It was hilarious and I'd see it again in a heartbeat. I may even jump online later today to see if I can find a recording I know is floating around from the Houston Grand Opera's production.

Someone told me beforehand that it was an incredibly long show (three acts and two intermissions) and I was like, "Oh no. I'm going to be really tired by the end." But I think he broke it up perfectly. There should be two intermissions in everything.












There was a great review in the Star Tribune a couple of days ago that, amongst other things, stated that the opera was, "a meticulous, spirited production that argues powerfully for the work's place among the best modern comic operas." And I think that sums up my feelings about the entire thing.

Now, going back to my previous statement about Argento's music, I think I sometimes respond so negatively to it because it's incredibly erudite (I'm not the first person to make this accusation) and I tend to like music that wears its emotions on the surface. For better or for worse, Argento doesn't write that kind of stuff.

It should be noted, however, that this didn't keep him from forging an amazing career in classical music. I'm so glad I got to see this show and also wish I could rock the glasses like Dr. Argento.

In other news, why does this video only have a little more than 800 views.I would love for this event to be local so I can attend sometime. Sadly, I don't think this is the case and I therefore weep bitter tears.

"You're all beautiful. Except your lives."

Mahalo.

reelin' in the years OR how many finnish conductors does it take to watch a steely dan concert?

The answer to that question: at least one that I talked to. I totally ran into Osmo Vänskä at Northrop last Sunday when I went to a Steely Dan concert with my dad.















They played their entire album, Aja, front-to-back and, although my experience with SD flows only from their greatest hits and quasi-cameos in the Yacht Rock episodes (you should check that link if you're a 70s rock fan...Eagles!), I'm really glad I went to this. It was some good father/son time and they are incredible musicians. There was a full compliment of brass on stage with a trio of back-up singers in sparkly dresses and a whole bunch of others (a total of 13 people).

Time well spent.

Mahalo.

done + a whole lot of music

I always hate it when bloggers start a post off with something like "it's been so long since I posted anything" but...it's been a long time since I posted anything. That will have to serve as my apology for what will inevitably be some sort of treatise on my life at the moment.

But that's neither here nor there. The bottom line is that I'm done with that French set! I've been writing about my recent attempts at trying to wrestle the Rilke poetry into my music for some time now and I finally finished the thing last week. It feels so good to get it out of the way so I can sit and wait for Jessica to sing the bejeezus out of it. I ended up calling the thing Trois Méditations ("Three Meditations") because the poetry has that kind of vibe to it: thoughtful, introspective and peaceful.

Jessica is incredibly excited to perform the set next April (I think that's the right date...I'll have to check on that) and I'm excited to hear her sing it. She came to town a few weeks ago for a thing with the Minnesota Opera and we had a chance to pal around downtown Minneapolis and visit the Twin Cities' fabled Mall of America (which isn't really a big deal...it's just a big mall). Here she is on the Guthrie's endless bridge mugging for the most attractive picture ever taken of her. She'd never seen the Mississippi River before so that was a stop on our abbreviated tournée des Villes Jumelles.

And since that piece is done, I've moved on to my next commission: a new choral work for Brownsburg High School in Indiana. They made a blog appearance way back in April of 2007 when I flew out to conduct them through an intense performance of Autumn. In discussions with their amazing director, Debi Prather, we decided to stick with the theme and have them premiere the next season piece I was ready to write. It's been six years since I wrote one of those pieces (there will obviously be a total of four) and, since that was how I first encountered this amazing choral program, it seemed like it was the right thing to do. I'm way ahead on it and, although I set a December 15 deadline for myself, I imagine it will be completely done a month ahead of schedule. This doesn't happen very often so I'm running with it and will try to get to work on the next commission in line.

As far as listening goes, I've been to a ton of performances in the Twin Cities area recently. The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and the SPCO Chorale gave an insanely beautiful rendering of Arvo Pärt's Te Deum and Duruflé's Requiem a few weeks back. It was really good to hear both of those works live and, since the Te Deum is one of my favorite choral/orchestral works ever, I had a blast. (Side note: I've only laid out to get a tan once in my life and that's what I listened to...I burned but that was hardly Arvo's fault.) The penultimate chord of the Requiem is this incredibly chunky thing that Dale Warland (who oversaw the proceedings) stopped on for just a second longer than he needed to. It's one of those sonorities that makes your eyelids flutter a little and your eyes roll back in your head. It's not really highlighted in the old, standard Shaw recording so I may be on the search for another one some time in the near future. It was just some really, really good stuff sung by a world-class ensemble.

And I would be remiss if I didn't mention The Singers' mammoth performance of the Rachmaninoff All-Night Vigil this past weekend. This choir took this thing and made it there own...just incredible musicianship combined with ownership of the material. I'm so glad I had the opportunity to get to know this piece so thoroughly and the fact that it was with that inspiring group of people makes it that much better. The Pioneer Press gave a great review of the concerts in which the writer went so far as to say that "you owe it to yourself" to attend. And he wasn't joking. It was a serious 60 minutes of music-making.

On Halloween I made it out to see Ben Folds play a show with the Minnesota Orchestra. It was mainly the same set as his Live with the Western Australian Symphony Orchestra DVD but there were some new ones thrown in from his last two albums. It was nowhere near as fun as the last Folds show I went to but wasn't a chore to sit through at all. Last time I saw him I was crammed in a club with earsplitting volume and a stripped-down trio accompanying. Taking the volume way down and adding an orchestra was more of a curiosity than anything else but the fact that it was on Halloween definitely allowed all the people I was with to dress up and cavort around Orchestra Hall in costume. I went as Triathlon Moses and my sister, Emma, was a spot-on Lady Gaga. Even Folds and conductor Sarah Hicks got in on the fun when they came out after intermission dressed as Sonny and Cher.
















Last night I went out to the Cedar Cultural Center to see a triple bill of indie folk-rock artists. The headliner was local singer/songwriter Chris Koza. Good stuff. Not my style but obviously a lot of integrity in it.




















The middle act was local quartet the Wars of 1812 in their final performance as a group. It's too bad, really, because they were quite good.

JoAnna James started the show off with an amazing set of tunes and was my personal favorite by far. It was just her acoustic guitar alongside another player on electric adding some spice here and there. I always enjoy it when I can hear a singer/songwriter strip everything away but the very basic elements of their music. She did an incredible job.

So that's that. I think I'm caught up on blog stuff now. I'm off to Sham Rock's tonight to meet with some friends and hopefully hear some kickass Irish traditional music. I just finished a three song French set for soprano, piano and harp and am 85% done with a new choral work. I think I deserve it, damn it!