Category Musical Passion
Musical Kata and Maya Angelou
Last weekend we wrapped up a big fundraiser for my school, and part of it was a karate demonstration/performance. For one piece, a group of us worked up the below synchronized musical kata (simulated battle), choreographed by my friend as a tribute to the late poet Maya Angelou. In it, our moves and James Newton […]
Tona Brown: Violinist, Mezzo Soprano
Carnegie Hall made another dream come true last night when Tona Brown took to the stage. The 34 year old violinist and mezzo soprano had dreamed of playing Carnegie since she was 14 years old and attending the Governor’s School for the Arts in Norfolk, VA. The show featured highlights from her album, “This is […]
Music and Iraq
My quest for musical passion takes place in an environment in which it is not incumbent upon me to worry about bombs being dropped on my building. What occurs to me this morning is that so many people the world over do not have that luxury. How impressive is it when a people plagued by […]
Solipsistic Navel Gazing
On Tuesday I was folding laundry and I remembered that I’d been wanting to listen to a podcast a colleague sent me. For whatever reason, I fold laundry in silence – I don’t think about it; I’m already occupied, right? So I have no idea why, on this occasion, this thing I’d been wanting to […]
The George Bridgetower Sonata for Violin and Piano, by Beethoven
Beethoven’s Sonata Number 9 for Violin and Piano is a phenomenal work – both instruments are highlighted, the piece captivates from its opening notes, and it’s a full concert-length work. The Sonata’s official nickname is the Kreutzer Sonata. But the piece debuted on my birthday – May 24 – in 1803 at the deft hands […]
Jam of the Day
I have a friend who, for a very long time, sent out an e-mail every day with a little write-up of a song and a link to its video. It went on for years – he called it “Jam of the Day,” and we subscribers were “Jammers.” I signed up for his musical daily the […]
The Elements of Music: 7 of 7, Spatial Location
This final piece in my series on the elements of music as identified by Richard Restak, MD, deals with the most esoteric concept yet. There are many lists of the elements, components, building blocks, fundamentals – call them what you will – of music. Most include versions of the elements I’ve written up to date, […]
The Elements of Music: 6 of 7, Loudness
The loudness of music is a relatively straightforward concept. Composers and musicians play music loudly or softly to evoke certain moods and feelings. Broadly, the term dynamics refers to the loudness and/or softness of music. Composers use Italian words to convey their wishes for the dynamics for specific segments of music. Forte means loud, and […]
Precious Cargo
A friend on Facebook linked to a CNN story about Zachary De Pue, Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra Concertmaster, who refused to check his 1757 Gagliano violin into a US Airways plane’s cargo hold for a quick jump to Fayetteville. What did De Pue do? Why, a tarmac recital, of course: Turns out De Pue is right on the […]
The Kodály Method
My musical sister called me Saturday to wish me happy birthday, and as we chatted she made me aware of a pedagogical method about which I’d been clueless – The Kodály (say ko-DAY) Method. Apparently Sister and Brother-in-Law are prepping to host a fellow who’s doing some intensive study on the Method at a nearby […]
Ryan Libel 