The main story this week is … resting and recovering from Holy Week, which passed in an intense blur of good music (and a lot of driving). I’ve collected some repertoire highlights here in a Spotify playlist; it’s nice to listen back and reflect now that we have some time. And I’ll be back in the days ahead to edit this post with some notes about several of the pieces. Beautiful stuff.
Category: Findings Page 1 of 2
Loose notes and findings–field notes–from daily life. Terribly banal. Some might develop into more proper articles.
Working on this past week:
- Practicing: still swamped with upcoming concert music, noodling a little with the Bach 6
- Listening: I’ve been on an algorithmically-assisted hunt for new-to-me baroque music, or new-to-me recordings of old favorites, seeded by some old-to-me recordings of old favorites
- Writing/recording: zeroed in this week on building structure for an old mockup I did of a sort of hybrid rhythmic cello ensemble thing. Fun to develop it further.
On a long kick of reading/watching stories about stories. I think it started last year when I watched White Noise and The Fabelmans back to back. (That was a weird pairing, to be honest.) Recently caught up to The Starless Sea. (Loved it.) And…can I claim Only Murders season 3? (No, maybe not. Funny stuff, though…)
Speaking of long quests, I’m on a glacially slow hunt for the perfect A string for my cello. Larsens are fine but die a shrieking death after 6mos. Versum Solo only lasted 3mos and was a little too bright for me (though people said nice things about my tone, maybe I should sell a kidney and revisit…). Rondo didn’t work for my instrument (though I love that D string). Kaplan was like 97% what I want for tone and playability and lasted a year. Trying a Pirastro next. I’ll report back in like 100 years.
Revisiting Imogen Cunningham. And…from Mark Anthony Fox, is this not the most perfect photograph ever made of a cup of coffee? (Swipe to the 3rd photo–though the portrait is also amazing.)
There’s a pair of doves nesting on our kitchen window sill, so we’re trying not to scare them off (though they don’t seem all that bothered by us).
Working on this past week:
- Practicing: upcoming concert music…upcoming concert music…bit more about that below…
- Listening: I’m obsessed with this harp arrangement of Britten’s setting of the Corpus Christi Carol. It’s a weird carol! Gorgeous, gorgeous setting by Britten. Part of a sort of melancholy winter playlist I’ve been collecting lately, with some lovely chamber music and a few new discoveries.
- Writing/recording: I’ve been on a mission to try to build some systems around my writing and arranging work. There are lots and lots of songs I’ve either chipped away at or worked out for a live gig, but that haven’t seen any final recording or publishing. It’s the kind of work I tend to think of as boring, but it’s fun to revisit some of this old work, and exciting to see a path to getting it out the door. More on that to come.
Since December, my practicing has been swampted by upcoming concert music–and even now there’s a ton of fun music coming up (Brahms piano quartet! several contemporary Latin American composers, Mendelssohn Hensel and Haydn and Dvořák quartets, two musicals, a bunch of orchestra stuff…love it!) But I need to find a new set of music that’s just for me; making practice time for myself feeds a lot of good things in my playing, even when it feels pushed aside by work urgencies.
Last year, I read Agnes Broomé’s translation of Collected Works, by Lydia Sandgren, and I still keep thinking about it. Brilliant, rich book.
There are some connections between all these things in thinking about art as artifact vs. art as experience–and what that means to me as a musician vs. as an audience member (or as a photographer). On the prowl for more good writing there.
Working on this past week:
- Practicing: upcoming concert music, some teaching material, Bach 6 Allemande (full movement)
- Listening: Wispelwey’s Vivaldi Sonatas is, like, a perfect record. Back in heavy rotation around here–as it often is–over these past few weeks.
- Writing/recording: the cello quartet has morphed for now into a fast jazz song for piano trio + strings acting like a horn section…
(…and I really enjoyed this episode of The Treatment, with Branford Marsalis talking about how George Wolfe didn’t want any strings on Rustin..)
I’m finally trying Cubasis, and I’m really enjoying it! Smart use of the touchscreen…and it feels easy to shuffle ideas back and forth between my notebook and Cubasis and the DAW or notation software on my laptop. Good stuff on the go.
Interesting (for all of us bookworms and parents of bookworms): https://www.wired.com/story/taiwan-epicenter-of-world-myopia-epidemic/
Victor Wooten playing Amazing Grace is unparalleled (and so much fun to watch). Revisited it this week to show our kids: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjkFJkbm3vA
Love this: https://www.themarginalian.org/2015/03/02/john-steinbeck-working-days/
Small tech note: I was having trouble with voicemails coming through slowly on my iPhone with Cricket, but going to deleted messages and clearing all permanently seems to have solved it.
Like it (for archiving media backups): https://fastglacier.com/
Important: Tim Harford on “The art of making good misstakes” (sic, haha)
Still trying to figure out which screenings we can catch in between gigs this year, but we’re excited for the Alexandria Film Festival‘s return!
Working on this past week:
- Practicing: upcoming concert music, Bach 6 Allemande (2nd half), some vln/vla/vlc trios with friends (these Mozart K.404a transcriptions of Bach are super cool for how they use the string trio)
- Listening: Musica Antiqua Latina’s “Corelli Bolognese – Trio Sonatas by Corelli and his Successors” has been in heavy rotation in our house (again) this week. Amazing album. https://open.spotify.com/album/3t0DJaxOK0utOV9TpScYxk
- Writing/recording: sketching out a cello quartet
I’ve kicked off an adventure with a used Canon Pixma Pro-10. AMAZING printer. Came with a clogged head that I expected to replace, but I was able to get it unclogged (burning a tremendous amount of ink with the built-in nozzle cleaning process). So…yet more ink and it’s in action! The prints are truly gorgeous — lovely detail and tone and color, rich blacks. Properly archival pigment inks. The danger with pigment inks is that the head reclogs if I don’t use it often enough. Meaning…daily prints! I’m using Moab paper for final prints, but I’ve now ordered a bunch of (much cheaper) Inkpress 4×6 for proofing and snapshots. Lovely stuff.
We had rather a nice evening playing string quartets by the fire at Barboursville Vineyards.
This Vahdam Darjeeling First Flush is DELICIOUS (now that I’ve got my head around brewing it; keeping the temperature at or below 200° F makes a massive difference to the flavor).
Got back into the Gramophone Podcast this week, incl. their episode on Dvořák piano trios. Phenomenal recording.
Interesting: https://petapixel.com/2023/10/06/a-20mp-sensor-in-a-film-canister-reinvigorates-vintage-analog-cameras/
Horrified, as we all are, by the news of attacks on Israel.
Working on this past week:
- Practicing: upcoming concert music; Bach 6 Allemande (1st half) (using the lovely Henle / Reiner Ginzel edition)
- Listening: Spotify “Blues & Roots Rock” playlist: https://spotify.link/QrAd06zMzDb (I first got there via the Amythyst Kiah Artist page: https://spotify.link/NNVbkUIMzDb)
- Writing/recording: recording session prep for a jazz piano trio (Summer Nights…)
So important: https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2023/9/22/jann-wenner-pay-attention-to-the-man-behind-the-curtain
Kind of remembered recently that tea is, uh, amazing! if I treat it as seriously as I usually treat coffee around here. So we got a little teapot from Daiso and a bunch of new loose-leaf green, black, and oolong. It’s been a nice journey and this is helpful: https://artofeating.com/brewing-darjeeling-tea/
Profound: https://www.themarginalian.org/2020/05/17/yes-to-life-in-spite-of-everything-viktor-frankl/
Want it (ASMAC just ran a fabulous program on this with Joe Johnston and Chris Siddall and a bunch of other stars): https://www.chrissiddallmusic.com/store/p105/The_Rocketeer_In_Full_Score.html
This seems nuts: https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20220810-derinkuyu-turkeys-underground-city-of-20000-people
The Mediterranean Bakery is absolutely one of my favorite things in Alexandria.
Our bottomless portafilter arrived (shipped from the UK, so it took a bit) and it is amazing! Messy (I’m working on my tamping), but immediate improvement in flavor.
Cooking that chipotle powder got, uh, a little crazy.
Today’s scale: F# Mixolydian.
Interesting: https://www.concarbo.com/product/harp-small-tulip-style-cello-tailpiece-black-paint/ (The maker got a compelling shoutout that I happened to see in the Internet Cello Society group). I’ve used a cheap plastic tailpiece for a long time, at my luthier’s recommendation–they’re light and resonate well–but I have been curious about lengthening the lower strings..)
Today’s favorite practice bit: a leisurely review of the Haydn C, letting the tone shaping develop. (Listen to Wispelwey play the 2nd movement with Florilegium; it’ll change your life.)
The cello “as an object in cosmic orbit” — Tenebrae is absolutely as much fun as we expected.
(I do like Golijov’s expressive markings. I remember some particular favorites from the cello part for Lua Descolorida, where he name-checks Jordi Savall and suggests that our pizz. should sound like “velvet bells.”)
Elsewhere, as my luthier friend Christina Wan put it, “these Icelanders are making incredible sound waves”: https://www.sonoluminus.com/store/epicycleii
(And Sono Luminus looks like an incredible place to record.)
Here are a couple of dark roasts I’ve had that really taste like the dark roast advertising copy we all see from time to time (smoky, rich, chocolatey, etc.): Mayorga Muy Macho; Ruta Maya’s Decaf Dark Roast (all the more amazing given that it’s decaf).
And from our usual daily Chemex, I love the Mayorga Mayan Blend ground fine and poured slowly.
(It’s been a little bit since I’ve had Corvus, but they’re amazing…also, from the roasts I’ve had, lighter-roasted, so pour slowly…)
While we’re talking beverages, Asahi beer makes an excellent beer bread, and it doesn’t seem to matter if the beer is flat.
I was greedy and burned my mouth testing this Grilled Corn with Miso Butter, hot off the grill. Amazing. Worth it.
We’ve started using Paprika for recipe management — they get so many things right in terms of clean interface, clever automation. Good shopping list. Great sync between devices. Fun.
Menu planning does feel just like concert programming — musicians and chefs are cut from similar cloth.
We must soon try Yotam Ottolenghi’s Roasted Chicken with Clementines & Arak.
The FT’s Culture Call has always been a brilliant podcast, and I am genuinely excited about the new season. Where does culture go next? That’s the central mystery animating @lilahrap‘s inquiries; she’s a smart guide into the unknown that we all face.
(How, in this context, to define “culture?” Working, basic, draft from me: crafted emotional experience, shared by enough people that we can talk about it.)
I’m also thrilled to have connected with composer Frank Horvat, and I’m starting to work on a couple of pieces from his Music for Self-Isolation. The pieces are clever and beautiful and contained–adding up to an incredible body of work.
The Pan American Symphony has announced a Salvadorean composers competition.
Meantime, in my cello teaching, I find that a visual hint at where the octaves fall is a tremendous help for students starting their scale practice.
