Advice from Mr. Burns

I once sent Harry Shearer an email asking his advice on making it in the entertainment business.   His reply applied to far more of life than just that narrow band.  It read simply,

"Talent is good. Luck is better. But nothing beats brute persistence."

Debate Tonight

Obama's central mistake in the last debate was that he mistook political theater for a rational policy discussion.   He needs to be smart, but snappy when getting his points across.   Also, I really hope that he points out again that Romney's health care plan does not cover those with pre-existing conditions.   That was a blatant attempt by Romney to mislead viewers last week. His policy preserves the current status quo.  Obama pointed this out by calmly explaining why what Romney said isn't so, but he needs to be less wonk-ish and more direct.   

And Obama must remind voters that, not only does Romney want to force women to remain pregnant against their will, he picked a VP nominee who would like to force raped women to remain pregnant, even if they are teenagers and their rapists are family members.   I hate typing this stuff, I don't like controversy, but it's the truth.

Let's hope for a good and honest debate tonight!  

Danse Macabre

This is a little jump start on the Halloween season!  Note that the solo violin has tuned down the E string a half step to create a tritone with the open A.  

Thank you Mr. Saint-Saens!  Also check out his excellent cello concerto in A minor.

How Much.....?

I think a really good exercise is to change our language about work and income.   What if we answer the question, "What do you make?" with our work, instead of with our income?  For instance, a teacher makes educated students.  A police officer makes security.    

Then our income level becomes the answer to the question "What do you take?"

I think this is a more accurate way of thinking about it.   Our income is what gives us our power to consume - to take.  Our work is what we do for others - how we serve others - what we make.

And I am not implying that there is anything wrong with taking - many people do wonderful things with the income they take, and many people deserve to take more than others because of the nature of their work.   But I think this way of thinking helps us with our priorities and how we give respect to others.

I Have Got It.

I have got it. If some people running for office are so concerned that so many American don't pay federal income tax (they are not counting payroll tax, federal fuel tax, state income tax, sales tax, etc.), then why don't they propose raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour? Sooooo many more people would be paying federal income tax.

But wait, now some are saying that some businesses cannot afford to pay that much? So basically there are businesses out there that need people to be poor in order to stay in business?

Then why are we complaining that they don't pay federal income tax again?

A Few Quick Thoughts....

A few thoughts after some exchanges on a conservative religious blog.

One:  These days, even critics of homosexuality accept that one is born that way, that it is not a conscious choice.  Yet they still reject gay marriage, which of course means that they think gay people are better off living lives without an immediate family.  My immediate family is absolutely integral to the meaning of my life.  Therefore, I see opposition to gay marriage as asking others to trade family life for lives of isolation.  And this is cruel.

Two:  We are standing on the shoulders of the ancients, not holding them up.

Three:  "God loves me more than he loves you."    Calvinism in a nutshell.

What's Going On?

 

This is just a quick note (mostly to myself, but also to online friends) about what's been going on.
 

I spend my mornings hanging out with the family.  Susan, Severin, Wolfgang and I play with cars, trains and play-dough.  We listen to music and dance, we get frustrated and go to time-out, we visit the Science Museum of Oklahoma, we go to the bookstore, we tell jokes, we dig in the dirt and run through the sprinkler (when it's not 111 degrees, like it was today), we play make-believe constantly - we are dinosaurs, construction diggers, fish, etc, etc.

It's busy!

Then I teach my lessons in the afternoon, supplemented by live performances and session work.

Time is still there for other things, but the required energy and focus sometimes are not!


However, I have been working on another string piece.  The title is still up in the air, but it will be something like "A Wandering Wind On A Prairie Pond"  or "Water Under Wind" or something like that.

I expect to have the first draft done sometime this month.  The key signatures are a bit difficult for high school, but I am hoping that an advanced group might have some luck with it.  A good college string section would be ideal.

I also hope to complete another, less technically demanding high school piece in 2012, and perhaps attempt some pieces for middle school orchestra.  I would love to work more as a composer/clinician with different groups - something I have really enjoyed doing in the past.

After getting a few more string pieces and performances under my belt, I hope to try a full orchestral work.  My goal would be to pursue subject matter reflective of the Oklahoma landscape and story.

Chamber music is my ultimate goal, and I look forward (with trepidation) to the day when I am able to premiere a string quartet.

I have also been listening to the music of Franz Joseph Haydn for several months now.  I am studying scores, reading more biographies and giving careful listens to his symphonies and string quartets.   This summer, we are lucky to have had the inaugural Oklahoma Haydn Festival at Mayflower Congregational Church here in Oklahoma City - the church I attend.

I had been rediscovering the music of Haydn for a few months when our organist announced the new festival and, needless to say, I was excited and flabbergasted at the timing.   I look forward to becoming involved with it next year.

I hope to write more about Haydn soon - he was a musician who built himself from the ground up, coming from truly humble beginnings.  Through his abilities and the circumstances of his career and relatively long life, he was a real rarity in history - an innovator, developing the Viennese classical style particularly in the realm of the symphony, the string quartet, and the piano sonata, and thereby building a foundation for Mozart and Beethoven, and yet he was also a perfecter - particularly in his works written after hearing the music of his great friend and true kindred spirit, Mozart.

Here are a few quick listening recommendations for anyone interested:

Symphony no. 39 in G min - a fantastic example of Haydn's mid-career "Sturm and Drang" period.   Storm and Drive!   Make sure the recording is a brisk tempo.

The "Fifths" string quartet in D minor - Opus 76 No. 2.   The opening movement is dominated by a motif of descending fifths.  Listen for them underneath many of the melodic passages.

The first movement of the "Drumroll" Symphony, no. 103 in Eb, from his last group of 12 symphonic compositions knows as the "London Symphonies".     Wonderful slow introduction, great melodic writing in the exposition  - powerful inventiveness in the development.

I hope to write more soon about my current hero of musical history.

In other news, I am still developing writings in my Theology From The Plain series, which is an attempt to write quick, clear descriptions of my current views of.....that which is.   It's a systematic attempt to organize and analyze my thinking, and of course any input from others is invaluable.   I hope to get a few things up in 2012.

To any readers, I wish you all the best in your current endeavors!!   I would love to hear about them.