Practising Backwards

I never quite believe in practising backwards in order to memorise the piece of music better. It's just detrimental to the musicality of the piece and I find that it's too high a price to pay in order to memorise the piece of music. And I'm really surprised that even professional musicians advocate this method in order to aid memory.

I can never find much sense in practising backwards. You can't grasp the flow of the music. One just start practising the last page or section of the music and more often than not, you start in the middle of a phrase and that is the worst feeling ever. What comes out eventually is nonsensical and meaningless. Even if you separate the piece in a way such that whatever section you play starts on the beginning of a phrase, it is still pretty much as bad because you can't shape the phrase well without knowing the introduction before it and how the phrase fits into the whole picture. Eventually, even if you manage to go through the whole piece, chances are that some sections will stick out like a sore thumb as the piece of music has lost its flow.

Anyways, I lost the connection to quite a number of recordings out there. They don't affect me as much as they used to. Maybe I'm becoming increasingly critical and having higher expectations. Yes, and that also means that I'm getting more nitpicky in the minor details of my music, not to mention that there's still this intonation problem I have. Oh well, practices have become quite a torture. How I wish that I have a better guitar to practise on...

Crossing Boundaries

The boundaries between classical music (maybe some people might be more comfortable with the term experimental music) and rock music have blurred, especially prominent in the previous few decades. And the thing is that they've both been previously perceived to be on opposite ends of the music spectrum. Maybe that's just part and parcel of this experimental age, where composers have seeked to search for inspirations in their art through other genres of music. Advant-garde composers have sought to study with masters of other genres of music like Indian classical music, gamelan music etc. And whatever modern movement sweeping through the classical scene, we can see it being caught on by the rock scene as well, with microtonality and minimalism as some examples.

I seem to have this feeling that people now are more obsessed with having radical ideas of creating music than in the resulting music that is produced. Heart-stirring melodies and harmonies, though not completely marginalised, have taken a backseat to coming up with the ideas itself. I agree that most of the music they make do satisfy the ear, but they just lack the ability to penetrate deep into the deeper chambers of our bodies...

Now, that's the kind of music that most talented composers of our time are composing. Is it indeed a pitiful wastage of their talent that half of the world is lamenting about, or is it just because the audiences are more narrow-minded than what art audiences ought to be?

Carnival of Music #10

Alright, it's my turn to host the Carnival of Music this week. A million thanks to Scott Spiegelberg for hosting a marvellous Carnival last week. Think I'll divide the posts into various genres so readers will find it easier to browse through their beloved topics.

Traditional Classical Music
In the news, we have some problem with iPods playing classical music. I swear this is one of the sickening problems whenever I listen to classical music on the bus and trains, especially symphonies and concertos where there're huge and sudden dynamics changes.
Oh, be sure to take a look at the professional violinist, Midori's blog on her concert tour in Asia. She sure has some interesting insights in this two-week blog.
Also, we have Talvi's experiences with the halls used for the Mostly Mozart Festival.
And not forgetting Greg Sandow's refutation of someone's keyntoe speech about classical music. He even mentioned some excellent ideas on how to attract younger audiences into the classical music scene, though I've some doubts that it'd be productive.

Modernism or Anti-Modernism
This week, Kyle Gann has given some lovely reviews on Aaron Copland's opera The Tender Land and Marc Blitzstein's opera Regina. Alright, the latter wasn't that lovely, from the way he wrote the review, but if his reviews certainly got me interested in getting recordings of such modern opera to listen.
Tim Rutherford-Johnson gave his comments on the a particular music of 1975 - Rzewski: The People United Will Never Be Defeated, in his series of Music since 1960. He sure took lots of effort in looking for 36 links to match the 36 variations in that piece by Rzewski. But I'm sure for lovers of modern music, it'll be worth the time and effort browsing through the list.
Now for anti-modernism, take a look at harpist Helen Radice's opinions on electronic music. Guess she's one of them who's anti-modernism but substantiates her stand very well.

Jazz
Arh, for this genre, Mwanji Ezana has been kind enough to compile a list of links to jazz blogs around the blogosphere. I'm thankful for the help as I know nuts about jazz.

Others
For this section, I'll have posts which consist of a mixture of the previous few genres above. Rob Witt's review of a musicircus book, The Time of Our Singing by Richard Powers, sure got my attention. That's going to one book I'll be looking out for when I visit the library or bookstore.

Would like to thank JohnL for letting me host the Carnival this week and Lynn S for volunteering to host the Carnival next week. Anyone who would like to volunteer to host the Carnival of Music in the next few weeks please feel free to email JohnL at music.carnival@gmail.com. =)

(This is a similar entry of the previous post on the Carnival of Music #10 in order to have the Carnival at the top of my blog for this week.)

Carnival of Music #10

Alright, it's my turn to host the Carnival of Music this week. A million thanks to Scott Spiegelberg for hosting a marvellous Carnival last week. Think I'll divide the posts into various genres so readers will find it easier to browse through their beloved topics.

Traditional Classical Music
In the news, we have some problem with iPods playing classical music. I swear this is one of the sickening problems whenever I listen to classical music on the bus and trains, especially symphonies and concertos where there're huge and sudden dynamics changes.
Oh, be sure to take a look at the professional violinist, Midori's blog on her concert tour in Asia. She sure has some interesting insights in this two-week blog.
Also, we have Talvi's experiences with the halls used for the Mostly Mozart Festival.
And not forgetting Greg Sandow's refutation of someone's keyntoe speech about classical music. He even mentioned some excellent ideas on how to attract younger audiences into the classical music scene, though I've some doubts that it'd be productive.

Modernism or Anti-Modernism
This week, Kyle Gann has given some lovely reviews on Aaron Copland's opera The Tender Land and Marc Blitzstein's opera Regina. Alright, the latter wasn't that lovely, from the way he wrote the review, but if his reviews certainly got me interested in getting recordings of such modern opera to listen.
Tim Rutherford-Johnson gave his comments on the a particular music of 1975 - Rzewski: The People United Will Never Be Defeated, in his series of Music since 1960. He sure took lots of effort in looking for 36 links to match the 36 variations in that piece by Rzewski. But I'm sure for lovers of modern music, it'll be worth the time and effort browsing through the list.
Now for anti-modernism, take a look at harpist Helen Radice's opinions on electronic music. Guess she's one of them who's anti-modernism but substantiates her stand very well.

Jazz
Arh, for this genre, Mwanji Ezana has been kind enough to compile a list of links to jazz blogs around the blogosphere. I'm thankful for the help as I know nuts about jazz.

Others
For this section, I'll have posts which consist of a mixture of the previous few genres above. Rob Witt's review of a musicircus book, The Time of Our Singing by Richard Powers, sure got my attention. That's going to one book I'll be looking out for when I visit the library or bookstore.

Would like to thank JohnL for letting me host the Carnival this week and Lynn S for volunteering to host the Carnival next week. Anyone who would like to volunteer to host the Carnival of Music in the next few weeks please feel free to email JohnL at music.carnival@gmail.com. =)

Disgusted

Apparently, someone can't decide whether she wants to be a hooker or a professional violinist. Browsed through her website and there's quite a fair amount of vulgarities and unseemly language. Don't get me wrong, classical music isn't just for the high class people, but the way she portrays herself as a rowdy, punk kid is just so unacceptable of a professional classical violinist. Her CD covers makes me feel as if I'm browsing through some near-pornographic magazine out at the stands. Ok, even if her music is stunningly beautiful (which is far from it, unfortunately), I'll be embarrassed recommending it to friends, for they'll no doubt give me that incredulous look and contemplate whether I'm attracted to the music or CD cover. And I didn't like her interpretations of the tracks in her CDs one bit at all, and you can be sure that it wasn't due to my prejudice against her. I was treating the music as some professional recording, but I was terribly disappointed...

What irks me most is the fact that she has tainted the purity of the classical music scene. I seriously suggest that she should just consider changing profession, for I feel that the red light district suits her much better than a recording studio or concert hall...

Musical Perceptions About the Carnival of Music

Be sure to take a look over at Scott Spiegelberg's blog, where he's hosting the Carnival of Music #9 this week. He sure had an interesting way of putting those musical posts together. That's gonna be the most special Carnival ever hosted ever since it started two months back and more importantly, there're quite a few interesting articles within the jillian number of links this week, so be sure not to miss them out. =)

I'll be hosting the Carnival next week, so if anyone has any posts on music to share, just send them to me at jeff_guitar@hotmail.com.

Obsession With Modern Music

I find myself being addicted to books on modern music or composers than classical guitar books. I swear that if I had the money that day, I would have gotten the book on John Cage than the book on the life of Andrés Segovia.

John Cage's repetitive blasphemous comments almost made me tore that pages out. I'm sure if asked on how did he find Bach, Beethovan or Mozart, he'd have condemned them as well. He was one big egocentric person who called people who didn't understand his music idiots and shot down all comments that his music originated from God by repeatedly claiming that he was the sole creator of his music. I'm really interested in his perspective on the world of sounds and admire his innovative composition techniques. He's no doubt a genius, but he's such a 'staunch' atheist. And that pretty much make him a religious fool... Oh well...

Schubert's Arpeggione Sonata

Now for something more traditional instead of those tick-tock-bang-boom modern pieces. Have been listening to Franz Schubert's Arpeggione Sonata pretty often these few days. Parts of this profound and emotionally volatile piece sounds terribly anguished and exhibits such cyclothymic qualities while the other parts present the cheerful and lively side of his character, even sounding sugary sweet at times. And the magical side of this piece to me is the transitions between the dark and bright sides never sounded unnatural and it reflects how much emotional turmoil Schubert had gone through in the process of composing this magnificent piece of art.

It was written exactly two years after he contacted syphilis and the following excerpt is part of a letter Schubert had written to his friend Leopold Kupelweiser:

In a word, I feel myself to be the most unhappy and wretched creature in the world. Imagine a man whose health will never be right again, and who in sheer despair over this ever makes things worse and worse, instead of better; imagine a man, I say, whose most brilliant hopes have come to nothing, to whom the joy of love and friendship have nothing to offer but pain, at best, whose enthusiasm (at least of the stimulating kind) for all things beautiful threatens to vanish, and ask yourself, is he not a miserable, unhappy being? — "My peace is gone, my heart is sore, I shall find it never and nevermore." I may well sing every day now, for each night, I go to bed hoping never to wake again, and each morning only tells me of yesterday's grief.
-Franz Schubert, Dokumente 1817-1830, i: Texte, ed. T. G. Waidelich (Tutzing, 1993) 234

And I just know that I'm not going to let this most beautiful gem escape me and I shall master the transcription of piece for guitar and a string ensemble in the near future.

Andrés Segovia - The Primitive Man

Andrés Segovia

I really wonder how would the present guitar scene be if Andrés Segovia, the father of the modern day guitar, had accepted Arnold Schoenberg's request to write for the guitar. He had previously found the guitar repertoire to be too limited and asked the composers of his day to write for the guitar, yet when Arnold Schoenberg and composers of atonal music came forward to offer to write for the guitar, he had rejected them straight in the face. I do respect him for the fact that he was the founder of the modern day guitar, otherwise the classical guitar will never make it up to the concert stage and John Williams will probably follow his father's footsteps and be a jazz guitarist. But I'm just a little piqued for his action of rejecting compositions by atonal composers and playing most compositions by Manuel Ponce in his later years. Ponce was another composer who was too primitive for his time. I have to admit that he was a prolific composer and I really love his music, but I thought that he would have been more famous if he had been borned a century earlier. Oh well...

Maybe I'm sinking too deeply into modern music. I could feel myself shaking a little when I realised the fact that Schoenberg had requested to write for the guitar and Segovia had slammed the door shut in his face. You could have imagined what nasty things I would have done to Segovia if I was able to go back in time. Atonal music may seem to have less emotional value than traditional tonal music, but I'm liking them for their experimental value. And I just felt it's time we ought to recognise atonal music as a development in the timeline of music instead of pretending that this style of composition had never been present all these while.