Lisztomania...

It's Cliburn time in Texas. Over on the Art and Seek blog Olin Chism reviews the contestants' repertoire choices and points out that there are no fewer than 36 potential performances of Liszt (not surprisingly, Chopin and Beethoven are tied for second with 34 potential performances each). For more on repertoire, read this post. Other Cliburn news/schedules are here.

I have mixed feelings about the Cliburn competition and piano competitions in general. Judging at this level is subjective (as is the nature of judging in the arts) and the outcome of the Cliburn competition is rarely a true measure or predictor of future success. Scott Cantrell of the Dallas Morning News wrote a great piece on this topic. Read it here. To add to my mistrust of the Van Cliburn in particular, I was really surprised by the selections made for this year's competition. After watching the screening auditions in Fort Worth earlier this semester, I felt the judges chose personality and celebrity over musicality and technical ability. I was pretty shocked by the selection of performers who I felt gave clearly sub-par performances. It seemed apparent that judges had favorites going in, and did not judge solely on the audition.

That said, it seems appropriate to listen to this today:


(Van Cliburn playing Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 12)

And in related news, I can't help but love this song. I tried to resist, but it gets stuck in your head and it really isn't half bad. I'd say this is one of only a handful (if not the only) musicologically-themed music videos around. It's a band (black skinny jeans, shaggy hair and all) playing on the steps of Bayreuth and visiting the Liszt museum. Now THAT is a music video...

Ira says (quote of the day)...

"Teaching music is like any teaching except that when you fail, it is loud. And failure is so easy. Every note is a chance to mess up."
~ Ira Glass

From an old This American Life episode on music lessons. You can listen to the entire episode here (it includes an excerpt of David Sedaris singing commercial jingles in Billie Holiday's voice).

Time (killing it)...

1. "Paint" (click to change color and drag)

2. "Compose Music"


The person who did the above clip is currently my hero.

3. Watch TV




"No duh to the max, Dick..."

Deep Blue Sea, Darlin'...

I love a rainy Saturday...especially just before the inevitable onslaught of the oppressive Texas sun. I've had this song on repeat all day. I will never tire of this song and I just decided that I've loved it long enough and hard enough to move it over to my "all time fav" playlist. It's a very exclusive list. Happy induction to the list, Daniel Rossen...

Deep Blue Sea - Dan Rossen of Grizzly Bear

A day in the life of moi...

6:00am - Try to wake up in time to go for a run.

6:10, 6:20, 6:30, 6:40 - Fall asleep, hit snooze, repeat...

7:00am - Give up on the run and make coffee instead. Grade, grade, grade.

10:00am - Sign lease on new apartment.

10:30am - Get more coffee.

11:00am - 1:00pm - Meeting with professor about thesis. Discuss methodology, minimalism, and nineteenth-century French fascination with the occult.

1:00-1:10 - Daydream about the dissertation I will write at Columbia in 3 years...

1:10 - 3:00pm - Eat Mexican food and drink a margarita (or two) with a friend visiting from out of town.

3:15pm - Get coffee to cure lingering buzz from margaritas.

3:30pm - 8:30pm - Teach 7 piano lessons. Give very serious and thoughtful feedback about such pieces as "The James Bond Theme," "Singin' the Blues," and "Sonatina in G No. 3."

9:00pm - Sit down to finish grading papers. Too tired. Make a cup of coffee. Still can't focus. Read things on the internet. Blog. Grade two more papers. This is boring as hell. Answer emails from piano student's parents about scheduling and what type of cupcakes we want at the recital Saturday. Write a final exam. Grade one more paper. Seriously, boring as hell.

11:00pm - Give up on papers (these kids can wait two days for their effing projects!). Set alarm for 5:30am (so I can maybe-just-maybe get these papers graded by tomorrow morning at 8am after all...)

11:05pm - Head. On. Pillow. Goodnight, moon!

You know it is the end of the semester when...

1. You are averaging 3-4 hours of sleep a night.
2. Um...I don't know...I'm too tired to think of a two.

You know what's worse than catching swine flu?

Listening to this composition based on the genetic sequence of the H1N1 virus by Stephan Zielinski. Read about it here.