See more Barab!

I couldn't resist the pun. Here's a bit more musical Jewish wisdom from Seymour Barab!



You can find your way to more of this feast (there are 14 parts in all) here.

This is the first installment in a celebration of Seymour's 90th birthday this coming January. Singers and actors from all over the world will be contributing their performances to this archive during the coming months. If you might be interested in trying your hand (and other parts of your vocal and acting anatomy) at any of these jokes, send me an e-mail, and I'll send you a PDF of the score.

Seymour Barab's Jewish Humor from Oy to Vey

I can't think of a better way to kick off the New Year than to offer a link to this (freshly-uploaded) performance of the first three numbers in Seymour Barab's one-act opera Jewish Humor from Oy to Vey.

(Please forgive the moment of silence at the beginning. I'm new at this.)

Here is Part 2: "Futility," "Questionnaire," and "In the Cards." Stay tuned for more! There are 18 jokes in all.

Follow that Gypsy Band!

From Love in the Afternoon:

The quartet, known only as "The Gypsies," plays almost constantly throughout the movie. The movie is a bit creepy. It is actually very creepy, considering the nearly 30-year age difference between Gary Cooper and Audrey Hepburn (and the characters they play), but the music is spectacular. And Hepburn plays a cellist (and, to a certain extent, the cello).

Practical Thoughts

I really love practicing the music that John David and I playing for our October 17th concert. While practicing the Brahms this morning, I observed (once again) that Brahms notated his music rather impractically for the violin, but at the same time he had an impeccable sense of tessitura. He knows exactly how what he writes will sound in the various registers of the instrument, and on the instrument's different strings. His phrase directions and phrase lengths are natural and obvious, if you just pay attention to the musical syntax.

If I find that breaking a long slur, so that there are two or four notes to a bow (rather than 20 or more), some passages end up sounding smoother. Another fiddle player (with a better bow arm then me), might take up the challenge of keeping everything the way it is on the printed page, either for technical reasons, or to dutifully do what "the composer says to do." Since Brahms wasn't a violinist, I believe that his articulations are best approached with the intention of keeping the integrity of the direction and contour of the phrase, and not regarded as a series of orange cones to navigate around. I believe that Brahms wanted his music to be played by flesh and blood people who had individual (and strong) personalities, and perhaps individual approaches to technique. His violin writing was informed by Joachim's technique,and we can see how oddly he held his bow.

The only way I would compare my experience to Brahms' experience as a composer (he is, as far as I'm concerned, the incomparable one) is that I like my music to be played by people with personalities that are different from mine. I certainly like my music to be played by people who have far better technique than I do. Perhaps, in that way, a composer is like a clothing designer, or a hat maker; people who usually design their works to be worn by a variety of people. Clothes look different on different people. They are also worn for different reasons, and in different weather. A well-designed piece of clothing will be durable, practical, versatile, and beautiful.

The Anti-Heifetz, Perhaps?

From Mohiuddin ibn El-Arabi:

People think that a Sheikh should show miracles and manifest illumination. The requirement in a teacher, however, is only that he should possess all that the disciple needs.

Towards the end of this video of Ben Zander, there is a wonderful case of a student finding the right teacher at the right time. Perhaps Zander is, in many respects, the "Anti-Heifetz."

Lessons with Heifetz

I have been reading Marjorie Kransberg-Talvi's three-part series of posts about auditioning to be in Jascha Heifetz's master class (Chapter 9 of Frantic: The Memoir).

The First Audition
Thank You, Mr. Heifetz
Conditional Acceptance

Musicians' Humor: How to Cook a Conductor

The concert season has started, and though is a bit early to be thinking about Thanksgiving dinner, ideas keep popping up. Jason Heath pointed me to this bit of food for thought.

Kol Nidre for two Double Reeds

Amoris International has made a beautiful PDF edition (to download for free) of my setting for oboe and bassoon (and now oboe d'amore and bass oboe) of the Lewandowski Kol Nidre that is often used for the first service of Yom Kippur (as an alternative to the Bruch).

You can access a PDF file that has other duet configurations (for any combination of C and/or B-flat instruments) as well as PDF files for solo string versions (viola, violin, and cello) through my thematic catalog post.

The Spice That Says Love

This heart-shaped bay leaf made some tasty split pea soup!

Karen Armstrong on Islamophobia and Compassion

Karen Armstrong quotes the thirteenth-century Sufi philosopher Muid ad-Din ibn al-Arabi

Do not attach yourself in an exclusive manner to any one creed, so that you disbelieve all the rest: if you do this, you will miss much good; nay, you will fail to realize the real truth of the matter. God, the omnipresent and omnipotent, is not limited by any one creed, for He says, "Wheresoever ye turn, there is the face of Allah" (Quran 2.109). Everyone praises what he believes; his god is his own creature, and in praising it he praises himself. Consequently he blames the beliefs of others, which he would not do if he were just but his dislike is based on ignorance

You can read her whole post here.

Happy New Year 5771

. . . and a big "thank you" to Miles Hoffman for writing this excellent op-ed piece in today's New York Times.

A Moment of Zen

Last night I had my first hour-long drive in the dark of the concert season (it was after a pops concert in a park). The night was clear, the traffic was (as usual) minimal, and the radio signal was strong. Coming to my car on that strong radio signal was an interview with Karen Maezen Miller, who was discussing her new book Hand Wash Cold: Care Instructions for an Ordinary Life. I was fascinated by the discussion. Miller suggests that happiness can be found at the bottom of a laundry basket, and that happiness is something fleeting that results from completing a task, particularly one that you might approach reluctantly.

I have always liked the idea of Zen, and have always considered my practicing a sort of Zen-like meditation, but I know that people who practice Zen for Zen's sake would certainly not consider my meditative musical experiences with Sevcik and Dounis as something having anything to do with the practice of Zen. It's OK. I don't think of the practice of sitting in lotus position (for people with short legs it is extremely uncomfortable, you know) and contemplating the moment is anything particularly artistic or earth-shattering, but I suppose there are all sorts of paths to achieving a sense of personal dignity.

I guess I'll go and fold some laundry, and practice a few scales.

UPDATE: I got very little happiness from folding laundry, and even less from putting it away, but I enjoyed practicing a great deal.

Two thumbs up for Roger Ebert

Read Roger Ebert's piece in the Chicago Sun Times. (Thanks Michael)

Violin Humidification Solution

This is a picture of a cello Dampit with two ex-asparagus rubber bands on its upper end. It had been sitting on my bookshelf for years, ever since Ben and I fished it out of his cello years and years ago (it somehow made its way into the body of the instrument, and never went in there again).

Suddenly I got the idea that it might make a good humidification system for my violin, so I removed the string tube (I never used it anyway), and replaced it with this Dampit.

As you can see I have a stretto device attached to my case. Once you let the little bags that go in the plastic case dry up completely, they never work again. Sometimes they get moldy, and then they lose their ability to absorb water. It is easy to forget to saturate a stretto gel bag when you can't actually see if it needs saturation. After going through a couple of gel bags (two come with the system), I ended up putting a bit of sponge in mine, which does very little to help humidify my instrument. The Dampit does a lot.

The cello dampit goes for ten bucks. A Stretto with two gel bags costs $30.00, and a replacement gel bag costs $11.00 (plus postage).

Fanfare for Who?

What would Aaron Copland think about his Fanfare for the Common Man and the "Hoe Down" from his Rodeo being used to introduce the organizer and main speaker of the most inappropriate "faux" media event I can think of in current American history?

Of course the broadcasters will have to pay ASCAP fees to Copland's publishers, but it is just a pittance. The money funding this kind of nonsense flows like oil.

I wonder what all those silly people who are bowing to their self-ordained (and highly-funded) prophet, who is trying to stand in (and trivialize) the shoes of a great international hero (who was an actual minister), would think of this music that they identify as "typically-American," if they knew it was written by a composer who was sympathetic to socialism (he actually voted communist in 1936), was extremely smart, was openly gay, and non-religiously Jewish?

Disclaimer: This musical observation is being reported second hand. I couldn't bring myself to turn on the television, even for a peek, but Michael did--only long enough to witness the way that music can be bought and used in ways that a composer, who is no longer living, could never imagine.

UPDATE: If you have an inkling about similarities of the rhetoric used by these people in these rallies, and on television and radio, to a time in history that we should never forget, read this post for a lucid reality check.