Therefore, just as water retains no constant shape, so in [life] there are no constant conditions. - Sun Tzu
2005, April 10
Violin lesson one
"A full lovely forte", that of which dreams are made.
This year I once again started music lessons. I've done this before and given up.
This time, starting out again, I have had the good fortune to find a teacher who combines physical therapy, violin technique and musicianship. Emily Onderdonk, violist, violinist and teacher, with keyboard skills to accompany her students, looks at the music not note by note as I have experienced before, but from the standpoint of the character of the whole piece.
This has changed the focus of awareness from the left hand and all those fingering problems to the right hand, the bow and its travels over the strings. Strangely, this has made the experience of the music and the violin completely different.
I am so thankful to have found such a wonderful teacher at this time of my life.
2005, April 08
Schübler chorale 2, BWV 646
Whither shall I flee? (Wo soll ich fliehen hin)
This is the second Schübler chorale, BWV 646, based on the melody "Wo soll ich fliehen hin". The melody is of secular origin, from an anonymous composer. According to Charles S. Terry, the name of this anonymous melody is "Venus du und dein Kind".
This melody is used in cantatas associated with the 8th, 17th, 19th, 21st, and 22nd Sundays after Trinity (Schmieder).
This organ chorale, alone among the Schüblers, is not a transcription from a known cantata. There is speculation that it may be from a lost cantata. It is a trio in E minor, with the chorale in the pedal.
| The music: | BWV 646 | The cantus firmus in the pedal. | |
| BWV 5.7 | A four part harmonization of the chorale melody. | ||
| BWV 89.6 | A four part harmonization of the chorale melody. | ||
| BWV 136.6 | A four part harmonization of the chorale melody. | ||
| BWV 148.6 | A four part harmonization of the chorale melody. | ||
| BWV 188.6 | A four part harmonization of the chorale melody. | ||
| BWV 694 | Another organ chorale on the same melody. |
MP3 files of these chorales are available. If you want one, leave me a note in a comment with your email address and I will send it. Unfortunately, the files are too large to put them on my ftp server for general distribution.
Some names under which this chorale is known:
Auf meinen lieben Gott
Wo soll ich fliehen hin
In my beloved God I trust
In my dear God
Where shall I fly?
Where shall I refuge find?
Whither am I to flee?
Whither shall I flee?
Where may I fly, oh where?
Thematisch-systematisches Verzeichnis der musikalischen Werke von Johann Sebastian Bach.
ed. Wolfgang Schmieder, Breitkopf and Hartel, Wiesbaden. 1990 ISBN 3-7651-0255-5.
The Organ Music of J.S. Bach, 2nd ed.
Peter Williams, Cambridge University Press 2003
2005, April 05
Excerpt Pnin, Vladimir Nabokov
An Excerpt from Pnin, Vladimir Nabokov, 1907-1977
…everything surged forward—truck one, Pnin, truck two. From where I stood I watched them recede in the frame of the roadway, between the Moorish house and the Lombardy poplar. Then the little sedan boldly swung past the front truck and, free at last, spurted up the shining road which one could make out narrowing to a thread of gold in the soft mist where hill after hill made beauty of distance, and where there was simply no saying what miracle might happen.
2005, April 03
Tree with a heart
Can you find the heart hidden in the tree?
Here is a page from the journal of Richard Bell of Wild West Yorkshire. Does anyone else see a heart in this tree?
2005, April 02
Split second from death
A motorcyclist one split second from death.
Driving on Hilltop Drive yesterday, a motorcyclist came riding toward me. He became impatient, sped up and passed the car in front of him. This brought him into my lane. He swung back in time to avoid a head-on collision. However, he underestimated his own speed, and was unable to keep control of the bike as he came by my car. He was falling toward my lane as we passed.
In my rear view mirror, I saw him lying across my lane, right where I had been less than a half second before. Now what I felt was the most intense rage. He had nearly involved me in a fatal accident. Fatal to him, because I am driving a large station wagon. I was most angry that he nearly messed up my whole work day because of his incredible stupidity. He picked himself up unhurt. I swore a lot and shaking, continued driving.
Will he learn patience, some reluctance to take unnecessary risks, consideration for other people on the road, more refined motorcycling skills? I hope so, but somehow, I doubt it.
2005, March 31
David Lloyd Rivinus, luthier
More pictures, information at Rivinus instruments.
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Salvidore Dali? Radically distorted? I don't think so. I would love to see one, in the flesh and try it out. After much hand pain, neck pain, shoulder pain, a student longs for a more humane instrument. Here is a designer concerned with the human side of the equation. Fingers, arms, shoulders, neck, are all considered.
I especially appreciate his drawings and the discussion of design on his website. And, he is interested in materials that spare endangered species and decrease the weight of the instruments (also sparing the player).
From David Rivinus by email March 7, 2005
The name David Lloyd is from his mother's Welsh side of the family.
His father's side was German, with the name Bachmann (man of the stream) which was latinized to Rivinus, a common practice in academic circles.
Quote:
"If you have a listing of Bach works, look up his cantata BWV 36b "Die Freude Reget Sich" and then look at the dedication. You'll get quite a surprise! My family was prominent in Leipzig in the 18th century. Several of my ancestors were professors and administrators at the university and had close ties to the Bach family. One of them was even the Trustee of Bach's will. Another was the godfather of Johann Christian Bach. And a third was Johann Birnbaum who publicly defended Bach from the attacks being leveled at him in the Leipzig press. As a musician and instrument maker, this has been a lot of fun for me!"
BWV 36b Die Freude reget sich
Congratulatory Cantata for the Leipzig scholar Johann Florens Rivinus (probably for his inauguration as Rector of the University).
log to log to blog
How did the word for a big chunk of a trunk of a tree become the word for a journal?
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A log of wood was fastened to a log line, dropped in the water and run out from a log reel on the deck of a ship. The log line was knotted at specified intervals. When the line was reeled after a specified length of time, the number of knots measured the rate of the ship's speed.
The book in which this information was written was called the log, and became a record of the ship's progress, then became the full nautical record of the journey.
And now these journals are published on the web, becoming web logs or blogs.
Snow, by Louis MacNeice
Snow, a poem by Louis MacNeice, 1907-1963
The room was suddenly rich and the great bay window was
Spawning snow and pink roses against it
Soundlessly collateral and incompatible:
World is suddener than we fancy it.
World is crazier and more of it than we think,
Incorrigibly plural. I peel and portion
A tangerine and spit the pips and feel
The drunkeness of things being various.
And the fire flames with a bubbling sound for world
Is more spiteful and gay than one supposes-
On the tongue on the eyes on the ears in the palms of one's hands-
There is more than glass between the snow and the huge roses.
