Category: Music
Composing time
November 13th, 2011One of my students asked an interesting question by e-mail, about the time composers take to write a piece. Why do some composers seem to write very fast while others take a longer time? My reply is worth sharing, I think.These days. I accidentally… more »
The Mouse Loves the Rice
September 17th, 2011"The Mouse Loves the Rice" is a song Chinese love to hate. At least, the younger generation regard it as outdated and treacly (it certainly is that), and my students take it as an example of exactly what they want not to do in their careers. But I suspec… more »
Back in Guangzhou; recent musical discoveries
August 26th, 2011I'm posting this update actually a couple of days after coming back to GZ. After the -- remarkably! -- uneventful flight, with none of the drama that we faced on the way from Hong Kong to Washington, we passed a few days in Zhuhai, struggling with jetlag… more »
The year's over and done
July 11th, 2011... and I'm forty-one. Funny, I don't feel a day over 53. Here's what the next couple of days have in store:Tuesday: Bus from Guangzhou to Shekou (suburb of Shenzhen, right across from Hong Kong)Wednesday morning (early, ugh): Ferry from Shekou t… more »
Neo-complexity rhythm generator
May 1st, 2011Last week, in my SuperCollider lesson, my student came in with an excellent question: how to generate rhythms similar to "neo-complexity" composers such as Brian Ferneyhough. (During my grad school days, we used to mock this loose-knit band of composers… more »
Audience first!
April 10th, 2011We just got back from the city's concert hall, architecturally reminiscent of another building significant to music history: the Philips Pavilion, site of Edgard Varèse's groundbreaking Poème électronique in 1958. The occasion? A concert by the C… more »
Happy new year! I'm kicking you out
January 1st, 20114:30 PM New Year's Eve, just on the way out the door to a new year's concert by the Conservatory's symphony orchestra, a call comes in to Jimmy's phone. It's the owner of the apartment we're renting. She is selling the place and we need to be out in 2-3… more »
Seen hither and yon
December 14th, 2010(Geek humor in 3... 2... 1...) In the Spring documentation Jimmy's been reading lately: "[an] MVC controller stereotype." Really? And which controller stereotype would that be? Jewish mother? Chinese mother? That's even better than new Person() in the… more »
Yo-Yo Ma
November 20th, 2010Tuesday morning: "James -- Yo-Yo Ma is giving a master class in the conservatory at 11. Do you want to see some of it?" YES!!!!! I usually need morning time for final preparation for my afternoon lessons, but that would have to wait. It was the right… more »
"It's going to be a bumpy ride"
September 9th, 2010That's to be expected. What I didn't expect is how quickly my buffer period to ease into teaching would erode. At first, I was told the students in my audio class would have varying degrees of experience with audio manipulation, so I started slow. Well,… more »
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