The Upside-Down

On the night of a chamber music recital at the camp where I taught this summer, with 20-plus excited performers (ages 8-16 or so) hanging out pre-recital in a large classroom, I noticed younger students writing on the whiteboard (as students will do). When I teach music theory in the same space, I generally pull down the screen and AirPlay from my iPad to the screen; but in this case, I thought it would be a fun surprise suddenly to project something right onto the whiteboard while they were writing. 

Deconstructing Brunch

I have not yet received much feedback about my most recent post, in which I combine a serious Sondheim song with a silly song about Barbie; but on a Facebook Sondheim forum, a commenter wrote: "I don't know whether to love this or to be horrified." I suspect this comes from a point-of-view which holds Sondheim's works to be somewhat sacred. I don't even completely disagree with that notion, but I think I've proven over and over here that playing around with greatness doesn't have to diminish the greatness. Meanwhile, this kind of play can yield all sorts of discoveries.

The Barbies Who Brunch

Well, here we are right in the middle of August with the annual existential crisis that marks the near end of summer. (I realize that in some parts of the country, school started weeks ago, but I've still basically got a week to go before real work kicks back in.) What better way to mark an existential crisis than by bringing together a world-weary Sondheim anthem and a Europop cultural critique of empty-headed materialism? But first, a little background.

Upgrading Haydn

Almost exactly five years ago, I wrote about an obsessive love I developed for the slow movement of a late Haydn string quartet - a post which included a homemade recording of my own piano transcription of this music. I believed then, as I still do, that this arrangement would rank as the best slow movement from any of Haydn's 50-plus piano sonatas, although you are free to disagree. [This, starting at 8:23, would likely be the closest competitor, but I am admittedly not a Haydn connoisseur.] My one frustration had been that the recording was made on my own piano which was not in great shape at the time - oh, and a kind YouTube commenter pointed out a wrong note in m.10, so that had always bothered me. [There were likely other wrong notes, and certainly some imprecisions, but this one - which I had misprinted in my arrangement - was just stupid wrong, although it doesn't sound bad.]

An Inner Augmented Sixth

First of all, HAPPY AUGMENTED SIXTH DAY! If you've forgotten to celebrate, or somehow don't know why today is so special, you can check in on the original "Augmented Sixth Day" post from 2012, plus other past celebrations here:

• Happy Augmented Sixth Day - 8/6/2012
• Happy Augmented Sixth Day! (2016 ed.) - 8/6/2016
• Augmented Reality - 10/16/2021
• An Aug 6 for Aug 6 in an August Sextet - 8/6/2022
• The Augmented Reality Waltz - 8/6/2025