好書

Alban Berg: Master of the smallest link
Theodor W. Adorno, Cambridge University Press, 1968.

Alban Berg: Historical and Analytical Persectives
David Gable and Robert P. Morgan, Oxford University Press, 1991.

move on

That's it, 2008 年的最後一天. 這陣子是沉潛的狀態, 連帶的動作思緒都很緩慢/雜亂. 還好最近受到了一點激勵, 連帶的有了動力起來! 加油啊, 下學期也要過的很精采哪.

所以08在忙什麼?
1. 有彈了很好的音樂會, 也有普普, 或是自己不甚滿意的演出.
2. 主修的狀態上半年不太好, 可是下半年努力過有大幅改善歐. (那, 下學期的音樂會應該會不錯啊....)
3. 今年書唸史無前例的多,不只一次 極度焦慮的想練琴卻又卡到書唸不完的鬼打牆狀態.
(這學期過的像是音樂學主修的日子.)
4. 今年飛行哩程在下半年暴增,綜合玩耍和正事, 結果未知;
歷經了生平最熱(120F)和最冷的兩個極端溫度(6F).
5. 依舊沒有時間去照相....很想念東岸的樹. sign.
(不然平常練琴是有什麼好照的? 紀錄從鋼琴裡突然冒出的瓢蟲; 從頭上燈罩裡竄出玩自由落體的蟋蟀?)
6. 頭一次去了baby shower; 然後第一次抱著朋友的孩子.
(新手媽媽1.0: 為什麼我家北鼻在妳手上看起來比較大?)
7. 今年在期末考時很順利的"偵測"到即將發生的災難, 在聲樂的case裡, 就是跳段/忘詞/亂編曲/從來沒聽過的花腔; 器樂中, solo 不知道神游到火星還是冥王星去了. 當下接了過去, 漂漂亮亮的結束.
8. 這學期鋼琴課總計當掉5隻小鬼, 剩下的都沒有在成績上為難她們.
9. 這麼多年第一次看到Momo, 贈品是 Nov. 4th,08 的Obama @Grand park, Chicago.

沒啥驚天動地的事件, 就是一些雞毛蒜皮, 微不足道的小事們.

跨進了2009, 開始27歲, 也快要修完博士班的課, 然後呢? 老話一句, "It's nothing when you get a doctoral degree in your 20s...." 想要做的事情太多, 想學的領域太廣, 然不是第一天知道自己的不足. 我知道很多事現在不做, 以後就沒有機會, 但卻要記得輕重緩急. 試著在焦頭爛額中先冷靜下來, 多陪陪家人, 然後要有耐心, 不能毛毛躁躁的.

what will you do if you can go back and change the time? 我想我不會改變什麼. 一路跌跌撞撞的走來, 這些累積而成的經驗造就現在的觀點.(當然會想直接快轉跳過那些愚蠢的片段!)只是感謝而已. 謝謝家人, 身旁的朋友們, 所有合作過的搭檔, 然後, 誠實的面對自己. 唯一的願望是勇敢些, 能夠冷靜下來陳述自己想要表達的議題.

恩, 非常瑣碎的思緒. 開心的在家裡看NCIS, 然後新年快樂!

Berg Piano Sonata Opus 1

Glenn Gould Plays Berg Piano Sonata Opus 1 - PART 1


Glenn Gould Plays Berg Piano Sonata Opus 1 - PART 2


Mitsuko Uchida plays Berg Piano Sonata part 1


6-28-08 MTAC Solo Competition, Peter Walsh


Glenn Gould on Schoenberg, Webern, and Berg


Glenn Gould on The Idea of North, Fugues, and Webern


Art of Piano -- Glenn Gould

The Broken Heart

News o' grief had overteaken
Dark-eyed Fanny, now vorseaken;
There she zot, wi' breast a-heaven,
While vrom zide to zide, wi' grieven,
Vell her head, wi' tears a-creepen
Down her cheaks, in bitter weepen.
There wer still the ribbon-bow
She tied avore her hour ov woe,
An' there wer still the hans that tied it
Hangen white,
Or wringen tight,
In ceare that drowned all ceare bezide it.

When a man, wi' heartless slighten,
Mid become a maiden's blighten,
He mid cearelessly vorseake her,
But must answer to her Meaker;
He mid slight, wi' selfish blindness,
All her deeds o' loven-kindness,
God wull waigh 'em wi' the slighten
That mid be her love's requiten;
He do look on each deceiver,
He do know
What weight o' woe
Do break the heart ov ev'ry griever.

- William Barnes

Youtube Symphony

Youtube Symphony

Join the YouTube Symphony Orchestra. Everyone's welcome! Join the collaborative video performance by submitting a video playing your part in a symphony for YouTube.

1.The instrument you selected is the Piano:
(Internet Symphony "Eroica")

2.Audition for the Carnegie Hall performance. Submit your talent video performance of one or two of the recommended pieces on this list for your chance to be selected to go to New York on April 15, 2009.

Schumann: Kinderszenen, Op. 15 Traumerei
Mozart: Piano Sonata No. 11 in A Major, K. 331, Mvt. III, "Alla Turca" - Allegretto
Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 21 In C, Op. 53 "Waldstein" Mvt. 1 Allegro con brio
Brahms: Intermezzo In A Major, Opus 118, No. 2

------------------------------
http://youtube.com/symphony
The composer of the Internet Symphony for YouTube talks about his inspiration for the piece.

Interview: Tan Dun on the YouTube Symphony project

Mozart's 'Don Giovanni'

什麼樣的歌劇始於一樁謀殺? Mozart 如何在短短的一小段劇情中融入了多樣的風格和技巧?
source from NPR music
-----------------------
Mozart's 'Don Giovanni'
From Houston Grand Opera

World of Opera, November 2, 2007 - As the legend goes, he was the quintessential rake — a womanizing scoundrel with a list of amorous conquests so long that his right-hand man needs an entire aria just to outline it! His name is Don Juan or, in Mozart's musical version of the story, Don Giovanni.

Mozart's opera has been described as a comedy, and it has any number of uproarious moments. But there's far more to Don Giovanni than just a series of big laughs, just as the notorious Don is more than just an unprincipled, single-minded ladies' man. The opera's comic element is driven by Giovanni's devious schemes and hijinks. But both Lorenzo da Ponte's libretto and Mozart's matchless music ensure that the dire consequences of those schemes are as evident as their humor.

The result is a disturbing ambiguity that's at the core of Mozart's masterpiece. The Don's personality is so beguiling that audiences actually tend to root for him, even as his dark side becomes more and more obvious. Still, when he eventually receives a personal invitation to hell, and his enemies rejoice, it's hard to blame them.

Don Giovanni has been widely regarded as the greatest opera ever composed. That's a pretty bold statement, but however you rank it, Mozart's opera is a brilliant combination of stark human tragedy and touching comedy, set to music of limitless genius. On World of Opera host Lisa Simeone presents it in a new production from Houston Grand Opera, starring baritone Mariusz Kwiecien in the title role.

======================================
The Story of 'Don Giovanni'
NPR.org, November 3, 2007 - ACT ONE: The central character in Mozart's Don Giovanni is, of course, the Don himself — a quick witted love-'em-and-leave-'em type, with a trail of jilted women in his wake. But in Mozart's opera, we get the feeling that the Don's luck is turning sour.

As the darkly colored Overture subsides, we find Don Giovanni already in trouble. His personal servant Leporello complains bitterly, to himself, about Giovanni's increasingly reckless behavior. And indeed, the Don's most recent attempted seduction — of a noblewoman, Donna Anna — is in the process of going completely haywire.

Donna Anna runs from her father's house screaming vengeance against an unknown intruder who entered her bedroom disguised in a cloak, pretending to be her fiance. Naturally, the intruder was Giovanni. Anna's father, the Commendatore, catches up with the disguised Giovanni and proposes a duel. In the ensuing swordfight, Giovanni kills him. That's just great, Leporello says — first rape the daughter, then murder the father. Giovanni is unconcerned, and strolls away calmly. But when Donna Anna and her fiance Don Ottavio show up and find her father dead, they swear revenge.

The next morning, Giovanni and Leporello stumble across Donna Elvira, another one of Giovanni's conquests. She's tracked him down to insist that he live up to his romantic promises of true love and fidelity. To demonstrate why that's not likely to happen, Leporello reads her an exhaustive list of the Don's former lovers, in the well-known "Catalogue Aria." While Giovanni tries to make a clean getaway, Elvira, too, swears vengeance.

Giovanni now spots a brand new temptation, a young peasant girl called Zerlina. Leporello sidetracks her fiance, Masetto, and Giovanni sweet-talks Zerlina in the tender duet "La ci darem la mano." But Donna Elvira shows up, warning the naive girl to beware. She gives the same advice to Donna Anna and Don Ottavio. Giovanni dismisses Elvira's ravings as a symptom of madness. But eventually Anna recognizes the Don's voice as that of the cloaked man who killed her father. When Giovanni leaves, Anna urges Ottavio to avenge the murder immediately.

Act One finishes up at Don Giovanni's estate, where he's throwing a pre-wedding party for Zerlina and Masetto. Anna, Ottavio and Elivra arrive with masks on, plotting their collective revenge. As the orchestra plays a few dance numbers, a scream is heard from somewhere in the palace. It's Zerlina, trying to fight off Giovanni's advances. The Don tries to blame Leporello for the attack, but everyone sees through the lies. They denounce Giovanni, as he makes yet another narrow escape.
---------------------------------
Act II
ACT TWO: Leporello is still complaining about the treatment he gets from his boss, especially the dangers he's been forced to confront, and by now he's ready to quit. Giovanni talks him out of it, with the help of a little extra cash.

Giovanni's next scheme is to have his way with the cute young maid who attends Donna Elvira. Giovanni and Leporello switch clothes. The plan is that Leporello — pretending to be Giovanni — will sweet-talk Elvira out of the way. Then Giovanni, dressed in his servant's clothes, can seduce the maid. At first, it all goes swimmingly. Elvira is entranced by the phony Giovanni's poetic words and goes off with Leporello, leaving Giovanni to serenade the maid.

Things go downhill when Masetto shows up with a band of peasants, searching for Giovanni. They're well-armed, and plan to kill him if they find him. Giovanni, still dressed as Leporello, disguises his voice and says he knows where the scoundrel is. After he sends everyone else off in various directions he's free to give Masetto a thorough beating.

After Zerlina comforts Masetto, the scene changes to a dark courtyard. Leporello is still in Giovanni's clothes, and that's about to get him in trouble. As he grows tired of wooing Donna Elvira, Anna, Ottavio, Masetto and Zerlina accost him, believing that they've finally cornered the notorious Don. Leporello begs for his life, astounds everyone by removing his Giovanni disguise, and beats a hasty retreat. Next, Elvira gets a poignant moment to herself, with a dramatic aria lamenting her feelings of hate — and love — for Don Giovanni.

The next scene finds Giovanni and Leporello in a local graveyard. They're discussing recent events when they get quite a start. They're sitting near the giant stone statue of the Commendatore, Giovanni's Act One murder victim — and the statue begins to speak. "You will have your last laugh before the next dawn," it tells Giovanni. Leporello is terrified, but Giovanni is characteristically calm. He orders Leporello to invite the statue to dinner that evening. The statue accepts the offer.

The opera's final scene is set in Don Giovanni's dining room. He's feasting alone, with Leporello attending. A small orchestra plays the popular tunes of the day, including music from Mozart's own opera, The Marriage of Figaro. Donna Elvira arrives, attempting once more to convince Giovanni to turn his life around. He laughs at the notion.

As Elvira leaves she lets out a loud scream. Leporello goes to investigate, and screams even louder when finds the stone statue of the Commendatore knocking at the door. "You invited me to dinner, and I have come," the statue bellows.

Giovanni takes the statue by the hand and a icy chill rushes over him. Three times, the statue demands that Giovanni repent his evil ways. Each time Giovanni refuses. "Your time is up!" declares the statue. Flames rise around the Don, the ground sinks beneath him, and Giovanni descends into hell.

As the opera closes Leporello tells the others what happened, and in a large ensemble they each ponder their next moves. Don Ottavio is anxious to marry Donna Anna — but Anna, who has had a taste of excitement amidst all the turmoil, now says she needs a full year of mourning before she can marry the sedate Ottavio. Donna Elvira is fed up with the perils of romance, and decides to join a convent. Masetto and Zerlina take everything in stride and head home for dinner. Leporello says he'll head for the nearest tavern to find a less troublesome employer.

Finally, everyone concludes that Giovanni has met a just end in hell — the fate that awaits all evildoers. Still, that final ensemble leaves us feeling that somehow, with Don Giovanni gone, the world isn't quite as interesting as it used to be.

Into the Wood

original Broadway cast,
Into the Woods-1991 TV - 2:31:15

Dr. Seuss' How The Grinch Stole Christmas

1966 - Deluxe Remastered Edition - Part 1 of 3


1966 - Deluxe Remastered Edition - Part 2 of 3


Deluxe Remastered Edition - Part 3 of 3

Where Are You Christmas

melody from "How the Grinch Stole Christmas"

Where Are You Christmas

Faith Hill

Walking Around

It so happens I am sick of being a man.
And it happens that I walk into tailorshops and movie houses dried up, waterproof, like a swan made of felt steering my way in a water of wombs and ashes.

The smell of barbershops makes me break into hoarse sobs.
The only thing I want is to lie still like stones or wool.
The only thing I want is to see no more stores, no gardens,
no more goods, no spectacles, no elevators.

It so happens that I am sick of my feet and my nails and my hair and my shadow.
It so happens I am sick of being a man.

Still it would be marvelous to terrify a law clerk with a cut lily,
or kill a nun with a blow on the ear.
It would be great to go through the streets with a green knife
letting out yells until I died of the cold.

I don't want to go on being a root in the dark,
insecure, stretched out, shivering with sleep,
going on down, into the moist guts of the earth,
taking in and thinking, eating every day.

I don't want so much misery.
I don't want to go on as a root and a tomb,
alone under the ground, a warehouse with corpses,
half frozen, dying of grief.

That's why Monday, when it sees me coming
with my convict face, blazes up like gasoline,
and it howls on its way like a wounded wheel,
and leaves tracks full of warm blood leading toward the night.

And it pushes me into certain corners, into some moist houses,
into hospitals where the bones fly out the window,
into shoeshops that smell like vinegar,
and certain streets hideous as cracks in the skin.

There are sulphur-colored birds, and hideous intestines
hanging over the doors of houses that I hate,
and there are false teeth forgotten in a coffeepot,
there are mirrors that ought to have wept from shame and terror,
there are umbrellas everywhere, and venoms, and umbilical cords.

I stroll along serenely, with my eyes, my shoes,
my rage, forgetting everything,
I walk by, going through office buildings and orthopedic shops,
and courtyards with washing hanging from the line:
underwear, towels and shirts from which slow
dirty tears are falling.

- Pablo Neruda

UC Men's Octet - Bohemian Rhapsody

UC Men's Octet - acappella group at the University of California, Berkeley.

12 Days of Christmas

12 days of Christmas - Muppets & John Denver


Straight No Chaser - Africa (2007)


Straight No Chaser: The 12 Days of Christmas (2008 Version)

the day the earth stood still

I'm confused. The only thing I got after watching the movie is: "are they trying to express that Chinese is alien?"

Masterclass

Hugh Laurie -Stephen Fry Piano Masterclass

If those I loved were lost

If those I loved were lost

If those I loved were lost
The Crier's voice would tell me --
If those I loved were found
The bells of Ghent would ring --

Did those I loved repose
The Daisy would impel me.
Philip -- when bewildered
Bore his riddle in!

- Emily Dickinson

放假是散漫的淵叟?

是說放假頭三天, 正呈現極度懶散的狀態. 像隻螞蟻一樣, 東撿西撿, 不然之前像是被槍打過, 到處都是書和期刊. 先是把客廳收整齊了, 下一步是把房間的文件通通收拾好.

飛完所有audition, 右手一直呈現發炎的狀態.(因為音樂學報告寫太多?) 很緩慢的收拾家裡, 該準備唸書練琴了. 想想近期的音樂會(s), 暑假的計畫, 再之後的Qualify, toic proposal, dissertation topic, 真的是越想越心驚. 我很喜歡整理資料, 外加東摸西摸各種文具,(但是應該比不上達人momo 小姐吧? 金牛座就是'叫我第一名', 讚的咧) 但是重點是要把整理好的筆記/書本/論文 通通塞進腦袋裡才有用.

該來紀錄流水帳囉? (開誠佈公的面對懶散的事實?)

Greatest Tenor Crack Ever

哇哈哈哈, 在我噗哧一聲笑出來時, 來了一句又精準又機車的評論.
you'll see. :)

moment

有沒有過這樣的情境: 當人家問了一個問題, 你很呆滯的給了一個糟糕的答案, 還完全文不對題.
(然後馬上就想把自己給掐死.) 尤其是大頭們發問, 那種最關鍵的時刻.

呃阿~~~ 可以再白痴一點啊啊啊啊啊!!!! 如果這樣丟了演出機會, 真的就是自找的.
黯淡的一個學期就這樣落幕了.

讓我繼續到角落畫圈圈吧.
(畫圈圈,畫圈圈,畫圈圈,畫圈圈...... )

George Crumb

conversation with composer himself


George Crumb website


Night of the Four Moons (c.1969)
Texts by Federico García Lorca
I. la luna esta muerta




Program note, by George Crumb
Night of the Four Moons, commissioned by the Philadelphia Chamber Players, was composed during the Apollo 11 flight (July 16-24). The work is scored for alto (or mezzo-soprano), alto flute (doubling piccolo), banjo, electric cello, and percussion. The percussion includes Tibetan prayer stones, Japanese Kabuki blocks, alto African thumb piano (mbira), and Chinese temple gong in addition to the more usual vibraphone, crotales, tambourine, bongo drums, suspended cymbal and tamtam. The singer is also required to play finger cymbals, castanets, glockenspiel and tamtam.

I suppose that Night of the Four Moons is really an "occasional" work, since its inception was an artistic response to an external event. The texts -- extracts drawn from the poems of Federico García Lorca -- symbolize my own rather ambivalent feelings vis-à-vis Apollo 11. The texts of the third and fourth songs seemed strikingly prophetic!

The first three songs, with their brief texts, are, in a sense, merely introductory to the dramatically sustained final song. The moon is dead, dead ... is primarily an instrumental piece in a primitive rhythmical style, with the Spanish words stated almost parenthetically by the singer. The conclusion of the text is whispered by the flutist over the mouthpiece of his instrument. When the moon rises ... (marked in the score: "languidly, with a sense of loneliness") contains delicate passages for the prayer stones and the banjo (played "in bottleneck style", i.e., with a glass rod). The vocal phrases are quoted literally from my earlier (1963) Night Music I (which contains a complete setting of this poem). Another obscure Adam dreams ... ("hesitantly, with a sense of mystery") is a fabric of fragile instrumental timbre, with the text set like an incantation.

The concluding poem (inspired by an ancient Gypsy legend) -- Run away moon, moon, moon! ... -- provides the climactic moment of the cycle. The opening stanza of the poem requires the singer to differentiate between the "shrill, metallic" voice of the Child and the "coquettish, sensual" voice of the Moon. At a point marked by a sustained cello harmonic and the clattering of Kabuki blocks (Drumming the plain, / the horseman was coming near ...), the performers (excepting the cellist) slowly walk off stage while singing or playing their "farewell" phrases. As they exit, they strike an antique cymbal, which reverberates in unison with the cello harmonic. The epiloque of the song (Through the sky goes the moon / holding a child by the hand) was conceived as a simultaneity of two musics: "Musica Mundana" ("Music of the Spheres"), played by the onstage cellist; and "Musica Humana" ("Music of Mankind"), performed offstage by singer, alto flute, banjo, and vibraphone. The offstage music ("Berceuse, in stile Mahleriano") is to emerge and fade like a distant radio signal. The F-sharp major tonality of the "Musica Humana" and the theatrical gesture of the preceding processionals recall the concluding pages of Haydn's "Farewell" Symphony.

-- George Crumb

期末時節

是,的...... 又到了令人又愛又恨的結束點. 在學期結束的將盡, 加上好幾趟勞碌的飛行, 充其量也只是悶哼幾聲抱怨, 回頭繼續唸書. 音樂史是唸不完的, 但又不知道在固執什麼, 也不緊張, 就只是倔強的一直翻下去, 試圖在散亂的思緒中建構出一座虛幻的地圖, 一張每當壓力過後隨即灰飛湮滅的導覽.

早上考完音樂史, 明天paper due, 然後再撐一下就真的放假了.
禮拜一和音樂史大頭meeting. 老師說的好, ''我看的出妳的想法, 可是我要重點.' 一劍命中目標. 好吧好吧, 人家是Brahms study 的編輯, 就照你們音樂學家的思緒來寫吧! 但是越paper due, 越寫不出來啊..

回頭翻出Schoenberg 關於motive的文章, Ardono 對chamber music 的定義,外面冷鋒颼颼, 繼續加油!

Gershwin: I got rhythm, from Girl crazy.

Judy Garland, Mickey Rooney, Tommy Dorsey AHO

Over the rainbow

What a Wonderful World - Louis Armstrong

Eric Clapton - Tears in Heaven