whew!

The graduate douçaine project/recital is over. I had a great turnout and the concert was very well received. Now I get to do more research, but look forward to upcoming collaborations with Vicki Boeckman (recorder) and Gary Stroutsos (xiao and other ethnic flutes). I'm also really looking forward to this year's Very Darkwood Christmas concert. We had to cancel the one last year, as it was right after my mother died. Next week I am shooting a video with the Boise indie pop band The Very Most. I played douçaine on their jazzy version of Away in a Manger. I'm really thrilled with how the recording turned out. Their Ireland-based label is really interested in the douçaine. Jen and I will also be back on Curtis Stigers' Xtreme Xmas Xtravaganza line-up this year. Again, I had to cancel last year when my mother died. Curtis was one of the first kind souls to call. Fur the show with Curtis, we will probably do the Praetorius setting of In Dulci Jubilo on douçaine and viola. Praetorius is a bit late for vielle.

Now we just need to keep my duo partner Jen healthy.

Obama!

It sure is nice to have a president of whom we can be proud. i am amazed, however, of the stupid, assinine criticisms leveled against him by some of my colleagues. For once, I'm glad I'm just an adjunct. It's like there is some competition in some bizarre sense of piety. Fundamentalists seem so intense about their religious views, yet still seem to find a way to worship their money and bitch about taxes. Isn't that idolatrous? They love to use that word.

almost four and forty

I turn 44 next week! wowie

I have my graduate douçaine recital set for 7 november 2009, Saturday 2 PM at Saint John's Cathedral. I have a great line-up so far! Of course, my dear musical partner, Jen on viola or vielle, Joe Baldassarre on lute, Ray Morvant on Organ, countertenor Corey McKnight, Gail Vaughan, percussion, Linda Marie Zaerr, vielle and a choir from the College of Idaho.

In a couple weeks I will be at the mid point of my masters degree.

I just saw an amazing Langroise Trio concert with a premiere of a new Jim Cockey work for the trio with Corey, and a Vaughan Williams quintet with Jack on bass and Robyn (C of I colleague) on piano.

I've been killing a lot of time on Facebook and watching One Tree Hill in syndication. It's about time for this semester to be over.

Obama!

I need to get some Obama products. I was a Hillary fan in the primaries, so I didn't so much as get a tote or a T-shirt. I do finally have an "I voted for Obama" bumper sticker, but I have not put it on yet. I have been a little pre-occupied lately. I have gone over a week without sobbing now. Godt for mig. det glæder mig at begynde det nye semester. Jeg er klar til det. ja, parat. Jen og jeg spillede og hat en lille booth på en bryllup fest show. Vi fik en god booking at betaler omkring $900.

Jeg lavede en god douçaine rør mellem jul og nytår. Den er min bedst rør i det sidste år.

Jeg er træt. Jeg må køre Kirk til lufthavnen tidlig i morgen, omkring kl. 6:15. Sin far er meget gammel og har ikke lange at leve.

farvel, mor

My mother died monday. Her heart finally had enough with the kidney failure.

Running for the Drum

OMG! OMG!
Buffy's new album is on the way from Canada! I can hardly wait. Anne Linnets nyt album er også ude nu. Jeg også venter for det.

This has been a really good semester. My music research professors are looking for potential awards for one of my research papers, an overview of the douçaine. I'm also feeling really good about my larger paper, the historiography of the douçaine. I got my own copy of Barra Boydell's book on crumhorns yesterday and I am inspired to do a similar book for the douçaine farther down the line. I spent a little time on the method book yesterday. I can't imagine that too many people would want to play anything in Eb minor on the douçaine, but I think it is good practice in dealing with the difficult forked fingerings. That type of practice really helped me in a concert on Monday, where I did the cantus parts on some Landini ballatas. I found a couple with the right tessitura for tenor douçaine with lute playing the tenor line. Joe is a great improviser, so the role reversal worked out great.

Congratulations! You are: a Medieval!

I took a goofy on-line philosophy test. It had remarkably bad grammar and spelling. I have never seen anyone refer to Bach as medieval. It's only a few centuries off.
At any rate, here are the results

The Medieval
25% Ancient, 31% Medieval, 31% Modern and 13% Post-Modern!



Medieval philosophy is probably more pessimistic than any other. One really gets the sense that medieval thinkers lived in a cold, dark, unreliable world, where pleasure was so hard to find that the desire for it became nearly uncontrollable. This is a world where the sinner is clearly divided from the saint

I tried to write the test in such a way that you didn’t have to be a religious person to get this result. The medieval way of looking at the world is not simply religious. It’s a serious, hierarchial, compulsive worldview, with a moral seriousness missing from some other eras. Medieval philosophers include some brilliant incisive minds, like that of Thomas Aquinas. What makes medieval philosophers unusual is the direction of their inquiries--they turned their gazes inward, to examine themselves, or upward, towards God, but hardly ever outward, towards the world around them.

Some medieval philosophers: Augustine, Anselm, Aquinas, Maimonides, Abelard, Erasmus

Some medieval artists: Dante, Chrétien de Troyes, Christine de Pisan, Rabelais, Chaucer, Bach

Typical medieval art forms: the morality play, war stories, contrapuntal music, the sermon, scatological humor, romantic poetry