So I was asked my some non-Musician friends last night, "If I was stranded on a deserted island and could have only 10 albums what would they be." I usually hate these types of questions but I thought I would explore it in this context. I must admit I was disheartened when only one person knew of the #1 album.
Artist, Album, Favorite Song, Favorite Line
1) Joni Mitchell Blue "The Last Time I saw Richard" - "All good dreamers pass this way some day."
2) ADELE 19 "Hometown Glory" - "I like it in the city when two worlds collide...Shows that we ain't gonna stand shit, Shows that we are united, Shows that are ain't gonna take it."
3) Miles Davis Ballads "It Never Entered My Mind"
4) Julia Sarr and Patrice Larose Set Luna "Guem"
5) John Mayer Heavier Things and TRY (I know I'm breaking the rules) "New Deep" - "You know, I used to be the back porch poet with my book of rhymes, Always open knowing all the time I'm probably, Never gonna find the perfect rhyme, For 'heavier things'" from TRY: "Who Did You Think I Was" - "Here is a line that you won't understand, I'm half of a boy, but twice I'm the man"
6) Stephen Sondheim Sweeney Todd or Company (tough choice)
7) Glen Ellyn Children's Chorus Abbondanza "Amazing Grace" or "Te Quiero"
8) Benjamin Britten Friday Afternoons "The Useful Plough"
9) Jason Robert Brown Last 5 Years "Still Hurting" - "Give me a day Jamie, Bring back the lies, Hang them back on the wall"
10) Jai Uttal Dial M for Mantra "Nataraj"
What are your 10?
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Monday, June 1, 2009
Happy Summer...Listening
It's my first day of summer without a "job." That means we need some new summer listening. So let's consider this a "book club" with music. Listen to the following and send your thoughts.
Artist, Album, Song
Joshua Radin, Simple Things, One of These Days or I'd Rather be With You
Thom Yorke, The Eraser, The Eraser
Rokia Traore, Tchamantche, Zen
The Wailin' Jennys, 40 Days, One Voice or Ten Mile Stilts
Joni Mitchell, Blue, River or The Last Time I Saw Richard
The Shanghai Restoration Project, Nanking Road or Avenue Joffre
Charlotte Martin, Stromata, Redeemed
Adele, 19, Make You Feel My Love or Hometown Glory
Summit Brass, Hindemith: Brass, Sonata for Four Horns: I Fugato
Transjoik, Bewafa, Bewafa or In Lahore
The Be Good Tanyas, Hello Love, When Doves Cry
Hem, Rabbit Songs, Leave Me Here
Crosby, Stills, and Nash, So Far, Find the Fight of Freedom
Ani DiFranco, Not a Pretty Girl, Cradle and All
Sufjan Stevens, Seven Swans, The Dress Looks Nice on You
Sufjan Stevens, Michigan, For the Windows in Paradise...
Julia Sarr and Patrice Larose, Set Luna, Guem
You Tube Links: "PS22 Chorus Landslide" and "Beatbox Flute and Cello"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2p5augniQA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_9b1FCmffE
Don't be shy...discuss! Likes/dislikes?
Artist, Album, Song
Joshua Radin, Simple Things, One of These Days or I'd Rather be With You
Thom Yorke, The Eraser, The Eraser
Rokia Traore, Tchamantche, Zen
The Wailin' Jennys, 40 Days, One Voice or Ten Mile Stilts
Joni Mitchell, Blue, River or The Last Time I Saw Richard
The Shanghai Restoration Project, Nanking Road or Avenue Joffre
Charlotte Martin, Stromata, Redeemed
Adele, 19, Make You Feel My Love or Hometown Glory
Summit Brass, Hindemith: Brass, Sonata for Four Horns: I Fugato
Transjoik, Bewafa, Bewafa or In Lahore
The Be Good Tanyas, Hello Love, When Doves Cry
Hem, Rabbit Songs, Leave Me Here
Crosby, Stills, and Nash, So Far, Find the Fight of Freedom
Ani DiFranco, Not a Pretty Girl, Cradle and All
Sufjan Stevens, Seven Swans, The Dress Looks Nice on You
Sufjan Stevens, Michigan, For the Windows in Paradise...
Julia Sarr and Patrice Larose, Set Luna, Guem
You Tube Links: "PS22 Chorus Landslide" and "Beatbox Flute and Cello"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2p5augniQA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_9b1FCmffE
Don't be shy...discuss! Likes/dislikes?
Friday, May 15, 2009
Hungry?...What feeds you?
So I was judging a choral contest today and heard some good performances and some choirs made me scratch my head. Not in a bad way. Let me explain. I don't mean to boast, but I know a vast amount of Middle School Choral Literature. Almost every choir that performed I knew at least 2 of their 3 pieces or had performed 1 or 2 of the songs. There were only a few groups that I was not really familiar with their music and I scratched my head and said, "They did a good job, but I could not teach that music all day. Does that make the director and kids happy? Does it feed their musical soul?" So it made me think what feeds me?
Personally I have always been the musician that wanted to do music different from everyone else. In High School I never wanted to play or sing the "popular" solos or what everyone else played. I remember being in 10th grade and telling my horn teacher that I wanted to work on lip trills and play something with a cadenza and some notes above the staff. To which he really had to search, but honored my request even though I was young and gave me Haydn's Horn Concerto No. 1, first movement. Needless to say, I expanded my range played a cadenza, and learned to play lip trills, and got a 2nd Division at UIL State Solo and Ensemble Contest, the best I every got as a soloist. This tradition continued in horn by playing 4th horn on Overture to the Magic Flute, 1st Div. at State, and a Fugue from a Hindemith Horn Quartet, also 1st Div. It also continued in college when my voice teacher tried to give me Vaughan Williams songs to sing, to which I said "Everyone else sings them and I don't want to." Her reply was, "Well you have to sing something that's good for your voice." I still have not sung a Vaughan Williams "Songs of Travel" piece, but I do appreciate them now. What she did not understand, but my horn teacher did, and I am realizing is that music that is unexpected and challenging to the ear and the instrument is what feeds me.
This has continued in my life as a teacher and as a music listener. I still choose music for my students that they would not be exposed to outside of my class or the more traditional music that everyone else does for Contest. Their reaction to this is rewarding and feeds my soul. Case in point, Shamorra. She was in my Non Varsity Choir my second year teaching and we sang Handel "Lascia Ch'io Pianga." Everyday she would ask if we were going to sing, "Lah-see-ah Kee-oh Pee-ahn-gah," and I would of course correct her. The start of next year she was not in choir, but came to an open house and stood in her old spot and said, "Mr. Todd I loved that song, what was it 'Lah-see-ah Kee-oh Pee-ahn-gah,' that was my favorite." To which her and her cousin Cecely started singing it how they remembered it. Another memory is of Pretta. I arranged the folk song "Gypsy Rover" for the girls and she would ask every day, the whole year I might add, if we were going to sing it because "That's my jam Mr. Todd." My girls this year have also had similar moments, but I will always remember showing off some choir pieces on my iPod and the amazement of just how many sounds a choir can make and how expressive it
can be. And of course, their comment of "I wish we could listen to his music all the time." Experiences they would never have had by listening to the local hip hop station or MTV.
I digress. Personally, I seek the same things in music I listen to in the car and at home. As I write this I have on the Ballads of Miles Davis. Oddly enough I became a fan not while I was in Jazz band in High School, but from the movie "Runaway Bride." The song "It Never Entered My Mind" is playing when Richard Gere proposes to Julia Roberts in the city. There's many things about that scene that still resonant in my mind, but the music was so fresh and intimate and really captured the spontaneous nature of the scene. Miles mutes the trumpet and the main A theme starts with three repeated notes and then meanders around this same note, starting and stopping, then repeating again after falling into the same repeated notes, but with a little more hesitation. Each time that melody comes back it changes, the third time the repeated notes are bent. It is such a laid back chart and it feels so effortless. But, those notes keep the entire song from feeling predetermined and mapped out, it is unexpected. Even listening to it many times it just feels exciting and unpredictable. I've done a Jazz Unit with my students this last term and we have listened to a broad selection of music over and over again with listening guides. I am usually good about understanding music from a score, but I'm amazed at what my ears discover the third, fourth, or tenth time I listen to the same piece. The discovery of the layers washes away the dirt on my soul.
That's the second thing that feeds my soul...layers and complexity. How I discover something new each time I teach a piece or hear a piece, whether it be on my own or while I'm judging. I feel that society in general is too satisfied with knowing very little and being content with good enough or getting an A or a 1st Division rating. That does not feed me. Example: I've taught two great kid and crowd pleasing pieces (Niska Banja and Yo Le Canto Todo El Dia) that look hard, but in fact are not very hard and found it unsatisfactory. The kids still enjoy them, but not me. One of the most rewarding songs I've every taught that gets me so excited is "Jubilate Deo" by Michael Praetorius. I've never performed it as a singer, but as a director I continue to find deeper layers and more to pull out of the song, and I've done it more than once. When they finally get one thing the onion opens and there is more to be done and more after that. This feeds me. Something so simple which is so rich, fruitful and sustaining.
So, since I try to introduce you to new music here is my recommendation for feeding. More Abigail Washburn. I promise this is the last time I will talk about her, but she has put out two partial albums that I must talk about: Afterquake and Shanghai Restoration Project: Remixes. Buy them and then check out her website. On Afterquake she collected songs and sounds from the Chinese countryside after the earthquake in Sichuan. She has video field recordings and transcripts of the interviews with the singers. It's nice to see how someone can take something like a field recording and make it appealing and marketable to a wide audience. The beats are a little contrived, but her passion and vision has fed my soul. Also, check out "Old Timey Dance Party" on the Remix Album. I happened to teach an English choral arrangement (Kang Ding Flower Song) of this Chinese folk tune to my 6th graders this year and did not really enjoy it, but now that I have heard it in Chinese with a beat under it I love it. I will also be buying the traditional folk melody.
What feeds your soul? Bon appetit!
Personally I have always been the musician that wanted to do music different from everyone else. In High School I never wanted to play or sing the "popular" solos or what everyone else played. I remember being in 10th grade and telling my horn teacher that I wanted to work on lip trills and play something with a cadenza and some notes above the staff. To which he really had to search, but honored my request even though I was young and gave me Haydn's Horn Concerto No. 1, first movement. Needless to say, I expanded my range played a cadenza, and learned to play lip trills, and got a 2nd Division at UIL State Solo and Ensemble Contest, the best I every got as a soloist. This tradition continued in horn by playing 4th horn on Overture to the Magic Flute, 1st Div. at State, and a Fugue from a Hindemith Horn Quartet, also 1st Div. It also continued in college when my voice teacher tried to give me Vaughan Williams songs to sing, to which I said "Everyone else sings them and I don't want to." Her reply was, "Well you have to sing something that's good for your voice." I still have not sung a Vaughan Williams "Songs of Travel" piece, but I do appreciate them now. What she did not understand, but my horn teacher did, and I am realizing is that music that is unexpected and challenging to the ear and the instrument is what feeds me.
This has continued in my life as a teacher and as a music listener. I still choose music for my students that they would not be exposed to outside of my class or the more traditional music that everyone else does for Contest. Their reaction to this is rewarding and feeds my soul. Case in point, Shamorra. She was in my Non Varsity Choir my second year teaching and we sang Handel "Lascia Ch'io Pianga." Everyday she would ask if we were going to sing, "Lah-see-ah Kee-oh Pee-ahn-gah," and I would of course correct her. The start of next year she was not in choir, but came to an open house and stood in her old spot and said, "Mr. Todd I loved that song, what was it 'Lah-see-ah Kee-oh Pee-ahn-gah,' that was my favorite." To which her and her cousin Cecely started singing it how they remembered it. Another memory is of Pretta. I arranged the folk song "Gypsy Rover" for the girls and she would ask every day, the whole year I might add, if we were going to sing it because "That's my jam Mr. Todd." My girls this year have also had similar moments, but I will always remember showing off some choir pieces on my iPod and the amazement of just how many sounds a choir can make and how expressive it
can be. And of course, their comment of "I wish we could listen to his music all the time." Experiences they would never have had by listening to the local hip hop station or MTV.
I digress. Personally, I seek the same things in music I listen to in the car and at home. As I write this I have on the Ballads of Miles Davis. Oddly enough I became a fan not while I was in Jazz band in High School, but from the movie "Runaway Bride." The song "It Never Entered My Mind" is playing when Richard Gere proposes to Julia Roberts in the city. There's many things about that scene that still resonant in my mind, but the music was so fresh and intimate and really captured the spontaneous nature of the scene. Miles mutes the trumpet and the main A theme starts with three repeated notes and then meanders around this same note, starting and stopping, then repeating again after falling into the same repeated notes, but with a little more hesitation. Each time that melody comes back it changes, the third time the repeated notes are bent. It is such a laid back chart and it feels so effortless. But, those notes keep the entire song from feeling predetermined and mapped out, it is unexpected. Even listening to it many times it just feels exciting and unpredictable. I've done a Jazz Unit with my students this last term and we have listened to a broad selection of music over and over again with listening guides. I am usually good about understanding music from a score, but I'm amazed at what my ears discover the third, fourth, or tenth time I listen to the same piece. The discovery of the layers washes away the dirt on my soul.
That's the second thing that feeds my soul...layers and complexity. How I discover something new each time I teach a piece or hear a piece, whether it be on my own or while I'm judging. I feel that society in general is too satisfied with knowing very little and being content with good enough or getting an A or a 1st Division rating. That does not feed me. Example: I've taught two great kid and crowd pleasing pieces (Niska Banja and Yo Le Canto Todo El Dia) that look hard, but in fact are not very hard and found it unsatisfactory. The kids still enjoy them, but not me. One of the most rewarding songs I've every taught that gets me so excited is "Jubilate Deo" by Michael Praetorius. I've never performed it as a singer, but as a director I continue to find deeper layers and more to pull out of the song, and I've done it more than once. When they finally get one thing the onion opens and there is more to be done and more after that. This feeds me. Something so simple which is so rich, fruitful and sustaining.
So, since I try to introduce you to new music here is my recommendation for feeding. More Abigail Washburn. I promise this is the last time I will talk about her, but she has put out two partial albums that I must talk about: Afterquake and Shanghai Restoration Project: Remixes. Buy them and then check out her website. On Afterquake she collected songs and sounds from the Chinese countryside after the earthquake in Sichuan. She has video field recordings and transcripts of the interviews with the singers. It's nice to see how someone can take something like a field recording and make it appealing and marketable to a wide audience. The beats are a little contrived, but her passion and vision has fed my soul. Also, check out "Old Timey Dance Party" on the Remix Album. I happened to teach an English choral arrangement (Kang Ding Flower Song) of this Chinese folk tune to my 6th graders this year and did not really enjoy it, but now that I have heard it in Chinese with a beat under it I love it. I will also be buying the traditional folk melody.
What feeds your soul? Bon appetit!
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Welcome!
Hello and welcome one and all. I thought that I would start a blog about music that I have come across to share with friends and students. My choir students have inspired me this year. Several times during the year I have shared some music from my iPod and been floored by their response of "I wish we could listen to your music every day." I've yet to find some type of music that has not appealed to them on some level. Many of them have started buying choral and folk music that I have shown them in class on their own. I thought this page might be a great way for me to stay current on what is out there of quality and would inspire my students and others to develop a taste for "quality music." Hence the title "music snob."
So, many of you may know that I have friends who loving call me a "Musical Snob" because I have such high standards of music that I listen to and enjoy, as well as what I use in the classroom. I believe in the philosophy of the Hungarian composer and educator Zoltan Kodaly, that "only the best is good enough." Now, of course he is saying this in terms of educational value, but isn't that what everyone wants in their life? Who does not want the best car that we can afford, or the nicest clothes? I'm the type of person that would rather have two nice pairs of shoes that were more expensive, but would last much longer than twenty pairs that won't last a year.
I realized a long time ago that my parents chose the right name for me even though they didn't know it. Remember Daniel in the Bible? He was the guy that did not want to eat the meat and wine of the king. Go with me here. It was the best that could be had and it was what was expected to be eaten at the king's table, but it would not nourish Daniel's body the way that water and vegetables would. After a period of time, Daniel and his friends were stronger than other boys who had eaten meat and wine, while they ate healthy food and lived mindfully. I would rather have a handful of songs that continue to inspire and speak to me than an entire collection of music that is popular and predictable.
So, what is feeding me at the moment? Abigail Washburn. She is a singer and banjo player who has toured Tibet on the government's dime. That said she has incorporated some Mandarin folk songs into her own bluegrass/folk inspired songs. I am really enjoying her work as a member of The Sparrow Quartet, which consists of two banjos, a cello, and a fiddle. I get the feeling that the group enjoys exploring all of the sounds their instruments can make, which is why it sounds a little more rock band than string band. I can't explain what it is, but the sound of a banjo almost always adds an element of earthy soul to any song, which is so refreshing and moving.
I must complement Abigail for being a clearly thoughtful and informed musician. Here's a few examples. 1) on the album Songs of the Traveling Daughter (even the title proves my point) Abigail has an instrumental track entitled: "Backstep Cindy/Purple Bamboo," which consists of a banjo solo leading into a cello solo. The truly informed listener will realize that "Backstep Cindy" is a fiddle tune and "Purple Bamboo" is a Chinese tune commonly played on the flute, but often accompanied by the ehru a two-stringed fiddle with a snakeskin resonator. It's a truly beautiful example of synergy in the fusion of music styles, by combining two very old songs into a new arrangement with a different instrumentation Abigail has created something very beautiful which respects and connects the two cultures traditions, while giving the modern listener something that is enjoyable. 2) "Backstep Cindy" is then followed up on the album by a great Chinese song, again linking one culture with another, but in an artistic way that is not usually seen on outside of a concert hall. 3) the song "Captain" with The Sparrow Quartet. I have to say this song rocks on its own and really shows off the talent of the instrumentalists. Some of the lyrics are borrowed from spirituals of Negro slaves. "If you want to please your captain / Sink 'em low boys, raise 'em high." Bessie Jones tells us that her grandfather and other slaves would use songs to teach younger men how to stay out of trouble. The "captain" might think you were going to do something wrong if you were standing still. So these lyrics were used to remind the boys to sink the shovel low into the dirt and get a full shovel and then throw it high. A light shovel would mean a whipping. Clearly this woman knows some history in addition to her outstanding musical abilities. (Thanks to Arwen for the reference to "Black Theatre" by Paul Harrison and the meaning of lyrics found in "Captain.")
I'm sure that there is much more out there to discover in Abigail's music and I would love to hear what you have found inspiring, moving, or intellectually stimulating about her music.
So, many of you may know that I have friends who loving call me a "Musical Snob" because I have such high standards of music that I listen to and enjoy, as well as what I use in the classroom. I believe in the philosophy of the Hungarian composer and educator Zoltan Kodaly, that "only the best is good enough." Now, of course he is saying this in terms of educational value, but isn't that what everyone wants in their life? Who does not want the best car that we can afford, or the nicest clothes? I'm the type of person that would rather have two nice pairs of shoes that were more expensive, but would last much longer than twenty pairs that won't last a year.
I realized a long time ago that my parents chose the right name for me even though they didn't know it. Remember Daniel in the Bible? He was the guy that did not want to eat the meat and wine of the king. Go with me here. It was the best that could be had and it was what was expected to be eaten at the king's table, but it would not nourish Daniel's body the way that water and vegetables would. After a period of time, Daniel and his friends were stronger than other boys who had eaten meat and wine, while they ate healthy food and lived mindfully. I would rather have a handful of songs that continue to inspire and speak to me than an entire collection of music that is popular and predictable.
So, what is feeding me at the moment? Abigail Washburn. She is a singer and banjo player who has toured Tibet on the government's dime. That said she has incorporated some Mandarin folk songs into her own bluegrass/folk inspired songs. I am really enjoying her work as a member of The Sparrow Quartet, which consists of two banjos, a cello, and a fiddle. I get the feeling that the group enjoys exploring all of the sounds their instruments can make, which is why it sounds a little more rock band than string band. I can't explain what it is, but the sound of a banjo almost always adds an element of earthy soul to any song, which is so refreshing and moving.
I must complement Abigail for being a clearly thoughtful and informed musician. Here's a few examples. 1) on the album Songs of the Traveling Daughter (even the title proves my point) Abigail has an instrumental track entitled: "Backstep Cindy/Purple Bamboo," which consists of a banjo solo leading into a cello solo. The truly informed listener will realize that "Backstep Cindy" is a fiddle tune and "Purple Bamboo" is a Chinese tune commonly played on the flute, but often accompanied by the ehru a two-stringed fiddle with a snakeskin resonator. It's a truly beautiful example of synergy in the fusion of music styles, by combining two very old songs into a new arrangement with a different instrumentation Abigail has created something very beautiful which respects and connects the two cultures traditions, while giving the modern listener something that is enjoyable. 2) "Backstep Cindy" is then followed up on the album by a great Chinese song, again linking one culture with another, but in an artistic way that is not usually seen on outside of a concert hall. 3) the song "Captain" with The Sparrow Quartet. I have to say this song rocks on its own and really shows off the talent of the instrumentalists. Some of the lyrics are borrowed from spirituals of Negro slaves. "If you want to please your captain / Sink 'em low boys, raise 'em high." Bessie Jones tells us that her grandfather and other slaves would use songs to teach younger men how to stay out of trouble. The "captain" might think you were going to do something wrong if you were standing still. So these lyrics were used to remind the boys to sink the shovel low into the dirt and get a full shovel and then throw it high. A light shovel would mean a whipping. Clearly this woman knows some history in addition to her outstanding musical abilities. (Thanks to Arwen for the reference to "Black Theatre" by Paul Harrison and the meaning of lyrics found in "Captain.")
I'm sure that there is much more out there to discover in Abigail's music and I would love to hear what you have found inspiring, moving, or intellectually stimulating about her music.
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