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Jul. 12th, 2007 12:06 amI went with a bunch of my classmates to hear the Boston Landmarks Symphony perform Haydn's Symphony #104 and Beethoven's 9th at the Esplanade, right on the Charles River, this evening. The Haydn was good, although I wish I had brought a score. Alas, I feel like I was a bit better at being able to hear the progressions and how the modulations are worked out a year ago, when I was fresh out of Music 12 (and can I even stumble through orchestral score at a decent pace anymore?). Maybe I'll fish the score out of Loeb Music Library sometime tomorrow, and perhaps try to get my hands on a recording... I was describing to one of my officemates how it's like wanting to see a slow-motion replay of some spectacular move in a sports game. And perhaps one reason (albeit not a very good one) I enjoyed the Haydn was that I should be able to understand how most things in the entire piece work, from a music theoretic perspective.
I can't really do that with Beethoven's 9th, of course. But there's a lot more emotional significance there. The soloists and chorus had to be on microphones, and the sound system did show its limits in some of the tutti passages and with the bass soloist's voice. Despite that, the interruptions from passing traffic (one wouldn't mind it so much if the car horns weren't completely off-key) and crying infants, the music carried the performance. If only cloud cover didn't keep one from looking up and seeing the stars at "Bruder, uber'm sternenzelt / Muss ein lieber Vater wohnen..."
It's our lab's turn to provide refreshments for coffee break this week, so I just whipped up a crumb coffeecake. The cake begins with the classic butter-sugar pommade into which whole eggs are beaten. I folded a cup of chocolate chips into the batter, so we'll see how that turns out. So much easier this time than when I made it by hand in the ML kitchen for the SFPA July 4th cookout, thanks to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
katertoticus's mixer. Also, no one will be serving jello shots this time around...
I have also found that using a bag each of Twining's Irish Breakfast and Earl Grey make a most refreshing iced tea. I do not sweeten mine, but the bergamot in the Earl Grey makes it unnecessary. Some of you (i.e.,pastwatcher) know how much I despise overly sweetened iced tea, and in particular, the beverage known as Southern sweet tea. That stuff, so unbearably sweet as to be fit only for hummingbirds to consume, has so little taste of tea that I think it hardly deserves to be called by that name.
I can't really do that with Beethoven's 9th, of course. But there's a lot more emotional significance there. The soloists and chorus had to be on microphones, and the sound system did show its limits in some of the tutti passages and with the bass soloist's voice. Despite that, the interruptions from passing traffic (one wouldn't mind it so much if the car horns weren't completely off-key) and crying infants, the music carried the performance. If only cloud cover didn't keep one from looking up and seeing the stars at "Bruder, uber'm sternenzelt / Muss ein lieber Vater wohnen..."
It's our lab's turn to provide refreshments for coffee break this week, so I just whipped up a crumb coffeecake. The cake begins with the classic butter-sugar pommade into which whole eggs are beaten. I folded a cup of chocolate chips into the batter, so we'll see how that turns out. So much easier this time than when I made it by hand in the ML kitchen for the SFPA July 4th cookout, thanks to
katertoticus's mixer. Also, no one will be serving jello shots this time around...I have also found that using a bag each of Twining's Irish Breakfast and Earl Grey make a most refreshing iced tea. I do not sweeten mine, but the bergamot in the Earl Grey makes it unnecessary. Some of you (i.e.,
pastwatcher) know how much I despise overly sweetened iced tea, and in particular, the beverage known as Southern sweet tea. That stuff, so unbearably sweet as to be fit only for hummingbirds to consume, has so little taste of tea that I think it hardly deserves to be called by that name.
