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meanfreepathBerkeley is done and mailed.
NDSEG requires some revisions, but if it had to be turned in right now I wouldn't feel horrible about it.
Colorado and Maryland are in progress.
Last night while working on my Berkeley essays, I was listening to music on my laptop, and got to Percy Grainger's setting of "Danny Deever" for male chorus, soloists, and orchestra. I hadn't heard this work, which is a setting of Rudyard Kipling's poem about a British soldier being hanged, in a very long time. Grainger's setting effectively uses some macabre harmonies and march rhythms to create an otherworldy, mechanical mood. In parts it reminded me of portions of Carmina Burana or Symphonie Fantastique.
Also on that CD was another Grainger piece for orchestra and chorus called Scotch Strathspey and Reel, which I didn't think was even remotely danceable as a strathspey. What are the time signatures for strathspey, reel, and jig again in Scottish?
This morning, I had just pulled out of the post office parking lot when Khatchaturian's Sabre Dance came on over WQXR (yes, another piece of New York tradition). I was stuck behind a traffic light, and somehow the jabbing flutes and the sliding trombone motif seemed to evoke the cars of people in a hurry whizzing past.
On my way back from the orthodontist, later that morning, I remembered that![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
lywen had mentioned that the Bi-Co Chorus was doing the Verdi Requiem next semester, and that they could always use men. Alas, they rehearse on Wednesday nights. I love John Alston and Swat chorus has been an incredibly important constant throughout my time here. Brahms Requiem is a wonderful piece of music too -- but I've sung it (albeit in English) in high school and Verdi Requiem is just that tempting. In the car I just started belting out snippets of it, ranging from the terrifying Dies irae, to the dreadful calls of Rex tremendae majestatis in the bass, to the plaintive Lacrimosa, to the simple but beautiful Agnus dei, to the fugue in the Libera me... well you get the idea. Anyone out there know what the Bi-Co Chorus director is like? Ultimately convenience may settle this one... if I were in the Bi-Co chorus, Wednesdays would involve shuttling to Haverford for solid state, back for musicianship lab, back to Haverford for chorus, and back again to Swat.
NDSEG requires some revisions, but if it had to be turned in right now I wouldn't feel horrible about it.
Colorado and Maryland are in progress.
Last night while working on my Berkeley essays, I was listening to music on my laptop, and got to Percy Grainger's setting of "Danny Deever" for male chorus, soloists, and orchestra. I hadn't heard this work, which is a setting of Rudyard Kipling's poem about a British soldier being hanged, in a very long time. Grainger's setting effectively uses some macabre harmonies and march rhythms to create an otherworldy, mechanical mood. In parts it reminded me of portions of Carmina Burana or Symphonie Fantastique.
Also on that CD was another Grainger piece for orchestra and chorus called Scotch Strathspey and Reel, which I didn't think was even remotely danceable as a strathspey. What are the time signatures for strathspey, reel, and jig again in Scottish?
This morning, I had just pulled out of the post office parking lot when Khatchaturian's Sabre Dance came on over WQXR (yes, another piece of New York tradition). I was stuck behind a traffic light, and somehow the jabbing flutes and the sliding trombone motif seemed to evoke the cars of people in a hurry whizzing past.
On my way back from the orthodontist, later that morning, I remembered that
lywen had mentioned that the Bi-Co Chorus was doing the Verdi Requiem next semester, and that they could always use men. Alas, they rehearse on Wednesday nights. I love John Alston and Swat chorus has been an incredibly important constant throughout my time here. Brahms Requiem is a wonderful piece of music too -- but I've sung it (albeit in English) in high school and Verdi Requiem is just that tempting. In the car I just started belting out snippets of it, ranging from the terrifying Dies irae, to the dreadful calls of Rex tremendae majestatis in the bass, to the plaintive Lacrimosa, to the simple but beautiful Agnus dei, to the fugue in the Libera me... well you get the idea. Anyone out there know what the Bi-Co Chorus director is like? Ultimately convenience may settle this one... if I were in the Bi-Co chorus, Wednesdays would involve shuttling to Haverford for solid state, back for musicianship lab, back to Haverford for chorus, and back again to Swat.
