Erika Writes
February is here already? I don’t know how that happened. I don’t know where this week has gone either.
New Bells and Whistles on the Website
With the weather fluctuating between “it’s cold enough to warn you about raining iguanas” and “It’s not anywhere near April so why does it feel that way,” I spent the beginning of the week hiding under the covers to keep warm and the end of the week trying to enjoy the warm weather before it gets cold again. I also spent a lot of time finishing up a website update and trying to figure out why things that should have worked weren’t working. Have you checked out the update? It’s quite nice–you can now navigate to related posts, find our regular columnists more easily, and more.
Still, I’ve done a lot of reading this week, but not really a lot of reading books. I spent hours and hours pouring over information to write the “Don’t Say Gay” piece we published this week. As a writer, it’s hard sometimes to write about things that are so close to my own heart, where I know the facts and the reasons off the top of my head, but I still need to do the research to back things up with facts. I do recommend reading Audre Lorde if you haven’t. So many of us are familiar with the quote “Your silence will not protect you,” but haven’t read the whole essay it comes from, “The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action.” Read it. The whole book, too.
The Poetry of Andrea Gibson
I’ve also been reading Andrea Gibson this week. We included a video of them reciting their poem “Queer Youth are More than Five times More Likely To Die by Suicide” in the “Don’t Say Gay” article. I think I first heard their poem “Orlando” on one of my spoken word YouTube binges, where I start listening to someone whose poetry I already like, and end up just following link after link for a while, adding things to my playlists for later. As tragic and heartbreaking as some of the poems are, there are also some absolutely beautiful love poems, too. Get yourself a favorite drink, settle down with your computer and something to hug and check out more of Andrea Gibson’s poetry.
Neon Gods
I did pick up Neon Gods again this week, too, although not as much as I’d hoped. Greek mythology has never been a favorite of mine; when I was first introduced to it, it was taught in a way that really was designed to appeal to the boys–we were reading it in class, and at that age where there can be some serious division between boys and girls. I read it because it was assigned for school but didn’t love it.
It wasn’t until several years later when I started reading more gynocentric creation stories from other cultures, when I began to discover the appeal of mythology. I’ve tried and tried with different translations/interpretations of the traditional Greek myths, and I haven’t found much that kept me engaged. There’s something different about Neon Gods. I’m not sure what it is yet, but I do want to keep reading. It’s got a little of the classic princess story, a little bad girl, and some sex that is just the right amount of titilating. We’ll see if it keeps my interest. If it does, there’s a second book in the series coming out this month.
A Bit of TwoSet Violin
Between research for the article and working on the website, there’s been a great deal of screen time this week, and because of that, there hasn’t been much watching. Lots of little YouTube bits here and there. I had fun with TwoSet Violin’s videos. Here’s their Lunar New Year video:
I had a bunch of football videos pop up in my recommendations this week, probably after watching the video Adam suggested last week. I ended up watching a documentary about football teams and their stadiums, which was actually quite interesting. Also, I watched an old favorite movie, Clue. I suppose Howard Hessman was on my mind this week, and WKRP in Cincinnati is quite difficult to find because there were so many challenges getting the music cleared. I was also a fan of Head of the Class, but I managed to watch the entire series not that long ago. During a bout of insomnia.
A Bit of Beethoven
I started watching flash mob videos for some reason this week, too. One of them was this video from Japan of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. When you watch, pay extra attention to the 8 minute or so mark, where the language changes from German to Japanese. Look at how you can see the pure joy and appreciation for the music in the faces of the singers. When I play a piece of music like that, when I feel every bit of it, there’s this feeling that’s so hard to capture in words, like being stuck in one place while feeling something radiate from the floor right up through my fingers. For all the grumbling I do about romantic era composers and Beethoven, great music is great music and this is music that feels that way to me.
I’ve also had Mozart on again. This week, the horn concertos. Adam and I had been talking about them last week, and it had been a while, so I listened again.
I’ve got some things cued up for next week alongside the list of projects. We’ll see what makes it into the recommendations.
Adam Writes:
What’s the Deal with Instrument Combinations?
I’ve been thinking about the types of music we listen to. The combinations. People had to come up with these, right? And often we don’t know exactly who. For example, we know that the string quartet was mostly developed by Haydn. But who came up with the modern rock combo of guitar, bass, drums? Or, for that matter, the combo of lead guitar, rhythm guitar, bass, and drums. You can see how the portability of the guitar makes it preferable to a piece of furniture like a piano. You can see how the portability of a bass guitar makes it preferable, for example, to an upright bass. Some old-fashioned blues bands even included the tuba, which adds a bit of warmth at the expense of that quick attack you can get from a good bass player. Hard to imagine even the best tuba player sounding like this:
Parenthetically, I’m always struck by his playing. When someone picks up a bass guitar you expect them to lay down a groove. You don’t expect them to inspire you. Well. This guy can do both.
Not to diss my one-time instrument, though. A good tuba player can do things you wouldn’t expect:
Was that a parenthetical inside a parenthetical? It was, wasn’t it?
Anyway, all of these cogitations come from something I’ve been listening to a lot lately, an arrangement of “Down to the River to Pray” for tuba and euphonium choir.
I don’t know if I can explain why this combination of instruments is so weird without getting a bit into the weeds, but I think I can. The gist is this: first, Tubas don’t solo. When you have a tuba solo, 11 times out of 10 it’s for emphasis in a piece of music where the majority of the melody is carried by the traditional instruments–violin, cello, French horn, etc. Listen to this solo in “Night on Bald Mountain” for example. A tuba can make an entrance when it needs to. But it’s hardly your go-to solo instrument.
So here’s the thing. Most ensembles strive for balance. A typical brass choir has two essential types of instruments: cylindrical and conical. The cylindrical instruments (trumpet, piccolo trumpet, trombone, bass trombone) are made up of tubing that stays constant the whole way, and only starts to flare at the bell. They are meant to give a bright, brilliant sound. The conical instruments, in contrast to the cylindrical instruments, have tubing that gets steadily wider starting from the mouthpiece and ending at the bell. So the sound gets a bit lost along the way. This results in a darker, more covered, but also warmer sound from the tuba, baritone horn, euphonium, french horn, and cornet.
A well-balanced brass choir is a thing of beauty:
But what happens when you crave an unbalanced sound? What happens when you get rid of the brightness of the trumpets, the engine-gunning power of the trombones. What happens when, even among the sounds you are capable of producing from the conical lower bass (tuba, euphonium) you focus on the mellow, the contemplative, the mournful?
The answer is: you get a piece of music that I have been listening to at least once a day (on average) for the last month. I’m sure I’ve linked to this before but… I don’t know. We never said no repeats.
I don’t know what to say about this piece. Listening to it feels like getting a massage. The video is quite beautiful, something I don’t necessarily pay attention to with every listen, but which I’m always grateful for when I do pay attention to it.
Listen to it with me for a few minutes. If you have heard it before, maybe give it another listen. I always feel as if those deep, deep base notes are driving the melancholy from my thoughts. It doesn’t seem like that should be possible. Can you wash away water with more water? That may not be the right metaphor. But I know you can wash away sadness with tears. At least for a little while. And that’s what it feels like is happening. Like those old medieval cures where they would use a piece of bloody beef to draw out the sanguine humours when you got a black eye. The melancholy of this piece really does draw out the melancholy I might be feeling when I start to listen to it.
It’s amazing.
Oh, crap.
Did I write all this time about music and not even mention what I’m watching and reading this week? Again?
I did, didn’t I?
Oh, well. I’m (re)watching Magicians and (re)reading Wheel of Time. They’re both really good. I’ll check in with you about them next week, unless I discover some other amazing piece for tuba.
Cheers.
Remember that we’re always looking for new voices. If you want to contribute your thoughts on art, literature, cinema, music, or anything else, please don’t hesitate to reach out!
