We keep getting calls from the oddest people.

Bill Clinton called.

Sarah Palin called.

Some guy called claiming to be the son of Ronald Reagan.

Good grief. I really don’t know what each call was about because I didn’t listen to them. And there have been many other calls.

I heard someone on the radio advising people not to pay attention to political ads.

The sad thing was that the speaker (some expert) maintained that political ads despite their outrageous nature now work so it behooves anonymous donors to purchase them for causes.

Good grief. Who is getting their information from this stuff? No wonder the democracy is beyond broken.

On a happier note, my trio yesterday rehearsed Frescobaldi with the new tempos I had found.

We also rehearsed some parts to a piece by William Byrd I have scheduled for November 18th.

I think this music is pretty charming.

I dumped the parts into Finale a while back. I was waiting for people to let me know if they wanted to play an instrumental part. I invited 5 people. 3 immediately said yes, 1 eventually said no, and finally the last person said no yesterday.

After that I knew which parts to assign to whom. In between class (which of course ran late) and my rehearsal I quickly extracted parts for my players.

It’s dangerous to work quickly on this kind of thing. Easy to make mistakes. But we did manage to read through it yesterday.

In the remain time at rehearsal, we turned to Mozart. The string players said it was a bit of a culture shock to move from the Renaissance pieces we had been rehearsing (which are rather solemn) to the joy and dancing music of a Mozart piano trio.

I confess that I love moving from music style to music style.  I remember being so impressed with a CBC radio show years ago called “Eclectic Circus.” It was the first time I had heard the phrase, “The divine Miss Billie Holiday.”

When I was very young, someone in my father’s church in Flint cautioned me about becoming a “Jack of all trades and master of none.”

On the one hand this has haunted me because I have never felt as competent at the things I choose to do as I would like to be. Even now I can see improvement in my keyboard skills because I continue to hone them and aspire to play well.

But on the other hand, it helps me understand myself as someone who likes a wide range of things, whether it’s music, literature, poetry or food.

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In China, Silencing a Voice for Justice – NYTimes.com

Another disturbing story about the lack of justice in China.

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Vietnam – Musicians Singled Out by Officials – NYTimes.com

Iran – Money Woes Halt Orchestra – NYTimes.com

Music in the news and it’s not good news.

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Bahrain Bans All Protests in New Crackdown – NYTimes.com

Great. Out stupid election politics has got to be contributing to this terrible move.

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This is a scan of the cover of my copy of T. S. Eliot’s Four Quartets. I finished re-reading them this morning. I had added this book to my morning poetry read after finishing up poetry books by Jon Woodward and Oni Buchanan. I’m actually not quite done with Buchanan’s volume, What Animal,but am nearing the end of it.

I find it helpful to consult books about books. In Eliot’s case this is especially helpful since his work sits contextually in a larger poetical and historical context.

Sitting next to my books by T. S. Eliot was this very old paperback collection of essays.

As you can see it’s brittle pages are yellowed with age. After I read the introduction last week, I discovered that the editor, Barnard Bergonzi, had made them chronological so that the essays with the most insights occur later in the book. I began reading Donogue’s essay above and am just about finished with it.

The result is that I’m thinking I might make Eliot my next poet to basically completely read. He has been an important poet in my life. I was surprised at how many cross-references to his other works I recognized and intrigued by those I didn’t.

His play Murder in the Cathedral is one I have read and re-read. His poems rattle around in my brain. I even wrote a cantata based on his longer work, Ash Wednesday, when I was a student. It was scored for SATB, oboe, flute, guitar, cello and harpsichord.

I thought I had done a little choral version for my present choir of one of the movements, but I can’t find it in Finale right now.

Donogue quoted a play by Eliot I hadn’t heard of: The Elder Statesman. I just ordered a used copy of it.

Since it was Halloween, I didn’t have rehearsals last night. This turned out to be quite a relief since I do pretty thorough prep for rehearsals these days. I used the time to look over anthems for Advent and Xmas. I was pretty much dreading this, but was pleasantly surprised by the work I did earlier in the fall. It took me about twenty minutes to come with up a working list of anthems through Epiphany.

I was so happy about this I went back to church and rehearsed Bach some more (having already rehearsed Stanford for this Sunday and the new settings I have scheduled for the following Sunday by Walther and Bach of the hymn tune Werde Munter).

Came home and did the pumpkin thing.

I had to make my jack-o-lantern. Eileen had already made hers. I had purchased a third pumpkin to cook. I peeled it and chopped it up. This made about 8 cups. I used half for this recipe:

Afghan-Style Pumpkin (With Yogurt Sauce) – Recipes – The New York Times

I omitted the ginger (didn’t have any), and skipped the yogurt since I didn’t make it very spicy. Eileen wouldn’t try it, but I LOVED it.

We had the usual trick or treaters last night. A bit lighter than usual probably due to the weather (rainy).

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Eileen Southern’s Readings in Black American Music arrived in the mail yesterday.

The author, Eileen Southern (1920-2002),  also wrote another book that I own.

The Music of Black Americans.

I was reading in my Hymnal 1982 Companion when the former was cited. I recognized the editor from my history. I was excited that there was a companion of source readings for the book.

I have had admiration for this part of the American tradition for a long time. I love the music and I love the stories.

It fascinates me how so much beauty and art came as a result of the inhumane story of African slaves imported into the New World.

This incongruity is part of the US psyche.

We see it playing out even now in the current election.

I find reading American history fascinating and informative.

This book mysteriously arrived in the mail this week. I don’t remember ordering it. My daughter, Elizabeth, was active in the NY Occupy Wall Street movement. Either I ordered it and forgot or she ordered and dropped shipped to me because she is currently living in China.

I am now over 200 pages into this, the second volume of Game of Thrones. I have been hooked into the story now. I wonder if I will stay hooked for three more volumes after this one.

Yesterday I spent some time deciding how to recommend my parish begin singing the psalm at Eucharist for the first time. I think the “simplified Anglican chant” would be a good place to start. I also thought that since in the Hymnal 1982 when more than one tune is in the hymnal for the same set of words, the editorial policy was to put the recommended one first, we would start with the first one in the hymnal, S 408.

These tunes are designed to be sung in unison by the congregation. However the only version available for putting in the bulletin is a four part one. Weird. I did my own unison version to make it clear.

Then I proceed to “point” it. This means to make clear when change from the reciting note to the final note.

Again I disagree a bit with the editors. They indicated that the principle of changing on the last accented syllable should just be explained to the group. I have found that people interpret this differently. It’s so easy to just point the damn thing.

This also prepares for more complicated tones to come.

Finally yesterday afternoon after doing all this work, choosing more organ music to learn and rehearsing upcoming organ music, I settled down and read slowly through two Bach organ works: the A minor BWV 543 Prelude and Fugue

and the fugue from G minor Fantasia and fugue BWV 542.

I read through them slowly for accuracy but not so slowly that I couldn’t hear the music itself. I have been working on the G minor on and off for a week or so.

A sense of well being settled over me as I did this. It was an extraordinary experience. It left me grateful and humbled to be able to be in the presence of such beauty and genius. Bach rocks!

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Greece Moves Quickly to Put Editor on Trial – NYTimes.com

I continue to follow this story. As my friend from Romania once put it, “Don’t you know? All governments are jerks.”

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http://publius.org/

Every election I use this web site. It’s Michigan specific. It gives a complete ballot for upcoming elections. I have been checking it periodically. It has only come up to a working site in the last few days.

If you are in doubt about how to vote, my nephew Ben has helped put together a guide for crazy liberals:

http://mivoterguide.com/

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My copy of Jon Gillock’s book Performing Messiaen’s Organ Music: 66 Masterclasses, arrived in the mail yesterday. I think that was partly what inspired me to practice two new movements by Messaien of his Nativity suite. The other inspiration was a passing comment from Rhonda Edgington.

Gillock’s writing is a bit breathless about Messiaen. I had a prof who use to call this kind of writing “purple prose.” Gillock is immersed in the Christian meaning of the work which I guess is helpful. More important for me are Messiaen’s own comments (which are actually in the scores anyway) and other factual information in the book.

I do like books like this in which I can find information (and opinions) to think about concerning pieces I am learning or interested in learning.

Messiaen’s “Nativity” suite has 9 movements as you can see above. This was a relatively early work of this composer and many trained organists learn this music in school. I’m not sure how many of them play them. I would say that many parish organists do not schedule them in their preludes and postludes.

I learned 1 and 2 in undergraduate school Recently I resurrected them and performed them at church. In 2009 I scheduled “La Vierge et l’Enfant” for a little recital I gave at church. I did “Les Bergers” on Christmas Day last year. Then I learned 4 and performed it this year on New Year’s day.

Yesterday I began work on three new ones:

Desseins Eternels is beautiful to my ears. I almost scheduled it for a week from Sunday but want to get it a bit more in my fingers.

Les Enfant de Diue is one I have wanted to learn for a while.  Messiaen used identical harmonic language in both of these pieces. He called it Mode 2. There is a copy of this scale in the scores.

Les Anges, the third piece of his I began seriously attacking yesterday, seems to be more about rhythm buy 50 mg valium than scale. Messiaen was big into the Hindu “added-note” rhythms. I haven’t checked but I seem to recall from previous reading that he got all his information about this sort of thing from books.

However he did so, I think the music is very cool. Messiaen seems so tame now.  People with defined classical tastes sometimes object to his music. The apocryphal story I know is that he was unable to use his own music at his church. This is sad because he was obviously a devout dude.

I’m not as devout, but I think his music has something important to say to humans. One organist who attends my church confessed that (supposedly despite her own misgivings about his music) his music worked better for her in church than in recitals.

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Come Ye Back – NYTimes.com

A letter about the tune, “Danny Boy.” I bookmarked it because the Kids’ choir is singing an anthem next Sunday using this tune.

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Greek Editor Arrested After Publishing List of Swiss Bank Accounts – NYTimes.com

Same as it ever was. Arrest the person who exposes the corruption.

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Here are some articles I have bookmarked to go back to and look at, possibly read.

Benoit Mandelbrot, the Father of Fractal Geometry, Pens a Disturbing New Memoir – Tablet Magazine

Los Angeles Review of Books – Literature Is Not Data: Against Digital Humanities

Joyce: Heroic, Comic by Fintan O’Toole | The New York Review of Books

William Styron to Norman Mailer: Two Letters by William Styron | The New York Review of Books

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Dead or Alive by Steve Coll | The New York Review of Books

Book review.

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Beyond the Circle of Hell by Francine Prose | The New York Review of Books

Review of Diaz’s latest collection. Will definitely read his new book.

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The Light Brothers » Counterpunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names

I love it that the organ dude, David Yearsly, writes a column for the radical left website, Counterpunch.  You have to annoyingly scroll down past a silly letter to get to his column.

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After church yesterday as I was turning off the organ and taking off my organ shoes, a young man complimented me on the music of the service. I can’t remember exactly what he said but I was left with the impression that he thought the whole thing hung together well and was well executed.

I think about the idea that music is a dance between many people: listener, composer, performer, and many others we sometimes forget including the person who cleaned the room and the makers and maintainers of the instruments themselves and so on in an unending web.

When I am performing as I was yesterday a piece which I think of as a solid example of beauty and art and not twenty feet away a person is seated and talking loudly (and probably embarrassing) the people just behind him I try not to be distracted and stay in the moment of doing. But of course part of me noticed. I also noticed people noticing the situation. Through my own concentration (and the beauty Mendelssohn left us) I try to lead both myself and interested listeners deeper into the entire moment which will include not only the distraction of the oblivious loud talker but the dance of the music.

Before leaving for church I looked up the churches of some of the musicians who led Saturday night’s concert. Johannes Müller-Stosch, the conductor, mentioned his own church when discussing orchestration and the necessity of sometimes using and sometimes omitting instruments . At least that’s what I think he discussing in the mid-concert conversation with the audience in which he answering questions texted in.

I mostly remember him describing talking to the violist between the halves of the concert.  He didn’t mention it, but she had just executed a breathtakingly beautiful solo in the Poulenc in the first half. He said that they had been discussing the repertoire possibilities for viola and he recalled that when at his own church he had scheduled the Mozart Requiem he had to tell the interested violists there was no viola part.

His own church? I thought it would have to be Grand Rapids because I couldn’t conceive of it being in Holland where he conducts the orchestra.

A little googling revealed that he somehow is the music director of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, Long Beach California.

I asked a friend, another violist in the orchestra who sings in my choir, about this. She said that he had not returned Saturday night to California but instead had taken that Sunday off but did regular commute.

I looked for music composed by Johannes Müller-Stosch since in the materials for the concert it mentioned he was an organist and had composed music for organ.

On Spotify all I could find was “Serenity” a recording he had made with a violinist.

The music I clicked on was identifiable not his compositions. In fact one of the pieces was the Mendelssohn movement I performed at church yesterday. Coincidence!

Glancing at the web site of the church, it’s not obvious what kind of theology they espouse. They do seem within the larger conversation of the American Episcopal church.

Not so with the organist, Huw Lewis,  from Saturday night. He also commutes from Holland to his church which is St. John’s Episcopal Detroit.

This church is known as a reactionary island that clings to the old ways of the American Episcopal church.

In fact, on the front page of their web site (above), they make it clear that by continuing to use the Episcopalian prayer book of 1828, they are upholding a “450+ year tradition of Anglican Prayer Book theology, language, and form, we know that our worship is formed by ‘right doctrine’ that has been inspired by Scripture, and has been sanctified over the centuries by the prayerful use of the faithful.”

Different strokes for different folks I guess.

I wonder if they still sing the Gloria after communion (as I remember doing in the 1928 service),use some of the nonsensical prayers that were corrected in the 1979 and have the priest keep his back to the congregation as he does Eucharist? It would be easy to correct these things and continue using the old book.

Easier still to use the current book.

Anyway, the young man who complimented me and the prayer at the church where I serve reminded me of the wide variety of how people pray and do music in one denomination. I’m glad I get to work where I do.

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The Mainstream Media’s Trivial Pursuit of Campaign 2012 | The Nation

Eric Alterman takes the Media to task for doing such a poor job. I admire this man quite a bit and think he is a clear thinker. Be warned, he’s a liberal.

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An Opinion to Consider Before You Vote – NYTimes.com

Citizens have three duties, he said: to pay their taxes, serve on juries and vote.

Margaret Sullivan and others continue to maintain the concept of the separation between editorial policies and reporting.

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Outrageous Policies Toward Rape Victims – NYTimes.com

Kristoff enumerates current terrible policies.

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When Mass Hysteria Convicted 5 Teenagers – NYTimes.com

The Central Park five.

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The Dead Have Something to Tell You – NYTimes.com

Carpe the diem before it carpes you.

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The Price of a Black President – NYTimes.com

“…[H]aving any politician as a role model is incompatible with accountability, the central tenet of representative democracy. By definition, role models are placed on pedestals and emulated, not criticized or held accountable.”

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So Eileen and I met after her work yesterday, grabbed some food and went to the pre-concert talk in Dimnent.

This local college chapel is a typical mid-western abomination of acoustics. It looks like it should be reverberant but it’s not. The orchestra and the organ sounded pretty good last night. My left ear has been stuffed up for a while which made the listening not quite as much fun.

The program was kind of weird, but I don’t want complain too much because I was delighted that the orchestra itself sounded pretty good. A small city orchestra like this one is often not that good.

The program Ekkehard Overture by Franz Schrecker,

Poulenc organ concerto

and Saint-Saens symphony 3 (with organ).

I guess it’s clever that all three pieces use organ. But I felt that the Poulenc was the excellent piece of the three. The Schrecker struck me as so much movie music and was sort of framed that way by the programmatic nature of the piece (Monk falls in love with queen, rejected, finds solace in God).

The Saint-Saens was an instance of thematic transformation which used a similar kernel of melody in four loooong movements.

Poulence was packed with ideas and contrasts.

There were many wonderful moments in it. Professor Lewis the organist played the solo part very well and I was grateful to my friend Rhonda Edginton for urging Eileen and me to attend and then meeting us later for drinks.

I finished the first volume of George R.R. Martin’s five volume fantasy series, A Song of Ice and Fire.

I haven’t seen the HBO series based on this volume. The book is just over 800 pages of story. Each chapter has the name of a character. There are several plots weaving throughout the book. The tie-in is the struggle for power, the “game of thrones.”

The ending is pretty spectacular. Without giving away too much of the plot, I can say that the book spills clearly over into the fantastic. Martin tells a story that for the most part is totally within the realm of this world. But there are hints and flashes of a more fantastic world. With this ending he promises the reader more of this kind of thing.

I find the book is written generally in clear strong prose. I asked the woman who sold me the second volume at the book store if she had read it. She said she had the rest the first two but was giving it a rest. This doesn’t bode well. I now have copies of the first three volumes of this series. If I can stay interested it’s good light reading in my diet which I keep pretty varied: poetry, non-fiction heavy and light, fiction heavy and light.

I also finished reading my second book of poetry by Jon Woodward, Rain. It’s difficult for me to sort out my response to the poetry of Woodward and his wife, Oni Buchanan. I heard them perform their commissioned piece, Uncanny Valley, words by Woodward music by John Gibson. Afterward Oni Buchanan read selections from her latest book of poetry.

I find that I think of them together. Woodward seems to me to be the more lyrical of the two, Buchanan the more narrative. I’m not sure if I hadn’t arrived at their poetry the way I did if I would be attracted that much to their work. I am finishing my second volume of Buchanan’s work and right now am planning to leave it at that.

Instead I have been sucked back into re-reading T. S. Eliot’s Four Quartets.

Paul Elie’s book Reinventing Bach is the reason I’m back reading T. S. Eliot.

Yesterday I bought an ebook copy of Elie so that I could read it while treadmilling (after finishing the NYT of the day…. something that takes less and less time in this appalling period of presidential election madness).

Elie’s book is sort of a guilty pleasure for me. It combines my love of Bach with my intrigue about the changing relationship people have to music in general in my lifetime. When he began quoting T. S. Eliot I was hooked.

He describes Eliot as having a “sharp nose, knotted tie, emphatic Adam’s apple” and as “bent over a typewriter, pondering the afterlife of the past.” He invents a bit and pairs up Eliot composing Four Quartets (or at least Burnt Norton the first section published independently of the other three) with a famous recording session in which Schweitzer records Bach both things happening at roughly the same time (1935) and place (London).

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Jacques Barzun, Historian and Educator, Is Dead at 104 – NYTimes.com

I have long admired this thinker. I checked and I found three of his books sitting on my shelves: The House of Intellect, The Use and Abuse of Art and Classic, Romantic and Modern. Now as a 61 year old, I find his intellectual vigor as an old man inspiriting.

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I have my usual 8:30 AM ballet class in less than an hour. I used up some of my time I budgeted for blogging goofing around with the videos I took yesterday of my practicing.

The one above is the least bad of the three.

I find that watching myself play is very helpful. It is like looking at your own pimples in a mirror, however.

It makes me more conscious of playing accurately something I think have improved on in this century. But as you can tell from this video I still have a long way to go.

This piece is a canon which means that one hand plays exactly what the other has just played only a few beats later. This is kind of an exacting piece which brooks few mistakes.

I have been playing it with a metronome. On Wednesday I got it up the marked tempo (which is quarter note equals 88 beats per minute). I think I could perform it that fast. Unfortunately, I don’t hear it that fast. I will perform it at the tempo that seems most convincing to me.

The prelude on the other hand (Andante and Andante con moto from Sonata V Op. 65 by Felix Mendelssohn) is one where I have troubling get the “con moto” out of the “Andante con moto.” I find it difficult to hear it as slow as the tempo which is marked (which is eighth note equals 126 beats per minute). Even though the number is higher, in this case the eighth notes are triplets and it feels pretty slow.

Anyway I have to stop and have some breakfast before walking to the class.

Recently I mentioned my website to someone and she asked me if that was like a blog. I replied that it was and that I had been doing since before the word “blog” was coined.

Also, my bookmark service got hacked. It seems that I can bookmark but I can’t necessarily access the bookmarks so no links today.

Sometimes I just pick up a book in the library at random.

That’s how I ran across Reinventing Bach by Paul Elie.

Paul Elie’s book is a brave fresh look at the current state of music. He is writing from the perspective of primarily experiencing music via recordings.

It is actually true that much of primary experience of music has been through recordings. Although I heard and made live music weekly growing up in my dad’s church.

But my most vivid memories of music as a child are recordings some of which I still own.

Elie is insisting that technology has revived interest in music and in Bach specifically. He says that “Bach was technologically the most advanced musician of his era—a technician of the sacred.”

And that Bach himself constantly invented and adapted musical ideas. He borrowed from himself quite a bit turning one piece for choir and orchestra to an organ piece or adapting a secular cantata into a sacred one.

Elie is chiming in with other writers I have read who point out how recording has made so much more music available to many listeners than live performances ever did.

What I admire about the book so far is his enthusiasm for music I like. Yesterday chatting with my boss, I was surprised when she told me that the vestry had said that an organ project would be one easily supported by the congregation. She routinely expresses support and admiration of my work. And I get the usual compliments at church. But many people never speak to me about what they find meaningful. So it’s nice to hear that maybe my congregation’s leadership doesn’t think authentic quality is that outlandish an idea.

As I watch how people fail to notice that music is going on during the prelude and postlude, it sometimes causes me to feel like an anachronism because I love and treasure music the way I do. This relates to feeling like an endangered species who still loves reading interesting difficult books and poetry.

Reading Elie makes me remember I’m way off base. If I think about it for a minute, I realize there are lots of people in this world who love the things I do.

“The drumbeat of revival in classical music—often set up in opposition to the shriekback of a popular culture enchanted with technology—obscures the fact that, for most of a century now, technology has been the means of classical music’s survival.” (Elie p. 9)

And then he started quoting T. S. Eliot about time.

“Time present and time past
Are both perhaps present in time future,”

He sets Eliot’s words in a lovely description of a recording made by Albert Schweitzer of Bach organ works.

“…[S]o it is in Schweitzer’s Toccata and Fugue in D minor. The recording evokes the night a long time ago when the music of Bach (“in appentency, on its metalled ways”) coursed through the pipes of a big organ at a church in London…”

The parenthetical quote is also Eliot. Elie sent me back to Burnt Norton the first of the Four Quartets.

Life is good.

I’ve run into a bit of trouble with the Children’s anthem I have scheduled for All Saints. I realized while rehearsing it last week that many of the words in the anthem are entirely unfamiliar to the kids.

I decided to make a crossword puzzle using them. I thought I would give the kids the words to the anthem with the hard words underlined. I would tell them the words they needed to solve the puzzle were the words in the anthem and give them a copy with the hard words underlined.

We are the Lord’s; His all sufficient merit,
Sealed on the cross, to us this grace accords.
We are the Lord’s and all things shall inherit;
Whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s.

We are the Lord’s; then let us gladly tender
Our souls to Him in deeds, not empty words.
Let heart and tongue and life combine to render
No doubtful witness that we are the Lord’s.

We are the Lord’s; no darkness brooding o’er us
Can make us tremble while this star affords
A steady light along the path before us—
Faith’s full assurance that we are the Lord’s.

We are the Lord’s; no evil can befall us
In the dread hour of life’s fast loosening cords;
No pangs of death shall even then appall us.
Death we shall vanquish, for we are the Lord’s.

The clue for 4. is too obscure (the solution is “sealed). But much worse than that, Eileen said the whole thing would be hard for a 5th grader much less the mostly 3rd graders I have.

So back to the drawing board.

When I asked her how to teach vocab she said this was a good way, but there are too many words and the words themselves are hard for the kids.

I taught them to sing German so I’m sure I can teach them these words by rote. In fact I only have one more rehearsal before All Saints Sunday because Halloween falls on next Wednesday.

But then I had an idea: fit different words to this arrangement.

Here’s what I came up with:

This should work. These words are the Magnificat and aren’t strictly All Saints, but I think they fit well enough and hopefully it will make a bit more sense to the kids.

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In Jerusalem, Carter Says 2-State Solution Is in ‘Death Throes’ – NYTimes.com

Interesting perspective from an actor in history.

Carter is a member of this organization:

The Elders | Independent global leaders working together for peace and human rights.

The Elders
Martti Ahtisaari
Kofi Annan
Ela Bhatt
Lakhdar Brahimi
Gro Brundtland
Fernando H Cardoso
Jimmy Carter
Graça Machel
Mary Robinson
Desmond Tutu

Honorary Elder
Nelson Mandela

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Gay Marriage Ruling Fuels Judicial Vote in Iowa Vote on a Justice – NYTimes.com

I think people misunderstand the nature of justice and the courts. I am sorry to see people voting on judges like this.

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I finished reading this book of poetry this morning. It was written by a pianist I heard perform recently.

Oni Buchanan is also a founder of Ariel Artists.

They represent my new bud Rhonda Edgington.

Oni’s poetry is worth reading.

This is an excerpt of a poem that caught my attention. When I read it, I didn’t realize “Palais de Mari” was a composition by Morton Feldman.

It follows that I didn’t know he himself was inspired by a photograph he saw at the Louvre by the same name. (Found this all out this morning by googling. Couldn’t find the photo online.)

But still I was drawn into Buchanan’s imagery. An earlier book of her work I ordered happened to arrive in the mail yesterday.

I also finished J. G. Ballard bizzare little novel, Kingdom Come, yesterday.

Still processing it, but have to say it has more to recommend it than not. Ballard is dealing with the consumerism that has engulfed the US and UK society. The plot climaxes when a thousand plus hostages are trapped in the mall by the mall staff and a bunch of insane people.

Before it is over the survivors are kneeling at make shift altars of video players and big screen tvs and wearing bar codes on themselves.

Pretty bizzare show.

Finally a little interesting etymology thing.

I ran across two words I didn’t know in Peter Burt’s The Music of Takemitsu.

“Emic” and “Etic” are anthropological terms. Burt was talking about an observation Toynbee had made about Japan as it responded and adapted to the incursion of Western countries into its isolation.

This latter diagram shows the meaning pretty clearly. “Etic” is supposedly a neutral perspective and “emic” either consciously or unconsciously reflects the perspective of the context.

If you can read it, the above entry from wikipedia says that the two terms are derived from the linguistic terms phonemic and phonetic which are “in turn derived from Greek roots.”

I find this kind of thing informative and fascinating and immediately looked up the etymologies of the two linguistic terms.

I found that there is no real Greek meaning to “etic” and “emic” in “phonetic” and “phonemic.” In both cases “ic” is a pretty broad Greek suffix.

The “e’ is derived from the roots, “phone” and “phoneme.” So the anthropological terms split one letter from the linguistic root term and add it to the suffix to come up with “etic” and “emic.” (citations from the OED)

I can’t help it. I think that’s interesting.

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Why Partisans Can’t Explain Their Views – NYTimes.com

So if we try to “justify” our views, we tend not to actually think about them. But if we are asked to explain the basic policy ideas we are talking about, simply describing them, we tend to be more likely to modify our views and our behavior.

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The Foreign Policy Debate – NYTimes.com

Written before the presidential debate last night about its topic. If on the off chance you are interested in this substance, it provides a bit of insight.

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Connecting the Dots in Libya – NYTimes.com

Margaret Sullivan, public editor at the New York Times, writes about this controversy, its coverage, and reader response.

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Last night I had a nightmare.

Church anxiety nightmares are something I have experienced over the years. Usually they involve not knowing what hymn or service music I was supposed to be playing. The rest of the community is poised and waiting but I don’t know which hymn to play. I haven’t been told. That was the theme last night.

I was playing a large fancy cathedral type event with multiple music groups (choirs and groups of instruments). The bulletin was an elaborate affair of many pages. I did not have one. I kept looking for my bulletin. At one point I borrowed one from someone in the pew. Then I couldn’t make any sense of it. I found one hymn number and jotted it down. But it was not the next hymn. Meanwhile the service was going on. I even remember saying in the dream, “This is a musician’s worst nightmare: not knowing what music to play.”

I found the celebrant who is the same guy who will really be doing the service at Grace this morning while the boss is away. I told him I didn’t have a bulletin. He said there was one waiting for me to pick it up in the other room at the “lectern.” I asked him why in the world I would check there.

In the late 90s and early 00s (aughts) I had a series of these dreams which I still remember. At one point a person in the dream asked me, “What’s at stake?” I awoke and thought, “What’s at stake?”

This ended up helping me not only handle simple anxiety but also probably was a factor in me quitting my full time church gig and doing some other things like practice more, compose more and play in local coffee houses on the streets of Holland Michigan.

The other recurrent nightmare theme I have is that I am back in school (usually college but sometimes high school) and am at a loss as to where I am supposed to be and what my schedule is.

Anxiety. Lovely.

Yesterday Eileen remained in bed ill all day.

I had a full day of tasks. Began with the Farmers Market. Then checked in with my Mom and picked up her library books she had finished reading. Off to the library where I followed my usual routing of making a note of which books she was returning and searching for new books for her to read. These days I wander around using my net book as a direct interface to the library catalog web site. This works pretty good until the web site automatically resets every few minutes.

Came home and had lunch (took up soup and tea to Eileen). Then dropped by and gave Mom her books (and Hershey bars). Then I was off to the grocery store. Came home put away groceries. Check on Eileen. Went to the church and practiced. Came home and treadmilled.

Kind of a full day off.

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Letter from Iceland: Surviving the Little Ice Age – Archaeology Magazine

Interesting article on archaeological site in Iceland.

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Berkeley, Targeting Homeless, Proposes Ban on Sidewalk Sitting – NYTimes.com

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My talented daughter Sarah is working on a design change for my web site.

This is what it looks like so far. It is cleaner. I haven’t upgraded my WordPress software for a very long time. This is due to the fact that the last time I did so, I got locked out the upgraded site and couldn’t create new posts.

One of the main things Sarah will probably help me with is using a more recent version of the software I use to edit this blog.

The band in this video is a local band. Yesterday I had the pleasure of chatting with the guitar player, Craig Avery.

A mutual acquaintance, Dennis Remenschneider, suggested that Craig should study with me. He is the music person at Immanuel Lutheran church in Ludington Michigan as well as one of the founding members of the band, Brena.

He has studied organ briefly before. I enjoyed listening to someone with his perspective. I found it slightly puzzling that he would seek me out, but this was largely at the behest of Remenschneider and the church he is working at, I guess. They offered to foot the bill for his lessons. Dennis idealizes my abilities. I’m afraid he wants me to mentor Craig. Craig seems to be doing church music just fine, but does not have pipe organ skills.

We agreed I would teach him. He is to purchase organ shoes and contact me for our first lesson. I gave him an old copy of Gleason I had laying around and asked him to read a few pages.

It would be fun to an organ student. We’ll see how this plays out.

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Government chief whip Andrew Mitchell resigns – Telegraph

This dude was rude to some workers. Lost his gig.

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Boy Scout Files for First Time Give Glimpse at Years of Abuse – NYTimes.com

No wonder the organization is homophobic. It makes me crazy when pedophilia is equated with homosexuality implicitly (as in the case of this article) or explicitly. Stupid stupid stupid.

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Larry Itliong, Forgotten Filipino Labor Leader – NYTimes.com

Did you know President Obama was recently in Keene, California at the United Farmworker headquarters? He designated the country’s first monument honoring a modern-day Latino. Some interesting little known history in this reporting.

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Suspect in Benghazi Attack Scoffs at U.S. – NYTimes.com

This story is an object lesson in how actors in a situation attempt to shape the reality of its reporting. Ahmed Abu Khattala throws untruths and innuendo into the mix. What a mess.

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Is It Time to Upgrade Your Gadgets? Do the Math – NYTimes.com

Some practical rules of thumb for when to upgrade phone/computer/whatever.

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Questions and Answers on the Benghazi Attack – NYTimes.com

This stuff continues to be distorted by weird reporting. Found this outline helpful.

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‘Ninety Years of Discrimination’ Is Enough, Court Declares – Garrett Epps – The Atlantic

Defense of Marriage Act goes down. Good.

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Recently I read through all of Frescobaldi’s Canzoni a due canti col basso continuo with my Amy Piersma, my piano trio violinist and Deb Coyle on oboe.

There are five of them in this collection which I purchased used from my old prof, Craig Cramer. The Canzoni change tempo and time signatures several times in each piece. You can see this in the first page of my score.

You will note the penciled in metronome markings. Yesterday Amy, Dawn Van Ark, my piano trio cellist, and I spent a good deal of time thinking about the tempos in this piece in our weekly rehearsal.

The previous week when I had ran through this with violin and oboe, I stopped us and set tempos for each section. This was to expedite reading.

I had thought this week to just let the trio (Deb couldn’t make it) move from section to section. The first rehearsal I had supplied the missing cello part. The second I supplied the missing oboe part.

But Amy had started thinking more specifically about tempos and their relationship in one canzona. After a great deal of discussion and experimentally playing, it became clearer to her and Dawn that these tempos are usually thought of in terms of proportions, i.e. 2:3.

Usually in tempo changes we think of what is common between the two tempos. Maybe the half note equals the half note of the next section. In proportional tempo changes this is a bit trickier, but can be done.

I came home and started poking around trying to find some resource material. My understanding of proportional rhythm in renaissance music dates back to my training in early music and work in early music ensembles. It has been years since I have had a discussion about it. I thought it would be good to research a bit.

Of course the salient article was outside my access.

There was an article in the 1995 edition of Early Music History. I do have access to this journal. But only volumes 29-31 as you can see here.

Access via Hope College is indicated by the little green dots.

The article in question was “Tempo relationships between uple and triple time in the sixteen century” by Ruth L. Deford. If you look closely you can see that I could buy this article for 30 to 40 pounds ($48.45 – $64.60) or rent it for anywhere from 4.49 – 5.99 pounds sterling ($7.25 – $9.67). Conversions are from today’s exchange rates.

So the heck with that. I did find an article in a book on Google books.

It’s not specific to the canzonas, but it might have some information in it. Inter-library-loaned the book which contains it.

In the meantime I found an online brass quartet edition with suggested metronome markings. I tried them out and found them pretty workable. I added one of my own and emailed it to the players as a working metronome solution until further examination.

I think this kind of thing is sort of fun.

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Teacher on Jury Duty Accused of Bringing Heroin to Court – NYTimes.com

Oops.

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In the Debates, Interruption or Interjection? – NYTimes.com

Deborah Tannen is someone whose books I have read. She has an informed and sensible way of looking at certain topics. She wrote this article.

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Scott’s Story and the Election – NYTimes.com

Little drama on the op-ed pages of the NYT. A friend of Kristoff confided in him about his own story about not having health insurance. He gets diagnosed very late with serious prostate cancer. He allows Kristoff to use his story as an example of someone needing health insurance. Kristoff received a lot of response (positive and negative). The man died this Monday.

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Eileen and I both are not feeling great. Eileen skipped choir rehearsal and announced at breakfast this morning that her goal today and tomorrow is to “survive.” We have head colds.

I’m using the Blackberry to video myself so that I can estimate the time it takes for the prelude. I think the mic is picking up room noise. I don’t think it’s a file conversion problem. I uploaded this directly from Eileen’s blackberry onto YouTube. These videos are just me practicing. I’m making no attempt at doing a finished product. (Can you tell?) I put them up thinking someone might be curious what I’m doing at the organ.

This is the postlude. I videoed it for the heck of it. I like the melody it’s based on and Farlee manages to come up with some pretty interesting stuff for an organ setting of it.

I just emailed the church secretary the following about the composer of the prelude:

Noel DaCosta (1929-2002) Although of Jamaican parentage, Noel DaCosta, was born in Lagos, Nigeria. He later moved to Jamaica where he lived until age 11, at which time he came to the US. He pursued his musical education at Queen College (City University of New York) and at Columbia University. While still in graduate school at Columbia, DaCosta was the recipient of the Seidl Fellowship in Music Composition. He later studied with Luigi Dallapiccola in Florence under a Fulbright Scholarship. In his latter years, Da Costa served as Professor of Music Emeritus at the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University where he taught from 1970 until shortly before his death.

I lifted it whole cloth from a Pipe Dreams online article on African American Composers.

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Mexican Doctor’s Baths for Corpses Reinvigorate Cold Cases – NYTimes.com

NCIS technology in real life. Remember Juarez? Where people (mostly young women) are being slaughtered by criminals. Over 8,000 bodies await this dude. I like his careful avoidance of getting involved in the criminal proceedings. I think he likes being alive.

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The ‘Eyeball to Eyeball’ Myth and the Cuban Missile Crisis’s Legacy – NYTimes.com

This version of history more believable.

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Woman Must Relinquish Kafka Papers, Judge Says – NYTimes.com

More Kafka stuff to come. Excellent.

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Wednesdays begin with an 8:30 AM ballet class for me and end with an evening of rehearsals. I don’t have as much leisure time in the morning for my usual routine of reading poetry and some non-fiction. I skipped my non-fiction this morning to put this blog up.

I am well over half way through J.G. Ballard’s last novel, Kingdom Come. Ballard is a sci fi dude I have read over the years. I was surprised when he leapt into prominence when his novel, Empire of the Sun, became a big movie. Same with Crash. I have read neither of these books.

Kingdom Come is a funny book to be reading during a presidential campaign in the USA. Ballard tells a tale of a suburban city called Brooklands in the UK.

An old man has been shot in a disturbance at a huge mall there.

His son, a former advertising executive, goes to Brooklands to poke around and find out more about his father and his father’s death.

In the course of this, he discovers several odd plots, one to destroy the mall, one to protect it, and one to rid the country of undesirables like immigrants. The story is mostly about the collapse of civic order and identity into consumerism.

Here is a sentence I liked enough to record (I’m reading a library copy).

“The human race sleepwalked to oblivion thinking only about the corporate logo on its shroud.”

Regarding the current presidential debacle, I mean election, at one point a prominent TV announcer and product spokesperson joins with the ex-ad man to develop both a weird existential product and lifestyle/politics campaign. Very cool.

They consciously and surreally discuss their work and decide it’s the “new politics.”

“The new politics is going to be a little like pro rugby. Try it out on your next consumer shot. Don’t change your style, but now and then surprise them. Show an authoritarian edge, be openly critical of them. Make a sudden emotional appeal. Show your flaws. then demand loyalty. Insist on faith and emotional commitment, without exactly telling them what they’re supposed to believe in.”

This could easily be a talking head on the tube speaking of the opposing party candidates in the USA.

Ballard published this book in 2006. It was his last. The writing is uneven. Excellent in place and then suddenly quirky and confusing.

It is an interesting book to have in your hands and then watch the devastating spectacle of American presidential campaign in 2012.

I had a very busy day yesterday but I did find time to choose music for the following Sunday.

I thought I should balance out my recent baroque and contemporary (okay sort of contemporary) choices with a romantic Sunday. Also I wasn’t looking for big projects. I landed on a charming little canon by Robert Shuman.

I will register it a bit louder than the editor suggests here and use it as the postlude.

For the prelude I will do the first 2 sections from Mendelssohn’s Sonata V.

I am also thinking of an insane little project. In Messiaen’s Nativity suite for organ each movement has at least one scriptural reference.I think it would be interesting to look these up in the Three Year Lectionary we use at church. The music itself would be appropriate outside the Xmas season as well as during. Last year I played a couple. I think his music is beautiful.

Before my father died, he wrote a series of remembrances. Although there are errors in its family dates, it is an enormous wealth of information about my family.

It’s hard for me to discern exactly why Dad did this. He seemed to find satisfaction in situating his life story and that of his extended families in between contemporary historical events.

He was retired. It gave him a project for a while. He was in the beginning stages of Lewy Body Dementia and this made have contributed to his need to create a record of some kind before losing more of his own memory.

I had reason to reach for a volume yesterday when my cousin, Cheryl Miller (nee Midkiff), contacted me via email looking for family facts and pics.

I love the internets.

I was able to reach for Dad’s memoir and come up with some family names of ancestors Cheryl and I share. I passed on a few pictures sitting on my hard drive as well.

Eileen thought this would have made my Dad happy. She could be right about that. I have to say that I don’t think I ever knew my Dad very well. I certainly did not understand him. I think he loved me and I love him, but there did seem to be a barrier between us.

As I happily connect with Cheryl, the daughter of my Mom’s sister, I realize how little contact I have with extended family. Some of this is the inevitable result of how people are scattered all over and constantly moving around.

But some of it is I believe the inheritance of my particular family. My Mom was the only one of her family to leave West Virginia and go to college. It was a small church college, granted, but it was a huge step for her. Her sister and brother lived most of their life literally within a stone’s throw of their mother and father, Thelma and Jim. Though we visited West Virginia regularly and I have many fond memories of my cousins, aunts, uncles and Jim and Thelma, Mom struggled most of her adult life to find her place in her family of origin in her own mind.

On my Father’s side, he was estranged from his two older brothers for most of their lives. Dad chose to stay in the Church of God, becoming a minister like his father. His oldest brother Dave wisely put distance between himself and this part of his heritage. Jonny rejected the church stuff more emphatically. There are family stories of the damage done to Jonny as a kid which include beatings and humiliation around his repugnance with the Church of God.

My brother let drop the other day a little fact that Dad pushed his brothers away by trying to convert them back to the faith. I didn’t remember that. But I can see all of this as separation between family members.

I do have fond memories of my cousins, the children of Dave and Jonny. But at this point in my life I don’t really have relationships with any of my cousins.

On another internets topic, I have been having a pretty interesting discussion with Michael Cowgill, the music director of St. Michaels, West Retford, UK.

He is planning to perform Buxtehude’s organ setting of the Te Deum on All Saints at his church. He inquired on the English Church Music Facebook group if anyone knew why Buxtehude changed the order of the sections of the Te Deum.

I found this question interesting and began poking around.

I’m quite fond of Google Scholar and it led me to this book…

… which was sitting on the shelf at Hope College.

Snyder has a few pages on this piece and cleared up some of the confusion. He maintains the piece was garbled in transmission and the correct order follows the chant. He also notes that Buxtehude does not follow any extant cantus firmus melody exactly but quotes one that comes close.

I happily joined in conversation with Michael Cowgill across the world about this stuff.

I love the interwebs.

I keep thinking I should record my congregation singing my Jazz mass parts. My buddy, Nick Palmer, had some very good questions about how people would actually sing it. The trick will be to do it without drawing attention to what I am doing. Should be possible.

The singing was strong yesterday at Eucharist. It turns out that the relative little known tune, Hollingside, to which we sang, “Take my life and let it be,” is pretty familiar to this congregation. I thought about that as I played Alec Rowley’s quiet setting of it for organ as the prelude.

Ever since seeing (hearing) my organ and room through the eyes of John Boody I have been more aware of the quality of the sound. All my life I have had to play mostly very inferior instruments. I have thought that it is lucky for me that the music itself holds such attraction and interest for me that I can sort of listen beyond the quality of the sounds themselves. This is not an entirely happy thought, but still I know that I do not have the aversion to to certain sounds that many organists and organ builders do. I am attracted to better sounds. But having been exposed all my life to crappy organs and pianos, I have found a way to try to make them sound as good as possible despite their inferior nature.

Vocal sounds however are ones that I am constantly trying to improve. I think this is because I know ways to help people make better sounds with their voices. At least sounds that are more acceptable to my ears.

The choral anthem yesterday was an example of this. Sumner Jenkins’ lovely setting of words scrawled on a basement wall in Germany by someone hiding from the Gestapo was our anthem. The choir likes this anthem, so it was easy to get them to focus on vocal quality and interpretation. The result in service was something was I was happy with.

The postlude was “Trumpet Tune” by Calvin Hampton.

It is not as hard as most of his organ works. However, there were sections I wish I had worked harder on. On Saturday I carefully played through the last page 15 times. It concludes with a pedal flourish that I have been practicing. Then I played the entire piece four more times. Yesterday morning I worked on the pedal run, the tricky little section right before it before the pregame rehearsal. I also played slowly through the entire piece.

The result was pretty good. I can remember my teacher, Ray Ferguson, saying that sometimes you practice right up until a performance. I have found this to be true especially in the last few years when I have begun challenging myself more often as a performer.

As Eileen and I walked home together I felt pretty good about the music I had just performed.

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Performance Anxiety? Take a Deep Breath –

Interesting study about performance anxiety. I was particularly interested and amused at how they set up the musicians for anxiety by asking them to perform difficult music.

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Who Will Mourn George Whitmore? – NYTimes.com

Another sad story of American hate.

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Make Motor Vehicle Safety a Priority – NYTimes.com

This writer uses automobile accidents of the Presidents to illustrate her point.

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Afghan Boys Eke Living Amid Peril at Gorge – NYTimes.com

Somehow these “boys” (some are elderly men) put themselves in harms way to direct fast traffic. Some of the drivers toss them money.

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Which Millionaire Are You Voting For? – NYTimes.com

I have “friends” on facebook who hate Obama. I have also “friends” who hate Romney. I do not really despite either man. I am planning to hold my nose and vote for Obama. But I can’t deny that his presidency has been one that troubles me. Interesting facts in this article include:

“If millionaires were a political party, that party would make up roughly 3 percent of American families, but it would have a super-majority in the Senate, a majority in the House, a majority on the Supreme Court and a man in the White House.”

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The Possibilities of Quantum Information – NYTimes.com

Interesting science for lay people.

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Questions on Drones, Unanswered Still – NYTimes.com

NYT public editor, Margaret Sullivan, chronicles coverage of drones. I find the idea that we are killing remotely very troubling.

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I am beginning to think I can pull off the sections of Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet my dance prof has asked me to prepare for class. At first it was quite daunting. The piano reduction like so many piano reductions in an effort to draw a complete symphonic pictures is sometimes so complex as to be virtually unplayable. The pianist is to choose which layer he/she might play.

I made a playlist on Spotify and have been playing the seven sections the teacher marked. For the record they are:

Act I
Morning Dance
Dance of the Knights
Juliet’s Variation
Romeo’s Variation

Act II
Folk Dance
Dance of the five couples
Dance with the mandolins

Since it is a ballet, the phrases are pretty regular. This was some of my initial concern. Although there is plenty of irregular rhythmic stuff in ballet including many irregular phrases, usually in class the teacher needs pretty square phrases.

I’ll be interested to see if the ballet instructors asks for any of this music in class. She is an excellent teacher but tends to teach in a very spontaneous way as she outlines basic ballet technique. That’s why it’s nice to have a live musician who can adapt to whatever comes into her head. If she does ask for it, I will be interested if she wants entire pieces or just sections.

On another note, my friend Rhonda E. and organ builder John Boody asked to see the interior of Grace Church. I found this pretty puzzling as we have little to offer in the way of acoustics and certainly nothing an organ builder would be interested in seeing. But as it turns out, I was wrong. John was very interested. In fact the first words out of his mouth after a bit of scrutiny was that he liked the building.

I was flabbergasted. I was no longer seeing this room’s potential. I remember telling myself when I took the job that a bad organ and a poor acoustic were a given. John said the acoustic wasn’t as bad as I had led him to believe. He liked the exposed concrete block which makes up most of the vertical walls. I suppose I do too. It makes me think of the lovely Trappist chapel in Gethsemane Kentucky where Thomas Merton lived out his days.

He pointed out that it was very feasible to treat the walls and increase the reverberation in the room.

But the real revelation for me was his comments about the arch that hovers around the choir area.

This arch creates a sound barrier and tends to trap the sound of the organ and the choir. I often have the choir step out from under it to sing. That’s what we will do this morning.

John said that if one constructed a wedge between the back surface of the arch and the wall one could divert sound. This also might be cheap enough to be practical. He promised to send me an email detailing his ideas about the room.

Finally he said that there was a place to put a free standing organ (in the choir area). He commented that this was very unusual in Episcopal churches he visits. Usually there’s no place for the organ.

I tremble to think that someday we could have a good acoustic and a beautiful Taylor and Boody organ at Grace. I feel like Moses looking over into the promised land.

Before he left, I gave him copies of some of my compositions. He had asked to see them.

I recall how much fun it was to have Episcopalian colleagues back in the eighties when I lived on the east side of the state. It was an exciting time in the church for me. I learned a lot. I am currently reading the volume of essays in the Hymnal 1982 companion. As I read them I realize how influenced I have been by the reformers of the Hymnal 1982 and the 1979 Book of Common Prayer.

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Dark Social: We Have the Whole History of the Web Wrong – Alexis C. Madrigal – The Atlantic

“Dark Social” is linking that is not easily tracked by the staticians, i.e. via email and chat. It turns out to be a very significant amount of the connecting that happens online.

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Secret Israel-Syria Peace Talks Involved Golan Heights Exit – NYTimes.com

The Israelis are denying this which gives it more credibility to me. It looks like there was a remote possibility of a settlement and then the Arab Spring happened.

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Usada’s Report Could Create New Legal Issues for Lance Armstrong – NYTimes.com

Looks like Armstrong was lying all along. How disappointing.

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Andalib Adwan Shehada, Bold Voice for Gaza Women – NYTimes.com

I love the fact that this woman who is a spokesperson for women in Gaza has a name that means “aggressive nightingale.”

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Space Shuttle Endeavour Rolls Through Los Angeles – NYTimes.com

This boggles my mind. It’s a like a science fiction story.

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Indians Allowed to Have Eagle Feathers – NYTimes.com

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Earth’s Strongest, Most Massive Storm Ever

Recent anniversary of this. Dramatic aerial pic.

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Eileen and I attended a Hip Hop dance concert last night. The Rennie Harris Puremovement troupe was founded in 1992. It was the first Hip Hop dance company. The dancing was amazing. But what hit me the most was the music style. There was very little rapping. Most of the music used had a strong thumping beat and rhythm with a bit of mixed in loops.

The driving beat was often indistinguishable to me from what I think of as electronica.

I guess it’s unsurprising that a musical style can’t be kept in a box. The list of top Hip Hop Albums Wikipedia entry includes music I recognize and which fits my idea of what Hip Hop sounds like (more rapping).

Of course the most recent album listed was by Jay-Z and was released in 2001. That’s some time ago.

Wikipedia says this about Hip Hop: “in its broader sense hip hop culture is characterized by the four elements of rapping, DJing, hip hop dance and graffiti.”

and this about the music:

Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a music genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted. It developed as part of hip hop culture, a subculture defined by four key stylistic elements: MCing/rapping, DJing/scratching, break dancing, and graffiti writing. Other elements include sampling (or synthesis), and beatboxing.

So reading all this sort of confirms my original idea of what Hip Hop is like.

Here’s a little taste of what we saw last night, but it doesn’t compare with the energy and beauty of their live performance.

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DeLay’s Victories Endure, Even if He Loses in Court — Campaign finance | The Texas Tribune

Remember Tom DeLay? Turns out his illegal behavior worked out well for him and the Republicans. Shameful.

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Pakistan – Drone Strike Kills 18 – NYTimes.com

Tried, convicted, sentenced and executed in one motion. 21st century American justice.

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