Yesterday I helped Martin Pasi tune the reeds on the organ at Grace. It was so good to see him again. Conversation with him is always interesting and leaves me with much food for thought. Martin mentioned that a radio station he listens to a lot is ö1 out of his native Austria. He described it as “experimental.” Since there is an umlaut on the o, it seems that the name is written orf1.
This morning I pulled it up on my podcast radio stations section. I put it on and took a shower. I was surprised to listen to a half hour of a live concert of Bob Dylan. These songs pulled me back into the past and back into Dylan’s work something I love and admire. His songs are part of my DNA.
After a while, the news came on. It was in Austrian German of course. I waited for a while for some music to come on. Then decided that since I was in a sort of nostalgic listening mood I would pull up some Anton Webern who was a composer I especially admired when I was younger. Here’s what I listened to:
The conductor, Pierre Boulez, also did a recording with Frank Zappa. As I listened I realized that Zappa and Webern can sound very similar. I guess Zappa may have copied Webern, but I’m not really aware of how this influence came about. Just that it’s another part of this old hack musician’s DNA.
Martin adjusted several things on the organ that have been acting up. He also changed the tremulant. He made a bit slower and changed the depth of the undulation to make it shallower. We talked about tremulant. Martin suggested that it could be used for part of a chorale prelude and maybe wouldn’t be needed for all of it. This would mean changing it like changing the registration at a strategic point. I hadn’t thought of that. It makes sense because tremulant can get old quickly. I still think it’s verging on Lawrence Welk but like the sound on the Pasi in small doses.
Martin also suggested turning it off at the end of the last note of a piece. Another intriguing option.
On another topic, Martin mentioned that he thinks President Trump will do something to make his imprint on history and the world. Martin thinks it might quite likely be to institute single payer health care. Martin said that he despises Trump (and most of what he stands for I suspect), but that Trump’s ego demands things like what he did this week when completely undercut the Republican leadership and quickly gave in to “Chuck and Nancy” about raising the debt ceiling.
Another thing I hadn’t thought of. I promised Martin I would “message” him on Fakebook if that occurred.
Martin snapped a pic of me practicing for this morning and put it up on Fakebook. Here it is, cropped.
