Music

The old witch with an autoharp

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autoharp
An autoharp

In the 1970s, I was just a small girl going to elementary school in eastern Pennsylvania. Each class level had about two teachers, with the students divided between the two. Other than “library time” when we all got in a line and made the procession to the library (to see the librarian), all classes were held in the same classroom. A separate art teacher came to our class with a cart full of art supplies, and the designated music teacher came with numerous instruments, like tambourines, triangles, egg shakers, recorders and kazoos. You can imagine the “music” we created with that lot of instruments, but it was so fun! I remember the music teacher even having us dance around the room as if following the Pied Piper. Continue reading →

Nature’s singers join the great orchestra at Tanglewood Music Festival

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Audience members under the shed roof, and outside on the grass at the Tanglewood Music Festival in the Berkeshires of Massachussetts (Koussevitzsky Music Shed)

About five or so years ago, my husband and I had the joy of attending the concerts at the well-known Tanglewood Music Festival in the beautiful Berkshire Hills of western Massachusetts.  Tanglewood is the famed summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and is an open-air shed, covered by a roof, but no walls on its sides. Continue reading →

That driver is definitely loopy! Watch her do a loop de loop.

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car dancing 2
Doin’ my car dance

Anyone whose known me for a while, knows I love to dance. Sometimes I crank up the music in my car, and have a blast! Yea, I definitely sing my heart out. Being in the driver’s seat doesn’t prevent me from dancing up a storm or shout. A favorite song gets me hopping in my seat, waving my arms, slapping the steering wheel like a drum. I put my foot on the clutch, shift that stick, step on the gas pedal moving my whole body, and shifting my bum . Vrooooom, vroom, vroooom, vroom, vroom, errrrrrt! Don’t worry, nobody ever gets hurt. Continue reading →

Quoting portions of earlier music – A comparison

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music photo

Musical quotation (directly quoting portions of another work in a new composition) has been a common practice throughout much of the history of music. For example, composers like Mozart frequently quoted portions of pieces by Johann Sebastian Bach, such as in his Piano Concerto No. 12. Richard Strauss quoted the funeral march from Beethoven’s Eroica Symphony No. 3 in his Metamophosen for 23 solo strings. Continue reading →

Beethoven’s musical flight of ideas

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Beethoven collage

Several months ago, my husband and I received the annual music program from the local university in my town. We are very lucky that we live in a town with a university that attracts some of the best classical musicians and other artists in the world. This year the main focus was on Beethoven String Quartets, played by the Takács Quartet. The last of the performances focused on his later string quartets including the well-known Grosse Fuge Op. 133. Just imagine Beethoven at this time in 1825, already deaf, but music playing on and on in his genius head. Imagine him walking down the streets of Vienna talking to himself and humming the music, even conducting as he went along. Continue reading →

Radiant Banana Nut Muffins from My Utility Muffin Baking Research Kitchen

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Utility Muffin KitchenFinal Final-002
In the kitchen

I don’t have no boss, feeling lonely at home by myself. I have things I could do, I could call my favorite vegetable, but my belly is growling. The kitchen is too clean. Time to mess it up with some cosmik debris. I’m a baking tycoon. Gotta bake my radiant banana nut muffins, good enough for downtown Hollywood.

Put on the music. I think I’m itchin’ for some classic Frank Zappa right now. Joining him in song in the utility muffin baking research kitchen. I put on the oven and dance like a dancing fool around the room, beating and mashing the wet stuff, then adding the flour, scraping it down, whipping it up. Oh, god I am the American dream, I do not think I’m too extreme. Continue reading →

The very beginning…

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bird dancer-864394__340

Hello readers. If you’ve made it here, then know that I am very very excited!  This is my first blog post on a site like WordPress. My purpose in blogging here is to hone my writing skills, explore several topics that mean a lot to me, and serve as an emotional release for all of the goings on in my mind. Continue reading →