I just remembered...

When I was a kid, my parents somehow got ahold of certain audio tapes made by a Canadian company Classical Kids.

They were basically stories about classical composers as told through imagined interactions with children. In one, a girl is reluctantly practicing the piano (a gigue by Bach), and just as she is frustrated and wants to go outside to play, who stops by but (the spirit of) dear old JS himself. In another, we hear the narration of a little boy whose mother is the landlord for Mr. Beeethoven who moves in upstairs. You get the idea.

We did a lot of driving around on weekends as I was growing up, and it was always engaging to hear these stories. My sister and I are really big on nostalgic repetition -- I guess we kept that childhood habit of wanting a favorite bedtime story read to us nightly.

For some reason, I was just thinking about them -- (well, I know the reason -- I was reading Rosand's Opera in Seventeenth Century Venice, which reminded me of one of the favorite tapes: Vivaldi's Ring of Mystery).


Also, so far as I know, this is the earliest instance in which I've been convinced that I can see the (handsome) "face" of a voice. The voice-acting on this is pretty rad. Why does Canada always get nice things?

(the CBC is rad as hell)

So I was sitting in the little food area at Costco and idly watching some of the cashiers, etc.

I noticed this one slender guy with a spring in his step that still seemed to be leaning on everything. Perhaps you've seen similar: closely cropped hair, polo shirt with collar popped, cartilage and lobe piercings. That sort of thing.

But still leaning on surfaces yet not looking totally goofy in the process.

Which reminded me what my mother was telling me about leaning the sound on something. When people stand unsupported, they start wobbling about, even if it's very minor. If they have something to lean on, it'll all be in one direction.

It's a useful visual image, actually -- really interesting in terms of vocalise practices in an attempt to smooth things out and present a more uniform sound. Speaking of, I've been taking a melisma from 'Der teurer' of Bach's SJP. Feels really good and I like that it doesn't start at the bottom and go up but rather starts in the middle, goes down, and then up, then down (so I can ease into the idea of preparing the space for the higher stuff at the beginning). Also, the high stuff comes later so it's a really nice breath control reminder -- and is honing efficiency on higher passages.

But, what this post really is about: parts of the William Klein film of the Messiah conducted by Minkowski.



I might have mentioned in passing once or twice that I'd like to bear Minkowski's children. And I'd also love to be involved in some crazy film project like this.

whoah, minnesota?

So on a lark, I investigated the website of Minnesota Public Radio further and there seems to be a gigantic trove of really interesting things, even just in the classical music section.

Playlist below culling some interesting features, including Vivica Genaux (interview and singing of Neapolitan songs), Phil Gossett on Verdi's Ballo, Dinnerstein and the Goldberg Variations.

cara speme

from


Joyce DiDonato's Website:



Also check out Ms. DiDonato's blog (why did it take me so long to discover it? the world will never know).

frustration

Argh. Frustration. But the good kick-in-the-ass frustration. Lots of singing, and that's definitely good, but am sooo soo soooo behind in terms of vocal development. So far behind. I'm totally frustrated and tired of not knowing how to sing. It feels like I'm in some weird 5-dimensional bottle-neck where I'm pretty close to figure out which way to go, but I'm still just futzing around and utterly lost.

But, as a good friend said to me "this is kind of awesome, because it'll mean you will work hard. Your job is not actually to sing, but just to try to sing, and your teacher will help tell you how to do that." So it's time to embrace the student-teacher relationship! Full steam ahead. So that means I have a big practice session scheduled after work today.

Anyhow, these pictures are hilarious and awesome.


vocal folds, chest registration




vocal folds, falsetto

placeholder for something serious

nothing serious yet. I want to write on Nordic Voices, but that'll have to wait until later this week. In the meantime, gonna try and figure out how to post flash movies without auto-starting them hmmmmm.


edited: because I didn't want to have the movie play out the soundtrack of my blog for however many pages more until it gets bumped off, i'll just link it until it disappears: clicky!

edited again since this now on the second page of posts!



also, there are more informations on the music and the source of the animation at wiki: linky!

hmmm it seems I might have to edit the movie itself, which is not going to happen soon. Well, if that's the case...enjoy (or not...) leekspin!

BWAHAHAHA

awesome for anybody who spent any time in arcades during the 90's :P









amAzing!

aMAzing!

OMG, go here now and watch the vid. You can thank me later!