Kurt Knecht

St. Thomas a Beckett

2016-12-29T11:01:00.003-06:00

For all the problems of the Middle Ages, I find some things still astounding. After ordering the death of Thomas a Beckett, the pope excommunicated the knights that did the deed and sent them on Crusade for 14 years.

Here is the amazing thing. Henry II, to show his remorse, walked barefoot to Canterbury Cathedral and allowed the monks there to whip him. I can't imagine a political leader in our time showing that sort of humility.

Lucretius nails it

2016-06-08T22:18:00.001-05:00

"There is a weight on their minds, and a mountain of misery lies on their hearts...For each, not knowing what he wants, seeks always to change his place, as if he could drop his burden. Here is one who, bored to death at home, goes forth every now and then from his palace; but feeling no better abroad, suddenly returns. Off he courses, driving his nags to his country house in headlong haste...He has hardly crossed the threshold when he yawns, or seeks oblivion in a heavy sleep, or even hurries back to the city. So each man flees from himself; but, as one might expect, the self which he cannot escape cleaves to him all the more against his will. He hates himself because, a sick man, he does not know the cause of his complaint." - Lucretius

Week 2 2015 Christmas Carol Mashups collected

2015-12-14T09:09:00.002-06:00

Here are last weeks carols collected.

Let it Snow in the style of Bartok for Chelsea Coventry.

Angels we have heard on high in the style of Grieg for Amy Flammino.

In the bleak mid-Winter in the style of Vivaldi for Martha Davies.

Grandma got run over by a Reindeer in the style of Handel for Patrick Beasley.

Sleigh Ride in the style of Henry Cowell for John Kosch.

Jingle Bell Rock in the style of John Adams for Chelsea Kuddes.

Week One 2015 - Carols in the Style collected

2015-12-05T10:45:00.002-06:00

I haven't been doing a personal blog in a while, but I thought I would collect the results of week 1 in a single place in case you missed any.

O Christmas Tree in the style of Darius Milhaud

Next was Andrea Ramsey's suggestion of The Little Drummer Boy in the style of Stephen Sondheim

Andrew Crane suggested Deck the Halls in the style of Morten Lauridsen.

Andy Schneider asked for Blue Christmas in the style of Frederick Chopin.

Tanya Nicole with a new last name that I don't know asked for What Child is This? in the style of Debussy.

Julius Miller asked for You're a Mean One Mr. Grinch in the style of Robert Schumann.

Brian Vuu asked for Last Christmas by Wham in the style of Johannes Brahms. I still don't know how all these young children know so many 80s pop songs.

Rachel Wheelan asked for Auld Lang Syne in the style of Bach. I don't improvise Bach, so I wrote this one down a little.

Finally, Christian Cordona asked for I saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus in the style of Dimitri Shostakovich.

Probably taking the weekend off, but keep the requests coming. Again, the top three will be played live in concert at the 1st Plymouth New Years's concert.

The problem with American society explained...finally

2015-05-26T12:18:00.000-05:00

I have a diverse group of friends which includes some conservatives, some liberals, some moderates, some capitalists, some Marxists, some distributivists, some anarchists, some Christians, some atheists, some Jews, at least one Sikh, a Hari Krishna, and I think there is also a Pastafarian or two. There is one thing they all agree on. American society is headed downhill.

I'm pretty sure that if they were all in one room, they wouldn't be able to agree on what kind of pizza to order, but they can agree that American society is bad and getting worse. It's not just a little bit of it, either. It's the whole damn thing. The government, the education system, the quality of music, the level of discourse, the Church, parenting, public health are pretty much crashing according to my Facebook feed.

The funny thing is, the posts are never written from the first person point of view. It's never, "I, as a member of American society, am getting worse. My taste in music has become terrible. I've ruined my own government, and as for my parenting...don't even get me started. A little Benadryl never killed a child." That would, I think, be more honest. Instead we get the post from someone who has magically lifted themselves out of the society for a moment. It's always, "Your taste is getting worse. My government is getting worse because of what you did. Children are behaving worse because of what you did."

Who is the "you" that is responsible? Quite interestingly, at least according to my Facebook feed, it's the same group of people from the beginning. It's the fault of conservatives, liberals, moderates, capitalists, Marxist, Christians, and atheists. I even occasionally see people posting anti-semitic stuff because, well, the Jews.

Well, if these damn kids and their internets and rap music don't ruin this country, I don't know what will. The problem with the rap is its "heartless sterility, obliteration of all melody, all tonal charm, all music." Of course, that was actually said about Wagner in 1871, and similar things were said about Beethoven 50 years before that, and similar things were said about Bach 100 years before that. People have never liked the next generations music or their kids.

People have been complaining about kids since there were kids. The point is, the country is bigger now than it has ever been. For every (insert group you don't like) there are millions who are of a similar mind to you. The main thing is, you have to change the ones that are different from you by attacking them through social media posts. It worked on me. Well...it would have worked on me, but I spent yesterday on the internets and listening to Tupac.

1000 monkeys writing a Beethoven symphony

2015-05-18T18:47:00.002-05:00

I guess there is a thing now where you pick a youtube video and send it to me for my commentary. Timothy Tharaldson sent in this one.

This is wrong-headed for several reasons, so it's hard to know where to start. He says so little in so much time, that it is easy to get confused. Let's start with some of the easy surface misconceptions.

We can record music using bits. Recorded music is not that same thing as hearing it in real life. It is easy to mistake the two if you are only used to hearing the kind with zeros and ones, but in real life, music is infinitely more complicated.

He has to force music into discreet components and leave a bunch of stuff out in order to make it calculable. So, for example, he talks about combinations of pitches and rhythms (surprisingly there is no mention of rests so his calculations may be all off!) Notice we don't discuss timbre, volume, attack, decay, portamento, the tender baby's breath of a vibrato change that the violinist put in that turn. Well, if we included all those factors, we would be talking about real music, and then the calculations would be too big, and it would make for a very short video. He would just say, "No, we will never run out of combinations." Instead, he takes a long time to say, "No, we will never run out of combinations."

All of this is a variation of the infinite monkey theorem to me, but it misunderstands the point. Composition is always a very human activity, and composers are not picking notes from an infinite number of combinations. The monkeys may eventually type Hamlet, but to do so, they would need to type 500,000 copies of Hamlet with one word spelled wrong, and 1,000,000 copies with two. Eventually, there would be infinite Hamlets, but it wouldn't really be Hamlet would it? It wouldn't be what Hamlet really is. The work of William Shakespeare wrestling words into submission until they convey something that can transform those who encounter it is not reducible to infinite chance.

So, he goes on to say that we like certain patterns. 40 songs with 40 chords. Everybody is copying because we only like those patterns. Blah, blah, blah. There is always a certain amount of imitation that occurs, and to some degree that's a good thing. Imitating is flattery. Stealing is bad. The line is blurry. (Get it. "Blurred Lines". See what I did there.) However, there is a different way to think about this whole problem.

One of the reasons why there are so many 3 and 4 legged chairs is that the 1 and 2 legged chairs were so much less successful. One of the reasons so many buildings hold their roofs up with walls is that the ones that try to hold them up without walls are so much worse. That is to say, art happens in real life with a real person interacting with real materials. Sometimes a structure is discovered that seems innate to the material itself and the artistic merit is in making beautiful 4 legged chairs.

In music, the 12-bar blues is one such structure. It's sturdy foundation is durable enough to allow a surprising amount of variation. For some people, there is enough freedom in the restrictions of the structure that they can spend their entire lives exploring that little area of the world. So, you might believe that B.B. King ran out of ideas when he was 20 and just kept copying the same patterns of notes and rhythms. I think that's sort of an ungenerous approach. I prefer to think that he was creating an entire universe inside of a bottle. When you go inside the bottle, it is magically larger than the outside.

Of course, once the folks over at Vsauce get a hold of my blog and see how well it compresses, they'll be able to put it on their graph and tell me that it was either too simple or too complex for people to like. Hopefully, they will make a video that calculates all the possible words that I could have used and then tell me that surprisingly we tend to like nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs.

Frank LaRocca and a cappella sacred music on MusicSpoke

2015-04-07T12:53:00.001-05:00

I updated the sacred a cappella choral list I made the other day to include the music of Frank LaRocca. I wanted to do a separate post about it because I'm so excited to have him onboard at MusicSpoke. I seriously love his music. It's the kind of music that I often try to write. I find it exquisitely beautiful, expertly informed by tradition, unmistakably modern, lush, and gorgeous. If you don't know about him, you need to.

O Sacrum Convivium

Miserere click here for a recording

Anima Christi

Ave Maris Stella

The 38 reasons you need MusicSpoke in your life this week. You won't believe #5!

2015-03-31T15:28:00.002-05:00

One of our British MusicSpoke composers, Matthew Cann, asked for a list of the a cappella sacred choral music we now have available on MusicSpoke.

It's wonderful just to use the site to listen to some of this fabulous music. It's even better to buy it and work with the composer.

So, in alphabetical order by composer, I've made a rough list. The catalogue is already getting large, so if I skipped one, let me know.

Flowers for the Altar - Eric Barnum
In Paradisum - Eric Barnum

In Manus Tuas - Matthew Cann
Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis - Matthew Cann

Fishing in the Keep of Silence - Paul Carey

Alleluia - Saunder Choi

Benediction - John Conahan
Of Man and of Angels - John Conahan

God's Grandeur - Garret Hope

The Holly and the Ivy - Jason Horner
Lo, How a Rose, There is a Flower - Jason Horner
Unison Prayer - Jason Horner

Ayin - Ryan Keebaugh
Our Father - Ryan Keebaugh
The Suffering Servant - Ryan Keebaugh

Ordo Rachelis - Kurt Knecht

Jubilate Deo - Connor Koppin
Vidi Aquam - Connor Koppin
O Vos Omnes - Connor Koppin

O Sacrum Convivium - Frank LaRocca
Miserere - Frank LaRocca
Anima Christe - Frank LaRocca
Ave Maria Stella - Frank LaRocca

Jesus is Mine - Andrew Marshall
Praise to the Lord - Andrew Marshall

Sicut Cervus - David Montoya

Land of Rest - Mona Lyn Reese

The Creation - Tinsley Silcox

And Good in Every Thing - Kile Smith
God So Loved the World - Kile Smith

Alleluia - Joseph Gentry Stephens
Requiem Aeternum - Joseph Gentry Stephens
Rise Up, My Love, My Fair One - Joseph Gentry Stephens
Sing Unto God - Joseph Gentry Stephens

Abun D'bash'maiyo - Mark Templeton

I See His Blood Upon the Rose - Timothy Tharaldson
Nearer, My God, to Thee - Timothy Tharaldson

Blessing - Dale Trumbore
Es Autem Fides Credere - Dale Trumbore
Kyrie Eleison - Dale Trumbore
Sing to the Lord - Dale Trumbore

Cradle Hymn - David von Kampen

Fugue on the NPR theme

2015-03-26T08:41:00.002-05:00

Some of my composition students are currently in Gretchen Foley's fiercely graded 18th century counterpoint class. She asked me if I would pull out my final project and give her a copy. I had a little bit of practice time on Spring Break.

I took the NPR theme and turned it into the kind of subject you would use for a gigue fugue. I then used the Bach G Major fugue BWV 541 as a sort of template for the structure. All of the subject entries are annotated, and I even managed some stretto entrances at the end.

The playing is a little rough in patches, but the beast is dreadfully difficult to play. I originally thought the theme was by the ubiquitous B.J. Liederman, but it turns out it was by Voegeli.

What great musical education looks like

2015-03-25T20:39:00.001-05:00

I had another opportunity to find great musical education happening this week. This time, to my great delight, it was my oldest son Zach. He is the executive director of the Academy of Rock here in Lincoln, and I had the chance to watch him work with some middle school boys.

The first thing I look for in a music educator is to check whether they are actually engaging their students. Zach had an immediate rapport with the kids. He was energetic and encouraging.

After hearing them play, he immediately complimented them on what they did well. This is a great best practice for any young educator.

When it comes to problems, here is my ideal.

1. Quickly assess the problem.
2. Explain the problem
3. Demonstrate the right way to do it
4. Let the student try to do it
5. Provide tools and strategies for improvement

I saw all of that, and then he even wrapped up the session by talking about an upcoming performance and how to deal with any stage fright that might be encountered.

I might be biased, but I saw some fabulous educating happening, and I always like to praise that when I see it.

Unalienable rights and the cross

2015-03-24T10:35:00.000-05:00

It appears that the dreaded election season is already upon us. I'm always taken aback a little when I hear politicians playing like they are theologians — funny, I don't have the same problem when musicians do it.

In any case, I find it odd when people like Ted Cruz claim that we have unalienable rights given by God. Certainly, Thomas Jeffersons God might have doled out things like that, but I'm not sure the one in the Bible did that stuff.

In Jewish and subsequent Christian thought, the encounter with God results in an ethical demand on us to the world. This outward focus is manifested in the history of art. Chesterton points out that the Buddhist tradition always sculpts Buddha with his eyes closed or half-closed because he is focussing inward. The heroes from the Hebrew Scriptures and the Saints are always wide-eyed and facing out to the world. It's not that there aren't examples of inward focussed saints and outward focussed Buddhas. It's a generalization with all the strengths and weakness of one. The Judeo-Christian theophany always results in working to repair the world.

The idea that your neighbor has a claim on you, or rather, as Jesus puts it, you are a neighbor to everyone seems a very different concept than an unalienable right. When someone violates my "rights", I need to defend them. When God places an ethical demand on me to love my neighbor as myself, there is no limit to what I may be called to give up in order to love him/her.

So, Hosea may have to suffer the shame of marrying a prostitute. Jeremiah may have to remain alone and without a spouse because his love for his people trumped his "right" to personal happiness. St. Ignatius may have to get chewed up by lions because his love for the eternal trumped his "right" to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

When it comes to God, we don't have any rights. We only have a calling. When I think about "rights", I think about how I am being wronged. When I think about my neighbor, I am thinking about what God is calling me to do to love them more.

On becoming a meme on a stripper pole

2015-03-16T23:18:00.000-05:00

Apparently tired of meme-ing the cat, Jennifer has turned her sights on me and unleashed the fury of the internet on my image. We were in Kansas City last summer visiting a start-up incubator that had a green screen.

I'm not sure exactly what that pose is supposed to be, but it has proven to be much more versatile than I anticipated. It began as a simple picture of me destroying the earth.

Or, perhaps I was avoiding it. One friend has suggested that I was merely "raising the roof" while the earth collapsed. Avi had his fun next.

Something there is that doesn't like a mime meme, and this looks all too suspiciously like a mime meme. You'll have to look at the next one closely. I missed it the first time.

I'm apparently providing both moral and other kinds of support for this poor woman. That bit of fun was followed by the following offering. I'm not sure if I am supposed to be touching the dinosaur or running frantically. It reads both ways. I do like ferns.

Here I am holding up Beethoven on an organ keyboard. I think I am trying to throw him off WWE style. Note my right hand holding him by his deaf ear as my feet deftly play a G to start the 5th symphony.

This was followed by a confluence of memes. The "Panda is not amused" series has me holding up a light pole.

The light pole proved not interesting enough for one of Jennifer's colleagues who put me on a stripper pole instead. If you look closely at my right hand, he has clearly added lady fingers to my arm.

It's all a little bit like a fugue to me. The subject just keeps getting flipped around and inserted into different contexts that let you reinterpret it.

New linguistic saw

2015-03-14T15:25:00.000-05:00

My wife's business has a customer whose name is Lincoln. That's funny because he lives in Lincoln. If I knew two Lincolns, and one lived in Omaha, I would call this one the Lincoln Lincoln.

If he drove a certain kind of car, I would say, "Look, there is the Lincoln Lincoln's Lincoln."

If his car had a website and went viral, Lincoln Lincoln could put a link to it on his LinkedIn Profile. Then I would say, "Lincoln Lincoln's Lincoln is linked in Lincoln Lincoln's LinkedIn page."

Composers to which you should be listening: Rachel Fogarty

2015-03-03T12:49:00.001-06:00

Well, it's been a while since I have had a chance to write about new music that I've found. Last week, I got to hang out at ACDA 2015 in Salt Lake City. If you didn't know, that Great Salt Lake is filled with Sea Monkeys.

On our first night, Jenn and I had a chance to go out with an all star cast of composers including Paul Carey, Reg Unterseyer, Jonathan David, Sydney Guillaume, Jake Runestad, and Rachel Fogarty. I had a few moments at the end of the night to meet and chat with Rachel.

We still have a lot of work to do to promote female composers. (Some of my favorites are Dale Trumbore, Andrea Ramsey, and Christina Whitten Thomas.) Rachel is an excellent new addition to my listening library.

There is a clear sense of craft in her music. She writes beautifully for the voice, but seems equally comfortable writing for instruments. There is an emotional immediacy in her writing that is very attractive, but when you scratch the surface, there is great depth. Her music tends toward tonality, but it is not the tonality of a composer trapped in a prison. It is someone who is informed by the tradition that has discovered her own vocabulary without simply imitating.

One of my favorites is this string quartet track, but I highly encourage you to go to her website and listen to some of the solo voice music. It's just lovely. Go buy her music and commission her to write some more. Here is the link to the place on her website where you can listen. http://www.racheldevorefogarty.com/#!list-of-works/c14o2

MusicSpoke's kickass reading session

2015-03-02T12:32:00.002-06:00

Normally, choir directors tell me that when they attend a reading session, they feel lucky to find one usable piece of music. It's a gold mine when they find two usable pieces from a session.

After the MusicSpoke reading session at the National ACDA convention, two directors came up to me. One said, "I could easily use any piece on this reading session to great success with my group. Every piece is good." Another came to the booth later and said, "That was easily the strongest reading session I've attended."

I had the same reply for both of them. "Do you want to know why our reading session was so strong? I didn't pick any of the music. We put the power back in the hands of our composers and asked them what pieces they would like on the reading session."

A great deal of the success of the session was also because of the masterful job my friend Pete Eklund did in leading it. He got us through a lot of music very efficiently. He helped the readers through more difficult rhythmic passages. He said something interesting about each piece, and he acknowledged all of the composers. I couldn't have asked for a more professional and outstanding job. Many thanks, Pete!

My favorite part was just reading through the music of such fine composers together. Dale Trumbore and I even played a little impromptu piano duet on Winged Lullaby, and I haven't been able to get the tune out of my head since.

Here is a list of the pieces and links to performances on MusicSpoke. Please go check out the music and use it for your choirs.

Rise Up, My Love, My Fair One - Joseph G. Stephens

A Cradle Hymn - David von Kampen

Sky Flier - Josh Rist

Requiescat - Andrea Ramsey

The Lark in the Clear Air - Paul Carey

Esa Einai - Kurt Knecht

Winged Lullaby - Dale Trumbore

Lux Aeterna - Saunder Choi

O Vos Omnes - Connor J. Koppin

Stars Over Snow - Timothy Tharaldson

Discovery - Christina Whitten Thomas

Stay - Garrett Hope

I Shall Return - Andrew Marshall

Sicut Cervus - David V. Montoya

Be Thou My Vision - Tinsley Silcox

Holy Mountain - Kile Smith

The Suffering Servant - Ryan Keebaugh

Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis - Mathew Cahn

Kyrie - Nick Dahlquist

The Snow I Hated - Jordan Nelson

The Holly and the Ivy - Jason Horner

Romance and Tarantella

2015-02-19T16:33:00.002-06:00

Once again, I am endebted to Christopher Marks for championing my music.

Here is a lovely recital he did recently on a pretty terrible instrument. Chris really made the Reuter POFS 1000 sound better than I've ever heard.

I also love how he plays my piece. It's very different from the way I play it.

The whole recital is worth your attention. My piece starts around 38:50.

The first movement is sort of an homage to Gerard Finzi. The second movement uses the accompaniment figure from the first movement to serve as the basis for a rhythmic dance which ends in a little Conlan Nancarrow flourish.

Teaching music composition through existential challenge

2015-02-13T14:08:00.000-06:00

I have a friend who is generally a genius. His name is Anthony Hawley. Originally I knew him as a poet who had published a stack of chap books that I could call when I needed help translating Italian. Now he works in the art department. What interests me about what Anthony as an educator is the way that he comes up with assignments. Anthony's projects always seem to be asking the students for more than just making a work. He asks them to become artists.

Consider the following post from his FB page the other day:

"We had a pretty invigorating night last night in Senior Capstone for Art Majors. Students were faced with two big challenges: first, they had to bring to class a work of theirs they wanted to destroy (that in and of itself caused a fair amount of anxiety and raised a lot of questions about preciousness). Then, they were asked to take that work and sell it to a complete stranger on the street in an hour and 15 mins. How they did that was up to them. There were a few cop-outs, a couple primadonnas, some who managed to do it in the quickest least painful way possible, and some extraordinary people went out on a limb and took a real risk and came back with amazing stories and encounters. They had to document the exchange in some way. There are some marvelous videos and photos I'll post in a bit. Those who did take a real risk to make something happen came back electrified and beaming with excitement and a tad bit of fear. This is what it's all about folks."

There are so many things that I like about this. There are so many things it asks of students. I'm wondering how we could apply this to composers. It seems that we are always so busy teaching the craft — at least I am because I find basic skills to be so deficient — that I don't have time to talk about how to be an artist. I suppose I just hope they will look at how I'm doing stuff and absorb it by osmosis. I think, though, that I want to spend some time considering how to bring some sort of existential challenge to the table.

I'd love to hear any thoughts you might have on how we might do this as composition teachers.

The funniest "la contenance angloise" jokes ever

2015-02-10T11:02:00.002-06:00

If you like Medieval music theory (and who doesn't?), there isn't much that's funnier than this. It is one of my favorites, and it was pulled down for awhile. I was so glad to rediscover it.

This is pretty much how I had always imagined the influence of Dunstaple on the Burgundian School. It is just so perfectly done, I can't stand it.

Chopin's DaVinci Code or The Secret of Phi

2015-02-09T12:30:00.001-06:00

It appears that my mentor, Terry Mohn, has finally come up with some applications of the Golden Ratio that I think we can all support. The theory's application to the arts is something that has been discussed since the Renaissance.

It seems like there is something going on with it, and then Mario Livio writes a book that makes us all think it was just a Tootsie Roll commercial. "Whatever it is I think I see becomes a Golden Ratio to me."

Terry has finally put the controversy to rest by proving the Golden Ratio really is in everything. Here is his original chart from the Chopin Prelude op. 28 no. 1.

That's pretty precise to be a coincidence! Of course if the pianist takes a retard in the 4th bar, it's going to throw our whole theory off. So, you might not think it's real. Terry managed to apply the theory to everything though, and so you can rest at ease that the controversy is over. It's in seashells, rosebushes, and also the very fabric of your life. Consider the same chart applied to your life.

The Chopin Op. 28 No. 1 Prelude is clearly a secret code describing Terry's life. We will all keep him in mind as he faces some upcoming dips. Again, if it just happened one time, you might think it was a coincidence, but Terry has shown the pattern yet again in the following graph.

When the exact same graph can be used to clearly explain such disparate things, and Ockhams razor, etc., I can only come to one conclusion. Chopin's first prelude is the key to explaining the universe.

It's a good thing I got this in time. The next time my wife asks me if I've washed the dishes yet, I'm simply going to point to the chart and say, I'm only on measure 5 of the dishwashing. You can expect a dip in my productivity and then a gradual increase in cleaning followed by a tapering off.

That will be cool because I'll be able to make a very similar chart that will describe the course of her anger at my response over time. Of course, the graph for the dish washing will be on a much larger time scale than the anger graph.

My funky, latin jazz cello sonata

2015-02-06T20:42:00.006-06:00

I received a commission from the National Music Teachers Association and Nebraska Music Teachers Association to write a new piece for their state convention last year.

I wrote a cello "sonata" with the idea that I would try to write something fun and not quite so brooding and serious. I wanted to sort of write the kind of music Milhaud might write if he were still around. Growing up in Tampa exposed me to plenty of Cuban rhythms, and I brought them to this quirky little set of pieces.

I titled them after colors in Spanish and called the entire work "The iridescent café". There was only one cellist that I wanted for the premiere. I had worked with the young cellist Justin Lepard before, and was amazed to find out that he could play jazz.

We premiered the work in the Fall, but had a chance to perform it again last week. Here are the videos from the concert.

El Café Iridiscente

1. rojo

2. azul

3. perla

4. morado

Brubeck-ish, swinging, Charlie Parker licks containing, jazz waltz cello music

2015-02-06T09:25:00.000-06:00

Here is the second movement of my cello sonata "El Café Iridiscente" which is entitled "azul". This piece was co-commissioned by the National Music Teachers Association and the Nebraska Music Teachers Association.

This movement has a sort of Brubeck-y feel without being in an odd meter. There are some of what Justin calls "Charlie Parker licks" toward the end. It's just gentle fun music.

Justin Lepard is playing with me in this video at our Feb. 3 concert at St. Mark's on the Campus.

Jaunty, jagged, energetic, percussive, quirky cello music

2015-02-05T09:41:00.002-06:00

Here is the first movement of my cello sonata "El Café Iridiscente" which is entitled "rojo". This piece was co-commissioned by the National Music Teachers Association and the Nebraska Music Teachers Association.

I was taking some of the Latin rhythms that I heard growing up in Tampa and filtering them through some 20th century harmony. I think I was trying to write the kind of music Milhaud might write if he were still around. It's the sort of music I imagine in a 21st century café.

Justin Lepard is playing with me in this video at our Feb. 3 concert at St. Mark's on the Campus.

Jazz Cello: All the things you are

2015-02-04T18:51:00.001-06:00

Here is a sample of Justin Lepard and I playing together. This was from our Feb. 3 concert. After we finished a concert of modern cello music, we decided to play some standards for everyone. I think this is super fun, and I love playing with Justin.

Relax, don't do it

2015-02-03T16:12:00.002-06:00

I've been extra grumbly lately. I'm sure all of you people out there on the internets will tell me if I'm becoming too much of an old man.

So, lately, I've been hearing my local NPR station describe the music that they play all the time as "relaxing" classical music. With all those bone-rattling Telemann and Vivaldi concertos, I thought they may have a different definition of relaxing than I do.

Then I thought, "Hey, what gives, local NPR people? I usually reserve my compliments for relaxation techniques for my masseuse. Is the Mozart you are playing some sort of sonic shoulder massage? Do you find that Liszt works better for the gluts?"

Maybe I'm over-reacting. I'll just try using it as a compliment more often and see how it goes.

"Hey, T.S. Elliot, I really like the Wasteland. It's super relaxing."

"Andy Warhol, your soup cans make me so chill. Love it."

"Rothko, I totally zone out when I take a hit of your Untitled (Yellow, Orange, Yellow, Light Orange). Just makes me kick back."

Also, some of you at that station are my friends, so don't get upset. Just think of this as a relaxing blog post.

Musical Universalism clarified some more

2015-01-27T21:52:00.002-06:00

Thanks to some pointed questions from my dear friend, Chris Krull, I am heading back to first principles and trying to clarify what I'm really trying to protect.

Chris very correctly pointed out to me the dangers of saying something was "universal" in the sense that it implies that someone who for some reason doesn't experience a certain thing might be categorized as less than human. That's an excellent point.

I don't think that I believe in a musical universalism that can be brought down to some sort of 1:1 semiotical correspondence. I don't think that, for example, a major 7th has some specific, prescriptive meaning that works like a magical amulet to coerce some sort of emotional response from a listener.

Ultimately though, what I'm really trying to defend is the ability of people everywhere to communicate. In the same way that I believe that languages can be translated, I think we can learn to understand other musics. I also don't necessarily believe it takes years of cultural immersion to grasp it.

Let me say it this way. In the classic arguments for solipsism, I can't be sure that when I'm giving the ostensive definition of the color green to a child that the child is experiencing the same thing. That gets even more complicated when we want to talk about more difficult concepts like "love" or "father". Peoples definition are compiled from a sometimes terrifying set of circumstances when it comes to words like that. I think that I can actually communicate and translate my "love" and "father" to another. It may take a little work. As I said in the Facebook commentary, it takes "will and grace" for the magic of communication to actually occur.

I think it's true for music too.