…but I'm changing the webserver and I'm not sure how many times this will show up.
Happy Friday!
I've just been informed that the Chicago-based Accessible Contemporary Music is scheduling Foi dans l'aletoire for one of their upcoming Weekly Reading sessions. I'll post more information as it is made available.
I can't find the original author of this, but I can say I found it on the Doublereed-L list some eight or nine years ago.
Doctoral Music Exam – you have 1 hour.
1. Explain the difference between sforza, sforzando, sforzata, and La Forza Del Destino. Be specific.
2. What is the diameter of the hole in the water key on your instrument? If your instrument does not have a water key, what is the diameter of the third moon of Jupiter?
3. List Johann Sebastian Bach's children (include middle names) and give:
a. Date of birth
b. Date of death (if deceased)
c. Last known address
d. Social Security number
4. Name the composers who wrote a First Symphony.
5. Give the opening theme of each symphony in #4 (above).
6. What is the relationship and musical significance of the 10th and 11th bars of the aria “Soldaten, Soldaten” to the aria's final bars (1048-1063) in the Alban Berg opera “Wozzeck”?
7. Who conducted “Tannhauser” at the 1847 Bayreuth Festival? Was he right or left-handed?
8. Trace the development of the “Family Unity” theme in Richard Strauss' “Sinfonia Domestica”. In which key(s) is it presented?
9. Describe in detail the formula for the varnish on violins made by Stradivari during the first third of his career. Explain how this varnish differs from varnish used on his violas. What modern substances could be effectively substituted in duplicating this formula today?
10. What is the optimum acidity/alkalinity (expressed in pH) for soil in which cane for bassoon reeds are to be grown? For bass clarinet reeds?
11. Name the bones and muscles involved in forming a brass player's embouchure.
12. What is the advantage of using xylophone mallet heads made of:
a. Ebony
b. Teak
c. Philippine Mahogany
d. Compressed moose chips
13. Argue both sides of the following statement: “The most important element in music is rhythm.”
* Critique both arguments and decide which is correct, or more nearly correct.
* Compose a three-movement symphonic metamorphosis (not to exceed 1 hour in length) on a theme by Ned Rorem to support your decision.
14. Defend Mozart's use of the glass harmonica and explain why this instrument has lapsed into disfavor, especially among punk rock groups.
15. Give the “Slap-Back” time in seconds (to three decimal places) of each hall used by all major American and European orchestras. Defend your selection of each orchestra as a major orchestra, and name each orchestra's past and present conductors.
16. In which of his symphonies did Franz Joseph Haydn use:
a. Clarinets
b. Horns
c. Tympani
d. Bassoons
17. Write the first 25 bars of Stravinsky's “Circus Polka” (from memory), and analyze.
18. What is the Koechel number of Mozart's 4th Horn Concerto?
19. Develop a simple set of rules that explain the harmonic and melodic progressions, voice leadings, and rhythmic notation of the music of Bartok.
20. Give the ratio between the bore and overall length of a Couesnon Contra-Bass trombone, Model G-571a, when the slide is in flat 4th position. If the position is used in conjunction with both thumb valves (F and D) to play the 7th note of the overtone series, what note will be sounded? Will it be sharp, flat, or in tune? If sharp or flat, by how many hundredths of a semitone?
21. Who invented the Ocarina? In what year? Why?
22. Explain the musical inconsistencies as to key, notation, accidentals, etc, found in the original score of Robert Schumann's Symphony #3.
23. Write a seven-voice motet in the style of Orlando di Lassus in invertible counterpoint. Extra credit if the motet can also be performed backwards.
24. Using materials commonly found in the kitchen, construct a 15 rank, 3-manual positiv organ (with pedals) and use it to perform two pieces by Oliver Messiaen.
25. Reconstruct the missing movements of Schubert's Unfinished Symphony.
26. Give the Russian, German, and Serbo-Croatian equivalents of the following Italian terms: Tuffato, Con Amore, Cadenza, Fugato, Garbonzo, Mafioso, and Ferrari.
27. Explain why Benny Goodman could use parallel octaves, but you can't.
But seriously, I'm finished with my summer class! And now I'll have to actually get back to work and write music!
…Because I don't update the blog that often. And my lack of blog-updating-goodness this time is due almost entirely to a new piece! The piano sonata that I desperately tried to write in April and May finally turned into something completely different in June. Something that I'm fairly happy with. It needs a lot of editing and care, but it is coming along, and I'll forward along the audio as soon as I finish the edits.
I received a letter last week from Florida State University saying that they are considering programming Realms of Endless Day as part of their biennial New Music Festival. While it is standard procedure for a festival to acknowledge receipt of a score, this is usually done over email, so it's just kind of nice to have a real letter with my name on it and everything. Makes me feel like a real composer…
I've also just submitted (“just” as in five minutes ago) Foi dans and Pipe Dreams to the Denison University New Music Festival.
Due to the unpronounceable and unspellable nature of my publishing company (Vandemalioa Publishing) and the unavailability of my distribution company as a publishing company name (Vandermusik), I've decided to try to start fresh and register a new publishing company, and then register THAT as a business in Missouri. I don't have details yet, but I will post things here as soon as anything official gets decided. I will say that it will probably not be named “Caffeinated Semiquaver” because that is only marginally easier to spell than “Vandemalioa.”
And finally, website updates. Because it is a major part of the Vanderburg Design Philosophy to do everything in-house, I'm trying to move everything to where it is self-hosted, or stored on my server in my dining room. Between that, and the fact that the Vanderburg Domain Name portfolio now includes eight different .coms, .nets, and etc, I'm having to build something to join all of them together. Something that's more personal than my KyleVanderburg.Net, something that doesn't sell things like Vandermusik.com, just…one site to rule them all. (Sorry. Had to.) Something like a “Kyle Vanderburg Network,” if you will. Thus, I started work on KyleV.Net. This domain will cover all the technical areas (such as the modular code for the Kyle Vanderburg, Composer menu; the Bug Tracking system; the Content Delivery Network, etc).
And that's how June was like.
As chronicled in my last post, in the massive amount of shuffling around that has happened to KyleVanderburg.Net lately (and vandermusik.com and kyledavey.com and and and…) I managed to drop the wrong database, losing all of the posts from Poor Little Misled Notes. Did I have a backup? Of course not. The entire KyleVanderburg.Net server structure is a wonderfully convoluted system that I sometimes copy to an external drive if it's a full moon and the planets are aligned. And backing up things like databases (which run the ~8 WordPress blogs, applications like my library and photo album, the Vandermusik billing system, and of course the KV.Net core)…who backs up databases? I mean, who would be so stupid as to accidentally delete…
Oh.
So in a blazing moment of clarity (and by that, I mean an evening of binge-coding) I wrote a file-copying-database-exporting backup script. It's ugly. It's weird. Any real programmer would have an aneurysm. But it works.
I was going to post news about the ongoing piano sonata, but SVU is on and I want a sandwich.
Sq.
Guess who deleted his entire WordPress backend database!? That's right! MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!
I have final composition-lesson approval, and here is the barely-modified but now finished product:
Unknown Precipitation by Kyle Vanderburg
So I went home after last week's lesson, made some changes, expanded the nonpitched percussion break, and basically decided I was more or less happy with the piece, which sounded like this:
Unknown Precipitation 2/21/10 by Kyle Vanderburg
But then, I somehow managed to get a lesson with David Maslanka, who gave me several great comments on writing for percussion, writing for marimba, and just writing in general. I went home, reworked a few parts, and came up with this:
Unknown Precipitation 2/23/10 by Kyle Vanderburg
And now, one more composition lesson to take it to, and hopefully there will only be minor editorial changes.
With the exception of the non-pitched percussion parts, the piece is pretty much done. I'll be spending a lot of time this weekend with the auxiliary percussion and with just general polishing and such, but it is quickly coming to a close.
Latest rendering:
Unknown Precipitation 2/18/10 by Kyle Vanderburg
Now that I have actually slept (and don't feel like a zombie), I can post an actual, (hopefully) coherent update.
The piece is coming along nicely, with some minor changes in orchestration and harmony needed that should put me behind my original self-imposed deadline of tomorrow, but well within my deadline of March 1. Hopefully I will be able to accomplish these changes tonight and through what few breaks I'll have this weekend.
At this stage of composing I generally have some idea of a title, and this work is no exception. After living with this piece for the past few months, I believe I'm happy with it being called “Unknown Precipitation.”