The semester so far
I'm enjoying working with some great new students as well as returning ones. Between Earlham, the music magnet at Broad Ripple High, and my private studio, I'm keeping pretty busy. I enjoy the challenge of having lots of different types of voices to work with, and a variety of students with different goals and issues.
I'm taking a class this semester in conducting, which is also a lot of fun. I don't know if I realized when I registered how much practicing outside of class it would take, though in retrospect that is a huge "duh." Of course I have to practice regularly to get my arms and body to do new things! My first practicum is next week, when I get to conduct the class in performing a short excerpt by Norman Dello Joio. Guess what is stuck on repeat in my brain?
Other music I've been listening to includes Samuel Barber's four songs Opus 13, which I'm preparing for a Barber Centennial recital in November. I was already familiar with two of the songs, and I'm quite falling in love with the other two. I wasn't sure how much my voice would like the fourth song in the group, "Nocturne," because it seems to call for a bigger voice than mine, but it turns out to be very singable. It's hauntingly lyrical and in some ways Straussian.
In July, I attended a Spanish Baroque concert at the Indianapolis Early Music Festival by the group El Mundo. I purchased a CD of the Zarzuela (like an opera but with spoken dialogue) "Salir el amor del mundo" (the exit of love from the world) by Sebastian Duron. It's now my favorite thing to listen to while on the stairstepper at the gym. Think Italian Baroque comic opera, but with guitars and castanets! I'm thinking somehow this sound will tie into my novel, Antonia's Fire. The protagonist is eventually going to be composing secular music for a court that I've thought of as based loosely on France, but I think the Spanish influence is going to be way too fun to not have it play a part.
I've continued my kakaking and was out for two hours yesterday unintentionally scaring the birds. Now that my semester schedule is somewhat set, I'm starting to figure out when the best times are to get to the gym. Now that my knee is much improved, I can do other things besides swim for aerobic activity, which is nice since the pool is open weird hours.
I'm looking forward to a fabulous fall!
I'm taking a class this semester in conducting, which is also a lot of fun. I don't know if I realized when I registered how much practicing outside of class it would take, though in retrospect that is a huge "duh." Of course I have to practice regularly to get my arms and body to do new things! My first practicum is next week, when I get to conduct the class in performing a short excerpt by Norman Dello Joio. Guess what is stuck on repeat in my brain?
Other music I've been listening to includes Samuel Barber's four songs Opus 13, which I'm preparing for a Barber Centennial recital in November. I was already familiar with two of the songs, and I'm quite falling in love with the other two. I wasn't sure how much my voice would like the fourth song in the group, "Nocturne," because it seems to call for a bigger voice than mine, but it turns out to be very singable. It's hauntingly lyrical and in some ways Straussian.
In July, I attended a Spanish Baroque concert at the Indianapolis Early Music Festival by the group El Mundo. I purchased a CD of the Zarzuela (like an opera but with spoken dialogue) "Salir el amor del mundo" (the exit of love from the world) by Sebastian Duron. It's now my favorite thing to listen to while on the stairstepper at the gym. Think Italian Baroque comic opera, but with guitars and castanets! I'm thinking somehow this sound will tie into my novel, Antonia's Fire. The protagonist is eventually going to be composing secular music for a court that I've thought of as based loosely on France, but I think the Spanish influence is going to be way too fun to not have it play a part.
I've continued my kakaking and was out for two hours yesterday unintentionally scaring the birds. Now that my semester schedule is somewhat set, I'm starting to figure out when the best times are to get to the gym. Now that my knee is much improved, I can do other things besides swim for aerobic activity, which is nice since the pool is open weird hours.
I'm looking forward to a fabulous fall!