Out of Week...Friday Again

Once again it's Friday...
Expect a [once-again] attempt at site modification next week. I'm trying to revive the earlier plans for the Blog, namely as a venture into the realms of music/art and social justice. Hopefully this will include a description of the 3SA's concert last night (which was incredible).

Finished Music and It's Social Meanings last night. By finished, I mean I still have 50 pages which I probably won't read. That's the pleasure of non-required reading. Now it's Pamuk's Snow. (Pamuk just won the Nobel Prize in literature, and has exhibited much controversy over his writings, which often point negatively at the Turkish government. He is the first prize-winner for Turkey. ) Randy William's Culture and Materialism will just have to wait.

This weekend will see practicing, food-shopping, and a Sunday rehearsal, once again forcing me to miss church :( No lesson next week, which may be good because I need to somehow cleanly expand my range by a fourth for his latest assignment.

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Out of Janacek

A small breather (Today's lunchtime concert had Janacek's Mladi)

Three Strange Angels: Haden Freman Concert Hall, 26 OCT 19:30

• Graham Fitkin Totti
• Steve Reich Music for Pieces of Wood
• Fitkin There is a Great Weight on my Head Tonight
• Peter Garland Apple Blossom
• John Cage Credo in US
• Pause (with Reich Come Out)
• John White Drinking & Hooting Machine
• Reich Sextet

Review?

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More out of the ordinary

This week will see the first Chamber coaching with Steve Mead. We worked for 1 hour on a piece last night before deciding it wasn't prepared enough for today, so we found some easier material for the next hour. I also just had my first rehearsal for the Janacek. They use 2 or 3 conducting students over the 5 movements. The brass ensemble that makes up the first movement (9 trumpets, 2 bass trumpets, and 2 euphoniums) played for 5 minutes, were execused for 50, then came back and played the last five minutes. Of course, the time is broken up to keep us from useful work, such as research or practicing; I just sat in the school cafe and talked with Pat, the other euphoniumist (we did the usual gossip).

Continuing through the week, I'll have a sectional for the Janacek (which I hope is shorter and more productive), as well as the typical lesson/lecture that has become the common fare for school. The weekend trip to London may be postponed until November - a more gratifying and personally more enjoyable brass band competition will take place then (this weekend all 18 or so bands will be playing the same 20-minute piece, as opposed to a short mini-concert of diverse material).

Sounds of Reform has been finished, with the first seven chapters describing music in Chicago from 1873-1935, and the last chapter detailing everything since then. Now it's Music and It's Social Meanings (Christopher Ballantine), a bit old but still relevant in some respects. After that it will probably be Randy Williams's Culture and Materialism which was a little thick when I first looked at it a month ago. I think Ballantine will help the transition. All of the books I wish to check out from the library aren't in :( (Including Kafka on the Shore - Haruki Murakami and anything by Orhan Pamuk) - and I should begin working on materials for my Performance Studies Project (an analysis about the performance method of non-brass Baroque music on euphonium) and the lecture recital (an analysis on the transitioning repetoire of euphonium recitals in America, 1960;s-present). Exciting, isn't it?

It's about lunch time, meaning breakfast for most of my audience. I'm in my sandwich craze, but have yet to find French's mustard, and Coleman's is a bit strong.

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This week - Out of the ordinary

Monday school - nothing
social - visiting friend from Germany, will stay through Wednesday
Tuesday school - Audition for Ensembles, 1st Janacek rehearsal
Wednesday school - 1st comp. lesson
Thursday - 1st SWP performance class
Friday - Meet with Teacher

I guess that's it. My impression on The Long Emergency and Botany of Desire should be arriving soon...

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Janacek and Ossietzky

I finally had a lesson this week; my teacher needed to cancel Wed., then Thurs too (he lives 100 miles away, and is often out of the country, so I was a bit surprised he was able to come up today). I can continue to work on the music he's lent me, which includes(for those keeping score):

Euphonium Concerto No.2 - Philip Sparke (mountains better than his first attempt)
Euphonium Concerto No.2 - John Goland
Tubacchanale - Roger Boutry (for the French experience)
Stories for Saroyan - Elgar Howarth
Concertino for Euphonium and Band - Marco Putz (for the ridiculously difficult)

And as always, I can never forget the Bach's: JS (Cello Suite) and Jan (Concerto)

Likewise, I also played in studio again, this time with much more success. We have ensemble placement next week, and the audition includes excerpts from Grainger's Lincolnshire Posy, and Dvorak's Carnival Overture. I had to do the final bitfrom Carnival, with minim=132 (again for people keeping score)

Away from the placements, I have found a school ensemble in which I'll be playing. I am in the Symphony Orchestra next concert, in Janacek's Sinfonietta (sp?). I play minims in the 1st and 5th movements. That's about it. (The school seems to have an odd obsession with an odd composer. Yesterday I caught a performance of the Capriccio for Piano-Left Hand, and Winds, and later they will be performing one of his operas - the name which escapes me now)

In other news, I am almost finished with The Long Emergency (James Kunstler); I'll try and give a brief summary Saturday or Sunday. Then it will be the rest of Pollan's Botany of Desire, as well as my new acquirement: Secret Republic - Selected Writings of Carl von Ossietzky. After more than a month of searching, I've finally found a translation of some of his works (mentioned in two previous posts, Ossietzky was the Nobel Peace Prize winner in 1935, who wrote of the growing German militarism of the time. Sort of like a Seymour Hersh, only more so.) I may eventually read some musically relevent material.

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After a "casual" night out with the teacher and euphoniumists (as well as three other friends), I awoke at 4:50 (for no apparant reason), and had the opportunity to experience the power going out. Not due to a storm, or some external force, but because I let my electricity box run out!! I struggled around in the dark, looking for a £1 coin, finally finding my change, but no coin of said value. I went back to bed, this time waking at 6. I intended on having my usual leisurely breakfast, lights or no lights.

I made it to school about 7:30, expecting my warm-up class at 8 (in addition to the 1 hour lesson, 4 hours of studio class, there are also 2 hours/week of breathing, warming-up, etc.). at 7:55, I checked my phone, to find out class was canceled, as well as my lesson.

That was the morning.
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Since then, I have done some basic organizing (schedules, filling in my diary, etc.), as well as have the first introductory meeting for my composition lessons. The teacher (Larry Goves) has broken the 40 hours teaching into group and individual sessions (as is expected); other than instruction, we're left to our own devices. We're encouraged to attend lectures, competitions, etc., but school-organized performance opportunites are rare (although we're guarenteed a chance to hear our work in early June). It seems to work well - along with my other classes, I'm pretty much self-taught until next September.

Until then, I need to go home and turn the electricity back on...

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Weekend Rest

Time really isn't of the essence here, so I could write a leisurely post and not be afraid to miss my euphonium quartet rehearsal (the only official thing on my list today); however, I also woke up later than I wanted to, so I've missed breakfast....so don't expect the cleanest of postings.

Friday saw the first performance in a studio class. I performed the Courante from the 6th Suite (D Major), and, as usual, was quite unpleased with my performance. I had been working on pushing the tempo up to a Courante for the past week, and the exertions didn't play off as well as I hoped. I discussed performance practice with the teacher for a short while (mainly whether a Courante could effectively be passed off as a Sarabande, if you know what I mean); in any event, I went out with some friends to celebrate/commiserate a performance done.

Saturday found me at the library. Not the school, but the Central Library. This building is enormous! It was built in the 1930's as the largest municipal library in the world, and it's Music Library is larger than RNCM's. Otaining a card is as easy as filling out a form, and I was quickly submerged by James Kunstler (The Long Emergency), Michael Pollan (Botany of Desire), and Steinbeck (Burning Bright). I still need to find out if they have any Wendell Berry, and I'm still trying to find writings by Carl von Ossietzky (the 1935 Nobel Peace Prize Winner).

Sunday was laundry day; or it would have been had I understood the complexities of English laundry. My machine took 2 hours to complete a cycle, and then (I knew this part), everything had to be hung to dry. Needless to say, I'm out of khakis for the next day. Then I'll be out of something else (probably blue jeans); had I done all my wash on the same day (which would have taken more loads than I'm used to), I would be without clothes, which would guarentee I would miss quartet rehearsal! Luckily I do contain some foresight.

This week (Week 3), is bound to be the busiest yet; I have 1-2 things every day (the horror!), except Wednesday, which has a warm-up session, a lesson, and a meeting to discuss my Composition Minor. More updates as they come in.

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What I miss about Eastman

Not a diatribe against RNCM, but we begin to appreciate things when we're away:

1) Friends. Of course I've met many people here, and they are friends as well. But there's something nice about having a group together that has spent so much time together that reactions and feelings can be [almost] predicted.This is only developed through time, so I'm sure my new-found buddies will appreciate over time as well.

2) Sibley. Oh, the library...It's interesting to remember walking through the first floor, and knowing the amount of music it contained, but never quite grasping or understanding the enormity of it. Here, everything is available on one floor that is probably less than 1/2 a Sibley floor. There's less euphonium music (although the music they do have is probably better quality). Needless to say, it would be hard not to miss such a wonderful feature.

3) Practice rooms. We all complained about the condition, and we were successful in getting new chairs, but you find out that merely having such ammenitie is a tribute. Does RNCM have practice roms? Certainly! And they are superbly better than Eastman's (although they don't have mirrors). They are well carpeted, with fine looking pianos/stands/etc.; they're even twice as large as the average Eastman room; however, there are so few practice rooms that we need to book them in advance, or wait by the booking station in the hopes that someone won't show up.

4) Knowing Things. Specifically, anything. Anything at all. They didn't tell us if we were enrolled in classes, they didn't even tell us they wouldn't tell us!As a friend pointed out: "During Orientation they would keep saying 'we'll come back to that later'. But they didn't." I knew I would have to exhibit SOME responsibility in Grad School, but I think the school should offer a LITTLE guidance.

In any event, those are the largest facets of Eastman that I miss.

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Finally! A post on Architecture!

But before that, a quick note:

This is now the second week of school. I have had one lesson, two studio classes (giving a total of 5 hours of instruction/week), meetings up the wazoo....but no classes. My SPS options were approved (of course, they didn't bother to tell us until last Thursday - four days after school started), and include a lecture recital, a paper on Performance Practice (don't ask me how I'm going to pull that one off!), and seminars to instruct giving presentations to children (of course, finishing with a presentation tailored by myself). Since almost all of the work is individual, I have virtually no classes (and I'm currently not in ensembles - with 18 euphoniums, it seems like that may be a rarity!).

Secondly, I must inform you of Frehser's week. It began two weeks ago, with traditional Scottish dancing, and continued each night until last night. There were movies, live bands, trips out to pubs, more live bands, et. al. all through Induction and the first week of classes (things seemed to tame down after classes started).

The grand culmination was the Fresher's Ball. We dressed to our nines, and headed to the University of Manchester. We were taken to a lovely room (I would guess a library due to the enormity of books), which served expensive drinks, and had live jazz. Although it was fun for awhile, I began to value the worth of the £5 endeavor. Suddenly we were instructed to move into the main hall.

It was here that we found a massive room, with ornate and detailed stained glass, and by far the most ridiculously large and ornate Pipe Organ. There were tables for sitting, more expensive drinks, and a dance floor. Then, for the next 4 hours, we were treated to 3 live bands playing some of the greatest music from the 80's (Theme from Ghostbusters, anyone?), as well as some old-school hip-hop; everything was primarily American, but it just took awhile to get over the ocean.

We closed up a little after one, and headed back out respective houses.
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The reason I mention the architecture is to draw the distinction from RNCM's building. When I first came here last November, I thought "how on Earth can they provide a full music school here?" Once you walk in the entrance, you are greeted by a modern, cavernous lobby. The publicly accessible area is to the right, where you'll find an even larger and more cavernous cafe/bar (with decorations "reminding one of 1972" to quote a fellow American). Continuing to the right, you'll find one of the two recital halls, and the two concert halls (nothing is as large as Eastman Theatre - in fact the concert halls are more on par with Kilbourn, but the fact that they can provide two in such a small space is remarkable). But NOWHERE will you find the offices/practice rooms.

In order to access the offices, you need to climb two flights of stairs, and CROSS A BRIDGE over the lobby. This also gives you the opportunity to visit the JCR (Junior Common Room - for the Student Union), the roof (I'm still trying to figure out why), and the Student Union's Beer Garden (this is by far the strangest school I've ever visited).

I know there is much more space in the school than I've just described (we do have a library), but they will be feature tomorrow: What I miss about Eastman. Until then, take care.

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Creating Trouble for Myself

As I continue to work out the finer nature of finances, I continue to think about the blog and the material, and current infrequent nature of my posts. As with all good plans, I find perhaps that I am not treating my time in the most efficient manner. Or, perhaps, I am not fully appreciative of the process, rather than the product, surrounding my current conditions.

Similar to serious relationships (I decided to postpone marriage until I had a steady income that could allow me to focus on other qualities of life), I was to treat my blog to better attention after everything was sorted out. It never occurred to me that I would be in the second week of school, and my funds have not yet arrived (or even been disbursed!) So I am going to take a different approach, and embrace the fluidity of my situation, to give everyone a better perspective of what has shaped my decisions and actions during these first three weeks.

As a fellow American said the other week "I have never had such a wild ride." She was referring to the ridiculousness of American loans for students studying abroad. Her loan was disbursed on 18 Oct.; it took a week to arrive at the school, at which point she picked it up. Had she taken it to her bank here, it would take 2-6 weeks to process, because it's in US dollars. So she had to send it to her account in the US, which of course either a)takes a week, or b)costs a ridiculous amount.

My situation is a bit different. A couple weeks before leaving, I received a letter saying there was some difficulty with one of my loans. I called, and found out there was a typo with my SSN. I faxed them my card, then called the next to confirm that the change was made. I was affirmed to the change, and took the opportunity to make sure my other loan was all set for disbursement.

That was then, this is now: Three weeks here, and no disbursement. The lender seems wary to ante up, first claiming that my SSN was still incorrect, then saying it was because I didn't send the originals (I had faxed everything because I thought it would allow for quicker disbursement); at no time in my life have I done as much as I've been asked, and still denied what I've sought.

Sorry for negative, cynical, self-righteous post, and I can assure you there are many good qualities about studying outside of the US. Tonight is the "Frehser's Ball" (Fresher being the UK equivalent of Frosh), which is the end of "Fresher's Week", two weeks of fun and infinite strangeness. Posting will resume tomorrow with much happier, healthier posts (think of it like a fine class of wine every night, as opposed to a bottle a weekend). Until then, think pleasant thoughts, and take care.

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