Coffee Klatch

It’s finally official. After months of website/database development and logo design work, my new handbell music publishing website is LIVE AND READY! It’s called Tinnio Ergo Sum Press and is available at http://tespress.com. (By the way, that translates “I ring, therefore I am.”)

The music published at http://tespress.com typically comes from one of two perspectives: 1) Unique, original, non-traditional, or even jazzy music, or 2) Transcriptions of classical music that maintain the colors and moods of the original works.

While you can order printed copies of any available music, the strength of this website is that every piece can be downloaded and have unlimited copies made for one ensemble. That’s also the most cost effective method of purchase. No PayPal or any other account is required, but when a purchase is made online, you can download it immediately. Each piece also has a couple sample pages available to view while you listen to a Finale-generated audio version of the full piece.

Here are a few examples of the music that is already available from Tinnio Ergo Sum Press:

• The Chicken Dance (4-6 octaves)
• William Bell’s Overture (2-4 octaves)
• Mozart’s Ave Verum Corpus (3-5 octaves)
• Holst’s 2nd Suite in F (3-7 octaves)

Anyway, that’s where my spare time has been going for the last few months. I’ve already had my first purchase, which occurred before I’d even officially announced the site to the handbell world. Pretty cool!

Sorry if you tired of the theremin post, but I found one more video on YouTube that I had to share. The artistry and musicianship of this guy is just AMAZING! It’s quite a moving performance and shows just how beautiful music can be, regardless of the instrument. Give it a listen below.

So there’s this cool electronic instrument that’s been around since 1919. Not new, but hardly heard of. It’s called a Theremin, named after its inventor, Léon Theremin, and it was the first musical instrument designed to be played without actually being touched. There is an electromagnetic field generated from two different antennas which is manipulated to play the instrument. The vertical antenna is usually on the right side and uses the right hand to control the pitch. The left hand controls the volume with the horizontal antenna on the left. Pretty basic concept, but incredibly difficult to master.

The theremin, I perceive, is slowly growing in popularity with modern composers, since it not only has a very unique sound, but is also quite flexible. Microtones are possible since you can play the entire spectrum including all the subtle nuances between standard musical notes.

You can read more about the theremin, find out about movies and bands who have used the theremin, and find more links in the Wikipedia article on the theremin. Here are a couple of video clips of some EXCELLENT theremin playing.

Lydia Kavina is known as one of the world’s experts and has helped develop and standardize hand movements, resulting in greater virtuosity.

Carolina Eyck is another contemporary thereminist who is performing today. The next two videos are of her, first on a tv show and then with a string quartet and Heinz Holliger on oboe. Quite amazing!

This last one is just a neat electronic jam session of sorts. You just have to see and listen. It’s pretty cool and a nice way to incorporate the theremin into modern popular music.
By the way, if you want to learn more about theremins or even explore buying one and learning to play it, visit Theremin World. Prices start in the low $300s.

Okay, this is just too good to keep to myself. One of my fellow bellringers shared this yesterday and I have to tell more people about it. You’ve probably heard of the popular Guitar Hero and its sequels. Maybe you’ve even played it. It all started with the whole “Dance Revolution” game that had (and has) people bopping around on a floor mat, getting their feet into different circles in time with the music and following the “steps” on the big screen.

Well, now there’s Handbell Hero! You do the same thing as with the other games, hitting the right key (in this case) as the number falls into its box. You get the hang of it after you try it for a minute or so. There are three different levels, requiring three, four, or EIGHT keys. That last one is HARD!

So they’ve got several songs, each with three levels, and the top scores get listed on the website. Pretty cool! Visit http://www.haanmc.com/sandbox/handbellhero/ to play.

And by the way, the game does actually give you a taste of what playing handbells is like. Especially the middle level, “Brass Bells” (as opposed to “Tinkerbell” or “Hell’s Bells”). Treble ringers often have four bells in their hands, so the game does make you think a little like a treble ringer (scary thought, that).

Enjoy!

I just found out about this group today. It’s an AWESOME men’s a capella ensemble called Straight No Chaser, which is a college group from Indiana University. They do some fantastic music, including this quite humorous rendition of the Twelve Days of Christmas that takes some surprising turns:

So I found out while listening to NPR on the way home today that today is Ninja Day! Who’d have thought it? I knew about Talk Like A Pirate Day (Sept. 19), but Ninja Day? Leave it to NPR’s “All Things Considered” to inform me about that.

So on NPR they combined the special theme of the day with finding a solution to a current problem in the news today. They asked “the Ninja” of AskANinja.com to offer some advice to help the Hollywood writers who are on strike. It was SO FUNNY that I was crying and almost had to pull over to the side of the road, since the laughter was so debilitating. If you didn’t hear it, you simply MUST: ‘Ninja Got Answers’ for Hollywood Writers on Strike (click on Listen Now–it’s less than three minutes long)

On a related note, I had another weird and funny radio thing happen right after that. I finished listening to “the Ninja” and marveling at his wisdom, audacity, and humor, then I turned the station to WKLU 101.9, which recently changed its format from Classic Rock to Oldies (”music from the 60s and 70s” (although I think they throw in some 80s)). The first song I heard was “Rocketman,” by Elton John. What made that so funny is that JUST LAST NIGHT I’d taken the advice of a friend and watched William Shatner’s version of “Rocketman,” which he did at the 1978 SciFi Awards show. I mean, what are the chances?? I’ve embedded it below.

According to Wikipedia, “a mondegreen is the mishearing (usually accidental) of a phrase as a homophone or near-homophone in such a way that it acquires a new meaning.” Most often, this is a result of listening to music and not catching all the exact lyrics. We all probably have songs where there’s a section in which we don’t clearly understand every word, and so we just assume it’s this or that. When we’re wrong but start giving new meaning to the lyrics because of our misunderstanding, that’s a mondegreen.

The word “mondegreen” is itself a mondegreen. The American writer Sylvia Wright coined it in an essay “The Death of Lady Mondegreen”, which was published in Harper’s Magazine in November 1954. She wrote:

When I was a child, my mother used to read aloud to me from Percy’s Reliques. One of my favorite poems began, as I remember:

Ye Highlands and ye Lowlands,

Oh, where hae ye been?

They hae slain the Earl Amurray, [sic]

And Lady Mondegreen.

The actual fourth line is “And laid him on the green”, from the anonymous 17th century ballad “The Bonnie Earl O’ Murray“. Wright gives other examples of what she says, “I shall hereafter call mondegreens,” such as:

• Surely/Shirley, Good Mrs. Murphy shall follow me all the days of my life (”Surely goodness and mercy…” from Psalm 23)

• The wild, strange battle cry “Haffely, Gaffely, Gaffely, Gonward.” (”Half a league, half a league,/ Half a league onward,” from “The Charge of the Light Brigade“)

You can get more examples, variations, and history of mondegreens at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mondegreen.

And all this because I wanted to see if the ELO song “Don’t Bring Me Down” actually used the word “Bruce.”

Very interesting. And now you know…. (And hopefully you’re now humming the song!)

So I’m considering heading back to grad school. Academic librarians are typically expected to have two Master’s degrees–one in Library Science and one in an area of specialization. Some fields like Science or Music practically require it since quite a bit of specialized knowledge is needed.

Since I work at a university, I get free tuition for taking a class or two per semester. When I think about taking classes for an actual degree, I have to look at what graduate degrees Butler offers and what interests me. Along with what I’d be qualified to take. Can’t exactly jump into a Master’s in Biology without a B.S. in the discipline.

So I’m looking at a Master of Music degree. I’m thinking either in Music History or in Composition, and I’m leaning toward Composition. We have three great Composition professors at Butler and, since my B.Mus. was in Theory/Composition and I’m still composing and arranging music today, it seems like a logical choice and one I would enjoy. Plus, the Jordan College of Fine Arts at Butler University has an excellent reputation.

We’re talking 30 credit hours, including a thesis. For composition, this means a score and recorded performance of “an original work in a larger form.” Plus an oral defense, of course. Taking 1 or 2 classes a year (and maybe something in the summers), that will probably mean 2-5 years. That’s not so bad for pursuing a Master’s degree while working full time.

(Yes, I did go through all the coursework and Comprehensive Exams for my PhD in Education, but it’s been a few years now and I’m out of the program, ABD (all but dissertation). Chalk that up to experience. At least I’m still able to use all that I learned since I’m still working at a university.)

Current music: Halloween, by Mannheim Steamroller

We normally think of the musical scale going from A to G (or from C to C, whether or not they’re shining). When we add the flats and sharps, that accounts for all the notes in our Western well-tempered tonality. But did you know that other letters have been used besides A-G?

In Europe, the letter H is often used instead of B. Since B♭ is used more commonly than B, when they say ‘B’ they mean ‘B-flat.’ H, the next available letter, is then used to designate the regular B.

When some composers have wanted to write a piece based on a theme of someone’s name that didn’t include just the letters A-G (or H), sometimes they’ve recycled through the available letters again, so H=A, I=B, J=C, K=D, L=E, M=F, N=G, O=A, and so on.

Don’t even get me started on solfege!

(Want to check out an interesting ear trainer online? Visit http://www.humanbenchmark.com/tests/ear_trainer/)

A local DJ is trying to break the world record for longest radio program by one personality. Mat Albro has been on the air since 12:01am on Monday. The current record is 135 hours by a DJ in Italy. As I understand it, this is sanctioned by Guinness and all that, so when he breaks it, he’ll be in the Book (along with “from Indianapolis”). The programming is a variety of things, focusing on classic rock, and it’s interesting to see the kinds of songs he’s playing after more than 4 days with no sleep.

He’s been able to take the radio station’s van (with someone else driving) out to local restaurants and other places, broadcasting live from there, which I’m sure helps as well as making things more interesting. To find out more about it or to see how he’s doing, visit http://wklu.net/. You can also listen live at http://wklu.net/listen.html. He’ll be on the air (hopefully) until at least Saturday afternoon.

Right now there’s a group of deputies administering some tests to see what sleep deprivation is doing to him. Similar to testing for sobriety. Pretty funny. He says he’s waiting for the hallucinations that he’s heard about to start kicking in. Ha!

For what it’s worth, he is drinking absolutely NO coffee, caffeine, or energy drinks. He’s got someone helping him out who IS taking little naps and drinking coffee, and he apparently looks horrible!

There’s also a link on the website to send him words of encouragement. Help him out and send him a note or joke or something. I did.

Go Mat!! (Oh, and you can follow his perspective on this event on his blog.)