...I have come across the first "Best Music of the 2000s" list as chosen by the music editors at National Public Radio. It's their "50 Most Important Recordings of the Decade," and it's a great conversation starter. You can read the blog entry and see the complete list.
No time now for any in-depth comments, but I like the inclusion of classical composer John Adams' elegy for the victims of 9/11, "On the Transmigration of Souls" and Sufjan Stevens' brilliant disk "Illinois." Check out the list and see if your favorite recording made it!
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Veterans Day 2009
This year, instead of taking the day off, 27 DHS Warrior Marching Band students gave back to the community by performing patriotic music for veterans throughout Deerfield and Riverwoods. We began the day at Brentwood North where 30 residents were treated to a concert including the service songs of the US Army, Navy, Marines, Coast Guard, and Air Force. Each student shared the name of a family member or friend from the armed forces to whom his or her performance was dedicated. Harrison Middaugh performed "Taps" in memory of servicemen and women who made the ultimate sacrifice in service to their country.
Our next stop was the Veterans' Memorial in Jewett Park where the American Legion Post 738 led their annual ceremony with the band supplying appropriate music. After lunch, we finished our day at Whitehall where we serenaded about 40 residents and physical theraphy patients in their lovely downstairs cityscape. The band students did a wonderful job of performing and talking to the senior citizens. There were smiles and tears all around, and I was told time and time again how wonderful it was to have the students visit. We even got to sing "Happy Birthday" for a woman celebrating her 93rd birthday. It was a memorable experience that showed me once again the power of music to affect people in a deep and meaningful way.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Catching Up...
It's the end of the quarter, and almost all of my grading is done. I have two projects on my desk to grade in the morning, and then I'll be all set.
All four bands seem to be in good shape for the concert Tuesday night. I feel like the concert groups are peaking at just the right time. Certain passages that have always been struggles are now falling into place, and there are some hints of glorious brass sounds at times in the SB and WE. Let's hope that the good work in rehearsal and at home continue for the next six days so we can have a positive culmination to the last 9 weeks worth of work.
The Warrior Marching Band finished the season in grand fashion. We accompanied the football team to their first round playoff game in the city. It was a very interesting setting--the field was a mud pit after a week of rain, much like our home turf probably would have been. The field was surrounded on the sidelines by bleachers (no running track) and in the endzones by the school building to the south, and a street and apartment building to the north. Field goals went on roofs and threatened to break windows. Just across the parking lot behind the home stands was a very busy L-train stop. To quote the Blues Brothers, "How often does the train go by? So often that you won't even notice it."
Our band played from the stands, reveling in the fact that we weren't being rained on (although it was cold and blustery). The opposing team's band was quite small due to their having a day off from school. Their director played along on trumpet, and it was fun to hear their pride. Unfortunately, we heard their fight song way too many times and ours not enough. By the end, we were beaten soundly. But, as always, we had our own fun.
My dissertation is going along well. My survey of Illinois and Wisconsin high school band directors is in its third week. I'm hoping for one last surge of responses to provide a deeper pool of data, but at a video conference tonight with my online peers, our supervisor told me that the 250 responses I have so far will probably be plenty. I'm at about a 22% response rate, and I think that's fairly respectable for an internet survey. 30% would make me feel better, but I think I'm in good shape. Once the questionnaire closes on 11/15, I'll have about four weeks to analyze the data for a presentation I'll be doing at a regional seminar in Chicago in late December. This will be good because it will get me moving on it right away instead of letting my research grow cold over the holidays. I'll share more over the coming weeks.
And because every blog should include some music for you to enjoy, I leave you with a taste of the Scott Joplin ragtime unit we'll be doing in SB and WE:
And, just to show you that ragtime music is not dead, here is some contemporary ragtime by a Chicago composer/pianist, Reginald R. Robinson:
All four bands seem to be in good shape for the concert Tuesday night. I feel like the concert groups are peaking at just the right time. Certain passages that have always been struggles are now falling into place, and there are some hints of glorious brass sounds at times in the SB and WE. Let's hope that the good work in rehearsal and at home continue for the next six days so we can have a positive culmination to the last 9 weeks worth of work.
The Warrior Marching Band finished the season in grand fashion. We accompanied the football team to their first round playoff game in the city. It was a very interesting setting--the field was a mud pit after a week of rain, much like our home turf probably would have been. The field was surrounded on the sidelines by bleachers (no running track) and in the endzones by the school building to the south, and a street and apartment building to the north. Field goals went on roofs and threatened to break windows. Just across the parking lot behind the home stands was a very busy L-train stop. To quote the Blues Brothers, "How often does the train go by? So often that you won't even notice it."
Our band played from the stands, reveling in the fact that we weren't being rained on (although it was cold and blustery). The opposing team's band was quite small due to their having a day off from school. Their director played along on trumpet, and it was fun to hear their pride. Unfortunately, we heard their fight song way too many times and ours not enough. By the end, we were beaten soundly. But, as always, we had our own fun.
My dissertation is going along well. My survey of Illinois and Wisconsin high school band directors is in its third week. I'm hoping for one last surge of responses to provide a deeper pool of data, but at a video conference tonight with my online peers, our supervisor told me that the 250 responses I have so far will probably be plenty. I'm at about a 22% response rate, and I think that's fairly respectable for an internet survey. 30% would make me feel better, but I think I'm in good shape. Once the questionnaire closes on 11/15, I'll have about four weeks to analyze the data for a presentation I'll be doing at a regional seminar in Chicago in late December. This will be good because it will get me moving on it right away instead of letting my research grow cold over the holidays. I'll share more over the coming weeks.
And because every blog should include some music for you to enjoy, I leave you with a taste of the Scott Joplin ragtime unit we'll be doing in SB and WE:
And, just to show you that ragtime music is not dead, here is some contemporary ragtime by a Chicago composer/pianist, Reginald R. Robinson:
Monday, October 26, 2009
Monday Morning Run
The randomly shuffled playlist from my morning run, which was unfortunately indoors due to the rain:
Interesting how Mick Jagger sang background vocals on the first song and then lead on the last. A nice rounded form.
- You're So Vain, Carly Simon (turns out she was singing about Warren Beatty)
- Hot Thing, Prince (awesome atonal sax squalls over drum machines)
- The Royal Scam, Steely Dan (as cynical as ever)
- Hurricane Eye, Paul Simon (brilliant manipulation of time signatures)
- Born at the Right Time, Paul Simon (referencing the story of Moses)
- Twist and Crawl, The English Beat (old-school ska at its best)
- Life and How to Live It, R.E.M. (takes me back to my first year of teaching)
- Rock and Roll, Led Zeppelin (excellent drum fills)
- Sajna Ve Sajna, Sunidhi Chauhan (the wildcard in this playlist--Bollywood music from India)
- Rock On, David Essex (early 70s pop bliss)
- Miss You, The Rolling Stones (mix a blues harp in and disco suddenly becomes hip)
Interesting how Mick Jagger sang background vocals on the first song and then lead on the last. A nice rounded form.
Friday, October 23, 2009
Theme and Variations on "Mary Had a Little Lamb"
Theme and variations form has been popular with composers for centuries. The idea is simple: take a well-known melody and come up with new ways to play it, like changing the rhythms, adding notes, going from major to minor, etc. Charles Ives wrote a set of fascinating variations on "My Country Tis of Thee" for organ. Here is the band arrangement of the orchestral version:
Mozart used "Ah! vous dirai-je, Maman," better known to anglophones as "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star," as the basis for a virtuosic piano piece:
In music theory class, we tried our hand at doing something similar. Here are three variations on "Mary Had a Little Lamb." Enjoy!
Julie and Nick's version
Stuart and Ryan
Kenny and Nathan
Mozart used "Ah! vous dirai-je, Maman," better known to anglophones as "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star," as the basis for a virtuosic piano piece:
In music theory class, we tried our hand at doing something similar. Here are three variations on "Mary Had a Little Lamb." Enjoy!
Julie and Nick's version
Stuart and Ryan
Kenny and Nathan
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Renaissance Music
This quarter, Symphonic Band and Wind Ensemble students have been studying Renaissance music. We have rehearsed modern band pieces based on music of the era, including Court Festival by William Latham (SB) and Four French Dances by Robert Hanson (WE). Earlier this week, we learned about some exotic Renaissance instruments (see the previous post), and then we divided into chamber groups to create our own arrangements of Renaissance dances composed by Tielman Susato. All of the students received the soprano, alto, tenor, and bass parts to three dances, transposed into the proper key. Then, each ensemble was responsible for orchestrating one of the pieces, adding percussion, and applying ornamentation and dynamics. Here are some of our best results. (Click on the arrows to hear the sounds.)Symphonic Band (clarinet, 2 alto saxophones, trumpet, trombone, euphonium, and percussion)
Wind Ensemble (flute, clarinet, bassoon, tenor saxophone, trumpet, trombone, and percussion)
Wind Ensemble (flute, clarinet, baritone saxophone, trumpet, trombone, and percussion)
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Home Sweet Homecoming
Well, it's mid-October, so that means it's Homecoming! The school is all decked out to reflect the Windy City theme, and the Concert Band has created their annual banner, which in my opinion looks great. We are defending champs in the advisory banner contest, so I hope we can hold on to our crown.On Tuesday night, we had a small group of Warrior Marching Band members form a pep band for our boys varsity soccer team. We cheered them on to a 4-1 victory over our crosstown rivals, the Highland Park Giants. Now we are frantically preparing our halftime show for Friday night. Hopefully it won't be raining non-stop like it did last week. Thank heavens for ponchos! Tomorrow we also have our traditional 8th period march through the halls and the pep rally. I can't wait!
UPDATE: The banner took second place! And, the band did a great job at halftime, in spite of being rained out of several early bird practices and having to perform on the rice paddy that was Adams Field. The team was successful, too, defeating Niles North 26-13 to improve to 5-2 on the season. One more win puts us in the playoffs!
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