...Izee's Thread

[MageNathaniel1]

I think most are happy that we have music and yes music can definitely habe all sorts of effects on us from calming to arousing.  Smiles

[Izee]

...Firebird...

https://youtu.be/kd1xYKGnOEw




This work has captured my mind, lately.  I have played it, and it is very difficult.  Stravinski LOVED to challenge musicians, and didn't give a DAMN if his music was difficult/impossible to play.  I had to go into 'Thumb Position' in the 1st four registers to perform this...I have small hands...I should have stuck with the violin rather than taking up the cello.     (Thumb position is where you pull your thumb away from the back of the neck, and lay it crosswise across the strings.  It operates as another 'finger', and it hurts like Hell until you develop callus across the side of your thumb.  Normally, you only get into thumb position when you are past the shoulder of the cello, and there is no neck to hold onto.  Early in my studies, I met Yanos Starker at a recital he was giving, and when I told him that I played the cello, he grabbed my left hand and felt the outside of my left thumb, and sternly said, "Young lady, you aren't practicing enough."  I didn't wash that hand for two weeks... ).

As I played, I envisioned what I believed the music what was about...

Villagers are in a huge battle with Invaders...
It is difficult, their protector, the Firebird, is hibernating...
You hear the calls of horns, and skirmishes...
The Villagers are defeated, and retreat...
They bury their dead, and sing dirges..
They travel, slowly, to escape the Invaders...
They stop, exhausted...and...
A little girl runs out...and calls for the Firebird...
It hears her, and wakes up, rustling its feathers...
It stretches its wings, and takes off..
The Firebird attacks the Invaders...
Hurling balls of fire, and attacking with it's claws and wings...
It defeats the Invaders...
It shrieks in victory...
And the Firebird flies away...

Just my interpretation.  I always cry with relief at the end...I did cry when I performed it...   

[MageNathaniel1]

Nothing touches our being like music the better the somg the more it touches us

[Izee]

...I just finished a wonderful dinner.  I bought and baked two cornish game hens for my Mother and I.  There were potatoes, and carrots on the side, and I stuffed the hens with cooked brown rice.  I finished by melting butter, and pouring it over them, after applying salt and pepper.  Cooking for 2 hours at 325 degrees in a covered container was right.  They were properly done, and very tender and juicy, and didn't need seasoning.  I put a bit of skin on each piece, and they tasted great.     Once, I was a Counselor at a Girl Scout camp, and one of the Counselors...you all know the type...was saying that we shouldn't eat the skin.  Now, I do understand that some people need to monitor their intake of fatty foods.  But, I said, "What is the POINT in eating chicken if you DON'T  eat the skin?"  A number of women agreed with me, and we calmed down, and ate our chicken, skin and all. 

...Hey, I can safely, and honestly say, that I had NO HAND in making this video...

https://youtu.be/ubZhS-0l4wk


...One nice thing about living with and watching over my elderly mother.  She likes my cooking, and is appreciative, but DOESN'T TRUST me to clean up.  I guess just dipping the pans, dishes, and utensils in cold water isn't good enough.  So, after we eat, and dispose of the garbage. she sends me out of the kitchen, and cleans up.   

...One thing I have learned in life, is that 'creative incompetence' sometimes pays off.  You get chased away, and someone else does the task.   

[Izee]

...This is the video I meant to post above...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNJnOfyhweo


...I was listening to the other one, as I r/p'd Izee traveling.  She misses Marcus Hrolfson very much.  They traveled all over Gor, together, and did attract other traveling companions.  We typists had a r/t relationship.  I sent him food and snacks, he sent me a nice wool scarf when I was typing that Izee' was freezing while traveling in the North.  He was a very kind man.  I saw him comfort others, on-line and in r/t, and he was suffering from a disease that had no cure.  He lived longer than expected, and people said that r/p kept him alive even when MD's said that he would only live for a few more months.

Te adoro, Marcus...

[Izee]

...Grading Musical Compositions...

...In several classes at Conservatory, we had to compose music.  Those assignments were usually in Music Theory, often the assignment was to just compose a tune.  The most difficult was assigned in Counterpoint Class, we had to compose a complete fugue.  That is not easy, fugues are very complex.  You end up with several independent lines of music that have to fit together to develop the theme.  Composing a melody, and adding accompaniment is easier.  As usual, I went way overboard when I had to compose.  I would return to my dorm at 3:00 am for several nights, after I was at the Conservatory Building composing a fugue...they are DIFFICULT!!!  It was kind of fun being in the building, I took to doing late night practice there, often I was the only person in the building, except for the Janitors at times, and would walk the three stories and basement and Stage when I needed a break or wanted to ponder the work and NOT have the DAMN PIANO KEYBOARD in front of me!!!  My hands would be itching to get on the keys, and play SOMETHING...didn't matter what...if I was sitting at a piano, they would want to do something. 

When we were assigned to compose a melody and accompaniment, I went insane.  (Anybody ever see me do that?)

...I composed an Oratorio when we were assigned to just compose a song.  It was entitled "The Unasked Question"...I had been listening to Ives "The Unanswered Question"...and was inspired.  In addition to a piano, singers and string quartet, it had a woodwind ensemble, and several brass players.  I gave the sousaphone a nice part, he appreciated it.  The work was somewhat unorganized and disjointed, and mixed different styles of music, that really didn't mix very well, and included reading and acting out an overly dramatic poem while a string quartet played a tragic passage. (I also composed the poem.)  I was telling a story of unrequited love...I believe that other Composers have attempted to do so...and I was TOTALLY PISSED at my latest boyfriend who had found a new girlfriend...so I was inspired. There was one section where I needed to link two songs together, and I labored, and labored, and labored over a tune that would blend the two songs...and settled on having the Tuba and Trombone players just blow into their mouthpieces...that weren't connected to the instrument...while a Soprano sang a brief, tragic, song.  I thought that part was neat...but the Professor just wrote question marks all over my manuscript.  He wrote, at the end, "OK, you get an "A", but next time use your genius to compose something serious."

...The Music Theory Professor would use brief comments to grade and critique a composition.  "DTB" meant "Doubling the bass line:, and he had many others.  He wrote "UGH" over a portion of one of my works, and I had never seen that abbreviation before.  I raised my hand, and asked him what UGH meant, and he said...

..."It means "Ugh"...like...Ugh, this soup tastes horrible."

I just wrote the explanation down and nodded and said..."I actually thought "UGH" after I wrote the damn thing."

It did get performed, once, at Solo Class.  Some musicians needed to perform something, and decided that my work fit the bill.  It lasted for a reasonable amount of time, and wasn't very difficult, technically.  At Conservatory, we musicians were required to perform at least four times in public, and 'Solo Class' was created.  You had to attend it, or your grades would suffer, but it wasn't graded and there were no credits.  The idea was that students would get the experience of performing, and the students would also be exposed to music that they wouldn't normally listen to.  A wind player might not be a fan of opera, and who, but pianists, are familiar with all of the great piano works?  I was called to the stage at the end, to receive my own applause for composing the damn thing.  Most of the audience were laughing...

...That is when I began to seriously consider changing College Majors...

...So, I did the usual...I changed from an interesting and challenging Major to...

...Business Administration...

...UGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!   

[MageNathaniel1]

The meal sounds great. Next timr invite me lol.

Wow on compsing music. I remember being in the computer lab in the library until they closed at midnight then going home and logging into the school computer for another 2 hours writing code for assignments not as artistic as music but an art form of its own while in college.

And I agree on ugh to business admin lol.

[Izee]

...Not only Business Administration...but a concentration in...

...ACCOUNTING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   

That was the first time the University offered a degree in accounting.  I did well, and was the FIRST graduate to pass the entire CPA Exam.   

I sent a copy of my test results to my Professor.  He posted it on the "Official" Announcement Board outside the Main Office.

Intermediate Accounting was the MOST DIFFICULT course I have ever taken.  In business school, it is what Organic Chemistry is to Med Students.  It is INTENDED to weed out the wimps.  I spent many late nights studying the book, and trying to understand bizarre methods of depreciation, amortization, and other such concepts.

[MageNathaniel1]

I was never one for accounting then, most computer sci majors are not. But I understand what you mean by a weeding out class, for us it was calculus lol.

[Izee]

AHHHH...Calculus...

In all of my early life, I just KNEW that I would become a scientist.  My hobbies were all science, except for music.  But I believe that music and science are intertwined.  Einstein played the violin, and I can testify, from personal experience, that many scientists and Doctors play, or played, musical instruments.  I was at a Chamber Music gathering, and got placed in a string quartet with three older men.  I was CONVINCED that they were professional musicians, but they were all scientists!       (I was the dumb one..being a Lawyer... )  We all had lunch together...and if they had asked...I would have eagerly become a mistress (sex partner) to ALL of them...if they took care of me, fed me well, and bought me cheese pockets when I asked, and played chamber music with me...but they were all married.

Anyway, back to calculus.  I was placed in advanced math classes all through school...there were 11 of us students that they picked out for that.  There was only one other girl...and I WAS PRETTIER...so they should have asked me out, but she was more popular.  I suspect that she 'put out', but have no proof.  In our Senior year, they created a calculus class for us.  I was PROUD...I would get college credit for it...and it could help me get into a good college.  I wanted to go to the University of the Pacific (UOP), they had an advanced program in Marine Biology...which I loved.  I wanted to major in Marine Biology, and focus on fish farming.  I LOVED shellfish, and wanted to work on how to raise them on a commercial basis.

But, came CALCULUS...and I had a SENIOR MELTDOWN!!!     I suddenly decided that I could make a living playing the cello, and dropped out of all math and science classes, except Physics...I liked it.  They made me the TA for Chemistry, to try to get me back into the fold...but I was insane.  So, I did get accepted into UOP, as a Music Major.  For some reason, I couldn't integrate what calculus was.  It is different from Algebra and Geometry, or maybe my juvenile female brain was distracted trying to sort out reality with what I was feeling inside.

I do believe that I made a mistake when I changed majors after my Soph year, when I was still a Music Major.  My Counselor said that I should change to Biology, but that it would take me three years to graduate with a B.A., I would need to take the courses that I would have taken in my Frosh and Soph years if I had started as a Biology Major.  My 'Muscle Head' insisted that I get a B.A. in four years, not five...and my 'smart self' didn't think it through.  What is an extra year?  And I did have the wonderful experience in immersing myself in Music for two years.

  I probably would have met Jacque Cousteau, with me as a Marine Biologist...and with my winning charm...I would have traveled with him on his ships.   

[MageNathaniel1]

I agree once one is past explicit differenitation, calculus is a different animal from algebra etc. Partocularly if one skips matrices and linear algebra along the way lol. Wow on the interest in marine biology. And yes, music is basically all math and science acoustics, soundwaves, wave length etc. So makes sense scientists would also play instruments. Btw my brother is looking into being a physics major and said not much calculus is used in it largely trig, algebra and linear algebra. I took trig based physics but was more interested in computers at the time.

[Izee]

...I am VERY easy to entertain...

I watch this channel a lot...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPJ6NCmHOI4

[Izee]

https://youtu.be/Uar6hcucwrA

When I was a teenager, some guys and I would set up a 'spooky home' at one house on Halloween.  There were oak and walnut trees all over, and the porch got very dark at night.  Back then, EVERYONE Trick or Treated, and every house would stock up on candy.  When we were young kids, we would get a parent to drive us to where the rich people lived, and leave us there for an hour.  Rather than just getting our bags full of bits of candy, we would get full sized chocolate bars and packages of good candy.   

Anyway, we would set up all sorts of spooky things around the porch, and it was dark, with just a few pumpkins with candles in them.  And the faces on the pumpkins were scary.  We would hang scary dummies all over the porch, and one of us would be in the walnut tree near the porch, and scream and drop a dummy near the visitors.  I would hand out the candy, to those brave souls who made it to the door, and hand out nice candy.  I would dress up as a REALLY UGLY witch, or a female cadaver...and scare the parents of the kids.  Once, some friends saw me as the horrible, gross witch, and when I asked them how they liked my costume, they asked "What costume?"  I tried to hit them with my broom, but missed...I was using my 'golf grip'...doesn't work on a broom.   

Now, there is no Trick or Treating.  People are scared of letting their young children out at night, and who knows what is in the candy?  That damned fentanyl is so toxic, that a few grains can kill you, and there are so many sick people out there, now. 

I used to like to walk late at night.  It was so quiet, not many cars, and it was restful.  I did try a walk a few months ago...but I was constantly turning my head to see around me, even though we are in a nice neighborhood.  I couldn't relax my thinking, so I quickly went back home. Back when I was a teenager, living here, I would take VERY long walks, sometimes into the early morning hours.  My parents were asleep, and my brother did the same, so I could do it.  One time, there were reports of a kidnapper being in town, and my brother would sneak out with me.  He told me that if he got into a fight, that I should just run home.  I lied, and said that I would, because I carried a small knife... ...if someone tried to kidnap me...he could be in for a surprise.  My Dojo had taught we females to act scared, frantic and uncoordinated if approached, and then to unload when the attacker was somewhat out of balance.  Stomping on a kneecap was a suggestion, you could cripple him, and it would hurt and you might be able to squirm free and run away.  We were taught really ugly things to do...like 'go for the eyes'.  Even if you don't pluck them out, your attacker will be hurt, and will have trouble seeing you as you sprint away.

Times are so different, now.  At my age, I have noticed that each generation is different.  I wonder how this generation will be.  They are facing situations and challenges that I never had.  For instance, socializing.  When I was young, and we went to eat or have a soda, we talked and jabbered about all sorts of things.  Now, you see a group of young people, and they all have their PDA's in front of their faces, and don't seem to be interrelating with each other.

By the way, on a different note, I am seeing more and more 'homeless' people in our nice area.  The news sources tell us that they are the refugees that are crossing our border...they do not speak English.  Last I read...and I am a Lawyer...it is ILLEGAL to enter the good ol USA without some authorizing papers.  That is true of EVERY OTHER NATION in the World.  If I just walked into Canada, I would politely be asked to show I was Canadian, or had papers, and when I said I was from the good ol USA and just wanted to live there, they would, politely, kick my trespassing ass back into the USA.  And I am cute...and have a nice personality...and am pretty much educated...and have some coin.

What is that old curse?   "May you live in INTERESTING times."   

[MageNathaniel1]

Lol on yiur spooky hoise decor. We never went to that extreme but did hand out candy. Trick or treating is still done here, sounds like you may need to move out of liberalville to a more normal state smiles.
I agree on young people not knowing how to socialize and being too attached to their devices sighs.
As for the borders, we desperately need to get the liberals out of office and back to sane people in place who will enforce the laws.

[Izee]

...I am just FASCINATED by this Bach Piano Concerto...

https://youtu.be/9ZX_XCYokQo

At Conservatory, I was captivated, and a little scared of this work.  A piano performance major was going to perform it, and I was leading the cello section as principal cellist.  I was distracted by other things going on, and actually didn't look at the work until the first rehearsal.  My standmate opened the score...and I STARED at it...thinking WTF?  It is in a difficult key signature, and the motif is strange...not elegant.  Bach's works are usually so elegant, that is why they are performed in elegant chambers, as Royalty struts around and sniffs snuff...and other 'stuff'.  I mean. the motif is very abrupt, and not melodic.  Compare it to the Brandenburg concertos...those are happy works...you can almost sing them.  But this work?  (Clears throat and sings...)

...buda bah bit bit but bah...but BAH butta BAH butta BAH butta bah BIT...butta bah BIT...butta bah BIT...butta bah bit bah bit bah bit bah bit bah bit bah bit bah bit...butta bah BIT bah BIT...BAH...BIT...BAH...

...THAT'S THE GENIUS BACH??   

Once I got over my shock, I was grabbed by the work.  "buda bah bit" ran through my mind, constantly, even through an exciting lecture on Generally Accepted Accounting Principals.  (Hey, I was always on the edge of my chair during lectures on Accounting...oh my...oh my...oh my...What will come NEXT?  Amortization???  YAYYYYYY!!!!!)

The Counterpoint is astounding, and so many emotions are expressed.  Bach almost crossed into the Romantic Period of music when he wrote this.  Some of the later Bach works are difficult to listen to, they don't feel Baroque, IMHO.  The Genius was probably evolving his works as he aged.  And, of course, ANY WORK performed by Glenn Gould with Leonard Bernstein would be astounding.     I understand that Glenn was a character, in some of his writings, he said that Mozart died 'too late' rather than 'too early'.  (Mozart died at age 35)  The clip is fun to watch, Glenn's fingers are so expressive.  I envy him his 4th finger...it looks almost as long as his ring finger. 

My hands are strange, my little finger only comes half-way up my ring finger, and I have short fat thumbs that curve out, away from my palms.  Nail polish and press-ons don't do much to make them pretty.  (I was thrown out of the office when I auditioned to become a 'Hand Model'.  I am told that I have a cute face, but my hands are mutants.)

Anyway, please enjoy