tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8095334346946225978.post2359911528340810686..comments2019-10-23T16:33:44.374-07:00Comments on HemidemisemiThoughts: Jherek Bischoff, Ambient Chamber Orchestra and the cisternAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06985410320718623330noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8095334346946225978.post-15758719765747191552011-02-20T23:54:10.421-08:002011-02-20T23:54:10.421-08:00Thanks for letting me know about your new blog. I&...Thanks for letting me know about your new blog. I'm looking forward to future posts. The first two were great!Shawnahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00423327509133982498noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8095334346946225978.post-3455222535372250902011-02-20T17:33:47.421-08:002011-02-20T17:33:47.421-08:00Thanks, Melinda, for your nice comments! I am also...Thanks, Melinda, for your nice comments! I am also a fan of Arvo Part, and look forward to listening to more of his choral music. I recently read Kyle Gann's "No Such<br />Thing as Silence" (about 4'33") and found a lot to appreciate about the impact the piece and its conception had on 20th century thinking. A good read!Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06985410320718623330noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8095334346946225978.post-22799547969632648712011-02-20T16:47:07.273-08:002011-02-20T16:47:07.273-08:00Hi, Heather! What a fun blog.
I have visited the &...Hi, Heather! What a fun blog.<br />I have visited the "Cistern Chapel" and written about Stu and Pauline, among others who have recorded there, and it is truly an awe-inspiring space.<br />To your list I might add Arvo Part, whose spare but gorgeous choral music seems to rise all on its own, like yeast in bread dough.<br />Probably I'm too much of a traditionalist to follow you down the "ambient music" road very far. I think Cage was pulling everyone's leg with 4.33 (certainly attending a "performance" and listening to the audience's occasional nervous titters for four and a half minutes is not what I would call a high point in musical experience).<br />But we all have our own tastes!<br />One of my most fun experiences was a voyage in unusual, though not ambient, sounds -- participating in a UW School of Music homage to the Portsmouth Sinfonia, in which musicians perform the most famous classical excerpts on instruments, most often not their own instruments. (I'm a decent pianist but an incredibly bad cellist, so I joined the cello section. I especially remember our section "solos" in the Prelude to "Tristan und Isolde," and thinking, "Hmmm, I wonder where the top note of that sixth leap might be.") You've never heard such a delighted audience.<br />Finally, the "dancing about architecture" quote: as a writer about music, I see this all the time. Frankly, I don't see why you couldn't dance about architecture; certainly there are great similarities in the "architecture" of human bodies created by a choreographer. But seriously, writing about music is no more challenging than writing about any other ephemeral subject. You have to make it real for the reader, in terms of analogy and common experience, and of course music writers are not always writing for the general public, but usually for people who share a common love for the art form and have certain basic knowledge already.<br />Looking forward to more of your "dancing about architecture."<br />Cheers, Melinda BargreenUnknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18062192616200557381noreply@blogger.com