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Some guarded chirping [message #44427]

Mon, 22 August 2011 19:50

b_twin_1
Messages: 2593
Registered: September 2008
Location: Victoria, Australia

Senior Member
[Moderator]

Chirp.

I've got a plan so cunning you could put a tail on it and call it a weasel ~ Blackadder

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Re: Some guarded chirping [message #44428 is a reply to message #44427 ]

Mon, 22 August 2011 20:50

Aaron
Messages: 319
Registered: June 2009
Location: California

Senior Member

Quote:

*** What? You don’t know Cantata for 1,007 Wood Lice, Two Organs, and a Squirrel?

Is this as tedious as Telemann's 400 Variations on an Equilateral Triangle, as originally scored for cembalo, glass beads, and augmented ratchet?*

*Does anyone else remember John Bellair's The Pedant and the Shuffley?

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Re: Some guarded chirping [message #44429 is a reply to message #44427 ]

Mon, 22 August 2011 21:31

claning
Messages: 266
Registered: February 2010
Location: California

Senior Member

Quote:

and that the reason Chaos comes and stares at me when I sing is that he knows he could do it better.^

^ Or possibly that he longs to alleviate the terrible pain I am clearly in.

I was practicing my flute once at a friend's house where I was staying overnight. The friend had five cats. I was merrily doing scales when one of the cats came trotting up, very interested..... and then I could just *see* her face fall as she realized in great disappointment that no, that noise was NOT a dying small animal.

O Chris Laning <claning@igc.org> - Davis, California
+

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Re: Some guarded chirping [message #44430 is a reply to message #44428 ]

Mon, 22 August 2011 21:40

Black Bear
Messages: 3216
Registered: September 2008
Location: Indianapolis, IN USA

Senior Member
[Moderator]

Aaron wrote on Mon, 22 August 2011 20:50

*Does anyone else remember John Bellair's The Pedant and the Shuffley?

ROFL!!!! Indeed I do, and all his other wonderful stuff besides! Bellairs was one of the authors I latched onto in high school and didn't let go til I'd read all of it. Well done, Aaron!

[Updated on: Mon, 22 August 2011 21:40]

_{"The time is always right to do what's right."--MLK Jr.}

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Re: Some guarded chirping [message #44432 is a reply to message #44427 ]

Mon, 22 August 2011 23:18

blondviolinist
Messages: 1067
Registered: October 2008
Location: Midwestern United States

Senior Member

Quote:

and that the reason Chaos comes and stares at me when I sing is that he knows he could do it better.^

^ Or possibly that he longs to alleviate the terrible pain I am clearly in.

When I still lived with a dog-owning roommate, I would practice in the living room where the dog usually slept on the couch. As soon as I started to practice, the dog would look at me with an expression of great longsuffering ("really? must you make all that racket?") and attempt to bury his head under the pillows. If this didn't work, and I insisted on practicing more, he would look disgusted and flounce off to a bedroom to sleep.

Quote:

Yes. Normal, says Nadia briskly.

I like Nadia more and more.

"Purity of heart is to will one thing." Kirkegaard

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Re: Some guarded chirping [message #44435 is a reply to message #44427 ]

Tue, 23 August 2011 01:06

Diane in MN
Messages: 2728
Registered: October 2008
Location: Twin Cities, MN, USA

Senior Member

And I love his lyrics^, speaking of real poets.

A MUCH better poet than the writer of Sebben crudele . . . Smile

‘He was heavy and thick’. Really? Don’t you want an intelligent one?

ROFL!!!

there’s so frelling much to remember. As soon as I remember one thing six others go to the wall. Sixteen. Sixty.

Oh, don't I know it. My theory is that the people who are extremely talented in a given field don't have to think this way: they have to work, practice, etc., but they don't have to remember six or sixteen or sixty individual components every time. I find that having to remember the whole list contributes greatly to unhelpful self-consciousness, too.

_{"The point of books is to have way too many but to always feel you never have enough . . . " Louise Erdrich}

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Re: Some guarded chirping [message #44436 is a reply to message #44427 ]

Tue, 23 August 2011 03:57

Nycteris
Messages: 30
Registered: October 2010
Location: Florida

Member

Fading, but had to say, "with the patience of my serving" takes you down an unfortunate path. If you look at it literally, with lunghezza meaning length, then you can change the focus. The subtext for this poem can be either beat me like your spaniel and still I will fawn on you OR doesn't matter what you do, I will continue to track you and eventually I will wear. you. down. I find the second more interesting to play and it helps with a longer line. Psycho = more energy than Drip.

I have long been lectured on the crappy romanticized arrangements in the Schirmer editions of the 24 Italian songs and arias by numerous performance practice freaks, so I've always assumed Caro mio ben was one of the worst offenders, but your question got me wondering. I've nosed around looking for an "authentic performance practice" rendition and I didn't find anything satisfactory. It would be interesting to see what the original continuo part looked like. It's not quite like Chopin though, since I can actually play it. Chopin, not so much.

The only thing better than singing is more singing. - Ella Fitzgerald

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Re: Some guarded chirping [message #44437 is a reply to message #44427 ]

Tue, 23 August 2011 06:07

harpergray
Messages: 87
Registered: March 2011
Location: Sweden

Member

Quote:

What? You don’t know Cantata for 1,007 Wood Lice, Two Organs, and a Squirrel?

In Aberdeen I believe it got transposed to Cantata for 958 Spiders, Two Organs, and Three Seagulls. I think it probably sounds better with the Wood Lice and Squirrel.

What I found particularly puzzling when I sang in the UK was that my poor American-educated musicness had no idea about the most basic vocabulary. Crochet? Minim? Flibbertigibbet? One catches on quickly enough when there's music right there in one's lap to match it to, but there's always that desperate moment of "The what?"

Quote:

‘He was heavy and thick’. Really? Don’t you want an intelligent one?

Snork. Perhaps he was anthropomorphic cake. In which case I might prefer a lighter one, but who knows? In urban fantasy a heavy-and-thick anthropomorphic cake might be of more use than a vaguely sentient light tart.

Um.

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Re: Some guarded chirping [message #44439 is a reply to message #44427 ]

Tue, 23 August 2011 08:28

springlight
Messages: 18
Registered: October 2008
Location: Leicestershire

Junior Member

Quote:

So much of this, as I have said before, said to Nadia today, and will say again to both of you, is that there’s so frelling much to remember. As soon as I remember one thing six others go to the wall.

Yes! I read this sitting at my keyboard, whiling away a half hour before I go to Tai Chi. I've been learning Tai Chi for nearly a year and it's a s.l.o.w process. Good thing it's supposed to be a s.l.o.w discipline, I tell myself.

But remembering everything. Head up. Shoulders down. Feet in bow stance. Drop the elbows. And then you expect me to know where exactly towards the end of the second set that dinky twirl comes?

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