Mac's Ptown

We always go to Mac's Ptown when we are at the Cape. Marilyn loves the bartenders, wait staff, and clientele. She orders miso soup and sushi, and I get a lobster.

New Music

I am excited to be playing Stephen M. Cormier’s “Modal Song'“ with Rhonda Buckley-Bishop on tomorrow night’s program! I have posted our latest rehearsal audio here.

This is my second attempt to perform his music, which is unique, in that he has evolved a modal harmonic system that is perfectly congruent with classical harmony, only based on the whole range of modal scales, (as far as I understand it). He has published the only real textbook on modal harmony, and although people gripe and complain about how hard it is to understand, they purchase it and read it - it is in its fourth English edition.

My previous attempt to play his music came to grief, at least temporarily, due to the great unfamiliarity of the harmonic language, in part. The writing was very contrapuntal, in ways reminiscent of fugal writing, but without the familiar tonic and dominant pillars to rely on. Furthermore, his writing makes great use of a peculiar quarter note triplet displaced by one eighth note, which sounds wonderfully jazzy, but requires some re-education to feel naturally. The piece was large, ambitious, and required coordination with a (!) trap set drummer. After six months I reluctantly gave it up, and welcomed this much easier example of his wonderfully unique music.

We have commissioned a new work for flugelhorn and piano, based on the writing of Josquin des Prez. (I begged him for a simplified piano part!) Looking forward to premiering it this season!

Noise

Although I find that listening to music does not interest me as much as it used to, I am quite fascinated by noise. Here are some random clips: 1) a gas pump advertising screen; 2) ventilation in a Halifax parking garage; 3) refrigeration motors in the freezer section of Mom’s grocery (perfect drone for their new age muzak, unfortunately not captured here).

Tattoos in Nova Scotia

We saw a number of greatly tattooed people in Nova Scotia.

Two young ladies at breakfast

North coast waitress

Couple at Annapolis Royal market

Halifax waitress

Mark

Music in Nova Scotia

We didn’t search out music on our vacation in Nova Scotia, but we did run into some that we really enjoyed (and some not so much). Here are two short videos: the first is a folk band at the public gardens in Halifax, a real contribution to the laid back, meditative spirit of the place. The female vocalist/fiddler seemed to embody the tradition.

The second is a street singer we encountered in Annapolis Royal, across from the weekly farmers market. The interesting thing is that we were the only audience, apart from one other lady on a park bench. I gave him CA$10 (to his surprise) and saw that there were only a few coins in his case. At the very same moment, right across the street, there was a singer hired by the town, playing to the crowded market, who was essentially unlistenable.

There was also a country/rock band, playing at a gazebo along the water. About 100 people, seemingly mostly locals, gathered to hear them, and one couple danced. They were very professional, and had amazingly good sound equipment. But I was bored, and we left to go to dinner.

I Hate Music

Music is everywhere: bathrooms, waiting rooms, crosswalks, cafés, airports, hotel lobbies... You can't get away from it. How many cafés have you been in lately that still recycle rancid Motown? Even in countries outside the US? It stinks.