The All-New Bunrab

The concert went well - another giant retirement community, this one not far from our house. The conductor of the Baltimore Symphonic Band tells the same awful jokes to the audience at every concert; we're already tired of them.

More CDs:
Grimethorpe Colliery Band: A White Christmas. It's bright, it's loud, it's brass. Says Christmas to me! Actually, quite a few of our albums will fall into this category. This one has a few traditional carols, a bunch of more modern ones - I rather like "Walking in the Air."

Maddy Prior with the Carnival Band: A Tapestry of Carols. Maddy is/was the soprano lead singer of the folk-rock group Steeleye Span. Instantly recognizable voice. This one's mostly traditional carols. The British version of what is in America "Angels We Have Heard on High" uses a different translation, hence the title "Angels from the Realms of Glory" which is also taken rather faster than "Heard on High." "Personent Hodie" remains one of my favorites.

A Canadian Brass Christmas. Um, it's loud, it's bright, it's brass. Canadian Brass do have some unique arrangements and harmonizations of the traditional carols, and they include the Canadian carol "The Huron Carol."

Mannheim Steamroller: A Fresh Aire Christmas. Some different choices from the other Mannheim Steamroller album we've already listened to. But all recognizably Chip Davis arrangements. Mostly traditional stuff, one original composition by Davis called "Traditions of Christmas." As before, almost elevator music but always pleasant to catch a few minutes of.
Vince Guaraldi Trio: A Charlie Brown Christmas. From the cartoon TV special of the same name. Instantly recognizable to most Americans - wouldn't be Christmas to most baby boomers if we didn't hear this one. A lot of original music for jazz trio featuring piano, interspersed with jazzy arrangements of traditional carols.

Wynton Marsalis: Crescent City Christmas Card. Lessee, what was that line about loud, bright, brass, again? Mostly traditional carols, mostly in Marsalis' own arrangements.

A Nonesuch Christmas from the Baroque, Renaissance, and Middle Ages. Krumhorns! Suite #2 from Banchetto Musicale by Schein. Gabrielli. Speer - some brass fanfares (quel surprise!). Lots of a capella by large chorus. Bach. Mostly, this is not familiar Christmas stuff; a nice change of pace.

That almost catches us up to this evening!

You're getting several shorter posts here, JUST IN CASE the modem cuts out again. Anyhoo, continuing with the holiday listening:
Kenny Ellis: Hanukkah Swings. Several traditional Chanukah songs (there are many spellings, children; the joys of transliteration from another alphabet) and several original ones. Ellis does excellent imitations of Sinatra and other Rat-Packers. One number comes out sounding quite like Benny Goodman swing. And there's the Hanu-calypso. While this isn't traditional STYLING of these songs, it's nonetheless a very good introduction to many of them - I think those of you who don't have much Chanukah music and want to hear a little more would enjoy this.
Barry and Beth Hall: A Feast of Songs. Holiday music from the middle ages, performed on traditional instruments. Several of these are songs that are still familiar, but use tunes older than the ones that are currently popular for the same lyrics. Some of the songs are not familiar unless you're an early-music freak - but then, I know there's a few of you on my flist. Several things in Latin. "Personent Hodie" is one of my favorite Latin carols (not to be confused with just plain "Hodie," which is another carol, and not on this album).
Danny Wright: Merry Christmas. Purports to be with the Dallas Brass (before they became Rhythm and Brass) but it's not very brassy. Also includes the Texas Boys Choir. Mostly traditional, mostly not very inspired. Good background music.
Oscar Brand: My Christmas is Best. Oscar Brand is a voice I can recognize pretty instantly. Includes songs from Christmas traditions around the world, and a Chanukah song. Perhaps nicest is "Frere Jacques" which I always knew was about a monk, but many people don't, and I hadn't associated it with Christmas before I first heard this album - I'm not sure whether Brand added the Christmas verses himself. This is on a mini-disk, from one of our old vinyl or tape albums, and I don't have the original album notes. Anyway, the gimmick of the little kid insisting "My Christmas is best!" wears thin, but the songs are nice.
Lisa Neustadt: Shout for Joy. Lots of a capella singing. Another one that's on mini-disk and I don't have the original album notes, but one of the guest singers sure SOUNDS like Jean Redpath! Couple of spirituals in with the traditional carols. A version of "Es ist ein Rose Entsprungen" which uses a different translation than we normally hear, and the carol is here called "Flower of Jesse." There's also a version of "Silent Night" which uses a different translation, closer to the original German words than the version we usually hear today. Anyway, if you're a fan of a capella harmony, you'd like this; if you aren't, you wouldn't. We do.
Trout Fishing in America: Merry Fishes to All. Well, it's Trout Fishing, so it's funny. The first song is "Chocolate Christmas." My favorite is "The Eleven Cats of Christmas." Some of the songs are written to appeal to the 10-year-old boy demographic, but have enough twists in them to be funny for grown-ups too. It's difficult to explain Trout Fishing to people who haven't heard them - they're a folk-music duo that doesn't sing traditional stuff. FWIW, the lyrics to this album are available at http://www.troutmusic.com, if you'd like to get an idea.

The Jethro Tull Christmas Album. Jethro Tull, I can hear you wondering? As in Aqualung? Yes, that Jethro Tull, but this is a wonderful album. Ian Anderson's flute can make anything sound great. There are a few original songs on here, and several instrumental medleys of traditional carols that come off surprisingly nicely. Some of the surprises: just how much accordion there is in here - I hadn't remembered Tull having that much accordion. Tull's introduction in the leaflet, where he describes his own beliefs, or lack thereof, in Christmas. "A Christmas Song" which starts out with a couple of lines from "Once in Royal David's City" (which hymn the Bel Air Community Band is playing for its concert in 11 days). Some of the high points: Anderson's arrangement of Fauré's "Pavane for a Dead Princess" which isn't at all related to Christmas, but sounds holiday-ish here. "Fire at Midnight" which is a winter song, not specifically a Christmas song. And "Ring Out Solstice Bells" - long been one of my favorite Tull songs. And of course the Bach Bourree is on here.

Dave Grisman's Acoustic Christmas. Grisman is an excellent mandolin player, and this album is nice, but a little too peaceful, especially after hearing the Tull. Some of this could be mistaken for mall background music. Not all of it, though. It's almost all instrumental, just a few seconds of voice. A couple of swing arrangements of things. Surprise moments: excerpt from Respighi's "Ancient Aires and Dances." The presence of a pretty complete crumhorn ensemble. Bela Fleck. The hurdy-gurdy version of "Good King Wenceslaus" - definitely not background music there.

Halfway through listening to the Klezmonauts - report on that will be included in the next post.

Okay, the last post that wasn't a meme or something was while we were in MA for my cousin's wedding. So here's some pictures:
( the George Washington Bridge )

( My cousin gets married )

( Knitting )

( Oktoberfest )

( back in September )

That catches us up, I think, on everything except books. I've gotta catch up on those yet.

Since neither of us plays trombone, we did not attend the entire Eastern Trombone Workshop, but we did go to the Grand Finale concert this evening. Reading the program, once we were there, made us wish we had in fact gone to more of it; there were many sessions that sounded like interesting topics despite being addressed to (shudder) trombones. ( detailed music geekery follows )
We came home by was of the Silver Diner in Laurel, where apparently most of the teenage population of Laurel was having milkshakes and arguing. Incidentally, we had forgotten the GPS unit; we are *so* proud of ourselves for finding Ft. Myer without it, and for getting out of Ft. Myer and back to the Baltimore-Washington Pkwy without it! (The routes to and from Ft. Myer are not the same. It is apparently not possible to get heah from theah, even though you can get theah from heah.) Fort Myer, for those wondering, is right next door to Arlington National Cemetary, and can most easily be found by following the signs to the Iwo Jima Memorial.

Well, Sunday *we* have a gig to play, so I need to think about some rest. I'll report on that, plus the latest in science trivia/news, next time.

---

Some of you still haven't tried the Kelly Quiz!

And there were a great many of them.
Getting onto an army post (I am told it's not a base - the navy and the air force have bases, the army has posts. OK.) involves going through security. Luckily, we know about the North Gate, where the lines are considerably shorter than at the West Gate. One time this weekend, we even had the underside of the car inspected with mirrors.

Anyway, I did not attend all the events, so I can't report on everything. I enjoyed John Stevens' class in how to start in on arranging and composing for the tuba-euphonium ensemble; at this point in my would-be arranging career, everything is helpful, but Dr. Stevens was particularly accessible and handed out excellent notes.

The Army Strings seem to be quite short of strings - at the concert on Friday night, they had hired outside players for the last stand in every string section. The first half of the concert was the combined Armed Forces Tuba-Euphonium Ensemble, which this year included people from the UK Royal Navy and the German Air Force. I really need a field guide to uniforms, because not all the people from "the Marines" wear the same uniform, for example - so who the heck is the red jacket with the gold braid and no black frogs instead of white braid and frogging up the front? Who are the people in suit jackets instead of tunics? The second half of the concert Friday night was the Army Orchestra, which is the Army Strings plus various wind players from other Army ensembles, with the aforementioned ringers to beef up the strings; they had two euphonium soloists for euphonium concerti, and one tuba soloist for a tuba concerto; one of the euphonium soloists was one of the UK Royal Navy guys.

I think my favorite concert of the whole conference was the Tennessee Tech Tuba Ensemble 40th Anniversary Alumni All-Stars. This concert featured nine pieces written for this ensemble, for this 40th anniversary. While some of the pieces were forgettable, several were quite memorable. I'll get the negative out of the way first: I would be very surprised if the Gunther Schuller piece ever gets played again after the ensemble finishes this 40th anniversary tour - if it gets played at all by any other group in the next decade, or any group other than this one, I'd be able to count the number of times on my thumbs and have thumbs left over, I'm sure. It was technically challenging and mathematically interesting, and totally unpleasant to listen to. I mean, 10 separate euphonium parts, 12 separate tuba parts, plus two percussion? Tone clusters. Ugh.
OK, now that I've got that out of the way, let me tell you about the stuff I liked. First, John Cheetham's "Bassa Nòbile" was wonderful, and I am quite sure it will become a favorite and a standard in the tuba literature rapidly as soon as it's published for general use. Watch for it, you music directors on my flist. You'll like it. Eric Ewazen's "Basso Cantante" was also quite nice, and also accessible. My favorite overall was Martin Ellerby's "Epitaph VI: Phoenix Rising (Coventry/Dresden)." It was truly beautiful. Because it is commemorating the bombings in WWII of the English city of Coventry including the Cathedral of St. Michaels (and later the bombing of Dresden and its historical buildings), it includes extensive variations on "The Coventry Carol" and I am afraid that will make the piece popular for misuse as a Christmas piece rather than a solemn memorial piece. It was so pretty, though, with the melody often shared by the lower tuba line and the orchestra bells, an unusual combination that worked with surprising clarity.

The Grand Concert at the end was the Army Band - "Pershing's Own" - with soloists. Nickitas Demos' piece "Air Metal and Roll" featured both a euphonium soloist and a trombone soloist, so there's a good chance it will get re-performed at the Eastern Trombone Workshop in March, for those of you considering whether to attend that. It was a lot of fun. My favorite on this concert was another Ellerby piece, his Tuba concerto, and I think Ellerby is one of my new favorite band composers.

A good time despite mediocre food was had by all. We were talking with our friends Jim & Barbara afterwards at the party, and plotting next year to bring a picnic supper of some sort for Saturday night dinner, so we wouldn't have to eat at the Quarterdeck three nights in a row, and particularly, wouldn't have to leave base and then come through security again, and find a parking space again, for the Grand Concert. That'll depend in part on the weather next January - who knows what the heck the weather might be like then? - but I am already plotting a menu.

We went to the symphony this evening, which was performing Pictures at an Exhibition and Brahms' Violin Concerto. The violin soloist was young, and was wearing what people of my generation would call a Nehru jacket, in black, which looked quite spiffy. However, I was a little disappointed in the performance. I thought that the violin wasn't quite strong enough, that it sounded a little thin and soft. If it were brass, I'd have said he needed an instrument with a bigger bore. Anyway, there was nothing technically wrong with it, and other people didn't seem so picky. After intermission was Pictures, which I enjoyed. There were a few tiny flubs but overall it was good, and loud. I liked the alto sax interpretation, although squirrel_magnet thought it was a little bit too moderate and should have stood out more (OTOH, he liked the violinist in the concerto just fine). For "Byddlo," rather than the tuba player, the third trombonist picked up a euphonium and played the solo part. He did an excellent job, with a lovely tone. He appeared to just switch the same mouthpiece between the two, which certainly makes it easier to use two different instruments in the same performance! I've never been sure of the difference between a euphonium and a tenor tuba, myself, and I asked squirrel_magnet; his response was "Opinions vary." In other words, in a blind taste test, even experts can't actually tell the difference; it's whatever the manufacturer claims it is. (Technically, a baritone horn has a slightly less conical bore than a euphonium, but that's another one that if you put it in a lineup, you'd need a micrometer caliper to tell them apart, or else have to actually play them. With the euphonium/tenor tuba pair, even blowing into them wouldn't help.)

Afterward, we went to Sabatino's for supper. They sure have good rum cake!

Speaking of music, Netflix sent us Ice Age II: The Meltdown, which has a hysterical scene of buzzards singing "Food, Glorious Food," and also has Scrat eying the heavenly acorn to ballet music from Khatchaturian (the adagio from "Spartacus, if you're interested), even doing some jetés and spins to it.

Curry: A Tale of Cooks and Conquerors by Lizzie Collingham - fascinating book. Only a few recipes; this is a history of Indian cooking, not a cookbook. Most interesting thing so far: tea. The British did not get the habit of drinking tea from India - it was the other way around, and not until the 20th century at that.

Culture Matters: How Values Shape Human Progress by Lawrence E. Harrison (Editor), Samuel P. Huntington (Editor) - economic sociology (despite the title that sounds like it's about ethics or something). The book assumes you know without explanation who Max Weber is, and that you understand terms like "marginal product of capital." If you don't, this won't be your idea of a good read. It does have some overlap in concepts with Omnivore's Dilemma, as it happens, since agricultural economic screw-ups are a theme that recurs in the book.

Also the New Yorker media issue.

And I finished revising my score; it should sound better in rehearsal this week now that there are dynamic markings on every part, and cues for some parts, and rehearsal letters...

I haven't been reading that much, because I am working on writing a piece of music. I did read Terry Pratchett's Johnny and the Dead which although it's billed as a juvenile book, has jokes in it that juveniles won't get. (In fact, there are a couple of jokes in there that adults will only get if they took college physics and/or read all the current science magazines.) Anyway, very funny, with a very likeable cast of characters, including Solomon Einstein, a distant relative, relatively speaking, of Albert.

Yesterday, the Bel Air Community Band played a concert in Fawn Grove, PA (about 15 minutes north of Bel Air) - the town is celebrating its 125th anniversary, so we were part of that celebration, and also our conductor happens to live there, as do several band members. It was a bit chilly and grey, so everyone was wearing jackets, sorta covering up our nice uniform polo shirts, but at least it refrained from raining while we were playing. We had a larger audience than the group before us, though I think it probably didn't outnumber the band. Stuff like that is fun, though, even when the audiences aren't huge. The mayor of the town guest-conducted "March Grandioso" meaning he waved his arms and we ignored him because we can all play that march and end together without any help.

I am busy writing music, that I hope to be able to print out a draft of in time for Wednesday's rehearsal, because if I finish it in time for the Montgomery Village band to rehearse it for a couple of weeks - assuming the conductor likes it - it would be appropriate for our November 5 concert at the Hebrew Home. I won't say more about it till it's done. But if you don't see much of me, it's because I'm writing music, not words, for a few more days.

You can tell it's summer at the symphony - lots of white linen blazers on the older men in the audience, and lots more polo shirts on the younger ones. I, for one, don't mind the change to less formal wear for symphony audiences; the orchestras should be glad we're there and paying for seats. And I believe more guys are willing to be dragged to the symphony by their wives if they don't have to wear a jacket and tie. Women, too, are more comfortable in sneakers. As far as I can tell, no women at all wear long dresses any more, though I can remember that 30 years ago, some women did dress that formally for evening concerts. Some women still wear dresses, but I think this evening the pants suits and just plain old slacks and shirts outnumbered the dresses of any kind. Spouse and I were both wearing slacks and short-sleeved sports shirts. Our paying for the tickets is our way of showing respect; we don't also have to dress up to show respect.

Marin Alsop was conducting this evening's concert (Thursday) and she looked spiffy. She wears these custom-tailored black jackets over tuxedo pants; the jacket has a sort of mandarin collar, so she doesn't need a shirt or tie under it. She likes to have cuffs on the jacket sleeves, though; tonight's were white. I love the way she conducts - very crisp and definite. And every once in a while, a particular arm sweep will carry her right into a leap into mid-air; you just know she's thinking, "And they pay me money to have this much fun!"

The Colas Breugnon was OK - I thought the ending wasn't quite as definite as it could have been, but no one else seemed to feel that way. The Rachmaninoff went very well. I always feel sorry for the alto sax in that - sure, he has a solo, but it's what, 16 bars or so? And before that, he sits. And after that, he sits. And sits and sits and sits and sits and that's what makes a gumby sax. (Spouse says, "He gets no sympathy at all from a tuba player!") Since I sort of collect pieces that feature the Dies Irae theme, Symphonic Dances and other Rachmaninoff are among pieces I always enjoy.

Second half was Joshua Bell playing the Red Violin concerto, which they were recording. Alsop gave us a few words of explanation ahead of time, including instructions on when to cough if we absolutely had to. Bell is a good looking young man; he would look better, though, if he lost a few pounds and/or wore a tux. The slight extra weight, combined with his youth, gives his face a sort of round, sulky or pouting look, even when he isn't. And the black silk shirt with open neck shows a little more of the weight on his abdomen, which a tux is good at disguising. Still, given how good he is, I wouldn't say his clothing flaws are fatal. The concerto, though a bit too modern for me, went very well and ended rousingly. Standing ovations for Bell and Alsop, and then John Corigliano, the composer, came out and took a bow also.

All in all, a good concert; Friday's will be the same line-up, and then Saturday morning there's a casual concert which omits the Rachmaninoff.