Don't be distracted (No, I don't want to feel pain)

I just got back from a concert at the Schnitzer Concert Hall in downtown Portland. It was absolutely incredible; I'll probably put up a full review soon.

I feel like I've gone through a huge change in the music I listen to and the way I interpret it this semester. I have learned about a lot of Renaissance and Medieval era music, which has opened my eyes to all kinds of different rhythmic and harmonic possibilities that I hadn't ever heard before. I have also begun to explore more deeply some of the genres of music that I had only glossed over in the past. As far as popular music goes, I have greatly expanded my capacity for concentrating on the intricacies of the music I am listening to, which is a wonderful new experience.

So yeah, that's exciting.

What I've been listening to today:

A Concert, by Sufjan Stevens!

Songs of Ravel and Poulenc, performed by Pierre Bernac

Schubert's Winterreise Cycle, performed by Dietrich Fischer Dieskau

Time

I just got back from school, where I practiced for 4 hours. It was fun, and reminded me of how good it feels to put a significant amount of work into something, and to be able to see the difference. It's really a shame that I take lessons during the parts of my life during which I have the least amount of time to practice; if I could practice this much every other day, I think that I would be able to make a great amount of improvement. Perhaps I will make a more concerted effort to practice, or even to take lessons during the summer and winter breaks.

We had our concert at the Hawthorne Theater the other night, which went amazingly! It was wonderful to be able to perform in a venue which had pretty decent sound, and it felt so good that 20 or so of our friends made the trek out there and paid the money to see us perform. I hope that we will get some more opportunities to perform around Portland in the near future. I'll post some videos soon :)

What I've been listening to today:

Songs of Maurice Ravel, performed by Gerard Finley

Preludes by Debussy

Ancestor by Throw me the Statue

The Age of Adz by Sufjan Stevens

Ferris Wheel by the Swingle Singers

Ruminating about Resonance

I've been thinking a lot this evening about resonance. Resonance can have many meanings in terms of music; a note can have a certain resonance or amount of vibration, or a piece can have a resonance with a person, among other meanings. When a piece has resonance with me, I feel like it speaks to me, as though it is accessing some subconscious part of me that has been built up through the years to prefer some styles of music over others, to prefer instruments over others, and to prefer certain performance practices over others.

What I've been thinking about is how this same concept that we experience in terms of our musical preference applies to our relationships with other people. As we grow and learn about ourselves over the years, we have built up a set of notions and ideas that comprise not only our self awareness, but also our comfortability with new thoughts and ideas. In the same way that Stravinsky's Rite of Spring or a Schoenberg string quartet can prove to be an uncomfortable experience in someone who has only been exposed to tonal music, our various exposures personally provide a system of comfort, love, and friendship that provides a basis for our interactions with new people. Thus, for some, a person may provide a deep resonance with what is present and absent in their life, and for others the person may seem completely void of interest.

I think, however, that the concept of resonance goes deeper than this, however, because often the piece of music that is most resonant is not the one that conforms to the rules that one is used to, but rather the one that expands the boundaries of one's imagination in a new direction. This way in which a piece can provide resonance through expanding one's imagination of music, I believe, runs parallel to the way that a person can, by expanding one's experience and imagination of life, provide a deeply resonant presence in another's life.



Anyhow, my name is Ethan, and I am a student in Portland, OR. I plan to use this blog to explore classical and popular music, perception, and whatever I happen to be thinking about as I sit down to write the blog. I hope you find it interesting!




What I've been listening to today:

Frederic Chopin's 4th and 5th Nocturnes
Maurice Ravel's Miroirs
Johann Sebastian Bach's Wohltempierte Klavier Book 2
Sufjan Stevens' All Delighted People EP