Johann Jakob Froberger

So now I'm in the beautiful land of Colombia. School is done. I'm ready to be the greatest composer in the history of the universe (try to be, that is). And I have nothing to say.

But I still love you all, my three or four readers. So I will actually post! Tomorrow. Or the day after. Or something.

Sincerely,

 llihcruhCtsenrE

Maybe I should try writing my own?? What I will post is some music I've been working on, but I'll need at least another week to finish it.

So it's about time I updated.

Last Friday, I played in the Purcell concert.... a ground. Essentially the bass (me and a viol) repeats a simple chord progression and upper voices (three recorders) weave progressively more complex melody above. So it was really easy for me, perhaps too difficult for our poor recorders, who did great given that we only practiced for a couple of weeks. The orchestra was a bit meh; a few missed entrances. The singers and choir were great though.


Earlier today I saw this video; I knew right away I'd have to share with my more artistic friends.... I definitely don't have words to express my hatred for this guy. Though honestly most of that art isn't quite my thing. But I'm sure he wouldn't like my art either, so: http://laughingsquid.com/andy-rooney-rants-about-public-art-on-60-minutes/


I have an essay due on Wednesday but haven't even begun.... I've generally been better at work this semester, but I guess that's just applies to music classes. This will be an essay about the Japanese poet Basho. He wrote Haiku and several great travel diaries. Here's one of his haiku:

hototogisu
koe yokotau ya
mizu no ue

which is:

A cuckoo-
the voice lies stretched
over the water

Terribilis est locus iste: hic domus Dei est
et porta caeli et vocabitur aula Dei.

So. It's been a struggle to control my life. I just want to do too many things. My ideal day would be 3 hours harpsichord, 1 (to 3) hours organ, 1 hour continuo, 1 hour composition and 1 hour singing, as well as a couple hours of both clavichord and cornetto each week, and extra composition and reading on the weekends. Not to mention 16 hours a week of classes/lessons (really 19 because I've been visiting in my teacher's graduate course), food, homework, eight hours of sleep and occasionally seeing my few friends. Time management is doing better this semester, mostly because I'm practicing in the mornings twice a week. But later in the day I lose all my motivation and don't finish work... work which honestly is a pleasure to me, but I still need energy for it. Maybe I should take a half-hour nap after lunch?

But anyway, some interesting news.

1. Our oratorio was amazing. Honestly opera is not my favorite style but nonetheless I enjoyed every bit of the three hour monster. I even have some favorite arias and all of the choral fugues were awesome. The actual performance went better than the rehearsals.

2. I like troubadours. I'll give a brief background; some of my readers may need to review their medieval history. It all began in the 11th century: rich nobles from the southern France/Spain region who traveled from court to court as poets/singers. Not much of their music survives and we don't know how it was performed. The language was Occitan, which we sometimes call Provençal. They may have been accompanied on plucked or bowed strings. Most of the music is about unreachable women and unrequited love. Thousands of the poems survive but only a few hundred melodies are left. Fortunately the troubadors insipred similar movements across Europe, the trouveres in north France and the minnesingers in Germany. Much more of that stuff survives.

Overall I am still amazed by how highly developed music became in the Medieval period. And I'm not really taking about the troubadors but about stuff like the ars subtillior, where you'd have three melodies with different texts in different languages in bizarre polyrhythms filled with tuplets inside of tuplets and plenty of syncopation. All this was notated in a system that takes years to learn involving both black and red notes; the most elaborate surviving codex features staffs twisted into unusual shapes like http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/09/CordierColor.jpg.  Stuff that complex wouldn't exist again until the 20th century.

3. Postmodernism is still strange.

Haven't been on this in a while. But I've been in Texas long enough to sort out my schedule, so now I should be back to updating this every week or so.

So in about an hour will begin the Collegium Musicum's greatest project in the last three years. I had a chance to be in it, but I decided it was too much too soon.

It's Haendel's great oratorio, Saul. (Many consider it even better than The Messiah.) Oratorio is essentially religious opera, so this is a real giant - three hours, big orchestra (with harpsichord, organ, cello, violone, harp and theorbo as continuo), giant chorus, soloist singers, all coducted by the director fo the Dallas opera, Graeme Jenkins. We have spent the last half year preparing for it, so I'll be glad once it's over. Honestly it's not quite my type of music, I'll probably fall asleep, and I haven't had any harpsichord lessons yet: L has been busy rehearsing for the last three weeks.

And those rehearsals with Jenkins are reeeally intense. He covers twice as msuch material as Lyle in half the time. He has a vivid sound-image in his imagination and will not allow anything less than a perfect match. So this should really eb an outstanding performance. By the way, I 've been tuning for this as usual, and will probably have to touch up during intermission. Hopefully that will work out well.



As for my own music, I have a bajillion Froberger pieces to play this semester, so I'm looking forward to performing an all-Froberger recital, whether formally or informally. Last semester many of my pieces were somewhat tame, but this semster I will be reviving some very unusual music from the Neapolitan school, specifically Maria Giovanni Trabaci. Even harpsichordists don't generally know this repertoire, but it's refined and virtuosic; I hope learning it will spark the curiosity of my colleagues here. Trabaci (and his contemporaries Mayone, Stella and Montella) deserves to be heard and known today.

Paramountcy

The doctrine of paramountcy is the legal principle that reconciles contradicting or conflicting laws in a federalist state. Where both the central government and the provincial or state governments have the power to create laws in relation to the same matters, the laws of one government will be given priority over the other through the doctrine.





So the semester is finally over!!! I'm thoroughly relieved.

Last week were juries, where you play lots of music for a panel of judges and they decide if you've made any progress or not.

My harpsichord jury was a bit of a joke. To begin with, I played in three Early music departmentals this semester, so L decided to count those as half of my jury grade. (Fortunately I did fairly well in those recitals... though only the first was really outstanding, I think). So that meant 10 minutes of playing instead of 20. Furthermore the "judges" were the same couple of teachers that have been hearing me the whole semester. So there was no pressure at all. I played a short dance to warm up, and then my giant awesome convoluted Froberger canzona that I've been working on for two months. L said the canzona sounded great, much better than the last time she'd heard it. So I should have an A for harpsichord... I deserve it, I think :D.

Organ not so much. I just haven't gotten much practice time. And those pedals are hard. That said, I did have a couple of polished pieces ready for the jury, but for a number of reasons it just didn't work out too well. I can discuss details in private, because some of my objections could be read by the wrong eyes.... though neither I nor my teachers are named in this blog..... but let's face it, I must be the only Froberger fanatic to live on the internet ever.


And this week is final week. Nothing hard though. Mostly I'm recovering sleep. I fly home on Friday!



By the way, I got a CD of the concert I played continuo organ for! I'll bring it with me to show everyone.

Why are stairs in "flights"?



So today about 12 of us went to the Dallas Art Museum where some of the Baroque orchestra and singers gave a sort of preview for Saul, the opera we're doing next semester in February. I came along to help move and tune assorted instruments (L played harpsichord). It was nice to escape the confines of the university.

During the drive, I found out Lyle used to be a rock guitarist! A long way from being composer, recorder player, lutenist and finally early music director (in that order). Makes me wonder if I will be doing something entirely different in ten years... but I am not at all worried about the future. In music, there are myriad possibilities; whatever path I choose will be amazing. Like the lute, for example. I've decided I'm definitely learning some lute and theorbo, whether or not I can get Lyle to teach me. I just want to know a more intimate instrument, something I can carry with me, something I can feel vibrating under my fingers, something I can delicately caress. (If that sounds vaguely sexual, well, the lute and viol were both associated with promiscuity in art and writing. Probably because the viol is played between the legs and becuase clowns and prostitutes played the lute.) Not that I plan to drop the harpsichord. Indeed, the lute interests me because I think it could help my harpsichord playing.

My reasoning is this. I like tons of music from the 14th through the 18th centuries. But the most amazing to me, the stuff I really die for, all comes from a narrow band in the 17th century. There was only so much of that style written for the harpsichord. And, as far as I know, I've seen pretty much all of it. Doubtless learning it all would be a lifetime of work, but nonetheless I am thirsty for more of this repertoir, and there was plenty of it for lute and theorbo. The harpsichord toccatas and preludes of Frescobaldi, Froberger and L Couperin have their counterparts in the lute and theorbo music of Kapsberger, Piccinini and Galilei.

By the way, Michelagnolo Galilei, the lutenist, was the famous Galileo's brother. Galileo's father Vincenzo was also a lutenist as well as theorist and innovator in music - one of the leaders in the transition to Baroque.

OK, so some news.

I saw my first opera on Sunday, the first two acts of The Marriage of Figaro. L actually invited me and Bennet, which was nice of her. Bennet is a harpsichord builder turned organ builder; he visits twice a year to voice and regulate our instruments. He taught me how to voice plectra. So anyway we left halfway through the opera to race to an organ concert. One of L's more sucessful students was in town giving a keyboard recital. Afterwards we all went to eat... I had a hamburger with blue cheese and bacon.

Anyway, more importantly, I AM PLAYING ORGAN IN A CONCERT ON FRIDAY!!!! And I've barely practiced. It's this old style of music where the bassline (me on organ, Lyle on theorbo) repeats over and over again while three singers and two violing spin out endlessly varied melody, crying out about the "dangers of love" in Italian. Wish me luck. Or skill.

And finally JURIES ARE IN TWO WEEKS AND I'M NOT READY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yeah, it's a bit stressful. So I guess I'll spend Thanksgiving practicing like mad, because I have two or three pieces yet to learn.



I've been feeling kind of restless lately. I feel contemplative, like there's a metaphisical or spiritual event approaching. Not that I serously believe that, but I feel like dropping my music and walking out the front door, down the cold streets of Denton, not looking back until I meet God. So yeah, music is great, but I feel I need something else to express this. I have seen certain confused teens turn to gothic suicide poetry, but I keep away from that sort of pastime. Maybe I should set aside some time for art or writing? There was once a "mystic" style of organ composition in Baroque Spain, filled with spine tingling augmented chords and extatic swirling patterns repeating over and over. Their art was quite the anomaly, entirely cut off from the mainstream European tradition. Their greatest master was Juan Cabanilles. After he died it was written:

THE WORD SHALL SURELY MEET ITS DEMISE
BEFORE A SECOND CABANILLES SHOULD ARISE

The mystic style died with him, and that era of Spanish music remains virtually forgotten today.

OK, devoted fans, I know I haven't posted for about a year. The last three weeks have been crazy. First came this inaugural organ conference three weeks ago. My teacher was busy the whole time so we didn't have any lessons. I attended the first day (on Bach's organ music); I learned from David Christie's masterclass, heard some lectures (nothing new there) and went to Christie's concert that night. It was exciting; he played some Buxtehude among the Bach!

Two weeks agao was our giant AMAZING AWESOME concert "Leipzig before Bach" (just how I like it :) ). There was much tuning to do. It was the premiere of two fantastic pieces (by Schelle and Telemann). We got the whole megagroup together: the collegium singers (choir) and soloists, cornetti (which are the most sublime instruments to ever grace this planet - nothing like them left today; we flew in two cornettists just for this), flutes, recorder, violins, viola, cello, violone (basically a giant fretted six-stringed cello), trumpets, sackbuts (the Renaissance trombone), oboes, bassoons and of course the little organ and harpsichord.

Then last week, as Lyle called it "Hell Week," a total of FIVE instruments were used in various concerts, so I had to tune and carry harpsichords and organs like crazy. I barely got to practice my music. Thursday night Tatiana gave a stunning violin recital, perhaps the most exciting chamber music I've heard here (some Bach, Haendel, Vivaldi and this French guy I always forget). Friday through Sunday (today) were the worst. Jennifer lane was recording all her Haendel opera pieces, so she had me tuning the hasrpsichord three times a day. I thought recording might be fun, but actually it is the dullest waste of time you could imagine; you record everything fifty times to get each bar "just right."

So finally tonight I got me some practice time - juries are in about three weeks and I still have three or four unfinished pieces. Not good.


I'm looking forward to Christmas vacation. I want some good food, composing time, friends and nothing to practice. It won't be long till then.

So I have a random new interest in music!

Indian music. It's very complicated; I'd like to know more about their rhythms and intonation. It's good to know that somewhere out there is a whole other style entirely detached from the values and conceits of the West. Listen to this girl: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CaCjiFUL6Fg If I sang with that tone at church they would laugh at me. But in India she was revered like a goddess. All those subtleties of rhythm and pitch took her a lifetime to learn, just like I'm preparing to spend a lifetime in the intricacies of counterpoint and harmony. By Western standards her voice is ugly. By Indian standards, our melody and rhythm is plain, boring.

So anyway, I love indian music and plan to learn more about it.



On the harpsichord front, I'm beginning a really complicated piece by none other than myself, Johann Jacob Froberger, organ and harpsichord virtuoso, composer for Emperor Ferdinand III, ambassador, spy, etc... It's based on a really ironic subject, half serious, half jolly; he transforms the subject three times and adds two new countersubjects. Some of the colors he works with along the way are truly amazing. I love Froberger...

Two New Developments

1. The Baroque Orchestra and Baroque Singers are performing on Friday!!! I'll be turning pages!!! It will rock!!!

2. Dr. L revealed to me today that I should be practicing five hours every day.          Five.
So I propose a binding oath:

I henceforth renounce all attempts at friendship or a life.
I shall not interact with other human beings for any reason.
I shall avoid sleeping enough.

Does that sound like a plan?

So yesterday was interesting.

Some friends and I were in that room with the giant glass wall. We were looking at all the exotic fish in the ocean on the other side. But someone noticed this brown tint marring the perfect ocean-blue. Careful inspection of the view revealed a kit-kat bar, releasing its toxic fumes into the ocean water, poisoning all the beautiful fish. Small clownfish and a baby hammerhead shark were throwing themselves against the glass in desperation.

The feeling was terrible, but there was nothing to do. The realization was setting in that something terrible would happen.

Just then, there was a loud crash as the secret agent broke down the front door. My friends and I huddled together in a fearful corner; he was pointing a gun at us. I was surprised when he pulled out another gun and handed it to me. "Take your friends and run!" he yelled.

"Won't the other secret agents shoot me when I run outside with a gun?" I asked.

"I come in the name of Aslan!" he replied.

Alright! I always wanted an adventure in Narnia!! I was excited now. Staying close together, we carefully ventured out the front door into the open air. It was dark outside. We sit down on a rotting log, waiting by the secret agent's car. After a few minutes, he peers out the front door; seeing no enemies outside he runs to join us.

But my uncle Alonso (the alcoholic) was not convinced at all. He takes the gun (the one I just held) and points it at the agent. I was not impressed by this turn of events. I would be going to Narnia, whether or not my uncle agreed. So I stand between my uncle and the agent in that defiant "You'll have to kill me first!" stance. I know he would never shoot his nephew, so I punch him in the nose and he falls to the ground half-unconscious. Me and my friends hurry into the car; the secret agent drives us away into the night, away to safety.

So this is getting ridiculous. The semester might end before I finish listing my classes.

Accelerated Music Theory

So this is the only class that's really bothering me. People who knew me in St. L know I invested most of my free time in music theory and compostion. I am self taught, but I'd like to say I did a good job thoroughly educating myself in every aspect of harmony. In fact, Dr. Groom knows this but insists I start from in Theory I instead of Theory IV (where I should be). A harpsichord masters student who graduated last year came knowing about what I know, and a different teacher let him skip into IV. But whoever that teacher wasx retired.

In fact, I've talked to L and a few other teachers, and we agree I could be a couple of classes ahead. But at most the current administration would skip me ahead one year into regular Theory II. Since I'm in Accelerated Theory, however, I'm taking Theory I through IV in three semesters, so the amount of time I'll spend on the classes is the same either way. Honestly I prefer the accelerated class because there are only about twenty of us in stead of a hundred; it feels much more personal. But the things we're learning are way too basic. The same thing happened to me with math in high school, and look what happend: lots of arguing with teachers and bitterness (the evils of Shapleigh...).

But there's no way I'll allow the Shaplification of music. I'm setting aside a certain amount of free time to compose every week, at least six hours, I think. I'll be using this time to investigate Froberger and Frescobaldi, write Baroque music and develop my own style. The library here is amazing and I know at least a hundred books and articles I must read.... except there's hardly any free time. But I guess having too much to do is a good problem, in a way.


Men's Chorus

Heh, so this is the lab for all 100-something failure-musicians not good enough for anything else. In other words, lots of guitarists and other random people (like harpsichordists). So we all sympathyze in each other's lack of singing ability. We had a really nasty sound at first, but our director is patient and many of us can really sing now. I'm getting much better at singing; I ecen had a recital. We sung a Renaissance motet!!! We sing (or play) with other people and come together to make a sound impossible alone; it's a new experience for me and I'm excited about it. One day I'd like to learn a consort instrument like krummhorn or gamba or recorder.

Plus I'm obsessed with the lute ... or better yet, the theorbo. Honestly the thorbo is the most impressive instrument ever invented.






By the way, I'll find time tomorrow to write about my (limited) non-musical experiences.

So, to continue the saga of J. J. Froberger in Texas, I will list all my classes and describe each one.




On MONDAY, WEDNESDAY, FRIDAY:

Accelerated Aural Skills

So it seems that all musicians must learn to sing. It is inevitable; in fact as a harpsichordist it is my job to make the harpsichord "sing." Knowing how to sing would help with that. This class is sight-singing (we sing melodies on sight, without help), musical dictation (we hear melodies and write them down) and elementary keyboard skills (that I already have). I've already learned a ton about singing since I've got here. I can already produce a moderately pleasant tone and sing lots of notes in tune. Hopefully I will get better at that soon. At first all my "re"s and "la"s were sharp but I've been using a keyboard on my computer to fix these things. And I've joined my church's choir; I only sing about half of the notes properly, but I hope to improve if I keep up that practice!
The teacher is old and strict but fairly interesting. I took a placement test to skip into the accelerated class... more on that later.

Music and the Human Imagination

So this is one of those basic music appreciation classes where no one learns anything substantial, and we just reminisce on the meaning of life. But our teacher is cool. Apparently she went to Woodstock and one of her favorite performances was Hendrix's "star Spangled Banner" which we heard on the first day of class. Today she told the music majors to bring instruments, and some of the jazz performers started improvising on bass and sax. She was so excited she made the whole class get up and start "dancing." She went around the circle (we sit in a circle) and made all the bored-looking people dance with her. It was funny; it shall be an entertaining class.




More about classes tomorrow!!!!

I finally have enough college experiences to write something!

My roommate seems fairly nice; he brought a microwave and minifridge.

I, on the other hand, brought books. Over fifty of them. Not counting the music. Fortunately it isn't taking up too much space... the library here is amazing. I want to drop out of school and set up a tent in the music library. I already have nine books checked out, the music of great unappreciated masters like Trabaci and Vicentino. And I've been looking at Frescobaldi's capriccios, ricercars and canzonas. I cannot express in word how much I love Frescobaldi right now. It's my new goal to learn all of of Frescobaldi and Froberger's contrapuntal pieces, and write my own in the two styles.

Unfortunately the first thing L gave me to play was a prelude and fugue by Bach, putting quite the dent in her fervent claims to be interested in 17th century music. I am not mad though; she is a wonderful musician and has been very kind and helpful. But the truth about 17th century music at UNT is far from clear. Early on I sent (perhaps a bit deviously) an e-mail to L, that I hoped they would be as interested in the 17th century here as at Webb Wiggins is at Oberlin. Of course L and Lyle sent back rather defensive e-mails reassuring me that UNT is the right choice for my interests, that the 17th century is quite alive in L's studio and in the Collegium concerts. Which is all fine and dandy, but not at all what I wanted (ironic, because now every time Lyle sees me he has to mention this or that 17th century concert coming up). NO. I WANT TO LEARN SEVENTEENTH CENTURY HARPSICHORD PIECES (not continuo) RIGHT NOW. AND LOTS OF THEM. I want Frescobaldi and Froberger to dominate over Bach and Scarlatti. Bach should be nothing more than A SPECK OF DIRT, A NASTY BLEMISH STAINING MY OTHERWISE PERFECT REPERTOIRE; just a few of his pieces should be more than enough of a nod to the sick tastes of modern ears.


* * * * * * RAGE FOLLOWS * * * * * * (The stuff in red is sick lies I've found everywhere.)


Yes, you know what time it is. Bach hating time. I would kill him if he were still alive, vivsect , skin, slaughter, shoot, whip, dismember... anything to show the world my hate.

I used to like his music. In fact I still think it's nice, aside from a few imbecile pieces of childish affect (like the one I'm learning now).
BUT WHY THE **** DO WE HAVE TO CONSIDER HIM THE PINNACLE OF CONTRAPUNTAL ART !! !!!! !!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

such that every time a pre-Bach composer is mentioned we must call them stepping stones to the "god," the "idol," the "master," J. S. Bach?? :::

"[Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck] ... helped prepare the way for the music of ... J. S. Bach" (the Dover Edition of Sweelinck).

"... today Froberger is chiefly remembered for his contribution to the development of the keyboard suite. Indeed, he established the form almost single-handedly and, through innovative and imaginative treatment of standard dance forms of the time, paved way for Johann Sebastian Bach's elaborate contributions to the genre" (Wikipedia on Froberger).

"Sweelinck represents the highest development of the Dutch keyboard school, and indeed represented a pinnacle in keyboard contrapuntal complexity and refinement before J.S. Bach. ... Some of Sweelinck's innovations were of profound musical importance, including the fugue... an idea which was perfected at the end of the Baroque era by Bach ... In formal development, especially in the use of countersubject, stretto, and organ point (pedal point), his music looks ahead to Bach" (Wikipedia on Sweelinck).

Why would it matter if Sweelinck's techniques were later used by the Lord Perfector Bach? So now the techniques of the early Baroque are only interesting if Lord Bach deemed them worthy a hundred years later? Composers like Frescobaldi and Sweelinck himself deployed advanced contrapuntal, motivic, structural plans far beyong the imaginings of God Pinnacle Jesus S Bach. And let me tell you, plenty people today confuse Bach with God.

In the Thomaskirche in Leipzig I saw at the very front of the church before the altar the sacred grave of none other than Just Supreme Bach, adorned lovingly with flowers by his followers. The entire church was dominated by pictures of Bach and signs about his life there; imagine the services filled with heavenly pictures and music of Jesus... wait, no, not Jesus, just J S BACH!!!! Look at this:

"German composer and organist. Culminating figure of the German Baroque" (www.essentialsofmusic.com/composer/bach.html).

"Bach is considered by many people to be the greatest composer who ever lived" (www.incwell.com/Biographies/Bach,JS.html).

"Bach didn't 'break' the bounds of the fugue as a form, because no rules had been established prior to his birth. During the renaissance, canons were frequently referred to as fugues; Baroque composers wrote 'fugues' that are simply expositons followed by imitative counterpoint based on their opening material. Bach took fugue as a concept, and turned it into a procedure from which the modern theory of fugue has been drawn" (from internet forums).

"I agree entirely that Bach's compositions should not be used to define fugue. I do however believe (and this is at least partly motivated by personal taste) that they are its gold-standard. Nobody else has written fugues that are as complicated whilst still sounding idiomatic and harmonically sound" (from same guy as above).

WHAT ARE THE CHANCES THIS IDIOT HAS EVER HEARD THE MASTERPIECES OF FRESCOBALDI OR FROBERGER OR SWEELINK OR BUXTEHUDE? I'LL KILL HIM, I SWEAR.

I WOULD TAKE FRESCOBALDI OVER BACH ANY DAY. I HATE BACH.


* * * * Thank you for your time * * * *


So just in case it's not clear, I hate Bach. His modern position as idol is undeserved, inflated. Most Bach-worshippers have no idea what sort of amazing music was written hundreds of years before, for they have already found their god and are afraid, unwilling to look further. The Bach-mania has to end. Why should 50% of a harpsichordist's repertoire belong to Bach rather than his equals like Frescobaldi?

Here's looking forward to the day when Frescobaldi's capriccios and Froberger's Canzonas and Sweelinck's Fantasias are as often played as J. S. B.'s cheesy Wohltemperierte Clavier.




So, maybe tomorrow I will return with news of what's actually happened to me so far at UNT. :)

Hello, world.