Category Archives: music

glass

Posted on March 22, 2013 by blaise

The real Glass—Philip Glass.  I’m lis­ten­ing to the sec­ond move­ment of his first vio­lin con­cer­to, while walk­ing to the bus through a light snow­fall on Capi­tol Hill.  It feels tran­scen­dent.  For a few min­utes there’s noth­ing else at all. The … Con­tin­ue read­ing →

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invention

Posted on December 20, 2011 by blaise

Before the five Equal­iz­ing pieces, I made an inven­tion in d minor to begin exper­i­ment­ing with coun­ter­point: Inven­tion in d minor This was the first thing I record­ed on the lit­tle per­son­al record­ing device.  It’s a bit of a mess, … Con­tin­ue read­ing →

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equalizing

Posted on December 10, 2011 by blaise

So I’ll now take a deep breath and post the first edi­ble fruit of my labor.  The per­for­mance is of course imper­fect, since I’m not an actu­al pianist, and the piece should also be con­sid­ered a draft, as there are … Con­tin­ue read­ing →

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piano

Posted on December 10, 2011 by blaise

A cou­ple of months ago I began play­ing with our new dig­i­tal* piano.  What a love­ly thing a key­board instru­ment is!  You just push a but­ton, and out comes a per­fect note— hard if you hit it hard, soft if … Con­tin­ue read­ing →

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testi espliciti

Posted on August 26, 2011 by blaise

A recent episode of the Plan­et Mon­ey pod­cast about the trou­bled Ital­ian econ­o­my opened with some rather sticky hiphop, which on inves­ti­ga­tion turned out to be the wild­ly pop­u­lar (in Italy) and as far as I can tell unknown (in … Con­tin­ue read­ing →

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violin

Posted on May 9, 2011 by blaise

The vio­lin is in some ways a prob­lem­at­ic instru­ment.  I’ve always had mixed feel­ings about its pop­u­lar­i­ty, the way it dis­placed its noble and diverse pre­de­ces­sors, the vio­ls, its grasshop­pery diva nature, its demand for vir­tu­os­i­ty.  I give the vio­lin … Con­tin­ue read­ing →

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unbarred preludes

Posted on April 7, 2011 by blaise

One of my favorite unbarred pre­ludes for baroque lute, by Sylvius Leopold Weiss: This par­tic­u­lar one in d minor—actually it styles itself a fan­ta­sia— is so idiomat­ic and easy to play, it just rolls out from under the fin­gers, and … Con­tin­ue read­ing →

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ween

Posted on January 29, 2011 by blaise

Adri­enne and I, and our good friends Nan­cy and Barak, went to see Ween at the Para­mount last Wednes­day night.  Appre­hen­sion was run­ning high, as the night before they had put on an ill­starred show in Van­cou­ver and Aaron Free­man … Con­tin­ue read­ing →

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death letter

Posted on December 22, 2010 by blaise

Maybe it’s the recent demise of the great Cap­tain Beef­heart, which is a reminder of the way music, 30 years ago still a medi­um for rev­o­lu­tion, no longer has a past or a future, but has con­gealed into a time­less­ly … Con­tin­ue read­ing →

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on the beat

Posted on November 19, 2010 by blaise

I found my heart quick­en­ing in exhil­a­ra­tion today as I lis­tened to the White Stripes’ “Can­non” on the bus, from their first album.  It’s Son House’s ren­di­tion of “John the Rev­e­la­tor”, piped through the dark met­al of Zep.  These guys … Con­tin­ue read­ing →

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