Sham on!

Ben Folds, musician extraordinaire, has released a new album, Way to Normal. It's a bit different from his last album, Songs for Silverman, but then every Ben Folds album is a bit different from its predecessor. A lot of friends at my undergrad loved Folds and got me to love him, too. Here's a single from the latest album, "You don't know me."

Chapter plan

I'm very excited to announce my chapter plan, which of course may change as I actually write these chapters.

1)Intro
Fundamental thesis: The various musical choices of the groups, including concert dress, stage layout, repertoire, and performance time and venue, form, to varying degrees, part of a social discourse enmeshed in conservatory education, lost hegemony, legacy, individualism, and an emphasis on the new and different. It is this discourse, this polyphonic texture of values, beliefs, and mythical memory that informs my interpretive framework. This rubric examines three interdependent binaries that occur within and between classical and new music culture: traditional/avant-garde, popular/art, modern/postmodern.

• Scope, Parameters, Definitions of Key Terminology & Such
• Discussion of Methodology Employed
• Review of Existing Literature & Need for the Study
• Overview of Thesis Contents & Organization

2) The Groups in Historical/Cultural Context
History of NME’s/Avant Garde
Levine, Horowitz, etc. Modernism, 50’s-60’s Babbitt, Born, IRCAM, alienation, intellectualism, scientist, experimentalism, liberation.
Classical Conservatories
History of Groups in these contexts
Draw on Bordieu

3) Thick description & Ethnography

4) Musical & Performance Elements & Self-Fashionings:
Analysis of: Repertory, pop & classical, conservatory training, Choreography, Clothing, Stage layout

4) Social & Structural Self-Presentations
How do “non-musical/non-performance” aspects reinforce, inform, challenge, supplement, what occurs on stage, in recordings....?
Organization & Structure of Groups
Money, touring, websites, pr, hierarchies, tax returns,
Argument/Interpretation: draw on Foucault, ordered bodies
Feld: Sound structure as social structure

6) Conclusions: Performative Implications and Interpretations of above

I'm not making this up

Ok, on weekdays the League of American Orchestras sends me their newsletter, "In the News" which exceprts articles and stories about classical music and new music. It's super handy for my thesis, similar to having a little low wage worker just scanning for articles. The last item in today's email headline is titled "Playboy's Classical Babes." Here's the entry:

A feature in the current Playboy titled “Too Hot to Handel” reads, “Because of the studious dedication it requires, classical music has been saddled with a nerdy reputation that’s hard to break. But lately, a handful of sexy women have emerged on the scene who prove that cliché is more than a little dated. Whether they’re on the opera stage, in the concert hall or as close as iTunes, these 10 rising stars show the world that classical music can look as good as it sounds.” Those profiled include sopranos Sarah Coburn, Anna Netrebko, Danielle de Niese; violinists Hilary Hahn, Leila Josefowicz, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Julia Fischer, Janine Jansen, Jennifer Frautschi; and Ariana Ghez, principal oboe of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Of Ghez, the writer states, “Hollywood demands attractiveness in exchange for success and does Ghez ever deliver. She plays a mean oboe, too, and at 28 she’s one of the youngest leaders in a major orchestra. Ghez shot up the ranks after earning a dual degree in English and music from Columbia and Juilliard, playing with the Rochester Philharmonic before landing her big gig in the land of sun.” Readers can vote for the hottest musician on playboy.com.

You can vote and ogle here. By the way, this further complicates my adaptation of Pierre Bourdieu's theory of the avant-garde.

Donuts Anyone?

I have newfound respect for Tim Rutherford-Johnson, a PhD student in musicology, for keeping up his blog while writing a thesis. Good lord. How on earth can anybody blog while doing this? I write A LOT these days, and it's tough for me to work up the energy to blog. (It sure is fun, though!) Posts have become few and far between, but I'm trying to keep up with things as much as possible.

Today's blog is about donuts. Some groups in my ethnography seem to avoid rep from particular periods, especially the classical and romantic periods. One ensemble in particular has played Renaissance music alongside 20th Century selections. My thesis adviser noted how some vocal groups, Chanticleer for example, similarly emphasize such a repertoire, though with a scoop of spirituals and "folk tunes" thrown in. In the presentation of these musics, a narrative of connectivity often accompanies and provides a way to think about the concert. I made a time line of music with Hildegard of Bingen on one end and [insert young living composer here] on the other. If you imagine cutting the classical and romantic periods out, then connect the remander with the narrative, you can see what I mean. Donuts. Lots of different kinds of donuts with different holes.

I'm not sayind that all groups everywhere use a donut rep, but a lot of them do. I also felt a connection to the donut, b/c I'm not super interested in scholarship on the donut hole music. Hmmmm, I think it's time for some Krispy Kreme.