["I Don't Recall" from Melissa Dunphy's Gonzales Cantata.]
Many of you are aware of the importance of music in my life. While I really enjoyed performing back in my high school and university years, in recent years it has been a more passive experience of attending the performances of others (how I miss those season tickets to the Lyric Opera and the Symphony Center Jazz Series in Chicago). But every once in a while I would be moved to sit down and play the piano or, in the more rare cases, drag out Arthur (somehow I knew you wouldn't be surprised that I named my clarinet, a handsome Buffet R-13b, Arthur deriving from R-thir(teen)).
I have a Yamaha Clavinova keyboard that is probably about 10 years ago but that still served my purposes well. Good piano sound and feeling, never needs tuning, and I can play it as loud as I want whenever because it has a headphone output option. All good. Except that it uses US power current, so not a good idea to bring it over here and my Mom is now enjoying it.
I thought this wouldn't be a big deal, but every once in a while I just get the desire to go play the piano and then realize that I don't have one here. And last weekend I realized that I cannot live for four years without the ability to create music (I don't consider my harmonica efforts to be a creative effort that would qualify as music, alas). So I went online and identified a piano store called Stollenwerk (www.pianostollenwerk.de, if you're in the market or if you want to see some really cool external tile/brick work) that carries Yamahas and drove over there. While they do carry Yamaha, they only carry acoustic pianos. The guy I was talking with was very friendly and helpful, though, and even introduced me to the concept of the "silent" piano from Yamaha -- an acoustic piano that also has the ability to port the music through headphones. Alas, I can't imagine trying to move a piano back to the US. The guy was nice enough to refer me to a place called Schmidt Music that is just up the road from my local Hornbach hardware store, but which somehow I had not seen before.
I was, to put it mildly, overwhelmed by the options at Schmidt and had no idea where to start. And a quick look made it clear that electronic pianos/keyboards have come a long way in the last 10 years. More than a few of the Yamahas had what I can only describe as a cockpit-like dashboard, including a LCD screen that's larger than the one on my first laptop. Given that I have no intention of becoming neither DJ Jazzy Preuscher while I am over here nor taking up a musical composition career, I think I'm safer with a more moderate model. Which models are still quite impressive.
So, I have now purchased a new Yamaha, though it will not be delivered for a couple of weeks. Which is good, since I have to figure out where to put it in my small-by-American-standards apartment.
But back to the more passive ways in which I enjoy music. Since my arrival here, I have yet to actually attend a formal musical performance, but given the number of posters I have seen for some great sounding fare, I am excited about the possibilities here. First, I have to figure out how to buy tickets in advance! Until then, I live vicariously through iTunes. This applies to both classical music (favorite recent purchases are the albums "Appalachia Walz" with Edgar Meyer, Mark O'Connor and Yo-Yo Ma, "Humoresque" by Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg) as well as pop (where new favorites include "Electric Arguments" by The Fireman (aka Sir Paul McCartney), "Bible Belt" by Diane Birch, "It's Not Me, It's You" by Lily Allen, and a few more Lady GaGa singles than I should probably admit).
However, that said, let me be clear that I think the new iTunes interface STINKS! I cannot find a way to browse new classical releases to save my soul. Do they not want to sell music? Because let's be honest, pushing Jay-Z, The Doors and a deluxe version of the Norah Jones album I already have is not making me want to linger on their site. It just makes me angry.
Not enough to make me totally cut myself off from the other audio delight I receive through iTunes. Podcasts. Political/news podcasts. I may be on the other side of the pond, but I am still quite interested in the politics and related insanity going on in the U.S. So I download podcasts, copy them to an SD Card and then pop that card into Hudson and listen to the podcasts as I drive around. I started out with the Sunday morning talk shows (Meet the Press, Face the Nation, This Week, and even Fox News Sunday) as well as Washington Week from Friday nights. But then I kept seeing references from one of my favorite Twitterers (yes, the same one who introduced me to Massweiler) about Rachel Maddow, so I began following that, too. Maddow requires a bit more committment as it is a nightly show which somehow causes me to not get through all the Sunday shows before the next show (not surprisingly, Fox News is often the victim). But the show amuses me, particularly with some of its Moments of Geek.
Which brings me to my newest source of classical music. (No, there's not a paragraph missing in there. The Rachel Maddow Show has introduced me to new music. Something not even the might iTunes itself can apparently do anymore.) Political music. No, I'm not talking about the "music to my ears" of politics in action (because there is simply no harmony in that these days). But the simple joys of setting politics to music.
About two weeks ago, Maddow mentioned on her show the Gonzales Cantata (www.gonzalescantata.com). Yes, Alberto Gonzales. No, he wasn't singing himself as his predecessor is so famous for (though who didn't find "Let the Eagle Soar" wildly fascinating??!). Rather, it is written by a young Australian composer, Melissa Dunphy, and is based on the testimony of Alberto Gonzales to the Senate Judiciary Committee. In that particular hearing, all of the major parties involved were male, with the exception of Dianne Feinstein (I think). Apparently it is easier to get a lot of good sopranos to perform a cantata than it is to hire all men and one woman, all gender roles have been reversed. So imagine the joy of listening to "I don't recall" being sung by a soprano. Simply delightful. The tracks can be listened to on the website (as well as, sigh, downloaded from iTunes). The cantata's music itself (or perhaps it was just a bad performance) leaves a bit to be desired at times, but the overall work remains amusing and compelling listening.
I thought this must be the only political classical performance available, but I was wrong. Last week Maddow had an update on the Moment of Geek about two other such works. The first is a John Adam's opera, "Nixon in China" (video of Act 1, Scene 1 is available on YouTube, and even features Air Force One (pre 747 days) as part of the scene). And then there is "Three Rumsfeld Songs" by Phil Kline (downloadable from bangonacan.org). I am so hooked.
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