A Late Tribute....

Philip Booth (1925 - 2007)

Although this is quite late coming, I just found out about it. One of my favorite poets, Philip Booth, died last summer (July 2). He was a student of Robert Frost and was a witty and quirky poet. I set my favorite poem of his "Was A Man" some years ago, although maybe not an overly successful SATB setting, it was a delight maneuvering around his word play and sense of humor. He has several books of poetry that are well worth the investigation. He will be missed.

Blow to the Ego....

All those years in school and lessons, experimenting, failing, occasionally succeeding, all that time pouring over manuscript paper, reading countless cryptic theory books... all for naught.

Turns out all I had to do was take a short trip to my local Barnes & Noble or Borders and for $14.95 I could have saved myself ten years of my life and 10's of thousands of dollars.

Look who the dummy is now!

Provocative Thoughts....not over here though.

Check out this blog by Kris Tiner. Some really interesting and provocative thinking going on. Feel free to join in the conversation with whatever thoughts may pop in.

Enjoy!

Tangos are alive and well!

A few months ago this group came through town, thanks to Kris Tiner, and they were just fantastic. They came back through last night and were just as fantastic and I picked up another of their CDs. So I thought now that I have a soapbox to say things I would give them a shameless plug, as they deserve. I highly suggest picking up one, or all, of their CDs. Some really good stuff. (and they play lots of Piazzolla, and that makes me happy deep inside).

Some New People Have Entered My Life

Recently I have made a few new discoveries (at least for me) of composers I was unfamiliar with and thought they were worth a listening. 

John Luther Adams is a name I have been seeing for a long time in articles, CD racks etc... but for whatever reason I just hadn't ever given his music a listen. So I finally did and I must say I enjoyed it quite a bit. 

For worthless comparisons it is on the Arvo Pärt and perhaps even Giya Kancheli side of things.

I have only listened to the disc twice but it was a peaceful listening and I look forward to getting some more of his music. 

Next on the list is Somei Satoh, a name I kept seeing creep up in several recent articles I have been reading. So I decided I should probably find out who this guy is and what his music is all about.

I must admit some of his work (at least of the 4-5 pieces I have heard thus far) is a little on the "holy crap that is a lot of major" side of things but most of it is quite lovely and worth a meditative listening.

I recently was perusing my favorite blogs and came across this particular article about Phill Niblock and was intrigued. I had not heard of this grizzly looking gentleman but the moment I saw the words "sustained tones" I had to check it out (as I am a sucker for drones from time to time). 

On any note, something to check out at least. (one track is all didjeridoos, how can you resist).

So these may not be new names to you guys, but they were to me, and if they are new to you check them out, I thought it was worth it. Enjoy!!