Dixie Classic Tour Packet

The Tour Packet can be found here.

I've also posted it in the links section on the side of this site.

Interview with Martin Ellerby!

I had the awesome chance to interview Martin Ellerby and ask him some of your questions! He was a very kind and gracious man and had a lot of great things to share with you. Check out what he has to say about being a composer and his composition Paris Sketches.

If you have a decent broadband connection, you should be able to download easily. If you have dail up, you're welcome to try! We'll also listen to this in class and talk about it.

You can find the interview by clicking here.

Paris Sketches Audio

Kristen Pelzel was kind enough to share a link to some audio of Paris Sketches that she found on the web.

I've linked it over on the left column of the screen in the "Links" section. Go check it out!

Pe're Lachaise

Some information for you on the inspiration for the third movement of Paris Sketches.

Pere Lachaise is a very famous cemetary in Paris. A ton of information can be found here. If you read the article, you'll find that in order to generate interest in the cemetary, the administrators buried some famous people there. That tradition led to the cemetary being populated with amazing artists such as Frederic Chopin, Maria Callas, and Jim Morrison.

I think a cemetary with the greatest opera singer the world has known, one of the greatest pianists and composers in the world, along with the lead singer for the Doors deserves some respect.

Some great images, can of course be found here.

Martin Ellerby has this to say regarding the third movement:

"This is the city's largest cemetary, the final resting place of many a celebrity who once walked its streets. The spirit of Satie's Gymnopedies-themselves a tribute to a still more distant past-is affectionately evoked before the movement concludes with a quotation of the Dies Irae. This is the work's slow movement, and the mood is one of softness and delicacy, which I have attempted to match with more transparent orchestration. The bells are gentle, nostalgic, wistful."

The man he references is named Erik Satieand is a famous Parisian writer, composer and pianist. We've listened to one of his Gymnopedies in class and they are some of his most well known works.

Dies Irea is a famous latin hymn that has been quoted by quite a few famous composers. Ellerby gives it to the bells and glockenspeil seven bars before L at the end of the movement. Check out the article so you're aware of just what the significance of this hymn is to the piece as a whole.

We'll discuss these things in more detail during rehearsal.

Saint-Germain-Des-Pres

saN-zhermaN´-dA-prA, for those wondering (like me) on how to pronounce this area of Paris.

Some good info on the area can be found here.

A nice synopisis of the area would point out that it's considered the Latin Quarter in Paris and is famous for it's artistic associations and bohemian life-style. Tourists seem to love it for its cafe's and it's also known for being one of the centers of existentialism.

There's a cool video of the area which you can find here and here. Check it out to get an idea of the look of this interesting area of Paris.

Plenty more pics of you want to Google search them as well. Take some time and find out more about this great little area in Paris that inspired such great music!

Oh, and I've also put a link to some information on Martin Ellerby in the Links section over there on the right.

More to come on such great topics as Impressionism! Keep checking in.

The Wisdom of Tip-A-Cow

Okay, so our own Jenny Locke has posted something awesome. So much so that I'm going to post it here and then elaborate on it a bit.

Here's what she said regarding our poetry exercise over the weekend:

"It did feel kind of weird doing this at first, but then it got a little more natural."

First, I love it because it's honest and real.

Yet, the reason I bring this up is that it describes how many of us feel in the process of becoming expressive artists. I'm less concerned with you guys getting used to reading poetry aloud (you can join forensics for that) but more in the idea of becoming comfortable with musical expression. This idea of expressing emotion through your instrument is new and risky for most of us. But if you stick with it and keep at it you will find, like Jenny, that it gets better and more comfortable. I like that she used the word "natural". Like it gets to be a comfortable part of you. When you let your creative self have some room to play, it's always a good thing.

Trust me. The personal rewards of this kind of dedication to artistic expression pay out in a huge way.

Keep going, no matter how uncomfortable or odd you may feel in the process. Those feelings mean your exploring new territory and you're doing good work!

Performance Quotes....

Here are the quotes from yesterdays rehearsal. I figured it would be a nice idea to post them here in case we feel the need to revisit them.


“Risk is a crucial element of communication through music. Just as truly creative musicians must be willing to be open, to examine their inner life, to throw aside familiar comforts and plunge into the unknown, so they must take risks during performance.”

“If there is to be communication with the listener, the musician's doors leading inward must stay open. Through this opening, the listener is invited into the reality of the musician. This involves risk for the performer. The inner world of the musician, the creative fount, is personal and sacred.“

“In a performance setting, there can be no monologues. Every note, every breath, each moment sends messages between musician and listener. To ignore this two-way flow of feeling and meaning is to relinquish artistry for ego-gratification.”

-Bela Bartok

“A musician just has to learn for himself, just by playing and listening. There is no one who can write down the feeling you have to have. That's from inside yourself. The music has to let you be, you've got to stay free inside it.”

“An abundance of technique should not be a means to an end but a way to allow the heart to expand freely.”

“Notation, the writing out of compositions, is primarily an ingenious expedient for catching an inspiration, with the purpose of exploiting it later. But notation is to improvisation as the portrait to the living model. It is up to the interpreter to resolve the rigidity of the signs into the emotion.”

-Pablo Casals

“The written note is like a straightjacket, whereas music, like life itself, is constant movement, continuous spontaneity, free from any restrictions.”

“Your playing must have conviction. It should show the measure of your belief in what you know to be true, to the point where you would stake your life on it. The inner fire must always show through. Play from the inside out; your sound should stem from the conviction of your soul. This is what makes vital music.”

-Philip Toshio Sudo

Weekend Project

Okay, here's the project:

Get a piece of paper and find a spot where it's quiet and you're alone. Unless you want to do this in front of some people in which case, just do it wherever.

Here's your source matieral:

I die of thirst beside the fountain
I'm hot as fire, I'm shaking tooth on tooth
In my own country I'm in a distant land


I want you to say the poem out loud. Yes, out LOUD. The point is to see what kind of inflections, etc. you naturally add to it. Pretty much what we did in class today. So go ahead and find a quiet place and recite it aloud. Make sure you say it with intent. Give it some meaning, no matter how silly you may feel.

Now, copy the poem onto your piece of paper. Say it again, and concentrate on what words you are stressing and where your breaks are. What dynamics are you adding?

Now, write them in. Give the poem some musical notation that describes how you are saying the poem. Keep going until you have described your poetry performance to the best of your abilities.

You'll need to turn this in on Monday, so have it ready!

PS: Be sure to read the comments below in the "On Performance" entry. There are some great thoughts being shared!