Wednesday, February 18, 2015

Daily Log: February 18, 2015

Aaaaaaaaaand I'm back!

My regiment has been... well, off.  Mainly because I've been putting all of my focus into compiling my notes for my Haydn paper, and now I'm correcting midterm essays for 302.  I'd really like to create a post about how to become a better writer about music.  I think my students need that.

Once I finish correcting 302 essays, I suspect things will start getting back to normal.  I've learned not to try and do them all in one sitting, and to double check my scoring before I make their grades official.

In the meantime, we've studied Mozart and Beethoven in 302, and we finished up Haydn's London Symphony in 604.  20th Century Counterpoint has led us through a whirlwind of sound mass pieces, including lots of Ligeti's "micropolyphonic" techniques.

I then composed a short work using those techniques.  I'll post about that some other time as well.

As far as my Oliveros research is concerned, I'm slowly working my way through von Gunden.  I should probably start some of my other books that I have checked out before they're due at the library.  And I've gotten my hands on a lot of sheet music.

LaRue... meh, I read a little bit of a chapter the other day.

I have a good idea about the kinds of points I'd like to address in my Haydn paper.  The hard part now is figuring out what order to present them in.  Do I want to discuss Haydn's background as a Freemason first, or do I want to just jump right into the music and explain his possible motivations for the choices he made later?  Hmmm...

I did make some progress on Goethe poetry the other day.  And I translated a source from German to English for my Haydn paper.  It wasn't a very helpful source, however, so it felt like a slight waste of time.

A couple of important accomplishments:
1.  Dr. Johnson wants to use portions of my Mussorgsky paper as a sample for his future students in 605.  What an honor!
2.  My piece "For Five Bodies" is probably going to be performed at the Salt Lake Library for their Concert Series called 12 Minutes Max.  This is kind of important.

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