Happy New Year

Well, This year is going to be very interesting for sure... I categorize my life into three main sections. 'Home', Work, and School. I have separate goals for each of these things...

School: If there is ANY way that I can get into my keyboard class, I will take it and I will graduate in may. Clearly this is the most wanted of any other scenario. Keyboard kicks my butt, but I am READY (SO READY) to be done with school for awhile. I have one other class to take as well, but it is an independent study, and I just have to find someone that will sponsor me.

Work: Well, work is going fine. Until I am out of school and can be available the hours for the exact job that I want, I have to take what I can get. Although, at the end of January, I will have been at Goddard for a year and will ask for a raise... we will see how that goes. If I don't get it, and I get my degree, (assuming I get into the piano class) then I will ask again at the end of may. If I don't get it then, then I will be finding other employment, because I am worth way more than I am getting paid for.
I also am going to start working in the Roving Imp Coffee Shop. I will get paid on commission, so come and buy coffee from me. :D

'Home'- This sort of encompasses several aspects, even though I just clump it all together.

• Family- I am going to make more time to spend with my brother Brian. I did not spend enough time with him this last year, and I am going to fix it.
• Improv- my improv goals are extremely important to me. I am going to strive to play with different/more people and play it more spaces. I think that it will really help me to grow and become a better improviser. Also, I want to take several classes this year. I have now done improv for three years and I love it more every month. Not every year- it changes so much every month that there is no way that I can judge it by a yearly scale. I love it and can not imagine what my life would be without it and the people it has brought to my life. It makes life rich.
• Home and Self- This is my big GOAL for the year: I will focus on HEALTH. That has so many meanings. Some of them: Eat better, try to exercise more, keep a cleaner house, shave at a decent interval, not to mention mental health... etc. All this will make me the healthier, happier person that I want to be.

Finally I want to remember the thing that I always say: If you don't laugh, you die. So you might as well laugh.
No matter how serious things seem, will they really be as bad in 5 years or 10? Laugh it away.

~Jewels

Improv Goals

Goal 1
I continue to strive to GET OUT OF MY HEAD!!! Most of the time, I do fine, but anytime the scene gets 'derailed' or stopped by coach, I shoot back up into my head so fast. I find that when I am out of my head, I can sort of observe the scene from within without thinking about it. So my ULTIMATE goal is to be able to get back out of my head if I get thrown there.
Goal 2
I am having the hardest time finding a happy character that I can sustain. For some reason keeping that high energy character with a positive attitude going is 'into my head' inducing. I don't have this issue with positive children or anyone intense, depressed, or creepy. So my goal is to develop a sustainable energetic happy character.
Goal 3
So, I was thinking about class on Monday. My physicality was ON! I made choices to do things with my body, and I stuck with it. I had the scene where I was a child sitting alone on the floor eating fiberglass until I choked on it, and I had the two scenes where I was writhing onstage. Man that is So fun! Those were my favorite scenes. You never know what will happen. I am going to try to continue to do physical things. I think that it just MIGHT help my 'in my head' problem. Maybe I need to brainstorm ideas about different ways to move and postures to take. Also, finding different things to do with my hands/legs.

So to Recap- Improv Goals:
1. Get back out of my head once I am in there.
2. Develop a sustainable energetic happy character.
3. Develop more ideas about physical position and physicality onstage.


*Note I wrote these goals before the shows this weekend. I performed a happy, energetic character for an entire long form this weekend. She was a little evil... but hey, baby steps. :D

Listeining Journal 2 Response

In his entry on the Hilliard Ensemble's Motets et Chansons, Vince did a fine job. Especially notable is how he begins by listing all of Josquin's acclaimed compositions. At the end of the first paragraph, Vince wrote, “ During Josquin’s lifetime, his compositions were known internationally and were considered musical perfections, even by Martin Luther, who hailed Josquin as “…master of notes.” This is a good quote and would have been more powerful at the beginning of the entire paper.

Josquin was a master of writing music, not only the motet and chanson, but the frottola. Vince mentions “El Grillo,” but he did not mention the other two frottola on the recording, “Scaramella va alla Guerra” and “In te Domine speravi.” Both are similar in style to “El Grillo;” they all are homophonic and mostly syllabic with bits of polyphony to help word paint or drive to the cadences. I was a little disappointed that Vince did not write about the double entendre that can be found in “El Grillo” as the song is about a singer that Josquin knew who could hold a note for quite a long time. He depicts this in both the words about how a ‘cricket’ can hold the notes for a long time, but also through his word painting. I enjoy Josquin’s frottola more than his motets or chansons on this recording. They are just so lighthearted and fun, it would be hard to not love them.

I agree completely with Vince that, “Josquin artfully blends his techniques so his music does not sound technical, but captures the listener through beautiful colors and varied textures.” Josquin’s amazing textures are built from some amazing imitation and polyphony woven together with word painting. I think that word painting is a completely different art form and that Josquin was one of the first composers to master it.

Vince said that he has not listened to much vocal music, a statement that saddens me as vocal music is my favorite type of music. The human voice is so versatile, and Josquin does a expert job of showing it off. I am glad that Josquin has had a positive impact on Vince, and that he now knows how awesome the voice can be. Great paper, Vince!

http://www.naxos.com/SharedFiles/Images/Composers/Pictures/22586-1.jpg

Listening Journal 2

Not just a musician, Carlo Gesualdo (pictured) was a nobleman as well as a murderer. He married his cousin when he was in his early twenties, and that ‘love match’ only lasted two years before his wife began having an affair. She managed to keep it secret for two years, but Gesualdo soon began to suspect the truth. He set a trap where he pretended to leave only to return unannounced, find his wife and her lover in his bed, and promptly murder them in a wave of insanity. There were surprisingly little repercussions from this terrible crime, although Gesualdo did hide in the country for a short of time due to unhappy relatives. He entered into another unhappy marriage four years later, and his new wife spent most of the time on her brother’s estate.(Bianconi) Gesualdo, in short, had an extremely rough home life for his entire career, and it is reflected in his music, which is moody and perhaps even bi-polar.

I listened to the CD, Gesualdo: Fifth book of madrigals, and all the pieces reflect the tension and conflict that he felt. Since Gesualdo was an enigma of contrasts, I will highlight two of his works from this CD: "Languisce al fin," an extremely sad piece, and "Correte, amanti, a prova," a more upbeat one. Gesualdo is a master of using dissonance and chromatisicm in his music, and it is clear that he writes music to reflect the inner turmoil that he lives with.

"Languisce al fin" speaks of languishing toward the end of life, and suffering. This piece is typical of Gesualdo in that it is highly chromatic and uses lamenting to help emphasize the drama that he is feeling and wanting to convey. He uses imitative elements to help text paint, and he uses a beautiful exploration of space to help him in his efforts. The chromaticism used is revolutionary, and not seen again in such abundance until tonalities are set.

"Correte, amanti, a prova" is extremely upbeat for Gesualdo. The tempo is faster and the subject of love and beauty far more lighthearted. Gesualdo uses text painting to the extreme in this piece. The tempo is moving right along until we get to the words, "Vista dolce et acerba in cui si trova," which means, "sight both sweet and bitter which has such might." When he gets to that piece of text, Gesulado slows down to emphasize the sweet and bitter feel that the words suggest. When the text gets to ‘as it may befall’, Gesualdo uses a series of falling vocal lines. It is very interesting to me what Gesualdo decides to do with his text painting. Despite this piece being more upbeat, there is still an underlying melancholy that seems to be in all of Gesualdo’s music. It is as though he can never escape from the world that he lives in entirely.

Gesualdo suffered from depression toward the end of his life most likely caused by the guilt from the double murder.(Watkins) Gesualdo was an incredibly religious man and had himself beaten for penance daily. His life was tortured and dramatic and I think that that comes through in his music. His use of dissonance and chromaticism was unmatched for decades and I don’t think that any musician has reached his level of crazy. He was buried in the chapel of Saint Ignatius. (Pictured)

Bibliography:

Bianconi, Lorenzo. "Gesualdo, Carlo, Prince of Venosa, Count of Conza." Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online, http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com.ezproxy.mnl.umkc.edu/subscriber/article/grove/music/10994 (accessed November 3, 2009).

Stevens, Denis. “Carlo Gesualdo.” The Musical Times, vol 131, no. 1770 (Aug., 1990): 410-411, Musical Times Publications Ltd.

Watkins, Glenn. Gesualdo: The Man and His Music. Clarendon Press. Oxford, 1991.