Music Wise

1. Stuff done this week - Reading Burkholder et al. (2014) and Steffelaar (2007); notes are published below. 2. Listening done this week I always loved this beautiful composition  "Audivi Vocem" set for four voices by Thomas Tallis   (ca. 1505-1585) . This rendition is performed a capella by the  Taverner Consort. The piece is a sacred motet with a Latin text derived from Jeremiah 40:10 and Matthew 25:6: Audivi vocem de caelo venientem: venite omnes virgines sapientissime; oleum recondite in vasis vestris dum sponsus advenerit. Media nocte clamor factus est: ecce sponsus venit. I heard a voice coming from heaven: come all wisest virgins; fill your vessels with oil, for the bridegroom is coming. In the middle of the night there was a cry: behold the bridegroom comes.   What puzzles me in this rendition is the use of imitative counterpoint in some passages, which is then alternated with melismatic plainchant. I wonder if this is a l

1. Stuff done this week More reading about Renaissance music; my notes from Burkholder et al. (2014) are to be found in this blog-entry. 2. Listening done this week This week I'm in a gospel mood! I was completely taken by that rootsy gospel sound of Michelle David and The Gospel Sessions . I bought tickets for their show in Paradiso on the 8th of April. I just love the energy and simple grooves they play, combined with the powerful voice of Michelle.  I watched the music documentary Miss Sharon Jones! about Sharon Jones's struggle with pancreatic cancer. In away her whole life has been a struggle for acceptance. The music business found her "too small and too black" and would not publish her music. Just at the moment when she and the band   The Dapp Kings start to get mainstream attention, she is felled by cancer. The documentary is moving and features a strong woman and a lot of exciting music by her.

1. Stuff done this week - Read up on music theory in the OCA Music Foundations course. - Feeling more confident I asked for an assignment from my mandolin teacher Thijs Rührup . This week, he challenged me to write out a piece of music played to me.  I recorded his version of Byron Berline's Huckleberry Hornpipe , a texas swing fiddle piece in the key of A, which also sounds great on the mandolin. The tune, in 4/4 time, features three melody sections A, B and C of 8 bars that are played twice, each with another ending. The exercise provided me with another opportunity to practice some more with Sibelius and to also train my musical hearing. I did not include the slides; I still don't know how to note them down in Sibelius. Discussing this piece with my mandolin teacher, I learned I made some mistakes in my use of accidentals. For instance in bar 6, there is an ascending triplet. I used a moll sign on the last note, writing an Eb.This should have been a D#. Sounds the sa