So Wednesday, my day off. I went to the conservatorie to do my practicing and writing and work on my Debussy homework, making my day off my busiest work day (right?). That went well. Started actually putting my orchestra piece together, which was nice to actually have notes on a page instead of just a vague idea of what I think I want scribbled on my legal pad. And of course there was the jam session at Hannekes Boom, at which I did not play, but my roommate did.
Anyway...thats all I can remember that was particularly noteworthy (see, this is why I blog/journal, because I can't remember jack!).
Thursday was my busy class day. I woke up just a bit before my composition lesson was to happen, which actually didn't happen because my teacher got caught up with other things. Next was composers' forum, at which two masters students presented their music to the class. It was very interesting to hear the similarities and differences between the music written by students of the "European system", and what is written back home. I believe that actually inspired me to sort of take a defensive stance on my affinity towards minimilist music, as opposed to the "new complexity" that I am beginning to see here. After that was the DRS (Debussy, Ravel, and Stravinsky) class. I felt I was quite prepared to discuss the broad macro-level background formal and continuity issues with the piece (Sarabande from Suite por la Piano). However, we never quite made it that far into our discussion. Much of the time was spent talking about the harmony, specifically in context of what Debussy did instead of what would be functionally "normal" or "expected". For some reason, I just saw this as obvious that Debussy would not write V-I in the key of the piece, and that there were other issues in the piece that were striking even when comparing Debussy to Debussy, but alas, not today.
Friday was quite eventful as well. It started with my jazz trio, in which we rehearsed tunes and welcomed a new vocalist (a woman from my DRS class, actually). She was quite good, and defiantly brought a passion to the group that was much needed. After that, I had a meeting with the head of the jazz arranging department. Because of the confusion with my declared area of study, he was under the impression that I was to take lessons from him, at which time I corrected the issue and thought nothing of it. Much to my surprise, the professor would not let me off so easy. As it turns out, he is also a jazz drummer that composes and arranges a wide array of styles, including jazz, pop, classical, and film. After sitting down for a bit, we came to the conclusion that it would be useful for me to try writing some jazz tunes for my Junior Recital next semester, as it will probably be performance in nature, yet I would not want to simply play a half hour of standards.
After that, I indeed had my classical composition lesson with the magician himself. I presented my orchestra piece, as well as my text-sketches of where the final product was to go. I also added the commentary that the piece was a sort of t tongue in cheek satire of the bombastic and complex music of young composer, of which I do not respect or find appealing. After much debating, it surfaced that I did not imagine the piece as such, but later came up with what I believed to be an academically sufficient excuse for writing what I "know" to be something that I know to be (or at least think I know to be) inferior music. This, of course, led to a deep debate on music, creativity, and my role as an artist. Naturally I took the opportunity to explain that I am not sure I am an artist at all, let alone destined for professional musicianship, and this whole trip was just an interesting notch in my belt on my way to becoming an investemnt banker. Well, this was not a very good answer to the problem indeed. Much needs to be decided before I take many more steps in any direction about my wants, loves, desires, and ultimately fate as a professional, as an artist, and as a person. So, you know, just polite water-cooler chat.
Well I think that about brings everyone (all two of you, if you even read it haha) up to speed. I will do my best to be more regular in my writings, asI know some details get lost over time.
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