Roasted Okra Curry with Jasmine Beef Stir Fry

Roasted Okra Curry with with Jasmine Beef Stir Fry

Delicious with a dollop of Greek yogurt. <3

Today I wanted something that could use the okra that I purchased form the 99 Ranch Market yesterday after my gym workout.  Okra, called “lady’s fingers” is rich in nutrients that have long been thought to promote youth and beauty.  I am not sure about how beautiful these creepy goblin-finger veggies will make us, but if you can get past the gooey texture, they are quite tasty.  The seeds for the variety that grew in my neck of Kansai seemed to be smaller than the American variety that I used in this recipe, but the flavors were just the same.

Ingredients

2 cups fresh Okra, whole or log-sliced

2 whole tomatoes 

Indian or Thai Curry paste (yellow or red)

1/2 tsp Ground Pepper

1/2 lb Ground Beef

1 tbs ground cumin

1 Onion, sliced

1 clove Minced Garlic

1 pinch Kosher Salt

1 tbs Greek Yogurt per serving (opt)

1

First I halved the onion. I set aside one half, and diced the other.   Then I heated the pan and fried 1 tbs of the curry paste with 1/2 tbs of butter.  I made a sort of Roux with the paste and butter, then combined the onions and some olive oil.  I would recommend adding a little water at this point, to create more of a sauce at this stage and to dilute the curry paste a bit.  Let it simmer until some of the water is diluted.

2

After the onions were cooked and mixed well with the curry paste, I divided the contents into two aluminum foil packets along with 1 tomato in each.  I then took kosher salt and rubbed the tomato and okra with the oil/butter/curry paste mixture.  

Next, I wrapped up each foil packet and roasted them on a cast iron skillet over high heat, 8 minutes on each side.  I flipped them with tongs so as to not 

3

While the veggies were roasting, I sliced the other half of the onion with the minced garlic and repeated the process, frying some curry paste with butter, adding water to the mixture, then adding the ground beef and cooking it all together, adding small amounts of kosher salt to taste.  Remember, Kosher salt is pretty strong, so add slowly or you will end up with a dish too salty to eat without wincing. ;D

When the beef was finished cooking, I  pushed it all to the side and added leftover Jasmine rice, roasting it in the oils already left in the pan.  Once the rice was nicerly roasted, I mixed it with the beef and onion mixture.  Once this is finished, you should be ready to eat!  Add a dab of plain greek yogurt on the side and you have a tasty Indian-inspired curried okra dish.


Yum-yum. <3

Ps-  Sorry about the ads.  I haven't learned how to remove or minimize their scary power. D:  This will soon be remedied >. <"

Modern Flute at its Classiest: My programmatic and score interpretation of Frank Martin’s Ballade for Flute and Piano

Modern Flute at its Classiest: My programmatic and score interpretation ofFrank Martin’s Ballade for Flute and Piano

It is rather hard to characterize the modern flute’s repertoire with one descriptive word:  Be it “representational”, “programmatic”, or merely as “colorful”.  Usually, when I mention modern flute pieces to people, they jump back, assuming that I will play something like Luciano Berio’s Sequenza, or the Boulez Sonatine.  These pieces (and many others) in the modern flute repertoire have made very little use of the full capacity for the instrument’s expressive abilities.# There is one piece in particular that is on an expressive level of its own within the realm of “classical” flute modern repertoire.  In this essay, I will discuss what it is that makes Frank Martin’s Ballade for Flute and Piano so unique, and will provide my own performance analysis on various aspects.  I will also express why it is that it is such a gem in the modern flute repertoire.

A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and song of the British Isles from the later medieval period until the 19th century and used extensively across Europe and later the Americas, Australia and North Africa. Many ballads were written and sold as single sheet broadsides. The form was often used by poets and composers from the 18th century onwards to produce lyrical ballads. In the later 19th century it took on the meaning of a slow form of popular love song and the term is now often used as synonymous with any love song, particularly the pop or rock power ballad. -Thanks Wikipedia.

The varying musical styles of Frank Martin betray a number of musical roots, but none can be traced to individual teachers.  Born in Geneva, Switzerland, Martin was primarily self-taught.  At sixteen he studied composition with Swiss composer Joseph Lauber and would later go on to teach rhythmic theory and improvisation at the Geneva Conservatory.  He was a great lover or religious works, and often believed that the performance of music as the realization of a score’s essence, and spoke of the creation of music as incarnation.  In his search for a more profound method of metaphysical expression, he created his own style from a synthesis of twelve-tone serialism, extended tonality, free atonality, neo-classicism and various rhythmic experimentations.  The influences of late German Romanticism, French Impressionism, Baroque, serialism, and jazz can be found especially in Martin’s later works.  He believed that, “One should multiply experiments and technical researches in order to master all one’s potentialities and thus be able to respond materially to one’s spiritual concept”.  

   

He utilizes the serial twelve-tone techniques of Schoenberg, without embracing the philosophy behind it: He experimented with rhythm and the colorful styles of Debussy: He synthesized the counterpoint and rich dissonance treatments of his beloved Bach. (“At twelve he had the chance to listen to a performance of Saint Mathew’s Passion: The impression on the child was so deep that it marked the composer’s life, to whom Bach remained the true master”.#)  In fact, the motivic saturation of the flute Ballade would have even put Beethoven to shame.   Even so, rather than subscribe to any of any one of these, he took what he found to be the best elements of each of them and incorporated them into his own methods of expression.

Martin essentially found the “new language” in Schoenberg’s twelve-tone serialism that his embracing of Debussy and Bach had not quite filled.  In Serialism, he had found the “one that would satisfy at the same time [his] sense of tonality [his] eagerness for functional dissonance, and [his] innate and very keen fondness for the chromaticism in the manner of Bach.  The use of twelve-tone series, as strict as possible but yet keeping [his] freedom, and like-wise a rule [he] observed to avoid or mask all octaves or unisons, helped [him] greatly in shaking off any habits which in [his] opinion are not basic to harmonic music, though they did reign and preside over the whole classic and romantic music”.  He also said, “Far be it from me to criticize these; they produced nearly all the masterpieces we live by.   No. Simply, I felt the need of a language within which I could discover lands that would be new for me”.

Although Martin adopted Schoenberg’s language, he had a philosophically different view as to the “why” of his method. Schoenberg saw his older music as continuing the Wagnerian tradition of a world which could only say of him: "He is a Jew."

For I have at last learnt the lesson that has been forced upon me during this year, and I shall not ever forget it. It is that I am not a German, not a European, indeed not perhaps scarcely even a human being (at least, the Europeans prefer the worst of their race to me), but I am a Jew.#

In short, he took tonality personally.  In contrast, Martin leaves tonality, not out of contempt for the harmonic sublimation of pre-existing decadent Western European philosophies (that Schoenberg appeals to); rather, it is in the spirit of finding a new language.   Where Gershwin took a similar step and sought to meld the genres of Europe and American jazz, Martin was working on taking the what he could from everything that he encountered.

Frederick Chopin once said to a student, “He who phrases incorrectly is like a man who does not understand the language that he speaks”.  This may very well be true, but to be able to say something in a more beautiful, articulate, and affective way is the point of music.  Thus, Martin never forgot the harmonies of Bach when he discovered and used (though not with any strict conventions) the dodecaphonic methods of Schoenberg.

However, in an age where so many questions are answered in the score, it is left up to the individual flutist to render meaning through her/his rendition of rhythm, tempo, harmony, melody and dynamics, tone color, and phrasing.  Yet, a problem with “modern pieces” as Katherine Warkentkin points out in her dissertation#, is that “modern” music is stereotyped as very analytical and precise.  Basically, the composer “gets what he wants” out of the performer. However, as flute virtuoso Paula Robison puts it, “[Martin] delighted in, and depended upon, the almost mystical bond between composer and interpreter, believing that the interpretation of a score is not something just added on but is rather the realization in sound for the score’s essence.”  Thus, the oxymoron of free form is translated from Western European tonality to the new world (i.e. “form”) of Schoenberg.

Frank Martin’s Ballade itself was composed as a competition piece for 1939 Geneva International Competition and is one among six of Martin’s ballades.   He wrote one for flute piano, trombone, alto saxophone, viola, and cello. Although his Ballade for flute was originally composed for flute and piano (and is still most often performed as such) the edition for flute, piano and string orchestra is the most commonly recorded.

I think that Robison captured the double-negative juxtaposition emote of this work through the words of François Villon:

Stanza 1

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

Beside the blaze I’m shivering in flames

Naked as a worm, dressed like a president,

I laugh in tears and wait without hope

I cheer up in sad despair

I’m joyful and no pleasure is anywhere

I’m powerful and lack all force and strength

Warmly welcomed, always turned away
      

These types of juxtapositions and contradictions are all over the ballade: The harmony and organization contradict what Martin indicates in his dynamics markings: In m66-76, the flute is told to play forte and leggiero (meaning light, delicate, and graceful) are over the piano’s insistent ostenato thumping, which itself has the oxymoronical markings of  piano  and marcato (marked, pronounced) and secco (dry).  These contradictory instructions might (in a German, phrase-obsessed, unified way) seem to be

But again, it is important to recall:  this piece is all about showing the performer’s abilities and interpretation:  this passage can be played heavy  and war-like

One way of seeing the form of Ballade is to call it a ballade mixed with a sort of variation on the ABA sonata stricture:  Warkenski suggests that the piece’s structure can be explained as:

A  -B  -A1   -b  -C  -b  -A2  -B  -A3

1. Sections which begin slowly or moderately.
2. Fast, rhythmically animated sections
3. Unaccompanied cadenza 
   D.  Short thematic reference to material from B sections

But a less musically analytical interpretation of it could be as thus:  the introduction of the Ballade is that of a medieval ballade. It has the quality of a voice speaking:  The continuous eighth note rhythm is stretched beyond a talking quality when the flute starts to jump octaves: switching from the human to a more inhuman, unnatural timbre of voice.  The opening can be said to invoke the medieval ballades: a voice telling a folk story.  (In fact, the trombone Ballade itself is an allusion to folk:  The trombone is the voice of Ossian, who is a legendary Gaelic hero and bard of the third century A.D.)  Another tool that he utilizes in this Ballade is that of the repetitive figures in the bass line.  He frequently establishes a rhythmic ostenato over which rhapsodic melodies and changes in tempi allude to different characters.    The ballade can be said to share the desperate narrative structure of Chopin’s Romantic piano ballades.  

The form itself is romantically dramatic, and follows thus as a narrative ballade.   The poetic verse form for a ballade has three stanzas of eight or ten lines.  Each is followed by a brief envoy.  (An envoy is a short closing stanza or refrain which dedicates the poem to a patron or summarizes the main idea.)

The first “stanza” of the flute Ballade spans from m.1-43.  It is characterized best by the gypsy-like, undulating line of eighth notes that become an important forward-moving tool. The opening phrases expand by increments:  the intensity increases and expands systematically, just as the piece as a whole will.  The first phrase spans only four measures (m 1-4): the second; six (m. 5-10): and third lasts nine measures (m. 11-19) and with a slight coda with the ascending four-note theme that can be also seen throughout the work. The first stanza ends with the start of the first “envoy” (identified most easily as starting with a chromatic, strong-beat, descending triplet) obtrusively in what might be thought to be the beginning of the next stanza in m.44-47. The second stanza starts at m.48 and lasts through the cadenza, only coming to an end just before the second envoy, which occurs the six-bar Lento section (m.194-6).  The third stanza starts at 197, but can arguably end at either 314, 319, 323, or 346.

A structurally poetic way of reading this dissolve of the envoy’s function overall structure would be to say that the “envoy” triplet motif has performed a hostile –albeit passionate- take-over.  The quarter-note triplets in the flute line at 319  “ritard slightly”, but mathematically, the harmonic rhythm takes over.  Because of the new tempo change at the Meno Moso (m.324), the piano’s (octave-double) dotted quarter notes will equal the speed of the regular quarter notes in m. 223.  The rhythm has accellerando’ed on its own.  Thus, a seamless change from m. 223 to 224 “sounds” like a change from 3/4 meter to 6/8, and thus (aurally) recalls the eighth-note melodic material that permeates the entire piece.  Also, depending on the “tempo”, the piece itself can be read in virtually any of the 3/4, 3/8/ 2/4, and 6/8.  Often, the meter becomes so convoluted and constant for the listener that it becomes hard to ascertain where any divisive downbeat is. To the listener, this confusion eliminates any sense of metric (or mental) stability. The meter and expression are just as the oxymoronic as were the words of Francois Villon.   The double-negative contradiction evinced through the contradictory notations, markings, meters, dynamics, articulations, inspire an ironic feeling of  being senseless and lost in a piece whose rhythmic complexities and design have been engineered to give the feeling of freedom and improvised virtuosity.

The ending of this piece is essentially orgiastic in nature:  akin to the swarming of locusts or the rising of some inevitability. Of course, another interpretation of this very same section can be that of joy; a triumph of something positive.  (Of course, this can more easily be heard when the piece is recorded in the original version, since more colors can be done (audibly) when there is less string color and accompaniment to overpower.)   Standard Flute repertoire consists of what might be called that of the “French School”.  Since, at the time of the genesis of the Boehm-system flute, the flute (right along with the violin) has become somewhat of a musical acrobat in orchestral literature.  Because of its technical abilities and colorful timbre, however, it is often used purely as a device for orchestral “color” or for affects.

The rhythmic complexities of this piece are astounding.  Each time I look over the score, I discover new minute details such as what I just analyzed.  Also, because of the harmonic character of the piece, it is a virtuosic piece unparalleled in the flute repertoire:  it exposes the flutist to her/his very greatest artistic aspects, as well as their weakest.  It is one of the most technically demanding pieces in that not only its level of mechanical articulation and technique required for execution is very high, but its capacity to show the musical intensity of the flute is without limit.   The Ballade is different from other pieces in the flute repertory in that it allows the flutist’s individual style to interpret the piece itself.  The flute is no longer a representation of something like a bird or a mere invocation of color: it is used as a vehicle of communication of some other meaning.    It is because of this that no two performances of the Martin flute ballade are the same.  The message that the performer sends out depends entirely on her/his style of playing and choices of interpretation and performance.  

“Martin delighted in, and depended upon, the almost mystical bond between composer and interpreter, believing that the interpretation of a score is not something just added on but is rather realization of the score’s essence”. 

Bibliography

Bridget Castillo with Joy Kim. Frank Martin's Ballade for flute
and Piano. Rec. 11 Feb. 2005. CD. UCLA Music Department, 2005.

Celia Chambers with The London Philharmonic. Frank Martin Ballade
for Flute, Piano, and Orchestra. CD Rec. 4 Jan. 1994. Chandos Records,
1995.

Robison, Paula . Paula Robison Masterclassses: Frank Martin
Ballade. Vienna: Universal Edition, 2002.

Rosenschein, Bob. Answers.com. 1999. GuruNet Corporation . 2005
<http://www.answers.com/envoy>.

Schoenberg, Arnold.  Letters, ed. Erwin Stein, trans. Eithne Wilkins and Ernst Kaiser, London, 1964, p. 88.

Toff, Nancy. The Flute Book: A Complete Guide For Students And
Perfrormers. New York: Charles Schirbner's Sons, 1985.

Warkentin, Leonora K. "On The Performanance of Frank Martin's Ballade."
Diss. U of California, Los Angeles, 1978.

Wassermann, Jakob  “Mein Weg als Deutscher und Jude", Deutscher und Jude: Reden und Schriften 1904-1933,

XP is the New USD: When you should work for No Compensation

Work Experience gained via Volunteerism is the new Wage for Unemployed Generation Y Job Seekers.

If you are like me, you have a Bachelor of Arts (BA) and are looking for a good job.  But after looking for a bit, you realize that you either need a) XP, b) More Degrees, or c) Both. I am going to make the case for choosing the either the XP route or combo route over just hiding in grad school.

*BTW, for all of you non-geeks, XP is: An abbreviation for 'experience' in the context of role playing games, usually given in a point value and used to determine a character's level. -Thanks, UrbanDictionary.

Here is why: 

Up up, and away!

Volunteering for experience and training as compensation is a trend that is all the rage right now with unemployed Gen Y-ers and X alike.  Paid internships are just as hard to come by as jobs, and the prices of training programs and college tuition have been skyrocketing.  If you need money and a job now, as well as XP, the best way to go is to get a part time job, intern or volunteer somewhere, and apply for jobs at the same time.

Here's How:

1) Secure an Internship or Volunteer ASAP 

American Red Cross

American Heart Association

Any non-profit...

Local City Offices and Government Organizations

Volunteering can help you make valuable contacts, learn new skills, and get that valuable experience that is necessary for getting a job in a market that demands that you have XP to get XP*.  Make a list of skills that you know you are lacking and kinds of jobs and places near you where you can get those skills.  T

Non-profit groups are also especially lucrative and XP-rich places to volunteer.  The worst thing to a prospective employer (or graduate program) is having a period of time unaccounted for on your CV.  You can seek a job for full time, while gaining valuable training and experience. 

Also, the places that you seek out do not necessarily have to be non-profits or pre-made volunteer opportunities.  Right now, many companies have had to cut back on their employee rosters. This means that public agencies will be especially low on workers and will definitely be the most likely places that will need the extra helping hand.

 If you are really hard-up for a career change, the best method of making that change would be to contact a company that you want to ideally work for, send in your resume/CV, and offer to work for them for free for one to two months, in exchange for experience and training.  Odds are, if they need the help, they will find something for you to do.  XP is the new currency for the unemployed.  Free labor in exchange for XP that will help you gain a permanent position someday.   Also, if you do particularly well, your volunteer status may someday morph into a job offer.

If you are especially well-focused on what you want to get out of the experience, you can research who in that organization has the sort of position that you desire, and contact them directly.  If say, you want to learn how to write Grant Proposals, it is a simple thing to offer your services to a potential mentor.  Though, the best way to do this would be through your own network if possible.    You can also especially wow your potential volunteer supervisors by tailoring your cover letter and sharing your career objectives.  Be honest, tell them that you may be between jobs and are looking for that valuable experience.  Odds are, this candor combined with a well-organized and clearly-directed objective in your cover letter will help convince them to accept your offer.

For first year lawyers, this can also be a great way to get that law experience that will be so vital to getting clients after graduation.  Paid internships are sparse across the board; just as much as jobs are.  The experience that you can get from working in the public sector is varied and useful, so it would be a great alternative to admitting defeat to not obtaining an internship.  From just two days volunteering at my local city office I have learned two new valuable job skills and met some very nice people.  (This part mentions no.5, but hold your horses! We will get there.)

And if you actually need the money (as most of us do), get a part-time job at a restaurant, department store, bar, or other evening venue that will help you make ends meet while you intern. 

2)  Research what You REALLY want

-Use: Monster, Careerbuilder, Smarthires, LinkedIn, Google search, Bing, etc.

Don't start off your job hunt with writing a general resume unless you are going the mentor/intern route in # 1).  Instead, research 1-3 jobs that you want to obtain and think that you have reasonable enough experience for.   Read as many blogs on that subject as you can find online: THEN you can draft your own basic career-oriented resume and cover letters to use as templates and apply for your first target jobs.

Once you find jobs that you want to apply for, you can take these templates and specially tailor them with keywords, relevant skills, and XP that will get you past the computer keyword screening.  If you find that you don't have XP in that field, go ahead and return to step 1).

3) Find more of those Jobs!

Use:  Your own research skills, find local companies, and Google Search

This time, don't rely on high-traffic websites like Munster and careerboulder for more than their job descriptions and how-to articles (which can be very useful).   It is often the case that they get so much traffic, that jobs posted on such sites have an exponentially larger amount of applicant hits than do positions posted on smaller job databases.  Instead, research the nets yourself; check out forums dedicated to those from your chosen profession; and call local companies near you to ask about job opportunities that may not be posted online.

4) Follow-up

Write Thank you e-mails for interviews and even to recruiters for jobs that you were not successful with.  You never know when you might see them next... : )  Also, it is good job searching etiquette.  Righto.

5) Be social!

And by that, I don't mean play Sims Social with people you never really talk to on facebook (aside from asking them to send you more snails or simoleons...).   Join a community group, club, sports event, fundraiser, or volunteer.  Not only is social contact is necessary for your well-being, but it is also a great time to network and make new friends.   One of my college friends was an Engineer grad who had been out of work for nearly two years!  He tutored a girl at a community college course that he took for fun and found out that she had connections to an engineering company.  Bam!  He had a job.  So go forth, be social!

And now, to take my own advice on that last point.

Motivational: "Who am I?" a la Zoolander

Good news, philosophologists and foodies!  I got the internship with the City office as I had hoped for!  I just started this week, but am already learning a lot about volunteer recruitment databases.  I can't officially start working on computers until my background check is finished, so for now I am studying manuals and pdf's that have been pre-printed for me. Not the most exciting thing for most people, but I am reveling in having something productive to do that does not involve me sitting at a computer researching all day. :D *Does a dance*  It is too early to say just what sort of projects I will be working on just yet, but things are off to a great start and I am excited to be there.

While the internship is going to play a huge role in helping me gain training in a field where my experience is limited,  I am still on the lookout for more jobs and opportunities to help me make that exciting change from Educator to Public Affairs and Communications.  With limited resources, I cannot take certificate programs or extra community college courses.  Without money, I must make-do with free ways to improve myself and my marketability.  Things are feeling good lately, but I am starting to run out of ideas on how to keep myself motivated and productive when I am not in the office.  Looming over my productive mode is that scary little man called, Mr. Doubt.  He pokes my shoulder with a rapt little jab, and won't let me forget the Current Job-Hunting Stat:

"Endless applications submitted (it feels like almost 100, though is likely around 50): 0 Interviews granted for paying jobs," he whispers.  

To push him back and remain productive, I go to spin class, cook interesting things (palak paneer kept ol' Mr. D away last week), and think of positive ways that I can improve my chances of landing a good interview.  Many people say that to look back is to prevent moving forward:  And for those who tend to look at the bad things in their histories, that is the dire truth.  However, looking back to gain a little self-confidence is an exception.  To think of previous success and to analyze how you got there can provide a tool for you to use getting to where you still want to go.

And so now I am thinking back on one of the most pivotal times in my life:  The month that I won my first major music competition, and the way in which this came about...

*Fades out with Wayne's World Flashback sound* (Yeah, I am that old... ha-ha)

Who am I?

Enter Story Time:

...It all started when I popped into Jan Popper auditorium -breathless- with a large shopping bag filled with my concert black outfit for a gig, my instrument, and book bag all in tow.  I slipped into the dark theater towards the tail end of my friends' junior music recital before heading down to The Dungeon (aka, practice rooms in the basement of the music building) for my regular evening practice session.   For my friends' grand finale, one of them whipped out an accordion and the other played along with her on her clarinet.  The audience went mad for it, and the applause was loud.  Just as I went to sit back down to gather my things, someone leaned forward and started talking over my shoulder to me: "This applause is nothing, compared to what you will get when you win the concerto competition."  I started in surprise, and just as he went to join the crowds filing out into the aisles, I turned and thanked my quiet self-esteem benefactor:  He was my chamber music coach and the music professor for one of the girls in the recital.


With those insane words of encouragement, I rushed to the music office to find that it was the last day to enter the competition.  I signed my name up, then checked out a CD and score of the concerto that was assigned to my instrument.  .  I sat, mouth agape, listening to the flutist on the CD:  The sound of dark string basses; of strings bickering with the flute; strings moving in bold, sweeping gestures balanced by the throbbing of tympani under the flailing, virtuosic flute line.


My heart fell: I had never played a song like this before -nor had I ever competed in a competition like it, nor had I ever memorized a song.  As I listened, I was in awe, and was befuddled by the complexity of the score.  But my professor's words had lit me afire.  I Knew that I could do it.  As insane and illogical as it was, I somehow knew that, because he knew this about me, that it must be true.


As a novice classical musician, I think that I had learned how to break some of the rules in the right ways -and the way in which I learned how to apply this knowledge is what I am starting to think is the key to what sets me apart from other candidates in the communications field.


Classical flautists were not supposed to emulate the virtuosic styles of Itzhak Perlman, diva sopranos, or the rock star musicians that I so admired.  So, when I played my passionate, almost wild and unstable rendition of the Nieslen Flute Concerto, it was to mixed reviews from my coaches and colleagues:  One friend even laughingly advised to me to, “Play more like a flutist; less like Lucia of Lammermoore”.  (i.e., a madwoman)   I sought to play the piece for anyone who had ears and the willingness to listen:  I sought impromptu audiences and critics from my best friends, professors, and even to my neighbors and some of the music department maintenance crew.  The advice of all of my friends and mentors was rich and valid on many points -but I knew that my most valuable creative tools were my originality and passionate artistic vision and the choice that I had in picking which feedback to heed and apply, and what to discard as unhelpful to achieving my goal.


At the onset of that remarkably brief period of just three weeks, I had secured a CD of the performance and heard the song for the first time; I then managed to learn and memorize this classic flute piece; next, to perform it with technical mastery and innovative creative style, memorizing the last page of the music the day before the competition.  Finally, when the day to perform came, I won the competition to a resounding ovation from the judges.  I did this all in the midst of keeping up-to-task with teaching gigs, rehearsal schedules, and my quarter term final examinations.   It was with this confidence that I set out to win UCLA’s Atwater-Kent concerto competition with style.  Looking back, I now think that I was like what that barefoot little kid artist in Catfish was supposed to be;  An unknown person with some talent, creating things that were beyond what they should have been able to, given their experience and the skill set that was theirs at that time.  (Then again, this may be a bad analogy, as I was not the figment of a mad woman's imagination and sociopathic social media-manipulations... lol).


Even as the youngest and most inexperienced competitor, I demonstrated the ability to simultaneously carry an original, unconventional vision to success within an extraordinarily short time frame, while still meeting the demands of other projects and deadlines.   I was able to discern which feedback to listen to and collaborate with, and what to pass on.  I had only been receiving private lessons for the past two years, and had never even played in a school orchestra before that point.  I had also been overwhelmed previously with the technical aspects of studies as a music student:  My background had been lacking entirely, sans the traditional involvement in my high school marching band, I was ignorant of the world of music.   

Three months later, as I stood before the orchestra and was performing the piece to a live audience, I thought it was interesting that I would solo with an orchestra before I ever had the chance to sit with one to perform as a group.  And so, as a musician and creative planner, I achieved something that seemed absolutely insane; is beyond the capabilities of most (if anything, because of their own definition of their ability glass roof); and which archetypes the creative and collaborative processes with which I approach projects.  


From looking back at that experience, I can see a strength that I can take with me to my next career:  Though I lack the years of experience that already-established candidates might tout, I am original and have the drive, passion, positive attitude, adaptability, and communications field potential that will enable me to become a valuable public affairs and communications associate -if only given the opportunity by someone who will take a chance and believe in the potential that lies within me and my capabilities.

Ha-ha... and I must confess that I started writing this as a sort of eclectic cover letter for a much-coveted position. At least, it started that way!  And it has now blossomed and become a gigantor blog entry.  Doh. ":D

Miso Soup is the New Minestrone

Miso Soup is the Japanese version of minestrone soup.    Miso (みそ, 味噌)  is a protein-rich, fermented Japanese seasoning that is created from the combination of rice, barley, fungus, and (in this case) an ample amount of soy.   It is a staple in the Japanese diet, especially when mixed with dashi (dried bonito and fish stock).  Most of us have encountered it in its Emperor with New Clothes form, with just seaweed, tofu, green onions, and broth.   But Miso soup can be a hearty dish, made with so many more ingredients!  While living in Wakayama, Japan, I tasted miso with mountain potatoes, mushrooms, onions, sometimes even chicken.  I checked my cupboard, and didnt have any tofu or konbu (seaweed), or green onions.  So, today I made a miso soup with ingredients that are commonly just laying around here, a la minestrone!

Ingredients:

1 cup Beech Mushrooms

3 frozen Brussel Sprouts

1 stick of Chinese Bean Curd

1/4 cup of Aka (Red) Miso paste (white is ok)

1 Tbs Dashi seasoning

1 carrot, sliced

1/2 sliced onion

1 small yellow potato, chopped

First, I sliced the veggies and heated two cups of water on the stove in a small saucepan.  I next added the onions and carrots, along with a broken stick of Chinese bean curd and let them simmer for about five minutes.   When all of the vegetables looked as though they were finished,  I mixed in 1 Tbs of dashi and let it all simmer for a minute.  Next, I added 1/4 cup of aka (red) miso paste to 1/2 cup of hot water, mixed it, and then combined it to the pot of simmer veggies.

 itadakimasu! (いただきます) bon a petit.

Pretty easy!  A tasty, protein-packed vegetarian meal in just 10 minutes.  It was salty and made me crave rice! lol

              

Kryzstof Penderecki: Sound Mass and Back to Bach

Kryzstof Penderecki: Sound Mass and Back to Bach 
By Bridget Castillo

    While the American avant-garde movements were turning either more towards abstract relations of signified and signifiers, or towards the lack thereof via minimalism, the Polish avant-garde of the 1960’s involved the adaptation of Sonorism and expressivity through use of extreme dissonance to achieve their aesthetic goals.  In this paper, I will discuss how it is that Krysztof Penderecki (b.1933) came to his expressive language through the adoption of Sonorism, and inquire as to why it may have been that his style changed at the end of the 1960’s; doing what others accuse him of as turning his back on the avant-garde and looking backwards to embrace tradition. 

    The politics of post-war Poland, as much as they may have affected Penderecki, did not mean anything within his compositions, which he asserts are purely abstract. He asserts: "I don't write political music. Political music is immediately obsolete."  With the end of Stalin's era (with his death in 1953) there came a significant shift in the political and cultural spheres of Poland. The end of a reign of socialist realism’s strictures on music allowed composers the freedom to compose for the human spirit as opposed to the fulfillment of any political agendas.  This allowed Penderecki and others to have their works focused on the exploration of the incomprehensible universal rather than the issues of mundane political agendas.  Unlike Shostokovich, Penderecki and his contemporaries also did not have to veil what their pieces meant through complicated, overtly abstract expressivity.   Since the confines of socialist realism were no more, composers, dancers, film makers, and all manner of other Polish artists were allowed more room for inventiveness.  There was no longer a need for works to have double meanings and hermeneutics.  Rather, an artist or composer  could devote the meaning of their works to virtually any goal or message.

     Alongside contemporaries, Gorecki and Sorecki, Krysztof Penderecki was a part of what was then called the "Polish school" of composition.  In the 1960's, this group became known for its emphasis on the reduction of music into pure color and sound, focusing on a synthesis of a  dissonant, raw, harsh aural  composition.   Penderecki achieved this aesthetic was through the utilization of sound clusters and sound mass.   By using a close grouping of notes (clusters) simultaneously, he produces percussive sounds and expresses a rise in sound that heightens the sense of raw harshness.
    Further compositional experiments of the 1960’s so-called “Polish School” involved those of form, expressivity, and, most particularly, the setting aside serialist pan-tonality for Sonorism, which is “a special system of musical expression, in which the color of sound acquires an all encompassing meaning:  it becomes the sum-total of timbre, coloristic, textural and rhythmic-harmonic sides of musical language.”   Influenced by the expressive works of Karl Szymanowski and nationalistic works of the 1920’s, their works came to be characterized as "sonoristic" or as "sound mass" compositions.    A sound mass is the utilization of many or all of the twelve notes in the classical scale at once.  It is basically, a huge tone cluster.  One might imagine taking an open hand and banging random keys with your palm.  The resultant sound is not harmonious or tonal in the classical sense.  It is rough; raw, and beautiful in a very terrible way. 
It breaks the conventions and strict rules of tonality that Western European art music was headed towards, particularly through the canon that included Vivaldi, Bach, Haydn, and Beethoven.

    Though the use of sound clusters was composed and not random as would be the pounding of a palm upon the keys of a piano, the aural effect of hearing such a blend of colors is a vertically aural experience as opposed to the linear trajectory of classical harmonic progression.

    After the first world war, there came a reactive backlash to the sentimentality of the pre-war Romantic era and this classical tradition of harmonic rules and convention. Stravinksy's neoclassicism, techniques, and musico-theatrical preferences (such as the text setting of Oedepis Rex in Latin) would distance and almost alienate the audience; allowing them only to enjoy music as an object to be perceived, often with programmatic narrative of some sort.  Yet, in the second decade after the World War II, Penderecki wanted not to alienate his audiences, but to include them in the full emotional experience that his music could convey.  With this aim in mind, it can be said that his music often takes on the common sadness of the human condition.  Thus, although his music is often not in an immediately accessible language and is not “tonal”, it is still (through it’s abstract, emotional signification) emotionally accessible. Thus, this idiom became a much-used method of expression for the pieces in which they commonly referred to and invoked humanistic themes that often question the meaning of existence and morality.
    His 1967 work, Dies Irae was commissioned and dedicated to those murdered in Auschwitz.  In this work, we can see how Penderecki dramatizates a vocal work with text setting through the use of abstract idioms that would later be utilized in his work, the St. Luke's Passion.  In Dies Irae, especially in the introductory material, Penderecki utilizes tritone, perfect 5th, as well as chromatic relationships to unify the lines.  He also uses a highly texture-conscious orchestration to convey the dramatic material.  In the first movement, "Lamentatio" (which means to weep, wail),  Penderecki also makes use of many “modern” extended techniques.  The singers often whisper; the flutes flutter-tongue shrill notes; and the score itself is notated without meter.  The break-down of traditional conventions of Form has arrived.  Disorder and a complete break-down of structure seems to be inevitable.

    One particularly chilling moment is where the soprano whispers the word "strangulatorum" near the end of the movement to the respondent, humming moans of the choir.  Then, all of a sudden: utter chaos descends: The second movement is the Apocalypse.  The low brass play clusters in a sort of aboriginal-sounding drone at the introduction. The soprano's lonely voice floats, lost, over the colors of the accompanying choir. Soon, the entire choir whispers out of sync, relating how the coming apocalypse of revelations is soon.

    There is so much dissonance in this that there is no discernable was to rely purely on any harmonic language: rather, Penderecki's reliance on the colors and textures that are created through the interaction of the singers, strings, winds, and percussion. His orchestration tells the story rather than any harmonic consonance-dissonance relationships.

    In this way, Penderecki creates the a scene; Showing us through the decay of Form and earthly convention what it might be to descend into chaos, or the proverbial hell.  This is not "word painting" in any classically defined sense: Rather, it is the very lack of any clarity in any of the lines.  At times, each line/voice/instrument improvises wildly so as to convey this lack of structure and sense. The chaotic buzzing of the whispering, out of sync voices in this movement are in direct vertical and then horizontal juxtaposition to the plucked strings and drums.  This is a truly horrifying work.
    The third movement, Apotheosis, is one of transcending the madness of the apocalypse. It invokes an exaltation of the human condition and asks for a sort of elevation and glorification. However, one might think that Penderecki's use of these techniques stylistically engulfs the piece. How can the constant presence of dissonance not become static, despite the use of color and textural expression? Perhaps a comparison with an American avant-garde movement of the 60's called minimalism can be of use: Three characteristics of minimalism that can also be applied to an interpretation of Penderecki's Dies Irae are 1) There would not be any signification in the piece. 2)  It has a simple form. 3) It utilizes a process of repetition that makes a statement of certain structures in art.
    Although the piece is most certainly not minimalist, there are indeed
elements that minimalism explains well. There are no hermeneutics: hidden, secret meaning: However, this piece is plainly representational.  Perhaps in this way, we can stretch the meaning of "simple" to be inclusive of harmonic language, as well as structural characteristics. This third characteristic of in minimalism is of great importance when experiencing a performance of the piece. The constant use of the horrific sound mass: the continual scratching and tearing of the human soul becomes somewhat like a brand of tonality.  What was terrifying and heart wrenching at the beginning of the piece (in the Lamentatio, where the text reads "Bodies of Children From crematories Will fly High above history") might not be quite so horrific after twenty minutes of clusters and sound masses.

    Furthermore, what is to protect us from desensitization?  A process of repetition makes certain gruesome pictures in art ineffectual.  Artist Warhol said, "When you see a gruesome picture over and over again, it really doesn’t have any effect."  In Warhol’s own work, Atomic Bomb, we see so many images of a mushroom cloud that our emotional reaction to what that mushroom cloud really signifies is convoluted, if not melted down and utterly dissolved.  This is comparable to Penderecki’s third movement, in that we should be somewhat pacified by the end; by the "victory" that the third movement (perhaps, ironically) evokes.  "Death is swallowed up in victory" are the final words of the piece, so, perhaps not irony, but maybe it is the futility of a victory that the music unconsciously conveys through its stagnant, unmoving, un-changing, un-liberated dissonance. An interpretation can even stretch it so that the pacification that happens at the end of the Apotheosis is only relative: Perhaps it is a deception of textures, not transcendence.
    Alternatively, it may be as UCLA Musicologist, Professor Robert Fink suggests in that the birth the “Apocalypse genre” is just a further symptom, or effect, of the decay of Western classical music.  From eighteenth century tonality at its finest; to the occasional German sixth chord; to the expressionist and modernist movements; then to neoclassical and post-modern; and now to clusters and sound masses: We can surmise that the end is near. 

    Yet, this may not be the case after all.  Perhaps Penderecki saw this, for he turned back to Bach in his own way soon after the completion of this work. Penderecki composed another work, his St. Luke's Passion, which is molded in part after JS Bach's St. Mathew's Passion. In this work, Penderecki utilizes the tone row motif B-A-C-H at transitional points; perhaps to show that it is tradition that holds us together.  With the composition of St. Luke's Passion, Penderecki went from the forefront of the Polish avant-garde, as one of the revolutionary composers to turn away from the German canon, right to "back to Bach". Accompanied in this sort of a-progression by Gorecki, Penderecki was searching for a means of expression that would be immediately accessible to his audiences. With this motivation, he also turned to Lassus and other Renaissance composers for influences in his works to come. Although Penderecki's works changed after the 1960’s, he claims that his later works are  “still avant-garde, but the age of experimentation is over. We discovered everything!"  With this sort of resignation, he too turns to tradition for answers and meaning. Meanwhile, the afore-mentioned American minimalists diverge from the wild avant-garde and utilize remnants of the past: La Monte Young took the Polish clusters and systemetizes them: making them susceptible to the desensitization that Warhol mentions.  Furthermore, Berio's Sinfonia forces the listener to reach back within themselves and recall the events and great works of the past in a sort of montage tribute.  Even some of the most commonly known classically-influenced works today that are in film music carry in them references to musical styles and compositions of the past, a most particular exemplar being the work of John Williams.  With his ties to Mahler and Wagner, his works recall the beauty and dramatic inevitability that modern film utilizes to create subconscious emotional states in the views of film.

    Penderecki and his contemporaries turned back to and simultaneously re-invented tradition.   After the rejection the classical music canon to embrace Sonorism, Sound Mass techniques, and the decay of form in works such as  Dies Irae, his return to the conventions of Western classical musicals Forms and   techniques marked a shift in his view of the use and capabilities utilized by the early Polish School's avant garde.  After the realization that moving forward would lead to complete destruction of the genre and music, he embraced tonality and utilized it to create works not centered around destruction and decay; but about the human spirit and true progressional invention. By looking back to the past, he was able to move forward.