English
Rowan String Camp 2010
27 July 2010
I recently returned from the 2010 string camp at Rowan University. The same amazing teachers were there as there were last year. This time I made some quick recordings of the music I played. […]
Libera
18 July 2010
Libera is amazing!
Libera is an English not-for-profit boys’ choir directed by the genius Robert Prizeman, who writes a lot of their music and arranges almost all the rest. I found out about their music last summer through iTunes shopping cart recommendations, and I immediately loved their songs Far Away and Sanctus. […]
Chant
27 April 2010
Chant is a way of musically speaking prose texts—in particular, religious texts. One advantage of chant over other types of singing is that any prose text can be sung. This means, for example, that the Psalms do not need to be paraphrased metrically; they can be sung as-is. […]
‘The instrument you don’t touch’
1 September 2009
The theremin is an instrument that you don’t touch. Really.
It’s an electic instrument, invented in 1920 by the Russian inventor Léon Theremin (born Лев Сергеевич Термен Lev Sergeyevich Termen) when he was twenty-four. He was a scientist, working on proximity sensors, when he got the idea for a musical instrument. A vertical antenna affects pitch—the closer an object is to it, the higher the pitch. A looped antenna affects volume—the closer an object is to it, the softer the volume. The only time you touch it is when you don’t want it to make a sound. […]
Uilleann pipes
17 August 2009
The uilleann pipes are traditional bagpipes from Ireland. Most people know about the Great Highland Bagpipes, the instrument used in the Scottish military and now in marching bands (the Irish equivalent of these are the Great Irish Warpipes). But the uilleann pipes are quite unlike the GHBs. The latter were used outdoors, with the player standing up or marching, and for martial purposes; the uilleann pipes are a social instrument—they are softer and are played indoors (such as in public houses) with the player sitting down. One can actually hear talking and other instruments when the uilleann pipes are being played! […]
Pandora
10 August 2009
Pandora is an Internet radio station that plays only music that you should like, based on your music profile. Based on a comprehensive analysis of music, Pandora accurately matches songs similar to the user’s taste.