chrisbrody.bsky.social
Music theorist and pianist at University of Louisville, he/him, the most wonderful woolly baa-lamb that ever stepped
3,520 posts
1,832 followers
433 following
Regular Contributor
Active Commenter
comment in response to
post
There's sort of a piccolo clef, right? In that the piccolo's treble clef is understood to sound an octave higher than written?
I also know flutists (unlike violinists for example) don't like reading with the 8va symbol. Is that also true of other treble woodwind players?
comment in response to
post
A different story of course if the violist is also an orchestra director, frequently teaches cellists/bassists, etc.
comment in response to
post
I mean, violists don't play from tenor clef, so I completely sympathize with feeling less comfortable sight-reading in a clef that isn't one of your daily drivers. But maybe not a great look to say to a student "I don't read tenor clef" instead of "please excuse any clef-reading mistakes on my part"
comment in response to
post
yes, I think an example could be given that makes it much clearer that the passive doesn't necessarily do this (the linguist who wrote that blog post gives several such examples)
comment in response to
post
I feel like the chapter of your diss. research that I heard you present at a conference back in those days was maybe on a non-Sinatra chapter?
comment in response to
post
Gosh, I'd forgotten that! If it helps, I don't actually think that Nancy was a better singer than Frank. Although I think my 4-year-old would take "These Boots Are Made For Walkin'" over Frank's entire output.
comment in response to
post
I was too negative—Mason/Polk are excellent, especially in "Ah love but a day," but basically I wish Anne Sofie von Otter would record this set along with my other 20 favorite Beach songs. I don't even know if she ever sings in English but still 😂
comment in response to
post
I love those Browning songs and frequently teach them. Are there any recordings you really like? I'm not sure I've landed on the one that really does it for me. I guess my choice would be Mason/Polk, although they unfortunately only do two of the three.
comment in response to
post
I've played this violin sonata with two different violinists and both times, as the performance approached, all other issues of pianistic difficulty took a backseat to "can I play this quietly enough not to blast my violinist off the stage while still doing the stuff I want to do musically?"
comment in response to
post
This piece is difficult in terms of notes for sure, but maybe more so in terms of making it really work dramatically. Few performers accept how far you have to push the intensity envelope to make it as compelling as it can be. (And in live performance, balance is a nightmare—it's a BIG piano part.)
comment in response to
post
With many pieces, I wonder if I'd love them as much as I do if I hadn't stumbled upon EXACTLY the right recording, and that's how I feel about this piece in Little & Lenehan's recording. There are several frankly bad commercial recordings of this very difficult piece, but this one is so perfect.
comment in response to
post
Love this video!
comment in response to
post
I knew the options were very limited!
comment in response to
post
1013/iii???
comment in response to
post
We’re a bit past onesie age over here but there’s never any shortage of friends’ kids to try to give a complex to
comment in response to
post
Okay I had to go look and ... yes, it's available as a onesie
comment in response to
post
At the risk of insufferable hipsterdom, I will admit that, although I personally play a lot of Baroque music on piano because pianos are the instruments I have easy access to, I really don't listen to any Baroque keyboard music played on piano any more at all
comment in response to
post
This is all extremely well explained!!
comment in response to
post
That's such an interesting question about Baroque organs—I don't know the answer!
Some people definitely used to advocate for Baroque string music to be played with terraced dynamics—I agree, it's unnatural-sounding.
comment in response to
post
yeah! And yet pianos sound terrible when you play them like harpsichords—and this is true whether you're mimicking bad harpsichord playing or good harpsichord playing. The whole point of a piano is dynamic variation, and it sounds good if and only if you use its capabilities. Bach would have agreed.
comment in response to
post
Pianists love (or used to love, idk) to debate whether you should "play Bach with dynamics." Playing Bach at a single volume level throughout is playing Bach with dynamics! Specifically, it's playing Bach with shitty dynamics.
comment in response to
post
(I don’t really like Frank Sinatra that much)
comment in response to
post
hmm I guess "terraced dynamics" is the more usual word for this. Anyway it's stupid
comment in response to
post
I think I've seen one or two of the Daniel Craig ones and they were fine, if (for me) unmemorable
comment in response to
post
lol yep
comment in response to
post
They seem like MST3K fodder to me and I think I would really enjoy them in that context
comment in response to
post
A party activity of watching an old Bond movie or two and laughing at how dumb they are sounds pretty great to me
comment in response to
post
(for the youngs who may not be familiar)
comment in response to
post
Oh I think it works incredibly well for that purpose. You eggplant. You lamppost. You absolute diphthong.
comment in response to
post
I’ve been corrected—so embarrassing—the yellow thing isn’t a dog in a rocket ship, it’s a horse in a jar 😳
comment in response to
post
Very true, perhaps it could be explained to the dingdongs who feel we should be running higher ed as a corporation that we are simply giving our ""customers"" what they want