Interests meme
Oct. 4th, 2007 08:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kenjariI got lists of interests from ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
pantsie, aquafolius, and jenaflynn. Since there was some overlap, it's not quite 21 interests, and I decided to do them all in one post.
Balinese Gamelan
The gamelan is the percussion orchestra of Indonesia; it's made up of gongs and metallophones and uses from 10-20 players. There are two main types: Balinese and Javanese. Balinese uses only 1 scale, a 5-note modal scale known as pelog; and the instruments are arranged in pairs. These pairs are detuned from each other, giving the ensemble its characteristic shimmering sound. Balinese is more rhythmic and uses quicker tempos than Javanese. I took two Javanese gamelan classes at Wesleyan and loved it. Although the second of these courses included a brief masterclass on Balinese at Yale, I didn't get any real chance to play it until recently. This summer at the Oregon Bach Festival Composers Symposium, I got to both play and composer for Balinese gamelan. It was incredibly fun.
Comics
It was Transmetropolitan that made me a comics fan, and that was alldarmatage's fault. I love comics/graphic novels. Except that I have almost no interest in the traditional superhero genre, with the exception of Top Ten and Astro City. I'm way more into stuff like the work of Warren Ellis, Neil Gaiman, Garth Ennis, etc. Stuff that's weird and more than a little subversive. And for some reason, I prefer series that have a defined story arc and set endpoint. Maybe the "goes on forever like a daytime soap" aspect of the superhero mainstays is part of what turns me off.
Early Music
The term "early music" is a little plastic. I usually thing of it as covering the middle ages up to the very beginning of the Baroque era. Gregorian Chant through Monteverdi, more or less. Some people stretch it to include most of the Baroque. Anyway, I've always loved medieval and renaissance music (Hildegard! Josquin! Ciconia!) and I'm developing a renewed appreciation for Baroque music (Bach! Scarlatti! Vivaldi! More Bach!). It's a shame that I'm not much of a singer and play an instrument that didn't exist until the late renaissance; early music will always be something primarily studied and listened to for me.
Einsturzende Neubauten
One of my favorite bands. They formed in Berlin in the 1980s and have been making fascinating music ever since. They are an industrial band, old school style. No synths and samplers for them. They use scrap metal, industrial springs, jackhammers, shopping carts, pvc pipes, air compressors, and all sorts of other stuff as instruments. I've seen them live twice, and it is an amazing experience, because you get to see exactly how they get their sounds.
Ethnomusicology
The study of music that does not fit into the category of Western Art Music (what we usually call "classical"). It usually doesn't refer to jazz or rock/pop, either, though. Ethnomusicology typically covers non-western art music (Indian classical, gamelan, koto, gagaku, etc.) and traditional music from everywhere. Wesleyan has a very strong program in ethnomusicology, so I got a lot of exposure to this area as an undergrad. I find it fascinating and am thus focusing on doctoral programs at schools that have at least some ethnomusicology going on.
Iceland
I've recently become interested in Iceland. I read some of the sagas a few years ago - great stuff. And I love the music that comes out of there: Sigur Ros, Mum, Bjork. Plus, it's really, really gorgeous. I'd love to travel there someday.
Messaien
Olivier Messaien, the great French composer. He died in 1992. He wrote some of the most interesting and compelling music of the 20th century. He was not into chance music or serialism - he had his own individual technique and system. He was also very interested in birdsong, which resulted in some incredible music for the organ (he was an organist himself). His timbres and harmonies can take some getting used to, but believe me, the effort is well worth it. Go listen to The Quartet for the End of Time - it will blow you away. Messaien wrote it while being held in a German prisoner of war camp during WWII.
Movies
I like film - it's a great medium and there's some amazing stuff out there. I also like the experience of going to the movies - it's both immersive and communal. Unfortunately, I don't get out to the movies as much as I'd like, because of time, money and my own high standards.
Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan
Possibly the greatest qawwali singer of all time. Qawwali is a Pakistani/Sufi music tied to religious mysticism. One of it's purposes is to provoke a state of religious ecstasy in listeners. And although I do not follow the Sufi branch of Islam, I have to say that I have more often than not experienced a kind of euphoria while listening to Nusrat. Also, his vocal technique is amazing. The style and sound is very different from what we're used to in the western tradition, but it is just as beautiful. My favorites of his recordings are The Ecstatic Qawwali II and Shahen-Shah.
Polish Culture
I am half Polish, as I'm sure most of my readers know. I'm first generation, in fact. My father was born in Poland and came to America with his family as war refugees. My godmother came to America from Poland in the late 1960s - she was related to my Dad's stepfather. So I'm interested in Polish culture because it is, at least to some degree, my culture. Most of my connection to it is through food and music. My godmother (whom I miss very much) taught my sister and I to make pierogies from scratch, with her own family recipe which she had completely memorized - she didn't even need to measure the ingredients. The only Polish food I've tasted and not liked is borscht - I can't stand it. But that's okay, I'll just eat more pierogies and makowiec (poppy-seed cake). Hopefully I'll even learn to speak Polish one of these days. And I fantasize about taking a trip to Poland someday with [Unknown site tag].
Rothko
Mark Rothko, a wonderful contemporary painter. Sadly, he committed suicide in the 1970s. His works are large panels divided into two or three blocks of color. They are kind of minimalist. The colors have amazing depth and complexity, though. Reproductions cannot do them justice - you must see them in person. The Tate Modern in London has a whole roomful, and I spent about a half hour in there, unable to tear my eyes away.
Schnittke
The late Russian composer Alfred Schnittke, one of the best modernists ever. His second string quartet is amazing. He suffered a lot under the Soviet regime, because his works did not conform to the officially sanctioned "social realist" style. I also like his piano concerto a lot - it's got the most beautiful and heart-wrenching use of tone clusters.
Thoreau
When I was a college freshman I took a wonderful seminar on Walden. That book had a huge effect on my life, although I didn't realize it until much, much later. Thoreau's philosophy really works for me - the more I try to do what he advocates in Walden, the happier I am. And no, I don't mean going off into the woods to live in a cabin. What he's saying about life and how to live it is far more interesting that that, and far more radical.
Wales
I first became interested in Wales through reading Sharon Kay Penman's great historical novel Here Be Dragons. Other Kenjari and I drove around Wales for our honeymoon, and we had the best time. It's a gorgeous place, filled with castles and other historical sites. You can literally drive around and see castle ruins atop hills. Snowdonia National Park is unbelievably lovely - misty mountains and forested valleys. The people are friendly and the food is good (Wales is very rural, so everything is fresh).
Warsaw Village Band
A truly kick-ass Polish folk group. They play traditional music with all the energy and passion that goes into punk music and the result is wonderful. In addition to performing, they travel around Poland collecting music. They even reconstructed a 15th century Polish variant of the violin from descriptions and paintings, and they use it in their recording and live performances. I based my most recent string quartets off of one of the songs on their most recent album.
Webern
Anton Webern, my favorite of the Second Viennese school composers (they're the guys who developed twelve-tone and serial techniques). His music is sparse and atonal, a style that is somewhat difficult to get into, but Webern's music has a crystalline beauty to it.
pantsie, aquafolius, and jenaflynn. Since there was some overlap, it's not quite 21 interests, and I decided to do them all in one post.Balinese Gamelan
The gamelan is the percussion orchestra of Indonesia; it's made up of gongs and metallophones and uses from 10-20 players. There are two main types: Balinese and Javanese. Balinese uses only 1 scale, a 5-note modal scale known as pelog; and the instruments are arranged in pairs. These pairs are detuned from each other, giving the ensemble its characteristic shimmering sound. Balinese is more rhythmic and uses quicker tempos than Javanese. I took two Javanese gamelan classes at Wesleyan and loved it. Although the second of these courses included a brief masterclass on Balinese at Yale, I didn't get any real chance to play it until recently. This summer at the Oregon Bach Festival Composers Symposium, I got to both play and composer for Balinese gamelan. It was incredibly fun.
Comics
It was Transmetropolitan that made me a comics fan, and that was all
darmatage's fault. I love comics/graphic novels. Except that I have almost no interest in the traditional superhero genre, with the exception of Top Ten and Astro City. I'm way more into stuff like the work of Warren Ellis, Neil Gaiman, Garth Ennis, etc. Stuff that's weird and more than a little subversive. And for some reason, I prefer series that have a defined story arc and set endpoint. Maybe the "goes on forever like a daytime soap" aspect of the superhero mainstays is part of what turns me off. Early Music
The term "early music" is a little plastic. I usually thing of it as covering the middle ages up to the very beginning of the Baroque era. Gregorian Chant through Monteverdi, more or less. Some people stretch it to include most of the Baroque. Anyway, I've always loved medieval and renaissance music (Hildegard! Josquin! Ciconia!) and I'm developing a renewed appreciation for Baroque music (Bach! Scarlatti! Vivaldi! More Bach!). It's a shame that I'm not much of a singer and play an instrument that didn't exist until the late renaissance; early music will always be something primarily studied and listened to for me.
Einsturzende Neubauten
One of my favorite bands. They formed in Berlin in the 1980s and have been making fascinating music ever since. They are an industrial band, old school style. No synths and samplers for them. They use scrap metal, industrial springs, jackhammers, shopping carts, pvc pipes, air compressors, and all sorts of other stuff as instruments. I've seen them live twice, and it is an amazing experience, because you get to see exactly how they get their sounds.
Ethnomusicology
The study of music that does not fit into the category of Western Art Music (what we usually call "classical"). It usually doesn't refer to jazz or rock/pop, either, though. Ethnomusicology typically covers non-western art music (Indian classical, gamelan, koto, gagaku, etc.) and traditional music from everywhere. Wesleyan has a very strong program in ethnomusicology, so I got a lot of exposure to this area as an undergrad. I find it fascinating and am thus focusing on doctoral programs at schools that have at least some ethnomusicology going on.
Iceland
I've recently become interested in Iceland. I read some of the sagas a few years ago - great stuff. And I love the music that comes out of there: Sigur Ros, Mum, Bjork. Plus, it's really, really gorgeous. I'd love to travel there someday.
Messaien
Olivier Messaien, the great French composer. He died in 1992. He wrote some of the most interesting and compelling music of the 20th century. He was not into chance music or serialism - he had his own individual technique and system. He was also very interested in birdsong, which resulted in some incredible music for the organ (he was an organist himself). His timbres and harmonies can take some getting used to, but believe me, the effort is well worth it. Go listen to The Quartet for the End of Time - it will blow you away. Messaien wrote it while being held in a German prisoner of war camp during WWII.
Movies
I like film - it's a great medium and there's some amazing stuff out there. I also like the experience of going to the movies - it's both immersive and communal. Unfortunately, I don't get out to the movies as much as I'd like, because of time, money and my own high standards.
Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan
Possibly the greatest qawwali singer of all time. Qawwali is a Pakistani/Sufi music tied to religious mysticism. One of it's purposes is to provoke a state of religious ecstasy in listeners. And although I do not follow the Sufi branch of Islam, I have to say that I have more often than not experienced a kind of euphoria while listening to Nusrat. Also, his vocal technique is amazing. The style and sound is very different from what we're used to in the western tradition, but it is just as beautiful. My favorites of his recordings are The Ecstatic Qawwali II and Shahen-Shah.
Polish Culture
I am half Polish, as I'm sure most of my readers know. I'm first generation, in fact. My father was born in Poland and came to America with his family as war refugees. My godmother came to America from Poland in the late 1960s - she was related to my Dad's stepfather. So I'm interested in Polish culture because it is, at least to some degree, my culture. Most of my connection to it is through food and music. My godmother (whom I miss very much) taught my sister and I to make pierogies from scratch, with her own family recipe which she had completely memorized - she didn't even need to measure the ingredients. The only Polish food I've tasted and not liked is borscht - I can't stand it. But that's okay, I'll just eat more pierogies and makowiec (poppy-seed cake). Hopefully I'll even learn to speak Polish one of these days. And I fantasize about taking a trip to Poland someday with [Unknown site tag].
Rothko
Mark Rothko, a wonderful contemporary painter. Sadly, he committed suicide in the 1970s. His works are large panels divided into two or three blocks of color. They are kind of minimalist. The colors have amazing depth and complexity, though. Reproductions cannot do them justice - you must see them in person. The Tate Modern in London has a whole roomful, and I spent about a half hour in there, unable to tear my eyes away.
Schnittke
The late Russian composer Alfred Schnittke, one of the best modernists ever. His second string quartet is amazing. He suffered a lot under the Soviet regime, because his works did not conform to the officially sanctioned "social realist" style. I also like his piano concerto a lot - it's got the most beautiful and heart-wrenching use of tone clusters.
Thoreau
When I was a college freshman I took a wonderful seminar on Walden. That book had a huge effect on my life, although I didn't realize it until much, much later. Thoreau's philosophy really works for me - the more I try to do what he advocates in Walden, the happier I am. And no, I don't mean going off into the woods to live in a cabin. What he's saying about life and how to live it is far more interesting that that, and far more radical.
Wales
I first became interested in Wales through reading Sharon Kay Penman's great historical novel Here Be Dragons. Other Kenjari and I drove around Wales for our honeymoon, and we had the best time. It's a gorgeous place, filled with castles and other historical sites. You can literally drive around and see castle ruins atop hills. Snowdonia National Park is unbelievably lovely - misty mountains and forested valleys. The people are friendly and the food is good (Wales is very rural, so everything is fresh).
Warsaw Village Band
A truly kick-ass Polish folk group. They play traditional music with all the energy and passion that goes into punk music and the result is wonderful. In addition to performing, they travel around Poland collecting music. They even reconstructed a 15th century Polish variant of the violin from descriptions and paintings, and they use it in their recording and live performances. I based my most recent string quartets off of one of the songs on their most recent album.
Webern
Anton Webern, my favorite of the Second Viennese school composers (they're the guys who developed twelve-tone and serial techniques). His music is sparse and atonal, a style that is somewhat difficult to get into, but Webern's music has a crystalline beauty to it.
