Every Note.
This week I’ve been watching a documentary highlighting masterclasses with Maxim Vengerov on Youtube. All I can say is, wow.
It hard to imagine how much work, dedicated, and passion has been incorporated in his playing. But what’s even more impressive is the way he can feel the exact mood each of these pieces is trying to convey and pass it on through the violin. I think the way he can ascribe a perfect scene to describe all these pieces played by these amazing students is a result of his incredible grasp of the music. With the Tchaikovsky and Kreisler pieces in particular, he’s revealed to me so much more of what the music can bring out.
This guy’s playing is simply astonishing. I hope he will return to playing in the future.
Muted.
Today, on June 16, 2008, my Thinkpad has gone mute.
Yesterday, there was signs of illness. I noticed the occasional windows sounds stopped chiming in after working for a few hours. Fearing the worst, I rushed to a Youtube video to find nothing but moving images. I thought some volume is muted. But the speakers on my Thinkpad sounded not after I adjusted settings but rather just haphazardly after running music. Suspecting loose wiring, I felt like there was nothing I could do.
And so, today, when I suspected the worse again in the library, it really happened. No more ESPN chit-chat and no more Heifetz videos will sound through these speakers, I think. Maybe taking it between work, the library, and the apartment had a detrimental effect. But again, what could I do? Should I still hold out hope?
Edit: Nevermind, got it hahaha. =)
Fun Data Posts
I discovered this first little post through Marginal Revolution. Glancing at the original piece, the trend is not as clear at MIT. Factoring in the issue with small sample size and selection bias (What kind of people want to reveal their sexual behavior to these guys anyways?), I’m not sure what someone might get out of this besides fun conversation at the dinner table. In any case, I’m glad these Wellesley math majors came through.
This post was another neat piece I found through the Ambrosini Critique. It’s a surprising statistic, but what a blogger said in the comments makes sense: In the past, only the best and brightest were going to college. Meanwhile, most people entered the work force after High School. Nowadays, more people are going to college before going to work. As a result, the average IQ has decreased. This data begs the question of what IQ actually measures. Does this signify something about the quality of education as well?
When Choice is Good
According to my econ classes, choice is good. There are many occasions on which I’ve felt having a choice is more onerous than favorable. But this does not apply to choosing new music to play.
For better or worse, scouring the depths of youtube to find new repertoire has become one of the most exciting parts of playing. Right now, my quartet is looking for a new piece for next year. We’re thinking about Dvorak, Borodin, and Smetana. I also stumbled upon this gem, played by some amazing Singaporean students:
Ordinary Life Again: Screw It.
So after that weekend of Mahler, I’m back in the real world–with project deadlines, papers, and finals.
Today I gave a presentation on the predictive power of cognitive test scores on future earnings. The topic itself was not particularly fascinating. In fact, there were not many interesting “take-home” conclusions from my work (though that’s not to say I couldn’t find notable interpretations of the results). And frankly, after the Mahler concert, everything else I was doing over the weekend just seemed unimportant. But I think my unceremonious nature of approaching the presentation helped me relax and convey what I wanted to convey with ease. Afterwards, the audience remained engaged–they asked me questions and commented on ways to improve my project.
Now, compare this situation with a presentation I gave last quarter on wages and discrimination: I was preparing for the thing like mad. I made sure my methods were correct, my powerpoint was simple, prepared something to say for each slide, and then painstakingly memorized explanations for each point. The result was a overextended bumbling presentation that ultimately left the audience confused.
So what was the problem? In these presentation things, it seems like we ought to act as guides to the people we’re talking to, so we’re thinking about what we’re saying rather than reciting a neat essay we’ve written on the subject. In this way we enable the audience to follow along our course of thought because we’re acting as if we are part of the audience. Of course, over preparing and stressing is always going to obstruct this process. Thus, it really is important to know when to say, “screw it.”
The Might of Mahler
Just when you think you’ve hit an emotional peak in a Mahler symphony, he always surprises you by giving you more–more sound, more intensity, more of that satisfying feeling of “arrival.” That’s what occurred to me when our school orchestra performed Mahler Symphony #2 today. I’m referring to the climax of the finale, where the strings are tremelo’ing with all their heart, the chorus is belting out this massive chorale, and bells are going off in the back. There are of course exquisitely tender moments in Mahler contrasting with these moments that also reaches out to listeners with just as much expressiveness.
But there is an extraordinary quality about the unity of these grand moments of resolution that always manages to create shivers down my back. Perhaps the audience felt it too. In my two years playing in this orchestra, we’ve never had as long of an applause at the end. Again and again they clamored for Barbara and the soloists to come back out onto the stage. This was the power of Mahler’s music.
I wanted to post a video of Debussy’s Reverie in honor of the creation of this blog. But I think I will post this symphony’s finale instead. The conductor is Claudio Abbado. Welcome to my blog.
