An Irish Thanksgiving

Yesterday was Thanksgiving. A couple guys in class were asking me about our Thanksgiving and what it was. I explained about the Pilgrims and the help of Squanto and the Indians. Also told them how Thanksgiving wasn’t made a national holiday until Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War. I am glad now my mom was a huge history buff. I have to say I always enjoyed history as well.

Sarah (my roommate) and I decided to try to make a Thanksgiving meal. I had to go to 4 different stores to collect the items. Couldn’t find cranberries, but we decided it wasn’t our favorite anyways… it was still odd not to have it. I had to have pickles and found some very good ones. I got green beans but couldn’t find the rest of the stuff to make green bean casserole. My family also makes these FABULOUS rolls (called Dilly Rolls) --- I missed out on that. We also couldn’t find pumpkin pie. Even with just a turkey breast it STILL takes longer then you think J I started cooking at 4pm and we didn’t sit down till 7:30pm. I thought we did very well with what we had and our tiny oven. Sarah gave me a very nice compliment. She said she was very impressed everything was warm and out in perfect timing :) I still think about going to culinary art school... Like Julia Child :) We were all very happy with the meal. Bo approved. Sarah and I called it team Beck-Esmay/Greene – which got shorten to Team BEG. It was a good night.

 Bojan approved of the layout

Irish Happenings

Last Thursday we had a cello and harp player come and speak to the class. I took away a few new things from the cellist. He went into some very interesting thoughts about notating the character of your piece. I taught him a new extended technique called the “Seagull Effect”. He thought it was neat. The harp player was great as well. It was funny cause I had JUST printed a copy of  the harp piece “Chanson de la Nuit” by Salzedo because that was a score study I was given by my harp friend back home. My class mates have been a little nervous about writing for harp so I thought I’d share. Well, the harp player was REALLY happy I had the extra scores so she could play it and talk about the techniques. BUT, the highlight was that she let us all play on the harp. THAT was neat! I have always wanted to play harp. It was nice to “touch” it for the first time.

 

I had to share a picture of the baby swans. It’s cool to see wild swans all over the place!

Saturday I spent all morning composing. We have a 9 instrument piece being recording on the 28^th. I have friends coming into town so I wanted to get on top of my assignments. The instrumentation for this piece is: accordion/bandoneon, flute, clarinet, violin, cello, bass, piano, marimba, and guitar. Kind of random… but also kind of hinting toward polka or tango… I struggled with that.  AND writing for the accordion because it doesn’t seem like the director plans to bring someone in to talk to us about HOW. There’s two sides to this coin. They want us to go research and figure it out and also use this session as a learning experience. BUT they also want to record these for our portfolio…. SOOOO how are we suppose to write GOOD music for these instruments if we don’t have someone to talk to about how to write for their instrument? ---Not well planned out. I was able to find some scores online, but I am keeping it rather simple just to be cautious. Which, I think is sad. In anycase, I pretty much finished my piece already and am kind of excited with how it came out. It’s somewhat “minimalism meets South America”. Has a rumba-ish rhythm in the piano, marimba and guitar. Then I have a melody which is fragmented and slowly unravels between the other instruments until it is completed at the end of the piece. Yes, my academic background shows it face J I think it will come off well.

Christmas has hit Ireland. Beautiful. 

Right now I am sitting in Bewley’s café. I woke up at 6am to go get in line at the GNIB to register my visa as a student. I’ve heard it’s an all day event. Joy. I was in line 10 minutes before it opened and the line was around the corner…. Luckily I got my ticket rather quick and my time slot is mid morning. Had to waste 3 hours. Not bad. I’ve heard about worse. We will see how it goes. Meanwhile---coffee. J

Andy Hill

This past weekend we had Andy Hill come teach the class. I really hate going into class on a Sunday, but that aside it was a REALLY good weekend. I already mentioned in my previous blog that he started class off with asking us all questions about ourselves. I forgot to mention that he asked what people say about my music. I honestly don't know what people say, but when Christopher Young was visiting he listened to my music and said it was "introspective beauty". I really liked that phrase so that's what I told Andy Hill. He said that brings to mind the film composer "Thomas Newman". Completely made my day! I even just recently watched "A Series of Unfortunate Events" and noticed how much I love the music in that... and of course it's Newman. Then I said that I struggled in college with writing music for "music's sake". That I always had to have a story or theme even if it was secret. So my catch phrase became "secret story".

Andy taught us about the development of Film Scoring Vocabulary. He brought us through the different time periods of film and pointed out how things that changed, how things stayed the same and how things are progressing today. I definitely have 8 pages of notes from his 3 days of teaching...

On Sunday, we all showed him our recent Brass Quintets. I really didn't want to show him cause I'm not very proud of the writing or the recording of it. I had to go "mix" it Saturday night in order to show it to him as well... which means I snipped and clipped the best takes together to get a good "whole" piece but I didn't work hard on making it clean, doing EQ or anything. I messed with reverb a little... anyways the point is that it isn't the cleanest recording. I was 4th in line (out of the 5). He gave everyone very nice feedback about the writing for the instruments and so forth.... but when he heard mine this is what he said: "True to your claim yesterday your music evokes a story. I imagined a family on Ellis Island or a merging of people about to go on some big trek". He was pretty much smack on with the theme I had envisioned! Again, made my day.

Because of the long weekend, Derek gave us the day off. I was going to go register with the GNIB but it didn't work out. I have to get a copy of my bank statements from my Ireland Bank. I couldn't figure it out online so I went to the bank this morning. Ends up they can't just print them, they have to mail it. The banks out here suck. Just saying. SO hopefully that comes soon cause I have 2 weeks or will get deported. HA. No, I am sure I will be fine. I instead went to the gym, ran some other errands, cleaned my computer files up (we have SO many folders from different teachers I needed to make better sense of it all), composed a little..... Good, semi-relaxing day. It raining and looks like it will rain all week. I had a friend from Colorado post this picture on Facebook:

Colorado weather can be so bi-polar! From 73 to 7 degrees in one week! lol :)

This is Dublin's weather.... pretty predictable. Rain. I actually like the rain. Not being in it or riding bike in it. But if I am inside, I love the sound. The smell. It's nice.

The next composing assignment is for a mixed ensemble. Derek decided we should try to write for Bandoneon. --Had to google what that was.... it's like an accordion. I am kinda  excited about trying such a strange instrument. BUT, if we don't have someone come talk to us about the instrument it's hard to just guess how to write well for it. I am not sure if they're planning on doing that. The other thing is that the sound of an accordion instantly makes you think polka or rumba.... SO, do I go with one of those styles or TRY to do something different? I have been listening to minimalism and South American music and think I might try to merge the two using this instrumentation... we will see if it's successful. The other instruments are: flute, clarinet, bandoneon, guitar, marimba, piano, violin, cello, bass. Interesting.

Projects and Guest

We have a guest this weekend. Andy Hill.  He was the music supervisor for movies such as Lion King and Sister Act. He then directed the masters program at Columbia College in Chicago and has helped launch Berklee’s film scoring degree. This weekend he is going to talk to us primarily about the history of film music and its “language”. The time passed really quickly today. He was a very engaged teacher. At the beginning of class he asked us all a few questions to quickly get an idea of who we are. One of the questions was if we thought we were more on of a bold personality or accommodating. I was the only one who said I was probably a little more on the “bold” side. I think the others are liars! J They all said if a director asked them to change something they would…. Therefore they are accommodating. Well, I would too but I think there is a distinction between learning how to work with people and understanding the hierarchy compared to what your personality traits are. I feel like my experience working two very different directors on theatre projects were more on the accommodating side. I showed the music to one director for scene 2 and she told me she heard it as scene 4… OK it’s now scene 4 and I have to figure out what to do for scene 2 again. It wasn’t a problem. I was insulted. I didn’t argue with her. It’s her play! I knew I was there to serve HER play. But I would say that’s different from having a bold personality. Not bold in a bad way, but I have to be bold to be the ONLY female on this program. I have to be bold to put my self out there and say “HI, I’m a composer!” Anyways, I was also honest and also said when someone says they don’t like something it’s hard to not instantly think “they don’t like me! They don’t like my music!” Andy said that’s a very normal response but suggested we all take on a “persona” or an “artist name” so that when that happens, it’s not a personal attack but an attack on the “persona”. He suggested the names: “She Wolf” or “Pirate Queen” lol J I am open to ideas.

Yesterday we recorded a brass quintet. The assignment was nothing other then “write a brass quintet”.  I really struggled with writing something without a scene or a theme. I finally made up my story – like I always have. All my works have a “secret story” as I told Andy Hill today.  I think it went fairly well. I, for the first time, supervised my own music. It took a little while to get comfortable pressing the button in the booth to tell Derek (the conductor and director of the course) some changes. I wanted the first melodic line in the horn to be “cantabile” (singing) and really wished he would have let the player play rubato… which I pressed the button and said…. But it didn’t happen. I am a little disappointed. The horn player mentioned a similar sentiment. BUT I think the piece will still turn out ok. It was a good learning experience. We had a talk back afterwards and I got some good feedback.

I had invited all the MA guys over to our place so we could “workshop” our brass quintet. I made “American” chili. ---Well, at least what I could find for it. It was more like a taco soup. But it was very good! It was one of the guy’s first time to have chili. My roommates were in heaven. Bo, my roommate, was able to find Corona! That meant I was in heaven. I found salsa (as a topping or just for the chips). The size --- well --- it’s really a one person serving! I was laughing about it. One of the guys asked what a normal size is… I said milk gallon. HAHA 

The end of the semester is starting to approach. I am really getting stressed about the amount of work and assignments due within the next couple of weeks. It doesn’t help that assignments are just now being drafted to work within DIT’s standards (DIT – Dublin Institute of Technology, is the umbrella school for this program.) I’ll be frank and say I am frustrated. I understand this college is within its first year and so I am trying to be a little lenient. That being said it is hard to plan my time wisely between assignments when they do not have written out for us the details of what an assessed assignment contains. Its in the process, I know. But that’s frustrating. We were shown a draft of an assignment and it made me feel like these 6 weeks have been a waste of my time. There were things on there they are requiring to be handed in which we have already done--but now have to re-do because it isn’t done in a “hand-in” form or to the detailed degree they are now asking. So, this adds to our workload by requiring us to go back over work we should have ALREADY had done. Waste of my time.

Physically I am still not doing well. My hand is in constant pain. I am using it too much. There is no way around it. The rest of my body is achy and sore but not as consistent as my hand. Not sure what to do. Honestly I have been so discouraged about how bad I hurt and how this program is going, that I’ve considered dropping. BUT I know I would regret it and play the “if only” game.  SO, I’ll push forward. Christmas break is in a month, so I can evaluate things then. Hopefully the program gets organized and I can find something to help my pain.

On a completely side note. My sister mailed me my ballot. It came on a Wednesday (I believe). During my lunch break the next day I rode my bike to the post. The lady said she couldn't guarantee it would get there by the 3rd unless I sent it some special way... can't remember the terms... anyways, I went to the side to fill out this form and saw on the form that the cheapest  price was 30 euro! So I went back to the window and she told me, yes it would be 30 euro! IS that worth my vote... ???hummmm, maybe not. Then she told me she could send it a different way but really couldn't promise it would be there in time. This would be 10 euro. I decided to try. I had to mail it to my mom to have her drop it off because they couldn't deliver to a  P.O. box. Well, Monday, I get a message from my mom that it got there! I was completely shocked honestly. So, I am proud to say, I spent 10 euro to vote! :) 

Random Thoughts

Last night was Halloween and I spent it with a glass of wine, cleaning house, and then watching a movie. Our apartment requires you to buzz in, so even though my roommate, Sarah, bought candy, no children came to our door. Bojan and Sarah went to the orchestra. They were playing the movie "Psycho" while performing the music. Honestly it was nice to have one evening at home alone.

Today I have a ton of homework and computer work to do. The school is bringing in a brass quintet to record a piece of ours... which will be written after this. I am not very familiar with brass quintet repertoire so I called in a favor on Facebook from friends. Had a nice response of advice and pieces to go score study. It's really nice to have such great musician friends to fall back on as a composer.

School is going... ok. There are some great things about how it's working. But, there are things that are not working. We are trying to get a meeting together with the directors to talk about suggestions. This program is in it's first year. The reasons I choose this college over the others are working out. Part of it for me is that we have one day for orchestration, and it makes me proud to say the orchestration class I took at DU was amazingly thorough and well done. I am also proud to say I know a TON more about 20th Century Music then I expected. So in those two classes I have only gotten a couple new tid-bits.... This isn't suppose to be a complaining session, but rather proof that my undergrad was WELL worth it. The things that have been nice are the guests (Gary Schymann, Christopher Young). I have learned a LOT from them about the industry and about writing for this type of field. I also really loved the recording aspect of this college choice. We have had multiple professionally done recordings of our pieces.

Meanwhile, the past two days I have been in a lot of physical pain. Yesterday I was completely uncomfortable. I was doing better. Found a very good chiropractor and had a massage. But now my hand is very swollen and has very little grip. I feel like a terrible musician. I am 3 years out of practice playing piano. A couple days ago it was someones birthday and I couldn't even remember how to play Happy Birthday on the piano! How pathetic is that! I feel like a completely worthless musician. I would really love to take lessons again. I am not sure in what though. Maybe voice? Because that wouldn't require using my hand. I don't know. I just feel like I need to get back in touch with "making music" rather then just "composing music". At the same time I have to do something that I can physically manage. Even typing on the computer right now, I can only use the middle finger of my right hand so my thumb and pointer finger wont hurt. Pathetic.

Brendan's job assignment in Saudi Arabia looks like it will take him up until Christmas. Our original plan was to tour Europe on my break. He should get the week of Xmas and New Years off, MAYBE the week before Xmas. But if the job doesn't go well he will have to go right back for January. So I am not sure what I am going to do. I will wait a bit more and see how his job goes. Tour Europe by myself? Just go home? I don't know.

I am really missing my pets. If it weren't $1800 to ship my cat out here I would have done it in an instant. (And that was just one way. We'd have to do it again to bring her back). I am also missing Mexican food. We went to a place that looked like a Chipotle. I had a taco with shredded lamb.... I swear it had cinnamon in it. It was good. BUT WEIRD! It's hard to find beans other then baked (which is what they have for breakfast... again weird :) ) I really REALLY miss flavored creamer though. That's my biggie right now :) I am getting use to riding my bike everywhere. Kind of enjoy it actually. I do love sitting at cafes. Lattes are good. There are SO many adorable little dogs everywhere. Swans. Wild swans all over the place. Very cool.