Around the capitol this weekend

Tomorrow afternoon I plan to attend Alex Ross‘ lecture-ish thing at the Texas Book Festival. I may buy his book there and get him to sign it (if he’s doing that). I’ve been looking forward to seeing him; I’ve been reading his blog for over a year now and have been introduced to [...]

thoughts on Beethoven’s 9th

We are going up to our alma mater (yes, we sisters went to the same school that our parents and other relatives went) to sing in a performance of Beethoven’s 9th this weekend. Happy birthday to me!
Leah and I spent over an hour on Saturday trying to follow along with our parts for the [...]

Heart of Glass

I ended up going to the opera yesterday with my dad. I had forgotten the opera was this weekend, but my other plans fell apart so I could go with Dad. It was an experience.
I went in expecting not to like much at all about the production. I tend not to enjoy [...]

The sweetest thing this Christmas

On Christmas Eve, I watched CBS Sunday Morning as I am wont to do. The last story was about “White Christmas”. The story was nice and all, although I pretty much knew most of the facts about how the song came to be such a hit.
The best part was after the story, when [...]

Lobet den Hern, alle Heiden

For some reason this morning I felt like listening to a Bach piece I sang in college. I tried googling it, but the problem I had was I couldn’t remember which Bach piece it was. When I sang it in choir, the director made a few of us just say “do do do [...]

sentimental fool

I brought some of my CDs to work and am listening to Leonard Bernstein’s “Greatest Hits”. Why does the final choral piece of “Candide” always get me choked up? Is it the harmonic structure? The dynamics of the voices? All they’re singing is, “And make our garden grow. . .” and yet it seems [...]

Silly connotations

It is silly, I know, but when I hear Symphony No. 3 in C-Minor by Saint-Saens, I immediately think of Babe. It is a beautiful piece of Romantic music, and I can’t stop myself from giggling anyway.

It’s either sadness or euphoria

I read this entry on Popwatch, and was glad to be reminded that it’s okay to like Billy Joel. I’ve loved his music since he released “We Didn’t Start the Fire” when I was in elementary school. I liked his 80s and 90s stuff when I heard it on the radio, but my [...]

spent too long on this post

Austinist: The Best Opera Ever Written?
Please read and appreciate it. Love, me.

Stars and Berlioz

On Saturday afternoon, I was humming a snippet from “Look Up” by Stars. I just kept repeating the same instrumental part. My dad asked, “Why are you humming Berlioz?” And he told me that part I kept humming was from Berlioz’s “Symphonie Fantastique”. Random.