Tom Myron

Today Is Your Birthday

2009-06-22T20:16:00.002-04:00

Vivian M. & Lily R., 6/22/09

Vivian Myron is 10 today. Let's dance.

Nicholas Maw

2009-05-20T11:44:00.002-04:00

He taught me well. He straightened me out big time. What I learned from him I use every day. Thank you Nick.

Treasure Unearth'd

2009-01-19T14:24:00.000-05:00

Personal Pantheon

2008-12-21T16:11:00.002-05:00

The tree is trimmed, Vivian & Co. are watching a movie & Jessica's taking a nap. I've put together a Personal Pantheon over on Face Book. These are the writers whose work is always in front of me. See what you think.

Photo Credit

A Grand Guy

2008-12-19T15:16:00.003-05:00

With Rob Fisher at the12/18 rehearsal for the New York Pops 2008 Holiday Concert.
Photo by Arlo McKinnon

Thanks to Rob & the New York Pops I got to write for Marilyn Horne this month. Truly, Rob is a Grand Guy. I hope you can drop by & check it out if you're the the neighborhood.

Mind Your Manner(ism)s

2008-12-16T01:15:00.006-05:00

Mannerism or killer backhand? Schoenberg puts some English on the ball, Los Angeles, 1930s

Though originality is inseparable from personality, there exists also a kind of originality which does not derive from profound personality. Products of such artists are often distinguished by a unique appearance which resembles true originality. Certainly there was inventiveness at work when the striking changes of some subordinate elements were accomplished for the first time. Subsequently, used consciously, they achieved an aspect of novelty not derived profoundly from basic ideas. This is mannerism, not originality. The difference is that mannerism is originality in subordinate matters.

There are many, and even respectable, artists whose success and reputation are based on this minor kind of originality. Unfortunately, the tendency to arouse interest by technical peculiarities, which are simply added to the nothingness of an idea, is now more frequent than it was in former times. The moral air of such products is rather for success and publicity than for enriching mankind's thoughts.

-Arnold Schoenberg
Criteria For the Evaluation of Music (1946)

Sez WHO?

2008-12-11T13:27:00.001-05:00

Boulez is "a mannerist...a niche composer...a master with a very small hammer".

-John Adams

Just a Terrific Painter

2008-11-18T13:08:00.003-05:00

Grace Hartigan, New England October, 1957

I have still the abstract expressionist logic, which is that you don't fuss with a painting once the emotion is over. I remember this painting of mine in the Whitney Museum called "Sweden," and that's dedicated to Franz Kline because Franz and I were very good friends and he used to tease me in various ways. I'm Irish but he says I look like a Swedish skier. And he came into the studio one time and I had this painting, and I was worried because I thought maybe the lower right hand corner wasn't up to the upper left hand corner, and I was complaining to Franz. He looked at me with disbelief and he said, "You mean you want to make it better?" I thought, "Oh, God, that is humiliating. I'm supposed to be some little shopper who's trying to get the best bargain in a grocery store." And I've never forgotten that, that once the impulse, once the emotion is over, that to fix it up is a rather humiliating plan because then it's just a patch-over and you're a shoemaker or something, not an artist.

-Grace Hartigan (1922-2008)

Complete 1979 Interview

Broadway, baby.

2008-11-08T14:01:00.005-05:00

With Linda Hart & the New York Pops at Carnegie Hall 11/7/08

Last night at Carnegie Hall Linda Hart sang the ever lovin' spots off my arrangement of Broadway Baby. Let me tell all you cats & kittens- this woman is the real deal. The amazing Eric Stern led the New York Pops in a suite of New York-o-centric songs & selections by Jule Styne, Richard Rodgers, Stephen Sondheim, Cole Porter, Gordon Jenkins & Lenny B. featuring arrangements by Ralph Burns, Michael Starobin, Don Sebesky, Jason Carr, Dick Lieb, Maestro Eric himself est moi. My kind of night, yes indeed.

Name That Tune 75

2008-10-22T01:44:00.001-04:00

This is the seventy-fifth in a 100 part series.

Name the composer: 50 Points
Name the work: 50 Points

The winner(s) of each round will be the first person(s) with the correct answer(s) in each category. When the dust settles she or he with the highest combined score wins a prize.

Name That Tune 74

2008-10-06T23:47:00.001-04:00

To make up for #73 this one's worth 200 points:

This is the seventy-fourth in a 100 part series.

Name the composer: 100 Points
Name the work: 100 Points

The winner(s) of each round will be the first person(s) with the correct answer(s) in each category. When the dust settles she or he with the highest combined score wins a prize.

I'm With the Band

2008-09-15T15:20:00.008-04:00

Me & Olivier, Boston, MA September 14, 2008

I hooked up in Boston this weekend with my good friend & un-indicted co-conspiritor Olivier Demers to seal the deal on writing the orchestral arrangements for a whole evening's worth of Le Vent du Nord songs to be done Dec. 9 & 10, 2009 with the Orchestre Symphonique de Quebec. The event will be videotaped by the CBC for both broadcast & DVD release.

The mighty Rejean Brunet and the very funny, very gifted Nicolas Boulerice spending some Quality Time with their #1 U.S fan 9/14/08

Name That Tune 73

2008-08-30T22:53:00.001-04:00

This is the seventy-third in a 100 part series.

Name the composer: 50 Points
Name the work: 50 Points

The winner(s) of each round will be the first person(s) with the correct answer(s) in each category. When the dust settles she or he with the highest combined score wins a prize.

Bell Head

2008-08-16T17:04:00.003-04:00

It's like bed head only louder.

Silence

2008-07-12T19:02:00.002-04:00

Not his. Mine. I'm busy with some arranging projects. They're Broadway. They're N.Y. Pops. They're a blast. Maybe I'll even blog about them. But first I've gotta do 'em. Oh yeah. Later.

Name That Tune 72

2008-06-13T22:47:00.000-04:00

This is the seventy-second in a 100 part series.

Name the composer: 50 Points
Name the work: 50 Points

The winner(s) of each round will be the first person(s) with the correct answer(s) in each category. When the dust settles she or he with the highest combined score wins a prize.

Name That Tune 71

2008-06-07T23:26:00.002-04:00

This is the seventy-first in a 100 part series.

Name the composer: 50 Points
Name the work: 50 Points

The winner(s) of each round will be the first person(s) with the correct answer(s) in each category. When the dust settles she or he with the highest combined score wins a prize.

Sydney Pollack (1934-2008)

2008-05-27T15:58:00.002-04:00

Something in both his work & his off-stage persona spoke very deeply to me. In either setting he always managed to strike me as the type of grown-up I'd like to be. He still does.

I Was a Teenage Minimalist

2008-05-24T12:15:00.006-04:00

25 years ago this month- the Time & Motion Project performing my Counting Streams. Bezanson Recital Hall, UMass, Amherst. Clockwise from bottom left: Greg Tucker, T.M., Carolyn Oakley, Dave Barrett, Kurt Phinney

Steve Reich was in the audience. He said, "You should come to New York after graduation." So I went to Washington DC & became a TV news cameraman instead. He also said, "Listen, you're not going to meet anyone else like Jessica. You should marry her." Our 20th anniversary is in September. This jibes with something my father (who took this photo) used to say quite a bit during this period. "You only pay attention about half the time."

Name That Tune 70

2008-05-20T11:24:00.002-04:00

This is the seventieth in a 100 part series.

Name the composer: 50 Points
Name the work: 50 Points

The winner(s) of each round will be the first person(s) with the correct answer(s) in each category. When the dust settles she or he with the highest combined score wins a prize.

Having A Coke With You

2008-05-16T01:41:00.002-04:00

Frank O�Hara in 1966

Meme from Musical Assumptions

2008-04-25T09:57:00.002-04:00

Elaine Fine asked me to:

1. Pick up the nearest book.
2. Open to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.

Euripides, Iphigenia at Aulis
translated by James Morwood

Enter Spring

2008-04-21T20:54:00.002-04:00

Monday, April 21, 2008, 3:43 PM, EST. Enter Spring.

Name That Tune 69

2008-04-21T20:53:00.001-04:00

This is the sixty-ninth in a 100 part series.

Name the composer: 50 Points
Name the work: 50 Points

The winner(s) of each round will be the first person(s) with the correct answer(s) in each category. When the dust settles she or he with the highest combined score wins a prize.

Revolutionary Road

2008-04-17T18:31:00.006-04:00

Richard Yates in 1991

There are very few works in any discipline that I love as fiercely as I do Richard Yates' Revolutionary Road. I read it every spring. Now it's going to be a "big movie". It was going to happen sooner or later. I hope they play it straight. I hope they don't screw it up.