Tom Myron

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.

Sunday Afternoon

2008-04-13T22:46:00.005-04:00

I remember exactly what was happening when this picture was taken. It's 1976. We're in the rehearsal room behind the concert hall at 855 Comm. Ave. It's a GBYSO wind ensemble rehearsal. It's sunday afternoon. We're rehearsing H. Owen Reed's La Fiesta Mexicana. Hal Janks is conducting. I'm using a pair of Vic Firth "ultra staccato" mallets (the original ones with the felt dyed pool table green.) They are the coolest sticks ever. They are perfect for the timpani solo in the first movement of the Reed. Everyone is concentrating. We're into this piece big time. Nobody wants to screw up. My dad has a new camera. He's shooting super fast Kodak TRI-X. He's standing right next to me.

Name That Tune 68

2008-04-13T02:44:00.001-04:00

This is the sixty-eighth 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 67

2008-04-12T03:37:00.001-04:00

This is the sixty-seventh 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 66

2008-03-28T22:52:00.000-04:00

This is the sixty-sixth 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.

Jeff Porcaro's "Rosanna"

2008-03-23T22:02:00.002-04:00

A few years back I had the pleasure of attending a drum clinic given by the great Dennis Chambers. One of the things he talked about was how you can make something your own by mastering & then varying something that someone you admire had done. By way of demonstration he played Jeff Porcaro's beat for Rosanna, followed by his own version of the beat, which he'd come up with when he sat in on that song one night at a Toto concert in, of all places, Vienna.

Here Jeff reveals how he came up with a beat that has entered the drumming canon. To paraphrase a composer I admire, "Different buildings, same stones."

Name That Tune 65

2008-03-23T21:19:00.002-04:00

This is the sixty-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 64

2008-03-23T21:19:00.001-04:00

This is the sixty-fourth 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.

Snakes on a Desk

2008-03-15T14:24:00.001-04:00

Name That Tune 63

2008-03-15T14:22:00.005-04:00

Here is a NEW scan for #63. It contains a bit more information than the first one I put up. Bonne Chance.

This is the sixty-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.

Name That Tune 62

2008-03-15T14:21:00.000-04:00

This is the sixty-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.

Lenny

2008-03-10T22:20:00.004-04:00

Leonard Rosenman (September 7, 1924-March 4, 2008)

I got to know Leonard Rosenman in the early 80s through my teacher, Charles Fussell. Rosenman had written a new work, Chamber Music V, for a Pierrot ensemble plus two percussionists. Collage had done an earlier version of the piece in Boston and Lenny had made changes. Charles programmed the work for the UMass Faculty New Music Ensemble. I was recruited to cover one of the percussion parts. The faculty had decided that as both a composer and a percussionist I would benefit doubly from working with Rosenman. It's a decision for which I will always be grateful.

Having Leonard Rosenman at the Five Colleges was a big deal. Seminars were held. He brought in enormous spiral-bound scores to accompany tapes of the LA Phil playing his music. There was a two piano concerto, a double bass concerto, a big orchestral essay & a Lorca song cycle. His music floored me. It just knocked me out. It was wildly inventive, crackling with amped-up colors and ferocious dramatic gestures. Ligeti & Berio meet Stan Kenton and a good time is had by all.

When the tapes had all been played he sat in front of the group chain-smoking Camel straights. He said, "I'm just gonna ramble here, but you'll get something out of it." He was right. He knew it. He radiated astonishing charisma.

We performed Chamber Music V at all five colleges. After a rehearsal it was agreed that a group of us would go out to dinner. Since the week was a hectic one my girlfriend had loaned me her car, which happened to be a beautiful, brand new Honda sedan. When I sat down at the restaurant Charles said to me, "That's a nice car. Has something changed in your life that I don't know about?"

I said, "Not really. It's my girlfriend's."

Lenny laughed, blew some smoke around and slapped me on the back. "Kid," he said, "Your career as a composer is off to a perfect start."

Name That Tune 61

2008-03-02T15:49:00.002-05:00

Hey Ho, Let's Go. The Big 200-Pointer Here:

This is the sixty-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.

Name That Tune 60

2008-03-01T14:14:00.000-05:00

This is the sixtieth 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 59

2008-03-01T14:13:00.000-05:00

This is the fifty-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.

Name That Tune 58

2008-03-01T14:12:00.000-05:00

This is the fifty-eighth 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 57

2008-02-27T21:49:00.000-05:00

This is the fifty-seventh 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 56

2008-02-27T21:30:00.000-05:00

This is the fifty-sixth 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 55

2008-02-27T20:17:00.000-05:00

This is the fifty-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 54

2008-02-27T18:23:00.000-05:00

This is the fifty-fouth 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.

Get Tough

2008-02-27T14:46:00.002-05:00

OK all you swamp dawgs. It's abundantly clear to me that the first 50-odd Name That Tunes were just way too easy for the likes of y'all. Fine. Starting tonight, we get tough. Buncha Brainiacs.