Author Archives: Scott Foglesong

An article in today's Washington Post about Facebook unfriending got me thinking about the one and only time I have ever unfriended a Facebook contact. My reason was simple and to the point: her posts ran angry, vitriolic, and bitter. … Continue reading →

Igor Stravinsky's Le Sacre du Printemps: poster boy for modernism, proving ground for orchestras, dinosaur spectacle for Disney. According to ArkivMusic.com, the current US-available catalog boasts 188 recordings, the most of any Stravinsky orchestral work. Only Petrushka at 120 (counting … Continue reading →

Here's a koan from the Rinzai Zen tradition. A fellow named George is walking along a riverbank, staring at a ferryboat raft that has just departed on its way to the other shore. George sees a Zen master walking nearby. … Continue reading →

My opinion of computer hackers, never all that high to begin with, has just taken a precipitous plunge downwards with an article in the March 9 New York Times about Hector Xavier Monsegur, a.k.a. “Sabu”, the hacker who turned snitch … Continue reading →

My thirties were partially defined by an intriguing summer gig of playing recitals on an Alaskan cruise ship. For a month or two, depending on the year, I'd board the lovable but dumpy SS Universe in Vancouver, head up the … Continue reading →

I read a lot of CD reviews. I'm not sure if that's a statement or a confession. Maybe a bit of both. In my defense (if that's necessary) I can say that I like to keep up with the latest … Continue reading →

I'm supposed to be thinking forward to retirement. In an orderly world, eight years from now I would be delivering a sappy speech at a faculty dinner then, engraved punchbowl in hand, making a beeline for the golf links at … Continue reading →

Sometimes I hear statements to the effect that musical ideas are only worthwhile if they're unique. As a rule I take the suckerbait and point out that unique does not equal significant. An idea can be unique but insignificant (trousers … Continue reading →

Amazon.com can be a carnival fun house if you know where to look. Consider a customer-submitted picture of an adorable baby bunny, its little face tucked into its paws, its fluffy ears drooping. U MAKE BUNNY CRY accuses the caption. … Continue reading →

Sometimes it’s fun to connect the dots. Every longtime and successful musician is a spatter of influences, memories, experiences, passions, inheritances, absorptions, rejections. My particular spatter suggests Jackson Pollock more than Georges Seurat. Just figuring out what kind of musician … Continue reading →