Monthly Archives: July 2013

Listen Up

As the school year approaches it occurs to me that I haven’t been teaching my Advanced Analysis course—a full year of Schenkerian analysis—as well as I might. A generation ago practical working musicians shunned Schenkerian theory as forbiddingly cerebral, but … Continue reading

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Farmyard Satori

Charlotte Joko Beck’s Nothing Special is a masterful book that takes the woo-woo out of Zen practice and anchors it securely in the here and now. Focusing on “everyday” Zen (the title of another of her books) she helps her … Continue reading

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Periwinkle Blue

Veteran audiophile and hobbyist Art Dudley rather stepped in it this month, during the course of his Andy Rooney-ish rambling-putterer column in Stereophile. He had taken a casual look through his vinyl collection and had looked up some prices on … Continue reading

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No Taste, No Class

A lady Buddhist scholar from Bangkok travelled up into the jungles of Thailand to meet with the esteemed Dhamma master Ajahn Chah, who lived much like the Buddha himself, in a humble forest monastery. Ajahn Chah was a teacher of … Continue reading

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Martinet

When I took over the chairmanship of the music theory/musicianship department, I inherited a problematic young teacher who had been a last-minute hire due to a colleague’s husband being unexpectedly transferred. A hasty search had thrown up several candidates who … Continue reading

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Rest in Peace

A tale of two records. First up, a sturdy 10” Columbia LP from the early 1950s, in which George Szell conducts the Philharmonic-Symphony of New York (soon to be re-christened New York Philharmonic) in two Wagner overtures. Side one, Flying … Continue reading

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