it's morphin' time!

If you are ever truely missing the 90's The Power Rangers movie may be the thing for you.
man the hair the cloths, and of course the special effects.

I think my brain is melting out of my ears.

The only constructive thing that I did this weekend was sing at the Chicago Humanities festival in the Gleacher center down town. Otherwise I just talked to people and baked things. In all fairness though, I did write two papers last weekend.

on that note some thoughts on listening to various recordings of Rossini. I listened to alot of the rondo from la cenerentola. This is a piece I will never sing, unless I gain some rediculous low notes.

What I discovered from reviewing this series of performances is that despite the plethora of variations available to singers, they use them sparingly in this piece. This can be attributed to how incredibly difficult and spectacular this piece already is without the addition of further complications. Ultimately tasteful additions are more important and interesting than a large quantity of additions. When applying ornamentation one must also be considerate of the context of the piece as a whole. The less successful ornaments were so because they broke up the cohesion of the piece. The tempo and notes may be altered, but if it is done too frequently or too dramatically one loses sight of the feeling of the piece as a whole. As such, when one is presented with a piece with many opportunities for ornamentation as I denote at the beginning, one should choose only one or two places that make the most dramatic sense for the character that they are playing. Other wise the ear gets lost in a group of impressive sounds that do not appear to convey any meaning.

meaning is ultimatly the point of opera no? in fact of music. I think that often people lose sight of this when they study it meticulously. Yet how do we intrinsically describe music? in emotional terms, how did the piece make you feel, we also in our limitation describe things in visual terms or compare it to something else. Even in our visual comparisons we call upon items that convey the same emotional feeling or embience as the music. Technical terms can only describe one facet of music. The rest happens some where else, because where else would god be if not between the notes?

I think there is some universal goodness in music that must not be toyed with. It has such a manipulative force over individuals that it can encourage distinct behaviors. So I leave you with a question: Are you using music for Good or for Evil?