WMV Music Web Log

Love note to Washington Musica Viva from clarinetist Ben Redwine:

“Washington Musica Viva produces chamber music the way I think it should be presented: cutting-edge programs with new music beside old music, in intimate concert halls. It’s such a pleasure to be involved in these concerts playing great music with great musicians for great audiences!”

Ben

Watch for it in our next fundraising letter!

How often do you feel like the world is a wonderful place, where everything is new and surprising? Sound for me is wonderful, when I pay attention to it. I suppose it is my love of sound that makes me a musician. In music, sometimes a certain combination of instruments, or a piece of counterpoint, amazes, mystifies, fascinates me. But in the absence of music, I can listen to almost anything. A truck going by has a gruff tonal engine sound, while the walls of my house creaking in a cold wind play quiet percussion. Sound is key for me (that reminds me of some old Buddhist scripture, enlightenment through the ears...). It is my window into the present. Everything else can look old and tired, but sound is always new to me.

A hilarious rant from Matthew Guerrieri on Soho the Dog:

http://sohothedog.blogspot.com/2006/09/eight-sentences-about-classical-music.html

I like what he writes even when I don't entirely agree with him. It may be true for instance that jazz is jazz and classical is classical, but that doesn't address the fascinating relationship between them, including reciprocal inspiration, borrowing, etc.