Two answers to music-related questions

A couple more answers to questions, these ones rather music related.

Why don't you like top hit songs, but like classical music, upbringing?
The main reason is that simply, I don't think a lot of the top hit songs are very good. But I actually do listen to some "pop" music (*cough*Lady Gaga*cough*). It really depends on the music. I won't listen to it just because everybody else is listening to it. It's got to express something or make me think. But I actually do like a wide variety of music! The reason I like classical music so much is that I think there's really something to it! And judging by the fact that a lot of the good stuff has been around for hundreds of years, obviously other people think there's something to it as well! But yeah, my taste in music goes from J.S. Bach to Benjamin Britten, to Beethoven, to John Adams to the Beatles, to The Smiths, to Regina Spektor, to Loreena McKennitt to Queen to REM to Lady Gaga. I just love music! I can't say I'm super keen on rap, or heavy metal, or techno, but I'll listen to almost anything short of that. As for upbringing, my parents played a lot of classical and folk music when I was younger, so that has probably influenced my music taste, but now, I'd say I probably listen to the most varied in my household.

Do you like Rachmaninov: Piano Concertos #1 & 2?
Oh yeah! Rachmaninov's piano concertos are some of my favourite piano concertos! He actually wrote four of them (as well as a another work for piano and orchestra, his Rhapsody on a theme by Paganini). Out of the four concertos, his 2nd and his 3rd are the most well known. The Third concerto has a reputation for being one of the most difficult in the repertoire, as it takes a huge amount of technical skill, expressive power and lots of endurance to make it through the 50 minutes of intense playing. The Second concerto is probably the most played, because it's incredibly beautiful, and very popular. I have a real preference for the First Concerto, which in my opinion is very under appreciated (although I think it's very rapidly gaining popularity). The second movement of the 1st is just exquisite, and has this amazing dialogue between the flute and the piano. Just amazing. And then everybody forgets about the Fourth concerto, which just saddens me, because I think it's a great piece and needs your love too. But it always gets forgotten in preference for the 2nd and 3rd concertos.

Answers (some of them)

What is your favourite movie of all time? And why?
Um, that's honestly such a hard question. I've got a couple. The Pianist would definitely be up there, just an incredible movie about survival, that really made me think about how fortunate I am and taught me a lot of lessons about gratitude. Moulin Rouge! is one of the most beautiful movies I've ever seen, and all about L-O-V-E (lol). And of course, because I'm a fanatic about the musical RENT, the movie of the same name is one of my favourites too, and the core message is all about really living and living as if it's your last day alive. So those would be three of my favourite movies. But I have others, and I don't have only one.

If you had a billion dollars and hot chicks what would you do?
AND
If you had a million dollars what would you spend it on?
If I had a billion dollars, I'd build a beautiful little theater, and then rent it out to small theatre companies. And I'd obviously give a lot of money away. I'll pass on the hot chicks. :)

Why do you like answering questions?
a) It's fun!
b) It makes me think about things I might not have before.
c) and it makes my blog more "interactive". Lol.


If you had a superpower what would it be?
I'd like to be able to fly invisibly.


If you could change ONE thing about people (in general) what would you change?
I wish people were more open-minded. We've made so many mistakes in the past by not being willing to revaluate our opinions. We'd be a lot better off if we would listen honestly to other people without prejudice.

Catching up

Hello everyone!

I haven't posted for a while, so I expect that this post will be quite a long one. I apologize.
At the moment, I am sitting in Second Cup drinking an Italian Soda. It's an absolutely beautiful day outside so I decided to walk over to Second Cup (it took me sixteen minutes). The sun is shining, there isn't a cloud in the sky and it's about +3 (which means that I can wear a spring/summer/fall jacket instead of a parka!). It's wonderful to take a break from everything and just enjoy the beautiful day.

My long hiatus from blogging can be blamed on many things. Mainly, I've been quite busy with Henry V I've had rehearsals almost everyday, and to be honest, I'm now cramming to get my lines into my head. Did I mention that my parts got changed? Instead of playing Alice (the maid to the Katherine), I am now playing Katherine, the princess of France. The guy playing Katherine had to drop out because of a family wedding in the middle of our performance run. So I took on that part along with the other two little parts I've got (Messenger and Grandpre).
We're 10 days away from preview night, and so the atmosphere at rehearsals has changed. Everybody is a lot more alert, focused and quickly hurrying to learn lines. The fight choreography is really coming together, but frighteningly, it seems that my choreography is kind of getting abandoned. We haven't ran it since learning the choreography. Eep! And the girl who is my "fight partner" is currently sick. So I've had to fight with a fake opponent. I know it'll all come together though. The whole thought of acting in a real theatre with real lights and a real technician and a green room and tech rehearsals and everything is still so exciting to me!

My graduation recital is all over and it went swimmingly! It actually went better than I could possibly have imagined! The piano that I was able to play on was this incredible Steinway. If you're not an musician, you might think this sounds crazy, but there are some instruments that you just connect with. It's crazy and sounds weird but honestly, when you touch the right instrument, it's just amazing. It feels completely natural and almost feels like you don't have to do much, like the instrument can feel what you want and respond. It's pretty crazy and I was fortunate enough make a connection like that with this piano. So it was a pretty amazing experience and I felt right at home playing. Thanks for all the support everyone and thanks to those of you who were able to come out!

I should probably write about something other than the arts so people think that I actually do something other than music and theatre. Ha! I actually finally finished that math textbook I was working through (Saxon Algebra 1/2). Ah, finally. It felt good to get it over with and now I can move on. And I got a good mark on the final exam too!

To change subject completely, I was reading The Screwtape Letters (by C.S. Lewis) this morning and I found a quote that I thought was really interesting. (It's in Letter XXI if you're curious to look it up).

Lewis says:
"Men are not angered by mere misfortune but by misfortune conceived as injury. And the sense of injury depends on the feeling that legitimate claim has been denied."
I thought this was a really interesting quote because I can really see the truth in it. We get angry about things because we think we have the right to something "better". We have this idea of what we think we should get out of life and get angry when we don't get exactly what we think we need. Maybe if we took a step back and appreciated what we were given, we would be happier. Hmmm.

Anyway, I think I'll wrap this post up now, so thanks for reading! By the way, I'm still planning on posting Part 3 of my last post. It will just be delayed, as I haven't written it yet. Lol.

Eeeee!! Stuff.

Okay, so after a long hiatus of being locked in my house at the piano, I am back! A lot of things have happened since I last posted. Wait, when did I last post? Too long ago, that's for sure.
This blog post will be in three parts.

PART 1: Henry V
A local University-College is doing a production of Henry V, and they had semi-open auditions. So, I auditioned, got a call back and got a role! Actually, three roles to be precise. Our director decided to do some unconventional casting, and so she cast all the women in the cast as the English, and all the men as the French. So I'm Alice (maid/lady-in-waiting to Katharine, the French princess), a messenger to the Grandpre, and the Grandpre himself. It should be fun. It's great to just have somebody else plan everything and tell me what to do and when to show up. I don't have to plan a thing! Yay. Thankfully, it's not devouring too much of my time or energy, because I have something else on my plate that is devouring my time and energy. This brings me to:

PART II: Piano Recital
In other news, as I mentioned briefly here, I am performing my Suzuki Piano Gradution Recital on February 13, which is like, tomorrow. When you complete all 7 volumes of the Suzuki Piano repertoire, you perform a solo recital, which is what I'm doing. Actually, I'm not exactly doing it the conventional way, as I'm only playing one piece of music from the Suzuki repertoire. Ha. But I do have a full hours worth of music memorized to play. So, I've been practising madly 3 hours a day. Btw, if you're interested, here is the program I'm playing.

F. Chopin
Polonaise Opus 26, No. 1 in C# Minor

W. A. Mozart
Piano Sonata in Bb Major, K. 281

S. Rachmaninoff
Prelude in C# Minor, Opus 3, No. 2

J. S. Bach
Partita No. 1 in Bb

I. J. Paderewski
Minuet in G, Opus 14, No. 1

A. Ginastera
Suite de Danzas Criollas 

Part III will come in another part, as I must go eat breakfast and get to practising.

About the name of this blog

I don't think that I've ever posted about why this blog is entitled Musings of a Liber Boy. 

Liber is a Latin word that means free. It originates from the name for tree bark which was used in ancient times for writing on. Those who were free (and not slaves) were usually fortunate enough to be able to read and write, and so the "educated", or free folk were called liber.
I feel so fortunate to be truly free, both in mind and body, and so I put that in the title as a reminder to myself of what a blessing it is to be a free person.

The other part of the title is simply what this blog is about: musings. It's a place for me to write my thoughts, and my musings for other people to read. They might be just a couple thoughts, or they might be some formalized paragraphs, but they are always musings from a free, young guy (that's me).

Enjoy!

Back into a schedule

Ahh, bliss. After getting H1N1 (which really through me off my normal schedule) and then getting into the really intense period of rehearsals and performances, I finally feel like I'm back on my regular schedule of things.
My normal weekday schedule looks something like this.

0700-0800- Read in bed, eat breakfast, check email etc.
0800-1100- Practice piano
1100-1200- Practice flute
1200-1300- Lunch, email,
1300-1500- Math
1500-onwards- French, reading etc. It really depends. I have supper around 1730/1800 and then every 2nd day, I use the ellipticle for an hour, and stretch etc. And then I spend the rest of the evening unwinding, etc. And then I'm in bed at 2230.

It works really well me, and when I stray off that schedule, I tend to get grouchy and feel useless. It's a fairly loose schedule, and with lessons and other appointments, I never get 5 days just like that in a week, but it puts some form to my days and makes me a lot happier. So it's nice to get back to my happy, little schedule.

What do you do to ensure your general sanity?

My life

After my last post, I took all of my own advice, (which really is good advice, honest)...and promptly got sick. Very unpleasant. Without getting a swab, it's pretty tough to tell exactly what it was, but it's looking like I had H1N1. I had like, all the symptoms. Honestly, I went through the list of symptoms and I had every, single one. Almost funny. Almost. But now I don't have to get the vaccine because I have the natural immunity. Yay?

Anyway.

The long and short of it is that I've missed three rehearsals that I should have been at, a piano lesson, a piano masterclass, a cello class (that I am supposed to accompany on piano), a flute lesson, a voice lesson and who knows what else. So I'm grumpy. Grrr. But I had a good music rehearsal today with the musicians for the Tempest. Actually, with only 3/5 of them, and then I had to play the other two parts on the piano. But it was good, and we went through all the pieces with the script and worked them in where they should go.

That's all for now.

I love Rachmaninoff. And Britten.

Stephen Hough (who is a fabulous pianist/composer/writer and one who I really really think is brilliant) posted on his blog today about composers and how some of them just click for people. You can read the full article here.

He says:
"Perhaps it’s like friendship, we just like certain people and not others; we resonate with certain composers; we are touched by the cracks between their notes; their music has a ’smell’ with which seduces us, leading us willingly into submission beyond analysis or logic.  A composer we love is one where we treasure even the dross, even as we recognize that it is dross. "

I can certainly say that's true for me. For me, two of those composers would be Rachmaninoff and Britten. From the very beginning, their music just enticed me: the textures, the harmonies, the moods, just the very sound. I just like them. It really is just like friendship: you just like certain people, for reasons that you may or may not be able to pinpoint.

What composers (or musicians/artists/bands/singers) do you like? Or heck, let's not limit it to music. What artists (in the visual art sense) or actors or dancers etc. do you admire and respect and just click with? And why (if you can pinpoint it?)

Answers!

So, people asked me questions! Well, two people anyway. Yay, this is fun.

So here are my answers.

Kathleen asks:
"What did you cook for breakfast this morning?"

Well, this morning, I had scrambled eggs and salsa rolled up in a tortilla. It was delectable.

Anonymous asks:
"Have you read every Shakespeare play? And which (ones) are your favourite(s)?"

and also

"How long do you usually practice your instruments?"

No, I actually haven't read them all of them. Out of the 37 plays that are expressly credited to Shakespeare, I've read 26 of them. And my favourites? Hmm. These would be my top ten in NO particular order.

1. Much Ado About Nothing
2. A Midsummer Night's Dream
3. Twelfth Night
4. Timon of Athens
   
5. Othello
6. The Tempest
7. Titus Andronicus
8. Hamlet
9. Richard II
10. Richard III

(Honourable mention: All's Well That Ends Well)
 So that's my top 10 (well, 11)

As for how long I practice my instruments: I practice piano daily for 2-3 hours and flute for about 1 hour. And then I usually don't "practice" singing per se, but I just usually sing while I go about my daily life. So I practice all day. Ha ha. :)

So, that was fun! I think we should do that more often, maybe, say, once a week. It's fun, because you suggest what I should blog about (see? It's just a plot to make you come up with my topics rather then me!)

Talk to y'all soon.

10 things about me that you may not have known

1. I like people, but often distance myself from them for various reasons.
2. I believe in equal rights and equal treatment for everyone, whether they’re male or female, black or white, gay or straight, Christian or Muslim, American or Canadian etc.
3. I don’t like loud noises, or loud voices or crowds of people for that matter. 
4. I drink copious amounts of water. I mean a lot of water. Obsessively. Yeah, I love me my water.
5. I love being barefoot. I like it more than wearing shoes. In the summer, I almost never wear shoes.
6. I like class. You know, not really formal things, but I love wearing a nice shirt and tie, and doing something classy, like playing a music recital or going to the theatre or the symphony.
7. I don’t swear. It doesn’t offend me per say, but I’d rather not stoop that low. I can be classier and more creative with my language than that. 
8. I enjoy cleaning my room. Yes, you really did read that right. I find cleaning my room very therapeutic. I put on some music, and just...clean. It’s relaxing.
9. I read Shakespeare. And lots of old books. For fun.
10. And I get called weird. Quite a lot. And I’m proud of that. Because I don’t want to be called normal.
    

School, and my musical lack of happiness

Hey everybody,

Well, "school" has started for me! Kind of. Being a homeschooler, who's to say when school really begins? But for me, since some of my weekly lessons have begun, and I'm back to practicing piano and flute for hours, and doing math etc, I think it's started for me. I have to admit, I'm pretty happy to be back at it!

Right now, I'm still writing music for my youth theatre's production of The Tempest. It's coming along pretty well (I've written 8.5 minutes!), but I'm finding that I have trouble writing really happy music. Maybe it's because I like really dark music and stuff in minor keys. That's all good when I'm writing whatever I want, but in this show, there's a couple of spots where it's actually gotta to be joyful. It's funny, because if you know me at all, you'll know that I'm a very happy person. I'm not a dark souled, troubled, sad person. Quite the contrary! But when it comes to music, I just like...dark music. So I'm trying to listen to happy, joyful tonal music, as opposed to my regular music (Sweeney Todd, Wicked, RENT, Rachmaninoff, Prokofiev...)

So, that's a little update into my life. :)

My (temporary) facebook purge

If you're friends with me on facebook, you probably noticed that I'm taking a two-week break from facebook. I've done this once before (you can read about that here) but I did it for just a week then. So I'm going to quote some my post from then, as my reasons for leaving are largely the same.

"Now, I'll just clarify. I do not hate facebook. I love facebook. I really do. It's fun, and makes it easy to connect with friends I haven't seen in a long time, or live far away from me. So this isn't a stand against facebook at all. Its just a way for me to take a break from something that was becoming too much of a time waster for me"

And mainly, I've been feeling like I really need more time to read, think, observe, write and compose. And facebook is too much of a distraction from that. So goodbye facebook. I'll be back in two weeks. I'm still going to blog daily and email and all that, just...no facebook.

It feels good for me.

What have I been up to lately?

Well, for starters, I'm writing a whole bunch of music for a youth production of The Tempest with Celsius Youth Theatre which is the theatre company that I co-founded. I'm writing a fair amount of music, in a relatively short time, so it's rather challenging, but hey, deadlines are good. We're having some live musicians that will be playing the live music on stage with the production, so I think it will be really great. We have 1 bass guitarist, 1 classical guitarist, 1 violinist and 1 recorder. Funky combo, huh?

I'm also doing some reading. At Kelsey's suggestion via the comments section, I'm reading How Doctors think by Jerome Groopman. I'm finding it really interesting, and I'll be sure to post a review once I'm finished. I'm also reading Richard II by Billy Shakespeare. I've only just started reading it, but again I'll post a review when I'm done.

What I look for in a movie

Lately, I've been thinking a bit about what makes a movie really good for me. Here are some things that are important to me in a movie.

1. Character arcs. The characters need to change throughout the movie, and go through some kind of journey.
2. I especially like movies where the movie is held up purely by the acting. Movies such as Doubt or Frost/Nixon are good examples of this, where the plots are fairly slow moving, but are made interesting by the acting.
3. Special effects are not important to me.
4. A clever plot is a plus, but is wasted for me if there isn't an emotional core to it.

Those are some things that I look for in a movie. What do you look for in a movie?

Dan on Dating

Yep, you read that right. I really am going to post about dating.

Why? Well, because:

a) Its something I've been thinking about lately,

b) I'm sixteen and *gasp* still single, which is something that in our culture seems to be socially unacceptable, and

c) I want to.

Currently, my relationship status would be "Single" and "Not Looking". Period. I'm really not interested in any kind of relationship at this time. Call me old-fashioned, but I really see dating as preparation for marriage, and seeing as I'm sixteen, I doubt I'll be getting married any time soon. It really weirds me out when I see boys my age (or younger) with girlfriends. I just want to ask them, do you actually love your girlfriends, or do you just pick a random attractive girl and ask her out so you can just be like the rest? Is your girlfriend really someone you're attracted to emotionally, or do you just go out with her so you can be more "socially acceptable" and be able to say that you have a girlfriend?

Now, I don't want to come across as preachy (and I expect that I probably am), but I just have a problem with dating for the point of dating. I think that dating should ultimately lead to marriage and I highly doubt that most 14 year olds are planning to get married at that age. So whats the point of dating?

Comment! Please! ;)

What I've been listening to lately

I've recently discovered some violin concertos that I am currently infatuated with.

1. Benjamin Britten's Violin Concerto.
This concerto is sooo good. Very haunting, and super beautiful. I'm actually seeing a performance of it live in a week or two. I'm super excited.

2. Mendelssohn Violin Concerto
I would learn violin just to be able to play this piece! The opening theme introduced by the violin is one of the best ever IMHO.

3. Brahms Violin Concerto
This concerto is perfection, do you hear? Listen to it today, do not delay. It is like candy to my ears.

I find it just unbelieveable how much incredible music there is out there.

Oh yeah, and if you have a piece of classical that you think I should hear, let me know! I always love hearing new music!

8 things about me!

I have seen this on a number of other blogs and I thought I'd do it on mine too!

Here is 8 random things about me!

1. I loooove classical music.

2. I was born in Vancouver, BC and I love the ocean. I want to live on a small island a couple kilometers out to sea when I am older.

3. I own two Oriental Fire-Bellied Toads. I love frogs.

4. I'm a composer. Not a very good one, mind you, but I do love it.

5. I love reading. I like history and some fiction.

6. I am considered a nerd by some of my friends. It could be because I love learning and studying thing that they consider boring, like parlimentary procedures. I am reading Roberts Rules of Order right now.

7. I love to geocache.

8. I love making lists and have every thing organized neatly, but fail to do so in my own room!