UPDATE (11/7/11): I've just posted a new list of useful (?) pedagogical material developed on MMmusing. Take a look: Using MMusing
THIS GUIDE HASN'T BEEN UPDATED IN A LONG TIME, BUT AN UPDATE IS COMING SOON. (10/19/12)
I started this blog in February of 2007, partially to fill the time created when I decided to give up following sports for Lent. March, April, and May were quite prolific; since then things have slowed down to a more normal pace, about 10 posts per month. As much as anything, I began the blog to get myself writing regularly, but I've also ended up creating quite a bit of multimedia content to complement my musings. The most fun way to sample that content is to spin (click) the MMmusing Wheel over in the right margin; there are more than 100 different possible outcomes. If you're less daring, you could just check out some of the "signature" posts in the margin, or browse the index below. You can also explore MMmovies at MMtube and MMmusic at the MMjukebox.
Christmas Specials - I spent my first December as a blogger bringing back some old Christmas creations of mine:
Hattopalooza - my first and favorite blog topic, the Joyce Hatto scandal, inspired several posts and even some sonnets.
- The Hatto Sonnets
- Hatto Movie (and more links)
Loopapolooza
- a series of posts and videos that explore various types of looping systems, from Bach canons to an ambigram on the cover of a DVD box.
- Slavic Sequence Segue - explores and merges similar passages in Rachmaninoff and Tchaikovsky.
- Tchaikovsky Loop - the same sequential Tchaikovsky passage is looped indefinitely and paired with an Escher-like animation.
- Swan Loop - A passage from The Swan is extended via Shepard Tones, while yet another Tchaikovsky sequence is looped, much to the annoyance of a circling swan.
- Canon Loop - Bach's modulating spiral canon is recorded using Shepard Tones so that it continuously modulates upwards without going anywhere.
- Ambigram Discovery - my first exposure to the art of ambigrams, via the cover of The Princess Bride DVD case.
- Bach's Crab Canon - a recording in which the second voice is simply the reversed audio of the first, with crustacean animation.
- Bach Ambigram - my first ambigram creation, revealed as the letters are drawn in counterpoint, with Bach's crab canon as accompaniment.
- Carrousel perpétuel - The score for Poulenc's Mouvement perpétuel #1 imagined as a merry-go-round.
Poetry & Other Creative Writing
- The Hatto Sonnets
- The Joshua Bell in the Subway Sonnets
- Jason at the Line
- A Taste of 1825 (an imaginary conversation)
Audio Mashups
- Haydn's The Heavens are Telling meets Oklahoma!
- Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto segues into Mendelssohn
- A Britten fugue meets Lerner & Loewe
- Circus tune meets Bizet's Carmen
- The Rite of Springfield: The Simpsons' Theme meets Bach, Mozart, and Stravinsky
- "Amphetepollini" - Maurizio Pollini's virtuoso recordings sped up
- Yegue narrates the slow movement of Mozart's K.467
- Veracini gone bad
- Found Music (When Handel met Mozart)
- Shuffled Music (When Stravinsky met the Beatles)
Video, etc.
- The 12 Composers of Christmas
- Peter and the Wolf (with MM providing piano soundtrack)
- Biking Video (fun with soundtracks)
- Reading Madeline (a two-year old reads)
- Surprise Theme (a very youthful quartet takes on Haydn)
- Leonard Bernstein's inspiring lecture, The Infinite Variety of Music
- The Thrill & the Agony (a tiny 3D movie)
- A Face from the Past - reconciling a new image of J.S. Bach with the context we expect.
Phun with Photoshop
- Simpsonizing Stravinsky & MM
- Charles Rosen & Yoda
- Maria Tipo's Sanitized Bach
- LOL Captions (the less said, the better)
- Biking Video (fun with soundtracks)
- Reading Madeline (a two-year old reads)
- Surprise Theme (a very youthful quartet takes on Haydn)
- Yesterday (a six-year old sings)
- 15-second Ballet (a stop-motion animation created with my daughter)
- Piano Man - the boy plays two pianos at once.
- The 12 Composers of Christmas
- Rex the Stickman (a tiny children's book)
- The Thrill & the Agony (a tiny 3D movie)
- Email Man (an animated GIF I created back in the late 90s)
- Hyperspace (why the Internet reflects the way I think)
- Tools of Engagement (why I seem to need audio/visual aids)
- Transcription as a Metaphor for Listening (why I don't mind crummy iPod audio)
- Constraints (why it's good to be constrained)
- Pedal Tones (just a little obsession of mine)
- My Favorite Music (a subjective list of favorites)
- Leonard Bernstein's inspiring lecture, The Infinite Variety of Music
- Composers inspired by sitcoms
- Gary Graffman's run-in with the Russian Tradition
- The Amazing Youth Orchestra of Venezuela
Bach to the MMmusing home page.
