JCHRants

A compendium of musings on music and this business we call show

Poppy

06.7.2018

Just a brief ‘hello!’. Rog is away and I’m slaving away. I rarely venture into the world of politics or the greater culture but I keep running across Poppy…

…but all I see when I look at her is Ivanka Trump.

OK, I’ve had my little joke so onward.

It Must Be Ironic To Be Devo

I’ve written a number of times that I don’t do irony much any more. I should’ve learned my lesson very early on but like Dorothy I wasn’t ready for the idea. As a teen, I was in a band that got to open for Devo. And I thought of them at the time as ‘punk’. I thought of them as having a ‘message’. They were saying some pretty sophisticated stuff about the world starting to fall apart. But within […]

Tower Hill – Snippet The Boats

05.19.2018

Opera, The Boats

The last snippet from the new opera, The Boats: Tower Hill? Why is it taking so long (again)? No fun factor. Getting the band back together? Too Old To Rock & Roll. Trump Virus. The American Dream.

Roger CortonIs it possible? The last snippet?

Tower Hill

JC HarrisAnything is possible.

RCIt seems like it’s been going on…

JCHForever?

RCYou said it. I didn’t.

JCHI did say it.

RCI seem to recall at certain times we’ve done rants titled “Why is it taking so long.”

JCHI vaguely remember those. Like a bad fever.

RCSo…

JCHWell in twenty five words or less, there’s health and then there’s inspiration and then there’s the related ‘fun factor’.

RCFun factor, you say.

JCHYeah, we’ve beaten that to death. Look, when I work on ‘normal’ stuff, I’m working on stuff based on what I’m enjoying. But this opera is essentially […]

I Will Try You – Snippet The Boats

04.16.2018

Opera, The Boats

A snippet from the new opera, The Boats: I Will Try You. Dogs that won’t behave and hand clapping skills. The Smiths and How Soon Is Now. Emergency couples therapy, The Marriage Of Figaro and fishing boat captains. The inner voice revisited. La Boheme revisited. Bring on the soaring guitars.

Roger CortonPower chords.

I Will Try You

JC Harris

RCIt starts out with the hand clapping.

JCHSo it’s breakfast and Móirín and Ciarán are doing what lots of households do, having a fight whilst taking care of chores. In this case she’s calling in one of the dogs.

RCFrom the farm.

RCWell, it’s not really a farm. But yeah, the property where sheep graze. Sheep dogs. And the dog isn’t minding and it’s exasperating. So she’s clapping that pattern over and over. And that blends in with her telling off Ciarán. But his mind is off somewhere else. It’s just this background noise.

[…]

Set And Forget Learning

04.6.2018

Culture, Teaching

A Letter To The Editor, Tape-Op Magazine #122

A great end rant.

It dawned on me as I read your editorial that it’s probably no coincidence that the breakdown of this ‘system’ would occur just as Youtube makes available so much task based learning that I would have killed for back in the day.

I have several concerns about the prevalence of videos now on the web.

1. Call it sour grapes, but as a some-time music teacher, I regularly see how students see no reason to pay me for lessons. In fact, I often fall into this trap myself–deciding that I can do things myself that actually could be handled easier by paying a professional. For some reason, we can’t see the abstract value we bring to the table as ‘pros’.

2. Today there are precious few kids who even want to learn to play an instrument or learn to record properly. I don’t mean this to be snarky, but there is a general expectation that music production will be a one-button […]

Tsunami – Snippet The Boats

03.5.2018

Opera, The Boats

A snippet from the new opera, The Boats: Tsunami, The second wave, Verdi, La Traviata, Dying at 100 decibels, The inner voice in opera, Monty Python And The Holy Grail, I’m not dead yet, Brazil, A different kind of Botox.

Roger CortonAnd still. Another. New. Snippet.

Tsunami

JC HarrisRight you are, Rog! But wait. If you act now, you will receive. Not one! But two! Absolutely free…

RCJust pay a small shipping fee.

JCHExactly.

RCBack on planet earth, let’s talk about the piece. For a piece called ‘Tsunami’ this is fairly quiet stuff.

JCHYes. This is the first aria which directly follows the Overture. Our main character, Ciarán, sits on a bench on the cliff overlooking the town at sunrise. From there you can also see the ocean. He’s just having a think before the auction.

RCSo the tsunami is a metaphor.

JCHRight. It’s this ginormous, silent […]