Musica Ficta.

I now live in the quiet little town of Fredericksburg, Virginia!

Situated on the banks of the Rappahannock River, Fredericksburg is a beautiful old village rich in American history.

Aside from the decisive Confederate victory that it is perhaps most known for, Fredericksburg and it's surrounding area is also home to James Monroe's law office, several other Revolutionary-War and Civil War sites, and across the river from George Washington's boyhood home in Stafford, Virginia.
It is also the home of Mary Washington University and some notable historic architecture.

Culturally, it is considered the gateway to 'true Virginia' and is no longer considered 'NoVa'. This is up for debate due to the amount of commuters who commute to DC - myself unwillingly one of them - but I tend to still agree that it is not a part of NoVa. It is much more civilized, safer, relatively inexpensive; and also geographically closer to Richmond than to DC by 15 miles.

As for my new apartment, I am on a the top floor and corner unit of a tidy 1940's era building with views across three directions on a very quiet tree-lined residential street overlooking Mary Washington Park (I believe that is the name). The Kenmore Plantation - an 18th century manor - is about three blocks away from me, and the center of the 'Historic District' downtown -- basically summarized as restaurants, pubs, historical sites and antique shops -- is a tenth short of a mile from me. The Virginia Rail Express commuter railway into DC also has it's terminus located in the downtown area, and this is how I will get to work on most days.

Surrounded by plenty to do and see, a beautiful park to play in, a few interesting musical opportunities, and the ability to walk and shop at various markets in the downtown area; I really am quite happy to have moved here!

http://www.fedsolutions.com/newsletter/

Articles written by me.
Bad StarTrek pun by me.
Graphics (except for the first one that is a Windows 7 Ad) are by me.
Coding is by me, or --more accurately -- cobled together from code-repositories and grafted onto a PHP wordpress template (with a custom template design, also designed by me).

The code is supposed to resize the article based on the size of your screen when you click the 'more' link.
It might not work propperly -- I would like to know if you have problems with it.



Comments in general are very much welcome!

On account of the three day weekend, I started driving South on Saturday with no real ambition.

I visited Manassas battlefield first, and on finding that pretty but boring, I just continued to drive down 66 west. I heard of a place called 'Natural Bridge', and not knowing where that was, put it into my GPS and just started driving. Nothing planned, no extra clothing (although I did bring a second pair of shoes)... just sheer impulse. It felt good.

After over three hours through the beautiful Virginia countryside, and well into the middle of the Shenandoah Mountains, I decided it was getting late and that I mind as well stay at an inn somewhere.

The nearest town to Natural Bridge is a town called Lexington, which also happens to be where the Virginia Military Institute (VMI) and Washington and Lee university are both located.

On diving in, the first thing that struck me is how quaint the town was -- it looked like it came out of an English village! Not just that, but the streets were appropriately narrow.

Not wanting to stay in the hotels several miles away, I decided to stay at a lovely 18th century inn right in the middle of town. Not only was it absolutely lovely, but also quite affordable!

Once I was settled, which involved parking the Jeep and moving my computer bag inside -- I never leave home without Elena) -- I then proceeded to find a bar.

A few hours later, the next interesting thing to occur was at the bar itself. I met two VMI students, one of them a recently graduated and recently commissioned Marine officer, and the other, a senior about to graduate after this summer. They were really great folks, and one of them was also in the Bagpipe corps.

He had applied (and was accepted) to Oberlin for Sax, but had turned it down in favor of the military institute -- we had quite a good laugh about Oberlin's (extra-musical) reputation.

A good conversation about music, military history, and their experience at the academy ensued -- quite a fascinating evening, in fact!


The next day I checked out of the inn and made it up to the Natural Bridge park. The first think that struck me is how much of a tourist-trap the town surrounding it is -- its like something out of the movies, what with the dinosaurs everywhere, the safari-zoo (poor animals!) and--best of all-- Foam Henge!!!

The gift shop for the actual park is quite extensive too, to say the least.

Oddly enough, natural bridge's admission also includes admission to a wax museum (skipped) and a toy museum.

Since it was on the way to the park, I went to the toy museum. After which, I immediately called my parents and discussed the feasibility of opening a toy museum myself. It was wonderful to see all my old friends again, GI Joe's, Force-one planes, star wars, batman, star trek, and old model kits to name a few. I definitely had some stuff they didn't, but it was still great fun to see it all massed together -- mostly toys from the late 80's and early 90's --- precisely when I was interested in such things.


The bridge itself is quite striking, and you can see George Washington's (alleged) initials still carved into the stone, which has been circled with chalk. Its quite tall, and apparently strong enough that the Lee highway (US 11) goes over it, as if it were any other bridge.

Further on down the trail is a recreated Mohattan Indian village, with living historians and the like. This was pretty neat, and as far as I could tell, much better done than the similar thing at the Jamestown park. It was small, but seemed to be very well researched. Incidently, "Indian" is the term that was used, not 'Native American'... both by the people there (at least one of whom was from the real tribe), and the rest of the musuem staff.

Further on down the trail was a cave ( you couldn't go in to it), a 'lost river' that is apparently subterranean and whose source and destination are still unknown -- and by river, we mean tiny stream -- and last but not least, a really pretty waterfall at the end of the trail. This is where my face book picture is taken, presently.

After the pleasant hike and park visitation, I decided to head back to Lexington and peruse a few of the shops. The Washington and Lee university Chapel, known as Lee Chapel, is coincidently the burial place of Robert E Lee, 'Light Horse Harry' Lee (A close friend of George Washington's, and Robert E Lee's father), and the rest of their family. As my mother is a enthusiastic civil war historian, I thought the gift-shop itself would be handy for finding gifts to her upcoming birthday -- which turned out to be more than true.

The chapel itself is quite pretty, and there is a small museum in the basement. One of the more interesting things is the fact that they left Lee's office in the basement of the building, exactly as it was when he died, according to tradition.

Being the music-geek that I am (or was?), I made a point to inquire about the organ.
Turns out was an 1873 Erbler (well known NY builder), that was installed right after Lee's death and at his family's bequest. I asked to see the keyboard closer, as it was in remarkably good shape -- and the guide says "hold on a second, let me get you the key". One thing led to another, and the guide encouraged me to play the instrument, even though he was not technically allowed to allow me.

Yes, I played the 1873 pipe organ in Robert E Lee's burial church -- and for shyness and lack of practice, I played the first thing that came to mind: The doxology. Lee was Episcopalian, and the chapel was non-denominational, so it fit in a way. The instrument, which is apparently almost never played, had an absolutely lovely sound to it -- although a very stiff tracker action, partly because of the lack of use. I dare say its the oldest instrument I've played thus far, too.


Needless to say, I was quite elated by the weekend events, and after some more town-shopping, I began heading back. I made a point to drive to Winchester, which was a little out of my way, to report on a house that my parents are considering there. It was a lovely 1840's (pre civil war!) former plantation that still had about 4 acres of land. Classic southern style, with the columns and the large porch. It's currently empty, however, and in need of some major repair. I'll take them to it again when they visit in a few weeks for Mom's birthday.

All and all an excellent little adventure!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VyPShAu552E


Another one of me trying to play something on harpsichord... this time its a William Byrd Corranto (aka 'Coranto) from the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book (II, in the Dover).
A chance to test out the accoustics in my new apartment in Va... I like it! Note this is even with a wall-to-wall carpet, and nearly all furniture in place. The three foot 'cutout' ceiling extention by the upper windows does wonders for the sound -- creates an arch-effect and even gives a little reverberation, despite the carpet.

Surprisingly, this harpsichord has not been tuned since the move with the exception of the lowest octave. She kept her tuning quite well, even despite a large temperature change, at least three days sitting in a parked car outdoors, and a 357 mile move.

Also, I guess if its of note, is the lack of beard.



Comments of all types welcome, as always. :-)

another train- written entry ... so, do you ever wave your hand and feel like a jedi walking through a double automated door? I do...


and if you 'get' the title you are indeed a super nerd, like I.

Well, I did it.
I posted on youtube a harpsichord piece.

*runs and hides*




Its Sweelinck.

Recently I was introduced to an absolutely wonderful idea hosted by the UN World Hunger Relief program which allows you to play an online word game for points that convert directly into grains of rice (in incriments of ten) that are in turn donated to places in need by corporate and private sponsors. It can be found at:

http://www.freerice.com/

I've made a point to play a little bit each day because 1.) it’s a good cause and 2.) the game is actually quite challenging and fun. For those interested, it is a vocabulary based game, similar in a way to the old SAT lists, but gauged to the user's abilities. For every three you get correct, you move up one level in 'difficulty', which is based on percentages of 'how many words' people get wrong in the database, but for every one you get wrong, you move back one level (unless you were on the third-of three correct, in which case you are graced to stay at the current level).

They offer it in French, German, Italian, Spanish and English I believe -- but I can assure you, you will get plenty of everything with the English list! There is also an 'art' test, two chemistry based versions, two geography based versions, two mathematics versions, and -- for the masochists among you -- English Grammar!

In the English language version, however, I have seen unabashed French, Italian, Latin (quite a bit of legal and medical Latin on here), one German word, and one or two words in a language that I am fairly sure was Punjabi (an Indian language). There was quite possibly a word or two I came across from an African language too, not to mention quite a few old-English, middle English and early-modern (Shakespearean) words to muddle things up a bit! So far I've made it up to level 47, but I tend to 'stabilize' around the 42-level. There have even been some music-specific terms, including 'Cembalo" (harpsichord, in Italian), Madrigal, Chanson, and 'semi-breve' (whole note) somewhere around the 38-level.

According to the website,

FreeRice has a custom database containing knowledge questions at varying levels of difficulty. There are levels appropriate for beginners and levels that will challenge the most scholarly professors. In between are levels suitable for students of all ages, business people, homemakers, doctors, truck drivers, retired people… everyone!

It also goes on to say that "few people have ever gotten beyond level 50". It is my goal to become one of these people. Great practice for the GRE, if anything else. AND a good cause!
Highly recommended, dear readers.

(orriginal caption)

A Koala nicknamed Sam, saved from the bushfires in Gippsland, is cared at the Mountain Ash Wildlife Center in Rawson, 100 miles (170 kilometers) east of Melbourne, Australia, where workers were scrambling to salve the wounds of possums, kangaroos and lizards Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2009. A thirsty koala rescued from the Australian wildfires has become a star on video-sharing website YouTube, providing much-needed relief from the disaster that has killed more than 180 people.(Xinhua/AFP Photo)

from: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-02/13/content_10813408.htm

Poor dear! I had no idea a Koala was that tame.. but she was burned pretty badly.
Its so sad to read about all the devistation and loss of life happening over there right now.
At least Sam survived...

I just listened to the last movement of Beethoven's 9th off of a video on youtube. (Bernstien conducting, 1989)
I regret to say that this was my first time hearing this movement, as I had only heard the first movement prior.
I knew of the last 'choral' movement, but never had actually listened to it in its entirety before.

First thought:
If I had ever become a full-fledged organist\choir-director, as I had once intended, and by chance happened to be leading the 'hymn' version derived from the principal theme of this symphony, I would devise an introduction loosely based on the theme introduction and accompaniment in the actual symphony. I would also account for the rhythmic alteration, of course. I have a rather interesting idea in my head, but I do not think it is really worth writing it down as 1.) I'm sure that this has already been done by someone more qualified to write such things, and 2.) I will not likely ever have need for it anyways.

Second thought:
That really is a spectacular piece of music. It is quite satisfying to listen to, and I would love to perform in the choir of it some day.
With that said, and perhaps this is sacrilege, but I found the first half far more interesting than the latter half, and found the ending very sudden. Perhaps this is due to the recording, but I also could not make any 'harmonic sense' out of the solo quartet.
Either the soloists were all-over-the-map, as is quite possible, or the solo-quartet writing is indeed very strange. It sounded much more like four entirely independent lines that had nothing to do with one another. Perhaps that was the intention, I do not know -- I should try to look at the score one of these days.

Third thought:
Seeing the director jump about with heightened emotion was quite touching, in a strange way. I'm fascinated with conducting to begin with -- had I continued in Music, especially the performance side of things, it was my intention to become a conductor foremost. A performing musicologist, so to speak, who took the ideas found and learned and translated them into practice. Perhaps seeing this video also brought on a bit of nostalgia for the (very) few times I was lucky enough to be involved in a large-choir\orchestra work. I really miss being a part of such things and I miss hearing such things in person, too. Its been at least a year and a half since I went to a proper concert.

Fourth thought:
I can now, perhaps, understand the 'cult of Beethoven' that arose in the 19th century -- more specifically, the idea that one could not compose a symphony after the 9th, or if such, it had to have some homage to the 5th, 9th or 3rd. I never understood that concept before, but as a (admittedly very unskilled) composer myself, I can now finally understand the 'awe' that must have hit that generation in trying to 'live up' to Beethoven's 'shadow', so to speak. To put it another way, I am having a very difficult time wanting to continue my one orchestral composition after listening to that. Note that this is even accounting for the fact that the unfinished work bears no resemblance in style or aesthetic to Beethoven, and neither is it intended to, and yet the feeling of inadequacy still persists in a very false comparison.

And in the department of oddity...


I have a mashup up Twisted Sister's "were not going to take it", and the Beatles "let it be", somewhat sung to the tune of "the first noel" stuck in my head on loop...

And before that concoction, was an interminably long repeating rendition of Billy Joel's "Piano Man", also stuck in my head, and with the verses in all sorts of random order, and even combined in strange ways.

I swear to you, none of this was conscious... in fact, it was bloody annoying.

but funny, nonetheless.