baroque in okc

Something special happened today! Here in OKC there was an authentic baroque concert given. As you know, baroque music is my absolute favorite. I have a passion for it. So when I heard there would be a concert given I was extremely excited. I was worried it would be canceled, as we had a bit of snow and places in OK like to close up when it snows. (Starbucks was closed today!)

The concert was in the beautiful chapel at the First Presbyterian church. 

The exceptional musicians were Brad Bennight on harpsichord, and Henning Vater on violin. I was very anxious, so I arrived early. Actually, I was the first audience member haha! (I was only 15 minutes early!)

Walking into the chapel I saw the harpsichord, and it brought back memories of my first baroque concert in Amsterdam. 

The harpsichordist, Brad Bennight, built this beautiful instrument. And an interesting fact about the violinist, he was playing an Italian violin from around 1750. Apparently Haydn had a viola from the same maker of this violin! 

The concert was absolutely amazing. I was in a place only baroque music can take me, and the program was great. Two amazing composers. Prior to this concert I had only heard a few pieces by Krebs, and that's a shame because the music was wonderful. I even purchased a CD of Bennight playing Krebs harpsichord music afterwards. It was truly an amazing performance.

the fashion of snuff

This is an article I wrote on an 18th century forum community on the importance of snuff tobacco in 18th century society.

Tobacco use by today’s standards is often taboo, or frowned upon by society, but as I am sure most of us know, it has not always been like that. In fact, some forms of tobacco use were actually considered elegant and stylish. During the eighteenth century, tobacco use in Europe took on the very fashionable form of snuff.

A stylish man taking snuff from his hand.

     Snuff is simply powdered tobacco. It can be plain, or scented with essential oils from herbs, flowers, or fruit. Snuff is gently sniffed (or snuffed) through the nose. The snuff should stay in the front of one’s nose, sniffing too hard (snorting) can cause the snuff to go too far up the nose and hit the throat, thus ruining the lovely sensation that goes along with snuff taking.

A french man taking a pinch from his snuffbox.

     Snuff was used as a social medium of self-projection, separating the wealthy aristocracy from the common people, who still smoked their clay pipes.* Snuff taking grew quickly in popularity, and reached proportions which are hardly imaginable today. Like a cane or a fan, the small highly decorated snuffboxes were very fashionable accessories for men and women. Women did not take to the habit of smoking, but they readily took up snuff, as many books on etiquette of the 18th century period refer to proper snuff taking. The wealthy and fashionable not only had different boxes and a variety of flavors of snuff, but many even had a different box for each change of outfit!**

A woman being offered snuff.

     Rich fashionable men often would gather with their snuffboxes and offer each other different opinions in snuff etiquette with complicated and fantastic rituals that went along with snuff taking. When having guests, a host would often offer his or her snuffbox from which the guests could take a pinch.

Sources

*http://www.tobaccocollection.com/

**Bourne, Ursula "Snuff" C.I. Thomas & Sons. 1990. (Book)

dido & aeneas

Greetings! Today I wanted to share with you all a new musical doodle. This one is probably my new favorite. I've been really obsessed with the story of Dido & Aeneas lately, and this piece was somewhat inspired with it. All the paintings in the slide show are depictions of the tragic love story, the last one being Dido's death.

This could be performed on a number of instruments, both solo or duet. I have it voiced on classical guitar for this clip, as that is the best electronic voice I could find!

If anyone would like sheet music for this, feel free to comment requesting it!

musical doodle

Sometimes I get bored at school, which results in me locking myself in a practice room with intentions of practicing my viola, but I usually end up messing around on the piano. Well that happened to me yesterday, and I came up with a little musical "doodle."  Of course it's in a somewhat Baroque style. What else would you expect from me? 

The paintings are by the Baroque Dutch artist Gerard ter Borch.

If anyone wants sheet music for this just ask me. It would be a fun little piece for a beginning pianist. 

rondo no. 1

Hello again! I thought I'd share a little summer project with everyone. I'm a music student, and as I'm sure you've figured out I love everything baroque. I loved learning theory at school, and decided to write a short little baroque-spirited rondo! This could be performed on a keyboard instrument, or perhaps a soprano and alto instrument duet. I'm thinking about playing each part on recorder and putting it together. I love baroque recorder.

The pictures accompanying the music depict everyday people from the period (some earlier, some later baroque.) Please let me know what you think in the comments!

Thanks for any input :)

P.S.  If you want the sheet music for this, just let me know. It would make a nice beginning pianist piece.

baroque criticism

So, lately I've been going to the gym to try and get into better shape. I always do about an hour on the recumbent bikes. They sometimes can get boring, but as long as I have some good music to listen to, it's all good! So, what do I usually listen to? It really depends on what mood I'm in. Some nights it may be Philip Glass, others Lady Gaga, but tonight was Vivaldi and Pergolesi.

Baroque music is one of my passions. I find it one of the most beautiful and underrated eras/genres of music. I go to a pretty big music school, and you would be quite amazed at how many music majors, people who want to continue music for the rest of their life,  find baroque music ugly or, the ornamentation annoying! 

I'm sitting in music theory class.

Professor: "Today we're going to talk about inventions."

Me: "Yay!! How exciting!" I think to myself.

The professor turns on a recording over the sound system of one of Bach's inventions. It is being performed on a harpsichord, with utmost skill and beauty! I am instantly in heaven. I adore this sound. The beautiful ornamentation... ah....

But once it ended, people actually complained. They said the harpsichord was absolutely disgusting sounding, and when one student suggested the ornamentation was annoying, 4-5 other people chimed in and agreed!

There's been many other incidents at school, where I have noticed people being annoyed, or not liking baroque music. There are a select group of people at my university, who simply won't or can't appreciate instrumental music at all... I know not all vocalists are like this, but there are some out there who could never see the beauty in a symphony.. "If it's not Broadway, it's not beautiful."

I guess this is just me seeing the importance of appreciating all sorts of musics. Nationalities, eras, genres, instrumentation, setting, etc. 

P.S. To any of you who dislike baroque music, I fully understand it's just a taste thing! No hard feelings <3

the house with heads

When I visited Amsterdam this summer, one of the many beautiful buildings I saw there was "Huis met de Hoofden" or, house with the heads. Not only is this house (built in 1622) beautiful, but it has a really neat story to it. There is a legend that the house is in honor of a maid who was left alone one day, and surprised 6 burglars by cutting off their heads. The house is adorned with six busts of Classical deities: Apollo, Ceres, Mars, Minerva, Bacchus, and Diana. I couldn't fit them all in the picture, but here is part of the house:

This next picture has an interesting story too. I was told that this is the entrance to a place where criminal women were forced to work. Prostitutes, etc. were forced to come here and make lace. In the sculpture above the door, you can clearly see a woman forcing another to make lace, by pulling on her ear!

Anyway, that's it for my first post! I'm sure more pictures from the trip will make their way onto this blog.