Recent searches
Search options
Man With Sign, June 23, 2023
Friday morning is cool and overcast, with a thick cloud cover that promises rain but doesn't follow through — much appreciated, as I have no umbrella — and I arrive at 7:29, set up my big sign and hold up WE MUST BE BETTER ANCESTORS for the benefit of the sparse commuter traffic. Craige is out today, sidelined by health issues.
1/
I lean against the railing and for the most part ignore the drivers, focusing instead on the patterns I'm singing. Occasionally someone waves or greets me in passing, but otherwise I'm solitary, a soloist driven by duty and conscience, not unhappy being alone.
2/
Today I generate another bol-taan for use in "Shoulders of Giants," this one focusing on the lower and middle registers. One version is exactly eleven beats long, and I alternate this with a longer passage that adds six beats' worth of melisma at the beginning. Starting at a slow 130 bpm, I increment the tempo by 5s over the course of the hour.
3/
By the time I'm at mm. 180 or 185 the melodic line itself is firmly memorized. What counts at this tempo is to render the sub-groups of 2 and 3 beats accurately, allowing the interpolated eighth-notes to flow freely inside these units. This requires both attention and relaxation in a judicious balance; too much of the first and my muscles get tight, too much of the second and the notes don't stay differentiated.
4/
Overall, it's a well-focused practice; my mind is clear and I stay undistracted. John Gallagher arrives around 8:20, and he's still taking pictures when I make a video (I turned off the metronome and simply recorded a variety of improvisations around the B-section theme of my piece). He even records me singing with a mic clipped to my sign.
5/
And then the hour is up. John and I chat as I assemble my signage for the walk home, then go our separate ways. My day today is filled with students and errands, distracting me from the world's calamities, at least to a degree.
6/
It is maddening that the energy and focus needed for our genuinely crucial struggles is instead occupied on the Stupid and Obdurate aspects of our dysfunctional political system. Things are burning down, and half of the firemen are so into internecine squabbling that the hoses never get deployed.
See you Monday.
Man With Sign
end/