Nyanko's Basket

The Seattle Symphony is having a concert with the Labèque sisters! And it's featuring two-piano music! *squees!!!*

Must... book... tickets...

Hmm, I wonder if I want to attend the season premiere (September 12th) as well - featuring Rach 3 and Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto no. 1. Of course, these concerts are only from the UBS Masterworks series and don't include any other concerts that I might find interesting - I'm sure there will be something else that I like! (The Four Seasons in March... Doc Severinsen at the end of February... Itzhak Perlman... Tasmin Little... in April, Joshua Bell and the Seattle Symphony!?!!!! As well as Rachmaninoff's Symphonic Dances, Holst's The Planets and Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue)

Slightly bummed that I'm missing out on Rach 1 and Ravel's La Valse this weekend (Valentine's Day), but oh well...

( Details and other concerts under the cut )

A brief rundown of what I've been up to over the past few weeks, in no particular order:

- Saw Ahmed Jamal perform at Jazz Alley live, which was definitely worth the money (though maybe next time I should try and go with someone :P)
- Attended the CoX meet & greet at PAX, where I met naeko and wolfieboy, among other people
- Drove up and down between my apartment and the Seattle Convention Center several times over the PAX weekend
- Actually went to the second day of PAX and sat in on the NCSoft panel, as well as randomly wandering around the exhibit hall and getting a sneak peek at Gears of War 2 as well as Lode Runner for XBLA (!!!)
- Went for the opening night of the Seattle Symphony's 2008/2009 season at meerkat's suggestion. It was totally worth it! Also, I loved the impromptu rendition of "Let's Call The Whole Thing Off" both singers performed as the last item, as well as Aaron Copland's "Simple Gifts" and "I Bought Me A Cat". It is too awesome to describe in a single post, so I'll just have to leave it at that. :D
- I helped itsacz move from one blob to another, and helped another friend pack up his belongings as he prepared to return to Singapore for good. While it was a lot of work and my arms are still a little sore, I feel good at being able to help, and got some things out of the bargain, too.

I still have about 6 months' worth of photos to post, but that'll have to wait until I'm at home.

I got an email last night that they were ready, and so I listened to them this morning.

I can't believe I played like that ^^;; But in any case, I have the recordings now. Leave a comment if you'd like to hear them~

My item's from 5:50 pm to 6:10 pm, or thereabouts, and I'm pretty excited about the chance to perform in front of people again!

I'm also looking forward to listening to the rest of the concert. :)

So today I went to the first Microsoft Open Mic, which was basically a two-hour concert where various people/bands could perform their music to an audience. There were about 30 people, which is a lot more than I was expecting. ^^;;

There were a lot of different genres of music on offer, ranging from rock to jazz, soulful melodies to energetic beats, and there were a whole lot of instruments, too. ^_^ There were lots of guitars, keyboards, drums, saxophones and so on.

And a bagpipe.

Yes, a bagpipe.

It was so jaw-droppingly awesome that I just had to tap my feet to the beat as I listened, and I really thought that I was in Scotland. ^_^

I hope that the next Open Mic will be at least as successful! Even if I might not be performing in it

It turns out one of the windows in my bedroom can be raised a little bit. That helped. ^^;;

Yesterday was a pretty exciting, although somewhat eventful and busy, day at work. Two of my colleagues were leaving, so we went out for lunch, and had a nice informal gathering. It's great and I really hope there will be more of these on a more regular basis, not just when people come and go. I also finally managed to apply for my Social Security number in the morning, and there were no problems with my documentation, so everything is just peachy and I should be able to get my number next week (the card will, of course, take somewhat longer).

I also had a meeting in the afternoon with my team manager, at which I was basically assigned two items to work on (in stages, of course!) They're huge, but I think if I can execute them successfully, my work will really get noticed. The converse is, of course, also true.. ^^;;;

I went for a CNY dinner with itsacz and it was pretty good to see people there, even if we didn't really have chances to interact with them much apart from at the buffet table. There was some dinner, which was tasty enough that I didn't mind that the satay finished very quickly... And some musical items that we listened to before we left (I was feeling tired and had to cycle back from work) were really nice. :)

Two Chinese pieces (if only I could remember their names) - guzheng (古箏), a 16-26 stringed zither with movable bridges (so hence somewhat similar to a harp)

Spanish Dance by Sarasate (not from it, as per meganemagic's comment, though I don't know which one was performed) - solo violin (not sure who the composer is). I'm very sure that the girl who performed this couldn't have been older than 8, and she was so good, too, especially performing it like it was a solo recital (from memory) and with so much emotion and musical richness... ^^;;;

Mozart's "Eine Klein Nachtmusik", 1st movement (allegro) - string quartet (unfortunately, I forgot their names)

All the performers are already very talented and not nervous on stage. ^^;;; They also have very American accents, but that's not surprising

I've got some plans lined up for Saturday evening and Sunday (hopefully the whole day), so I probably won't be around during those times. If you celebrate Chinese New Year, have a happy and prosperous one! If you don't, then you can either enjoy Monday off (if you're in the US and don't have to work on that day, which doesn't include me or itsacz), or have a great weekend!

See you all soon. :)

So, yeah, I'm back. I needed some time off, but not that much.

Many thanks to el_espada for the CD yesterday, and to redacted as well for the wonderful time I spent with them and for even escorting me to the interchange :)

I'll be sad to miss both of you when I go whenever that is... but... let's keep in touch! ^^

So, following in haplo3k's footsteps...

Journal entries: 913 914
Comments posted: 1,952
Comments received: 1,698

I wonder whether I'll hit 2,000 comments posted or received before I hit 1,000 journal entries. :P

But first, a random link:

Me, 'Person of the Year'? No thanks

This is an interesting counterpoint to the "Person of the Year: You" issue of Time magazine and the subsequent coverage focusing on the power of social networking sites and their users. (Sites like MySpace, YouTube, Google, FaceBook, LinkedIn and so on.) The author of this article argues that it is true that users do have a lot of power, but that they are also being profiled, data-mined, and marketed to; so they are not necessarily the ones who have the most power:

( Selected quotes from the article )

This fits in with my own observations and is the reason why I won't (at least for the foreseeable future) join any more social networking sites (LJ can be considered as one in some sense). The other reason is that I'm also lazy in terms of making the investment needed.

On another note, my eyesight has deteriorated by 50 degrees in the left eye and 75 degrees in the right to -1175/-1200 degrees respectively. Part of this might be because my lenses have become scratched and thus more blurred, so my eyes have to work much harder to maintain the same distance. I've noticed lately that I tend to get more headaches and eye strain after working at the computer a lot or reading a lot of scores. Right now I'm deciding whether to get a new pair of lenses before leaving or do that once I'm in the US; a new pair of lenses will cost more than $200 here.

I've been going through and rearranging my CDs, and inspired by kamenreader and his manga collection, I decided to sort them out. Here are the results behind several cuts. This is, as far as I know, my complete CD collection, though in the process of rearranging my room and packing I may discover more CDs, and it's possible I may buy even more before going. :P

( My CD collection, sorted by name )

( Sorted by genre )

( Sorted by year (of pressing/manufacture, not of purchase) )

This is the second piece which I originally wanted to do earlier this morning together with the first one, but I ran out of time. :P

My analysis is based on the piano version, but the vocal version is similar in its underlying harmonies and melodies. As always, this analysis may contain mistakes, and it's not meant to be definitive in any way or form. It's just my attempt to understand why I like this song. :)

Title: Modokashii Sekai no Ue de (Sasakura Yuugo arr. Shimada Masanori / Makino Yui)
Key: G major

I can't take any credit for transliterating the lyrics into romaji, which must instead go to a very good friend of mine who offered her services.

( Lyrics for Modokashii Sekai no Ue de )

All chord notations are based upon Roman numerals corresponding to the notes of the scale. Thus for G major, I (the tonic) is G, II (the supertonic) is A, III (submediant) is B, IV (subdominant) is C, V (dominant) is D, VI (mediant) is E and VII ("leading note", which leads to the tonic) is F♯.

The song starts with an introductory section in G major, in the following chord progression:

a) I - VI [embellished] - IV - V

There are three repeating chord progressions for the main melody:

b) [I - VI - IV - III♮ - IV] x2
c) V - IV - III♮ - VI♯ - VII (C♯)
d) II - V

The refrain follows the pattern of:

e) [I - VI - IV - V] x2
f) VI - V - IV - I - V - I (with a chromatically descending progression from VI to IV)

And the ending is as follows:

g) I - [IV - V]x3 - V - I

In tonal classical music, the "perfect cadence" (V - I) is one of the most common ways to end a piece or a section of music, because it represents a finality of the musical flow as the piece returns to its "home" in the tonic chord I (with the tonic and the dominant) from a chord (V) that contains both the leading note and dominant.

Apart from the use of G major as this piece's key -- a key which conveys a feeling of optimism and upbeat outlook -- the use of perfect cadences in f) and g) helps convey a feeling of closure to their respective sections. In the case of the refrain f), it marks the end of the refrain and allows the next section to start without sounding like a continuation of the refrain. At g), the perfect cadence ends the piece as a whole.

The interrupted cadences (chord progressions ending in V) in a), d) and e) are not as "powerful" as a perfect cadence would be, but they also serve a similar purpose in concluding their respective sections. Arguably, replacing these cadences with a perfect cadence in each case destroys the character of the music, because the melody no longer flows from each section to its subsequent refrain at d), and placing a perfect cadence at a) doesn't serve much purpose.

Progressions b) and c) are interesting in their musical development. Although b) contains an altered chord (the III♮, which is B - D - F♮), and c) adds two more altered chords (VI♯, E - G♯ - B and VII(C♯), F♯ - A - C♯), they still sound like perfectly natural progressions in the context of the key. There's also a sense of buildup from the I at the beginning of b) through to the VII at the end of c), with the last IV chord in b) and the first V chord of c) acting as a form of bridge between the two progressions, and this buildup manifests itself in the powerful II (minor) chord followed by a V (major). The vocals also correspondingly build up from the beginning of each verse to the end, before breaking out into the refrain.

So, in short, the reason (or at least, one of the reasons) why I like this piece is because it employs a lot of tonal concepts - concepts that seem to be somewhat "outdated" now with the rise of pop- or rock-themed songs that don't generally subscribe to concepts of tonality, and especially in a genre such as anime.

This song is most definitely a keeper. :)

Especially a basket of kittens (consider, for example, my Gmail display name) ^_^ Though I can't claim to be as cute as a basket of kittens. ^^;;

Totally yanked from chibi_nasu:

( Meme-thingy )

( Lyrics )