The SoupASonic

how Z100 ruined my life

2012-03-20T22:29:21Z

Age is just a number, and you’re only as old as you feel. Though my dad has recently celebrated his 65th birthday, he is still acting 20.

But me? I have not aged since sixth grade.

It was in sixth grade “art” class at Columbia Middle School, that I -- a 12-year old scholarship student freshly arrived from Russia with very limited English -- and my classmates, were asked to vote on a radio station to listen to during class. Everyone wanted to listen to Z100 -- everyone but me.

That very moment has remained in my memory for ages, and is easily the root of my dislike of all things pop. I am still that kid, the sole person in the room who wanted to listen to the classical station, instead of Z100. (This was 1990 -- we didn’t have internet or web radio, but we did have WNCN. )

My understanding of pop music hasn’t matured much since then. To be sure, I’ve heard things that I’ve loved forever -- The Who’s Tommy, The Beatles, King Crimson, Björk’s Vespertine, even some songs by Billy Joel -- but on the whole, I’d sooner listen to Webern’s Bagetelles or Mahler's Symphonies than whatever latest pop thing people can’t get enough of.

Almost every time I go into a store, I hear muzak and promptly put on headphones, load the SimplyNoise app and pump up my favorite jam - “brown noise”. The SimplyNoise app has saved me from a good deal of Michael Bolton and Rod Stewart’s greatest hits.

Clearly, I should listen to more music and try harder. But finding good pop music is even harder than finding decent “new” (contemporary, classical, Q2-type) music. The stuff that plays on commercial pop radio is certifiably horrific, whereas the music on classical/contemporary/jazz/college radio is at the minimum listenable. There’s a certain conception that pop music must be “bad” (as in 80s bad).. perhaps that’s what makes it un-classical.

My sixth-grade education is holding me back. I crave things that are challenging and cheeky, complex but not poppy. If there was a genre tag called “un-poppy”, I would own the entire collection.

To be apprehensive about pop is to be forever socially awkward; to embrace pop is to admit that cooties are healthy (when we all know that they are gross); to stand idly, as I have ever since sixth grade, is polite but ineffective. If listening to pop music scares me, then writing something in that direction scares me even more. At this point, there’s no way that I can write a straight song in 4/4.

And yet, I feel that it is wrong to hide behind “Classical”, “World Music” and “Jazz” labels. We should all strive to write “pop” music - music that is personal and expressive, creative and current, music that communicates and infects the listener. It doesn’t have to be pop in the Lite-FM sense, the Z100 sense, or underground sense. It just has to be good. Smart. Not in the 80s sense.

talking my way out of a Whole Foods paper bag

2012-01-24T18:18:05Z

Dear Whole Foods,

My name is Lev Zhurbin, and I'm a dad of two boys, living on the Upper West Side with my wife.
We shop at Whole Foods often -- it's very convenient for us - and we find that the prices, for the most part, are reasonable -- some items are more expensive, and some are cheaper than a competing super market - but overall, the quality is much better. And you make the best diapers.

However, I take issue with the lack of plastic bags available at the register. I am not a packaging advocate, and if there were such a choice, I wouldn't use any bags at all.

You have to realize, that unlike most other places where Whole Foods operates stores, the overwhelming majority of Manhattan customers, like myself, do not drive. We either walk, take public transportation, push a stroller, or bike. We do not wheel a shopping cart into a parking lot and stack our bags into a trunk. In that we don't drive, Whole Foods shoppers in Manhattan are already a lot more "green" than others nationwide.

Whole Food Market's insistence on paper bags place Manhattan customers at a disadvantage.

Here's why:
-- the handles of a paper bag routinely break - especially if you're holding more than one in the same hand.
-- paper bags get wet in the rain. If you are walking home from Whole Foods on a rainy day, your products will get wet and ruined.
-- if you put a paper bag onto a wet surface, while waiting for a bus, or on a slushy subway platform, the products will also get ruined

In contrast:
-- you can use plastic bags to take out the trash -- and save on buying other "garbage" bags. they are small enough to go down the compactor (trash) chute with a whole day's trash.
-- plastic bags can be used to pack up liquid waste, household dust, and other products.
-- plastic bags can be cinched up pretty tight at the top.
-- plastic bags are smaller, more durable, and have more uses. As such, plastic bags are more reusable than paper.

Yes, the reusable bags you sell are fine - but they are also bulky, and I would not want to walk around with them all day, just to make a trip to Whole Foods on the way home.

I urge you to consider giving Manhattan customers the option, and offer plastic bags at your checkout registers. Paper or plastic should be a choice. (Trader Joe's offers just that.)

Sincerely,

Lev Zhurbin

hooked on ack!

2012-01-11T03:58:12Z

One of the least gratifying aspects of my experience as a father has been an increasingly cumbersome sense of OCD. Never leave home without a phone charger, checking all the faucets, checking the lock twice, and so on.

Perhaps it's not fatherhood's fault -- it's just that, if you're a guy shopping for gadgets, you want to be 100% sure that you bought the right thing. Luckily, there are many stores that support you in this quest, by offering 7-day, 15-day or 30-day return policies. Some stores (Bed Bath & Beyond, for instance) let you return items even 5 years later. (I wish they sold more gear!) Some stores charge restocking fees, some don't.

However, retail shopping "your local neighborhood" mega-chain-store is limited to the selection at hand - and we all know that the best selection and prices in the world are at Amazon.com -- why would you ever want to spend $50 on an HDMI cable at Best Buy when you can buy it on Amazon for about $3?

Still, Amazon has its downsides -- primarily, you can't touch your product until it's arrived. You can't have it same-day. And, unlike taking the item back to BestBuy, you have to mail it back and, in most cases, pay shipping costs. Pay? just for trying something? Excuse me, why would I do that?

So it is with this predicament, and my dose of OCD, that I set out to buy headphones, one pair for myself, and another for my wife. As a composer and performer who has released three albums on my own, I have heard my share of rough mixes, pre-masters, finals, and I know what a good record sounds like -- therefore I should deserve better than the earbuds that came with my iPhone. (Though, the thinking goes, it should sound at least half-decent on the iPhone earbuds, as half the world is listening through them anyway.)

I saw people on the subway with the "Beats By Dr. Dre" phones, people who are not musicians, but who clearly care about sound. However, in testing, I could not bear to carry the bulk. Those things take up half the bag, and the mid-range is muddy. I didn't want in-ears. I wanted something light, collapsible, packable, and something that sounded good. Something that preferably had a microphone, so I could take calls in the rain.

And then, an epiphany - neckband (a.k.a. "Street style", a.k.a. "behind the neck") headphones were my ticket, because then I could wear a winter hat on top.

For the next week or so, I obsessed over neckband headphones, checking out the stock at B&H, Apple Store and Best Buy, any store that had a favorable return policy. I tried out the Sony MDRG45LP (not collapsible, no microphone, but very cheap), the New Balance NB464B (collapsible and with a microphone, but terrible construction, design and sound for the price), and the Sennheiser MM100, which I returned because they are bluetooth, and that meant charging them every few hours.

Eventually, I settled on the Sony MDR-G75LW, which have excellent sound and a zippy retractable cord, and only cost $30. I then reasoned that I could get the now-discontinued Audio Technica AT-MP100 Music Phone Headphone Adapter, which would let me convert any headphone into a headset by adding a remote control and a microphone in a cable...

But as I was trying all of this out, I realized -- my head is too wide for all these neckbands. I was getting a headache just from trying them out. And I couldn't get my winter hat to fit over them. (Should I buy a new hat?)

For me, the lesson here is that the iPhone earbuds are a good compromise. I'm not a guy who actually listens to music on the go -- I most frequently listen to the SimpleNoise App, to something called "Brown Noise", so as to drown out the music around me, and think about my own.

Still, if Brown Noise sounds medicore on iPhone headphones, just imagine what it would sound like on those Dr Dre's... I'd have to give that a try... with the discontinued headset adapter, just to take calls in the rain. After all, I'm a musician, and I need to listen to things as close to what the artist intended. Except, please give me a break.

DISCLAIMER -- if you buy anything using the Amazon links above, I will get some sort of a measly commission. It won't go a long way towards paying our rent, but every penny helps.. especially after all this "research".

January 15, 2012 -- Alexander Zhurbin and Irena Ginzburg at Joe's Pub

2011-12-29T17:43:10Z

(Русский текст ниже)

Alexander Zhurbin / Irena Ginzburg
with special guests Inna Barmash & Ljova (a.k.a. Barmaljova)
Sunday, January 15, 2012 at 9.30pm
JOE’s PUB
425 Lafayette Street
New York NY 10003
Tickets: $15 in advance / 20 at the door - buy online or call 212-539-8778

Alexander Zhurbin is Russia's pre-eminent composer of musical theatre, film soundtracks and popular song. His career launched overnight in 1975, when he wrote Russia's first rock-opera, "Orpheus & Eurydice", which went on to be the longest continuously running theatrical production in Russia, after 2500 performances. Since that day, he has written scores to over 60 films, 6 operas, 45 musicals, symphonies, ballets and concert works. Thanks to his wide-ranging output and activity, he has often been compared to the "Russian Leonard Bernstein".

Together with his wife, Irena Ginzburg-Zhurbin, they have been co-writing songs and performing internationally for over 30 years -- Alexander at the piano, and Irena singing.

For this extremely rare New York appearance, Alexander and Irena will be joined on stage by their son Lev Zhurbin (better known in New York as Ljova, leader of his ensemble Ljova and the Kontraband), their daughter-in-law Inna Barmash, as well as special guests.

Александр Журбин, Ирина Гинзбург-Журбина
Лев Журбин и Инна Бармаш (Бармалёва)
15 января 2012 года в 21:30
Joe’s Pub
425 Lafayette Street
New York City
Билеты - 15 долларов, возможно бронировать online, или по телефону 212-539-8778

Александр Журбин - известный российский композитор, автор многих произведений в жанре музыкального театра, саундтреков для кинофильмов, популярных песен.
Его карьера началась в 1975 году, когда он написал первую советскую рок-оперу «Орфей и Эвридика», и, как говорит пословица, «на следующее утро проснулся знаменитым». “Орфей и Эвридика” оказался самым долгоиграющим проектом за всю историю музыкального театра, эту оперу играют и сейчас в том же коллективе, через 36 лет после премьеры. С тех пор Александр Журбин написал музыку к 60 фильмам, 6 опер, 45 мюзиклов, симфонии, балеты, концерты. Благодаря необыкновенному разнообразию и разножанровости его творчества, многие газеты мира называли его «русским Леонардом Бернстайном».
Вместе с женой, Ириной Гинзбург-Журбиной, Александр уже более 30 лет пишет песни, и они вместе исполняют их по всему миру.

15 января в Joe’s Pub произойдет крайне редкое событие: Александр Журбин и Ирина Гинзбург-Журбина будут исполнять свои произведения, а также в концерте примет участие их сын Лев Журбин ( известный в Нью-Йорке как Ljova, создатель ансмбля “Ljova and the Kontraband”) и его жена Инна Бармаш, a также специальные гости.

the Autogate Strollergate

2011-08-07T17:51:48Z

Dear fellow commuters,

My wife and I are parents of two young kids, and we find the elevators in the subway system to be a real blessing in getting around the city with a stroller.

What we don't find nearly as pleasant is the way of getting into the subway system itself. Presently, the "correct" way is to wait on line for the station agent, show them that you're swiping a fare, turn the turnstile while they're watching, and then the station agent will open the gate for you. That's the theory.

In practice, this always works out differently - sometimes, there's no station agent present, sometimes they're on the phone and could care less to open the door; sometimes they don't pay attention as you're turning the turnstile, and act as if you didn't pay your fare. Most of the time, the gate is open anyway, and even by the time you show the station agent that you're going to pay your fare, they're on to something else. To be honest, it's less frustrating when there is no station agent present.

I notice that many stations have a special entry for the "Autogate" Metrocard, which is only usable by the handicapped. The trouble is, strollers & people with heavy luggage outnumber handicapped persons in wheelchairs in the subway system by [uneducated guess] a margin of at least 1000:1. In the last two years, I think we've barely seen one or two wheelchairs in the subway system.

Why can't the MTA open the AutoGate access to everyone? Putting the Autogate system together must have cost a huge fortune, and no doubt it was paid for with grants and tax dollars. By letting everyone with oversize items (strollers, suitcases, contrabasses, etc.) use the Autogate, this would let the station agent focus on other customers, and make life less frustrating for the rest of us.

While we're at it, is it possible to get rid of the emergency exit noise, the one that happens when you try to open the service gate? Everyone ignores that sound, just like the car alarms of 10 years ago.

How can we make this a reality? Should we start a petition?

Thank you!

Sibelius 7 musings

2011-08-02T17:46:37Z

Sibelius, the dear notation program that I love and spend many hours of the day writing arrangements and orchestrations, released a new version last week, Sibelius 7. It may be the first time I won't rush for an upgrade.

Check out the new features for yourself here:
http://www.sibelius.com/products/sibelius/7/index.html.

The immediate feeling I get is the same feeling I got after the release of Sibelius 5, which also came with many gigabytes of fresh sounds.

Almost every new version of an Audio/Video sequencer these days comes with one or two DVDs of fresh sounds, but sounds are not for me -- when I make demos, I prefer that they do not approximate the sounds of real instruments closely, so that more can be left to the imagination of the listener, and real players are not expected to sound like a synth mockup. I hardly if every use sampled instruments in a project, so as a result, all of these gigabytes of free sounds are sitting on my shelf.

While every one of these audio programs gives you many options for playing with these sounds and exporting them, Sibelius's own Audio Export features are painfully underdeveloped.

With Sibelius 7 (on a Mac), you are only able to export to an AIFF file at 48khz. You cannot export at another sample rate, or in another format. The file that Sibelius exports is super quiet - you'll need to take it into another audio program, normalize it, and only then you'll be able to hear the sound.

And the audio does not start at 00:00:00 but at 00:00:05, meaning that if you're trying to sync your sound to a film, you'll be half a second behind, unless you erase that half-second time in another program.

The sync is an issue critical to film composers; the ability to export to other formats is of concern to professional composers & students alike, who simply want to export a quick mp3 demo, with the ID3 tags all filed in.

I have been mentioning this to Sibelius for a few years, and it's a pity this still hasn't been fixed.

The other updates in Sibelius 7 seem to contain a complete redesign of the User Interface, which makes it look more like Microsoft Office. If you like Office, you may like the new "ribbon" interface, but if you're a user of OpenOffice/NeoOffice, you may find it initially confusing. I can't judge whether it's better or worse - having used Sibelius for over 10 years, navigating the menus has become second nature, and re-learning where things are will slow me down for no necessary reason.

Sibelius 7 now runs natively in 64-bit mode, which makes it run faster, but, to be honest, I always thought that Sibelius runs fast enough. Everything is always immediate, even when working on a 200+ page orchestral score.

There is a nice new feature that's helpful for automating the extraction of PDF parts & scores. This is very useful - but is it worth the upgrade?

I love Sibelius and may upgrade simply to support the program that has saved me years of time on countless projects, but there's little in this upgrade that's for me. Jean Sibelius didn't get to finish his 8th Symphony - let's hope that Sibelius 8 is not too far away.. and an iPad version, too.

Sibelius on a laptop, without a keypad

2011-05-01T18:53:23Z

Shortly after writing my previous post last year, about using Sibelius on a laptop, I went on a tour with Alondra de la Parra and the Philharmonic Orchestra of the Americas, during which I had to orchestrate a number of songs rapidly, often in tight spaces, such as buses and planes. There was no space to use a keypad (as suggested in the previous post), and the lapdesk was weighing down my bag.

As such, in part by suggestion of Daniel Spreadbury of SibeliusBlog -- I tweaked a solution for working with Sibelius on a MacBook Pro, without extraneous numeric keypads, lapdesks or other accessories except headphones.

This necessitated remapping certain shortcuts into something that works well under one hand, though gratefully the "option" key on the Mac is present on both the left and right.

Here are my modifications - see how they work for you:

Before you read this, please note that I'm using a MacBook Pro with a US English keyboard layout.
Also, this refers to the mapping of the first keypad set, the "common notes" - obviously, it's mirrored on the subsequent keypad sets as well.

Option-1 - Accent
Option-2 - Dot
Option-3 - Tenuto
Option Q - Natural
Option W - Sharp
Option E - Flat
Option A - 1/4 note (crotchet)
Option S - 1/2 note (minim)
Option D - whole note (semibreve)
Option Z - 1/32 note (demisemiquaver)
Option X - 1/16 note (semiquaver)
Option C - 1/8th note (quaver)

Programming such shortcuts necessitated moving other shortcuts around. For example, I had to switch the "Voice 1 / Voice 2 / Voice 3", which would typically be accessed by Option-1/Option-2/Option-3, to Command-Option-1 / Command-Option-2 / Command-Option-3.

In addition to these modifications, here are some other modifications I've made that I find extremely useful in working with full scores:

Option-Command-S -- optimize staff spacing - very useful for full scores and parts alike
Option-Shift-S - select/filter slurs
Option-Shift-D - select/filter dynamics
Option-Shift-R - Rehearsal Mark text (very useful for custom rehearsal marks like "V1", i.e. verse 1)

Hope this works for you - let me know!

As per those arrangements I had to finish on tour, many of them can be seen and heard in this YouTube playlist -- enjoy!

best,
Ljova

Sibelius notation on a laptop - a mobile rig solution that works for me

2010-08-27T04:08:36Z

I've been a user of the notation program Sibelius since its very first version, having won a copy of it in a raffle at Juilliard, at least 10 years ago.

In recent times, I spend 5 to 15 hours a day composing or arranging scores in Sibelius, whether it's for one of my film score, a concert piece, or an arrangement. Working in Sibelius has become somewhat of a second nature to me, and notating music in Sibelius is much faster for me than with pen[cil]. (Though, for the record - I still use the Moleskine Music Notebook for sketching.)

I've been using Sibelius on a laptop for several years, and have just recently figured out a really comfortable mobile setup, which makes my relationship with Sibelius a lot more productive, at a cumulative cost of approximately $35. There are two principal items you should consider buying --

1) NUMERIC KEYPAD As many users know, many of Sibelius's principal features are tucked into shortcuts that correspond with the functions of a numeric keypad. While the numeric keypad exists on full computer keyboards, you can rarely find it on a laptop keyboard.

To complicate matters, Sibelius's keypad functions are mapped by default to an 18-key keypad that was popular 10 years ago and is scarcely available today. On their website, Sibelius recommends 3 keypads, two of which are $59. There are, however, a couple of cheaper alternatives that work just as well:

a) If you own an iPod or an iPod Touch, you may want to check out the apps NumberKey and NumPad, both of which give you access to an 18-key keypad. Numpad in particular could be convenient, because it has several screens dedicated to specific Sibelius functions. There are two downsides with both programs -- they work over wifi, which creates a slight but gnawing delay between the time you press a keypad button and it registers on the screen, especially if you're on a public wifi network at a college library, for instance. The other downside is that you have no tactile response - you have to look at the pad to make sure you're pressing the right button.

b) If you don't own an iPod/iPhone, or you simply want a tactile response from your keyboard, then you should consider buying this cheap keypad on Ebay, for $5.95 (which includes shipping). This is my personal favorite - it's extremely thin & light, the buttons have great response, and the cord is retractable. It costs 10% of the keypads Sibelius recommends, and does the same thing. This keypad isn't perfect - you'll have to reprogram the top 3 keys to correspond to Sibelius's commands via the Preferences -> Menus & Shortcuts -- but this takes 2 minutes.

2) PORTABLE LAPDESK: If you're going to use a numeric keypad (or an iThing) to speed notation in Sibelius while on-the-go, then you'll need to grow a third leg -- it takes two to hold a laptop, and another to hold your keypad.

My solution, which I found only recently, is the Logitech Portable Lapdesk N315 -- not only does it hold the laptop, but it has a retractable area specifically for a numeric keypad. It's simple, durable and elegant, and affords me to notate in places where a proper table is lacking.

Here's a picture of my setup in action - notice the cheapo numeric keypad on the right, seated on top of the Logitech Lapdesk.

I hope you find this useful, and of course, would love to hear your thoughts.

thank you & all the best,
Ljova
check out my music on myspace, soundcloud and bandcamp
follow me on twitter

i used to blog.. and now i tweet..

2009-07-11T03:43:08Z

Dear Blogosphere,

I used to blog -- never extensively, but when it felt natural, or when I had a good idea for something. It wasn't some promotional idea to "show the up close and personal side of the artist" to spread word of a tour or a new CD, but a way to communicate with old friends & meet new ones. Thinking back, I made lots of lovely friends through blogging, chatting, and other communications, over the past 10-15 years, going back to some really prehistoric times. (Does anyone remember the Renegade BBS times?)

These days, like many folks, especially music folks, I tweet on Twitter, and you can follow me at http://www.twitter.com/ljovadotcom

I was apprehensive about Twitter at first, being as it was such a flighty mode of communication (140 characters?!) -- and I'm sure that my parents, both proud authors of multiple wonderful books, would find it abhorrent. And indeed, it's a bit limited -- but it's (also) a good way to keep up with friends, with the ever increasing sources of information, and with the changing world in general... And besides -- we now have a son!

Who knows, perhaps one day I'll write a book... until then, I hope to write more music than words.

be well!

-Ljova

stand by your mac

2009-02-03T04:10:30Z

As some of you already know, we're expecting: this week, my wife ordered a new laptop to refresh her aging Dell. In anticipation of this, I evangelized for months -- far more extensively than I've ever raved about any band or film -- that she should get a Mac -- but instead, she ordered a Lenovo, on someone else's recommendation.

Of course, my wife is always right, and who am I to prove her wrong.

But for the rest of you -- can I just point out a few things, in case you're shopping for a new joy in your life?
(Disclaimer: these bullet points below have been written over time, not just for this occasion)

1) The Price -- many people say that Macs are expensive, but in fact, when comparing simply comparing specs, we found that the Lenovo & the MacBook had a price difference of about $100 at the most.

2) Operating system -- anything Vista can do, Mac could do 5 years ago, and more.. Mac can also run Vista, just for fun. Vista runs *faster* on a Mac, according to independent benchmark tests. But most PC users prefer to forget Vista, and run Windows XP, from the Golden Age of Microsoft innovation, the year 2001. But wait -- there's a new system in the works, Windows 7 -- not surprisingly, it steals many of its best features from the Mac.

3) Customer Service -- with no Lenovo retail locations and no genius bars, and probably no US-based tech support, Mac clearly wins. I suppose you can find horror stories about every brand, but having
retail locations worldwide definitely helps me have peace of mind. I haven't had to use them, but I know people who have.

4) Battery life. I guess Lenovo has more flexibility in cell sizes, though I've never really had a problem. Batteries wear out - fact of life. There are Mac airplane adapters, spare batteries, and a whole lot more third party products if you need more than most. The new 17" Macbook pro has a new battery that lasts 8 hours and weighs the same as the old. That's powering a huge 17" screen!

5) Viruses.. Definitely, PC wins this one, due to its lovely popularity..

6) Design? Innovation? Heat Conduction? Aluminum casing vs. plastic? Display quality? Weight? I'd say Mac wins here by a little more than a tad. If you're a Mac-hater, I suggest you think of Mac products as a preview of things to come to the PC, as, inevitably, almost every feature of the Mac -- with the exception of the ever evolving mouse -- is duplicated on the PCs 3 or 4 years later, with far less grace and style.

7) Command prompt.. Well, I don't know what there is in Vista (MSDos?), but we have a Unix backbone.

8) Will the new Windows 7 run on the new Lenovos, when it comes out in a few months? Drivers, shmivers?

9) Speed? Even if you run Windows, you'll be happy to know that Windows runs faster on a Mac.

10) The Celebrity factor. Sure, the Mac attracts a lot of celebs -- including, of course, "That One", a.k.a. our president Barack Obama, and a choice shortlist of others, and not just entertainers, but designers and writers and scientists.

So in conclusion, Lenovo makes a computer that has no innovation behind it, and runs only one, sad OS,
and has no on-the-ground customer service, yet costs the same as a Mac.

Support innovation! Support elegant design! Wow your children, amaze your grandparents, enjoy life, save money and be happy!

Support Mac. It's "change you can believe in" -- or "change you can wait for in 5 years"

Thank you.

the viola teacher in my life

2008-10-24T05:02:07Z

My dear viola teacher, Samuel Rhodes (pictured here with "America's crabbiest" composer, Milton Babbitt) performed a terrific recital this past evening at Juilliard, to celebrate his 40 years on faculty, and as member of the Juilliard String Quartet. (Mr. Rhodes was not my sole viola teacher - but he was my primary teacher throughout college, and thus far, my last.)

Much great music was on the program, including pieces by Donald Martino, Milton Babbitt (who was in attendance!), Elliott Carter, and Hall Overton, as well as more "popular fare" by Stravinsky and Hindemith. (See Mr. Rhodes's own article in the Juilliard Journal.)

None of the pieces were well known, improvised, or comfortable to perform; indeed, my wife (who graciously accepted my invitation to attend such an evening with curiosity) found them challenging to listen to -- "there's no melody, no rhythm I can grab on to.. it sounds like improvisation.."

And yet, there he was, Mr. Rhodes, tearing into each piece with a fiery and well calculated intensity, along with his partner, Robert McDonald, swinging and jamming, as if this was their own brand of jazz -- angular, concentrated, superbly progressive. If I had closed my eyes, I could make believe that I was not at Juilliard, but at The Stone. Hall Overton's Sonata sounded brilliant on first listen, while the other works still could use more preparation for ultimate enjoyment. I remembered, 10 years ago, attending a masterclass by Babbitt on the viola piece, "Play It Again, Sam", in which he discussed the various structural issues, as well as pointed out where the Golden Section was in the piece, but I've since forgotten.

Mr. Rhodes, in my unbiased opinion, has the sweetest viola sound in the world. His vibrato, typically slower in speed than most of his colleagues, matches perfectly the voice of his instrument. One of my favorite viola moments in recorded history, belongs to him -- listen to this beautiful slide, in the Juilliard Quartet's recording of Schoenberg's Verklaerte Nacht:

I couldn't help but to entertain the idea that this could have been my life. Had I not fallen into performing at weddings, or being exposed to and arranging a wide variety of "world music", or composing for films, or indeed had I not been so much of a self-professed musical hooligan, I would've probably become a classical violist, with a strong mandate for contemporary music. As a student at Juilliard, I loved performing with Joel Sachs's New Juilliard Ensemble, and if I were still in school now, it would've been a dream to learn all of the pieces on Mr. Rhodes's program, especially the Overton Sonata.

But something snapped. I now hesitate to trust a composer who's not willing to trust me to personalize his (or her) work, whether by improvisation or other means; the only exception would probably be Kurtag. "I wish I could go back to college", as they sing in "Avenue Q", and turn back the clock, even if it is for just a week or two in a year, to learn really heavy repertoire, help composers find their sound, expand my palette, and top it off with some fiddle tunes on my 6-string famiola, which begs for a repertoire of its own. Perhaps this is an excellent idea -- indeed, perhaps the rest of the Kontraband would be into this as well. Note to self.

Mr. Rhodes ended his celebratory program with a short encore -- not a csardas or another zinger -- but with the pensive slow movement from Hindemith viola/piano Sonata, Op. 25 No. 4. It was mournful end to a rewarding program. With little doubt, Mr. Rhodes played this piece in memory of his own viola teacher, Walter Trampler, who had premiered the Overton sonata that ended the official program.

40 years with a single quartet, 40 years on faculty, 40 years of students, commissions, repertoire.. what amazing luck, devotion, persistence!

As it was always with Mr. Rhodes, tonight was a night to remember, full of brilliance and an ever-searching imagination.

Russian Rosh-Hashanah greetings

2008-10-04T04:00:50Z

Шана Това! –– Воистину Това!
Шана товаримся – Шана товарищи!

(Смешно, конечно, слово "товарищи" –– товар.. ищи..)

and for those of you who don't speak nor read Russian -- Shana Tova, comrades! :)

giving Amie street a try

2008-10-01T04:19:40Z

For a limited while, you can download the Kontraband's new album for free, or nearly free - see below:

give it a try:

Ljova and the Kontraband - CD Release

2008-09-25T05:03:06Z

Please buy tickets in advance -- likely to sell out.

Here is the Facebook Event Page, just in case you want to forward it to a friend on Facebook, or want to RSVP (naturally, you still have to buy a ticket!).

Thank you! :)

ChoRuckus

2008-09-19T06:21:40Z

I've got a new name for an old game --- when, in a pop song, the last time the Chorus goes around a step higher -- just call it a ChoRuckus. Or, if you're feeling particularly frustrated, look up the producer's credits on Wikipedia, after you're done spitting on the floor, hopefully out of a guilty conscience.

just testing

2008-09-17T00:17:08Z

does this work?

Wagner's Schwannengesang

2008-09-09T14:21:52Z

I don't know how many of you read the sports pages for your dose of "Classical Onion" headlines, but here's one which caught my eye this morning --

Three cheers for Ben Shpigel. (The original story is here.)

Old Man Sonnet

2008-08-23T19:23:07Z

I know a drummer who must bite his tongue
To keep the beat. And trumpets seem to make
Their players blind. Guitarists' arms are slung
In an embrace. And saxophonists quake.

But when I hear Ljova I'm agape
Not only at the music he extracts
From strings, like precious liquor from a grape,
But at the drama with his bow he acts.

Is ecstasy what makes him seem to smile?
Or is he grinning through some private hell?
He's slicing at an angle all the while.
A killer or a lover? I can't tell.

But if music issues from the soul, it's clear
Ljova's soul is vast, and rich, and dear.

Sonnet by Rob Weinert-Kendt, presented on my 30th birthday. :)

Thank you, Rob!

for the record

2008-08-19T04:58:48Z

"we didn't rehearse... but music is actually about people.. and talking is actually about shutting up"

-Thus Spake Ljova as part of his "opening remarks" on his 30th birthday.

in the details

2008-08-16T06:40:14Z

My wife thinks that I would've made a darn good lawyer -- but, with due respect, I have to disagree.
First of all, my "attention to detail" is excruciatingly good. Unfortunately, my observance of the aforementioned attended details is generally at war with my sense of spontaneity. In my world, details should rarely be paramount - what's important is the idea, hopefully the "big" idea. Details should be for lawyers, assistants, and interns. I'm supposed to be left to dream up new ideas.

Right - sure. When I released "Vjola", I somehow imagined that having recorded these semi-improvised pieces was good enough, and that someday, if someone wanted to perform this music, I'd hire an arranger -- but when that day came, there was no budget, and so I diligently wrote out the music myself, even though that was not at all my intention. Why can't people learn my music by ear, like these guys?

Over the last decade, I've had to write out tons of pieces of music by ear - folk pieces, contemporary pieces, ragas, many things. Some of it is really enjoyable, and some of it is awful. Sometimes I feel that until I've written out all of the cheesiest tunes in the human consciousness, I'm bound not to see the pearly Gates.. While all of it is an interesting learning experience in terms of texture and melody, a bell consistently rings in my ear as I churn out the meatpies -- "WHY?" "Why must I write this stuff out -- whatever it is -- note for note? Why would you want to repeat anything exactly the same way? What about interpretive freedom?" And yet, as that bell tolls it quandary, I diligently type out the stuff 100% as it is on the record. As they say in Russia "the eyes do wander, but the hands act". When it comes to making sheet-music, I'm extremely detail oriented, having learned the hard way how much time a badly created set of music can waste in rehearsal. As much as I'd like to break the chain and free myself of details in performance, it's impossible -- they descend on me like vultures and begin their gleeful rape. "Sharp!" "Flat!" "Louder, we can't hear you in the back!" "Softer, you're burying the accordion!" or, in more classical settings, "Down bow, Down!". Argh.

I used to be a rebel. I still am. But increasingly, knowing "the right thing" and ignoring it comes with greater guilt. It's not like getting kicked out of "chamber music" class in high school for improvising on Brahms -- it's like risking your livelyhood and health insurance.

I suspect I know how things work -- as we grow older, we realize that we're setting an example for our kids, and we don't want them to have the same shortcomings that we've been trying to hide. We try to do the right thing, make a good face -- meanwhile, kids try to break everything in their sight, then put it back together again.

To an extent, we follow their example -- we regularly break our toys, destroy our buildings and redraw borders. We never do things the same way, and even when we try our best, we miss. Generally, that's progress.

What am I really saying? Clearly -- details, like rules, were meant to be broken.
And, I need sleep.

vote

2008-07-22T17:54:29Z

In January 2008, Ljova acquired a new 6-string acoustic instrument, built by Eric Aceto. It has the sounding range of the violin, the viola, and most of the cello, all in a package slightly larger than a violin.

Between January 26 and May 31, Ljova's friends and fans contributed names on his blog; now you get to vote on your favorites! Author of the best submission will win autographed CDs, as well as Ljova's gratitude.

Voting ends on August 31st.
==> Vote Here -- thanks! (For sound samples, see here.)

bowling for poetry

2008-07-06T05:09:43Z

I don't know how ACB does it, but I barely if ever have time to blog, read other's blogs, or even reply to email. It seems sinful, somehow non-deductible. I used to spend 30-40 minutes a day surfing for new music on MySpace -- now? barely 20 minutes a week, if that. I barely have time to write my own music, see friends, find new material, work out -- and you want to sit at home and watch me spill my artistic guts? well, maybe just this once.

Actually, the last few months have been nothing short of incredible. Aside from sporadically writing new tunes for Ljova and the Kontraband, I've written music for two short films -- Sean McPhillips's Cupcake (which premiered at Tribeca FF in April) and Lev Polyakov's new animation, Only Love, which is just starting to get sent out to festivals. The soundtrack for Cupcake was actually written for and performed by the Kontraband, with special guests Alon Yavnai (on piano) and Marcus Rojas (on tuba); while Only Love was scored for a chamber orchestra, which I recorded one player at a time in our living room. While the subjects of the films are similar at the germ, the outcomes and approach -- on the soundtrack and out -- are anything but. And yet, I still feel somehow proud of my work, that it still sounds personal and ambitious.

But aside from film scores and preparing the Kontraband album for release in September, I'm trying to hunt down my next big project -- what could it be? My wife is pining for more songs - songs, songs that she can sing. Naturally.

We spent the 5th of July harvesting poetry, first at home and then at Barnes & Noble. Trying to find a poem suitable for a song is somewhat like finding a good car, pair of jeans, diamond ring -- except sometimes it makes you feel ingloriously dumb.

In the course of an hour, I flipped through a bilingual volume of poems by Anna Akhmatova, as translated by Stanley Kunitz. The Russian side drove me to goosebumps and near tears, while the English translation made me admire the Kunitz's artful re-stringing of her verse. Still, nothing seemed like a song -- some poems were too short, and all were too depressing. Who'd pay to hear Russian angst nowadays? Only I.

I next looked at the The Collected Poems of Stanley Kunitz, the man who translated Akhmatova, but found nothing that grabbed me immediately. It felt dated, somehow, even if there was no "thou art antiquated" element.

I looked at a collection of Japanese Death Poems. (Too short. No. Thank you.)

..and more and more. There was a huge anthology, a litany.. But with every poem I rejected, a growing feeling of moronic stupidity arose, the kind I feel when I skip real vegetables for Veggie Booty. How could I not be inspired by any of these poems to write a song? Am I numb? Am I a froid droid? Why wouldn't they speak to me?

Inna found for me some contemporary Yiddish poetry. It was very sentimental, though witty and graceful. Graceful poems make for good songs. And so I wrote something equally sentimental, something that could work, while dreaming of writing something colder, more detached.. but not something that would make Yiddish as angry-sounding as German.

Mostly, it was all about magnitude. Not the poems, but the size of the shelves. I felt the bookstore closing in on me, I wanted to write a poem to shut them up "you all talk too much yet say so little", but I knew it wasn't true. I knew my ears were clogged, but wouldn't admit it. I saw the writing on the wall -- some day, a kid named Mozart 3.0 will find my music and say "wow, this stuff is so 2005". Ah yes, nothing like turning 30 - one foot in childhood, the other..?

It's getting late.

Trumbull Stickney

2008-06-27T14:47:27Z

As some of you know, one of my rare original treasures is a song I wrote on the lyrics of the poet Trumbull Stickney, called Mnemosyne. I had found Stickney's poem while browsing an Anthology of contemporary American poetry at a book store in San Francisco in spring 2007, and was immediately captured by its visceral intensity. The song composed itself almost at once, though I didn't write it down until I was riding aboard a train from Paris to Karlsruhe several months later. (If you haven't heard us performing it live, then you surely will hear it on our debut album, coming this Fall.)

Stickney lived just 30 years, and not much has been written about him. This morning, however, I found a fantastic article by Edmund Wilson, published in 1940 in the pages of the New Republic, calling Stickney "a remarkable American poet whom too few people have read", and quoting the poem Mnemosyne in its entirety. Read the whole article here.

Buckley Loops

2008-06-16T17:19:56Z

Brief primer: "Temp Music" is the practice of putting temporary music into a film's soundtrack during the editing process before any original music is finished, or even earlier - before a composer is approached. It's useful to the editor and director in getting a feeling for the pacing of a film, and can occasionally be used to show preview audiences, to see if they like the vibe of the soundtrack. The downside, though, is that often a film production will approach a composer, saying that "we made a film, we've edited it down, we have a temp track that we think works really well, and the preview audiences love it -- but we can't afford to license any of the tracks we've put in, so would you mind writing something very similar, but not so similar so that we don't get sued?" Generally, then comes the budget, and the composer pouts / chuckles / smiles and nods.

I mention this briefly because, while writing music for my collaboration with the Freefall Dance Company, I made a little temp music of my own.

For quite a few weeks, I had the dancers make movements to a looped version of the harmonium intro from Jeff Buckley's Lover, You Should've Come Over, which you can hear below.

I tried many times to sit down to write something, but nothing came -- until the night before the music rehearsal.

Here, then, is my piece "Buckley Loops", live recording from the dance show itself, featuring Shoko Nagai on accordion, myself on 6-string, and Ron Caswell on tuba.

Enjoy!

Mad Sketchbook - demo

2008-04-03T17:47:26Z

if you happen to catch yourself dancing to this, could you please post a video?

Thanks -- you enjoy. :)