The Good Musician

The Good Musician loves great film music. Growing up with 50’s musical extravaganzas through the evolution to electronic and digital of today, I’m aware that what I hear in the movies is just as affecting as what I see. A great music and sound staff can pull a mediocre movie up to a decent one. Even though I have more than five favorites, I’ll try to be the Good Blogger and keep it short and sweet.
1. Kiss Me Kate (1953) Howard Keel and Kathryn Grayson look fabulous and really wail on the Cole Porter score.
2. Psycho (1960) Pretty much the …read more

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The Austin Chamber Music Festival kicks off tonight with a special concert featuring Peter Bay conducting George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” with pianist Michelle Schumann. Also on the program is the world premiere of University of Texas composer Dan Welcher’s “Four Personal Ads,” featuring soprano Mela Dailey. The Cecilia String Quartet tops off the evening with Gershwin’s “Lullaby.” The concert takes place at the Lady Bird Johnson National Wildflower Center, 4801 LaCrosse Avenue, Austin TX.
The festival continues throughout the week.
Saturday, July 12, 3:00 pm
Austin Chamber Music Festival: Wild Basin Winds
Mathew Krejc flute, Ian Davidson oboe, Steve Girko clarinet, Thomas Hale …read more

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Everything The Good Musician wants (and needs) to know about leveraging cool tech to be successful. The Austin Music Foundation Music Industry Boot Camp is a goldmine of tips and tools for artists and bands to integrate online Web 2.0 technologies and internet best practices to most effectively promote yourself and your music.
Best of all, Music Industry Boot Camp is free and open to the public!
Monday, July 14, 6:30 p.m., Scholz Garden, 1607 San Jacinto, Austin TX
Image details: Consumer Electronics Show Previews Latest Products served by picapp.com

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Do you have an articulated philosophy of music? You are welcome to post it here. In the meantime, I’ll share mine. To me, the term “good” musician means a person who dedicates their entire being to blow, scrape, strum, hit, teach, sing, learn, whistle, compose, tune, or otherwise practice music to the very best of their abilities.
It has nothing to do with judgment, grades, power trips, ego eruptions, the elitist attitude that frequently assaults music. It doesn’t matter what “kind” of music it is. It has to do with being one with The Vibration of the Universe. Literally. Tuning …read more

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Image details: Young Violinist served by picapp.com
Lots of good classical and jazz going on in Austin and regions this week. The Cactus Pear Music Festival features aspiring young musicians. Here’s a partial listing:
Sunday, July 6, 6:00 till 9:00 pm,
& Tuesday, July 8, 5:30 till 9:30 pm:
Shawn Ellison, jazz pianist
Truluck’s Seafood Restaurant
183 & Great Hills Trail
794-8300 (no cover)
Wednesday, July 9, 1:00 pm:
Cactus Pear Music Festival: Young People’s Concert
Thiry Auditorium, Our Lady of the Lake University, San Antonio
210-838-2218 FREE
Wednesday, July 9, 1:30 pm:
Brian Lewis, violin, master class
Edythe Bates Chapel, Festival Hill, 237 & Jaster Road, Round Top
979-249-3129 FREE
Thursday, …read more

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Not so very blue, yet an important river, whatever color it may be.

Here’s Herbert von Karajan wafting down The Blue Danube Waltz.

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This is cool. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky wrote the 1812 Overture to commemorate the battle that broke the back of the French invasion under Napoleon. It was commissioned for the completion of the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, which Tsar Alexander II meant as a memorial for the battle.
Tchaikovsky considered it crap. A sell-out. None-the-less, it is one of the most played compositions since its introduction to the US in the 1930’s.
Somehow, probably because Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops featured it on a Fourth of July concert, thinking the bells and cannons a nifty way to observe the …read more

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John Cage composed music that regularly transgressed the boundaries of convention. A pupil of Schoenberg and Cowell, Cage came into his own during the 1960’s while teaching at the U of Illinois. He invented the prepared piano, a compositional technique to alter the sound of a single or several notes by using non-conventional items directly on either the strings or felt hammers, such as thumb tacks, or erasers placed between or among the piano strings.
For instance, you could assign an octave in the middle range the instructions: place thumb tacks on the hammers of the black keys from middle …read more

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Musical instruments hanging from the rafters in a very old, family restaurant in Szentendre, Hungary. Photo by TGM.
Szentendre (Saint Andrew) is a sleepy little village two hours up the Danube from Budapest. Artists and tailors and craftspeople spend the winter in the Carpathian Mountains and bring their wares to Szentendre in the summer to sell. One elderly woman who did exquisite needlework said that Transylvania was very cold in the winter, and she enjoyed spending the summers in the heat.

There is an old Serbian Orthodox church in Szentendre, strains of ethereal chant float through the small square. The area …read more

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King Wenceslas (Szent Vraclav) statue, Wenceslas Square, Prague, Czech Republic.
Photo by TGM.
Prazska Muzejni Noc
Web designers: Czech out this gorgeous Web site!
Anniversary of 5th Prague Museum Night, a collaboration among the National Museum, Prague Public Transport Company Inc., and Association of Museum and Galleries of the Czech Republic. 25 cultural institutions and 51 sites were involved. Happens on Thursday evenings. Admission and transportation are free, except for a free will donation to two national sites.
The evening also includes concerts, recitals, movies, theatre, and dance performances, public readings, lectures, and guided tours.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if every city in America …read more

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