snapshots

poetry

Bryan — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 06:33:52 +0000

My friend Jack writes haikus, some of which are quite amusing.

The Basic Problems Of Being A Micronation

Let’s take Estonia.
No, not as an example;
Let’s just go take it.

my roommate, on jazz

Bryan — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 19:21:59 +0000

Bad jazz is like an undersized pair of wet underwear at the beach. Over time it makes you more and more uncomfortable, you kind of want to scream and take off all your clothes, you start to question whether it affects your fertility, but you don’t want to ask anyone because you don’t want them to know about it, so you just sit there and cry a little without leaving, for even though your underwear is tight and wet, you’re still at the beach, and that just makes you look cool regardless.

college is over

Bryan — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 18:26:01 +0000

I’ve graduated. My five years at UCLA are at an end, but it sure doesn’t feel like it’s been that long. I’ll definitely be in LA for the rest of the summer, and if I can find work, will be staying here for the forseeable future (until I go to grad school). This summer is going to be my “Do things in LA that I never had time to do in college” time.

Also, I have a five-string cello that I’m very excited to start playing after I’ve had it repaired.

string quartet

Bryan — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 06:14:24 +0000

I finally got around to posting video footage of my string quartet from my senior composition/cello recital at UCLA.

1st Movement

2nd Movement

3rd Movement

Jordi Savall in concert

Bryan — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 09:58:51 +0000

Tonight, I was fortunate enough to attend a concert given by Jordi Savll, the world-class viola da gamba player. I went with Alan Rich, independent music critic and a guy who seems to have connections to just about anything and everything happening in the Los Angeles classical music scene.

The concert was held at the Doheny Mansion in a rotunda-like space that had strangely dead acoustics for a room of its shape. This, however, didn’t matter at all, as I was sitting in the second row and about ten feet from where Jordi Savall was playing. The concert was entitled “Les Voix Humaines” and was a showcase of repertoire for the solo viola da gamba. The overall theme of Voix Humaines was the idea that no instrument can more closely imitate a human voice than a gamba – particularly the bass viola da gamba. After tonight’s concert, I was won over.

The most amazing thing about this concert was that I never found myself thinking about the form of any of the pieces being played. Savall’s playing took me on a magical journey from one exquisite musical moment to the next. I never caught myself thinking, “Ok, so that’s the main motif of this piece – let’s see what this composer does with it” or anything like that. I was completely captivated by the sheer beauty of the sound made by the gamba and the masterful artistry with which Savall plays it. I got the feeling that Savall wasn’t ‘performing’ in the usual sense of the word. He was playing the instrument that he loves most, and everyone in the audience was simply lucky enough to get to listen in on him. He also seemed genuinely happy to be talking to us in between works and giving everyone a bit more history about a particular piece, or explaining how and why he was retuning the instrument for one piece or another. There wasn’t any piece in the program that I did not like, but I especially enjoyed his rendition of the second Bourée from Bach’s fourth cello suite, which he played completely pizzicato. One of the other pieces that was especially stunning was the Prelude by Karl Friedrich Abel, the last great gamba player of the 18th century. However, my favorite piece of the evening was the encore that Savall played, a set of variations on a gwerz, or lullaby from Breton called “O Soñjal”. It was a pure, simple melody in dorian mode, and it was played with such care and simplicity that I could hardly breathe after it had ended.

I knew that I was interested in playing the gamba before attending this concert; after having been I now know that I must get my hands on one and learn to play. I actually went up to Savall after the concert and asked him how I should go about getting into playing the gamba. His answer was simple and to the point: “Get a gamba. Find a teacher. Start playing.”

Oh, and one more thing – I’m lucky enough to be going to see Jordi Savall play again next week in Santa Barbara. Having a famous music critic such as Alan Rich as a friend definitely has its perks.

“Tom Waits is a member of that exclusive…

Bryan — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 16:25:06 +0000

“Tom Waits is a member of that exclusive club of musical celebrities whose names are also sentences. Other examples include music journalist Lester Bangs, and rapper Sean Combs. Rumor has it that a young Tom Waits was so inspired by his name that he briefly trained to join the US Olympic Waiting Team, until his ambitions were put to rest by a sprained sitz bone. To this day, scholars argue about what he might be waiting for. The veteran singer-songwriter has been notably silent on the issue, though the critical consensus is that he is probably waiting for Godot.”

-Christopher Remmel

reason #1 why I want to get my hands on a viola da gamba

Bryan — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 19:55:06 +0000

La Folia

Education

Bryan — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 20:50:43 +0000

Very interesting article on the focus of our modern educational system.

Excerpt:

How does one “do” the humanities value-free? How does one teach history, say, without grappling with what that long parade of genius and folly suggests to us? How does one teach literature other than as an invitation, a challenge, a gauntlet—a force fully capable of altering not only what we believe but how we see? The answer is, of course, that one doesn’t. One teaches some toothless, formalized version of these things, careful not to upset anyone, despite the fact that upsetting people is arguably the very purpose of the arts and perhaps of the humanities in general.

string quartet

Bryan — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 23:58:50 +0000

my roommate had his senior composition recital on may 15. he wrote a string quartet. i played in it. it’s a cool piece, so you should check it out here. It’s in m4a and mp3. take your pick.

I’m starting a string quartet, and it is not nearly as easy as my roommate made it seem.

…and it’s been another month

Bryan — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 03:04:41 +0000

so sorry that I haven’t written here in such a long time. I keep forgetting/putting it off. however, now I have much more free time as I have managed to cut the middle finger of my left hand rather effectively so that I cannot practice for the next week or so. I’m kind of going crazy from the lack of creative output but am also trying to be productive in the meantime. I have several composition projects due next week that I’m attempting to finish – one is a setting of a walt whitman poem for baritone, flute, cello, and piano. I haven’t started it yet. I did, however, just upload some old firebreathing pics to my picasa album. check it out here.