Sunday, December 31, 2023

2023 Musical Projects Review

Here's my annual review of projects.

Continuing Projects

Scales

When I sit down at or with an instrument, I play a scale, provided I know the instrument well enough that I can play a scale on it.  I go in the order of Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier and move on to the next one on Sundays.  For the first week of 2023, I'll be practicing F major.  When I practice organ every day, I improvise to a backing track in the same key (or the relative major if I'm practicing a minor key that week).
I have nothing extra to say about this, but I did it.
This is my blog for hymns and (occasionally) classical sacred music.  On Sunday, I post a recording of a hymn tune (I've been making my way through The Lutheran Hymnal), playing (usually) the four-part arrangement with mandolin (soprano and alto), guitar (tenor), and electric bass (bass).  On Wednesday, I have a post tracing the Biblical sources of a hymn in The Lutheran Service Book, and on Friday, I have a short post about a musical feature in a hymn.  On rare occasions, I post about classical sacred music on Monday.

This year, I'm also going to work my way through James Bastien's Great Hymns Arranged for Organ.  I'd intended to do this last year but had some complications and wasn't able to start.
I finished going through Great Hymns Arranged for Organ near the end of June, and posting the pieces at the rate of one a week, I completed the project in October.  Here's a playlist.

Last year, I wrote (or tried to write) two posts per week about the Biblical sources for a hymn.  Since I publish only one a week, I got pretty far ahead.  I gave up that schedule at the beginning of this year, though (to focus on other things), and it took me a while to develop a new one.  In February, I decided to write a sources post for every time the hymn is included in the recordings of the chapel services I watch from the university I want to attend, and near the end of June, I decided to write one every Sunday so that (ideally) I can maintain my lead.  Sometimes, I don't get around to writing a post when I should (currently, I have a handful I need to make up), but otherwise, it's a fairly effective system.

Cover Projects

Initially, the goal for most of these was to learn every part to every song, and while I'm still working on that, the focus now has shifted more to writing about various features I notice.  Here's a list of the projects and what bands they cover:
In October last year, I started posting a part from a Zombies song on my Instagram account every week (usually on Thursday and, for now, mostly following the track listing on The Decca Stereo Anthology), and I intend to continue this, partially to prove that I'm a "superfan" and partially because it forces me to review some songs I've forgotten how to play.

I have a handful of notes about the Monkees' album The Birds, The Bees, & the Monkees that I'd like to flesh out into posts.  I'd intended to do this in December last year, but I was sick for most of the month and didn't get around to it.
After the songs on The Decca Stereo Anthology, I did the demos on Zombie Heaven and then Odessey and Oracle.  Currently, I'm working through the songs for the "lost album," but there are only two left.

I wrote about some songs on The Birds, The Bees, & the Monkees in August.

Partially because David Crosby died in January, I decided to listen to all of the Byrds albums I have.  I got through The Preflyte Sessions, Mr. Tambourine Man, and Turn! Turn! Turn! pretty easily, but it took me a long time to continue on with Fifth Dimension.  Part of the reason is that I thought I would be overwhelmed with taking notes on new features I discovered because it had been so long since I last listened to it.  In the last month or so of 2023, I listened to all of the Byrds albums from Fifth Dimension to (Untitled), plus The Byrds Play Dylan.  I do have a handful of notes now, and I plan to write about them next year.

In September, I watched the Zombies' Live from Studio Two DVD on its anniversary.  I'd attended the virtual concert in 2021 and got the CD/DVD release when it came out, but I hadn't watched the DVD yet.  I plan to watch it every year now.

I made a few recordings to demonstrate some parts I learned:
I intended to record a few parts from the middle section of the Alan Parsons Project's "Secret Garden," but I didn't get around to it.

FAWM and 50/90

The last few years have been pretty unproductive (I think I wrote less music last year than any other year since I started writing), but I guess I'll give FAWM and 50/90 an-other try.  Lately, I've just been more interesting in playing other people's music.
I was equally unproductive this year.  I wrote two songs for FAWM and only one for 50/90.

Bach Cantatas

On Sunday, I listen to a Bach cantata, going in order by BWV number.  Occasionally, I follow along in the notation and jot down some notes.

This year, I'll be listening to BWV 58 through BWV 110.  The box set I have contains all of the cantatas in that range.
I didn't follow along in the notation for any, but I did write down some notes.

Mandolin Monday

Every Monday, I post a recording of a mandolin piece on Instagram and Twitter, and I upload a slightly edited re-run on YouTube.  I plan to continue doing selections from Francis O'Neill's Dance Music of Ireland, although I may do something different every now and then.  Christmas is on a Monday this year, and I'll probably do something special for that.
In early November, one of the strings on my mandolin broke.  I'd been using the same strings since I got my mandolin thirteen years ago, and I'd been dreading a broken string for months or maybe even longer.  I missed a week of #mandolinmonday while I was waiting for the strings to be replaced at the local music store; instead, I played the melody for "Allerschönste aller Frauen," a German swing song from the 1940s, on guitar.

I didn't do anything particularly special for Christmas because it would have been out of season by the time I post the re-run to YouTube.

Hohner Pianet

In 2019, I started a blog where I write about the Hohner Pianet, a German electric piano from the 1960s, and, as a continuation of the original demonstration disc, record pieces using Pianet samples on my Nord Electro 5D (uploaded on Wednesdays).

My main goal for 2023 is to finish recording the first volume of Bartók's Mikrokosmos.  I have five pieces left, and I'd like to have them recorded by the end of March, which is when I started the Mikrokosmos last year.  Aside from that, I'll probably focus on Telemann's 168 Keyboard Pieces, recording the pieces and modernizing the notation.  Like I've done for the last two years, I'll probably also do at least one piece from Bastien's Great Christmas Carols Arranged for Organ (using my Hammond XPK-130G for the pedal part).

I also plan to write a post about Electric Light Orchestra's use of the Hohner Clavinet.
I did finish the first volume of Bartók's Mikrokosmos (here's a link to the playlist), but it took me until July.  I didn't feel very motivated early in the year (partially because it was so cold), and in the first three months, I recorded only three tunes for this project, of which only one was from the Mikrokosmos.

For about two months (mid-August to mid-October), I took a break from posting pieces, and when I resumed, I adopted a new schedule.  Previously, I'd posted a piece every Wednesday, but now I'm posting on the first and third Wednesdays of the month.  I'll keep posting pieces for a month or two, but currently, I don't have any plans to record any more (aside from one piece from Telemann's 168 Keyboard Pieces that I want to re-do).

I did record a piece from Bastien's Great Christmas Carols Arranged for Organ ("O Christmas Tree"), but I used the Hohner String Melody II sound instead of one of the Pianet samples.

I'd forgotten about writing a post on ELO's use of the Clavinet, and when I remembered, I didn't think I would have enough time left in the year to listen to all of the albums carefully enough to write a well researched post.

Telemann Lieder-Buch

In March 2021, I started working through Telemann's Fast allgemeines Evangelisch-Musicalisches Lieder-Buch, a collection of some 400 hymn tunes.  Along with learning to play the pieces, I'm modernizing the notation.

Last year (especially in the second half of the year), I started getting pretty far ahead in terms of recording the pieces.  I'd like at least to maintain that lead (which means recording four or five pieces every month) and, ideally, get even further ahead.
Near the end of August, I got to a point where I'd workt a whole year ahead in recording the tunes.  I exceeded my monthly goal every month except for May, when I merely met my goal.

Parts

For every time that a couple of old high school classmates (a sometime singer-songwriter and a self-styled author) post about their creative endeavors, I figure out a part for one of my cover projects because I feel that I have to work harder than they do.  Sometimes, I also figure out a part as a toll for listening to an album or if I hear a particular song mentioned somewhere, but I don't always follow this very strictly.

I have two specific parts I want to figure out this year:  the guitar at the beginning of the Lemon Pipers' "Wine and Violet" (which I've unsuccessfully tried to figure it out a couple times before) and the guitar in Johnny Cash's "Tennessee Flat-Top Box."
I learned the guitar part in "Wine and Violet" in early January:

 
And the guitar in "Tennessee Flat-Top Box" in early February:



In late March, I added an-other element to my trigger for working on my cover projects.  For every time former classmates posted, I also listened to an album from one of the bands whose music I'm trying to learn (although I didn't include the Byrds).  I cycled from project to project and in a rough chronological order within each project.  This way, I'm listening to the music with more frequency than I would be otherwise, and I notice new features to write about or find parts that sound easy to figure out.

I figured out 179 parts, although some of these were parts I simply re-learned after having forgotten them and not writing them down.  I also started transcribing the lyrics to songs for which I figured out parts, provided I hadn't started transcribing them already.  There are a few I didn't get around to, though.  I sort of ran out of energy or motivation to figure out parts to songs I heard mentioned, and I think there were a few in December I didn't even write down to remind myself to learn.

Songs posted or referenced by various bands my cousin is in provided a greater impetus for figuring out parts than did "tolls" for listening to albums.  For the record, here are the parts I figured out that fall into this category:

Projects Specific to 2023

Benny Goodman

In April last year, the music department of the university I desperately want to attend posted a clip of an ensemble practicing Benny Goodman's "Stompin' at the Savoy."  Consequently, about a week later, I started reading a biography of Goodman (Benny Goodman and the Swing Era by James Lincoln Collier).  At the time, it was a lower priority among the books I was reading, so I didn't make much progress in it, but I'd like to finish it this year.  I also plan on listening to The Absolutely Essential 3-CD Collection album every month, one disc on each of the first three Fridays of the month.  In months that have five Fridays, I'll use the last two to listen to two other two-disc albums; in March and September, I'll listen to The Complete Recordings 1941-1947 (a collection of Goodman's recordings with Peggy Lee), and in June and December, I'll listen to Trio and Quartet Showcase.

Ideally, this sort of immersion in Goodman will motivate me to practice clarinet more.  I got a clarinet in October 2020, but I rarely play it.  I recorded a lot of pieces on recorder last year partially in an effort to work my way up to clarinet.  In the biography on his website, Mike Vickers describes something like this.  After Benny Goodman's clarinet "seemed to be calling to me to have a go myself," he played various sorts of recorders, "so I'd been there and done that, recorder-wise.  A clarinet was next."
In May, roughly coinciding with Goodman's birthday, I watched The Benny Goodman Story for the first time.  I'd received it for my birthday a couple months before.

I finished Benny Goodman and the Swing Era in September.  Duke Ellington was mentioned in the book quite a lot, and I felt I should become more familiar with him, so the day after I finished the Goodman biography, I started reading Duke: A Life of Duke Ellington by Terry Teachout.

I practiced clarinet every month, although usually only once a month.  I know this doesn't count for very much, but once a month is better than not at all.

The Association

I have matching box sets in the "original album series" by three bands:  the Hollies, the Association, and Booker T. & the MGs.  Since I listened to Booker T. & the MGs every week (on Friday) in 2021 and the Hollies every week (on Monday) in 2022, I felt I should complete the set and listen to the Association every week (on Wednesday) in 2023.  I'm also going to include Greatest Hits! in the cycle because it contains a different recording of "Enter the Young" compared to what's on And Then... Along Comes the Association and "Six Man Band," which isn't on any of the albums in the box set, which - for the record - are:
  • And Then... Along Comes the Association
  • Renaissance
  • Insight Out
  • Birthday
  • The Association
My other goal is to learn the recorder solo in "No Fair at All."  I'd learned a simplified version of it in 2017, but I never wrote it down.
I learned the recorder solo in August:



I doubled the note values in the notation because I felt it would be easier to read that way.


Usually, I didn't figure out other parts as "tolls" for listening to the albums, but I did figure out the solo (some kind of zither, I think) in "Message of Our Love" and the bass part in the verses of "Everything That Touches You."

I also listened to a 45 of "Windy" b/w "Sometime."  I've had the record for years, but this was the first time I'd listened to it.

Beethoven Symphonies

I've been reading The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis, Volume II.  In a letter to his friend Arthur Greeves, dated 5 November 1933, Lewis mentions that his brother has records of all of the Beethoven symphonies and that they were listening to one every Sunday evening.  I thought this sounded like a nice idea, so I'm going to do it, too.  I don't have recordings of all of the Beethoven symphonies, but they're all available on the Frankfurt Radio Symphony's YouTube channel.  I'm going to watch them there (on Sundays, but probably not in the evenings).  For what it's worth, I'm fairly familiar with the third, fifth, and sixth symphonies, and the sixth is my favorite.
I think it was in June that I started just listening to them while doing other things and not actually watching them.

At some point, I realized that since Dvořák also wrote nine symphonies, I could easily pair the two collections, so for the fourth cycle through the Beethoven symphonies (9 July to 3 September), I listened to the correspondingly numbered Dvořák symphony on the following Tuesday.  I have a box set of them, but I think I'd listened to it only twice before.

The schedule didn't work out evenly, and I ended up listening to the ninth symphony one fewer time than the others, but I'm not too concerned about it.

Corelli: Concerti grossi

I'd intended to do this in 2022, but I forgot about it until last month.  In the 2021 Christmas concert at the university I want to attend, one of the ensembles played a movement from one of Corelli's Concerti grossi, Op. 6.  There are twelve concerti in the set, which nicely works out to one a month, and so to familiarize myself with the pieces, I'm going to listen to one every Tuesday.  I want to keep things even, though, so if there's a fifth Tuesday in the month, I'll skip that week.
I'm not sure if I really became very familiar with the pieces, but I did do this.  As something of a continuation, in October, I started going through Corelli's trio sonatas and recording some movements using Mellotron sounds.  Here's a playlist, although I've posted only two so far.

YouTube Watch Later List

In spring last year, I started paring down my YouTube watch later list, which is mostly videos of classical pieces.  I'd like to make further progress in this.  I'm going to continue the strategy I developed near the end of last year and try to focus on one composer every month.  I think January will be Brahms.  Currently, there are 404 videos on the list.
I made only some progress in this.  Often, when I would watch one video from my list, YouTube would recommend me others that I wanted to watch, so I would add those and end up with a longer list than when I started.  Currently, the list has 299 videos.


Other Things to Note

The first thing I listened to in 2023 was the first disc of Telemann's Tafelmusik, which started a project I hadn't intended to do:  every month, I listened to the complete Tafelmusik.

In March, I started reading Sideman, the book by and about Jim Rodford, and I finished it in June.  Also in June, I started reading The New Bach Reader, a collection of documents relating to Johann Sebastian Bach.

Early in April, I started reading a digitized book about Haydn (I'd mistakenly thought it was a collection of letters that Haydn wrote, but I'm reading it anyway).  I like the description (in a footnote starting on page 98) of what characteristics certain keys have.  Here are some of my favorites:
  • A major - "Golden, warm, and sunny"
  • Bb major - "The least interesting of any"
  • G minor - "Replete with melancholy"
  • Ab major - "The most lovely of the tribe"

In May, I listened to a two-disc set of some of Telemann's suites and ouvertures (for only the third time), and I had the idea to record some of these using Mellotron sounds, like I'd previously done with a few classical pieces.  Along with my own limitations (because I have very little formal musical training), I'm a bit constrained by the character of the Mellotron sounds, so I've skipt quite a lot.  I find that the slower movements work better.  I've been posting one movement a month (on the Friday on or after the 14th), and I intend to continue this.  Here's a playlist.

Along with movements from Telemann's ouvertures and Corelli's trio sonatas, I recorded some other pieces using only Mellotron sounds:

In May, I recorded selections from a Telemann partita (TWV 41:e1) on mandolin and electric bass.  Here's a playlist.

Sunday, January 1, 2023

2023 Musical Projects

Here are my musical projects for 2023, starting with those that I'm continuing from previous years.

Continuing Projects

Scales

When I sit down at or with an instrument, I play a scale, provided I know the instrument well enough that I can play a scale on it.  I go in the order of Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier and move on to the next one on Sundays.  For the first week of 2023, I'll be practicing F major.  When I practice organ every day, I improvise to a backing track in the same key (or the relative major if I'm practicing a minor key that week).

This is my blog for hymns and (occasionally) classical sacred music.  On Sunday, I post a recording of a hymn tune (I've been making my way through The Lutheran Hymnal), playing (usually) the four-part arrangement with mandolin (soprano and alto), guitar (tenor), and electric bass (bass).  On Wednesday, I have a post tracing the Biblical sources of a hymn in The Lutheran Service Book, and on Friday, I have a short post about a musical feature in a hymn.  On rare occasions, I post about classical sacred music on Monday.

This year, I'm also going to work my way through James Bastien's Great Hymns Arranged for Organ.  I'd intended to do this last year but had some complications and wasn't able to start.

Cover Projects

Initially, the goal for most of these was to learn every part to every song, and while I'm still working on that, the focus now has shifted more to writing about various features I notice.  Here's a list of the projects and what bands they cover:
In October last year, I started posting a part from a Zombies song on my Instagram account every week (usually on Thursday and, for now, mostly following the track listing on The Decca Stereo Anthology), and I intend to continue this, partially to prove that I'm a "superfan" and partially because it forces me to review some songs I've forgotten how to play.

I have a handful of notes about the Monkees' album The Birds, The Bees, & the Monkees that I'd like to flesh out into posts.  I'd intended to do this in December last year, but I was sick for most of the month and didn't get around to it.

FAWM and 50/90

The last few years have been pretty unproductive (I think I wrote less music last year than any other year since I started writing), but I guess I'll give FAWM and 50/90 an-other try.  Lately, I've just been more interesting in playing other people's music.

Bach Cantatas

On Sunday, I listen to a Bach cantata, going in order by BWV number.  Occasionally, I follow along in the notation and jot down some notes.

This year, I'll be listening to BWV 58 through BWV 110.  The box set I have contains all of the cantatas in that range.

Mandolin Monday

Every Monday, I post a recording of a mandolin piece on Instagram and Twitter, and I upload a slightly edited re-run on YouTube.  I plan to continue doing selections from Francis O'Neill's Dance Music of Ireland, although I may do something different every now and then.  Christmas is on a Monday this year, and I'll probably do something special for that.

Hohner Pianet

In 2019, I started a blog where I write about the Hohner Pianet, a German electric piano from the 1960s, and, as a continuation of the original demonstration disc, record pieces using Pianet samples on my Nord Electro 5D (uploaded on Wednesdays).

My main goal for 2023 is to finish recording the first volume of Bartók's Mikrokosmos.  I have five pieces left, and I'd like to have them recorded by the end of March, which is when I started the Mikrokosmos last year.  Aside from that, I'll probably focus on Telemann's 168 Keyboard Pieces, recording the pieces and modernizing the notation.  Like I've done for the last two years, I'll probably also do at least one piece from Bastien's Great Christmas Carols Arranged for Organ (using my Hammond XPK-130G for the pedal part).

I also plan to write a post about Electric Light Orchestra's use of the Hohner Clavinet.

Telemann Lieder-Buch

In March 2021, I started working through Telemann's Fast allgemeines Evangelisch-Musicalisches Lieder-Buch, a collection of some 400 hymn tunes.  Along with learning to play the pieces, I'm modernizing the notation.

Last year (especially in the second half of the year), I started getting pretty far ahead in terms of recording the pieces.  I'd like at least to maintain that lead (which means recording four or five pieces every month) and, ideally, get even further ahead.

Parts

For every time that a couple of old high school classmates (a sometime singer-songwriter and a self-styled author) post about their creative endeavors, I figure out a part for one of my cover projects because I feel that I have to work harder than they do.  Sometimes, I also figure out a part as a toll for listening to an album or if I hear a particular song mentioned somewhere, but I don't always follow this very strictly.

I have two specific parts I want to figure out this year:  the guitar at the beginning of the Lemon Pipers' "Wine and Violet" (which I've unsuccessfully tried to figure it out a couple times before) and the guitar in Johnny Cash's "Tennessee Flat-Top Box."

Projects Specific to 2023

Benny Goodman

In April last year, the music department of the university I desperately want to attend posted a clip of an ensemble practicing Benny Goodman's "Stompin' at the Savoy."  Consequently, about a week later, I started reading a biography of Goodman (Benny Goodman and the Swing Era by James Lincoln Collier).  At the time, it was a lower priority among the books I was reading, so I didn't make much progress in it, but I'd like to finish it this year.  I also plan on listening to The Absolutely Essential 3-CD Collection album every month, one disc on each of the first three Fridays of the month.  In months that have five Fridays, I'll use the last two to listen to two other two-disc albums; in March and September, I'll listen to The Complete Recordings 1941-1947 (a collection of Goodman's recordings with Peggy Lee), and in June and December, I'll listen to Trio and Quartet Showcase.

Ideally, this sort of immersion in Goodman will motivate me to practice clarinet more.  I got a clarinet in October 2020, but I rarely play it.  I recorded a lot of pieces on recorder last year partially in an effort to work my way up to clarinet.  In the biography on his website, Mike Vickers describes something like this.  After Benny Goodman's clarinet "seemed to be calling to me to have a go myself," he played various sorts of recorders, "so I'd been there and done that, recorder-wise.  A clarinet was next."

The Association

I have matching box sets in the "original album series" by three bands:  the Hollies, the Association, and Booker T. & the MGs.  Since I listened to Booker T. & the MGs every week (on Friday) in 2021 and the Hollies every week (on Monday) in 2022, I felt I should complete the set and listen to the Association every week (on Wednesday) in 2023.  I'm also going to include Greatest Hits! in the cycle because it contains a different recording of "Enter the Young" compared to what's on And Then... Along Comes the Association and "Six Man Band," which isn't on any of the albums in the box set, which - for the record - are:
  • And Then... Along Comes the Association
  • Renaissance
  • Insight Out
  • Birthday
  • The Association
My other goal is to learn the recorder solo in "No Fair at All."  I'd learned a simplified version of it in 2017, but I never wrote it down.

Beethoven Symphonies

I've been reading The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis, Volume II.  In a letter to his friend Arthur Greeves, dated 5 November 1933, Lewis mentions that his brother has records of all of the Beethoven symphonies and that they were listening to one every Sunday evening.  I thought this sounded like a nice idea, so I'm going to do it, too.  I don't have recordings of all of the Beethoven symphonies, but they're all available on the Frankfurt Radio Symphony's YouTube channel.  I'm going to watch them there (on Sundays, but probably not in the evenings).  For what it's worth, I'm fairly familiar with the third, fifth, and sixth symphonies, and the sixth is my favorite.

Corelli: Concerti grossi

I'd intended to do this in 2022, but I forgot about it until last month.  In the 2021 Christmas concert at the university I want to attend, one of the ensembles played a movement from one of Corelli's Concerti grossi, Op. 6.  There are twelve concerti in the set, which nicely works out to one a month, and so to familiarize myself with the pieces, I'm going to listen to one every Tuesday.  I want to keep things even, though, so if there's a fifth Tuesday in the month, I'll skip that week.

YouTube Watch Later List

In spring last year, I started paring down my YouTube watch later list, which is mostly videos of classical pieces.  I'd like to make further progress in this.  I'm going to continue the strategy I developed near the end of last year and try to focus on one composer every month.  I think January will be Brahms.  Currently, there are 404 videos on the list.
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)