Category Archives: Music and Musicians

my two books in preparation

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I heard on July 15th that “Rush and Philosophy” (which I’m co-editing and contributing towards) is going ahead in the Popular Culture and Philosophy series of Open Court Publishing. Now, I just have to figure out how to have it not take up too much of my time between September and April, especially given that my Simpsons’ music book for Oxford UP is also likely to be approved shortly. Could someone not have given me these book deals well BEFORE I was about to abandon musicology?

Thanks, Musicology!

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From 1999 to 2008, I taught 31 sections of 22 courses at seven different universities. I have also presented 23 conference papers and invited talks, have two books presently in development, and have published eight chapters or articles and 72 reference entries. I know that there are plenty of recent (is 2003 recent?) Ph.D.s out there with “entitlement” issues, but my record speaks for itself, despite not having been applied to a tenure-track position. 2009 is the first year since 1998 in which I will not have taught at least one course, and it is also the first year since 2000 in which I will not have earned at least $1800 doing professional choral singing. The result of all of the above has been (1) bankruptcy and (2) a new (i.e., actual) career direction into computer applications development.

Choral Concert in Oakville

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I’m singing in the following concert tomorrow:

Magnificat – Oakville Chamber Ensemble

Choral Music of the 16th, 17th, and 18th Centuries

G. Puccini – Credo in G (Puccini’s Mozart-era ancestor)
A. Vivaldi – Magnificat
T. Victoria – Regina caeli laetare a 5
T. Victoria – Alma Redemptoris a 8
Monteverdi – Lamento d’Arianne: Lascia
Gastoldi – Baletti (l’acceso – amor vittorioso – l’inmorato)

Time: 7:30PM Saturday, May 23rd
Venue: St. Simon’s Anglican Church, Oakville ON

Susan Boyle

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I barely follow the “Idol”-type shows, because I find nearly all of the music to be complete and utter rehashes of existing things. On the other hand, practically everything about those shows is already predetermined or, at least, media-fabricated. Thus, in such a context, isn’t it at least slightly OK that a relatively “normal”-looking, middle-aged woman (Scotland’s Susan Boyle) was even allowed to appear, as opposed to exclusively “well-above-average-looking” 19ish-year-old “girls” and “boys”? You can’t even audition for most of the “Idol” shows if you’re over something like 27, but I suppose the producers and judges of this particular show were just “covering their middle-aged asses” (in a sad, politically-correct kind of way) by letting her through to that point. I never expected such producers to have any reasonable amount of artistic or social integrity in the first place, so why should this particular “stunt” offend me? Besides, if the general public is looking for “gifted musicians” on such shows, they deserve exactly what they usually get. Everyone who deserves better than that should instead watch the excellent 2006 documentary “Before the Music Dies.” See http://beforethemusicdies.com/

“The Simpsons” & Music

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My editor is pleased with my updates to Chapter 1 of Be Sharp: ‘The Simpsons’ & Music. I will shortly revise Chapter 3, and then the book will go to the external reviewers. I am optimistic that this book will be published in 2010. In addition, “Intertextual Music & Discursive Parody in The Simpsons” (which I presented at a conference at McGill in Montreal in April) has been accepted for the 4th Annual ECHO conference, Music and Humor, being held at UCLA on June 5 and 6. Eric Wang, one of my 2008 teaching assistants, has agreed to present it for me.

“EMC” articles

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My Encyclopedia of Music in Canada articles from March, April and May 2009:

  • Peter Oundjian
  • Choral Singing
  • Ensemble Anonymous
  • Arion Male Voice Choir
  • Winnipeg Philharmonic Choir
  • Bluegrass
  • Rap
  • Cantatas
  • Canadian Electronic Ensemble
  • Blues
  • Heavy Metal
  • The Internet and Music

(Yes, that IS all over the map!)

For my existing EMC articles, do a search on my name at: http://canadianencyclopedia.ca/index.cfm?PgNm=EMCSubjects&Params=U1.

Kalsubai

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After “finding” and posting a copy of the album cover, I managed to “track down” the opening song and first single, “My Pal in (d)Rome,” from the album A Defining Characteristic of Intelligence (1974) by the Canadian-British progressive rock band Kalsubai. The music is heavily influenced by King Crimson, Genesis, and early world music “fusions,” and it thus provides a sort of cross between “psychedelic progressive” jazz-rock (perhaps also a little bit along the lines of the Mahavishnu Orchestra) and what would later be called “new age” music” (but along the relatively “rock”-oriented lines of Mike Oldfield). “My Pal in (d)Rome” is mainly noted for having reached #41 in the US “Top 40,” although it also reached #34 in the UK’s “Top 30” and #21 in Canada’s “Top 20.” Magically, the song includes approximations of all of the instruments mentioned on Facebook by people who “remember” this album: Shakuhachi flute, clarinet, Mellotron, harmonica, and a Hammond organ “solo,” in addition to drums and percussion, jazzy guitar-chord comping, fretless bass, and weirdly-echoed, semi-pompous (!) lyrics and vocals. See https://youtu.be/2Gmr_JV2R6M.

Rush book

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In March, I heard from an upstate New York teacher (Jim Berti) who is interested in putting together a book called Rush and Philosophy in the ongoing series that began with Seinfeld and Philosophy. After some discussions by email, I agreed to co-edit (and contribute to) this book, contacted a number of likely contributors, and proposed that abstracts be submitted by the end of May. For my own contributions, I will use elements from my dissertation, an article on Canadianness I had recently submitted to an academic journal, and my “Rush Tributes” article that may still be published elsewhere. Hopefully, we would be able to get this published in 2010. I still also hope to publish my own book on Rush (i.e., more closely related to my dissertation), possibly in 2011.