Back to School Quiz

UPDATED ANSWERS 8/29!!! I'm a huge fan of NewMusicBox, and although I didn't take the last quiz, I am taking this one. For fun, and in the spirit of Back to School! If you want, click on the link or just click here for Soho the Dog to get the questions.

BTW, the picture is from Cloverfield, aka 1-18-08, the new J.J. Abrams film due in January. Can't wait! Run a Google search if you want more info. Between this, the Dark Knight (new Batman sequel), The Green Effect and Star Trek XI (and having my infant son in a Star Trek uniform for the premiere in Denmark), it's going to be a GREAT year! I have a feeling ENP and I will have further discussions on the infant uniform, however.

• What's the best quotation of a piece of music within another piece of music?

Mahler 2 in Berio Sinfonia, although Shostakovich 7 in Bartok Concerto for Orchestra is nice as well. Worst and most offensive would have to be the trumpet solo from Pines in the Rutter Magnificat. Egad. I have played those church gigs, esp. when I lived in Chicago.

• Name the best classical crossover album ever made.

Hmm. Could I count some of Keith Emerson's stuff with ELP? If we call him classical first, I'd say Trilogy would be my favorite. Probably doesn't count, but Barber or Copland figure prominently in the title track.

• Great piece a with a terrible title.

I'll come back to this one. I can name lots of terrible pieces with terrible titles. "Used Car Salesman" comes to mind. Brooms-hilda?

• If you had to choose: Benjamin Britten or Michael Tippett?

Britten.

• Who's your favorite spouse of a composer/performer? (Besides your own.)

Alma. What a relationship.

• Terrible piece with a great title.

What about great pieces with great titles? I've been into Blake Tyson's titles lately (Vertical River, The Trees are Quiet, Cloud Forest) and also David Skidmore (From In Contact, Unknown Kind). Perhaps I just like names of pieces from personal commissions (Trees and Cloud Forest weren't written for me or mine, however). Blake and David's music stands up to the billing, I can assure you.

• What's the best use of a classical warhorse in a Hollywood movie?

The Scherzo from Shostakovich 8 in Fandango. Great Costner movie. Also uses It's for You, one of my favorite early Metheny tunes.

• Name the worst classical crossover album ever made.

Renee Fleming "I Want Magic," which probably counts. Nothing against Renee; I think her Strauss Four Last Songs with Eschenbach and Houston is in my all-time top-five recordings of any genre all-time. However, "Magic" makes me feel the same way I feel during the early rounds of American Idol auditions--or even more specifically, "Saved by the Bell" reruns.

• If you had to choose: Sam Cooke or Marvin Gaye?

Marvin.

• Name a creative type in a non-musical medium who would have been a great composer.

Hmm. Jon Stewart or Cookie Monster. Until next time! JP

School is almost here!

Dear Anonymous,

Thank you so much for your commentary on my recent blogging (the Carnegie Hall tour, school being out, summer topics)--and thanks to you, I am going to update my blog with the long-awaited news that you and at least two other people have undoubtedly heard about by now...and pardon the bullets; after all this time I still don't know how to separate paragraphs in this program...

• ENP will be 17 weeks along next Tuesday, and we are both thrilled! This is but one of the big surprises to which I alluded lo these many weeks ago--and of course it's the biggest, but the other one is also a big deal! The Florida State Percussion Ensemble was one of three "Call for Tapes" winners of the PAS International Percussion Ensemble Competition! We will be playing a featured concert at the convention this fall (Columbus, OH) and I am really, really excited about it. For more information on this, you can click on "John's Home Page" over on the right and it will take you to the appropriate link. Check out the "media" pages while you're there; I've added some interesting new sound files and some pictures of our renovated teaching studio that look pretty amazing.

In the past 14 months I've become married to ENP (aka the most amazing woman in the universe), moved to a new house, performed a solo recital in Carnegie Hall, found out we're having a baby, and had my ensemble invited to PASIC. What a YEAR!!!

• Readers, I hope you are having a great summer and I will probably see some of you soon. Nice bullets.