I was a bit alarmed today to find a pink slip in my Assistant Instructor file. However, it turned out I wasn't actually fired: this was just the start of the kickback system tied to my new position and its responsibilities. It's similar to the kickbacks system for physicians, who I'm told not only get millions of free samples of medications but also get paid vacations, taken out to meals, etc. by pharmaceutical companies looking to sell their product. Of course, there are differences: for example, I get no medications, paid vacations, or free meals. Rather, I get (well, got anyway) free textbooks, packed with a nice fake bill which explains in friendly mostly-capital letters:
"THIS COURSE MATERIAL IS SENT TO YOU COMPLIMENTS OF YOUR LOCAL REPRESENTATIVE. Erin Lizer"
Punctuation notwithstanding, I think this means that my local representative is Erin Lizer, who was kind enough to get me free textbooks in the hope that I would be sold on them. So, like physicians, but different.

I played the Barber Sonata fourth movement (Fuga) today for the first time at full speed! That was very exciting. I never thought I'd be able to pull it off. It especially feels good after butchering the Berg Sonata in masterclass on Thursday.

Sorry, by the way, for the far-too-slowness of the second linked recording. For what it's worth, I've started really liking altavista's music search, which, though full of bad results, finds an amazing amount of free recordings of music I like. In other free music news, the Philadelphia Orchestra is being pleasantly digital and has an online music store of its own, where you can actually download their recording of Beethoven's 5th (in mp3) for free (!). I think it's a very clever idea: I suspect lots of people who would like to download that recording would also like to buy other Philly Orchestra recordings. Though on the other hand, classical music lovers do tend to like liner notes and things. (Though on the other other hand, they do have pretty good notes available for download: it's just not in an obvious location and is of course a digital file, which is less fun to read.)

In the meantime, I find it interesting to think sometimes about the different perspectives people hold on life in general. One of the readings in church this morning decried people who decide that life is short and therefore should just be enjoyed - of course, largely because this leads to "persecution of the righteous." Thinking of this compared to Ecclesiastes, another old testament text but which urges simple enjoyment of life (in an extremely fatalistic way), made me think of a story passed on by my Southeast Asian Religions teacher Vernon Schubel. It's a bit long, but here's a paraphrase:

An unhappy man sets off for another country. He gets lost in a forest, and as he gets thirsty and hungry, is charged by a mad elephant and an evil demoness. He sees a high tree, but can't climb it, so jumps into a nearby well, clinging to some reeds to keep from falling to the bottom, where he sees enraged snakes. Unfortunately, two mice, one white and one black, start chewing at the reed clump he was holding, and meanwhile the enraged elephant charges into the nearby tree several times, causing a honeycomb to fall into the well, the bees stinging the man all over. By chance, a drop of honey reaches his head, and rolls down his face to his lips. Tasting the honey, the man thinks of none of the horrible things going on around and simply longs for more honey.

Prof. Shubel said he heard this story for the first time from some "hippy Sufis" (Sufism is mystical Islam) who explained that this story showed how even in the midst of misery, the human spirit and love of beauty prevails. But it turns out the story is actually from The Story of Samaraditya, a Jain source (though the story is also told by Hindus), which attempts to prove how horrible life is. The elephant is death, the demoness old age, the tree is salvation (unattainable by sensual man), the snakes are the passions, the reeds are the man's allotted lifespan, the mice are days and nights passing, the bees are diseases, a particularly large python at the bottom of the well is hell, and the drops of honey are "trivial pleasures, terrible at the last. How can a wise man want them, in the midst of such peril and hardship?"

Every once in a while, I get the urge to get back into ballroom dancing. There is both a Ballroom Dancing club and a Swing Dancing club here at IU, but unfortunately everything's designed for beginners and/or costs money (the latter more consistently than the former). Ah well.
And now my real reason for posting: some choice words from Herr Heinrich (Schenker, of course):

"As was the case in Italy with Scarlatti, so too in Poland Chopin stands isolated - a musical genius."

(Lest there be any doubt about what nationality is truly superior.)

In case anyone's interested in what I did last summer, you can see it all here: pdid.grinnell.edu. Click the "guest login" button, and then get to the CERA Insect Collection, and you will see many extremely close-up, extremely high-resolution (13 Megapixel DSLR camera) photos of tons of insects. In addition, once you've waited (a somewhat long time) for one to load, you can go to the info on the left, click on a link, and see a Quicktime Virtual Reality 360 degree view (at a lower resolution, naturally) which you can rotate at will. On the "not recommended" list are most of the grasshoppers, katydids, and crickets, in addition to all the obvious ones. (Those bigger-bodied insects smelled really, really bad.) I also contributed to the photographs in the Physics Museum collection, but I haven't seen any of mine up yet. (For what it's worth, most of the insects aren't yet either.)
Enjoy!

Disaster!
I parked illegally, and got towed. I guess it could have been worse: it could have been the car. (Though despite the extra expense, my trip to school tomorrow at 7:30 AM would have been more pleasant.) I can't believe it: the university doesn't care enough about bikes to cover any of the bike racks, let alone have enough of them (they're always crowded and bikes are always spread around a few yards in every direction), and yet it impounded my bike for parking it on a sidewalk (which I didn't realize was illegal). From the parking enforcement website, it looks like I'll get charged a $20 fine, along with perhaps a registration fee, and that's if I can find a time to meet with an officer at some point. (The irony, of course, is that I went to this concert because I might as well "because it's free.") Really, I guess I'm more annoyed about losing my mode of transportation than the fine. Well, I guess I won't be very mobile tomorrow...

J. S. Bach. Now there was a guy who could answer his phone with a tonal or a real answer, if you know what I mean (Sign #12). I just went to a performance by a local composition faculty member of the complete Book I of Das wohltemperirte Clavier ("The Wool-Tempered Clavier," of course, correcting the usual translation of "Wohl" as "Well" - try tempering your clavier with a sheep sometime, it's quite nice). On the one hand, what an achievement: that's 48 pieces, 2 hours' worth of difficult contrapuntal music. Unfortunately, on the other hand, I think the best word for the performance was "unsteady." When he'd miss a note, he'd actually start to rush, only making things worse, and his very finger-y technique meant that even when the fingers moved correctly, they didn't always get the key all the way down to speak. (It also raised the perennial questions of "updating" Bach, with occasional doubled bass lines, pedal points, and changes of tempo, but I'll leave that aside - I'm willing to accept a fair amount of Busonization if it's done well.) Still, an enjoyable concert, and it's definitely interesting to hear the works as a whole.
Another recent concert was really spectacular, by the early music group I mentioned below titled Liber Unusualis. It was another long concert, but absolutely gorgeous. Most of the repertoire was 14th century, with a lot of De Vitry and Machaut, though there was a fair amount of early Du Fay and Anonymous.
Upcoming highlights include a concert tomorrow by virtually all of the Early Music Institute faculty, a performance of Bruckner's Symphony no. 5 (now there's a contrast) on Wednesday, and then some Schoenberg (don't worry - just Verklarte Nacht) the following Wednesday.
I guess I'm pretty lucky....

I just got out of Pro Arte, and... Bliss! I think this is finally my dream choir! It breaks my heart that I have to wait until Monday to do that again...


The piece that really did it was Purcell's Hear My Prayer, O Lord. Recordings - one rather poor, and the other okay - can be found at here and here, but to get the full effect you should really find a good recording (if you have Variations2, try here) or come to our concert on Tuesday, Oct. 24.