Ah Classical
I guess I haven’t told people what my shadow was like on Friday!
It was fun for me, and I think fun for him, so it was all good. I felt a little bad at lunch because he had brought this monster deli sandwich and oreos and chips and soda and everything that I couldn’t eat being diet-boy at the time. Oh well.
And I was a good little internet evangelist and spoke harshly of the evils of Frontpage. Many times.
I think he got to witness a good thing though — me running into a weird problem. It was an interesting HTML issue, and I still fully believe that it was simply an HTML quirk — and probably had I tried Netscape or Opera it would have gone away. But it was a real tenacious problem, and it took me probably 45 minutes before I gave up and started working on a work-around ’solution’. I say it was a good thing because I think it was good for him to see the challenges during programming, instead of just the outcomes. As boring as these things are to watch.
There was this one really funny (for me) moment on Friday. I always listen to classical music while I work — it helps drown out distracting noises while being un-distractive itself, and so helps me concentrate. So I start going through my CDs and I ask my shadow if he ever listened to classical music. He said yes, sometimes, and I was kind of impressed. I asked him what he liked to listen to, and he says Beethoven. That was when a warning flag went up.
Don’t get me wrong, I love Beethoven. But let’s face it, Beethoven has the unfortunate dignity of being two things: 1) the first composer people listen to if they listen to classical but don’t know much about it, and 2) the first name people think of when they think ‘classical’ and don’t really know anything else about classical. So I thought I would test the waters….
“Beethoven!” I said, “The Appassionata?” And he shrugs. Ok, fine, so he’s not versed in classical. Most people aren’t! I chose Mahler’s 5th, hoping it was exciting enough not to bore him out of his head. I don’t know if it took, though. Later, as I was using my code editor, Edit Plus, to work on the big HTML problem I was having, I asked him, “So what do you think of Mahler?” And he says, “Is that what you’re using? I just have Notepad.” Yeah. It didn’t take.
Oh well! Can’t win ‘em all. At least, hopefully, I convinced him Frontpage wasn’t the way to go. Oh, and I gave him the URLs for Slashdot and ArsTechnica, so he should be uber-geek-i-fied before too long. Mission accomplished. 
The last few days, though, have been very good classical-wise. I have a whole new batch of music from the library I’m going through and I love it. I’ve finally been able to listen to the entire Planets — not just Mars and Jupiter. I’ve also got a Benjamin Britton song on the Planets CD, which is great, I only knew the name Benjamin Britton by name from a song by Arvo Part, Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britton (a truly amazing song), and only recently realized he was a composer himself. And I really love that song, too. If this is indicative of more of his music, I’m kind of forming this image of him being a 19th century British version of Sousa….
Anyway, I’ve also got some Handel (Water Music), Bach (Brandenburg Concertos), and my new favorite — Vivaldi. I am just completely in love with Vivaldi.
October 27th, 2003 at 11:27 am
You can’t go wrong with Vivaldi…I also like Bizet, you might want to give him a try. I’ve actually been listening to Dvorak lately, excellent stuff…I like to listen to it while I read the New Yorker and pretend to be cultured.
I also have a weakness for Ralph Vaughan Williams, probably because we played Folk Song Suite in high school…I love that piece. Anyway, hope things are going well for you, love you!
October 27th, 2003 at 11:39 am
Have you listen to Williams’ “A Sea Symphony?” I bought that CD on a lark from one of those BMG offers and it’s wonderful.
Dvorak is excellent, I agree — but I haven’t heard much/any Bizet. Do you listen to any Berlioz? I have a really terrific recording of Symphony Fantastique that is played on period instruments.
Speaking of Folk Song, I’ve also been listening to a lot of Copland lately. Good stuff.
And this month’s Smithsonian magazine has a piece on Philip Glass, who is considered by the author of the article the #1 American contemporary classical composer. I’ll admit that I’m familiar with very few contemporary composers, but I would probably say the same about Glass. Although I personally think that symphonic film scores should be counted as contemporary classical — and in that case Howard Shore is up there for me too.
October 27th, 2003 at 3:02 pm
Oh and you know what else is kind of weird? It turns out I really like Elgar. I mean really like Elgar. And you know what? When you hear Pomp & Circumstance as the full piece and not just the march, even that is really really nice.
Plus it turns out that this little symphonic prelude to one of the songs on the Matrix soundtrack (don’t remember which one) is actually note-by-note from the very beginning of Elgar’s Variations on an Original Theme. Stupid-heads.
October 28th, 2003 at 2:47 pm
Personally my favorite text editor is gPachelbel. my WYSIWYG HTML editor is BarberEdit.
Speaking of Barber, I have a CD full of his Adagio for Strings I need to listen to again.
Ahh, the Brandenburg Concertos, I love ‘em. I need to find that CD again to make sure I don’t remember them more fondly than enjoyed actually listening to them. And I love Berlioz’s Grande Symphonie Funebre et Triomphale. After playing the second and third movements in the W&M Concert Band I totally fell in love with the piece. I want the second movement played in my funeral. Tee hee. Go check it out from your library!
Wow, now I have a whole afternoon of classical music lined up for me. Delicious.
October 28th, 2003 at 2:59 pm
The first time I heard Barber’s Adagio was off of a trombone choir CD (The London Trombone Sound) and I thought it was something just exceptional; there was something about the piece that transcended the instrumentation.
I still listen to the trombone choir version occasionally. It’s given me new respect for the instrument (that and Christian Lindberg’s rendition of Flight of the Bumblebee).
November 1st, 2003 at 10:23 pm
hehe yeah this is your shadow, I do like classical music, but I’m just getting into it I guess. Thanks again for letting me shadow you, it was a great time and I learned a lot. I’ve been visiting your death by spam page a lot, and I think that’s pretty interesting. I guess to fit in with the other comments, I’ll say what CD I bought over the weekend. Umm well I got an album from a group called O.A.R. of a revolution, they are a Ska (is that how you spell it?) band from a few years ago with the classical guitar and a saxophone etcetera, and alll their songs sound similar enough to let you concentrate on what you are doing. Anyway thanks for letting me shadow you, it was great (sorry about the sandwich)
November 1st, 2003 at 11:54 pm
Hey! Thanks for the thank-you note, that was very thoughtful. I’m glad you like classical, and you have to start somewhere. When I was your age the large part of my classical experience came from piano, which I’ve played since I was five. It was a real door-opener. Without that, it would have been years more before I would have gained appreciation.
Though I admit, I’m a real classical snob. Actually, before I graduated high school I took my whole cd collection and basically gave away nearly everything non-classical. I kept a few things. I still like Dave Matthews, and Toad the Wet Sprocket. I like Tori Amos and Fiona Apple. And a few others I suppose if I think about it. Classical really became my focus though.
If you want to check out classical, the Central Resource Library (a Johnson County library) at 87th and Farley (a few blocks from my townhouse) has a great classical selection. Beethoven’s Appassionata Sonata is a great one to start with, they should have it somewhere. We’ve already mentioned a lot of other great names here in these comments, they are also good places to start. Also Tchaikovsky, Schubert, Rachmaninoff, Mossourgsky, and Grieg. That’s the great thing about classical — that there is so much out there! The other great thing is that classical CDs usually cost much less than pop/over-hyped music. You can really kick-start a collection very quickly. At Costco right now they have several 20-disc sets for $30 a set. A great deal.
I enjoyed having you over, and I’m glad you have gotten something out of it. Oh and while I’m thinking about it, there was one thing I regret not having mentioned. You asked if I had any advice, and I must have had momentary amnesia or something because I forgot my best piece of advice:
Get your own domain name. Get it as early as you can, but definately before you start handing out resumes and forging business acquaintences. When I first started I had a University of Chicago email address, and I got nowhere. Then I got luxfx.com, which is my first and oldest domain. There was an immediate change. The level of respect you get from having tom@holtmagicstudio.com (or whatever) is infinitely greater than the respect you get from tholt_1829@earthlink.com (or whatever).
Remember that, and you’ll get an early leg up.
November 2nd, 2003 at 4:50 pm
Hey Tom - just ignore all David’s music snobbery! I enjoy classical, but I can’t name the composer and title of every piece of music on NPR, so David still acts like I’m a musical idiot.
PS- David and I split the sandwhich leftovers for dinner that night - it was great! Thank you!