A brief glimpse

I did not anticipate spending part of my evening listening to some of my old compositions.  Truth be told, I don't know how my evenings are usually going to be spent until the evening is upon me.  Nevertheless, some of my post-teaching time was spent listening to what I've uploaded to this site on the Works page.  They are all things I wrote during the early and middle part of my undergraduate education.

Should you choose to browse there and take a listen, you will not find anything brilliant or earth shattering.  They are merely me following the directions of my ear using some guidelines that I had learned in my music theory courses.  They are all MIDI files, for I do not possess the piano chops to attempt to perform (or perform one part) any of what I wrote.  There are a few others I need to upload -- mostly saxophone works, including an impossible-to-play tenor saxophone solo entitled The Music of a Fatality.

The curious thing about re-listening to these pieces (as I have done several times since their creation) is that they invoke either the same of similar images in my head as they did upon their composition.  Perhaps it's the same idea as a writer of text being able to leave their work for a long period of time and return to it to remember details about their characters and setting.  All pieces of music have something to say.  The challenge is know how to translate what needs to be said into music.  That ability is something beyond me.  Thus, like many other folk, I rely on other composers to hopefully write something that can serve as a representation of what needs to be said.

I encourage you to take a listen to David Maslanka's Symphony No. 2 for Band / Wind Ensemble.  For years (before I was exposed to the first and second movement), I claimed the third movement would provide a glimpse inside my head.  The first movement also contains material that may help you better understand me.  My connection to the second movement (despite the use of saxophone at the beginning) is the weakest.

You'll find the material that connects me to Maslanka's work within the harmonic structure and various other elements.  For example, the high tessitura of the melody in the first movement (and the feeling of an impending fall) speaks volumes of my mind.  What it says, I cannot tell you (I know--that makes no sense).  But whatever it seems to say, my mind says its right.  Likewise for the story of the third movement.  Maslanka describes it with this sentence.

The underlying impulse of this movement is an exuberant, insistent outpouring of energy, demanding a high level of playing precision and physical endurance from the performers.

I agree with that but perhaps not in the way that Maslanka does.  I see it as a struggle, and on one end is life and the other death.  If you want a clearer explanation, ask me.  If I deem it necessary, you'll receive the explanation (see yesterday's post).  Take a listen to Maslanka's second symphony.  Perhaps you'll find something within it for yourself.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2: A review of sort

I've been debating for about a day what I intend to write for my next couple of posts.  If you don't already know, I keep strict control over what people know about the inner workings of my mind.  Even though I do ramble, I'm always aware of what I'm saying.  Perhaps I do this to a fault.

The matter at hand:  Potter.

I'm going to provide my review in two ways.  One is what most people should gather from the film.  Then I'll take the same review and put it through the lens of what I actually experienced.

The movie was well done.  I elected to see the 2-D version at 12:01 Friday morning.  I'm thorougly unimpressed with 3-D movies.  The technology is nifty, but its attraction doesn't go beyond that.  The score was well-composed; however, it wasn't present through much of the movie.  Usually when I see a film like Potter, I can hear a movie through the score as well as watch the movie.  This wasn't the case with Part 2.  It seems like an average Hollywood movie where the music is simply there as support, rather than a story within itself.  I found myself plugging in musical holes in my head with Sheherazade (Rimsky-Korsakov).  The ending music was appropriate and enjoyable.

I have no criticism of the effects in the movie.  Unlike Twilight and Saw, the effects were complementary to the movie, rather than trying to command the audience's attention.  There were a few times where fire occured, and I thought that was well illustrated -- not corny, but the fire seemed to act in the way fire should (even magical fire).

The performance of the actors was acceptable.  Even Rupert Grint has finally learned something about how to act.  Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson were fine as always, and the rest of the regular cast did their parts well.  The dialogue was a bit predictable for me.  The theater erupted in applause and other outbursts at the appropriate times.  The times where these occured were during either comical scenes or scenes of power, and unfortunately these had a staged feel to them.  There were a couple of scenes with Neville Longbottom where this occured.  I understand why such dialogue and scenes are there, but I'm more interested in being affected  by the story, than being manipulated by dialogue tricks -- which I'm immune to most anyway. 

On this same subject is Ron, Hermione, and Severus Snape.  I will not give away details, for their story is integral to the film, but I will say this.  They have a few moments that are obviously made for their characters (hence the previous paragraph); however, I do not levy the aforementioned criticism to them.  They were appropriate, tasteful, and, in my opinion, were as close to the reality of the human condition as you could see.  The audience responded in kind with cheers and tears as appropriate.  

If you are a book purist, you will find some factual errors -- as you will in all of the films.  They do not ruin the film, but there are a couple noticeable enough for me to mention their existence.  I will not say what they are, for I fear that may be spoiling information for some.  You'll only notice them in the back of your mind, again they do not ruin the movie.

The movie was a fine work overall, and I highly recommend its viewing.  I hope it fares well on Rotten Tomatoes.

The review though my lens is mostly the same.  The only difference is that I felt nothing through the film.  I felt no happiness nor saddness--there was nothing.  This is not a criticism of the film at all; it is a criticism of me.  The reality of this bothers me, but it is my reality nevertheless.  I wanted to experience the same cheers and tears as my fellow audience members; however, it is beyond me.  The cheers were easy to mimic, for I know how and when to do them appropriate.  Tears are beyond my abilities to recreate--they cannot occur when you feel nothing.

I know why this is, and that knowledge is not germane to this post (hence the first paragraph).  The reason I mention this inability to feel is this.  As much as I love everything about the Potter series, I was curious if seeing this film and knowing that it markes the end of cinema fantasy for me, would cause me to experience some kind of emotion.  Clearly, it didn't.