Comments on: Joshua Bell Tour Trauma: Meatball Edition

By: Ursalette

Ursalette — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 11:28:23 +0000

This is what I love so much about Bach Double Violin Concerto 2nd mvmt, particularly the opening. I purposely ask to play Violino 2 part because of this exquisite conceit!
I love your blog!

By: Think Denk! | Classical 101 - WOSU Public Media

Think Denk! | Classical 101 - WOSU Public Media — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 17:10:14 +0000

[...] pianist tells me his tongue is planted firmly in cheek. Well, that and a blog post entitled Joshua Bell tour Trauma: Meatball Edition. He recently subbed for an ailing Maurizio Pollini on the Stern Auditorium/Perlman Stage of [...]

By: Amy Natzke

Amy Natzke — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 23:29:54 +0000

Jeremy–for fun, would you please go to this site, scroll down exactly five times, and say Boo to yourself.

http://www.classical-composers.org/comp/mozartwa

By: theorygirl

theorygirl — Thu, 30 Dec 2010 21:45:03 +0000

As you can imagine from my name, I LOVE music theory. I teach it at the college level, and it’s my passion. Two things about this blog struck me: 1. how right you are about the deficiencies of our analytical system – labels can be quite subversive – and I, too, am guilty of telling my first-year students who are confronting their first analysis example that “you don’t need to worry about that – it’s a non-chord tone.” I’ll think long and hard before I say that again! 2. your erudition and eloquence shine through every sentence in this blog, but I dare say that you wouldn’t have the vocabulary to describe what’s happening if it hadn’t been for some theory teacher somewhere teaching it to you, so you’re actually, if unwittingly, a sterling example of the benefits of studying music theory! Thank you for your insights, I’ll be sharing this blog with my students, and I hope to see you perform someday!

By: Debbie

Debbie — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 17:40:39 +0000

I guess this is one of the reasons that jazz musicians,especially bass players, tend to love Bach. Beautiful, mysterious harmonies floating about. Thanks for making music theory what it is supposed to be, illuminating and inspiring. Debbie AKA Bassbabe

By: boudu

boudu — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 02:51:30 +0000

Thankyou so much for this inviting blog: inviting into music theory, of which I know nothing, but coming to it as a physicist…I wonder about your ‘beat-in-between’, a moment that must transcend precisely because it cannot be structured as belonging to one key. The source of my doubt is that your violinist, if my ear can be trusted, makes in the middle of that bar a minute adjustment of pitch that, so to speak, makes up the E-flat’s mind for it: in other words, faced with a choice of two contexts, before and after, this performer has put his eggs in the latter basket (marking a second transition at the end of the samebar more with a gesture of emphasis in the bowing than with pitch). Indeed: if the dissonant beat is ‘neither here nor there,’ how is the string player to act? It would be sacrilege, I suppose, and ahistorical, in performance to sacrifice the continuity of that long E-flat?

By: Emmi

Emmi — Tue, 04 May 2010 19:02:59 +0000

there was something about your blog in your bio for the Carnegie Hall concert, and i wondered why you didn’t update if you were inviting new readers. understandable though. good head-waving, by the way.

By: Noa

Noa — Sat, 01 May 2010 05:40:52 +0000

I’m not even sure how I stumbled across this website at this point, but by golly, this is what discussions about music should be like. Crazy metaphors, irreverent humor, insults flung at both music theory and NJ in a single paragraph, and wisdom to boot.

Perhaps it is as they say, that “you can take the pianist out of Oberlin, but you can’t take the Oberlin out of the pianist”.

Impressive work; I’ll enjoy checking back in from time to time.

By: Gene De Lisa

Gene De Lisa — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 17:10:17 +0000

Hmm. So that’s what music theory is. Labeling. huh. Hooda thunk it?

I suppose that if you had had the good sense to eat the spaghetti in Trenton instead of some ghastly place like Akron (Italian food? Ohio? Yep, that’s the first place that comes to mind for it) there would have been one fewer blog posts in the universe.

By: Mich

Mich — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 02:29:25 +0000

Yesyesyesyesyesyesyesyessssssss!!!!!!!!!!! Thank you, Mr. Denk, so very much for keeping us updated! I could not feel more thrilled and ecstatic right now. I’ve been religiously checking your blog, and finally it is so nice to have you back again. Don’t spend too much time contemplating over your meatballs now! I have yet to hear you perform with Joshua Bell live – it must be one of the most incredible experiences life offers. Two of the most amazing, extremely musical, and passionate musicians the world is lucky to have.!