What history that lies behind a name

My first name was my Khun Yai’s (Thai for “grandmother”) doing. “I want them ALL to have Saint names”. Even though ‘Stephanie’ is not even a saint! St. Stephen is where she said she got it. My middle names, Liana and Nicole, are like apples and bananas. I don’t know how Nicole was chosen by my parents, but Liana was is my favorite and done by my Portuguese grandfather. Since I have four other siblings, I’m aware that not all the time and effort was put behind choosing my name… at least that I am know of. I am the middle child, and the only one with two middle names, so in yo face brothers and sister. My first middle name, Liana, fits me best, I think. My last name, Jones, is a slave name. When  a few of my father’s ancestors were forced to this country, they took the name of their slave master, which must have been Jones. I honor the struggle of my last name the most, and it makes me shiver at the thought of how much painful, rich history lies behind ‘Jones’.

Control

Ready, set, read… Maynard Solomon’s excerpt “Beethoven and His Nephew”, that is. The article, taken out of Solomon’s “Beethoven”, about the legendary classical composer, among many other things, is balanced and relevant to his music. However, after reading the tragic story of the conflict surrounding his nephew, you’ll realize that Beethoven was not ‘balanced’ at all.

Solomon’s story of Beethoven and brother’s son, Karl, takes place between the periods from 1815 to 1820. During this time Beethoven wrote his 8^th symphony in F major, Op. 93, and this article reveals a fascinating musicological thesis behind this piece, as well as the rest of his music.

            The tragic tale reveals a whole new world of the connection between music and psychology, the psychoanalysis of a composer’s musical creativity, and how the trauma of childhood can directly inhibit creative genius.

            In Beethoven’s early period of life, known to most as ‘childhood’, he was dealing with an alcoholic, abusive father, the death of his mother when he was only sixteen-years-old, and taking care of this two brothers. It is clear that playing a nurturing mother figure to his siblings feebly forced him to grow up quick. In 1792 his Vienna career took flight sooner than he maybe could have mentally and emotionally prepared for. In a nutshell, Beethoven had an awful childhood, if you might say he had one at all.

            During the middle period of his life from about 1808 to 1815, Beethoven began the battle for custody of his brother Casper Carl’s son after Carl passed away of tuberculosis in 1815. At the start of this all, he was crowned a Vienna hero. His reputation only grew from that point on, piling on expectation, pressure, and more creative energy. The loss of his hearing also occurred around 1802.

            The middle period of Beethoven’s life undeniably foreshadows what some scholars would call the late period. The nephew controversy continued into very early 1820’s and maliciously his music compositions flourished, not to mention he began to heavily influence his contemporaries.

            Beethoven had a subconscious tendency to dislike women. He despised his sister-in-law Johanna. It was ingrained in his mind that he was saving his nephew from the depths of hell that would surround Karl if he were to live with his mother. However, Solomon asserts that “… Beethoven was beginning to have trouble distinguishing fantasy from reality,” during the start of this conflict. Underlying this misconception about Johanna, women, and the need for custody of his nephew was his most inner-desires to be a part of a family-like unit.

            The thesis of Solomon’s article, as I put on my scholarly goggles and detect such a thing, would be that the middle and late periods of Ludwig van Beethoven’s life especially affected his music developments. The article on himself and his nephew flawlessly portray the suffering artist who triumphed through insurmountable creative expression. Through his trials to be a ‘father’ and with women, he became a contemporary hero. Beethoven’s conflict allowed him to suffer in ways that ended up helping him in his music creativity. This period in his life represents an internal-external conflict of trying to fulfill his own desires as well as ‘make it’ in the ways his associates and society want him to take control. He emotionally yearns to be a part of a family and wants to be loved and cared for in every way possible. Yet, he is expected to be a musician and honored member of the nobility.

There are a few ironies of Beethoven’s situation: 1.) I have seen it before in artists, musicians and 2.) I do not think that he intended, in any way, to use his sufferings as a means to generate music. This is what should be highlighted in the ways Beethoven in a ‘contemporary hero’.

One musician whose life resonates on the same tracks as Beethoven’s is Ian Curtis of the Manchester, late seventies rock band Joy Division. Both musicians deeply fight inner-desires and grasp for emotional affection as well as ward off external social pressures of their career. In the end, Curtis ended up committing suicide not being able to find a manageable equilibrium or peace of mind.

Beethoven and Curtis’s struggle to stay afloat says something more than creativity can sometimes stem from hardship. I think that those following the yellow brick road known as creativity should not plan for anything bigger than what they are willing to and intend to express at present. Any artist, musician, or writer must do. Just do. When expectation, money, other people are brought into the picture, trouble stirs. I think it is better to work solo, the way you envision your dream, and let everyone else gawk from afar. If you are an ‘artist’ that is looking for the big bucks, then this analysis was completely irrelevant to you and you should go sell your soul to the devil, a.k.a the Man. But, everyone has his or her own struggles; it is just a matter of interpreting them in a constructive way that deflates it. That is how I do and perceive art. I don’t know any other way and I do not want to practice it any other way. Art for me is expression of the heart and mind. I’m not sure what is for you, but I hope you are able to express it with your own vision of life, no matter how fucked up it may be. If you are ever being told your not doing ‘it’ the ‘right’ way, run away. Run very far away and never look back. 

Beethoven’s Symphony No. 8

It may just be the crazy hair of the conductor, but I can feel the crazed turmoil Beethoven wrote his Symphony No. 8 in 1812. It was during the time in which he took custody of his nephew, Karl. My analysis of their relationship will not do it any justice in terms of how intense and psychotic the situation was. Solution: read Maynard Solomon’s Beethoven and His Nephew. You’ll then understand the unconscious logic behind Beethoven’s No. 8.

The pulsing beats of the violins and the exaggerated notes on string must represent the strong emotion, both positive and negative, Beethoven had towards women, his sister-in-law Johanna, and his nephew, Karl. It is noted by Solomon that he hid his positive feelings a lot of the time, especially towards a woman. 

The segments of calm and quiet strings with steady, easy rhythm must represent the few moments he was content with his relations. However, most of the time he was in distress about how to keep suppressing a human emotion, called love, and act as a dictator in his household and with his associates. The psychotic state he possessed at the time he wrote No. 8 has been argued by scholars to explain for the creative explosion of Beethoven’s compositions during the era of 1812.

Like I probably mentioned, the lucidly beautiful symphony in F, known as his “little symphony in F”, was pure genius. It was composed like many of it’s kind, by other tortured-soul-like artists and musicians have. They all then to have used internal, mental hardship to foster the acquired taste for music and art everyone wishes he or she had. Of course, people intrinsically want what they don’t, right? GOODNIGHT!

The financial crisis of 2008 turns art crisis of 2008

How do I envision the national financial crisis affecting music/art/taste? WELL, let’s see, all the starving artists out there will indeed starve even more, aspiring musicians will have nowhere to go financially and no one to help them as well. I don’t want to say no one, but there will most definitely not be as much financial motivation on top of the mental/emotional trials of trying to make it “big”. 

I think people, conformist and consumer society, will lose taste in 3-D/2-D aka visual art. I mean there will be less motivation to donate to art galleries and artists, for support, because the funds obviously will be lacking or going to other means. However, I think that in times of any crisis, generally speaking of course, humans want someone or something to believe in and inspire hope. Whether that be a presidential candidate *COUGH BARACK OBAMA FOREVER COUGH COUGHHH* or spectacular music to listen to. Music in my mind can be the most effective escape from the overwhelming parts of life. People in our spiraling society need this kind of healthy escape… so bring on the music. 

There will, I predict, be a shortage of music production, however, what has or is currently being produced should be distributed for more reasonable prices. Especially for us already economically-challenged college students. 

I’m quite scared for the future of this crisis, to be quite frank. As I read more and more about what’s going on I realize it is my generation of young adults that is going to have to deal with all of this bullshit. And the fucked up part is that we had nothing to do with what it took to get to this point, considering I was obsessing over “All That” and juice boxes. Although I still both enjoy those two things at the age of 19, I’m a little pissed off at the current administration for allowing enterprises to go so haywire. All we can do is wait and see what we as a young generation can do to help… 

The first step to recovery of art, music, and tasteful art and music at that, is VOTE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Especially my peers between the ages of 18-25, we need to get out there and VOTE in November to save ourselves, our futures, our education, and our art and music! 

BARACK OBAMA/BIDEN 2008!

KLC radio, yeah!

Tune in Wednesday nights, 9-11pm at http://klcradio.net for my show, which has yet to be named… suggestions welcome! It’s going to be mainly hip-hop, lots of underground and early 90’s, but I’ll be playin a little some’n some’n of everything else (minus country? no offense)

Anyways, I am so stoked about working on/with KLC radio this year. KLC is the radio station at my school, Lewis and Clark College in Portland, OR. I will be a dj, as you know, but also working with the hip-hop coordinator/director to bring that scene into the school community. There is not a big hip-hop fan base here on campus, but I honestly think it is because are ill-informed or ignorant of all the amazing underground and old school music, as opposed to mainstream rap. The radio = the devil.

I had a meeting today with KLC’s publication, The Umbrella, as well. Of course, I’ll be writing for them doing MORE reviews! I will also be a part of their design team, taking pictures of concert go-ers and bands and whatnot. So excited, it’s going to be a pretty sick year for me in terms of music and developing my musicology and writing skills. 

If ANYONE has any concert suggestions or music suggestions, hit me back with comments, toodles poodles!

Beethoven and His Nephew

The autobiography about the infamously “crazy” classical composer Beethoven and his relationship with his nephew is a sad sad story. There are many authors who have researched and analyzed Beethoven’s life, especially his manic relationship with his nephew. All scholars who’ve done any amount of research all note that Beethoven is simply a anti-woman for most of his life. However, he was that way for good reason; his relationship with his mother soured his taste for women forever. 

The noted researches in Maynard Solomon’s articles about Beethoven have built off one another for many years in the studies of Beethoven’s rational and irrational behavior. Not one scholar has found loads of info about him, but rather taken what’s been discovered in the past and taken from his or her peers. This is how research and analyzation of a musical figure should be done, in my opinion. This method provides credibility and legitimacy. 

Some highlighted themes in this chapter are the very divided sex/gender roles with men having many prejudices towards women’s capabilities to raise children, the guardianship battle between Beet (Beethoven) and his sister, Beet’s irrational behavior explaining and even igniting his creativity for music, Beet’s relations with women that bordered desire and irritability, Beet’s ‘Fuhrer-personality, the relationship between art and innovation, and Beethoven’s deep-seated longing to be accepted and part of a family structure that loves him as much as he loves them. 

The story appears to be quite tragic and is intended to break the heroic image many people in popular culture have of Beethoven. He was not all glory. He was a tortured soul, like many crowed artists… So maybe Soloman was correct when he notes that there exists speculation that psychosis is directly related to creativity within ‘art’. 

I am fasho going to read the book, and I think YOU should too! Good day to all

Take All You Can Get

            He doesn’t ask for money, he doesn’t wear a costume, have psychedelic lighting, dry ice, or even a smoke machine. He didn’t pump up the audience with a long speech of how “grateful” he was to be the Platteau in Portland, OR. What he did was undress and expose experimental jazz cello in a single concert. If you missed twenty-year-old Martin Watkinson Tuesday night, you definitely missed what improvisational solo jazz cello music is all about.

            Watkinson’s electric talent on the cello matched his electric beats and soothing rhythms. Did I mention his whole performance was improv? Don’t let this fool you into thinking he’s not an organized, prepared performer. His band, Parallax, uses Watkinson’s tranquil cello strumming to accompany the colonial, clear, and clean vocals on their album Songs of the Swan.

            He comes off timid and soft just moments before he takes the stage. However, as soon as his foot records the first beats on one of four electric pedals, your mind is lost in the vibrating syncopations. There was no spotlight, but there definitely should have been. The brightly florescent lights did Watkinson no justice at all.

            His tall, easy frame and blond mop-top sit contently on a piano bench as he plays on and on for twenty minutes that seemed far too short. It is easy to tell Watkinson grew up in a serenely natural environment. He hails from Moscow, Idaho. As an only child, he was constantly encouraged to pursue and engage in music as much as he could. In fact, Martin has lived in France, England, and even New Zealand. It is evident that his music reflects his beautiful urbane experiences growing up. Watkinson wants to share with his audience his own passion for life, people, and music. You can see it on stage, in his somewhat painful facial expressions. Regardless of the intense emotion evoked in his face his cello speaks hopeful, encouraging notes that ring on and on in your head.

            Only a small audience of about thirty people attended his performance. It’s whatever though, the more music for my ears, the better. Because most of the audience were artists and musicians themselves, it was easier to appreciate Watkinson’s performance. There was a comfortable and easy air in which everyone there wanted to extract all they could from the laughing of Watkinson’s cello strings.

            Songs of the Swan puts him in the background, with three other members sharing the spotlight. However, his performance on Tuesday gave him all the light he deserved, if not more. Watkinson used his hand to tap a beat on the top of the cello at the start of one piece. He then rhythmically plucked between three strings over the steady hand drumming. This commotion was hardly disorder at all. It was a perfect symphony harmonized in one man, from one cello.

            Don’t fret if you missed this performance. Martin Watkinson is currently on tour around Portland, specifically on the Lewis & Clark College of Arts and Sciences campus. Not to mention, he is constantly writing songs and is about to drop another album with his band Parallax.

            The tone and melody of Martin Watkinson will make you want to cry and laugh the very moment you see him perform. You’ll want to whisper and shout, sleep and dance. It’s hard to come back to reality from the dreamy, distant world he takes you to. You’ll want to cry because he stopped playing… no joke. More importantly, his performance gives you hope that there still exists musicians who feel what they play and who want you to feel something from music. The most rewarding music has this effect and Martin Watkinson most definitely fits into this category. 

KONK!

After reading Jon Pareles’ review of the african pop band Konk I just may have admitted that I want to get back into pop music? Not the Spice Girls or Backstreet again, but this intriguing sound of the African Connection and Konk. Not only are they the only African pop band in NYC, but the only one I know of. And if Pareles claims they are an irresistible groove, I’m there! I’m always down for a little groovin’…

What could be better than the combination of drums, congas, timbales, cowbelss, and TWO salsa singers?! nothing, that’s what. 

So if you’re in a rut, don’t get yourself IN a funk, get funky! To Konk and African Connection I go.

Ratliff reviews John Scofield’s Jazziness

Ben Ratliff gives a very historically informative review of Scofield’s performance at the Blue Note in nyc. However, I’m a bit skeptical now… Ratliff claims that the performance was better than the album. 

I am attracted to anything electrical and on a guitar, so Ratliff’s note that Scofield used his electric guitar in more than a few ways caught my eye and soon to be my ear. I like how Ratliff notes that Mr. Scofield “exaggerates notes and phrases, making them excessively comic, ugly, beautiful, rocking or refined”. Sometimes ugly, syncopated notes in jazz are the most beautiful and thought-provoking sounds. 

I’m told in this article that Mr. Scofield’s band is a good one for those listeners that love the guitar, and I sure do. I will definitely be grabbing one of his albums, even if the performances are said to be better. I’m not going to be alive forever, so why not???

I have a weak spot for Classical Music

My whole piano career, beginning at the age of 5, I’ve strictly studied classical music. I’ve had a Russian, German, Czech, and Korean piano teacher all crafting my main instrument: the classical piano. 

This is why I’ll go ahead and argue that I probably enjoyed listening LYA ITIN BEETHOVEN SONATA Op. 57 Appassionato in F Minor… even if it was on YouTube. The tranquility the first note, first measure, first page, and first movement brings to my musical soul may be unhealthy. 

Thirty seconds into the Appassionato, the dynamical contrast swells your heart making you want to run around and exclaim your love for Beethoven himself, for being such a musical genius of course. The minor, as opposed to the major, Sonata’s of Beethoven, Bach, and Mozart, to name a few, are mechanically and passionately more colorful. There is so much evident emotion in Op. 57 despite the face that it’s actually called “appasionato”. 

Regardless, the performance of such a splendidly uplifting piece is all in the hands of the pianist… literally. 

The chromatic chords and scales in the eighth minute build and drop, build and drop. In this particular segment, the piano and forte build and cease as well. 

Sometimes listening to minor pieces make me a tad bit blue, but the only time I was sad listening to this was when it was over.

link to performance: (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jcD12Zthp3s&feature=user)