A tale of madness: MRI, music and misdiagnosis

A few weeks ago I was unexpectedly hospitalised after a CT scan revealed a possible “hypodensity” in my brain. In plain English I take that to be a hole. I was pretty shaken of course, and spent the next few days undergoing tests, observing the special frenetic slowness of the hospital experience, and in general finding the good humour, dedication and perseverance of the doctors, nurses and orderlies remarkable - especially given the ill humour, constant moaning and chronically critical attitudes of most of the patients.

The centrepiece of my week of medical wonders was an MRI scan, which uses large magnets rotating at high speeds to map and render body parts (in my case the brain) in three dimensions.

The patient is required to lie perfectly still with a round cage-like structure over the face. The patient’s bed is then introduced into a narrow tube which is (thankfully) open at both ends. Read more »

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For those who can't get enough of the noise that machines make, check out this whole brain scan. It's a Siemens machine.

Kimiko Ishizaka at Klaviere Then

Last Friday I was fortunate enough to experience Kimiko Ishizaka's remarkable musicianship for the second time. The first time around we had been treated to the Goldberg Variations; this time the Well-Tempered Klavier was on the programme, together with two sets of early Schumann Etudes.

Kimiko arrived to generous applause and quickly took hold of the evening with Robert Schumann's sombre Beethoven Etudes, which contrasted melodic consistency with impressive technical and emotional range.

So why, might you ask, would an artist begin an evening with such relatively gloomy fare? The first notes of the Well-Tempered Clavier provided the answer: in order to prepare her canvas. Against the dark background of the Schumann, Bach's music shone out like a splash of sunlight, revealing contours in the shadows. As the work progressed, the radius of illumination widened, revealing Bach's special world: serene, orderly, sublime, unshakable.

After the first eight preludes and fugues there was a short intermission during which I had the pleasure to meet Andrew Joy, himself recently featured on this blog. Read more »

Andrew Joy on Horn, Nerves, and Water Keys

Andrew Joy holds a solo horn position with the WDR Orchestra in Köln. I recently had the chance to sit down with him over lunch and discuss some of the things we have in common, of which there are many. We're both English speaking expat horn players living in Germany (Andrew is Australian), we're both interested in Emotional Freedom Technique, and we both have a connection to Drupal and the internet (his sons are Drupal developers).

Later I asked him some questions via email about his ventures and experiences, including a new product that he's selling for brass players called the Joy Key.

RD: You've developed an innovative water key for brass instruments, called the "JoyKey". What problem does the Joy Key solve? What was its inspiration?

AJ: Being distracted by and being caught in critical performance moments with water in a section of the tubing has irritated and annoyed me all of my playing career. A lunchtime conversation with Frank Lloyd and Shirley Civil at the South African IHS Workshop in 2008 about how distracting emptying water during performances is for audiences’ added fuel to my motivation to find a solution. The original inspiration came from being caught out during a performance of Mahler 5 by a conductor who was put out because I chose to sit in the orchestra for the solo Scherzo movement, rather than sit next to the concertmaster with my bell pointing into the audience. I had my main tuning slide in my right hand emptying water when I looked up, saw him grin at my other horn colleagues and then start the 3rd movement. There wasn’t enough time the get the slide back in and the mouthpiece on my lips?! Two years later, whilst exchanging a water filter on our water cooker, a question popped into my mind: “could one use the filter substance to block up a water key hole such that the water can drain continuously and still maintain the integrity of the air column in the instrument whilst playing?” Subsequent experimenting provided a resounding “yes”. Read more »

Three notes walk into a bar

C, E-flat, and G go into a bar. The bartender says, “Sorry, but we don’t serve minors.”

So the E-flat leaves, and the C and the G have an open fifth between them. After a few drinks, the fifth is diminished; the G is out flat.

An F comes in and tries to augment the situation, but is not sharp enough. A D comes into the bar and heads straight for the bathroom saying, “Excuse me. I’ll just be a second.”

An A comes into the bar, but the bartender is not convinced that this relative of C is not a minor.

Then the bartender notices a B-flat hiding at the end of the bar and exclaims, “Get out now! You’re the seventh minor I’ve found in this bar tonight.”

The E-flat, not easily deflated, comes back to the bar the next night in a 3-piece suit with nicely shined shoes. The bartender says: “You’re looking sharp tonight, come on in! This could be a major development.” This proves to be the case, as the E-flat takes off the suit, and everything else, and stands there au naturel.

Eventually, the C sobers up, and realizes in horror that he’s under a rest.

The C is brought to trial, is found guilty of contributing to the diminution of a minor, and is sentenced to 10 years of DS without Coda at an upscale correctional facility.

Kimiko Ishizaka, Pianist

The strongest connection that I have to classical music is through my wife, Kimiko Ishizaka. She's a brilliant pianist with a driving musical imagination and the technique to back it up. Recently she got quite a bit of attention locally (here in Cologne, Germany) for being involved in the two disparate disciplines of weightlifting and classical piano. The local television did quite a nice report on her (see the video below), and people continue to be impressed that the two activities fit together at all.

People in Cologne will have a chance to hear Kimiko play next week. She's giving a concert at Klaviere Then on Friday, June 25, 2010, at 19:30. Admission is €10. For those interested in keeping up, I suggest visiting Kimiko's website, or her Facebook fan page. Her solo CD is attached below - made from a 2008 live recording in Bonn.

Audio: 

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Chopin, Etude Op. 25 Nr.2 in A minor

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Bach, Well Tempered Klavier Vol. 2, Prelude F Maj. BWV 880

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Bach, Well Tempered Klavier Vol. 2, Fugue F Maj. BWV 880

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Schubert, Impromptu Op. post. D 946 - Allegro

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Debussy, No. XI from Douze Études - Pour les arpèges composés

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Beethoven, Sonata Op. 53, "Waldstein" - Allegro con brio

And would you like a Bach Chaconne with that, Sir?

"On one stave, for a small instrument, the man writes a whole world of the deepest thoughts and most powerful feelings. If I imagined that I could have created, even conceived the piece, I am quite certain that the excess of excitement and earth-shattering experience would have driven me out of my mind."

This is what Johannes Brahms had to say about the Chaconne from Bach's Partita in D minor for solo violin, often referred to simply as Bach's Chaconne. More than anything I can add about the piece, this should be enough to persuade you to take the quarter of an hour required to listen to it in its entirety and give it your full attention. Based on a simple harmonic progression with variation after variation, the Chaconne stretches the limits of what is even possible to play on a violin and is still considered one of the most challenging and certainly one of the most beautiful pieces that can be played on the instrument. Read more »

Laura Marling's folk explosion: "I speak because I can"

I must admit that I have only just discovered the wonderful Laura Marling, but what a discovery it has turned out to be. Not only does she come from my home town of Reading, but at the tender age of 20 she has just released a record of quite breathtaking accomplishment, which you can hear right here:

It's her second LP: the first, Alas I cannot swim, which came out when she was 18, was even nominated for the Mercury music prize, something that bypassed me completely at the time. Read more »

Music to program by: Art of the Fugue

Programming a computer is fun and challenging. I once described it like this:

To program you have to crawl on your belly through a maze in a dark mine shaft memorizing all the turns until you find the problem, grope at it with your hands until you understand what's broken, back out slowly, and get the tool to fix it. Then you have to remember how you crawled in there to begin with.

The last thing you want while programming is to have the music you are listening to suddenly overwhelm and distract you. It's like bumping your head in the mine shaft, and not at all good for productivity. Read more »

Nice April fool's joke, Grooveshark! Imagine - some people put up with ads between songs!

Grooveshark has a great April fool's on their homepage today:

I'm happy to report that this is a joke: Grooveshark's pristine ad-free sound is in my ears as I write.

Of course they're making a serious point, too. Pandora actually does insert ads between tracks, and there's an older technology called FM radio where this is apparently quite normal. Scary!

John Adams, Youtube and stickiness: does the Google paradigm belong in classical music?

In the world of contemporary classical music, John Adams is something of a star. Operas like The Chairman Dances and Dr Atomic are regularly performed, and his brief A short ride in a fast machine is one of the most played modern pieces in the repertoire.

On a recent visit to the London, Adams was interviewed on BBC Radio 4's Start the Week programme. He was in town to conduct the British première of his City Noir symphony, but also mentioned the fact that Youtube had approached him to write a piece for the Youtube symphony orchestra. Here's Adams' discussion with Start the Week host Andrew Marr in MP3 format: Read more »

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