Hallowinxer's penpals :D <3

[Salomea]

It's cool that you've also been in music school!  What instrument did you had or are you still playing? But it's so sad that your courses have been so packed because most of the theory stuff require a lot time to understand, particularly aural and oral skills. When I was a kid at least I felt like we had enough time to do everything but nowadays the curriculum is really full because learning theory itself is not enough but we need to also teach improvisation and composing more and they take more time. Luckily it also work hand in hand - some students learn theoretical concepts better by playing and composing but some of them prefer writing and more "old-fashioned" methods. Well, every student is individual 

I played flute. I stopped after high school, cause I got braces and it became impossible to play and now I feel I would need to go to school again...

Oh, that so cool You were already composing in your school! I think that's definitely very teachable in many ways.
We never had that, but in all fairness my path was 3 years trying to cramp in the traditional 8 years...

I think it's possible to study music psychology in some universities. We have programs on at least music therapy and musicology and I suppose music psychology is part of them. I don't know much about it since I don't have it in my degree. It should we useful and interesting tho! My degree is super packed so it's not easy to take more "extra" courses but sometime in the future I'd like to study even the basics of it.

We study mainly Western classical music but there're other programs for global music, folk music and jazz music for example. But music theory department is focused on classical music, mostly from renaissance to contemporary music. I'll specialize in early music (from medieval to baroque) because I'm super into it! But overall we have different analyse courses, some focusing on classisism and romantic era, some on 20th and contemporary era. It depends on what composers the teachers have chosen and you can also suggest your own ideas what to write essays and presentation about. We've focused on the composers of the traditional canon, such as J.S. Bach, Mozart, Haydn, R. Schumann, Schönberg and Ligeti but nowadays our teachers talk also more about woman composers and on our latest analysis course we're focusing on contemporary composers and many of them have been Finns. But we don't focus on Finnish composers, we analyse many works of different composers and many of the 20th century are new to me. We have one history course about Finnish music tho and later we can choose which composers we'll study more.

I was about to ask what classes, so thanks for sharing. It sound very interesting! I guess psychology of music is probably part of psychology studies. Though I wish elements of musicology, or music theraphy would be part of every path that is also aimed for teaching, since it could add tools to the upcoming teachers, but yeah, when it's all packed it's probably hard to add anything else.

My very uninformed opinion is, that your specialisation is the coolest I remember watching a channel on YT talking about renessaince composition and it was very fascinating!

From what You're saying, there seems to be big focus on particular names and their oeuvre and vernacular music still bit slips through the cracks. Is that so?
And yeah, I am asking cause it's in the evolution of these traditions we can learn about past forms of studied societies, and we still don't know that much about "non-material" culture in archeo, so it's always great news when reaserch on that comes...
But still, it's awesome more and more people are included in the core teaching'

I don't know much about Finnish music outside of classical music but one of our most famous Finnish composer is Jean Sibelius. Many Finnish composers were aware of what were the "trends" on music, studied abroad and tried different styles. Some other well-known Finnish composers are Kaija Saariaho, Einojuhani Rautavaara and Toivo Kuula. In our university there're also lots of composer students and their teachers are also composers.

In all fairness I can name only handfull composers from here, and one of them is counted as the part of the european canon, so there is that ... Also the only thing I know about Sibelius, is that's it was him that the music writing software is named after, so ...

Do You know who You will want to research?

Oh it really sucks that many students need to work kinda full-time and unpaid  Some of my friends on different fields have been very tired because first they've needed to work at a practice place 8 hours unpaid and after that continue to "real" work to afford their studies. It's just crazy.

Good thing for me, it was only month during summer, but still. And yeah your friends are some kind of tytans for doing that, but they also really shouldn't have too :/ Hope they are doing well.

It's super interesting to hear about this because earlier I had no clue what's it like to study archeology!! I had no idea you had so many different subjects! Which did you find the most interesting? They sound super cool but I can imagine the exhaustion because the amount of new information is... crazy! We also read many theoretical articles weekly and I'm a really slow reader (and even slower because most of them are not in my mother tongue) but I've heard that in America they read much more in music theory departments and they don't even have enough time to read every book they've supposed to so I'm glad I study in Finland even though I often feel exhausted too. Because if the subject is interesting you really want to understand and learn everything but sometimes it's just not possible because the amount of articles and exercises is so large and the courses are so packed. But now it seems like no matter the field, we have the same problem with packed courses...

Yeah, I agree. It's counter-productive to overwhelm students with reading, cause it actually makes them learn less and not have time to follow ther interest, like You've said.
Also for me, in some casses it feels like putting burden teaching the material from teacher to student :/

Your exams sound super stressful  We don't have exams (moslty, there're only a couple of teachers who still have them) but we do our weekly exercises in analysing, writing and "composing" in a specific composers or historical style and in the end of the courses we often have a larger presentation and a larger essay. Also we discuss about the articles weekly in the classes. In historical composing we have a portfolio of all the music we've written, analysis and essays about different styles. I'm super happy we don't have exams because I'd be completely freaked out 

I get that it sound like that, and they are stressful, but after the first session everyone learns that it's ok to fail and try again without a problem. Though it does punishes your final grade. Still, learning that learning from failure is also an option is pretty important. It should be something common in earlier education, but unfortunately, at least here, it isn't

Which period/whose style composing was most fun for You and which was most challenging? Do You also need to perform your compositions?

Did you also learn to read in example Egyptian hieroglyphs or analyse old paintings? I found out there're some scholars who have studied music from ancient Greece: they've re-constructed ancient instruments based on some they've found and also based on the paintings! And they've also somehow found out how they played the instruments because the positions of the musicians' fingers were so precisely painted and this is super interesting!

Btw it's so cool that you also had linguistics! Did you study any ancient languages deeper or more overall?

Unfortunately, linguistic was only one 1,5h lecture a week, so there wasn't much time to go deep into the topic, so we mostly sticked to basics. Also egyptology is a separate field of studies, so while I think people, who took Egypt as their specialisation in third year (or in second of masters) had some elements of it.
Also You could pick up languages as extra courses, like latin, or greek. I didn't take them, cause greek was at the same time one of my main subject, but I tried coptic, but had to drop it cause the tempo was way to fast to actually learn...

But there are classes on coursera about linguistic (from my second uni), which are quite good, if You ever have more time.

(Iconography was usually disscussed in relation to the topic of the course I guess. Once we had to memorize the sequence of plaques going around under the roof of parthenon )

Yeah, I read about it too. I think there were also some reconstructions of babylonian music, as well as paleolithic.

And I'm sad that the pandemic had such a large effect on your lab studies.

Yeah, but it also saved me money and I had the oportunity to get into lab while doing conservation courses ^^

My grandma and cousins like to eat it on Christmas But I think it's just their own tradition

Oh I see Well, that' certainly a choice!

[Hallowinxer]

I played flute. I stopped after high school, cause I got braces and it became impossible to play and now I feel I would need to go to school again...

Oh, that so cool You were already composing in your school! I think that's definitely very teachable in many ways.
We never had that, but in all fairness my path was 3 years trying to cramp in the traditional 8 years...

Oh I haven't even thought about what kinds of effects braces can cause... It's sad that you needed to stop playing

I was about to ask what classes, so thanks for sharing. It sound very interesting! I guess psychology of music is probably part of psychology studies. Though I wish elements of musicology, or music theraphy would be part of every path that is also aimed for teaching, since it could add tools to the upcoming teachers, but yeah, when it's all packed it's probably hard to add anything else.

Thanks, it's nice that you're so interested because usually it's a bit tricky to tell about my studies without making it sound like too complex

I don't know about the other schools but I'm actually disappointed on my first school because we didn't have enough psychology in the pedagogy classes. We practiced doing plans and exercises for our lessons but didn't even talk about how to help neurodivergent students. For real, they told us a long list about different problems student can have but then we didn't discuss deeper what we can do to help or what kind of methods we would use. It felt like the first school kinda left us on our own and I've learned much more by just working with different kind of students than in the pedagogy lessons.

My very uninformed opinion is, that your specialisation is the coolest I remember watching a channel on YT talking about renessaince composition and it was very fascinating!

That's awesome, thank you!! Was it Early Music Sources? Because they have sooo good videos and we're even watching them on my second uni's classes

From what You're saying, there seems to be big focus on particular names and their oeuvre and vernacular music still bit slips through the cracks. Is that so?
And yeah, I am asking cause it's in the evolution of these traditions we can learn about past forms of studied societies, and we still don't know that much about "non-material" culture in archeo, so it's always great news when reaserch on that comes...

Yes, the great canon is about German men composers and it's still dominating everywhere if you look at the concert programms and sit on the lectures. But luckily nowadays there're more people searching music and composers out of the canon . It's of course important to know for example J. S. Bach's and Beethoven's style but it doesn't change the fact that there're so many great "hidden" talents! In Finland there're also festivals for woman composers' music, early music or contemporary music where we can hear composers outside of the canon and the amount of these kind of festivals and concerts has risen.

It'd be super useful to learn more about all kind of traditional folk music because many composers have been inspired by traditional and folk music of different cultures. There's just endless amount of interesting things to learn!

In all fairness I can name only handfull composers from here, and one of them is counted as the part of the european canon, so there is that ... Also the only thing I know about Sibelius, is that's it was him that the music writing software is named after, so ...

Do You know who You will want to research?

I understand, I think Finland is not so well-known overall But at least this is a good start! (Now I feel unloyal to Sibelius because I'm still using Musescore...) Btw Sibelius's symphonies are great! I should listen to them more, I've been to focused on the early music that when I started listening to SIbelius's symphonies for the first time, I finally understood what's the hype all about

Well speaking of the canon, I admire J. S. Bach and Vivaldi! But I'm also interested in studying Guillaume de Machaut's style. Well, he is also very well-known but usually students at the uni focus on something not AS early as him But it'd be cool to find someone not so well-known baroque composer too. Or someone medieval hidden talent. There's so many options!

Yeah, I agree. It's counter-productive to overwhelm students with reading, cause it actually makes them learn less and not have time to follow ther interest, like You've said.
Also for me, in some casses it feels like putting burden teaching the material from teacher to student :/

Yeah, and it's impossible to remember even the high points if there's to much to read in the short time. And my teachers are always recommending extra articles and books to read "if you have time" and they would be super interesting but with all of the obligatory reading there's just no time for them...

I get that it sound like that, and they are stressful, but after the first session everyone learns that it's ok to fail and try again without a problem. Though it does punishes your final grade. Still, learning that learning from failure is also an option is pretty important. It should be something common in earlier education, but unfortunately, at least here, it isn't

Which period/whose style composing was most fun for You and which was most challenging? Do You also need to perform your compositions?

It feels like I've been raised like it would be the end of the world to fail an exam even though in universities it seems to be pretty normal. It's true that it's super important to learn how to cope with failures too and learn from them. This should've be taught much earlier, like when we were kids!

I'm only second year student so I haven't studied so many styles yet since the first year was just a short but full packet of basics from here and there. We wrote a menuet in Haydn style, harmonized choral melodies in Bach style and did lots of mechanical species counterpoint exercises to learn the basic voice-leading rules. On the second year I've been focusing on renaissance style and it's been super interesting because I can finally write some music and it just feels so rewarding to finally remember the counterpoint rules and use them more freely in the music. But it's not easy and makes me admire the renaissance composers even more, they were just so genius to be able to master all of these rules AND rhetorics!

We have a concert once a year but we don't need to play there ourselves. Some people play their compositions, some have asked other musicians to play them and if you have a piece for an orchestra, you can play midi versions since it's hard to find so many musicians

Unfortunately, linguistic was only one 1,5h lecture a week, so there wasn't much time to go deep into the topic, so we mostly sticked to basics. Also egyptology is a separate field of studies, so while I think people, who took Egypt as their specialisation in third year (or in second of masters) had some elements of it.
Also You could pick up languages as extra courses, like latin, or greek. I didn't take them, cause greek was at the same time one of my main subject, but I tried coptic, but had to drop it cause the tempo was way to fast to actually learn...

I understand, you had so many courses already that it'd be impossible if all of these courses would've been deeper too! And Egypt overall must be a really deep and wide subject.

Learning a new language on a university level must be a large amount of work so I understand Gotta download Duolingo again

But there are classes on coursera about linguistic (from my second uni), which are quite good, if You ever have more time.

Haha maybe when I'm an old pensioner

(Iconography was usually disscussed in relation to the topic of the course I guess. Once we had to memorize the sequence of plaques going around under the roof of parthenon )

Oh my, that sounds crazy (unless you have a really good visual memory)

Yeah, I read about it too. I think there were also some reconstructions of babylonian music, as well as paleolithic.

Yeah I heard that there's one scholar in Finland who has studies paleolithic music!! But I don't remember her name anymore, I should ask if some of my teachers know her because a while ago I didn't even know that as old instruments even existed. I'd like to learn more about Babylonian music too!

By the way do you have any favorite composers? Or favorite historical eras in generall?

[Salomea]

Oh I haven't even thought about what kinds of effects braces can cause...  It's sad that you needed to stop playing 

Yeah, it is odd. After they were taken off, I needed to relearn how to get a sound each note all over.

[It also turned out, that my old flute lost sound - last year, on conservation courses, I researched it a bit. It seems, that the material it was made out of - some type of "new silver" got stressed due to the use in below 0°C (I played outdoor events last year of high school). It even caused the flaking of the silver plating... Reheating the alloy helped a bit, but I wouldn't use it at a concert Also because it's a nickle alloy and now that it's exposed, Ni can leach in contact with acidity of the skin - the only reason I'm writing You that, is to make You wary, in case You have friends, or students, who could be using nickel silver/ maillechort/German silver/argentan/new silver/nickel brass/albata/alpacca/cupronickel instruments (like anything in those crazy, rainbow colours), so they're not as reckless as I was... It's safe if it's fully silver plated, though.)]

But don't worry, I've a new flute and I play a bit from time to time. ^^

Thanks, it's nice that you're so interested because usually it's a bit tricky to tell about my studies without making it sound like too complex 

I suppose it is complex, but it's also perfectly fascinating!

I don't know about the other schools but I'm actually disappointed on my first school because we didn't have enough psychology in the pedagogy classes. We practiced doing plans and exercises for our lessons but didn't even talk about how to help neurodivergent students. For real, they told us a long list about different problems student can have but then we didn't discuss deeper what we can do to help or what kind of methods we would use. It felt like the first school kinda left us on our own and I've learned much more by just working with different kind of students than in the pedagogy lessons.

Oh that sounds awfully predictable actually.
I mean I've seen that in action - in my second uni, one of my team mates had anxiety discorder and needed strong medication to get through any presentation. It made her bit slow and robotic (her words), and then she got a critic from teachers, that she wasn't personable enough, didn't keep eye contact, ect. Even if that wasn't due to medication, it could have been autism, and yet they lowered her grade because of that...

And nothing will beat the incident from pharmacology school (long story), when a former nurse, and at that time headmistress, yelled at a girl for being late due to having panic attack, shouting that, if the student has an anxiety, she should quite, cause she won't make it to be a pharmacist... even though the whole stuff had gone through a senstivity training on dealing with student with mental issues few months earlier...

So yeah, I'm not surprised, but You still should be angry at them and the program. They really are letting You to your own divices, and that's not ok.

That's awesome, thank you!!    Was it Early Music Sources? Because they have sooo good videos and we're even watching them on my second uni's classes 

Yes, that's them!

Yes, the great canon is about German men composers and it's still dominating everywhere if you look at the concert programms and sit on the lectures. But luckily nowadays there're more people searching music and composers out of the canon . It's of course important to know for example J. S. Bach's and Beethoven's style but it doesn't change the fact that there're so many great "hidden" talents! In Finland there're also festivals for woman composers' music, early music or contemporary music where we can hear composers outside of the canon and the amount of these kind of festivals and concerts has risen.

It'd be super useful to learn more about all kind of traditional folk music because many composers have been inspired by traditional and folk music of different cultures. There's just endless amount of interesting things to learn! 

It's awesome there are such events! People can find more music, that "speaks" to them and composers/musicians get their recognicion! I love that! And it's much more interesting than hearing Strauss for the 50th time

I suppose that means You will have something new to learn through your entire life then!

I understand, I think Finland is not so well-known overall  But at least this is a good start!  (Now I feel unloyal to Sibelius because I'm still using Musescore...) Btw Sibelius's symphonies are great! I should listen to them more, I've been to focused on the early music that when I started listening to SIbelius's symphonies for the first time, I finally understood what's the hype all about 

It might be true, but I think it's also that there is less and less of musical education in general and also that very often orchiestras and choirs stick to the cannon, so people don't even have an opportunity to learn about anyone else...
I would love to hear his work! Preferably in right setting too! (This is one of the things I wasn't aware of for the longest time. Like, we were told in music school, that in this period such and such composed for orchiestra, or cameral orchiestra, or piano, ect, and they were performed in opera house, or small home gathering, so on. But they really didn't make us aware, that those were conscious choices regarding how the composition would work in those spaces, so hearning something meant for intimate spaces in such place, rather than symphonic hall, just hits differently.
I know it's obvious to You, but I wish it was more of a common knowledge...)

And in all fairness for Sibelius, I only know about him, and the software, cause ytber Tantacrul complained about the program on several occassions

Well speaking of the canon, I admire J. S. Bach and Vivaldi! But I'm also interested in studying Guillaume de Machaut's style. Well, he is also very well-known but usually students at the uni focus on something not AS early as him  But it'd be cool to find someone not so well-known baroque composer too. Or someone medieval hidden talent. There's so many options!

Can I ask why do You admire them? I'm just curious, cause for me it's something like "I like how it sounds"or "it's nice to play", but You can appreciate it on a deeper level. So what is it? ^^
And I had to google Guillaume de Machaut, cause I have no memory for recalling names, but yeah I've heard of him.

Yeah, and it's impossible to remember even the high points if there's to much to read in the short time. And my teachers are always recommending extra articles and books to read "if you have time" and they would be super interesting but with all of the obligatory reading there's just no time for them...

Yeah I know that one... But I suggest downloading these articles, in case You only have access to them through your uni, cause paywalls

It feels like I've been raised like it would be the end of the world to fail an exam even though in universities it seems to be pretty normal. It's true that it's super important to learn how to cope with failures too and learn from them. This should've be taught much earlier, like when we were kids!

I'm only second year student so I haven't studied so many styles yet since the first year was just a short but full packet of basics from here and there. We wrote a menuet in Haydn style, harmonized choral melodies in Bach style and did lots of mechanical species counterpoint exercises to learn the basic voice-leading rules. On the second year I've been focusing on renaissance style and it's been super interesting because I can finally write some music and it just feels so rewarding to finally remember the counterpoint rules and use them more freely in the music. But it's not easy and makes me admire the renaissance composers even more, they were just so genius to be able to master all of these rules AND rhetorics!

I know right, and I really think we learn best if we're able to figure out why our previous understanding, or association was wrong.

It actually sounds like a lot actually!
But didn't they also spend years learning before they composed the pieces You study? I mean - mastery takes time and attempts. And if I remember correctly, renaissance training was very rigorous, so they worked and meditated on their craft a lot, till they mastered them, right? So maybe it will become easier for You too, as You progress and learn from them?

We have a concert once a year but we don't need to play there ourselves. Some people play their compositions, some have asked other musicians to play them and if you have a piece for an orchestra, you can play midi versions since it's hard to find so many musicians 

Oh I didn't even consider that! Obviously, if You compose for an orchiestra, You can't then play it alone! Oh my...
Could You use the synthethic, sound bank recordings too? (Or is that very expensive actually?)

I understand, you had so many courses already that it'd be impossible if all of these courses would've been deeper too! And Egypt overall must be a really deep and wide subject.

Learning a new language on a university level must be a large amount of work so I understand  Gotta download Duolingo again 

Oh, it is very wide field. And I would love to learn hieroglyphics! I've got one book, but it's introductionary one and the author himself says, that there basically is just one other, proper book, You could learn it from on your own, and it's basically out of print. (And it's in English, and there are no other English titles either, really so it tells You how many options there are... not, unless You get to uni courses, which is honestly annoying!)

That maybe too, also it's usually for people from corresponding linguistic studies, but also also, I think that particular teacher was so much in the topic, that he forgot it takes time to familiarise Yourself with a new alphabet, before You can just translate the sentance on the board! Like trying that on maybe 4th or 5th lesson would make more sense

Haha maybe when I'm an old pensioner 

I'll go with first, or second summer after graduation (assuming You'll continue teaching ,and will have a bit more spare time in that season), cause it's likely your brain will start missing the challenge of learning and learning something new at that.

Oh my, that sounds crazy (unless you have a really good visual memory) 

It mainly consisted on remebering what story was depicted on which side of the temple and which parts from them were shown, not necessarily their actual composition, luckily. Still most of us were like " wait doesn't parthenon still stands and You can just go and see it? Also there is no chance of digging up something similar, so what's the point..."

Yeah I heard that there's one scholar in Finland who has studies paleolithic music!!  But I don't remember her name anymore, I should ask if some of my teachers know her because a while ago I didn't even know that as old instruments even existed. I'd like to learn more about Babylonian music too!

By the way do you have any favorite composers? Or favorite historical eras in generall?

Absolutely You should ask, maybe You're be able to listen in person their process and reconstructions!
Yeah, people made instruments as long as we existed, or in some cases even longer, since Neanderthals also made some music - oldest (or one of) known bone flute (from Slovenia) is attributed to them. ^^

So, as I've said, I have terrible memory when it comes to names, so I usually can't recall anyone. That being said, perphaps Krzysztof Penderecki... I heard his "Winterreise" on the radio once and loved it, and generally like his other works too.

[Hallowinxer]

Yeah, it is odd. After they were taken off, I needed to relearn how to get a sound each note all over.

[It also turned out, that my old flute lost sound - last year, on conservation courses, I researched it a bit. It seems, that the material it was made out of - some type of "new silver" got stressed due to the use in below 0°C (I played outdoor events last year of high school). It even caused the flaking of the silver plating... Reheating the alloy helped a bit, but I wouldn't use it at a concert Also because it's a nickle alloy and now that it's exposed, Ni can leach in contact with acidity of the skin - the only reason I'm writing You that, is to make You wary, in case You have friends, or students, who could be using nickel silver/ maillechort/German silver/argentan/new silver/nickel brass/albata/alpacca/cupronickel instruments (like anything in those crazy, rainbow colours), so they're not as reckless as I was... It's safe if it's fully silver plated, though.)]

But don't worry, I've a new flute and I play a bit from time to time. ^^

Oh, maybe they made your teeth's position to change a bit and it affected on your technique I feel like even a slighliest change on something can affect on technique... But I'm glad you can still play after all of this!

I know some instruments are so sensitive to temperature or moisture changes but what happened to your flute is strange since so many wind orchestras play in outside concerts But I didn't know there's nickel used in some flutes so it explains it. I hope the flute teachers warn their students about this!

I suppose it is complex, but it's also perfectly fascinating!

Oh that sounds awfully predictable actually.
I mean I've seen that in action - in my second uni, one of my team mates had anxiety discorder and needed strong medication to get through any presentation. It made her bit slow and robotic (her words), and then she got a critic from teachers, that she wasn't personable enough, didn't keep eye contact, ect. Even if that wasn't due to medication, it could have been autism, and yet they lowered her grade because of that...

And nothing will beat the incident from pharmacology school (long story), when a former nurse, and at that time headmistress, yelled at a girl for being late due to having panic attack, shouting that, if the student has an anxiety, she should quite, cause she won't make it to be a pharmacist... even though the whole stuff had gone through a senstivity training on dealing with student with mental issues few months earlier...

So yeah, I'm not surprised, but You still should be angry at them and the program. They really are letting You to your own divices, and that's not ok.

Oh no, I feel SO bad for these students!! This is just unbelievable, how ignorant some teachers can be... I hate it when someone expects us to behave based on some "social norms and rules". If the student overcame her fear and managed to have the presentation, it's already a huge improvement and it's so sad that the teacher focused so much and so negatively on such a little details which doesn't even matter. Like, if I'm sitting in the audience, I don't care about eye contacts or something like that, what I care about is if I'm able to follow what they're talking about.

And the pharmacy headmistress, how can an ADULT behave like that??? If someone comes a bit late for A REASON, it's not the end of the world. We're all humans, anything can happen and we're not having great days every day. Well at least I have many examples of what kind of teacher I DON'T want to be...

I'm following many social media accounts about neurodiversity and mental health issues to learn more. Also, on an art field, many of us are somehow neurodivergent and have some mental health issues so I learn much by just talking with other people at the unis. And many of my friends are also teachers so it's really enlightening to talk with them because many of them have been teacher maaaany years more than I have.

Yes, that's them!

That's awesome! Now I need to brag a little because I met Elam Rotem in Finland last year when he was performing in a concert with the Finnish Baroque orchestra. I still can't believe that he actually was in my country! I told him that I like his videos and thanked him for the concert but I was so nervous He is great, he played harpsichord and sang simultaneously in the concert!

It's awesome there are such events! People can find more music, that "speaks" to them and composers/musicians get their recognicion! I love that! And it's much more interesting than hearing Strauss for the 50th time

I suppose that means You will have something new to learn through your entire life then!

That's true! And yes, studying music is a never ending journey! It's so fascinating that there's an endless amount of great music in the world

It might be true, but I think it's also that there is less and less of musical education in general and also that very often orchiestras and choirs stick to the cannon, so people don't even have an opportunity to learn about anyone else...
I would love to hear his work! Preferably in right setting too! (This is one of the things I wasn't aware of for the longest time. Like, we were told in music school, that in this period such and such composed for orchiestra, or cameral orchiestra, or piano, ect, and they were performed in opera house, or small home gathering, so on. But they really didn't make us aware, that those were conscious choices regarding how the composition would work in those spaces, so hearning something meant for intimate spaces in such place, rather than symphonic hall, just hits differently.
I know it's obvious to You, but I wish it was more of a common knowledge...)

And in all fairness for Sibelius, I only know about him, and the software, cause ytber Tantacrul complained about the program on several occassions

I'm afraid it's often also because of money. For example Mozart's operas are always sold-out so playing "classics" brings more money. But on the other hand, if institutions get more money of playing classics, they can afford some concerts with not so well-known program, I suppose. But I was really positively surprised how much people there were in the audience at all of the contemporary festival concerts I was attending! So it also depends so much on the city. In the smaller cities it's often more secure to perform something "secure" but in the bigger cities there're much more culture enthusiastics who are curious about everything new to them. I really wish people to become more open-minded also in the smaller cities!

And it's so interesting to go to concerts in different places! Haha actually I haven't been thinking about what you told so much! Maybe because there're just so many things to focus on when I'm on a concert... But on the contemporary festival I was more aware of the space and how the music sounds like in the specific places. With more traditional concerts I haven't paid attention on that as much. The contemporary festival really opened my ears in a new way!

Can I ask why do You admire them? I'm just curious, cause for me it's something like "I like how it sounds"or "it's nice to play", but You can appreciate it on a deeper level. So what is it? ^^
And I had to google Guillaume de Machaut, cause I have no memory for recalling names, but yeah I've heard of him.

Haha the main reason for me to admire them is also that I love how their music sounds like! I haven't focused them so much yet in a detailed way but overall their skills on composing interesting melodies (especially fugue themes which I find really catchy ) and using harmonies is fascinating to me. Their music can sound majestetic or like something would tear my heart off. The affects of their music feels so strong and real. I love Bach's fugues, especially Die Kunst der Fuge because they're so intelligently written, the counterpoint is great: he's variating endlessly the same theme and it's interesting every time you hear it! I think the use of rhetorics, chromatism, suspensions, off-beat-like rhythms and dissonant chords are the main reasons why Bach sounds like Bach, and there's fastly changing harmony behind every melody line, so I need to study on his using of harmony more to be able to answer more specificly

Btw I recommend Machaut's Messe de Nostre Dame! It sounds kinda deserted in an interesting way if you're used to hearing full chords/triads. It really sounds like you'd be in an old medieval church made of stone.

Yeah I know that one... But I suggest downloading these articles, in case You only have access to them through your uni, cause paywalls

Oh I didn't realize that! I must download super many articles for the future before it's too late (Well there's still almost 4 years of my studies left but I bet I remember this again the day before I'm going to graduate... )

I know right, and I really think we learn best if we're able to figure out why our previous understanding, or association was wrong.

It actually sounds like a lot actually!
But didn't they also spend years learning before they composed the pieces You study? I mean - mastery takes time and attempts. And if I remember correctly, renaissance training was very rigorous, so they worked and meditated on their craft a lot, till they mastered them, right? So maybe it will become easier for You too, as You progress and learn from them?

That's true! Last year one of my teachers asked us, which we've found the most effectful way for us to learn. He was a bit amused about my answer when I said "For me the best way to learn is that I write something very risky and then I tell me what's wrong and what I need to re-write!" But I was honest because every time my teachers make some corrections I remember the things we talked about better in the future.

Yeah they didn't need to master as many styles than we're studying nowadays so they'd been able to focus more on... well... the renaissance style Also musicians were taught to IMPROVISE canons and everything was stricter. Nowadays it feels like we're focusing on completely different things and many musicians can... well... play well, but are not as fluent in improvisation, composing and variating than back then. It's kinda ironic that we're taught to play many historical styles "correctly" but we've just forgotten that improvising was an important part of them. Many musicians play cadenzas written by someone else because they can't "compose" them themselves (and I'm not blaming them or saying that I could, these kind of skills just have disappeared in our education which is sad).

Oh I didn't even consider that! Obviously, if You compose for an orchiestra, You can't then play it alone! Oh my...
Could You use the synthethic, sound bank recordings too? (Or is that very expensive actually?)

Haha I'm not that good with technology It could be a good option and one day I'd like to learn using them too but at the moment I'm just torturing my teachers with Musescore sounds

Oh, it is very wide field. And I would love to learn hieroglyphics! I've got one book, but it's introductionary one and the author himself says, that there basically is just one other, proper book, You could learn it from on your own, and it's basically out of print. (And it's in English, and there are no other English titles either, really so it tells You how many options there are... not, unless You get to uni courses, which is honestly annoying!)

That maybe too, also it's usually for people from corresponding linguistic studies, but also also, I think that particular teacher was so much in the topic, that he forgot it takes time to familiarise Yourself with a new alphabet, before You can just translate the sentance on the board! Like trying that on maybe 4th or 5th lesson would make more sense

Wow what a bad luck, do you know if they had any plans on re-publish it since there're no other books? Or have you tried to download it illegally which otherwise seems to be the only option?

Haha it's kinda cute to see someone so enthusiastic but it's really impractical to the students Some really higly educated teachers seems to forget what it's like to hear or see something new for a first time...

I'll go with first, or second summer after graduation (assuming You'll continue teaching ,and will have a bit more spare time in that season), cause it's likely your brain will start missing the challenge of learning and learning something new at that.

Lol that could also be the case

It mainly consisted on remebering what story was depicted on which side of the temple and which parts from them were shown, not necessarily their actual composition, luckily. Still most of us were like " wait doesn't parthenon still stands and You can just go and see it? Also there is no chance of digging up something similar, so what's the point..."

Ohh so you kinda learn it because of a syntax and the story? By the way talking about the different sides of the temple made me think the methods they used to learning long speeches by heart in ancient Greece I suppose! When they imagined different rooms in their heads and how they'll speak about specific topics in specific rooms.

Absolutely You should ask, maybe You're be able to listen in person their process and reconstructions!
Yeah, people made instruments as long as we existed, or in some cases even longer, since Neanderthals also made some music - oldest (or one of) known bone flute (from Slovenia) is attributed to them. ^^

So, as I've said, I have terrible memory when it comes to names, so I usually can't recall anyone. That being said, perphaps Krzysztof Penderecki... I heard his "Winterreise" on the radio once and loved it, and generally like his other works too.

Yes I really need to ask! I'll ask right after my short vacation

Have you seen this video of a bone flute? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZlB9KWpbJ0&t=1s This is the earliest I know atm. But a couple of years ago I also saw I video of really ancient flute which sounded like people screaming simultaneously. But it's just so mesmerazing that people made music already so long time ago!!

Ahhh I'm always writing a novel to you because more and more ideas just pop up my mind while writing and that's why it takes a forever for me to respond

[beblic.]

[Hallowinxer]

zao_zao

Hi! How are you?
Your avatar looks awesome!! I love avatars with dark aesthetics!

[beblic.]

hi!! i'm fine!! just ate
and you?

thanks! dark vibes - one of my favorite looks 💅
i feast one's eyes on your avatar every time 💟

[Hallowinxer]

hi!! i'm fine!! just ate
and you?

thanks! dark vibes - one of my favorite looks 💅
i feast one's eyes on your avatar every time 💟

Haha I just ate too! I have some blood tests tomorrow in the morning so I need to have a fast during the night. So no more food after this meal

And thank you!! Yey I'm always curious to see how you've updated your avatar too!

Btw the counting game on the Russian forum was so intensive!! I didn't respond to anyone there because I don't speak any Russian I'm there just because of the number game (I might be a little obsessed about the counting games... ) but I used a translator and it seemed like people were celebrating with me

[beblic.]

Haha I just ate too! I have some blood tests tomorrow in the morning so I need to have a fast during the night. So no more food after this meal

And thank you!! Yey I'm always curious to see how you've updated your avatar too!

Btw the counting game on the Russian forum was so intensive!! I didn't respond to anyone there because I don't speak any Russian I'm there just because of the number game (I might be a little obsessed about the counting games... ) but I used a translator and it seemed like people were celebrating with me

wow, I hope these are preventative tests?:о btw, I also need to take them, I can't go there... I'm too lazy to do it

now the avatars have reset for a second I was afraid that my acquired stuff has disappeared

it's ok! I myself am not very good at english (I understand the text more or less, but it's hard to write it myself. In our ordinary schools in Russia, we've very poor english practice, we're taught to translate, but not to use the language)
so, yeah, we celebrated сongratulations!

[Hallowinxer]

Haha I just ate too! I have some blood tests tomorrow in the morning so I need to have a fast during the night. So no more food after this meal

And thank you!! Yey I'm always curious to see how you've updated your avatar too!

Btw the counting game on the Russian forum was so intensive!! I didn't respond to anyone there because I don't speak any Russian I'm there just because of the number game (I might be a little obsessed about the counting games... ) but I used a translator and it seemed like people were celebrating with me

wow, I hope these are preventative tests?:о btw, I also need to take them, I can't go there... I'm too lazy to do it

now the avatars have reset for a second I was afraid that my acquired stuff has disappeared

it's ok! I myself am not very good at english (I understand the text more or less, but it's hard to write it myself. In our ordinary schools in Russia, we've very poor english practice, we're taught to translate, but not to use the language)
so, yeah, we celebrated сongratulations!

I'm fine, I went to the tests because I was sick almost the whole fall (I got a flu which renewed, renewed and renewed... ) and during the whole fall I tried to get to the blood tests but the doctor just said it isn't necessary. And after a couple of months when I've finally healed they wanted to take the tests just in case. Well, better late than never, I think

I also got afraid of the avatar reset because I have bought so many clothes and accessories! I'm so relieved everything's fine now! #firstworldproblems but I really got scared

Oh I think you write really well! But I understand the feeling of being insecure about speaking in English. In Finland we were so focused on the grammar and not speaking that I was almost terrified of actually speaking English. I was super slow and nervous 5 years ago but then I met a friend who was patient, gave me enough time to google some words and think, and even googled some words herself too so it wasn't so scary to talk and then I started learning. And now in the uni most of the courses are in English and I've learned much more (I'm not still completely fluent tho).

Do you study any other languages in Russia? And what's the school system like anyway?