jwilzewske

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Chamber Music for Dressage Freestyle (kür)

I want people to feel that it’s not just a kur but something like art. I hope people have a physical feeling as they hear the music—for me it is so special. I want them to be excited as they listen and watch. I think there’s a lot of emotion in it... My music before was mostly French, and this kur has some international music, but I’m also using some music by Polish composers... It’s difficult to put a name to this music, but it’s like a mix of classical with trance.”
— Michal Rapcewicz, FEI World Cup 2009.

T his November 2011 post about the Spanish Riding School in Vienna has in 6 weeks’ time received a surprisingly large number of pageviews and outclicks.

M ost of these new visitors to CMT (and searchers who land on CMT) are equestrians, dressage riders looking for suitable music with tempi in the 140 to 160 bpm range that will suit the biomechanics of their horse and that will offer a chance to dramatically differentiate themselves from the other competitors… these are horse people who are tired to death of riding trite ‘pop’ music for their dressage tests.

B ut some of the horsey CMT visitors landing on that November lippizaner blogpost have come from TCP/IP addresses that indicate they are from Conservatories and from chamber music ensembles’ websites. Are these visitors merely musicians who in their spare time are hobbyist dressage amateurs? Or are they instead seriously looking to program new repertoire for dressage and thereby expand the market for their chamber performances and recordings? Are any of them composers, I wonder?

A nyhow, the traffic does stimulate thought! Possibly some composers would be intrigued by the prospect of writing for dressage... consider it in the same way you would composing for ballet! It is far easier to get commissioned by serious dressage riders to do some ‘miniatures’ than it is to get hired to write a ballet score. [Typically, there is a very brief leader or intro (the rider must enter the arena within 20 sec of the start of the music) to establish the mood/atmosphere and tempo and rhythmic structure of the piece—enough to cue the horse and rider. The dressage rules stipulate that the maximum length is 5 minutes of music. In many jurisdictions, there is no minimum time limit; however, most kür music is a bit longer than 3 min. Depending on the choreography, saying what you want to say in 3’30’’ or 4’20’’, say, is far more crisp, focused and dramatic (and competition-winning) than pointlessly dilating the piece to the max 4’59’’.]

A nd possibly some chamber music ensembles would be interested in recording such works... providing CDs or MP3s for dressage tests.

P ossibly ACF or other sponsors of new music would set ‘dressage to music’/‘freestyle’/‘kür’ as a subject for a future competition and call-for-compositions. Possibly one of the national dressage organizations would commission some compositions for kür.

T hink Bach WTC Bk 1, Prelude and Fugue No. 2 in C minor, BWV 847 (prelude), with a dark-angel Sviatoslav Richter-esque tempo. Nothing too delicate! Nothing too subtle! The music will be amplified, typically in a large echoic arena or open space—so you need clear orchestration with not too much polyphony or rhythmic complexity. Think confident, ebullient, full of impulsion! Think music that is emblematic of divine almighty beauty, whatever you conceive that to be! Think intimate and individualistic sound that will showcase the equine dancer! Think ‘What music would a beautiful, balletic horse love to dance to?’

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Imitation is Flattery

Like many of you, I enjoy reading posts on The Trad. Today he featured a photo of himself on a boat in 1985 sporting a beard and a nice duffel coat. The photo for some reason reminded me of one from 1993 when I was motoring around Lake Mead outside Las Vegas.
Similarities in the photos: White boy...check. Body of water...check. All American background...check. Boat....check. Ray Bans....check.

Hunting Upland Game

As reported in the last Post...waterfowling has been fairly miserable this year.So in an effort to assuage my solemn mood...I dredged up some photos of hunting pheasant and quail with my faithful bird dog Archie. Oh yeah...the other guy in the picture is my faithful college buddy Glenn.
When Archie takes a point and holds over a bird, it never fails to send a chill tickling down the vertebrae. The flush and a clean shot is rewarding, but I think I enjoy watching my dog, that I trained, more than anything. Archie is getting a bit old now but he is still game. In fact, he spent the better part of the weekend in a duck blind and goose pit with me. We are both happiest when we are together.

From Polish Avenger (Letter 5)

Polish Avenger - A software-engineering undergraduate sentenced to 25 years because his friend was shot dead during a burglary they were both committing. Author of the classic "Shit Slinger" series.

Bloody Plonk,

“’Ello there, you git!” Yes, believe it or not, it’s me at long last. As usual I’m sorry for the long silence. The conditions were I was housed were (are) very oppressive to even the basic functions of life, let alone creative endeavors like writing or painting. Now, granted, that’s not a very good excuse, but dude… that unit was literally the most soul-corroding time I’ve done since good ol’ Hotel Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

And so it is with great and happy joy that I am writing this to you from the rarefied air of minimum security! Yay! Yes, the guards came right out of the blue and insisted I come over here. I had no idea I was even eligible. Geez, the difference is just astronomical. It is so much better over here. It took a week or so to get the stress out of my body, and another to get the stink out of my clothes. And now it’s back to feeling human again, and not like neglected/abused cattle. They hired me almost immediately to do fine art on flagstone and canvas, and thus I’ve been experiencing a personal renaissance in paint. Not to mention, I can have real pro-quality equipment and not the Crayola kindergarten crap I’ve been painting with the last 8 years, which is a very happy turn of events, I consider myself fortunate to be here.

Fellow bloggers and Hard Time alumni Otis and Shane were here also. I say were as Shane got transferred for unknown troublemakery and of course took Hard Time with him as I had finished it, and it was his turn to read it. Otis also sends his love.

All right, Duke of Plonkington, I’ll get this happy news away to you. Eventually, when I get more settled, I’ll get to posting again.

Luv,

The Polish Avenger

Click here for Shit Slingers V.
Click here for Letter 4 from Polish Avenger.

Our friends inside appreciate your comments.

Shaun Attwood

Monday, January 16, 2012

How likely to sing after radiation therapy for head-and-neck cancer?

F or oropharynx and nasopharynx cancers, it is sometimes possible to limit the dose received by the larynx according to the extent of the primary lesion. Thus, if the tumour constraints permit, the maximum dose to the larynx must be less than 63 to 66 Gy. To reduce the risk of laryngeal edema, it is recommended if possible to limit the mean non-involved larynx dose to 40 to 45 Gy [to prevent dysphonia or significant damage to vocal cords/folds].”
— C. Debelleix and co-workers, Centre Hospitalier Dax-Côte d'Argent, France.

T he question in this post's title has arisen several times each year over the 5 years I've been writing this blog. A relatively small percentage of the approximately 52,000 persons per year who receive a diagnosis of some form of cancer of the head and neck (U.S. SEER statistics; AHRQ HCUPnet statistics for procedures HCPCS L30318, G0251, G0339, G0340; CPT-4 77373, 77401-77435, etc.; ICD-9 92.3x) and the thousands of patients (U.S.) who receive radiation to the neck as part of a treatment regimen for a head-and-neck cancer are singers—either avid amateurs or professionals. However, the rate of inquiry by (or on behalf of) singers for whom this situation does happen is evidently not by any means ‘rare’. There have been 6 such search-strings that I have noticed in the CMT traffic logs in the past 3 weeks alone.

S o this post is meant to provide you with links to recent medical literature that you can show to your otolaryngologist/oncologist and discuss. In that regard, the typical radiation oncologist tends not to be expert in medical management of musicians; conversely, specialists in medical problems of musicians tend not to have a great deal of experience with head-and-neck cancers for which radiation therapy is routinely used. This is compounded by the fact that the situation of singers undergoing radiation to the neck is just uncommon enough that there are not many clinical trials or specific studies conducted in that population. The published studies that have some relevancy to the question are not easy for your physician to locate online or in the library either—which is why I believe providing these links will be helpful.

A majority of the published work on this topic has to do with ‘quality-of-life’ (QoL) measurement in cancer patients treated with radiation to the neck, where one of the QoL measurements is ease of vocalization and the frequency and severity of pain or hoarseness or other forms of dysphonia or vocal abnormalities.

F or each patient, the specific cancer type and the extent of the cancer’s spread and other factors contribute to the decision-making as to whether ‘larynx-sparing’ reduced-dose, stereotactic, imagery-guided radiation therapy is a sensible approach or not. But in those cases where it is deemed to be a reasonable approach, there are specific guidelines for planning and conducting such radiotherapy.

O f course, there is no guarantee that returning to singing will be achievable, or that vocal quality or agility or range or endurance will be the same as they were prior to treatment. But to get the best chance for those outcomes, the info in the lit below should be part of your decision-making with your doctors.

I f you’re one of those who’ve been hitting the web and this blog looking for info on larynx-preserving radiotherapy and prognosis with regard to return to post-treatment singing, maybe the links below will be useful for you and your doc!

Schools Tour

I just got back from a one-week 600-mile tour of English schools that took me as far north as Sheffield and as far south as Dorset.

With medical students who stayed behind after the talk and asked loads of questions, North Nottinghamshire College

Kingswood School, Bath

Bryanston School, Dorset

Shaun Attwood

Sunday, January 15, 2012

A Bust So Far

These images are decidedly absent from our Waterfowl Club so far this season. The lack of snow covering northern field and warm tempatures keeping northern ponds and lakes from freezing...all contribute to a sparse migration of ducks and geese.When the birds have open water to rest in and open fields in which to feed they just do not have to fly south.
By this time in the season I have usually killed and cooked about 10 or 12 geese and had some decent shots at Mallards or Black ducks. The birds are just not here. We are hoping that the recent snow and cold in New England and upstate New York will improve the hunting for these last 2 weeks of the season. My son has off from school tomorrow so we are going down tonite to meet some of the guys for dinner, football,poker and a Monday A.M. hunt.We are hopeful....and as my Grandfather used to say: " You can't shoot 'em from your living room."