Jay C. Batzner is currently an Assistant Professor at the University of Central Florida where he teaches theory, composition, and technology courses as well as coordinates the composition program. He holds degrees in composition and/or theory from the University of Missouri – Kansas City, the University of Louisville, and the University of Kansas.
Jay's music is primarily focused around instrumental chamber works as well as electroacoustic composition. His music has been recorded on the Capstone, Vox Novus, and Beauport Classical labels and is published by Unsafe Bull Music.
Jay is a sci-fi geek, an amateur banjoist, a home brewer, and juggler.
So my wife has become a rather busy yoga instructor. This was not at all what we expected when 2008 started, or even 6 months ago, but there it is. We have been using the experience to further infiltrate contemporary music on unsuspecting populations.
My wife's yoga playlist includes, among other things, Reich's Music for 18 Musicians. She tells me that many of her students come up afterwards raving about the music and wanting to know what it is. I played some Charlemagne Palestine for her and that (Strumming Music and Four Manifestations on Six Elements) will now go into her yoga rotation.
Other suggestions will have to go in front of the Yoga Spouse Music Advisory Board, whose guidelines are notoriously nebulous.
posted by Jay C. Batzner
11/10/2008
Travel thoughts
Went to and from Richmond this weekend for the Third Practice festival. U of Richmond is a wonderful campus, full of fall colors and general beauty. It was a nice change of pace from the same-old-same-old in Florida. The music at the festival was generally of the slow and delicate variety, with some real stand out pieces that I'll talk about later.
I've found a great way to combat travel fatigue (and new music fatigue, which happens when to hear so much music in a short period of time). The answer, of course, is more music. I flew on AirTan which uses XM radio and I plugged into the most nostalgic decade channels (mostly 80s, some 90s) and just reveled in music that I haven't heard in a long time. "Train in Vain," for example. Haven't heard that song in, well, probably 15 years. It was awesome.
There were so many artists and songs that I had just forgotten about. XM radio brought back painful amounts of nostalgia. Sunday I relived two top-40 countdowns. Rick Dees top 40 from November 1991 and Casey Kasem's countdown from sometime in October 1986. I was instantly transported back to my sister's room, where we would listen to these every week. It was, I think I said, awesome.
You see, my experience with music (before college) was almost entirely pop radio. There were no alternative influence in my humble Iowan upbringing. The most earth-shattering thing I remember hearing when I was in junior high or so was Run D.M.C. I had Raising Hell as the flip side of a bootleg cassette (David Lee Roth's Eat 'Em and Smile was the other side). When I started getting "serious" about music, I turned my back on my pop past. Gone were my Huey Lewis and the News cassettes. Away with Cinderella. Faster Pussycat (I'm the guy that owned both of their albums) was put to sleep. In the last 5 years or so I've starting to see what I mistake I had made.
Other interesting things that happened this weekend (at least to me) were that I recommended Girl Talk's newest album Feed the Animals to the waitress at an Indian restaurant, forgetting to warn her about the intensely graphic sexual content throughout. I forgot how raunchy the words are because I was marveling at their sample skills.
Also, our pilot from Richmond to Atlanta referred to the "War of Northern Aggression." Haven't heard that one in a while, either.
Since I have devolved into almost random babbling, how about this: Thunderball vs. Never Say Never Again. Discuss.
posted by Jay C. Batzner
11/04/2008
Choke
Well, I forgot to prepare a bit for my theory class today. Not in terms of material (continuous variation forms) but specifically in terms of the music I was going to play. When talking about basso ostinato patterns, I have to play "When I am laid in Earth" from Dido and Aeneas. Yes, it has been anthologized to death, some people might find it cliché, but I never tire of that aria. It is so beautiful, so touching, a damned-near perfect example of what the Baroque folks were wanting from opera.
The problem, though, is that I get a little too moved sometimes when listening to it. I usually "desensitize" myself by playing it a few times before class. Today, however, I forgot. About 1/3 of the way into the aria I realized my mistake. By the time the aria was over and I stopped the CD player and had gotten to the front of the room, I could hardly speak. I had to distract myself by playing a little of "In our deep vaulted cell" in order to get the students laughing at the witches' echo effect.
It was a deeply personal moment in front of my 60 sophomores (well, 45 of them). Looking back (it happened about an hour ago), I think it was a good thing, even though it was embarrassing. Music moves me. It should move them, too. And I think many of them are going to go check out the opera.
For those of you who want to know the recording in question, it was the Harmonia Mundi disc with Lorraine Hunt as Dido. Doesn't get much more perfect than that. For those of you with Netflix abilities, I highly recommend the Mark Morris Dance Company's interpretation of the work.
*deep breath* On to the next class. We are talking about MIDI sequencing, which doesn't choke me up nearly as much.
posted by Jay C. Batzner
