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Ketchup Talk

Blog, Early Music, Essays, Music /

This blog entry isn’t really about ketchup… it’s about vibrato, the intentionally produced pitch pulsation in a musical sound.  Why ketchup then?  Here’s the story.  Recently I saw an image post on facebook by a musician from Germany.  It was a picture of a page from a magazine or something, and the page had a quote in large font sizes that read: “Vibrato on every note is like putting ketchup all over the music.” I thought this is a quite good analogy— one that’s as good as it could get. I don’t mind ketchup at all— I just don’t use it as much, but once in a while I feel […]

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Moving complete

About myself, Blog, Random /

So, finally I made the move from the MobileMe website to this blog-oriented content management system.  Not that I’ll be blogging more often or anything, but I like the idea of being mobile and able to post a blog from anywhere, on any Internet-connected devices.  And finally I’ve made my old domain name bachpeople.com more than just an e-mail address— it’s nice to be able to use it as a URL. Since my last blog entry to my old site at MobileMe, I’ve moved from Bloomington to Philadelphia.  Another big thing that happened to me since then is that I was given the opportunity to direct St. John Passion in

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Project Apollo

About myself, Blog /

(Originally posted on March 11, 2011) There are a few things that I always go back to when I need to uplift my spirit.  When I need to motivate and encourage myself about life, humanity, and goodness of the people, those are the things I get the help from.  I suppose everyone has those “things”— they may be some feel-good movies and/or books.  Good sermons and speeches can do that too.  Usually we take them for granted and we don’t always remember them, but when you revisit them, you sense your spirit soars. I’ve already talked about a few of those here already.  Believe it or not, I get inspired

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Long absence

About myself, Blog /

(Originally posted on February 18, 2011) Now I see that I had been away from this blog for more than three months.  The reason isn’t as trite as you think it is— I won’t say that I was too busy or I forgot that I had this blog.  Simply that my mind had been occupied with one important thing: my own health. I have a few pituitary hormone deficiencies.  My pituitary got damaged at birth, and I don’t have some important hormones your body usually needs.  It seems that my body is weaker than normal (don’t know for sure as I never borrowed somebody else’s body), and my metabolism had

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Violoncello piccolo da spalla

3件のコメント / Bach, Blog, Marlboro Music, Music /

(Originally posted on October 30, 2010) This is a dream instrument for any violinists and violists who want to play the cello.  And this is the dream instrument for a guy like me who wants to do Bach cantatas that call for this instrument.  It is, for me, a quite essential instrument!  Sure, you can go buy a chin-cello to play some cello pieces if you are a violinist/violist.  But this instrument has an E string that chin-cello doesn’t have, and it is more like a smaller cello while the chin-cello is just like a huge viola.  This  instrument is often called the violoncello piccolo [da spalla (shoulder)], or the

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September in Japan

About myself, Bach, Blog, Fishing /

(Originally posted on October 3, 2010) I was in Japan during the most of September.  It was nice to be back in Japan for a while— seeing familiar faces and having some Japanese goodies were priceless.  But some would wonder (well, I did) why I wanted to go to Japan when not going to Japan might have been a smarter choice from a couple of standpoints; one: I just went through a financial hardship after my wrist fracture and I would need to save the money I just earned during summer; and two: I’m preparing for my first qualifying exam and I should be studying for it if I wanted

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Lake Sadawga

2件のコメント / Bach, Blog, Fishing, Marlboro Music /

(Originally posted on September 25, 2010) This past summer during the Marlboro Music Festival season, my buddy Miles and I went to a lake we had never fished before.  We knew of this lake for a couple of years at least, but we had been too busy exploring Harriman Reservoir as our primary fishing water.  Probably we go fishing on a boat about 10 times a season, and we usually get to fish for a couple of hours at a time — that isn’t really enough to explore Harriman.  We had tried a few different boat launching sites, different tackles, and different tactics there during a few Marlboro seasons…  And

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The 2010 Marlboro Season

About myself, Bach, Blog, Marlboro Music /

(Originally posted on August 19, 2010) The 2010 Marlboro season has ended.  This morning, for the first time in 8+ weeks, I woke up in a room that was not Random North 7.  I’m no longer in Marlboro— and I don’t even want to think what that means to me.  I know, I’ll just have to face the harsh reality. This season was a difficult one for me.  Not only that I had heavier loads this year as head librarian, but also that especially earlier I had been always physically exhausted, probably because of the lifestyle-shift from inactive and calm one in the plaster cast before the season to very

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The first day-off of the season

About myself, Blog, Marlboro Music /

(Originally posted on June 29, 2010) What season, you ask?  It’s the festival season.  I’m here in southern Vermont, working for the Marlboro Music Festival as a music librarian.  This is my 12th summer working for the festival, and my 7th summer as a full-season staffer.  Even while I was in Japan studying Bach, I worked on the festival’s scheduling database…  I can say I maintain a good relationship with the organization, and it is a relationship I cherish very much. I’ve been driving to Marlboro in recent years.  And when I drive into South Road for the first time each year, I usually get excited or relieved that I

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So I broke my wrist

About myself, Blog, Random Thoughts /

(Originally posted on June 9, 2010) It has been 40 days since I broke my left wrist.  My plaster cast is near completion of its purpose.  Am I looking forward to going out of the cast?  Absolutely.  But the crazy part is that I think I may miss it a little bit. I broke my wrist when I tripped over the arm of a floor jack, shortly after I removed the muffler from my car.  My friend Banri took me to the ER, and on that day, my ordinary yet out-of-the-ordinary life of the present began. Early on, it had been an emotional roller coaster ride, with strong physical and

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