Latest Articles by Sarah Canice Funke
So last week I stumbled across this little opportunity and decided to apply for it. It seems just what I need at this point in my life, as if God sat down and said, "I created Sarah with these quirky passions that caused her to pursue a degree for the love and not much else, but now I think I'll throw a little program her way that includes everything she's hoped she could do but didn't really know how to get started in. Oh and by the way, let's make it all free so she can afford it on her missionary-level salary."
So after a flurry of getting a personal statement written and tracking down reference letters (including one miraculously provided by a grad professor on maternity leave), I bundled all four copies of my application packet into a manila envelope and delivered it to the post office. In response to the usual query "Anything fragile, liquid or perishable in this package?" I was sorely tempted to reply "Only my hopes and dreams."
But I refrained. And here's hoping that November finds me in New York City.
...you can send get well wishes to my blog. It's been lonely without me tending it. But I still enjoy the comments when I can get to them.
Check it out! Another Editor's Choice award! :D
Also, check out my review of Alex Ross' new book. Well, sort of new book. Yeah, if this were a full time job, I might devote more investigative journalistic skills into the articles. As it is, you get the news a day late, but in my opinion, the wait is worth it...
My family sent out a 2007 Newsletter. I contributed to the snail mail format, but here's my Life As a Recent 2007 Dweller: The Year in Pictures and Sufjan, the extended version.
There is a lot I failed to capture on film, so just take this as a scant sampling.
Here's to 2008, wherein I have already learned valuable lessons, in particular that there are two bands called Camera Obscura but only one of them sounds good.
Hey, hey. Check it out. One of my Suite articles was nominated for Editor's Choice!
"Congratulations! Your article "Tin Alley String Quartet" was chosen by the Editor of the Section in which it appears this week because it exemplifies the quality content, excellent presentation, and high standard we are striving for at Suite101. The check mark icon associated with this Editor's Choice award appears on the article itself, and wherever it is listed on the site, and will continue to do so from this moment forward. Keep up the great work and enjoy this well-deserved recognition."
I have a few more that I find to be personal favorites of mine. If writing is like having a child, then supposedly you shouldn't have favorites, but every once in while, I have to take exception to the rule. So if you were stumbling across my site for the first time, I'd say check these few out first...
Women's Chant Performed in Halifax
Two Star Symphony
Kronos Quartet Plays Sigur Ros
Or if you like to go by popularity, here are the 20 most popular of my articles (since August 5, 2007--for some reason my stats don't go any further back than that...):
1. Gustav Holst's The Planets
2. Non-Traditional Wedding Music
3. Classical Piano Performers
4. More Composer Birthdays
5. ENO Carmen Mini-Site
6. The Nutcracker Ballet
7. Zenph Glenn Gould Re-Performance
8. Wagner on CBC
9. Sofya Gulyak Wins Piano Prize
10. Joshua Bell Plays D.C. Metro
11. Plot Synopsis of The Ring Cycle
12. American Composer Aaron Copland
13. Beethoven's Piano Sonatas
14. London Philharmonic Orchestra
15. Classical Music for Children
16. Aaron Copland's Clarinet Concerto
17. Renée Fleming and Cecilia Bartoli
18. Dvorák's New World Symphony
19. Renaissance Composer William Byrd
20. The Making of Music
Maybe I'll put links up later, but for now I am out of time....
While I was wearing a barrette made of small wooden squares from Costa Rica, Evan asked if I was wearing something made from Scrabble tiles. Given that I also have barrettes made from buttons, bottle caps, and faux-typewriter keypads, it was a natural query. But now I am inspired to get me an old Scrabble game from a thrift store or garage sale and make a barrette that spells my name. Or if my family is wondering what to get me for my birthday (now less than a month away!!), they can read this post for illumination. :)
Thanks to the CSS diagnostic powers of Luke the computer programmer, my sidebar is now back in business. I also found a cooler way to display my delicious links. Enjoy!
EDIT: And even better is the housecleaning that the new Xanga Templates have enabled. However much fun the custom modules have been, the sad fact remains that Xanga still refuses to read javascript. And so we remain only half-hearted if semi-reconciled friends...
Hello, everyone. I have added a Suite101 widget to my individual archive pages and to the top of the main page. This widget allows you to click directly on my Suite101 articles. If you care to read the articles, please take a little time to go the website. But what really brings in the money is a few clicks on the google ads dancing about in the margins of each article webpage. Read my words if you will, but your mouse clicks are my heart's desire. :)
I know at least one person who will be happy to hear that Woody Allen decided to take on L.A. Opera's performance of Gianni Schicchi. Despite the popularity of the aria "O Mio Babbino Caro," my grandmother said that the entire opera is seldom performed, her explanation being that no one can pronounce the title. But it's as simple as saying "Gee-awn-y Skee-ky." (Those good ol' Italians, always pronouncing "chi" as "kee" and "ci" and "chee.")
Will the opera contain a neurotic hypercondriac? Given that the title character impersonates a dead man and rewrites/forges a will in order to recover his daughter's fiance's family fortune from a monastery, it seems that the opera was a good pick for an Allen foray into operatic melodrama.
Finally being a review writer is paying off and people are contacting me with offers of free CDs. I'm also more happy about the future than I have been for a while. Please pray about potential job offers. I am trying not to get too excited all cart-before-the-horse like, but possibilities beckon. I am writing the most kick ass resume ever. And I mean "ass" in the archaic way: moving donkeys is a lot of work.
Other than that, I would like to say that I am on the banks of Puget Sound. Very beautiful. To breath salty air: now that will put kick in your lungs.
The republican-democratic ideal has really caught on in the music world. Perhaps the most blatant examples are in the American Idol series and subsequent reality/talent TV shows. But you can even vote for dead people now.
Although in this case, it is Tchaikovsky against Tchaikovsky (instead of separate contestants), as readers/viewers vote for their favorite of his works. And for me, the decision was rather tough. The Nutcracker versus Swan Lake versus Romeo and Juliet? I ended up going with my musicological gut and choosing the Symphony No. 6 (Pathetique). And I was significantly surprised to find that mine was the most popular choice, attracting 38.6% of the votes. The Nutcracker, possibly the most culturally pervasive of Tchaikovsky's work, managed to attract only 6.8% of the vote so far.
Granted the numbers are rather small at this point, but they suggest a few interpretations: 1) Either the public at large really just enjoys the Symphony No. 6 more than the "accessible" and familiar tunes such as the Waltz of the Sugar Plum Fairy or 2) the BBC's audience is by and large a very "educated" bunch.
Enjoy catching up. I shall be taking a blogging hiatus this weekend. Be good, kids. :)
Video Games Live, a concert of video game music, will be performed by some London orchestra (couldn't figure out which one) on Saturday.
In case anyone was as ignorant as me regarding the state of video game music, have a listen:
Hey, hey, hey. Also check out my Del.icio.us links in the sidebar. Some cool stuff, some odd stuff, and quite possibly some useful stuff all thrown together. At any rate, it's a good way for me to keep track of stuff I would like to return to later.
As per request: Spem in alium. I might return to this topic in future Suite articles, as word constraints only allow me to spit out the barebones info.
And an interesting news item regarding Mozart and Islam. Interesting that the particular performance was Idomeneo and not, say, Die Entfuhrung (which would seem MUCH more offensive. At least, in the original version. But making Idomeneo deliberately offensive seems a bit...Brazen? Bold? Should I take over Eating Bark's role of news commentary facilitator and poll everyone: Cowardly or Courageous?)
And do you secretly love hip hop but were always too embarrassed to listen to the lyrics? Well, now you can listen to French hip-hop, which boasts the second largest market in the world after America (and even larger than the West coast market). Or so they say. Here's Senegalese MC Solaar, one of the first francophone artists to make it big. No worries, it's all in French! (With a few English borrowings thrown in for good measure).
Qui Sème le Vent Récolte le Tempo, my friends.
Public music message brought to you by grad student trying to find musical examples of global rap for class....
This could be the very minute
I'm aware I'm alive
All these places feel like home
With a name I'd never chosen
I can make my first steps
As a child of 25.
~"Chocolate," Final Straw, Snow Patrol
Hm. This "poem" is much better sung as a Snow Patrol song.
It is even better when sung by Snow Patrol as a Snow Patrol song.
And my Uncle Carl is the best birthday card writer (I think it's a spiritual gift). He sent me a card that said on the front: "Earth has no sorrow that heaven cannot heal" (Thomas Moore) [and in U.C.'s handwriting: "None the less, Happy Birthday!"]
On the inside: Just a note to let you know we still support our expatriates on their birthdays and funerals where one card covers them all! Can't be too efficient, eh? Hope all continues well and that you finish whatever you're doing (blog book writing, etc.) in time for the next best adventure ever....perhaps Mexico for some sun! (Gotta agree with you there, Uncle Carl. It's freezing today.)
The inside motto: Praying God's loving presence will surround you with peace and comfort during this difficult time.* [In U.C.'s handwriting: *25 years old--now that's a difficult time! But the prayer is still good...]
And Christa sent me a Hoops and YoYo. Because I find them stupidly hilarious even if others don't. :)
And a special shout-out to Lowen, whose birthday happens tomorrow: Always a day late and a year behind, friend. :)
But here's looking at you, kid.
Wishing you all the best.
Sung to the tune of "Good-bye, Norma Jean" (which is really called "Candle in the Wind" but I merely quote the relevant lyrics here).
And stay tuned for tomorrow morning, when I shall post my new year's motto...
Okay...turned some observations on Partch into a Suite (sweet?) article. A hearty thanks to Evan for turning my ears in that direction (and thanks to Jeannette for future listening suggestions that I shall follow up...when I am not writing papers about about other music...).
I cracked the pages of Grout for some info on Partch today...slips of paper with notes detailing how to remember/distinguish several pieces of music fell out, bringing back memories of Dr. Steele music history days. I miss those.
And since I am completely in favor of promoting whole-heartedly the endeavors of my friends on this space, I bid you all run to check out Vincent Howard's article published in the Chattanooga Pulse.
And more on the Clash, though more of a gut reaction at this point: I was kind of surprised when I first heard London Calling. I was expecting more punk and less rock n roll. "Brand New Cadillac"--could have been written by Chuck Berry, straight out of the blues/boogie harmonic language. "Spanish Bombs"--so much Beatles of the Rubber Soul/Revolver ilk in there. And the Beach Boys come through in "Wrong 'Em Boyo." The reggae in "Rudie Can't Fall" and "Revolution Rock" takes the music in a slightly different direction.
The diversity is intentional, and so I find it interesting that for a band associated with kick-starting the punk movement in Britain, the album they are most known for is actually the least characteristic of their particular style. [EDIT: Over on my xanga, I have been informed by persons more knowledgable regarding punk than I that diversity/blending of genre styles actually IS a characteristic of punk. I now confess public embarrassment, because I feel as if I ought to have known that...]
And to note an interesting phenomenon regarding the advertising of music via popular television shows, one can find the "greatest hits" of indie bands making up the soundtrack of the what might be decidedly "un-indie" OC. (Well, I've never actually watched the OC. I get the impression it's preppy, though. Am I right?)
Classical Music for Children. I've done one of these before, but whereas then I talked about ballet and orchestral music, now I talk about some fun vocal works. Read, read!
Also of note: Sting Sings John Dowland.
PS I wish that Classical Music lovers would learn how to use computers. Or at least how to design websites. The Classical Music Archive would be so much more useful if it were easier to negotiate.
Orchestra podcasting has arrived. Also, if you are into Evensong, you should listen on the BBC's online radio (click on the "listen to classical music" link, then chose the program "Choral Evensong").
Also, Been Gone makes me happy. Guess why. You get MAJOR extra credit points if you can guess. :)
The CBC is airing the Canadian Opera Company's production of Wagner's Ring Cycle. I am extraordinarily bummed that I will be in class at the time it airs. But maybe you won't be...and maybe you can stream it. Quite possibly, I might be able to download it afterwards.
To brush up on your Wagner, you can check out the latest at Suite101:
Wagner on the CBC
Plot Synopsis
What amazes me is how spinning mythology doesn't really change--Norse myths. Wagner. Tolkien. Lucas. All melding together. And what's with naming everyone practically the same thing? Siegfried, Siegmund and Sieglinde??? Eomer and Eowyn??? If you pronounced Luke with a German accent, you'd have Lu-kah and Leia.
Perhaps my favorite reference to Wagner comes from the James Herriot All Creatures Great and Small series. Although it's never mentioned, one has to assume that the parents of Herriot's co-workers must have been aficionados in order to name their sons Siegfried and Tristan.
And a few more for the road:
"Wagner is not as bad as he sounds." ~Mark Twain
But, let a woman in your life, and your sabbatical is through,
in a line that never ends comes an army of her friends,
come to jabber and to chatter
and to tell her what the matter is with YOU!,
she'll have a booming boisterous family,
who will descend on you en mass,
she'll have a large wagnarian mother,
with a voice that shatters glass,
Never let a woman in your life!
"An Ordinary Man," My Fair Lady
Oh, and departing all together from Wagner: is anyone willing to go to England and mail me a letter? The Royal Mail just issued Beatles stamps.
I have been remiss about posting links to suite101 lately. But no more!
Here are four articles to while away your afternoon with:
Century Rolls (John Adams!!!)
Buliding a Classical Music Library
A two-part series...
Hector Berlioz
Symphonie Fantastique
Also, I am looking at Cambridge for possible post-Canada options. Any of my musicologist readers (all two of you) have an opinion or advice on this?
Other post-Canada options include actually getting a job. One result of the Brown seminar is that I talked to some people who do internships. My chances of getting an internship seem significantly higher now that I've been to a seminar. So maybe I will be doing that next summer, which might potentially lead to a permanent position. So many contingencies.
Apparently eBay nixed the rather unusual fund-raising techniques of the Beethoven Academie chamber orchestra.
If you have an opinion, leave it over at Suite101 rather than here. I post the links here to advertise Suite101, not replace it. :)
You know you've been on pins and needles waiting for the latest at Suite101. Well, here's the latest.
I didn't add in the article (but I'll add here) that I first experienced this symphony at the hands of Dr. Steele and the Covenant orchestra. This is a great piece to play first and explain afterwards. The audience just goes "What the....?" as it tries to figure out why each performer just up and leaves the stage one by one.
I've also decided that my new strategy for story ideas is to browse the headlines on the BBC music site and then tie in current events with music history. At any rate, that's what I did with the last two articles and they are currently my favorite ones of the bunch. ["I wouldn't say that I am a good writer, but my friends tell me....."]
Also, I had to sign a contract saying I wouldn't artificially inflate my hit counts. So I guess I'll have to ask people to stop hitting refresh a gazillion times a visit. But thanks to everyone who has done that already.
This is what I'll be hearing live in two weeks, but I might snatch a preview tomorrow.
Also in the news and duly noted at Suite101: the death of György Ligeti.
Read, read, read! :)
Also, I was thrilled to get this one...
Who Should Paint You: Andy Warhol |
 You've got an interested edge that would be reflected in any portrait You don't need any fancy paint techniques to stand out from the crowd! |
My mom asked me if I was going to see Nacho Libre.
I don't know. I can handle misfits in moonboots.
I'm not sure if I can cope with overweight Hispanic stereotypes in spandex.
I'll wait for the video.
Also, please read about Salieri. And.....if you really love me, please click around on the other articles I've written there. It gives me a few more cents, even if you've already read said articles.
Newest article at Suite101.
Even though this list may not be life-changing for anyone, I personally got sidetracked by a lot of good stuff. I discovered some amazing settings of Hebrew texts from various Psalms by Steve Reich. Please listen to Tehillim, if you haven't ever. I like the fourth movement best: a minimalist version of Psalm 150:4-6. Translated from the Hebrew:
Praise him with tambourine and dancing,
praise him with the strings and flute
praise him with the clash of cymbals,
praise him with resounding cymbals.
Let everything that has breath praise the LORD.
Praise the LORD.
I also discovered an entire album consisting solely of one song: Ravel's Bolero. Ten different artists, ten different versions. My favorite? Benny Goodman's. And then I became enamoured with Sing, Sing, Sing all over again. Rumour has it that Harry James (Goodman's trumpeter) left the band over that killer-diller. The song was so popular that the band would have to close with that number every night. As a trumpet player, you just try executing some of those chops after a full night's performance.
I was informed by a reliable source named Ben that my blog and I are getting too serious too fast. We can't even spend a week apart.
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The satellite radio in my dad's suburban has a 40s station. But caution warned: for every Fletcher Henderson, Benny Goodman, Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday, and Ella Fitzgerald, there is a Guy Lombardo, full of croony dream verse that will leave you in a puddle of sentimental sap if you listen for too long. The scary thing is that after prolonged exposure, I start to enjoy it. Heavens! How can this be???
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Please excuse a moment of academic glee....I finally got my grades back for the past semester. I got an A+ on my Theory of Western Performance (Pop Music Pre-WWII) class!!!! I've never gotten an A+ before, since none of my other schools ever gave them out. (Well, my mom gave A+'s....) I think there is a direct correlation between how much I enjoyed a class and how well I did in it. This was the highest grade I got for the year, and I got more out of it than any other class.
For instance: early musicals (at least, the ones that were trying to integrate the music into the plot instead of just randomly inserting songs wherever) were often self-referential in order to have a reason to have so much music. In other words, the musical would be about a musical, so that the plot could include auditions or numbers from a moment in the play within the play...this practice continued with films that included musicians as actors: Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra often played singers, and Gene Krupa starred in Rhythm Romance (with Bob Hope) as, you guessed it, a drummer in a hot swing band. The practice continues even today: Beyonce recently played a pop music star in Pink Panther. Unfortunately, now I can't watch films without wondering how these trends are all connected.
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Shostakovich gets a turn. Next week: Wedding Music That Does Not Make Your Guests Gag. Conspicuously missing from that list: Pachelbel's Canon in D. And Wagner's Wedding March.
I was inspired because I saw a similar list (Classical Wedding Music) on NPR and noticed that it was largely all the cliched choices. I mean, there is not really anything wrong with Handel's Largo, but...why don't we try something a little off the beaten path? I'm still staunchly a traditionalist: I don't think I would recommend 4'33" as a processional, interesting and amusing as that prospect might be. But there are certainly very appropriate classical pieces that simply get ignored. So stay tuned for next week at Suite101....
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There are some days when I wonder why I have two blogs. But there are other days when I am grateful. When covblogs is down, I can still blog on the back-up plan....
I am this close to closing shop on xanga. Mostly because I am in love with the design of my covblog. It's got better fonts and colours and a cool picture of Alice in Wonderland. I can add sidebar links to obscure sites that outline the proper usage of the hyphen and the apostrophe. And you can listen to my personalized Pandora radio over here. However, empassioned pleas from my xangan constituency have convinced me to stay. :)
Networking is funny, since I seem to run into the same people over and over no matter which network I join. I would like to announce that since the '06 grads have joined InCircle (the network for Covenant Alumni), Evan Donovan is connected to me in every single networking capacity I have except for xanga. Natalie Lodico is connected to me in every single networking capacity I have except for InCircle.
We shall see who wins the race to become The-Most-Connected-To-Sarah-Funke. I have my bets placed already....
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Currently listening to Ray LaMontagne, courtesy of Abbie.
Yes! It's time for another article at Suite101.com, this time on music by one of my favorite composers, Stravinsky (although I guess I write on all my personal favorites...).
Also, Bob totally just nailed my Myers-Briggs personality: INTP. I was kind of frustrated with Myers-Briggs, because I always came out as something completely wrong, or else sort of close, or else just...strange. But Bob seems to know me a bit better than I know myself, which I think is probably one of his strengths (knowing people). This profile description is so accurate, it's scary. How did they have time to follow me around???
"This fascination for logical wholes and their inner workings is often expressed in a detachment from the environment, a concentration where time is forgotten and extraneous stimuli are held at bay. Accomplishing a task or goal with this knowledge is secondary." When I was a child, my mother was afraid I would burn down the house about my ears and only notice when I was already dead. Smoke would literally be pouring from a very burned pot on the stove while I nonchalantly turned pages in whatever book happened to absorbing all my attention at the time...I've arrived at functions without shoes because I was holding a book as I got into the car and simply forgot to put them on...when I learned how to drive I didn't know where anything was even though I'd lived in Colorado Springs for 10 years already..sometimes my family has to say my name five or six times before I snap to attention with a dazed "huh?"...I never mind waiting in doctor's offices or in long lines because I amuse myself with my own thoughts...
Here's another profile. Less close than the first one, but there are some accuracies in there.
I think that I am probably the only N in my family...
Everyone else is far too practical and/or concrete.
I think that Anna is very much an ESFJ...
I am highly tempted to say Christa is an ESTJ: it for the most part fits her practical, administrative gifts.
My mom is most likely an ESFP.
My dad...still thinking...probably STJ something, but capable of N-ness...
And I just want to surmise a guess that the Hackenbizzl is an INFP...
At Suite101.
Go there. Thank you very much.
I just had one of the most freeing and uplifting conversations with my parents. Let me just say what a tremendous blessing being honest with each other and supportive really is. I love my family very much. Pent-up frustrations and burdens built up from undealt with issues in my past have been released, to trouble me (hopefully) no more. Sleep will be sweet.
...and I've got another article up on Suite101. On Mozart, dance rhythms, and opera (subtext: meaning in music).
Also, if you would participate in the poll on the main page and this, I would be most eternally grateful.
Check out the Indie Music section while you are over there. I don't have anything to do with the content (it's run by a different author), but I liked her first article.
A picture for the day:
My very first blog experience ever was as a quotation and subsequent commenter on Hackenstar's page, back in the days when I barely knew what blogs were. I had just graduated from college, I was a bit bored, I was sending out mass emails by the bucketload, a friend included a link to his blog in a reply email, I stumbled across the world of covblogs, found Hackenstar's domain, read my words in print, determined to get my own space, and the rest, as they say nearly 400 entries and two years later, is history...
Also, just a reminder to read my new article on Philip Glass and Ravi Shankar's album Passages. I've also written a (very) brief discussion on Kubrick, Classical Music, and Film that I would love any two cents on. I thought about reposting over here, but then realized that would take traffic away from Suite101. And much as I love discussing stuff in covblog land, I need to get paid sometime in life. :)
Recently I was hired as the Classical Music Writer for Suite101. Since I get paid by the hit, I encourage everyone to visit the classical music section of the site and click on my articles. Feedback would be appreciated, too: both "Sarah, that article was extremely interesting. I can't WAIT for your next article!!!" and "Sarah, that was totally off-base. Where did you get your education?!" alike will be helpful.
Pass the word along: Tell your friends. Tell your relatives. Tell your dog (if he has internet access).
Thanks all!
