New degree?

Just add this to the list of fields I might end up in, along with flute performance and medieval music: ethnomusicology with a concentration in linguistics.

Zee particular program that has caught my eye.

I've been tossing around the idea of going back to school since before I got out of it the first time around (anyone read this blog my senior year? haha). For a time after I started working, I thought that perhaps I might be content to go my way in the corporate world, making money, making music, and just kind of living the usual existence of 20-somethings. A year later, though, the bug hasn't left, and conversations with friends of late have left me itching even more to return to academia. The goal now is to be back by fall of '09. I'd prefer fall of '08, but if I go into a performance-oriented field, I want that extra year to get ready for auditions.

Ethnomusicology has found its way into the mix because of my interest in American and Irish folk music. Thinking back, this really isn't a new development, per se, because these traditions have been a conscious undercurrent in my musicanship for the past five or six years, and I was introduced to at least American folk by my father when I was really young. (I guess things like that really do stick sometimes!)

I'm just generally fascinated by music, and I really would love to teach and share that with other people. So we shall see where this new curve in the path leads...

We now return you to your regularly scheduled copyediting.

Geekness

You might be a writing geek if you get really excited when one of the managing editors gifts you with a copy of the in-house style guide.

My morning is off to an awesome start. :)

Wild desire

I have a wild, inexplicable desire to hop a train to Chicago so that I can be at St. John Cantius this evening for the profession of vows and Palestrina's Assumpta est Maria Mass. I wonder how much a last-minute round trip ticket would be.

The Lonesome Touch

The quote below is from the liner notes to Martin Hayes and Dennis Cahill's album entitledThe Lonesome Touch. Here, Hayes explains what exactly "the lonesome touch" is. I think it's something all musicians aspire to, but I've never seen it put so succinctly and articulately before.

The Lonesome Touch is a phrase I have heard in my native County Clare all my life. It is used to describe a person's music. It is the intangible aspect of music that is both elusive and essential. The word lonesome expresses a sadness, a blue note, a sour note. Even though the music bares the trace of struggle and of pain, it is also the means of uplift, transcendence to joy and celebration. The lonesome touch is something that is difficult to achieve. One is forced to put the requirements of the music before all personal considerations, to play honestly from the heart with no motive other than the selfless expression of joy and beauty for their own sake. For the most part it remains the unobtainable horizon, the object of inspiration and motivation.

Linkage

Thanks to Sober Sophomore for pointing me to this page: Paternoster. The (rather-dormant of late, unfortunately) rosary-making geek in me is grinning stupidly.

Books

I finally decided that I was tired of 1) my room being ridiculous barren and 2) having all of my books buried in my closet in a variety of boxes. I feel better when I'm surrounded by books. They are comforting on some level, maybe because I can't remember a time in my life when my living space wasn't overflowing with them. They are welcoming and familiar.

Here, for your viewing pleasure, is the result of this afternoon's endeavor.

On Being Catholic

Mine are the heavens and mine is the earth; mine are the people, the righteous are mine and mine are the sinner. The angels are mine and the Mother of God, and all things are mine, and God himself is mine and for me, for Christ is mine and all for me. What, then, dost thou ask for and seek my soul? Thine is all this, and it is all for thee. ~St. John of the Cross

For the woman who wants one simple thing out of life (absolutely everything), this rings true on so many levels.

Stolen from a friend

Because that's about all I do lately. This was in a friend's profile, and I wanted to share.


"We have to accept the fact that love weaves itself into our fate. If fate does not split the love, people win their victory, But nothing else besides -- and nothing above, either. These are the limits of man. Love is a constant challenge, thrown to us by God, Thrown, I think, so that we should challenge fate."
-- The Jeweler's Shop