Mozart Effect (not)

I received this in a forward. 20th C music folks would get a laugh out of this:

In case you haven't heard....
A new report now says that the Mozart Effect is a fraud. For you hip urban professionals: no, playing Mozart for your designer baby will not improve his IQ or help him get into that exclusive pre-school. He'll just have to be admitted into Harvard some other way.

Of course, we're all better off for listening to Mozart purely for the pleasure of it. However, one wonders that if playing Mozart sonatas for little Hillary or Jason could boost their intelligence, what would happen if other composers were played in their developmental time?

LISZT EFFECT: Child speaks rapidly and extravagantly, but never really says anything important.

RAFF EFFECT: Child becomes a bore.

BRUCKNER EFFECT: Child speaks very slowly and repeats himself frequently. Gains reputation for profundity.

WAGNER EFFECT: Child becomes a megalomaniac. May eventually marry his sister.

MAHLER EFFECT: Child continually screams - at great length and volume - that he's dying.

SCHOENBERG EFFECT: Child never repeats a word until he's used all the other words in his vocabulary. Sometimes talks backwards. Eventually, people stop listening to him. Child blames them for their inability to understand him.

BABBITT EFFECT: Child gibbers nonsense all the time. Eventually, people stop listening to him. Child doesn't care because all his playmates think he's cool.

IVES EFFECT: Child develops a remarkable ability to carry on several separate conversations at once.

GLASS EFFECT: Child tends to repeat himself over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over....

STRAVINSKY EFFECT: Child is prone to savage, guttural and profane outbursts that often lead to fighting and pandemonium in the preschool.

BRAHMS EFFECT: Child is able to speak beautifully as long as his sentences contain a multiple of three words (3, 6, 9, 12, etc). However, his sentences containing 4 or 8 words are strangely uninspired.

CAGE EFFECT: Child says nothing for 4 minutes and 33 seconds. Preferred by 9 out of 10 classroom teachers.

Of Shopping in China

My visit to China was great. I have a ton of piano music that I need to spend time looking at. I have the collected works of Chen Pei-Xun and Li Yinghai. I also managed to buy some anthologies of piano music by contemporary Chinese composers. I found all this in Guangdong and I'm sure the music shop was very happy with me as I made a $500 purchase. Considering that USD $1= 8 Chinese yuan, I didn't feel too bad about my shopping spree.

Also I realized that CDs are way cheaper there and they are the same artists & recordings. I did make sure they were licensed copies as I didn't want to get into trouble here. I own CDs of Lang Lang, Yundi Li and Yoyo Ma plus some other artists. I was particularly interested in the crossover genre. The CD of 12 Girls has garnered quite a bit of attention in Japan. These young ladies play Western music on Chinese instruments. Interesting sounds and I particularly liked the theme from Riverdance.

Unfortunately, I couldn't feed my love of clothes. I found out that most everything was a little too small. Most clothing here in the USA is too big for me. It is rather ironic that I couldn't find much in China where I'm pushing the average size. Win some lose some.

Accompanist Frustrations

I didn't think I would return to accompanying. Yes, my graduate assistantship is in accompanying. I haven't decided whether I just dislike it or hate it. After not sightreading for a couple years, my skills are pretty rusty. I think that would only improve with time. I'm glad that my technique has certainly grown over the past three years. I'm not sure that I'm as confident an accompanist as I am as a soloist.

A couple of things to ponder have crept up. It is hard to collaborate with other musicians whose level of skill and musicianship do not match yours. Either you are better than they are or worse than they are. Singers have very little idea that the piano accompaniments can be much harder than their parts and therefore need more time to perfect. I have had students throw me their oratorio accompaniments and expect me to be ready for their lessons in a week. I guess it is only important if they can sing it. I could sing it in one week too since I did take voice lessons for three years.

However, on the other hand I do have students that are just starting their musical journey of rhythms and notes. I do not mind coaching and teaching those but most of them refuse to be corrected. I guess I have to keep covering their mistakes or risk being called incompetent and unable to follow a singer.

I think I heard this saying in a class here: "Lead, Follow or Get Out of the Way!" I do have singers who can't or refuse to lead and put the blame on me. Had someone yell at me for not following her. I have not had much patience with students like her, all I say is, "then you have to lead better".

In short, I'd rather teach!