Underground Music — Literally!

NaBloPoMo Day 17!
I lived in New York City for four years, back in the ’90s (that’s in the last century! ). I did a number of things there — worked as 1) a church organist, 2) a research assistant for a music consulting firm, 3) an administrative assistant for a small investment bank (I [...]

Criticism: It Sucks! (part 2)

NaBloPoMo Day 12!
Meeemmmm’ries!

When I was a fresh-faced, eager young grad student in the first term of my Ph.D. composition program, I took a seminar in the Critical Studies division of my university’s music department. (That’s an updated term for an updated type of musicology, btw.) Even though I wasn’t a musicologist myself, I [...]

Alla Breve

NaBloPoMo Day 9!
I have to be content with a placeholder post today, because McDoc and I have planned an impromptu outing this afternoon/evening. Quality time is scarce for medical types, so I have to carpe doctor when I can!
Thoughts are a-brewin’ about musical academia and its malcontents — a topic which I know [...]

Piccolo’s Collected Works, vol. 1!

NaBloPoMo Day 5! (Happy Cinco de Mayo! )
It probably won’t come as a surprise that I have a musical cat. His name is Piccolo, after all, and he was raised in a musical household. I knew someone once who claimed that she could not practice her guitar or recorder because her kitties couldn’t tolerate [...]

The Fascinating Life of a Music Copyist, Part 4

Thus far we’ve concerned ourselves with the preparation of a pretty score, a thing of beauty that will be a joy forever, suitable for publication as a coffee-table book, not to mention indispensable to the conductor. Now, what about the people who really matter, the lifeblood, heart and soul, and worker bees of the orchestra [...]

The Fascinating Life of a Music Copyist, Part 3

Trouble in Paradise…
Even for a perfectionist/OCD type like me, the extent of the tinkering involved in moving a score toward the desired ideal of music-visual beauty can be daunting. (Funny to think that there really is a visual aspect to music, innit?) Fasten your seatbelts — here are some examples from my adventures in music [...]

Clefs of Speed

We interrupt this informative series about the production of a purty music score for the following fight-to-the-death pay-per-view event!
Okay, you smart alecks out there. It’s a treble clef throw down!
Well, not exactly. I’m not actually challenging anyone to a clef-drawing competition, but since two of you commented on my comment about my treble-clef short-cut method, [...]

The Fascinating Life of a Music Copyist, Part 2

In case you missed it, here’s Part 1!
I was actually pretty far ahead of the game when it came time to prepare my score, because I had been composing more or less straight into Finale all along. I used to compose on paper 100% and enter the music into the computer when I was [...]

The Fascinating Life of a Music Copyist, Part 1

I’m back! I’ve sent off my score to the San Diego Chamber Orchestra! And in a few weeks I fly out to California to attend the rehearsals and première. Onward and upward, woo hoo!
By popular request (the populace consisting of McDoc), I’m going to write about how a piece goes from being finished, composing-wise, to [...]

Welcome!

Greetings, Music Nerds Everywhere!
Welcome to Miss Music Nerd, where classical music is cool and popular music is taken seriously… but not too seriously. As your host, I will bring you observations, tidbits, ramblings and ruminations about many aspects of music. I’ll report on music events that I attend, and I’ll cover musical goings-on that catch [...]