Identifying Complex Meters

Rules of the process of identifying complex meters (e.g.Middle Eastern music). First step: identifying the level of counting, which can be misleading.If one level doesn't work well, often moving to the next level is a must. Sometimes both levels can work. What are the rules that govern this perception? What are the cues implicitly used in identifying meter?

Minimalism

Minimalist music employs the minimum number of musical elements and builds up the whole piece using the very limited inventory. It is often said that what's interesting here is that what appears to be repetitive actually sounds very different every time you listen. I don't see that. I think it's interesting to manipulate a small amount of parameters to shift very gradually in a low rate. It's kind of like a linguistic continuum:Before you realize it its already so different that you cannot recognize it.

It would be very intriguing to look at the semantic/emotional response out of the minimalist music. It's not cyclical in the sense of gamelan; when I listen to this I think it has the power to freeze my mind, like I'm thinking deeply into something or a memory. When I'm in this state of mind I might also produce such music.What is the link here?

Another point we recently talked about often is that there are so many parameters in music that can actually play a role in the perception of the semantics of the music--or emotional response. No one parameter (such as pitch in major and minor) can do all the trick. The rich relationship here is worth exploring.

The Sittaford Mystery

Having gone through all my other Christie collections, such as Destination Unknown;White Horse Hotel; The Murder of Roger Ackroyd; The Body in the Library; The ABC Murders; Partner in Crime; Murder on the Oriental Express; Murder in Mesopotamia; Dumb Witness;Murder under the Sun; Death on the Nile, and so on, I'm not so pleased with the ending of Sittaford. The process of solving the case was very good; Emily and Mr.Enderby was lively portrayed; but the whole table turning business and especially Major Burnaby's motive is not very convincing.

Dinosaur and Human

Today I saw two different relevant information on the history of the earth. One is a book on the origin of language and music, the other saying that "it's official" that the cause of dinosaur's extinction is the asteroid. I felt two things: one, the dinosaur lived on earth for 160million years before it happened;and they were considered one of the dominant species on the planet. Our human have only a few thousand years of recorded history and we sometimes think that we know everything and we are so great. It's way too short, and there is no reason that we should be thinking we're doing good or we're going to do good for long. Second, the whole business of prehistory is hard. I would like to know how evolutionary linguists I read today made this endeavor from speculation to hard science. The dinosaur is the same. Human is too small in the universe and even in the history of earth it is not worth mentioning yet. The future is uncertain. Somehow I have always felt, like Einstein's example of a two dimension cow trying to understand the three dimension world, there is something that human is not capable of understanding. It is simply beyond our understanding because of the scale--we are too small. This includes whether god exists. Don't ever be arrogant; don't think you are sure that you know everything. It's not possible.

Do dreams mean?

Dreaming is a big part of my life---although lucid dreaming is hardly possible for me so far. Yesterday I dreamed i was bathing, a rather uncommon theme in my dream. Then I realized why ancient Chinese people trying to use dreams to predict the future luck---it's all about chances. Most dreams if we do remember, are insignificant---just a reflection of your daily or remote (but deep) experiences. But dreams with a low frequency of appearing is precious. What does that mean then? what is the significance of this uncommon happening? There you go.

I sometimes think that Chinese philosophy has a different way of seeing things. Fengshui is one thing. When one is stuck in some state of mind, rather like "possessed" sometimes than some more scientific terms, but it's kind of cool to think of it in terms of being possessed and fengshui and all that. Sometimes people simply cannot control themselves even on their own behavior, thus came the idea of being controlled temporarily by someone else, some mystical power. It's true that we sometimes don't understand why we cannot control even our own behavior even though we think we can.

It happened to turn out that dreaming of bathing is a very good sign, meaning either healthy or lucky/happy, so I'm glad about it and rather believe it.:)

10 MOST INTRIGUING MUSICOLOGICAL RESEARCH QUESTIONS:6

6.Music Preference

Recently I met a Chinese traditional Zheng player (18 stringed zither), and we happened to talk about musical preference(what type of music you listen to, etc).What struck me is that she strongly identified that she does not like listening to Chinese traditional music in general or Zheng music in particular, but she does enjoy playing Zheng. In other words, she only enjoys Zheng when she plays it but in her leisure time she never ever want to listen to this type of music in any circumstances (unless she has to learn a new piece and wants to hear others' playing). Instead, she likes listening to popular music of China and does that a lot in her free time.

This also struck me because I feel that I have the same kind of feeling. I played Chinese traditional erhu music since i was 9 years old. In the beginning i really liked it and remember listening to it all the time in my free time. But now (or for quite some years) I have came to be just like her, enjoyed playing very much (especially in an ensemble) but never want to listen to it in any other time for any purposes other than learning. I also do not find myself listening to traditional Chinese music at all at my free time when I can choose my own music.

So what is in this paradox? I think it is more than just a matter of musical preference or musical taste and how it discrete when some one actually produces the music and when some one choose to listen to the music. I think it also has to do with ones familiarity to the music. I think I lost my interest in listening probably partly due to the fact that I have came to play and master virtually all repertoire on the instrument and knew every piece in detail. That way it might have deprived the joy of listening to something when you become so conscious about it. I try to think of another example, such as piano music, and I think i do have a tendency to not want to listen to the pieces that I already mastered. I also remember Nikolaj Znjaider saying that violin has been ruined for him--he can never enjoy and appreciate and respect a recording like listening to a pop song that you like.

But if I want to generalize this it might need further study: does that mean, say, if a musician played some standard repertoire in classical music then s/he would never be able to enjoy listening to it other than when s/he plays? And why is that? Does that say something deeper? Why could s/he still enjoy playing it? When does s/he get tired of that?

People say that one of the characters of music is that you can listen to the same piece of music for a thousand times or for decades and still appreciate it and every time you'll find something new. But is that really the case? if so, to what degree?

Time Management for Graduate Students

Why being a graduate student is so busy, that it is possibly even more busy than many others who have a job? Earn less but more busy? That is actually true. The key to this puzzle lies in the fact that a graduate students have to play so many different roles simultaneously. For instance, a graduate student has to take courses (often heavy-load seminars); teach courses; do research on their own; deal with other career-related activities; other activities. Thus, a graduate student in daytime is a student and a teacher (and a researcher). You think you can have your job done by 5 or 6pm, but hello, if your daytime is filled with going to classes and teaching classes, when do you want to do your homework and do your lesson plans and gradings? Night time is the only answer. Plus you have to research and write papers at night time too. Conclusion: there is no way that you can have a regular evening like normal "job" people do no matter how hard you work during day time. Thus, is time management for graduate students possible? (in order to have a regular "relaxing" period?)

After three years of being a grad student, I figured that out(not the solution but the dilemma). I used to blame my time management skills that I could not have regular night times doing whatever I want to do but have to work hard all the time. But now I know it's impossible. Regular people go to job to complete their task; but we go to classes (either take or give) only to be assigned our task; and that is not even the bigger part of the whole task (research!), so how can we not working after hours?

What should I do?