Well, dear readers, I am sitting here like so much fish, listening to some very attractive music by a Japanese composer named Hisato Ohzawa, his first symphony from 1934. The music is more American sounding that Japanese sounding and that’s probably because he moved to the United States to study composition with Frederick Converse and Carl McKinley in Boston. All his early works were written there, including this symphony. He also studied with Arnold Schoenberg. And yet his musical voice is his own. He was also the first Japanese musician to conduct the Boston Symphony Orchestra. He moved back to Japan in 1936. He died young at 46, leaving behind only the title page for what was to have been his fourth symphony. This and one other symphony is on the Tube of You if you feel like hearing this delightful music. Naxos recorded two discs of his music, which includes all three symphonies. A fun discovery and I’m all about fun discoveries. The one caveat, as with more than a few Naxos discs is that the Russian Orchestra (live recording) isn’t really up to playing this well enough. Now playing is his second symphony, which is also very enjoyable. Earlier in the evening I made every effort to watch Jaws 3 but it’s so bad I shut it off after thirty minutes. Dennis Quaid, its leading man, has admitted he was whacked out on cocaine for the entire shoot – he says there’s not a single moment when he’s onscreen when he’s not high as high can be. And Jaws: The Revenge is every bit as bad. They should never have made any of the sequels, but greed will supersede common sense. So, I just watched some irritating YouTube videos, and then listened to some music I’d grabbed from there, including the current listening pleasure. Earlier, I got about six hours of sleep, got up, answered e-mails, and then did the thing I had to do and while I wish it had worked out slightly better than it did, it was still fine and made Friday a my day. Once that was done, I made got some fresh bagels and made two tuna sandwiches and ate them – very good, very filling. Then the helper came over and got the books for shipping and they all shipped out yesterday afternoon. Then I moseyed on over to the mail place and picked up an Amazon package of necessities – socks (twelve pairs in one reasonably priced package), new toothbrushes, more toothpaste, and trio of twelve-pack disposable razors. Only there was only one of the three packs in the box. So, when I got home, I put in for a return and they’ll now hopefully ship the correct item. Interestingly, the one pack that they sent had a big red sticker on it that said, NOT TO BE SOLD SEPARATELY. Hopefully, the right item will arrive soon. Actually, I just checked and it’s supposedly coming today. Later, in the early evening, I had a bagel with cream cheese for my evening snack. I have a couple of bagels left if I want them today at some point. And that was about it and here we are.
Today, I’ll be up when I’m up, I’ll start figuring out a show order even though one of our cast members hasn’t given me his list of songs he’d like to do – I’m letting him do stuff he knows as he doesn’t have time to learn anything new. So, I can’t completely figure it out, but I can just insert him twice into the order and then decide which song will go best where. I’ll eat something, I’ll do whatever needs doing, and then I can watch, listen, and relax.
Tomorrow and Monday will be spent doing things, and then the rest of the week is finalizing show order, rehearsal schedule, and getting the commentary done, along with some meetings and meals.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up when I’m up, start to figure out the show order, eat, pick up the package from the mail place and bring in the return, and then watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What were your most important musical discoveries and when did they occur and under what circumstances? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, always happy to have had a Friday that was my day and to make another happy musical discovery.