Sarah Wallin Huff

V.T.C.M.A. 13

Sarah — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 06:44:07 +0000

It’s our favorite lab-tech Beaker! Beaker meets Beethoven…

Thoughts on ‘Threnody’

Sarah — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 07:59:19 +0000

I recently received a lovely email from a student in Canterbury, UK:

I’m conducting some research on Penderecki and his use of “emotive” titles for some of his works, taking Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima as a key example…I’m particularly interested to know exactly when Penderecki changed the title of this work and why, so any further pointers would be really helpful…

I learned some interesting factoids in my bit o’ research for my response, and I thought it prudent to add it as a side note to my original Threnody… outline. Here’s what I found out (and how I responded):

(...)
Read the rest of Thoughts on ‘Threnody’ (1,090 words)

New and Updated: Essays and Study Outlines

Sarah — Thu, 21 May 2009 07:40:28 +0000

Be sure to check out my newly updated Additional Reading page!! Now featuring the essay RAVEL’S DAPHNIS ET CHLOÉ: A Miracle in the Making, and 6 Study Outlines on composers, their lives, and specific featured works, including:

Lully
Boccherini
Hindemith
Messiaen
Penderecki
Ravel

I have one more essay (of which I am VERY proud) – an in-depth study on Leonard Bernstein’s Second Symphony Age of Anxiety - and several more outlines on various works by Bernstein and Aaron Copland. Look for those to come soon! In the meantime, I hope that these additions will be of some use to others in their ongoing search for knowledge…

Real Women, Real Stories, Real Inspiration

Sarah — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 06:47:23 +0000

This is more of a plug for my other wonderful and successful business… but this new video the Mary Kay company came out with to promote the Great Start promotion (as its April 30th deadline fast approaches) is great! I just had to share… And, yes, these are real ladies, with real testimonials, who wanted more for their lives and found it with their own Mary Kay business. Let me know what you think!

Update: Wow, check out more personal stories and official news reports on Mary Kay businesses in America here!!

We’ve Moved!!!

Sarah — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 17:30:10 +0000

James and I just recently moved into our first and brand NEW house!!

We’re in the lovely and developing city of Rialto, right next door to Fontana. We were able to pick out our countertops, our cabinets, our flooring… we got front and back landscaping and all appliances… we have a teaching studio/.music room right by the front door and a large open living area, 4 bedrooms and 2.5 bath, two stories… just Beautiful!!

Thank you Jesus, family who helped us out, music-teaching and Mary Kay! Hee hee!!!

My Latest Work!

Sarah — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 10:05:20 +0000

Recall this post from way back in January of 2008?! My golly, I’ve been working on this project for so long, but it is so worth it! Yes, I am talking about the glorious completion of my Masters Thesis composition: Leviathan of the Ancient Deep! It’s been a long and stressful road (it’s difficult to twist and/or defend your original ideas when creating a work for academia and the expectations inherent within such a structure…), but I’ve learned so much, and now, I have a work of which I am extremely proud!

It is approximately 25 minutes long, and three movements:

I. Seekers of the Legend There go the ships: [there] is that Leviathan, [whom] thou hast made to play therein.
II. Sighting Canst thou draw out Leviathan with an hook?… None is so fierce that dare stir him up… Upon earth there is not his like, who is made without fear… He is a king over all the children of pride.
III. The Hunt In that day the LORD with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish Leviathan…that crooked serpent; and he shall slay the dragon that [is] in the sea.

You can read the program notes here!

And I did manage to record this with some of my friends, though I admit, all did not go as I had hoped, but went very well within the circumstances handed to us. I was so consumed with finishing the orchestra’s parts – right up until the first day of our meeting together, and in fact I had begun to wonder if there would really be a third movement at all! – that I had had NO time at all to practice my own solo part, which, I’ve discovered, is very difficult, albeit extremely FUN to play!! I wished I had had three months to hash it out and come up with reliable fingerings. But, no, I sight-read it! Not bad anyway, not great either…

The poor orchestra as well only had a week to throw this together. We met once to read through it and returned a week later to record. But you know what, these musicians are fabulous people, because they were all willing to do this entirely for free – either because they like me, or because they were just so curious about the strange instrumentation of electronic and acoustic instruments in a “classical” concerto. Or maybe both, one can hope.

So, it was quite an experience! I received so many wonderful compliments from those who’ve heard and played it! (One fellow even mentioned something to the effect of “work of this caliber is not often revealed the first time around, as it is here”… Wow!) However, because of our time and financial restraints (I didn’t want to abuse their gracious generosity!), this whole endeavor has only left me wanting more. Wanting to hear this work in reality the way I’ve heard it in my head. I’ve gotten a taste of it (all that was necessary for the faculty to get the idea behind my writing it), but I can’t wait for the opportunity to come along for it to be taken on by a “real” group, with many rehearsals, and me listening from the outside to make objective observations about it… And to have it displayed in a fine and carefully thought-out performance so that more can experience it!

And with all that said, you can hear a brief snippet from each movement here… Enjoy! And feel free to let me know what you think!

Catching up a Bit…

Sarah — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 09:41:03 +0000

(…been lacking on the Regular Blogging Hygene end of my internet life…) :p

Well…

I am ashamed to see how few and far between my posts have become, and I thank you so much for your patience! My life has just been blossoming with opportunities (and obligations, too)… and I’ve gone through several MAJOR milestones just within these past 6 months, including marriage, some difficult changes in family relations, unexplicable and sudden death of my father at Christmastime , starting a new and second entrepreneurial business (in addition to my regular load of musicking), surviving my final school requirements and thus graduating with my Masters degree (yay!!), and buying a new home (we’re moving next week, on Friday the 13th!!!). In fact, several of my student-parents are wondering why I’m still working at all right now… hee hee hee… I’m looking forward to things settling down a bit – or at least balancing itself out.

Anyway, so I have explained myself, I hope. I feel better now… And now, for the latest news…

V.T.C.M.A. 12

Sarah — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 07:23:28 +0000

Yeah, yeah, I bet EVERYBODY’s blogged this one… But I just gotta get on that bandwagon, too!

Of course, I’m talking about John Williams‘ Air and Simple Gifts composed for and performed at Obama’s inaguration yesterday. The musicians? The venerable Anthony McGill on clarinet, Itzhak Perlman on violin, Yo-Yo Ma on cello (who was also asked by the inauguration committee to organize the performance), and Gabriela Montero on piano.

It’s a beautiful piece, no doubt – the instrumentation reminding me (and lots of others) of Messiaen’s Quatuor pour la fin du temps, of course, and then my mind instantly turning to Copland’s Appalachian Spring with the entrance of Simple Gifts in the clarinet. Which, it turns out, was done intentionally; and here I thought I was being clever.

Williams quotes that passage almost verbatim, and goes on to put the hymn tune through a very Coplandesque treatment before bringing the mood back down to earth with the opening material.

Although Williams chose to use the Copland material because President Obama counts that composer among his classical favorites, there’s another significant point here. In 1953, a pre-inaugural concert by the National Symphony Orchestra at Constitution Hall, a concert attended by then president-elect Eisenhower, was to have included a performance of one of Copland’s most popular works, A Lincoln Portrait. But a Republican congressman (from Illinois, by the way) objected, suggesting that Copland was too liberal and maybe even Communist-friendly, so the piece was pulled from the concert. Inserting the touch of Copland into the Obama inauguration, Williams told Variety last week, offers “a completed circle of events that is nice to think about.”

-Tim Smith (Baltimore Sun)

Without further ado, here is the video, and, if that’s not enough, you may download the mp3 file here!

V.T.C.M.A. 11

Sarah — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 05:17:54 +0000

Check it out! The rest of Larry Enriquez’s newest music videos are up on YouTube! Here are just a few of my fav’s (with nice closeups, too!)…

“Fill the Valleys”

“Worthy is the Lamb”

“God of Wonders”

Join the First Online Orchestra!

Sarah — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 06:17:30 +0000

“Join the world’s first collaborative online orchestra.

We invite musicians from around the world to audition for the YouTube Symphony Orchestra. Your video entries will be combined into the first ever collaborative virtual performance, and the world will select the best of you to perform at New York City’s Carnegie Hall in April 2009.

…Professionals and amateur musicians of all ages, locations and instruments are welcome to audition for the YouTube Symphony Orchestra by submitting a video performance of a new piece written for the occasion by the renowned Chinese composer Tan Dun (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon). We have tools to help you learn the music, rehearse with the conductor, and upload your part for the collaborative video.

And how do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice and upload. Send us your talent video performance from a list of recommended pieces. Finalists will be chosen by a judging panel and YouTube users to travel to New York in April 2009, to participate in the YouTube Symphony Orchestra summit, and play at Carnegie Hall under the direction of Michael Tilson Thomas.

The deadline for all video submissions is January 28, 2009.”

-YouTube Symphony Orchestra

Violinists! Check out, too, the LSO Violin Masterclass created as an aid in preparing for this experience!

All instruments are welcome to play in the YouTube Symphony – there is even a “conversion chart” available for more traditionally uncommon instruments such as Sitar and Duduk!

I’ve already downloaded my part. How about you? See you online and at Carnegie Hall!!