Sitzfleisch

Here is a dialogue-journal assignment for my students. I thought some blog-readers would enjoy it.

Sitzen - (German) - verb infinitive, to sit
(das) Fleisch - (German) - noun, meat

Why are we talking about "sitting meat?"

Sitzfleisch is probably originally a Yiddish term, but makes sense in German. It is technically now even an English word, according to the Oxford English Dictionary.

It literally means "the meat on your butt." And I bring it up today because - it is at this point in the semester - where things get hard. If you don't show up every day and do the work, and organize your practice time, you will not have the proper amount of Sitzfleisch.

Why is a pianist telling singers to sit?

First of all, some of your music really needs to be plunked, sat about, and-or thought about, at a keyboard. And all of it could use seated-focused-at-the-keyboard work.

Here is a photo (I've heard they are worth a thousand words) of my activity this past week in Germany. You can see me on the right, playing the accompaniment. Why I love this picture so much is that is shows my beloved colleague, Tara, at the opposite keyboard, playing HER part.

In the photo, we are working on four arias, two of which we premiered last Friday. These were written by her husband. (These will be performed twice in Albuquerque in November).

These pieces are challenging for both pianist and singer. Rhythmically tricky. Sometimes the accompaniment does not generate the pitches for the vocalist. The texts are in several different languages. And not to mention - having the composer in rehearsals means that there "is no hiding."


- Posted en route

Location:Wilshire Ave NE,Albuquerque,United States

Finding a lost bag (a satire)

An American woman goes to Europe. In the process of returning home, the airline loses her checked bag.

The following responses are the real-or-hypothetical anecdotes or literal translations of how an airport and its employees, within several different countries, would handle this. 

Translations are literal and word-for-word. Some are hypothetical but they are to the point. 

GERMANY: Please wait here. Please to go Ticket Counter, for they the money handle. Nein. Wait here please. Nein. Please go to this office. Nein. Welcome to the Lost and Found. Let's fill a claim out. You had a claim yesterday done? Nein. Please go upstairs to Hall B, through miles of people and shops go (and we are still waiting). 

FRANCE: Please excuse my cigarette smoke, but have a croissant while you wait. 

ITALY: (By the way - no line - just a big mob of people). We will charm the pants off of you but will only pretend to be able to find anything. You might as well kiss your belongings goodbye. In the meantime, this incredibly handsome and well-dressed gentleman will serve you an espresso and take you to visit the Prada store. 

SWITZERLAND: Please have some chocolate while you wait. Someone will be with you in 2 minutes and 3 seconds. (And they will appear exactly as scheduled). 

HUNGARY: You lostòk your baggagunk?  Ö!! Küngetalak jestzoò zarvà rössz. 

(The bag has been located and will hopefully be returned without problems and with my husband's gift inside.)

 

 

 

PHOTO: My "goodbye" to Europe on this trip.  I had a short lay-over in Frankfurt which ended up becoming a baggage scavenger hunt. The bag did eventually make it back to Albuquerque - one day after I did. Which meant I didn't have to lug it through customs - actually, a true blessing. And my husband's paprika and pálinka were inside.

Preparation

I have thought so long that a piano should be, simultaneously, the substition and simulation of an entire orchestra. Organists might trump this in some ways, but pianists have a wide dynamic range through physical interaction with the keyboard. 

Twentieth-century composers became curious about color possibilities when a performer was asked to treat the strings with various things, therefore altering the sounds. John Cage asked performers to put nails, forks, tacks, felt, and various other objects in or on the strings. It would create colors closer to a gamelan, Indian drums, or an entire percussion section rather than a keyboard. 

Three of the pieces which I played recently in Germany called for "prepared piano." The composer will put some sort of key or legend in the music before the actual music begins. He or she will lay out a "map" of which notes to treat with which materials. One of the pieces called for some keys to be taped to the fallboard. Another piece asked for notes to be muted (and-or producing overtones) with some sort of putty. The putty in particular was easy because it was able to be removed quickly and re-used. 

I had not done a lot of music like this before initiating the "Albuquerque meets Darmstadt" project. Now, all of the sudden, I was immersed in the possibilities of color which the composers required. 

PHOTO: The inside of the piano while I was practicing "Pulstastung," a multi-movement work by my friend, UNM colleague, and amazing Darmstadt host, Dr. Karola Obermüller. 

Here is a further explanation from the "Prepared Piano" article on Wikipedia. Here is the link if you are interested - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prepared_piano

Although theoretically any object could be used to prepare a piano, in practical application preparation objects are usually expected to have certain characteristics:

• They are applied directly to the piano strings.
• They must fit in the desired location inside the piano.
• They (usually) should not move from their location during playing.
• They must be reversible (that is, when a properly prepared piano has been "unprepared", it should be impossible for anyone to tell that it had been ever been prepared; no permanent damage is done to the piano).

Additionally, most preparations will change the timbre of the string in such a way that the original pitch of the string will no longer be perceptible, though there are occasional exceptions to this.^[1]