The occasions' sound of mirth puts cap on the start of another yuletide song (8)

New Music Boxes: Wring Out the Old. A musical cryptic crossword for year's end.
NewMusicBox, December 23, 2014.

Sinners, reconciled

arr. Guerrieri: The Wexford Carol (PDF, 99Kb)



Happy holidays from everyone at Soho the Dog HQ! Here's a carol arrangement to cleanse your aural palate in between walls of indiscriminate seasonal noise. Honestly, this has been one of those years when I think Christmas might be better off as, say, a quadrennial affair, like the World Cup. You know how the World Cup comes along, and people with no previous interest in the sport are straightaway really into it, to an unprecedented degree? Imagine if you could pull that off with platitudinous Christmas sentiments. ("Peace on earth? Goodwill to all? I suddenly find these notions INTRIGUINGLY COMPELLING" *strokes chin as eyes widen and flash*) Comfort and/or joy to everyone out there.

BONUS STOCKING STUFFER

"Hark! the Herald Angels Sing" (descant and harmonization by me, 2014) (PDF, 57 Kb)
The same thing in a lower key (PDF, 57 Kb)



A characteristically nutty descant I wrote for an otherwise beloved carol. I like my angels heralding in screaming bright G major, but that might be just a bit high for the end of a full lessons-and-carols service, and a half-century of Presbyterian hymnals have insisted on F, so take your pick.

In the flesh

Reviewing Schola Cantorum Boston.
Boston Globe, December 16, 2014.

You belong with

This Year's Model (or, That's What They Don't See). On In C, Taylor Swift, Heinrich Heine, Nazarene painters, Duke Ellington, and the canon.
NewMusicBox, December 12, 2014.

Universal adapter

Reviewing Charles Rosen, The Complete Columbia and Epic Album Collection.
Boston Globe, December 7, 2014.

Arrival gate

Boston: Passports and Layovers. Reviewing the Lorelei Ensemble and Roomful of Teeth.
NewMusicBox, December 5, 2014.

Something borrowed, something blue

Reviewing Odyssey Opera.
Boston Globe, November 24, 2014.

Squeeze theorem

Reviewing an evening with Michael Pisaro.
Boston Globe, November 13, 2014.

Organic fruit

Reviewing the Cantata Singers and Ensemble.
Boston Globe, November 11, 2014.

Reflecting telescope

Reviewing Richard Goode.
Boston Globe, November 4, 2014.

Back issues

I haven't updated this space for several months now, for a lot of reasons. I've been writing elsewhere. I've been trying to compose. I've been out of town. I've been....

Eh, who am I kidding? This is why I haven't been updating:

Which is not to say I haven't been working, though. So, in a bout of real-work avoidance, I've at least gone back and filled in a bunch of links from the interregnum—Boston Globe reviews, NewMusicBox articles, other appearances here and there. I've also compiled a master list of all the "Score" columns I've written for the Globe over the past couple years. (Links to that list and my NewMusicBox articles are now in the sidebar, too.) Critic-at-Large Moe (pictured above, on left) would like you to know that he, too, has not been idle.

Anyway, a drink. This one is named in honor of Henri Poincaré, since I was reading a biography of him, and full of grapefruit, because I love grapefruit.

3-Sphere

First, make some grapefruit-infused gin: add the peel (no pith) and juice of one grapefruit to 500ml of gin, let it steep for a week, then strain it through a coffee filter.

Then, combine:

2 oz. grapefruit-infused gin
1 oz. grapefruit juice
½ oz. Cocchi Americano
a couple dashes of grapefruit bitters

Stir with cracked ice and strain into the closest thing you have to a non-Euclidean glass.

XL Tall

Reviewing Dinosaur Annex.
Boston Globe, October 27, 2014.

Reverb and chorus

Boston: A Fight for Love and Glory—Pipeline! at 25. Reviewing Crazy Alice, Quintaine Americana, Kudgel, Birdsongs of the Mesozoic, and Bulkhead.
NewMusicBox, October 16, 2014.

Δισσος μυθος

Sounds Heard: Christian Wolff, Pianist: Pieces.
NewMusicBox, October 14, 2014.

Chic and unique with lots of kick like a cleat

Reviewing Mark Padmore and Jonathan Biss.
Boston Globe, October 14, 2014.

Diplomatic passage

An interview with David Grubbs.
Boston Globe, October 9, 2014.

Blink comparator

Reviewing Stefan Jackiw and Anna Polonsky.
Boston Globe, October 7, 2014.

Dress for success

Reviewing the Parker Quartet.
Boston Globe, October 2, 2014.

Makers' Mark

For Guerilla Opera, every production is a premiere.
Boston Globe, September 20, 2014.

Afterimage

Reviewing the Eroica Trio.
Boston Globe, September 16, 2014.