Posterous theme by Cory Watilo

andrewleahey.org


my corridor of disturbance

Music for a Cool Summer Evening

1875 was a fruitful year for Dvořák's composing. This was the same year that he wrote his Symphony No. 5, String Quintet No. 2, Piano Trio No. 1, the opera Vanda, and the Moravian Duets. These were happy times in his life. His marriage was young, and his first son had been born. For the first time in his life, he was starting to be recognized as a composer, and was able to live stably without fear of poverty. He received a generous stipend from a commission in Vienna, which allowed him to compose his Fifth Symphony and several chamber works as well as the Serenade.

Allegedly, Dvořák wrote the Serenade in just 12 days, from 3–14 May. The piece was premiered in Prague on 10 December 1876 by Adolf Čech and the combined orchestras of the Czech and German theatres. It was published in 1877 in the composer's piano duet arrangement by Emanuel Starý in Prague. The score was printed two years later by Bote and Bock, Berlin.

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The second movement, a waltz, opens with a lilting dance melody in C-sharp minor. The first section repeats, and the second section begins in E major. A string of eighth notes in the violins transitions into the second theme, also in E major. The first theme returns, and Part A is closed with a cadential fortissimo C-sharp minor chord.

Part B opens with a modulation into the enharmonic parallel major of C-sharp minor, D-flat major. The theme of this section is developed, and then Part A returns. The movement ends on a C-sharp major chord.

(from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serenade_for_Strings_(Dvo%C5%99%C3%A1k)

 

A Hummingbird's Beak

Finally managed to capture a couple of up-close and personal shots of the female Ruby-Throated Hummingbird that has been visiting my feeder for the last few seasons. The camera is a Birdcam 2.0 on a tripod with a 2 gig Eye-Fi card dumping the photos in to Picasaweb. The hummingbird nectar is homemade, and essentially just sugar water. In one of the shots you can see the metallic green coloration on its back, which is characteristic of that species. 

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Signs Something Terrible Has Happened

You're a woman in police precinct, wearing the well-meaning but ineffectual deputy's coat.

For any reason other than employment, you are in a mall at night.

You have discovered that you can hold your entire body weight on just the tips of your fingers...and that you can endure having the tips of your fingers stepped on by a boot. 

You're standing behind a door, pressing your ear against it straining to hear.

You're a woman running down an alley, holding one shoe, and limping.

The wind is slamming the shutters of your house open and shut.

You have any idea what the undercarriage of your car looks like. 

Anyone is going outside to investigate any noise, strange light, or to look for someone. 

You're in the local library, looking at microfiche newspaper articles about the murder/disappearance/cannibalization in your sleepy town. They happened 20 years ago. 20 years ago today. 

Anyone anywhere near you is tearing a sleeve off of a shirt, or ripping a blouse in to strips of fabric. 

A cop has assured you he won't let anything happen to you. Bonus points if the captain told him not to let you out of his sight. 

You've picked up the phone, found no dial tone, and are about to do that furious tapping of the hang-up mechanism thing. Hello? Hello?
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