Happy Birthday to me!

V-J Day, Victory over Japan was August 15th, "the day for mourning of war dead and praying for peace". I did not pay too much attention, but seem to remember that my mother told me that she went to the hospital on that day with what proved to be false labor -- Braxton Hicks contractions. The war in Europe had concluded when Nazi Germany signed its instrument of surrender on May 8, 1945. The Japanese refused to accept the Allies' demands for unconditional surrender and the Pacific War continued. Together with the United Kingdom and China, the United States called for the unconditional surrender of the Japanese armed forces in the Potsdam Declaration on July 26, 1945—the alternative being "prompt and utter destruction". (My much-later-to- be-teacher, Eugene List, famously entertained Truman, Churchill and Stalin at the Potsdam Conference!) On August 6 the U.S. dropped a uranium gun-type atomic bomb (Little Boy) on Hiroshima. American President Harry S. Truman called for Japan's surrender 16 hours later, warning them to "expect a rain of ruin from the air, the like of which has never been seen on this earth." Three days later, on August 9, the U.S. dropped a plutonium implosion-type bomb (Fat Man) on the city of Nagasaki. Within the first two to four months of the bombings, the acute effects of the atomic bombings killed 90,000–146,000 people in Hiroshima and 39,000–80,000 in Nagasaki; roughly half of the deaths in each city occurred on the first day. During the following months, large numbers died from the effect of burns, radiation sickness, and other injuries, compounded by illness and malnutrition. In both cities, most of the dead were civilians, although Hiroshima had a sizable military garrison. On August 15, just days after the bombing of Nagasaki and the Soviet Union's declaration of war, Japan announced its surrender to the Allies. On September 2, it signed the instrument of surrender, effectively ending World War II. The bombings' role in Japan's surrender and their ethical justification are still debated. By September 2nd, I would have celebrated my first fortnight in this weary, war torn world … it’s all ancient history (and continues to fester ... sort of?)

Semantics to the rescue

Semantics to the rescue! Three-score-and-ten looms large in measuring my small existential, blessed plot of the extant, giving rise to inspired flights of fancy as I approach its arrival. It is a certain memory -- reading that the latest thinking is that the blooming of the baby boomers demonstrates two new states of being (Early Old Age and Late Old Age!) – that makes me think back. I remember that as a young music student, I found a certain satisfaction in ‘knowing’ that Beethoven’s creative output could be pigeonholed into either the Early, Middle or Late periods. (for instance Op.1 Pno Trios, Op.2 Pno Sonatas, Op.18 String Quartets – Early, the Op.53 Waldstein and Op.57 Appassionata – Middle, the late quartets, Op 127, 130, 131, 132, 133 and Pno Sonatas Op 109, 110, 111 – Late). As time passed, and other of my own observations interrupted this tidiness, I came to believe that the concept of five periods could be used to organise Beethoven’s unbelievable and difficult to comprehend fecundity/development. I would argue that the big three periods were separated by stretches of experimentation and transition … So … where are we going here? In the direction of tossing out a new concept – assuming that one accepts the idea of Early Old Age and Late Old Age, how about something in between, a transition between the two. (am I channeling Bernie Sanders?) If Middle Old Age (it has a certain ring to it “the Middle Old Ages”?) is created, will that make it easier to ease on down the road into Early Old Age?

Cogito ergo blog

Cogito ergo blog – or – when one’s paterfamilias is in peril one tends to ponder … In 1906, my grandfather was at a conference for missionaries in Shanghai (I have his notebook with expenses), a Pacific Rim sister city to Dunedin, my new home. In 1912 (my parents were 2-year-olds) Fenway Park was built … so, drinking Thai beer out of a souvenir Fenway 2012 mug starts to stir the memory banks of life. How did I get to New Zealand from Watertown, NY? In my first year at Crane School of Music, SUNY Potsdam I was apportioned to a sabbatical replacement teacher, Irene Rosenberg Grau. One of the first triggers for these reminiscences is her departure from this world on May 12th, last month. [GRAU--Dr. Irene Rosenberg, died in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida at 85. A renowned pianist, composer, music professor, and Brooklyn native, she inspired appreciation for artistic expression as the highest form of human endeavour.] Irene was from the big world of music. A student of the venerable Vengerova in New York (with whom she had a famous falling out), Irene was a wunderkind and attended the first Marlboro festival as a student of Serkin with her sister, Sylvia Rosenberg, violinist. (The Marlboro Festival, founded in1951 and the Aspen Festival, 1949, roughly celebrated the centenary of Bach’s death (1750) and Goethe’s birth, 1749.) [Irene pegged it for me, saying to my parents, “I doubt that he would have a career as a solo pianist, but he might be have possibilities as an accompanist”.] Van Cliburn’s passing, visits to NZ at the end of last year by Eastman/Interlochen friends and now Ida Kavafian coming to eNZed and Dunedin trigger even more of the past. Irene had opened my eyes a bit, inspiring me to transfer to the Eastman School of Music. Eugene List, my new teacher there, suggested that I come study in the summer with him at Interlochen. That summer introduced me to the gamut of the wide world of music: phenoms from New York who could play already (David Oei, Alan Marks, Pamelia Paul), the wise elder (Joseph Knitzer, violinist), the sage visiting composer (Zoltan Kodaly), a man in a white suite dashing down the aisle to acclaim (composer Norman Della Joio) and the musical hero of the Cold War, pianist Van Cliburn. (My friend Cary Lewis ‘prepared’ the orchestra for Van by playing the Prokofiev 3rd Concerto. My bit was doing the same with the Brahms D minor.) It was my first brush with such celebrity too, shaking hands with the legend (who thanked me for helping him out … !) The last of this gamut, the wunderkind of the next generation, were the young Kavafians. Eugene List’s wife, violinist Carroll Glenn taught Ida and Ani just across form Eugene’s studio! Oh yes, the paterfamilias, Prof/Dr. GB Petersen, (my father-in-law) just had open heart surgery … so far, all is well. He survived the surgery and continues to gather strength. I wish the same for you – to gather strength (and possibly wisdom), to survive and thrive.

eNZed -- more unknown unknowns

eNZed -- more unknown unknowns (things you didn’t know you didn’t know) There are no “official” dates for seasons, but most developed countries use the solstices and equinoxes as starting dates. New Zealand’s news media have dumbed-down the season starts to the beginning of the months. Summer should begin on December 22nd but was heralded as beginning on December 1st. That three-week shift can make quite a difference to the temperatures in some years. Still the old joke applies that “We don’t have a climate, we just have weather.” Even though the seasons are caused by the tilt of the Earth on its axis, it happens that the Earth is closest to the sun in January and farthest in June. Our spring and summer are nine days shorter than the northern hemisphere’s, but we are 4% closer to the sun in January so we get 7% more sunlight! and more -- Some New Zealanders go to their bach (occasionally batch) during the holidays, others to their crib. Southerners are more likely to call it a crib, but to the rest of New Zealand it is a bach. It all depends on your age and where you’re from. If a child got caught skipping school, their parents would tell them off for “wagging”, but teenagers would say they got in trouble for “bunking”. For the place you go to watch a film, some people 40 and over said they go to ‘the pictures. But younger people said they went to ‘the movies’ -- 80% of people aged 30 or younger. ‘Movie’ might look like an Americanism, but some respondents made a distinction between a movie as a thing to watch and a cinema as the place to watch them, so it may be that cinema will be around for a while yet. As for ‘French fries’ and ‘potato chips’, I throw up my hands. In the phrase ‘fush ‘n chups’, we all know what is meant. It looks as if older speakers use ‘crisps’ and, to some extent, ‘potato chips’ (for potato chips) -- but ‘chips’ is winning out with the younger speakers over ‘chippies’ and ‘potato chips’. (culled from The New Zealand Herald and the Otago Daily Times) (???) (BUT, how do you signify ‘French fries’ … hot chips? fries?) other news: 1) my new New Zealand passport has now visited the mother country (UK), Brussels, Singapore and Paris and 2) I can now say “Happy Christmas” (for “Merry … “) without it feeling as if I am speaking a foreign language

"Release" speech

Antipodian weather -- wintry and frosty at the moment -- brings daily dilemmas and choices as to which warm clothing is needed to face the day … does one choose a t-shirt under a thick shirt or a short … or long sleeve poly-pro undershirt … and for the lower extremities, will it be long-johns with corduroy or long-johns plus lined blue-jeans … then, back to the torso -- the outer layers will require the daily sweater, of course, plus a choice of vest: heavy, felt (‘Swandri’) or poly-pro … Once these quotidian decisions were made, some additional ones followed last Thusday, to wit: choosing words for a speech at the public launch of our CD (“RELEASE” played by La Belle Alliance, a violin/piano duo) at Marbecks in the Wall Street (Dunedin … haha) Mall. What follows is a smattering of what choices were made… at least many of the ideas were represented … i think … “It is great to have all of you here for the launch of our CD. Thank you for coming! Looking ahead to this moment today did get me thinking back … about technology … recalling the advent of the previous technology in sound preservation: the LP of the mid 50’s. Even before, when I was living in a distant speck of the world -- Watertown, New York – when I experienced an even bigger thing in terms of technological advancement: Mrs. Shadle’s TV! My first images, etched by that black and white magic are of an intrepid explorer/mountaineer fresh from conquering Everest (Edmund Hillary) and, equally vividly at about the same time, the coronation of Queen Elizabeth! Much later, while living in New Zealand, I saw the life of Sir Edmund celebrated and appreciated. The newspapers and airways were full of information about the many kindnesses and many good deeds he accomplished after his extraordinary athletic feat. His character demonstrated the many facets that New Zealanders are famous for: cheerful helpfulness, a quiet modesty and a deep caring for others and how the rest of the world fares. More recently, in watching the celebrations of the Queen’s Jubilee, I found it interesting is to think that those early memories of mine have come together in this land of Sir Edmund Hilary and the sway of the Queen. New Zealand is a country that cares about music, honours music in its education and has an ‘educated’ audience of great discernment. It is not surprising then that there are so many marvelous composers in the country and quite a number in Dunedin! The Uni Music Department alone includes a past Mozart Fellow, Anthony Ritchie; the current Mozart Fellow, Robbie Ellis; and at least three other composers as well, John Drummond, Peter Adams and Graeme Downs. Today, for me, is an opportunity to celebrate a confluence of events that combine those of six decades ago with one of twenty years ago, when I met Tessa. The CD we recorded together is the one of the things resulting from our getting acquainted in the cafeteria at Princeton University where the Waterloo Music Festival dined … she was searching for a good cup of tea… and I spotted an opportunity to be a help … After marrying in Knox Church a year later (I must have passed the tea test) we lived in the states until six years ago, when we moved to Dunedin planning to create a life for ourselves and our children. The composers and their works on this CD represent our new place – home for Tessa and now, a new home for me. We take a certain pride in the CD because we feel that part of the life of a musician includes being connected to time and place. By strange coincidence, the box containing the freshly minted CD’s arrived the same day as a letter in the post from New Zealand Immigration and Naturalisation with the news that I had been approved to receive New Zealand citizenship. (In an ironic detail, the date set for my Pledge of Allegiance to the Queen is July 4th, the day that independence from the crown is celebrated in the states!) As we launch our CD then, I feel emotionally overwhelmed by this confluence of the events of the past that have brought us here and I would like to say to all of you present: here is a an offering … of your music … Thank you for having me!”

फुएल फ्रॉम थे Antipodes

Fuel for the raging debate on global warming

“Up to 1000 skifield workers in Queenstown remain in limbo as all fields in the area stay closed because of a lack of snow. It is thought to be the latest start to winter in 50 years – and it is beginning to have major repercussions. “ (ODT - June 23, 2011))

Summer avoids Dunedin (March 3 - 2011) Heavy rain in Central Otago last month set records, while Dunedin summer failed to happen and the city was considered the coldest and wettest in the country.”

(you wet Vermonters, we feel you pain)

Christchurch continues to be rocked by earthquakes

and

The ash cloud from Chile’s Cordon Caulle volcano has made a full circuit of the world and arrived in New Zealand yesterday for the second time, causing some airlines to ground domestic and transtasman flights.

okay … the last two bits of bad news have nothing to do with global warming but manage to encourage the doom and gloom brigades …

(but, hopefully)

She’ll be right … (pronounced with a slight suggestion of an ‘l’ elided to the ‘r’ of right which means basically: everything will be okay?)