A mover and a shaker

Today I'm celebrating the premier of "Hound Dog" by Elvis Presley!

On this date in 1956 Elvis Presley first performed "Hound Dog" to a nationwide television audience on The Milton Berle Show. The controversy of his pelvic gyrations exploded with Berle's network receiving protest letters and the TV critics claiming that Elvis had no talent, criticizing the nonsense lyrics, and claiming his influence on juvenile delinquency. Elvis, who earned the nickname Elvis the Pelvis, was known as a mover and shaker. Presley's "Hound Dog" spent eleven weeks at#1, staying there until replaced by his "Love Me Tender." It is listed #19 on Rolling Stone's list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time" and is the highest ranked of Presley's eleven entries. The song has also been featured in numerous blockbusters, including American Graffiti, Grease, Forrest Gump, Lilo and Stitch, and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (which you can enjoy in movie theaters today).

You can also enjoy Elvis singing "Hound Dog" on this blogpost:

As posted on Youtube by elpres42

Although this song premiered before my time, it is a song that is very familiar to me and is likely very familiar to you -- one of the most famous songs sung by the infamous mover and shaker.

Image credit: Howstuffworks

The math behind the music of Mozart

Today I'm celebrating the music of Mozart!

On this date in 1756, Mozart was born in Salzburg. He was a great musician and composer. Often you hear people talk of the Mozart effect, a theory that listening to Mozart's music can enhance intellect. As an undergraduate, I double-majored in mathematics and music. For many years I have heard about the link between music and mathematics. However, I was not aware of the specific link to mathematics with Mozart and his music. Accounts of Mozart's life describe his interest in mathematics, from his sister noting that Wolfgang "talked of nothing, thought of nothing but figures" during school days. There are accounts of walls of rooms filled with mathematics to mathematical equations jotted in the margins of some of his compositions. He actually calculated his odds of winning a lottery on a composition margin. There are discussions about how Mozart exploited patterns, symmetry, and proportions when creating his musical works.

One of the most amusing things I learned about Mozart and his link to mathematics is his musical composition dice game. Mozart composed a minuet in which many variations were created using dice. For each of the sixteen bars of the minuet, Mozart wrote two choices for the eighth and sixteenth bars of the composition and eleven choices for each of the other bars. The performer was instructed to select randomly the choices for each bar using the dice. Using this approach, a composition with a huge variety of variations was created. Can you guess how many? It is actually 1,518,999,334,332,964 variations. If it took about a half a minute to play each, it would take more than 1,400,000,000 years to play all the variations.

So, you think you'd like to test that Mozart effect but think that Mozart would not likely be on your teenager's MP3 playlist? Perhaps you've heard a wonderful symphony like the No. 40 or you've seen The Magic Flute opera (here's a cool scene that shows three ladies taking control and conquering a cool looking dragon), but you still don't think it will work. Well, I found three videos on YouTube that might change your mind. There's a neat video on YouTube of a guitarist playing his rock version of the last movement, Alla Turca (popularly known as the Turkish Rondo) of Mozart's Piano Sonata No. 16 in A major, K. 331. There's also a video of an electric violin version of the Symphony No. 40. However, I bet that you will find the following video of Mozart's Symphony No. 40 on rollerblades to be very interesting!

As posted on YouTube by petroleumfx

References:
http://www3.cs.utwente.nl/~zsofi/mozart/index.html
http://www.math.niu.edu/~rusin/uses-math/music/
http://www.americanscientist.org/template/AssetDetail/assetid/24551
NPR Music's Mathematics of Mozart's Music at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5175371

Image credit: BBC Cambridgeshire

As music filled the air

Last week was a busy week, with 3 rehearsals, 1 service and 2 concerts in addition to catching up on work following my Thanksgiving vacation. However, it would not be Christmas for me without a celebration with music. Toss in a little drama and I really get excited. After many years of working behind the scenes with the tech crew, I had forgotten how fun it is to play the piano with an orchestra accompanying a large choir. It was an amazing experience of celebration as music filled the air.

The Christmas music program involved more than 35 in the orchestra and more than 70 voices, on my initial count. It was scheduled twice on Sunday, after

• 12 rehearsals, planned by
  
• 11 choir officers, with
  
• 10 staff members for
  
• 9 musical selections played by
  
• 8 violins, violas, string bass
  
• 7 brass (trumpet, french horn, trombone, euphonium)
  
• 6 woodwinds (flute, piccolo, oboe, saxophone)
  
• 5 musicians on rhythm (guitars, percussion, drums)
  
• 4 cellists
  
• 3 keyboardists (piano, organ, synthesizer) with
  
• 2 conductors and
  
• 1 guest artist

The evening of Christmas music at PPBC started with an orchestral piece celebrating The Sounds of Music. The choir processed in singing to A Christmas Hymn, and then sang with Joy, Joy about The One Amazing Night, Beneath His Father's Heaven with All Praise Rising about A Manager for His Throne, knowing the real reason and telling That's How He Came while encouraging all to Follow the Light. Luke Garrett, the special solo guest artist, sang on several of the songs and also sang some additional selections. The song All Praise Rising, whose words and music were written by Mr. Garrett, was the highlight of the program for me. The children's choir was also featured on one selection.

Today, I hope that you had the opportunity to enjoy the music and sounds of the season. Take the opportunity to share the celebration of this Christmas season through music.

The sounds of the season

Today I'm celebrating the music of Christmas!

Christmas is my favorite holiday of the year. There is so much great music to fit within a short month. To kickoff the Christmas holiday season, I've updated the site playlist. Hopefully your holiday favorite is on the list. Post a comment with your favorite and I'll try to add it too!

I'm revving up for the holiday, but can't help but feel a bit on pins and needles (even though that was yesterday's holiday) knowing what is left to be done before I can really celebrate the holiday with gusto.

My thoughts today:
The turkey's gone but bags still left to unpack
A big work backlog but I can't look back
3 rehearsals, 1 service, and 2 concerts this week must do
Before decorating, greeting cards, and shopping for you!
~just_tonya

A favorite quote from Emily Matthews:
From home to home, and heart to heart, from one place to another
The warmth and joy of Christmas, brings us closer to each other.

Today, my wish for you is that through the hustle and bustle of the holidays, moving from home to home and one place to another that you will find the warmth and joy of Christmas!