EXPEDITION

Four of my oral and maxillofacial surgery friends and I have read several books on the Indian Wars in Comancheria.  The primary battles were between the Comanches and the Anglo settlers, US Cavalry Troopers, Texas Rangers, and Buffalo hunters.  The most notable Comanche was Quanah Parker.

Our goal was to visit several of the most significant battle sites to view "the lay of the land."  My goal was to find a chicken fried steak and a piece of fried chicken.  I found both!

Above is the Red River as it leaves the Llano Escatado.  Palo Duro Canyon houses the Prarie Dog Creek that feeds into the Red River.  It was the battle of Palo Duro Canyon that broke the spirit of the Comanches.  The Cavalry killed over 1,000 of their horses and trappers had virutally killed all the buffalo.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Palo_Duro_Canyon

 



http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/2220



Nothing was left to chance and every minute was treated as valuable.  Dr. Allen Neece of Abilene, Texas had every detail planned to make certain we saw the most significant sites from our readings.





In Palo Duro Canyon which was created by the erosion of Prarie Dog Creek.



The region's cotton crop had just been harvetsed.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adobe_Walls,_Texas

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Battle_of_Adobe_Walls

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Battle_of_Adobe_Walls

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Dixon

http://www.levergun.com/articles/bdixon.htm

Pointing from the Adobe Walls ruins to the mesa 1,538 yards (7/8s of a mile!) away where Quanah Parker's Medican Man was shot by Billy Dixon.

The garb worn by Quanah Parker's Medican Man with his War Drum.

The rifle used by Billy Dixon for his remarkable shot.

Billy Dixon's rifle and Congressional Medal of Honor.

A Chicken Fried Steak with Fried Okra!

Back seat accommodations were close.

The ranch house of the Arrington Ranch.  This house is 100 years old and was built from a kit that was shipped from Chicago to this site and then assembled.  We stayed one night there.  Throughout the evening we could hear the wail of the coyotes.

I was tasked with ringing the bell from Ft. Elliot which is now in front of the old jail in Mobeetie, Texas.



 

This is the home that Texas ranchers built for Quanah Parker if he'd stopped raiding Texas, stealing cattle and horse, and top killing settlers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quanah_Parker_Star_House

The team with a statue of Quanah Parker.

A very special "Thank You!" to Dr. James Allen Neece, affectionately known as "iBurns", for organizing, banking, planning, facilitating, and making this trip a meaningful adventure into Comancheria.

CONCERT

Carnegie Hall
Yuja Wang



Tonight's concert features some of the most monumental works in the piano literature. Known for their breadth and technical demand, this repertoire stretches the performer in all capacities, offering numerous opportunities to showcase control, technical prowess, range of color, and emotional depth.

Prokofiev, Chopin, and Stravinsky were noted not only for the difficulty of their writing, but also for their nationalistic groundings by incorporating rhythms, styles, and melodies native and unique to their respective countries. But despite their musical patriotism, each composer is also acknowledged and recognized for cultivating a distinctive and inimitable sound world that would influence all others after them. Paired alongside these standard works is Nikolai Kapustin's soulful and colorful Variations for Piano, in which he presents classical and jazz techniques in tandem.

 

 

 

 

Carnegie Hall is unique.  The lobby of Carnegie Hall opens right onto 57th Street while Avery Fisher Hall has a Grand Plaza with a massive fountain, the Koch Theater, and the Metropolitan Opera at its front door.

 

A solitary piano with a solitary pianist on the Carnegie Hall stage places an intense focus upon an artist.  This young pianist carried it off with flair. In the first half of the recital she wore "The Little Red Dress."

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yZPrrboTkY

 

She played the following as one of her FIVE encores.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9y5DaJWIIUQ

 

 





 

RECITAL

Park Avenue Armory
Vilde Frang, Violin
Michail Lifits, Piano

"Hear chamber music the way it was originally meant to be experienced in the newly restored Board of Officers Room, one of the most important American Aesthetic Movement interiors in the country. Enjoy a glass of wine and an intimate performance of classic repertoire by some of today’s leading interpreters in this splendid music salon."



“[Her performance] was nothing short of sensational.” –The Guardian (London)

All-Mozart Program
Sonata No. 24 in F Major, K. 376
Sonata No. 18 in G Major, K. 301
Sonata No. 22 in A Major, K. 305
Sonata No. 27 in G Major, K. 379
Sonata No. 33 in E-flat Major, K. 481

That is Carolyn's head on the front row one chair from the aisle.  We had the best view of the keyboard and the two artists.  We were 6 feet away from them, could watch their fingers and their eyes.  It was wonderful!

This is the view from our seats!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhhHObtSIZs

This is not the concert we saw but it is of the artist.



MUSEUM

J. P. Morgan Museum and Library
Beethoven's Ninth: A Masterpiece Reunited

When the New York Phiharmonic recently play Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, we attended a pre-concert lecture presented by the Music Curator for the Bristish Museum.  He had brought with him one of the three original manuscripts of Beethoven's 9th.  He told us then that the Morgan Museum had one of the copies that is owned by Juilliard.  He was going to leave the British copy so the two originals, Juilliard and British Museum, could be viewed side by side.

In 2002, Beethoven's autograph score of the Ninth Symphony, which is kept in Berlin, was added to the United Nations World Heritage List, becoming the first musical score to be so honored.

I have an application on Carolyn's iPad that has the 9th conducted by 5 different conductors.  Each performance allows the viewing of the conductor, the full score as the music is played or a focused score on the moving, importrant parts as the music moves along.  To hear the music with your eyes closed is sublime.  To SEE the creation of the music as the score moves along is unbelievable.  Beethoven "put notes" everywhere in so many combinations that then come together in such a magnificent way.

Seeing that score below on a piece of paper and then beholding the magic when it is performed by musicians is a wonder.  Interestingly, Beethoven was completely deaf at the time of the writing and first performnaces of this piece.  For him, the music existed only as written on the paper and as heard in his mind.   Admire the music.  Revere the composer.

As part of the Bicentenary celebrations of the Royal Philharmonic Society, the Morgan will display two historic copyist scores of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, marking the first time they have been brought together since their creation in 1824. The Morgan's presentation offers a rare opportunity to view these united scores of Beethoven's masterpiece, the Society's most famous commission and undoubtedly one of the greatest works of classical music.

As early as 1817 the Philharmonic Society tried to interest Ludwig van Beethoven in composing two symphonies for them, with the hopes that the composer would premiere the works in London. Not until 1822 was an agreement reached for the commission of the work that would become the Ninth Symphony. Although a copyist manuscript made its way to England in 1824—bearing Beethoven's dedication, "Geschrieben für die Philharmonische Gesellschaft in London" (written for the Philharmonic Society in London) on its title page—the composer did not. Instead, Beethoven supervised the premiere of the symphony in Vienna on May 7, 1824, while Sir George Smart used the copyist manuscript to direct the first London performance by the Philharmonic Society on March 21, 1825. The copyist manuscript, annotated by the composer and used for the Vienna premiere, was sent to B. Schott to prepare the first published edition of the work that appeared in 1826. The display is the first time that the Society's score—annotated by Smart—will be displayed alongside the printer's manuscript that now resides in the collection of the Juilliard Manuscript Collection.

This display has been funded by the Royal Philharmonic Society as part of their Bicentenary celebrations on both sides of the Atlantic. New York celebrations in October 2013 include concerts, talks, and lectures at The Juilliard School and Lincoln Center, and performances of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony alongside the U.S. premiere of a new work by Mark-Antony Turnage inspired by Beethoven's masterwork by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra.

BROOKLYN BRIDGE

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brooklyn_Bridge

 

Notice the reference to Waco, Texas in the paragraph about the builder of the Brooklyn Bridge.

 





 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Crossing Brooklyn Ferry" is a poem by Walt Whitman, and is part of his collection Leaves of Grass. It describes the ferry trip across the East River from Manhatan to Brooklyn at the exact location that was to become theBrooklyn Bridge.

 

The speaker begins half an hour before sunset, and continues into the evening with a description comparing the tides to the attraction of New York City.  Cataloguing and an appeal of the body and soul feature prominently in the poem, relating to Whitman's experiences in growing up in Brooklyn from 1823 to 1833 and then 1845 to 1863.

 

The poem specifically addresses future readers who will look back on it, and the ferry ride, years hence. In the first stanza, Whitman writes:

"And you that shall cross from shore to shore years hence are more to me, and more in my meditations, than you might suppose." 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0OFT5Rm5ck

 

 

 

 



MUSEUM

Metropolitan Museum of Art
Alarm Will Sound: The Permanent Collection

"Artist in residence Alarm Will Sound performs music by György Ligeti, Richard Wagner, Charles Ives, and Thomas Adès.

This is a performance specially conceived for their artist residency at the Met, as Alarm Will Sound rarely performs the work of dead composers. Here they reflect on how their very own permanent collection would look and sound."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QinQ1gkLWpU

We're stepping out a bit toward the edge!

LIBRARY

New York City Public Library
The Passionate Brontes: An Introduction to the Lives and Works of Charlotte, Emily, and Anne Bronte

Robert Armitage, Lecturer

"For readers of Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, or The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, the lives of the three Brontë sisters are endlessly fascinating.  In this presentation, we will explore the elements that helped to create their legend: the lonely parsonage on the Yorkshire Moors, the dissolute brother, the obsessive juvenilia, the childhood tragedies, the conflict between domestic duty and creativity, the illnesses and early deaths--and try to determine how these factors contributed to the amazing adult poems and novels."

MUSEUM

Metropolitan Museum of Art
Caravaggio
Lecture

http://www.metmuseum.org/events/programs/lectures-and-panels/ticketed-talks/masterworks-1-caravaggio?eid=4123

We hope to attend several of these lectures over the next months.

PARADE & STREET FESTIVAL

Korea Town
32 Street & 6th Avenue

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



MUSEUM

The Cloisters

The Forty Part Motet in one of the chapels at The Clisters was spectacular.  The Forty refers to the 40 singers that were individually recorded while all 40 sang together in Salisbury Catherdral in England.  Each high quality speaker projected a single singer's voice.  The 40 speakers were place on stands in an oval within the chapel that lisgteners were able to get into the center of the sound.

The chapel had stone walls, a stone floor, wooden ceilings, and no benches to soften and breakup the sound.

I encourage you to take the time to follow the links below.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/20/nyregion/moved-to-tears-at-the-cloisters-by-a-ghostly-tapestry-of-music.html?_r=0

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324549004579063513655382586.html?KEYWORDS=cloisters+motet

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304213904579093062090038216.html?mod=WSJ_LifeStyle_Lifestyle_5

I found this YouTube that has the camera move in and out of various speakers to isolate individual singers.  There's a fair amount of movement of people wandering around in this video.  When we were there, many more people, much less movement, most eyes were closed with people simply listening.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChzL9-P0uVo

https://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4GGLL_enUS393US394&q=forty+motet+cloisters&tbm=isch

http://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2013/janet-cardiff 

http://www.metmuseum.org/visit/visit-the-cloisters

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cloisters

LINCOLN CENTER

Avery Fisher Hall
New York Philharmonic

Frieze - U.S. Premier
Mark-Anthony Turnage

Symphony No. 9 - "The Choral"
Beethoven

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=H5R_Gf9Hn_4

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symphony_No._9_(Beethoven)

"Among critics, it is almost universally considered to be among Beethoven's greatest works, and is considered by some to be the greatest piece of music ever written."

LINCOLN CENTER

Avery Fisher Hall
New York Philharmonic

Rehearsal



We have tickets to hear the New York Philharmonic tomorrow evening at Avery Fisher Hall.  The centerpiece of the concert will be Beethoven's Ninth Symphony.  It's huge!  It will include full orchestra, 4 soloists, and a full chorus.  We're going this morning to see how they work to pull it all together.  Should be really interesting.

 



 

Avery Fisher Hall was packed full with real music lovers.  No amateurs there!

 

Even though it was a rehearsal, everybody already knew their parts really well.  No struggling to find and hit the notes.  Very little stopping and talking from the conductor.  There must have been 300 hundred musicians on stage; orchestra and chorus.

 

Carolyn found it to be one of the most exciting things we've done since arriving in New York City.

 

We get to see the performance tomorrow night!

 



 

 

The following videos are a little goofy since I've got my phone hidden in my lap so it can pick up the music.  I keep looking down at the screen to see the time so I don't go over 50 seconds for emailing purposes.