Good evening, Kibitzers!
I’m afraid it might be getting to be air-conditioning season here. It’s not even that warm outside, and if this were fall, I’d certainly open my windows at night. Now, however, there is so much pollen that, even with windows closed, I wake up thinking I’m sick, or even that I’m having some kind of slow-moving heart attack because I’m so short of breath. The “tell” is that, when I put on my faithful N-95, the heart attack goes away, which I don’t think is a thing heart attacks do.
Sadly, I can’t sleep in the mask, and I also can’t eat breakfast and drink coffee in it. I’ve already got more air cleaner machines in here than you can shake a stick at, but I admit that the temptation to turn on anything else with a filter in it is strong. Meanwhile, we’re not even at the “cars turn all green” stage outside, so, wish me luck.
Here’s another diary whose theme changed quite suddenly. I wasn’t looking to make a change, but when the algorithm suddenly showed me a new thing that was appropriate for the moment, I put aside what I was working on for next time.
Noam Oxman is a composer and artist who runs a YouTube channel and website/business called Sympawnies. Here’s a little Dodo article about him, since he unaccountably has no Wikipedia page. To introduce himself on his channel, he writes:
In the search of new ways to express my art, my passions, and my music I created 'Sympawnies' - a new type of art form that combines three of my biggest loves - animals, music, and drawing. 'Sympawnies' is a collection of my original musical scores, which I draw in the shapes of different animals. All animals are welcome - pets/farm/wild.
At least 20% of the profits are used to feed and give medical treatment to stray cats.
There’s a video introduction too, below the fold.
Here’s what Mr. Oxman wants us to know. [2:03]
In this time-lapse of portions of his creative process, we see how he draws and composes interactively. It takes a little scrutiny of the music manuscripts to see that he achieves a lot of the drawing by taking some liberties with the size and shape of the stems on the notes. This is Violin Pawlude no.1 - behind the scenes. [1:00]
So, although you can see that Mr. Oxman is fond of cats, he’s done lots of good dog pieces (or “good-dog pieces”), and today seems like an excellent time to see and hear some. This is Brass Quartail no.1 (Jake). Yes, I have placed this one first in memory of our friend jakedog42. [1:06]
You can see that these pieces are short, some very short, so getting through this diary isn’t the usual full-time job. Dogvertimento in C (Freckles). [1:04]
Piano Quartail no. 2 (Amy). [1:02]
Piano Impawmptu no. 2 (Genius). From the YT notes: “This dude's name is Genius. I've been told that he is a naughty, stubborn boy but also extremely loyal and protective to his human, so when I began working on his piece, I took this cheeky-jazzy-Oscar-Peterson-ish course pretty naturally. I think it reflects his characteristics pretty well, don't you?” [0:24]
Sympawny no. 3 (Tweed). [0:24]
Brass Quintail no.1 (Callie). “Callie has had a rough start in life and was fostered and then adopted by Evan the trombonist. Stories like Callie's story are always very emotional for me and I'm so happy that there are people like Evan, who take those broken souls and help them recover and thrive!” [0:43]
Bashka's Viennese Wolftz. “Bashka and her owner have lived in Vienna for several years, hence the choice to compose a Viennese ‘wolftz’ for them.” [1:00]
There are many other animals depicted in these pieces, so let’s see a few before we go. Just one piece to represent the numerous cats: Viola Purrlude in D. [0:32]
“Badgeritone - a piece for solo baritone horn, in the shape of a European badger. This piece was commissioned by a lovely person as a birthday gift to his wife. They live in the countryside of England where badgers roam freely and visit them in their garden often. They have a special relationship with the badgers. They protect and respect them as well as other wild species that live in the area.” [1:00]
Sarabande & Gigue of the Guinea Pig (Wonton & Bean Sprout): “This piece, orchestrated for a piano quintet, is inspired by the Sarabande and Gigue baroque dances and it tries to capture the sweet and jolly characters of Wonton and Bean Sprout and of guinea pigs in general.” [1:22]
The last of these pieces for today: Foalana in C major for woodwind trio (Bella): “featuring baby donkey Bella's portrait. This piece, orchestrated for a woodwind trio, is composed in a light and playful style in order to capture sweet Bella's childishness. The name of the piece is a combination of the words 'foal' (a young donkey) and 'Furlana' (traditional Italian baroque dance in 6/8).” [0:50]
We need a dog song in another style, don’t we? The good boys shown in this video are called Marley and Georgie, and they belong to a random YouTube poster who, happily, seems to have no interest in shooting them. The song is John Hiatt’s My Dog and Me. [3:07]
Adding this morning: one more dog song, a very short one because it’s theme music from the Netflix series Dogs — it’s The Dog Song by Dhani Harrison, added here to someone’s footage of their best friend. [0:53]
Pivoting to the political, here’s a new song from The Parody Project, to the tune of Looking Glass’s Brandy (You’re a Fine Girl). [3:25]
Got more dog songs, or pix of your pack? Feel free to share if you wish!