Timothy's Blog

Timothy's blog on dulcimers, music, nature and life!

I am a musician playing primarily hammered dulcimer and flute, and have produced 15 instrumental albums on Virginia, Nature, History, Celtic, Christmas, and other themes; self-styled and original in approach, with a strong respect for sources and meanings.

JAN
10

A glimpse of the sublime

A glimpse of the sublime

One nice feature of the Classic iPod is that it has so much capacity that you can store tens of thousands of tracks of music and play them back in ‘shuffle’ mode --- a vast potpourri of, at least in my iPod’s case, a massive variety of genres and moods.

Today my iPod cycled through into a somewhat obscure piece by the great master J.S. Bach --- Violin and Keyboard Sonata no. 5, BWV 1018, the third movement, the Adagio, played by the inimitable masters Jaime Laredo and Glenn Gould.

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4774 Hits
OCT
20

Pachelbel's Canon in D Fantasia for hammered dulcimer

Pachelbel's Canon in D Fantasia for hammered dulcimer
 

One of the most popular and beloved pieces in all of Classical music is the beautiful Canon in D by Johann Pachelbel, made famous in our time by its use in a recording in 1969 and a film in the 1970s.

With its repeating chords, diatonic (do-re-mi scale) nature, and interesting lyrical melody, it seems like a perfect candidate for a hammered dulcimer arrangement.

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25073 Hits
SEP
26

A musician's feedback loop

A musician's feedback loop

When we play music on our instruments or when we sing, our ears hear what we’re doing the very instant each sound is made.

Our brains --- consciously or subconsciously --- immediately make an assessment: Is it in tune?  Is it exactly in time with the overall flow of the piece?  How well are the tone and the volume and the phrasing matching the goals of the performance?

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6459 Hits
SEP
13

Keep your instrument out!

Keep your instrument out!

If you have a musical instrument, don’t pack it away --- it ought to be out!

If you don’t play it, it still should be there to see, like hanging on the wall or such.  What an addition to your house’s décor!

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5368 Hits
SEP
05

Experiential music, architectural music

Experiential music, architectural music

Throughout a lifetime of listening to Classical music and making my own music in a broad variety of genres, I've come to the conclusion that there are two primary approaches to how the performer relates to the music.

One is experiential: the musician takes the music as it comes to him or her and purposely cultivates an active experience of response to it, living in the present and developing a unique personal event associated with the amazing original art coming out from the page.

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5332 Hits

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