Take Tiw

Tiw is apparently the English pagan god associated with Mars, the bringer of war. Which is also the name of one of the most influential pieces of history. Most people would probably not make that claim, but I would say that almost every war scene in every movie owes its music to Holst's classic.



I worked on more looping today and listened to Brahms' 4th Symphony. I love being able to download the score for free at the IMSLP but following the PDF version of the score is difficult on the computer. Either the notes are too small or you have to scroll.

It amazes me how little musical information it takes to make a repetitive, electronic piece sound interesting. I mean it's intended for background music, but still. There's an effect called "Auto-Filter" that filters out the high frequencies. Doing a sweep from high to low suddenly becomes a musical idea. And for each moment in the piece, I try to keep something (several things) repeating and something changing.

So back in the swing of things today. Sticking with the earlier metaphor, with the bottle opened, I got emotionally drunk and then had an emotional hangover. I'm still not quite as mindful as I was last week, but I'm back to working at it. It's a potential new habit if I can stick with it.

One last piece of exciting news: I discovered that I can drive to Michigan City, leave my car in the parking lot (at no cost) and take the train to Millennium Park. That's what I plan on doing the next few weekends.