Dinner!
I spent a couple of hours getting ready for the dinner at Becca's tomorrow night. Since Fer is in town I decided that I should cook for us, so tomorrow night the Fer, Becca, Mike, and I are getting together for dinner.

I decided I wanted to grill, since Becca has a grill and it is grilling season now, and then I decided to go in an Indian direction with the meal.

The menu includes grilled asparagus marinated in soy sauce and sesame oil with sesame seeds, tandoori chicken, eggplant curry over rice, naan (an indian flat bread), and rice pudding.

I made the rice pudding and curry tonight, along with starting the chicken marinating for the tandoori. I had to make a garam masala since I couldn't find any. And I ended up just throwing some spices together that seemed similar to what the sites online had (since there isn't really any one recipe for it) so I am not sure how it turned out (it is a part of the marinade for the chicken and since I am unwilling to eat raw chicken I will not know until tomorrow night).

Tomorrow I will just have to mix up the bread dough and let it rise, marinate the asparagus, fire up the grill, and grill the foods. I'll reheat the curry and cook some rice and we will be having dinner! Mmmm...
- posted by Nick @ 5/03/2007 11:03:00 PM | 0 comments

 
One down, one to go!
So I drove to Columbia this morning, leaving before 8am to get here for my 9am exam in 16th Century Counterpoint. It was a little easier than I had expected -- we didn't have to write any examples, only analyze excerpts from 5 masses and one motet using fairly specific questions he had written out.

I made one really dumb mistake (calling mixolydian mode lydian) and there was one question that I have heard a few others say they did not recognize the term put forth in it. There was one section that I just didn't remember the answer to. I feel better about it than I did the second test in that class. And it is over, no more counterpoint for me.

It was a good class for me, I think. Not that I really know how to write counterpoint very well but I understand a bit more about the choral technique used in that period. The counterpoint class in undergrad focused more on instrumental stuff from the 18th century and the Fux species counterpoint that Bach and everyone studied. This was more a study of what actually happened in 16th century contrapuntal composition. I think it will help me understand any choral works I may do from that period or shortly thereafter.

Now I am spending time in the library surrounded by 10 scores out of 20 that I have to know (four I already did stuff on for presentatons and one I have my own copy of, I was unable to find scores for some).

Right now I have been looking at Berlioz's Te Deum which he composed in 1849. It is a very massive work for 2 100 voice 3-part choirs (STB) and one 600 voice SA children's choir, large orchestra containing things like the ophicleide (brass instrument later to be replaced by the tuba), Trumpets AND cornets, "A lot of cymbals" (I am guessing that to be what "Grosse caisse et cymbales" means especially when followed by the parenthetical, "4 or 5 pairs", 12(!!!) harps), organ and strings (specifying 25 violins, 18 violas and cellos and 16 basses)!!!

We do not have a recording in the library so all I have been able to do is listen to short clips from each movement on Amazon. I think it is about 40 minutes long.

Good luck finding the forces to EVER do this. 12 harps! 800 singers!
- posted by Nick @ 5/02/2007 01:54:00 PM | 0 comments