Song of Fire

The John Lennon Educational Tour Bus is a non-profit mobile recording studio dedicated to providing students of all ages with hands-on opportunities to make music and produce video projects. The traveling program works together with local partners to create free events for middle, high school, and college age students to tour the bus and participate in the production of music, video and digital photography projects reflective of their ideas and concerns, regardless of their levels of expertise. I was able to visit the Bus during its stop at the Department of Education in Washington, D.C. and was impressed by the state-of-the-art equipment on board. [Read more →]

Tags: science & technology by Jon O
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One of the best known Russian composers of the 20th century, Dimitri Shostakovich achieved fame in the Soviet Union under the patronage of Leon Trotsky’s chief of staff. As he explored the more dissonant style of his international peers, however, his music came under attack by the Stalinist bureaucracy. His music was denounced twice — in 1936 and 1948 — and periodically banned. The first denunciation coincided with the Great Terror, in which “enemies” of the state were imprisoned or killed, and Shostakovich’s music was deemed to be “primitive, coarse and vulgar” by the newspaper Pravda. The subtext was that it was decadent like the West, and insufficiently celebratory of the working class. Consequently, commissions dried up and his income fell by three-quarters. [Read more →]

Tags: art, culture by Jon O
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Although better known for his art and mechanical engineering inventions, Leonardo da Vinci was a skilled poet, singer and musician. He designed or improved several instruments, including a silver lyre in the shape of a horse’s head that contemporaries described as having a more resonant and beautiful tone than traditional lyres made of wood. Vasari, the Renaissance biographer of famous artists, described da Vinci as an “excellent musician.” An exhibit at the National Geographic Museum in D.C. explains that da Vinci “introduced improvements on many popular musical instruments… simplifying their playing technique and creating new sound effects.” His improvements for the flute included keys and extra finger holes. [Read more →]

Tags: culture, history, percussion by Jon O
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Recently as I was approaching a pond while walking in DC’s National Arboretum, I was startled by a prominent, lone “boing” emanating from the bushes. It sounded almost mechanical, and at first I thought there was some device that was triggered by approaching hikers — to what purpose I couldn’t imagine. As I passed the pond, I heard the sound again and stopped. After a few moments, the boings started coming in more frequent succession, almost like an orchestra very slowly warming up. In fact, the more I listened, the more it sounded like viola strings being plucked, followed by a short glissando. Curious, I struggled to see the source of the developing symphony. Finally, there they were, periodically hopping in pursuit of one another on the muddy banks of the little pond: frogs. [Read more →]

Tags: nature by Jon O
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