The past few days I’ve been listening to several piano sonatas. It turns out that Beethoven wasn’t really writing these for him (or even other artists) to play in public concerts. Instead, his business model was that he was making money by selling the sheet music for these pieces. People would buy the sheet music to learn the pieces and play them for their family and friends in their own homes.
I found this fascinating because of course then the limiting factor is that the pieces would need to be accessible to amateur musicians. While this is kind of a cool constraint (can you write something groundbreaking that is also going to sell to the regular public and that someone who’d studied piano for just a few years could play?) later in his life Beethoven decided to dispense with that. I guess he was well known enough that he wrote more of what he wanted, and the later piano pieces are more for professional musician/concert hall situations.
In general, I find it intriguing how working artists balance the need to support themselves financially with creating things that they find interesting. Through history, even artists who have been independently wealthy, or had very open-minded patrons, were often still interested in having an audience. So you can’t go completely off the deep end. Or at least not for everything. And people have to be capable of performing what you produce.
I was thinking of this over the weekend when my church choir premiered the last of seven works we commissioned from Kim André Arnesen. While we are a fairly decent church choir, it is still a constraint to write something that a church choir can sing. These pieces have also been performed, as it were, for people who are just there for Sunday services, not people who’ve bought tickets to an avant-garde performance and were prepared for whatever they were getting in to. But within those constraints he did some interesting things with melodies and particularly the chosen lyrics (he worked closely with someone who helped reinterpret familiar stories in modern poetic language). It’s been a fascinating experience.
Anyway, speaking of accessible music, on Friday night a few of us went to Disney on Ice. This particular show was all Frozen and Encanto music. The 5-year-old was slightly disappointed that there was no Moana, but it was still fun! (I like trying to match up some Lin-Manuel Miranda musical moments from Encanto and Hamilton…). Yesterday a few of us also went out to run around in the very gusty wind. For a while the forecast was calling for a huge snowstorm on Thursday but that seems to have disappeared. It will be cold this week and then maybe that will be about the end of winter. We can hope…
Photo: Olaf snow cone, in portrait mode
]]>On Saturday I got up bright and early to drive my eldest to the SAT (NOT on anyone’s holiday fun list, but hey…). He didn’t want to deal with the stress of getting there and parking (it wasn’t at our local high schools) so I took him. I don’t know that he was thrilled with how it went but this is definitely the last time he will take it, so at least there is that!
After, I drove downtown for my dress rehearsal for the Choral Arts Philadelphia carols concert. This is the choir I am singing the Bach B-Minor mass with later this month, but they turned out to have two concerts this cycle, so this was a bonus to get to sing with them for another show. We ran through the numbers with our flute, bassoon, and organ musicians, took a break (I got to explore Rittenhouse Square a bit) and then we performed to a full Holy Trinity Church (apparently 500+ tickets sold). I really really enjoyed this (someone who was in the audience told me I looked like I was having a really good time). The choir’s blend is fantastic. Now I am really excited for Bach!
Sunday was church as usual and then my daughter and I drove to New Jersey to my parents’ apartment where we did a cookie baking extravaganza. We’d made the dough before hand for gingerbread men, so we rolled those out and baked those, then did sugar cookies (my mom had made the dough for those). We ended with many, many cookies so we’ll be working our way through those for a while. While we were waiting for the cookies to cool (to frost) my mom and daughter played something of a heated game of Scrabble, and we helped decorate their tabletop tree.
Now it’s back to work today, but on my list is triaging presents — seeing what we have and what we still need. We’re at that stage in December where there are piles of boxes in my office and I haven’t opened them all, meaning no doubt some random household items like toothpaste are in the Amazon boxes too and I just haven’t found them. It’s feeling a little disorganized, so I want to be on top of it. Then, hopefully, I will be more relaxed about the season…
In other news: I’m cranking along on the manuscript of Big Time, my next book. I’m working on a chapter on being “open to serendipity” — elaborating on an idea I’ve mentioned before that open space invites opportunity into one’s life in a way a cluttered calendar can’t. I know that some of my biggest opportunities have come because I followed a random thread, or responded to an email that might have led to something…but might not have. It’s helpful to build a schedule where at least some randomness can reach you. Anyway, I am always looking for stories of something serendipitous that has happened because of following a random thread. As always you can email me laura at laura vanderkam dot com.
I am also finalizing my 2025 goals list — we record this episode of Best of Both Worlds ahead of time so I try to lock it in…still noodling on the year-long project!!
]]>I truly loved this project. I enjoyed it in a way that I have to say I didn’t love my Jane Austen project (sorry!) or even Shakespeare. Bach is truly my favorite composer, and it isn’t even close. Also, the way I did this project felt different than my past reading ones. Because I was listening to Bach, it massively upgraded the sound track of my life. I was sitting in my office reading Shakespeare but I was listening to Bach while shuttling my kids around or running errands. The opportunity for improvement in this time was just much greater!
I definitely feel more familiar with Bach’s work as a result of this (of course). From my years in choirs I was familiar with some of those masterworks (like the Christmas Oratorio, or the B-Minor Mass) but less so with his instrumental works. I think there are lots of ways one could construct this project, but since I listened to the major vocal works after listening to 200+ church cantatas, I learned more of Bach’s themes that he would re-use, and some of his favorite ways of composing multi-part vocal pieces. I was also reminded of some of the pieces I’d heard before but enjoyed getting to hear again (like the Brandenburg Concertos).
I have also found myself feeling grateful for the internet! When I started exploring how I would do this project last fall, I wasn’t entirely sure how I would find all of Bach’s work to listen to. I’d found a boxed CD set that one of the classical publishers put out there back in the day, so that was my back-up, and I sort of assumed I’d find performances of the major works on Apple music. But then I realized that the best source for performances was YouTube AND that the Netherlands Bach Society had done a project called “All of Bach.” I am not sure if they actually hit all of Bach, but they’d done enough of the more obscure works that I was only really hunting around for a few.
I’ll now spend the last weeks of the year revisiting favorites. Specifically, I’m listening to the B-Minor Mass on repeat as I’m planning to perform it with a local choir in late December. I’ll listen to the Christmas Oratorio too, just to celebrate the season. And I’ll try to figure out what project I’m undertaking next year. I’m not sure what I’ll come up with that will be as exciting to me as Bach, but I’ve got time to figure this out.
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Of course, as we hit the last 100 days of the year, this means I’m nearing completion of this year-long project. Which leads to the question…what should I do next?
In 2021, I read War and Peace at the rate of one chapter a day. In 2022 I read all the works of Shakespeare (at a pace of about 3-4 pages with small type per day). In 2023 I read all the works of Jane Austen (at a pace of about 10 pages per day – I finished in September since it turned out I miscalculated on this one). And this past year I’ve been listening to approximately 30 minutes of Bach daily.
Whatever I choose for 2025 needs to fit a few criteria:
*It needs to be worth doing (as I believe all the previous projects have been!). I want to read or listen to work that is generally seen as classic and important.
*I need to be excited about it (I’m just not that into Mozart…sorry!).
*It also needs to be doable. Some people’s lifetime works might actually take more than a year to consume at a sustainable pace. I can probably read for about 20 minutes a day. Listening is a little easier to do more since I can have it running in the background (like in the car). Obviously there is some ambiguity here as I could have listened to performances of Shakespeare’s plays but…anyway.
So, I welcome suggestions! You can post or can always email me (laura at lauravanderkam dot com). My timeline for a decision is the Best Laid Plans Live retreat in early November, as I try to have a rough draft of next year’s goals by then…
In other news: We celebrated my 2nd kid’s birthday this week! He turned 15. After he finished a 5k in a cross country meet, we had his favorite foods for dinner, which included lobster tails, a caprese salad, and mac and cheese. He asked what time exactly he was born, and it turns out it was 10:07 p.m. (per the birth certificate). That reminded me that the same doctor delivered him and his older brother. After kid #2 was born, she congratulated me and told me “I’m so happy I could help you complete your family.” Haha. Of course, this was in NYC where the maternity ward was so crowded (we were 9 months after Christmas…) that the baby and I wound up staying in a room in the urology ward where they posted a guard in front of the door (as there was no other security, as there is in the mother/baby unit). It was like we were famous. Memories! It’s been fun watching him become a runner. He’s definitely faster than his mom.
]]>I also listened to the Christmas Oratorio this week. I wound up listening more than once because the first video I’d chosen wasn’t really my favorite. It’s a frequently performed work so not everyone does it as well as it could be done. I wound up settling on the JS Bach Foundation version. I’m a big fan of the opening chorus to the 5th part. So catchy. That powered me through a strength training session the other day. I should be going to a Bach concert this weekend put on by an early music group, so I’m looking forward to that.
Meanwhile….I took my 14-year-old (almost 15-year-old!) to a running store last night to get fitted for better running shoes. He’s been running on the high school cross-country team for the last few weeks and his coach pointed out that he was over-pronating so we went to get some more stabilizing shoes. It was quite the involved experience (he tried on like 8 pairs!) but we left with one he liked. And several pairs of running socks because, hey, we were there.
It’s been fun to watch him do this sport, which I’m now realizing would have been a fairly accessible high school or middle school sport to do. Like on an average day they do some warm-ups then go for a 45-minute run. That sounds like a very pleasant way to end a school day! Not that dissimilar to what I do now.
Although I’ve actually been running in the morning more lately. Now that no one usually needs to be up before 7 a.m. if I pop up early enough, I will go run 2 miles on the treadmill. I’ve been aiming to do some speed work during these sessions. I’m really, really slow (my “speed” is like 7 mph) but hopefully it will help. I do another long run this weekend, but probably not quite as long because I’m planning to do a hike with an area trails association too. Hopefully tonight will be fairly chill (such as it ever is) because it’s been a long week. I went to two back-to-school nights this week, but those are now over. We hit all four! I also feel like I’ve been doing a lot of paperwork. The two high school kids will go to NYC with their school music program this spring and I need to register for that and I was somewhat blindsided by the paperwork volume for an activity for the 9-year-old. I signed him up for an after-school robotics activity, but since it’s run by the official aftercare provider, I had to do everything to register for that as a childcare agency – like the various agreements, vaccination record, getting the app from the childcare provider with a pin to check him out (as did everyone else who might check him out), etc. Whoa.
In the meantime, here’s this week’s content… Over at the Best of Both Worlds Patreon community page, I just posted the recording of our book club discussion on Jodi Wellman’s You Only Die Once. Membership is $9/month and we have multiple discussion threads going each week on issues related to work and life. Please check it out!
The Before Breakfast podcast featured my longer episode where I interview Sarah Hart-Unger about mornings and routines. I also have an episode advising to “Check if you’ll need to reschedule” and one on the idea to “Start a goal club.”
At Vanderhacks I wrote that “Complaining is boring.” I suggested that one might “Map out a busy season.” And behind the paywall I noted that “Procrastination happens” — but here are my tips for getting things done anyway. Next week I’ll be starting my video posts (I believe usually on Tuesdays but we shall see).
Thanks for reading!
]]>This year I am aiming to listen to all the works of Bach. By doing a little bit every single day it’s never overwhelming.
Now, into August, it’s kind of amazing how much music I’ve listened to! For instance, I have listened to all 200+ cantatas Bach wrote. I listened to one a day, and we’re 200+ days into the year, so there we go. I also listened to all of his organ works. Many of these were quite short, but still, hundreds of pieces. That took us from BWV 525 to BWV 771.
August is going to be a fantastic listening month. Bach’s famous masses and oratorios are all coming up. My calendar has me starting the B-Minor mass tomorrow. Of course I’ve listened to this work dozens of times, but it will be cool to do in the context of listening to everything else. I have heard snippets of the B-Minor mass in lots of the cantatas that Bach wrote before it. Just because of the way I structured this listening I’ll also have the Goldberg Variations coming up this month, right after the St. Matthew Passion.
I’m still writing a sonnet a week too. This pace of two lines a day feels quite doable. Here’s a sentimental little one I wrote called “Peaches.” We didn’t wind up picking peaches this year, but oh well…
Remember, now, the walk into the field?
A basket in the hand, the blazing sun…
The orchard waits — what have the trees concealed?
I peer into the branches, first see one
and then another: peaches, plump and ripe.
We twist the stems, so many, stacking high,
as through the leaves the sunshine, in a stripe,
illumines all this flesh. A butterfly
drinks deeply, and we taste this sugar too,
on peaches, and each others’ lips. A while
will pass — and in the grocery store a few
new peaches, stacked, will conjure up a smile.
Remember now, the shade of summers past?
A kiss, that in the taste of peach, can last…
In the meantime, this was a good summer weekend in my household (and my 12-year-old daughter may have had her best weekend ever). On Friday night, she and I went downtown to the Wells Fargo Center to see Olivia Rodrigo perform!
Over the past few weeks I have been on a crash course of learning Olivia Rodrigo’s music, since concerts are a lot more fun when you know all the songs. I’m happy to report that by Friday I was able to sing along with almost everything, and we had a grand time. I’d gotten seats with a very clear view of the stage (having learned from the Taylor Swift floor seats experience — which while definitely an experience was not great for actually seeing). Since we had real seats I was also able to sit down when needed. This is good for middle-aged people attending these sorts of shows.
Some highlights: Seeing Olivia ride a “moon” over the crowd, watching her baby/little kid videos during Teenage Dream, and the fact that she had an all-female band.
On Saturday I went for a run and we went for a quick walk in a local nature preserve where they have an art installation up — we were counting how many of the pictures we could find. My daughter went to a sleepover to celebrate a friend’s birthday (see: best weekend ever) so we were down to two kids overnight. We went in the pool/hot tub and got everyone down at a relatively reasonable time.
Sunday after we picked up the 12-year-old at the birthday party (she said they were up until 2 a.m….) we drove to the York State Fair.
On the downside, it was ridiculously hot, so the kids didn’t last as long as my husband and I would have liked (what can I say, we are into these things, and it turns out Lainey Wilson was performing that night so in an ideal world we would have stuck around). But in the time we were there, we managed to see a lot. For instance, we saw the Flying Cortes family perform! They did a number of trapeze related stunts, which then ended with “Commander Alexander” being shot out of a cannon. This is quite the stunt to watch if you ever get a chance. My husband filmed it in slow-mo so we’ve been able to watch it again and again. We also saw a giant butter sculpture (inside, in a refrigerated space), and a giant model train display. The 4-year-old went on a number of kiddie rides while my husband took the 9-year-old over to see the animals. We walked past an axe-throwing contest at one point. Good times.
This week will feature a lot of prep to get the 9-year-old off to sleep-away camp. I guess everything has to be labeled. I’ve never sent a kid to a traditional camp like this before (my older boys went to academic ones) so I welcome any advice!
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I did get to see some cover concepts this week for Tranquility by Tuesday, and it’s exciting to think about the book coming to fruition. The new (old) house is also nearing completion. I’m rounding into the final sections of War and Peace too. Time passes one way or another and with any big project when you keep making progress, eventually progress is made.
I’m singing in my church’s All Saints service on Sunday. One piece we’re singing is this lovely Jake Runestad number called Let My Love Be Heard. The middle section is…whoa. It will be something and it is good to sing with other people again. I missed it.
The weekend will be cold but the leaves are mostly still on the trees so we’ll be doing at least one fall walk. The kids are not huge fans of walks but…I don’t care. They can get off screens for an hour or two! Hope everyone has a lovely weekend planned.
Photo: Sleeping baby…which he should be more often.
]]>I first learned the Requiem my senior year of college. Indeed, it was exactly 10 years ago that we started rehearsing it. I devoted a lot of time to learning the often chromatic fugues, listening to the recording, etc. When you get to know a piece of music that well, you begin to truly appreciate certain moments. Powerful moments. Moments when the orchestra hushes and the chorus comes in, or in the second movement when the strings crescendo and the chorus sings in unison, full-throated, “Denn alles Fleisch es ist wie Gras.” (Behold, all flesh is as grass). We’ve been talking about good ideas lately. How did Brahms get that one?
Anyway, now I am singing the Requiem as a grown-up, appreciating these moments again, as when you see an old friend after an absence. The rehearsal schedule this week has been brutal. Any soprano who has sung the Requiem knows what I am talking about. But as I wrote in 168 Hours, I believe that the best way to ensure that you don’t lose your time to work (past the point of diminishing returns), to chores that fill all available space, or to meaningless hours of TV, is to give your leisure hours purpose. If anything, I need my singing more now that I have a busier life than I did in those college days.
Of course, making it to rehearsals is a bit more complicated than it was back then. Here are a few ways to make a regular volunteer or hobby commitment work:
How have you made time for a personal pursuit?
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