True Confessions....

Hi. My name is Cheryl. I listen to Sousa. What may make that strange is that I play horn. The round one often referred to as the French Horn. The one that has ridiculously tedious parts in most marches. While I do love Sousa's marches [National Game is my current favorite] in large part because of the smiles I see on the faces of those listening in the audience as they cannot help but bop to the beat [you know it's true...], I also enjoy some of his other music, such as his Suites: Looking Upward and Three Quotations, and music from his various operettas.

This is a very late post, but as I was reading back through a semester worth of thoughts and ideas and insights, I realized I had never actually shared what I would put on my iPod first if I ever get one. Sousa would be on there -- it makes me happy.

Norah would also be on there. When the very first notes from her first project start to waft out of my car speakers, my shoulders relax. Go figure.

Music of Charles Ives, Lou Harrison and Martin Bresnick will be there, as will music from many of the other composers we have met, discovered, or renewed acquaintance with this semester.

There would be lots of horn music on there, too -- much of it from American Innovators such as Gunther Schuller. Over the past few days, I have been listening to his Duets for Unaccompanied Horns [1962] and his Trois Hommages [1942-46] for horn and piano, which was largely composed before his 21st birthday. The Hommages are to 1) Delius, 2) Ravel, and 3) Milhaud. I happen to resonate to music of Les Six, so am particularly drawn to the third hommage for which Schuller adds a second horn. How exciting to have new-for-me music and a composer to get to know better over the summer!

That's all for now.