News and Form

Bad news first.  I received a phone call from a church yesterday saying they have offered the position to someone else.  I have already sent off an e-mail asking them for feedback.  I had a great experience with them and the worst they can say is that they can't give me feedback.  When she called, she told me it was the most horrible decision they have ever had to make.  She said they thought I was so musical and so enthusiastic, warm.  She said the choir and committee were very split because they thought I was such a great candidate.  Ultimately they chose the other finalist.  I thanked her and she offered the church up if I ever needed a quiet place to study.  I was bummed, but sent a follow-up thank you e-mail for their time.  That's when I said, "Since I had such a great experience with you, I was wondering if it would be possible to get feedback from the audition/interview.  I would love to hear the priorities in your considerations.  I understand if the committee cannot do this, but I thought I could use it as a good learning and growing experience for me."  And then I thanked them again for their time.  Again, the worst they can say is that they cannot give me any feedback.

In other news, I sent a thank you e-mail to the other church as well.  The head of personnel e-mailed me back and said the choir enjoyed meeting me and were impressed with my ability.  They think I would be a great fit and in the next few days either he or the pastor would be getting in touch with me.  While this is not a job offer, it does bode well.  

I am reading through a very thorough dissertation about Gesang der Parzen.  I am taking my time reading and understanding.  All I am using it for currently is to understand some of the similarities of different moments.  These are moments that I have heard, but have not made note of until now.  Sometimes I wonder if it is cheating that I read this instead of doing some of the work myself, but there will be time for more analysis once I finish this reading (and another one I am going to read).  But, if someone else has done the work, why not read it?  I would want my master thesis/project report read.  

At any rate, Gesang der Parzen does not neatly fit into any form.  The section I am reading about now talks about form.  I look forward to reading about it, but will probably save some of it for the plane/airport tomorrow.  Some people have tried to say Gesang der Parzen was some form of Rondo, but this dissertation likens it more to a type of Sonata form.  I find Sonata form to be so... complex?  What I mean is, Rondo is fairly straight forward- Material A, new material, Material A, new Material... you keep hearing the same material come back.  But in Sonata form, with the expo and development, sometimes the thematic material gets lost through the changes (clarification: not really lost, but I find sometimes my ear does not hold onto the material unless I have heard it many, many times).  I am about to listen to Parzenlied with the idea of a Sonata in mind.  I think this form will make the most amount of sense to me.  Perhaps because Sonata form seems to lend itself to so many formulations... take Sonata form and tweak it a little and you have something new and crazy!  Plus, Parzenlied is set up like a mini choral-orchestral drama.  Yes, I think I like this idea of form for Parzenlied.