Adam Tendler's Blog, page 5

so many things just happened when #ivoted. for starters:...

so many things just happened when #ivoted. for starters: surprise i’ve written my second book over the course of the last five (or ten) years, and today received a draft copy. so there’s that. i brought it with me to vote and the attendant immediately snatched it off the table when i put it down. “who is this, you? you wrote a book? what’s it about? is this your memoir?” and as i hemmed and hawed and apologized about the size, the text style, and especially the cover, emphasizing that it was a draft and everything could change (especially the cover), she was busy complimenting my beard, leafing through the pages (i was terrified what she might discover) and regarding the back cover— “it’s a great beard. not patchy or splotchy. i want to run my fingers through it.” omg i’m still blushing. (maybe I’ll keep the cover after all?)

[the book will be available

i went to music school for this (at New York, New...

i went to music school for this (at New York, New York)

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bnp10QYnD_Z/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=srzkniusa098

landing gear

have you ever been in a plane that circles the airport waiting for ground control to clear it for landing? that’s been my summer professionally with a handful of projects, and complete with commensurate landing-related panic. why aren’t we landing? we usually land just fine. there’s something wrong. there’s something they’re not telling us. and of course: we’re all going to die. i try to remain calm and appear cool to the other passengers, and immerse myself in a variety of distractive coping mechanisms, some healthier than others. 

one of them has been scales. lots of scales. scales up and down. and every inversion of every arpeggio in every direction that you can conceive of. this was the sort of technique k-hole i used to fall into at conservatory from 6am to whenever classes started, and that i promised i’d never go back to again. and yet here i am. but this is in part because (i did perform a piece this summer with a lot of scales, and) the one thing i hate more than wasting time doing nothing is wasting time doing something for no reason—like spending hours each day working on a program or piece that might capriciously get dashed upon the appearance of an email in my inbox. 

so, scales. 

but another such directionless activity i’ve indulged in while waiting to drop my landing gear is learning john adams’s phrygian gates. the piece has absolutely no home yet for me in any future concert, but since june i’ve nibbled on it with the kind of calculated focus i give only to music i love. that is to say, a slow marinade. 

scribbling fingerings and hints everywhere, each day i might work on a page, or even just a couple systems, or just a single harmonic or choreographic pattern, a “gate,” as adams calls it. i want to really know what’s going in a single section, and sometimes this takes days. and as is my custom with pieces i care about (besides experimenting with memorization, which i started here, abandoned, and would like to return to eventually) i work on it backwards. so i started on the last page, and for three months have dug methodically toward the beginning. 

and today i reached page one, the title stamped firmly at the heading. i have arrived at the starting point in every conceivable way, and it feels kind of great.

this literally means almost nothing with regard to someday performing it. but it’s a definite chapter in my love affair with the piece, and a fitting end to this particular summer fling in the twilight hours of labor day weekend, as my plane continues to circle the airport and i look longingly to the ground below. 

best downbeat ever...

best downbeat ever

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bm1rGfVnHaZ/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=2v2npnqip3g2

this vacation carries on a decades-long tradition of me bringing...

this vacation carries on a decades-long tradition of me bringing stacks of books, scores and a sweeping list of agenda items, and then just carrying it all around with me.

josh quillen—concert honesty, episode #15

I’ve been in the same room with Sō Percussion many times for over a decade, and from day one have admired their excellence as artists, boundary-pushers, risk-takers and colleagues. I’ve been particularly intrigued by Josh Quillen’s openness about the realities of life onstage, and also the complexities of living in our highly-charged political climate. I’m so grateful to have had this opportunity to sit with him on his brilliant podcast, Concert Honesty. I walked in with a 4-pack of Heady Topper and three hours later, after an intensely candid and wide-ranging conversation (rural life, social media, Trump, religion, Joe Rogan, suicide, poop, homophobia, music, labels, guns, closets, misogyny, hunting, Michael Myers…), I sat back with a pretty solid IPA buzz and said to my new friend, “I’m not sure you can use any of this.” When Josh answered that he’d be posting the whole conversation, I belly laughed for a good minute. Enjoy this wild ride with us. Take your time. Sip slow.

Part 1: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/15-adam-tendler-pt-1/id1375839469?i=1000417215009&mt=2

Part 2: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/concert-honesty/id1375839469?mt=2&i=1000417215470

Website with streaming and download: https://www.joshquillen.com/concert-honesty

dessert

funny getting spammed by a festival that told me earlier this year that they couldn’t imagine me playing a concert with them in any “foreseeable future.” as in, as far as the mind can foresee, it’s a no. that was a first. but thanks for adding me to your email list. yes, it all looks very… “innovative!” tell me more about this music + dessert pairing thing. only $95 a person?

and to compete with them in this week’s new yorker. 

Yoooooo! Saturday • @stringorchestraofbrooklyn • thesob.org ✌

Yoooooo! Saturday • @stringorchestraofbrooklyn • thesob.org ✌

Yoooooo! Saturday • @stringorchestraofbrooklyn • thesob.org ✌

Yoooooo! Saturday • @stringorchestraofbrooklyn • thesob.org ✌

Yoooooo! Saturday • @stringorchestraofbrooklyn • thesob.org ✌

Yoooooo! Saturday • @stringorchestraofbrooklyn • thesob.org ✌