Silence Day 3-4, Steve the TA of Ontological Queries Makes My Career

This is not fun.  This is not fun, it is annoying, and it really, really sucks.

Also, attending rehearsals in which one is incapable of singing is sort of pointless.  Just saying.

I've cheated quite it bit.  I'm not even supposed to whisper, but Google told me that there's a difference between a voiced and unvoiced whisper, and unvoiced is okay provided you don't overdo it.  Hey, there are some times when I have to talk.  Like to the nice guy who does transcripts in the records office--I'll need him later, and I don't want him putting my stuff in the bottom of the pile because he interpreted silence as rudeness.  That sort of thing.  I still catch myself talking to myself out loud, as well.  Unvoiced-whispering-out-loud, but still, I talk to myself a lot, it adds up. 

So now I'm at work at the library, which one might think is the best place in the world to work with laryngitis.  Sadly no, because engineers, despite being socially awkward people as a group, still demand that you talk to them.  But Artsy Sarcastic Librarian made me magic tea, so that's cool.  I'm going to be stuck at the North Desk by myself for quite some time, which usually sucks in December, so after it gets dark we'll see how that goes.

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As previously stated, Steve the TA of  Ontological Queries is not teaching the second half of music history next semester.  This is very sad.  I may crash the freshman music appreciation class a few times to say hi.  He said something in passing, though, which has probably made my career.  (I definitely would have run across him eventually, but this just bumped it up a few months.)  Richard Taruskin.  This dude is amazing.  He's the sole author of the 2005 Oxford History of Music.  It has six volumes.  He also came out with three other books(!) while he was writing the History.  Steve said that "he is a genius in the truest sense of the word."  I read a little of his work.  Steve's not kidding.

What caught my attention was something Steve quoted from Taruskin about the orchestra being a "microcosm of society."  This is exactly what I've been working on--well, not exactly.  Vocal instead of instrumental, but it's basically the same.  It jump-started my brain in that direction again, so I'm working on a companion piece to "Soloist as Stranger," (which goes in for publication review in a few weeks, yay) based off the passage in the History that I found that quote in.  So thank you, Steve.

Now all I have to do is be able to say that out loud...