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Today, the first of five short, original compositions for Advanced Harmony II was due. First, a little bit of background. For my music theory class (Advanced Harmony II with Joan Pinkston), I am required to write five compositions that reflect the musical forms we are studying in class. We started off the semester by learning about Binary and Ternary forms. Besides the regular classwork/homework, we were required to write a short piece that met the following qualifications.

• Distinct “A” theme of at least four measures
• Distinct “B” theme of at least four measures (accomplished by changing key, meter, tune, style, etc.)
• A return of the “A” theme or a slight variation of it.
• At least one harmony line (minimum of two notes)
• Can be for piano or any other instrument that can be played/brought to class by members of the class…
• Because they will be performed in class for everyone

I wrote my ABA composition for piano and french horn (big thanks to Jed for playing the horn part for me!). The A and B themes are 8 measures long. The piece progresses from F major to the borrowed mediant (Ab major) in the B theme and back to F major with a D.C. al Fine. Here is a MIDI of my piece if you care to listen to it. Let me know what you think.

Later this semester, I will be required to write . . .

• Original Theme and Variations
• Original Modal Piece
• Original Impressionistic Piece
• Original Piece - Pandiatonicism, Non-Diatonic Harmonization, or Polytonality

I’ll post them too if they’re “note”-worthy

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• Posted in College, Music, My Life

There’s no better way to start the semester than with a birthday. Particularly your own. Yes, today is my birthday. *waits for applause to die down* Thank you, thank you. And on top of that, my first class today was History of Civ Tutorial. For those of you who know what that is, you know it’s kinda pointless to have that as your first class of the semester as there is nothing to be “tutored” about yet. So we got let out early, and now I’m in my room drinking coffee (another good thing). Perhaps I will finish that birthday cake that I brought with me later on today (leftovers from my un-birthday party at home on Monday).

In other news, I found out it’s also my hall leader’s birthday today. Happy Birthday, Bill!

UPDATE: I also found out that I share a birthday with Dustin Battles (choir buddy), and Steve Schroeder (Z buddy). So that makes four or us. Wow. January 11th sure is a great day to have a birthday. Anybody else I know??

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• Posted in College, My Life

After 12 1/2 hours of driving - er, riding in a bus - we made it back to BJ last night around 7:30. Today I’m working on getting some of the books that I need and getting moved back in. Here’s a quick rundown of my classes for this semester.

• CMn 207 - Recreational Leadership
• MLS 241 - Intermediate Spanish I
• Pr 202 - Protecting Church Purity / Missions
• Hi 102 - History of Civilization
• MT 202 - Advanced Harmony II
• Bi 220 - The Life and Ministry of Christ
• MT 204 - Advanced Aural Skills II
• SM 291 - Private Hymn Playing Lessons
• Pi 441 - Private Piano Lessons

Counting choir, which meets twice a week, I have 24 26 class hours per week. Phew! I can tell this semester is going to be a busy one. My verse for this semester is James 1:5.

But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him. (NASB)

Since God is the Source of all wisdom and knowledge, I will need to lean on Him for the help that I need.

Classes start tomorrow with a bang. I hope to be able to update my site every once in a while, but no guarantees.

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• Posted in College, My Life

This week saw the renewal of ShankDoor.com, a site that I had redesigned some time ago. I have just finished giving it a “spring cleaning” (I know it’s winter, but it’s warm enough here in PA that you might be fooled…) which included a new design, an upgrade from HTML 4.0 to XHTML 1.0, a new photo gallery, and an overall better site structure. The design template itself was the result of about 3 hours of work (probably the quickest I’ve ever done). It took another 2 full days of work (give or take) to redo the 80+ pages on the site. Overall, it was a pretty fast job speeded along by the fact that all the content stayed the same. It was just a matter of copy/pasting and a little more.
Some key features:

• Custom Graphics
• Revamped Logo
• CSS Design
• Cross-browser compatibility
• PHP/MySQL/Javascript Photo Gallery
• Email Forms
• 80+ pages
• Site Map and Search Engine
• Custom Google Map

If you have a chance, visit the site and leave a comment here on what you think. Thanks!

BTW, you can see the rest of the xHTMLpro.com design portfolio here.

UPDATE: I liked the design so much, I decided to package it as a design template and upload it to the web. It’s a hit! At this point, after being online for only 2 days or so, it has been downloaded about 450 times and is currently the 5th most frequently downloaded template on OSWD.org. Whee! Get it here.

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• Posted in My Life, Technology, xHTMLpro.com

That title pretty much summarizes what this post will cover. Pretty random? Maybe. But an out-of-the-ordinary post deserves an out-of-the-ordinary title, don’t you think?

First - no snow. *pout* I’ve been home from school for 2 1/2 weeks now. I’ve really been hoping for some of that white fluffy stuff. How comes Denver is being extra blessed this winter? I’ve got a message for the Denver airport authorities . . . Put some of that in a truck and ship it to my front yard, will ya? I’ll be leaving to go back to school in just about a week. We’re running out of time here, people.

Enough ranting. Now onto some comic relief. It’s somewhat interesting what Americans do to celebrate a new year. I wonder who thought up the tradition of dropping something to celebrate, anyways? It was probably the same person who invented Christmas trees and Easter eggs. We had quite a time trying to explain that tradition to a French MK who is a friend of ours…

Us: For New Year’s in America, we drop something.
Frenchie: … you do what?
Us: We … you know … we drop things.
Frenchie: Not following you.
Us: Like, in NYC they, like, drop a crystal ball. Well, actually, they kinda-like lower it so it doesn’t, like, break, you know. And when the ball reaches the bottom of the pole … it’s New Years! Confetti and the whole nine yards! Get it?
Frenchie: *confused*

We probably shouldn’t have told him what we do in our hometown - Lebanon, PA. It only befuddled him the more. We drop a bologna! But not just any bologna, mind you - a Lebanon bologna. But not just any Lebanon bologna, mind you - a whopping 11 ft long, 200 lb. Lebanon Bologna! Yes, the whopping hunk of meat is encased in metal and lowered by a city fire truck and the stroke of 12. And the good part is that after the New Year’s celebration, the bologna gets chopped up and donated to the Lebanon Rescue Mission. Yes siree! It’s a great, wacky tradition with a happy ending.

Also worth noting is that it has been called the 2nd most unusual New Year’s drop in America. First place went to Falmouth, PA. They drop a stuffed goat.

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• Posted in My Life