Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in requiem buff's LiveJournal:

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Tuesday, January 3rd, 2006
10:52 am	Concert on Jan. 8 Hey, if anyone's still in the NoVA area on Jan. 8, I'm having a trombone and organ concert at St. Michael's Catholic Church at 2 PM with my good friend James Martin. It's about an hour long, and it's free, right at the beltway and braddock road. Just take braddock inbound from the beltway, and take your first left on ravensworth. the church is about a 1/2 mile down, less, on your right, with a big sign. The concert idea is accessable 20th century music, with songs by Pinkham (Yay Christmas Cantata!) to a Puccini opera aria. And, if you're Catholic, go to Mass at St. Mike's if you can't make the concert, we'll be doing snippits then, and I play there anyways normally. Send me a message if you're interested, we'd love a good audience! (5 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, December 20th, 2005
10:38 am	Brag Brag Brag BRAG http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/19/AR2005121901410_2.html "Shafer's own, Bach-derived composition, "Non Nobis Domine," proved a gorgeous highlight of the concert. But even more ear-catching was the harmonically pungent setting of "There Is No Rose" that Washington Chorus member Brian Bartoldus wrote for the H-B Woodlawn Chamber Singers, a high school ensemble that performed as guests on the program." Seriously, it's not every day you get called more interesting than Bach, let alone your teacher. *content with work* (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Monday, December 19th, 2005
11:50 am	Kennedy Center premier Wow, I haven't updated in FOREVER. My Kennedy Center Concert Hall premier was last night, with H-B Woodlawn performing my There Is No Rose that some of you sang. They'll be doing it again on Thursday, and then again at Strathmore (my first time in the hall being a premier, wow) on Friday. Adam Schultz and two of my SU grad friends are partying at my place after the Thursday night concert, so if anyone wants to hang it'll be a rockin' time. Let's think about other things that have happened since last post. Um, I kinda dated this years homecoming Queen for a bit. I find that amusing slightly, and we're totally friends now. I have my own house and it's the shit with James and Adam and a random Chinese grad student whose name I still don't know the spelling of. We decorated it in full asian decor. I bought a harpsichord for $220 with an antique bench and sheet music, then refurbished it so that it's completely playable. It's my pet project, and we had people over for tea and crumpets in celebration. I made an advent wreath for my house, then proceeded to set it on fire this week. All of this seems totally me (with the exception of the first), and I love it, cuz I'm proud of it all and I love it all and it's great that I have friends who like that kind of eccentric twist. Anyways, Happy Holidays to you all, and anyone's invited to Thursday (esp. if you buy tickets to the actual concert! :-P) (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Friday, August 19th, 2005
5:45 pm	They figured it out My mom went to Hopkins today with a big spreadsheet where she had tracked her conditions and medications she was taking. They think they have it; just get off one of her medications, and she should be fine. Needless to say, I am MORE than relieved. This (gen ref error) has come just in time as I'm back to school on Tuesday/Wednesday, ready to tackle my song cycle again, as well as a rockin' trombone and organ concert. Hopefully James and I'll take it on the road, so we might be comin' to NoVA soon. It's been a hell of a summer, I definitely leave it a changed individual, and I really think for the better. I think I'm prepared, I'm a little scared about what's to come and whether I'm up for it, but it'll be ok. Current Mood: rejuvenated Current Music: Durufle - Prelude et fugue sur le nom d'Alain, Op. 7 (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, July 14th, 2005
3:47 pm	Oh Finale “Finale gives me all the flexibility I need for even my most ridiculous arrangements.” - Al Yankovic So if any of you own Finale, you know that they advertise like a Venetian beggar parades the street; they just don't stop. And yet, this is probably the best quote I've seen in a while, sent to me in another one of those "Buy our upgrades we'll give you a mug/t-shirt/our firstborn you need our product" e-mails. Props to you Finale, though I still won't buy 2006. Current Mood: tired Current Music: Fuchs. Yeah, I don't know who it is either. (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, June 8th, 2005
6:41 pm	Italy Ahhhhh, Europe! I'm back from the continent and almost back on sleep schedule. On my trip I got to do the following: - lead the congregation at St. Mark's in an impromptu Alleluia caused by miscommunication between Shafer and the priest at the most important church (musically) in the world. - have my Ave Maria performed twice, one no less than sublimely. - play organ in 3 cathedrals, including the seat of the Catholic faith, St. Peter's Basilica, where I was received VERY well. - sing with the Vatican choir and play Vespers with them because of a large miscommunication that got me stuck performing at the high altar (watch me not complain). - be called "Maestro" (quote one Robert Shafer afterwards: "Oh no, we'll never hear the end of that one.") - get tipsy with a grammy-award winning conductor. - view some of the greatest works of art known to man, including the David, Rape of the Sabine Women (woman?), Ecstacy of St. Teresa, Sistine Chapel, etc. - get blessed by the pope. Seems like an awesome guy. - meet a man who didn't speak my language but personally knew the woman who formed the chant method I study. - see the grave of the founder of opera and classical music (in my humble opinion), Monteverdi, as well as the graves of Titian, Rossini, Machiavelli, Dante, and others. - do all of those tourist-y things like look at the leaning tower, go to the colosseum, etc. All in all, it was probably the most amazing week of my life to date. I grew up so much as a musician, and the added respect from my peers and superiors was immediate. I feel top of the world, and after some rest and recouperation, I'll be ready to attack it again. Current Mood: tired Current Music: Queen - Don't stop me now (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, May 14th, 2005
4:20 pm	Most embarassing weekend ever. . . After yesterday's events, which I will not devulge because of their extremely embarrassing nature, I figured that the weekend could only look up from here. WRONG. So I'm sitting here, at the organ of the new church I play at, and there's no one around, so I put on full organ and go through one of my show pieces, Messiaen's "Dieu Parmi Nous". It's raucously fast and loud, and as I'm rushing through a particularly fast and loud section, the organ breaks. Yes, the ORGAN BREAKS. 3rd largest in diocese, est. value of instrument: $550,000. And I broke it by playing too loud. So we call the organ company, and apparently they think I overloaded the reducer or something. Anyways, I sent more voltage through the thing that it could handle, and it just sort of stopped. Hopefully we'll have it up and running again by tomorrow. No, I will not stop playing that piece, even if it's the death of my instrument. (5 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, May 11th, 2005
1:34 pm	Figure I should update ONE of these days. . . So yeah, school is over for the year, 1/2 way through my undergrad, all of that junk. . . I'm pearing down my life even more so that my life priorities are composing and directing. Eventually I'm going to have to choose, and I really don't want to. Rough decisions ahead, but not to be taken now! My song cycle is complete and was performed, if anyone wants a copy comment, Erin did a WONDERFUL job singing it. If anyone wants to hang out, give me a call. I'm busy but free until about the 26th, when I start working on music for my Italy tour. MGM, I know stuff will go down, it is only a matter of when, hit me up when life is settled. Current Mood: creative Current Music: Wind Jazz piece, in my head (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, April 6th, 2005
7:26 pm	Apologies Hey, I changed this entry because it was done in poor taste and mean spirits. I didn't even know the guy and I razzed him because of nothing more than bad sentence structure. Hell, I've written worse things probably when it was late at night, and homework comes first; he could have just written it up quick and sent. I realized this within the same day that I wrote it but didn't get a chance to delete it before someone found it. General apologies to them; hopefully the post was taken down before it did any harm. Best of luck to all in the elections, it will be a good run. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, March 7th, 2005
10:10 am	2 Days Later. . . Well I premiered my piece on Saturday night in front of 2 of the 4 most major choral conductors from the City, not including the 3rd who was conducting it. Got really hyper, hung out with MGM WHO HIKED OUT TO SEE MY CONCERT YOU ROCK SO MUCH, and then Em all night. This would be my 3rd premier, and the middle of the road one in terms of size and nerves (next to my Mass - crazy stuff there). People seemed to really enjoy it, which makes me happy. In other news, I'm back on my feet and Kellen and I were talking about getting lots of TJ folk or something to go see Merchant of Venice which people tell me is amazing; personally, I think only TJ people would appreciate it to its full extent compared to a lot of the people at my school, including myself, but I still think it would be awesome. I'm looking at later in the week/weekend. Anyone other than myself and Kellen interested? (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, February 18th, 2005
7:39 pm	The Shafer story to end all Shafer stories (no seriously, it's non musical and funny) characters: Robert Evett - a rather good composer from Washington who sadly drank himself to death because of his incredible nerves around people. We're currently singing his Regina Caeli Ingrid - only known by her first name; Haitian witchcraft practicer. Russell Woolen - composer of an Ave Maria that TJ chamber sang under Dr. B my. . . soph year? Anyways, he's from DC and he's good too. We're currently singing his Ingrediente Domino. Mr. Shafer - needs no introduction. "Well, while Teri's taking down the seating chart I'll tell you another story. My high school choir at James Madison when I was just starting out used to sing Mr. Evett's music, and once time we did in one of the local art galleries in DC. After this concert, he got a SCATHING review - something like, his pieces have no sense of melody or something, from some man at the Washington Sun. Of course, he's a composer, and a sensitive soul, so he curled up into bed and didn't leave that place at all for 3 whole months. Russell and I used to come over all the time and be like, "it's ok, the man was wrong, you're a good composer, he's an ass", etc. Well anyways we knew this woman named Ingrid who used to come to our little parties, and she practiced witchcraft, like real witchcraft? I swear, this woman was from Haiti and I saw some pretty weird things. Anyways, Mr. Evett used to have all of these parties at his house, and of course his huge 150 pound German Shepherd kept knocking people over and jumping on things the second anyone walked through the door. Whenever Ingrid was there, and the dog was being rowdy, she'd sit over him and start chanting in Spanish and out of nowhere the dog would just *plop* fall right to sleep. I mean, completely unconscious, like he was dead. Then, when the party was winding down and you know there were fewer people there, she'd start chanting over him again and *snaps fingers* bam, there she was again, like she hadn't slept at all. Well we were telling him about Robert because he had been in bed so long and we were starting to get worried about his health, and blaming this guy who wrote this review. So she says to me, "Well, do you want him killed, or just out of DC?" And I'm like, "well, we don't want to KILL him" So basically she gives me this list of things to get, you know, heart of a newly killed chicken, something the reviewer had touched in the last 2-3 days, and we checked the calendar for the next full moon. So she's sitting there, burning a letter of his that we had gotten, and mixing it in with the heart, and then we buried it underground with the intention of digging it up under the light of the next full moon. She told us that we had to place the remains on the man, and then immediately the hex would take effect. So we did, and then we mailed the. . . I don't know, grunge is what you'd call it? In an envelope to his office at the Sun. And you know, we figured he must of touched it when he opened it and saw it inside. Well, lo and behold, within a week that we mailed it, they let him go, gave him the old, "we're moving in a different direction" talk and he moved out west, never working in DC again. So, I guess the moral of the story is, DON'T MESS WITH WITCHES. On a separate note, my Ave Maria is being performed by his select chamber choir on March 5th at 2 PM in the Terrace Theater of the Kennedy Center. tickets are $20 and are available at kennedy-center.org. Current Mood: sick Current Music: Palestrina (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Monday, February 7th, 2005
12:16 am	I never do this, but why not. Describe yourself using one band and song titles from that band Created by naw5689 and taken 16084 times on bzoink! Choose a band/artist and answer only in song TITLES by that band: Leonard Bernstein Are you male or female: (we'll go with Copland) Fanfare to the common Man Describe yourself: Rabbit at top Speed How do some people feel about you: Glitter and be Gay How do you feel about yourself: Age of Anxiety; or, Profanation Describe your ex girlfriend/boyfriend: *&#$)(@#$)(I LEO-NARD BERN-STEIN (inside joke) Describe your current girlfriend/boyfriend: Happy We Describe where you want to be: Best of All Possible Worlds Describe what you want to be: I don't know Describe how you live: Tonight Describe how you love: Enter two girls (no!); Then Desire took hold of me Share a few words of wisdom When tomorrow tumbles, and everything I love is gone, I will face regret all my days and yet I will still go on Create a Survey | Search Surveys | Go to bzoink! (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, January 9th, 2005
11:00 am	WARNING - Music dork rant Another playing of the Messiaen piece, another rant by a confused Catholic about how my playing is "disturbing" and "unprayerful". Then I tell them that the music is by a very Catholic man writing about the birth of Christ, which we are still celebrating here back in realChristmasland. And then the guy starts talking about how he knows something about music. I like how I can play this song in every church but the one that wrote it. Thanks for voicing your opinion sir, but frankly, don't try to censure me again. I've played Bach all my life, I played a romantic/early-modernish piece during communion, I never or rarely played modern pieces for the full year that I was at this church before that. I would have played Bach beforehand, but I left my music at home. What happened to music in the church? I mean, we're all so prozac now. Everything has to be straighforward schmoltz, and that's not what God is. Wake up and taste the faith people; it's a violent, turbulent one. Die with your savior, and realize the glory that awaits you in new life. Set fires! Dare to help others, and dare to believe! And for God's sake take some joy in His Mass.  And I was thinking of apologizing for that faith rant, but you know what?  I'm not.  We need to feel an equality between races and religions and beliefs without anger, but we need to stand up and say to the world what we really are.  That's equality and that's diversity - simple. Wow I totally got off subject.  Oh well. (6 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, January 2nd, 2005
1:18 pm	Shafer just cut all of the work that I've done over the past 2 months and edited the work I had done before that. After working continuously through every day of this past week. I like how all of that means nothing now. Maybe I'll recycle something somewhere else. Maybe. I have until 4 PM tomorrow to do what I thought I was working on these past 3 months. This is the part where I hate my major, cuz no other composer I know at SU has to deal with this shit. Working on commission is a life lesson, but frankly I"ve been dealing with it for a year now continuously, and I want it to be over for a while before I take it on again. 5 guys/coffee/reveling is wanted after this is over. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, December 31st, 2004
9:22 am	So I figure I should do an update, since it's been forever since I've had a real post on this thing. My finals went well, I walked into Form and Analysis an hour late and still managed to ace it apparently cuz I shouldn't have an A in it and I do. Voice juries went QUITE nicely, and organ juries were so-so, but that's ok, cuz I learned a really awesome piece and I progressed a lot as an organist so they gave me an A for just stepping up completely in technique. To summarize, I retained my 4.0, which I'm quite happy with cuz last semester was pretty darn hard. I'm dating a wonderful girl named Cathy, MGM got to meet her but only for a second. There Is No Rose was cancelled for this year, but postponed 'til next, which is good cuz the HS choir wasn't really good at all that sang for us. The Ave Maria is coming along! I'm not as happy with it as some other parts of the Ave, but at least it will be done for Mr. Shafer and off my back. I'm still up for MCL things, but I don't have time for planning; my house is available if we wanna do it here. MGM, I'm leaving it up to you this time to organize since I'm disgustingly busy 'til Monday with composing. James is visiting on Tuesday, if anyone wants to meet an awesome person and grab food and such at 5 guys (again MGM READ THIS HERE CUZ WE NEED TO 5 GUYS). Anyways, that sounds like it; I'm back on the 10th if anyone wants to do something. See ya later! Current Mood: accomplished Current Music: Ave Maria again and again and again (Comment on this)
Wednesday, December 29th, 2004
10:46 am	Calling all TJ grads. . . So call me crazy for being bugged by this, but my Physics is failing me. The earthquake that just happened shortened the day permanently by 3/100 of a second. Well, that's what I heard at least; other people say that it just shortened that one day. I realize that doesn't sound like a lot, but that's actually a pretty darn big change as things go. My issue is, how can a self-contained change like this affect the rotation of the earth? My first thought is that the M or whatever it's called of the earth was changed in terms of stuff getting closer to the center of the earth. That would cause us to get faster like a spinning ice skater pulling in her arms (go rotational inertia! I HATED solving your problems!). But really people, I don't think that the surface of the earth was changed enough to do that. Maybe it is and I'm just nuts. And if anyone even TRIES to blame this on relativity being different from newtonian physics and says "well it's something that we just don't get", they're cut. I realize that most of my people who post are like, poly-sci, music, and english majors, but can anyone think of an explaination? In other news. . . 13 days 'til happy Shafer Day. Current Mood: confused Current Music: La Nativite Du Seigneur (8 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, December 2nd, 2004
12:52 am	I don't wanna post this, but it's the fastest way to tell people. There is No Rose will probably not be sung at the Kennedy Center this year, due to circumstances that are beyond my and Mr. Shafer's control. I am desperately going to form a 10 voice choir tomorrow morning (I already have 5 voices who are definites) to replace the group who is supposed to be singing it. I'm not going to get into my opinions on this decision now, especially because the decision of getting it performed lies in my hands. Please pray for me as I have a lot of work to do in the coming week during the time when I should be studying for finals, and I have to make several important decisions very fast that affect my grades, my well-being, and this performance. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Tuesday, November 16th, 2004
9:13 pm	I think I'm the only person I know who has this happen to them So I'm notorious for losing music, though I've gotten much better since last year. Most of you know this pretty well. I had 2 pieces that were missing, but I didn't need them right away, so I wasn't in a rush to find them as I figured that they were just filed away somewhere. So I go into choir. Ms. Horne: "Brian, are these pieces of music yours? Someone found them in a garden on Washington Street (mind you, that's like a 5-10 minute walk from campus)." Me: *dumbfounded* "Uhhhhhh, yeah, I guess" No idea how that happened. In other news, Bach B-minor this sunday, which proves to be fun, as well as a choral concert I feel like going to this Saturday which if anyone is in the area, it's short and it proves to be fun. Post if you're interested and I'll give you the details. Current Mood: tired Current Music: MY COMPLETED BRASS TRIO DRAFT (Comment on this)
Saturday, October 30th, 2004
1:26 pm	So the comp concert was postponed again, a week later, to Saturday Nov. 20. This still gives me limited time to get the brass together, and I'm quite worried about them. In other news, Messiah actually sounds half decent. If anyone wants, the concert is tonight and tomorrow at 7:30 both nights at Braddock Street Methodist Church in Winchester. It should promise to be fun, though the acoustics make me want to cry because I can't hear myself. Talked to someone at school about her brother, a member of TJ's infamous class of '96. Got a great Stegall story out of it, told some old TJ grads about it, and they all knew what teacher did it before I told them. As if I can't say it enough, MGM is one of the coolest people on the face of the earth. I don't know why this needed to be said now, but it popped into my head. Wow, that was one of my most random entries ever. Hope y'all enjoy. Current Mood: amused Current Music: Messiaen - Theme and Variations (Comment on this)
Sunday, October 24th, 2004
12:45 am	Kellen visited SU totally randomly today; I sadly wasn't much of a host, but it was amusing and we got to hang for a while, which was awesome. TWC kind of cut us short, which was great just for the drive with the grad students. I like how much I'm rambling this past week with them. Ramble ramble ramble. I need to shut up a bunch. I'll need dates from you if you're going to the TWC thing by Friday; I'll try to contact you all individually, but if you post the date (if you have on the last one that'll do) as a comment that'll count. The dates are Dec. 18 at 1:30, and Dec. 21 and 22 at 8. You can all probably hang with me afterwards as I'll prob. be partying all nights. (1 Comment |Comment on this)