Jesse Raccio

March, crowd-sound and an organ

jesse — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 22:13:38 +0000

Coming Tuesday, March 9: Premiere of Out of the Cradle for Organ and Cello

Thursday – Friday, March 11-12: Crowd Sound Glitch Machine, installation at Kingham Hill School (written in max).

A small tribute

jesse — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 22:05:54 +0000

This Olympic season I rooted for Hungary — how unpatriotic of me, I know. If you now me, you could assume it is simply because I am a lover of things Hungarian (magyar-o-phile?). It is, after all, a language I have become obsessed with and a music which has interested me ever since I first listened to Bartók, Kodály and Rózsa.

So I want to pay a bit of tribute to Erika Huszár and the Hungarian speed skating team in general. I got to know Erika’s sister Éva through work and was invited to and spent time with their family in both Budapest and their home of Jászberény. They were wonderful, warm and hospitable people — not to mention her grandmother’s wonderful homemade walnut liquor. But I digress. Congrats, Erika!

A top ten list and why I like Neil Gaiman

jesse — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 10:29:10 +0000

I found this over at metafilter the other day.

“Ten rules for writing fiction… we asked authors for their personal dos and don’ts”, the Guardian article states. Normally something I would flee from — or at least make merciless fun of. However, there were some gems. And the author which stood out most to me is one of my favorites, Neil Gaiman (I read Neverwhere on the plane whilst moving to the U.K.). I found his “advice” to be practical, down-to-earth and universally applicable:

Write.

Put one word after another. Find the right word, put it down.

Finish what you’re writing. Whatever you have to do to finish it, finish it.

Put it aside. Read it pretending you’ve never read it before. Show it to friends whose opinion you respect and who like the kind of thing that this is.

Remember: when people tell you something’s wrong or doesn’t work for them, they are almost always right. When they tell you exactly what they think is wrong and how to fix it, they are almost always wrong.

Fix it. Remember that, sooner or later, before it ever reaches perfection, you will have to let it go and move on and start to write the next thing. Perfection is like chasing the horizon. Keep moving.

Laugh at your own jokes.

The main rule of writing is that if you do it with enough assurance and confidence, you’re allowed to do whatever you like. (That may be a rule for life as well as for writing. But it’s definitely true for writing.) So write your story as it needs to be written. Write it honestly, and tell it as best you can. I’m not sure that there are any other rules. Not ones that matter.

Yes, I know there are only 8…brevity is the something of something, right?

Upcoming Events – Feb/Mar

jesse — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 10:20:47 +0000

This coming Monday (22-Feb) 8pm, Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh — another Noisy Night. Come see “My Milonga” for Violin, Bassoon and Trombone.

March 9th, Organ recital, Kingham Hill School: A piece written in honor of the Kingham’s Organ scholar program for Cello (Jessica Hayes) and Organ (Hannah Seward).

The nightly betrayal of reason. Nabokov on sleep

jesse — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 13:16:39 +0000

On the train to Edinburgh the other day, I was reading Nabokov’s autobiography, Speak, Memory. His description of his troubles falling asleep really grabbed my interest:

“All my life I have been a poor go-to-sleeper… Sleep is the most moronic fraternity in the world. It is a mental torture I find debasing… I simply cannot get used to the nightly betrayal of reason, humanity, genius. I loathe Somnus, that black-masked headsman binding me to the block… I had nothing — except one token light…Its vertical line of lambency (which a child’s tears could transform into dazzling rays of compassion) was something I could cling to, since in absolute darkness my head would swim and my mind would melt in a travesty of the death struggle.”

I have never been a good sleeper. There are also a lot of bits about butterflies.

Lomax in Haiti

jesse — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 01:11:37 +0000

Vodou and Beyond. Alan Lomax, 1500 recordings from Haiti, 10 cd’s. I love his recordings from the deep south but never knew these existed. A full catalog is available from the Lomax collecton.

Red notes in Scotland

jesse — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 11:58:17 +0000

This past week, I was fortunate to be able to work with with the Red Note Ensemble for one of their Noisy Nights — great musicians, good conversation, and a nice venue. It was a nicely put together, diverse program ranging from tonal to modern to electroacoustic.

And for a first, I had some music reviewed.

Redesigned

jesse — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 21:39:38 +0000

Welcome to my redesigned site (using wordpress).

I have shifted over to a blog format to make life simpler. As one would expect, the site will evolve over time. It may be sparse now, but hang in there — there is more to come.