ROSTAM BATMANGLIJ / ROSTAM
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• jpfeifer asked:

  What was it like majoring in music at Columiba?

  I had some great, life changing professors and TA’s. Tristan Murail’s orchestration class was seriously excellent. One thing he told us that sticks with me to this day is that two violins playing in parallel thirds will actually be louder than ten violins playing in unison. 

  I took a great class on John Cage.

  I discovered about halfway through college that weekly guest lectures for graduate students were open to all students. That was great.

  I remember talking to a composition graduate student on the subway; she was coming back from downtown where she’d performed a show. One thing she told me was that the music she performed downtown and the music she composed uptown had nothing to do with each other. I had the realization at that moment that that was exactly what I did not want to do in my life.

  Truthfully most atonal music passes through me, and I was forced to listen to so much of it that when I hear it now it reminds me only of grey days on the 6th floor of Dodge.

  I was seriously interested in studying harmony and theory from the late 19th century to the early 20th century but that was only covered in one class. The class was great and so was the professor (Sebastian Currier) but I could have imagined studying that for two years instead of 3 months.

  Finally there was a harpsichord practice room for which I still may or may not have the key.

  22 Nov 2010