A response to Mira’s latest essay.
Category: kaddish in two-part harmony
The Academic and the Musician. The academic immerses in Kaddish with thoughts of thinking rather than feeling—the emotions being too raw. The musician spends her time in making us feel, whether we want to or not. And making the music of kaddish. Making music kadosh. A flurry of emails ensue between the two. Their blogs lock horns, as do the writers themselves. They start a joint blog. They start a podcast.
A commitment to a year-long project has begun: a kaddish in two-part harmony.
A conversation among an anthropologist, a musician, and their audience on themes of death and dying, grief, ritual, the interplay between musician and listener.
this is going to end badly, she said
Malkah woke up, and she was healed of her despair. Her body felt light, like it could just float up into the ether — except for the fact that she already resided there to begin with. Her spirit was lighter too for a change. It was an indescribable feeling. She had even slept. Slept like…
daily kaddish: for flooded horns
A Kaddish for horns that are more full of water than we think, that rattle away through a recording that might otherwise have been pretty good. Argh! So much for doing Mira’s fresh vocal track justice…
on making the “two-part harmony” live, in person
Since Mira and I first met in person several weeks ago, we’ve been planning to start doing Kaddish recordings together occasionally—to start emphasizing the “two-part harmony” of our project title. We released our first collaborative recording last night in daily kaddish: for all the foster children who don’t quite make it.
daily kaddish: for all the foster children who don’t quite make it
Tonight’s Kaddish marks the first time that the “kaddish in two-part harmony” was created live, in person, in true two-part harmony. Mira and I agreed this should be a Kaddish for all the foster children who don’t quite make it. The heartbreaking story she posted from her own experience as a foster child earlier today (a kaddish for foster care children) gives the background information for that decision.
daily kaddish: all that unrest in the Middle East
When even a Middle East expert chains them all together like that, it’s no wonder I feel overwhelmed, and my problem is embarrassingly trivial next to the problems of all those people who are trying to live through all this. And then there are all those people who are not living through all this—who are dying in all this.
A Kaddish for all of them.
daily kaddish: gear angst
[powerpress] In preparation for recording live with Mira in a few days, I’ve made some gear upgrades, and tonight was all about sorting out the details of getting the new audio interface (Onyx Blackbird) to work with the old software (Pro Tools 9). Let’s just say it took all night and wasn’t fun, so by…
daily kaddish: whispering chamber
Tonight I took last night’s three spoken tracks, with Mira leading the charge and two of me trying to keep up, and tried to overlay them on top of each other as well as I could—as if the three of us were reciting together in congregation at a shul. Over that I played a “Kaddish” on horn.
I really need help with my Aramaic/Hebrew.
playing dead — a kaddish for George Leonard
The first time I played the Samurai Game, I died before the War even began. What happened was that our Daimyo had chosen me Second in Command. I was very honored and gave my allegiance willingly, eagerly, and with a complete sense of authenticity. I was ready to play the Game. What in the world…
daily kaddish: five tests
Today’s Kaddish compares two mics for vocal tracks with Mira’s Mac’s built-in mic, and it tests my ability to repeat the Aramaic text.