mahler's 1 or how i learned to stop worrying and love the jewish/czech folk motif

hellie and i went to the symphony on monday - on the one hand, i do agree alot w/ some discussions ive had with friends (who know alot more about concert hall music than me, ty hellie + mikah specifically) about the sort of dire state of the modern symphony repertoire. CSO + the civic orchestra are playing like 4 of mahler's 9 symphonies over the course of 18 months (spanning back to last summer). even their modern programming is The Guys (john adams cough cough). looks like they played the schoenberg variations once, like 50 years ago while boulez was conducting... please pretty please give the modernists a chance <3

but also it's mahler. he goes crazy mode the whole time. even when he does it too long (20 minute final movement. its a little indulgent.). it's kind of like eating chocolate cake for like 70 minutes straight. and your teeth kind of hurt at the end. but also if you're like "idk kind of sucks that i had to eat chocolate cake" its like come on, what are we doing here. you even get a little tart cherry towards the end when that phrase starts getting passed around the orchestra like a no annabelle. that's far too much. dont be gross. ok like uhhhhhhhhh a bottom at a sexual encounter with a lot of tops. happy now? look what you made me do. i fuckin' love this guy!!!! becoming one of the goats because you loved folk music so much that you'd just pour it into your symphonies. (arranged for an oboe d'amore. there are no laws anymore!).

i've found so little time (or, rather, taken so little time) to read but the sound and the fury just rocks every direction. where did he get off making it funny? every time jason complains about how no one wants to work anymore i cackle. society took a major aura loss when we stopped being able to send telegrams collect.

in the works: a composition i'm calling "what it would sound like if we lived together in my apartment". im excited to compose purely with found sound... not a granular synthesizer in sight, just samples living in the moment. i'll get to publish it with a b-side because im (almost?) done with an arthur russell cover.....

also be on the lookout for "how can we lose when we're so sincere?" (working title) a zine about the things i learned for/with/on behalf of my friends via Rodenfest 2k26.

love, annie belle


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