What instrument do you play? Some schools are stronger in some departments than others. I know little about UC Berkeley, but it seems to me that UCLA has a good, solid all-around music school. It also has one of the best ethnomusicology departments in the country, if that's of interest to you.

(Disclaimer: I go to a "rival" school in LA.)
posted to Ask Metafilter by speicus at 3:09 PM on September 17, 2008

My advice to you would be to email professors in your field at both schools, if you haven't already, and ask lots of questions... in my experience most are happy to talk to prospective students (and if they're not, that tells you something too).
posted to Ask Metafilter by speicus at 3:14 PM on September 17, 2008

Not sure if concert music is your friend's cup of tea, but Igor Stravinsky definitely falls into this category. In early ballets like Firebird and Petroushka, he sounds very Russian-late-Romantic, sort of like a more adventurous Rimsky-Korsakov. Then came the Rite of Spring, which freaked everyone out with its "primitivism" and innovations in harmony and rhythm. After that he experimented with neoclassicism (Symphony of Psalms, Dunbarton Oaks) and serialism (Agon, Variations for... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by speicus at 11:30 AM on September 8, 2008

Seconding Italo Calvino, in particular Cosmicomics, Invisible Cities, and If on a winter's night a traveler. The Baron in the Trees, The Nonexistent Knight and The Cloven Viscount are very good as well. Calvino is unique in his ability to write about the fantastic in a very precise way.

Borges was obviously a big influence on Calvino, but I find Borges to be hit or miss sometimes. The Aleph is an amazing story, though.
posted to Ask Metafilter by speicus at 4:10 AM on August 8, 2008

Fruity Loops seems to fit your description. I haven't played with it in a while, but I remember having lots of fun with it. If you want to go higher end, then yes, Reason would do the trick. Propellerheads also made Reason's predecessor, ReBirth, into freeware, and while it's not nearly as flexible, you can still do cool stuff with it.

Finally, there's Logic Pro (or Logic Express), which may be overkill for what you want to do, but if you happen to be a student, the... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by speicus at 2:06 AM on June 5, 2008

A man walks into a joke.
posted to Ask Metafilter by speicus at 6:38 PM on May 13, 2008

Isn't sparse the opposite of dense?
posted to Ask Metafilter by speicus at 8:04 PM on May 2, 2008

For an antonym of lonely, I might go with something like "replete."
posted to Ask Metafilter by speicus at 8:07 PM on May 2, 2008

If I say "I'm a composer," because I'm in LA, a lot of people assume I'm in film. Saying "I'm a grad student in composition" fares slightly better.

I usually also get asked "What kind of music do you write?" Most of the misconceptions follow this, because I don't have a succinct non-technical answer to this question. Most of the available pre-existing terms ("art music," "classical music," "contemporary classical... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by speicus at 8:42 PM on April 28, 2008

Michael Gordon's Industry is a cello piece inspired by a "vision of a 100-foot cello made out of steel suspended from the sky." The sound gets gradually more distorted and monstrous as it progresses -- here is a clip, though you really gotta hear the whole piece.
posted to Ask Metafilter by speicus at 5:29 PM on February 15, 2008 marked best answer

Oh, how could I forget Carla Kihlstedt?
posted to Ask Metafilter by speicus at 9:53 PM on February 15, 2008

Below is my list of 25, all composers and pieces from the early 20th century on. It was really hard for me to pick one piece by some of these composers, and hard not to include some that didn't make the list. When in doubt I tried to pick the composers and pieces I thought were more influential, though obviously there's some personal bias involved and sometimes I picked a slightly lesser known piece that I think deserves more attention. Anyway, here it is, vaguely grouped into categories of... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by speicus at 8:33 PM on January 5, 2008 marked best answer

Mediareport, I don't know when Mordden's book was written, but his information is pretty out of date. Many composers don't work with twelve-tone systems anymore, and very few work with twelve-tone systems exclusively. In fact there was a widespread reaction against twelve-tone music that began in the late 60s with minimalism and process-oriented music. For a while this was the huge battle over the soul of concert music, with the audience-friendly minimalists and their successors on one side,... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by speicus at 10:13 AM on January 6, 2008

Duke Ellington's Far East Suite is one of the most evocative and original jazz albums I know.
posted to Ask Metafilter by speicus at 10:52 PM on January 1, 2008

I make music. It has everything good -- the ritual, the catharsis, the sense of wonder, the sense of belonging, and the sense that the world is ordered and beautiful, but without any of the scary groupthink and dogma parts. I feel pretty lucky that this works out for me.
posted to Ask Metafilter by speicus at 12:37 AM on December 31, 2007

Iannis Xenakis - Mycenae Alpha

Aphex Twin wishes he was this hard.
posted to Ask Metafilter by speicus at 5:30 PM on December 4, 2007

LUCKDRAGON (RETIRED)
posted to Ask Metafilter by speicus at 10:10 PM on November 28, 2007

Gloomy Sunday, aka the "Hungarian Suicide Song"
posted to Ask Metafilter by speicus at 5:40 PM on October 21, 2007

I can relate to your first paragraph here -- in a hostile or indifferent environment, finding a kindred spirit can be a really amazing thing. And I've often found that it segues rather easily into romantic feelings for that person, though it's important to realize that these feelings aren't necessarily absolute, that they don't always translate to when you're around that person in a different context and they're not a shining diamond in a pile of poo anymore.

It also... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by speicus at 5:00 PM on October 8, 2007

I remember Bjork saying something about how Vespertine was designed to sound good through tinny little laptop speakers. Anyway, it's a great album, and fits your criteria, with a lot of detail and activity in the mid-to-treble register.

I also wouldn't totally dismiss classical music and would especially encourage you to look into more modern stuff influenced by electronics. For example, I'd recommend Gerard Grisey's Vortex Temporum and Denis Smalley's Base Metals as... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by speicus at 3:06 AM on September 21, 2007

This sounds like Troll 2, except for the aliens bit.
posted to Ask Metafilter by speicus at 12:30 PM on September 9, 2007

Just tried this at the keyboard, and I had more luck with using my right hand thumb and left hand index finger. This allowed my right hand to rest at the bottom of the key with the left hand further up. Got close to tempo, though I can't do it evenly without more practice.
posted to Ask Metafilter by speicus at 2:50 PM on July 26, 2007

Oops, should've previewed.
posted to Ask Metafilter by speicus at 2:51 PM on July 26, 2007

Seems to me they all have almost exactly the same tempo, and almost exactly the same beat... that sort of plodding, loping yet forward driving rhythm that gives it a powerful, inexorable quality. Maybe there's more to it than that, but that was what immediately struck me.
posted to Ask Metafilter by speicus at 6:06 AM on July 16, 2007

If you make electronic music, EM411 is a great place to go.
posted to Ask Metafilter by speicus at 5:38 PM on June 19, 2007

Er, here is a link that works.
posted to Ask Metafilter by speicus at 5:40 PM on June 19, 2007

I would get him some musical toys -- a variety that he can experiment with. Basically, allow him to make the transition from listening to creating. A little keyboard would not be a bad idea.

I would maybe stay away from recorder for now. Kids that young seem to have trouble with the whole blowing into while covering holes concept. Even with 8-year-olds it can be a struggle. At that age it's better to have instant gratification type stuff, i.e. you hit it, it makes a... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by speicus at 10:40 PM on June 5, 2007

I would also check early dixieland stuff, or jazz before it was oficially called "jazz." Something from Louie Armstrong's Hot Five/Hot Six period? Bix Beiderbecke?
posted to Ask Metafilter by speicus at 3:57 PM on May 15, 2007

Konono No. 1. A Congolese group that urbanized traditional Bazombo trance music with thumb pianos by incorporating makeshift percussion and hand-made microphones made from old car parts. The resultant distortions then become an indispensable part of the music. Fascinating stuff.
posted to Ask Metafilter by speicus at 2:39 AM on May 13, 2007

Beauty is not perfection. Beauty is not perfection. Beauty is not perfection!
posted to Ask Metafilter by speicus at 5:59 PM on April 30, 2007

If you are insane, every creative person is insane.
posted to Ask Metafilter by speicus at 12:46 AM on March 31, 2007

Just to add another data point, I do this sometimes, especially when I'm tired or wired. I'm a musician/composer. I love thinking about the way words sound. I especially love words that sound like what they mean. Like the lazy concatenation of the "s" and "h" in "disheveled," for example.

I don't do it during sex, though. Are you being serious about that? That's more than a little weird. Have you asked her about this habit or is it a... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by speicus at 3:41 PM on March 7, 2007

Even though it's technically "classical" music (sort of), Ligeti's "Hungarian Rock" is a totally rad piece for harpsichord that has a lot of rhythmic drive.
posted to Ask Metafilter by speicus at 3:28 PM on March 7, 2007

Actually there is a recording I like better here.
posted to Ask Metafilter by speicus at 3:33 PM on March 7, 2007

You will make new friends in LA. Your old friends and family will still be there; they won't just disappear. Your boyfriend is willing to move out to be with you in 6 months, which is huge. 6 months is totally doable long-distance-wise, in my opinion. I bet you'll still have free time for your projects, and it sounds like on top of that your new job will be far more rewarding and fulfilling than your current job.

It will be difficult. You will probably be lonely and... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by speicus at 3:42 PM on November 4, 2006

I go to USC. It's not in South Central, which is further south. The neighborhoods around USC include Exposition Park and West Adams. They're not great neighborhoods but I wouldn't say it's particularly dangerous to live/work there. There are a couple restaurants I like around there, including a vegetarian soul food place and a sweet Mexican place.

Now I live in Silverlake, which I like a lot, and it takes me 20-40 min. to get to campus depending on the time of day.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by speicus at 11:07 AM on November 7, 2006

The Simpsons theme song and "Maria" from West Side Story both start with a melodic tritone (C to F-sharp or some transposition thereof).

Just sayin'.

It might help you to further classify non-harmonic tones, since "there are notes in the chord and notes outside of the chord" might seem too vague to be very helpful. You can try experimenting with:

passing tones - notes that move from one chord tone to... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by speicus at 4:06 PM on November 6, 2006

Balki and Larry from "Perfect Strangers."
posted to Ask Metafilter by speicus at 12:17 AM on October 11, 2006

In my opinion, "Papa Was a Rodeo" by the Magnetic Fields is the ultimate duet (though it only becomes a duet near the end of the song).
posted to Ask Metafilter by speicus at 5:56 PM on September 5, 2006

Oh yeah! And "Yeah! Oh, Yeah!" by same. Yeah.
posted to Ask Metafilter by speicus at 5:59 PM on September 5, 2006

Closer
posted to Ask Metafilter by speicus at 3:19 AM on May 12, 2006

b) Just be upfront about it and let guys know ahead of time that making out is all you're interested in. If a guy tries to give you a hard time about it, he's an asshole who isn't worth it. As a guy, personally I appreciate the honesty.

Still working on a) and c), I'll let you know when I figure that out myself.
posted to Ask Metafilter by speicus at 3:36 AM on May 8, 2006

Actually this reminds me more of the caesura symbol in music, often called "train tracks." It looks like this: || but often slanted to the right. It's also used to mark pauses in verse. I seem to remember it serves some purpose in legal documents as well? Anyway, I'm willing to bet it's an ancestor of the pause button symbol. But where the caesura symbol itself comes from, I'm not sure.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by speicus at 3:41 AM on April 24, 2006

I feel like David Bowie must have some... he uses sax frequently and has a lot of instrumentals, and there must be some overlap. Unfortunately my head can't conjure up any specific examples, but I'd check these albums:

Low
Heroes
Black Tie, White Noise

Or there's always the collected instrumentals. Some of these instrumentals are more ambient/avant than rock but they're still fun.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by speicus at 6:49 PM on April 9, 2006

A friend of mine was given a bitstring to decode by her computer scientist boyfriend. Months later when she finally got around to figuring it out, she discovered it contained a marriage proposal. She said yes.

Sometimes I wish I was a girl just so I could get proposed to.
posted to Ask Metafilter by speicus at 9:23 PM on April 6, 2006

Cadillac Desert by Marc Reisner.
posted to Ask Metafilter by speicus at 4:11 PM on March 22, 2006

Like many delicious mysteries, it's probably a combination of nature and nurture.

In terms of harmony, the overtone series is pretty fundamental, i.e. it has groundings in universal laws of physics. We hear a doubled frequency as the same note somehow, and this interval which we know as the octave is the most basic unit in harmony. And this is completely cross-cultural, I believe.

But how the overtone series translates into our modes and scales... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by speicus at 10:02 PM on March 20, 2006

Credits say it was composed by Noah Andrade. Usually "composed" means the piece is original and not sampled from something, but this could be a mistake.

You could always ask him.
posted to Ask Metafilter by speicus at 6:52 PM on March 9, 2006

T.O.N.T.O.'s Expanding Head Band
posted to Ask Metafilter by speicus at 2:58 PM on March 5, 2006

Mac and Me is a 95 minute Coke commercial that bears a conspicuous resemblance to E.T.
posted to Ask Metafilter by speicus at 6:29 PM on February 15, 2006