(no subject)

[catsittingstill]

I really should be in bed. But I just got done napping for about 4 hours and I'm not really sleepy yet. I was just going to check my e-mail real quick and it's an hour later...

It looks like I am going to be getting that job at the University of Tennessee crystallography lab. Chris (my boss-to-be) called me today and asked me to come in and fill out some paperwork. I think by the time you're filling out a W4 you've pretty much got the job, yes? Anyway--it will be great to get back into a lab; I walked in today and felt some part of myself look around and say "ah yes, discarded equipment lines the hall, clusters of people next to the sink--I recognize this." On the other hand, I'm nervous about doing a good job. This is not helped by the fact that Chris apparently sent me an e-mail Thursday that I never received. So now I have to figure out what went wrong there; I *depend* on my e-mail.

In other news, I wrote a song yesterday. I got the tune for it playing with Shannon the day before, but finished putting the words together (mostly) yesterday.



Let the winter winds blow, let the winter rain fall
Let the winter fog rise till I can't see at all
But there's nothing so likely to get me to grin
As the dulcimer's dance with the bright mandolin.

Let the dulcimer sing through the cold winter nights,
Let the mandolin dress it in twinkling lights,
Welcoming, joyful, the music will burn
Lighting the way for the sun to return.

Let the summer sun shine, let the spring winds run free
Oh December or June makes no difference to me,
For the holidays live in the tunes flowing by;
They are Christmas and Easter, the Fourth of July.

Repeat first verse

Comments

[tnatj.livejournal.com]

Ah, X-ray crystallography, the original computational time-sink of biochemistry. Yep. Yer, bringin' back an old-timer's memories, Cat. Ditto the discarded but unmorgued equipment. Good luck at your new job!

Lovely lyrics! You won't have trouble getting down to GaFilk because of the new job, will you?

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

:-) I didn't know you used to be a biochemist.

I'm glad you like the lyrics. I'm hoping the new job won't interfere with GaFilk, since I'll only be 75% time. Probably, as long as I can schedule my work on other days, they won't have a problem with me taking Friday and Monday off. I won't be able to ask till Monday, though.

[tnatj.livejournal.com]

Oh, no, I wasn't a biochemist; I was an information technogogy type. But I did work in the same building complex with biochemists, organic chemists, biologists, etc., doing drug discovery and development on and off for 30+ years up until July. (Currently I am unemployed, slouching -- it seems -- towards retirement.)

So I got very familiar with the environment you've described, although disused equipment was generally whisked off very quickly to a large area called "the morgue" where it could be reclaimed by others if necessary. If an instrument stayed too long unused (usually when the morgue ran out of room), it would be sold, given away, or scrapped.

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

I don't know if UT has a morgue or not. Unused (I think) equipment positively lines some of the corridors. :-)

If you were IT, no wonder you knew Crystallographers :-)

ooh-nice!

[gannet.livejournal.com]

W4? Yeah, that's official. Congrats!

And a nice song, too.

Re: ooh-nice!

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

:-) Thanks, on both counts.

[peteralway.livejournal.com]

Makes me want to pull out the ol' dulcimer and play a tune. Well, Ginger, the new dulcimer, anyway.

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

:-) I'm going to try to write out a Dulcimer part for it. It's in D major, which is where we were playing when the tune occurred to me. Do you read music?

[braider.livejournal.com]

If you write out the music, I'd love to see it, too.

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

When I do write it out, I'll try to post it in my LJ. Or a link to it, at least

[peteralway.livejournal.com]

I can read music at a rate of about 15 seconds per note...Uh, let's see, that's Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge...Deserves...that would be a D...and since this dulcimer is tuned DAA, that would be the third fret--no, it's an octave up so it's the tenth fret. Next note....

Because mountain dulcimers are diatonic instruments I change key by changing tuning. Ginger, my main instrument these days is tuned to D, and D is the standard for mountain dulcimers these days (used to be C, and I keep my old dulcimer tuned to C)

There is a lot of variabiliy in how mountain dulcimers are set up--both in tuning and in fretboard configuration. As I understand it, a lot of this has actually been evolution of the instrument since Jean Ritchie brought the instrument from obscurity into the folk revival 40 years ago. It was a strictly diatonic instrument with two drone strings in the 60's, but since then it has changed.

I paid extra money to have my dulcimer made without the extra frets that are common these days, because to me they are new ways to screw up.

I say this to explain that Shannon's dulcimer may have more frets than my dulcimer. I don't have a 6 1/2 fret, so I can only play a strictly diatonic D major scale (or B minor scale, or E minor Dorian scale, or A major Mixolydian scale)without extra accidentals.

Also Shannon may keep her dulcimer tuned differently--I keep mine in DAA "ionian" tuning, o my lowest melody note is the A below middle C. If she has a 6 1/2 fret, she may keeps keep hers in DAD tuning, the other standard. That that shouldn't have any impact on the melody, though--just how we'd make chords.

That's a lot of wind to say that I can only play a strictly diatonic D major scale where Shannon might have slipped in a sharp or a flat.

The dulcimer is a wonderfully simple instrument to play, but sometimes that simplicity can make it compliated to work with other musicians.

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

Fear not. This is straight D major--no accidentals, no funny notes. 1 octave range (A-below-D to A-above-D). Nice and friendly. :-)

[peteralway.livejournal.com]

Sounds good. Ginger's got a 2 octave range, starting on A below middle C (unless I move over to the bass drone string, where I can get down to D below middle C but it sounds all different, and I'd have to jump between strings to avoid the one and only funny note with an accidental that I can play). One octave A-to-A means I can even pick and choose octaves.

It sure would be fun to try out this tune of yours.

[delennara.livejournal.com]

Yes, can imagine how it felt in the lab. They have a really special athmosphere thos labs. Most of the time you have and love it with the same breath...
This blueish smell of chemicals, the humming of the -60°C freezer....
and if oyu are lucky the old radio in the corner.
Hope you will like that job!
And the song is nice...reminds me of my "soul of strings"
http://www.livejournal.com/users/delennara/69435.html

songs about music...

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

I hope I'll like it to. And you're right about a lab's "atmosphere"--usually I could tell what lab I was in just by the smell. Kind of like photography :-)

I like your "soul of strings"--I think I heard you play it at GaFilk, didn't I? Though on your lute, rather than a harp.

[delennara.livejournal.com]

Yes, we played it together there, right. Just after I wrote the melody...now I try to learn it with my harp.
It really should be a harpsong :-)

[randwolf.livejournal.com]

Congratulations!

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

:-) Thanks!