Hello, and welcome to the Aural Quarrel. The A.Q. hopes to serve as a gateway of musical experience - through this blog, the reader can find new music, become more informed on specific albums and artists, ponder the socio-political and cultural issues that are reciprocally related with music, and more.
I'm MattintheBelfry, the blog's founder and currently, its sole provider.
I am a current senior at Westminster Choir College of Rider University, currently working on both my BM in music and MAT degrees. I study music education under the likes of Dr. Frank Abrahams, Dr. Patrick Schmidt, and Dr. Sharon Morrow, and voice under Dr. Marvin Keenze and Dr. Akiko Hosaki. I've performed in Carnegie Hall and the Kimmel Center. I've toured with some of the world's most renown choirs, including the Westminster Concert Handbell Choir. I play sax. I am trying to learn guitar, and can play a few songs, but bar chords escape me. I am an Eagle Scout, and I absolutely love teaching, and have invested the past several years of my life into the continuous reflective transformation of the philosophy, psychology, and practice of the art.
But the important thing is this:
NONE OF THAT MATTERS
None of these lovely resume points should convince you to allow me to tell you what to listen to, or if what you are or are not listening to is valuable, justifiable, or, gulp, "good". The A.Q. is not here to present authoritative standards to qualify and comply your musical tastes to, nor to oppress the undeniable value a relationship with any music can have.
Rather, the A.Q.'s raison d'etre is to act as a lifeline in the sea of never ending artists, albums, genres, and humanity that both is music and results from it. The sole true qualifications I have are nearly all out of my control. Due to my age, my setting at a music school, my job status, and of course, the fact that I do not travel anywhere without my Ipod and have dropped more money at local record shops than I have on rent the past two years, I have and continue to listen to a much wider volume and variety of music than the average American. And with a wider volume and breadth of experience, I may be able to offer insights that will help the reader in their purchases, discoveries, and indirectly, how they listen to their own music. It's simple mathematics.
The A.Q. will be updated regularly, although perhaps less so during the academic year. I hope to organize the blog as such:
Weekly Posts:
Album Reviews
Unplugged
(in these postings, I will present original articles, or offer discussions on the socio-political, economical, and cultural sides of music)
Monthly Posts:
Local Yokels
(due to my collegiate migratory path, these posting will highlight artists hailing from both New Jersey and CT)
The A.Q. will also have random, shorter postings about particular songs I may be listening to, poll questions, book reviews, links, etc.
Here's to a new beginning!
MattintheBelfry
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