30 Second Spots - That's Not Your Baby Concerto

Bored with long posts? Tired of short music? Click here or here or here (and then click Sabre Dance) to see the world's cutest Crash Cymbal player. No kidding.

A pleasant effect of doing Mixed Meters is that several long out-of-touch college roommates have started regular communication again. One of them is Kevin Tidemann, now valiantly serving a tour of duty in the Federal bureaucracy. Kevin wrote: "I love your 30 second spots, the ones I've found so far. They usually bring a smile, sometimes of puzzlement, sometimes of joy. You still have a truly great sense of humor." Thanks, Kev.

Puzzlement, of course, is a reaction composers are taught to tolerate. But being accused of "joy" or "humor" is more difficult. This has come up before. In these cases it is a tradition at Mixed Meters to post something contradictory, music for which "fun" is simply not the right word. Today's piece does that pretty well I think and, what's more, it comes in two sizes.

click here to hear the That's Not Your Baby Concerto Despite lasting only 33 seconds it has traditional 3 movement concerto form. No kidding. The movements are separated by short atonal interludes for those actually paying close attention. (Please don't feel you must pay "close attention" - I'd prefer you choose the level of attention most comfortable to you.)

Copyright © February 18, 2006 by David Ocker - 33 seconds

When Leslie heard that spot she said "It should be longer." And I had an idea of how to expand the length while maintaing identical form and content. So, if you're still interested, click here to hear the That's Not Your Baby Concerto - Long Version which is a whopping 2 minutes and nine seconds. No kidding! Talk about heavenly length. Talk more here.

Copyright © February 18-21, 2006 by David Ocker - 129 seconds

The title refers to a Starbucks episode wherein a young toddler ran up to a strange infant and began "fetishing" it. His Mother, probably trying to keep her son from sneezing in the baby's face, pulled him away and told him "That's not your baby" just at the moment I needed a file name.




Explanation of 30 second spots

30 Second Spots