Crudblud's Craptacular C(r)ompositions

Started by Crudblud, September 30, 2016, 06:00:36 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Crudblud

Quote from: Rons_talking on September 12, 2017, 06:47:27 PM
I just listened to AEnglishman's Partyta and the work that follows (piano) on Bandcamp (I've never used it before), and the works are great! You have a strong sense of musical balance and micro-structure. The works are wild and intuitive. Keep on!

Thank you, Ron! I'm currently struggling with the early stages of something big, and it is very hard going, your kind words are a real boost to my spirits.

Karl Henning

Karl Henning, Ph.D.
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston MA
http://www.karlhenning.com/
[Matisse] was interested neither in fending off opposition,
nor in competing for the favor of wayward friends.
His only competition was with himself. — Françoise Gilot

Crudblud

Thanks Karl! I actually forgot to post those "videos" here for some reason, but there's one of 'em at least. I think they're pretty good for what they are, but out of context of the grand scheme I had planned they're just pastiches. These were, as the descriptions on the videos indicate, to be "in universe" musics that would play when the player visited a specific city. Each city was going to have 15-20 minutes of unique music with instrumentation and style drawing on various European traditions, as well as a few cheeky riffs on specific composers. I got about halfway there, with four cities fully scored and a handful of pieces in various states of completion for the others. Too bad I guess, but life and music go on.

Crudblud

Hey everyone, the new thing is here. I was hoping to have it done by the end of October, but a week over ain't so bad. Hope y'all like it!

https://www.youtube.com/v/oyXw0NQV-qc

P.S.: Downloads are coming, but following some awkwardness surrounding the continued hosting of archives at the usual location I am in the process of migrating the back catalogue to a new place. Stay tuned.

Karl Henning

Good to see fresh activity!  I'll give it a spin (← hipster antique-speak) this evening at home, and at my leisure.
Karl Henning, Ph.D.
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston MA
http://www.karlhenning.com/
[Matisse] was interested neither in fending off opposition,
nor in competing for the favor of wayward friends.
His only competition was with himself. — Françoise Gilot

You did it

I'm really impressed with Starlite Revue  :)

Crudblud

Hey gang, downloads are here now, so if ever you wanted to read the nonsensical notes that accompany these abominations, you can now do that! Again! (the old links are still up but I'm not in control of that server, so their continued functioning is not up to me)

Quote from: Le Moderniste on November 08, 2017, 11:51:06 PM
I'm really impressed with Starlite Revue  :)
Thanks!

Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on November 08, 2017, 07:11:38 AM
Good to see fresh activity!  I'll give it a spin (← hipster antique-speak) this evening at home, and at my leisure.
Thank you for the interest, I look forward to hearing your thoughts.

Mahlerian

Downloaded and listened to Starlight Revue today.  More fine work, good sir, and I'm impressed at how you were able to create such an extended composition, and one with frequent motivic returns and development, at that.  It was certainly too much to take in every detail in a single sitting, but your characteristically startling turns of direction and half-parodistic/half-serious tone is always fascinating.
"l do not consider my music as atonal, but rather as non-tonal. I feel the unity of all keys. Atonal music by modern composers admits of no key at all, no feeling of any definite center." - Arnold Schoenberg

Karl Henning

I need to set aside a listening hour to give the music its due;  I enjoyed the first 8 minutes unreservedly  8)
Karl Henning, Ph.D.
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston MA
http://www.karlhenning.com/
[Matisse] was interested neither in fending off opposition,
nor in competing for the favor of wayward friends.
His only competition was with himself. — Françoise Gilot

Crudblud

Quote from: Mahlerian on November 10, 2017, 08:44:36 AM
Downloaded and listened to Starlight Revue today.  More fine work, good sir, and I'm impressed at how you were able to create such an extended composition, and one with frequent motivic returns and development, at that.  It was certainly too much to take in every detail in a single sitting, but your characteristically startling turns of direction and half-parodistic/half-serious tone is always fascinating.

Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on November 10, 2017, 09:04:35 AM
I need to set aside a listening hour to give the music its due;  I enjoyed the first 8 minutes unreservedly  8)

Thank you both. I was holding off because I wanted to give a more detailed response (particularly to Mahlerian's comment on the motif stuff) but I couldn't really think of anything to say. Best to let the music speak for itself I guess?

Crudblud

Alright, apologies due. I was in my usual "post-completion depression" phase when I wrote that response, and I'm sorry to have been so shitty about it. Let's try that one again...

Quote from: Mahlerian on November 10, 2017, 08:44:36 AM
Downloaded and listened to Starlight Revue today.  More fine work, good sir, and I'm impressed at how you were able to create such an extended composition, and one with frequent motivic returns and development, at that.  It was certainly too much to take in every detail in a single sitting, but your characteristically startling turns of direction and half-parodistic/half-serious tone is always fascinating.

This was my first time working to a predetermined structure. I wanted to create something that would have more of a goal in mind, rather than simply "let's follow this and see where we end up". Of course, taking a path and seeing where I end up is kind of how it goes regardless of what preparations I might make, but having a "plot" this time around gave me a different perspective on the path I was taking, it was one I had at least partially mapped out before I began to walk. This map, rather than telling me the direction I would go in, more gave me a sense of terrain, and if I keep this metaphor going any longer I'll get annoyed with myself...

I wanted to take a bunch of instruments and split them up. After some farting around I settled on a septet of piano, harpsichord, bandoneon, French horn, English horn, marimba, and cello, and set about coming up with a scheme of breaking them up into smaller ensembles. In my notepad I eventually ended up with the following:

1. Full ensemble
2. Duo I: Marimba, cello
3. Piano
4. Trio I: Fr. horn, Eng. horn, cello
5. Quartet I: Harpsichord, bandoneon, Eng. horn, cello
6. Fr. horn
7. Duo II: Bandoneon, Eng. Horn
8. Harpsichord
9. Trio II: Piano, Fr. horn, marimba
10. Sextet: Piano, harpsichord, Fr. horn, Eng. horn, marimba, cello
11. Trio III: Piano, bandoneon, cello
12. Eng. horn
13. Duo III: Harpsichord, Fr. horn
14. Cello
15. Quartet II: Harpsichord, Eng. horn, marimba, cello
16. Trio IV: Piano, harpsichord, bandoneon
17. Marimba
18. Duo IV: Piano, marimba
19. Full ensemble

The first section came out around three and a half minutes, and it didn't take long for me to work out I was looking at at least 40 minutes total. I was somewhat apprehensive because I didn't know if this would ultimately lead me to stretch the piece longer to appease a burgeoning hubris, fortunately I don't think that happened. What occurred to me pretty early on, and it had largely happened naturally during the plotting process, was that the instruments appeared in cycles of sorts, each one would feature in a group of multiple contiguous sections and then disappear for several others before reappearing. I tried to adapt this also to the treatment of motifs that had emerged in the first section.

The first part of the piece (which I would think of as sections 1-9) almost denies the motifs, once the simple fifth pattern in the bass is shaken off by the piano solo, the use of established material becomes quite sparing and covert, but after the sextet its importance is reestablished, and the piece begins to move back, searching out the full ensemble. That was partly a response to seeing how far away the music seemed to be getting from its roots. In the sextet there is a big crescendo early on, beginning with a piano ostinato and layering the other instruments on top, and it struck me how far this had come away from the starting point. Not that this was a problem in itself, but with a symmetrical (in terms of size of ensembles) structure, the sextet being right in the middle, it seemed that this should perhaps be the most extreme distance, the apoapsis of the piece, which also fit the "cycle" idea nicely.

So from that point it starts to come back home, but I wasn't quite sure what to do when it arrived. The file I was working on was saved multiple times under different names, each version containing a different aborted finale. I wanted to go back to the beginning, but I didn't want to do it literally, as I had done in Problem Zero. If I could recapture the mood and the tone without restating the material in bulk, I could reach a conclusion. Eventually I came to the realisation that if the finale was to be a recapitulation, it should be a stifled one. I think of the finale as beginning with nostalgia for the first part, recalling its facile waltzes, trying to get back to the opening section, but ultimately having to move on somewhere else.

So that is what I wanted to talk about the first time in response to Mahlerian's post, but my brain just was not in gear. The more time I've spent with Mahler in my ear and Bach in my fingers (I like to play guitar transcriptions, particularly of the works for solo string instruments) the stronger, I think, my interest in motivic development and structure has become. In this piece it's those two composers in particular who have pushed me to strive for a greater sense of overarching unity and structural integrity, and I hope that is apparent when people listen to it. Of course, now I may have influenced people who come to the piece through this thread to hear it by writing this, but whatever.

Thank you again Mahlerian, I'm really glad the emphasis on motif came through for you, and that you enjoyed the piece.

P.S.: Here you can hear my first attempt at starting the piece. Originally the instrumentation included a lute, and used a violin instead of a cello. I had not yet worked out any kind of structure, and I don't think I had many or any ideas either. It's pretty easy to see why I abandoned this one.

Karl Henning

I did not think that anything in your response requires an apology.

I'll apologize, a bit, though for not yet attending to Starlight Revue.  Woolly week at the office, Triad concerts this weekend, and my wife & I are getting ready to travel next week.

The good news being, that come Tuesday, I shall have ample capacity to give it its musical due!
Karl Henning, Ph.D.
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston MA
http://www.karlhenning.com/
[Matisse] was interested neither in fending off opposition,
nor in competing for the favor of wayward friends.
His only competition was with himself. — Françoise Gilot

Rons_talking

Quote from: Crudblud on November 08, 2017, 07:10:27 AM
Hey everyone, the new thing is here. I was hoping to have it done by the end of October, but a week over ain't so bad. Hope y'all like it!

https://www.youtube.com/v/oyXw0NQV-qc

P.S.: Downloads are coming, but following some awkwardness surrounding the continued hosting of archives at the usual location I am in the process of migrating the back catalogue to a new place. Stay tuned.

Hey, nice work! All of your work has  (to me) a sense of spontaneity to it, regardless of your macro-structure. I find that lacking in a lot of contemporary music but you've got it and it's good!  I also like the use of quotation and the space you give this work. Well done...

Crudblud

Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on November 16, 2017, 06:53:51 AM
I'll apologize, a bit, though for not yet attending to Starlight Revue.  Woolly week at the office, Triad concerts this weekend, and my wife & I are getting ready to travel next week.
No need at all, Karl. You lead a full life, that's nothing to apologise for. Good luck with your concerts, and I hope the weather is good for your journey!

Quote from: Rons_talking on November 17, 2017, 09:57:04 AM
Hey, nice work! All of your work has  (to me) a sense of spontaneity to it, regardless of your macro-structure. I find that lacking in a lot of contemporary music but you've got it and it's good!  I also like the use of quotation and the space you give this work. Well done...
Thanks Ron! In this case a planned macrostructure may well have been the wellspring of spontaneity. Having the instrumentation grow and shrink and otherwise change over course of the piece forced me to find ways of handling familiar instruments in often unfamiliar combinations, which I think kept the potential for surprise fairly high.

By the way, I messed up...

Quote from: Crudblud on November 16, 2017, 06:20:09 AM
5. Quartet I: Harpsichord, bandoneon, Eng. horn, cello

There ain't no stinkin' cellos in that there quartet! 'Tis a marimba, plain as day! That's what I get for doing it from memory instead of using my notes. That one's a freebie: any other mistakes, I'll be hiding under my desk until we've all forgotten about them.

Karl Henning

Karl Henning, Ph.D.
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston MA
http://www.karlhenning.com/
[Matisse] was interested neither in fending off opposition,
nor in competing for the favor of wayward friends.
His only competition was with himself. — Françoise Gilot

Crudblud


Crudblud

Posted up a big ol' essay of potentially minor interest to people on this forum. I haven't seen much or really any of what I talk about in the essay here on GMG, but those of you who frequent or have in the past frequented TalkClassical, or who have ever had the misfortune of being possessed by morbid curiosity regarding comment sections on YouTube videos, will probably know very well what I'm talking about.

Mahlerian

#97
Quote from: Crudblud on December 17, 2017, 07:22:47 AM
Posted up a big ol' essay of potentially minor interest to people on this forum. I haven't seen much or really any of what I talk about in the essay here on GMG, but those of you who frequent or have in the past frequented TalkClassical, or who have ever had the misfortune of being possessed by morbid curiosity regarding comment sections on YouTube videos, will probably know very well what I'm talking about.

I don't recall when I first started hearing "film composers are the new classical composers/true classical composers today," but it's always struck me as a bizarre claim.  People who say this seem to have a very shallow understanding of what classical music is or can be.

Also, calling something "classical music" does not imply anything about quality (at least not in the modern usage), so I find it odd when people think that the best of the surviving popular music of the 20th century will eventually be considered "classical."

If people want to defend popular music/jazz/film scores/video game scores/metal, they should discuss its merits rather than creating dubious connections to concert music.  It doesn't create the patina of respectability that these people imagine it does.
"l do not consider my music as atonal, but rather as non-tonal. I feel the unity of all keys. Atonal music by modern composers admits of no key at all, no feeling of any definite center." - Arnold Schoenberg

Crudblud

Quote from: Mahlerian on December 17, 2017, 07:40:07 AM
I don't recall when I first started hearing "film composers are the new classical composers/true classical composers today," but it's always struck me as a bizarre claim.  People who say this seem to have a very shallow understanding of what classical music is or can be.

Also, calling something "classical music" does not imply anything about quality (at least not in the modern usage), so I find it odd when people think that the best of the surviving popular music of the 20th century will eventually be considered "classical."

If people want to defend popular music/jazz/film scores/video game scores/metal, they should discuss its merits rather than creating dubious connections to concert music.  It doesn't create the patina of respectability that these people imagine it does.

In some cases it is just a matter of "it sounds somewhat like X to me therefore it is X", an ignorance that could possibly be challenged assuming the person making the claim is open to the idea that they could be wrong, but on the internet especially people take a position with little or no basis than their own initial reaction to something and don't back down no matter the evidence or quality of argument presented against it. The resulting arguments are always insubstantial and almost always result in people calling each other idiots while neither side has any real understanding of the subject.

It's one of the rare instances where I find that the massively overused word "pretentious" is actually applicable. I didn't use it in the essay because I think it has taken on too much cultural baggage to be viable for general usage, it's the best way to turn a discussion into a mudslinging contest, but it's highly accurate in describing this phenomenon.

On your last point, I think part of the problem comes from the idea that one's musical taste must be defended in the first place. What's interesting to me is that so often it seems to be the case that the defence is the starting position, it's not a response to anything, it's preemptive action against something that probably won't even occur unless you go looking for it. And yes, engaging with a given piece or type of music on its own terms is always the best policy, trying to make of it something that it is not is just plain wrongheaded.

Karl Henning

Tangentially, on the theme of the concert hall conveying any kind of legitimacy:  I find John Williams's music for the screen superior to any of the "concert music" he has written.  My personal working hypothesis there is, that in the case of his movie soundtracks, he had others to whom his work needed to answer.
Karl Henning, Ph.D.
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston MA
http://www.karlhenning.com/
[Matisse] was interested neither in fending off opposition,
nor in competing for the favor of wayward friends.
His only competition was with himself. — Françoise Gilot