Greg's Gazebo

[Bogey]

Hey, Ange!  Those Vermont trees turnin'?

[AndyD.]

Hey, Ange!  Those Vermont trees turnin'?

Just startin' Boge, and hellllooo to you!

[Sergeant Rock]

Andy!!!

A rare Andy sighting! Cool.

Sarge

[ibanezmonster]

Why I don't look at my score and why it's dumb that they don't let you submit sound files to the competition: I see that I accidentally marked a percussionist to play tam-tam instead of bass drum. This goes on for quite a while, and the music wouldn't make sense like this. It would completely ruin the whole section of music. And then the tam-tam that is supposed to come in later would have no effect but annoyance by then. And there is no way to make an edit to this. Now I'd be surprised if it was even selected as a finalist.

[Karl Henning]

Shake it off!

[ibanezmonster]

There is always the chance that Birtwistle will wonder why the 2nd percussionist goes from playing the tam-tam to an instrument change to... the tam-tam. And that it wouldn't make sense musically, when the rest of the work does.

If I'm not selected, I'll just have to ask if I can submit it again next year with all of the corrections. Also, I somehow left off the "Limbo" title section. If I would have known that it really doesn't take that long to get it shipped to Japan, I could have spent a couple of extra days to review for errors.

[ibanezmonster]

Then again, I might have corrected the score printouts and forgot that I did. I remember correcting something crucial, but can't remember what it was. I'd give it a 50/50 chance that I did.

[ibanezmonster]

The op.10 Piano Sonata 2 is still looking pretty good. The outer (1st and 3rd movements) are done. 1st = 2'40", 3rd = 1'00". The 2nd movement will be the body of the sonata, and I expect it to be around 7-8 minutes long. The outer movements are just the introduction and conclusion.

I want to get this done by the end of the year so I can finally get the scores and updated Sibelius Sound Essentials sound files to all of my other music. It'll be a solid list, op.1-10 with a pdf and a mp3 file for each.

[Karl Henning]

Keep it up!

[ibanezmonster]

Keep it up!

Yes, sir!

[ibanezmonster]

I'm not going to set an arbitrary goal date or deadline for op.10... but, eh... probably no later than spring next year.

For now, I'm working on something important that I have put off for a few years: getting all of my scores in pdf form and updated into a better sounding set of mp3s using Sibelius Sound Essentials.

op.4-9 is DONE! Now op.1-3. The import option in Sibelius is, of course, what immensely speeds up the whole process. One thing I noticed was that you have to turn Live Playback off when importing a MIDI score if you want to edit dynamic playback, etc (after a bit of googling). Then I will post them on the first page of this thread. Kind of awkward 5-year copyright gap (2006, 2011) between op.6 and 7 lol.

Also gotta work on looking through snyprrr's guitar piece...

[snyprrr]

Also gotta work on looking through snyprrr's guitar piece...

Haha ,... I have actually just finished the 3rd draft. Same blueprint, but now I have poured Compositional Acid over it and over it until right now I'm about 80-97% satisfied that everything is where (and what) it is.

To be frank, I was embarrassed by that 1st draft that I sent to you and T&F. Then, I sent the 2nd draft of the first few pages to give a better view of what was really going on, but, as I was going through the whole of the thing, I was finding mistakes that I'm sure would be making people scratch their heads. Now I'm about 97% sure that every note is what it is. My notation definitely needed some clarification.

Some of the time values in that 1st draft were hideously off, in fact, the whole second half that was in half notes, turned into dotted quarter notes. I can 'feel' the rhythms, but, writing them down's another story. But, I'm pretty sure all the values are correct now.

So now I send the whole piece through the pizza press again, locking everything in from the beginning. Technically, when it comes out of the oven this next time, the piece will/should be set for Eternity. The whole thing reminds me of a long body of armor, made up of all these block-like plates coming passed you. My one friend thought about dominos.

What's really cool is that the piece (this 'Part 1' (out of two) at least) is the absolute fulfillment of whatever vague, Late-Xenakis-inspired idea I had about THREE years ago. I think it's a monstrous piece, and, though it may look like kindergarten at first glance, the difficulty level (to play it right and well) is pretty intense for me: I certainly can't/won't play it 'live'. My fingers would probably just simply refuse.


Anyhow, I'm glad I'll be able to hear your stuff soon. I'll be looking for them. You can certainly look over the second packet I sent, but I will certainly be sending you the Final Product asap, maybe a month or less. Yay! Exciting!!

[ibanezmonster]

Done?! 
Awesome... I will be really looking forward to looking over the final score.

[snyprrr]

Done?! 
Awesome... I will be really looking forward to looking over the final score.

I have begun steamrolling the piece from the beginning, and, lo!, HOW many mistakes did I find on the first 3 Pages? 10!! After I've looked over it HOW many times? Wow!, how much does 'copying error' creep up in EVERYONE'S work? I hear the jews are good copyists, haha!! Well, apparently I need new glasses, because I'm seeing 2 leger lines where there is only 1, oy vey!

So, I say it's done, and then I find a cache of mistakes. Certainly, if I don't make every note clear and correct (especially in 'Modern Music'), how will anyone know? Frankly, the mistakes I've found really bug me, because, as soon as someone plays the chord with the note missing, they're going to be, like, This is stupid... I'll just be nice to poor snyprrr, 'cause he thinks this chord rocks.

Oy, at least it's fun for me, like hunting for blackheads... eeewww! But, I would certainly hope to get to the end of 'fixing'. At SOME point, every note needs to be where it's supposed to be. Only then can the inner merits (or demerits) of the piece come out.

At this point I'm HIGHLY embarrassed by the very first draft I sent out. Surely no one could have deduced much from that, though, still, the 'flavor' of the piece has been in there since the beginning. But, for a piece so drearily dissonant, I had BETTER make sure that I get criticized for something I meant to do instead of some random copying error.

Still, it's God's way of teaching me 'detail study'. I'm grateful. Still, I can't believe I'm pouring ALL my energy into such a 'dreadful' piece. I sometimes have to shake my head at myself: WHAT? am I thinking?

I must be thinking it's 1977 or something, haha. Oy... vey...

[ibanezmonster]

I know what you mean about the errors.
I might have to see if the guy running the Takemitsu competition can send Birtwistle the message about that one mistake that would destroy 2 minutes of my music.

[ibanezmonster]

Message sent.
I would guess that the guy who runs the competition corresponds with the judges through e-mail and get e-mails like these. But... we'll see what he says.

[snyprrr]

I know what you mean about the errors.
I might have to see if the guy running the Takemitsu competition can send Birtwistle the message about that one mistake that would destroy 2 minutes of my music.

You found a mistake AFTER you'd sent off the 'Final Completed Draft'? Yea, that's my concern here. I have to go out and get a whole new tank of Compositional Acid! But, the more mistakes I find, the less there will be, haha!!





btw- a question about 'harmonics'. All the harmonics in my piece are natural (at this point at least). Do I make a diamond, make a circle over it, and ALSO write 'arm. nat.' (or 'nat. harm.') on top of it? I neglected to write in the little circle, so I was wondering about your confusion about my harmonics. As you know, the harmonics I'm mostly using are between the 2nd and 4th frets (the really high natural harmonics). How would I have written it for you to automatically now what I meant?

Or, do I just need to be open to questions? I would think that if I were dead and the music was written exactly perfectly, you wouldn't need me to answer questions. So, I assume that any question is the result of faulty notation. hmm??

[ibanezmonster]

You found a mistake AFTER you'd sent off the 'Final Completed Draft'? Yea, that's my concern here. I have to go out and get a whole new tank of Compositional Acid! But, the more mistakes I find, the less there will be, haha!!

An here is my e-mail reply: "Unfortunately you cannot correct your mistake after entry."
I might have already corrected the printouts, but I don't remember. If it were selected anyways and got performed with a tam-tam, that would really be a shame, though I bet at that point (after being selected) they would allow a correction.

btw- a question about 'harmonics'. All the harmonics in my piece are natural (at this point at least). Do I make a diamond, make a circle over it, and ALSO write 'arm. nat.' (or 'nat. harm.') on top of it? I neglected to write in the little circle, so I was wondering about your confusion about my harmonics. As you know, the harmonics I'm mostly using are between the 2nd and 4th frets (the really high natural harmonics). How would I have written it for you to automatically now what I meant?

Or, do I just need to be open to questions? I would think that if I were dead and the music was written exactly perfectly, you wouldn't need me to answer questions. So, I assume that any question is the result of faulty notation. hmm??

The natural harmonics with diamonds are good. I might have to look at some sort of harmonics map or something, because I think I remember not knowing where some of them where.

It'll help you if you keep in mind that I've hardly ever messed around with classical guitar pieces- almost all of the guitar I've played is rock/metal, which included TAB.

[ibanezmonster]

Tomorrow I'll have all of my music in updated form (Sibelius Sound Essentials, which is MUCH better-sounding than MIDI) and all of the music scores in pdf, which I'll post here. Just gotta finish op.1. Also teaching another guitar lesson tomorrow.  (Needless to say, not a ton happening in school this week).

[ibanezmonster]

Well, ahem... make that most likely Thursday. Soon, anyways.
The import on the 2nd movement of the Piano Sonata was so horrible that I have to rewrite the whole thing in Sibelius; I doubt the 3rd movement will import it any better. These are somewhat long, complex movements with lots of notes (my longest piece, overall).

So... quite a few more hours of manual input. Thursday, depending on how much time I spend with my friend. And great guitar lesson; got an extra $10 for staying over slightly. Fastest hour ever.