Ottevanger's Omphaloskeptic Outpost

[Luke]

Since being back, btw, I've also written my usual Christmas number for the girls at my school (only I have two schools now, so I wonder which one it'll be...perhaps both). I thought it would take ages to get into the mood, what with it still being August, but actually the thing came incredibly quickly, and was all done in about 20 minutes. I'm still to give it the finishing touches, but I'll post it up here when they're done. You know the sort of thing to expect, though....

[karlhenning]

Welcome back!

Luke, your inbox is reported to be full (I tried sending a PM earlier today).

Not that it's of any importance . . . but I've re-sent.

[Guido]

Since being back, btw, I've also written my usual Christmas number for the girls at my school (only I have two schools now, so I wonder which one it'll be...perhaps both). I thought it would take ages to get into the mood, what with it still being August, but actually the thing came incredibly quickly, and was all done in about 20 minutes. I'm still to give it the finishing touches, but I'll post it up here when they're done. You know the sort of thing to expect, though....

Slowly this will build up into a nice little album. This is the third by my count?

Really like the Music concrete piece too - no idea what the sound is, but it's quite arresting.

[Luke]

Slowly this will build up into a nice little album. This is the third by my count?

Fourth, actually (fifth, really, I wrote two one year, but only selected one for performance) - Eternal Peace, Christmas Morn, The Dove, and now this new one, which is called The Bells of Christmas

Really like the Music concrete piece too - no idea what the sound is, but it's quite arresting.

Great - I'm glad! I don't trust things when they are so easy - this piece took me all of 10 minutes to cobble together, so how can it possibly be any good, especially when it as not meant with any serious intent. But I was surprised at how something so rough and jokey turned out to be quite affecting. I'll let people guess at the sound source before I pull away the curtain   

[karlhenning]

Sometimes . . . you've got to Trust the Ease.

[karlhenning]

I'm looking forward to listening to the concrète . . . I just need to crank out some viola sonata first! : )

[Luke]

Keep fiddling with this thing more than perhaps it deserves, but here's the Christmas piece for this year. Much as expected, I'm sure.... The lower part can be omitted (partially or completely) as required, if necessary, not that it is very hard - but the youngest children singing are only 9.

[karlhenning]

Charmingly done!

[karlhenning]

Another Sibelius question . . . mm. 2 & 4 look spaced horizontally by note-heads. To my eye (maybe the fault is in my eye!) the sixteenth-note beams after the LH F, E, D are a bit too short. How would we fix that, do you know?

[rappy]

Luke, excellent piece. I especially like the measures 69ff.

This gives me the idea of starting a christmas music thread, I hope you'll post your piece there another time.

[Luke]

Thank you both! Rappy, I'll pop over to your new thread once I've posted this and perhaps put this piece there too - there are some others, also, from the last three years, which are to be found on this thread but which I could post there too.

Another Sibelius question . . . mm. 2 & 4 look spaced horizontally by note-heads. To my eye (maybe the fault is in my eye!) the sixteenth-note beams after the LH F, E, D are a bit too short. How would we fix that, do you know?

I'm loathe to change the default settings because in general they work, but I suppose there could be a fix there. However, in this case what I'd do - and I might, because you're right, they could look a little better - is to CTRL-select the three left hand notes and move them as a group slightly leftwards in the 'X' positional box in the General dropdown of the Properties window. As in the screenshot below, which doesn't capture my cursor clicking away! And then I suppose one could copy the altered bar and paste it/change it as necessary elsewhere - I think the movement applied to the noteheads would hold good.

[karlhenning]

Nice! I'll putter with that when I get home.  Thank you!

[Guido]

The piece looks great! Can't wait to hear it. Only 4 months now!

Why the instruction in bar 66?

[Guido]

Also I like the way that the answer to the question posed at the beginning is it inversion! (Look, I'm doing musicology! I'm literally a musicologist now! yessssssssssss!!)

[Luke]

Yay, you spotted it! Also the two central verses start in a quasi inversion of each other....

The instruction in bar 66 - well, it's dependent on the previous word, 'Christ', and how it is decided to sing it (as per my note there): because even though F# isn't exactly a very high note, they're small kids, and a small choir, and this is an important word, and a big moment in the piece, so I want it to ring out loudly. Taking half of the children away to sing the lower note might lessen this. So I indicate that if necessary one should sacrifice the harmony here, to acheive this, and - to answer your question! - if 'Christ' is left bare, then the following consequent words ought to be left bare too, I think, else one risks taking away from the impact of the most important word by the decorations of the following ones.

[Luke]

Any guesses on the sound source of my musique concrete doodle, anyone? 

[karlhenning]

Oh, I've got to download that when I get home this evening.

[Cato]

Any guesses on the sound source of my musique concrete doodle, anyone? 

Unfortunately my computer here at school has no speakers of any kind!

So I will try to decipher it at home this afternoon!

Did I read correctly that you are now employed at 2 schools?

We really need to find a Maecenas for you and for our 21st-century "Charles Ives" eking out a pittance by doing the Bob Cratchit thing in Boston.    0:)

[Luke]

Now THAT is an exceedingly fine idea! Any ideas, anyone?

[karlhenning]

Bob Cratchit! Hah!