Ottevanger's Omphaloskeptic Outpost

Started by lukeottevanger, April 06, 2007, 02:24:08 PM

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Karl Henning

Quote from: Luke on March 02, 2023, 06:19:03 AMI wanted to upload a sample chapter from the rambling book I was writing before the current one began, but it's too big to attach. If anyone wants a copy, PM me with your email address and I'll send it on that way.

A few things to say about it, so you can decide if you'd like to read it or not.

1) It is written with an informed, intelligent and engaged readership in mind but not necessarily one with a deep knowledge of music. Some/much of the stuff I've written about will be well-known to most people on this site. However, even when I am engaged on describing something you probably already have a good understanding of - e.g. the differences between equal temperament and just intonation - I'm probably doing so for a weird reason, so stick with it!

2) Those weird reasons are generally to do with the idea of the metaphors that music can carry, which is the loose bracket under which all the chapters fall. In this chapter, for instance, I investigate some rare early examples of music which mixes equal temperament and just intonation at the same time, and the consequences this has for the metaphorical message the music may convey. Here, as in the rest of the book, I cover quite a lot of ground, some of it unexpected. This chapter, for instance, starts with an introduction to the issues, then jumps over Leopold Mozart, Brahms and Wagner before more lengthy sections on Ravel, Vaughan Williams and Britten. And then, for some reason, there's a long section which seems at first to only be tangentially connected to any of these, on the First World War. There are lots of footnotes to try to keep a few other loosely-connected ideas from flying off disregarded. In other words, there's nothing academic here, just the ramblings of someone who is very engaged with these subjects.

I hope it reads OK and is interesting and not too obvious!
It all reads splendidly all through. Engaging even where you are "covering old ground," so to speak. I need to go back and pick it back up at RVW (which delay is all about my reading pace these days, and no reflection on your writing.
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

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

Karl Henning

Quote from: Luke on March 10, 2023, 07:06:20 AMSomewhat reminiscent of the old wind machine debate of yore (does anyone still remember that one?).
Remember it? Why. its grandson has emerged in the RVW thread (in a way) viz. a recent recording which employs, not the wind machine, but a recording of wind.
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

Karl Henning

Quote from: Cato on March 10, 2023, 11:48:21 AMDude!  The Whales of Rome!    8)    Sounds to me like an all-around fave!  Do it!
Le Balene di Roma. We wants 'em!
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

VonStupp

Quote from: Karl Tirebiter Henning on March 10, 2023, 02:50:52 PMHey! I see that emoticon!
I was looking for a laugh and couldn't find one, so I copied and pasted from the www.

"All the good music has already been written by people with wigs and stuff."

Luke

Though I didn't really compose anything of note in all the time I was away* I spent a bit of time collecting some of my music into neat little PDF packages. Here, for instance, is a file with the scores of the three one movement piano sonatas I wrote between 2007-10. There are other collections in the same 'format,' of various groups of pieces.



*I have written a lot of bespoke music for the school orchestra of my school, and as it gets played in various concerts, events and music festivals, it's been performed far more than anything else I've ever written! Its weird to hear the kids singing my tunes as I walk around the school and feeling both proud and depressed about it!

Luke

Here in one file the 20 'Improvisations' I wrote in a short burst in 2003. Each one composed under very specific conditions in just a few minutes. Some are a little gauche but the impetus was strong behind them all. Seemed so easy at the time, but I can't do it now!

Luke

#2327
Here are various otherwise disparate pieces for piano, from 1990-2008. Some are completed and quite complex, some are little more than tiny sketches of simple ideas. It should be pretty clear which are which. The 1990 is my first proper composition, in that I still quite like it. The Interlude is extracted from the Four Paz Songs, thus its briefly interpolated vocal line.

Oh, there's a misprint at the beginning of Sunlight and Stillness. Imagine the first rest and barline aren't there...

Luke

Night Music, three tiny clavichord pieces

Cato

Hi Luke!

Great to hear from you again!

I have downloaded your scores and intend to send them to a former student, who is now a Professor of Piano at a university in the state of Indiana (next door (west) to Ohio).

He is a specialist in Chopin and Liszt, but I think he could be open to your works.

We shall see!
"Meet Miss Ruth Sherwood, from Columbus, Ohio, the Middle of the Universe!"

- Brian Aherne introducing Rosalind Russell in  My Sister Eileen (1942)

Luke

Very interested to hear....!

Here's another little collection: Christmas music written for the girls at one of my schools a few years ago. Soft-centred stuff but essentially in the same style and using the same techniques as my music for adults.

Karl Henning

Quote from: Luke on March 26, 2023, 01:44:45 PMVery interested to hear....!

Here's another little collection: Christmas music written for the girls at one of my schools a few years ago. Soft-centred stuff but essentially in the same style and using the same techniques as my music for adults.
Oh, I'll have a look on behalf of my church choir. 
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

Luke

Typos.....arggggh! Bar 3 of the second system. Where did that come from? Bar 8, too. A glitch somewhere. Annoying. I'll get the fine-tooth comb out....

Luke

I have sent my book for a read-through by Daniel Grimley, author of Delius and the Sense of Place and also a leading expert on Elgar, RVW and the big Scandi guys. He's professor of music at Oxford, but also a friend from my own university days. Also, today, emailed Judith Weir and Gavin Bryars, who are important in it, so we'll see if that leads to anything.

Luke

Gavin Bryars replied with a charming email, so I have just sent him the relevant pages of my book. Hope he approves!

Karl Henning

Quote from: Luke on April 05, 2023, 05:15:00 AMGavin Bryars replied with a charming email, so I have just sent him the relevant pages of my book. Hope he approves!
Brilliant!
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

Luke

He's read it and replied. Forgive me quoting his first paragraph. It's left me a bit overwhelmed:

Quote from: Gavin BryarsThank you very much for sending the extract about Goole (and me) from your forthcoming book. If the rest of the book is as good as this it will be a masterpiece. You write very beautifully and evocatively. Perhaps I am predisposed to feel that way as the subject matter is so familiar, but I think it's more than that.

A really lovely email that I will treasure.

Karl Henning

Quote from: Luke on April 05, 2023, 09:42:45 AMHe's read it and replied. Forgive me quoting his first paragraph. It's left me a bit overwhelmed:

A really lovely email that I will treasure.
Beautifully and evocatively, indeed!
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

Papy Oli

Quote from: Luke on April 05, 2023, 09:42:45 AMHe's read it and replied. Forgive me quoting his first paragraph. It's left me a bit overwhelmed:

A really lovely email that I will treasure.

Great response to receive, Luke!
Olivier

Luke

Certainly is. I didn't want to get this bit wrong, so I am delighted he approves.