Ottevanger's Omphaloskeptic Outpost

[lukeottevanger]

My little year 5  0:) s sang their song today (see a couple of pages back) - great fun! Went down well with their schoolmates - we had to encore it.   

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

This is our year five song,
Full of words that are much too long,
But that doesn’t fill us up with anger -
What can you expect
When he’s got a name as long as Ot-te-van-ger?!

Ah yes, I remember it well...

[lukeottevanger]

Also, phone call from conductor of my orchestral piece - date confirmed for 21st February.

[karlhenning]

Also, phone call from conductor of my orchestral piece - date confirmed for 21st February.

Très cool, Luke!

[lukeottevanger]

Now all that remains is the small matter of writing the thing.

[karlhenning]

Bring it on! 

[lukeottevanger]

A little musing on my musing tuffet (© Guido)

I think I've made it clear how ambivalent I am about the whole idea of publicising my music. I regard this thread really as just a chat between friends which happens to have the recurrent conversational springboard of my own compositions. As far as pushing my music on people, sending it off for competitions etc. - I've never done this, and I never will. That simply isn't why I compose - I compose to discover myself, more than anything else. I remember Saul once advising me to publicise myself in the same way he does....... yes, well.... Anyway, in the light of this, I just wanted to share a fragment of Molière's Misanthrope, in Richard Wilbur's translation, which struck me as I read it this morning. I couldn't resist the extremely apposite insertion of a subtle hyphen. See if you can spot it  :

Sir, these are delicate matters: we all desire
To be told that we've the true poetic fire.
But once, to one whose name I shall not mention,
I said, regarding some verse of his invention,
That gentlemen should rigorously control
That itch to write which often afflicts the s-ul;
That one should curb the heady inclination
To publicize one's little avocation;
And that in showing off one's works of art
One often plays a very clownish part.

...of which danger I'm more than aware!

Please carry on.....

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Spotted.

'Surgically done, amice', Karl would say... 

[karlhenning]

Even were I to suggest that you publicize yourself, Luke . . . the fellow you mention would not be my proposed model 

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

As far as pushing my music on people, sending it off for competitions etc. - I've never done this, and I never will. That simply isn't why I compose - I compose to discover myself, more than anything else.

I started writing for exactly the same reason, and kept at it in relative solitude until I was 30. But once you are absolutely certain the things you write are good, it becomes imperative others know that too. It did so for me, at least. What enriches you, may enrich others. I personally think your things deserve exposure. Never say never, Luke.

[karlhenning]

I started writing for exactly the same reason, and kept at it in relative solitude until I was 30. But once you are absolutely certain the things you write are good, it becomes imperative others know that too. It did so for me, at least. What enriches you, may enrich others. I personally think your things deserve exposure.

Thus, my enthusiasm for the Canticle Sonata is entwined together with a sense of what an ill turn we do the world not to have such a piece sounding in an audience's ears.

[Guido]

Sir, these are delicate matters: we all desire
To be told that we've the true poetic fire.
But once, to one whose name I shall not mention,
I said, regarding some verse of his invention,
That gentlemen should rigorously control
That itch to write which often afflicts the s-ul;
That one should curb the heady inclination
To publicize one's little avocation;
And that in showing off one's works of art
One often plays a very clownish part.

What a fantastic poem! I love the rytmic sense in it (not very technical language, but then I know very little about poetry!).

Also have just caught up on this thread - I would love to see the cello piece before I leave for America on Tuesday.

[lukeottevanger]

I would love to see the cello piece before I leave for America on Tuesday.

You're right - it is probably best to be well fortified before such a crazy undertaking.... 

It might not be possible, for various boring reasons, but I'll see what I can do.

[Guido]

yay!

[lukeottevanger]

Guido must be well into his American sojourn by now, and obviously I wasn't able to fulfil his request. Sorry. 

OTOH, a few pages ago Karl kindly made some detailed suggestions after carefully proof-reading the clarinet part of my Canticle Sonata. I thought I'd be able to get it done quickly - but then, for some reason, couldn't find the Sibelius files of either the revised score or the clarinet part deriving from it  A few days ago, I turned them up, however, so I've finally been able to follow Karl's suggestions. A couple I didn't entirely follow were:

1) places where Karl suggested enharmonic changes - I changed the B#s to Cs, but not the D#s to Ebs

2) the bar with the trem across the break - simply because I want it that way and, not being a clarinetist, don't know exactly how difficult this actually is. If it truly is ridiculously tricky, then I will make one more revision and stick the lower note up the octave.

Anyway, here's the revised part - mostly relevant to clarinetists, I suppose, but you're all free to have a copy if you want.

[Guido]

Hi Luke (and everyone else!), writing from Utah... Just thought I'd check in.

That's fine with the score... Just when you're ready I'd love to have a little look through. I'm back home on the 10th of September, but may be trying a carbon fibre cello while I'm out here (www.luisandclark.come)

Contemporary music news: I saw Ades' Powder her Face recently at the Royal Opera in Covent Garden, and I have to say the experience left me rather cold. Though it is an entertaining and amusing work, I'm not convinced it hangs together as a whole - there's nothing really to latch onto musically - no particular moments of beauty or any that are that memorable. The characters are rather shallow, but then that is part of what the opera is about, but I didn't really feel that I felt much for any of them apart from perhaps the Baroness. It just seemed a bit long considering that very little was happening dramatically (including in the music)... This sounds like I am slating it, but actually I rather enjoyed going, but I just am not convinced by the score. As I said though it was rather witty and contained an obligatory controversial nude scene and one where the Baroness was operatically felating her hotel attendant... Maybe I was expecting too much - it was a rather early work by him after all. My favourite pieces by Ades are Tevot and Arcadia I think - I used to like Asyla quite a bit, but have some how gone off it since hearing Tevot. He's meant to be writing a cello piece for Steven Isserlis - it was at one point a concerto, but may now be a cello/piano piece - I'm not sure if he finished it in time for Aldeburgh.

Anyone got any thoughts on this opera?

[lukeottevanger]

Just possible I may be making some headway with my orchestral piece. I don't want to say much as I tend to jinx things when I talk about them too early. However one thing I will say is that, for some obscure reason, I felt that a section of the piece I want to write needs to be part of a previous work of mine, re-thought orchestrally, and that's the bit I've done. 59 bars of (very slow - of course!) music. The second section will be (or will seem) faster and fresher.

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Mahler compared talking about a work in statu nascendi with peeking into the womb of a pregnant mother... Nevertheless - which previous work have you partially "re-thought orchestrally"?

[lukeottevanger]

The one whose rediscovery was the impetus behind my first Omphaloskeptic Outpost, on the previous incarnation of GMG. It's a very long, complex, virtuosic, experimental, 'hardcore' - and unfinished! - piano piece called Memorial. No-one else commented on it (except Sean IIRC) but it's important to me; I remember the excitement of finding the score, dashing off an essentially sightread recording and listening to it repeatedly in a somewhat spellbound state as if it was the work of another composer, which, in a way, it was. However I think about this work, it seems to exist 'in the past', in memory - its subject matter, its musical material, its own history of loss and rediscovery. And that memory-drenched state is the reason I feel it needs to be in this piece, to be balanced by a piece which is much more 'in the moment.'

There, I've said too much. The thing will doubtless not get written now!

[lukeottevanger]

...nevertheless, work continues  ....