Ottevanger's Omphaloskeptic Outpost

[Guido]

Oh. My. God... You MUST write a sonata for prepared piano and cello. I have been wanting one of these in the repertoire for years!

[Guido]

(BTW, I am a little apprehensive about being too keen to say I'll play your cello sonata if and when it materialises - your music in general looks very hard to play... Of course I'll demand a copy and try my damndest though!  )

[sul G]

Prepared piano and cello is a nice idea, actually! Have you heard Yo-Yo Ma playing that Franghiz Ali-Zadeh piece with the piano prepared by the placement of a bead necklace across the strings? It's really rather beautiful, like all the Ali-Zadeh I've heard.

[sul G]

(BTW, I am a little apprehensive about being too keen to say I'll play your cello sonata if and when it materialises - your music in general looks very hard to play... Of course I'll demand a copy and try my damndest though!  )

Well, the piano stuff might look hard, but it's written for my fingers and to me it seems really quite easy (most of the time). I'd probably make a cello piece more accessible - I'm just enough of a cellist to know what's playable whilst not being so good that I dare to make it too hard. Whereas not knowing much about (say) clarinet technique I'm not really that sure how hard or easy the Canticle Sonata is - though Karl says it's doable.

[Guido]

Yes, the clarinet sonata was making me a little scared. I know that you write expertly for strings of course.

Habil-Sajahy for cello & prepared piano... Yes I have that CD but for some reason haven't copied it onto my computer so will have to wait a week before I can hear it... I can't really remember the piece at all. I was strangely underwhelmed by the Silk Road Project CDs in general, apart from those fantastic Finnish Folk Songs by Mamiya (sentimental though they are). Trying to get the music for them is impossible. I should give those CDs another listen. Habil-Sajahy is the only piece I ever found for cello and prepared piano when I looked a few years ago.

[Maciek]

No, I think you're on to something...

Concerto for prepared piano, two prepared synthesisers eight-hands and electric guitar ensemble...?

I was also thinking of something small scale. Like maybe a miniature for cello and sellotape and tape.

(I wish it was called cellotape... Here is another idea: American Concerto for cello and jello. )

[sul G]

Maciek, why did you never become a composer?    You have all that it takes, on the evidence of the above. The secret is all in the bizarre combination of instruments and the enigmatic title - the notes don't really matter, as I'm sure Karl, Mark etc. will agree*. The above-mentioned Huw Watkins himself started to become more successful when he stopped calling his works 'Three Pieces for....' (as he tended to do when we werre at university together) and began applying randomly selected adjectives to them... (true fact)


* heavily applied  etc to be taken as read here....

[sul G]

Yes, the clarinet sonata was making me a little scared. I know that you write expertly for strings of course.

Habil-Sajahy for cello & prepared piano... Yes I have that CD but for some reason haven't copied it onto my computer so will have to wait a week before I can hear it... I can't really remember the piece at all.

I'll try to sort that out for you later...

I was strangely underwhelmed by the Silk Road Project CDs in general, apart from those fantastic Finnish Folk Songs by Mamiya (sentimental though they are). Trying to get the music for them is impossible. I should give those CDs another listen. Habil-Sajahy is the only piece I ever found for cello and prepared piano when I looked a few years ago.

I agree about that CD - nice sounds, but it doesn't add up to much.

[Guido]

I agree about that CD - nice sounds, but it doesn't add up to much.

Yes, this is it exactly.

I can't stand that thing of every piece being called something - usually something Eastern sounding, maybe a couple of adjectives, usually with a 'clever' double meaning etc. etc. It really grates, but I'm not sure why. The only person I forgive it of is Ades because the music is so convincing and good.

[karlhenning]

Write the music well, and it will carry anything else.

[sul G]

Yes, this is it exactly.

I can't stand that thing of every piece being called something - usually something Eastern sounding, maybe a couple of adjectives, usually with a 'clever' double meaning etc. etc. It really grates, but I'm not sure why.

Note to self - scrap White Modulations!

[karlhenning]

Hah! Do no such thing! 

[Dr. Dread]

"Kitten on the Keys"!

[karlhenning]

"Kitten on the Keys"!

Hello, Modulation!

[sul G]

I'm not sure I understand what you're on about.... 

[karlhenning]

Dave, help a chap out?

[sul G]

Oh, and Karl, the latest version of the Canticle Sonata (I should say, the last version) is the one pasted here a while back. Here it is again, with the part. I'm afraid I never got round to neatening up the part, most particularly in the second movement where some of the sharps are a little squashed in to their respective noteheads. But for now it will do.

[Guido]

That's the second time I've seen echotone in a clarinet sonata - is it an actual timbral effect on the clarinet, rather than just a musical instruction?

[Guido]

can't believe you composed this piece two years ago...

just a little note - page 22 - the note at the bottom has been cut off in the PDF. This piece really needs to be played. Karl - playthe thing, already! 

[Dr. Dread]

I'm not sure I understand what you're on about.... 

Me neither. That's part of the fun.