Ottevanger's Omphaloskeptic Outpost

[sul G]

[sul G]

Happy to report that Maciek has heard my new piece now, too. So it is slowly spreading its miasma of despair around the world, as planned..... 

[karlhenning]

Sonata II - score

I wonder how it will strike you lot? The more I listen to it, the more I think it is good. But who knows?

Just been plunking through this (wofully, oh, utterly wofully . . . but that's another matter) at the piano.  Liking it better and better (my woful plunking notwithstanding).

[karlhenning]

(Just what Poland needs: a fresh infusion of Miasma of Despair) 

[sul G]

I can't quite believe that I have succeeded in setting Karl a-plunking! That may be the most significant success of my composing life so far.  Glad you're liking it, Karl! 

[karlhenning]

Well, it's all a matter of opportunity.  I don't have a piano at home; and here I'm visiting a friend who has a piano (and you know that whenever I travel, one of the scores I take with me is an Ottevanger!)

[sul G]

Well, it's all a matter of opportunity.  I don't have a piano at home; and here I'm visiting a friend who has a piano (and you know that whenever I travel, one of the scores I take with me is an Ottevanger!)

Well, it is always best to be prepared if one gets caught short out in the wilds....

[karlhenning]

En route to the airport we passed a church (not at all ecclesiastical of architecture, but let that pass for the moment) named Eagle Heights Church.  It is situated in quite a fenny patch, and (begging pardon) rather amusingly is in the lowest ground in the immediate environs.

[Mark G. Simon]

But the eagles get a splendid view of it.

[karlhenning]

No doubt, though none of them have remarked on it . . . .

[karlhenning]

Good due diligence, BTW

What are you up to, laddie?

[sul G]

I'm rather getting over the fact that my new sonata seems to be rather successful!! And I must say that I'm loving it more and more myself too; I find it really affecting and rather beautiful. So I'm wondering what it is about it that makes it so. My conclusion - whereas my first sonata (2007) was pretty poised, in a classical sense, with the form clear and the modal operations serving to delineate it equally clearly, this new one is a much more subjective piece. Unlike in the first sonata, the modes used here are deliberately very similar to each other; I alternate from one to the other with no real formal plan. The whole thing is fluid and emotionally erruptive, and it's the first time I've been able to apply my semi-improvisation technique (as in the non-modal Improvisations of 2003) to a larger scale, dramatic modal work. Though both sonatas come from a deep place, and I love both equally, this one reveals more. I find this to be a new aspect to my music - almost like the last piece of the jigsaw which has been missing - and I'm very excited about it.

So - what's happening? Answer - I'm taking stock, wondering whether to write another one (I think I might; they don't take very long!) or whether to jump back on the cello sonata bandwagon, which is waiting for me patiently.

[karlhenning]

I'm rather getting over the fact that my new sonata seems to be rather successful!!

But, you shouldn't get over that, should you? : )

And I must say that I'm loving it more and more myself too; I find it really affecting and rather beautiful. [. . .] Though both sonatas come from a deep place, and I love both equally, this one reveals more. I find this to be a new aspect to my music - almost like the last piece of the jigsaw which has been missing - and I'm very excited about it.

Good!  It is a fine piece, and you should like it better and better.  I am delighted both for you, and in the piece, myself.

I well understand the steps . . . you get to the end of the piece . . . you turn it over and over, 'stress-testing' it to make sure it's all comme il faut . . . and you still like it, and you also wonder if it's quite all right, to continue to like it so well 

[sul G]

I well understand the steps . . . you get to the end of the piece . . . you turn it over and over, 'stress-testing' it to make sure it's all comme il faut . . . and you still like it, and you also wonder if it's quite all right, to continue to like it so well 

Exactly!  And the pleasing thing is that where in the past the period of still-liking-it hasn't lasted too long, in most cases, with the majority of the music I've written in the last few years it is of much longer duration.

[Cato]

Exactly!  And the pleasing thing is that where in the past the period of still-liking-it hasn't lasted too long, in most cases, with the majority of the music I've written in the last few years it is of much longer duration.

Don't be concerned in either case. 

Satisfied people can never push the wheel of progress.   0:)

As the body-builders say: "Stay Hungry!"   

[karlhenning]

What do you mean, "Lose the complacency"?

[greg]

Don't be concerned in either case. 

Satisfied people can never push the wheel of progress.   0:)

As the body-builders say: "Stay Hungry!"   

Love it!

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

So - what's happening? Answer - I'm taking stock, wondering whether to write another one (I think I might; they don't take very long!) or whether to jump back on the cello sonata bandwagon, which is waiting for me patiently.

Another piano sonata, please! You might have hit a vein, so - continue digging... What unknown riches you might unearth!

[Guido]

What news sirrah?

This thread almost slipped onto the second page...

[sul G]

Well, you might have noticed I haven't been at GMG much at all in the last month or so! My mind is elsewhere at the moment, and so there simply hasn't been anything to say on this thread. I'm working on a piece for flute and piano (don't ask why), and it's going nicely, though it's rather stalled right now. Otherwise, no, nothing to report!