Ottevanger's Omphaloskeptic Outpost

[Cato]

Enforced writing.....nothing too exciting, nothing in the least challenging, just the annual something-sweet-and-full-of-parallel-thirds-for-the-girls-to-sing-at-Christmas. But at least it's making me put pencil to paper for the first time since April.

(maybe here's the place to say a general - I've been in a such a nasty place, guys, beyond imagining or description, and I still am, a lot of the time - apologies to those of you who I should have contacted, or who contacted me with no reply (as yet). It's just more than I can bear, most of the time. Please indulge me a little longer. Being back at GMG is a good sign; being able to simply talk music, even if only in a few posts as yet, feels just wonderful, like coming home. But I'm not there yet.)

Glad to see that the OUTPOST is back in action!   0:)

Bruckner was once quoted as saying how refreshing playing a few simple triads can be!

I just posted this elsewhere, Luke, but maybe this can be your cathartic theme song for a few minutes at least!   

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sH1P1UO7Oqs

[greg]

Glad to see that the OUTPOST is back in action!   0:)

Bruckner was once quoted as saying how refreshing playing a few simple triads can be!

I just posted this elsewhere, Luke, but maybe this can be your cathartic theme song for a few minutes at least!   

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sH1P1UO7Oqs

Reading the comments on that video was extremely odd... couldn't understand anything. I guess the first few comments helped- some website redirected them to that video. It sounded like teams of hackers were arguing against each other using crazy jargon I've never heard..... (almost like gang speech)

[karlhenning]

Reading the comments on that video was extremely odd... couldn't understand anything. I guess the first few comments helped- some website redirected them to that video. It sounded like teams of hackers were arguing against each other using crazy jargon I've never heard..... (almost like gang speech)

ubloobideega!

[Cato]

Reading the comments on that video was extremely odd... couldn't understand anything. I guess the first few comments helped- some website redirected them to that video. It sounded like teams of hackers were arguing against each other using crazy jargon I've never heard..... (almost like gang speech)

YouTube commenters are another breed all right!   

Often it is "TwitterTxtngSpeak" or maybe we should use "TwitSpeak" for short!   

[Luke]

Well, I wrote the thing, at least. It's OK, nothing wildly exciting, but it's quite a big deal for me to have got it done, nevertheless. And the girls sang through it yesterday, and it sounds pretty good, I think.

[karlhenning]

Splendid.  And your characteristic modesty notwithstanding, don't underestimate the value of completing even a small, parallel-thirdly project . . . .

I am delighted to see smoke out the chimney of the Outpost 

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

I am delighted to see smoke out the chimney of the Outpost 

So am I.

[Cato]

Well, I wrote the thing, at least. It's OK, nothing wildly exciting, but it's quite a big deal for me to have got it done, nevertheless. And the girls sang through it yesterday, and it sounds pretty good, I think.

Yay Team!

Did you have the capability to record their rehearsal?  Many ears would like to hear the result!   

[Luke]

Not yet, but we will get round to it when they're more familiar with it. They're only 9-12 year olds, we're still note-bashing!

Separately, I'm pondering picking up the flute sonata of which I had done a few pages back in May, the piece I was working on before 'stuff' happened. I was quite pleased with it.... Might be interesting to see what happens if I do - will the join between then and now be obvious? does it matter if it is? how do I reconcile the purely musical considerations and requirements of the piece itself with the fact that I, the composer, am not the same person now that I was then, especially when it's a fundamental tenet of my composing that my music is honest and doesn't hide behind anything?

OTOH, it may be that what I'd already written needs a rehaul, in which case continuing to build on it in a congruous manner will be easier.

I will continue to ponder, omphaloskeptically.... in any case I'm not quite sure where the score is  

[CD]

By the way How now, sirrah, that pound he lent you when you were hungry?

Marry, I wanted it.

Take thou this noble.

Do you intend to pay it back?

O, yes.

When? Now?

Well... no.

When, then?

Wait. Five months. Molecules all change. I am other I now. Other I got pound.

But I, entelechy, form of forms, am I by memory because under ever changing forms.

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Ulysses.

[CD]

Verily.

[Cato]

Separately, I'm pondering picking up the flute sonata of which I had done a few pages back in May, the piece I was working on before 'stuff' happened. I was quite pleased with it.... Might be interesting to see what happens if I do - will the join between then and now be obvious? does it matter if it is? how do I reconcile the purely musical considerations and requirements of the piece itself with the fact that I, the composer, am not the same person now that I was then, especially when it's a fundamental tenet of my composing that my music is honest and doesn't hide behind anything?

OTOH, it may be that what I'd already written needs a rehaul, in which case continuing to build on it in a congruous manner will be easier.

I will continue to ponder, omphaloskeptically.... in any case I'm not quite sure where the score is  

Is this a sonata for solo flute, or with a piano accompaniment?

Some composers (Schoenberg comes to mind) rip through everything as quickly as possible, as if afraid of either losing connections or perhaps becoming different during the process, in which case the opus will not be the same as the original "inspiration" indicated.

The brain chemically produces about 20 watts of electricity: an article I read recently compared human brains against computers in the proportions of power needed.  To be equal to a brain, a computer would need megawatts of electricity.

"What hath God wrought" indeed!  (Or blind evolution, for all of you skeptics out there!)   0:)

[Luke]

Is this a sonata for solo flute, or with a piano accompaniment?

The latter..

Some composers (Schoenberg comes to mind) rip through everything as quickly as possible, as if afraid of either losing connections or perhaps becoming different during the process, in which case the opus will not be the same as the original "inspiration" indicated.

Exactly - if the music comes from deep down, as I think it really ought to, how can it cohere if it comes from two different 'deep down' places. It's odd that you mention Schoenberg, too, because he is an excellent example of what we are talking about, as you suggest, but also because, paradoxically, he composed one of the most remarkable exceptions to this rule in Gurrelieder - the piece was completed in short score in one go, but the orchestration of the last portions dates from about a decade later than that of the rest of the work IIRC. And this is perfect, in this case - one might almost imagine that Schoenberg planned it this way, though I suppose deeper processes were at work. It's perfect because it is in those late sections of the score - the fool's song, the summer wind music - that we find, almost, a sweeping-away of romanticism, a disillusionment with Waldemar's night-time obsessions, a breath of fresh air sweeping in as the sun rises. Schoenberg's new, glittering, complex orchestral style, so different from the sumptuous Wagernisms of the rest of the piece, suits this change in tone wonderfully. 

[Luke]

Hi everyone

Haven't been here for ages again - I'm sorry, and I'm really sorry to those of you who contacted me to wish me happy birthday and so on (Maciek - especially you  ). Was going through a really tough patch again, especially on my birthday, as it happens. But it's a new year, so I'm going to try to be here more often again...

What to report? Not much - my little piece for the girls at my school, The Dove, was sung at the school's advent service; I recorded it the next day too - here it is - though the girls were fresh in from a cross country race and it shows at times!!

Also, I'm writing another of those sonatas - like the one I wrote in April, very like it in many ways. Ought to be finished in the next day or two....will keep you posted.


The church below is my school's church, all set for the service....

[Luke]

....forgot to attach the score (I'm out of practise!)

[Maciek]

Great to see you here again, Luke! As unconvincing as it may sound under the circumstances, I wish you a wonderful new year - both in your private life, and professional endeavors!

And I find the piece absolutely lovely (haven't seen the score yet, you added it while I was replying).

[karlhenning]

Happy new year, Luke! Great to 'see' you back!  I'm sending your score to my buddy Paul . . . .

[Guido]

Really good to see you here posting again.

The score is a distillation of lovelyness -  so so touching and I know you were dismissive of it, but I really really like it! And the girls did incredibly well with it - lots of complexities to tackle, but they manages superbly (with expert teaching I'm sure  )

[Luke]

Thanks guys - yes, I'm quite proud of the girls, though I can't really take much credit (or balme, come to that!) for their singing. They are very good kids, that chamber choir, it's such fun to write for them every year - and they get so excited about singing something that Mr O wrote! (especially the new intake each year, the 9 year olds). It's really lovely.

Going to try to finish that sonata today too, maybe record it as well (on the same badly-tempered clavier that I recorded the last one on, alas)....hope to have something to post here later.