Ottevanger's Omphaloskeptic Outpost

[Maciek]

Was the Violin Sonata the last piece he completed

According to Wikipedia - yes.

[Luke]

Hm, I'm not sure if I even know the Cello Sonata...?

Then you really need to rectify that. In three little downloads.
1
2
3

see? What a piece - that opening movement, so plangent yet dignified, ancient and modern, wise yet sensitive, serious but playful... I don't really know anything else like it...

[Guido]

We've communicated about it before, but I'm glad it came up again - about time I had another listen - It's all the things you said (and you say it beautifully) and so compact and punchy too - its all over in 12 minutes but its as cathartic, satisfying and evocative of a world as any of the late romantics' behemoths! Perfection.

I couldn't name a better cello sonata.

[Maciek]

Why, thank you, Luke! Downloading now but listening will probably have to wait till tomorrow. 0:)

[karlhenning]

Was just listening to this piece on my mp3 player, really.

[Luke]

I couldn't name a better cello sonata.

The answer I'm dying to write is 'I'd better try to compose one then....'   

The cello sonata that sprang so strongly into my mind last spring - I can still reconstruct what it 'felt like' in my mind, it would have been fun, but I'm not capable of really going back there. But perhaps something else will spring up in its place, I can vaguely feel the cogs grinding away at something. But you know me well enough by now, Guido, not to get your hopes up just yet...

Just had a free lesson, jotted a few niggardly ideas down for something harpsichord/clarinetish...maybe they will lead somewhere. Working title - 'dreamslender'

[Cato]

Just had a free lesson, jotted a few niggardly ideas down for something harpsichord/clarinetish...maybe they will lead somewhere. Working title - 'dreamslender'

So is that "Dream Slender" or "Dreams Lender" ?

Or both simultaneously?   

[Maciek]

Maybe it's Dr Eamslender?

[Luke]

So is that "Dream Slender" or "Dreams Lender" ?

Or both simultaneously?   

a little of both, I think.... it's from e.e. cummings, describing the crescent moon:

luminous tendril of celestial wish

(whying diminutive bright deathlessness
to these my not themselves believing eyes
adventuring, enormous nowhere from)

querying affirmation; virginal

immediacy of precision:more
and perfectly more most ethereal
silence through twilight's mystery made flesh-

dreamslender exquisite white firstful flame

-new moon!as(by the miracle of your
sweet innocence refuted)clumsy some
dull cowardice called a world vanishes,

teach disappearing also me the keen
illimitable secret of begin

[Luke]

...which I've always rather liked...

[karlhenning]

Splendid!

[Guido]

a little of both, I think.... it's from e.e. cummings, describing the crescent moon:

luminous tendril of celestial wish

(whying diminutive bright deathlessness
to these my not themselves believing eyes
adventuring, enormous nowhere from)

querying affirmation; virginal

immediacy of precision:more
and perfectly more most ethereal
silence through twilight's mystery made flesh-

dreamslender exquisite white firstful flame

-new moon!as(by the miracle of your
sweet innocence refuted)clumsy some
dull cowardice called a world vanishes,

teach disappearing also me the keen
illimitable secret of begin

e.e. cummings - beautiful as always.

[Luke]

Well, all quiet on the sensible front, but I've been having great fun messing around with my kids making a 'movie' using my laptop's webcam and the Windows Movie Maker!! And I'm using the subtle, refined delights of Sibelius+MIDI to score it....

Hope it's not too sacreligious (take it in a Life of Brian sense) but my little 5 year old boy Felix wanted to make a film about the young Jesus, to which my little girl Mila declared 'in that case I'll have to be his big sister.....Gina' - Gina, of course, is a little put out by her younger brother's status as Son of God, especially as he tends to annoy her more than the Godhead Incarnate really should. God, meanwhile agrees that Jesus needs to learn to behave better before he can be granted full miracle-working privileges. 20 minutes of filming have been completed, and the following sections of score dashed off -

Opening titles, Biblical-Epic style (though with a nod to Life of Brian, again....)
Dream sequence, featuring Gina ascending to heaven on a unicorn
Montage-a-la-Rocky, in which Jesus trains at being good. The Rocky score combined with fragments of 'that' Bach D minor toccata for added sublimity and holiness...

[Luke]

The Rocky montage, only for those not afraid of sacrilege on any number of levels....  Blame my children....

[karlhenning]

I do wonder how the Sermon on the Mount might have differed, if Jesus had had an older sister . . . .

[Guido]

Hahaha! hilarious!

[karlhenning]

How we doing?

[Luke]

We doing good, thanks, a bit snowed under by real life, at least to the extent that I've had no time to sit down with pencil and manuscript paper...but it's all ticking away up there. Plans, plans, plans....plus ca change 

[karlhenning]

Bene, bene.

[Luke]

...actually wrote some notes just now....