Ottevanger's Omphaloskeptic Outpost

[karlhenning]

Did you try übermodal ? : )

[Luke]

Hm, I typed "Mila" and "supermodal" into google, but it told me that what I meant was "Milla" and "Supermodel."  Is this her?

Close. The real Mila is much more terrifying a shades-wearing red-clad devil, though, even here, nearly 2 years ago:

[karlhenning]

A piano-sprite!

[Scarpia]

Close. The real Mila is much more terrifying a shades-wearing red-clad devil, though, even here, nearly 2 years ago:

Only two years difference.  My, they grow up fast.

[Luke]

 

She will be so embarrassed!!

[Luke]

In the light of recent threads, perhaps I ought to admit to the fact that my son is called Felix.... but that is nothing to do with the existence of a certain composer, honest.

[karlhenning]

It was the right time for the disclosure ; )

[Cato]

I prefer Luke's Mila over the leathery movie-star Milla.  Cute beats leathery every time!   0:)

Yes, Luke, your works have great value, and people need to hear them!  Whenever I have an opportunity to further them, I mention your works and Karl's.  Eventually something will happen for both of you!

[Saul]

In the light of recent threads, perhaps I ought to admit to the fact that my son is called Felix.... but that is nothing to do with the existence of a certain composer, honest.

What kind of a composer names his Son Felix without thinking about Mendelssohn.

Imagine is a composer will name his son Ludwig without thinking of Beethoven....

[karlhenning]

I prefer Luke's Mila over the leathery movie-star Milla.  Cute beats leathery every time!   0:)

Yes, Luke, your works have great value, and people need to hear them!  Whenever I have an opportunity to further them, I mention your works and Karl's.  Eventually something will happen for both of you!

Many thanks, Cato! It is an honor to share company with Luke.

[Luke]

What kind of a composer names his Son Felix without thinking about Mendelssohn.

Well, I also called my daughter Mila without even thinking about the character in a Janacek opera with that name - and Janacek is my favourite composer, where Mendelssohn isn't! Go figure. 

In seriousness, there are better reasons for giving a child a name than that a composer was called the same thing, and that was true in both cases for my kids.

[karlhenning]

What kind of a composer names his Son Felix without thinking about Mendelssohn.

It's no good trying to generalize here.

In this case, a very fine, talented, intelligent and quick-witted composer.

[Saul]

Well, I also called my daughter Mila without even thinking about the character in a Janacek opera with that name - and Janacek is my favourite composer, where Mendelssohn isn't! Go figure. 

In seriousness, there are better reasons for giving a child a name than that a composer was called the same thing, and that was true in both cases for my kids.

Ok...

[Saul]

It's no good trying to generalize here.

In this case, a very fine, talented, intelligent and quick-witted composer.

Ok to you too...

[Luke]

OK



(and thanks, Karl, you made me blush)

[Luke]

I'm feeling a little reckless, so I think I will post a piece here that really doesn't look like the sort of thing I do at all, and which is really a very personal thing to me that I am a little dubious about sharing. But there's a reason for both of those things...

I wrote it a couple of months ago, and it was not intended for public viewing for a couple of reasons - 1) it's really a private piece, as might be clear from the score (though for the purposes of posting it here I've erased various things...); 2) it's a plain and simple out-and-out tonal Romantic pastiche of the sort Saul was asking for a week or two back. In terms of my main compositional output, it doesn't figure at all, like my fugues (only more unambiguously serious), but I wrote it with the idea that it became source material for something more 'me'. In point of fact the formal (not stylistic) model is Liszt, specifically his Petrarch Sonnets, initially written as songs which he then paraphrased into rather gorgeous piano pieces. Well, my piece is a Petrarch setting too, but it imagines that the song is already written, and goes straight to the paraphrase! The idea was that I paraphrase this paraphrase of an imaginary song in my own style at a later date - and eagle-eyed readers will spot that that is exactly what the Karl-destined clarinet+harpsichord piece of whose first lines I posted an image a few pages ago is. Only that piece, if it comes to fruition (I'm finding it hard to do) will not be a paraphrase, it will be a 'deconstruction', as you can see from the title on the image.

Well, here's the score....

[Saul]

I'm feeling a little reckless, so I think I will post a piece here that really doesn't look like the sort of thing I do at all, and which is really a very personal thing to me that I am a little dubious about sharing. But there's a reason for both of those things...

I wrote it a couple of months ago, and it was not intended for public viewing for a couple of reasons - 1) it's really a private piece, as might be clear from the score (though for the purposes of posting it here I've erased various things...); 2) it's a plain and simple out-and-out tonal Romantic pastiche of the sort Saul was asking for a week or two back. In terms of my main compositional output, it doesn't figure at all, like my fugues (only more unambiguously serious), but I wrote it with the idea that it became source material for something more 'me'. In point of fact the formal (not stylistic) model is Liszt, specifically his Petrarch Sonnets, initially written as songs which he then paraphrased into rather gorgeous piano pieces. Well, my piece is a Petrarch setting too, but it imagines that the song is already written, and goes straight to the paraphrase! The idea was that I paraphrase this paraphrase of an imaginary song in my own style at a later date - and eagle-eyed readers will spot that that is exactly what the Karl-destined clarinet+harpsichord piece of whose first lines I posted an image a few pages ago is. Only that piece, if it comes to fruition (I'm finding it hard to do) will not be a paraphrase, it will be a 'deconstruction', as you can see from the title on the image.

Well, here's the score....

Looks intriguing, but I need a midi, or a recording in order to comment.

[Luke]

Knew you'd say that! I'm really reluctant to post one, this is such a personal piece that I'm not really happy with the idea of a sound file of it being available to all - posting the score is hard enough, but at least with the score people have to do a little work to hear it! Also my recording, as is the case with most of them, is a little shoddy - the piano out of tune, my playing hardly flawless, the sound quality not great.... But I'm uploading it to mediafire as we speak, so if I have a change of heart....

[Cato]

Knew you'd say that! I'm really reluctant to post one, this is such a personal piece that I'm not really happy with the idea of a sound file of it being available to all - posting the score is hard enough, but at least with the score people have to do a little work to hear it! Also my recording, as is the case with most of them, is a little shoddy - the piano out of tune, my playing hardly flawless, the sound quality not great.... But I'm uploading it to mediafire as we speak, so if I have a change of heart....

As with every Ottevanger piece I have read through, this one is brilliant! 

Note e.g. how simple octaves in the later staves in the treble on page 6 (when will you add bar numbers?    ) become variations on the opening 8th-note figure.  Note the presaging of the return of that opening in the bass on pages 8 and 9.

This is the art of using simple ideas in creatively complex ways.  I am reminded of the Water of the Hills novels of Marcel Pagnol.

I have only read-listened through it twice, and rather quickly: I can imagine the dynamics and the pedaling.  If Luke wanted to expand the work for some reason, my only thought would be perhaps to consider a further variation on the octave-idea mentioned earlier by adding fourths and/or fifths to see what happens.

But I should probably compose my own work instead!   0:)

I am intrigued by your reticence, Luke Ottevanger! It reminds me of ... me, when I was composing!   0:)

[Luke]

Thank you, Cato, for looking, and so closely too! Yes, I tried to weave things together motivically a little, I'm glad it comes out in the reading...

As for the reticence - well, I always used to be hyper-reticent, but this thread, and a few successful public performances, commissions etc. cured me of that to a large extent. I still usually think long and hard before putting a work out there for any anonymous person to do with as they will, however. All of my pieces are is very personal, especially recently, as you know, so I have to treat them with care!

But this one is more personal and sensitive than most, and it is also me speaking through a temporary mask, as it were - it's both very deeply felt and at the same time not representative at all, except maybe in some deeper-than-the-notes way. Neither of those things make me wildly happy about showing it to the world, hence the particular reticence with it. At the same time, however, I think it's quite a nice piece, and it has to serve some purpose other than filling up a little space on my hard drive...