Ottevanger's Omphaloskeptic Outpost

[Luke]

Hah!  Well, what I was immediately thinking was, that there are aspects to it which might appear in my compositions nowadays (when I've been writing for quite some little while), and which had never occurred to me back in the days when I was studying composition . . . and here they are in this early morceau of your own.  So it's this sort of ghost dialogue between the two of us at different eras which inspired the response fascinating : )

That is fascinating - what sort of thing leaped out at you like that?

[karlhenning]

The rhythmic shimmer of the pulsing accompaniment beginning in m.32, and the melodic interruption of that background (suited to the individual voices) in m.44.

[Luke]

That is interesting, indeed. Have you heard Bryars' music, Karl? It's nothing like yours, or mine, but he does have a way with this sort of thing, too - long, long melodic lines over pulsing, living, breathing harmony, which frequently splinters off itself to contribute to the linear flow....and he's written some rather beautiful clarinet pieces, amongst many others!

[karlhenning]

I don't think I have heard aught of his music, Luke.

[Guido]

(most typically of fifth superimposed upon fifth, a semitone between the middle two notes* - there are one or two of those here, but not too many).

Add a fifth above and one below and then roll it and you've got one of my favourite chords from Ives - It's in the Song Tom Sails Away to the words "Scenes from my childhood are with me" - one of his most potent and beautiful songs.

Bryars is indeed an extraordinary composer - I'd all but dismissed his cello concerto until Luke told me to reconsider it - and now I recognise its extraordinary and subtle beauty. It's probably still my favourite piece of his, but there's so much that's marvellous. Definitely Czech him out!

[Luke]

I don't think I have heard aught of his music, Luke.

Try this - the first piece of his that I ever heard, way back when, and though I've got maybe 20 more discs of his music since, and never been disappointed, this is still a standout piece, I think. The watery, fractured sound of the guitar here, above Bryars trademark grainy group of lower strings, is something special.

[Luke]

Stretching back a year or two earlier - here's a Largo for orchestra I wrote aged 16-17. Awful balance (or lack thereof) in the orchestration, at times. And guess who had just been playing Shostakovich 5 with his youth orchestra.....? But it's fun to look at all this old old stuff again, and to hope I've progressed from this stage as much as I feel I have....

edit - oh, and bars 43-48....I wanted to cut them even at the time, they are utter rubbish, but I never got round to it and couldn't remember what I had intended to replace them with when I came to type this score up 16 years later! 

[Luke]

I'm starting to doubt my mind....did I already post that one, months ago? 

[Cato]

The Largo shows how beautiful dissonances can be when handled correctly, e.g. bar 8, which becomes the very last bar, both played at ppp.

Was the work an official exercise or an opus ex nihilo?   0:)

[Luke]

The Largo shows how beautiful dissonances can be when handled correctly, e.g. bar 8, which becomes the very last bar, both played at ppp.

Was the work an official exercise or an opus ex nihilo?   0:)

As far as I recall, I wrote it whilst under the spell of the slow movement of Shostakovich 5, as I said (you can see echoes of it here, I think - the rising incipit, the mostly strings-and-winds orchestration, and also the use of the second flute, low in its register, which I remember stunned me in the Shostakovich - so simple, so spine-tingling). But in the end I think I used it as part of my composition portfolio for my music A level a year or so later.

[Luke]

...so - sorry - to answer your question, the latter: just something that happened!

[karlhenning]

Similarly here, it was Shostakovich which reminded me how beautiful simplicity can be.  In all the flurry of my compositional studies, it was Dmitri Dmitriyevich who "re-legitimized" (not to say rehabilitated) simplicity for me.

[Cato]

Luke: I have finally heard from my former student, Ryan Behan, now a professor of piano:

"I forwarded the Ottevanger to my friend David Tomasacci, who is very interested in Scriabin and anyone pushing that style into new areas.   I think they are very interesting and can't wait to program them. Unfortunately, I will have to wait another year because I am having to capitalize on the bicentennial celebrations of Chopin/Schumann, then next year in Liszt. I have an all-Liszt program picked out, and his three Petrarch Sonnets are on there! Maybe I could program Luke Ottevanger's Lisztian work as an encore? It sounds like it might fit very well!"

So we will see what happens! 

[karlhenning]

Splendid!

[Luke]

Luke: I have finally heard from my former student, Ryan Behan, now a professor of piano:

"I forwarded the Ottevanger to my friend David Tomasacci, who is very interested in Scriabin and anyone pushing that style into new areas.   I think they are very interesting and can't wait to program them. Unfortunately, I will have to wait another year because I am having to capitalize on the bicentennial celebrations of Chopin/Schumann, then next year in Liszt. I have an all-Liszt program picked out, and his three Petrarch Sonnets are on there! Maybe I could program Luke Ottevanger's Lisztian work as an encore? It sounds like it might fit very well!"

So we will see what happens!

Well, Cato, that sounds fantastic! Many, many thanks, as always. for all you've said about my music on this thread and elsewhere, for your always-attentive listening - and now, also, my grateful thanks for having set this little train in motion too! I'm very excited about this....

[karlhenning]

Very excited, too!

[Cato]

Luke: your inbox is full of Personal Messages and will not accept anything!   

[karlhenning]

Cato, check PM. (Luke, I took a liberty : )

[karlhenning]

Luke, your inbox is reported to be full (I tried sending a PM earlier today).

[Luke]

Hello chaps!

Back from France, where the internet connection was sporadic and didn't really let me contribute fully - I've been back a few days, actually, but putting things in order and not really posting here. There's a little room in my PM box now btw, should anyone need it.

I've described how two years ago, on holiday in the same place in France with my extended family, my brother, brother-in-law and I spent a somewhat drunken evening making a list of 80s pop songs which could provide suitable subjects for fugal treatment. The result was the silly little fugues I posted a few pages ago (because, for some reason, I took up that project anew this spring for a little entertainment). That gives some sort of an idea of the type of irreverent musical projects we dream up whilst in la France profonde....and explains this - http://www.mediafire.com/?b0bv4obt5cwdu7o - my first foray into musique concrete. Perhaps the sound source can be guessed (there's only one). But because, to my surprise, I actually find the result rather potent (images of wordless desolation, of an alien landscape, almost-human cries and answers, hints of Ornette....) I thought I'd share it with you      Enjoy!