Ottevanger's Omphaloskeptic Outpost

[VonStupp]

Luke mentions in his essay how people seem to like instruments imitating sounds of Nature, rather than recordings of e.g. actual birds (rf. Respighi) or, in this case, whales.

Bowing a tam-tam with (perhaps) a cello or double-bass bow, might give you a kind of whale song!

Could have worked, although I would have to check the score on what Hovhaness requires. I may give a quick try on a tam-tam next week to see if I can make it work, as my curiosity is piqued.

I had imagined that the reel-to-reel came with the score, but (and since it was long ago) now I am not so sure. The conductor was rather persnickety about such things, so I doubt an instrument would have sufficed for that performance.
VS

[Karl Henning]

Could have worked, although I would have to check the score on what Hovhaness requires. I may give a quick try next week to see if I can make it work, as my curiosity is piqued.

I had imagined that the reel-to-reel came with the score, but (and since it was long ago) now I am not so sure. The conductor was rather persnickety about such things, so I doubt an instrument would have sufficed.
VS

My understanding is that it is prerecorded whale song. I am sure, though, that Hovhaness would have been game to score a "mock whale song." IIRC, André Kostelanetz commissioned the piece, and the incorporation of genuine whale song was a stipulation. 

[Luke]

Am I very slow, or did I miss something? How did we get onto whales?   

[Cato]

Am I very slow, or did I miss something? How did we get onto whales?   

See Karl's comment on a "Musical Bestiary" on the previous page! 

Could have worked, although I would have to check the score on what Hovhaness requires. I may give a quick try on a tam-tam next week to see if I can make it work, as my curiosity is piqued.

I think it will work, but you never know!  Yes, please let us know what happens!  You might need to tap the tam-tam to get it going, before stroking it with the bow.

[Luke]

See Karl's comment on a "Musical Bestiary" on the previous page! 

Yes, that's what I was confused by! Where did that come from? I was thinking, is it something I wrote and have forgotten about? More than likely!

[Karl Henning]

Am I very slow, or did I miss something? How did we get onto whales?   

I doubt you're slow, but I was (perhaps characteristically) elliptical. I glided from your chapter's Music & Nature musings, Respighi's provocative expectation of disapproval of his prerecorded nightingale to the whale song in the Hovhaness piece.

[Karl Henning]

Yes, that's what I was confused by! Where did that come from? I was thinking, is it something I wrote and have forgotten about? More than likely!

I should have allowed for that, knowing how little familiar I have been with things written long since ....

[Karl Henning]

That may well mean that my PM, too was annoyingly elliptical. Sorry!

[Luke]

No problem on any of it!

Yes, it was just a passing observation (though tangentially linked to the nature/artifice element of the subject of that chapter), that Respighi's (and indeed Hovhaness') use of the sounds of real animals in their music has proved more controversial than Beethoven and Wagner and etc's use of imitation ones. Somewhat reminiscent of the old wind machine debate of yore (does anyone still remember that one?).

[Cato]

No problem on any of it!

Yes, it was just a passing observation (though tangentially linked to the nature/artifice element of the subject of that chapter), that Respighi's (and indeed Hovhaness') use of the sounds of real animals in their music has proved more controversial than Beethoven and Wagner and etc's use of imitation ones. Somewhat reminiscent of the old wind machine debate of yore (does anyone still remember that one?).

Oh yes!  I remember Leonard Bernstein talking about it in one of his concert talks.

We await Von Stupp's results with a tam-tam and bow to imitate whale songs!

[Luke]

There's always George Crumb's attempt, in Vox Balaenae...

It's not totally convincing, but I'm not sure it's meant to be...

[Luke]

I doubt you're slow, but I was (perhaps characteristically) elliptical. I glided from your chapter's Music & Nature musings, Respighi's provocative expectation of disapproval of his prerecorded nightingale to the whale song in the Hovhaness piece.

BTW this has now filled my head with visions of a humpback perched in the pines of the Janiculum...

[Karl Henning]

BTW this has now filled my head with visions of a humpback perched in the pines of the Janiculum...

Mash-up!

[Karl Henning]

Cross-post:

Even when I was composing more, and a voice at my elbow hints, Yes, composing at all would be more, it has been rare for me to dream of composing. The final of my dream episodes saw me setting to work (I even saw MS. paper as I orchestrated the first two chords) on a sarcastic piece which was to consist entirely of authentic cadences. I was even, for some mysterious reason, going to title it As I Was Walking Down the Street ... which at least @Cato will know for the opening line of "Buffalo Gals." The real random head-scratcher bit though is that I told someone that I got the idea for the piece from the essay/chapter which @Luke recently sent me.  I'm just home from PT, and therefore about to take my post-therapy nap, but when my brain is ready, of course the question I shall consider is, Could one really carry such a piece off?...

[Cato]

BTW this has now filled my head with visions of a humpback perched in the pines of the Janiculum...
 

Dude!  The Whales of Rome!        Sounds to me like an all-around fave!  Do it!

[Luke]

The Minke of the Appian Way....

[Luke]

...a sarcastic piece which was to consist entirely of authentic cadences...

Not as odd as you think...

...an unrealised project involved making an orchestral piece entirely of chords of F Major in shifting voicings and orchestrations taken from the endings of a wide range of orchestral music

Note, though - unrealised.

[Luke]

The real random head-scratcher bit though is that I told someone that I got the idea for the piece from the essay/chapter which @Luke recently sent me.

That is really bizarre!!

[Cato]

Cross-post:

Even when I was composing more, and a voice at my elbow hints, Yes, composing at all would be more, it has been rare for me to dream of composing. The final of my dream episodes saw me setting to work (I even saw MS. paper as I orchestrated the first two chords) on a sarcastic piece which was to consist entirely of authentic cadences. I was even, for some mysterious reason, going to title it As I Was Walking Down the Street ... which at least @Cato will know for the opening line of "Buffalo Gals." The real random head-scratcher bit though is that I told someone that I got the idea for the piece from the essay/chapter which @Luke recently sent me.  I'm just home from PT, and therefore about to take my post-therapy nap, but when my brain is ready, of course the question I shall consider is, Could one really carry such a piece off?...

The answer to the question at the end is: YES!


Some years ago, perhaps through some here at GMG, I came across a work based upon cadences.

Many Many Cadences in fact!   

[Luke]

Fascinating stuff! Listening now...