Ottevanger's Omphaloskeptic Outpost

[Cato]

... Beethoven's Piano Sonatas – would respond, simply: mine. Not out of pride in his own performance skills, but because only when he was playing them himself could he feel all the wonders of this music, not just hear them. Only then could he feel the counterpoints passing between fingers and hand, or the voice-leading from one chord to the next, or sense the play of registers and extremes, and infinite other tactile, sensuous manifestations.

I am reminded of stories about the nearly deaf Beethoven and his attempts to pick up sound through the vibrations of the piano. One story has him holding sticks in his mouth to transfer the vibrations into his skull.

[Luke]

I am reminded of stories about the nearly deaf Beethoven and his attempts to pick up sound through the vibrations of the piano. One story has him holding sticks in his mouth to transfer the vibrations into his skull.

Funny, that's more or less what the next paragraph goes on to mention

[Karl Henning]

@Luke, the new layout of the site may have disoriented you. You have a PM.

[Luke]

Ooh yes. I keep not looking that far up, it doesn't feel natural. Thanks.

[Luke]

I wanted to upload a sample chapter from the rambling book I was writing before the current one began, but it's too big to attach. If anyone wants a copy, PM me with your email address and I'll send it on that way.

A few things to say about it, so you can decide if you'd like to read it or not.

1) It is written with an informed, intelligent and engaged readership in mind but not necessarily one with a deep knowledge of music. Some/much of the stuff I've written about will be well-known to most people on this site. However, even when I am engaged on describing something you probably already have a good understanding of - e.g. the differences between equal temperament and just intonation - I'm probably doing so for a weird reason, so stick with it!

2) Those weird reasons are generally to do with the idea of the metaphors that music can carry, which is the loose bracket under which all the chapters fall. In this chapter, for instance, I investigate some rare early examples of music which mixes equal temperament and just intonation at the same time, and the consequences this has for the metaphorical message the music may convey. Here, as in the rest of the book, I cover quite a lot of ground, some of it unexpected. This chapter, for instance, starts with an introduction to the issues, then jumps over Leopold Mozart, Brahms and Wagner before more lengthy sections on Ravel, Vaughan Williams and Britten. And then, for some reason, there's a long section which seems at first to only be tangentially connected to any of these, on the First World War. There are lots of footnotes to try to keep a few other loosely-connected ideas from flying off disregarded. In other words, there's nothing academic here, just the ramblings of someone who is very engaged with these subjects.

I hope it reads OK and is interesting and not too obvious!

[Luke]

New avatar - the path leading to the sea, a few metres from Havergal Brian's penultimate home (I visited a number of his homes - six, I think; the last one, where he died, is half a mile from this one). It currently rejoices under the name The Dog's Danglies. Just one little juicy morsel from my discoveries...

[Karl Henning]

New avatar - the path leading to the sea, a few metres from Havergal Brian's penultimate home (I visited a number of his homes - six, I think; the last one, where he died, is half a mile from this one). It currently rejoices under the name The Dog's Danglies. Just one little juicy morsel from my discoveries...

Hah!

[Cato]

I wanted to upload a sample chapter from the rambling book I was writing before the current one began, but it's too big to attach. If anyone wants a copy, PM me with your email address and I'll send it on that way.

A few things to say about it, so you can decide if you'd like to read it or not.

1) It is written with an informed, intelligent and engaged readership in mind but not necessarily one with a deep knowledge of music. Some/much of the stuff I've written about will be well-known to most people on this site. However, even when I am engaged on describing something you probably already have a good understanding of - e.g. the differences between equal temperament and just intonation - I'm probably doing so for a weird reason, so stick with it!

2) Those weird reasons are generally to do with the idea of the metaphors that music can carry, which is the loose bracket under which all the chapters fall. In this chapter, for instance, I investigate some rare early examples of music which mixes equal temperament and just intonation at the same time, and the consequences this has for the metaphorical message the music may convey. Here, as in the rest of the book, I cover quite a lot of ground, some of it unexpected. This chapter, for instance, starts with an introduction to the issues, then jumps over Leopold Mozart, Brahms and Wagner before more lengthy sections on Ravel, Vaughan Williams and Britten. And then, for some reason, there's a long section which seems at first to only be tangentially connected to any of these, on the First World War. There are lots of footnotes to try to keep a few other loosely-connected ideas from flying off disregarded. In other words, there's nothing academic here, just the ramblings of someone who is very engaged with these subjects.

I hope it reads OK and is interesting and not too obvious!

Hi Luke!  Please include me! 

[Luke]

...I think have finished the first draft of my book. Feels quite epic - it's been my all-consuming passion for over a year. Much work to do, but for now, I'm satisfied!

[Karl Henning]

...I think have finished the first draft of my book. Feels quite epic - it's been my all-consuming passion for over a year. Much work to do, but for now, I'm satisfied!

That's huge! Bravo!

[Cato]

That's huge! Bravo!

Amen!  (And our Angel emoticon is still M.I.A.!)

Luke sent me an excerpt, which contains an excellent section on Ravel's orchestration and harmony!

[Luke]

Amen!  (And our Angel emoticon is still M.I.A.!)

Luke sent me an excerpt, which contains an excellent section on Ravel's orchestration and harmony!

Ah, that's from the collection of about twenty such essays I was writing before, from 2021 to early 2022. This new book, the one for which I actually have a publishing contract, is the one about (British*) composers and place.


*and Mendelssohn

[Cato]

Ah, that's from the collection of about twenty such essays I was writing before, from 2021 to early 2022. This new book, the one for which I actually have a publishing contract, is the one about (British*) composers and place.


*and Mendelssohn

Assuming that what you sent me is typical of the others, you have another possible book to offer your publisher!

[Karl Henning]

Hath the fair musick that all creatures made to their great Lord been broke? Rejoice, theefore!

[Karl Henning]

I smile to read of the musical bestiary, as it's only relatively recently that I've gotten around to listening to Hovhaness' And God Created Great Whales, which, back when I was a punky graduate student, I expected not to like. 

[Karl Henning]

"Ravel, the intermediate figure in the story of Stravinsky's little larceny." Sweet!

[VonStupp]

I smile to read of the musical bestiary, as it's only relatively recently that I've gotten around to listening to Hovhaness' And God Created Great Whales, which, back when I was a punky graduate student, I expected not to like.

At a University orchestra concert, I was put in charge of running the reel-to-reel of the whale sounds. The tape was very brittle, and it worried me every time I had to flip that big switch to play.
VS

[Karl Henning]

At a University orchestra concert, I was put in charge of running the reel-to-reel of the whale sounds. The tape was very brittle, and it worried me every time I had to flip that big switch to play.
VS

And, the wry contrast between the great powerful beasts and the frail magnetic tape!

[VonStupp]

And, the wry contrast between the great mighty beasts and the frail magnetic tape!

[Cato]

At a University orchestra concert, I was put in charge of running the reel-to-reel of the whale sounds. The tape was very brittle, and it worried me every time I had to flip that big switch to play.
VS

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!