Ottevanger's Omphaloskeptic Outpost

[karlhenning]

As far as I'm concerned, it's posts like this which justify the forum 

[sul G]

Thank you, Karl. And in turn, I value both this space, in which I can put down these outpourings, and the group who gather here and are kind enough to read them.   

[Guido]

As far as I'm concerned, it's posts like this which justify the forum 

Absolutely! This is really very exciting news indeed Luke...

[Mark G. Simon]

As far as I understand - Karl or Mark can correct this - the echotone functions by restricting the vibration of the reed more than usual and thus by subduing the tone; it's the same thing as subtone I think, but I was aware of the term echotone first, so it's the one I reach for first.

http://www.mti.dmu.ac.uk/~ahugill/manual/clarinet/movies/subtone.mov

[Guido]

Cheers!

[sul G]

Well, I did say that I find these early stages of composition fascinating and revealing, so I might as well describe a minor moment of revelation I had during one of my rehearsals today.

Earlier, I described the 'image' I have of my hoped-for cello sonata's finale like this:

...Additive metres rather as in 7/8 of Ascent, but gradually expanding rather than contracting, so that by the later stages each bar becomes its own world full of a variety of incident...

but actually this idea of each bar being 'its own world' didn't come at exactly the same time as the rest of the 'image', but a few hours later. (The idea, though, is one that's always attracted me.) When the initial 'image' came to me I was driving to my school to rehearse the girls in a little Shakespeare confection they are putting on next week. To cover scene changes etc I began to plunder the wonders of the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book, and today, doing the same, I realised that one of my choices on Sunday contained precisely the sort of each-bar-is-a-world that, later that evening, I felt needed to be a part of my sonata's finale. The piece, btw, is an In Nomine by John Bull - first two incredible pages below - which the ancient edition I have puts into a notional 11/4 - which is, in fact, the only logical choice (8+3). These are precisely the kind of long, incident-packed, contrapuntal bars that I love.

It's totally insignificant, of course, but interests me because of the light it sheds on the strange workings of the mind - if my piece turns out the way I currently envisage, will it be due to my copy of the FVB falling open at that particular page on Sunday, when my mind was obviously more receptive than normal?

Today, btw, I did a little work on the 'Drowsy' movement. As yet, I'm just throwing notes onto paper without much plan; later I will work through the resulting splurge to pick through the ideas which seem most fruitful for the sonata itself.

[Guido]

Well, I did say that I find these early stages of composition fascinating and revealing, so I might as well describe a minor moment of revelation I had during one of my rehearsals today.

Earlier, I described the 'image' I have of my hoped-for cello sonata's finale like this:

but actually this idea of each bar being 'its own world' didn't come at exactly the same time as the rest of the 'image', but a few hours later. (The idea, though, is one that's always attracted me.) When the initial 'image' came to me I was driving to my school to rehearse the girls in a little Shakespeare confection they are putting on next week. To cover scene changes etc I began to plunder the wonders of the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book, and today, doing the same, I realised that one of my choices on Sunday contained precisely the sort of each-bar-is-a-world that, later that evening, I felt needed to be a part of my sonata's finale. The piece, btw, is an In Nomine by John Bull - first two incredible pages below - which the ancient edition I have puts into a notional 11/4 - which is, in fact, the only logical choice (8+3). These are precisely the kind of long, incident-packed, contrapuntal bars that I love.

It's totally insignificant, of course, but interests me because of the light it sheds on the strange workings of the mind - if my piece turns out the way I currently envisage, will it be due to my copy of the FVB falling open at that particular page on Sunday, when my mind was obviously more receptive than normal?

Today, btw, I did a little work on the 'Drowsy' movement. As yet, I'm just throwing notes onto paper without much plan; later I will work through the resulting splurge to pick through the ideas which seem most fruitful for the sonata itself.

This is all very interesting.

Would it be a crime to admit that I didn't know nor had heard of before the Fitzwilliam Virginal book?

[karlhenning]

. . . As yet, I'm just throwing notes onto paper without much plan . . . .

That can be made to work, and very nicely, too.

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Well, I did say that I find these early stages of composition fascinating and revealing, so I might as well describe a minor moment of revelation I had during one of my rehearsals today.
(...)

It's totally insignificant, of course, but interests me because of the light it sheds on the strange workings of the mind - if my piece turns out the way I currently envisage, will it be due to my copy of the FVB falling open at that particular page on Sunday, when my mind was obviously more receptive than normal?

I share your fascination with the creative process, so I am following your own with keen interest, Luke. And that fortuitous falling open of the FVB, it's all part and parcel of the process itself. I know it from my own experience.

Addition: Colin Wilson calls this Faculty X. Your mind is sharp and concentrated and all kinds of coincidences occur which help you along.

[sul G]

Absolutely, Johan - I'm very used to these odd occurences, and also, though it's a different thing, to peculiar coincidences, which I tend to take as confirmation that I'm doing something right. Gavin Bryars is a composer who has always thrived on coincidences to push his work along. A piece by him springs to mind - The English Mailcoach, IIRC (the disc is at home and I can't check) which quotes Busoni and Holst, picking up on the fact that German H = English B, that Busoni was published by Breitkopf und Hartel, and that Holst was published by Boosey and Hawkes. There's more to it than that, of course...

That can be made to work, and very nicely, too.

Well, as you know, it's something I often do, and am happy to leave it at that. But in this case, I want to cherrypick from the results! A sonata requires more rigour, more neatness, less discursiveness and less going-with-the-flow, of course. This is also how I composed the Canticle Sonata.

And yes, Guido, that is a crime. Remedy it!

[Guido]

mmm... spotify!

If you havent got it yet, you definitely should - its free music, at listenable quality, that instantly streams to your computer and its completely legal - loads of labels have joined it... I've just discovered it. It is the future.

So yes it turns out this FVB is really rather special. I really need to hear more renaissance music. I've always loved it when I've heard it in concert, but have never properly explored it. Spotify means that I wont need to bankrupt myself when learning about it!

[sul G]

So yes it turns out this FVB is really rather special.

It is, isn't it? Even though I've been playing and listening to this sort of thing for ages, I'm still routinely amazed by the degree of complexity - harmonic and especially rhythmic - these pieces often work up to. Witness the '11/4' in the one I posted, and the pungent false relations in it; witness the extreme chromaticism of some of the pieces, pieces traversing all keys in those pre-ET days; witness the leaping, prancing triplets and metric modulations a la Carter (OK, Carter at his simplest, but still!) that occur throughout. It's so refreshing and fingertwisting in an entirely different way

This is the sort of music which lies behind the rhythmical spring and independent part writing of Tippett, and I feel there is some similarity to some of my own pieces too (e.g. the Unfinished Study from 2005, but elsewhere too) though it's really the ars subtilior connection which has been in my mind more frequently.

[Maciek]

By the way, for those who want to hear Markovic/Lajko's Crni Voz, the piece which got me started on the second movement of this hoped-for cello sonata. I've added in Turceasca, a track by Kronos/Taraf de Haidouks, too - a little less 'authentic', perhaps, but if it's OK by the Taraf it's OK by me. And I think it's a hell of a lot of fun. What the pieces share, apart from the obvious, is the additive rhythms and the blazing tutti-wildly out of control solo juxtapositions which I love. Well, maybe that's obvious too, actually.   Play them loud.

Thanks for this! I have a few Boban Markovic recordings (pieces/tracks, not whole albums) but I don't think this is one of them (haven't listened in a while).

[sul G]

It's a real belter, isn't it!

[sul G]

In contrast to Karl's enviably controlled, planned and professional compositional exploits with stars and guitars, as detailed at Henning HQ, sul G is currently conforming to type - sitting at the piano and splurging lots of notes onto paper. Pretty much the same sort of thing as with Quiverings last year - I'm very happy with that piece, even though I haven't talked about it much here. The main difference, technically, is that there are two modes here, not one, though they are almost interchangeable as each is a full 8 notes large. But the more important difference is in the tone - this new piece is a good deal more regressively, passionately romantic, deliberately so - replete with Tristan chords, even! - because I want to inject a bit of Tchaikovskian adolescence into my music: the beauty of passion experienced rather than the beauty of passion recalled. (Seems to me this could be the underlying difference between a Tchaikovsky and a Brahms, in fact, and a reason the former detested the latter to such a degree, but I think this is what is known as going OT. Or maybe not.). Let's see where this one goes. Could be the work of a single day, I suspect...

[karlhenning]

Hey, I'm a great believer in note-splurging!  Splurge on, lad!

[sul G]

Yes, I'm off to splurge some more once I've posted this clarification  :

Tchaikovsky as adolescent is not meant pejoratively. I'm borrowing the description from Wilfrid Mellers, a musicologist who, as we all know, used language very carefully and precisely. The term 'adolescent', usually meant as an insult, is itself used by Mellers neutrally, non-judgementally - and he thinks Tchaikovsky is the composer of genius working in this adolescent mode. I take him to mean what I said above - that in Tchaikovsky the passion, pain and pleasure is right up front: he lives it, we live it with him, in the moment. It's not sublimated, it isn't recalled in cathartic retrospect. This is one entirely valid mode of composing - and it's probably the reason why Tchaikovsky, often sneered at or ignored by the 'elite', is so loved by the 'masses' (ugh!)

[sul G]

The cello sonata is not forgotten, btw, though I haven't posted about it. On the contrary, it's at the front of my mind (the part that deals with music, anyway). But I'm in that phase, post-inspiration, pre-perspiration, which I seem to have to go through with every large-scale piece. I've learnt to accept this and not force things before they're ready, so in the meantime, I's a-splurgin'!

[karlhenning]

I knew you weren't speaking any ill of Tchaikovsky.  Either of us would love to write something both as good and as loveable as a dozen Tchaikovsky works.

[sul G]

I'd be happy with just one of them, Karl!

But my clarification needs some clarification too, I think:

This is one entirely valid mode of composing - and it's probably the reason why Tchaikovsky, often sneered at or ignored by the 'elite', is so loved by the 'masses' (ugh!)

Bit of a Seanian cliche, that, sorry. But you know what I mean....!