Ottevanger's Omphaloskeptic Outpost

[sul G]

Could be the work of a single day, I suspect...

No, it won't be, but I got about 5 or 6 minutes done. That's a lot, for me! I hope to finish it tomorrow.

[karlhenning]

No, it won't be, but I got about 5 or 6 minutes done. That's a lot, for me! I hope to finish it tomorrow.

That's a lot for any of us!  Well done!

[Guido]

I was getting all excited as I thought you were talking about the cello sonata, but alas, you weren't. Still this piece sounds exciting!

I can't remember if Mellers calls all of Barber's work adolescent or just certain works - (First Symphony for example?) - I could certainly see it applying to Barber, but then there's that aching nostalgia too which is about trying to recapture youth (Knoxville for example), which would fall more into the Brahms category I would guess... I must buy that book - I've never before read such intellgient and insightful musical criticism.

I once saw an interview with John Williams where he said that he wrote about 15 minutes of film music a day when doing the star wars films which he said was about average for film composing! Pretty terrifying!

[sul G]

That's a lot for any of us!  Well done!

Yes, but there's the old quantity v quality dilemma to think about! Did I do too much? I can't be sure yet.

[sul G]

But I do love writing like this, for better or worse. It's a kind of wild, free-form letting-go which balances out the more formally considered pieces - though of course the piece creates its own form and, being me, there's always something of a sonata dialectic going on, as there is in this new one.

[karlhenning]

But I do love writing like this, for better or worse. It's a kind of wild, free-form letting-go which balances out the more formally considered pieces - though of course the piece creates its own form and, being me, there's always something of a sonata dialectic going on, as there is in this new one.

I am relieved to hear this . . . the various elements have a familiarish ring.

Keep it going, Luke!

[sul G]

Struggling on. Onwards and sideways.... 

[karlhenning]

My bass flute 'overlay' to the tidy harp cross-staff chords has been rather an extended splurge, too.

[sul G]

Is that good or bad?

So, today's work not really as satisfying as yesterday's, though I may have got some good stuff out of it. We'll see how I feel in the morning. But actually, I also value days like today as in their own way they confirm the quality of what I wrote yesterday. When the splurging flows well, I always doubt the quality of what's coming out - it shouldn't be so easy, should it? - so a little difficulty the next day is reassuring. The same thing happened with the composition of my Improvisations in 2003, and I actually turned it into a guiding compositional principle: when it comes, let it come and trust it, when it doesn't, don't force it and don't worry. This simple principle was quite a discovery for me actually, and taught me to trust and have confidence in myself. That's one reason why those pieces are special to me.

[karlhenning]

Is that good or bad?

Oh, good, I think.

[karlhenning]

So, today's work not really as satisfying as yesterday's, though I may have got some good stuff out of it. We'll see how I feel in the morning. But actually, I also value days like today as in their own way they confirm the quality of what I wrote yesterday. When the splurging flows well, I always doubt the quality of what's coming out - it shouldn't be so easy, should it? - so a little difficulty the next day is reassuring. The same thing happened with the composition of my Improvisations in 2003, and I actually turned it into a guiding compositional principle: when it comes, let it come and trust it, when it doesn't, don't force it and don't worry. This simple principle was quite a discovery for me actually, and taught me to trust and have confidence in myself. That's one reason why those pieces are special to me.

Your trust and your confidence in yourself are well placed.

[sul G]

Well, after a few days in which I didn't get a chance to work on the above-mentioned piano piece, I finished it today. Given my working methods on pieces of this type, it's no surprise that the music has a diary-like quality - IOW, today's music takes the material invented and developed a few days ago into places I didn't expect it to go. For some reason, the last page and a bit of this piece suddenly steps out into territory which to my ears sounds very lonely and desolate. Sean diagnosed some kind of neurosis - 'I fear for all of us and the whole world...who are you? What loss and sadness possesses us?' - with my last sonata, in 2007 (though he liked the piece itself very much IIRC). I wasn't sure about that, but if he said the same listening to this piece, I'd agree with him. It's really quite disconcerting; I've rarely been so affected by something I've written.

Technically, though, there is no difference between today's music and that which preceded it; it may be that I'm alone in sensing this desolate side to the end of the piece. Maybe I'm simply losing it!

[karlhenning]

(* lurks & reads *)

[sul G]

Still don't know what to make of this new piece. I think there's some work required at more than a couple of points. But - still, and this is so odd - the essence of it frightens me somewhat, like Scriabin and his 6th Sonata! And like that work, which doesn't seem to affect anyone else as it affected its own composer, I doubt anyone else will hear much disturbing in this new piece of mine when I am finished with it and present it here.

[greg]

Well, I like to be frightened by music (in a good way). Bring it on, Luke! 

[sul G]

To be clear, it isn't frightening in any way due to dissonance or violence of any sort. No, it's just so...desolate. To my ears!

[greg]

Bring on the desolation! I can handle it. 

[karlhenning]

To be clear, it isn't frightening in any way due to dissonance or violence of any sort. No, it's just so...desolate. To my ears!

Could be resonating with Holy Week.

Or not, of course! 

[sul G]

Well, as it probably represents some drastic problem in my psyche, I'm not sure I want to probe too much!

[Maciek]

Sean diagnosed some kind of neurosis - 'I fear for all of us and the whole world...who are you? What loss and sadness possesses us?' - with my last sonata, in 2007 (though he liked the piece itself very much IIRC)

Ha! A place where Sean cannot deregister!

I'm sure I'm speaking for many when I say your recent comments are making us very curious, Luke. 0:)