Ottevanger's Omphaloskeptic Outpost

[Luke]

You sound surprised      (heavy irony)

It did, and I even read it and replied all in one go! Will wonders never cease!

[karlhenning]

You are on it!

[karlhenning]

My friend actually used some type of small device which tuned the low E down to D when we were playing a few months ago. I never figured out what it was, though.

Not a whammy bar? : )

[ibanezmonster]

Not a whammy bar? : )

Oh, no. It would be too hard to keep that thing down while playing normal (and holding it steady enough to play in tune).

I think it's this (that metal attachment):

It's called a Hipshot Guitar Extender.


One of my favorite guitar tools to use is an eBow. It sustains a note as long as you want, even on an unplugged acoustic guitar. Just hold it over the string and it makes it vibrate. There is a harmonic switch on it that makes sustain notes sound very heavenly/beautiful. My friends say it is pretty much useless live (they have a point for many cases), but it's still awesome. Just a tricky tool to use.

[karlhenning]

YHM, Luke. (Your PM box is full again ; )

[karlhenning]

Luke, any time you may feel inclined to write up a duet (or three) for flute & clarinet (with Only Judicious Demands upon the latter ; ) Peter & I are readily at your service.

Wish I knew a good (and volunteerist) pianist so that we could assay your clarinet sonata. Some day!

[Luke]

That's a great offer Karl - might well take you up on that, thank you!

I hear the words 'flute and clarinet duet' and I instantly think of the tenor-accompanying example of the latter from the Britten Nocturne. Spellbinding writing, as in all of that piece... do you know it? It's a quick-fire succession of musical images, only a few bars each, perfectly chosen and honed, and my first thought is... I wonder if I could take some of those musical images and expand upon them, turn them from snapshots into wider landscapes. I doubt it, but I'll register it here as my first instinctual thought...

Meanwhile, poor Il Furioso is struggling away at my piano-turned-guitar sonata. Unsurprisingly, it's proving to be a very taxing piece - I leapt at the urge to get arranging without really worrying about the fact that, although it is full of guitar-ish textures, as the piece goes on and more and more layers and complexities are piled-up, it becomes ever less guitar-friendly. I realised that as I arranged - there were some bars which I really struggled with! But, with lots of wishful thinking, I kept in as much as I could semi-reasonably get away with. I awai il Furioso's report on what I should strip away (he's worked through quite a chunk of the piece already, and I'm incredibly grateful to him).

[karlhenning]

When I know that I've heard a piece, but cannot recall a particular (and particularly noteworthy) passage, I know I haven't listened to it enough!

This disc of the WTC is just finishing up, so I'll dig up the Nocturne (which I know I've got here . . . .)

Do by all means write something for Peter & me!  Entirely at your convenience, of course : )

[Cato]

Maybe you should ask Il Furioso if he has a friend who also plays guitar and re-arrange it for guitar duo. 

I was approached by a friend who regularly plays with another guitarist and asked for something, so I'll be going down that road in the next few months.  I play some guitar, so have a good idea of what will be "handy".

Decades ago I was asked to compose a piece for a few guitarists.

It was returned with the comment: "Where are the tabs?"   

They could not read music, only chord charts!  I naively thought they were budding Julian Breams and actually played the guitar, rather than strumming 4 chords up and down.

[Luke]

Almost nothing going on round here recently. But last night was fun, and moving in a way which surprised me

A parent at my school is in charge of Art History Abroad - this is him http://www.arthistoryabroad.com/Tutors.html - and now and then he organises little cultural evenings in the school. This time for the first time he ventured into music, and asked me to accompany a friend of his, a fine soprano called Megan Peel. So that was last night, to a small and appreciative audience, in my music room at school - this is the room, looking into the little quasi-stage in which I suggested we play:



(the picture is from before my time as Head of Music)

It was a beautiful thing for me, to be playing proper music properly with someone proper after a long time in which I've been virtually confined to playing for choirs and children. The setting was extremely familiar to me and yet transfromed from classroom into intimate, marble-columned, softly lit, sunset-filled haven - absolutely gorgeous. To be there as a performer and not a teacher felt so odd, and so 'right'. Apparently the soprano loved working with me - it certainly felt very good for me too. And the audience were possibly the most thrilled audience I've ever played for. I knew many of them through the school, and they were all particularly struck, I think, by seeing me in that new context, and many of them commented on how at home and happy I seemed to be. That meant a lot to me. The man himself, the boss of AHA, was stunned by how it all turned out and is eagerly talking of doing more such things with me. There was even tentative talk of him and I working together on some kind of Art+Music presentation (Picasso and Stravinsky, was his thought...). A great evening.

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Very happy for you here! Luke in his element!

[karlhenning]

: )

[Cato]

You might find at some point in the future that your present musically cloistered existence will have had at least a somewhat hermetic effect on your creativity.

[karlhenning]

Any music a-cooking while you were en vacances, Luke? We wants an update!

[Cato]

Any music a-cooking while you were en vacances, Luke? We wants an update!

Amen!   0:)

We want more piano sonatas!

Heck, why not just go whole hog!  We want Ottevanger's Piano Concerto #1 !

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Heck, why not just go whole hog!  We want Ottevanger's Piano Concerto #1 !

Seconded!

[Luke]

Yes, It'd be nice, wouldn't it. I like that idea. If anyone wants to commission it...

But in the real world, nothing. Absolutely nothing. It's not fun. But there are reasons! However, I have to write my annual Christmas piece soon, so expect something at some point. (Though that's a self-imposed 'have')

[Maciek]

Hi all!

Here's something to take your time while we're waiting for Luke's new Christmas piece (and the Piano Concerto too, of course, though that is perhaps bound to be slightly more time consuming, I suppose).

Here is the famous opening of Gombrowicz's Diary (has it been translated to English??):

Monday
Me.

Tuesday
Me.

Wednesday
Me.

Thursday
Me.

[EDIT: The "Me" could have also been translated as "I" or "Myself". I'm not all that sure if my choice is the right one.]

Gombrowicz's Diary (has it been translated to English??)

Yes, it has. By a Lillian Vallee. 1st volume is pretty cheap used on amazon.com:
http://www.amazon.com/Diary-1-Witold-Gombrowicz/dp/0810107155/
(even bookfinder.com couldn't find a better price!)

Incidentally, one may try to capture the essence of one's days in just so many words and come across as slightly less humble. Here is the famous opening of Gombrowicz's Diary (has it been translated to English??):

[EDIT: The "Me" could have also been translated as "I" or "Myself". I'm not all that sure if my choice is the right one.]

You are quite right to use the word "me" for your translation.

Why am I even quoting all that? I have no idea. I doubt any of you have been holding your breath since April 2009. But, anyway, today while browsing google books I remembered wondering how that bit went in the official English translation, and decided to check if I could find it. Well, this link should take you to the right page, isn't that nice?:
http://books.google.com/books?id=vGh-DkvdVCoC&lpg=PP1&pg=PA3#v=onepage&q&f=false

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Well, your contribution has this use for me that I now know I have to read Gombrowicz' Diary! 'Ferdydurke' was a seminal reading experience for me in my teens.

[Maciek]

Many consider the Diary to be his greatest masterpiece. Frankly, I've never read all of it, from cover to cover, though I've been meaning to for many years now.

Anyway, while trying to find it on google books, I also came across a volume of Stanislaw Baranczak essays in English. This one, which starts with an attempt at translating recent Polish history into American terms, seems quite amusing (I've only read a bit from the beginning right now and have never read the whole thing in Polish either):
http://books.google.com/books?id=hIg3wyeQuYYC&lpg=PP1&pg=PA77#v=onepage&q&f=false

OK, enough thread-derailing from me. (For the time being.)