Honey please

Posted on by Dale

From the Huffington Post:

Newt Gingrich, who is currently mulling a presidential bid in 2012, said at a political event in South Carolina (12/16/10) that most of America’s problems can be blamed on the “leftist news media,” Hollywood, tenured academics, overpaid federal workers, and unemployed people.

As opposed to Bush’s two wars; unregulated, criminal financial shenanigans; GOP obstructionism in Congress; and feed-the-rich tax policies?

Or as opposed to a disgraced has-been who deliberately poisoned America’s political discourse with his vituperative buzzwords?

Putz.

Task avoidance

Posted on by Dale

I went back and listened to my output for 2010 last night, and one piece stood out for its stubborn opacity. That would be, of course, the SATB a capella piece Phoenix, set to a stubbornly opaque text by Marc Honea. Of course.

Here it is in its piano version: Phoenix

There’s something to it, after all. I listened to it twice to make sure. I’m thinking I should arrange that for orchestra, just cut out the human voice altogether. It would certainly keep me from finishing the cello sonata. It would give me some practice in orchestration as well.

Variations on ‘Resignation’

Posted on by Dale

After weeks of listening to it obsessively, and running it past at least one strings teacher of my acquaintance, I have tonight submitted Variations on ‘Resignation’ to my contact at the Ayrshire Fiddle Orchestra in Scotland.

My stomach hurts. I have no idea whether they’ll actually like it, or , more likely , they will find parts of it too challenging to play. If that’s the case, I just go back to the drawing board and take it down a notch. Somehow.

I’m supposed (I think) to write a second piece for them, and that will be Rondo Mobile, the sketch of which you can hear here. I’m thinking I want to make it a rowdy, PDQ-Bach-esque piece, musicologically-speaking-wise. In the sketch, you can already hear the theme falling apart and restarting. I want to make more of that idea, with the sections getting crankier as things go wrong, lots of finger-pointing, ending up with a full-scale riot which the conductor has to silence with a coach’s whistle.

I have been remiss in my blogging for the last month. I promise to make it up to you. I have several posts in the works even as we speak, and after tomorrow , school’s out! , I will have time to churn these out to the delectation of readers everywhere.

I have a post on my Lichtenbergian goals, both a look back at this past year and a look forward; a rant on school funding and running schools “like a business”; a rant on why I oppose the legalization of alcohol; a serious rant about U.S. drug policy; and a strange little meditation on better living through sound effects.

See you then!

Hm.

Posted on by Dale

It has occurred to me that I need to be deciding on what my Lichtenbergian goals for 2011 are going to be, since the Annual Meeting is a week away. Some of them will be easy: they’re the ones I didn’t accomplish this year. Others will be easy as well: think cello sonata.

The new goals, though… Hm.

Done!

Posted on by Dale

If only it were for a ducat…

It is finished, my first piece for the Ayrshire Fiddle Orchestra. Again, it’s called—for the moment—Resignation, and it’s based on the hymn tune commonly known as “My Shepherd Will Supply My Need” in most hymnals.

It’s short; I could probably swing one more variation, probably a triplet thing, if I had to.

What you hear in the mp3 is pretty much the way it’s supposed to sound, although the first phrase is played by a solo violin instead of the whole section. Otherwise, there’s not a lot to say about it. I think it’s very pretty.

Resignation: score [pdf, letter] [pdf, A4] | mp3 [3:39]

Back to the cello sonata. ::sigh::

Surprise! Progress!

Posted on by Dale

Off in the mountains, and I decided to ignore the cello sonata for the week. Instead, I thought I’d take a peek at the Ayrshire Fiddle Orchestra piece, which in fact is due in three months, two days, and 21 hours. More or less.

Of the five sketches I sent them, they picked the arrangement of the hymn tune Resignation, an early American tune best known as “My Shepherd Will Supply My Need.” I haven’t really looked at it since then, mid-June. The Preludes (No Fugues) and the cello sonata have taken my time since then.

Anyway, I pulled it up this morning and have doubled its length today. Very nice, although it’s a piece of cake to write. I joked that if they were paying me, I’d be stealing.

Here it is so far. I think probably I’m going to break up the melody and do a little development thing, then do a final triumphal statement. It’s supposed to be short.

Wouldn’t it be nice to finish this by the Lichtenbergian Annual Meeting?

Resignation: mp3

The continuing saga

Posted on by Dale

I submitted the orchestral version of “Blake Leads a Walk on the Milky Way” to a competition in Austria, the Mahler Composition-Competition. The winner was a Swiss composer, with a 1975 piece called Wendepunkt (Turning Point).

For those keeping score, I’m zero for whatever. 🙂

Cello sonata, take 10

Posted on by Dale

I’ve been working on the development section of the Moderato and have actually been making real progress. You may recall that I set aside several sessions to generate crap in a separate “ideas” file. Remind me that this is a very effective strategy: I have been able to use about a third of the material I generated.

However, there are still some issues with what I have so far. First of all, it seems repetitive and not organic. This may be due to the fact that I’ve lifted material from the ideas file and stitched it together, and my ear can’t not hear the seams. I keep listening for ways to modify those transitions, and I’ve made some changes, but on the whole it still sounds clunky to me.

The other problem is that the further I venture, the less good the recapitulation I’ve already written sounds. It finally dawned on me why that is. There’s nothing wrong with the recap. The problem is that the majority of the material I generated for the ideas file is in the same general key as the opening of the piece. The whole point of the development section is to lead the listener far afield so that when we hit the recap, it sounds like coming home again. How can we come home if we never left?

So my next session is going to explore moving some of the current development into other keys. You will probably hear the weeping, the wailing and the gnashing of teeth, not to mention the tearing of the sackcloth, from your house.

The Parable of the Great City

Posted on by Dale

Once a man returned from the dead and began to tell his friends what had befallen him.

“I rose from my body,” he said, “and I was grateful to be free finally of the suffering of life. I could see you all standing over my body, stricken with what seemed to be grief, but I felt nothing but gratitude.

“I did not move. I did not go towards a light. There did not seem to be a light. On the contrary, as I hovered in the room, everything seemed to fade away. I cannot say how long it took, whether it were a long time or short, but eventually the room was gone and I found myself in a vast darkness that was nonetheless bathed in light.

“I felt no fear. There were with me countless others, suspended in the great void. There may have been a sound of singing, or music of some kind. I cannot tell now. I do not remember silence.

“All were moving towards what appeared to be a boundary of some kind. As we moved, I began to see what transpired as the souls reached that line.

“Some began to rise, slowly at first, but then more and more rapidly, to a great city that shone above us, from which a great light streamed and into which those souls entered. Others upon reaching the boundary gave a tremor and before our eyes seemed to unwind like great sheets of fabric twisted after washing in the river, their bodies changing in an instant into great swaths of gossamer, which then dissipated into the void and vanished with a whisper.

“Still I did not fear, but slowly approached the line and awaited my fate: the beautiful city, or nothingness?”

The man’s friends broke in excitedly. “Clearly we see your fate! You were elected to the city, to the beautiful city, for if you had suffered dissolution you would not now be here.”

The man replied, “It is as you say. I am in the beautiful city, I and all the other elect, where we live for ever.”

His friends rejoiced. “Praise be to those who made us and taught us to worship correctly! We see now the right path to eternal bliss. If we follow the teachings of our prophets and the writings of our scribes, we too shall join you in heaven after we die!”

But the man cried out, “No, my brothers, do not rejoice for me, for I am in hell.”