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Monday, April 30, 2007
One down
Last week the Concertino finally shipped out to the commissioners: all three movements, parts & score, complete with actual, honest-to-goodness solo cadenza at the end of the 3rd movement. I've posted the score for perusal fun, along with some other goodies.
The Concertino stats:
15 minutes
104 page score
139 parts pages
Soloist 1st mvt - flute and picc
Soloist 2nd mvt - alto flute
Soloist 3rd mvt - alto flute, flute, picc, and flute cadenza
The score is so large that folding and staple-binding (my current mode of score prep) doesn't really work. I'll have to come up with something else which might look just as sexy.
After completion I headed upstate a bit, to Wappinger Falls NY, to work with Rich Holod and Jim Trainor and their terrific ensembles at Roy C. Ketchum H.S., rehearsing As the scent of spring rain..., Uncle Sid, and 1861. It's a great change of pace to not have to get on a plane to work with a wind ensemble. There are bands along the Taconic Parkway! I felt warm and fuzzy pride for my home state.
As an interim project I've started another song, for the ongoing set of Postcards. The purpose is to serve as a compositional palate cleanser, before I begin work on the next wind ensemble piece. Which will be huge. 10' or more, one expansive movement, to be part of a multi-movement symphonic form based on The Rivers of Bowery, with a long and wonderful list of co-commissioners. Research, both musical and extra-musical, begins in earnest on Wednesday, with a trip to the NYPL for the Performing Arts. Which is always a good time, because they have scores and wi-fi and Aeron chairs.
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Depends on How You Count It
A couple of weeks ago I posted a preview of violin/bass clarinet miniature. Tonight, Dohyci premieres, with The New York Miniaturist Ensemble at the helm.
The story of this miniature is more than a little wonky. The mission of the ensemble ("The New York Miniaturist Ensemble is dedicated to performing music written with purity of essence - composed of 100 notes or fewer.") struck me as so completely brilliant, I got immediately giddy. 100 notes. It's genius -- think of all the music they can play, by all the composers they can possibly get in touch with, all of whom would say: 100 notes? Sure, why not.
I know I did. I wrote the piece in about 4 days (well, 1 day, with a few days of tweaking), and I'd say the fun (and most difficult) part is coming to terms with the idea of a note. 100 notes - but what is a note? Is this double-stop one note or two? How about this 22-pitch polychord? This slow glissando down an octave -- how many notes is that? One? Twelve? How about this audio sample of hippos mating you trigger with Max/MSP by playing this trill? This is where this kind of thing gets interesting, and personal, and it's at the heart of the brilliance of the NYME mission.
So, here's all my notes... 1, 2, 3... More than 100, right? Hah! Depends on how you count it.
Tonight at Makor, 13 composers ... 1300 notes.
Sunday, April 08, 2007
What am I doing now?
Find out. An un-characteristic toe-dip into Web 2.0 for me, but I'll certainly take a stab at most things seemingly intriguing. Until they annoy me. Which this might. Until then, take a glimpse into the glamor.
Wednesday, April 04, 2007
Link-dropping
Taking stock in the Week of Winds that was CBDNA National in A-squared. Of course, the reason I was there was last Saturday night's triumphant closing concert of Maestro Clary's Florida State University Wind Orchestra performing the most intelligent and gorgeous rendering of As the scent of spring rain... a composer could possibly ever want to hear. And the whole program was superb, including the Grantham Court Music, Kurt Weill's youthful Konzert Fur Violine (the first movement is a little hairy, but make it through and you are rewarded with some fantastic stuff), the most spectacular (and I mean, spectacular) Turbine I or you or John Mackey will ever hear, and Dan Welcher's 4th Symphony, complete with a spiky first movement (I dug it) and percssionists banging ceramic mugs. Hitting things is fun.
The week was good ... hanging with Robert Ambrose to go over the Concertino and make a whole mess of red marks on the draft score ... discussing our upcoming project (More soon. Big news.) with Texas A&M Commerce's Man in Havanna, Jeff Gershman, and otherwise going to concerts and talking shop about every gritty detail with Bryant, Mackey, and my Michigan Boys: David T. Little, Carter Pann, Joel Puckett, and D.J. Sparr ... composers who all excelled in the very program for which I didn't even make the first round and get an interview. Yeah that's right. That chip is still there.
If I was there to soak in the beauty of Prof. Clary's spring rain..., everyone else was there to hear the music, and I got in plenty of that myself. With the exception of a jaunt to Ann Arbor's infamous Fleetwood Diner for the spectacularly yummy Hippie Hash, it was concerts concerts and concerts. You can see for yourself who played what, but since I'm in a list-making mood, here are my highlights:
--Puckett Blink. Joel might be one of those dudes who is incapable of writing bad stuff. I think he might be on a mission to make the rest of us look like hacks.
--P.Q. Phan Race Of Gods. A new one for me -- really dug it.
--Nelson Rocky Point Holiday. I ask you, what else puts a smile on your face like that tune does?
--Bryant Stampede. I'm biased for my Brother, but that's a terrific piece.
--Varese Octandre. Always a fun time. And fond memories of struggling to conduct it in college.
--Golijov Last Round, Levante, and Lullaby and Doina. This all-Golijov chamber music concert the composition dept. put together was a lovely break from all the wind ensembles. And everything about Osvaldo Golijov is pretty fantastic.
--Mackey Turning. This is not a pipe, nor a clarinet, nor a "band piece". And it's too good.
--Francaix Hommage A L'ami Papageno. The kind of genius I tried to soak in for the Concertino.
--Schoenberg Chamber Symphony No. 1. Hadn't heard it live since grad school. No one does better bass voice-leading, before or since. Marvelous.
--The entire University of Michigan program, Michael Haithcock, conductor.
--Bassett Lullaby For Kirsten. Well-known work, never heard it before. Beautiful piece.
For the necessary 1000 words, see the great pics at Chez Mackey. I dig the FSU post-concert conductor/composer shot (with permission from JM, that one will make my website gallery). I also think I have an excellent eye for photographing an annoyed Ticheli...