7 03/31/2001 It took me all my time to drag myself out of bed this morning, just managing to reach Poulton station as the train was pulling in. The final day of term at RNCM J.S., with interesting and developing pieces emerging from students. This is all in anticipation of the Young Composers' concert on June 9th. Met Nat and caught a later train home. Nat is doing an interesting semiotic analysis of a solo cello piece by Xenakis. Managed to write more on Larks' II on the way home, punctuated by the questions of a drunk who was sitting next to me: 'Writing a bit of music (hic)? Rather you than me..' he stammered. I replied at great length about Fibonacci proportioning, and how the pitches, in Larks' I & II, are also aligned using this method, along with the way each type of material leads one to the other and can be read 'orgasmically'. The gentleman moved to another seat at Preston, looked out of the window and obviously ruminated about our conversation.
6 03/30/2001 The penultimate day of a month which has seen this country suffering under Foot-and-Mouth, brought in on imported meat headed for a Chinese restaurant, so we're told. No more meals out for me for a while! The Government are now thinking seriously about vaccination before slaughtering the cattle and sheep. As in Europe, why wasn't this done immediately? There was a report on the TV news on Wednesday saying that if the Herdwick sheep, of the Lake District, contract the disease, there will catastrophic consequences for the landscape. The sheep roam the fells freely, and feed off the grass. If there aren't any sheep the grass will turn to shrub and, so the report said, the fells will begin to wood-over within ten years. The views will be lost, people will stop walking, tourism declines and businesses will go. The Guardian newspaper ran a report yesterday which stated the Government are asking local authorities to open footpaths again. This has come into action after Mr. Blair has visited Cumbria and Devon. No comment.
Practising the Cooke and the Taffenel for this afternoon. My piano skills are improving...after 25 years they should be!
More done on Larks' yesterday. Looked at number symbolism as applied to the work, and found some interesting structural details reinforced by Fibonacci number sequences. Beginning to tidy up the text, making sure that it fits together. Writing this sort of analytical essay is a little like composing music: things have to fit together as a consequence of something else. In other words there has to formal logic to the overall design. I feel like KC are the dinosaurs and I am the one digging their bones. Maybe I was an archaeologist in another life? The transcription of Robert's solo begins when I've finished this and had a cup of coffee to propel me into action.
Drove to hospital last evening to see my father. We called in on my mother first, picked up my dad's clean washing and then drove on. When we arrived he was asleep and were advised not to disturb him. The nurse tells us his health is improving. My mother also feels more rested.
Answered Jacob's questions re Black Sun, and received a phone call from Stuart King, artistic director of Chroma who have just recorded their first album. Stuart has asked for score/parts of my little piece 'Quaternaries'. They hope to perform the piece in June and again in 2002. This is good news. 'Quaternaries' was only the second piece that I considered to be a 'piece', written in 1990. Stuart has also asked to see 'Deadfall'. Ian McDonald also e-mailed with details of the tambourine in 'If I Was' from Drivers Eyes. Apparently, it is the same instrument played by George Harrison on 'We Can Work It Out' (I think it's 'We Can Work It Out'). I will listen to 'If I Was' with different ears from now on...
G.C. has asked me to teach the AS Level Music History next term. Good news!
5 03/29/2001 Returned from the musical shattered, not because of the playing but because of struggling from the hall to the car with my trusty old 65 watt Musicman amp. It weighs a ton, and although people saw me struggling there was no help given. No surprise there, although Jill kindly helped transport my bass guitar. Returned home and got on with preactising the Arnold Cooke and Taffenel pieces for tomorrow.
Arrived in Liverpool yesterday to find that the sun was out and it was warm. The entire journey was spent writing three pages of notes on how the scintillae (motives) of Larks' are distributed around it. Found ways to read this, as well as the pitch-class variants which derive from one source. Ate a sandwich, drank some tea and walked up Mount Pleasant to the cathedral. Sat in the Ladychapel. Students brought excellent orchestration work, and then set off back down Mount Pleasant to the station. I'd dreamt about someone (an unknown person) the evening before and the dream had been on my mind all day. Blow me down if there wasn't someone on the platform who looked exactly like them. I was last on the packed train and the only seat left was...next to the person who had figured in the dream! I was still rather surprised when the person asked; 'Does this train stop at Wigan?' I said it did and the thought then came before me to say, 'Look you'll probably think me mad, but I dreamt about you last night and...' But I didn't, and said dream subject disembarked at Wigan. Thought further about this incident in between breaks in the analysis.
Jacob Heringman wrote with questions about 'Black Sun'. This needs to be dealt with today.
4 03/28/2001 I have just written a Diary entry and more or less completed it when...yes! the computer crashed and it was lost! I'll see this is a sign!
Briefly: a rainy day. Very grey! Travelling to Liverpool where it will be even greyer.
First performance of the musical. Good. One or two hairy moments when singers didn't sing. Second performance this evening.
E-mails from Steven Wray who is hoping to include 'Pneuma' on a new programme he's recording later this year. Ian McDonald also replied about his song 'If I Was', from 'Drivers Eyes', that I like very much.
Much more done on Larks', although the guitar solo wasn't transcribed. This is tomorrow's assignment. The word 'ritual' has been added to 'primal' as a way to read the work, and the Larks' I analysis is now almost done...that is till I thought of the idea of 0,2,3,5 tetrachords. Counter-numbers need to be added to the commentary, and to the scores, as a way to help those who don't read music. People sometimes say to me that they don't understand the technical terms in analyses such as the one I'm working on. I plan to include a glossary, plus other helpers. However, I would see an obstacle like not being able to read music as something I could learn from. However, I realise that not eveyone is interested to that degree. Reading music isn't such a difficult thing to do. In this country the Associated Board publish some excellent 'Theory In Practice' workbooks for that very purpose. I'm not an AB rep!
3 03/27/2001 An e-mail has just arrived from John Carr. John, Ryan and Ken very kindly gave me a lift to London to see King Crimson last year. It was the fastest journey I have ever done, with skilled and fast driving courtesy of John. Our conversation consisted of things King Crimson. Ryan, I think, talked about The Fall as well who are a band that I don't know. I should, because they hail from Manchester.
More done on Larks' last evening and more pages are now in the revised order. This is to do with the different ways in which we can read the work which centre around one word: primal. I've ben able to place all my other ideas in that context. At least, that's how it reads at the moment. Today I have to work out Fripp's solo of section 3, and complete the analysis of Larks' I which is coming on reasonably well. Then the scores have to be written out, and the words typed. Light at the end of the tunnel.
Now it's time for school, and first performance of the musical this evening.
2 03/26/2001 A strange kind of day. The clocks went forward yesterday and I waved goodbye to the worst winter I can remember, centred around personal and not-so-personal reasons. It has included these events: fuel crisis; floods; really cold weather; Foot-and-Mouth (which has just hit Coniston in Cumbria - VERY bad news); my father's second stroke. I visited my father today who is back in hospital. He seems improved and resigned to the fact that he's there. He's being referred to the Speech Therapist again as his powers of communication are very poor.
Felt shattered yesterday after the rehearsal for the musical. Managed to work at Larks' a little more, but today...great strides forward. Robert sent a very short e-mail this morning as a reply to something I'd mentioned to him about Stravinsky's 'Le Sacre du Printemps'. The flood-gates opened, not at once but suddenly, in the middle of teaching a flute student, something hit me (not the student!) and I went 'Hey! Got it!' Inspiration. The students often smile when this happens (it happens from time to time...no! often!) Those are moments comparable to moments of inspiration in composing pieces. Drove to Wray Green and ate lunch overlooking the pond where the ducks and swans live, and wrote...wrote...wrote. Coffee went cold. Suddenly I think I've seen what has been missing and this is the way to 'read' the work. If I'm right, and I think there are different ways to de-code it, then I have a number of categories by which to read it which centre around one main heading. It is also something I know something about. I wonder if the art-works we often like are tied-in with the central archetypes which drive our lives. I can't speak about anyone else, but this is my feeling. That's why I cannot 'make' pieces: they have to be inspired. The same applies to analysing and writing about music. For me, it is not governed by dry academicism. The works have to be imbued with 'other'. This is what I'm finding in my ongoing work on King Crimson.
Drove back. Listened to Ian McDonald's song 'If I Was' four times. This is inspired writing. Accompanied someone playing Arnold Cooke's Flute Sonatina and a piece by Paul Taffenel, but it was difficult as things (i.e. Larks') were on my mind. Then wrote and re-organised pages. This continues tonight.
1 03/25/2001 An evening of disentangling the labyrinth which is Larks' Tongues In Aspic. Found that I'd applied incorrent pitch-classes to the modes, so had go over some of the ground agian. Nothing too drastic. Also found Fibonacci-based material. It's possible, in any music analysis, to make the theories fit the facts without any due respect for what's actually there. This can't be allowed to happen in this case and I'm being careful to apply strict criteria. Also found out one or two interesting things about The Rite Of Spring as applied to Larks'.
Also proof-read 'Afterwords'. It's more or less there. A couple of errors found. Then looked over Black Sun.
Today is a two hour rehearsal for a school musical production. I'm playing bass guitar in this and performances are on Tuesday and Wednesday. No real problems on my part.
The Foot-and-Mouth epidemic is keeping us, and everyone else, away from the Lake District. Terrible scenes on the TV news of the dead animals. We often meet farmers as we walk-through farmyards either setting out, or returning from a walk. I feel for them as they say how they feel on the news. The sheep are our constant companions on the fells. One farmer said that if the epidemic reaches the open countryside it will more or less wipe out cattle and sheep in Cumbria. It's important that no-one walks on the fells. It will take the Lake Distric many years to recover from this. Has the epidemic been handled as it should have been by the Government? The problem seems to be that, as usual, there's more talking done than doing.
7 03/24/2001 Manchester was particularly grey today, although it didn't rain and the temperatures are up - slightly!
Some good work by the students, with pieces now emerging for the Young Composers' concert. Went to a concert at 12-15 given by the students. Ligeti Piano Etudes, and a piece for solo tuba by Persichetti neither which I knew. Also a very beautiful song by Elizabeth Maconchy. I once wanted to study with E.M. but at the time she wasn't taking on students. I then met Nicola LeFanu and studied with her, only later finding out that N.L. was E.M's daughter! Also met John Reeman at the concert who had a piece performed by the Goldberg Ensemble at the RNCM last evening, and had stayed for the follow-up concert this evening. Talked with Katharine Durran who has talked to John Mercer (Riverrun) this week about the possibility of recording the Ruckert song at some point. Went to the library, and found a score of Bartok's Sonata for two pianos and percussion and some other delightful looking volumes. Ordered another book from Blackwell's and then it was train-time. There was a lame pigeon hobbling around the station-bar at Manchester Oxford Road.
Worked on Larks' on both journeys. Now looking at the structure of Larks' I. Managed to write huge amount about the piece, but what I've done has to be more finely-tuned. I love the way the harmony/motives add-up to an inter-connectedness beyond belief! This is mainly due to the way the modes are intrinsically connected with the harmony and vice-versa. I think when one is working with 'nature', and elements derived from it, these things tend to happen...as if by magiKc. The problem is that there is such a mammoth amount to absorb my poor old mind, usually v-e-r-y s-l-o-w anyway, is in overdrive, and on overtime.
Phoned my mother from the station. My father had a better night, and seems improved today. Nicholas is now back home and our quiet existence has been shattered!
Arrived home to find the score of 'Afterwords' has arrived from Bill Hunt of Fretwork. Looks good! Apparently this is to be published in a volume of contemporary music for viols by Sally Beamish, Elvis Costello and myself.
6 03/23/2001 My mother asked the doctor to call in yesterday to see my father. It appears that he's had a major thrombosis, and is being returned to hospital on Monday. He didn't want to go, but is now resigned to it. I think it will probably be better all round, as he needs professional nursing.
Bill Hunt from Fretwork has just e-mailed saying he's about to publish the piece I wrote for them called 'Afterwords'. This is good news. I was becoming quite cheesed-off about my composing. Often, one wonders if anyone is really bothered about what is being produced. I work, mainly, in complete isolation. The kind of music I write isn't always, let's say, accessible to a mass market (!). However, I don't write for that. I try and write what is given for any one time.
Jacob Heringman has also written saying that the funding body, to which we applied, may be in danger of being abolished. This doesn't sound hopeful for the Sinfield/Keeling/Heringman/King project. Now what do we do?
Continued with Larks'. I thought I'd found a remarkable bit of Fibonacci-based genius in the middle section, but no! It's imaginary! What I can say is that the way the motifs are spread around the work is a remarkable thing. They are like scintillae, which are gathered together and eventually presented whole. I'm convinced that this was conscious rather than unconscious. This is what happens when a composer(s) (in this case Fripp and KC III) know what they/he is/are doing. A fine bit of crafting. Gradually I'm getting there. The next thing is to check several other pieces to see to what extent they have influenced Larks'. Played Larks' I for two students yesterday. I'm always impressed by the power of this music.
5 03/22/2001 Sitting here writing, drinking tea in pyjamas for the second day running. Strange dreams last night: 'On holiday. Refuse to pay for parking-space. We say we're going to America. Friends say, 'Good for you'. Meet an Indian flautist on a train. He tells me he's off to London as he can no longer work in the north.'
In Liverpool, yesterday, bought John Tavener's 'Total Eclipse' and Steven Hackett's 'The Tokyo Tapes'. No time to listen yet. Didn't get back till 20-00. Why is that damn Blackpool train always delayed at Preston? The station was really cold. It snowed yesterday, and the winds that scoot in from the Irish Sea were really on form. Phoned my mum from the station. My dad had a much better day yesterday.
Managed to do a lot on Larks'. A huge amount. Cutting up the text and glueing it into some kind of order has helped. Wrote all over the MS, scrawling words and diagrams. Bought a new Thesaurus from a second-hand bookshop which will help. The 'Good Fairy' aspect: surely there is a powerful archetype at working through King Crimson? King Crimson are gripping because of the feeling-toned nature of the archetype(s). King Crimson, and the people who appreciate them, are gripped by this aspect. This is why the group can be interpreted on multi-levels of meaning. The chemistry of the group were responsible, initially, for its birth. It has 'lived' on. It has always existed.
More thoughts about composition. I need to write an orchestral piece at some point.
4 03/21/2001 Yesterday was a day of flying. Flying because I didn't stop from 9-00 to 22-00. A day when more reports were written, students' work moderated for their exams, letters written/posted, and so on and so forth.
It was also a day of disappointments, but set-backs which can be handled. These are not my problems, but due to appalling management by others: mainly cases of dishonesty which I cannot abide at any level. This is all part and parcel of the 'nigredo' stage which I seem to be going through. It has the effect of lowering one's self-esteem but is a necessary part of growth.
Phoned my mother yesterday morning. She said my dad has been getting upset. I felt terrible. She also thinks he's making an improvement. He doesn't think he's going to recover.
In between managed to teach from 9-00 - 18-15, and in between that completed the Larks' I transcription (those glocks at the end took a while to write down sounding, as they do, a 15th higher!)which gives me a basis from which to view Larks' II, and then look at the inner fabric which is the interior of the work. This means spreading papers all over the train seats today. This is interesting work, and something I very much like doing. Had the idea to photocopy all the sheets I'd written yesterday, and last evening cut them to pieces and re-arranged them in order. Now is the time to select what's any good, enlarge/elaborate it and put it into context and make it more inviting. I've also had ideas how to present diagrams which are not necessarily 'musical' in content, although the musical ones play an important part. I don't want people to read these analyses and think, 'Oh no! This just makes no sense at all!' It all has to add to something and read well. This is my major problem. However, there will be Schenkerian readings and so on to get to the back of it. This work is also keeping me sane at a time when I'm feeling fairly low.
Sid Smith is doing EXCELLENT work on King Crimson. His book will be a winner, of that I have no doubt. It will not only de-mystify this band, but will fill in many of the holes we have have all been waiting to learn about over the years. Is this a good idea (i.e. de-mystifying)? The way Sid is approaching it seems to be exactly right.
3 03/20/2001 I'll have to hurry this morning. It's 8-10 and I'm sitting here writing in my pyjamas, drinking tea and trying to think. Have to be at school at 9-00.
Sid's sent things for me to look over which looks really interesting. Robert has also sent other things to think over. Yesterday more or less managed to complete Larks' I. The detail has to be added, but it's there, which means I can add bar numbers/timings today and then see what it's about. This can be done tomorrow to and from Liverpool, but I may be able to make a start on it today. Managed to write more words last evening.
Yesterday Iain also sent some things about Zappa and Jeff Beck, and thoughts on jazz, and Henry sent an interesting e-mail. Carter has also replied, and Neil too. Ingrid's copies still aren't bound so Sue will have to do that for me today. No time.
My dad was very tired yesterday not having slept well the night before. We'll have to see what happens over the next few weeks. Good news is that he is at least reasonably mobile again.
The material Sid has sent looks VERY interesting.
2 03/19/2001 Sun and frost. What a combination!
Yesterday afternoon walked around the road at Scorton. Totally deserted. We saw two other people. The Foot-and-Mouth epidemic is keeping everyone away from the countryside. Lots of wildlfe were out, probably thinking that they are now at liberty to do whatever they want without all those humans around.
Phoned my mother. My father is improving again. Social Services have been cancelled. Good news!
More done on Larks' I. Reached the end of the section for violin and zither. This took around an hour to write down. Here, there is less going on texturally which makes it easier to transcribe. By tomorrow the whole thing should be down more precisely. Had more thoughts about the music as we walked around Scorton, and wrote them down in the notebook. Robert had sent E-mails with more information about the period which helped enormously, and on arriving home Sid phoned with some other crucial information. By the end of last evening I found I now have 50+ pages of written words with diagrams etc. Over the next three weeks these can be written into some kind of coherent chapter on the Larks' period and submitted to publishers.
Jon and Neil wrote. Neil had some exciting to say so I responded immediately. Carter also wrote. He doesn't know that in doing this he kind of straightened out my compositional thinking. Thanks! It's easy to get out of step.
Ging G-P seems lonely. We put a cuddly toy in the hutch last night to keep her company in the absence of Fluf G-P.
1 03/18/2001 The weather here changes so quickely, at this time of year, it's hard to keep up. A bright, sunny day with no wind. If it stays like this it could be warm by this afternoon.
The Foot-and-Mouth epidemic has caused terrible repercussions in the tourist industry. People, on the one hand, have been warned to keep out of the National Parks. On the other, we have Chris Smith on TV (Minister for the Environment) last evening saying it's OK to go to places: there are plenty of roads to walk along, meaning, 'Stay off the footpaths/farmland etc. but come and spend you money as the locals need it'. Of course they do, but mixed messages aren't helping this crisis one bit. I think the problem is that once this disease is 'in the air' we're stuck with it. It's different from the 1968 epidemic because there is a lot more road travel, too, which means it can be spread more widely.
We went to see my father yesterday. He has improved since Friday, but I don't feel that things are looking good. I'll go again tomorrow. Just being there is enough. Holidays, coming soon, should allow for this.
Guineau-pig #2, Fluf, died yesterday. On going to feed them yesterday morning, I picked her up and thought it was strange that she didn't run away and hide as she usually does. She seemed very lethargic. I took her out to the 'run' on the lawn and she collapsed. She'd lost the use of her back legs. The vet thought she'd had a stroke and advised that she didn't have a future. So, Ging G-P is left alone. Oh dear...Elizabeth is very upset as we all are.
Continued with the Larks' I transcription yesterday morning. A little, but often. More done, reaching the violin section in the middle of the piece. More ideas clicked into place, so found relevant volumes to research. Gradually it's getting there. I've decided to omit the improvised section just before the violin solo. I assume it's improvised because it's different on every recording. Robert Fripp asked me a while ago who I was aiming these analyses at. This made me think. So, I bought the new biog on Emerson, Lake and Palmer (Helter Skelter) to have a look at the analyses in there. I rather like reading about the history of a band, and this why I think Sid Smith's book on KC will be a cracker. I'm enjoying the ELP and the analyses are rather good, but mine are nothing like these. Certainly, they are descriptive to a point but I've only just begun to realise that mine are much more to do with a kind of semiological thinking, which couple with some very complex academic musical issues. When we listen to music we listen on different levels. We may ask: 'What is about King Crimson that I like?'; or, 'What is it about KC that I like? I want to know more.'; or, 'What are the techniques being used to make this music what it is?'; or, 'To what end, and why, are KC using these techniques?' Now, the problem is that some people just don't give a jot. Fair enough! Gut reaction is fine, and the very idea of liking the particular music of a group is enough. For some, it can also evoke memories of a distant time and place. For these people the biog and the overview is quite sufficient. Others like to know more about that group. It is interesting reading. I like biogs very much. For example, I could not have understood Sylvia Plath's poetry without reading about her life. But, my own analyses are going to be complex. There is no way out of this. However, Sue feels there is a way of writing these analyses which shouldn't be just dry academic waffling. Explanation can be made easy and interesting. When I go to Lakes I go to walk. I don't go to observe the structure of, say, the rocks. I could, but I don't. I notice such features but it's in the realm of 'Hey, look at that. How odd/beautiful!' Then I want know more. (Suddenly, while writing this, a solution is coming to mind!!) There are books written on this, but they are interesting and easy reading. This my aim, and adds another complex perspective on the project: how does one to tackle...words? That's why I rather like the ELP analyses. But, King Crimson are different and this is what I'm learning. Who do I aim these analyses at? I think they have to be done, primarily, for myself because I want to find out what makes this music tick. So, is it possible to cover the entire spectrum? I think mine is more on the academic side but, I should have thought, if people are interested they will want to learn about the techniques involved. With KC there are two very clear things happening in the music/words: the psychological and the visionary are combined. KC's 'good fairy' is at work, inspiring the technical side of the music so as to give us a glimpse of 'other'. Is it possible to include ideas about cosmology in a volume/volumes of technical writing? Cosmology is studied in Universities, so why not? This is what I'm attempting to convey in the analyses. It is operative at all phases of Crimson history. Words are, however, not very efficient carriers of meaning. Maybe we should just allow the music to do that?
7 03/17/2001 Today is a non-teaching day, so I don't have to travel to Manchester. This has fallen just right. I went to see my father yesterday, who is making a slow recovery. He is a lot more coherent than I expected and can walk around quite well. The Keeling's are a strong lot, and don't give up easily. We are going to see them again today or tomorrow. His last stroke happened, more or less, a year ago exactly. I still find it disconcerting when I think of the type of person he used to be, constantly on the move and always doing something practical. This all started when he went to see an optician about seven years ago. The optician had detected something at the back of the eyes. The optician referred him to the doctor who, in turn, referred him to the hospital for tests. It turned out that he had an irregular heartbeat, and the doctor was worried that it might perpetuate a stroke. Eventually, as we now know, it did.
Fridays are always busy but I managed to transcribe some more of Larks' I: this time the fast guitar passage which rises and falls, and which links the second G-Bb-C-Db-Bb-C metal section with the bass riffs/drums and percussion section. This took an hour and a half to write down. There are 58 semiquavers. I read in Robert's Diary, the other day, that he was writing series of pitches which take a long time to dictate but flash by in a moment. It seems I am doing a similar thing at this moment in time. I have often found this kind of thing in my own music: one spends months writing down passages of which take around a minute to be played in real time. Another thing I noticed was how much my own piece for solo lute, 'Distant Voices', owes to this solo guitar passage in Larks' I. This was written for Jacob Heringman around two years ago, long before I'd got around to thinking about the structure of Larks'. Of course, Larks' has been with me for a very long time. Also managed to think a little more about the signifying elements of the music and wrote more words. It's strange that the books I read are on hand to do this. Again, things seem to happen at the right time.
Thought a little about the concert in Manchester the other week. Can composers, in the twenty-first century, begin to re-visit the soundworld of the nineteenth century? Many people at the concert were overwhelmed by the 'beauty' of the music, and some were able to verbalise these positive feelings. I am poor at the latter, so I kept silent because I'm not sure whether it's possible to compose like this anymore. Certainly, we can do if we want to, but I should have thought this is no more than pastiche, and here lies the whole problem area central to the postmodern ethos. I want to hear more than pastiche from new music. I think in all this there is a balance to be achieved. I had a dream last evening during which I was explaining how I felt about the whole problem to one of my former composition tutors. Something has been activated in the unconscious. It's a very good thing I'm on with this Larks' analysis, as it will help my thoughts about composing to clarify. Again, there is creative change in the air.
It's 9-30 and I'm currently listening to Henry Warwick's CD, 'Keraunograph' (Kether Music) (www.kether.com). It's one of those works you fight for for want of words to describe, and I don't think I'm going to make a good job of doing this. As musicians we fight for notes, let along words, but this is an album I'd like to mention, albeit rather briefly. The album is, primarily, about texture. Warwick has said that this is his primary concern, but nevertheless pitch does play its part. For example the opening track, 'Cricket', has C natural as its centre, although it's a C which is stretched, distorted and finally dismembered. With 'Seventeen Years' we are plunged into a strange landscape where the link with pitch seems to be finally broken. This reminds me slightly of Brian Eno's work. Warwick makes excellent and inventive use of beginnings and endings to his music, by VERY gradual fade-ins ('Sonata') or, in the case of the endings, dramatic cuts. 'The Vagrant Plain' owes something to a Robert Fripp Soundscape, but the comparison is quickly dispelled as pitch is only hovering around in the background of the piece. 'Variation #1' utilises a collection of pentatonic pitches (C#/D#/F#/G#) and, as this is track four, one thinks, 'Ah yes! Alternating pitch with texture structure.' Not so! 'The Tower' is very different, with music that crumbles from one section into another. This is fine music and I would recommend it to anyone who likes Fripp's Soundscapes, Eno's ambient landscapes and the music of Paul Schutze. It is both beautiful, strange and constantly inventive and all written on old synthesizers and an old computer, so I've been told.
6 03/16/2001 Gradually, I think my father seems to be improving. My mother has had a lot of help from Social Services who are sending someone in twice a day to look after him. I'm going down to see them today, and my sister has been constantly calling in. My mother says he is more coherent and his speech is, again, returning. All very good news.
Matt Seattle has just written asking if it's OK for him, with the McFalls, to record my little arrangement of 'Lindisfarne'. Sure thing, Matt! Ken Nicol phoned last evening but I missed him. I assume it was something to do with the recording we did a couple of weeks ago. Anyway, he's now off on tour with The Albion Band who I'm going to see play in Kendal next Thursday, all being well. Still haven't been able to get to the printers to bind the copies of 'Tjarn' and 'Unseen Shadows' for Ingrid. This will have to be done tomorrow.
More of Larks' I transcribed yesterday. Reached 5:51 on the CD. Very difficult guitar parts to transcribe, primarily because they're moving so damn fast. Thought, 'How the hell do I write them down?' I want fully transcribed scores with my analysis: all the parts including the all the percussion detail. But it will be a score with a difference. I don't mind if it takes forever. But how to deal with those guitar parts? Brainwave! I should be able to have this done in half the time, all being well. More interesting thoughts have emerged about LT I which forced me to New Grove. I have discovered one very important point which I've always felt, now substantiated by fact: King Crimson were, and are, fifty light years ahead of their contemporaries. This also includes many musicians working in other music forms.
5 03/15/2001 I arrived home from Liverpool last evening to the news that my father is again unwell. He'd another stroke on Tuesday teatime. My mother didn't want to let me know just in case it was a small stroke which he's suffered before several times following the initial one of last year. He usually recovers from these quite quickly, but this one seems slightly more serious. Mum is having to feed him but, amazingly, he can still walk and communicate. The Social Services are sending a helper to day. But this no longer comes free on the National Health as it used to. It's estimated on a 'sliding scale', so you pay what you can afford. I sensed there had been a slight decline in my father's health on Monday but have sensed this before and thought nothing of it.
Managed to continue with Larks' on the train yesterday. This is beginning to change direction, but is somehow taking in all the things I've discovered about it so far. It's a mammoth operation, but now I see where Robert was coming from, musically speaking, it's easier to place the whole analysis into context. This is one of those works that once you've seen the inner-workings it can only add to the pleasure of listening even more. I've read volume after volume in the past fortnight. It's also having an effect on what I'm thinking may emerge apropos my own music. But who knows?
E-mails from Peter, Robert, Henry and Sid. Catherine also e-mailed re a translation of 'Seule'.
4 03/14/2001 A shattering day yesterday. Invoices put in for the term's teaching at one of the schools, reports written, students taught, coursework looked-through, and more written/transcribed on Larks'...much more and the plot thickens...
I was interested to read Robert's Diary and the E-mails he sent me re the many things I'm finding within the fabric of the Larks' work. It's true when composers say they are not necessarily aware of what is going on in the pieces they are bringing to birth. This was certainly the case with Schubert (who I'm always quoting, but don't count him as a hero!), or with Haydn or Mozart. We have quite a clear picture about Mozart who used to write pieces down as they came to him. One, of course, has to remember that his father had really grilled him with compositional techniques of the period. Schubert was a driven man, and Haydn was writing as part of his church/court musican post in much the same way J.S. Bach was. Bartok is a different case. From what we know about B. he wrote instinctively, and the pieces came out...quickly, but carefully. He was a disciplined composer, performer, researcher and writer. Clearly, he knew exactly what he was about. I'm unsure whether he applied Golden Section/Fibonacci principles to his music at a conscious level. When one begins to analyse music it's easy to see these techniques put into operation for one reason or another. We do not know if a composer is using the technique consciously or not. There are things I do in my pieces that people have commented on that I think, 'Did I really do that?', and these techniques include Golden Section proportioning. So, I think there are Golden Section principles applied In Larks', but this is only a very small part of what I'm finding out in relation to other things. Clearly, Robert Fripp knew about these techniques. It could be that he read about them and, unconsciously, they found a place in the fabric of the music that he was writing. I think if 'nature' is on a composer's/performer's side then these things happen automatically, like the growth of a tree or a sunflower.
And so I continue with this today mainly on the train journeys to and from Liverpool. It's a big work and there is a lot of work to be done. The great thing is that I'm being able to re-read many of the things on my bookshelves, and discover it was all there without having to buy loads of new volumes. Research also feeds into composition and historical things.
Several performance opportunities have arisen. 'Unseen Shadows' gets a performance next week at the RNCM next week by Helen Edditch, and Ingrid Sawers (Bacchanalia) saying she'd like to perform 'Unseen Shadows' and 'Tjarn'. Heard from John Casken, Peter Sinfield and Robert Fripp.
The weather is improving, thankfully, but the Foot-and-Mouth epidemic is on the wind and is spreading. Pictures on the news last evening showing distraught farmers. I feel very sorry for them.
3 03/13/2001 It came clear to me yesterday, at a particular venue, why there has been an incredible decline in educational standards. This also referenced what I'd felt on Sunday. How does one react to this? I'd say continue with what one feels and knows to be right, and continue to aspire to high ideals. This has something to do with the passing of the England we once knew and loved. The other side of the coin is the passing of the England we all knew HAD to pass, and a very good thing it is going. Teaching/instructing: I've done this for a very long time, but is there another way? Composing brings in very little funds, the arranging slightly more...thanks to DGM.
Analysis! All good fun. Managed to continue with Larks'. By the end of yesterday I was absolutely shattered, and simply sat zombie-like in a chair and watched the very excellent mind of Stephen Fry reveal his pet hates and dispose of them in Room 101 aided by the quick-witted Paul Merton. A good ending: his final pet hate was Room 101 itself which also went into...Room 101! A kind of circular ending and a nice way to end the series.
Lots of E-mails. Henry, Macon and Riccardo. Awoke this morning to two huge e-mails from Robert. I've been pestering him about Larks' and it seems, from his words, that I'm on the right lines. Thanks, Robert! Today I turn to Larks' I. Transcribing this in detail will not be easy. It is tiring work, but not impossible. It simply demands great concentration. I already have it in sketch form from a brief encounter with it a fortnight ago.
2 03/12/2001 A very thin covering of snow lies on the ground outside this morning.
Accompanied the children yesterday and thought they played very well indeed. I was NOT impressed by the adjudicator's verdicts. He owns a different set of ears from mine...and everyone else's, apparently!
Can't go out into the country so went to Fleetwood's Freeport. Bought a couple of CD's for research purposes, then came home and continued with Larks'. I spoke with Sid Smith earlier who said something that opened the way forward. The lights went on! Great music holds many secrets. Spent last evening trying to find something in one of my many books which I've seen. Unsuccessful! But found a stack of other information. (That etching must be somewhere!) But now, I see what Larks' is about. The thing was that I have been asleep, scattered and now comes the time to for the parts to be reconciled.
1 03/11/2001 Today is the day of the music competition. But no-one from school has phoned to let me know the times at which my students are playing...so far, at least.
Last evening continued with Larks' analysis. I have pages and pages on this, diagram after diagram, musical example after musical example. There are still one or two things to verify such as: was Larks' II written before Larks' I? This is a rather important question as it is part of my theory. However, some of the other things I've found out seem to be to the point...and only Larks' II has been covered! Larks' I has to be overviewed and the rest of the work seems to come as a consequence of these two big pieces which, of course, frame the album. There are other, much more interesting ideas about it which may well surface in book form in due course. I can't put these up on the analysis section of Present Moment because: a) I don't have the technology to include diagrams and musical examples which are essential; b) they would be misunderstood.
Spoke with Stephanie.
Strange dream: On a walk with friends. It has been raining very hard. The stream, next to the path, is a torrent. We pull ourselves along on ropes by the side of the stream and come to a cavern. The water is surging down into it and men are preparing ropes so we can hold onto them as we go in. I think, 'Not likely! I'm not going down there!' I turn around and walk back. I can see the hills nearby.'
7 03/10/2001 I wasn't looking forward to today. No reasons but sometimes get a feeling that I'm simply unable to do my work. It's as though I just pack-up for while and am enveloped in a kind of black cloud. However, the RNCM day was probably the best ever. Lots of new pieces developing by the excellent students. Went to library and took out some scores: Stravinsky and Vaughan-Williams. Continued to research the book and read, more or less, a complete volume on the train. I now have a mass of material, and this is for Larks' II only! Still have Larks' I to research and a structural overview of the remainder which is done - kind of. A theory of what this marvellous work is about has been formulated, but it's only my idea. Although looking at the music I think it might hold some water. When I did my degree a very long time ago, one of the tutors suggested that, in order to discover things about a composer, one must immerse oneself in the actual music. 'Go to the music!' he used to say; 'Forget the books about the composer...the music will tell you more!' In this case I agree. Maybe my academic/non-academic education is bearing fruit?
Nice e-mail from Ian McDonald. Stephanie Ruben has left a phone message, too. A very nice letter from Prof. John Casken, my former Composition teacher, saying that he likes QTD and has recommended that I send copies to people for commissioning purposes. I feel a little cheesed-off with composing at the moment. This is a period for research purposes. The dreams say it all.
6 03/09/2001 Weather has turned wet again. One day fine...next day wet. Usual kind of thing for this time of year. There is a music competition on Sunday at one of the schools, so I've volunteered to do some piano accompaniments. I'm particularly bad at this...nerves, poor technique and so on. However, it's something I make myself do and things do improve, although s-l-o-w-l-y. By the time I'm 70 I should be quite a reasonable pianist, although by then I suppose my hands may not function in quite the same way as they do now.
Continued with Larks' last evening. I've covered the structure, harmony (almost; except that when I find one thing it opens a window onto something else), riffs and rhythm. Also a little bit of semiotic thinking in there. There are other parameters to be covered, and this is only Larks' II. I've yet to write out a fair-score and deal with Larks' I. Then an overview of how these two pieces affect the entire structure. I said to Ian McDonald that it's difficult for me to envisage that there might have been musical life before King Crimson, which got me thinking about the way we perceive things and our relations to those things.
A day of teaching awaits me, and then back to Larks'.
5 03/08/2001 I sent Hugh some photos of the Lake District to send to Dan, which he did, but Dan and I, living several thousand miles apart as we do, seem to keep getting out of synch with our communications. However, I've just discovered the photos are up on the Diary for March 7th! Knock-out, Dan! Thank you! At the moment our photos of this sacred place is about as close as we can get to it. It's been sealed-off with the Foot-and-Mouth epidemic. I've just heard that the 100th case has been confirmed, today, in Devon. Great sadness.
The temperatures are up. The sun has shone all day, and visibilty is good. Beacon Fell and the Bleasedale Hills were visible from school. The light is thickening, too. However, most of the day was spent teaching and writing. I wrote the introduction, in one great outpouring, of the proposed book The Music of King Crimson. Also got a lot further with the Larks' analysis. Once I start I am overwhelmed with ideas about the hows and whys of the musical fabric. I make a point in the introduction that I'm coming at this from a composer's point of view and one with a standard musical education as composer/music analyst/instrumentalist. Of course, many of the new popular music analyses make the point that popular music cannot be tackled properly using traditional musicological tecniques, and I agree. So, I am taking a semiotic approach on board, to a degree...and other ways of talking about musical signifiers. I feel a little feeble in this area. Whenever I read about this kind of thing, it's as though it goes in one ear and straight out of the other. I want to know HOW the music is made. Is this the kind of thing which will interest others who might read the book? I also have to ask myself if King Crimson are, in fact, a popular music group? From what I now know, as I have always known, I have to say 'no' but, at the same time 'yes'. That they have used instruments associated with popular musics is, of course, a truism but, in terms of the musical techniques employed, combined with the their own unique sound-world, they occupy a very different space from what we identify as popular music. This is, I suppose, part and parcel of the divide between what is known as popular culture as opposed to mass culture. I also feel that KC occupy another 'place'. Whether or not this can be conceptualised remains to be seen. Anyway, on with Larks' this evening. Great!
AS Level students are fast completing their work assignments, and my A Level Composition student has completed her work. It feels quite an achievement to see the work that has occupied students for a year, or two, of their lives put into a portfolio.
E-mails from Katharine Durran re a possible commission plus funding. We await to hear re Sinfield/Keeling/Heringman/King project funding. I'm using this time to prepare the book proposal which could become all-consuming. It seems that things happen at the right time in the right order. At least, that's my experience. E-mails from Ian McDonald and Peter Sinfield. Nice to read about Fretwork on the DGM Guestbook.
4 03/07/2001 Endless activity yesterday. Continued with Larks, and lots more discovered. It's as though once a thought comes into the mind it brings a hundred other related thoughts with it. Twenty-odd pages written, plus diagrams.
Phoned Peter Sinfield. We are both thankful that Spring feels as though it's here.
Last evening to Manchester. Book launch event followed by concert and reception. Two friends have written articles which appear in the book. Had a chat with the publisher who has also asked to see my work on Crimson. This now makes three interested publishers. Had an excellent time, with excellent music, food and company. It rained really hard just as we left the hall. Drove there and back. Manchester is a devil to drive through, and no easier to find a way out of.
Today to Liverpool. Lots more done on Larks' on the train. Window smashed on the way back...how? Second time in a month, though last time it was the door. Students also asked about QTD...the word spreads! Went to bookshop...purchases. Lovely sunny day. Imagined what it would be like in the Lake District...on a distant mountain...somewhere...walking a ridge route...
Arrived back at 20-00. Food, tea and e-mails. Reply to Robert and Ricardo.
3 03/06/2001 Head full of larks yesterday. Thought and worked on it all day. Breaking it down into smaller, manageable pieces has resulted in some very interesting finds indeed. Gradually the book is taking shape. There is a lot of very hard work which awaits. It's impossible to cover everything, but now have an idea what to cover thoroughly and what to mention.
The weather seems gradually to be improving. The very bad news is that Foot-and-Mouth has been found on Dartmoor. There is a farm not too far from here which also has it. Oh dear!
Back to Larks' today. The writing shouldn't take too long, but the score writing will take longer. I'm relying completely on my ear, but have found interesting concerns in the motivic and harmonic dimensions and, especially, in the semiotic dimension of the work.
Christopher phoned and told me that QTD goes on general release on March 19th. He knows because he works in a major record outlet and saw it in the releases book/computer.
2 03/05/2001 Yesterday walked from Cleveleys to Fleetwood and back along the sea-front with Sue, Linda and Kevin. Two and a half miles there and the same back. The sun shone all day, and we had lunch at the North Euston Hotel. The railway used to come to this point in bygone years, and passengers used to have a break in the hotel before boarding the ships to the Isle-of-Man and beyond. Times have changed. Much restoration work has been done of Fleetwood in recent years, through the efforts of a local benefactor, and the town is undergoing a resurrection of sorts in terms of economics.
Kevin and I talked about the Prog prog and came to the conclusion that it was rather interesting. We both agree that KC stood out a very long way. Peter Sinfield also sent an e-mail, with some very interesting points on the programme. (Later: John Wilkins has made an excellent point on the Guestbook which I was going to make but forgot to, and which came into my lecture on progressive music at York University last year: progressive music was originally identified with the type of rock not associated with commercial music at the front end of the 1970's. When one walked into a record shop one saw the progressive record stands, pop record stands, jazz, classical etc. It was simply a way of categorising music types. However, during the late 70's progressive became associated with symphonic rock, as the various stylistic types became ever further apart. The new wave of metal {Saxon, Girls' School, Iron Maiden etc.] could no longer be associated with the symphonic types and so they became separated till..now with the likes of Dream Theatre crossing stylistic boundaries. In the 90's prog became a term to be loathed and was associated with excess. This was probably a legacy from the punk/new-wave era).
Otherwise did some housework (swept the yard, hoovered the house, removed the dust from the piano along with the accumulated rubbish which is thrown all over it [pencils, batteries, tapes, scraps of paper, staples etc.] - when pianist friends sit down at my piano I can sense their horror when they see the state it's in), then back to Larks' analysis. Lots more written, and dividing it up into workable, coherent sections. Listened to some Vaughan-Williams, and the Bremen KC Club release. Aha! More written into the folder... Then continued with the Bowers book on Scriabin.
1 03/04/2001 A late night, last night, spent watching the Channel 4 programme on progressive rock. King Crimson came over very well indeed. It was good to see rare footage of the 1969 Hyde Park concert, KC III on German (?) TV, and Robert washing the dishes. KC were the only group to be introduced by their biographer, Sid Smith. I watched the remainder of the programme with interest and now know what Oasis were listening to during their adolescence: The Wall. Hmm...! I remain unimpressed by Camel; I liked Yes; Keith Emerson spoke intelligently; Hawkwind: I once saw this group in 1971 in an old cinema-turned casino-turned rock venue in Blackpool. I sat in the circle faced with two giant stobes flashing into the audience all evening. Hundreds of people wandered around the stage which was shrouded in darkness. I quickly grew out of my Hawkwind phase! Still, it was good to watch this programme. I'm pleased Channel 4 put it out. There will be lots of people (mostly in their 40's and beyond) who will be talking about it today. But there was NOTHING said ABOUT the music itself.
A rush around Manchester yesterday. A Formal Recital in the Junior School which had music included in it which had to be included in it. I sat in the audience thinking, 'I had to be here to hear this'. Rushed to Forsyth's music shop in Deansgate. Bought music just heard in the concert, and a volume of Scriabin Piano Sonatas. A CD of these is currently playing on the computer as I write. So far listened to are: No.1, No.2 and now into No.3., and Scriabin's gradual relaxation on functional harmony, into something else, is becoming apparent even at this stage of his output. Continued reading the Bowers book on S. Why I am reading this at this moment in time is clarifying.
Lots more done on LTIA. Listened to the Club 3 release. Mountains written on the train and lots more written on A4 sheets when I arrived home. Further ideas on how to present this series of analyses is also clarifying. Unlike Sid, I don't have to interview lots of members of KC in order to do what I'm doing. My job is to get at and behind the music. Robert, Peter, Ian and Sid have all been most helpful so far, though. I suspect I may have to ask Robert for some of original MS's at some point. The biggest job I have in this whole project is actually writing out editions of the music. But the ideas I'm having on this may just make the project slightly more straightforward.
Foot-and-Mouth has hit Cumbria, which has, rightly, closed its doors to vistors. Great sadness.
7 03/03/2001 Just now, it's as though the world is feeling the dark side of God.
6 03/02/2001 It did snow after all! One of my students thought that when she saw the flakes falling from the sky that feathers were raining down. I told her that, in fact, she was right as a great big, giant budgie had collided with a plane and that was what she was seeing. At the end of the lesson the feathers were still coming down to the ground. We reckoned it must have been a very large budgie that had had its chips. (Just the time of term!).
Otherwise all freetime in between teaching were taken with looking at 'Larks' Tongues in Aspic'. This is a monster work to analyse. Managed to write seven pages on it with diagrams etc. It seems to me that it has important symbols set within it, which are felt as an implicit part of what we hear as listeners. That is my theory. I had a number of questions relating to it which I wrote on the back of a piece of scrap paper, and e-mailed these to Sid Smith. Sid phoned me last evening which was a great help to my thinking. He tells me that his book on KC is more or less there. I await this with eager anticipation. It seems I'm on the right track. It's always good to hear from Sid, anyway. A number of questions have also been directed at Robert. I've decided to concentrate the discussion on Larks' II to spilling over to Larks' I. The other pieces also have to be mentioned as they, too, are part of the resonance that seems to be projected both forwards and backwards in the work. Motivically this work is very tight, and a giant leap forward rhythmically as compared to previous King Crimson records. I am now able to hear 'The ConstruKction of Light' as an important development in Fripp's musical language. I always felt this was the case.
More books thrown into my bag for today, and a tentative start will be made on making musical editions of the two big Larks' pieces. This seems to be a research period. Composing has been forgotten for the moment.
5 03/01/2001 A very cold day with a really thick frost. On the way to Liverpool yesterday the snow covered all the hills which surround our area. But did we get any snow at home? Not one damn flake of the stuff! I rather like that feeling when you look out of the window and you first see snow, till you get out to the car and find it won't start, that is. That's a very different story.
Before setting out on the train managed to finish the overview of Larks' I. Threw a load of books into my bag: something on numerology, the Edinger (which has sections on Plato and Pythagoras etc.) and the Scriabin. The section of the journey from Preston to Liverpool turned out to be quite fruitful, as did the return journey. Managed to write paragraphs on pages IN the Edinger book (structural diagrams; bits on the numerological significances in the works etc.) and think about the transition from KC MKs I & II to what was happening in KC MK III, with particular emphasis on Larks' I & II. I'll take all this material school today and continue. The biggest problem is the thought of actually applying myself to the project in hand: i.e. a huge analysis of the music of King Crimson. This is a mammoth project. It has to be approached and written correctly. There can be no gaps, and no omissions. I'm not being hassled by the publisher who has shown interest, but I have to learn how to write music on a computer. This is a big fear of mine. It could be the time has come to splash-out on something like Sibelius so as to the job correctly. There has to be lots of musical examples included. Transcribing the music, from the sound-source, is the easietst part. The arranging is easy. The writing is not!
Returned home at 20-00. Shattered. Sat in chair, ate food had a drink and wrote another version of what was written on the train. Slept soundly. Awoke to e-mails from Bert Lams, Henry Warwick and Dan.