The trains were fine to Liverpool. Students producing some good work. Read several analytical essays on the train, including Michel Foucault's and Pierre Boulez's 'On Music and its Reception'. This deals, essentially, with the split between between popular music (rock) and contemporary classical music. I can see both points: (Foucault) that contemporay classical fails to communicate with Boulez defending his, and the position of others. Boulez takes an, essentially, elitist position. Strange to think that since this was written (1985) Boulez has slimmed-down his compositional vocab, and spends much of his time conducting! Maybe Foucault was right? However, it seems that in in the postmodern world ALL musics now communicate, each communicating to the people in their own cultural 'worlds'...well, mostly!
Returned and found emails from David Singleton re the Soundscape Orchestrations. Then phoned Bert who is currently on with yet another. It seems that we're aiming to record these sooner than later.
Reached 2:48 in 'Trio'. Sue made the point that the music has a Chinese flavour, then something struck me: several people have commented that my own music has a Chinese flavour. Does this derive from my listening to KC for many years?
4 11/29/2000 Hellfire! A vision! It's sunny...no! It must be a vision!
Monday was spent filling-up around the windows. As I progressed through the job I could see clouds beginning to fill the sky, but pressed on. Then, at around 14-00, the first drops of rain (of that day) began to fall, but I pressed on (what a hero!). By 16-00 I'd finished and it was...drizzling. Would the cement hold? I checked at around 22-00 and yes! All was well, and it's still OK even though it rained all day yesterday.
Yesterday was spent on 'Trio' reaching 2:06 on the piece by around 13-00. I can hear flute, tenor viol and lute for this one so I checked with Robert if it might be possible to use a wide range of ensembles for the KC arrangements. I'm beginning to think that perhaps the version of 'Peace', (which Mr. McFall's Chamber recorded for my album which Riverrun decided to omit from the CD), 'Red' by Opus 20 (which I'll be able to hear at the Purcell Room in London on Jan. 5th) and 'Trio' (for Virelai) may be the way forward for this project. I also have ideas for 'Larks' II', 'Sailor's Tale', 'Bolero' (a big orchestral version) and others. Continue with 'Trio' on return from L'pool later today. (Interesting white-note harmony in 'Trio'. Almost pentatonic but the F natural gives the music a tension, as well as a need for resolution.)
Walked a long the sea-front at 13-00. A very high tide. Listened to Blow's 'Venus and Adonis' last evening. Wonderful music and, without doubt, the starting-point for Purcell's 'Dido and Aeneas'.
Catherine King e-mailed. C. likes 'Seule'. Very pleasing. Lots from Riverrun as the approach date for QTD approaches. Sounds like RvR is going to do very well as a label, in general. 'Secrets of the Heavens' sounds like it's a major success. Peter Sinfield and Robert Fripp e-mailed, too.
Had a dream last night:
We've gone to stay with Sid Smith. Debbie has made a meal but I ruin it trying to clear up the potatoes. D. makes it known that I've messed things up by swearing. I apologise, and she says 'Never mind', picking the spuds up from the floor and placing them back in the pan (!!), 'no-one will notice'. Sid shows me his new book on King Crimson. He's interested in what I think. It's been published by Outland Press. I skip-read through it. It's fantastic! Loads of information and choc-full of diagrams. I think ' how can I hope to match up to this with my own book?'
2 11/27/2000 Needed to get out, so drove to Kirby Lonsdale yesterday. The weather has been appalling, and we're missing our usual forays to the Lake District. There is something about walking on the fells which is difficult to describe to those who don't. I hope the Christmas hols gives some opportunity to go. Still, Kirby Lonsdale is quite a nice place. We walked through the churchyard to Ruskin's View, so named because John Ruskin felt it to be one of the finest views in England. The river winds its way through the landscape below, and the hills form a perfect backdrop. There is a stone circle up high on one of the fells. We had a cup of coffee, looked in an antiques shop and drove back. The weather was dreadful. It seems to have rained continually since September. Returned home and listened to 'Trio' several times. Hope to transcribe it today. This one will be very different from 'Red'.
Today is a day of making good the front windows. The gaps around the windows desperarely need filling-up and, as I have a day off from school (exams), the job needs doing. The weather isn't too bad. Just drove into town and bought cement/sand mix for the job.
I also plan to approach another percussionist to record 'Nekyia' as Evelyn has contractual obligations elsewhere. John, at Riverrun, seems enthusiatic about recording the piece so we'll try it and see what happens.
E-mails/correspondence from Jacob, Jacob and Iain. Also have to get 'Being and Becoming' Xeroxed/bound and sent to DGM soonish. Beginning to think about how to tackle the KC book proposal. This has to be written over the holidays, as I know next term will begin as a frenzied time of writing/arranging/attending performances/CD release.
1 11/26/2000 Wrote a further review for Iain Cameron's album, 'Serious Music For The Highvelt'. Iain has written and recorded some very interesting music. For anyone revelling in obscurity, tasteful material and virtuoso performances then this music will appeal. I wish Iain could have been given the chance to record it in a big studio, as I think it would have been further transformed.
I had a further look at the Riverrun Website last evening. rvrcd.co.uk Leigh has done some excellent work on this, and the site is now developing on a weekly basis. I referred the art-work for QTD to Sid, who wrote back confirming his approval.
Had a further look a 'Seule' which I quite like. I've yet to hear from Catherine about it.
Steven Wray phoned with some good news about a recording opportunity, and that he may be able to use my piano piece 'Pneuma'.
7 11/25/2000 Badfinger is on again! Sometimes melody/harmony is what I like to listen to, and 'No Matter What' is great for that. However, when I listen I can't help think about the tragic deaths of Pete Ham and Tom Evans. The beginning of 'Come And Get It' sounds so like 'Hey Jude' it's unbelievable! (Sue has just asked if my recent re-discovery of Badfinger has something to do with the fact that I recently had a bad finger?! No, but...) George Martin's arrangements are excellent particularly on 'Name Of The Game'.
Ian McDonald wrote this morning about the 'Blue in Green' ideas that Mark, Iain and myself have been discussing. Ian has come up with the idea that the piece is tonally ambiguous, and that the 'blue', of the title, may equate with minor and 'green' = major. I am inclined to agree with this. I enjoy getting to the bottom of some music by this kind of discussion.
An interesting day in Manchester, with an 'informal' concert to complete the day. The students are beginning to produce some interesting pieces. I also played 'Sad Steps' for one of the groups, and 'Pictures of a City' for another. Katharine Duran also spoke to me about the song commission which sounds promising, and plans to send some texts (in German) for me to think about. Also got a book out of the RNCM library: Ed. Benjamin Boretz and Edward T. Cone - Perspectives on Contemporary Music Theory (Norton). I am often surprised by the lack of postmodern literature on music, except in the area of popular music. Maybe this means that we are too close to the new music for things to be written about it; or there's little to say on postmodern music; or there's no such thing (sorry John Zorn!); perhaps this highlights the fact that popular music has now taken it's place in music pedagogy?
Began reading Edith Pargeter's 'The Heaven Tree' on the train, courtesy of Peter Sinfield. However, just after I'd got settled a chap stumbled up the train carriage and collapsed in a great deal of pain. Two people rushed to his aid, and he was still on the train when I got off at Poulton. I wonder what happened?
6 11/24/2000 A very grey, cold, damp northern day. Teaching from 9-30 - 15-00. Head swimming.
Went to see my parents, then had 'Seule' and 'Reclaiming Eros' bound to send off Catherine King and Paul Newbury respectively. Score/parts of 'Being and Becoming' are also ready to mail to Scott. Next week is free in terms of writing new pieces, but I have a plan: it's time to look at the next King Crimson arrangement! I have a feeling it may well be 'Trio'. Also one or two other things on my mind.
E-mails from Riverrun, re promotional material for QTD, Riccardo, Iain and Peter. Jacob also sent me a couple last evening with a note saying that he's seen that Nick Drake's 'Fruit Tree' has been arranged for Renaissance instruments. I've been waiting for this to happen for many years.
5 11/23/2000 Yesterday went to Liverpool, arriving back an hour late. I usually phone Sue to come and collect me from the station (I don't have a mobile phone - hate them!) but damn it! The phone was out-of-order! Walked down Breck Road, in the rain, to the phone box. However, I like Liverpool University and the students are producing some rather good work. So, who cares about a bit of rain?!
Returned home and did more work on 'Seule'. The ending has been revised, some of the speeds modified and the cover/text page completed. Should be able to send version 1 to Catherine tomorrow.
Read a couple of essays on the train journey: a) Lars Ehnberg - Grandchildren of God and Archetypes; b) Sheila Whiteley - Psychedelic Coding in the work of Jimi Hendrix.
Listened to Badfinger last night. Some great little songs from a great little band. There's something about their music which is genuine.
4 11/22/2000 I've been trying to make contact with British Rail enquiries to see what time trains are running to Liverpool, if at all. Can't seem to get through as the phone-lines are all busy.
Completed 'Seule' yesterday in a fit of creative abandon. It has an incredibly wide range, both of expression and tessitura. Then I returned home and Catherine, to whom the song is dedicated and written for, was on the radio singing and talking as part of the 'Secrets of the Heavens' feature on Radio 3. SOTH sounded absolutely fantastic, and I was interested in Angela Voss's detailed description of Ficino's musical/magic system which she talked about. I wish I could have been at the concert, but it's a long way to London!
Last evening I dreamt that the pianist Katharine Duran aksed me what I thought about her performance of 'Tjarn' at Huddersfield a month or so back. I looked in on my E-mails, just a minute or so ago, and there's one from Katharine asking me if I'd be interested in a commission project for a song!
At school yesterday a colleague was playing Greg Lake's and Peter Sinfield's song 'I Believe in Father Christmas' for a drum student at the pinao. It's a song I very much like. I returned home to find that Peter had sent a book for me, with a note attached saying that it's light reading with an important sub-text.
Currently reading an essay by Hanna Hadorn called 'Deus Absconditus'. This is just the kind of writing I wish I'd come across when I left the church all those years ago. It would have helped put that very troubled time into perspective.
3 11/21/2000 Started to write up 'Seule' into a fair score although, even at this stage, new things are beginning to emerge. So, whether it satys as the definitive version is anyone's guess at the moment. It may just end up as being the next sketch in the sketching stages! However, it feels OK. It's surprising what happens when one has a good performance of a piece: last week's Glennie/Trinity performance has spurred me onwards!
Also accompanied for a couple of Associated Board exams. Whilst waiting in the corridor loooked at the musical puzzle Mark Taylor posted in the Guestbook. I'm hopeless at crosswords/brain-teasers/riddles etc., so I've asked Iain Cameron to have a look at it as well. Iain is much more qualified, from a jazz angle, to answer Mark's question. I'm sure Ian McDonald will look at it and be able to comment, and Riccardo Terranova could as well. Jacob, can-u-help?
Bbmaj7#11////|A7#9////|D-7(9)//Db7//|C-7//F7b9//|Bbmaj7////|
A7(b13)////|D-6(9)////|E7#9////|D-7(9)////|
Coda:Bbmaj7#11////|A7#9////|D-6(9)||
Mark asks: a) what makes this series of chords tick; b) why, when he solos
over the chords, he can play just about anything; c) suggests there is a sort
of 'musical secret' within. These are a just a few random guesses - a few random
ideas. I don't have the answers.
i) The progression is circular. Although it seems to be rooted on D, the sevenths
and sixths keep the music going around in a loop-like fashion. In this way,
although I hear D at the cadence, for me it isn't REALLY strong;
ii) It includes three progressions of descending semitones: (bass) Bb-A (X2),
D-Db; Db-C, and has two Perfect Cadences which don't feel final except, perhaps,
as part of the coda: A7#9-D7; C7-F7b9; A7(13)-D6. The piece is cycle of fifths
based;
iii) There are stacks of semitones and, more importantly, descents of semitones
followed by Perfect Fifths. Here is the bass line:
Bb-A-D/C#-C-F/(F)-Bb-A-D/E-A-D. The semitones may be the reason why you are
able to (I'm guessing) use chromatic passing notes/appogiaturas/slides/bands
within the chords, over the chords and from chord to chord?;
iv) Dnat-C#-Cnat are present twice as inner voices in the progression: Bbmaj7-A7#9-D7;
E7#9-A7-D7(9). This reinforces the chromaticism I've just mentioned;
v) The C# of A7#9 is respelt as Dd in the Db7 chord which means that you are
able to use associated notes (previously spelt as # now as b) at that point)?;
vi) The series takes all the notes of the chromatic scale;
vii) It is a 10 bar harmonic sequence (sequence being the operative word), made
into 12 with the addition of the coda;
viii) 10 is an important number for a number of reasons: I found an inside chromatic
line descending: A-G-F#-Fnat-E-Eb-D-C#-B-A-G#-G-F#. This covers the entire span
of the chords. This may be distributed, approximately, as two symmetrical pentachords:
A G F# Fnat E/Eb D C# B A which would make the collection roughly Nonotonic.
5+5=10. Is 10 at the back of this? Is it the solution to the riddle? Is it the
descending chromaticism? Also A-F# is covered in the descent = 10th, and D (at
end) to Bb (at beginning) = 10th.
2 11/20/2000 It's cold, dark and windy outside. Yesterday Sue, Jamie (the dog) and I managed to get to Silverdale, walk to Jenny's Point, and have a good look at the smelting chimney which is positioned exactly on the side of the estuary. The area must have been a thriving industrial complex in the 18th and 19th centuries, but all that's left now is the chimney, one or two lime kilns and the old railway which has been modernised. It must have been hell of an existence for the workers. There is also a huge, ancient causeway build of boulders and rubble which extends about a mile from the shore to the sea.
Also did a lot on 'Seule' which is now coming together quite well. I've managed to 'see into' the piece and manipulate pitch collections and expand the rhythmic side of things. It should be quite a challenge in performance. It lasts around five and a half minutes.
Over the weekend E-mails from Robert, Peter, David, Steven and Sid. Pleased to hear that Sid's health seems to be coming right.
(For Mark Taylor: I'll have a look at the chords you've included on the Guestbook, Mark, and get back to you, although I can't promise that I'll be of any help! I'm not a jazz musician, but would like to have been. Some people say my pieces have a 'hidden' jazz side because of the chord structures I use, although this probably belies my frustration caused by a lack of understanding of jazz in general.)
1 11/19/2000 No! It's not possible! It isn't raining! An excursion may be possible...
On 18-ix-00 I had a dream:
'Alone' - a word in a song that keeps being repeated in the dream.
That's what I've written in my notebook, where all thoughts/ideas are kept. A few days ago, whilst working on the song for Catherine, I came across one word in the context of a sentence: 'Ma seule etoile est morte'. The word 'seule' = alone. On the strength of the connection between conscious and unconscious I've decided to call the piece 'Seule'. I cannot remember what the dream song was, but this is an attempt at reconstruction. Whatever, the synchronicity involved is striking and the causal and acausal connection is, for me, much more exciting than anything else about composing. It's as though it comes from 'somewhere else', and the ideas somehow feel out of my control. The most successful pieces are, for me, always borne from this dimension.
Currently listening to a CD which Leigh James let me borrow. I have been unaware, up until last week, of Giacinto Scelsi's music, but what a revelation! This IS music borne from somewhere else and Scelsi knew that. Apparently he'd composed serial music up until around 1940, and then suffered some kind of creative illness which stopped him composing. As part of his therapy he would sit at a piano and play just one note, over and over again. This apparently restored him to health and, from around 1952, he began composing again. He said that if a composer does not penetrate to the interior it is impossible for him to become a true artist. In a way this reinforces both Jung's idea of the 'visionary'and Gurdjieff's 'objective' art. Scelsi saw himself as a channel - a messenger, or an intermediary, between two worlds. The trip to London and Bedford last week was not only to hear Evelyn's wonderful performance, but also helped retore my spirits which, from September to last Thursday, had been pretty low. Gradually things seem to be on the mend. We can never hope to avoid the dark times, but they are required for the energy of the creative opposites to manifest themselves as the 'tertium non datur'. In the midst of difficulty lies opportunity.
7 11/18/2000 The trains are in chaos! Fact! Constant delays up and down to London and, again, to and from Manchester today.
On Wednesday we were ninety minutes late arraiving in London. A very good thing we didn't have connections at the other end. Elizabeth accompanied me, and an excellent companion she was! We stayed with Steven Wray on Wednesday evening, and went to the rehearsal of 'Concerto Nekyia' on Thursday afternoon in Greenwich. I was able to say things to Evelyn, Diego and the ensemble from a composer's point of view which, I think, seemed to help. However, the piece had been very well prepared by everyone involved. I owe a lot to Gregory Rose who was the 'warm up' conductor. He had done a great deal of the ground work. The evening concert was a triumph: Evelyn's playing was quite marvellous, and the ensemble really got stuck into the piece. John Mercer, Peter Dunton, Jackie Bennett, Iain Cameron, Christopher Palmer-Jeffery, Steven Wray and Elizabeth seemed to like it, and it certainly sounded fine from where I was sitting. Very encouraging. Thanks to everyone at Trinity College of Music for everything!
John and I spoke with Evelyn about the possibility of recording the piece at some stage, but it looks unlikely that will happen mainly because of Evelyn's contractual obligations. However, today things have begun to develop in another unexpected direction.
We drove back to Riverrun land with John, and on Thursday I finalised details for the release of 'Quickening the Dead'. The artwork now looks excellent. The CD goes into production in around a fortnight. Leigh has sorted out a promo postcard to tie-in with the release, and is currently busy re-structuring the Riverrun website to include it and other things. John is also excited as 'Secrets of the Heavens', another new Riverrun release featuring Mark Rylance, Mark Tucker, Catherine King, Angela Voss, Jacob Heringman and others, is featured on Radio 3's 'In Tune' programme at 17-15 on Tuesday of next week, with a lauch concert at St. Bartholomew's Church, in London, in the evening. I can't get to this, but would like to have done.
Back to Catherine's song for me. Other ideas have emerged. Also the book proposal material has arrived from the publsher in the USA, who has shown interest in 'The Music of King Crimson', which also needs addressing.
Rick asks if Peter Sinfield and I are collaborating on a project? The answer is that we very much hope so, pending the outcome of decisions re the funding aspect. The piece will be a lute-song/song-cycle for Catherine King (mezzo-soprano) and Jacob Heringman (lute), hopefully to be premiered in the summer of 2001.
6 11/17/2000 Returned home around an hour ago. Gathering my thoughts after a few days of rushing around in London and elsewhere. Need to think before writing anything about the experience, but Evelyn Glennie is a wonderful percussionist and a brilliant communicator.
4 11/15/2000 A thick fog envelopes the world this morning...the world that is the Fylde peninsula at least. The Glennie/Trinity concert approaches and I get more and more wound up about it. I've been through the piece again but I'm not sure about the content of it, although I know the peformers will play the piece marvellously. One thing is for sure: it's a damn big piece - lots of notes, lots of hitting of things, big gestures and so on! As someone said: Let calmness lead the way. Easier said than done this time. Swallow hard!
To the doc's yesterday. Finger has worsened. Tetanus jab and a large dressing on the wound.
3 11/14/2000
Dan has sent a message saying that he's put something in the Present Moment News about the performance of Concerto Nekyia and the Riverrun CD. An E-mail from distant USA from Jacob Heringman bringing news of his hectic concert schedule. Also, E-mails from Peter Sinfield, and from Veronika and Tjasa in Slovenia
A day of activity on Catherine's song. The strands are gradually being pulled together. A piece for a solo instrument, in this case voice, is actually more difficult than writing for ensemble or, rather, it's a very different process. Yesterday I thought carefully about the structure. Should words be used as a refrain? Yes. Should harmony be involved at this point? Yes. Should the harmony be considered structurally? Yes. Could linear episodes be used to link both? Yes. How can one achieve contarpuntal ends in a solo piece? (See J.S. Bach Partita for solo flute). While I was on my way to sleep last night I had an idea for how pitches within the first chord relate to some of the words in the Nerval poem. Write into notebook! I've looked at Nicola LeFanu's piece, 'But Stars Remaining', as a compositional model but it doesn't fit with what I want to do or what the Nerval poem requires. I'm on my own...
Read Leonard Bernstein's essay 'On Musical Semantics'.
A VMT meeting this morning, and then something must be done about my injured finger which has worsened, which I keep bathing in warm saltwater. Then the last look at 'Nekyia' before Thursday. Christopher is, hopefully, returning home today. Third time lucky!
2 11/13/2000 Continued with the song yesterday. Will the cut-ups work? I've tried it. The idea needs longer so as to integrate itself into the fabric of the piece. Continue with this today.
A publisher is sending a book proposal for the King Crimson analyses. Looks as if I'll have to learn how to type-set music on the computer. The days of steam-driven copying may just be drawing to a close.
Back to Concerto Nekyia for the final look. Rehearsal on Thursday afternoon and the concert in the evening. As I write this I feel my stomach churn.
E-mails from Peter, Riccardo and David.
Last week I cut my finger on a door at school. Since then it has become infected and is difficult to move. Looks slightly better this morning.
A short week of teaching: just today! A VMT meeting tomorrow, then some time to look at Nekyia and the song.
1 11/12/2000 Listening to Radiohead's 'Kid A'. This is beginning to grow on me more and more, and it has provided me with a way out of a compositional impasse: apparently Radiohead found it impossible to continue to re-work their former compositional vocabulary, and this is precisely the trap I've fallen into over the past two months. When I began sketching 'Masque', which sort of limped to a dead-end around two weeks ago, I began to think that Romantic/self-indulgent language just cannot be accessed as perhaps it may have been in the past. Just because I managed the impossible in 'Sad Steps', doesn't mean it can happen again. The Radiohead album has provided a model for the way in which, perhaps, my song for Catherine may proceed and strangely enough, by using cut-up techniques, this is exactly what has begun to happen. This is also similar to the techniques used on the Project X album, Heaven and Earth. Something happened yesterday, at the RNCM, which also further reinforced the idea. So, as usual, when things begin to happen creatively, it's as though the environment comments on it with little ideas of its own. The secret is to try and be as circumspect as possible.
Also read an excellent essay by Andrew Goodwin ('On Popular Music and Postmodernism') in 'Music, Culture and Society'. Goodwin thinks that in rock music Modernist notions are still at work: musicians such as Laurie Anderson and Brian Eno occupy a postion, in the canon, similar to that occupied by prog/art rock in the 1970's. This essay was written in 1991, so groups like Radiohead, Landberk, White Willow and others might now be added especially with the re-awakening of interest in prog/art rock at around that time. What Goodwin is suggesting is that the postmodern position is flawed in this context, because there remains a division between art-rock (which we may consider as Radiohead/King Crimson etc.) and pure pop (Westlife, The Spice Girls etc.), which might be further de-coded as popular culture and mass culture. However, when I asked one of my sons what university students hold in esteem, he replied that the Corrs were listened to as seriously as Radiohead.
(I still think Radiohead sometimes sound like Jeff Buckley [listen to the guitar part of 'Optimistic' compared to some of the chord shifts on 'Grace']. And Jeff Buckley also sometimes raids the Cocteau Twins' musical vocabulary.)
7 11/11/2000 Yesterday was a day of building. After teaching helped my father construct a fence on the side of the car-port, which also provides protection for the back door. Nails knocked into wood and we managed a dazzling display of functional design! It's amazing to think that my father had his stroke less than a year ago, and is now back in building mode.
Returned to find a message from Stephanie Ruben, with whom I had a really good discussion re things King Crimson. Stephanie has helped me a lot in piecing together the King Crimson jigsaw. I use the term 'jigsaw' because this is a reasonable metaphor for my view of the group. Although I have 'followed' K.C. since 1969, and beginning to get a handle on the vocabulary (compositional techniques/lyrics/philosophical side), thanks to Peter, Robert, Ian, Jon Green and Sid Smith, it is particularly useful to speak with someone who was close to the group in the early days. Stephanie has highlighted some of these points of interest, which will be invaluable to any further analyses.
Further communications from Trinity re the performance of the Concerto next week. Also further communication re the Riverrun release of 'Quickening the Dead'. Things are looking reasonably good.
Having just returned from Manchester (in the company of Ed. Derek B. Scott: Music, Culture and Society - A Reader [Oxford]) and an excellent Formal Concert, a free evening is just beginning, giving time to crack-on with Catherine's song.
6 11/10/2000 I can't lock-in to my E-mail maildrop for one particular important piece of information from Riverrun. Drat!
A full teaching day yesterday and another busy day. Suddenly the idea seems to have grown for Catherine's song. I managed to sketch out the entire piece in, more or less, one foul swoop. It is a setting, for solo mezzo-soprano, of a poem by Nerval. I'd used this as the seeds for the Piano Quartet 'Reclaiming Eros' until that piece switched to something very different. However, this poem seems to be exactly right for the song. There's a long way to go but at least the seeds are there for something. Also planned to begin the next King Crimson arrangement but the song seems to submerge everything else.
Phone call from the Cavatina Chamber Music Trust saying that the Newbolds are hoping to go into a school in London to play my piece before the Wigmore Hall concert. Unfortunately I can't go with them. Also invitations for the E.G./Trinity concert have arrived, and times of some rehearsals I could attend. I played through the flute part of the piece yesterday as well. The parts, in themselves, aren't difficult. The problem will be placing them in the rhythmic landscape of the piece.
5 11/09/2000 Drove to Liverpool yesterday. Driving through city centres, for me, is always an ordeal, but I managed it.
On arriving home things began to happen towards the piece for Catherine. A short idea has emerged for the basis for this: the possibility of using a short song as a basis - a deconstruction, of which, may work.
4 11/08/2000 4-01: Unable to sleep. Incredible amount of paperwork, on top of the teaching, to deal with yesterday. Feeling that my creative juices are totally depleted at the moment. I need time to look for material for Catherine's song, but after having devoured possible text after possible text - nothing! Took a decision last evening to allow this to unfold: it's simply no good getting wound-up about things. What will be, will be. After the endless activity throughout the past two years, things seem to have quietened down a little. Probably not a bad thing: it could be a fallow period. This has often happened before. One thing learnt from the past: the best things often come out of the blue, completely unexpected, and anticipate another period of reletless activity. I'm anticipating that it will start again in December/January.
John Mercer phoned from Riverrun. The 'Quickening the Dead' CD sounds to be going well and John has clarified details about the contract he sent which all sounds fair. I have no experience of this sort of thing.
Also spoke with Peter Dunton who hopes to be at the performance of the Concerto next week. 'Concerto' (!): it all sounds too grand for me. I had never had any intention of writing music with generic titles, but the piece IS a concerto, so I decided to add the generic-specific bit later. Trinity also E-mailed giving times of rehearsals. I'll try and go to the final one on the day as there is no other available time, and with the trains as they are anything could happen.
Robin Walker also phoned and Iain Cameron E-mailed re his new album 'Serious Music for the Highvelt' which I've contibuted to by writing a review.
'Dustgod', by Landberk, is excellent. Why? It's melodic!
3 11/07/2000 There has been a collapse of rubble on the train-line to Liverpool which is likely to cause disruption in the journey tomorrow. Trains terminate at Huyton with a bus into the city centre. The problem there will be compounded by the floods: it's also bad in Liverpool. I remember floods but never floods on this scale.
Yesterday booked train tickets to London for the Glennie/Trinity concert next week. However, if the weather is bad/trains are in chaos it could be that I won't be able to attend. Time will tell. Looked further at the Concerto yesterday, and timed it. It's not as long as I thought: around twenty minutes as opposed to the twenty five minutes I originally thought.
Also began to look further at/for texts for Catherines solo song. I can't find anything, but have a tiny musical idea which dropped out the sky which is based on contracting/expanding pitch collections. I'll take it to school today and take a closer look. Not feeling in creative mode at all.
'Being and Becoming' went to the binders yesterday.
The fuel protestors meet the government today. Fuel = tons of carbon dioxide emissions = global warning = environmental catastrophe? I'm not a scientist but I often think, while waiting at traffic lights and watching endless queues of car exhausts fuming, 'how long can we carry on in this way?' Doom and gloom...
Listened to Radiohead's 'Kid A' last evening. This music has something. Radiohead have done exactly the right thing: a choice of musical reaction against their previous work whilst retaining their own character. Also Landberk's 'Indian Summer' (1996) which I much prefer to the Radiohead. I still think this is the future of 'prog'. Oh, forget silly musical labels!
2 11/06/2000 Non illegitimi te carborundum
1 11/05/2000 Clear skies for this day: Bonfire Night. The day I always thought commemorated the famous English conspirator Guy Fawkes in the Gunpowder Plot: an attempt to blow up James I and the English Parliament on Nov. 5th, 1605, to avenge the persecution of English Roman Catholics. That was until someone mentioned the Beltane Fires. However, Beltane was originally celebrated in May so how can this be? It must the first. Whatever the case the sound of fireworks has been going off all around us for the past three nights. It seems to start earlier each year.
After returning from Manchester I started to look closely into Concerto Nekyia which is premiered by Evelyn Glennie and Trinity College Contemporary Music Group at Greenwich College Chapel on the 16th. One thing is for certain: this is a big piece of music and, rhythmically, very complex. How on earth did I manage to write it? It took around twelve months to write from beginning to end, because April 1995 is inscribed onto the score at the end, and I remember making a tentative start on it around Spring-time 1994, just after completing Hidden Streams. It seems a very fragmentary piece, although the structure is reasonably tight mainly because at that time I was using 'hidden' taleas to underpin structures - the tiny foreground rhythmic elements where used as long strands for the purpose of proportioning sections and, indeed, how many sections might be included in a piece. I used this technique for all my music up to around Nekyia, and then it was gradually reduced in the subsequent pieces, until it was dropped altogether in the choral piece , 'The Moon and the Yew Tree' (1997). There's one thing for sure: Nekyia is a VERY long way from my current musical thinking, where I've begun to explore more lyrical forms. I feel impassive about Nekyia. For me, there has been a huge shift away from this kind of thing. Still, we'll see how it goes. From what I gather everyone seems excited about it.
Currently listening to a compilation CD which came with The Wire magazine. There is one particular track I like by a band called Ruby Falls. Apparently they're from New York. The opening track, by Legendary Pink Dots, reminds me of Hawkwind meets Fairport Convention. I continue to listen to what's going on, but I don't often hear strong melody. My students often comment on anything which includes slushy harmony or emotive melodic contour as being 'pure cheese'. Stripped music, bearing none of the attributes of music with romantic associations, seems to have little melody/harmony (however one defines that), even though people say that the the pluralistic culture we live in can be inhabited by many different kinds of music. I suppose that 'museum music' includes melody and harmony of a more functional kind, so if one wants this then it's already available. It must be that because it's already there then there's no need to re-create it. But much of this new music references other musics by using quasi-intertextual means. It must be that it's the language that speaks and not necessarily the author. Is this the process of demystifying cultural objects? The text is 'just' a text, with all the romantic notions centred around the artists involved being stripped-away? How do authors feel about that? Is it important to know about the authors/composers/artists/poets? Is everything JUST language?
7 11/04/2000 Significant dream last night which, in a way, reinforces the what I've felt recently about the future::
We are walking through a garden. A butterfly flies into my shirt, but I manage to release it without harming it. It flies off and lands on a flower. I manage to observe it more completely saying that I've never seen one like it before.
The ancient Greeks thought that the butterfly was a symbol for the soul (Butterfly = psyche = soul), which, for us, might be a symbol for the unconscious. Cosmolgical-Postmodernism?
6 11/03/2000 The paradox is that the postmodern atmosphere, at least in the 1980's, allowed musicians such as myself to find our own voice. The techniques of modernist compositional styles could still be employed but bent in a way to suit ourselves. They could also be combined with other, earlier musical forms to create many references. This was surely an outgrowth of the fact that postmodenist thinkers were not prepared to see things in a stable state, where things - texts mainly - could offer a variety of different meanings rather than just one. Someone once said to me, when I was discussing compositional issues: 'There are no rules anymore, we make up our own. We now live in an age of pluralism.' Some people can live with this, but others can't. Also, the whole non-elitist approach in education, for example, during the 1980's meant a transformation of the music education system. While it has freed many from the old principle of rote-learning, it has meant, in the musical field, that 'everyone can have a go', which seems OK as it goes. It doesn't take a great mind to see that this may have a negative outcome for teachers. However, some very interesting composers have emerged in this atmosphere, who may not have done if they had been taught in the old. Another paradox is that we are now free to search whichever musical fields we like and include whatever in our music. Sampling is, perhaps, the quintessential example of inter-textuality as applied to music. Musical evolution is a strange process and we are always living through it.
Besides further thinking about postmodernism, I managed to complete 'Being and Becoming' which can now be sent to the binders. Also, as I was waiting for Sue to collect me, wrote another little fragment for the Sinfield/Keeling piece for one of the lines Peter sent. Catherine King has also sent a little text for her song which I managed to look at briefly, but it looks interesting. Also played Jacob Heringman's second little musical piece and received an E-mail from him with his observations on the Crimson concert. The rest of the day was spent teaching, but the future is gradually beginning to open-up.
5 11/02/2000 I left Liverpool yesterday at 16-00, and arrived back here at 20-00. The train stopped outside Kirkham unable to continue: severe flooding on the line. Train reversed back into station, then told there would be further delays. Phoned Sue who drove out to collect me. Heard tales from passengers of those who'd started out from Poulton at 7-30 in the morning and arrived in Preston (20 miles away) at 10-30. The railways look to me to be heading towards collapse. I've noticed that managements seem unable to cope with the ever-increasing demands placed on them - this time by nature. But, through all this, managed to continue with the reading on Postmodernism. I've had some thoughts about this: I disagree with the POMO idea that there is no 'deep down' to an individual's identity. It is a far-fetched and, perhaps, media and market-led idea that we do no have to be pinned-down to a single image of the self. (The Self 'is'; always has been and always will be). If we continue to step outside ourselves, as POMO theorists advise us to do with texts, for example, we end up in neurosis. This sort of sums up the notion of the superficial so evident in our world where all we are is persona. Or at least that was the thinking circa ten years ago.(Both older people and children are a good barometer for this: their personas have, largely, disappeared/remain un-formed repectively). Of course during the 1980's the POMO thing was a media construct which seem to have been in the throes of decay for around ten years. The idea of the 'death of the author' is now really historical! The likes of Lindsay Clarke and Maggie Hemingway have seen to that. Tom Robbins seems to point to something of a new synthesis going far beyond that inter-textual quotation game. The days of Umberto Eco's 'Misreadings' seems long gone. Thank goodness a return to narrative has been made. (I read a recent newspaper article about James MacMillan's Second Symphony, the reporter asking the question 'is it about something?' Well...so what...is it a crime that a piece is ABOUT something?). It seems to me that the height of the POMO thing is passing and we're being lead into a new world.
Once evening meal had been consumed the viola part of 'Being and Becoming' was completed at 21-25. It's done! Checking, xeroxing and binding left to do. At least the musical dimensions of it have been seen to. Bert is starting another one at the moment, and may even go on to transcribe up to five more. The ones that have been chosen are excellent.
Jacob Heringman E-mailed saying he'd enjoyed the King Crimson performance in Chicago. He also sent me another of his compositions which is good, and has an Arvo Part-like flavour to it.
Listened further to 'Quickening the Dead' last evening. I quite like it, but I don't really like listening to my own music so can't be objective about it.
4 11/01/2000 Bert phoned last evening with further suggestions for the Soundscape Orchestrations. It could be that we end with more material than we bargained for. Currently listening to one which I feel would be an excellent choice and would, perhaps, close an album beautifully. Whatever we decide the strings seem to remain as the main instrumental body. One of these new ones will more than likely include voices as well as the strings.
Just as Bert phoned I was on with the viola part which is the final part to be copied of 'Being and Becoming'. If I really get on with this I could have the whole thing complete (copied, xeroxed and bound) by the end of next week.
Also listened to 'Quickening the Dead'. I think it works quite well, but there is a slight edit which needs attention in 'Off the Beaten Track', which now sits as the final piece. The running order has altered but for the better. Also found an omission on the cover.
Long and interesting chat with Peter Sinfield. We're very much hoping that we will receive the funding for the SKHK project and are hoping to get on with it once we hear.
Jacob Heringman sent a little ostinato ground he'd written. I played it and like it a lot. It would have potential somewhere in a larger structure. Also managed to play the flute: 'Syrinx' by Debussy; Poulenc's 'Flute Sonata'; 'Variations on a Theme' of Rossini by Chopin. A new student I'm teaching is currently on with these pieces. Also managed to play the Allegretto Cantabile from Poetic Tone-Pictures by Grieg at the piano, and found out that the opening of Janacek's 'Sinfonietta' could be used as a student Composition project, or at least suggest things to students studying for the AS Level.
I always go out and close the garden gate just before going to bed, but last night found that it had come off its hinges...or been torn from its hinges. Halloween...spooky or just a licence for people to cause damage to the property of others'? Probably both. This has to be seen to today as well as going to Liverpool.