This and That
May. 8th, 2005 10:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kenjariAlas, no Quest game for me this weekend. Between ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
epilimnion's premier and having to work on my piece for the Composers Symposium, it just wasn't possible for me to go. I would have loved to go, have fun, and see all the Quest folks, though.
Epilimnion's piece was terrific, however. It had so many of the things I love in electronic music, especially that quality of distant beauty that electronic music does so well. And the tango choreography was great - it really went well with the music. In fact, the whole concert was a delight; it combined tango performances with both classic and contemporary tango music, with a program that was arranged in chronological order. Afterwards, I ended up going with epilimnion, D., D's parents, and the performers to a restaurant for food and celebration. It was kind of like going to the Athenian after a Quest game.
The only bad thing about Saturday was the extreme cold in my apartment. It was horrible weather - very, very cold, rainy, windy, and generally miserable. And there was no heat until 6pm, even though I called the maintenance line at 3. It couldn't have been more than 55 degrees at most in my apartment - I spent most of the afternoon in two flannel shirts, thick jeans, and wrapped in Other Kenjari's wool cloak. When I heard the heat go on while eating dinner, I thought the hissing of the radiator was about the most beautiful sound in the world
I feel like I haven't been posting much of substance lately - just book and movie reviews. That's because my life has been pretty much taken over by writing this piece for the Composers Symposium. It's going well, and quickly.
The title will be "I Wanna Pull on Your Coat About Something", which is a phrase spoken by Tom Waits in the introductory patter on the album Nighthawks At the Diner. The way he says it is distinctive and tends to stick in my head. So I transcribed the rhtyhm and used it as a motif for the piece. I also extracted some short phrases from four Tom Waits songs to use as thematic/motivic material. This idea cmae about not just to help speed up the composing process, but also because it seemd to fit Fireworks, the ensemble that will be in residence at the symposium. Their instrumentation is saxophone, guitar, piano, double bass, and percussion (my piece is just for piano and double bass, though). It obviously mimics the instrumentation of a pop or jazz group, even though they perform contemporary classical music. Thus looking to popular music for inspiration seemed both natural and appropriate. And I've long admired Tom Waits as both a wonderful performer and an amazing songwriter.
I've just finished generating and laying out the main material, now I have to fill in the accompaniment and secondary parts, smooth out the transitions as necessary, and put on the finishing touches. I'm quite pleased with the way things are turning out. I've really tried to stretch myself in terms of rhythms, and I'm having a lot of fun with the different string techniques (pizzacato, harmonics, sul ponticello, etc.). It has to be done by the end of the month, and in Dr. Kyr's hands by June 1, but I'm getting less worried about making that happen.
epilimnion's premier and having to work on my piece for the Composers Symposium, it just wasn't possible for me to go. I would have loved to go, have fun, and see all the Quest folks, though. Epilimnion's piece was terrific, however. It had so many of the things I love in electronic music, especially that quality of distant beauty that electronic music does so well. And the tango choreography was great - it really went well with the music. In fact, the whole concert was a delight; it combined tango performances with both classic and contemporary tango music, with a program that was arranged in chronological order. Afterwards, I ended up going with epilimnion, D., D's parents, and the performers to a restaurant for food and celebration. It was kind of like going to the Athenian after a Quest game.
The only bad thing about Saturday was the extreme cold in my apartment. It was horrible weather - very, very cold, rainy, windy, and generally miserable. And there was no heat until 6pm, even though I called the maintenance line at 3. It couldn't have been more than 55 degrees at most in my apartment - I spent most of the afternoon in two flannel shirts, thick jeans, and wrapped in Other Kenjari's wool cloak. When I heard the heat go on while eating dinner, I thought the hissing of the radiator was about the most beautiful sound in the world
I feel like I haven't been posting much of substance lately - just book and movie reviews. That's because my life has been pretty much taken over by writing this piece for the Composers Symposium. It's going well, and quickly.
The title will be "I Wanna Pull on Your Coat About Something", which is a phrase spoken by Tom Waits in the introductory patter on the album Nighthawks At the Diner. The way he says it is distinctive and tends to stick in my head. So I transcribed the rhtyhm and used it as a motif for the piece. I also extracted some short phrases from four Tom Waits songs to use as thematic/motivic material. This idea cmae about not just to help speed up the composing process, but also because it seemd to fit Fireworks, the ensemble that will be in residence at the symposium. Their instrumentation is saxophone, guitar, piano, double bass, and percussion (my piece is just for piano and double bass, though). It obviously mimics the instrumentation of a pop or jazz group, even though they perform contemporary classical music. Thus looking to popular music for inspiration seemed both natural and appropriate. And I've long admired Tom Waits as both a wonderful performer and an amazing songwriter.
I've just finished generating and laying out the main material, now I have to fill in the accompaniment and secondary parts, smooth out the transitions as necessary, and put on the finishing touches. I'm quite pleased with the way things are turning out. I've really tried to stretch myself in terms of rhythms, and I'm having a lot of fun with the different string techniques (pizzacato, harmonics, sul ponticello, etc.). It has to be done by the end of the month, and in Dr. Kyr's hands by June 1, but I'm getting less worried about making that happen.
