"Long Distance"

I enjoy very much listening to the Tusa interviews! Luckily, every now and then I stumble upon some program like that; almost by mistake! And then I devour it obsessively! ...My way. Now that program is the "Tusa Interviews"
I started with the "music" related episodes, I guess as expected: the interviews with Ligeti, Birtwistle, Elliott Carter - which I found very interesting, fascinating. But then I listened to so many more: the interviews with Frank Auerbach, Anthony Caro, Howard Hodgkin, Edward Bond, etc. Today I listened to John Tusa speaking to Tony Harrison. And for that reason, I am going to post this poem of his:


Long Distance ll by Tony Harrison

Though my mother was already two years dead
Dad kept her slippers warming by the gas,
put hot water bottles her side of the bed
and still went to renew her transport pass.

You couldn't just drop in. You had to phone.
He'd put you off an hour to give him time
to clear away her things and look alone
as though his still raw love were such a crime.

He couldn't risk my blight of disbelief
though sure that very soon he'd hear her key
scrape in the rusted lock and end his grief.
He knew she'd just popped out to get the tea.

I believe life ends with death, and that is all.
You haven't both gone shopping; just the same,
in my new black leather phone book there's your name
and the disconnected number I still call. 

Some thoughts about Luigi Nono

I have my musical rants that maybe annoy people. But they are for myself mostly. It is a way for me to, let's say, arrange my "opinions" on something, in a somewhat "coherent" way. And I post them, in case, someone wishes to convert me to another view, or correct me, or whatever. In fact, most of the time I am not sure of anything, so writing things down, makes me ... decide.
But I think now, for a while, these rants will be focused mostly on relatively, new, modern, and contemporary music. Because I want to catch up, and explore and learn all I can about it.

I posted previously about Cherubini, and his "friendly" discussions with Napoleon! But Cherubini was not insulting Napoleon because he (Cherubini) was very politically opinionated. He didn't "tore off" dedications to Napoleon, like Beethoven! He was just irritated with Napoleon's love and support for Italian music and musicians, to the detriment of the French musicians. The XX-th century by contrast was, a century of many politically "opinionated" musicians - some very aggressively so. But few had such strong political convictions, pursued with such ardor like Luigi Nono. Most of his music is somehow a political manifest, or inspired by it. I think he even joined the communist party at some point. His political views brought him occasionally in disputes with his "Darmstadt School" companions: Boulez and Stockhausen. But personally, I find his music the most expressive - from the group. To my surprise actually I can't think of any piece of his that I heard (and I listened to pretty much everything that I could find) that hasn't impressed me somehow. I haven't heard Canto Sospeso yet (a piece that ultimately indirectly caused a break in friendship between him and Stockhausen!) - and I'd really like to. My favorite piece of his is the quartet "Fragmente Stille".  It is a late piece, mostly quiet and reflective.

Someone said that the music of his last phase, is a lot more "perceptible" for the listeners through the inclusion of silences and prolongation of sounds.
"The listener is not overwhelmed by information, but has the opportunity to reflect upon each sound or
constellation of sounds."  (Havard Enge). I think that is certainly one of the problems with a lot of the total serialism of the 50s and 60s.

This quartet is the second piece written as a homage to Bruno Maderna that I like. (The other one being - and it surprised me! - "Rituel in memoriam Bruno Maderna" by Boulez). And that makes me a lot more curious about Bruno Maderna's music too. I guess that is my next "stop".

I heard Ligeti say, in an interview (and I'll mention that interview on other occasions, I'm sure) that "everybody liked Bruno Maderna", no matter how different their opinions were on pretty much everything else, they all liked Maderna! That apparently he was an amazing man or something!

But to conclude, as otherwise this could go on and on and on, what I like about Nono's music the most, is that it has a lyrical quality it seems to me, in every piece, that I can't find in similar music. At least not yet. I think his music is impressive and everything I read seems to indicate he was a fascinating person. (though maybe sometimes too "aggresive" in his views).

Cherubini and Napoleón

In the same box, at the opera, Napoleon said to Cherubini: "My dear Cherubini, you are certainly an excellent musician, but your music is so loud and complicated, that I can not do anything with it.” Cherubini countered: “My dear General, you are certainly an excellent soldier, but as far as music is concerned, I beg to be excused when I do not consider it necessary to adapt my compositions to your understanding.”
Cherubini actually antagonized Napoleon on numerous occasions - and he paid for it, with not being appointed for the "right jobs", throughout most of his career. Another time, he said to Napoleon: "Citoyen Général, I perceive that you love only that music which does not prevent you thinking of your politics". 

Ligeti

Ligeti's music is made of clouds of sound. Of little streams and unexpected big rivers. Of whispering forests. And muddy earth, sometimes. And flames and sparkles everywhere. I like his use of the highest register, in particular. At times almost suffocating.
He maybe repeats himself in some pieces. But overall, I love his music. It makes me envious!

"Today"

I meant to finish this much earlier - but I was "delayed" mostly for 2 reasons:

- I wanted to write a piece that alluded to the brass bands of Romania. I wanted that "wild", "raw", "coarse", "rough", "noisy" sound. And of course, that means there are allusions to Janacek too - since the brass bands of that entire region are very similar. But at the same time, "mentally" I moved on, I want to try completely different sounds and writing, next time. And I am anxious to do that, so my mind wasn't entirely on this particular brass piece. Even though, I subjectively think it is "fun"!
- I spent a good number of days, uploading and backing up all my photos and videos, online. And that wasn't very productive, otherwise, as I was for most of those days in acute nostalgia, completely distracted.

This is the second brass piece, following "Tomorrow". I wrote this for "standard" size section + 3 extra trumpets. But how I wish I had 9 trumpets like Janacek, and maybe 8 horns and 6 trombones and 2 timpanists!
Similarly I used "small" cells that develop through repetition and variation, through the piece.

One "peculiar" thing about Romanian brass bands is that often the "melody" is played by 4-5 instruments at the same time. But they are not really in unison. They all have their own personality! Sometimes (but not always!) they start and finish more or less at the same time - but in between, each instrument presents its own version of the "melody", maybe rhythmically different, with different ornaments, embellishments, etc. Is like you always have multiple versions of the melody at the same time! It's quite amazing, I think!

Here is a demo of the piece - the cover photo is of "Portrait of Mlle Pogany" by Brancusi.

Switched to another mobile :)

I didn't get to work that much on my other brass piece, yesterday, as I got a new mobile and... spent most of the day playing with that, transferring data, trying a few roms, etc.
It's a Galaxy Note 4 - I moved from a Somny Xperia. I tried first the stock image, but I quickly got bored with it. Then I installed the "Emotion Revolution" rom, but got stuck in a boot loop. I then tried the SimplRom, but I didn't like the sound - I think Viper4android causes problems, you can hear it especially in quiet music, or when there is a break. Plus the rom was just a bit too "simpl" for my taste.
I then went back to "Emotion Revolution" but this time I made sure to flash the modem and the bootloader, and -no more boot loop! I really like the rom so far actually!

I restored most apps from the playstore, but I didn't want to lose my WhatsApp messages and my SMS. To restore WhatsApp I used Titanium Backup, and to restore the SMS I used the SMS Backup and Restore app. Everything worked fine.

One of the main reasons for which I got a Galaxy Note 4 was becuase of the bigger screen and the S-Pen - which I intend to use with the music notation app "NotateMe". I tried that a bit today, and I think it has promise. But I need to get used a bit more to"write" music on it - my hand writing is a bit too excentric for the app, at the moment!

Anyway, I'll go back to my piece. I made quite a few changes.