What Are You Practising / Composing Now?

[Dave2002]

There are quite a number which have been arranged for guitar - some might be good. Try here - https://musescore.com/hub/guitar?text=Scarlatti

[Joseph K]

The arrangements I've bought are by Gerard Abiton, which are the same editions used by this chap (who actually studied at the Paris Conservatorie with Abiton) whose performances turned me on to the idea of playing some Scarlatti -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPpu7SE5uRQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zppRlbCPNjA

I imagine those will be quite hard to play...

Yes - similar to Bach, is my initial impression. I'll report back in more detail once I've learnt a fair amount of it.

[Richard Barrett]

The arrangements I've bought are by Gerard Abiton, which are the same editions used by this chap (who actually studied at the Paris Conservatorie with Abiton) whose performances turned me on to the idea of playing some Scarlatti -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPpu7SE5uRQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zppRlbCPNjA

That is some impressively nimble playing! And arranging too in fact.

[BBMmk2]

Coming to the end of transcribing the Sixth Movement from Mahler’s Symphony No.3. I thinking of my ne t project. Either Richard Strauss’s Suite from Der Rosenkavalier or the Waltz Sequence from that opera?!?!?

[vinteuil]

The arrangements I've bought are by Gerard Abiton, which are the same editions used by this chap (who actually studied at the Paris Conservatorie with Abiton) whose performances turned me on to the idea of playing some Scarlatti -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPpu7SE5uRQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zppRlbCPNjA

... very many thanks indeed for these Scarlatti videos - absobloodylutely marvellous.

I shall be looking out for Antoine Boyer

( And he's set the bar pretty high for you, JosephK! )



.

[Joseph K]

... very many thanks indeed for these Scarlatti videos - absobloodylutely marvellous.

I shall be looking out for Antoine Boyer

( And he's set the bar pretty high for you, JosephK! )



.

Yes, not only is Boyer a fabulous classical guitarist, he's also a fantastic gypsy jazz guitarist (it's either/or for mere mortals like me!) And anyone who follows him on social media is privy to his ingeniously contrapuntal little compositions...

[Padraig]

Just after I had enjoyed the Scarlatti sonatas, Joseph, I was presented on you tube with this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIarR8kMYSk

[Joseph K]

Just after I had enjoyed the Scarlatti sonatas, Joseph, I was presented on you tube with this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIarR8kMYSk

That's very nice. Kind of sounds like the bottom two strings are somehow going through a bass amp or something; in any case, they produce frequencies which disagree with me a bit.

Great playing though.

[Serial_Apologist]

Coming to the end of transcribing the Sixth Movement from Mahler’s Symphony No.3. I thinking of my ne t project. Either Richard Strauss’s Suite from Der Rosenkavalier or the Waltz Sequence from that opera?!?!?

Am I right in thinking that the entire waltz sequence is incorporated into the Suite in any case? Anyway, best wishes with it!

[Dave2002]

This is probably a very indelicate way to phrase things, but I'm wondering how to cope with having a multi year long artistic crisis over not being good enough, when every other composer I know in person & could ask for help from is not as good as I am, and doesn't let concerns over artistic originality and creativity worry them.

(I guess under normal circumstances one would apply for some kind of composer mentorship programme, but prior to 2020 I tended to only hear about those things a year or so after applications had closed if I heard about them at all, and from 2020 onwards, obviously, we have coronavirus.)

We don't know enough about you to comment really. Doesn't it actually depend on whether you want to compose, or do you feel a need to make it a career? The two aren't necessarily mutually exclusive, but there are many constraints for composers surely. There are so many factors, but historically even some of the greatest composers had to generate an income, so they either did something else (Charles Ives was into insurance), or taught, or wrote music for those who were prepared to pay for it. It doesn't follow that the music they wrote was always what they felt they really wanted to do. Also some people might want attention while others might not worry about that, or they may worry, but be unsatisfied in their lifetime, and only really gain serious recognition after they have died. There are just so many things which might affect people's behaviour.

If you really want to compose perhaps you should just do it anyway, and see where it leads you.

[Keraulophone]

Currently trying to work out some fingering for the piano accompaniment to Cäcilie by Richard Strauss which my daughter has chosen to sing (plus Verdi, Gurney and Parry) in the final of a song competition in Cambridge, so she’d appreciate some rehearsal at home - no return to uni yet in sight. Having reasonably successfully played this for a baritone friend thirty years ago transposed down to C major, I wasn’t expecting the original in E major to give me such trouble. Maybe my fingers are now more rusty, though I’ve always had a particular loathing for playing in E major having struggled with a Grade 6 exam piece (forgotten which) when aged 11. It’s such a dramatic piece that requires waves of rippling arpeggios, scalic motifs and handfuls of chords to support the soprano soaring above. Hoping to have made some progress by the end of the week; fingers crossed (they often are in this!).

[BBMmk2]

Am I right in thinking that the entire waltz sequence is incorporated into the Suite in any case? Anyway, best wishes with it!

Really? Yes, your right there. I’ll do that instead. I started the Mahler on 12/012/2020, and have begun on the last rehearsal section.

[Suffolkcoastal]

To paraphrase RVW - I've been rather foolish and composed another Symphony.

Symphony No 2 composed directly into full score 26th February - 15th April 2021. I've clearly lost whatever marbles I originally had.

[BBMmk2]

Really? Yes, your right there. I’ll do that instead. I started the Mahler on 12/012/2020, and have begun on the last rehearsal section.

Finished the Mahler, to great praise by people! Have begun on the Suite from Der Rosenkavalier.

[Dave2002]

Finished the Mahler, to great praise by people! Have begun on the Suite from Der Rosenkavalier.

Did you do the whole symphony? Well done!