What Are You Practising / Composing Now?

[Joseph K]

while the Prelude is becoming more comfortable, just a few passages of awkward (that is to say, non-ergonomic) string crossing that need to be practised a lot.

I'm feeling much happier about this now, having finally decided to change the awkward string crossings for ergonomic right-hand fingering. Why didn't I do this before? A mixture of stubbornness and stupidity, and a fondness for arbitrary systems like alternating the index and middle fingers (something that on the face of it is logical, but is something I've had to more and more abandon to make things work) - but also, because awkward string crossing does have to be practised. At the same time, it's daft making things more difficult for oneself than they already are. I haven't got rid of the awkward string crossings entirely, but I am pretty sure that this I have reached a final right-hand fingering for this piece.

[Suffolkcoastal]

Yes I have uploaded the Symphony Richard, currently working on a Mass for eight voices (parts).

[RichardB]

Yes I have uploaded the Symphony Richard

So I hear! I enjoyed listening to that, although it would have been nice to be able to make the score smaller on the screen so as to get a better overview of it - sometimes all I can see is bars with rests in them! My favourite moments are those where the texture thins out to reveal solo instruments emerging from the counterpoint, like the english horn solo just before 26'. I have a feeling that some features of the music, like the general harmonic atmosphere and the tendency towards long stretches of perpetuum mobile, as in the final movement (I recall a similar kind of thing in one of Koechlin's orchestral pieces, although the resemblance ends there!), have points of reference in the Anglo-American symphonic tradition(s) of the 20th century that I'm not sufficiently familiar with to pick up on. Anyway, congratulations on producing such a substantial work. I'm particularly attracted to the way its overall form and proportions don't follow a received idea of balance but have the confidence to go their own way.

[RichardB]

As for me, I had the first rehearsal of my mediaeval songs yesterday. Although in many ways, for obvious reasons, these pieces are much less complex than my own work, they do employ various techniques that the predominantly "classical music"-oriented ensemble were unfamiliar with, so that the strings had to be coaxed into pushing their sul ponticello further than they normally would, as well as playing without any vibrato, and the winds into playing the (microtonal) trill fingerings I'd notated. It will be all right on the night though (sandwiched between Ravel and Birtwistle).

[Dave2002]

So I hear! I enjoyed listening to that, although it would have been nice to be able to make the score smaller on the screen so as to get a better overview of it - sometimes all I can see is bars with rests in them! My favourite moments are those where the texture thins out to reveal solo instruments emerging from the counterpoint, like the english horn solo just before 26'. I have a feeling that some features of the music, like the general harmonic atmosphere and the tendency towards long stretches of perpetuum mobile, as in the final movement (I recall a similar kind of thing in one of Koechlin's orchestral pieces, although the resemblance ends there!), have points of reference in the Anglo-American symphonic tradition(s) of the 20th century that I'm not sufficiently familiar with to pick up on. Anyway, congratulations on producing such a substantial work. I'm particularly attracted to the way its overall form and proportions don't follow a received idea of balance but have the confidence to go their own way.

I'm going to listen to this one right through later - the opening is really striking.

I can see that it's a print only version - but if the "don't show empty staves" is set for every page other than the first it might be easier for some of us to follow - and also take up a lot less space or paper.
Maybe Continuous View would also help - though I'm not sure if that works in the online version for uploads.

Well done!

[Dave2002]

I might have a go at playing Bluesette on a piano using only a lead sheet. Aimee Nolte gives some suggestions as to how to do it here - https://youtu.be/wjq9F_EFtOA.

I have come to realise that perhaps many jazz pianists do not use fully written out scores, so a rather different approach needed compared with trying to play Mozart, Beethoven or Bartók from more conventional notation.

[Joseph K]

I have come to realise that perhaps many jazz pianists do not use fully written out scores

Surely not?! :irony3:

[RichardB]

Anyone interested in taking a look at the three ensemble realisations of mediaeval pieces I mentioned upthread can find them here. I've been amending and correcting the score this evening. No doubt there are things I've missed, but now it's bedtime.

[Joseph K]

Anyone interested in taking a look at the three ensemble realisations of mediaeval pieces I mentioned upthread can find them here. I've been amending and correcting the score this evening. No doubt there are things I've missed, but now it's bedtime.

Any idea yet when the performance will be streamed?

[RichardB]

Any idea yet when the performance will be streamed?

Not yet - before the end of the year, certainly. First I have to mix and master the audio recording, maybe with some edits between concert and rehearsal, then pass it on to the video people to do their part.

[Suffolkcoastal]

Thank you for your kind comments Richard and for taking the time to listen to the Symphony, I wonder how you feel it compares with the first two symphonies? There may be a work around for viewing the score more easily via youtube, however at the moment anything longer than abou 25 minutes can't be uploaded from Musescore to youtube, will keep trying though.

Dave did you get a chance to listen all the way through?

[Joseph K]

Suffolkcoastal, I've looked a few pages back on this thread but couldn't see a link to where I could hear your music. If you could post it again I would be grateful.

[Suffolkcoastal]

The access is by Musescore Joseph, do you have an account with them?

[Joseph K]

The access is by Musescore Joseph, do you have an account with them?

I do now.

[Joseph K]

I've decided to share what I've been scratching my head about for the past few weeks or more - some three-part first species counterpoint exercises. Trying to figure out lines that tick all the boxes and follow all the rules is like some fiendish form of musical sudoku (though I'm guessing, never having done sudoku). I'm still certainly not happy with all of these. The middle one, where the cantus firmus appears in the middle part, predictably - since this is the hardest permutation to write - fails mainly owing to the lacklustre bassline. Aspects of the top one like the simultaneous leaps near the beginning I think are a bit of a no-no but I'll have to refer back to the text to confirm or deny this. I am pleased with the bassline on the bottom exercise, though the middle part suffers that problem of meandering around the same pitches, and in fact this whole exercise could do with being transposed down a fifth.

Of course, I have spent a long time practising the examples given in the text (which is Salzer & Schachter's Counterpoint in Composition) by which I mean singing one part and playing the others on my keyboard, and it's been very good for my ears and ability to internally read music (and practice reading alto clef).