I wanted to demonstrate the artificial musical language Solrésol for my show The Musical Underbelly. I decided that one of the famously smutty sonnets of Pietro Aretino would make an interesting example. I later expanded this for my third string quartet, which is based on several Solrésol translations of Aretino. Here’s the first part of […]
Entries Tagged as '*Music'
Aretino In Solrésol
July 29th, 2011 · 1 Comment
On a Theme By Lewis Carroll
July 28th, 2011 · Comments Off on On a Theme By Lewis Carroll
Lewis Carroll inserted a tune into his novel Sylvie and Bruno, for the song “Ting Ting Ting.” It’s a fine little tune; so I wrote a set of variations on it. And this is how it opens.
The Underground Mountain Concert in Norway
July 27th, 2011 · 2 Comments
The tune I’ve arranged here was first published in Hamburg in 1740, in a pamphlet by Johann Mattheson: Etwas Neues Unter Der Sonnen! Das Unterirrdische Klippen-Concert in Norwegen. It related the testimony of a certain General Bertuch, who claimed that on Christmas Eve, 1695, he and a small group of musicians were led by a […]
The Donner Party, Its Crossing
July 27th, 2011 · 2 Comments
Herbert Blau founded a theater company at Oberlin College in the 1970s. It was called Kraken; and in 1974 it toured a production based on the story of the Donner Party. I was a composition student at the Conservatory at the time, and contributed three songs.
Rameau’s Nephew
July 26th, 2011 · 5 Comments
Diderot is one of my favorite writers, and I’ve long enjoyed Le Neveu de Rameau. So, I was delighted to find a monograph on Jean François Rameau (by André Magnan), and particularly intrigued to learn that two melodies by that curious nephew had survived. I harmonized them, and made a piano piece from the result; […]
Honorificabilitudinitatibus
July 26th, 2011 · Comments Off on Honorificabilitudinitatibus
Shakespeare’s “long word” is used to create an acrostic quodlibet. I took one measure from each composer: the first measure of a piece by Handel, the second measure of a piece by Olagué, the third measure of a piece by Nichelmann, etc. The honor roll is: Handel Olagué Nichelmann Offenbach Ravel Iradier Franck Isaac Confrey […]
Quickstep
July 25th, 2011 · Comments Off on Quickstep
Stumbling Block
July 24th, 2011 · Comments Off on Stumbling Block
“Stumbling Block” is an essay in awkwardness: wrong-note harmonies, recapitulations that peter out, a right hand motif that gets stuck while the left hand moves on. I played this countless times in shows with Bill Irwin, particularly to accompany some clown and trunk business in The Clown Bagatelles. Here’s the first part of it.
To a Friend Whose Work Has Come to Nothing
July 22nd, 2011 · Comments Off on To a Friend Whose Work Has Come to Nothing
A round, on Yeats.
Im Hinterland
July 21st, 2011 · Comments Off on Im Hinterland
A song to a verse by H. L. Mencken, from his “Knocks and Jollies” column, in the Baltimore Herald, January 20, 1901: “You cannot civilize a jay, or from his belfry pluck the hay, im hinterland…”