A Composer’s Journal Entries December 8 & 11,2004

Journal entries by composer and pianist Laurie Conrad

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A Composer’s Journal Entries December 8 & 11,2004

Post by figaro »

Wednesday, December 8
1:30 a.m.

Just looked at the range of Bob’s octet of violins, on the internet - extraordinary really. The contrabass violin goes down to low E below great C, almost an octave below the usual bass viol. His octet, in some ways, will sound fuller than the traditional string orchestra.

I continue to see & hear the piece I will write for St. Michael. After the corrections to the quintet score are done, I will begin writing the new piece down. It will eventually be for choir & orchestra, although first I will write it for choir & Bob’s octet. I have not yet heard his three lowest instruments, but I can imagine their sound, their richness & clarity. In the final version, I will want to use brass instruments & perhaps some winds. Both versions should begin tenderly, quietly, supplicating - & then be almost warlike during the second half of the prayer. Well, it is a war, between the Powers of Darkness & those of Light. An unmanifest war pulling at the strings that hold the universe together & unraveling our world just now.

Am feeling sick & feverish tonight, so no composing or correcting of Mt. I. Put on a bathrobe & left the score to Mt. III on my back porch, for Bob to pick up tomorrow. We still haven’t found a hall for the concert. Bob is almost finished printing up Mt. II. He e-mailed today, to say that he would drop off Mt. II for corrections when he picked up Mt. III.

Comparing my original, handwritten manuscript of the score to Bob’s printed up version is not an easy task. I suppose that it will take many hours to check for mistakes. Wrote myself a big note that says BOB -CUES, to remind myself to ask him to put cues in the printed parts. Otherwise, the players won’t know where they are in the piece. M. didn’t know what cues are, so I explained that they are fragments of another player’s line during rests. They are written in very small notes so that players realize they are not to be played.

The concert is definitely February 18th, but we have not yet thought out how long the open rehearsal should be, nor when. We might schedule it for the night before instead of directly before the concert. I am thinking it should be two or even three hours long. We have to rehearse in any case, & three hours would give enough time for me to discuss the piece with the audience. Bob thinks it should be shorter & the same day as the concert.


Saturday, December 11

7 p.m.

Too sick & feverish again today to work. Although yesterday I made corrections to almost two thirds of Movement I. Now I must figure out how to notate the corrections so that Bob can easily read & understand them. He e-mailed today. We have not found a hall yet. He also wrote that his computer program cannot notate x’s on stems for non-pitched sounds. So we will have to draw them in by hand later. (I wrote in little drums, drumlike effects, in the opening of Mt. III.) I am still toying with the idea of letting the musicians improvise a “drumming” cadenza to open the movement; that sort of improvisation often leads to disaster however, so I will probably write the rhythms in. Haven’t decided if the drumming will be fingertip taps on the backs of their instruments or high pizz. effects. Bob will not allow rapping with knuckles because it might put the instruments out of tune. So all that is in my mind will not make it to the page ... Tapping on the back of their instruments was my original & first choice, because it does sound like little drums.

A staff member at Buzzle.com wrote me a very long & complicated e-mail about keywords which I will study. Apparently “A Composer’s Journal” does not optimize the search engines when repeated over & over again. She suggests that I keep changing my title & summary, & use as many keywords as possible. Since I prefer the simple “A Composer’s Journal”, I might try to get all the different keywords in as quickly as I can - which means there might be some strange-sounding titles & summaries for a while. I put this in today’s Journal so that my readers - who are now fairly numerous - don’t think that my feverish state has driven me a bit mad. I’ve made a list of keywords & phrases & will probably string them all together the best I can for now. The effect could be unusual but perhaps interesting. I might change some in the past as well. Then I will go back to “A Composer’s Journal” & the dates in the future. Her suggestion that I include a subtitle of sorts that better explains the content of each entry (instead of the dates) seems a good one - although to summarize the contents might not be easy to do: “A Composer’s Journal: Bob can’t find little x’s with stems” or “A Composer’s Journal: still feverish” etc. I must give this idea more thought.

Had dinner with Myra last week. She said that we should have the cds reviewed when they come out (“Visions for Flute & Harp” & “Early Songs”) & she put me in charge of that. I wrote myself a note & carefully placed it in a little notebook by the computer that I rarely open. The reason I rarely look in the notebook is that it is filled with things that need to be done. When the corrections to the quintet are finished, I will open the notebook.

Some carolers came by earlier tonight - about 15 of them, all sizes & shapes & heights & ages. They sang Silent Night, very beautifully, & then wished me a Merry Christmas. Music - I wish that people always sang as they walked down the street, & that a piano stood on every street corner.

2:30 a.m.

Went to the piano, finally, & scribbled down some notes, a few pages worth.
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