A Ten-Year Anniversary

 Seen on the Internet: “downloaded 1 times.” How many time are that?

Porridger’s Almanack (Breakfast of Ganglions)

“‘... I’ve hardly any possessions, and almost no friends.’

‘I’m a friend,’ said Russell cheerfully.

‘No, Russell, you aren’t a friend. You have an interesting mind, despite being English, but I wouldn’t say that you were my friend. On the whole I find you vain and frivolous.’ Russell reminded himself quietly that candour was a virtue."

— Terry Eagleton, Saints and Scholars

Ten years ago today, I wrote:

Only a minor ripple in the musical word, but fairly large news for me: I’ve finished a suite of 20 short-short pieces for piano solo, Visions fugitives de nouveau, Op. 131. Thanks go out first of all to [the late] Scott Tinney for asking all his composer mates for 15-second pieces, as many as they felt like sending. Thanks, too, to Stephen Barnwell (and, secondarily, to Peter M J Hess), to Kay Patterson and Peter Lekx for indirectly suggesting titles for some of the numbers.
In interesting ways, the piece was an engaging challenge. 20 pieces which are only 15 seconds in duration . . . well, it’s only five minutes of music all told, so it’s hardly The Major Piano Work of My Generation™. Yet it was more of a challenge than to write simply a single five-minute piece of music, as I wanted the suite to consist of 20 distinct musical utterances. The ink is only just dry, so I do not pretend to have succeeded, necessarily; but that was the aim.

№ 1: One Leaf
№ 2: Versuch eines Milonga
№ 3: Beneath the Clear Sky
№ 4: That Tickles!
№ 5: Stephen Goes to California
№ 6: Kay’s Blue Crabs
№ 7: Questionable Insistence
№ 8: Morning Prayer
№ 9: Bunny Keeping Still
№ 10: Gamboling Squirrels
№ 11: The Street Musician
№ 12: The Shade of an Oak
№ 13: “Could you change one more thing?”
№ 14: Waiting
№ 15: Bicycling in Boston Common
№ 16: Mist on the Harbor
№ 17: Peter Moves to Montréal
№ 18: Seeing a Long-Since-Cancelled Stamp
№ 19: ... but his mind is elsewhere
№ 20: Starless Summer Night

I think I do like all 20 pieces as they are; I am wondering if I may want to tinker with the order just a little. But this is the sequence as of today. [11 July 2025]

To return to the present, I’ve sent follow-up messages to two cellists from whom I’ve not heard in a while, invited fellow composer Robert Gross to write a piece for our 14 October concert at King’s Chapel, and reached out to Kevin Scott to refresh that same invitation, with a scoring change.