The Gallagher Third

Shall we gather at the crisper,

Where fresh vegetables are stored?

Porridger’s Almanack (Breakfast of Ganglions)

Aristotle, of course, was frequently right, for it is almost impossible, under the laws of chance, to be wrong all the time. Thanks to him we know that the Weasel does not bring forth its young by the mouth, as held by Anaxagoras. He also denied that Hyenas change their sex every year. He was only guessing, but it sounds like a good guess

— Will Cuppy, How to Become Extinct

Yesterday saw the very exciting revelation that my much-esteemed teacher, Jack Gallagher has completed his Third Symphony. It will come as no surprise that this listener can hardly wait for news of a performance. I recollect that the very first piece of Jack’s I ever heard at Wooster was his Resonances, a brilliant, nervy piece for four trumpets, exactly the sort of music which, if you’re a 20-year-old aspiring musician who went from [no idea how to get my butt to college] to [matriculated freshman] in about a year, has you thanking Providence for the circumstances which mysteriously brought you to study with the composer.

Also, this news of the freshly completed Third reminds me that I have not yet set myself to writing intelligently about the first two. Soon!

I have at last resumed contact with an old friend in Southern California the only soul as yet (apart from the late Wm Goodwin) to commission two Henning works. He invites me to send him three chamber pieces that he might pass them along to a group which is adjacent to the local Symphony. “...either from different periods (early, middle, present?) or of three different levels of accessibility (they have a pretty wide range, though they largely steer clear of the most rebarbative works)” I am tending to select The Mask I Wore Before, Op. 168, the quartet version of the Fantasia on a Theme of Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Op. 197, and the Lamentatio pro sorore sua, Op. 202.

For the 14 October concert at King’s Chapel, my friend Robert Gross has composed Four’s the Charm. And another friend, Kevin Scott is writing us a new piece. Of my own music, I think to include Amorphous and Forward-Looking and, well, another piece or two ....

Oh, and nine years ago today:

 Oxygen Footprint update:
Wrote another half a minute of music this morning, two sections which are not contiguous either with The Piece So Far, nor with one another. I have the two remaining “gaps” of music planned out ... may well return to work in the latter part of the afternoon. [28 Aug 2016]

Also, six years earlier:

entirely grooving on Tango in Boston [28 Aug 2010]