Opus 214 Done

 This might be a commuter train. Or, it might be an e-reader showroom.
— Postcards From Red Squirrel Trail

Mortimer lighted the candles. They showed the the visitor to be an ill-looking visitor with a squinting leer, who, as he spoke, fumbled at an old sodden fur cap, formless and mangey, that looked like a furry animal, dog or cat, puppy or kitten, drowned and decaying.
— Dickens, Our Mutual Friend

The project was even more a caprice than the Opus 211 Simple Preludes, and unlike the latter I intended a set of ten from the outset. Did I need a goal? Dunno, but I set one. the Ten Inconsequentialities for Toy Piano are dedicated to my friend and colleague Olivia Kieffer who has graciously expressed enthusiasm for the pieces.

The set consists of:

i. artifice
ii. brouhaha
iii. change
iv. detritus
v. ego
vi. fandom
vii. glitz
viii. hindsight
ix. immateriality
x. jurisprudence

Further Inconsequentialities

 To paraphrase Twain: “I only want to interest the listener, he can go elsewhere for profit & instruction.”
— Porridger’s Almanack (Breakfast of Ganglions)

You can’t calm the storm, so stop trying. What you can do is calm yourself. The storm will pass.
— Buddha

Since my last report, I have composed four more Inconsequentialities. Three to go, Progress has not strictly been one daily, but then, I was unconcerned with progress, per se, so we consider the mission intact. Two more rehearsals before the Henning Ensemble program at the Library.

Chuffing Along

 Yes, I think I can tell a green field from a cold steel rail.

— Postcards From Red Squirrel Trail

Now don’t crowd me lady or I’ll fill up your shoe, I am a sweet bourbon daddy and tonight I am blue.

— Bob Dylan

I noted here that I might set the text No One Has Time for Anything But Life for unaccompanied choir and so I did, and thus was born the Opus 215. Triad alumnus Julian Bryson has responded positively. And another fellow composer writes: Looking at the score, what a delightful economy of means to make your musical and spiritual point.

Excellent Henning Ensemble rehearsal yesterday, another tomorrow.

Five Years Ago Today

 Euphoria in Peoria?

— Postcards From Red Squirrel Trail

The trick is, not to get killed. That’s really the key to the benefit program.

— Peter Falk in The In-Laws

Remembering with great pleasure the commemorative launch of the Kerouac Centenary

Accumulating Inconsequentialities

 Seen on Twitter:
My husband purchased a world map and then gave me a dart and said, “Throw this and wherever it lands—that’s where I’m taking you when this pandemic ends.”
Turns out, we’re spending two weeks behind the fridge.
— Postcards From Red Squirrel Trail

If you need drugs to be a good writer, you are not a good writer.
— Rod Serling

I’ve now composed the three last (id est, numbers 8-10) of the Op. 214 Inconsequentialities for toy piano. My loose plan is one day. We shall see.

Jayaprakash Satyamurthy (author of the tender text I set for When, has a new chapbook coming out soon, No One Has Time for Anything But Life. Some of my recreational listening (suggested by my friend Luke Ottevanger) has been Medieval and Renaissance choral music. It has been a while since I’ve composed for choir (no longer having one I work with) but having that sound in my ear, and knowing former Triad colleagues who have choirs they work with, the back of my musical mind has been angling towards setting JP’s title. Today we had an excellent Henning Ensemble rehearsal in which we heavily workshopped the Rahsaan Roland Kirk Fantasia. So I’ve just begun tinkering with this notion.

@karl-henning-1

First (Last) Inconsequentiality

 Seen on Threads:
Me, to my 8yo: “Did you eat that cookie after I clearly said not to??”
8yo: “Look, I am focused on the future...”
— Postcards From Red Squirrel Trail

I’m goin’ back to New York City, I do believe I’ve had enough.
— Bob Dylan

Day before yesterday, I chopped out the first of the projected ten Inconsequentialities.

@karl-henning-1

Opus 211 Post Mortem

 Improper use may cause hazardous condition
— Postcards From Red Squirrel Trail

I don’t knock my country for what it is — I knock it because I share the dream of so many of us as to what it can be.
— Rod Serling 1970

While listening to Louis Couperin, I learnt what I wanted to do for Simple Prelude № 6. Also, I have learnt that I am happy to leave the Opus 211 as a set of six.

I was unsure just what to write, or even if I wanted to write anything. My friend Luke obliquely inspired me to just noodle at the piano. Of course, I am not literally “at the piano.” I do not own one, and my left hand is not yet fit again for noodling. I decided to write them for my friend Carolyn Ray, without leave and certainly uninvited, and this was another reason to keep the pieces simple, for although she is of course a proper pianist, I should have no business writing an uninvited ambitious piece of music which would be an imposition of time and effort.

So there they are: six slight pieces.

I dreamt last night that I was talking to someone about a set of pieces I was proud to have written. this miasmic set seemed to mirror the Op. 211, only it was a set of ten pieces, all of which had actual titles. (The Simple Preludes have only tempo designations.)

So, I have decided to write a set of ten short pieces for toy piano, Ten Inconsequentialities.