Breathe It and Weep

At the supermarket, I asked someone where I might find minced garlic. They didn’t quite understand me, and on realizing this, referred me to someone nearby who did help me. Maybe my first someone let it roll off their back, or maybe they felt uncomfortable (I’ve been in those shoes, myself.) So I stepped back over to my original someone to thank them for their help. The smile on their face may be the highlight of my day.

Porridger’s Almanack (Breakfast of Ganglions)

Mysteries conceal a truth, but direct curiosity to unveil it.

—Arnold Schoenberg

I ’ve reported that Thursday’s Henning Ensemble rehearsal was excellent. One benefit from working with such accomplished and amiable colleagues is, I get helpful and musical suggestions coming from the best of places. Thus the “actionable item” a/k/a homework I took away was, to add breaths to the Fantasy on When Jesus Wept. The Ur-text being Billings’ round, with its inherent cyclicality (in the first place) and as the raison d’être of my piece is perforce the liberties I take around that repetitive structure, any guidance the composer might give in the matter of breaths—particularly (as I read it) any place where the three players might breathe all together is germane,

One non-urgent takeaway from the rehearsal has to do with Surfing an Earthquake, the flute trio. Like as Stravinsky did supply missing sextus and bassus parts for the Gesualdo motet Illumina nos, methought “What if I adapt Surfing for four bass clarinets?” Which is to say that I supply a new bassus, and then pass the piece along to the Improbable Beasts.