What's Up

 I’ve seen smarter analyses on impulse tattoos.

Does a circus bee really “change all the time?” There had to have been a better simile.

Porridger’s Almanack (Breakfast of Ganglions)

Laws, like a spider’s web, catch the flies but let the Hawk go free.

— Spanish proverb.

Even though I set for myself the Ossman setting as a priority, I’ve busied myself with divers arrangements, and with outreach instead. I’ve asked a friend to print out the text for me. It is a while since I did any pre-compositional work on paper, but here's a case where I think I want a sheet of paper to help me visualize and sketch the musical architecture. The fact is, I haven’t yet “heard” what I want to do with the choir. So I think the page will be a good aid. Having thus pardoned myself for seeming to procrastinate on the Op. 199, I made some headway yesterday on the Op. 197 Fantasia on a Theme by Rahsaan Roland Kirk. My first thought was a Fantasia on “A Laugh for Rory” (a number which Kirk wrote and played for his infant son, and a track which my parakeet enjoys) for the Recorders, which I might then adapt for the Henning Ensemble. I immediately perceived that if I kept to that thought, it would be a piece too challenging for the recorders, and of insufficient interest for the, erm, Henningtonians (a barbarous neologism coined by Peter, but which seems to stick around.) I therefore resolved to write two distinct pieces, both based on the same Rahsaan Roland Kirk number, but each tailored to its proper group. Part of the inspiration for my approach to the Op. 197 is Hindemith’s Op. 34 String Trio. Which goes to demonstrate why the piece simply will not do for any recorder ensemble. In general, the skies seem to be opening back up. For some while in the back of my mind I’ve felt that I’ve labored to be doing more creative work, have felt that motivation and inspiration were, not absolutely avoiding me, but were not the reliable companions they had always been earlier. But I am finding this year that my experience defies that. I find that I do not lack for musical ideas. That’s it. I think I’ll just absorb that a while.