Poised to Retreat, Finished Weeping

 “Darning his socks in the night when there’s nobody there …”

What, he’s supposed to darn his socks when he has guests over for tea?

Porridger’s Almanack (Breakfast of Ganglions)

If you are not a better person tomorrow than you are today, what need do you have for a tomorrow?

— Rebbe Nachman of Breslov

The big news yesterday is that Mr David Ossman of the Firesign Theatre gave me permission to set a (non-comic, BTW) poem, “Retreat” to music. I had been in touch with my friend and colleague, Triad alumnus, Julian Bryson, who responded warmly to the proposed collaboration. I told Julian I was thinking of writing a piece for choir and single-line instrument and I asked what instrument would work best for him.  We decided on trombone. Last night I began sketching the opening trombone statement.

I saw Greta and Josh this morning. They had read the music I sent them, and like the pieces. I wrote a new piece for them this afternoon based on Wm Billlings’ When Jesus Wept. It will be something for Holy Week. Separately, I decided that some of my Opus numbers which have been catch-alls for little pieces written for Danvers, I can reassign to more substantial and/or more disseminable pieces. Thus, I have designated this piece Opus 162.

@karl-henning-1

More Amorphous

 On the face of it, “Have you ever seen the rain?” may be one of pop music’s most peculiar questions ever.

Porridger’s Almanack (Breakfast of Ganglions)

“Yes,” said Bill. “New York. I know that, because he sent word home that it brought Old York to his mind, quite vivid, in consequence of being so exactly unlike it in every respect.”

— Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit

I have practically taken an oath to restrict re-scoring activities to an As Actually Needed by Actual Musicians for an Actual Performance basis. That said, I now know a couple of people who play in a recorder ensemble, so one of three pieces I have just adapted is Amorphous and Forward-Looking for two recorders and bassoon. Op. 196a.

@karl-henning-1

The Search for Not Spock

“Wine is technically a juice.” You read any- and everything on the Internet.

Porridger’s Almanack (Breakfast of Ganglions)

The universe is winding down—why shouldn't we?

— Woody Allen, Whatever Works

I forget just when or just how I learnt of Leonard Nimoy’s early memoir, I Am Not Spock, but I’ve certainly been keenly curious to read it, at the latest since watching Star Trek on Blu-ray. Trying to hunt the book down, my experience was that the results presented to me were invariably the sequel, I Am Spock. Yes, I wanted to read the later book, too, but, well, where possible I like to take these things in order. I did find a very good used hardcover copy of the later book for ca. $5, and while I waited for that to come in the mail, I rang my friendly local librarian. Librarians are some of my favorite people. The Library has a nice website and generally speaking it’s possible to search the catalogue there, but I appear to have a penchant for wanting items for which I do not succeed in searching online. Thus, I asked my librarian for I Am Not Spock. She also, in her search, found the sequel and indeed I had to assure her that there really is/was a book of the title I had specified. She expanded her search (in ways unavailable to us laity) and she found a copy to borrow from a certain network of libraries. The copy which I have had the privilege to read was—well, frail would be overstating its condition. Let’s call it well-read. I have lately finished reading the book. Indeed, I’ve just this hour returned it to the Library. Now, I did enjoy the reading. Very much. But I don’t need to pay $50 to own a used “acceptable” copy. So the adventure has been a thorough success.

Crazy in a (Smaller) Bottle

His attention span is so brief, it’s really an attention pinch.
Porridger’s Almanack (Breakfast of Ganglions)

... and it was at this moment, that he remembered an ancient Eskimo legend ....
— Frank Zappa

In December, as reported here, I wrote Crazy in a Bottle, Op. 194 for a Call for Scores by the Low Blow Ensemble. Pleased with that piece, I chopped out a brass fanfare for a twin Call for brass ensemble pieces: Lord of the Things, Op. 195. The Fickle Finger of Fate turned down Crazy but selected Lord. That stroke of apparent good fortune notwithstanding, the performance of Lord of the Things fell through. Ah, well. This week I saw another call for Bass Clarinet scores, in this case for a maximum of eight bass clarinets. I streamlined the Crazy, shedding the Basset Horn, Alto Clarinet, Contralto and Contrabass Clarinets, reassigning material where needed. And thus has been born the Op. 194a. I shall now proof parts and submit ... and ... we shall see.

@karl-henning-1

Random Remarks from Recent Listening

Having that swing, it meaneth much. When leprechauns drop acid, do they think they see people?

Porridger’s Almanack (Breakfast of Ganglions) 

Violence does not spring from a vacuum. It’s born out of other men’s violence. It gets nurtured and it grows in a soil of prejudice and of hate and of bigotry.

 — Rod Serling

 I haven’t listened to Schnittke’s First Symphony since before my stroke. I hadn’t forgotten the fact that the piece is one hell of a wild ride, but I’d forgotten some of the stops on the trip. I certainly never before recognized the quotation from “Papa’s” “Farewell” Symphony. The symphony is one possible result if Mahler had been alive in 1969 and dropped acid.

Franck is a relatively recently acquired enthusiasm which I have not yet reported on the blog. The Great Performances (I remember buying a few LPs in that series back when) reissue of Leon Fleisher playing the Symphonic Variations, the Rakhmaninov Paganini Rhapsody and Ravel’s Alborada del gracioso was a gift from my friend Dan.

Another such gift was a disc of André Previn and bassist David Finck playing Gershwin. I am surprised neither by the programming nor by the excellence of the performance, only that the disc was issued by Deutsche Grammophon.

Another surprising enthusiasm which blind-sided me has been Rimsky-Korsakov’s Antar, which really ought to be as widely played as Scheherazade.

The odd flashes of musical wit in the soundtracks of Escape from Planet of the Apes and Conquest of Planet of the Apes have been no small part of the enjoyment of finally getting around to watching those old movies.

Just Some Idle Musings, Really

 Because we abhor hyperbole: 85% Satisfaction Guaranteed!

Porridger’s Almanack (Breakfast of Ganglions)

...where it’s a fact that folks need help, but God still seems to be helping those who take a big helping for themselves....

— The late, great Peter Bergman of The Firesign Theatre.

In general, I’m writing much less than earlier, and I wonder about that at odd times. Before my stroke, I wrote constantly, often working on more than one project at a time. And when I was first discharged from rehab, I wrapped up the Opus 148 Symphony for Band, and even that long-delayed project my ballet White Nights. Now, I just don’t write a great deal, and at times feel a disconcertingly low level of what appears to remain of motivation. I have seldom (or even never) been genuinely depressed at the state of affairs. Let’s say that I’ve vacillated between a mild background dissatisfaction and a near-contentment to wait upon the Muse. I should like (and believe I may be close) to remain at a genuine contentment per that latter pole. I have come to understand on more than one level that in the first place, comparison to my life before the stroke is invalid because my stamina level simply is not what it was. And in the second, comparison to the period immediately after my discharge is invalid because by that time my musical brain had been champing at the bit for a couple of months. I think at times of how little attention I dedicate to O singer, bashful and tender, I hear your tender notes, and yet, there is no need to press forward with it, as no one needs it. I mean that completely neutrally, with none of the undercurrent snark of which I cannot plead complete innocence in the past. But against that let us set The Orpheus of Lowell, which I succeeded in chopping out very efficiently, and which is (I believe) a significant musical success. So, let me chill, therefore.

@karl-henning-1

Coming to King’s 8 April

 I’ll say this about auto-correct: It errs on the side of cozy... Failing to recognize “motets,” it gave me mittens.
And it made “Introitus” nutritious.
Porridger’s Almanack (Breakfast of Ganglions)

I am not Spock.

But given the choice, if I had to be someone else, I’d be Spock. If someone said, “You can have the choice of being any other TV character ever played,” I would choose Spock. I like him. I admire him. I respect him.

If someone could wave a magic wand and make him go away, disappear forever, I wouldn’t let them do it. I would choose to keep him alive. I don’’t really have that choice. He’ll be around anyway. But if I had that choice I would keep him alive. He stands for something that makes me feel good. Dignity and honesty and a lot more. And whatever of that rubs off on me makes me feel good.

But, I am not Spock.

— Leonard Nimoy, I Am Not Spock

Hooch at the Hop?

Music for the un-Hip Hop, Op. 178 (two flutes)
Yesterday's Snow, Op. 160a (two C flutes and Bass Clarinet)
Surfing an Earthquake, Op. 190 (three flutes)
Snootful of Hooch, Op. 159b (C flute, Alto Flute and B-flat Clarinet)
Amorphous and Forward-Looking, Op. 196 (C flute, Alto Flute and Bass Clarinet)

Peter H Bloom, flute and alto flute
Carol Epple, flute and piccolo
Dan Zupan, alto saxophone and bass clarinet
Dave Zox, double bass

The Unexpexted Zappa Orgy of 1Q25 Part VII

 Can I eat a decorative gourd? I want to be beautiful inside.Porridger’s Almanack (Breakfast of Ganglions)

Genius may have its limitations, but stupidity is not thus handicapped.— Elbert Hubbard

This is a revisitation. Back when there was a Newbury Comics near Boston’s Old State House, at what I want to say was called the Washington Mall (basically a few storefronts on a brick-paved walkway between Washington Street and City Hall) I do declare there were times when I logged some impulse purchases there. One of these was Zappa’s Civilization Phaze III. I must have listened to it once, neither hated nor adored it, made a non-urgent mental note that I would revisit it sometime ... and years passed. The thought that occurs to me today, before once again slipping the CDs into the tray, is that back when Lumpy Gravy and We’re Only In It For the Money were originally released, printed on the album covers were the legends, “Is this phase two of We’re Only In It For the Money” and “Is this phase one of Lumpy Gravy,” respectively. “Is that one source of Phaze III?” I didn’t even see the rhetorical question coming, Officer. As I listen to this on repeat-ish this year, it’s rather growing on me: the characteristically freewheeling invention in the Synclavier music (both the composition qua composition and the use of timbre) the resuscitation of the “Piano People,” and new “Piano People” in the 90’s. The additional material of the original “Piano People” (redeemed from tape which sat in the archives lo! these long years does not always rise above mildly interesting (a very little of “Louis the Turkeys ” explosive and non-dulcet laughter goes a loooong way.) and I may at times find myself wondering if I care about the musings of the latter-day “Piano People,” but that is ultimately a minor quibble for me, and I find the “recapitulation” of some of the old “Piano People” dialogue which had appeared on Lumpy Gravy somewhat amusing. The 18-minute “N-Lite” concluding the first disc is kind of a “Shut Up And Play Yer Guitar” event. It is a rewarding listen, albeit requiring (what is becoming a rarer faculty in our “aggressively online” era) focused attention. Would “N-Lite” fall easier upon the ear (he queried both rhetorically and wildly speculatively) if it were realized by human musicians? Perhaps, but in the first place there are timbres here produced by the Synclavier which “genuine instruments” might only simulate. And in the second, the Synclavier was something of a dream come true for Zappa, who struggled over the years to get orchestras to play his considerably demanding and complicated scores with musical justice and accuracy. And so, when Zappa had found and learnt how to utilize this tool, he could compose “large ensemble” music without regard for what was strictly humanly possible. This is, we should say, one of the joys of this release.

Overall, and this verges on stating the obvious, since Lumpy Gravy runs for one-quarter the duration of Civ. Ph. III, the latter is not so “casually consumable” as the older ballet. I do not consider the raw fact of that comparison itself any flaw of the later release. And, harp-like timbres in “Pigs With Wings?” Who says Zappa was incapable of delicate wit?

It is emblematic of the care Zappa lavished on this release that he provides not only a scenario but a complete transcript of the album. Personally, I don’t take the scenario quite seriously, but I applaud and respect Zappa’s giving the auditor that option (in the spirit of “optional entertainment.”) Can I let the 90’s “Piano People” into the tent? (I mean, into the piano) Yeah, sure I can.

’s

Hopping Proper at Last

 My new favorite part of 1934’s The Man Who Knew Too Much? Just before the conductor gives the big opening downbeat, a bloke in the Albert Hall audience coughs. Bless Hitch for his realism!

Porridger’s Almanack (Breakfast of Ganglions)

Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.

— H. L. Mencken

In July of 2023, I first composed Music for the Un-Hip Hop, Op. 178. However, yesterday it grievously yet altogether rightly came to my belated attention that the page turns for both flutists were utterly verkakte, to employ the musically correct term. Did I know this in 2023, and “simply assumed” that the players would read from the score? (as if turning pages would somehow not be an issue in that case.) Whatever the insufficient case might be, I cleaned things up so that both flutists have manageable page turns. This process involved the insertion of some material here and there, so the piece is both brand-new, and yet much the same.

@karl-henning-1

Bringing on the Amorphous, Altering the Hooch

Holding your supplemental hymnal while the neighbors decide,
Why is a vegetable something to hide?

Porridger’s Almanack (Breakfast of Ganglions)

I like being Spock. But I like myself too. I'd like to be me independent of him. I try—very hard, but it's tough. Sometimes I think I've done it. Sometimes I work very hard at doing my things, thinking my own thoughts. To be me, Leonard Nimoy. Sometimes I think I've got it made! Then I'll get on an airplane and somebody'll flash me a Vulcan salute. Or some nice lady will ask for my autograph and I'll proudly sign, "Leonard Nimoy," and then she'll say, "please sign Mr Spock. That's the way my son knows you.

— Leonard Nimoy, I Am Not Spock

Pursuant to the need  expressed here, to have more lower voice and/or timbres other than C Flute for the April King’s Chapel concert, not only have I composed Amorphous and Forward-Looking, Op. 196, but I swapped a B-flat Clarinet for one of the C Flutes in Snootful of Hooch (that means Op. 159b) We did not read either piece at today’s Henning Ensemble rehearsal, as we had the full quartet. We therefore read both Alan Westby’s revised Quiet Girl and my Dark Side of the Sun. We also came up with some dates, so let's see if we can ink in another concert.

@karl-henning-1

Some housekeeping

 Everything changes, but the linens don’t change themselves.

I love how the master computer on board the Enterprise makes teletype machine noise.

Porridger’s Almanack (Breakfast of Ganglions)

Vox populi, vox humbug.

— Wm Tecumseh Sherman.

Received today:

Thank you for applying to the Civic Fellows 2025 Call for Scores. We look forward to reviewing your submission. If selected for the call, you will hear from us by Friday, March 14.

[Checks notes]

Oh, yes, I re-scored Dark Side of the Sun for that call, for more conventional instrumentation.

ASCAP has an annual award program for composers such as yours truly, performances of whose concert works are, erm, underrepresented in the musical world. I haven’t applied in a while, certainly not since my stroke, and I think this year it’s time I applied again. The award is but a nominal sum, but it is also a non-zero figure. The pieces need to be registered with the Society, so this is an apt opportunity to send scores of 2024’s repertory to mine publisher.

Thus the following have I duly remitted:

Op. 117a Jazz for Nostalgic Squirrels
Op. 144e Nun of the Above
Op. 149a Down Along the Canal to Minerva Road
Op. 171 I dreamt of reconciliation and harmony
Op. 177 Waiting on the Italian Paperwork or Throwing Vermicelli at the Wall
Op. 179a Fuchsia Minor
Op. 191 Nostalgia Ain’t What It Used to Be

Tomorrow morning, the Henning Ensemble gathereth, and we shall read Dark Side of the Sun for the first time. We shall also consider when we might perform it.

Well, a (Mostly) New Piece

 Someone might have told the Weird Sisters: the hurlyburly is never done, really.

Porridger’s Almanack (Breakfast of Ganglions)

Oh, the Pope warned me never to trust the CIA!

— A Cardinal in Hudson Hawk

Talking with Peter (just returned from his recent tour) today, we discussed rep for the approaching King’s Chapel concert. Is it too flutey? he asked. We agreed that some more bass voice were a very good thing. Although I never reported it here on ye Blog, I had written a string fugato with an eye to its use in the Opus 192 for Chamber Orchestra. Why not, thought I, make use of it for a new piece for C Flute, Alto Flute and Bass Clarinet? There being, og course, no reason not to, I took a goodly stretch of it and expanded upon it (which work will further enhance the Chamber Orchestra piece, too. Thus has been born Amorphous and Forward-Looking, Op. 196.

Four Years Ago, Today

 My personal time zone, and its agreeably unsettled boundaries.

Porridger’s Almanack (Breakfast of Ganglions)

‘Kill gorgûn! Kill orc-folk! No other words please Wild Men,’ answered Ghân. ‘Drive away bad air and darkness with bright iron!’

The joy of fresh discovery and of fruitful activity as again I lay into work on The Heart. When I finished The Nerves, I felt it was the strongest piece for large wind ensemble I had yet written, I’m feeling great about The Heart, and I want to make the entire three-movement work the kickingest experience for up-&-coming wind & percussion players. (25 Fwb 2021)

Only four years? It feels like a huge gulf between me today and any work on the Op. 148. I wrote it, hoping that it would appeal to directors of wind ensembles, but yet again: no dice. I remember, when I was still in rehab after my stroke, how eager my mind was to take up and complete the second movement.

Breathy Hooch Ready

 I was searching the index of a book for Leonard Nimoy, but found Leonard Nimovskaya instead (which is misgendered) and I overheard someone say, “His name is really Leonard Nehemiah Schwartz, you know.”

Porridger’s Almanack (Breakfast of Ganglions

I walked on stage in the performance of Caligula night after night, convinced that I was Leonard Nimoy giving a good performance as the mad emperor. “We are resolved to be logical.”  That was one of my lines. and night after night I dreaded it. I dreaded the moment when that word would fall out of my mouth. “Logical.” that’s his word. Spock's word, and everybody knows it. But I had to say it. I wanted to swallow it, mumble it, chew it up, rather than say it! Why? Because I knew that the moment those three syllables sounded through the theater, he would be there!

— Leonard Nimoy, I Am Not Spock

This post is typically late, for the fact is that I finished the Opus 159a five days ago. Really pleased with it, too.

Also:

Boston Symphony unleashes a double dose of Haydn and fiery Stravinsky

@karl-henning-1

New Hooch

There is no dark side of the Internet, really. Matter of fact, it’s all dark.

Porridger’s Almanack (Breakfast of Ganglions)

Peter Weller: Can you sing?

Jeff Goldblum: A little, yeah. I can dance!

— The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension

I finished recreating the score of Snootful of Hooch yesterday. This morning I made a start on the new arrangement (for two C flutes and Alto Flute.) If the score reconstruction was a tediously mechanical task (it was) preparing the new arrangement is quite engaging. Engaging but not speedy. It probably helps that there is a performance in the offing. I’ll never know why the couple I wrote it for ignored it. I’m 70 measures in on the new scoring, and while I am pleased with the progress, Rome wasn’t built in a day.

No Problems, Only Solutions

 Barry Manilow sounds so proud to make young girls cry. Well, that’s his trip.

Porridger’s Almanack (Breakfast of Ganglions)

She decided that she was a painter and being intelligent she realized that it was much easier to talk about painting than to actually paint.

— Richard Brautigan, A Confederate General from Big Sur

It turns out that I need to plan for a trio for our April date at King’s Chapel. It already helps that two pieces I had intended for the program were already for two and three flutes, respectively. Tonight, I reduced Yesterday’s Snow to a trio (two flutes and bass clarinet.) We need another piece or two. I am thinking of redeeming at last A Snootful of Hooch.

Materials Safely Received

 I’m on the cusp of inventing a new genre: the Spaghetti Eastern.

Porridger’s Almanack (Breakfast of Ganglions)

Audrey Hepburn: “Well, aren’t you going to kiss me, Charlie?”

Albert Salmi: “Ain’t he kinda close?”

Audrey Hepburn: “You’re going to kiss me, not him.”

Greetings,



Thank you for your entry in the Luna Nova Organ Competition. Your materials arrived safely. The winning composition will be announced on www.lunanova.org by May 15, 2025 and will be performed at the Belvedere Chamber Music Festival in Memphis, TN June 25-28, 2025.

Thank you so much for your participation.

Of Beasts and the Bashful Singer

 A mansion in München

Remember My Marimba

Meet me at The Jolly Tamale

Flambé in Mumbai

Postcards From Red Squirrel Trail

for man is a giddy thing, and this is my conclusion.

— Shakespeare

On Saturday night, rarely as I venture out “on the town,” I made a point of hitting The Lilypad in Cambridge to hear four bass clarinets (a quorum of a group dubbed Improbable Beasts) a saxophonist, trumpeter, pianist, bassist and drummer present a program mixing compositions as such with abandoned improv. It was an imaginative, powerful and energetic musical feast, largely driven by my clarinetist friend Todd Brunel.

I had been meaning for some little time to resume work on the never-truly-forgotten Opus 192, O singer, bashful and tender, I hear your notes. And the concert served as something of both push and catalyst. Thus over the past couple of days I have added some material. When I reached m. 125, I felt that what I had added was very close, and yesterday I had a go at modifying the passage. I’m not really certain about yesterday’s work, but shan’t be able to apply myself to it for a couple of days.

The Unexpexted Zappa Orgy of 1Q25 Part VI

 Insofar as I understand this country song, notwithstanding her evil ways she was the sunshine of his days.

Porridger’s Almanack (Breakfast of Ganglions)

“Do you hear music, Jeeves?”

“Of a sort, sir.”

— P.G. Wodehouse

Part VI

I seem to have a chicken-and-egg puzzle here, the two items under advisement being the Zappa movie, itself and its accompanying soundtrack.

Before going on (or back) let me clarify this much: the occasion for this post is revisitation of the 3-CD soundtrack release.

So, Alex Winter’s documentary Zappa was released 27 Nov 2020. I was then deep into my second year of working with an exceptional physical therapist who is helping me to recover use of my left hand. While working, we listen to a mutually-curated musical program (presently, the albums of Genesis.) It has been my pleasure to expand his awareness of Zappigraphy. Now, as to our egg and chicken: let me propose this as the likely chronology, without backing into a superfluous need to get it “absolutely right.” I think Mike had found and bought the soundtrack, and we listened to it together. Thus informed (reminded, actually, as I do now recall that a “virtual acquaintance” in Minnesota had hitherto alerted me) of the existence of the movie, I expeditiously arranged to view the latter. Which I likely did in December of 2021.

In general, the three CDs mirror the movie, in presenting musical selections of Zappa and others, in chronological order.

Disc 1 begins with two numbers from Freak Out! (1966) the first Mothers album, and concludes with “Road Ladies” from Chunga’s Revenge (1970) On the way we have Zappa talking about his discovery of and admiration for the composer Edgard Varèse, and the “crazy piece” of Varèse’s which started it all, Ionisation. We also hear the Finale to Igor Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite. In the movie, we do not hear Zappa discuss Stravinsky, and the music actually underscores a montage of the Zappa’s newborn daughter Moon Unit.

Disc 2 begins with a couple of numbers from the new “Comedy Music” Mothers fronted by Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman, formerly of the Turtles. The disc closes with “H.R. 2911.” a Synclavier piece “celebrating” Congress’ Resolution to manage the public’s reception of salty lyrics, and the Ensemble Modern arrangement of “G-Spot Tornado,” which was originally likewise a Synclavier piece. In the movie, we see two dancers interpreting the piece.

Disc 3 opens with a de facto suite of some 26 cues for the movie, a half hour of music nicely written by John Frizell and perfectly suited to their role: the music does not command one’s attention, but is of a certain degree of musical interest, should one focus said attention thereupon. It is, in other words, the perfect music to play in the background while composing a blog post. Listening thus to the soundtrack cues on their own has perforce inspired me to watch the film again. That may seem “wrong,” but retrograde is an artistic operation, not an aberration.

Finishing the arc of the three-disc set are some late Zappa releases, the London Symphony Orchestra’s performance of “Envelopes,” three recordings by Ensemble Modern which did not make it onto the Yellow Shark CD: an Overture, “Get Whitey,” and “Nap Time.” Most appropriately, a live version of “Watermelon in Easter Hay” closes the set out, just as it underscores the end credits of the film.

So, yes, I went back to the movie, curious to observe Frizell’s score better: nice. I think the movie excellent. In such a biopic there are necessarily omissions, but none of the omissions seem vexatious to me. I see that some critics objected to the film’s failing to highlight the salacious lyrics of (well) any number of Zappa’s songs, but if you’re going to ding the film for failing to spotlight (say) “Illinois Enema Bandit,” you may want to reconsider what you think is important in Zappa’s œuvre. Maybe these folks felt that the great accomplishment of Amadeus was alerting the general public that Mozart could say ka-ka.

Big News Not (directly) Mine

Quoth Alexa: “I’'s 1:06 PM, Hope you had a good Monday.” Taking her mechanized chatter as a peculiar given, you’ve got to like the implication that Monday concluded around 1 PM.

Porridger’s Almanack (Breakfast of Ganglions)

... small twinkling eyes, and a singular expression hovering about that region of his face, which was not a frown, nor a leer, And yet might have been mistaken at the first glance for either. Indeed it would have been difficult, on a much closer acquaintance, to describe it in any more satisfactory terms than as a mixed expression of vulgar cunning and conceit.

— Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit

Triad alumna Sarah Riskind has earned tenure at Eureka College. Sarah’s Hariyu launched Triad, we might almost say, as it opened Triad’s inaugural concert in Harvard’s Memorial Chapel, and it was yours truly’s privilege to direct the piece. Was Triad a component of Sarah’s success? I am fond so to imagine.

Separately, it’s official: my ASCAP earnings this year were too meager to require a tax document. Just reporting, not complaining.

Also separately, but altogether less vexing: I’ve submitted Sorrow and love flow mingled down to a call for organ scores.

A Peculiar, But Musical Dream

What the WCRB jockey says: This legendary recording of the Sibelius Third Symphony.

What it may just mean: The only recording of the Sibelius Third Symphony I’ve heard.

And I’ve just invented a new musical genre: the zone poem. Porridger’s Almanack (Breakfast of Ganglions)

There is no half position on bigotry. Bigotry condoned is bigotry.

— Dan Rather

I dreamt I was mentally composing a piece for two guitars, The Non-Whirl Dervish. I seemed to be aware that I was composing in a dream, and I was taken with the idea and musical content of the piece, so I made a point of peeling a sheet of paper from a pad  to make notes for when I should wake. On waking, I don’t think enough of the music to make a real piece of it, and whatever I thought of the prospect in the dream, I don’t know a guitar duo, just two or three guitarists, none of whom regularly (or irregularly, for that matter) work with a second guitarist. The photo is curious decor for a local coffee shop, an old-school type-jigger.

Reunion in Lowell

 Just when you think all the laughs on Facebook have been exhausted ... right there, below “Pages similar to William Shakespeare,” is The Da Vinci Code

Porridger’s Almanack (Breakfast of Ganglions)

My mother had once said to me, “Not everybody is going to think you are as cute and love you like I do.” She sure was right.

— Lewis Grizzard, If I Ever Get Back to Georgia, I’m Gonna Nail My Feet to the Ground

Just had a good catch-up phone call with my friend and colleague, Kevin Scott. Triad sang a motet of Kevin’s at our last concert. Orlando Cela will conduct the Lowell Chamber Orchestra in a piece they commissioned of Kevin on their concert this Saturday. I’m delighted that Kevin will make it to the concert.

Yea, of Even the Arizona Things

 

Babalú bamboo
Ribald rebels
Iraqi earache
Rogue dirigible!

– Postcards From Red Squirrel Trail

A painting is not a picture of an experience, it is an experience.

— Mark Rothko

As reported here, Lord of the Things will, erm, ring out in Tempe, Arizona on Saturday, February 22, at 7:00 PM at St. Augustine’s Episcopal Church. ’Tis pity I shan’t be able to attend in person. Nevertheless, I am thrilled at what appears to be the première of henningmusick in The Apache State.

The Unexpexted Zappa Orgy of 1Q25 Part V-B

 

The Roofs of Rhythm
To runce the irruncible spoon ....
Kennst du Schenectady?
An unused Agnus Dei.
Odorless green ideas smell furiously.

– Postcards From Red Squirrel Trail

I know, I know: you’re a woman who’s been getting nothing but dirty breaks. Well, we can clean and tighten your brakes, but you’ll have to stay in the garage all night.

— Groucho Marx in Monkey Business

Since (as noted erewhile) Uncle Meat was an early Zappa acquisition of mine, I especially enjoy the fact that the show documented on Disc Four of the Over-Nite Sensation 50th anniversary box (in Detroit’s Cobo Hall on 12 May 1973) opens with a kind of Uncle Meat Suite, starting with a loose chamber-musicly “Exercise #4.” Then, missing Ricky Lancelotti, a purely instrumental “Fifty-Fifty” whose overall tenor feels like an echo of the Grand Wazoo. Then Sal Marquez sings a sultry “Inca Roads.” Oh, very nice trumpet solo, too. Then a preview of Apostrophe (’), the “Don’t Eat the Yellow Snow” medley, closing with a sped-up reprise of “St Alfonzo’s Pancake Breakfast.” Then “Cosmik Debris,” and a concluding medley of “King Kong”/“Chunga’s Revenge” and “Son of Mr Green Genes.” Overall, I’d say that one of the things I’m especially glad of in this box, is all the Jean-Luc Ponty.

The Unexpexted Zappa Orgy of 1Q25 Part V-A

 

Knowing that there are gardeners who tend the monarchical residences, I am less harsh on myself for misreading the phrase as “Royal Weeding.”
Porridger’s Almanack (Breakfast of Ganglions)

Just me and the pygmy pony, over by the dental floss bush.
— Frank Zappa, “Montana”

The Over-Nite Sensation 50th anniversary box came in. I began with listening to the blu-ray audio (It’s an interesting industry artifact that Zappa prepared the album in a quadraphonic mix—and fittingly enough the subject of the song “Camarillo Brillo” says her stereo is four-way) Purely as regards my personal feelings let me get the “bad news” (merely my least flattering remarks, really) out of the way first: overall (and arguably against consensus), the album is not one of my favorite Zappa releases. When the topic/thought of the album arises, my first thought is apt to be, Oh, not “Dinah-Moe Humm” again. In my view there is space for finding the more raunchily ribald of his songs tiresome, without lapsing into Prudery. I don’t discount any of his songs merely because it’s salacious, and that said, “Humm” is only one song out of seven, and but 17% of the album’s run time. And sure enow, in listening to the album afresh I am reminded that the Sensation is rather better than I have been apt to credit it. And after all (literally) it closes superbly with “Montana.” My favorite extras from Disc One? I find myself asking, Where has “Wonderful Wino” been all my life? And the short answer is that (somehow) I’ve never listened to the Zoot Allures album. I’ve heard the exquisite title track in a number of live versions (also the studio version, I think, on the Frank Zappa Plays the Music of Frank Zappa disc. Love the 1973 versions of “Inca Roads” and “RDNZL,” the latter with especially tasty work by Jean-Luc Ponty. The single versions of “I’m the Slime” and “Montana” are fun, as is the “Bolic take-home mix” of “Inca Roads.” Of course, Take 2 of “RDNZL (also with cracking work by Ponty),” obviously. And another apparent prototype: “X-FORTS (Echidna’s Arf (of You)).” The entire disc, in other words, is solid.

As to the Disc Two odds and ends, the track I personally found of greatest interest was the pipe organ improv (Ian Underwood, Geo. Duke? Unclear, but I guess I lean towards the latter) by way of introducing “Fifty/Fifty.”

The final three tracks of Disc Two and all of Disc Three are what remains in the Vault of a 23 March 1973 show at the Hollywood Palladium. Duke plays a smoking electric piano for the eight-minute introduction to “Dupree’s Paradise” Perhaps unsurprisingly (for many reasons) the whole show is a rewarding listen. Bottom line: Although I had some slight misgivings that this box might prove a disappointment after the Apostrophe (’) 50th anniversary box, when I got me down to some listening, I found no such matter.