I was a little alarmed, I must say, to find that I actually learnt something (or rather, corrected some misinformation I had somehow picked up) even from the scarily basic first chapter. But this is A Good Thing, I think. Looking forward to chapter 2 now.
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Well not just harmony – Jane Piper Clendinning & Elizabeth West Marvin’s The Musician’s Guide to Theory and Analysis to be precise. (And not just a book either – a book, 3 CDs plus anthology of scores.) It’s sort of a jaunt from ‘this is a treble clef’ through harmony, counterpoint, rhythm, form and so on all the way through to ‘this is total serialism and how to write it’. So it’s not like a traditional harmony text, like the dreaded Aldwell & Schachter I had at uni and kept on my shelf for years (now in a box in storage, although I nearly brought it with me – decided to bring Adler on Orchestration instead, which was a sensible move) in the hopes that the data inside it would somehow seep into me like damp without my having to actually open it. I like the look of this new one because it’s not just endless chords, it’s looking at all the elements of musical theory, putting them into context with one another and with recordings and scores of real music. All in all, it feels more composery and less dry. It’s structured as a series of graded lessons, which I’m hoping will make it easier for me to create and stick to a programme of self-guided learning. And best of all, it’s the first step to overcoming a fear I’ve had since first-year uni. The day I understand about Neapolitan 6ths will be the day I conquer that fear entirely. Bring it on!
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OK, so maybe that doesn’t seem so very creative, but anything that helps me get the work I need to done is a good thing. And then I wrote about it (tried to blog it but Blogger crashed. What a surprise) which is both creative and helpful to others who may be struggling.
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So now I have a short list of two books to have a look at: The Musician’s Guide to Theory and Analysis by Jane Clendinning, and Stephan Kostka’s book on harmony which sounds more like a traditional harmony text. Very excited to be getting this project underway!
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… and wrote a new one. In under an hour. the set is fitting together much better now. think it’s very nearly done…
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5th recipe cooked out of my Greek cookbook – chicken with fresh oregano (although I had to do it with dried) – very tasty. I also made some more progress on the Whitman interlude.
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Very excited! I was hoping to find a composer group in London and this one does – it sounds – pretty much what I want: meetups to talk through new works and problems and occasional special events focusing on a particular topic. Yay!
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It wants to be a long piece. I want it to be super-short. I am determined to prevail.
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I thought I’d missed them all, but no! Superb performances all round, brilliant programming, wonderful music and I can’t wait to hear the new Muhly piece again. I also stayed for the after-gig, Nico, Pekka Kuustinen and friends – deeply, deeply awesome.
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I’m still exploring the new box set I bought last week – well, with 22 CDs, odds are I’ll be exploring it for a good long while to come! – and today I listened again to the disc of Poulenc and Britten songs (composers accompanying), and had my first listen to the Khachaturian disc (composer conducting), which has the Violin Concerto on it. I heard this piece on the radio the other day and was so taken by it that I had to switch it over from clock-radio to real radio to read the track info – so I was very glad to find I already had a recording of it. I’ve also been reacquainting myself with Peggy Glanville-Hicks’ Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird which I have loved ever since I first heard it sung by Gerald English at a composer conference in Melbourne back when I was at uni. It’s a really intriguing work, and relevant to me especially now because of the Whitman songs being similarly fragmentary and miniature.
I’ve also listened to an incredible piano piece – most definitely NOT miniature – by Carolyn Yarnell, called The Same Sky – you can hear it from a link in about the 6th paragraph down in Kyle Gann’s post ‘Aiming My File Cabinets into the Right Student’s Ears’. I’d link to it directly, except that Gann’s post also includes a chunk of very beautiful and daunting-looking score, which is worth seeing. And also because if you don’t know Gann’s work, you should get to his site and have a listen. I highly recommend, in particular, Custer and Sitting Bull, which truly shows how beautiful and emotive microtonal music can be.
And to celebrate djeli’s safe arrival home from the snow, I cooked another new recipe from my big Greek cookbook – ‘Drunken Pork’ – fantastically delicious and easy. Will have to pull this one out for guests sometime, I think!
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