Last year at about this time I published a summary of my compositional activity
within the calender year, backdating a couple of months into 2002 as well. Last
year I produced/worked on/rehabbed about forty works.
I regret to confess that 2004 has not been nearly as productive. In February or
so I deleted the Noteworthy program in favor of an outdated Cakewalk model
which I still hardly know how to use and I realize now is not suitable to my needs.
Also the events surrounding Allisyn's triple-bypass and the subsequent loss of our
apartment in Ypsilanti were long ordeals hardly conducive to creativity. Furthermore,
many relevant documents are not within reach at the moment due to the move -
mainly manuscript books and folios used earlier in the year, still boxed up and not
opened yet.
Yet there is every reason to continue with this annual report. And so without further
adieu, here is:
Uncle Dave Lewis: Musical Works in 2004
NEW WORKS
Object to be Ignored. Electronic piece realized in Cakewalk and Soundforge,
March 17-20, 2004.
This piece was created as a submission to "Smelts 2," a compilation based in Cincinnati
which to date has not appeared. It consists of a snippet of a four-hand piano piece by
Germaine Tailleferre which is subjected to at least five tracks of repetitions that are played
at various speeds and modified by a variety of echo chambers. At one point it sounds like
a million pianos are being played.
The title was chosen as the flat, harmonically plain neo-classical sample, at least for me,
evoked the aura of Dadaism.
kokain und regenbogen. Electronic piece realized in Soundforge August 9-11, 2004.
This is taken after a few seconds of Scriabin, which is merely slowed down by 50 cents
several times, stretching out the few seconds ultimately to just over thirteen minutes. The
title is taken from part of a German translation on a Scriabin album which quoted American
Author Henry Miller's reaction to "The Poem of Ecstasy" from a set of 78s in the 1930s,
"it was like cocaine and rainbows."
Obviously over time the music degrades to a sort of grumbling low end monotony which
seems to go one forever. But some of the points along the way are still pretty interesting.
Various electronic Loops, Set up, but as yet unused
Homerloop 3/31/04
Manloop 4/19/04
Scratchloop 7/16/04
sik 8/11/04
Christian CutOut 12/04
Academics Trying to Define the Unknowable, for four groups of instruments of any kind placed around the
performance space in any configuration, March 2004
This is a huge graphic score, technically for multiple orchestras and lasting more than four hours. The conductors dictate based on the score when a given group will start or stop, the rest is indeterminate. So far I'm up to a little over the first hour.
Schumann and Smetana's Combined Sine, February 2004
Graphic score for 2 sine tones which pull slightly out of phase and out of tune for twenty minutes. Pure pain at it's finest.
Butkus, Cakewalk piece, 9/04
This was just a randomly composed bit of eight measures thrown together to demonstrate the program to a friend. I might still work something out of it. It is named, naturally, after the beefy football player.
Ja gesagt, Cakewalk piece
Based on a phrase of Kurt Weill. I have no idea what this is, when I did it, or where I was going with it. But it runs to 65 measures.
Saraband, for string orchestra (realized in Cakewalk), by August 2004
Kind of a practice piece, not really finished, running to 90 measures or so.
The Golden Cycle, Cakewalk piece, by August 2004
This was another practice piece running to about 60 bars, but I just was happy cycyling the first six
measures into a loop and leaving it at that.
Pop Song Dream 6/20/04
in E major, incipits of A and B section, 1 repeating bar of A and 3 measures of B. I'm not sure whether a
fifth bar in between the two is a transitional tag or part of the B section. Transcribed from music heard in a dream.
African Dream 6/21/04
percussion sketch, one measure marked "etc." Transcribed from music heard in a dream.
Beautiful Woman, Asshole Guy 6/23/04
Broadway styled pop song, ultimately for voice & piano, in E-flat major. Four measure incipit, with first line of lyrics: "Beautiful woman, asshole guy, now why do they stick together..."
Dream Music in Foxtrot Tempo 11/18/04
in D major. Eight measure sketch, mostly of accordion like chords and only 2 notes of melody. Transcribed from music heard in a dream.
Hymn Scroll II, for voice & piano 11/22/04
This is a setting of the second hymn in the Hymn Scroll found in the caves of Qum'ran. The sketch as it stands consists of one bar of accompaniment marked, at present, for endless repeat. This is followed by 6 or 7 measures of vocal line only. I was so excited in reading this particular text atht I suddenly grabbed the paper and started setting the words, but then my interest quelled somewhat when I realized just how long this particular text was. I will need to get a closer look at the whole text and the music already started to see if this is worth continuing.
The Gospel of Thomas, for soloists and chorus (with some mininal instruments implied, depending on the setting).
Begun 10/21/04
I had an idea of setting some of the 114 sayings in the Gospel of Thomas as chorales, but once I started working I discovered what I was really working out was a sort of oratorio based on the Gospel as a whole. Some sayings duplicate one another and it is unlikely that I will set them more than once, so I'm not sure what the coverage would be in the end, but here is what I've got so far:
Saying 28: scored for SA, 29 measures, 10/21/04
Saying 2: scored for unison chorus and drum, 24 measures, 10/22/04
Saying 3: scored for unison chorus and organ, 40 measures, 10/22-23/04
Saying 19: scored for ST, peters out at 9 measures, 10/27/04
Saying 1: scored for TB, 7 measures (but text is not much longer), 10/04
Not bad for a start.
Norojimbo Chromasamba, for piano, bass and Latin percussion 12/04
It's been on my mind a couple of weeks, but just started to write this one down. It's basically a samba
based on a few measures from the third movement of Franck's Violin Sonata in A combined with part of
"Jimbo's Lullaby" by Debussy.
RENEWED WORKS
This is really where I was at in 2004 in terms of my work as a composer - revisiting the old rather than instigating new.
Al Adamson, for voice, guitar & rhythm Score: (notated on the back of a postcard) 7/2003
Status: Score was lost, but then it dropped out of a back issue of American Record Guide when I went to
refer to a review at work. I recorded a Cakewalk file of the music and first performed it at that Comic Book
store in Detroit in the Summer (don't recall exact date, but it's mentioned elsewhere in this blog.) There is a corrected sketch of the basic melody dated 6/29/2004 - noting it down on the postcard on the bus I didn't get it
quite right.
Dodecachordon, for piccolo/flute, 3 clarinets, baritone saxophone, bassoon, 2 trumpets, 2 trombones, French horn, tuba, electric guitar, 2 pianos, vibraphone, industrial drum kit, standard drum kit and bass guitar.
Begun: 3/2003
Sort of a jazz-rock "symphony" that is an exploration of Renaissance harmonic practices.Status: Two very detailed sketches; (a) an outline of instrumentation, key to harmonic modulations, tempi and the length of individual sections (times out to about 53 minutes) and (b) eight-measure sketch of the principal theme in a Noteworthy Composer file.
Status: (Addition) Sketch of a new section in G mixoydian, dated 7/21/04. Mostly bass and guitar parts.
Pop, solo cantata for female pop singer, orchestra (lots of strings, piano, electric bass, percussion and a few solo winds) and champagne/champagne glasses. Begun: 8/1984.
This is a twenty minute theatrical piece which is sort of like a free-association surrealist action starring a singer who is modeled after Connie Francis. The original sketch, which I plotted out on a bus bench while wating in front outside the University of Cincinnati and still have, is more of a detailed description of the action and some sketchy musical ideas. On 7/25/2004 I sketched out two more pages of music only, detailing the harmonic underpinnings of the whole work. A couple of days later in another notebook I wrote out eighty per cent of the text. So this is a major move forward for a work I have long back-burnered for various reasons (for example, I really wanted a woman to write the text, but the English woman who accepted the job in 1990 was deported) but now I have hopes to finish this piece in my lifetime.
The Process, for tape. Begun December 1979.
This is a longstanding unfinished electronic piece dating from my "EYR" period based around material from local radio broadcasts of announcements realting to the Who Concert Tragedy in Cincinnati. The tapes I made of the radio bulletins I thought lost forever turned up early in 2004, and on March 6, 2004 I edited several preliminary
drafts of this material to use towards a finished piece. But I will not get to it until 2005 at the earliest.
Songs from the Black Book, a cycle of six songs on texts by Clark Ashton Smith for voice & piano
Begun: October 2002
Status: (Additions) A little bit of work, not much, was made on this perpetually unfinished song cycle early in 2004. It's hard to say exactly what, as I don't have the sketch or sketches to look at.
Violin Sonata for Delmoni, for violin & piano. Begun: 1997. A three-movement violin sonata, created on request from violinist Arturo Delmoni.
Status: (Addition) First and third movements have been complete in sketch, at this point, for years. The work in 2004 consisted of fleshing out the second movement a bit more and refining some of the sketch of the first movement. This was greatly aided through the discovery of some material relating to the second movement written out in 1997 and thought misplaced.
The Zagreb Mummy Cantata, for 3 voices, chorus (? Or 3 solo voices as chorus),2 flutes, 2 clarinets, 2 violins & continuo.
Begun: 8/19/2003. Cantata based on English translation of the Etruscan text found on a mummy wrapped in the Second Century BCE. Consists of 49 "panels," signifying individual strips of bandage.Status: First panel completed, start of second begun. Keying and instrumentation complete for the entire cycle of 49 panels; gradually refining translation to accommodate a more singable result as I go.
Status (Addition): I did a little additional work on the Zagreb Mummy Cantata in early 2004 - how much I'm not sure as I do not currently have access to the sketches.
Pieces from Notebook "Ritorno"
This is a project, begun late in the year, which involves the cleaning up and completion of a number of works
found in notebook "Ritorno," the oldest surviving notebook of music that I have which survives as a coherent entity. I have pages seperated from various older notebooks, but no book which is complete. The first sketches in the book date from December 25, 1981, the date I got it as a Christmas present.
This involves realizing the sketches into Cakewalk, in some cases neccesary just to find out what the music is.
Hocket and Trio, for brass quintet (12/25-27/1981)
Seven distinct sketches that work out into this form:
Hocket Section 1 = sketches 1-3
Trio = skecth 4-5
Hocket Section 2 = sketch 6
Coda = sketch 7
With no additional editing or expansion, this ends up being 74 measures of music.
Guerrero, for piano (or 2 pianos) 12/26/1981
Very tiny sketch in the original, but essentailly a quick transcription of a piano improvisation
Works out to an amazing 77 measures, which amounts to exactly 2/3rds of the piece.
Satanic Amen, for string orchestra (first version 1977, this version 12/27/1981)
The original, here copied from a fragmentary older page (which I still have) was for organ.
Scored out with intended silences between sections, this works out to 24 measures.
Gustav im Grab, for orchestra (12/28/1981)
A very untidy orchestral skecth on two staves, inspired by the example of the Mahler Tenth
symphony. The opening theme is severely underdevloped, followed by a huge orchestral cluster
chord, finishing off with a contrapuntal section which is given in the wrong rhythmic values. Right
now worked out it occupies 13 measures, with the opening and closing properly corrected, it would
yield another 12 measures.
My friend David Paul once described the Mahler first as "polishing a turd." I wonder if through continuing
to work this one out that I might not be doing the same.
Alright Pam, Then No Space! for piano (12/27/1981)
This little outburst of rage is complete in eight measures.
Well, counting them up I see that's 34 works, not as bad as I thought. And I have another week to bring up the total. Wish me luck.
Copyright 2004 Uncle Dave Lewis