Composing

Good Goddess, but the polymaths are proliferating on this list!!!  Now both
Teoh and Jan are composers (Jan said this was his primary passion in his
survey answers); so is Herman Miller.  Miller's music has the added
strangeness of quarter tones.  I love his Porcupine Concert.  How many other
of you conlangers are so musical?  Me (yry), I am primarily a songwriter in
Teonaht, with music to accompany my songs.  Most of you've heard them at

http://www.frontiernet.net/~scaves/teoreal2.html

but I'll blow my horn again, anyway (so to speak).  I'm working on a more
complicated presentation on the digital recorder my husband bought, but it's
difficult because only he knows how to use it yet.  I used to play piano
hungrily, and have composed several short piano pieces.  All of them
deliberately weird.  Now Teoh, I want to know if this piece you showcase,
the second one, was performed, or if you synthesized it.  If the latter,
how?  And why am I "forbidden" entry into Serenity.mp3 site, but I can hear
your Am6_8_2 quite well?  Jan do you have any music we could hear?

How does anyone record on MP3?  I have an MP3 player, but not the recorder.
Is the software expensive?  Could I upload a CD onto it?  It takes a
GODAWFUL long time to load on my machine, mainly because I still have
dial-up.  hissss!

Finally, Teoh and Jan... do you have recorded excerpts of your LANGUAGE?

In fact, if anybody will come forward with recorded excerpts of your spoken
or sung CONLANGS, I would be interested in hearing them.  I have a paucity
of examples to show my Berkeley audience.

Sally Caves
scaves@frontiernet.net
Eskkoat ol ai sendran, rohsan nuehra celyil takrem bomai nakuo.
"My shadow follows me, putting strange, new roses into the world."


----- Original Message -----
From: "H. S. Teoh" <hsteoh@...>

> On Fri, Mar 14, 2003 at 07:33:35PM +0000, Jan van Steenbergen wrote:
> >  --- H. S. Teoh skrzypszy:
> >
> > > writing orchestral music that I will probably never hear in my
> > > lifetime[2],
> >
>
> > Don't say that! Having your music performed is merely a matter of
> > knowing the right people.
>
> Which is exactly my problem.
> > Now, I am not pretending that I know them, but I have been asked at
> > least twice if I had something for orchestra.  Usually, I am quite
> > suspicious against this kind of invitations from people who never ever
> > heard anything I wrote. But anyway, in these two cases they might
> > actually do it. The only problem is that I don't *want* to write for
> > orchestra. And I don't consider myself ready for that.
>
> I'm not sure I'm ready to write for orchestra either, but that doesn't
> stop it from being my passion! :-)
>
> [snip]
> > > [4] Although that depends on one's perspective as to what is
"performable"
> > > ... I mean, if I write something that only professionals have any hope
of
> > > performing, and I am an unknown with no recognized portfolio, then
it's
> > > all moot. But that symphony orchestra in my head just refuses[5] to
stop
> > > playing!
> >
> > To be honest, I am very curious about the music you write. Is it
> > similarly "unearthy" as Ebisedian? Personally, I see a lot of stylistic
> > correspondances between my music and my conlangs. Or maybe that's only
> > in my head.  Have you ever scanned pages? Or, if not, would you consider
> > doing that? Did you also write for smaller ensembles or soloists?
>
> In my case, I'm more of a neoclassicist than anything else. I *have*
> written less conventional pieces[1], and have plans for at least one quite
> unconventional piece[2]. But most of my pieces[3] are really nothing near
> the otherworldliness of Ebisedian. :-)
>
> As far as stuff for smaller ensembles go... I do have a lot of small piano
> pieces[4], as well as an unfinished set of variations for string quartet.
> (But I hesitate to showcase that one since I had very little idea about
> quartet writing when I wrote it.) The Serenity piece referenced in [1] is
> also in this category, I suppose, it's for piano and flute---although it's
> probably better suited for an alto flute or clarinet because of its
> tessitura. Or maybe a recorder. At any rate, it's for some kind of pipe.
> :-)
>
> [1] Such as: http://quickfur.yi.org:8080/~hsteoh/mus/aml-serenity.mp3
> This is supposed to depict a village shaman playing the flute at sunset
> while looking out over the plains and the distant mountains beyond, with
> the evening breeze blowing. The cadenza depicts when he gets carried away
> by the magic of his flute, and proceeds to show off his flute technique.
>
> [2] Involving slides and glides by the string section (which plays a
> "melody" where almost every note is a glide) and retorts, guffaws, and
> maniacal chuckles from the brass. Besides this one, I have plans for a
> darkish piece similar to Sibelius' Tapiola.
>
> [3] Such as: http://quickfur.yi.org:8080/~hsteoh/mus/Am6_8_2.mp3
> (unfinished). I don't really like the MIDI realization of this; the part
> towards the end sounds overly wind-y. The orchestration also needs heavy
> re-workings; but at least this gives an idea of the motifs and passages
> that I have in mind.
>
> [4] The one of which I'm most proud being the Sonatina in E-flat major:
> http://quickfur.yi.org:8080/~hsteoh/mus/Eb4_4.3.mp3
>
> > I know the portfolio problem very well. It is true: if you don't have
> > the right piece of paper (as if a piece of paper, or its absence, could
> > prove or disprove your artistic abilities!), it is a tough struggle you
> > have to fight for every kind of recognition. But not impossible.  Even
> > among the famous composers of the past, there were amateurs, people
> > without any serious kind of musical education.
>
> For example, Beethoven didn't actually know polyphony (at least in the
> Bach sense) until he was an established composer. And Sir William(?)
> Walton didn't even know what a fugue was until he decided he needed one in
> one of his symphonies!
>
> > My opinion is that most of the things you learn at a conservatory (at
> > least: in the field of composing) you can also learn without a
> > conservatory, and even better!
>
> Most certainly. And I do have a beef against the way music is commonly
> taught nowadays... but I'll save that rant for another time. :-)
>
> > But the conservatory is not the place where you learn things; it is also
> > the place where your career begins, where you meet those people who will
> > "launch" you later for the first time. Without those people, often a
> > tight knit in a closed circuit, it is very hard to achieve anything.
>
> Too true. I had the option of minoring in music when I was still in my
> undergraduate years; however, I was not ready (musically) at the time. Now
> it's really very difficult for me to get "into the loop". Besides, I do
> have other priorities that require time as well; I can't have *everything*
> I want, after all. With my current commitments, I'm afraid the most I'll
> end up writing in my lifetime would be about 4-5 short pieces (as far as
> orchestral writing is concerned, that is) that I've time to work on.
>
> > But again: it is possible, it depends merely on the confidence that your
> > music is good, and on convincing the right people of that.
> [snip]
>
> All the lay people tell me my music is good, and all the professionals
> smile and nod and walk away. So I'm kinda stuck in limbo at the moment.
> Which *could* explain the otherworldliness of Ebisedian... (Mind you, I
> said *could*. ;-)) The fact that I'm an amateur pianist---amateur in the
> sense of able to impress the crowd but having horrible technique and bad
> habits accrued over the years due to lack of formal training---probably
> doesn't help very much either.
>
>
> T
>
> --
> "You know, maybe we don't *need* enemies." "Yeah, best friends are about
all
> I can take." -- Calvin & Hobbes
>

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