Monday, December 15, 2008

December 15 - Variations on Themes


Megan Mui checks in with a question re use of heard-but-not-known music re final composition in Theory class. The response:

"Totally fine to do as you propose -- composers have been doing tropes / variations on pre-existent music seemingly since notation began, and no doubt before.

Yes, and curious about that "don't know where the theme is from" -- difficult to google such a concept (have faced similar challenges...ongoing...), but perhaps we can provide communal wisdom when we hear it.

N.B. tradition is one thing, present circumstances another -- there can be legal issues re recent copyrighted material, but there is almost always a way around such concerns, and re present situation, we can certainly be shielded by education/pedagogy and the low-key arena (at present you're not thinking of publishing and making a minted million)."



Harriet's off on a job, back mid-day, and stays the night in inner Bay Area with Tisha and Clare. Here it's more Samson and Delilah: XI. Dagon orchestration (through page 18), finishing the October 2008 back-issue of 21st-Century Music (with many balky adventures re file pagination and printing), and posting musical examples at markalburgermusichistory.blogspot.com from Dewey Bunnel and Sting through Tan Dun and Erling Wold.

Playlist for today, including burning a few CD's from old records, includes

Alexander Borodin
On the Steppes of Central Asia
Prince Igor: Polovtzian Dances

Pierre Boulez
Le Marteau sans Maitre (the classic older recording)
Le Soleil des Eau

Charles Koechlin
The Bandar-Log

Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov
Russian Easter Overture

Olivier Messiaen
Chronochromie

as well as music by

Paul Bowles
Luigi Dallapiccola
Henri Pouseur