Day 270: Fantasy on Broken Glass—Finished, yay!
36yearsago.com
Vienna 1971—A Student Journal
A year of music, study, travel, sightseeing &
friends.
Day
270 — Fantasy on Broken Glass—Finished, yay!
28-April-1972
(Freitag–Fri.)
TRANSCRIPT
Today, my piece is
finished. I was so happy that it was. It’s not
completely finished because of a few technical
(balance) problems and, so now I have to rest a while
(suggestion from Prof. Kaufmann) and then finish it
up next week. I think it’s not too bad. Not
satisified in all places, and Kaufmann, I think,
thinks the same. It should be played at our studio
concert and also one [concert] in Frankreich. So,
anyway, I still have a lot of work to do in finishing
up the whole project.
Bad news. Prof. C. didn’t need a hornist, so I don’t
go to Innsbruck.
REFLECTIONS
Fantasy
finished. Yes, today
is a BIG day. I’m also happy, 37 years later. All of
the work and the complaining that you, dear reader,
had to sit through has not be for naught. My musique
concrète composition, Fantasy
on Broken Glass, is
basically completed today. Yay! It was a lot of work,
was my first serious electroacoustic piece of music,
and taught me a lot. As I have mentioned, there was
an educational purpose to the work as well. The
opening photo and photos below are some of the rough
page scores. Just a bit more mixing and cleanup to
do.
Concrète composing. You can
see that the nature of recording among several tape
recorders leads to a lot of layering and
textures—original material on tape 1, play and
manipulate sound and record on other recorders, or
layer and combine sounds/motifs into new textures on
other recorders. It was the nature of composing in
the musique concrète genre of the time. However,
layering is part the bedrock of all music in all
styles—it creates counterpoint, texture, density,
interaction of melody, harmony, and rhythms.
Composers, naturally compose with layering in
process. It is the same as doubling the bass line
with the cellos, or adding a guitar track in a
recording studio, or laying down Trance music tracks
in Garageband on your home computer. Listen to the
amazing and subtle interactions or layering that
Steve Reich creates in his minimalistic writing.
Writing music, composing, recording in a commercial
studio, or for a major film—it’s all fascinating.
And, you can do it also.
Fantasy
revised. I remember
that the original Fantasy
was over
20 minutes long. That’s too long for an electronic
piece. The work was also programmatic—basically a
soundscape of nature/machine sounds telling a story.
Later, I revised it to less than half that time, I
believe.
Still
hoping. I still
haven’t heard from the new electroacoustic studio
program—Institute
of Composition and Electroacoustic Media at the
University of Music and Performing Arts in
Vienna. They
were going to try and recover the original tapes for
me and digitize them. I am wondering if there are
technical and equipment problems. After all, these
tapes were 15” reels, 15-ips, and 1/2 track tapes
played on very old professional tape machines. It is
difficult to find these machines in working order
today. Let’s hope for the best. See Day 246.
Teacher
appreciation. I really
appreciate all that Prof. Kaufmann has done to guide
me through this process. Remember, whenever there is
a teacher that does a bit more to bring you to a
completed goal, new learning, or realization, that
teacher was a part of the reason for your success.
It’s a good thing to remember. Where would we be
without teachers? Not very far.
Concerts
to come. I remember
that we did have a concert later in the school year
(1972), featuring the student works of the
electroacoustic music program. I forgot that Prof.
Kaufman may have also presented our works in concert
to other contemporary venues appropriate to student
works. It looks like France. No, I didn’t go. Below,
is a third page of the rough score that truly
illustrates the layering techniques inherent in
musique concrète.
No concert. My
composition teacher, Prof. C, was apparently going to
Innsbruck to put on a concert. It looks like there
was no need for a horn player. Could I have met
Elisabeth? Probably not.
John
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