Day 310: World premiere—Fantasy on Broken Glass
36yearsago.com
Vienna 1971—A Student Journal
A year of music, study, travel, sightseeing &
friends.
Day
310 — World premiere—Fantasy on Broken Glass
07-Jun-1972
(Mittwoch–Wed.)
TRANSCRIPT
Worked whole day
on Mischung—to
try and have it ready. Finished the “splicing”
mischung but could not make a copy for the concert.
Real tired.
So, at the concert, decided to play this mischung,
even though it was technically bad, and try to make
what balance corrections I could while listening and
playing it. Obviously, it couldn’t work out.
The World Premiere. I don’t think anyone really liked
it. HA! I was really feeling slightly depressed
afterwards.
Went drinking (either to celebrate or drown). Too
much but fun! (Against my control
principles.)
Letter from Mary Ann, cousin. Might meet them in
Poland.
REFLECTIONS
The
mischung. Mischung
= the mix. Apparently, I work the entire day to try
and come up with a better “mix” version of the piece
for the concert. I don’t sound too happy. I don’t
make a copy and will play it from my spliced-tape
original. That sounds dangerous. What if the tape
breaks?
World
premiere. Holy cow!
I didn’t realize that tonight was the concert of
electronic music from the students of Prof.
Kaufmann’s class. That surprised me, even though I
new it was coming. What surprises me even more is
that I think no one liked it. And that I’m depressed.
I should be happy! ??? Nothing that a few drinks with
the class won’t fix.
Looking
back, I should be happy purely from a technical point
of view. It wasn’t easy to create these many, many
sound elements from the single sound of a glass. Yes,
the work was programmatic and probably “corny” as a
result, and it was too long at over 20 minutes. On
both counts, it will not be considered a great
composition. On the technical side, I think I did a
good job. Nice concept as well. I’m sure it was fine.
The opening photo shows the concert program, June 7,
1972. Below is my bio along with some corny
statements.
First composition. This was
my first composition, ever. (I am excluding the tiny
pieces I wrote at Montclair State.) After
hearing Fantasy
on Broken Glass once again
in 2009 (see Day 313), I think I am happy and proud
of my effort.
Cousin
Mary Ann. I may meet
my cousin Mary Ann in Poland. Now that’s a nice thing
as well. Family.
John
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