Day 292: My fingers are on TV
36yearsago.com
Vienna 1971—A Student Journal
A year of music, study, travel, sightseeing &
friends.
Day
292 — My fingers are on TV
20-May-1972
(Samstag–Sat.)
TRANSCRIPT
Today was a normal day, except “weirder.” Horn
ensemble in morning. Less excited about horn lately
because of my problems—not getting anywhere, so
discouraged.
Helped—really just sat around—while Camilla made an
aufnahme for a free jazz (progressive) session. The
only problem was that it was so free—that it stayed
in one mode (phrygian) or chord, with the same beat
and rhythm, and with only one or two spots of
crescendo–decrescendo in about 20 minutes. It seems
to be progressing backwards that is. Some of it
though, the horn parts, were pretty interesting.
TV World Premier – Appearance
After asking engineer Gottwald when it [the
electronic studio documentary] would be on TV, he
said, maybe today. So, I bought a paper and our show
said “Kultur—Neue Musik im Glashaus.” So, it sounded
like it had possibilities. I asked everyone what “im
Glashaus” meant and no one knew. Anyway, I made
arrangements to see it on Frau Pollack’s TV. And
then, the idea struck me: they must have named it
after my composition—get it, “Zebrochenes
Glass”—Glashaus. Boy, was I feeling egotistical. So,
since I was expecting a 6+ min. section only on our
electronic studio, and with quite a bit of film (in
those two hours of shooting), and with a couple of
minutes of my composition taped, I was beginning to
hope that they might have salvaged the mess they made
into something worthwhile. It also started to rain
today (right before)—a soft rain with soft thunder
(exactly like in the composition). And I thought, how
ironic. Nature’s music (which is better) will be
playing alongside my music. Maybe somebody will get
the point!
Well, everything turned out to be junk. The program
turned out to be about 26 minutes, and had something
to do with New Music, but what, I don’t know. It was
like a mass marathon quiz show with hundreds of
different items all squeezed together. The results?
Only about one minute of video on the electronic
studio. Nothing to do with my music though. The
pictures were just for “show”—my legs, my fingers,
the tape machine, pan of studio, and a two-second
close up of an artist (me) in intense concentration.
HA! That’s probably the length of my acting ability.
Say, they could have used a janitor. Especially,
since the time was short. Perhaps my fingers will get
recognition.
As for the music played (what very little was
played), it was so soft, under the talking, that even
I almost didn’t recognize it.
So, I’m really angry. But now, I realize that the
intention was never to show how a work was produced
in the studio, and instead it was meant to be used as
a background just for talking.
Seeing Magic
Flute afterwards cheered me up
a little.
REFLECTIONS
A
weird day. Why? I’m
disappointed with horn today. What else is new?
Weird? Yes, it has to do with TV.
Camilla.
I seemed
to help Camilla with a recording session with a group
doing progressive jazz. I don’t know if she was
performing, or if she was just recording them. I
suspect the latter. At any rate, I seem to be
complaining that the entire piece was mostly one
single tonality. Today, I don’t see what’s so bad
with that. Perhaps, when writing the journal, I was
just in a bad mood because of what follows. Stay
tuned!
A note on Camilla. I did find some mention of her on
the Internet and sent off an email to a performing
group with which she was associated. So far, I
haven’t heard anything. But Camilla has been
performing and composing contemporary music and has
several CDs out. I just bought one of them on iTunes.
Can’t wait to hear it.
I’m
on TV. Well, not
really. Today, they air the documentary on Austrian
TV that was shot in the studio a while ago. I was
angry at the time and I still seem to be angry. It’s
all pretty self-explanatory. I believe I now
understand why I have been “so” upset with this
process. I think it was because I was told it was
going to be specifically about the Hochschule’s
Electronic Music Studio, Prof. Kaufmann, and also
give a good look at how music was composed in the
studio. It was not. Only a minute of the video (from
two hours) was used on the final program. So, I
should not have been so upset. It was just my
misunderstanding. My German probably contributed to
my misunderstanding.
Oh well, I got my two seconds of fame. And the title
of the piece did have something to do with glass.
Mozart
soothes. A Mozart
opera at night soothes me down.
John
- - - -
