Close and Faraway music update and other things.

My new hobby is sitting outside,
Coffee in one hand,
Smoke in the other,
And a book of poetry,
In my lap.

Today's favourites:
The Highwayman by Alfred Noyes
If by Rudyard Kipling
Snake by D. H. Lawrence

I went to open mic at The Free Hetherington yesterday and read some out and the we had a massive jam session it was really fun.

Today I've mostly been playing piano and composing for Close and Faraway.

The Bollero is sounding freaking awesome and really enjoying playing an arrangement for piano, it's got a tricky cross rhythm running through it which looks a bit like this:

So it's a bit tricky to play at first on the piano, but you get used to it!



I'm also very happy with how the (perhaps provisionally titled) "Omega's Theme" is going, the harmony in it is very sophisticated an I've learned a lot about making strange chord sequences work doing it so I'm delighted.


I was speaking to Rowan (our oboe player) about the music on fb and sent her some midi, she's been very encouraging. A clarinet has been added to the ensemble thanks to my friend Linzi, at first I was reluctant (more instruments = more work) but it's actually really helping me along I'm finding it really useful.

Stewart also broke some news about funding and venues for previews but I'm not sure how much I'm at liberty to blog yet :-)

Sweet dreams,

Antony

Play a pie and a pint

review goes here later

The Dream that would Inspire "Like The Greeks"

I had the weirdest dream. I was going down these ancient rock stairs on some kind of field trip, they were at the side of a great precipice and I got vertigo and sat down but was to scared to get back up. Someone else on the trip refused to give me a hand back up. I ended up sliding down into an alcove and in there I got myself together to go the rest of the way. There were White heads carved into the wall like the old ones of Sophocles and Aristophanes etc. In fact the stairs lead down to Athens. Next thing I was in a modern concert hall like a theatre and who should be playing but Papa Roach?! They were playing some new stuff I wasn't familiar with, I text you: 'I'm in Athens! So now I can be a Greek like I always wanted!! Papa Roach are playing, I feel like it's meant to be!'
(Sent to Kerry Corbett, 04/07/11)

"lol that's a weird dream, also, I was listening to papa reach all day yesterday! Hmm what does it all.mean? :p"
(Received from Kerry Corbett, 04/07/11)

"I think the ancient greeks things symbolises my desire to have had an impact on the evolution of human thought like the Greeks, the great philosophers, poets, etc. Not sure. I thought it was nice that I text you it seemed like the 'realest' thing about it... sweet"
(Sent to Kerry Corbett, 04/07/11)

"I shall write a play called 'Like the Greeks' and it shall be the story of a struggling artist trying to come to terms with his role in the world while simultaneously alienating those around him. Cliched? I hope not too much so but it's more important to do something good than something original. xXx"
(Sent to Kerry Corbett, 05/07/11)



"I had a weird dream last night. I was walking down this ancient rock staircase at the edge of a great precipice on some sort of field trip, it was night. I got vertigo thinking of falling down the side and sat down, I was too scared to get back up again. Someone else on the trip i didn't know refused to give me a hand back up. After some time I ended up sliding down (eyes closed) into a little alcove where I was able to get myself together to go the rest of the way. There were white heads of ancient Greeks carved into the rock like the old ones of Sophocles, Aristophones, Socrates, Plato, etc. I think 3 of them, and in fact my trip down the stairs was a trip down to athens...
‎...which was a small ancient city at which the stairs were the path to in my dream. Next thing I was in a modern concert hall that looked a bit like a theatre and a rock band I used to listen to in my youth were playing an informal gig there, they were playing new songs I wasn't familiar with. I texted my ex girlfriend who I'm still close friends with, "I'm in Athens! So now I can be a Greek like I've always wanted!! Papa Roach are playing, I feel like it's meant to be!"
(Sent to Dimitri Halley, 04/07/11)

"We tend to inflate and ascend to heights often too high to be able to descend safely. The dream is telling you to come back down...Greece and the Greek in you stand for this more earthy feeling side."
(Received from Dimitri Halley, 04/07/11)
  
"Hey that's really interesting, I definately relate to the needing to come down bit.
Funnily enough I interpreted the greeks as my will to be a great man when the time for great men has passed, ie. there is no need for another Voltaire, Sartre, Beethoven, Wagner and even if you wrote poetry better than Byron no one would notice... but classic ego balancing act - yin yang - trying to interpret the way down as being puffed up the feeling of "earthyness" is more congruent with what I was feeling down in the concert hall, not very puffed up."
(Sent to Dimitri Halley, 05/07/11)

Buddy the Musical @ the king's

this blog is going to be revised, there's something here to be said that I want to do more succinctly but atm I just want to float it out there.

So I caught the Buddy musical yesterday at the King's.

I was feeling really disappointed because I remember seeing this as a kid and was really blown away,
If fact, I remember thinking when I saw We Will Rock You (oh god!) that Buddy should have been the model for it.

The first time I saw Buddy I thought the great success of it was that it told the story of Buddy Holly's career through his music, it was exciting, different and it captured those moments of inspiration that led to interesting features of songs such as the use of a celeste and slapping of knees on Every Day, use of a rhumba beat on another track, that moment when Buddy and the Critics showed up at the Appolo only to be told the venue had been expecting a band that was black etc. and I sort of had hopes that they would do the same with the Queen musical, tell the story of the band through their music.

This production actually failed to make any of those moments exciting. In this day of Juke-Box Musicals (We Will Rock You, Mamma Mia, Disco Inferno, et al) it is very normal, straght-forward, easy and acceptable to coin a cheesy storyline and fit songs that are already well loved around it but rather than set an example for the musicals of the future which are set around the best-loved songs of famous artists it descended down into Juke Box Musical territory like all the rest.

Close and Faraway meeting

So I met with Stewart Marshall to discuss the music for Close and Faraway and some suggestions on refining the script.

Things are going well and I have some decent guidelines to work within for bringing the score together in a way that follows the progression of the script. Where things come in, where they come out, what kind of meshing of themes would work, where variations on themes could go. It's nice to have a frame work it makes things a lot easier.

Attune Theatre will be performing a new short as part of Seeds of Thought at the CCA tonight, from 7:30. Come along and check it out.

Stewart has been in meetings with various venues regarding preview events for Close and Faraway and organisations regarding receiving some funding, all very exciting.

Knives in Hens and Frames of Reference

Tonight I went to see Knives in Hens at the Tramway Theatre with Gareth Vile.

It was a really bizarre experience for me because the director made the decision to execute the piece in a sort of surrealistic style which (I am told on good authority from Gareth) is popular in Belgian theatre. This is supposedly very much at odds with how the writer (David Harrower) is usually interpreted, in a very naturalistic style typical to British theatre.

What made this so strange and educational is I felt I had no frame of reference to judge the piece by...
I'd be lying if I said I enjoyed it all the way through, but I couldn't say that anything was wrong with it either.

In other words, if you give me a piece of music to look at I can tell you whether it's good or not, if you think good is subjecive lets say i can say whether it works or not. I can tell you if the harmonic changes are clever or basic, if the melody is inspired or average, if there are interesting rhythmic features, if the parts are written idiomatically for the instruments that have to play them, etc.

I can tell you those things because I have a reasonably sophisticated understanding of music.

Basically I couldn't say whether this piece was good or not because I didn't know what criterion I should be judging it by. That's a very interesting experience for someone who doesn't believe the quality of art in entirely subjective and aesthetics go beyond reason (hence, in part, the name of this blog.)

I was so glad that I didn't have to review it because in this instance my opinion would really not be a qualified one. I'd have to fake it. Until I've seen another four or five pieces in this idiom I wouldn't have much to say about it other than I found it a bit too long and intense, but there were some beautiful moments.

Gareth explained a lot of context on the walk home which helped clarify what was going on to a degree.

It's amazing how everything you see broadens your awareness, especially if you can discuss it in detail with someone on the way home :-) This was a funny point because we were talking about whether it was successful or not and as we reached the door Gareth said something like, "If the point of the play was to get people to discuss whether they liked it or not all the way home then it would be an outrageous success." True.

Here is an insightful review of Knives in Hens by Lyn Gardner at The Guardian, she's a very good critic, I've read a couple of her reviews.

Another review of Knives in Hens by Mark Fisher writing for The Guardian in Edinburgh

I've looked at other  reviews as well but none I found particularly worth sharing.

Illich - The High Brow Sketch Show (Episode 8) FEATURING KEANU REEVES!!!!

here it is:

Performed by Illich, recorded and engineered by Jono at the Soular Power Suite