Category: Arts

Three pulp sci-fi novels (set #5)

Updated 26 Oct 2019 (Mandala)

Updated 19 Jan 2020 (Star Light)

Updated 4 Aug 2021 (Starworld)

Visited Mostly Books while in Philadelphia the weekend of Lisa’s b-day. It’s like walking through an old house of a book hoarder. Stacks and stacks! Went looking for the books I spotted randomly at the bar Writers Block Rehab the previous night (The Infinite Man and The Lonely City, they had several shelves on display) and ended up just going with another set of sci-fi.

Updated 4 Aug 2021 (Starworld)

Good, if a bit rushed space opera that maybe would have benefitted if I had read the first two in the series. Colonist/farmer returns to a despotic Earth to free the universe from its exploitative rule; all planets and colonies are in current rebellion. The colonist drops into an information-deprived Earth whose citizens know little about the span of the rebellion, some who hope to rebel themselves. There are deep dives into racist America, hints at Iron Curtain-like oppression, and an Israel that plays a key role as an isolated pocket of freedom. Yes, this book is a product of its time and, let’s say, Has Some Opinions.

My (so far) final act of Johnny Appleseed-ing books at random locations around the world, I left this in the Little Free Library in front of the Midtown Marta station. More mundane than a Vespa seat in Sydney or a hospital in Curacao, but the fact that it was gone the next day was the first instance where I observed appreciation for my Guerilla Distribution Network. A fitting end (so far…).

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Orchestral Study #8 (toccata)

  1. Orchestral Study #1 (flowing and hymn-like)
  2. Orchestral Study #2 (driving and chaotic)
  3. Orchestral Study #3 (adagio with melisma)
  4. Orchestral Study #4 (allegro)
  5. Orchestral Study #5 (variations)
  6. Orchestral Study #6 (space)
  7. Orchestral Study #7 (dialogue)
  8. Orchestral Study #8 (toccata)
  9. Orchestral Study #9 (seven interludes)
  10. Orchestral Study #10 (rupture, slowed down and from different angles)
  11. Orchestral Study #11 (a crowd, disassembled)
  12. Orchestral Study #12 (thesis)

Updated 26 Aug 2019

My focus for this piece was to start scoring percussion.

The music has some instances of #6 (mildly dissonant, held clusters) and some of #2 and #4 (fringe-tonal counterpoint with imitation across voices). I’m getting my footing with having a consistent orchestral style though still learning and experimenting.

  1. Prelude with dissonance (A1)
  2. Rapid polyphony with increasing complexity in the percussion, using timpani, snare, and cymbal (B, C, and D1)
  3. Return to A in style, with gradual reentry of polyphony from previous sections as an extended bridge (A2)
  4. Chord progression and arpeggiated melody from D1 with written repeats (D2)
  5. Short coda with percussion (E)

Once I got the first notes down for the polyphony and percussion, I was surprised how easily those new elements flowed. I had to reference Piston for the limitations of the timpani and the range it can handle, but snare and cymbal pretty much explain themselves. Like the allegro in #4 this was kindof exhausting; there was an inner conflict of how easily it flowed and just how much music I could manage in this style. And, even though I feel it’s relatively complete, the month puts pressure on how much to put in. I’m beginning to think, after these 12 are finished, of the limitations I’ll encounter writing longer, 20+ minute pieces.

Next will likely be a spare, arrhythmic study with further exploration of articulation in the strings. Before that I will go back to #5 to fix a section that I just, just hate.

orchestral-study-8

Updated 26 Aug 2019

Piston showed the timpani with trills but the playback from Musescore sounded awful so I switched to tremolo. Much better. I also exported the score in four parts (woodwinds, brass, percussion, strings) as wav files and mixed them in Audacity with some reverb and stereo separation.

Orchestral Study #7 (dialogue)

  1. Orchestral Study #1 (flowing and hymn-like)
  2. Orchestral Study #2 (driving and chaotic)
  3. Orchestral Study #3 (adagio with melisma)
  4. Orchestral Study #4 (allegro)
  5. Orchestral Study #5 (variations)
  6. Orchestral Study #6 (space)
  7. Orchestral Study #7 (dialogue)
  8. Orchestral Study #8 (toccata)
  9. Orchestral Study #9 (seven interludes)
  10. Orchestral Study #10 (rupture, slowed down and from different angles)
  11. Orchestral Study #11 (a crowd, disassembled)
  12. Orchestral Study #12 (thesis)

This started late in the month because of an extended stay in Curacao, but the structure came to me almost immediately. I’ve been wanting to try to bring solo instruments in more prominently. The last study at various points gave the melody to solo violin and viola; here I’ve used the violin throughout as a proper soloist. The intent was to have the contrasting sections be a dialog between soloist and orchestra (like so many concertos), but to think of them not as separate entities but the same. An internal dialogue. It’s more conceptual than actually achieved.

  • Melancholy statement (soloist)
  • Chorale (orchestra)
  • Minimalist perpetuum mobile (soloist)
  • Prelude and fugue book-ended with reference to chorale (orchestra)
  • Closing lyric statement (soloist)

For the soloist sections, I would create a general sketch of the melody then insert measures as I orchestrated to either extend a phrase or add a new idea for variety. It’s very much like painting, where rough ideas become more precise as you progress. The orchestration, at least for the soloist sections, has much more color that the previous studies. I’m getting confident with a wider range of instrument combinations. That being said, for the soloist I did not verify that the double- and triple-stops were actually playable or at least comfortably playable. That skill is definitely a work in progress.

I’m continuing to run against limitations in playback, mostly crescendos and decrescendos, so I end up adding over-detailed dynamic markings. And I heard pizzicato and harmonics in certain areas but those are almost completely unavailable with Musescore. I had to settle for staccato and ppp respectively.

(Realization: I remember at the beginning of the year, I was concerned that I would over-rely on explicit repeats and not be able to create sections that are written variations as repeats. I happily have not fallen into that type of laziness.)

Next up is a toccata with percussion added.

orchestral-study-7

Where was I?

Bikini Kill reunited and is touring. I had Pussy Whipped and Reject All American on CD back in post-college apt in Smyrna, probably some double-CD re-release [ed. yes! it exists], and they were in heavy rotation for a while. A few years back I went to see The Punk Singer at Plaza Theatre and was just blown away by how not just punk Kathleen Hanna is but just how leftist intellectual she is. So the tour came about and although I think they’ll be performing nearby this was a good excuse for an NYC trip. Last one was ~3 years ago for my niece’s b-day. So let’s go.

Continue reading Where was I?