2008: Happy New Year!

As for 2007, so long: It was a very, very good year...



"The End."

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Taking a Breath Between Christmas and the New Year

Hope Santa was good to everybody, because he sure was good to me.



The World's Greatest Peanut Brittle. Takes a tag team to make this: Two to share in the stirring, then one to pour and the other to spread. This is my Great Grandmother Freeland's recipe, so it's well over a hundred years old. I have finally gotten my mom to share it with me.



The World's Greatest Pumpkin Pie. This is actually the "EZ Version" as we didn't start out with the pumpkins - there just wasn't enough time - but it's the spices that really make it. I have not yet been "entrusted" with this particular Olde Family Recipe. Maybe next year.



Entertainment by Hucbald. I just set up my rig in the living room, which freaked out mom's Lhasas, but mom loves to hear me play. BTW: Mom now has the numero uno Lhasa Apso show dog in the US of A. She's been invited to the Westminster Show in NYC in February, and is tickled pink about it. This runs in the family: Her father was a national champion at raising and training five gait and fine harness horses back in the 30's. In fact, I grew up with horses and had my first pony when I was eight years old. I'd sure like to be in a situation where I could have a horse again. Horses are magical creatures that actually exist in reality. I think people who don't understand this have something wrong with them. A relationship with a horse changes a person forever, much to that person's benefit.



I know every guy has different ideas about feminine beauty - and thank God for that, or we'd all be after the same girl, and wouldn't that be a mess - and I find something beautiful about almost every woman I meet from eighteen to eighty, but I actually went slack-jawed when I saw this model the first time. If God had ever gotten off of his lazy butt and made a girl for me, I imagine she would have looked exactly like this.

There are some problems here, but not with the girl: The makeup is over-produced - especially the too-dark eyebrows, and there has been some photoshop lightening of the cheeks and forehead... I'd sure like to see what she looks like when she wakes up in the morning... er... well, you know what I mean. LOL!

*****

BTW: I managed to leave my email overloaded, so for four days I got no mail. I'm always forgetting something.

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The Twelve Days of Christmas... "And Toto Too?"

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY!

Chris, one of my former Berklee profs, emailed this to me the other day. It's hilarious, and the perfect holiday gift for my dear readers. People with substance abuse problems probably ought not participate in men's choirs. At least they're upfront about it though: From "Straight, no Chaser":



I have gigs tonight and tomorrow night, and then Sunday I'll be going to San Antonio to spend Christmas with my mommy, so the next post will be a Happy New Year kind of deal. Be well, stay warm, and enjoy some time with your families.

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Rissi Palmer

There's nothing I like better than someone who breaks molds, defies stereotypes, does their own thing... and doesn't give a hot, flying flapjack what anyone else thinks about it. Ms. Palmer was offered some sweet deals from top producers who offered to make her a pop star, but she said, "No thanks, I want to do country music." So, she continued to hold down odd jobs until... she made it happen.

I had heard this song before, but I was gobsmacked when I finally saw a picture of her. I had to laugh at myself (Hey, if I don't someone else will). I'm not really a fan of music videos in general, but this is pretty cool in a wholesome, corny kind of way.



It doesn't hurt that she plays the guitar...



... and exudes mass quantities of hotness.

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Concerto One for Guitar and Orchestra: Preview

I have uploaded a PDF and MP3 of the finale of Concerto One for guitar and orchestra to my .Mac Downloads Page for those interested. I wanted to mention this now because my manager, for one, is anxious to hear it. It is a Passacaglia in a contemporary style, and is based on an eight measure harmonic continuity that consists of only tonic, subdominant, and secondary subdominant harmonies.

I wrote the first version of this as a jazzy concerto grosso back in 1994 when I was a doctoral candidate at UNT. I have put all of the melodic lines into the guitar part, but they will be redistributed among the instruments of the orchestra as I flesh out the orchestration again. I actually wrote this as a sort of treatise in completely chromatic "harmelodic" line writing, but when I played it for some of my classmates, almost all of them asked how I came up with such cool bass lines. Poor dears, I guess they lived deprived childhoods devoid of musical masters such as Rose Royce and Parliament Funkadellic. *sigh*

One of the things that tics me off the most about "classical" composers who look down their noses at jazz music is the fact that the most advanced masters of jazz possess a melodic conception that is light-years beyond anything any classical composers ever had. The closest any of them came was Chopin, and he was absolutely unique.

By extemporizing these lines with a track ball and cursor - versus hammering them out on a keyboard or the guitar - I was able to transcend all idiomatic concerns and just think in terms of the melodic trajectories and the coloristic effects the note sequences would have. This is far superior to the hemmed-in classical approach which has such nonsense terms as "non-harmonic notes" (The more I think about that, the more ass-ignorant it becomes as a "musical" concept): Under the completely chromatic "harmelodic" approach, every note has a harmonic function, and so a corresponding coloristic effect.

I'll be doing a dedicated post on this piece, but I'm not sure if I'll get it done before I leave to see my mom for Christmas.

Enjoy.

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Interesting Critters in my Back Yard IV: ALL the Mule Deer

So, I get up after a night of partying with my best buds the morning after my birthday to see this:



That's a mule deer buck of about three years age - no fawn, as I usually see back there. I shot through the window, so you can see the ghostly reflection of my camera above the deer. He was just laying there, chewing his cud. It would have been amazing under any circumstances, but with a borderline-psychedelic tequila hangover, it was particularly impressive.

I tapped once on the window and got a profile:



Tapped again to get his full and undivided attention:



Don't think this didn't enter my mind!



He jumpped up and ran off when I tried to open the back door to get a better... uh... "shot."

*****

Seems that the local deer herd has taken to yarding up in the security of my townhouse complex. The next morning really early I snuck out the back door "vewy, vewy quietly," and caught five or six of them:



The two standing are young bucks - probably only two years old - and those still on the ground in back are does and fawns. The larger buck was not around. Nobody in our complex can remember this happening in previous years. January will mark four years here for me, and I've never seen anything like it before.

I have several great venison recipes. ;^)



Sun-bleached blondness. She has a great tan but no tan lines. What does that mean? LOL.

Ha! Our maintenance man just walked by outside with four or five deer running ahead of him. It's vaguely creepy, like some sort of sci-fi invasion flick.

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Fifty (!): The Big Five-Oh $#!*

Well, it's official: I'm a Certified Old Fart.

My "blonde" Australian lady-friend reader baked brownies in my honor:



Too bad I wasn't able to fly down and eat them!

She sent along a pic of herself too:



At first I thought she was pulling my leg, then I realized: That's right - of course - it's winter up here, so it's summer Down Under... right?

My manager sent me a whole box of goodies, including cookies of many varieties that she baked herself.

Here I am eating one:



HT: Pogria for the photo.

And, of course, it's my birthday, so I'll post a redhead if I want to.



You just never know with redheads: Most have blue or green eyes, but hers are dark brown. Highly unusual.

I have a gig tonight, but after it's over me and a couple of guitarist buddies are going to get together and PARTY!!!



We got your bottle of Herradura 100% Blue Agave Anejo tequila, twelve Corona's, and a bag of limes (For the beer, not the tequila: With tequila this good, it would be a sin to use "training wheels").

In the foreground you can see the uber-cool gift my manager gave me: A genuine 1930's Navajo bolo tie with turquoise and what looks like a fossilized shark's tooth or claw. And, it has real bolos on it: Ballsy! LOL!

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Boy Toys

Yes, the Cedar Parker Nylon Fly arrived yesterday...



That's the Nylon Fly in the center with my Godin Multiac Grand Concert SA on the viewer's left (Stage right), and my customized Godin Glissentar eleven-string with an Ed Reynolds fretted neck (The stock Glissentar is a fretless instrument) on the viewer's right (Stage left). You can see that the Nylon Fly is small, and that it has a twenty-four fret neck, but what you can't see is how impossibly light it is: Just four pounds! I nearly threw it through the ceiling the first time I took it out of the case.

Unfortunately, there are a couple of issues with the Parker, but fortunately they are relatively simple, but expensive, to rectify. First of all, the nut is made from a plastic synthetic that is OK for steel string guitars, but it deadens nylon strings because it is too soft. So, I'm going to have my buddy Mark cut me both a bone nut and a graphite nut for it - think a couple of Franklins worth of work - so I can see which one works better. The graphite is black, and the nut is the only white thing on the guitar, so I'm hoping that works out, because it will certainly look better with a black nut.

The other problem is that the bridge requires three shims to get the action to the height I want, and they are a very soft plastic material. Again, this deadens the sound - especially on the treble end of the spectrum - so Mark is going to make me some sheet metal shims: Hardwood would be ideal, but he's an electric guitar tech and not a woodworker. I'm sure it will be an improvement regardless.

Sheesh, all three of those guitars have cedar tops: A trio of redheads!



I'm going to have to post a lot of blonds "blondes" to make up for this.

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The Verdict is In: Zep Still Rocks!

OK, this makes me feel still a bit young as I enjoy the last week of my forties... but first, a story.

*****

Though Led Zeppelin was one of my favorite bands of the Second British Invasion when I was in high school in the seventies - eclipsed only by The Who - I never got to see them live at the time. However, when they reunited for the big fortieth anniversary shindig for Atlantic Records in 1988, that was more than made up for.

At that time I was in a rock band called B-Rock, and we were rehearsing at Montana Studios in Manhattan. One evening, one of the employees asked as we were leaving for the night if we'd be in the next day, to which we replied in the affirmative. He kind of mumbled, "OK" and looked at the floor, but I didn't think it was any more than just a tad strange.

Anyway, when I got to the place the next afternoon, there were some odd looking folks milling about outside, but nobody stopped me when I walked in with my guitar in its gig bag on my shoulder. When I got off the elevator and walked into the lobby, there were a few other unfamiliar souls, and they were looking into the elevator with a strange anticipatory look, but I just walked into Studio B, where we were set up.

I dumped the guitar and decided to go get some lunch. Then, I waited for the elevator for what seemed like an eternity. When the door finally opened, Jimmy Page walked out! Talk about a WTF moment: I'm sure my eyes were as large as dinner plates. When I got back from acquiring my required falafel and Coke, the entrance was mobbed, and back up in the lobby it was a zoo. Robert Plant and Jason Bonham had arrived by that time, and I was in some sort of shock or other.

The rest of my band had arrived as well, and that's when I learned Zep was rehearsing for the show in Studio A next door. Needless to say, we didn't rehearse any ourselves that day, we just listened to Led Zeppelin rehearse! It was a pretty amazing experience, and far less than a hundred people on the planet were there for that. It's a memory I treasure, for sure.

*****

Led Zeppelin then:



Led Zeppelin now:



*****

Jimmy Page: Born 01/09/1944, age 63.

Robert Plant: Born 08/20/1948, age 59.

John Paul Jones: Born 01/03/1946, age 61.

John Bonham: Born 04/31/1948, would be 59 also today, had he not died in 1980.

See why this makes me feel a little better? LOL!

*****

I found several articles about the show honoring Ahmet Ertegun (Who I also was in the same room with a couple of times, though I was far too awed and shy to introduce myself).

CNN says Led Zeppelin Can Still Rock

"The reunited rock 'n' roll legends were superb Monday in their first full concert in nearly three decades, mixing in classics like "Stairway to Heaven" and "Black Dog" with the thumping "Kashmir" and the hard-rocking "Dazed and Confused.""

The Sun, in their inimitable style, manages to say the same thing with greater panache: LEDgendary: Zep Can Still Rock

"LED ZEPPELIN returned to the stage last night with their first full set in 19 years — and younger members of the crowd had heard nothing like it.

Manufactured pop is ruling the charts and young music fans are an impatient sort.

Maybe that’s why the bars at the O2 Arena in Greenwich filled during some of the band’s winding rock epics.

But their classics proved music doesn’t rock like it used to."

You have to check out The Sun's slide show. The pix of Mick and Sir Paul made me feel especially young, virile, and vibrant. LOL!

The Hollywood Reporter said, Bottom Line: It's Been a Long Time, but the Band Shows it can Still Rock the House.

"For two hours and 10 minutes Monday night, legendary British rock band Led Zeppelin had the privileged fans accommodated by London's O2 Arena ecstatic listening to 16 of its greatest hits. It was something not seen for almost 20 years."

My personal favorite article is at The Set List: Led Zeppelin, London, 2007

"At Led Zeppelin's first reunion gig in 27 years, Robert Plant dedicated "Whole Lotta Love" to Ahmet Ertegun, noted that "Trampled Under Foot" was his Jimmy Page's attempt to sound like Robert Johnson's "Terraplane Blues" and provided no clues as to whether Led Zep will take the stage again, like on a tour of the States."

It's not that the article is anything special, but the comments are fracking hysterical. The world's most famous groupie, Pamela Des Barres posted this gem:

"I had sex with all of them in their heyday, and Peter Grant was definitely the champion when it came to a roll in the hay!"

Pamela has a MySpace Page, so perhaps I should send her a Friend Request. She is an ordained Minister now. *mega-eye-roll*

After Pamela's comment, a hip-hop troll absconds with the thread, and more hilarity ensues as it descends into the depths of a "rap is crap" scrap. As Vader would say, "All too easy."

*****



Robert Plant isn't looking too bad, but the goatee I'm not so sure about. Makes him look like Sammy Hagar after a night of too much Cabo Wabo.



Someone needs to tell Jimmy Page that the jazz box and sensible shoes make him look impossibly Old Fartish. Note Jones' boots: That's what I'm talking about. Very cool. John Paul looks fantastic for sixty-one, doesn't he?



That's more like it: I have never been, nor will I ever be quite that awesomely cool.

I hope they tour. I'd go far out of my way to catch one of their shows.

*****



One of my lady-friend readers from Australia - who is a "blonde" - has protested my recent redhead fixation, so I thought I'd remind everyone that I am an equal-opportunity lecherous old fool.

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Blond... or Redhead?

No contest.

While Norma Jean claimed that blonds have more fun, she wasn't a natural blond, was she? Nope. Even in the case of natural blonds, they outnumber redheads by a very wide statistical margin: Redheads are the rarest of the rare, which is why I find them so fascinating... ahem... OK, that's one of the reasons I find them so fascinating.

So, you can guess how I answered the, "Ginger, or Mary Ann?" question: That's right, Tina Louise all the way, baby.

*****

Never let it be said that God doesn't have a sense of humor with those who are His. While surfing the internet for information about Parker Nylon Fly owners, I found a forum at - where else - Parker Guitars, where a few of said owners hang out. Wouldn't you know it: There was a guy selling one there. And, this is no ordinary Parker Nylon Fly either: It's a one-of-a-kind Parker Custom Shop Nylon Fly Cedar! The standard Nylon Fly is made of spruce and comes in a translucent butterscotch finish - it's definitely a natural blond. This cedar Nylon Fly is?... a natural redhead. It is absolutely, positively unique: The only one on the planet.



I should have it in my hot little hands by Wednesday of this week, three days before my fiftieth (!) birthday. Notice that it also doesn't have the abalone inlay on the bridge like the stock Nylon Fly: I never cared for the "mother of toilet seat" look, so it's as if the guy who originally ordered the guitar ordered it especially for me... and, I guess he did!



Seriously, there is simply nothing cooler than a beautiful redhead.

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Mid-Life Crisis Lust Object

Well, since I turn fifty (!) on the fifteenth of this month - the day before Beethoven's actual date of birth, by the way (He was born on the sixteenth and baptized on the seventeenth) - I've decided I need an official mid-life crisis lust object. Unfortunately for all of the usual cliches, I don't really care for red Corvettes, and all of the twenty-something coeds I know already have boyfriends (Yeah, that's the reason). So, I decided to be as mature and rational as a man in crisis can possibly be: I'll buy myself a stupid-expensive guitar.

Take a look at the Parker Nylon Fly:



With a list price of $4,399.00 and a best price of $3,299.97, I think this qualifies as a mad, mad, mad, mad purchase: Perfect for a desperado in decline.

Fortunately, one of the benefits of being a Certified Old Fart is that you have developed an extensive network of contacts that you can network with in your half century (!!) of life. Meet my ace-in-the-hole (a-hole, for short), Mark Pollock of Transpecos Guitars. Turns out Mark may be able to get me one for less than any publishable price, and in only a few weeks. Age and treachery will beat youth an enthusiasm every time.

BWAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAAAAaaaa!



Also fortunately, I don't know any young women who look like this, because if I did I'd probably be sorely tempted to make an utter, abject fool of myself (Yeah, yeah: "No big stretch." I know).

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Interesting Weather in my Back Yard: Snow

Last Saturday morning it began to snow. It's not unheard of to get snow in November in Alpine, but it's hardly ever more than just a dusting, and it almost never sticks to the roads. This one was different. We got about four inches and the roads were a mess.

I took this Saturday morning shortly after looking up from my practicing and saying, "Holy crap!" About 10:00 AM.



At about 1:00 PM I noticed it was beginning to stick to the patio.



By 3:00 PM the patios - and the roads - were completely covered.



This was, of course, a sign from God.

I heard a voice say, "Go! Thou shalt play with thine 4x4 pickup in this snow I have smitten thee with!"

I obeyed, naturally. Fun was had. I checked the local McDonald's, but Al Gore was nowhere to be found. Strange...

By the middle of the night, an impressive collection of ice sickles had formed along my roof.



The next morning, it was a winter wonderland.



The ice sickles continued to grow throughout the day.



The snow, however, vanished by dusk on Sunday with temps back up into the high forties.



This is the way snow ought to be done. Last Wednesday it was 84 degrees and by next Wednesday it's supposed to be back up into the mid-seventies. The snow stays around for a day to have fun with, but not long enough to get dirty and tick me off. I love Alpine.



Now that's what I call a bad hair day. I don't have those anymore.

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Pope Benedict Reforming Catholic Liturgical Music

The Telegraph has an interesting article about Pope Benedict's continuing efforts to reform Catholic church music today. It begins:

"The Pope is considering a dramatic overhaul of the Vatican in order to force a return to traditional sacred music.

After reintroducing the Latin Tridentine Mass, the Pope wants to widen the use of Gregorian chant and baroque sacred music.

In an address to the bishops and priests of St Peter's Basilica, he said that there needed to be "continuity with tradition" in their prayers and music.

He referred pointedly to "the time of St Gregory the Great", the pope who gave his name to Gregorian chant.

Gregorian chant has been reinstituted as the primary form of singing by the new choir director of St Peter's, Father Pierre Paul."

As Instapundit would say, read the whole thing.

Also in The Telegraph, Damien Thompson has a response agreeing with the Pope. He's penned a wonderful opening line:

"For decades, the standard of singing in St Peter's basilica has struggled to match that of a Gilbert and Sullivan society."

Again, you should read it all. And, try not to get too creeped-out that it's written by a Catholic guy named "Damien." *shudder*

*****

First of all, in the spirit of full disclosure, I'm not a Catholic: I'm a Missouri Synod Lutheran (A very conservative Lutheran church), baptized and confirmed. So, I'm speaking from the sidelines here. However, I took my Nom de Web, Hucbald, from Hucbald of Amand, who is the earliest Western music theorist known to us by name, and who was also a Benedictine Monk.

I chose this name to blog under because I've gone back to the beginning of Western music and have studied everything I could about it from Hucbald's point to the present day. As a result I am hyper-aware that the Catholic church was the birthplace of Western art music - Hucbald, Gregory, Leoninus, Perotinus Magnus, through Palestrina - and then, of course, we Lutherans produced sublime composers of sacred music as well: Heinrich Schutz and J.S. Bach, for example.

So, though not a Catholic, I feel that I have a vested interest in this topic, and so I thought I ought to weigh in.

First of all, I think Pope Benedict is on the right track here, especially for the central church in Rome. Not only is properly performed Gregorian Chant hypnotically beautiful, but it also puts one in the proper spirit for worship. Not only that, but it is the very singular root (Oh, David!), of Western music, so chants' value as a teaching tool and cornerstone is incalculable.

Now, the article does not mention Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, but since his work is considered to be the pinnacle of Catholic counter-Reformation polyphonic sacred music, I assume that he will be... uh, "resurrected" as well. I certainly hope so. Again, this music is sublimely beautiful, and it is entirely appropriate for worship services.

I would hope, however, that worthy modern works would not be excluded from consideration entirely. If they are, a lot of talent may be wasted, and an opportunity missed: If living Catholic composers know that one or more of their works may end up being played in St. Peter's Basilica, they may produce such works. Not only that, but if the models are Gregory and Palestrina, those Catholic composers might write in styles closely related to or derived from Gregorian chant and Renaissance polyphony. I know I'd be up for that challenge. To me, this would be a very positive development in the compositional world.

We Lutherans have our battles with maintaining good liturgical music too, I might point out, but we never have lost sight of our musical foundations based on Schutz and Bach. That said, I really can't stand the harmonizations in our modern Hymnals: I wish we'd go back to the old Red Hymnal we used back before 1990, but oh well.

That said, we don't mind having good modern music played at our services either. I play my own compositions for a half-hour before services, and sometimes as the offertory music too (Though, admittedly, some may question our Pastor's taste for allowing this. LOL!).

So, in conclusion, I'm happy to hear that Gregory and probably Palestrina are going to be restored to their rightful places in Catholic liturgical music, but I hope that they are not to become the exclusive sources to the detriment of living Catholic composers who may be inspired to contribute to their services. Tradition is great, but Gregory and Palestrina were once living, breathing human beings who God inspired to worship Him in music: Today's living, breathing Catholic composers ought not to be denied the opportunity to do likewise if they are also so inspired.



One of my jazz musician fiends, er friends - and a former Berklee classmate - sent me this a couple of weeks back. I've just been waiting for the right opportunity to use it. Isn't it fantastic?

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Happy Thanksgiving!

My manager sent me this.



She's always thinking of me. It's what she's thinking of me I wonder about.

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David Brooks: Musical Ultra-Moron

This column was so impossibly bad that I simply had to exorcise myself with it. I apologize in advance to all of those who I am about to offend.

*****

This is why people suffering from "Feck-Deficit Disorder" shouldn't be allowed to write about music and culture. The original column, as much as I detest having to link to it, is here.

And so, off I go...

*****

November 20, 2007
OP-ED COLUMNIST
The Segmented Society
By DAVID BROOKS

On Feb. 9, 1964, the Beatles played on “The Ed Sullivan Show.” Or as Steven Van Zandt remembers the moment: “It was the beginning of my life.”

*****

Me: OK, I happened to miss that when it first aired, however, I was six years old at the time and the first record I ever owned was Meet The Beatles, so count me in (The second was Beatles 65, and I used to love the Beatles movies).

*****

Van Zandt fell for the Beatles and discovered the blues and early rock music that inspired them. He played in a series of bands on the Jersey shore, and when a friend wanted to draw on his encyclopedic blues knowledge for a song called “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out,” Van Zandt wound up as a guitarist for Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band.

*****

Me: And I remember, from my high school days, when "Born to Run" came out and the cover of the Rolling Stone had Bruce with the caption, "The New Rock Messiah?" I'm in on this as well.

*****

The 1970s were a great moment for musical integration. Artists like the Rolling Stones and Springsteen drew on a range of musical influences and produced songs that might be country-influenced, soul-influenced, blues-influenced or a combination of all three. These mega-groups attracted gigantic followings and can still fill huge arenas.

*****

Me: Are you fracking kidding me?! I was the kid carving "Disco Sucks" into desktops with my Boy Scout pocket knife during class in the 70's. Live music venues went from R&B to Tony Monero's musically lobotomized Saturday Night Fever haunts over night and in droves. It was a very fractured scene and a horrible, horrible time to be a small time musician into substantive music. The integration you speak of, David, is a myth: It's all in your mind.

The Stones and Springsteen still fill large venues because of other nostalgic souls with rose colored memories. I've been to a few of those shows: The Stones and The Who in particular, and I was amazed by the gray-haired demographic there. Lots of "Lone Wolf" Harley cartoon dudes and dudettes reaching back for a stale slice of a youth they idealize beyond the old reality they lived.

*****

But cultural history has pivot moments, and at some point toward the end of the 1970s or the early 1980s, the era of integration gave way to the era of fragmentation. There are now dozens of niche musical genres where there used to be this thing called rock. There are many bands that can fill 5,000-seat theaters, but there are almost no new groups with the broad following or longevity of the Rolling Stones, Springsteen or U2.

*****

Me: Exactly backwards, David: During the 80's Paul Simon began working with African musicians, Sting began working with jazz musicians, C&W integrated progressively more R&R elements, and the young mainstream country guys stopped "kicking hippies' asses" and started growing their own damn hair.

Then, there was the full flowering of this thing called Jazz-Rock Fusion, in which guys like John McLaughlin ended up working with... masters of Indian classical music. Even jazz pioneers like Miles Davis hired fusion musicians as sidemen.

The 80's also marked the beginnig of the computerized electronic musical instrument, MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface), FM (Frequency Modulation) digital synthesis, and the sampling technology that lead, regrettably, to rap "music." I know, because I was on the leading edge of this as one of the first Synclavier guitarists: The 80's was the "golden age" of digital synthesis, and it was a GREAT time to be a musician.

One of the reasons there aren't many mega-bands around anymore is because they are dinosaurs: Corporate-sponsored schlok - not rock for the most part - with bazzillions of dollars thrown at promoting them. All of that technology I just mentioned has become cheap and ubiquitously available, AND THAT HAS DEMOCRATIZED THE MUSIC SCENE! Increasingly, bands no longer require record companies and/or corporate sponsorship. This is a GOOD thing.

I believe you are forgetting the late 80's heavy metal scene too, in which bands like Metallica filled huge arenas just fine, thank you very much.

*****

People have been writing about the fragmentation of American music for decades. Back in the Feb. 18, 1982, issue of Time, Jay Cocks wrote that American music was in splinters. But year after year, the segmentation builds.

*****

Me: Far from being a lamentable situation, the fact that audiences can now choose music that suits their tastes more closely is a wonderful development: It satisfies the listener better and it employs MORE MUSICIANS! I call chicken little.

*****

Last month, for example, Sasha Frere-Jones wrote an essay in The New Yorker noting that indie rock is now almost completely white, lacking even the motifs of African-American popular music. Carl Wilson countered in Slate that indie rock’s real wall is social; it’s the genre for the liberal-arts-college upper-middle class.

*****

Me: So, are you proposing forced integration in the music scene, or what? If so, why not decry the musical poverty of the rap and hip-hop scenes and the fact that those generas relate almost exclusively to only urban black audiences?... That's what I thought. I'm tempted to throw a STFU in at this point.

*****

Technology drives some of the fragmentation. Computers allow musicians to produce a broader range of sounds. Top 40 radio no longer serves as the gateway for the listening public. Music industry executives can use market research to divide consumers into narrower and narrower slices.
But other causes flow from the temper of the times. It’s considered inappropriate or even immoral for white musicians to appropriate African-American styles. And there’s the rise of the mass educated class.

*****

Me: This is a complete and utter crock of steaming, abject shite. As I mentioned previously, that today's technology allows more musicians to participate and serve specific audiences better is a VERY, VERY GOOD THING, and thank God Almighty that "Top 40 radio" is no longer the gatekeeper and arbiter of musical taste. Only legacy record companies radio stations could regret such a development. So, who's paying you, David?

*****

People who have built up cultural capital and pride themselves on their superior discernment are naturally going to cultivate ever more obscure musical tastes. I’m not sure they enjoy music more than the throngs who sat around listening to Led Zeppelin, but they can certainly feel more individualistic and special.

*****

Me: Just when I though this guy couldn't get any more asinine.

Yes, that's exactly what happened to me David. You've pwn3d me. After starting out getting the police called on me for playing too loudly in garage bands as a teen - yes, Led Zeppelin and Jimi Hendrix were to blame - I went and got a BM from Berklee in professional music, where I learned to play and compose jazz. You can just sense the inner snob coming out of me, can't you?

Not happy with this level of snot-nosed-ness, I returned to school for an MM in traditional theory and composition, during which time I fell in love with fugue writing. Now we're talking, right? My only regret ought to be that my little white guy nose isn't longer so I could look down it farther, correct?

Why then do I still play Led Zeppelin in my set... right alongside of Bach and Beethoven? How come I still play Van Halen in my set... right, smack dab in between some of the very traditional stuff I write? What reason could I possibly have for composing a sonata with a first movement that is based on rock tap technique, a second movement that is neo-Romantic, a scherzo that is a swing tune, and a finale that is a fugue?

Could it possibly be that I simply LOVE MUSIC? Remember Ellington's words, David? He was right.

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Van Zandt grew up in one era and now thrives in the other, but how long can mega-groups like the E Street Band still tour?

“This could be the last time,” he says.

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Me: Cry me a river.

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He argues that if the Rolling Stones came along now, they wouldn’t be able to get mass airtime because there is no broadcast vehicle for all-purpose rock. And he says that most young musicians don’t know the roots and traditions of their music. They don’t have broad musical vocabularies to draw on when they are writing songs.

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Me: Bwaahaahaahaahaaaa! Excuse me, I need to take a pee. BRB...

First sentence: Too bad/Thank God.

Second sentence: Young musicians have never known Dick Johnson. They'll learn, or they'll perish. Call it musical Darwinism.

Third sentence: This is ridiculous, and so I'll ridicule it. Kids growing up today are positively bathed in music from birth: It's virtually impossible to escape it. That's all the vocabulary they need to start out with. I know this, because that's what I started out with. And, seriously, look how well I turned out. LOL!

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As a result, much of their music (and here I’m bowdlerizing his language) stinks.

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Me: Since Thomas Bowdler became infamous for expurgating Shakespeare, perhaps you should think twice before sinking to his miserable level of mediocrity. Let me guess: Sucks?

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He describes a musical culture that has lost touch with its common roots.

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Me: Did you mean, "common root"? If so, there is no common root: You were right while being wrong (Unless you refer to the Western art music tradition, but since you never mention it in your article, I assume you mean popular music). American popular music has three main points of origin: The Scots-Irish tradition that leads to folk, bluegrass, and C&W; the negro spirituals that lead to blues, jazz, R&B, and rock, as well as the Western art music tradition. These things have been combining and re-combining for decades, and they will continue to do so. How can you not see this?

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And as he speaks, I hear the echoes of thousands of other interviews concerning dozens of other spheres.

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I deduce that you "live in a world without time: Where sound collides with color, and shadows explode." There are professionals out there who can help you with this problem. Either that, or tell me where I can get some of what you're smoking.

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It seems that whatever story I cover, people are anxious about fragmentation and longing for cohesion. This is the driving fear behind the inequality and immigration debates, behind worries of polarization and behind the entire Obama candidacy.

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Me: I love this phenomenon, and I notice it on a lot of liberal musician's blogs as well: It is almost impossible for liberals to write about any subject without mentioning leftist politics at least once.

What's behind the Obama candidacy is indeed new: An empty suit has been magnified into a perfect vacuum that sucks the brains out of any liberal that strays within 500 feet. Not that those brains would make a dent in that perfect vacuum, of course.

I thought John Edwards had done this last cycle, but I was wrong: Obama brings an unprecedented level of vacuousness to the term empty suit.

Look pal, I'm not anxious about fragmentation, because I actually do celebrate diversity, versus talking out of my ass about it while simultaneously lamenting it like you do. I also don't long for cohesion if it means snuggling up to idiots like you. I worry about real things like terrorism: I was in D.C. on 09/11 and watched the Pentagon burn out of my office window. That got rid of any lingering liberal sentiments I may have had.

What I worry about is that all of us remain free to pursue whatever kind of music we want, without the danger of censorship from fascists of any and all stripes. I want you to be free to be the Age of Endarkenment hairball you obviously are, so long as I can remain free to be the Age of Reason throwback that I am. Fair enough?

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If you go to marketing conferences, you realize we really are in the era of the long tail. In any given industry, companies are dividing the marketplace into narrower and more segmented lifestyle niches.

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Me: What on earth does the long tail have to do with marketing niches? As I understand it, the long tail is a term that relates to weblogs: If you've been around a long time and have posted a lot, you have a long tail, and so are likely to get more hits via search engines.

I won't be happy until lifestyle niches are so narrow that they are absolutely one dimensional and I can flip through them on my iPhone to chose the one I happen to be in the mood for at the time. Get it? I mean, at this point I have to wonder.

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Van Zandt has a way to counter all this, at least where music is concerned. He’s drawn up a high school music curriculum that tells American history through music. It would introduce students to Muddy Waters, the Mississippi Sheiks, Bob Dylan and the Allman Brothers. He’s trying to use music to motivate and engage students, but most of all, he is trying to establish a canon, a common tradition that reminds students that they are inheritors of a long conversation.

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Me: If you start with Leoninus and Perotinus Magnus and lead from there through Palestrina, Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, and then onto American popular music, count me in. Otherwise, piss off.

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And Van Zandt is doing something that is going to be increasingly necessary for foundations and civic groups. We live in an age in which the technological and commercial momentum drives fragmentation. It’s going to be necessary to set up countervailing forces — institutions that span social, class and ethnic lines.

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Me: At this point, I'm tired and bored, so I'l just get all ad hominem on your ass: What an intractable idiot!

I guess Steve does need something to occupy his time now that The Sopranos is history though.

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Music used to do this. Not so much anymore.

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Me: I can't believe 85 IQ BB-brains like this guy get paid to write this kind of insipid drivel.

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Well, today's practice regimen is in the crapper, but I somehow feel better despite that fact.



That is one of the most beautiful and graceful profiles I've ever seen. Simply magnificent.

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Jay Greenberg: Finally!

I've said many times that if a composer appeared who I ought to hear about, I would. Well, I've heard the name "Jay Greenberg" around the web several times over the past year or so, usually associated with words like "prodigy" and "Mozart." This "hype" finally got my full and complete attention yesterday with an article at CNN, and so I went to the iTunes Store to download his first CD.



Ok, where to begin? Jay is currently fifteen years old, and this CD is of his fifth Symphony! He wrote this when he was twelve!!! He's already written over one-hundred works, evidently, and so his output is truly early and prodigious. He's already had some of the best teachers out there, including Samuel Adler, whose Orchestration text is indispensable to me, and it shows. He has a profoundly deep and organic mastery of the orchestra, and his compositions are extremely well structured and logical in their layout. He also has an effortless lyricism - doubtless my weakest link - and his melodies transition from dark and brooding to playful and/or joyous; sometimes startlingly, and sometimes so subtly that it actually takes a few seconds for you to notice that your mood has been changed.

It is impossible to escape the term "neo-Romantic" when trying to describe his music, but that term carries some prejudicial baggage with it that certainly ought not to be applied to Mr. Greenberg's work (It makes me laugh to call a fifteen-year-old "Mister"). He's obviously a fan of Bartok, and equally obviously, he's heard a few John Williams film scores. So, there is quite a bit of dissonance, but it never gets "ugly": Close enough to make me cringe though, especially in the String Quintet, where I was laughing at some of the wackier episodes. Oh yeah, he has an awesome musical sense of humor for such a young kid.

So, drag your digital carcass on over to Amazon or the iTunes Store and buy this CD. It really is the most amazing thing my jaded ears have heard in decades.



When I was fifteen all I could think about was girls... some things never change.

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Charting a Path Forward

After a week-long high upon completing Sonata One, I realized that it is, again, my least favorite time of the year: Daylight Savings Time is gone, Old Man Winter is bearing down (Though, it was in the low 80's here in Alpine today!)... and it's the "Holiday Season." Bah, humbug.

I imagine many middle-aged bachelors are not fond of the holiday season - it is all about family, after all, and aside from mom, I don't have any - but this year may suck more than usual because I turn fifty (?!) on the fifteenth of December. Then again, I may not give a rip, but I'm feeling rather glum this afternoon, in any event.

Every year at about this point I begin to assess my progress over the past twelve months, and since I work my ass off, that usually cheers me up a bit. I'm at the end of the third year of a five year plan I have, and things are going swimmingly, if I'm objective about it. In September of 2004, I picked up a guitar again after having not touched one in over four years. Six months later, in February of 2005, I played my first paying gig on over a decade. Two months later, I landed my first weekly gig (Tips and dinner only, at that point), and in June, I got one that actually paid. I still play there, and they have, of their own volition, raised my pay twice.

Then, in June of 2005 I played my first real paying wedding in almost fifteen years, and started being asked to private functions as well. Thanksgiving of that year was quite nice, as I was asked to play at a dinner out at a nice little ranch, they tipped me a hundred bucks over my pay, and fed me all the trimmings of home. God is good.

Not a bad fourteen months worth of of work.

I landed a second and a third weekly around Christmas, played at a few art galleries, and my repertoire kept on growing. By February of this year, I had memorized - and/or re-memorized - over fifty pieces in less than thirty months.

In case you're reading this and you're not a performer, let me put the above statement into perspective for you: That's just a whole shit-load of work, right there.

Add to all of this that I started working with a manager again for the first time since my rock guitarist days back in the late 1980's - and that has just worked out amazingly well - and you would think it hard for me to be down. Well, you ought to be right, of course. Problem is, there is just a ton of work still to be done, and two more years is a lot more of this to "look forward" to.

I re-recorded my Y2K CD Fossils - which was just a very rough demo before - this year, and I must admit that getting that out of the way is a huge relief (Some of those pieces are almost twenty years old now: Fossils indeed). I'm also only two pieces away from learning all of the pieces for my next CD, Heavy Nylon now, and so I can see the light at the end of that project now too.

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Here's how Heavy Nylon is shaping up:

01] Tears in the Rain - Joe Satriani
02] Classical Gas - Mason Williams
03] Desert Song - Eric Johnson
04] Spanish Fly - Eddie Van Halen
05] A Day at the Beach - Joe Satriani
06] Bouree - Jethro Tull
07] Eu So Quero Um Xodo - Dominguinhos
08] Mood for a Day - Steve Howe
09] Yankee Doodle Dixie - Chet Atkins
10] Heavy Nylon - Hucbald
11] Fighter Pilots - Hucbald
12] Stairway to Heaven - Jimmy Page

I've memorized ten of those in the past thirty-six months! Only the Tull Bouree (My own arrangement, including the second section, which Ian Anderson never did) and Mood for a Day left to go.

*****

Well, completing Sonata One has been unexpected, and it has changed the entire plan I thought I had laid out (Man plans/God laughs, right?). Much of the past couple of days worth of agony has centered on how, exactly, to proceed at this point.

Ive been learning the first of the Lineal Studies in G major - a totally new class of pieces I started writing a year or so back - and that is coming along well (It's unlike anything else I've ever played before, so it's slow going), and then I need to "plug a hole" in the E minor suite of my set.

This has caused me no end of heartache. If I am going to learn something by another composer, 1) I have to love it, and 2) it has to fill a space I need it to fill in my set. I was thinking about the E minor Sarabande from Bach's lute suite in that key, but I just don't like that piece.

Well, I spent much of last night searching the internet for E minor guitar pieces, and I finally found something perfect: Erik Satie's Gymnopedie No. 1. It starts out in E major but ends on an E minor chord, it's easy to play, and I love it! I should have it done before Christmas.

Then - and this will probably tic my manager off, as she's anxious for me to finish the Heavy Nylon project - I'm going to learn the Tocatta: I simply must start on Sonata One ASAP.

To-do list for 2008:

01] Tocatta
02] Jesu Mein freude - J.S. Bach
03] Bouree - Jethro Tull
04] Sleeper's Awake - J.S. Bach
05] Fugue (From Sonata Zero)
06] Mood for a Day - Steve Howe

I can hear God laughing already.



One of my manager's friends sent her this from Italy the other day. She said she thought of me immediately. I'm not exactly sure how to take that.

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Sonata One in E Minor for Solo Guitar: IV - Fugue

You can download the PDF scores and MIDI to MP3 conversions of all four movements of Sonata One here.

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UPDATE: Since I first wrote this post in a single marathon session, I left some things out, of course. Scroll down for the updates at the appropriate places.

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Fugue writing is by far my favorite compositional endeavor. Nothing else even comes close. I view it as the ultimate compositional challenge in general, and on the guitar - where imitative counterpoint is about as non-idiomatic as one can get - it's even lightyears beyond this.

I remember the first fugue I heard performed on the guitar quite vividly: It was Bach's A minor fugue for lute (Originally in G minor) performed by Christopher Parkening. This was in about 1978, and my teacher Jackie King turned me on to it. The first words out of my mouth were, "It sounds so logical!" I immediately went out and bought everything Christopher Parkening had recorded to that point: In The Spanish Style, In the Classic Style, and Parkening Plays Bach. To this day, I don't think anyone of the strict Segovia tradition guitarists is anywhere near where Parkening is at: His effortless command of the instrument, as evidenced by the exquisite nuances in his interpretations, is simply unmatched. None of the more recent virtuoso pioneers have this quality to their playing either: Kazuhito Yamashita's tone is quite strident by comparison, for example, despite his super-powerful playing.

Later, when I was attending Berklee College of Music in Boston, I had the amazing good fortune to have a counterpoint teacher named Chris Frigon. Though I was interested in becoming a famous rock guitarist at the time, Chris' class - a required course I admittedly dreaded when I registered for it - was a revelation in many ways. His seriousness about the subject and obvious command of it impressed me deeply: Chris was probably the first real highly educated musician I ever encountered of the traditional pedagogical line. And, what a line it was too:

1) Johann Sebastian Bach

-Taught-

2) Wilhelm Friedman Bach

-Who Taught-

3) Franz Joseph Haydn

-Who Taught-

4) Ludwig van Beethoven

-Who Taught-

5) Carl Czerny

-Who Taught-

6) Theodore Leschetizky

-Who Taught-

7) Edwine Behre

-Who Taught-

8) Chris Frigon

-Who Taught-

9) Hucbald

Is that cool, or what?

Though nothing came of it at the time, I had the idea to really master counterpoint in the back of my mind from that point forward, and a few years later - around 1986 - when I was in NYC, I started stopping by the Joseph Patelson Music House across from Carnegie Hall every payday to buy a counterpoint book. I became positively absorbed by the subject.

Some of the books I bought and studied during that time were: Riemann's History of Music Theory, Tenney's History of Consonance and Dissonance, Mann's The Study of Fugue, Gedalge's Treatise on Fugue, Zarlino's The Art of Counterpoint, Fux' The Study of Counterpoint, Rameau's Treatise on Harmony, and Taneiev's Convertible Counterpoint in the Strict Style. You get the idea: I wanted to know what just about everybody thought about the subject (And, there were other books by Benjamin, Kennan, Jeppesen, Piston and others I got as well).

This lead almost immediately to me writing just a bunch of studies for solo guitar, and eventually I abandoned the rock guitarist lifestyle and returned to school and a master's program in traditional theory and composition.

My first fugal works were for solo organ since my fiance at the time (then wife, now ex-wife) was a Lutheran Music Minister and virtuoso organist. I really wanted to write fugues for the guitar, but all of the subjects I came up with wouldn't "fit" on the guitar: This problem plagued me for over a decade.

It wasn't until 2005 that I came up with a new class of subject that was stately - as the Musical Offering and Art of Fugue subjects are - and also fit on the guitar. This subject is what became the three imitative movements of Sonata Zero.

Immediately after finishing Sonata Zero I had the idea to do a guitar transcription if the Organ Fugue in D Minor that is usually attributed to Bach: Just noodling around with it I figured out that the repeated note subject and answer at the fourth would work perfectly on the guitar in E minor, which would employ the open B and E strings. This exercise made me certain of at least two things: 1) There is no way that J.S. Bach is the author of this fugue, and 2) The original fugue was written by some unknown virtuoso lutenist. I am absolutely positive about that.

For a bit about the scholarly debate on this subject, you can start at the Wikipedia entry here.

While the opening Tocatta may indeed have been originally for the violin, this fugue was originally for the archlute, and was not written by J.S. Bach. It simply fits all too well on the guitar, and there is no real counterpoint in it: The countersubject, such as it is, merely makes parallel thirds or sixths with the melodic trajectory of the subject. This would be exactly the kind of thing a lutenist whose counterpoint was shaky would have come up with.

Since I liked the premise of the D Minor Organ Fugue, but not the lame execution of that premise, I decided to use the same premise, only make it a real contrapuntal tour de force. So, I composed a better subject and a real countersubject to it, and I used Sergi Taneiev's techniques from Convertible Counterpoint in the Strict Style so that the original combination would yeild derivatives at different intervallic distances.

This is easier than it sounds: If there is nothing but contrary and oblique motion between the subject and countersubject, both lines can be doubled in thirds - or sixths, but I don't use that here, because it wouldn't work out on the guitar - and so many possibilities exist.

In the D Minor Organ Fugue, the subject's repeated note, or Zero Axis as Joseph Schillinger called it, is always functioning as the fifth of the mode of the moment, but two other possibilities exist: The zero axis can also function as the root or third of the mode of the moment. I used those possibilities too, and I don't think any composer has ever employed this strategy to vary a fugue subject before. By doing this, I was able to modulate to a host of keys, some of which are quite remote from the tonic, while still using the open strings of the guitar for the zero axes.

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It is worth noting that, to this point, the opening Tocatta ended on an E tonic with a Picardy third in it, which I deliberately did not confirm as a modal shift by using a fully diminished seventh chord in the final cadence. Then, the Sonata is in A minor, which is where the answer is in this fugue, and it ended plaintively in A minor, even though there was an A major section within it. The Scherzo was in the relative major of G, but the second phrase of it was in G minor, and it ended on a blurry G(6/9) chord, and so now we are set up for the final battle between major and minor.

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On the top system is the subject, which has all of the most perfect dimentional attributes that a subject can contain: It is an odd number of measures in length at seven, and it is also fractional with the eighth note anticipation. Odd is better than even, and fractional is better than whole: There is almost nothing worse than a four measure fugue subject, which makes Bach's Motto Theme from The Art of Fugue a monumental anomaly.

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UPDATE: I should have also noted that the original subject contains all nine notes of the nonatonic minor system, and it has the range of a ninth as well.

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In the original subject and answer, the zero axis is functioning as the fifth of the mode of the moment, just like in the D Minor Organ Fugue's opening. One of the things I have done is to carefully manage all of the appearances and disappearances of the axes: The melodic trajectory of the subject merges smoothly into the counter-answer into measure eight, and - via the sixteenth note figure im measure seven - the zero axis also merges into the answer's melodic trajectory. There are no "loose ends" in this fugue.

On the second system is the answer at the subdominant level, and it is accompanied by the main counter-answer. As you can see, there is nothing but contrary motion between the answer and counter-answer from measure to measure, and oblique motion within the measures (Except at the end, where there is contrary motion with the lower quarter notes). This means both the melodic trajectory of the answer and the counter-answer could be doubled in thirds and all resulting contrapuntal relationships would be correct. This fugue is a progressive realization of those possibilities.

On the third system is the first episode, which I call a "release area." and this one does not modulate. As you can see in the final measure of it, the zero axis on E descends to merge smoothly with the upcoming counter-answer, the melodic trajectory merges into the bass line's A, and then the lower voice is free to begin another statement of the answer.

The octave inversion statement beginning in measure twenty does not use an open string for the zero axis: This is the only place in the fugue where I had to do that, so it is quite difficult to execute, but the fugue wouldn't work without it. We're still in A minor here, but this statement of the answer and counter-answer sets up the modulation to C major I want. Well, need, actually.

On the bottom system starting at measure twenty-seven is the first of the second type of episode, which I call sequential episodes, since they grow out of the final measure of the answer/counter-answer or subject/counter-subject. In measure thirty-three we have modulated to C.



As you can see, we are now in C major, but the zero axis is still the open E string, which means it is functioning as the major third here. This also means that the counter-subject (This is the subject form, with the descending trajectory at the tail of the subject, with the rising quarters in the counter-subject, which we get here for the first time) is a third closer to the subject in this statement: This is Taneiev's Convertible Counterpoint at work.

In the sequential episode starting on the second system, notice that the melodic trajectory fragments above always merge into unisoni with the bass line at the start of every measure, and the zero axis on E becomes an E-flat before continuing down to merge with the next counter-answer statement. This means we have not modulated, but we have changed the gender of the mode to C minor.

The C minor statement is in an octave inversion again, and it employs the open G string as the zero axis for the first time. That means it is functioning as the fifth again.

At fifty-five we get the third type of episode, which I call a concluding episode, because it concludes the exposition and the development to lead into the counter-exposition and the recapitulation later. At the end I've put a double bar line, because this is the end of the exposition.

As you can see, this is a combination of fugal process and monothematic sonata process.

On the bottom system the counter-exposition begins with the subject exactly as at the beginning of the piece, but now there is a drone on the high E string, the zero axis is on the open B string (as before), and the counter-subject is now in the bass. That makes the exposition a two-voice deal and the counter-exposition a three voice kind of thing: The recapitulation will be four voices, revealing the entire original contrapuntal combination. Note again how I'm careful to merge the axes and trajectories: The open low E at fifty-five is merely an octave transposition.



Here we get the answer, counter-answer one, and counter-answer two for the first time. Though counter-answer two does not follow the trajectory of the answer throughout - the voices actually cross in measure seventy-one - it does effectively double the trajectory in thirds, which is a further revelation of the original combination.

The release area episode on the second system is exactly like its counterpart in the exposition until the end, where a C-sharp is introduced to change the mode to A major. The sharps in A major will allow me to modulate to C-sharp minor at the end of the following sequential episode. So the third system is just like the earlier A minor statement except for the mode.

In the fourth system you can see how the modulation works out: We're at C-sharp minor by the end, instead of C major as before. This means the bottom system is exactly like the earlier C major statement in that the open E is the third of the mode of the moment, but now it's the minor third of C-sharp minor versus the major third of C. See how cool this is?



One of these accumulated sharps has to be shed, of course, and that's what the sequential episode at the top of page four allows: We're back to A major by the end of it.

On the second system begins the first of the fourth type of episode, which I call a chromatic episode because they are all over chromatic lines in the bass. Note that I left out the sixteenths at the end of measure one-hundred-six leading into it: I didn't want that rhythm to clash with the new placement in the chromatic episode... yet. This episode is nineteen measures long, and it acts as a release from the constant fugal struggle we've endured so far, and it also modulates to C major by the end.

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UPDATE: I should have pointed out that, after all the painstaking management of the axes and trajectories up to this point, the C-sharp is abandoned for the first of the chromatic bass line episodes at measure one-hundred-seven. This creates a tension throughout the episode that is not resolved until measures 124-125 where the C-sharp resolves up to D and then the D progresses down to C-natural to effect the modulation.

*****

The C major statement of the answer at one-twenty-six has the main counter-answer doubled in thirds for the first time, and it is in octave inversion as well: This was the C minor statement last time, and the open G zero axis is again the fifth of the mode.



The counter-exposition is longer than the exposition was, and all of the statements are now new. The sequential episode at the top was the concluding episode last time, and we modulate to A major by the end of it. The answer/counter-answer statement at one-hundred-forty has the counter-answer doubled in thirds again, but in the original octave arrangement.

Our old reliable release area episode keeps us in A major, and sets up the first appearance of the inversus form of the subject, which also has the low A string zero axis functioning of the root of the mode for the first time as well. The inversus form of the counter-answer is also doubled in thirds.

This leads to a properly unique sequential episode to lead into the development areas: It's inverted, and you get triad, diad, and monad as the trajectories merge. A second double bar line signals the beginning of the development.



The development is in two sections, just like the exposition and counter-exposition. Also like them, I modulate to closer keys the first time through, and follow the same pattern but modulating to the more remote keys the second time.

We begin with an answer statement on the same level as the original subject, but now the main counter-answer is in the lead voice, and there is a tonic pedal in the bass. This passage is only possible because the low E pedal and the zero axis B are open strings.

Since this is an answer form, we get a new version of the release area episode on the second system, and this modulates us to A minor.

The A minor statement on the third system has the answer and counter-answer two, but above an alternating pedal using the open low A and E strings: It's actually pretty easy to play.

In the release area episode starting at one-hundred-eighty-four, we get a modulation to G major. Note the chromatic movement of the D-sharp in measure 186 into the D-natural in 187: This is a setup for the next time, where the notes will be reversed. Since the bottom system is in G major and the zero axis B is the major third, that means the next time we get here it will be G-sharp minor with the B as the minor third. Shiny!

The final statement on the page is the subject form with a drone G in the lead, and the counter-answer below.



The sequential episode at the top is further developed with the G in the lead coming down to D-sharp at the end for the return to E minor. Next time, this episode will start out with a G-sharp in the lead, of course.

At two-hundred-one we get the second of the chromatic bass line episodes, and I again avoided the sixteenths at the end of two-hundred so as not to clash with the episode's rhythmic figure at this point. Note that between the low F-sharp and the D-sharp in the lead at two-undred we have a major sixth: I'll make that an augmented sixth with an F-natural next time, to set up the final development statement in E-flat major.

*****

UPDATE: Again, a tension is created when the A is abandoned at measure two-hundred. It is not picked up and absorbed into the bass line until the G in measure 207, so the suspense only lasts half of this particular episode.

*****

This chromatic bass line episode does not modulate this time, however, getting us to the E minor statement that starts on the fourth system. here, the open G zero axis is the minor third of the mode, the open B is a drone above, and the counter-answer is in the lead; all over a tonic pedal in the bass.

From 216 into 217 I have technically gotten myself a parallel stepwise dissonance between the F-sharp in the bass and the open G that launches the new answer statement. First it's a minor ninth, and then a major ninth, though, and since the answer immediately goes up to the minor third, I gave myself this single licence. Since it's a ninth, and the entire piece is based on nine and twenty-seven, it seemed appropriate.

The sequential episode on the bottom system is the most dramatic yet, and it leads to the exuberance climax of the piece with the appearance of the key of E major for the first time on the next page. You can see how I took the sixteenth duplets, expanded them in the previous episode at the end, and then added even more in the last measure of the page. A double bar signals the end of the first half of the development.



Here we have E major for the first time, and the combination is like the previous appearance of E minor at this point, except for the fact that counter-answer two is now present. You need to employ the right hand c finger to execute this passage, and yes, it's a bitch to play, but it is technically possible.

The release area episode on the second system takes us to A major this time, otherwise it is the same as before.

OK, *big sigh* the statement at measure two-hundred-forty-two has a pedal underneath that is alternated with the counter-answer above. You really don't need the c finger here, but it would help. And, as for myself, I plan to use funk bass technique to slap the low E's... but that's just me. ;^) This passage can be simplified by playing the counter-answer line as quarter notes versus the half notes here.

The release area on the fourth system now takes us to G-sharp minor, as I mentioned it would, and so we get that super-remote key area on the bottom system: Five freaking sharps!



Here's the sequential episode I mentioned earlier that starts with G-sharp in the lead. It sheds four sharps in its six measures, and there's the F-natural in the bass making the augmented sixth with the D-sharp above at the end there. This leads into a literal repeat of the earlier chromatic bass line episode (And I again avoid the clashing sixteenth placements)... until the very last measure: There you can see how I use the sixteenth note run to make the modulation to E-flat major this go-round, and the F-natural reappears, so the earlier setup is complete.

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UPDATE: As before, the abandoned A in 265 is picked up by the bass at the G in 272.

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Since the guitar only goes down to E-natural, I was able to avoid the parallel ninths this time by just abandoning the bass line. However, the F-natural does finally resolve to E-natural at the beginning of the next page.

The E-flat major statement is quite a challenge, since the B-flats are not an open string, and this leads to the second appearance of the concluding episode - no developed a bit - which returns us to the recapitulation.

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UPDATE: Note three flats. The most remote keys are four sharps to the sharp side, and four flats to the flat side: a total difference of nine accidentals including the original key.

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The high C-sharp in measure two-hundred-ninety-four is the pitch climax of the piece, and it comes at... the 72% point!



Here's the recap, and we are now starting in E major and have four primary voices. The subject statement has an open E drone in the lead, the subject below, counter-subject two for the third voice, and counter-subject one in the bass. For the answer statement we have the fully revealed original combination: The answer is in the lead, counter-answer two is below that, and counter-answer one doubled in thirds is below, but I managed to get the funk bass pedal on E in here too. This is an extreme passage that would take a Christopher Parkening or a Kazuhito Yamashita to play. Again, it can be simplified by playing counter-answer one as quarter notes throughout.

This fully formed original combination is what I composed first - without the bass drone, of course - and it only works in this octave and in the major mode which set the whole fugue up for me. I didn't think of the funky bass pedal until after I wrote out the development sections.

After the release area episode, which is a measure shorter now and returns us to E minor, we get the inversus using the low E string as the zero axis root for the first time. Since this is the answer form, it leads to another short release area episode which keeps us in E minor. Note that the inversus really doesn't work well in the minor mode: Raised sixth and seventh degrees are required while the inverted answer's trajectory is descending. It would work much better in the major mode... which is the point.



Now we get a statement of the subject in E minor, but with the high E string zero acis being the root for the first time. This requires a modification of counter-subject two.

In the second system the key of E minor attempts to "hijack" the fugue by ending it early with the first appearance of the ending episode (Versus the earlier concluding episodes, which just ushered in the counter-exposition and recapitulation). This has a descending chromatic tetrachord for three measures, followed by a return to the tonic through the raised sixth and seventh degrees. Beethoven used this figure at the conclusion of the first movement of the Ninth Symphony.

The figure repeats with me, re, do in the bass of the fourth measure each time, and it really does sound like the piece is building to an ending.

At the last possible second, E major interrupts and does the inversus statement in this preferrable form, followed by its major mode release area.



The major mode version of the subject with the root as the zero axis follows, and this too is a more satisfying arrangement of the material. At the end of this statement of the subject, however, the final chromatic bass line episode appears, and I let the sixteenth rhythms clash, because I have to: This episode is not coming out of a sequential episode, but a thematic statement! Note that this is also the first chromatic bass line episode that is built on a descending chromatic line, and that the E that begins it is abandoned. With all of the axes and trajectories so well managed throughout the fugue, this is noticible to an astute listener.

Well, that E is picked up at the return of the ending episode on the fourth system: A nice bit of tension.

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UPDATE: The above mentioned tension is a part of a pattern I have created previously, of course.

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This ending episode is different, however, because the fourth measure has MI, re, do instead of ME, re, do as before: The chromatic descending tetrachord implies a minor ending, but the mi, re, do figure implies a major ending. This is the final conflict.



The conflict is finally resolved on the second system where the chromatic tetrachord gives up and becomes diatonic to the key of E major, and in parallel thirds, which leads up to the twenty-seventh statement: The trajectories of the subject and counter-subject in augmentation harmonized with the axes of B and E.

As Emeril would say, "BAM!"

Twenty-seven thematic statements, twenty-seven episodes, and ten keys (Nine keys other than the original tonic).



That's how Adam got into trouble, right there: It all makes sense now; Eve was a redhead.

Holy mackerel: This post took over four hours!

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