I've written a new poem. It's extremely black-hearted and satirical. More important, perhaps, is that the marks for semester 1 have been released, and I'm very, very pleased to find that I was given a mark of 73/90 for the module on the film music of Herrmann, well into First Class territory and 2nd highest in the year. Anyhow, here's the poem.
Life in a Lab Beaker
Bromidic structures in close proximity
Disseminate uniformly
The sole rumination
The sole illumination
Graceful and understated
Diffraction ruffles composure
Yet placidity was never the rumoured strength
Enervation, something quotidian
Grimed walkways and the callused atmosphere
Pain but no release. Release me release me release me.
Out of all this
A fourteen year old, marred by the agony of puberty and
Robbed of innocence, opts for IVF.
How doth the life egg in the beaker
Its motion causal, free, indifferent to how it got there
When we all glance so solipsistically,
Devoid of passion, but irrational and constant,
Have we finally acknowledged
The sole illumination.
Friday, 28 January 2005
Tuesday, 18 January 2005
first time in 3 months was the inaugaration of
Sorry for not posting more often - all the usual excuses abound. My exam last week was adequate but no more - generally I'm just relieved to have finished symphonic analysis for good. Cue huge inward sigh of relief. According to the instructions left with the 72hr take-away paper, we are to destroy our copies of the score because they're copyright. I will take great pleasure in building a mini-bonfire later on.
In the 4 days leading up to now I have managed to achieve a lot in terms of compositional output. Dan's video game, Goats and Tigers, has been the main focus of this. In his game there are 7 levels, plus the title sequence, time attack mode, and end credits. This meant that there were 10 different pieces of music to be written. With the exception of the title sequence and the time attack, it is completed. The main idea I had for the game was to have stylistically contrasting pieces between levels - as it turns out, level 1 is a retro 80s sort of synth & keyboard affair, (think Yes or Human League) level 2 is a string orchestra, etc. To speed the process up slightly we spliced 2 minute sections from some of the pieces I've written before - these were Marina and Garden of Mystery. Marina should work particularly well since it is about oceanic life, and the game pieces on that level are fishes - apparently.
The work doesn't stop there, either. Tomorrow (today, in fact) is the deadline for the submission of pieces to be performed by the Leeds University Liturgical Choir. As you can imagine, this is a very important thing. The 22-strong choir comprises 12 females and 10 males, so all the entries have had to be written in SSAATB rather than the regular. Don't ask me why though ... unless they have a particularly wide range of female voices. I have been working in alternating hours on the video game music and this. It takes surprisingly long to compose a 3 minute piece for choir when there are 6 entries. Last week, I also posted off my application to study an MMus. A decision should be imminent, or by Easter at the very latest.
Just found a ticket stub lying on the floor from when I visited the HCMF - Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival. There was an enormous amount of new music on display, but distance and other lectures proved to be hindrances. I managed a mere 3 visits there this year, including a fine performance by the Smith Quartet, who played some very sinister, chromaticy stuff replete with unearthly glissandi and harmonics. Another performance, possibly the most bizarre I have ever seen, was a Turkish man called Dhafer Youssef performing a variety of meditative chants with a jazz band as backing. Very contemporary.
Elsewhere, I may need to buy some new jeans as my penchant for beer, Doritos, and oatmeal and raisin cookies appears to be catching up with me. Unfortunately, any time away from my desk will mean time lost for work. My dissertation's due in when we break up for Easter (8 weeks away) and there's 5200 words still to be written. Oops.
In the 4 days leading up to now I have managed to achieve a lot in terms of compositional output. Dan's video game, Goats and Tigers, has been the main focus of this. In his game there are 7 levels, plus the title sequence, time attack mode, and end credits. This meant that there were 10 different pieces of music to be written. With the exception of the title sequence and the time attack, it is completed. The main idea I had for the game was to have stylistically contrasting pieces between levels - as it turns out, level 1 is a retro 80s sort of synth & keyboard affair, (think Yes or Human League) level 2 is a string orchestra, etc. To speed the process up slightly we spliced 2 minute sections from some of the pieces I've written before - these were Marina and Garden of Mystery. Marina should work particularly well since it is about oceanic life, and the game pieces on that level are fishes - apparently.
The work doesn't stop there, either. Tomorrow (today, in fact) is the deadline for the submission of pieces to be performed by the Leeds University Liturgical Choir. As you can imagine, this is a very important thing. The 22-strong choir comprises 12 females and 10 males, so all the entries have had to be written in SSAATB rather than the regular. Don't ask me why though ... unless they have a particularly wide range of female voices. I have been working in alternating hours on the video game music and this. It takes surprisingly long to compose a 3 minute piece for choir when there are 6 entries. Last week, I also posted off my application to study an MMus. A decision should be imminent, or by Easter at the very latest.
Just found a ticket stub lying on the floor from when I visited the HCMF - Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival. There was an enormous amount of new music on display, but distance and other lectures proved to be hindrances. I managed a mere 3 visits there this year, including a fine performance by the Smith Quartet, who played some very sinister, chromaticy stuff replete with unearthly glissandi and harmonics. Another performance, possibly the most bizarre I have ever seen, was a Turkish man called Dhafer Youssef performing a variety of meditative chants with a jazz band as backing. Very contemporary.
Elsewhere, I may need to buy some new jeans as my penchant for beer, Doritos, and oatmeal and raisin cookies appears to be catching up with me. Unfortunately, any time away from my desk will mean time lost for work. My dissertation's due in when we break up for Easter (8 weeks away) and there's 5200 words still to be written. Oops.
Sunday, 2 January 2005
Taylor, of Stafford Road South, did not appear in court to
Salutations and happy new year to all, blah blah etc. You all had much more fun than I did on New Year's - I wound up at a friend's (who was ill) for a beer and some xmas pudding, watched the fireworks in London on the telly, and went home. I was in bed by 2am, very depressing.
On a much happier note I went to a fundraising party in West Croydon on the 27th at The Cartoon, there were maybe 70 ppl there, and much hilarity with Twister. Being one of the oldest there I thought I'd be spending the majority of my time at the bar. However everyone was very warm and friendly, and it wasn't long before I found myself surrounded by numerous hot barefoot girls. I've certainly had worse evenings... Managed to get two of their numbers (two!) and so I find myself going out with one of them on the 4th, yay.
Xmas Day/Boxing Day: Food was very good, we had roast turkey with many assorted vegetables. Presents were the usual suspects, i.e. clothing, aftershave, chocs, CDs, and books. Have I really become so predictable? Starting to worry a bit about all the uni work that I should've done but haven't. At this point in time I should've almost finished my dissertation and done some work arranging the songs I've written for the rock opera. Feel very guilty as there will be at least 15 parts in some songs, and if each bar contains semiquavers (demisemiquavers in some) then that's a maximum of about 2 bars to a page, stretching to theoretically several hundreds of pages for the entire complete score. Oh yeah, and the ol' Music School want everything submitted in duplicate, because one copy's not good enough.
Note to forests: I'm not responsible! Honest!
New Year's Resolutions: (in no particular order)
1. To hunt down whoever writes these idiotic jokes in the crackers and shoot them point blank.
2. Put a golf club through a pikey's car window.
3. Graduate summa cum laude.
4. Become an amazingly successful composer. (This is the same as last year.)
This year I graduate........fuuuuuuuuuuuck.
On a much happier note I went to a fundraising party in West Croydon on the 27th at The Cartoon, there were maybe 70 ppl there, and much hilarity with Twister. Being one of the oldest there I thought I'd be spending the majority of my time at the bar. However everyone was very warm and friendly, and it wasn't long before I found myself surrounded by numerous hot barefoot girls. I've certainly had worse evenings... Managed to get two of their numbers (two!) and so I find myself going out with one of them on the 4th, yay.
Xmas Day/Boxing Day: Food was very good, we had roast turkey with many assorted vegetables. Presents were the usual suspects, i.e. clothing, aftershave, chocs, CDs, and books. Have I really become so predictable? Starting to worry a bit about all the uni work that I should've done but haven't. At this point in time I should've almost finished my dissertation and done some work arranging the songs I've written for the rock opera. Feel very guilty as there will be at least 15 parts in some songs, and if each bar contains semiquavers (demisemiquavers in some) then that's a maximum of about 2 bars to a page, stretching to theoretically several hundreds of pages for the entire complete score. Oh yeah, and the ol' Music School want everything submitted in duplicate, because one copy's not good enough.
Note to forests: I'm not responsible! Honest!
New Year's Resolutions: (in no particular order)
1. To hunt down whoever writes these idiotic jokes in the crackers and shoot them point blank.
2. Put a golf club through a pikey's car window.
3. Graduate summa cum laude.
4. Become an amazingly successful composer. (This is the same as last year.)
This year I graduate........fuuuuuuuuuuuck.
Saturday, 1 January 2005
can you hear the silence?
Another quiet seeing of the new year in. Reviewing the resolutions I made this time last year, it looks like I've failed all but the first two. I haven't found love and I certainly haven't made more friends, but hopefully my music has come along a bit, and I guess I've been sleeping more, albeit alone.
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