Music and Composition - 04 February 2021 - Plague Journal Day 329

Micah 6:8
Psalm 150
Yes, your life matters.

We all are still sheltering in place, but I'm here to keep you sane and entertained.
One could hardly ask for much more than that, now could one?

I just listened to a recording of a live performance of the Bartok Concerto for Orchestra, and it took me back to my University of Michigan days.

I was majoring in pure mathematics, but I've always been a musician as well, so I took a music composition course - one that was open only to non-music majors.
One of the coolest parts of the course was that it met in a classroom in the Bell Tower - until that class, I had had no idea that there were classrooms in that building.

Unfortunately, perhaps, the class was taught by a visiting professor. (Non-music majors don't deserve regular faculty? Visiting faculty don't deserve real music students? I'm not clear on who was being disrespected more - maybe it was equal.) At any rate, the assignments were interesting, and I actually still have (and have used) the score for my final composition in the class. 

What made me think of this after hearing the Bartok? Well, our first assignment was to compose a one-tone piece. Those of us in the class had heard of 12-tone composition, and perhaps you have as well, but none of us had heard of one-tone compositions. A bunch of us stood on the landing outside the classroom after class and talked about it. We decided / realized that is was basically just a rhythm exercise. (Don't you love that rhythm is a two syllable word with no vowels?) "How can I come up with sixteen bars of just rhythm?" worried one student. Another one answered helpfully, "Just go listen to some Bartok. You'll get a bunch of great ideas." And he was right. He also suggested, as I recall, that she listen to some Django Reinhardt for more ideas. And he was right again.

Those were some good times, and I've even given you a link to listen to my 12-tone piece here. (Note that this is the version I used in my novel, "A Rune With a View" as having been composed by the protagonist under the pseudonym, Antonin Lavoris.) The tone row was based on the Fibonacci sequence, but then it goes through all the standard transformations. The piece was originally a trio for trumpet, 'cello, and flute (largely because those were instruments played by my fellow students who were willing to play in class), but I've recast it for strings here. (I also apologize for the less-than-beautiful synthesized string sounds in the video. I may look to upgrade that recording with better sound fonts one of these days.) Each instrument plays exactly the same number of notes, but they enter at different points in the flow - again based on the Fibonacci sequence.Who says mathematics and music don't mix? Certainly not I, nor Harald Ness, Jr. who is quoted here.

Keep Calm and Stay Away.
I'll be back tomorrow.
The mental health issues related to our lockdown and the pandemic are especially hard for people with depression. NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, has a 24 hour helpline: 800-950-6264.