Attending: Brad, Dev, Chris
Chris arrives first, a few minutes ahead of Dev. Down through the basement, and up the back to the top floor; as Chris is inspecting the new place and situating himself, Dev arrives. A bit of preemptive chatting, and some espresso for Brad and Dev. Sitting down roughly 6:25ish.
Opening circulation, leading to a spirited and adventurous improv. Afterward, Dev mentions wishing we'd recorded it, but that's the nature of spirit of the moment. He also notes that it's often easier to hear and work when one only has to hear three people, instead of six, but that's the challenge of a larger group.
Moving to calisthenics, Brad asks to lead these. Working with the same First Primary principles as the other day, we work with 'Developing Variations' of these (inspired by correspondence with Tony G), and doing this on the fly. Simply put, the formula is simply to take a permutation of the First Primary, and instead of working with the pair-hi-lo formula, to simply move the first note of a sequence to the back of a sequence. Thus:
1 - 2 - 3 - 4
2 - 3 - 4 - 1
3 - 4 - 1 - 2
4 - 1 - 2 - 3
This becomes more difficult with the less intuitive permutations. (See the comments below for the two complete sets we work through.) Challenging stuff.
Following this, we find ourselves moving into a discussion about melody, how developing variations is an extension of contrapuntal technique, as well as the twelve-tone method, and how even some of the more adventurous serialism often has a melodic side. A surprising and interesting conversation.
Moving on to repertoire, and notably lacking most of the circle, we run through Voices of Ancient Children, with a pretty straightforward reading of the piece. Dev then suggests that we each learn the melody and the basics of the counting (Chris typically plays the 'pulse', and Brad plays the 'claw'). We then take an opportunity to each be reminded of the other parts, and then play through twice more, switching parts as necessary (Dev 'claw', Chris 'melody', Brad 'pulse'; Dev 'pulse, Chris 'claw', Brad 'melody').
A break with some conversation, and Brad tending to necessities in the house.
Back in the circle, and another circulation and improv. Even more spirited, with many different spaces, and a cued ending.
We go over the list of other potential pieces that we have listed for this project, and choose to bring out a couple of old ones to take a look at them: Morning Has Broken, and Bicycling to Afghanistan.
Morning needs to be seriously dusted off, and we spend several minutes remembering the different variations in each verse. One aborted run, and then one full one with a reboot in the middle. This will need work.
Bicycling is much the same. A few minutes of reviewing bits, a halfrun, and then a full run. Could be dropped, could be kept--at this point, it's up in the air, but it's good to look at them. The consensus is that the project is about performing with quality, but there is also an acknowledgment that as we continue to bring quality to our playing, that quality will spread around to the rest of the music we're approaching.
With this, Brad notes that it's probably best to call it a night, out of respect to the neighbors. There is a little more discussion, some packing up, and Chris and Dev head off into the frigid night.
1 comment:
As promised, the two sets:
1-2-3-4
] 2-3-4-1
] 3-4-1-2
] 4-1-2-3
1-2-4-3
] 2-4-3-1
] 4-3-1-2
] 3-1-2-4
1-3-2-4
] 3-2-4-1
] 2-4-1-3
] 4-1-3-2
1-3-4-2
] 3-4-2-1
] 4-2-1-3
] 2-1-3-4
1-4-2-3
] 4-2-3-1
] 2-3-1-4
] 3-1-4-2
1-4-3-2
] 4-3-2-1
] 3-2-1-4
] 2-1-4-3
2-1-3-4
] 1-3-4-2
] 3-4-2-1
] 4-2-1-3
2-1-4-3
] 1-4-3-2
] 4-3-2-1
] 3-2-1-4
2-3-1-4
] 3-1-4-2
] 1-4-2-3
] 4-2-3-1
2-3-4-1
] 3-4-1-2
] 4-1-2-3
] 1-2-3-4
2-4-1-3
] 4-1-3-2
] 1-3-2-4
] 3-2-4-1
2-4-3-1
] 4-3-1-2
] 3-1-2-4
] 1-2-4-3
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