Early Music

That buffoon of a doctor at the VA hospital ordered me to stay in bed for a few days after I got home, so I haven't had much of a chance to get anything useful accomplished.  All I have to show for the past week is a set of short piano pieces written to explore a musical system based on algebraic quotient rings, and the results are far from ideal.

It seemed like it would work in principal

However, all this time off my feet has given me a chance to thumb through some old journals of mine, and I think it would be worthwhile to share some of the more interesting passages I find with the world at large.  Of course, if I ever happen to pass away -- which is by no means a foregone conclusion -- these writings will be available to biographers, but in the meantime, here is an entry from back in the seventies:



5 FEB '72

Attended an Early Music Consort concert today.  They came in from London and played something involving more shawms, crumhorns, and sackbutts than I have ever seen.  Impressions are mixed; on the one hand, I can only endorse their efforts to reflect as perfectly as possible the intentions of composer, as many of my own frustration stems from inability of ensembles, individuals, etc., to do same.  On the other hand, my brain practically withered away due to the fact that they play what I would estimate 80-85 cents lower than the standard concert A440.  For an individual such as myself possessed of naturally acute absolute pitch, such deviation from established norms causes a peculiar breed of mental anguish that nearly drove me screaming from the hall.  How Bach was able to maintain his sanity in a time when A415 was the norm is a mystery to me.

Back then, the music was bad and they all smelled awful

 The music consisted of some anonymous Renaissance instrumental music; far too much A3 (or F#3, according to their bizarre tuning scheme, I suppose) for my taste, but pleasant in a sort of plebian way.  The repetitiveness gives a hint of where those minimalists downtown get some of their bad habits.  Also in the mix were excerpts from a mostly lost Monteverdi opera by the name of "Il duce di conte" or something.  Normally I respect his work, but in this case I wouldn't be surprised if the piece were actually lost on purpose, and that we're better off for that.  The plot involved some very complicated, self-contradicting Roman politics and the soprano did her very best to sound exactly like a sine wave.

Took the opportunity to meet Chris Hogwood after the show; seems like a nice enough fellow, though I suppose he could use a better tailor.

Paisley?  Not very authentic.