Diabelli Project 204- 214 - Duet for Clarinet and Marimba Complete Score

The Diabelli Project is about offering my weekly flash-composition sketches freely to all. Like Antonio Diabelli's theme, these sketches aren't great music. But perhaps (as in Diabelli's case) there's a Beethoven out there who can do great things with them.

Below is the score for my Clarinet and Marimba Duet. It was written in 10-minute sessions, spaced about a week apart. Since I was continuing the same music from week to week, I allowed myself 2-3 minutes to study the previous week's sketch before diving in.

Although this was an almost entirely spontaneous creation, I'm pretty happy with the results. There's a simple three-part structure to it. The duet begins in one key center, moves to a second, then back to the first. Motiving elements are repeated and reworked, helping it all to hang together.

I do see some copyist errors I need to fix, but I'll address those later.

At the given tempo marking, the piece runs about 2 minutes. Should there be some additional movements? I'm not sure. If I were to continue it, I'd probably use some of the same patterns as building blocks.

For now, though, I think I'll call it done. What do you think?

As always, you can use any or all of the posted Diabelli Project sketches as you wish for free. Just be sure to share the results. I'm always curious to see what direction someone else can take this material.

Arnold Mendelssohn: Complete Piano Music

Arnold Mendelssohn is just beginning to be rediscovered. Recordings such as this will help immensely.

Mendelssohn was the great-nephew of Felix and rose to prominence at the turn of the 20th Century. He was an accomplished organist and held several Protestant church positions. He was a colleague of Hugo Wolf and counted Paul Hindemith among his students.

As a composer, Mendelssohn was philosophically close to Brahms. He was quite comfortable with traditional classical forms and felt music should be abstract rather than representational.

The few works he composed for piano have strong similarities to those of Schumann and Brahms. The shorter pieces, such as the Federzeichnungen (Pen and Ink Drawings), and the Albumblatt are finely crafted miniatures.

They reminded me of similar works by Schumann. The music is full of inventiveness and technical challenges, with perhaps a bit more restraint than Schumann's.

The Piano Sonata in E minor is a full-blown Brahmsian sonata. Mendelssohn's late-Romantic harmonies reinforce the resemblance. His melodies are memorable and developed logically in a standard sonata-allegro format.

Mendelssohn wasn't entirely satisfied with his sonatina and second piano sonata. They remained unpublished at the time of his death. Listening to them now, I think they're fine works. Mendelssohn seemed to be pushing the limits of the forms. At the same time, the harmonies sound sparser and perhaps more taciturn.

Mendelssohn may not have liked these pieces, but I do.

Pianist Elzbieta Sternlicht has a solid foundation in the repertoire of the early 20th Century. She's also recorded three albums of Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel's piano music. Her performances bring out the late-Romantic nature of Mendelssohn's music.

I especially enjoyed her performance of the two sonatas. Sternlicht brought out the underlying structure of the works, giving the motifs the context they needed.

If you like Mendelssohn (Fanny or Felix), Schumann, or Brahms, you'll hear a kindred spirit in these works.

Arnold Mendelssohn: Complete Piano Music
Elzbieta Sternlicht, piano
Hanssler Classics HC17088
2 CD Set

#ClassicsaDay #ArmisticeClassics Week 1

November 19, 2018, is the 100th anniversary of the Armistice that ended the First World War. The #ClassicaDay team asked participants to post classical works related to the conflict. 

For my part, I tried to find examples from both sides of the war, and from as many different countries as possible. Here are my posts from the first full week of November.

George Butterworth (UK) - Banks of Green Willow

Butterworth was just starting his career when WW1 broke out. He was killed at the Battle of the Somme, 8/25/16. His body was never recovered. His tone poem, "Banks of the Green Willow" became an anthem for the War's Unkown Soldiers.

André Caplet (France) - Les Prières (1914-1917)

Serving in the French army, Caplet was wounded twice. He was gassed, which severely damaged his lungs and lead to his death in 1925. Caplet was a close friend of Debussy. His song cycle Les Prières as completed during the war.

Nikolai Yakovlevich Myaskovsky (Russia) - Symphony No. 4 in E minor, Op. 17

Myaskovsky was wounded on the Austrian front and suffered from shell-shock. He was transferred to Tallinn to work on navel fortifications. While working and recovering, he produced two symphonies - Nos. 4 and 5.

Maurice Ravel (France) - Piano Concerto for the Left Hand

Pianist Paul Wittgenstein lost his right arm in WW1. Determined to carry one, he commissioned left-handed piano works after the war. Ravel's Concerto is one that's entered the repertoire (both one- and two-handed versions).

Edgar Bainton (UK/Australia) - String Quartet in A (1919)

Conductor/composer Bainton was attending a Wagner Bayreuth festival when WW1 broke out. He was sent to the Ruhleben internment camp outside Berlin. Bainton soon became its music director, working with fellow prisoners Arthur Benjamin and Edward Clark to produce chamber music concerts, operetta productions, and musical lectures. His String Quartet was one of the first pieces completed after the War.

Paul Hindemith (Germany) - String Quartet No.2 in F minor, Op. 10 (1917)

Hindemith's father enlisted at age 44 when the war broke out. He was killed in hand-to-hand combat in 1915. Hindemith was conscripted in 1917. He served in Flanders in 1918, according to his diary "surviving grenade attacks only by good luck." His second string quartet was written for a quartet he formed with fellow soldiers.

Enrique Granados (Spain) - Canción del Postillón (1916)

Granados was in New York when war broke out in Europe. Because of the conflict, he was unable to return directly to Spain. Granados sailed to England, then booked passage on the passenger ferry SS Sussex to France. The ship was sunk by a German U-boat. Granados, who was afraid of water, drowned while unsuccessfully trying to save his wife. The Canción del Postillón is one of his last works.

Halsam American Brick Build - Two Story House with Wing

In the mid-1950s' Halsam offered interlocking brick building toys made from pressed wood. I'm assembling each of the models shown in the instruction booklet for their 60/1 and 60/2 building sets. I'm calling it the Halsam American Brick Build.

The tenth build is a two-story house with a wing. This was one of the more complicated structures to build. You can see in the instructions, the detail for the rear wing gable.

There are two places where bricks need to be cantilevered (photo, right). The gable for the wing roof is in the foreground. The second-story wall is in the back.

I was a little surprised that the instructions didn't have the two spans connected by bricks running across both. But that would mean the second story span would have to start two courses lower.

And that, with the inset of the wing's wall, would have lead to a more complicated structure -- and a weaker one.

The end result is a fairly substantial structure. It does seem a little odd to me that the most imposing door frame is on the wing. What I would think of as the front has a smaller, simpler door, as does the back.

It may be part of the same problem as positioning the spanning bricks. The fancier door is taller, and that could push the window above the front door up two more rows.

And that would make the second story disproportionately tall. 

Two-story house with wing (front).

Two-story house with wing (back).

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Poul Ruders: Occam's Razor - Music-making with Old Friends

The cover of this release shows two old friends sharing a moment -- composer Poul Ruders and guitarist David Starobin. Their 30+ year relationship has been extraordinarily fruitful. This release presents a few of Ruders' works commissioned by Starobin.

Occam's Razor is a philosophical principle: the simplest explanation is usually the best. Just as Occam's Razor trims away convoluted explanations, Ruders pares his music down to its basics with these works.

The title track is a 2013 work for oboe and guitar. Each of the eight extremely short movements is a model of conciseness. It's a pithy conversation between oboe and guitar that works on several levels. Each brief movement makes its own point, and the movements fit together to make a larger structure.

Schrodinger's Cat is a thought experiment used to explain quantum mechanics. Quantum particles exist in two states simultaneously. When observed, though, the particles collapse into a single state. The twelve canons Ruders wrote in 2012 share that concept.

The violin represents one state, the guitar the other. And the music bounces back and forth, simultaneously moving and developing until suddenly, it comes together. The description doesn't' do the work justice -- even without knowing the concept behind it, a listener can enjoy the music on its own merits. And when it comes to complex counterpoint, Schrodinger's Cat is exceptionally meritorious.

My favorite works, though, were the simplest. Ruders wrote a series of short pieces for guitar titled "Pages." How short? Each piece fills exactly one page of manuscript paper. With only a page, there's no room for elaborate development or expositions. These pieces are elegantly simple and beautiful.

David Starobin is an exceptional guitarist. Here he's performing music he knows intimately created by his friend. So yes, if you enjoy contemporary music or classical guitar music, this is the disc to get.

Poul Ruders: Occam's Razor
New Music with Guitar, Vol. 11
David Starobin, guitar
Liang Wang, oboe; Daniel Druckman, percussion; Movses Pegossian, Amaila Hall, violin; Xiaobo Pu, YunXianGan, Hao Yang, guitar
Bridge Records 9500