10 November 2009

The 16th October gig went fine, but I now have a schizophrenic future, as people want both the Nice Tim Fatchen music and Sleazy Flying Tadpole satire.  I rocked up for the 45-minute gig and instead of the expected 10-20 people, there were 60, all intently LISTENING.  Ouch!  A really hot audience response, a real kick after several years away from solo performing.  My favourite was the old bloke who needed a copy of "I'm Dead! Dead! Dead! to put away for playing at his funeral.

There was a frenzied session of rough orchestration to get the Ngurunderi opener  ready for the critical meeting, which had shifted to 29 October.  So there now exists a sparse orchestral sketch of Glory to give the feel.  I'm still trying to untangle the meeting in my mind, I thought it was a disaster but I gather we're still moving forward toward a part-production next year, depending on funding and lots of hurdles...and a three year plan.  Whether I can survive the arts politics is another thing.  Hey it's worse than the environmental consulting industry....

So any work on the Ngurunderi series has stopped for now.  It's been an interesting journey, some superb music has come out of it, and if the project founders, I'll shop the music into film/TV.  But for now, I'd rather see what develops rather than break the whole lot up. 

And there's the possibilities of dayjob work appearing, so I'm likely to find myself in the middle of the desert in January or February, back to 120F+ temperatures.

3 Oct 09
I finished 5090 somewhat burnt out. But three New Age yoga-backing songs got written to finish the run.  I still have to record sundry Flying Tadpole songs.

The new challenge is that I don't want to look at another piece of music for a while but I have to get a demonstration orchestration of Glory out before Tuesday  because there's another meeting looking further at staging Ngurunderi.

I also unwisely signed for a 45 minute gig on 16th October, and I have to practise (learning the new songs from scratch!) That performance is now one of the Daniel Pearl World Music Days performances in Australia.

20 Sep 2009
Ngurunderi moves on: I have Ngurunderi Rests now as the last quiet bit before the climax and the tragedy.  Part of that is roughed out, though still locked.  I'll probably unlock it and leave it as piano/pads for those still following this epic.  Otherwise it'll be weeks before I clean it up and arrange, going by how long the opener is taking.  But at least that's now ready for a basic arrangement, so it might appear soon too...

There are some spinoffs and some out of the blue songs (ignoring the mischief Flying Tadpole is putting out). Try "The Secret Life of Snow", or visit youtube for a really out-of-the-box improvisation. And there's the Ngurunderi look-alike, The Cold Southern Sea.


9 Sep 09. Hey! The world hasn't ended! Geez, you can't trust anything these days. Ngurunderi remains in pause.

8Sep09 I now have a cold, caught on the bus heading TO the snow (icicles in the nose hairs) but the snow was more winter than spring and the skiing was good! And Sunday was only their 16th sunny day all season...The first sketch for the climax of Ngurunderi, thrown together just before I left, turns out to be worthwhile but needs a lot of patient editing, ie same state as We Fear Him and Glory. So I'm working on all three cleanups now and leaving them locked up.


2Sep09 Starting to get some of the finisher together. Uninspired. Tomorrow I get on a bus and do 600miles to the snow for the weekend. See whether we revitalise.

1 Sep 09 STILL STILL working on the SKETCH of the opener, tho' it's coming together so it's up but locked as "Glory". Similarly for Nepele and the sisters. Both of those at a pinch could go on even if I ran out of time, and I wouldn't be too ashamed. More in preparation but not near enough to completion as sketches to put up.

28 August 2009
STILL trying to get the Ngurunderi opener right. I have a fish creation but I don't like it. Another fish creation at least turned into usable incidental music. But I have Nepele bringing the two wives to Ngurunderi and I don't like that either. I still haven't got ideas straight for the climactic stuff. I'm nowhere with the three current collabs. It's all not quite happening. But looks like, looks like Ngurunderi will be a goer, but a long way down the track given its size and scope. Signs are very positive. Fingers crossed. Toes crossed. Eyes too. Anything.

22 August 2009
Another disrupted week. At last count, I'm working on Ngurunderi music: Opener; Nepele with Sisters;Incidental music E (that one's finished enough to put up, locked; Creation of Fishes; but still nowhere on the finish. THe opener is a midi/orchestration nightmare.

28 August 2009
STILL trying to get the Ngurunderi opener right. I have a fish creation but I don't like it. Another fish creation at least turned into usable incidental music. But I have Nepele bringing the two wives to Ngurunderi and I don't like that either. I still haven't got ideas straight for the climactic stuff.  It's all not quite happening. But looks like, looks like Ngurunderi will be a goer, but a long way down the track given its size and scope. Signs are very positive. Fingers crossed. Toes crossed. Eyes too. Anything.

1 Sep 09 STILL STILL working on the SKETCH of the opener, tho' it's coming together so it's up but locked as "Glory". Similarly for Nepele and the sisters. Both of those at a pinch could go on even if I ran out of time, and I wouldn't be too ashamed. More in preparation but not near enough to completion as sketches to put up.

2Sep09 Starting to get some of the finisher together. Uninspired. Tomorrow I get on a bus and do 600miles to the snow for the weekend. See whether we revitalise.

8Sep09 I now have a cold, caught on the bus heading TO the snow (icicles in the nose hairs) but the snow was more winter than spring and the skiing was good! And Sunday was only their 16th sunny day all season...The first sketch for the climax of Ngurunderi, thrown together just before I left, turns out to be worthwhile but needs a lot of patient editing, ie same state as We Fear Him and Glory. So I'm working on all three cleanups now and leaving them locked up.

9 Sep 09. Hey! The world hasn't ended! Geez, you can't trust anything these days. Ngurunderi remains in pause.

...ten days later

15 August 2009
A disrupted week, funerals, other things, so nothing done. But here is a part-finished version of Pursuit 1, lighter and less fearful than Pursuit 2 because they've only just started running...

Also getting " Sister, what is the sound?"part sung, and back working on the opener.  Meetings scheduled ten days down the line, we'll see what emerges.

...at least on the Ngurunderi drama, prospects for which seem to have faded away again, sigh.  Still: For five weeks output, there's over an hour of usable (after editing) music, and some of it amazes me.  It must have been generated by momentum.  

This week is a mess.  I'll try to get the momentum back up next week.

Recommended listening:  Sister Weave the Reeds.

24 July Further and further ahead/behind. sketched in as piano this morning, Nepele failing to convince his sisters that they're pledged to Ngurunderi, all they want to do is stay home and mourn their dead husband; and the sisters on the lake building the raft, eating their forbidden fish, and fleeing Ngurunderi (again).

26 July 2009
Still editing bits of the Ngurunderi opener, won't be ready in time for meetings if they happen. But did put together the final video for Rain. Not Ngurunderi, but worth watching/listening

27 July to 3 August 2009
I have just totally lost track. Lessee:
Meetings didn't happen. Unsurprised.

Four alternative or useful bits for Ngurunderi.

Brained myself on a 10" square hardwood beam (we have low beams in our sleeping quarters, revenge on anyone over 5'2". But there aren't many, you just have to concentrate) by not concentrating because I was thinking of music. I thought "I'm dead dead dead" as the concussion and knockout struck, so...that was the song for the day.

I vaguely remember the biggest thing was getting to grips with one of the key points of the drama, Ponde's death, speared by Nepele and Ngurunderi.

No I'm NOT working full time on this. But it amounts to about 2hrs in the morning and 4hrs at night. Sleep is an option except when I walk into beams.

4 August 2009
Back again trying to clean up "Sister weave the reeds"

5 August 2009
Finally got a reasonable recording of a reasonable arrangement of Sister Weave the Reeds. It's amazing how long something takes when you have all the bits to hand...This is the wives at the lake, making a reed raft, and eating forbidden fish.  Ngurunderi almost finds them but they escape south across the lake on their raft.

6-7 August, dayjob eats music for a change.

Having spent some time putting fripperies out,  I'm having multiple tries at sketches for the ending of the drama, and the opener, and one of the pursuit sequences in Ngurunderi.

The opener is still not quite ready, I'm aiming for a regal and heroic sweep to firmly set Ngurunderi in all his glory before the subsequent drama unfolds.  Because although to western eyes the subsequent drama is tragedy and in a Western sense reduces our perception of the stature of Ngurunderi, it has no effect on that stature in a tribal sense.

But here's the first of a couple of sketches looking at the tail end, minimal orchestration.

There's just been a mind-blowing and disastrous climax, it's all over and no way back now. So the music is quiet, pensive, as the whole drama closes, but with a final touch of grandeur. Ngurunderi had almost caught his wives, they kept running, he'd called the waters to rise. So, they've drowned and turned to stone, he's in mourning and he's done enough law-giving and creating. He's thrown his canoe into the heavens and he knows it's time to pass out of the living world into the spirit world, blazing the path that his people will follow. So, Into the Spirit World sketch 1

23 July 2009  and followed by an alternative version Into the Spirit World sketch 2

And inspiration or just plain simple invention starts disappearing.  But there are lighter moments

10 July 2009
The Sorcerer appears, finally, clad in cliche bassoon which will change.  I'm also working on the opener, which has a long way to go.  The Sorcerer

11 July 2009
Dayjob eats music

12 July 2009
And when it doesn't, out pops saccharine sweetness in all its teeth-edging sugar.  Not what was intended, good music to hunt Bambi by though...Sea Camp, unlikely to find a place in the drama but not toxic listened to in isolation.

13 July 2009
There are fishy flashy fragments all over my computer and keyboard, it's called practising scales  :D   But in the midst of the pursuit of the wives, which isn't working out, I tried a scratch pursuit just to give me an excuse to hit the instruments, which turned out sort-of acceptable, hence Pursuit 2.

14 July 2009
Much report writing. Music and inspiration leaking away.  Oh woe.

15 July 2009
Nothing produced! 50/90 behind schedule! I'm going to be away in August!! Major project dying already! (not that that's any surprise). Woe 2.0

16 July 2009
Gotta do something, gotta do something!!! So I do but I don't know what it is or where it fits, so we name it Interlude....

17 July 2009
Getting desperate now.   Hurl the cliches at the keyboard and out comes the Five Minute Song...

18 July 2009
Why am I writing this rather than making/creating music...?  I did go out last night to hear Kathie Renner play and sign to a small select group at Mount Barker, perhaps it's because I'm still consumed with envy at the talent and creativity ;)

I'm not very good at this blog bit, sorry.  Anyway: to date:

5 July 2009 9pm

OK, 45 hours into 50/90 and there are three Ngurunderi [tf] song sketches up. Now I have to spend a couple of days earning money, eating, sleeping and pacifying the neglected dog and significant other. There are also a couple of Flying Tadpole [FT] offerings sketched out, but they're simple...I'm sure I can sneak one in soon...  we have:
Ponde in the RIver
The Two Wives
Sister, what is the sound?

6 July 2009 11.51pm

The last five hours getting another two sorted, one from Ngurunderi. Well you do it while it's in the head, right? or it doesn't happen. Goodnight all.
The lakeside camp

7 July 2009

Nepele's theme, not the greatest on offer, 15 minutes in the morning and two hours in the evening, far too long. I must be getting old
Nepele's Theme

8 July 2009

I'm still having issues with several of the classical bits I'm trying, not suitable yet for exposure.

9 July 2009
Wilting. Dayjob keeps demanding. Wintersun shining.  Trying to put The Sorcerer together. Fixated on bassoons...

10 July 2009
THe Sorcerer got written last night and the recording sort of cleaned up this morning.
The Sorcerer

Moving on...