Baroque composer looking for an orchestra
Gilles Valmont
interested in playing it?
M. Schulter
> I am composing baroque music for the strings. Would anyone be
> interested in playing it?
Hello, there, and while Baroque is typically a bit "modern" for me, I love
the early 17th century (also often considered as the later part of a
Manneristic era of around 1540-1640), and can also relish the artistry of
composers like Vivaldi and Bach.
From my experience from composing in more or less historical styles, I
would say that finding interested people with the right instruments and a
congenial inclination can be unpredictable.
Also, something of "orchestral" scale can be more difficult to realize --
at least using real-time performance -- than the kind of ensemble piece
also popular through much of the same era, say a straightforward continuo
texture with a bass instrument, a "perfect" or chordal instrument like
lute or harpsichord, and an instrument to play the upper line.
If you find or help start some congenial early music ensemble, this can be
ideal venue for playing new pieces as well as old ones in related
styles. I did this during the middle 1980's -- and we played some new
material such as a canon by someone outside the group which one of our
members brought, as well as a curious and pleasant arrangement in a trio
texture of a theme from Beethoven's Seventh Symphony which somehow can
recall for me a certain aroma of viol music around 1600.
Another approach would be use synthesizer technology or the like to
produce larger "orchestrations" of music in a Baroque kind of style. Wendy
Carlos has done this with Bach, and has also composed in a related fashion
-- for example, an arrangement of _'Tis a Gift to be Simple_ entitled
something like _Brandengifts_.
I also recall a very skilled and ingenous composer of the mid-1970's in
San Francisco named Simon Spaulding who wrote some really impressive
isorhythic motets based on some traditional folk melodies, with the style
mostly 13th-14th century, but lots of original flavor.
Now, as then, it's not only the question of managing a given style, but of
what one does with it.
There are also current approaches like coding a MIDI file of a composition
to give people an idea of what it sounds like -- not the same as a more
conventional performance, of course, but one way to share general musical
ideas.
Anyway, in seeking to get a Baroque-style instrumental composition
performed, one art also practiced for historical Baroque pieces can be
very helpful -- adapting an "orchestral" piece to a smaller ensemble. This
doesn't exclude a full-scale performance, but makes more options
available.
People more familiar with this era could say more; for early 17th-century
music, I might consider 15-20 musicians as a rather large orchestra for an
opera or the like.
There are some precedents for arrangements -- Monteverdi, for example,
adapted one of his hit opera arias as a five-voice madrigal so that
interested singing groups could participate first hand, as it were, in
this masterpiece.
Often now, as around 1600, I get the impression that performances often
happen among interested groups of friends -- an early music group now, as
a musical circle or "academy" then.
This isn't to exclude new compositions in historical styles becoming part
of the conventional concert repertory -- for example, maybe late in the
1960's, I recall a piece by Daniel Pinkham performed by a choral ensemble
that sounded to me as inspired by the style of Perotin around 1200.
Most appreciatively,
Margo Schulter
msch...@value.net
Peter J King
> I am composing baroque music for the strings. Would anyone be
> interested in playing it?
Two points about this posting:
1. Although nobody seems willing to acknowledge it, the poster is clearly
asking if anyone reading this newsgroup would be interested in playing his
music. The responses so far would seem to suggest that the answer is
"no".
2. As he made no contribution to the long argument that followed his
first posting, and as this is virtually a simple repeat of that posting, I
suspect that he's not reading the replies, but expects people to e-mail
him privately. Poor Usenet etiquette, I know, but it happens..
Peter J. King
Winslowe Lacesso
> On 27 Aug 2002, Gilles Valmont wrote:
>
> > I am composing baroque music for the strings. Would anyone be
> > interested in playing it?
>
> Two points about this posting:
>
> 1. Although nobody seems willing to acknowledge it, the poster is clearly
> asking if anyone reading this newsgroup would be interested in playing his
> music. The responses so far would seem to suggest that the answer is
> "no".
Not necessarily. At my request M. Valmont very kindly mailed some scores,
& the conductor of our adult amateur baroque orchesta is assessing them. Who
knows, we may play them this fall. Maybe not, depending on how the assessment
goes, it's la Maestra's decision.
Regardless, compliments to M. Valmont for studying baroque style, writing the
works, & being willing to send things out to folks to try. Keep at it!!
---------------------------------------------
Ms W Lacesso, Unix Analyst, EnCana, Calgary
Peter J King
> On Wed, 28 Aug 2002, Peter J King wrote:
>
> > On 27 Aug 2002, Gilles Valmont wrote:
> >
> > > I am composing baroque music for the strings. Would anyone be
> > > interested in playing it?
> >
> > Two points about this posting:
> >
> > 1. Although nobody seems willing to acknowledge it, the poster is clearly
> > asking if anyone reading this newsgroup would be interested in playing his
> > music. The responses so far would seem to suggest that the answer is
> > "no".
>
> Not necessarily. At my request M. Valmont very kindly mailed some scores,
> & the conductor of our adult amateur baroque orchesta is assessing them. Who
> knows, we may play them this fall. Maybe not, depending on how the assessment
> goes, it's la Maestra's decision.
Glad to hear it; perhaps, if you do play them, you could post a report on
how they went (and what they were like to play)? Who knows, it might
encourage more people to try them...
PJK