Evening, or morning perhaps, depending on your location. Have just finished a second revision + recording of an arrangement I've been working on, the passacaglia of HIF von Biber's Rosenkranz Sonaten; originally for a solo violin, I've reworked the piece as a quintet for two violins, viola, violoncello and contrabass (also transposing, in the process, to Cm), working from Tufvesson's transcription of the original from the unique manuscript (Mus. MS 4123, c. 1670s) in the Bavarian State Library in Munich. I think, if I can find the time, I will subject the work to at least one more revision/recording, as there are a few places where the 'cello is more subdued than I would like it, but beyond that I think it's very near its final form at this stage. Comments on the work, good or ill, welcome and appreciated.
A new piano score, Luctus; C# minor with a brief modulation in G#m. Play time of around 7'38". Comments welcome, as ever.
Working out a few ideas for a new piece. The working title, a nod to a Jorge Luis Borges poem, is the "Nada a Nadie" of the subject line. Comments on it, or any of the others as usual, are welcome.
Note: the tremelo strings are flawed and jerky in this recording; it needs to be re-recorded.
No quedará en la noche una estrella.
No quedará la noche.
Moriré y conmigo la suma
Del intolerable universo.
Borraré las pirámides, las medallas,
Los continentes y las caras.
Borraré la acumulación del pasado.
Haré polvo la historia, polvo el polvo.
Estoy mirando el último poniente.
Oigo el último pájaro.
Lego la nada a nadie.
Enchanted by Camille Saint-Saëns's work for solo piano, "Carillon", I recently decided to have a go at arranging the work for different instrumentations, resulting in both an orchestral arrangement and an arrangement for string quintet (2vn, va, vc, cb). In the end I think each, these as well as the piano original, has a certain charm of its own, though perhaps I'm biased: what do you think?
Postscript: I've also arranged his "Toccata" piano solo for strings.
The earlier string influence led to the completion of my sixth quartet. I'm not particularly satisfied with this work, I'll confess. Most likely I will eventually vastly alter it, or withdraw it altogether as unsatisfactory. There are a few passages I think might work, but for the most part I'm unhappy with it, especially with the first violin part. While it lasts, if anyone's curious, it can be heard here:
Considering Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber's, Rosenkranz Sonaten, and having, as he, "faith in the strings" (i.e., his "fides in fidibus" remark which I've used as a subject here), I wanted to work a bit with them and, studying him, work with his style as well. That toying around resulted in three pieces, or alternatively, one throw-away piece and two fragments. For any interested, "Duet for Violin and 'Cello in Eb minor" is the finished study, and the fragments are the duet in G# minor and the piece for solo violin. I may pick up the fragments for further development at some point, the other duet in particular.
A piece for solo piano, just over three minutes' playtime, recorded today, written during a recent bout of illness. It's named for Pessoa's book, The Education of the Stoic, about which I've been thinking a lot lately, and takes cues from it, but is written in a somewhat Satiesque style.
