Donax, dont tell
Like the partial vacuum that follows a blast of pressure down an exhaust pipe when the valve of an internal combustion engine snaps shut or the reed of an oboe closes, I find myself at a bit of a loss since last Friday.
I seem emotionally and psychologically depleted.
I've even seem to be sleeping nights.
Something must be done.
Anything.
What good is a nights sleep to an artist?
The whole point to creation is to capture the odd connections and permutations that the subconscious sends us in our dreams.
Most of which are unfathomable.
Almost all of which are unsaleable.
Maybe not all but close enough to all are embarrassing.
Ah, but the pulse will soon reach the end of the tube and a fresh breeze will soon be traveling my way, popping back up to open the valve, to part the Arundonian lips of the reed to reiterate the whole process once again.
Yes, I know reiterate once again is redundant, but, in a greater sense, aren't we all?
In a completely different greater sense, though, the redundancy is purely literary. Reiterations can happen again and again and again.
Four hundred and forty times a second just to get the band tuned up.
Speaking of embarrassment I'm working on a concerto for wooden train whistle and strings right hand (no fingerboard work, just bowing)
The Whistle has four notes at thirds B,D,F,A (treble clef)
The violin has four; G,D,A,E (treble clef)
The Cello has four; C,G,D,A (bass clef)
I've written four "movements" so far, and, guess what?, the whole thing is a bit monotonous.
I erased the first accidentally.
Or was it a "Freudian slip"?
I seem emotionally and psychologically depleted.
I've even seem to be sleeping nights.
Something must be done.
Anything.
What good is a nights sleep to an artist?
The whole point to creation is to capture the odd connections and permutations that the subconscious sends us in our dreams.
Most of which are unfathomable.
Almost all of which are unsaleable.
Maybe not all but close enough to all are embarrassing.
Ah, but the pulse will soon reach the end of the tube and a fresh breeze will soon be traveling my way, popping back up to open the valve, to part the Arundonian lips of the reed to reiterate the whole process once again.
Yes, I know reiterate once again is redundant, but, in a greater sense, aren't we all?
In a completely different greater sense, though, the redundancy is purely literary. Reiterations can happen again and again and again.
Four hundred and forty times a second just to get the band tuned up.
Speaking of embarrassment I'm working on a concerto for wooden train whistle and strings right hand (no fingerboard work, just bowing)
The Whistle has four notes at thirds B,D,F,A (treble clef)
The violin has four; G,D,A,E (treble clef)
The Cello has four; C,G,D,A (bass clef)
I've written four "movements" so far, and, guess what?, the whole thing is a bit monotonous.
I erased the first accidentally.
Or was it a "Freudian slip"?
Labels: Oboe technique
posted by Lane Savant at 10:10 AM
4 Comments:
Now wait just a darned minute. What I recall about train whistles is there are a huge variety of them, some are steam-powered, others are electric; none have lips, which I think you need to play a reed instrument, or to through some fine wood in the wind. So, if I am correct, there must be ways for you to use diesel base or baseo profundo train whistles in a different way than the sopranic shrill steam models.
Of course there is the extra complication here of the fact that I have no scientific concrete data to back up my bullshit.
I love you simile, or is it a metaphor, of the internal combustion engine lying in for the synaps of the cortical contata that must occur when creativity is afoot, or astir, or astride.
Metaphysically, there are those dude who firmly believe that our "reality" is some one else's dream. So am I yours or are you mine? Another concept is that our dreams are the hard reality and what we assume is our conscious reality is actually our dream state. All kinds of theories abound that when you create art you are just "plugging into" some of the free-floating vibes from your genetic memory of past lives; which can be complicated by some vital entities that can sustain more than one existance in parallel universes or dimensions; or in some cases the same one, creating a doppleganger (see THE DOUBLE LIFE OF VERONIQUE in French). So your point is well taken, and now that I have it, what the hell do I do with it?
Do you compose music in your dreams? I guess when you wake up you can hum the music into a tape recorder set by your bed. I did not know that the subconscious had permutations at all. I think they have ointments to cure that; over the counter stuff; sometimes sold in informercials done at 2am on cable TV.
Maybe you are feeling "mellow" and somewhat less conflicted because you are still tasting and reflecting on the boffo response your Violin Duet received. You were quite the talk of the town; or at least the University District; or at least the parking lot at the Shepard Center.
Does Angelina Jolie have Arundonian lips? They are pretty fat with botox. Repetition is not necessarily redundacy, or is it? You got me a bit confused there. My wife says I get confused easily. I wonder what she means by that? What I fear much of the time is that I, myself, might some day become literarily redundant; that would be a mell of a hess.
Did you get some snow there along Lake Washington? I loved those pics your posted of the snow in your neighborhood last year, that and your late night walks in the white silence.
Glenn
The whistle I'm talking about is the little wooden one you get at toy stores and souvenir shops.
Arundo Donax is the reed used to power certain woodwind instruments.
Labia humana is the entity used to power brass instruments.
Ah alas, no snow yet.
Absolutely nothing that I dream up, and I've drempt some goodies, has ever shown up when I was awake enough to record it.
It's O.K. that you've taken my point, just remember to return it in one piece.
Repeating repetitions causes a geometrical progression.
The first repetition is a repeat, the next iteration is merely a repeat of the first repeat.
The fourth repeat is not only a repeat of the third repeat but it is also a repeat of the first two iterations. The fifth repeat is a repeat of the fourth iteration.
The sixth repeat is a repeat of the fifth iteration besides being a repeat of the first two repetitions
this progression grows rapidly until Pete and Repeat become the parties of the first and second parts respectively which is, amazingly enough, the only time that either of them has shown any respect for anything in their whole lives.
So, maybe there is hope
As Yogi Berra said, or was it Yogi Bear, "Life is just one damned thing after another."
Pete and Repete were those identical twins we knew in Sealth High School weren't they. Blonde-eyed blue-haired couple of dudes as I recall.
Yeah those Eddy Emerald tunes really do sound familiar. I remember humming LITTLE SISTER just before Janet broke up with me and took up with that sailor.
The thing that was cool about Duane Eddy was that he was as handsome as Elvis, and even though he could play a mean guitar, he was a terrible actor. His tunes have shown up in movies, and so did he in the 60's.
Guitar Man (2008) (post-production) (writer: "Rebel Rouser")
Hollywood Rocks the Movies: The Early Years (1955-1970) (2000) (TV) (writer: "Shazam") (performer: "Shazam")
"The Beatles Anthology" (1995) (mini) TV mini-series (writer: "Three- 30- Blues")
Milk Money (1994) (performer: "Shout (It Out)")
Natural Born Killers (1994) (performer: "Rebel-Rouser", "The Trembler", "Shazam!")
Forrest Gump (1994) (performer: "Rebel-'Rouser") ("Rebel-'Rouser")
Streets of Fire (1984) (writer: "FIRST LOVE FIRST TEARS")
Grease 2 (1982) (performer: "REBEL WALK") ("REBEL WALK")
The Neon Palace (1971) ("Let's Twist Again")
The Wild Westerners (1962) (writer: "Wild Westerners, The") (performer: "Wild Westerners, The")
Ring of Fire (1961) ("RING OF FIRE")
Why Must I Die? (1960) ("Girl on Death Row")
... aka 13 Steps to Death
... aka Thirteen Steps to Death
Actor:
1970s
1960s
Sing a Country Song (1973)
The Savage Seven (1968) .... Eddie
Kona Coast (1968) .... Tiger Cat
"Have Gun - Will Travel" .... Carter Whitney / ... (2 episodes, 1961-1962)
- Be Not Forgetful of Strangers (1962) TV episode .... Young Cowboy
- The Education of Sara Jane (1961) TV episode .... Carter Whitney
The Wild Westerners (1962) .... Deputy Marshal Clint Fallon
A Thunder of Drums (1961) .... Trooper Eddy
Because They're Young (1960) .... Cameo appearance
Now it seems like I remember some Eddy Emerald tunes in a couple of those Roger Corman biker films, with Adam West, Jack Nicholson, Dennis Hopper, and William Smith. Does that ring a bell with you?
Was Eddy Emerald a doppleganger for Duane Eddy? Emerald cashed it in young, like James Dean, and Duane Eddy is still with us. Maybe one was the precursor for the other. Duane Eddy was born in 1938, which makes him older than both of us, and that makes sense since his career was in gear while we were still in HS. At least Duane Eddy was a better actor than Roy Rogers Jr. was. Jr. only made a brief cameo appearance in ARIZONA BUSHWHACKERS with Howard Keel and Yvonne De Carlo. They just about had to say his line for him he was so nervous. You do know that when Roy Rogers Sr. one time was in NYC at a rodeo gig, he got the hankering to see a Western movie. He sat down in MIDNIGHT COWBOY and was shocked to his shorts; walking out on the "filth and degradation". Funny and true story that.
I guess toy whistles are cool, but for a sophisticated dude composer like yourself, couldn't you scrounge or hustle up a real train whistle from some surplus or junk store? Bet you could. Bet ya'.
I thought Arundo Donax was an Italian actor that worked in De Sica and Fellini films in the late 40's and early 50's; a big guy, fairly good looking; beat the hell out of Anthony Quinn in LA STRADA.
I thought Labia Humana was a cancer hospital is Des Moines, Iowa, that specialized in cervical cancer; or I recall it as a part of the female anatomy that is too naughty to disuss on this blog.
Too bad you missed out on the blizzard. Alex got a couple solid inches, I guess. So did we. Thank the gods it melted off quickly. I once had a dream that I was standing in my yard and it began to snow. Since I hate snow, I decided that if I strangled all the snowflakes, crushed them in my hands and mouth, it would stop snowing; probably some deep pyschological issue there.
The thing about points is once you make them, you liberate them, and you cannot reclaim them. You can clone them, recapitulate them, repeat them, resurrect them, recreate them, give birth to them; but you never never can reclaim them. So get over it. Actually I will return your point the next time I see you, and pardon my brashness, abrasiveness, and egregious attempts at humor; or not.
Which does bring up the fact that now it has been many moons since we had face time, and maybe one of these weekends we can spend some more time together. Someone once said were were pals, friends, old friends, and probably that's true. This cyber relationship works well too, and possibly that is all we need, just to copulate each other's minds, or mine each others copulate, or just trade quips and barbs and turns of phrase, enit?
Glenn
Hey man, what a memory you got. Yeah, those Hollywood dudes did invite me to get involved, back in '65, just before I crashed out over Ivars.
It was the Roger Corman flick, THE WILD ANGELS (1966). You know the one with Peter Fonda and Nancy Sinatra. They had a very bried thing you know. He got those boots off her in 10 seconds flat. Now that Nancy was some actress--not. Anyway, I digress. They used my tune, LOSER, LOSER, in that scene with Bruce Dern as Loser, dead as a doornail, propped up in that chair with a reefer hanging out of his dead lips, as the bikers party. Diane Ladd was in that flick too. That's when Bruce and Diane got together; a little trailer time, and they created what would become Laura Dern, who happens to be a good actress.
So thanks for remembering me and my music, guys. I will be in touch. Emily says that I will have to play my new tunes that are dedicated to her for Doug some night in his dreams so that he can wake up and claim them for himself. That would be cool.
Eddy Emerald
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