By the way, I don’t want too much time to go by without saying thanks to Fredösphere for pointing folks to my post about poetry and composers. Heather Heise also has this cliffhanger on the same subject.
P.S. - Don’t miss Fredösphere’s Consice History of Western Music. It could save you years of music history study.
Oh, I almost forgot… DogBlog says impossibly nice things about me in this post. Very embarrassing.
There’s too much to say in one post about this Budapest trip and the premiere, plus I’m not at home this week. So, I’m going to try to drop a few tidbits here and there as I get the odd opportunity.
Visiting Budapest after 13 years was wonderful and surreal. I’d been reading up on it recently, and had come to expect drastic changes, but I was very relieved to observe that in fact very little had changed. Sure, there were a lot more shiny stores and a lot more in the way of conveniences, and yes many of the buildings had been spruced up. But, being there still felt exactly the same; people on the street looked exactly the same, if perhaps a bit younger and happier.
My memories of my three years there in the early 90’s are so unbelievably vivid that the experience was a bit like what it must be like to travel into the future. Suddenly, the lousy state-owned Russian restaurant on Andr�ssy �t wasn’t there anymore, replaced by a Chinese restaurant. Suddenly the Blue Metro line had become extremely rundown. Suddenly, there were a great many interesting, well-lit, well-decorated restaurants and bars all around the city. Suddenly, there were people out and about at all hours.
It was also a surprise how immediately I felt right at home — like I’d never left. By Thursday I was pretty much thinking in Hungarian again, which was nice. I’d been brushing up over the past year or so (coincidentally to this commission). But I found myself in some very strange situations. For example, one day a woman approached me on the street asking if I had change for the parking meter. I had no trouble understanding what she wanted, or even responding (which would have been a problem up until about a year ago). The trouble was that I didn’t know the new coinage! Here was this foreign guy, clearly having been in Budapest and understanding the language, but acting like a tourist with the money. She must have thought I was nuts.
More observations and anecdotes coming soon…
I’m back, and the whole thing was a huge success.
There are many details I’d like to share, but no time right now. I will be fleshing out this post, but it might not happen this week. Off to D.C. for Thanksgiving. Sigh.
Eh, not really. Budapest hasn’t changed as much as I’d expected. And I’m very glad.
Just came from a rehearsal. Words cannot describe how good it is to hear live instruments playing what you’ve only heard in your head or via MIDI playback. A few tempo disputes, which we’ll surely settle over a few rounds of p�linka later on. Otherwise, hooray!
I’m sitting in an airless, smokey flourescent-lit internet caf�. Must go now. Must ….. breathe…. air…..
UPDATE: Here is said internet cafe. The the right of it is Budapest’s first Burger King, which opened when I lived here around 1991. It was said to be the largest Burger King in the world at the time. Shrug. It had wonderfully tacky decor. I must go and see if they’ve toned it down.
NOTE: An update to this item was posted on September 12, 2006. You’ll find fresher information there.
One day last week while walking in Golden Gate Park, I heard an attractive percussion sound coming from near the fountain by the de Young. I went to investigate and discovered This Guy sitting on a bench and gently tapping what looked like a flying saucer or an inside-out steel drum. The sound was captivating; very similar to a steel drum, only the pitches were much more focused and rang for much longer. The guy playing it in the park was able to achieve counterpoint and harmony.
After listening for a while, I asked about the instrument, which I found out is called a “Hang” and made by a company in Switzerland. It looks like the Hang is in such high demand that you can’t even order one until March of next year.
Further research has revealed that… well, that there isn’t a lot of information on the internet about it, one exception being this very thorough site. The Hang is made to order, which means you choose the pitches (7 or 8 ), so virtually any scale can be achieved, including non-Western ones. The site referenced above also has a library of mp3 examples of various modes and scales.
It’s a beautiful sounding instrument, but I wonder how practical it would be to write for it as a classical composer. My first thought was how great it would be to have this in an orchestral percussion battery, but since it would require the orchestra to have access to a hang in the exact tuning your piece requires. (I think they cost in the neighborhood of $600) Maybe someone will get into the hang rental business.
The name “hang” is said to be from a Swiss German dialect’s word for “hand”. Hooray for David Kaetz (same site referenced above) for also knowing that “hang” is the Hungarian word for “sound”, “tone” and many related words. He has a very fun dictionary of Hungarian words based on the root “hang”.
Just playing with my new phone/camera actually. If nothing else, this will certainly make blogging more fun. In the two or three months since I’ve been paying attention, this is one of my favorite blog posts.
Now this seems like a good time to mention that if you haven’t had Hand, Foot and Mouth Syndrome, it’s one of the more interesting mild illnesses you can get from your kids. If you have a toddler, then it’s only a matter of time. Sorry.
Enjoy!
So, as of yesterday, Letter To Hungary is now out the door, delivered electronically to a printing store in Budapest. (See, I keep telling people: the internet is good for some things.)
Turns out, generating parts using Sibelius 4 has not been the Hamptons clambake I’d anticipated based on the hype. (Don’t get me wrong; I loooove Sibelius.) Also, the piece is so busy that for the first time ever, I’ve had to deliver a set of parts without a solution for every pageturn problem. I’m not an orchestral player or a professional copyist, so I simply couldn’t figure out how to get it done. Tips and tricks are welcome here.
Here’s a first pass at some brief program notes. (more…)
