Friday, January 23, 2015

Daily Log: January 23, 2015

It's funny how the days you feel most like a failure end up also being the days when you get the most stuff done?  I accomplished pretty much everything on my list of things to do today, and I think part of the reason why was because I ended up getting some pretty negative feedback on my Webern piece (not that it was a bad piece; I just didn't follow directions accurately, which is just embarrassing).

I read some stuff written by Stockhausen this morning.  There were some assigned readings from the book Stockhausen on Music: Lectures and Interviews (London: Boyars, 1991).  We also had to listen to Kreuzspiel and Kontra-Punkte, as well as Messaien's Modes de Valeurs et d'intensities.  It would take a very, very long time to take these pieces apart; I probably shouldn't spend my time on them just now, since there are other pressing matters, but it's definitely something to look into.

I've been assigned to simply write a pointillistic piece, no need for serialism.  Hopefully I can at least do that successfully.

We discussed Piccini and Gluck today in 604.  I felt underprepared for this discussion as well, although I know plenty about Gluck's Orfeo.  I guess I was supposed to read more of the Oxford History on the subject than I actually did.

So yeah, it was a pretty pathetic morning, but as I said, my failures caused me to throw myself into my work this afternoon.  I spent most of it up in Dr. Johnson's office.  I translated three Goethe poems (including Heidenröslein, which would end up in one of Schubert's most famous lieder) and studied Pauline Oliveros's Variations for Sextet.  This was one of her earlier pieces, but it was the first that really epitomized some of her core compositional values.

I was informed today that I get the opportunity to write yet ANOTHER paper this semester, this one on the textural/contrapuntal style of any 20th-century composer.  I'm thinking I might do Oliveros.  It would make for great preparation for my thesis.  As long as Dr. Asplund will let me.

Finally, I acquired several great sources for my Haydn paper.  Our bibliographies (which, as Dr. Harker stated, are very much a work in progress until the end of the paper-writing process) are due on Monday, and we need at least 20 sources.  Today I broke ten official ones; I think I'm closer to fifteen.  But before I went home I went and checked out a bunch of other books about Haydn, Masonic music, and Mozart's The Magic Flute that I think would be helpful.  I'm sure I'll be fine for Monday.  20 pages is a breeze compared to the 60/100 sources I needed to acquire last semester.

Here's to the freaking weekend.

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