good morning! good morning!
it looks like a nice day out there (if a little cold and fresh).
howard has put up two new mixes on mixcloud. the 'eclectic' one has a lot of african music (of the type horsemouth likes- for example there's some early oumou sangare in there for a start at about 15 mins in) and another ambient one (that horsemouth will review later).
horsemouth is reading the michael hall book on harrison birtwistle.
birtwistle was inspired by gustav holst (says hall) and in particular by his moving to thaxted in essex during the first world war. on the whitsun weekend of 1916 holst and his wife put on a festival.
'four whole days of perpetual singing and playing...
we don't get enough (music). we practice stuff for a concert at which we do a thing once and get excited over it and then go off and do something else... in the intervals between the services people drifted into the church and sang motets or played violin or cello... the effect was indescribable... I realise now why the bible insists on heaven being a place... where people sing and go on singing.' (in gustav holst by imogen holst, p.45-48).
in hall's book this inspires both birtwistle's monody for corpus christi and holst's four songs for voice and violin but it has become a strange magical event.
'one summer's evening during the first world war, seemingly, holst went into thaxted parish church where a woman was wandering up and down the aisles singing to the accompaniment of the open strings of a violin she carried. the bare fifths framed her song and helped to articulate it...'
it is almost like something out of akenfield.
hall's book is very enjoyable because there is a discussion of the musical procedures birtwistle employs and also a discussion of the texts birtwistle set and why he was interested in them. (there's the gunter grass diary of a snail, virgil, ausonius, sappho...)
yesterday horsemouth had a day off (after his busy social whirl of birthday festivities and collection of super-spreader events). now all that remains is to sit quietly, go for a few walks, perhaps do the shopping. yesterday horsemouth cooked and ate vaguely curried parsnips and carrots (with a tomato, onion and pepper sauce) and plenty of bread and cheese. he sat in the back garden sunbathing and read.
he will now wait to see if he has caught covid.
in the evening horsemouth made a start on watching bloody pit of horror (1965) (cheesecake fashion shoot in old castle goes horribly wrong) and instead swapped to dario argento: an eye for horror from this he learns that dario's daughter's name is pronounced ah-ZEE-ah not asia (or maybe this is just how italians pronounce asia rather than an affectation).
horsemouth is just finishing off his coffee (and is contemplating moving on to tea). he was up just slightly after 7am (so that's fairly decent).
on the subject of his own music making horsemouth should of course do more.
it is not that he is that good at it (you understand), but because he enjoys it so much.
the tracks he recorded round howard's have come out well (he thinks) though of course there is plenty of room to nip and tuck it and improve them. the guitar solo one has come out well - horsemouth had a plan for what he was going to play on the resonator and the he thought he should add the 12 string guitar as it was to hand. horsemouth will probably title it variations on a guitar piece by pier marton.
it is the day on which the events in the fog happen. next week monday meter installations, a zoom meeting of the communal endeavour in the evening, and then wednesday a full meeting of the communal endeavour face to face. soon enough the devil rides out day (may eve). various elections (may 5th, cinqo di mayo) and soon enough after that the 1 year anniversary of the last time horsemouth did any paid labour.
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