Status report

 

Seemed like the right time for one of these, following the completion of something I had been putting off... Every so often I like to remind myself - and anyone who might happen to be reading in real time, so to speak - of the various different lines of enquiry which I have going on, and what I might have lined up. As always, some of the lines may be placed on indefinite hold, while others may forge ahead; as always, what is listed below won't (can't) take into account the things which suddenly crop up demanding my attention, and which get tackled right away. But that's how it goes around here, and anyone who has paid any degree of attention over the years will know that by now...

1. It's easiest to start where I left off, as it were: the continuing (slow-motion) attempt to lay the groundwork for being able to understand the Roland Dahinden project Ensemble Montaigne (Bau 4) 2013. (I hope I shall be excused for not linking to every previous post where I have mentioned this; most if not all of them were linked in the relevant paragraph of the last one of these "to camera" posts.) Getting to grips with Comp. 136 was really the easy bit - not that one would know that, from how long it took for me to get it done; but at least I am confident that I will recognise this piece when it turns up again, assuming it turns up at all*. How easy it will be to do the same for Comps. 94, 96 & 98 is another matter again. But that's something I need to try and figure out**. 

2. Another recent and therefore obvious line of enquiry: GTM, in a) theory and b) practice. I began the investigations under 2b) last summer, and had always intended to follow these up - but have not managed it. Since then, I have also started making 2a) some sort of serious attempt to understand the theory behind this major development in modern music, and that will also continue - pretty imminently, or at least that is the intention***. In both cases, these wells ought to dry up relatively quickly; but you never know at this point what I may uncover in the process of digging.

3. There is still quite a bit of repertoire to look at, notably four (very) different albums of solo explorations# - but also including an album of duets, and potentially another experiment as well. (Of the six recordings just mentioned, I only own two of them as official releases, but I'm fortunate enough to have reference copies of all of them.) More than enough there to keep me busy for a while, and by the time I've dealt with that lot, hopefully someone else will have brought out more interpretations of BraxRep...

4. Speaking of solo efforts, my gradually-continuing study of B's solo saxophone recitals will eventually bear some sort of fruit as well, although I still haven't really got granular with this stuff (a couple of recent mentions were more along the lines of announcing new developments, although I did at least threaten to get into the details with the latter of those). On the one hand, this kind of material seems in principle to be the sort of stuff which I am not remotely qualified to examine; on the other, given that the vast majority of the solo pieces are not through-composed anyway, it may well be precisely the kind of thing to which I am well suited in practice. I still intend to start (back) at the very beginning, when I get round to it. 

5. I'd forgotten that I even mentioned this last year, but one of my "back-burner" ideas for a little while now has been to make some sort of comparison between B's large-scale projects involving well-known musicians, and those where he is basically directing an orchestra made up of (near-)unknowns. [There are plenty of examples of both, and - again, as with 1. above - anyone who wants the hyperlinks is referred to the relavent paragraph of the post from last August.] Recent thinking on this subject has made me realise that in fact the comparisons will need to be drawn between three approaches, not two: the first type of performance outlined above breaks down into two sub-types, because there are further distinctions to be made between creative orchestra recordings where B. gets to choose his collaborators - no shortage of these - and those meetings where he gets busy with a group already assembled, comprising strong personalities and voices. [This one, if I'm honest, really feels like a possible case of biting off more than I can chew, and is not likely to take shape any time soon. But I do think there is something in there worth exploring...]

6. There are still plenty of videos in my to-watch list, not a few of which were first brought to my attention by McClintic Sphere last summer...

7. ... and I still have some intention of looking at "sideman gigs", or some of them at any rate - again, possibly drawing a distinction there between actual sideman appearances on other artists' work (these are mainly older recordings, of course) and more collaborative efforts, where B's involvement was more integral to proceedings. I quite like the idea of this, but... I dunno, not sure how likely it is to get done. Maybe. 

8. What very possibly will get done is a three-way comparison of the different studio recordings of Comp. 40q - I would really like to do this at some point. (One thing which will definitely get followed up is this business of comparative analysis, maybe starting with Comp. 142...)

That really feels like quite enough to be getting on with, especially given the fact that some of it will remain on the back burner for... who knows how long. Onwards, as they say, and upwards... 

* I mentioned last year that the stated primary - or first? - territory for the 2013 project was Comp. 174, but it clearly isn't that - instead it is very likely to be 147, a simple enough mistake. However, if a mistake can be made there, why not elsewhere? It may turn out that some of the listed tertiaries - if that is indeed what they are, which I will try to determine when the time comes - are wrong as well. It does seem quite plausible that Dahinden would insert 136, though, given its general suitability for such a performance and the fact that he had already tackled it pretty thoroughly on an album of his own. 

** It's not listed in most places, but I do already know that the Swiss project contains material from one of the early GTM territories as well; from memory, this was Comp. 193, which would make sense since Dahinden played on the original reading of that one. (Its presence is very noticeable on the actual album, I do remember that much.) 

*** ... but then I did originally intend to do the 136 post at least ten months before I actually wrote it. No promises :-S

# The Heffley album is so obscure that Discogs does not even have a listing for it - at least, not one that I can find. (It may turn out to be one of those things which is there, somewhere, but with a misleading title and/or artist credit, and thus "unsearchable" by any usual means.)