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This alone is extremely not crap.

Maurice wrote:Tenor 1. Reg was our section leader, and I sat next to Ben Miller. (Embarrassingly, I bumped him a few times with the guitar.)

Since I am a lefty, I have always sat next to my pal Mark, who doesn't mind if I hit him with the neck of my guitar, or send plectrums flying in his direction.

I think the timeline here will be that Glenn will finish his revision of the score, then email all the previous players for confirmation, and then determine if he needs new people. If so, he'll put the request up on his site, and out on his mailing list, so you're best off just joining his list. Then he assigns players to sections and sends out scores.

Speaking of this, I'd think we're getting on time for this above process to happen. We'll see how it shakes out, of course.

The very first time I played this, in June 2001, Glenn faxed me the score on the monday before the first rehearsal, which was tuesday.

I compared my two scores prior to playing in the Kauf/Ast one and not much had changed, only a few bars here and there in the arpeggiated section.


This time, I need to figure out how to keep my thumb from blistering.

Jordan wrote:Burun,

I've heard only SWANS concerts are comparable in terms of the sheer density of sound being transmitted. Speaking of which, did anyone get a chance to see them in their heyday pre Children of God before they turned into a maudlin cabaret band?

uh, i saw them twice in the "rolling thunder" days. once in Detroit at that place where all the bands used to play that is like St. Andrews but smaller. (Same place I saw Big Black once. Steve gave me a nickle that night.)

I also saw the swans at the Channel in Boston. I think.

They took my head clean off. No shit. After the first song at the Detroit show, they had blown out the PA, but the monitors were still working, so they couldnt tell. I was up against the stage, so I was getting stage volume and monitors, so I couldn't tell. What a fucking roar.

anyway, after they finished the first song, they stopped playing and the place was silent. dead silent. 300 people (or whatever) just catching their breath and trying to comprehend what they just saw/heard. Took my head clean off, at the neck. Nothing is sadder than how far that band fell.

Humpty-Bumpty.

I just got the recently released piece entitled "Indeterminate Masses...", which is provided along with a ludicrous, fifteen-minute interview with John Cage wherein, notoriously, he equates Branca's music with fascism. I have lost a lot of respect for Cage after having listened to his aimless, unintelligent attempt to explain why he thinks that such is the case. I thought this guy was supposed to be some sort of genius. It's like listening to your great-grandmother at the Alzheimer's home try to put her finger on just where she last left her vacuum cleaner.

Anyway, the piece itself is great, although poorly recorded. I thought I'd bring this up again because I am slightly obsessed with all of Branca's work and I like to take every possible opportunity to discuss it with other obsessives.

What's y'all's favorite piece by Branca? Mine is "Spiritual Anarchy" from Symphony No. 8.

NerblyBear wrote:What's y'all's favorite piece by Branca? Mine is "Spiritual Anarchy" from Symphony No. 8.

It's been a while since I listened to the 8, but I recall at least part of it being too Wagnerian for me. I much prefer the second movement of the 10 from the same disc.

The shortlist of Branca pieces that really do it for me:

The regrettably likely never to be released first version of the 13
Last movement of the 5
First movement of the 5
Second movement of the 6
"The Spectacular Commodity," "The Ascension," and "Structure" from The Ascension.

I'm also fond of the pieces on The World Upside Down.

Maurice wrote:The regrettably likely never to be released first version of the 13

I love and hate this one, for reasons you probably know all too well.

burun wrote:

Maurice wrote:The regrettably likely never to be released first version of the 13

I love and hate this one, for reasons you probably know all too well.

Oh yeah. "You mean we're getting bread and water? Awesome!" And then there's the worst motel room I've ever been in. Still, I feel a deeper ambivalence about the revised 13--everything I'd really liked about the first one was edited out.

Maurice wrote:Oh yeah. "You mean we're getting bread and water? Awesome!" And then there's the worst motel room I've ever been in. Still, I feel a deeper ambivalence about the revised 13--everything I'd really liked about the first one was edited out.

One day when we are both octogenerians, we'll bore the crap out of our grandkids with stories like these.

And then drink some General Foods International Coffees.

burun wrote:And then drink some General Foods International Coffees.

Jean-Luc!

To me, this is like asking if I love blowjobs. Always not crap.