Monday 5 January 2004

Over the so-called 'holiday' season, I prepared the editions of the Kellie symphonies for March. Besides the printed sources, there's at least one contemporary keyboard arrangement of each piece - of the C major overture, there are two - so besides the usual process of establishing a musical text, there have also been some decisions to make about whether to adopt any of the decorations and embellishments from Pasquini's or Corri's versions. Do they reflect orchestral performance practice, or are they just funked-up versions made more keyboard-friendly? The dynamics in Corri's version are just as incoherent as those in his Duncan Gray, which I'm currently working back up to speed for concerts in New York on Friday and Saturday with the Chris Norman Ensemble.  Friday is a private event in the Metropolitan Museum, but Saturday's gig is in the improbably-named Merkin Concert Hall. I'm assuming that it was named after someone, rather than to commemorate a particular object.  As well as the usual tedious procedure of entering the US, I look forward to the added attraction this time of being treated like a criminal by having my fingerprints and photograph taken (announced in the news today).  The gigs will be fun though.

I got a bit further with the music for the March tour too: already there's more repertoire than there is time in the concerts. I should have the venues fixed in the next day or two, as it's much easier to talk to people on the phone now that the holidays are over: in the pre-Christmas rush no-one wants to do anything that's not urgent.  Tonight I had the idea of reviving a theatre piece I wrote over a decade ago, whose basis is a Dowland galliard chopped up into samples and re-assembled like a mutant Lego model. 

Meanwhile, my walkman is still fuelling my opinion that Super Trouper is one of the great pop albums, a sort of Miserable Songs for Swinging Divorcees dressed up as pop music for 10 year olds. Happy New Year is on it of course: a beautiful tune, and a last verse that begins 'Seems to me know that the dreams we had before are all dead'. Not exactly Auld Lang Syne, is it? I'm beginning to see Garry Mulholland's point that Abba and Joy Division had a lot in common. On a more technical note, Rutger Gunnarsson and Mike Watson's bass playing passed me by completely when I first listened, even as a 13 year old connoisseur of basslines. Now I'm entranced by their ability to nail a groove solidly and play around it at the same time. If I'm not careful I might end up getting my fretless bass down from the attic.