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11-01-12 POSTED MILAN 6 PAVANAS, IN ONE FILE

November 1, 2012
As you may already have guessed,
I am on the run, once again.

That means I get to do less production work.

But, I did "make the time"
to put the six pavanas in one file,
for your listening pleasure.

I think,
at least, according to recent traditions
(i.e. past 100 years),
that all six are played
and listened to all at once.

I'm not sure that was the intent of the composer.

As a matter of fact,
I find that very doubtful.

The Pavane was a common dance form
at the time these were written.

And people did not, to my knowledge, play collections of them.

Normally they are fairly slow and stately.

But Milan has taken the form
and adapted to the Vihuela,
which requires that the composition be played
a little bit faster,
due to the inability of the strings
to sustain tone for more than a few seconds.

So, it is a little bit faster
and more snappy than normal.

Although, it can be played any of numerous ways,
I am sure.

In that regard,
I should like to remind everybody who reads this,
or who otherwise cares about such matters,
that the Renaissance and Baroque music
was meant to be used as a basis for improvisation.

This is an art which has sadly,
for the most part,
become lost.

Todays musicians and orchestras
tend to be much more slavish,
it would seem.

This tends to destroy all of the spontanaeity,
while crushing most,
if not all of the life out of the music.

I was taught that my job is to breathe life
into the little dots on the page.

Not destroy them.

I still take those ideas very seriously.

At any rate, it's been fun.

As usual I have much more I would like to say.

But I really do have to get going.

Am heading north tomorrow.

Probably won't have a lot of time to do much.

But, we shall see, shan't we?

Am still working on Bach Cello piece.

I want it to have a certain polish
that can only be gained over days and days
of repetitive
(and rather insane)
practice,
while recording every single bit of it,
and then liberally deleting everything,
until the perfect take finally "happens".

It is part of a recording technique I am inventing.

Oddly enough,
I have really bad stage fright
once the recording machine goes on.

I can fight it all I want,
but it has never gone away
during the many years I have been doing this.

I can do ten perfect takes in a row,
and be so ready to "kick butt"
that you wouldn't believe it.

Everything exactly perfect,
over and over,
and over and over.

Until ---------

That little red light goes on.

And then I just fall apart.

I can't even get the first notes going.

It is totally pathetic.

But, also, totally real.

So, technique, technique, technique.

Yes, there are ways to work around such things.

But you will most certainly
have to figure it out on your own
if you are ever going to have an answer
that is worth all of the effort.

So, just as an aside,
that is what I am talking about.

Is it?

I don't know.

Maybe you do.

w/love in even more abundance


vw

11-01-12
3:52 p.m.
Wednesday

Ventura, California, USA
 

10-30-12 POSTED FOUR MORE SONGS

October 30, 2012
It is about 3:30 a.m.

I just finished posting four more songs.

Specifically,

Luis Milan- Pavana #6

Federico Moreno-Torroba - two movements from the Suite Castellana (I can't find the third one, just yet, but I do have it, and expect to run into it before too long).

The first is a Fandanguillo.

The second is titled Arada.

I have no idea what it means or anything else about it, for that matter.

Moreno-Torroba was a very influential Spanish guitarist.

His works are of very high quality.

Note the "jazz cho...

Continue reading...
 

10-26-12 TWO MORE PAVANAS POSTED

October 26, 2012
As you were all sleeping like little babies,
I presume,
I suddenly awoke at 4 a.m.,
ready to go.

"Sleepless in Ventura",
once again.

Well, what better thing to do than to record some more tracks?

So, ninety minutes later
I had the two takes which I posted just now:
Pavanas numbers 4 and 5.

That makes only one left to go.

But it will have to wait until I return.

I also got a fairly good take of Bach Cello piece,
but,
you guessed it,
I lost it,
inside the computer(?).

So, at about 6 a.m.
with a mysterio...

Continue reading...
 

102512 - FOUR NEW SONGS POSTED (AND HAPPY B-DAY RW)

October 26, 2012
Just finished posting four new songs.

First one is the third of the six Pavanas by Milan.

The second is Ase's Death, from Peer Gynt by Grieg.

The third is an organ version of the second Pavana of Milan, showing just how "organistic" these songs really are.

And finally, the fourth is an excerpt from a song written previously. 
I was asked to provide music of six minutes or less. 
The song I wanted to use is about twelve minutes long, but conveniently breaks into two parts, such that I was able to ...

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10-24-12 SOME RANDOM THOUGHTS

October 25, 2012
Today was the first day in which I have had any rest in I don't know how long.

The past several years became more and more stressful by the minute until everything coalesced into a sort of grand and very cosmic explosion.

It is as you watch the pieces floating down out of the air and landing all about you that you wonder about the wisdom of what you have just done.

Now that it has been over six months since I had to take matters out of other's hands and take charge in order to protect the intere...

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10-23-12 VW CURRENT ADDRESS

October 23, 2012
I just got back from my occasional trip to my post office box, and was rather shocked to find it closed.

I remedied the matter, but then found out that all of the past six to eight weeks of mail was "returned to sender".

Accordingly, if anyone reading this has received such a package, please resend it asap.

For the record:

street address:  1340 Callens Road, Ventura, CA 93003

p.o. box address:  P.O. Box 24187, Ventura, California, 93002

If anyone ever needs to get ahold of me and does not know how,...

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10-21-12 THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: JULIUS CAESAR; Et tu Brute?

October 22, 2012
" --- Some say that he fought and resisted all the rest,
shifting his body to avoid the blows,
and calling out for help,
but that when he saw Brutus' sword drawn,
he covered his face with his robe and submitted,
letting himself fall,


whether it were by chance
or that he was pushed in that direction
by his murderers,
at the foot of the pedestal
on which Pompey's statue stood,
and which was thus wetted with his blood. 

So that Pompey himself
seemed to have presided
,
as it were,
over the revenge ...

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10-20-12 POSTED FOUR NEW SONGS

October 20, 2012

I just finished posting my most recent compostion, which is for Men's Choir and Women's Choir, Organ, and Strings.

Also posted the first two "drafts" of the first two of the six Pavanas by Milan, just to give a little taste, as I continue to work on all six.

And, finally, I got around to editing a song which was written in October, 2011.

That means I am now only ten years behind, instead of eleven.

That is very good to know.

I feel much better now.

Am continuing editing of Hilo Cocqui frogs.

It is a...


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10-18-12 THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: HELEN OF TROY

October 18, 2012
Regarding the Treasury of the Siphnians at Delphi,
we learn of the following:

"The subject of the west frieze was
the Judgement of Paris.

Wishing to avoid misunderstandings,
the gods did not invite Eris, goddess of discord,
to the marriage of Thetis and Peleus.

In order to take her revenge,
she rolled among the guests a golden apple
inscribed with the words

'to the most beautiful'.


A quarrel broke between Hera,
Athena,
and Aphrodite,

and Zeus sent them
with Hermes
to Paris, Prince of Troy,
well k...

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10-17-12 GOOD MORNING!

October 17, 2012
All is (very temporarily) quiet here, for the moment.

Have been working on a number of different matters which need my attention.

Have been working on recording Luis Milan's "Six Pavanas".

Have two tentative recordings of the first and second Pavanas.

They are not good enough for my purposes, such that it is back to the keyboard so that
"I will do better".

These songs are rather unusual.

I do not want to tell too much until I post the songs.

But, just as a sort of sneak preview I will tell that the ...

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Vincente E. Woodward
vw@vincenteewoodward.com

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