Classical Song Cds: A Composer’s Journal December 29 & 30, 2004

Wednesday, December 29

Mailed off demo Cds of the "Early Songs" & "Visions" to reviewers & radio stations, in four countries. Ordered an additional 100 "Visions" Cds. Diana sent me the new graphics & they should arrive in a few days.

Hmm ... I notice that people on www.Buzzle.com are not finding all the Composer’s Journals. After reading an entry, scroll down & click on "Read more articles by Laurie Conrad" (under "printable version" & "mail it to a friend") - then the entire list of all the articles I’ve written comes up.

The results of my latest Buzzle Poll were not as I expected - more people read the Journal entries backwards than forward!

Took out the pages I had written for "A Prayer to St. Michael" or whatever the title will be - they are not the opening pages. These are the notes & sounds I both heard & saw while walking into town the other week. Since I so hastily scribbled down those pages of notes, I have written pages & pages & pages of the string quintet. I hope that I can once again stand before that same open doorway to write this Prayer to St. Michael ... Hmm ... Should I now write the opening portion that I also saw appear on the ms paper, covering that first page - or should I continue working on the pages of notes I wrote down that day ...

I will start at the beginning. I can now hear the opening choir lines - quiet, humble, reverent & human. Profound but simple. And I will break many 12 tone rules. Octaves, repeated notes. The pages I already wrote are not 12 tone at all, they are not even atonal. The chord progressions are unusual at times, but I would say the passage is still tonal. Not many composers have experimented with unusual chord progressions within the tonal system - they jumped into atonality, polytonality & twelve tone; it was a leap & an unforgiving one - they never really looked back.

Being a "contemporary" composer I probably should not say this - but much atonal music, to me, sounds like the composer is wandering around in lower astral realms & bringing us with them. Rather unpleasant. This is not true of the great composers, of course. However, to write atonally - we composers must be very careful, or the music can descend into chaos very quickly. There is a clarity & a beauty to 12 tone which can not be found elsewhere - if the composer has mastered the system. And it is not an easy system to conquer. It is also an acquired taste, so the poor public has its work to do as well ...

I was attracted to the 12 tone system before I ever heard it. Schonberg’s concept of every note being independent of the other tones of the chromatic scale, like planets, heavenly bodies ... Not subservient to the traditional chord progressions, tonic-dominant, a key center. So, in that sense, this new approach, these unusual progressions - still follows the spirit that underlies the 12 tone system. Only I am replacing single tones with chords.

Carolyn once said that she thought her mother incarnated in order to sing my 12 tone songs. I often think I incarnated in order to write 12 tone music. To live in that rarified air ...

After this piece for St. Michael, I think that I will write some 12 tone songs again - to walk in those familiar landscapes of intervals & sounds ... That clarity & infinity.

Thursday, December 30

Must give Graham the scores to "Unsung Songs" so we can record them. Finish orchestrating "Chansons". And then find a choir that can sing it.

Cds by composer Laurie Conrad
Cds of Conrad's "Early Songs" & "Visions" for flute & harp are available on this site.