Back when I lived in Montreal I was approached one day to do a recording for one of Canada's Olympians. She was a dressage rider and, alas, I forget her name. The fellow that approached me, whose name I also forget, employed me to do a recording for him of the first movement of this piece, the Concierto Andaluz for four guitars and orchestra:
This was exactly the music the Olympian needed for her routine. It was planned out in great detail and as a consequence the music needed to be edited to fit her routine. Some sections had to be abbreviated and others, perhaps shifted around. To be honest, I forget! And I no longer have the score. So how were we going to do this? The contractor, who I will call the Producer, had used music software to both do an orchestral accompaniment and a score. He reduced the four guitar parts down to three and I was asked to record the three guitar parts, using a click track, over the computer-generated orchestral accompaniment. It wasn't too difficult to reduce the four parts to three as the real reason this concert is for four guitars is that it was written for the Romero family who toured as a quartet: Celedonio Romero, the father and Celin Romero, Pepe Romero, and Angel Romero, the three sons.
Sadly, I don't have a copy of that recording which I would love to hear about now. I also don't have a recording of my performance of the Concierto de Aranjuez with the Victoria Symphony which may exist somewhere in the vaults of the CBC.
When we were working on the project, I think it took about a week or so to learn the parts and do the recording, the Producer said let's go meet the Olympian and her horse who lived on a farm in the Laurentians to the north of Montreal. So we drove up one day and I met the Olympian, a very nice young woman. She took us over to the stables to meet her horse, probably more valuable than every car I have ever owned put together. He stuck his head out of his stall and whinnied. She introduced me and I patted him on the forehead and gave him a carrot. He regarded me with quite intelligent eyes. I couldn't help but think that he was the real star of the show and we were just his assistants. He was the one that was going to dance to a Rodrigo guitar concerto, after all.
Sadly, I also forget his name!
8 comments:
Bryan your fans would love to hear you playing the Aranjuez ... Do I have to remind you that you are Canadian and that Canadians are nice and that if you act nicely you can get things done? Approach the Canadian embassy in Mexico and ask them to help you fish your recording out of the CBC vaults of Victoria. Inevitably there will be a culture attaché at the embassy who will be delighted to help and know how to get this done. Offer them a free concert in exchange or something ...
Thanks, Dex, I agree entirely! But I have had a few runs of bad luck. I lost a lot of scores and recordings because of an evil moving company. The tape of the Aranjuez performance was supposed to be delivered to me, via the Victoria Symphony office, but through some mixup, they tried to deliver it to the Vancouver Symphony office, which was closed because that was the week they went bankrupt!
But the idea of connecting with the cultural attache at the embassy in Mexico City is absolutely brilliant and I don't know why I didn't think of it.
By the way, I started your novel, The Transformations, this morning. Wow, you are a real honest to goodness novelist! I'm sorry to say that The Golden Ass is one of the few books of antiquity that I am not at all familiar with. So I am really looking forward to your book. I am only in a few pages so far.
Thanks much for the kind words about writing Bryan ... it was fun trying to keep up with the great Apuleius, my inspiration; when you read The Golden Ass you will see where I was huffing and puffing compared to his incomparable ease and panache - he's wonderful ...
I especially like the Robert Graves translation ... he takes liberties, nothing fatal though.
I have to say ... losing scores and recordings - that hurts ... but if I may be so bold ... you're still here and it seems like you are in a good creative space ... keep it going!
Many years back (late 80s) I lived in Vallarta ... once a month the Camino Real Hotel would sponsor a classical music culture night featuring small groups (Piano Solo, guitar solo, Piano & violin, Piano and voice, solo harp, etc) of international musicians living in Mexico - as well as Mexican musicians, of course; very high quality, wonderful evenings; great audiences - mostly Mexican folks - I mention that since most of us associate Vallarta uniquely with international tourists .. anyway, that was then... and we are living in a paralyzed performance milieu, sigh ... also, now that I think of it ... you live in a guitar loving country ... are you in touch with music schools or institutes? It seems like they would house many enthusiastic young who would love to try out your compositions ... just brainstorming ... I remember meeting a few outstanding Mexican music students who would come to town hoping to find a gig during school breaks ... yikes... I'm reminiscing ... great memories ...
I'm a big fan of Robert Graves. I set three of his poems to music. The story is that he used to do his translations striding back and forth in his rooms, holding the Greek text in his hand and translating aloud into English while a secretary took it all down.
Yes, we have a quite active chamber music society here that puts on a whole season of concerts from October through April. I used to write all their program notes for them. I am trying to cajole them into commissioning a piano piece from me.
And I took your excellent suggestion and wrote to the Cultural Attache at the Canadian Embassy in Mexico City--don't know why I didn't do that previously.
I originally moved to Mexico to get away from music as I was rather burned out. And my career plan is something like: write some good music and then, thirty years after I pass away, I will be discovered. That way I don't have to concern myself with marketing, something that frankly, I abhor.
I think John Updike called Robert Graves the 'custodian of the ancient world'... which is OK but I treasure his collected poems, his Claudius; and he also wrote a very interesting biography of his pal, TE Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) and many more great things as you know...
I'm praying the burnout has passed ... the Music Salon is simply the best music site on the WW Web - I bet I'm not alone in thinking that ... speaking of which ... I understand, marketing is a drag, but if you were to put out a CD, well you have a built-in market right here ... (just saying)...
I love Goodbye to All That, Graves' autobiography. Have you read The White Goddess? And I have his Collected Poems on my shelf as well!
Oh yes, my burnout from music phase was from 1998 to 2003. For five years I never opened my guitar case. When I got back to playing again, I was more relaxed and enjoyed it more. One of the first things I decided to do was set some poems by Graves which I had wanted to do for years. It was that actually that set me on the composing road. I have always composed music since I knew what it was, but I never took it seriously until a few years ago. After I composed three songs on Graves' poems I set another nine poems by different poets. From then on, composition became my real vocation. If you search my blog for Robert Graves I think those songs will come up. I would love to know what you think of them.
I have thought seriously of putting out a few CDs, but I think that ship has sailed. The violinist I was recording with in Toronto, for example, a completely professional musician and one of the best chamber musicians in Canada, DOES NOT OWN A CD PLAYER!! So it is streaming or nothing, I'm afraid.
Bryan can I be your manager for 2 minutes? Free of charge - I don't want any percentage. Here goes: Does anybody out there who loves the Music Salon have any connection to NAXOS (the most exciting producer of new music in the world)? If so urge them to please make a CD of Bryan Townsend compositions; he has a large and dedicated following; thank you.
There (dusting his hands). That wasn't so bad ...
I have 'The White Goddess' on my shelves. I tried to read it; I had to take refuge in Graves' 'The Greek Myths Vols I & II to restore my sanity ...
Meantime I'm eager to hear your Graves' settings ....!
Dex, I'm happy to give you 10%!!
I'm all in favor of Naxos approaching me with the idea of doing a CD. I've got some masters all ready to go.
Still waiting...
Did you locate the Graves settings? There are three: Your Private Way, Symptoms of Love and Spoils. The last one is a palindrome. Let me know if you can't find them. They are all on the blog somewhere.
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