Wrote a new piece tonight, on text by astronaut Walter M. Schirra Jr., quoted in his obit today in the New York Times -- a little fugue, Mostly It's Lousy Out There, again mapped on the J.S. Bach Fugue No. 1 in C from The Well-Tempered Clavier (also used for Another Cognitive Disorder from 12 Preludes and Fugues ["Topical"], and, again as in ACD, in a key of four flats -- Bb Blues -- but vaguer, simpler, more stylized usage of received structure).
Part of a larger work, The Musical Orbital, Op. 147. Abstract vocal or instrumental lines, rather than necessarily keyboard...
Text slightly reorganized as below...
Mostly it's lousy out there.
It's a hostile 'vironment, and it's
Trying to kill you. The
Outside temp'rature goes from minus four fifty degrees to
Plus three hundred three hundred plus three hundred three degrees. You
Sit in a flying Thermos bottle.
Nice lunch with Kurt Erickson today -- he enjoyed the show, particularly William, Karl, Lisa M. in Orpheus; Suzanna's numbers; and my solo bits -- thinks I should send solo work to Charles Amirkanian, Kronos, connecting it with what Meredith Monk and Pamela Z do... We talked a bit of H.K. Gruber's chanonier work as well...
Video was taken of the Duckpond show -- need to get a hold of it and send it out variously....
