Composering

Bob and weave

haymaker-1-3

The Long Count (2014) (PDF, 274 Kb)
Haymaker Rag (2017) (PDF, 108 Kb; MIDI realization below)

 

This space has been nothing but column links for a while, due to a combination of (probably fruitless) work and (distractingly enraging) incredulity at the country’s ongoing slow-motion political and historical car crash. So I wrote some ragtime.

Actually, there’s two, although one is a few years old. “The Long Count,” the old one, might be the most elaborate rag I’ve ever written, but I always felt like it wanted a companion; hence this new one, a straight-up fingerbuster on classic-rag lines—if not necessarily harmonies. (I can play it, but only at about two-thirds speed so far. If I ever work it up to tempo, I’ll post a recording. In the meantime, MIDI. “The Long Count” is score-only, since the original file perished with my last hard drive.)

The programmatic references move from complex to obvious, too: “The Long Count” (written as a present for Ethan Iverson and Sarah Deming, the latter my favorite fiercely thoughtful vicarious connection to the ring) originally sprang from my daft notion that the famous temporal anomaly of the second Tunney-Dempsey fight might have, chaos-theory style, bumped the universe off its axis just enough to ameliorate the turnover of the Mayan long count. The second is just as it says: wild swings of the hands.

Gnaden Fülle läßt seh’n

Hey, look there, it’s almost Christmas. For this year’s internet Christmas card, we’re bringing out the guitar for an easy (I can play it; ergo it is pretty easy), standard-tuning, fingerstyle arrangement of an old favorite. I have found that it is impossible to play fingerstyle guitar without gradually assuming a strangely equanimous persona. The equanimity doesn’t last, of course. But it’s nice to know that it’s in there somewhere.

Gruber (arr. Guerrieri): Silent Night (PDF, 60Kb)



Only a couple of clunkers in that performance! It probably would have been better had I been fueled up with this concoction, a holiday favorite in the early days of the Sunset Club of Los Angeles, according to the December 13, 1902 issue of The Capital:

The “Sunset Club Christmas Punch” is a more stalwart and insidious amalgamation of choice ingredients, and should be taken with respectful care by even robust partakers. The following are the constituents of this holiday specialty:

Four bottles of any fine brand of champagne.
Two bottles each of rum and brandy.
One gill of curaçao, or chartreuse.
One quart of black tea.
Four bottles of plain soda.
Lemon juice, sugar and fruits.

Mix the juice of six cured lemons with half a pound of crushed (or cube) sugar and then amalgamate with the tea, and stir for a few seconds. Then pour in the rum, and stir to a foam. Then the brandy and liqueur. Now, place a large cube of ice in the bowl and pour in the champagne and soda. Then place slices of two or three handsome uncured lemons and of four small oranges on the ice; and around it. Cubes of pineapple or banana slices, or both, may also be used. Serve in Roman punch cups.

A potent elixir to while away the hours while you’re waiting to see if that “peace on earth and goodwill to all” page is ever going to load. Safe holidays to everyone.