Well, dear readers, I am sitting here like so much fish, listening to Albinoni’s famous Adagio in G-minor for strings and organ, which has a strange and very convoluted history. It is said to be based on a musical fragment found by composer and muiscoligist Remo Giazotto, but there is some question as to whether he actually found the fragment, since there seems to be no proof of that. In any case, fragment or not, it’s mostly by Giazotto but always attributed to Albinoni. It was finally published in 1958. I first discovered it in Orson Welles’ film of The Trial and fell in love with it and immediately bought the only version I could find in a record store, a mono version conducted by Jean Witold on Period Records, licensed from Vogue Records in France. I also found a copy of it on a French EP, the soundtrack version. Then I had another mono version conducted by Louis de Fremont that I liked quite a bit. In the 1970s, despite many esteemed soundtrack collectors telling me that the EP soundtrack, four tracks, was all that had ever been released and that no full album had been. Well, they were wrong because I found it, an auction by mail, and I won it, a minty fresh copy and the only one anyone had ever seen up to that point. Since then, other copies of the LP have shown up from time to time. I, of course, issued that soundtrack on CD and if you don’t have it you really should, as it’s a fantastic disc in great sound. I have a few stereo versions of the Adagio but for some reason I prefer the mono versions as they suit the piece better. The Trial is not the only film to feature it – a few months later it was used to great effect in Sundays and Cybele, one of my favorite films. Since then, it’s been used in films like Rollerball, Gallipoli, Flashdance, The Doors, Manchester by the Sea, and The Assassination of Gianni Versace. I’m currently listening to all the versions I have on the computer. Prior to listening, I watched one forty-minute episode of a documentary about Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward, directed by Ethan Hawke and his stuff was shot during the pandemic on Zoom. There’s a lot of great footage, so that’s nice and I’ll watch the rest of the episodes at some point.
Yesterday, I didn’t get to bed until four-thirty and I slept until one, so eight-and-a-half hours of sleep. I answered e-mails, got coherent, and dove right into futzing and finessing, which took quite a long time but I was happy with the writing, so that was good. Then I dove right into writing new pages and that is all I did all day and into the evening. I took a brief break to make some pasta with red sauce and ate that while I continued writing. After eight pages, I took the break to watch the first episode of the documentary, then went right back to writing and finished seven more pages by eight-thirty. And that’s what happens when you have no interruptions or distractions. Not only that, but I got the first half of the commentary done and will try to finish that after posting these here notes. So, that was a very good day of writing.
Today, I’ll try to be up by ten or so, I’ll futz and finesse, write new pages, and then I think I’ll be seeing episode seven and then we’ll do whatever finessing needed. I’ll eat, and then write more and probably won’t watch anything but may listen and relax at some point.
Tomorrow, I’ll write all day, then we have another marathon rehearsal. Thankfully, I rescheduled she of the Evil Eye for next week so I don’t have to get up too early on Saturday. I’ll do as much writing as possible before our 1:30 stumble-through. I’ll give whatever notes I have but we’ll implement them at the club. We’ll leave from here and all drive over there. We’ll do our sound check and run anything we need to, and then we play our Saturday night show and I think we’ll be pretty full. I may just come right home after unless someone wants to go somewhere for a bite. Sunday, I’ll write all day until I have to get ready and then we’ll do a brief sound check at the club and then we play our sold out show and after that I will really be ready for a nice meal somewhere. I will, of course, have a full report for you after both shows.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, try to be up by ten, futz and finesse, write new pages, hopefully see episode seven and do whatever finessing is necessary, eat, stop at the mail place, then come home and continue writing. Today’s topic of discussion: What is the first piece of classical music you purchased on record? What label and conductor? Mono or stereo? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy to have had a day sans interruptions and distractions.