Carl Rosman
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carlrosman.bsky.social
Carl Rosman
@carlrosman.bsky.social
1K followers 310 following 4.6K posts
Unquestionably one of the clarinettists of his generation. Suddenly father of two. As surprised as you are.

www.carlrosman.com
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carlrosman.bsky.social
Oh, if I’d memorised Wikipedia I wouldn’t have been surprised.
Act 1 Hogarth's The Countess's Morning Levee (ca. 1744), the inspiration for the Marschallin's morning reception [citation needed]
November 10, 2025 at 1:53 PM
carlrosman.bsky.social
Ouch.
“I am the enemy you killed, my friend.” One lone voice, no accompaniment. Sung at the premiere by a German baritone, of course.
November 9, 2025 at 5:46 PM
carlrosman.bsky.social
Exactly: he wrote to Michael Kennedy “For actual coda, see end of Wells’ Tono-Bungay”.
"For actual coda, see end of Wells' Tono-Bungay." No other of Vaughan Williams's comments about his Second Symphony, entitled A London Symphony, is as revealing as this laconic aside, written in 1957 to the critic and scholar Michael Kennedy. Kennedy rightly interpreted the epilogue of the finale in light of the poetic final pages of H.G. Wells's novel: To run down the Thames so is to run one's hand over the pages of England... There come first squalid stretches of mean homes. and on to the North bank the polite long front of nice houses... that stretches from Cheyne Walk nearly to Westminster and hides a wilderness of slums... Out to the open we go, to windy freedom and trackless ways. Light after light goes down. England and the Kingdom, Britain, and the Empire, the old prides and old devotions glide abeam, astern, sınk down upon the horizon, pass - pass ... the river passes, England passes… These ruminations belong to Wells's protagonist, who stands on a destroyer as it sails down the Thames to the open sea. Such poetic cadences are a welcome conclusion, for most of Tono-Bungay (the name of a potion concocted by the narrator's uncle) is a hectic satire on the excesses of untrammeled capitalism. As well as London's beauty, Wells describes its darkness and poverty, that "wilderness of slums" hidden by the "nice houses" of Cheyne Walk. (Vaughan Williams himself lived in a house on Cheyne Walk when he completed A London Symphony in 1913, but he had also seen something of the slums.) From the booklet note to Sir Roger Norrington’s Decca recording, by Byron Adams.
November 2, 2025 at 12:41 PM
carlrosman.bsky.social
Reminds me of my last trip…
A river with some trees, a road, and a bike path in between the two, down which I was running until I saw half a dozen or so hot air balloons in a cloudless early morning sky gradually rising above the centre of Melbourne and decided to pause for a bit to take the present photo.
November 1, 2025 at 7:44 PM
carlrosman.bsky.social
Gosh! 🎉

(Hello no. 1000, @wdmbox.bsky.social!)

(If any of you who don’t actually exist could remove yourselves, I can have another party reasonably soon instead of waiting for another round number, just saying)
1K followers
October 31, 2025 at 10:45 AM
carlrosman.bsky.social
Here’s a nerdy one. Harrison Birtwistle is writing Earth Dances. He hears that a fellow composer has died. The frenetic activity stops short for a mournful downward glissando, and then recommences. It’s a great moment in a great piece but I’m sure hardly anyone realises why it’s there…
October 30, 2025 at 5:50 AM
carlrosman.bsky.social
The last panels of Le Papyrus de César, the first Astérix without either Goscinny or Uderzo…

(I lost it a bit here, ngl)
The Post-Scriptum to Le Papyrus de César, showing how the stories of the Gauls have been passed down from druid to druid, finally reaching ‘deux scribes modernes’ who exclaim to each other: “Tu entends ça, Bébert ?” “Fabuleux, René !”
October 29, 2025 at 5:54 PM
carlrosman.bsky.social
Pink perfume spray bottle next to its associated purple box: Hugo Boss essence de femme
October 18, 2025 at 1:39 PM
carlrosman.bsky.social
Meanwhile, not very far away…
Day attempting to break through grey foggy clouds.
October 17, 2025 at 5:28 AM
carlrosman.bsky.social
Today’s office
A big sporty-type space with basketball rings and such. A lighting rig under which sits an orchestra. Big hangy loudspeakers. A screen up the back on which the words ‘Donaueschinger Musiktage SWR Kultur’ are projected. Which, let’s face it, is a bit of a giveaway as to my current whereabouts.
October 16, 2025 at 1:09 PM
carlrosman.bsky.social
Today’s office
A big sporty-type space with basketball rings and such. A lighting rig under which sits an orchestra. Big hangy loudspeakers. A screen up the back on which the words ‘Donaueschinger Musiktage SWR Kultur’ are projected. Which, let’s face it, is a bit of a giveaway as to my current whereabouts.
October 16, 2025 at 1:04 PM
carlrosman.bsky.social
The fog has cleared, then!
A path in a field, leading somewhere mist-shrouded. Some trees are discernible.
October 16, 2025 at 12:07 PM
carlrosman.bsky.social
Have to fit this in there somewhere
Map showing Merdingen.
October 15, 2025 at 10:22 AM
carlrosman.bsky.social
Today’s office
A hall set up for an orchestra which isn’t here yet. Mostly mid to light brown wood panelling, the music stands more or less match, the parquet floor is a much lighter brown. About as light as brown can get without ceasing to be brown, frankly. The ceiling is a sort of grille, there are old-school stage lights, also hanging speakers.
October 15, 2025 at 7:27 AM
carlrosman.bsky.social
Cute, this station has its platforms numbered in binary
Display telling those of us in car 6 of ICE 109 that we are approaching Karlsruhe Hbf and showing us what trains we can catch from platforms 101, 1, and 10.
October 13, 2025 at 3:53 PM
carlrosman.bsky.social
Considering he was probably still scheduled for quite a bit more torture at that point, this seems a sensible move.
Harrison, after being hanged for several minutes and then cut open, was reported to have leaned across and hit his executioner-resulting in the swift removal of his head.
October 13, 2025 at 6:17 AM
carlrosman.bsky.social
WHEEEEEEEEEEE
Music score displayed on a well-known tablet device. A piece for clarinet and orchestra. Clarinet part is sometimes in two lines, sometimes in tablature. There is a lot of my scribble: “delicate/mellow/mysterious”; “corporeal/incorporeal”; “fast mordents”; “quiet high harmonics”; some fingerings; some notes that will be produced from the tablature if I get it right.
October 9, 2025 at 12:39 PM
carlrosman.bsky.social
How dare you do this to me while I am on a densely populated train.
Music score: a squirrel sings ‘Sais-tu ce qu’ils reflétaient, mes beaux yeux ?’ Music score: a chorus sings ‘il est bon, l’enfant, il est sage, il est si doux’; at the end a child sings ‘Maman !’
October 2, 2025 at 11:17 AM
carlrosman.bsky.social
Iphone timer screen. Important bit: ‘When timer ends: Duck’. This of course means that I have selected a quacking duck as my alert for the expiry of the timer. It is, however, susceptible to at least two misinterpretations which I for one find amusing.
September 24, 2025 at 12:28 PM
carlrosman.bsky.social
Beginning of the original piano+voice version of Don. Zoom in and you can see him sketching the piano part for Éclat.
Manuscript (mostly not in Boulez’s handwriting, as far as I can tell) of the original piano version of Don. With sketches for the piano part for Éclat, which he would derive from this when he replaced it with the orchestral version. Also a photo of Eva-Maria Rogner, the original Pli soprano, standing among the players. Enlarged picture of the beginning. Pencil sketch dimly visible. The bit of the piano part from Éclat which he derived from that opening chord.
September 22, 2025 at 10:53 AM
carlrosman.bsky.social
THIS IS SO TASTY
Pierre Boulez: Catalogue de l’œuvre. A magnificent tome and an absolute must for Boulez nerds like, er, me.
September 22, 2025 at 10:46 AM
carlrosman.bsky.social
Wikipedia to the rescue
The name was also used for the episode "Blow Out" of Target. In this case, a two-hour script was pared down to one. Writer Roger Marshall quit at the pre-production stage, leaving director Douglas Camfield to revise the script. (Wikipedia page on David Agnew.)
September 16, 2025 at 6:46 PM
carlrosman.bsky.social
Strangely enough, no.
My search engine has informed me that 528Hz is equivalent to 528000mHz, which is very kind and all but I could have worked that out for myself. I admit that I am now a tiny bit curious what the point of a millihertz would be. Is there anyone reading this who has an answer?
September 14, 2025 at 2:54 PM
carlrosman.bsky.social
Ha! Guck mal was ich in der Rigaer Altstadt gerade sah
Old building in Riga with a rooftop sculpture of a… downward-facing cat
September 6, 2025 at 12:48 PM
carlrosman.bsky.social
(Baltic) sea and sky (good morning @disgwylfa.bsky.social)
Jūrmala beach, morning, looking out to sea. A bit of cloud on the horizon, calm shallow water. Horizon a dark grey line, sea and sky just below and above it a similar lighter grey, otherwise blue sky, should be a jolly nice day. Looking down on shallow water at the beach, nice sunlight pattern on the sand, my tootsies clearly visible bottom centre, just a bit of red polish left on the big toenails, eagle eyes may spot traces of a wedge resection operation in the mid 1980s
September 5, 2025 at 6:16 AM