Music 366: Day 1

Music 366 Project


Day 1

What ensemble am I writing for?

I keep asking myself this question. The template file I used for Day 58 is titled "String Quartet, 12 8 time", but I know that it's going to be "performed" by a general MIDI instrument. The American Composer's Forum has a list of tips for submitting work. One of the tips is not to submitt MIDI realizations of orchestral works. I believe it is accompanied by the statement that if one would do that the selection committee may "questions your values."

So where does this leave me? Am I thinking too much? Part of me would love to record a string quartet doing this. But the reality is that I'm not at a music school any longer where I have ready access to string players. Another part of me says "deal with the problems of the instrument--the General MIDI Instrument." When you write for a pipe organ you go in knowing that you can't really control the attack with the keyboard. Dynamics tend to be tiered and achieved by pulling out or in the stops. You have control of the swell as well, but that will be for all the choirs within the swell.

The purpose of the Music 366 project is to generate ideas. For right now I'm writing for MIDI. If things I write can also be transcribed for acoustic instruments, great.

First of Music 366

Here's the first of the Music 366 Project. Day 58. Give a listen!

I would have laughed...

If someone had told me in high school that the most consistent performance experience I would have in my life would be singing, I would have laughed. But in truth that is probably what I have done the most of. I had choir rehearsal tonight. Today had been one of those muddled gray/blue kind of days. It's such a cliche but just to focus on singing alone just re-centers my mind. (The religious part of me would say my soul.)

I need to get to publishing the "micro-tunes" I've written. I have over 50 of them now. Given everything else in my life I feel pretty good about this. The Music366 project may take over a year to write. Such is life.

It's been a while...

I haven't been blogging much on this blog. But that doesn't mean I haven't been composing. I've mainly been experimenting with what I'm calling "micro-tunes". These are extremely short compositions (like under 30 seconds). I'm starting to put together a project I'm calling "Music366" where I'm going to write a small composition each day for one year. (This coming year is a leap year--hence the 366.)

I have just over 40 compositions done so far, but I want to wait until I have 60 or 90 before I start publishing them to a website.

Quiz

According to this I'm 85% Bach. I think that number is inflated, but I'd be happy just to have 1% Bach.


You scored as J.S. Bach.

J.S. Bach 85%
Haydn 65%
Tchaikovsky 65%
Beethoven 60%
Handel 60%
Schubert 60%
Hector Berlioz 55%
Chopin 45%
Wagner 45%
Schumann 45%
Brahms 45%
Mozart 40%
Liszt 30%


Take the quiz yourself.

Words of wisdom

I think the following can be applied to music as well as literature:

“If you only read the great writers, you’ll be in trouble,” [Albee] said. “Read junk. It’s enormously encouraging to tell yourself, ‘I can do better than that.’ ”

--Edward Albee

from 'Virtue Is Not Its Own Reward' and Other Lessons for a Life in Art
By KATHRYN SHATTUCK
The New York Times
Published: April 24, 2007

Theme for Marcus

And now for something completely different. (I do write music for outside the church too--really!)

Back in 2000 (I think--the brain cells are starting to go dim here) I had the pleasure of providing the incidental music for Listen!, a play by Leah Cooper. It was performed in the Minnesota Fringe festival that year. The play is a "battle for the soul" of Joe between his Eco-friendly girlfriend (Katie) and his corporate boss (Marcus). The follow is a line of Marcus's that I used as the jumping off place for this composition, A Theme for Marcus.

MARKUS: ...Dose up on the gingko biloba and bring your brain. Ten minds, ten mouths, one note-taker, locked in a room together. Stream of consciousness stuff. This is where the product image gets conceived. Identify the essence of the allure, get in touch with the product's sexy side. Spin that into a lifestyle image. Invent a look, jingle out a voice, manufacture some soul, and bring your brand name to life!

(quoted with permission of the author)

Give a listen (no pun intended) to it.

New web hosting service

Well, I upgraded the website last night, so now I have plenty of room for mp3 files. Slowly but surely things come into place.

It's been a while

I realized I haven't written an entry on this blog for a while. Lots of things have been happening "behind the scenes", but haven't really had a chance to put things out. I need to upgrade my web hosting service for gennaula.com (where I put all my mp3 files) and so that has been somewhat of a blocker since I don't want to put too much more stuff out to my current website that I'll just have to move.

I was realizing that all of the pieces I've put out so far as been from my "sacred catalog." I need to get a bit more of my theater pieces out.

Now that I'm "40 something" I'm definitely having those times where I think "wouldn't it be great to be back in college when I could just play around at a piano or computer for hours"? That gets a bit more difficult when you mix in family, house, and job.

Looking for soundfonts

Right now I'm in the search for new soundfonts. I've orchestrated Blessed are the merciful and have decided that a listener would have to extra extra extra merciful in listening to what my midi to mp3 convert is giving out. The converter uses .sf2 files for the conversion, so I'm looking for a better set of files.

Meditation No. 1: Mercy

Listening to the "Blessed are the merciful" composition, I started to experiment with it: slowing it down and then lowering it in the the bottom most octaves.

A few years back I read the The Cloister Walk by Kathleen Norris. This eventually lead me to exploring the practice of Centering Prayer. I worked for a while in downtown St. Paul, MN and close by was a place called the Benedictine Center where there was a lunch meditation service. Unfortunately that downtown outreach program was shut down and I have since moved to a different location for work.

Listening to this experiment I thought this would be perfect music to listen to while combining it with the Centering Prayer. This goes somewhat against the basic tenet of the prayer since its goal is "interior quiet". But I find personally that the right music can help me obtain that prayerful state.

Click here to listen.

Blessed are the Merciful

I've been avoiding writing the next two posts. I uploaded two mp3 files a while back, but have been trying to figure out what to say about them. I'm finally just choosing not to say much.

The first of these sound-files is of a composition that I wrote for choir a few years back. Here it is presented on a MIDI harpsichord. Click here to listen.

The First Emperor

[from Wikimedia Commons]






Yesterday I saw the Metropolitan Opera's First Emperor by Tan Dun at a movie theater.

Since I am a Techno Geek as well as a Music Geek, this was just pure heaven. I've never seen an opera at the Met although I've taken the backstage tour when I was in NYC. In someways I have to admit that I found the experience even better than going to a real opera house. If for nothing else I didn't have to get all dressed up and spend a fortune on the tickets. Granted, at $18 a pop, this is more expensive than your normal movie, but that's OK.

The opera was great! I had read reviews of the opera complaining that the mix of the strong rhythmic and dissonant orchestral and choral sections did not integrate well with the Pucciniesque writing for Domingo. I have to strongly disagree. It was this juxtaposition that made the opera work for me.

The opera is based on Emperor Qin, the first emperor of China. It tells an emotional story in which Qin puts the state above all else, including love and friendship. It is the perfect subject matter for a grand opera and Dun's score as well as the performance was completely up to the task. Wikipedia has an article on the opera.

The whole experience even had my favorite beloved Grandma of Grand Opera, Beverly Sills! And like talking with your Grandma I had to chuckle when she mistakenly referred to Beckham, the soccer play, as a hockey player when speaking with Domingo. But that's OK.

The theater was sold out. There is a hunger for artistic experiences across the nation and hopefully this proves it. Well done Peter Gelb!!!!

Have a listen...

Here is a mp3 file of the current Wisdom is Glorious. I want to play around a bit more with the orchestration, but this is the workshop. So, this is a work-in-progress.

Wisdom is Glorious

I'm starting to take a look at some compositions I've written a while back. One of them is Wisdom is Glorious from 1994. This is based on the following text from the Wisdom of Solomon in the Apocrypha:

Chapter 6: 12-15

Wisdom is glorious,
and never fadeth away:
yea, she is easily seen of them that love her,
and found of such as seek her.

She preventeth them that desire her,
in making herself first known unto them.

Whoso seeketh her early shall have no great travail:
for he shall find her sitting at his doors.

To think therefore upon her is perfection of wisdom:
and whoso watcheth for her shall quickly be without care.

This translation is from the Non-canonical Books of the Bible of the King James Version.

It was written for soprano and organ. I'm not very happy with the way I set the text of the piece. I really did not understand much about scansion when I wrote this. I think it is a pity that during my compositional education I never had a class in that. It wasn't until much later that I was able to take a workshop (via the Nautilus Music-Theater with Ben Krywosz and Tom Linker) where such useful knowledge finally found a home in this thick skull of mine.

What I do like about this piece is that I was able to write a dance-like rhythm using asymmetrical rhythms. (Bartok was a down right revelation when I first heard such music in college.) I want to explore that a bit more and then release it to the web.

Coming to the workshop

My dad taught wood shop for many years. Whether I would help him in his workshop at home or come with him out to his school workshop, it was always fun. I loved seeing how things were put together. Although my family was a family of carpenters in the "old country", I did not inherit the talent with putting together things with wood. I found my outlet for such things first in electronics, then computers, and finally music.

With this blog I want to return to the workshop. My workshop is for writing music. I have always found that the craftsman approach to writing compositions works best for me. This is a place for talking about ideas out loud and shooting the breeze with whoever happens by and asks "what's that you're building?"