Microtune, #6 (Call)

Call. As in "a call". As in "the call". As in "a calling".



[ Link ] to Microtune, #6

Alleluia, version 1

Alleluia

It feels right that I'm working on a piece of music with this title on a Sunday morning. I am a Cradle Catholic. As I get older I find I am exploring outward from that base in a way that I can best describe as Freelance Monotheism (to borrow a phrase from Karen Armstrong). My religious experiences and musical experiences are tied. And when I experience music that is transcendent the word that comes to mind is Alleluia.



The mixing of music and religion is not a new idea. I do not expect that if someone enjoys music I write that they have a religious experience. (I may hope, but I don't expect.) When I let ego go (which in my understanding seems to be the truest root of most religions), what is left is a desire to find communication, or using a great "Catholic" phrase: Communion, with God.

With this piece I want to take a journey. It was originally written for piano and quartet or small choir. The mp3 realization I've done here is very straight forward. What I want to do next is work on orchestrating it. As such I will be publishing a number of versions of it to this blog (intermixed with other music as well). I want to work on my technique of orchestrating for electronica orchestral soundscapes (EOS?)

So here it is: Alleluia, version 1.

[ Link ] to Alleluia, version 1.

Music and the Geek: MP3 tag command line editor

This morning my inner geek has gotten the best of me. I want to upload a new mp3 file to The Note Head, but I need to edit the mp3 tags first. I hate using the GUI for this because I want the tags to be consistent. When I type them in myself I am way too prone to making a mistake.

So I'm searching Sourceforge for a good mp3 tag editor. I want to be able to script the set up of these tags. I found something called lfid3, but is also requires a library called id3lib. So I'm working through the magic of doing the build on cygwin.

None of this has much to do with music except for the end result. Still I find it fun to work through the technical issues of doing this.

What are you listening to?

What music are you listening to? I'd love to hear of suggestions (or better yet links) to music to listen to. Thanks!

Blessed are the Merciful

There are some things I write that I find I cannot leave alone. Wendy reminds me from time to time that I should be writing more new music. But then I find I don't feel like I'm quite done with an older piece.

Blessed are the Merciful is one of those pieces. It was originally written for choir and did get a performance. But then it has sat on my hard drive. Looking back at the piece now, while I like the actual melodic lines, I'm not happy with the setting of the text. So I thought I would try to orchestrate it.

Now that I have Garage Band and the Symphony Orchestra Jam Pack, I have some better sounds to work with. Still there are places where I want a more legato line and the realization of the score is not doing that for me. I still think there are some really interesting moments in this version. But I'm still feeling my way around Garage Band and how to make things sound better.



[ Link ] to Blessed are the Merciful.

Microtune, #4 (Fanfare for Change, yes we can!)

Writing a fanfare I think is one of the best things to do. The older I get the more important I think it is to just let go and do things that you enjoy. A fanfare should capture that feeling. It should also have a sense of the anticipation and hope of what is to come.

This has been a two week period in which the word "Change" has been thrown around quite a bit. I, among many people, feel that it is time for change-in our national outlook and in Washington, DC. So with that in mind I decided to call this one "Fanfare for Change, yes we can!" (And yes, I am an Obama supporter.)



[ Link ] to Microtune, #4

Microtune, #2 (The hand held game)

After listening to one of my previous microtunes, my friend, Boris, asked me "Is this micromalism..?" I think he might be on to something here. We've had Minnmalism--now is it on to Micromalism? In an age where most communication is cut into small packets to be sent as a TCP/IP message across the World Wide Web, perhaps this is to be expected? I don't know.

I do know that this Microtune #2 makes me think of one of the hand held games that my sons play. We're in some kinda of crazy jungle and we have to jump above rolling balls in order not to be flatten by them.



Link to Microtune, #2