Microtune #10

I'm back to my mircotunes. Here's a small dance number--sounds like something I could use as the basis for a whole piece.



Link to Microtune, Day 10

Tune of the Week

http://tinyurl... my tune of the week. (mp3 file)

Renaming

I got tired of the name "Compositional Workshop" today. The new name is "The Note Head". Probably fitting. Sometimes I think I think too much about notes. (Just from the phrase "I think I think" you can probably figure that out.) So--I'm a note head--some one who does a lot of thinking about notes.

So let's see where this goes.

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.