Pics from Days 20 and 21

Busy, Busy

I have been neglecting the blog a bit lately, but, once again, it was for good reason. I have made significant progress toward getting all the pieces done for the concert.

Big News: I FINISHED THE FIRST PIECE TODAY!!!

-it's a quirky little number called "So Many Books." I haven't worked out the full arrangement, but it will most likely be performed by me on ukulele and voice and Lauren Wells on violin. I making headway!

Today was also a good organizational day. I made a list of all the pieces I am working on and gave an estimate of the percentage of completion (I would post the picture of it now, but I am too tired and will do it tomorrow). Most of the works are more than halfway done, but I am stuck in the early stages on two of my songs for the cycle.

Interestingly, the piece that is the least complete was the first thing I did in the window. It was a compositional exercise that lead me to a nice melody with some interesting chord changes, but I really haven't made any progress on it since about the third day.

Day 18

Yay! Today was very productive! I did a lot of work on the violin/saxophone duet ... which is now for two violins. The idea is that the two players play off of identical music, but because each repeated figure is repeated an indeterminate number of times, the musical texture will vary over time. Also, based on this structure, each performance of the piece will be unique. I actually got the idea from some old fugues which consisted of just one line of music. I think they were by Telemann, but I'm not quite sure.

Day 17

Ugh, these are the days that make this project hard. I had it all planned out - I had to get my flat tire fixed, go to the grocery store, and then hit the window. Unfortunately, the gods were not happy with me today. Simple car procedure took over two hours, threw off my plans and gave me a huge headache! When I finally got to the window, I was in no mood to compose - and I didn't really do anything. Luckily, I had scheduled for my friend Lauren to come look at the violin parts in progress. It was a great little rehearsal, and it has really whet my appetite to keep going! Tomorrow will be better!

Half Way Reflection

I have been neglecting the blog a bit lately, but that is because I have been quite busy working on music. I'm feeling the crunch of trying to write all of this music in such a short time. Some of the pieces are mere fragments, but I am choosing to spent my time on the more fully formed pieces. I want to get these pieces done so that I can focus on the less developed ones.

One question that has been popping up in my head is "What style will this concert be in?" As a composer and performer I have made many different kinds of music - some fairly traditional, some totally outlandish. I work a lot in improvisation, but I also have written many thoroughly composed pieces. Sometimes my aesthetic comes from the avant-garde, and sometimes it comes from mainstream popular music. So what do I choose for this show?

As it stands right now, I am writing music from all of these perspectives. I don't know if their is a unifying theme, but that's fine with me. I love variety!

Here's the pictures from the past three days:

Day 14

For some reason, I'm having trouble uploading the pictures lately, but here's a cool video that somebody shot of me the other day:

I'll figure this picture stuff out and be back on track soon.

Also, I'm playing with the Blackhouse Improvisors Collective tonight at 9 pm at the Paragraph Gallery. 23 East 12th St. It's a showcase of artists involved with the Charlotte Street Foundation. Hope to see y'all there!

Down and Up

Today's time in the window was fairly unproductive. I just couldn't come up with any ideas. I've got a lot of partial pieces and I wasn't able to expand on any of them. I did not tape up any new music today :(

But when I got home tonight, I began working on the Ron Paul text setting and things really started to flow. First, I decided to use all of Sen. Paul's speech instead of just the small portion that I had originally chosen. I think this will be better for the spoken word format that I am using. Second, I started working on it on the computer. In the window, I had already created a basic chordal structure for the first part, but I was having trouble making it flow correctly. Putting everything into the computer really help me to give the piece a form, it started to make sense a little better. I guess I really am hopelessly attached to this devise in some ways. But that doesn't concern me, I am quite pleased with results of tonight's work. I will print it out and tape it up tomorrow.

Here's the new pages:

P.S. - If anyone out there has any comments or questions on this page. I will definitely respond. I'm beginning to wonder if there is anybody out there...