I’ve decided to add one more track to the Backstage Members exclusive downloads! Not only can Backstage Members get “Crystallization” now, but they will also get an advance recording of the driving chamber work, “Ayre of Grievances” (check out the video here)!
Enjoy, and Happy New Year!
Music Faculty, Staff, and Guests Perform Original Compositions
OCTOBER 28, 2020 at 8:00pm PDT
Meeting ID: 898 9025 4279
ID: CPPMusic
Link: https://cpp.zoom.us/j/89890254279
Performing:
“Catching Up” by Wessel van Rensburg and Wouter Kellerman
“Thursday, An Umbrella” by Philip Graulty
“Gentle Rain” by Luiz Bonfa, lyrics by Matt Dubey, arranged by John Proulx
“Ayre of Grievances” by Sarah Wallin-Huff
“Stoop Sitting” by Peter Yates
“II Movement” from Trio for Flute, Alto Sax, and Piano by Russell Peterson
“During” from Waiting Music by Evan Ware
“Listen To My Vision” by Janine Riviere
“Etude in A-flat Major, Op. 25, No. 1” by Frédéric Chopin
Virtual Performance of “Ayre of Grievances”
I’ve made a couple of cool demo videos for you to take a peek at these two works I’ve got on the burner right now… 🙂
First, a look at “Ayre of Grievances” for flute, violin, and viola (a digital playback demo of just the opening section):
Second, here’s a short example of a cool sampling piece I’m putting together: “Tonal Eclipse”
Enjoy, and keep an eye out for the finished works soon!
I’m back in my basement studio with my native flute, handpan, and my viola to experiment with the AudioKit L7 looper app! (I love AudioKit’s app SynthOne, too–I highly recommend checking it out!)
Ideally, I would use headphones and record the sound properly, but I wanted to see how the app handled a spontaneous “live” sort of setting…. Enjoy this randomly improvised, modern passacaglia, and expect more musical experiments to come… 😉
By the by, be sure to check out my single Chant de Grenouille sur la Lune if you like this kind of sound.
Earlier this week, I had the pleasure of hearing my “tarot piece,” The Oracle, come to life in Barefoot Recording Studio in Hollywood!
The work is a 12-minute exploration of the human condition as told through the symbology of a tarot deck. It’s written for five musicians, who each represent an important natural element: piano (Tree of Life), violin (Fire), cello (Water), flute (Air), and clarinet (Earth).
Many thanks to the following people for making this possible: Agnes Schwartz (violin), Pola Benke (cello), Liz LaCoste (flute/piccolo), Ryan Glass (clarinet), Masako Klassen (piano), and David Martinez (engineer).
I’ll announce when the recording is ready for release. In the meantime enjoy these photos from our recording session!
I was thrilled to discover this morning that my April 2019 album Legend Seekers won the Silver Medal for Outstanding Achievement in the composer/composition category of the Global Music Awards!
I am so honored (and validated)!
If you haven’t already, go take a listen to Legend Seekers today!
It’s out now!! This project has been roughly eight years in the making, since the time I finished writing “Leviathan of the Ancient Deep“… and this album itself has taken about a year to complete. It was all worth it–I learned so much in the process and I think we’ve got a really superb collection now! 🙂
Thank you to everyone who made this possible: musicians, backers, and everyone else who patiently rooted for me.
In a world where adventure calls and the intrepid answer… where the daring explore a mystifying world of Dream and Thought… where heartbreak twists into furious desperation… where virtuosic fits of funkiness stare brazenly into the face of danger… where forgetfulness drives discovery and hope…
In this world, Leviathan — a creature that haunts the Ancient Depths — lies in wait to strike upon those that seek its legendary might!
“Legend Seekers” Album Notes
Who will win this contest of wills? The stirring waves bear witness to this eternal struggle…
Welcome to #NewTuneThursday!
Today’s tune for flute/piccolo, clarinet, violin, cello, and piano is “An Experiment in Aleatorism & Formula” from 2016.
Using 50 tarot cards to create the framework, there is both an element of chance (in that the process of drawing the cards and their placement in the 5 separate tarot spreads, is all random) and an element of “foreordained knowledge” (or pre-compositional structure).
“The Oracle” has thus emerged as a multi-faceted, deeply layered, story-driven reflection of the human condition.
I totally dig the intersection of free-will or chance and structural formula at which Art’s uniqueness can emerge… 😉
You can read more about my inner processes at this post.
Enjoy a recording below, as well as a demo “music video” after that. 🙂
“The Oracle” can be performed by an advanced ensemble. Get the sheet music here! And stay tuned for our new work of next week…
Enjoy this latest educational video, describing my thought processes on how I approach setting asymmetrical text to music as I work on finishing my Bros. Grimm Song Cycle!
Don’t forget you can check out the other videos in this series here!
