I've made the switch to hosting my scores at Sibelius Music. After some investigation, I'm convinced that this is the best way to go for now. They have a great collection of music and it is well organized, presented and maintained. I have been a long-time user of Sibelius, having used their software for composition since the first version of it came out in the late 90s.

Otherwise, there isn't a lot to report other than that there are a lot of projects that are underway. I've got new pieces for "Shades of Silver and String" and "Sounds of a Sphere", a new flute quartet (to be performed at one of the Silveridge orchestra concerts), as well as a new composition for concert band (to be performed at one of the Mesa Band concerts). My recital of students and friends (December 5th) is coming up and we're rehearsing a lot for that. Then, of course, there's the swing band, the concert band, the orchestra... Not to mention that Anali and I are attending the Phoenix Symphony this Friday for Dvorak's New World Symphony. It's a great mixture of composing, teaching, rehearsing, performing, and attending concerts--the five 'food groups' of any healthy musician's life.

Oh, right... Thanksgiving is tomorrow too.  :-)  Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

I'm pleased to finally post my new piece, "Tune My Heart" for my album Shades of Silver and String. I've been working on this piece for far too long. There are definitely compositions that become nothing like I originally intended, and this is one of those compositions. Sure, there were some distractions that extended the composition process--rehearsals, concerts, other compositions, etc. But there was something about the original conception of the piece that held me up. I'm not sure what it is, but I might have a better idea about it once I've put some distance between myself and the music.

I almost didn't include a reference to the original hymn tune in this piece. At the very last minute I finally decided to squeeze it in for four measures. Certainly, anyone familiar with the original hymn (Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing) will hear the rhythmic similarity. However, the original tune is never entirely heard in my composition. When looking back at the other pieces in this album, I can see a progression away from a straight arrangement of the hymn (such as in The Beauty of the Earth) and a more 'fuzzy' interpretation of the hymn (as occurs in Tune My Heart and, to a lesser degree, in the others). As much as I enjoy composing original melodies and placing my own musical stamp on these hymns, I think I will steer more directly back towards straight arrangements for the final pieces of the album.

Anyway, check out the new piece and, as always, let me know what you think.

On another note, I have decided to host all of my scores at Sibelius Music (www.sibeliusmusic.com). They offer a better method for marketing Scorch scores. As soon as I get all my scores transferred, I'll place links up by each piece to the score on their website.

Here's the latest piece for Sounds of a Sphere, titled "Russell's Velvet Dunes".

I haven't had this much of an excuse to be grossly atonal since a composition lesson in college when I was asked to create a piece of music using random elements.  For that project I created a system by which a piece of music could be created with various rolls of dice.  It was a lot of fun and the piece was quite a hit with my wife (then girlfriend) to whom I dedicated it.  It was titled "You Are So Sexy You Make My Blood Boil: Blub, Blub".  Seriously.

With Russell's Velvet Dunes I wanted more of a challenge than the one I gave myself with Victoria, so I decided to actually write some counterpoint and derive a more complex harmonic progression.  This worked out well also with my decision to write for string quartet, which is especially well-suited to this kind of counterpoint.  The composition is largely based upon two melodic bits that I mined from the raw image data.  The first (which I call Velvet) is the melody in the first violin for the first six measures of the piece.  The second (which I call Dune) is a 10 measure melody that you hear played unaltered by the viola (1:13) and then the second violin (1:34) in the first half of the piece.

I decided to let "Dune" become the harmonic framework for much of the rest of the piece.  This melody begins with an leap of a tritone (the most dissonant interval) and is followed by a major seventh (the second most dissonant interval), so it is very distinctive and destroys any sense of tonality.  The melody also contains several minor seconds (also very dissonant).  These intervals form much of the harmonic progression on which I set the melodies.  If any of the melodies sound too dissonant for your ear, blame it on the picture--they made me do it.  (The funny thing about dissonant melodies, though, is that once you listen to them a few times they start to sound better as you become more familiar with them).

Halfway through the piece (~2:00) I increase the tempo and modulate into G# minor.  I wanted to create a more lively texture and I wanted to continue to force these musical materials into an increasingly tonal structure.  This turned out to be a bit like forcing a dozen greased mice into a bread pan.  At this point "Velvet" comes back, although it is presented much faster than it was before.  The piece ends in a relatively solid G# minor cadence.

Anyway, I don't want to bore everyone with a play-by-play of the entire composition.  Suffice it to say that the raw melodies played a part in every measure of the composition.  It was a lot of fun to write, and I'm looking forward to starting a third piece for this album.  (After I finish "Tune My Heart").

Last night we attended the Phoenix Symphony for their performance of Schubert's "Unfinished" Symphony. This in itself is nothing unique, for this piece is an excellent composition in the standard repertoire. However, director Michael Christie likes to introduce us to new things--something that I very much appreciate. So, (along with a funny little 'Salute' by John Corigliano) we were presented with Marcel Tyberg's "Completion of the Unfinished Symphony". This 20th century composition had never been performed before, and sadly Tyberg never even heard his composition played by a live orchestra.

Just a brief history: Schubert's "Unfinished" Symphony was his 8th, and the reasons he left it unfinished are unknown. He had written sketches of a third movement and possibly even had intended writing a fourth (which would have made it a traditional symphony). However, he never orchestrated his sketches and the piece remained unfinished even as he wrote and completed his 9th symphony. It is unknown if he ever intended to return to it.  Either way he died six years after writing it. Anyway, Tyberg is one of a few people that has attempted to finish Schubert's 8th symphony. He studied Schubert's style extensively and attempted to write two final movements as Schubert would have written them.

If you've never heard Schubert's 8th, you should take a moment and give it a listen.  Likely you've heard it before because it is so memorably fantastic. If you haven't heard it before, it's likely that you will listen to it and think that you have heard it before--I believe that there is a class of music that is so excellent that even a first hearing will touch an emotional place in your heart and mind where other well-loved pieces of music reside. This is one of those pieces.

I applaud Christie for introducing us to new music. I also am grateful that he has introduced me to Marcel Tyberg, of whom I was previously unaware. He has a most fascinating life, from what I've read in the program last night and on Wikipedia. However, the two movements that Tyberg wrote to complete Schubert's 8th symphony are pale shadows of the greatness that the original two movements represent. I recognize that they are very much in the style of Schubert. They are also well composed and stand as fine pieces in their own right.  But, when juxtaposed to Schubert's originals they are most unsatisfying.

Don't let this stand as a judgement on Tyberg's compositional skills. In fact I very much wonder if, after Schubert wrote those original two movements, that even he felt that he couldn't write a satisfying conclusion to such excellent music. Personally I think this is the most likely answer to why he left them 'unfinished'. Part of the reason why it was always called "Unfinished" is that composers in Schubert's day insisted on following strict forms. Scholars and historians spent a lot of time justifying it's incompleteness. It was difficult for people to comprehend an orchestral piece that only had two movements and was complete in itself. Even Schubert may have been frustrated by the anomaly that his genius had produced. Today we don't even blink at the prospect of something as mundane as a two-movmement orchestral piece. After all, the opening of last night's concert had a piece for brass and kazoo choir. (Corigliano's 'Salute' -- I'm not kidding).

P.S. On another note: Swing Memories first concert was also yesterday and was a rousing success. We all played very well and, according to Anali, the audience was really into the music. (I was too busy playing to notice the audience much). It's hard not to move and tap your foot when listening to the likes of Glenn Miller, Count Basie and Duke Ellington. P.P.S. Also, I played the WW2 songs for the Adult Center today--also successful and a lot of fun. I was told that I'd be asked to come back sometime. I said I'd be glad to do it.  :-)

For the past month and a half I've been sitting in with another swing band at Leisure World because their regular pianist has been out of town.  I enjoy the rehearsals because it gives more more opportunities to practice these big band pieces (which is especially helpful, considering Swing Memories' first concert is tomorrow!)  It's also a good opportunity to meet and learn from other jazz musicians who have been around for a long time.

It was at one of those rehearsals a few weeks ago that I was recently invited to play piano at the Mesa Active Adult Center for a sing-along group that meets every Friday.  Their normal pianist would be gone, so they needed a substitute for that day.  I was interested--especially because I love learning old songs.  Even so, I wanted to know what I was getting into, so I asked if I could come and watch before the date they needed me.  So I went last Friday on a scouting mission and I had no idea what to expect, but I showed up with an open mind.

First of all, Connie, their normal pianist, turned out to be blind.  But don't let that fool you: she was very good.  And I was especially impressed with her knowledge of these songs, which she pulled effortlessly from her memory.  Their theme was Irving Berlin songs, most of which I didn't know.  But these old timers knew them like I know Beatles tunes, and they were clearly having a lot of fun singing them.  I took a lyric sheet and joined in to the best of my ability.  In particular there was a sweet old couple sitting in the back that were smiling at each other as they sang the lyrics to the romantic songs.  They definitely don't make them like they used to...

All in all, it was a lot of fun.  There's nothing like making music to bring people together.  CD players just don't cut it.  Afterwards, the man who runs the group gave me a folder with two dozen songs in it to learn for this Friday.  I'm glad I got the music ahead of time; I only know a few of them and some of them are pretty complicated.  However, I've been checking out old movie clips on YouTube to get to know the songs and that's been fun.  Here's one I particularly like called September Song.  (Jimmy Durante is quite a character).

P.S.  Concert season is coming and I've been spending a great deal of my time these past few weeks rehearsing and practicing.  However, I haven't forgotten my compositions!  Another guitar and flute duet is almost done (titled Tune My Heart) and another HiRISE piece is underway (Russell's Velvet Dunes).  Anyway, I'm very interested in keeping up with those projects, so they'll be up as soon as they're done.

A friend of mine, Moses Milazzo, asked me the other day if it were possible to take the data from a digital picture and convert it into music.  Moses works on a project called HiRISE, which is a high-resolution camera that is in orbit around Mars.  After discussing it for a bit, he wrote a program to convert the digital data from an image into MIDI information.  Not long after that he sent me a MIDI file with about five minutes worth of music--the raw product of his conversion software.  By itself the music is interesting, but lacks the structure needed to keep it musically engaging.  My task, then, was to provide the structure and musical interest.

I've posted the first result of this collaboration: Victoria, based upon an image of Victoria Crater on Mars.  I enjoyed the compositional challenge and am looking forward to creating more music based on images of Mars.