20,000 Songs Fall Silent

Well I have been keeping up with my weekly Musical Blog writing but I never did get around to posting a link to last week's piece so here it is:
Dancing Up The Morning Sun this is piece for three un-pitched percussion players. Please take a listen to the MP3 files as it has timbre nuances that GM (General MIDI) can not produce.

This week's musical Blog I wrote last night is called 22,000 Songs Fall Silent If I had written the piece this morning I would have called it 33,000 Songs Fall Silent. I am undecided if I should update the title. The MP3 file has a better balance between the three instruments (Xylophone, Marimba, and Vibraphone). It is a short one minute miniature, I think of it as a musical haiku in 11/8 time.

Take Care,
Ursus Demens

Musical Blog of the Week

Inspired by an idea my fellow composer Andy Meisenheimer I have decided to try to do a musical Blog each week. That is each week I will try to write a short piece of music and post it for the world to see. These Blog pieces will be in addition to any other pieces that I am working on, but are an exercise in composition. Most will explore one or two compositional and or notational ideas.

My first Blog piece, for the week of December 12th, 2004 Anno Domini, is Paper Crane. This piece is one of my “simple” piano pieces. It is in a simple AABA form with seven against three rhythms, with the “A” section making use of a whole tone scale and the contrasting “B” section using a pentatonic scale.

I have also make some minor changes to my piano piece Insomnia

Insomnia,
Insanity,
or
Nightmare.
It is all in your head.

Mars Music

56,620 YEARS

The title is in reference to the fact that the planet Mars is made its closest approach to Earth in 2003 Anno Domini, which last occurred some 59,620 years ago. “Aldo Vitagliano, of the University of Naples in Italy, calculated that Mars hasn't had as close a brush with Earth since September 12, 57,617 B.C., when Neanderthals ruled but modern man had begun to make inroads.”

When I was writing this piece I was envisioning in my mind short ballet to go with the music.

The form of the piece is a simple arch, A (slow introduction in 4/4 time), B (the "chant" section of alternating time signatures and a slow increase in tempo), C (the central calm section in 11/4 time, basically a passacaglia that build ups as each voice is added then slows thins out as each voice drops out), The return of the B section and finally the return of the A section acting as a coda

Ballet Outline

Section A (4/4)

o Through the void of space Mars approached ancient Earth.

Section B (Mixed Meters)

o Fearful a Neanderthal shaman prays to the clan’s gods.
o Slowly the clan joins the shaman in praying to their gods.
o The prayer becomes a chant
o The chanting breaks into a chaotic dance
o The shaman start to pray again.

Section C (11/4)

o While the clan sleeps the red star waxes and wanes in the autumn sky.

Section B (mixed meters) (Return of)

o The Shaman starts to pray again.
o Slowly the clan joins the shaman in praying to their gods.
o The prayer becomes a chant
o The chanting breaks into a chaotic dance

Section A (4/4) (Return of) (Coda)

o Through the void of space Mars returns.

monday morning brain dead

greetings, it is monday morning as i write this, and i feel brain-dead as i spent the entire weekend titling my bathroom, the shower to be precise, and thus i did not get to spend much time working on music, which while i have been on a recent tear writing jazz i have gone back to a piano piece that i started sometime in october exporing "polyrhythms" where i am working with three against seven and five, but i can not seem to settle on a harmonic paradigm for the piece, maybe tuesday in belgium will solve my monday blues.

Jazz

Well it has been over a week since my last post. I have been working away on two new Jazz pieces:

Backstroking in the Lake of Fire
http://www.sibeliusmusic.com/cgi-bin/show_score.pl?scoreid=60314

This is still a work in progress for Big Band, but all of the major bits are in place.


Kiyone's Mood

http://www.sibeliusmusic.com/cgi-bin/show_score.pl?scoreid=60588

Finished, just a simple model head for five Horns and rhythm section.

Please check them out and let me know.

Ps: Look like I will be headed for Japan in Early Jan.

The Bear

Monday Morning Blues

Another week at work and I am already bored. Maybe I will take off and fly to Tokyo on Thursday.

Maybe.

Ursus Demens

Can Not Sleep Tonight

Insomnia (2004) by Ed Sharpe
(Seven Minutes to Five in the Morning)

Insomnia,
or
Insanity,

http://www.sibeliusmusic.com/cgi-bin/show_score.pl?scoreid=58722

Take a listen and tell me.

[A poem today] a black nicotine cloud

a black nicotine
cloud
lays heavy upon
the sky

lights slowly drift
across the hardcold water

I feel the
silence,

there is aweight upon
my parts
as my mind fills
with drug induced
dreams

a pain is
slowly passing
over me

i'm going to
put some
Mahler on
& drown
everyone of
you


Copyright © 1998 Ed Sharpe

Greetings

Composer of Contemporary Music

A Brief Biography:

I was born, raised and have lived my entire life to this point in time in Southern California. I attended California State University at Los Angeles where I studied music and eventually earned a Bachelor of Art in Instrumental Music with and emphases in Composition. I also completed the requirements for a single subject teaching credential in instrumental music. After spending parts of the next two years teaching music in various public schools I began (for various reasons) a 16 year sojourn away from music.

During my sojourn I pursued a career in the computer industry as a computer programmer, system administrator, and systems engineer. During that time I continued in my creative endeavors by writing poetry and fiction and learning to draw and paint.


About My Musical Language:

I have a unique and evolving musical voice that incorporates both my Jazz and Classical training. I am comfortable and fluent in composing in both Modern Chamber/Orchestral and Jazz idioms. In fact; I enjoy working with in both mediums. My music is often difficult to understand on first hearing, but those who have spent the time to listen to my music more than once have come to understand and appreciated my highly individual music language. I feel that my 16 year sojourn from music has allowed me to come at music in a very different direction than if I had simply continue with out a break. I believe that those years in the musical wilderness allowed my music to ferment, like a fine wine, in my subconscious.


Scores Available On Line:

I have published scores and parts for several of my compositions. You can view them at http://members.sibeliusmusic.com/esharpe/. There you can listen to a computer generated performance while following the score.