Have a Merry Merry Christmas.

Well yesterday was the winter solstice and the start of winter. Hardly felt like winter here in Southern California, I slept most of the night without any blankets last night, much to my wife's chagrin. As I said I do not think I will try the winter weekly musical BLOG again this year, but part or me wants to, but I have so many other things that I need to be doing this year. Lately I have been in a musical funk as I try to grok the whole sequencer software paradigm. But I am slowly coming out of it, as I seem to learn a little more each day, and I have started working again on the second movement of my Concerto for Trombone and Jazz band. The one thing I have learned so far is that for me writing music is easy, it is the mixing that is the bitch and take all of the time. Anyway those are my random thoughts for this week, no real insights in music right now. So, have a merry merry Christmas.


Ursus Demens

Belinda Moody's Tonic Immobility

Two weeks ago Dr. Morse turned me on to a piece by Ms Moody called "Tonic Immobility". It is here on SibeliusMusic as just a lead sheet. Well the tune intrigued me enough to create a simple arrangement and realization of the piece. I shared that arraignment with Ms Moody and she gave her approval, “it was interesting to hear how you imagined some of the ambience of the piece just as i imagined it to be”, and permission to share it with the world. “...i am really happy for you to share it with anyone in the whole world that would like to hear!”

A little Tonic Immobility MP3

The original lead sheet can be viewed here:
Tonic Immobility Lead Sheet


Ursus Demens

Nothing

Nothing to say this week.

Well, what to do? What to do?

If you are one of the few in this universe that have been following this Blog you will know that last winter I did a Blog Musical piece of the week. This year I was seriously considering doing it again. It is no mean task to produce a new presentable pice of music each week. I was surprise at the end of last winter how much (self imposed) pressure disappeared once spring arrived and I stop writing at least one complete piece each week. Despite the pressure I would impose on myself I was thinking I would try it again this year. But, I have decided (at least as of today) no to do a winter weekly Blog piece. Why? Well, last week I got both the Sonar sampler software and the Garrtian JABB samples, there along with the GPO samples have added a lot of new software for me to learn. So I am going to be spending the winter producing new renderings/records of my existing compositions using my new software tools. While there will be no new piece each week this winter, I will be posting new “recordings”. So, please stay tuned and let me know if and how you enjoyed the music.

Ursus Demens

My first attempt and using BOTH JABB and Sonar.

"A short cruise through the semi-abandoned side streets and alleys of L.A during the wee hours of a hot mid-summer's night"

Well after waiting most of the autumn JABB as finally shipped and I have begun "rendering" some of my Jazz compostions. The first (crude) MP3 is now available.

Short Cruise ...

This is my first attempt and using BOTH JABB and Sonar. (Got both packages on the same day.)

There are some balance problems that I am still working on and updated MP3s should appear over the next days and weeks. And I have not even started on tweaking all various parameters to make it “live”. Any practical (and specific) advice on using Sonar is welcomed.


Ursus Demens

//
// Ars longa, vita brevis
// http://edosbear.blogspot.com/
//

Number One Like a Bullet:

Well my new recording of Sol Demens has shot to number one on the classical chart on Acid Planet.


Sol Demens [A Mad Sun]
A meditation for two piccolos and string orchestra.
14 minutes of surreal madness
Be sure to put on your SPF 35 Sun Screen!

Disclaimer: Listening to this piece can be harmful to your psyche and the composer will not be held responsible for any damage or bruising of the listener's psyche, nor will he accept any responsibility for any negative karma that might accrued to the listener.

The recording on Acid Planet is of an older version of the score. The newest version of the score is available at SibeliusMusic, Sol Demens along with a new recording done with GPO samples.

So in the next few weeks expect some more new recordings of my stuff as I come up to speed on my new software and sample libraries. Some of my shorter pieces I will be submitting to the Composer's Channel for internet broadcast. So stay tune as things are string to pickup.


Ursus Demens

Internet Radio Stations

I might have plugged these internet radio stations in the past, so here they are again. If you are interested in music that will challenge and please you, make you think and allow you to not think I highly recommend that you give these stations a listen. You will not find your generic, mass culture, corporate controlled, mind numbing, soul sucking, narcissistic, self glorying, rehashed, re-processed, artificial, top forty noise pollution that you find on commercial radio and T.V.

Free you ears, your mind, and your soul, take a listen to:

Cygnus Radio

The Composer's Channel

[Note: the above might be a bit of hyperbole gone out of control.]


Ursus Demens

November Second

Well it has taken me until late Friday to update this here Blog. What can I say, the week does sure seem to fly by.

This week I wrote a short experimental piece called November Second. Currently it is for solo percussion and is an experiment in rhythms. I fyou check it out make sure to listen to the MP3 file to hear all of the timbers being used. The title of the piece comes simply from the fact that I wrote the entire piece on November second. I would love to hear from you suggestions for real title for the piece. Future experiments that I think will grow out of this will be to add more players to the mix. Please take a look and a listen and let me know what you think.


Ursus Demens

What's Next?

That is my wife's question. It is starting to be her external question®. In the last two weeks I have suffered through an allergic reaction in my left eye, back spasms that that laid me out for two days, a cold that ruined a whole weekend and almost breaking my little toe (it was a deep purple for three days). And last night I felt the cold trying to make a come back. So my wife asks, in her supremely cute Japanese accent, “What's next?”

Naked Lady

Well another week has flown by without me getting around to updating this here Blog.

Well the configuring of the new system is going well it is about 90 percent done and I am using it quite a bit. I am pretty much very happy with it. Just need to finish install all of my software and moving files from the old computers. The only problem I see now is that it is so fast that my wife wants to use it all of the time.

I have started to sketch out the second movement to my
Concerto For Trombone. The first movement Soul Catcher is on SibeliusMusic for listening. But ...

I have gotten side tracked working on a variation on an early piece of mine called Nagoy Devotchka This is a five part fugue that I originally wrote for string orchestra when I was a sophomore at university. I re-orchestrated it for Synthesizer (and double the tempo) when I was in putting it into Sibelius back in 2001 Anno Domini. I am currently working on two more versions of the piece.

The first version simply adds drums and Latin percussion to the current synthesizer version.

The second version (and the one I am actively working of this week) goes back to the original orchestration of a sting orchestra, but the tempo is radically slowed to a fraction of the current and original tempo. The original tempo was about eight note = 196 BPM, the current version that is double at eight note = 392 BPM the newest radically slow temp the eight note is only 30 BPM. So what is currently a three minute piece becomes a 36 minute wash of very slowly changing notes.

Although the two pieces will share 99.99 percent of the same notes, they are so radically different in their listening experience I will give the new slow piece a new name. Do not know what it will be yet. AS just for the record I considered making the piece as slow as 15 BPM!

Ursus Demens

AT LAST!

The long awaited first movement [Soul Catcher] of my
Concerto For Trombone & Jazz Band is now online at
SibeliusMusic.

This is the first of three planned movements, but as I have written before, I am still undecided on whether I will actually expand this piece in to a full three movements.

This movement is basically a 7/4 Blues with a bridge, with a slow intro & postlude.


New System Update

The other miracle is that my new system is finally moving forward, the OS is installed and boots, most of the drivers have been configured. But a lot of stuff still needs to be done, but the light at the end of the tunnel can now be perceived.

Ursus Demens

Miracles Do Happen

And what is the miracle I am talking about? The miracle that I have updated this BLOG on Monday.

First an update of my trials and tribulations with my new system. The Power supply is just fine, just stupid user error. So I got every thing powered up and started configuring the system, but after running for about 20 minutes the monitor went all crazy and I could smell something burning. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

So after fooling with it for two days I found a small “blemish” on one of the connectors on the video card. So I went out and got another video card (different brand) and put it in. Every thing started working again. So I have a relatively expensive fried video card. I suspect that the cooling fan on the card itself never actually worked. The new card is working fine, and the fan on it is working. I also picked up two 80mm fans for the case, right now I only have one installed.

But. My new issue is that I only have Serial ATA drives in the system right now, and I can not seem to get the system to boot from them. The boot from the CDROM and OS installation goes fine, but then the system does not seem able to boot from the SATA drive. The BIOS seems to be set correctly. Fought with this all day Sunday. So I picked up an IDE drive today, which I will use as the OS & Boot drive. Hopefully that will be that last of my issues.

Music

Well in the midst of all my system problems, I did manage to write a short piece of music in the last week. (As a break for working on my Concerto for Trombone and Jazz Band.) It is a short “Amen”. The score is available on SibeliusMusic at

AMEN (October 2005 Anno Domini) As I say in the program note this short ( ~ 48 seconds) piece is not for a choir that is afraid of Zeitgeist. Currently there is no MP3 available, but it is on my list to create one.

That is all for now. Stay tune for more updates.

Ursus Demens

One Hell o f a Week.

Well here it is Friday already, and I have not yet gotten around to updating this here BLOG. It has been on Hell of a week. I finally got down to Fry's and pickup all the parts for my new system and finally got it all put together last night.

BUT!

DOA. Absolutely no power when I switched it on, I am pretty sure the power supply is DOA. Good power from the wall, but nothing from out of the machine. No pop or crackle, no fan, no smells, nothing. So I have to go back to Fry's and get a new power supply or maybe a whole new case. I do not think I have fried anything. But it has bummed me.

I continue to work on my Concerto for Trombone and Jazz Band. Just putting the finishing touches on the Drum part, but that tends to take time. So it will be another week before it will be available on line.

I still have not updated my SibeliusMusic homepage (link below). So all the in progress music is still available (see previous posts).

Please I would love to hear from you all on my music. Please check it out and let me know how it strikes you.

Ursus Demens

Yet Another Week

Yet another week has passed without me really noticing it. Last time I checked it was Monday, yet here I am on Thursday trying to come up with an update for the week.

Well, I have not yet gotten around to cleaning up my Sibelius Home Page so the work in progress Umi is still available and will be over the weekend.

Progress on my “Concerto for Trombone and Jazz Band” is continuing nicely. And I might have a postable version by next week. But I have begun to question whether I will continue with my original idea of a full three movement work. Currently I am leaning towards leaving the piece as the single “movement” I currently have and not calling it a “concerto”. But it will be a long weekend and I might yet again change my mind.

Then again I hope to actual get my new computer this weekend, so my time might be devoted to setting up hardware and installing software.

If you are interested in new and interesting music take some time out of your busy schedue and check out The Composers Channel This Internet radio station from Show Programming has original songs you do not/will not hear on regular radio stations and the bonus is that the station is free. If you are tired of the same top 40 played over and over and over and over all day, then your ears deserve this.

If you want to talk about music or music composition please leave me a comment.

Ursus Demens

Japan, World War II, Outlet Malls, and My Mother-in-law.

So what do all the above have in common?

Well, last week I took the family (Wife, Daughter and Mother-in-law) out to one of the several outlet malls we have around Southern California. So there we where in a clothing shop and my mother-in-law is trying on a jacket. And it occurs to me, when she was Junior High School age did she ever imagine that she would one day be in America trying on and buying clothes? This is significant, at least to me, because a little over 60 years ago my mother-in-law was a young (JHS age) girl in Japan learning how to use a bamboo spear to protect the home islands from the invading America barbarians. And it struck me how much her world paradigm and the world itself has changed since then. And leaves us with the question what will the world be like in 50 or 60 years when my Daughter reaches my mother-in-law's age? Will the free world have exterminated radical Islamfascism? Or will her grandchildren be sharpening their bamboo spears in Junior High home room?

Ursus Demens

Soul Catcher

Well where does the week go? Last I looked it was Monday afternoon. Time does seem to fly when you are having fun at work. [For the humor impaired that last statement was meant to be sarcastic.] Umi is still available. The plan it to take it down early next week when I do some house cleaning on my Sibelius Music Home Page

This week I have spent what little composing time that I have had working on a concerto for Trombone and Jazz Band. The current plan is to write three movements. I am currently working on the first movement which has a tentative title of Soul Catcher. The piece starts in a moderate 7/4 and then moves into a fast 7/4 minor blues with a bridge. But it is a long way from finished. I do have some very very preliminary ideas for the second movement tentatively titled The Lady. I have no ideas for the final third movement, but I have a tentative title in mind, but I will let you all guess what it is.

I would love to hear from you all, but if all you are doing is trying to get me to go to your site do not bother. But if you want to talk about music or music composition please leave me a comment.

Ursus Demens

Progressive rock, minimalism, serialism, or cr&^?

I have new piece that is a work in progress. It is called Umi

So my question to y’all’s is: is this worth working on, or would the paper it is written on be put to better use cleaning up after the dog? I will leave the piece up for about a week, after which I will most likely take it down.

Umi is the original sketch idea that became Cat Juice but taken in a very different direction than Cat Juice

[Umi means Sea in Japanese]

And Ed thanks you for your support.

Square, square, square.

Well the knee is getting better, but not quite all the way back, maybe 95 percent.

Not a lot going on, just working on stuff. Picked up a Charles Mingus album (CD) on Monday, some pretty kool s**t. I listen to Kats like Mingus and Coltrane and I think man I am SO SQUARE.

Square, square, square!

(Oh, the Mingus album is titled “Mingus Ah Um”, and originally recorded in 1959. So that makes it 46 years old and it is still hip, hipper than I will ever be.)

Tonight might be a two Scotch night.


Ursus Demens

One hell of a week.

The week started off with me having a very nasty bout with the flu. I finally recovered and was feeling well enough to attend the inaugural meeting of the Southern California Sibelius User meeting, and what do I do? I twist a knee in the parking lot. My wife is not happy. Do you know what she said to me when I got home? “What’s next?”, over and over again, “What’s next?”. But then she made me a little something to eat before I took my shower.

The Sibelius User Group meeting was interesting. They had a demo of Sibelius 4, leaned a few more tricks. The real bit of insight that I came away with is that other than not knowing anyone there (most everyone else seem to know at least two or three others there), I have very little in common with other composers.

Earlier today I was checking on the stats of views of my scores on Sibelius Music and found that my piece Single Malt has been ignored this week. Every other piece had at least one visit, but poor old Single Malt was left all alone. So hoist a small dram this weekend in honor of Single Malt. It is another one of my various modal jazz tunes. Single Malt is in 9/4 time divided 3+2+2+2 and is scored for Vibraphone, Piano, Bass, Drums and Conga. It was the Musical Blog Piece for the Week of March 6th, 2005 Anno Domini. March 2005 Anno Domini Archive

Ursus Demens

Not so happy.

Well this week I am not so happy as I was last week. Mainly because I came down with a truly bad case of stomach flu over the weekend and I have still not quite recovered. It also looks like my new computer is going to have to wait a few more weeks, but not too much longer.

Despite my bout with the flu my latest piece Cat Juice is available on SibeliusMuisc.

I am still quite happy with newest version of Sibelius and have been playing with the video scoring feature. The one thing I have come to realize is that I want the video to match my music, not to match my music to the video, yet another reason why I do not want to be a film composer.

I also looks like the Garritan JAZZ & BIG BAND COLLECTION of samples will be available very soon. I have listen to some of the demos they have now, very impressive. Can’t wait to get a copy and new machine to run it, looks like I might be doing a lot more Jazz in the future.


Ursus Demens

嬉しい

うれしい

Ureshii (Happy)

I am so happy today. I received by UPS my Sibelius 4 upgrade last night. I am very happy with the upgrade, even running it on my under powered computer. The Dynamic Parts™ feature is quite excellent and complements the way I work. Still working my way through the various other features, and the video features look interesting, so I might have to try my hand at doing something with video. It also looks like I will have the money I need for a new computer on Friday. So today was a very good day indeed.

A short cruise through the semi-abandoned side streets and alleys of L.A.

Well I have settled on a the title of my new jazz piece. It is now called
"A short cruise through the semi-abandoned side streets and alleys of L.A during the wee hours of a hot mid-summer's night" .

Please take a listen to it and leave me a comment.

My piece The Heat Death of the Universe has been getting dissed on the Sibelius-List Yahoo Group.

Still waiting for the Garritan Jazz & Big Band samples to be released.

If you are not doing anything on Friday nights from 9PM to 12 AM EDT check out the
Two Cents Worth web radio broadcast on Cygnus Radio they have a chat page setup so you can “talk” with the host and other listeners during the broadcast. I was there last week and I am going to try to catch it again tomorrow.

Ursus Demens

"As the Indifferent Children of the Earth"

Well I have a new piece for Jazz quartet available. It is currently called
"As the Indifferent Children of the Earth"

However this his is a piece in search of a title: So far its possible titles are:

"As the Indifferent Children of the Earth"
Crusing (The Midnight Town)
Midnight Crusing
Five Six Four
Minor Kool
"A short little journey to nowhere in particular but hope you enjoy the ride"


What would you call it?

My piece "The Sun Princess" is currently number three on the acid planet website [Classical Genre]. If you have the time please give it a listen and leave a comment. "The Sun Princess"

Now is the summer of our discontent

This Week

I now have 14 pieces available for listening at Ursus Demens at AcidPlanet. Both streaming Window media files and MP3 files (for download) are available. Please go take a listen and leave a comment.

I am still waiting for my copy of Sibelius 4. But I what I am really waiting for is the extra cash to buy a new computer. Looks good that I might have the need cash before the end of the summer.

I have started writting another Jazz quartet piece, not sure what will become of it, or if it will ever see the light of day, maybe, some day. Current working title is "Minor Kool". If you have a better title let me know.

Later,

Ursus Demens

PS: Hello, anyone out there?

Acid Planet

Some of my music is now available for listening at Sony's Acid Planet site.

Ursus Demens at Acid Planet

I hope to have more pieces available in August.

Ursus Demens

heat death of the universe

New score and an updated score are now available:

the heat death of the universe is now available. The piece is scored for solo contrabass clarinet in BBb.

The expanded version of Thelyphthoric is also available.

I am still waiting for my copy of Sibelius 4.0. It is due to ship next week.

Lastly:
I had promised to write about things in the world that piss me off. Well I have been giving this some thought and pissing and moaning about (mostly) people and things does little to bring more light into the world and only gives strength to the darkness. So I will be trying my best not to share.

Ursus Demens

Music is

Music is my C₁₇H₁₇NO(C₂H₃O₂)₂

Where I am at this month

Damn! I had not realized that it has been almost a month since I last posted. Where the hell did the time go?

I have been working on a companion piece to the darkness between the stars called ”the heat death of the universe”. I will let you know when it is available, probably late next week or the week after.

I continue to tweak and expand Thelyphthoric. I will try to upload the newest version this weekend. However since it appears that score approvals are hung up at the moment, I would guess that nothing will be approved until Monday so check back late Monday to for a status.

Since I last posted Sibelius Software has announced the release of Sibelius version 4.0 http://www.sibelius.com/products/sibelius/ I look forward to receiving my copy. [Now I just need to scrape up some pennies for a new computer.]

Lastly:

I try very hard not to be pissed off at the world, but there are times (and months) where I just can not seem to help myself. Tell me has ANYONE EVER seen a Lexus driver use a turn signal? I haven’t.

Ursus Demens

PS: More things that piss me off next week.

Where I am at this week.

Well other than being in Southern California that is.

Well I have resume composing, a little at least. I am continuing to add material to Thelyphthoric the piece that refuses to stop growing. I will try to upload the newest version tonight, it is getting close to nine minutes long and I have no idea how I am going to bring` the piece to a close it just seems to want to go on and on. At this point I am worried that piece is starting to ramble and lose coherence. I do not know. But today I feel I just have to put the notes down as they come and get it out of my system. Maybe someday I can go back a “cut the fat” from it and make is a coherent whole.

Two weeks ago I said I was going to write about “musical cowardice” but I have been unable to put all of my thoughts in to words. The subject idea came to me because of the antics of a “composer” (I am refraining from calling him “fellow composer”) on the SibeliusMusic website and chat page. To summarize his behavior: he removes from the site any piece of his music that receives a review that is less than total adoration and fawning over his “greatness”. The piece is then uploaded again (thus removing the review). So I ask you, is this musical cowardice? The inability of let your music stand in the public light and leaving it there no matter what slings and arrows might be hurled against it?

I would love to hear your thought on this. And my music and music in general.

Have a good day.

Ursus Demens

I apologize for not getting it done this week.

My plan was to talk about what it means to be a musical coward this week. But as I thought and reflected upon this concept my ideas on the subject began to grow and become quite disjointed. The result is that I do not think I will be able to finish my essay this week. I apologize for not getting it done this week.

As an aside I have been pretty much “dry” since I stopped my weekly Blog piece. I have only written one new piece since the end of March. But I am spending the time trying to tidy up scores, create parts and record another computer generated CD of my music. I have also had a short correspondence with Joyce Rice of Harp Spectrum about the playability for my harp pieces, and some of them are in serious need of editing so that will be another project on my plate to finish before I compose anything new.

Ursus Demens

Musical Coward?

Sorry I have not posted this week. I have begun thinking about the above question: Is it possible to be a muscial coward? And if so what is a muscial coward? Come back next week and I will share with you some on my ideas. In the meantime I would love to hear your thoughts.

Ursus Demens

the darkness between the stars

You have just one more day to check out my compositions from my early university days. As I said in my last post I will be taking them down some time tomorrow. So do not miss your last chance to laugh at my early works. Links are in my previous post.

Going forward: I have not been doing a lot of composing since I got back from Japan. Doing the weekly Blog pieces (a new piece every week for 15 weeks) took a lot out of me. But this is not a bad thing. I think most artist need to step back from time to time and I am using this time to edit my existing scores, making corrections to typos and making other minor edits and changes. I will also be extracting and creating parts for my scores. I have also started on recording (using sampling technology) my third CD of my compositions.

The one piece that I did write since returning from Japan (actually most of the piece was sketched out waiting in airports and train stations in Japan) is called “the darkness between the stars” and is for String Orchestra and Solo Bb Bass Clarinet. I am not happy with the Bass Clarinet part and I am slowly revising it. I have been considering changing it and using a Contra BBb Bass Clarinet in its place, and I am now 98 percent sure that is what I am going to do. You can find the darkness between the stars HERE.

Program Note:
the darkness between the stars is a tone poem/haiku in which I tried to invoke the darkness/void/loneliness of deep space; out where there is nothing. 99.9999+ percent of the universe is an empty lonely place.

while I was writing this piece I imaged myself floating in the darkness of deep space billions of miles from any other being, billons of miles from even just another object, with just the faint dots of stars everywhere in the black void.

Too Many Years Ago

Some time ago I posted in my Sibelius Website several pieces of music that I wrote too many years ago when I first started attending university. I posted them with the idea that some people might find them interesting, at least as a contrast to the pieces I am now writing. However all things must come to an end and I will be removing these pieces on the 27th or 28th. So here is your last chance to listen too (and see) some of my earliest surviving music.

An Eyelash In My Mascara

The Darkness is My Closest Friend

Why Have You Forsaken Me?

Early Fugue for Strings

Lexx

The Lady in the White Suit with a Cigar

I also posted a incomplete sketch for an orchestra piece. This too will be your last change to listen to it.
The Darkness Within One's Heart

There are a couple of other early pieces that I will be leaving up for now. Please enjoy. Or as I said when I first posted them:

For your enjoyment I present you a historical oddity/curiosity. This is something I wrote some 26 years ago when I was first at university. I will leave it to you to judge whether my skills have progressed or regressed in the ensuing 26 years. I offer it up for your amusement and ridicule.


Edo S. Bear

Greetings.

Well I am back from my trip to Japan and it is nice to be sleeping in my own bed again. The trip was very enjoyable, but very arduous, as we were traveling almost everyday. I will post more once I am over my jet lag.

Ursus Demens

日本

Well I am off to Japan in twelve hours, talk to you all when I get back.

Ursus Demens

Moon Shadow

My latest Big Band Piece, not quite finished, but ready for day light.
Moon Shadow Please leave a note a let me know what you think about it.

Will finish it up when I get back from Japan.

Ursus Demens

Time

Well time seems to be always slipping away from me. I must apologize for not posting anything this week. I am hard at work on my newest Big Band Jazz piece, but it is not quite ready for public scrutiny. My decision to not continue with my weekly Blog piece lifted a burden from my shoulders that I was not aware of. That is to say I did not realize how much pressure I had placed on myself to write a presentable piece every week. So with that burden lifted I basically “veg out” for several days and did no composing.

Next week I am off to Japan for two weeks of vacation. I hope to at least have a preliminary version of the Jazz piece available on line before I leave. I will have little to no access to the internet for those two weeks, so look for me the last week of April. Hope to see you all then.

Ursus Demens

The Last 15 Weeks

As I said last week, now with the vernal equinox behind us I have stop writing a weekly musical Blog piece. I am currently finishing a Big Band piece that I started during the 15 weeks that wrote my musical Blog pieces, and I have several scores that I need to get back to and polish up the engraving and play back. So please check back as I will be posting links to new and revised pieces, and possibly talking about various musical and compositional issues and ideas.

When I started writing the weekly musical Blog piece I set for myself the goal that each piece, while short, would be a complete composition. I will leave it to you to decide how well I achieved my goal.

So for you perusal, edification, amusement, and ridicule, the 15 piece that I have written over the last 15 weeks:


12-Dec-04 Paper Crane
19-Dec-04 Dancing Up The Morning Sun
26-Dec-04 22,000 Songs Fall Silent
02-Jan-05 Meiousei
09-Jan-05 Zeta 2 Reticuli
16-Jan-05 Dark Stairs in a Strange City
23-Jan-05 Remembrance of a Forgotten Memory
30-Jan-05 Thelyphthoric
06-Feb-05 Thou Stars of Winter
13-Feb-05 Until They Took Her Away
20-Feb-05 Koibumi
27-Feb-05 Nocturne
06-Mar-05 Single Malt
13-Mar-05 Facilis Descensus Averno
20-Mar-05 Drifting Across The Sea of Stars

Edo S. Bear, The Ursus Demens

--
//
// Ars longa, vita brevis
// http://members.sibeliusmusic.com/esharpe
//

This Week's Piece

This Week's Piece (March 20th, 2005 Anno Domini) Drifting Across The Sea of Stars Is available for listening. This will be the last "weekly" piece for awhile. But I will keep blogging what is happening with my music on a regular basis. I will soon post a link to the Big Band chart I am working on.


Ursus Demens

Today is Thursday

Well I have been doing my weekly musical Blog pieces since just before the winter solstice. With it now just past the vernal equinox I have written and published 14 pieces of music. At the beginning of this week I was not sure if I would continue. I have however written a piece for this week, which I hope I can finished tonight and get it posted before the weekend.

However I do not think I am going to continue at this hectic pace. I was going to stop with last week's piece when I had trouble getting started with a piece for this week, but everything came together last night, so this week will be the 15th in my weekly Blog pieces, and will be number 99 of my published scores on Sibelius Music. But it will be my last weekly piece, at least for the spring. Possible I will do a weekly Blog for another season. But for now I am going to spend what little time I have for composing working on some longer and more involved pieces and going back and polishing up some of the weekly Blog pieces.

I will however continue to post to my Blog with updates on the music I am writing and occasionally providing links to works in progress. In fact I have been working on a new Jazz piece for Big Band for the last couple of weeks, I will post a link to the half complete score in the next couple of days.

So, that is all for today, I will be back soon, and I hope to hear from you all soon. Take care.

Ursus Demens

Facilis descensus Averno

Musical Blog for the Week of March 13th, 2005 Anno Domini. Facilis descensus Averno
A serial piece for Harpsichord exploring four against five.

This Week's Music

Well this week has been a real struggle to get the music written. I have gone through four of five ideas this, before settling on this weeks piece. I have finished it and as soon as it is available onlin e I will post a link to it. Take care.

Ursus Demens

Single Malt

Single Malt
Musical Blog for the Week of March 6th, 2005 Anno Domini.

A Modal Jazz tune in 9/4 time divided 3+2+2+2, for vibes, piano, bass, drums and conga. Alternate Title is "Before The Dawn". Which title do you prefer?

My Music at SibeliusMusic

Late Again

Well I am late, again, getting this week's musical blog posted, however I have written the music. I just need to finish up some details and tidy up the score and twick the balances. I hope to have it up before the weekend. The current working title is Single Malt. It is a Model Jazz tune in 9/4 time divided 3+2+2+2, for Vibes, piano, bass, drums and conga.

Nocturne in search of a name

Nocturne: Musical Blog for the Week of February 27th, 2005 Anno Domini.

I am still not happy with the balance between all of the parts, but I have grown tried of twicking it, so here it is warts and all.

For one of the few times in my life I have been unable to come up with a title that I am happy with, so while it is currently called Nocturne I am open to suggestions for its final name.

P.S. Thank you Susan.

Hello

Hello, anyone out there?

Well I am late getting this week's musical blog posted, however I have written the music. I just need to tidy up the score and twick the balances. I hope to have it up tonight or tomorrow morning.

Is anyone reading this?

Edo S. Bear

Koibumi

Musical Blog for the Week of February 20th, 2005 Anno Domini.

Koibumi

Koibumi translates from the Japanese as Love Letter.

Until They Took Her Away

Musical Blog for the Week of February 13th, 2005 Anno Domini.

Until They Took Her Away

Megumi Yokata

At the age of thirteen Megumi Yokata was abducted from her Japanese family by the North Korean Government and taken to the other side of the Japan sea, 24 years later her parents were told that she was dead.

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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. They are an exercise in composition. Most will explore one or two compositional and or notational ideas.

Thou Stars of Winter

Thou Stars of Winter

Musical Blog for the Week of February 6th, 2005 Anno Domini.

I am posting this piece in its current form, however I do not think this will be its final form as I am considering adding one or two more short movements to the piece. I also hope to have a MP3 available before the end of the week.


Edo S. Bear

UPDATE

A revised score has be uploaded with an additional third movement. A MP3 is being created and should be availbe very soon.

Another UPDATE

A MP3 file created my my friend Hunter Brown is now available.

Thelyphthoric

Musical Blog for the Week of January 30, 2005 Anno Domini.

Thelyphthoric

The title to this piece is simply a working title, might change it at some point. I am posting this piece in its current form since it started out as my weekly Blog piece and this is the form that it currently is in. However I do not think this will be its final form and I suspect I will keep working on it pass this week.

Edo S. Bear

Time Signatures and Bar Lines, Yea or Nay?

A rough first draft, some random ideas. These ideas are not universal rules, but part of my personal compositional paradigm.

Time Signatures and Bar Lines, Yea or Nay?

Yes, time signatures and bar lines are times needed and at other times not needed. It is not a simple yes or no answer, it is a matter of what best conveys to the performer(s) the intentions of the composer and the best way of realizing it in performance.

Gentle reader please forgive me for not having the time to fully research the following, What follows is some thoughts on time signatures and bar lines and other related ideas. Please do not judge me too harshly as my command of the English language is less than perfect, and my thoughts which seem organized in my head tend to get all scrambled up once they are put to paper, but I digress.

I think we need to keep in mind that there are two main branches that Western music descended from, Sacred and secular. But more important to his discussion, two types of music, vocal and dance music.

With vocal music the rhythm and pulse of the music can be organized by the natural rhythms of the language of the words being sung. With dance music a regular and discernible pulse to the music is required. With the former time signatures are, one could argue, not needed, with bar lines (or some other mechanism) used simply as “milestone” or point of reference. And this works as long as the “complexity” of the music remains below some sort of threshold. Below is two settings of the same piece of the text, the music is the same, but it have been noted first with time signatures and then without time signatures. I will leave it to the read to decide for themselves which one works better. And whether it has crossed the threshold of complexity.

In my setting of the poem Anthem for Doomed Youth by Wilfred Owen I originally notated it using changing time signatures, letting the rhythm of the text dictate the rhythms and the time signature (two different things). Wither I correctly interpreted the rhythm of the words is another issue, what I am referring to here is my process of letting the words being the driving factor in choosing time signatures and rhythms.

Anthem for Doomed Youth (Alt. Version)

I later removed all of the time signatures and bar lines in the piece, rhythmically the piece as not altered. I will leave it to the reader to decide which is a better way of presenting the material to a group for performance.

Anthem for Doomed Youth

When there is but a single performer the complexity of the piece can be raised and one is one hindered by the need to coordinate the performance of several players.

My short piano piece “San Antonio Rainbow” is traditionally notated with time signatures and bar lines. However I have removed the final bar line to convey to the performer a sense that the piece does not end with a definite end, but just fades away. Is this notation consciously perceptible to the listener? Most likely not, but it does try to convey to the performer my intentions for the performance of the piece, and this objective might be, if only at a subconscious level, perceived by the listen because of the way the perform both plays the piece, and when in front of the audience his body language as he plays the piece. Perhaps a piece like this should have the bar lines and time signatures removed, that I will leave for the gentle reader to decide.

San Antonio Rainbow Version 3.0

In music that is intend to be danced to (or traces its roots to such music) a regular and discernable pulse needs to be present to dance to. The use of time signatures for this type of music seems to be apparent. In such pulse driven music "the tyranny of the bar line" is not a issue. The time signature gives us a reference to the pulse of the music and the bar line should help reinforce the “clave”(1) of the piece.

My first piano sonata makes use of neither time signatures nor bars lines, except for the fugal sections in the last movement. Here we have a more complex music than the later example, but still for solo performer. In the fugal sections I have resorted to using time signatures and bar lines due to the complexity of the music and the rhythmic character, pulse, and clave of the section. In an early version of the last movement I did not have time signatures or bars lines in the fugal section. I was lucky enough to have it performed in concert while at university. When I go the score back after the concert I found that the performer have penciled in bar lines as “road markers” to help facilitate his performance. (I should point out he had my permission to mark on the score for the performance.) So what we have here is a piece that is transitioning between the “free flowing” character of vocal music, and the more “exacting” character of dance music.

Epsilon Ba Bootes: 2nd Movement: Yugiri
Epsilon Ba Bootes: 3rd Movement: Hoshi

When we get into music that is highly pulse orientated the use of time signatures becomes necessary to convey the intentions of the composer and to provide a mechanism to keep the performers in “sync” with each other. The time signature that we as composers choose should not be taken lightly as the time signature conveys to the performer(s) and sense of the underlying pulse and clave. In my piece 59,620 YEARS
The opening section could possibly be realize with out a time signature, the only real reason for it is for the coordination of the players. However starting just after letter A on page six and running to Letter E on page 12, the time signatures play a vital roll not only in coordinating the player’s performance, but of conveying to the (astute) performer the underlying pulse and clave of the piece.

59,620 YEARS

Other pieces where I feel that the time signature provide essential information to the performers from the composer.

Wasuremono
Insomnia
Doctor EM
Urban Gale
On that Summer Day


(1)

Things I have not touched on that probably need to be talked about are
1. What I mean when I say “clave” of a piece.
2. Why I use the word pulse instead of rhythm
3. Why I think Gregorian Chat is highly rhythmic
4. Why I feel that there is a major difference between say 7/4 time and 7/8 time, between 4/4 time and 2/2, between 12/8 time and 4/4 with a bunch of triplets, et cetera.

I am sorry about using only my own compositions as examples, but it is a habit I pickup up from D.S. :-)

Remembrance of a Forgotten Memory

Musical Blog for the Week of January 23, 2005 Anno Domini.

Remembrance of a Forgotten Memory

Please take a listen to the MP3 file for a complete understanding of the music.

Ursus Demens

Dark Stairs in a Strange City ---

This week’s (January 16th, 2005 Anno Domini) musical Blog is
Dark Stairs in a Strange City ---
A musical Haiku in 12/8 time divided 3+2+2+3+2 instead of the traditional 3+3+3+3 division. For a quartet of Alto Flute, Guitar, Bass and Drums.

Zeta2 Reticuli

This week's musical Blog is Zeta2 Reticuli

This piece is a bit different from the previous Musical Blogs making use of a drum set, electric bass and three synthesizers.

Zeta2 Reticuli is a yellow-orange main sequence dwarf star of spectral and luminosity type G1-2 V, Zeta2 has about the same mass, around the same diameter, and almost same luminosity as Sol.

Meiousei

Meiousei

This week's [January 2, 2005 Anno Domini] musical Blog (written last night) is called Meiousei. It is a short two minute piece; a musical haiku in 13/8 time for woodwind trio (flute, oboe, and bassoon). Meiousei := Pluto (the planet) := Dark Star. Currently there is no MP3 recording, but I hope to get that record and mixed tonight.