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