Damn it's already Wednesday!

And I have gotten so little done. I grow old, I grow old, shall I eat a peach?

I have tried to stay focused on my work on my realization of Why Did You Leave Me (also known as Why Did You Leave?) I continue with refining and “tweaking” the drum part and I have to say for at least today I am happy with it. But I have allowed my sell get distracted and I have been doing a lot of work revising my march The Wildcats so progress on Why Did You Leave Me is slower than it should be.

My next great project is to get my wife to allow me to buy some high end monitor/speakers for my setup. The money she will care about a little, but the extra space they will take up will drive her crazy, maybe I should just breakdown and buy her a new house.


Ursus Demens

Dreaming

Science tells us that everyone dreams when they sleep, yet some claim, likely true, but not verifiable by me, to never to remember their dreams. Those who do remember their dreams may not remember them at every waking. Yet, weather nor not we remember our dreams is not my query, what I want to know is: how long do you remember your dreams? Just for a few moments when you awake? Longer? Perhaps all day or even a week? I would guess that for most of us who remember our dreams, remember some of our dreams for longer periods of time and some for just a fleeting moment. But what is the longest you have ever remembered a dream? More than a year?

Well I remember a dream that I had almost forty years ago. In fact this particular dream was noteworthy even at the time that I had it in its extremely long length, continuity and the fact that I had it two nights in a row. The second night started with a recap of the first night's dream and then continued on from where it left off. So after eight Presidents, and counting, I still remember this dream, and now looking back seems to have presented me with a allegory of an aspect of my life.

So I ask again, what is the longest you have ever remembered a dream?

Ursus Demens

Staying Focused

(for now)

I have been continuing with my realization of Why Did You Leave Me (also known as Why Did You Leave?) Like I wrote on Sunday I had refined some of my ideas “off-line” while working. I am happy to write that progress on the realization is going very well and I have been disciplined enough to stay focus on this piece. But I must admit I did spend a little time doing a Brass band arrangement of “O Sacred Head, Now Wounded” as a little break. But I was good and returned to working on Why Did You Leave Me. Do not know if I will finish this weekend as I am doing a lot of reworking of the drum part, but this is all that is basically left to do.

As I wrote before I am considering considering renaming the piece. Any suggestions?

Ursus Demens

Way Too Busy With Work

I have been unable to continue with my realization of Why Did You Leave Me (also known as Why Did You Leave?) because I have had to work all weekend at my “real” job. I 'm currenly just taking a quick break to write this as I am running on just five hours of sleep.

Despite being unable to actually work on the piece my brain in its current addled state has however continued working on the piece, and I am happy to say I have refined some of my ideas on the piece.

One last think about the piece that I have not yet mentioned is I am considering renaming the piece. One title I have mulled over is “Flash of White”, what do you think? Any other suggestions?

Maybe I will have something done by the end of next week ...

“Maybe I am crazy”.

Ursus Demens

Again and Again, Way Too Many Projects.

Well instead of continuing my work on Super Dry or strating to prepare my Blog Pieces for recording I began on yet another piece of music: Why Did You Leave Me (also known as Why Did You Leave?).

I am working on “realizing” the piece and extending the piece with “ad-lib solos”. So far I have begun on the Alto Solo and have re-worked some of the piano voicings and comping patterns. Also have begun to change around the drum part a bit. So who knows what I might work on tonight.

I have begun to wonder if I have developed some sort of phobia about finishing things, thus the reason for having so many projects going on at one time. Maybe I will have something done by the end of the weekend ...

Like I said before, “Maybe I am crazy”.

Ursus Demens

Too Many Projects

Well I have taken down the score to my march “The Wildcats”, but I have not given up on it. I am slowly making changes and edits to the piece and I hope to have it back on line in the next couple of weeks.

I spent last night and this morning before work (got up an hour early) printing out all of the scores to my Musical Blog Pieces (MBP) that I wrote last year. This is in preparation to of making “recordings” of these pieces and creating an CD of them to give to friends and family. If you have a suggestion for a title for the CD please send it to me. If I use it, and you are interested, I will send you a copy of the CD when it is done.

I also spent time last night working on the drum “realization/performance” of my piece Super Dry again in preparation of a computer realized record of the piece.


For those of you who missed my Musical Blogs pieces last year, here are the 15 pieces that I wrote (one a week) from the beginning of winter to the end of winter (Winter Solstice to Spring Equinox)

Drifting Across The Sea of Stars

Facilis Descensus Averno

Single Malt

Prelude

Koibumi

Until They Took Her Away

Thou Stars of Winter

Thelyphthoric

Remembrance of a Forgotten Memory

Dark Stairs in a Strange City ---

Zeta 2 Reticuli

Meiousei

22,000 Songs Fall Silent

Dancing Up The Morning Sun

Paper Crane, solo instrument

Neglected score of the week

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.

This piece was the Musical Blog for the Week of January 16, 2005 Anno Domini.


Ursus Demens

The Lady in the White Suit with a Cigar

The Lady in the White Suit with a Cigar is a very early work of mine written before my 14 year sojourn from music. I offer it here as a historical curiosity and as a contrast to my pieces that I have written since my return to writing music. Please listen to the MP3 recording as it captures the essence of the piece.

Ursus Demens

Fuyu No Ame

New MP3 available of
Fuyu No Ame (for Flugelhorn and Vibraphone2) is now available for your listening pleasure. This piece was originally called Dying Rain, but I have renamed it to differentiate from the version for Flute and Vibraphone. Note there are more differences between the two pieces than just their instrumentation.

While there is no MP3 file (yet), just scorch playback, for listening Michael Morse's So Long, Anne Boleyn (1536) it is worth a listen to. I know it put a smile on my face.

Ursus Demens.

Zeta2 Reticul

For your listening pleasure a new MP3 file is now available of my BLOG piece
Zeta2 Reticuli

About Zeta2 Reticuli:
Zeta2 Reticuli is a yellow-orange main sequence dwarf star of spectral and luminosity type G1-2 V, Zeta2 has about the same mass (99 percent), around the same diameter (almost 99 percent), and almost same luminosity (102 percent) as Sol.

Zeta2 Reticul was my Musical Blog piece for the Week of January 9, 2005 Anno Domini.

Ursus Demens

Writing music versus recording music.

At the end of last year I started my journey into sequencer software and sampling to create “performances” or renderings of my music with the computer. The result is while I am on the slow path of creating some nice renderings of my music, it is a slow process. Not only learning the new software but the actual time it takes to create a “performance” in the sequencer once the music is written. Music which I can compose in just a few hours (stretched over a few days or weeks) takes days and weeks on intense work to make the rendering (recording) just acceptable. One issue I know is just my learning the sequencer software and new words and concepts.

But the other issue is that I can only work on the rendering while on the computer. In contrast, when composing I do most of my work away from the computer, I can (and do) compose and make artistic decisions about my music just about anywhere I am. I can compose while driving or go over the piece in my head while driving or waiting for someone. If we are going some place I take along my score paper and a pencil and if I have a little down time, work on a piece or work out ideas. Most of my the darkness between the stars piece was written while waiting for trains in Japan. But with the sequencer it is about the computer 100 percent of the time.

The result is that my compositional output has drop considerably in the last four months. So I am torn, do I keep learning work working with my new tools so that I can have nice Wave and MP3 files of my music that people can listen to? Or do I just keep composing music that will only exist in the from of a score? For now I will keep with the learning of the new tools and the creation of audio files, but then I am left with the decision, which piece first?

Ursus Demens

So as a composer I have been pondering ...

So as a composer I have been pondering the following question; What should we being listening to? There are many pieces of music; composers and performers that I love to listen to, but is everything I like to listen to something that I should be listening to as a composer, id est are there pieces (and performers) that we should listen to to make us better composers, to broaden our compositional thinking and our ears versus pieces that we listen to for musical pleasure (however you chose to define musical pleasure)?

That beginning said, what pieces and performers do you think one needs to listen to (and study) as part of a process of becoming a better composer? Or do all pieces and composers offer something that will help us grow as composers. Or should one shut one's self off from the musical world and only listen to the music in your head? Or is that the path of madness?

Ursus Demens