I remain on track with Ultra Dry and a preliminary mix is now available. Right now it is a pretty raw mix and I am still working on all of the little details that make a mix work. But to this point I am very happy with what I have, so I though I would share it.
Ursus Demens
Wednesday, May 31, 2006
Tuesday, May 30, 2006
Staying on Course
I did not have a lot of time over the weekend, many family commitments and gatherings, but I remain on track with Ultra Dry and got a preliminary raw mix recorded. To this point I am very happy with what I have and just need to work on all of the little details that in the long run really make the mix work. I am staying with the Fender Rhoades piano for Ultra Dry but I have begun making notes (when I was out of the house an unable to work on the mix) on doing a rendering/recording/mix of Single Malt and in it I am considering replacing the Rhoades with an grand piano, since the Rhoades and the Vibraphone are similar in timbre. But first I need to finish Ultra Dry .
Ursus Demens
Ursus Demens
Thursday, May 25, 2006
Staying focused
Well I did not have a lot of time last night, but what time I did have (along with a little bout of insomnia) I used productively and stayed focused on my rendering/recording/mix of Ultra Dry. I reworked the transition from the solos aback to the head, add 16 more bars to the piece where the piano gets just a little bit of solo space. So I am now happy with the overall form, structure, shape and length of the piece. Now I need to dig down and work on the details. I start that this morning by “breaking apart” the drum so that they cymbals, snare drum, and bass drums are now all on their own channel this in preparation of mixing so that they each can be mix and equalized separately.
Most details have been decided on.
Ursus Demens
Most details have been decided on.
- Should I add a hand drum (conga) part. No.
- Should I play the full head after the solos. [Most likely no] No.
- Should I have the Piano and or the Guitar take a solo chorus. Piano now has half a chorus.
- Should I have a percussion vamp/soli before playing the out head. No.
- Electric Piano or Acoustic Piano. No Decision Yet, but leaning towards the electric.
Ursus Demens
Fughetta in E-flat Minor (2006) by Michael Cutler
Fughetta in E-flat Minor (2006) by Michael Cutler
Dear Michael:
Just a quick first reaction. Too much parallel motion at times. While the “rules” of common practice counterpoint allow consecutive thirds and sixths too many was frowned upon. Bar 9 is the first example, while not “violating any of the rules”, to the ear the parallel thirds and sixths destroy any sense of independence between the two voices. The jumping from thirds to sixths does not change this aural perception. Part of the problem might lie in the that fact that the two voices are moving lock step with each other with no rhythmic interest. One possible solution might be some how to off set the two voices rhythmically, id est having one voice move to the next voice before the other moves.
This same aural perception of moving from polyphony to homophonic texture occurs though out the piece. Bars 15, 21, 32, 50, 63-64 all “caught my ear”. In fact I listen to it a few times with my eyes closed so that my eyes would not fool me. In bar 32 the two outer voices are moving in parallel motion and the addition of a third inter voice might have mitigated the homophonic feeling, yet the fact that the intervoice is static in it melodic movement, id est simply repeat that same note, and moving with the same rhythm as the two outer voices only reinforces that homophonic feeling. Bar 21 while the two top voices are not moving in parallel intervals they are moving in a parallel direction and again locked-stepped in rhythm. The third (bottom) voice does over come this homophonic aural impression of the bar. These are the bars that stood out aural to me.
One thing, it was quite common, but not “required” that when a voice re-enters after resting that it would state the subject, I some times get the impression that when you have a voice re-entering it is simply entering to provide harmonic support to the existing voices, not to make its own “statement”, this is just an impression though and I have not examined this in detail.
While your use of a Picardy third to end the piece is quite “proper in the common practice” I wonder if now in the twenty first century that it is strictly needed and given the feel of the rest of the piece a bit out of place. Again bars 67 to the end have a very homophonic feel to them, I know it is the closing of the piece, but still ...
One final thought, I am un-convinced on the suitability of the subject and I found it interesting that you avoided both the sixth and seventh scale degrees in the subject. The two notes in the minor that are both the most difficult to handled (natural, harmonic, or melodic versions decisions ) and yet in some ways the most interesting and characteristic notes in minor.
Ursus Demens
Dear Michael:
Just a quick first reaction. Too much parallel motion at times. While the “rules” of common practice counterpoint allow consecutive thirds and sixths too many was frowned upon. Bar 9 is the first example, while not “violating any of the rules”, to the ear the parallel thirds and sixths destroy any sense of independence between the two voices. The jumping from thirds to sixths does not change this aural perception. Part of the problem might lie in the that fact that the two voices are moving lock step with each other with no rhythmic interest. One possible solution might be some how to off set the two voices rhythmically, id est having one voice move to the next voice before the other moves.
This same aural perception of moving from polyphony to homophonic texture occurs though out the piece. Bars 15, 21, 32, 50, 63-64 all “caught my ear”. In fact I listen to it a few times with my eyes closed so that my eyes would not fool me. In bar 32 the two outer voices are moving in parallel motion and the addition of a third inter voice might have mitigated the homophonic feeling, yet the fact that the intervoice is static in it melodic movement, id est simply repeat that same note, and moving with the same rhythm as the two outer voices only reinforces that homophonic feeling. Bar 21 while the two top voices are not moving in parallel intervals they are moving in a parallel direction and again locked-stepped in rhythm. The third (bottom) voice does over come this homophonic aural impression of the bar. These are the bars that stood out aural to me.
One thing, it was quite common, but not “required” that when a voice re-enters after resting that it would state the subject, I some times get the impression that when you have a voice re-entering it is simply entering to provide harmonic support to the existing voices, not to make its own “statement”, this is just an impression though and I have not examined this in detail.
While your use of a Picardy third to end the piece is quite “proper in the common practice” I wonder if now in the twenty first century that it is strictly needed and given the feel of the rest of the piece a bit out of place. Again bars 67 to the end have a very homophonic feel to them, I know it is the closing of the piece, but still ...
One final thought, I am un-convinced on the suitability of the subject and I found it interesting that you avoided both the sixth and seventh scale degrees in the subject. The two notes in the minor that are both the most difficult to handled (natural, harmonic, or melodic versions decisions ) and yet in some ways the most interesting and characteristic notes in minor.
Wednesday, May 24, 2006
The Skies Above
The Skies Above
Posted by Tom Sullivan (Home page) - 23:09, 24 May 2006 -
My friend and I wrote this string quartet for our quartet to play and we were thinking of making a second version so if anyone has any suggestions we would be open to them.
Thanks from Tom Sullivan and Steve Tzeng!!
The link to the site is;
http://www.sibeliusmusic.com/cgi-bin/show_score.pl?scoreid=85008
Tom:
Just some very very quick impressions and suggestions:
- One get the impression much of the time of piano centered thinking, very right hand left hand sounding at times.
- Too many doughnuts.
- Use passing notes between “chords”.
- Use chromatic passing notes, upper and lower auxiliary notes.
- Need more independence between the four parts (voices).
- Create a “dialogue” between the four parts, give and take.
- Thin out the texture at times, id est duets and trios within the quartet.
- Viola + Cello Duet
- Viola + Violin I
- Violin I + Violin II
- Et cetera.
- The viola, except for one section, spends the entire time on its lowest two strings, let it “sing” more.
Just some quick thoughts and ideas, maybe more later.
--
//
// Ars longa, vita brevis
//
Losing Focus
After doing so well on Monday night focusing exclusivity on my rendering/recording/mixing of Ultra Dry I strayed off course spend the evening playing with a bit of new software terragen - photorealistic scenery rendering software which has nothing to do with music. That unless I use it to create CD art work, or at least that is how I rationalized it last night. So we will see if I can get my focus back tonight and continue working on Ultra Dry, or if I will simply spend the night drinking Rusty Nails, after all it is the one offical day of the year I am allowed to be depressed.
Ursus Demens, Wednesday the 24th of May, 2006 Anno Domini
Neglected Scores of the Week.
- Where Are the Mountains? A very early work of mine for wind ensemble.
- Meditation on the Sierpinski Tetrahedron This an experiment, and thus is it slowly evolving.
Notes to Meditation on the Sierpinski Tetrahedron:
- Best experienced with eyes closed in a dark and cool room.
- The experiment continues. I have begun working on a realization of this piece and hope to have an MP3 recording available before spring 2006. Stay tuned.
- [Now we can only hope to have it finished before the end of the summer of 2006 Anno Domini
- Revised version uploaded on Nov 6.
- This is a work in progress so many changes are planned for this piece but have not been implemented yet. Most of the current changes are in the first two minutes of the piece.
- Updated Score upload Nov. 22, 2004 Anno Domini.
- This an experiment, and thus is it slowly evolving.
- The harmonic "language" that I am using is too, too static and even weak, something I am trying to work through. And, I think while I am using various "poly-rhythms" (if that is the right word) they suffer from all lining up on the down beat, that is to say the bar line is too much in your face (ear) all of the time.
- I feel that I have a idea here that is worthwhile, but I think that my "vision" is bigger than the tools that I have at my disposal. I am working on making pan an active part of the piece, but the tool that I have limits me to stereo effects, but I hear in my head a surround sound presentation of the material, well maybe someday I will have all of the tools that I need to realize what I am trying.
- Thank you for your support and time.
Odobenidae
curtis.schweitzer@... wrote:
>
> Friends-
>
> As much as I would have liked to have been more active in this group,I'm afraid it has been impossible. I have, however, recently completed a piece of music that I would like comments and criticisms of- at the end of this message is a link to the rough draft of my semester composition for school this year. Juries are but a couple of weeks away, and I was wondering if anyone had any comments/criticisms to share as I ready the score for juries.
It is entitled "odobenidae" and is a passicaglia for orchestra.
Dear Curtis:
Opening Passacaglia theme, nice change of pace using a 5/4 measure instead of a more traditional 3/4. In many "traditional" passacaglias start with a pickup note into the down beat of the first bar. I wonder if your theme might not benefit from such a small alteration. Given the end of your theme is simply a four beat note with a rest on beat five it would be easy to add either a quarter note or eight note pickup into the theme, I think such an addition would provide the piece with just a little more forward motion.
I wonder if your theme might be a bit more intense if you moved away from the pure natural C minor scale. Say B natural on the down beat of Bar 7? Either throwing in a bit of the C harmonic or melodic minor.
As for the 5/4 meter, great choice, but have you given much thought about the sub-division of the bar? Which are the "strong beats" is est is the bar divvied two beats + three beats? Or Three beats + two beats? Looking/listening to the opening bars I would say that you are leaning towards a 3 + 2 division of the bar. Is so I would notate every thing that way, so the last bar of your theme would be not a whole note but two half notes tied together (note i fit was a 3+ 2 division the same note would be notated by me as a dotted half note tied to a quarter note).
Problems with the orchestration, pretty much all that was said on the Sibelius music chat page with regards to your instrumentation choices echo my concerns too, so I will try not to repeat them. There are places (sorry I can not give you exact bars) where I think you have made a poor choice in the instrumentation, what I am referring to here is there are places where you have the Eb clarinet playing a phrase which is not in its "best" range id est it is playing "throat" tones, where if given to the Bb clarinet the same phrase would lie in a very sweet part of its range, and vis versus.
The 5/8 section, again 2+3 or 3+2 division of the bar.
Not sure how well the woodwinds sixteenth notes before and after Letter E really work, wonder if it might be better to rescore with the strings taken that part over. With just the full brass section playing the slower theme with out the string reinforcement you now have. Just a thought.
5/8 section, not sure the sixteenth notes in the second violin and viola work or are needed to help propel this section forward. When the Bb Clarinet takes the theme here, given the range, I think this would work better on the Eb Clarinet.
Letter H I would be tempted to score this section in 5/4 for all the instruments playing the "augmented" theme but 5/8 in the sections (strings) that are still moving at the 5/8 "pace". One way would be to put a dotted bar line dividing the 5/4 bar in half for those instruments. (see the middle section of my 59,620 Years [http://www.sibeliusmusic.com/cgi-bin/show_score.pl?scoreid=43241] were I have the percussion playing two 11/8 bars to one 11/4 bar for the rest of the instruments for an example on how to do this.)
I would consider having EVERYONE play (softly) the last few chords.
Well those are just a few quick thoughts and ideas.
Ursus Demens
>
> Friends-
>
> As much as I would have liked to have been more active in this group,I'm afraid it has been impossible. I have, however, recently completed a piece of music that I would like comments and criticisms of- at the end of this message is a link to the rough draft of my semester composition for school this year. Juries are but a couple of weeks away, and I was wondering if anyone had any comments/criticisms to share as I ready the score for juries.
It is entitled "odobenidae" and is a passicaglia for orchestra.
Dear Curtis:
Opening Passacaglia theme, nice change of pace using a 5/4 measure instead of a more traditional 3/4. In many "traditional" passacaglias start with a pickup note into the down beat of the first bar. I wonder if your theme might not benefit from such a small alteration. Given the end of your theme is simply a four beat note with a rest on beat five it would be easy to add either a quarter note or eight note pickup into the theme, I think such an addition would provide the piece with just a little more forward motion.
I wonder if your theme might be a bit more intense if you moved away from the pure natural C minor scale. Say B natural on the down beat of Bar 7? Either throwing in a bit of the C harmonic or melodic minor.
As for the 5/4 meter, great choice, but have you given much thought about the sub-division of the bar? Which are the "strong beats" is est is the bar divvied two beats + three beats? Or Three beats + two beats? Looking/listening to the opening bars I would say that you are leaning towards a 3 + 2 division of the bar. Is so I would notate every thing that way, so the last bar of your theme would be not a whole note but two half notes tied together (note i fit was a 3+ 2 division the same note would be notated by me as a dotted half note tied to a quarter note).
Problems with the orchestration, pretty much all that was said on the Sibelius music chat page with regards to your instrumentation choices echo my concerns too, so I will try not to repeat them. There are places (sorry I can not give you exact bars) where I think you have made a poor choice in the instrumentation, what I am referring to here is there are places where you have the Eb clarinet playing a phrase which is not in its "best" range id est it is playing "throat" tones, where if given to the Bb clarinet the same phrase would lie in a very sweet part of its range, and vis versus.
The 5/8 section, again 2+3 or 3+2 division of the bar.
Not sure how well the woodwinds sixteenth notes before and after Letter E really work, wonder if it might be better to rescore with the strings taken that part over. With just the full brass section playing the slower theme with out the string reinforcement you now have. Just a thought.
5/8 section, not sure the sixteenth notes in the second violin and viola work or are needed to help propel this section forward. When the Bb Clarinet takes the theme here, given the range, I think this would work better on the Eb Clarinet.
Letter H I would be tempted to score this section in 5/4 for all the instruments playing the "augmented" theme but 5/8 in the sections (strings) that are still moving at the 5/8 "pace". One way would be to put a dotted bar line dividing the 5/4 bar in half for those instruments. (see the middle section of my 59,620 Years [http://www.sibeliusmusic.com/cgi-bin/show_score.pl?scoreid=43241] were I have the percussion playing two 11/8 bars to one 11/4 bar for the rest of the instruments for an example on how to do this.)
I would consider having EVERYONE play (softly) the last few chords.
Well those are just a few quick thoughts and ideas.
Tuesday, May 23, 2006
Staying Focused
Well I finally stayed focused last night and got quite a bit done on my rendering/recording/mix of Ultra Dry. I finished up putting the solos together and the drums part is about 90 percent done at this point. Both the Flute and the Flugelhorn take one chorus to solo. But I am unsure at this time with the overall balance of the piece and wonder if I need to have the piano take a solo chorus too. And or have a drum/percussion break before heading back in to the head.
The form of the head is a bit unusual. Harmonically it is 16 bars repeated to form 32 bars. The melodic form is ABAC, a quasi rondo. The interesting bit is that The B & C sections are closely related and the first half (id est the first four bars of each) is identical only differing in the last half of the eight bar section melodically, but remain identical in their harmonic progression. It should also be noted that the first half of that half (id est the first two bars of the B & C sections) are identical to the first two bars of the A section. To summarize the opening two bar motif (if we may call it that) occurs four times in the 32 bar head.
The form of the piece can be further broken down into four bar chunks giving us: ab a'c ab a'd. (a' is used to indicate that the first half of it (a') is identical to a). So we have A(ab) B(a'c) A(ab) C(a'd) for our final form.
In the current recording we only play the last half (AC) of the head after the solos with a simple four bar “coda” to close the piece.
So as I stated I have remained focused on rendering/recording/mix of Ultra Dry. With only a few details left to decided on.
Ursus Demens
The form of the head is a bit unusual. Harmonically it is 16 bars repeated to form 32 bars. The melodic form is ABAC, a quasi rondo. The interesting bit is that The B & C sections are closely related and the first half (id est the first four bars of each) is identical only differing in the last half of the eight bar section melodically, but remain identical in their harmonic progression. It should also be noted that the first half of that half (id est the first two bars of the B & C sections) are identical to the first two bars of the A section. To summarize the opening two bar motif (if we may call it that) occurs four times in the 32 bar head.
The form of the piece can be further broken down into four bar chunks giving us: ab a'c ab a'd. (a' is used to indicate that the first half of it (a') is identical to a). So we have A(ab) B(a'c) A(ab) C(a'd) for our final form.
In the current recording we only play the last half (AC) of the head after the solos with a simple four bar “coda” to close the piece.
So as I stated I have remained focused on rendering/recording/mix of Ultra Dry. With only a few details left to decided on.
- Should I add a hand drum (conga) part.
- Should I play the full head after the solos. [Most likely no]
- Should I have the Piano and or the Guitar take a solo chorus.
- Should I have a percussion vamp/soli before playing the out head.
- Electric Piano or Acoustic Paino.
Monday, May 22, 2006
As Usual ...
Well as usual I have gone off in yet another direction. Instead of working on any of the pieces that I mention last week i have begun working on a rendering/recording/mix of Ultra Dry. This is a simple Bossa Nova for Flute and Flugelhorn I wrote back in 2002 Anno Domini. And is part of my “Dry” series of pieces. I hope to have a raw preliminary mix done by the weekend, but we will see if I can carve enough time out of my day to get it done.
Ursus Demens
Friday, May 19, 2006
Less Than Stellar
Well my week has been less than stellar. My back went out in the wee hours of Wednesday morning, an old disk problem that resurfaces occasionally, which put me out of action for two days. While I am back I am still moving very gingerly. Although I took the two days off from work, since I could hardly walk, I was unable to get any work done on any of my music. Pain, intense pain, just sucks all the concentration and thinking power of your brain. All one can do is sit, or lie, there as the waves of pain flow through you while you wait for it to pass.
I am pretty happy with my latest mix of What Ever So I am now left with the dilemma of what to work on next. I have started several projects, but I am can not seem to concentrate on just one of them. My current projects include recording/rendering several of my jazz pieces, (Backstroking in the Lake of Fire , "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", Cat Juice, and Super Dry [Big Band]). I have also been working on a new jazz piece for five saxes and rhythm section (currently without a working title) and revisiting my march The Wild Cats. So once more I am making little progress as I am scattering my efforts over too many projects and this is one of the reasons I have been lax in posting.
Take care.
Ursus Demens
I am pretty happy with my latest mix of What Ever So I am now left with the dilemma of what to work on next. I have started several projects, but I am can not seem to concentrate on just one of them. My current projects include recording/rendering several of my jazz pieces, (Backstroking in the Lake of Fire , "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", Cat Juice, and Super Dry [Big Band]). I have also been working on a new jazz piece for five saxes and rhythm section (currently without a working title) and revisiting my march The Wild Cats. So once more I am making little progress as I am scattering my efforts over too many projects and this is one of the reasons I have been lax in posting.
Take care.
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
Still Mixing It Down
Updated MP3 (six minutes) file of my piece “What Ever” has just been uploaded. The Score to What Ever (you can access the MP3 from there.)
Streaming MP3 link to What Ever
Ursus Demens
Streaming MP3 link to What Ever
Ursus Demens
Thursday, May 04, 2006
Numbers
My life is slowly becoming full of numbers. When I was younger, in fact until I started university the only number I need to know was my home phone number, for 18 years all I need to know was one seven digit number, in those days all of Los Angeles county had one area code, no need to even know the area code. Then I went to university, while I still live at home, I now had my own phone, so I need to know two phone numbers, 14 digits, no make that three numbers (my girl friends home phone, 21 digits. I also need to know my SSN and my student id number, 17 more digits that I had to know. But then my area code changed, but not too bad, only two area codes for the LA area, I can handle that.
Skipping ahead, now day how many numbers do I need to know? My home phone, my parents home phone, their cell phone, my wife's cell phone, my daughter's cell phone, my sister's home, cell and fax numbers (and area codes), my cell phone, my work phone. If you are counting that is 100 digits I now need to know, and we have not even talked about PINS, and IP address and Port numbers that I have to remember.
Even in music I have to deal with ii V7 I!
My life is slowly becoming full of numbers.
55 72 73 75 73 20 44 65 6D 65 6E 73
Skipping ahead, now day how many numbers do I need to know? My home phone, my parents home phone, their cell phone, my wife's cell phone, my daughter's cell phone, my sister's home, cell and fax numbers (and area codes), my cell phone, my work phone. If you are counting that is 100 digits I now need to know, and we have not even talked about PINS, and IP address and Port numbers that I have to remember.
Even in music I have to deal with ii V7 I!
My life is slowly becoming full of numbers.
55 72 73 75 73 20 44 65 6D 65 6E 73
Tuesday, May 02, 2006
Ignored piece of the week:
The Girl in the White Pants
There is also an MP3 available.ps: ignore the title on the piece, it was a little joke/experiment.
Monday, May 01, 2006
Quick Monday Morning Note
"What Ever": what I hope is the penultimate mix for this piece is now available. I have tried to incorporate all of the suggestions I have received, but I most likely have fallen short in places. MP3 of "What Ever"
Ursus Demens
Ursus Demens
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)