Eous

As a composer I occasionally get a musical idea stuck in my craw that I can not shake out of my ears until I get it down on paper and published; Eous (1) is one such piece.

Eous is a piece for a Jazz group consisting of Soprano Sax, Vibraphone, Bass and Drums. Please take a listen to the MP3 for an example of one way the piece could be interpreted. Thank you.

Eous


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(1) Eous is a made up word with no meaning.

Black Fire

Well I have finally posted the score to “Black Fire” and it is now available along with a preliminary recording to listen to. Please take some time listen. Thank you.


Ursus Demens

http://www.sibeliusmusic.com/index.php?sm=home.score&scoreID=149060

Getting There

It always seems that the last three percent takes the longest to finish. All of the notes are on the paper for “Black Fire”. Now is the tedious task of going through each part making sure all of the small but essential things are in place. Thinks like dynamic markings, queues, articulations and that each part is layout in a readable fashion. Just a lot of detail work to do to finish the score. The music is done, just need to make it presentable to the world. Perhaps by the end of September.


Ursus Demens

Slow

Well the push never really happened, so I have gotten little done on "Black Fire". I am almost all the way there, just the last little bit to finish. I am going to be busy tonight and Saturday, but maybe on Sunday I will buckle down and finish it off.



Ursus Demens

SBS

Slow But Sure

While I have not updated progress, I have been making progress on proof reading the “Black fire” parts every night except last night. Not sure how much I can get done before Sunday, but I hope to be able to make a big push next week.


Ursus Demens

End of August

“Black Fire” Status.

Well I will not have a finalized score and recording for release before the end of August, I can say that all of the music has been “composed” and in that narrow sense the piece is finished, but not ready for release. I am still working through all of the details, things like dynamic markings, phrase markings and other such things. Then I will need to proof all of the parts before the piece is ready to be published. And then we can move onto making a recording. So I am happy with the progress I have made this month as the “notes” are done.


Ursus Demens

Black Fire progress

While I have not posted in a while, progress on "Black Five" continues to move forward each day. I do not know if I will be done before the end of August, but I am very happy with the progress and I think the wait will be worth it, as I am very happy with the piece at this point.

Black Fire

So I have settled on what I think will be the final title for my current piece in progress. The new title for “The Red Dress” is:

“Black Fire”

The only question is should it be “Black Fire”, “Blackfire”, or “BlackFire”?



Ursus Demens

Killer Joe and Things

Last night I got a lot of work done on “The Red Dress”. The big thing that got done was I made a minor tweak to one of the transitions that was working OK, but was not quite there, I added just a little bit to it (just a single note actually) and now it works really well.

I also made a preliminary recording of it which I dumped onto my MP3 player. So the piece is pretty much complete with just minor details to work out.

There are two decisions left to make about the piece:

• Which of two endings to use.
• What should I title the piece as.
  

I am only about 80 percent happy with the current title of “The Red Dress” and the variation “Her Red Dress”. I would have to say that the piece owes some of its inspiration to such classic Jazz tunes as “So What” and “Killer Joe”, with perhaps a very small dash of “City of Glass” thrown in. So I am looking for a title to reflect its ancestry; a bit dark, a bit edgy late at night, give me another Scotch sort of title.

The Piano Part

Work on “The Red Dress” continued last night. just got a little done, mostly making small changes and corrections to the piano part. We will see how much I will get done tonight.


Ursus Demens

Weekend.

As predicted I got very little done “The Red” Dress” over the weekend, but I did get a little work done. The big thing though is I did install my Sibelius 6 upgrade on Sunday. So far it looks very nice and did seem to “clean up” “The Red” Dress” score making it cleaner. As for the upgrade its self it went very smoothly with none of the pain when I up graded to Sibelius 5.

A Fifth

Well was able to work on “The Red Dress” last night. Fourth day in a row, but only a little work, but I am happy with the final “big” structure of the piece, so I am now just working on the details. But as the y say “the devil is in the details”. Some of my time was diverted to proofing the parts for “... and into dust you shall return”.

We will see if I can get a fifth day of work done, but since it is Friday the odds are not good.



Note: Lead sheet for “The Red Dress” is here , see page 2: N.J.S.G.

Third Day

Got a third day of good work done on “The Red Dress” last night. Added a couple of bar to one of the transitions so the piece is now just a hair under 12 minutes in length. With all of the pieces in place now just need to fine tune all of the details and double check some voicings. There is one bar that I am not happy with need to do something with it. Hopefully I will be discipline and work it out tonight.

Two Days.

Continued working on “The Red Dress” last night, two days in a row that I have made good progress on it. All the major pieces are in place now. Only have the details to work on and finish. We will see if I can get a third day in a row of good work done.

Last Night

Got a good amount of work done on “Her Red Dress” last night. On track to make the end of August deadline.

“Her Red Dress” or “The Red Dress” or the “Lady in the Red Dress”. Need to decide on the final title.

By the End of Aug.

Setting a goal of finishing the big band version "Her Red Dress" by the end of August. Currently it is almost 12 minutes in lenght.


See page two, N.J.S.G.: Sharpe Curves

*

There are Sakura

In she walks
at quarter past nine,
late again.

Her red dress
in the right places
Oh so tight.

on her lips
a lit cigarette
and a smile

She orders
a Scotch on the rocks,
nothing more.

from my glass
the tinkle of ice
and Bourbon

Her soft lips
brush against my cheek,
the smell of Chanel

Her soft voice
the music of the spheres
to my ears

falling tears
and a soft low sigh,
an ill omen

as I drink
in the deep twilight
I can see
there are Sakura
falling in the breeze.

Summer heat

Summer heat
in early morning
starts my day.

Do I dream

Do I dream
naugth but emptiness,
rising smoke

Rising smoke

Rising smoke
from her cigarette,
an ill omen.

Listen to

listen to
naught but emptiness
and silence.

Falling tears

falling tears
the pulse of her heart
memories

Sakura

Sakura
falling in the breeze.
Life goes on

In the dark

in the dark
a single candle
lights the way

Smell of salt

smell of salt
sand between my toes
sound of waves.

Soft moonlight

Under soft moonlight
she walked across the garden
and into the woods

taste of salt

taste of salt
shooting tequila
sting of lime.

dawn

dawn comes
bringing summer heat,
yellow sun

Until

until the
moon brought silver light
to the yard

On Current Events

"What is Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba, that he would weep for her?"

William Shakespeare; Hamlet.

her face

the blackness
of wintertime night
hid her face

Bourbon

from my glass
the tinkle of ice
and Bourbon

Chanel

Her soft lips
brush against my cheek,
the smell of Chanel

At twilight

At twilight
rain began to fall
on the hills.

In she walks

In she walks
at quarter past nine,
late again.

Her red dress
in the right places
Oh so tight.

on her lips
a lit cigarette
and a smile

She orders
a Scotch on the rocks,
nothing more.

Her soft voice
the music of the spheres
to my ears

She

She orders
a Scotch on the rocks,
nothing more.

Clouds

Cold grey clouds
cover the valley,
L.A. June

Her voice

Her soft voice
the music of the spheres
to my ears

Red

Her red dress
in the right places
Oh so tight.

Her Lips

On her lips
a lit cigarette
and a smile

Warm sunlight

Warm sunlight
on my plate, shortbread,
Darjeeling.

Evolution I

Evolution I for percussion ensemble is built on a single 25 note rhythmic pattern where the last note of the pattern becomes the first note on the pattern when it is repeated.

The original pattern was two bars long, this is performed by the conga when it enters. The other instruments (with the exception of the snare drum) all play the same 25 note pattern either in an augmented (mostly) or diminished note durations so as the pattern can last as long as 16 bars or as short as a bar.

The piece gradually builds as more instruments enter the fry and the volume increases. The piece ends when all of the instruments reach the end of their pattern at the same time at the down beat of letter "G".

While specific instruments are indicated in the score, performers should feel free to substitute instruments with what they have available; keeping in the relative "pitches" and the decay characteristics of the instruments in mind.

Ursus Demens


Note: The score's indicated duration of 4'33" was not planned nor intended, it just randomly happened.

Random tears

random tears
falling from the sky
it is done.

Pure Atonal Music

I have revised my piece “November Second”, completely redoing the ending, along with various minor changes throughout the piece. The title comes from the fact that I wrote the first version on 11/02/2005 and has no deeper meaning, and is a result of me not finding another title that I like.

The score can be difficult to follow as it uses, for lack of a better term, nested repeats. I have tried to indicate on the score where the repeat “goes back to” when it might not be obvious. Also with a break from normal nomenclature sections that repeat more than once are indicated at the end of the section, not the beginning of the section.

The MP3 gives the best listening experience as i use more sounds and articulations than is defined in the General MIDI sound specification.

Program Note:A simple experiment in time.

Please listen to the MP3 file to hear all of the different timbres.

A piece in search of a title.Please send me your suggestions on a new title for this piece.

Revised Spring 2009:

Piece slightly expanded, with a completely new ending. New MP3 upload.

Score:http://www.sibeliusmusic.com/cgi-bin/show_score.pl?scoreid=77133

MP3:http://www.sibeliusmusic.com/cgi-bin/show_score.pl?com=streammp3&scoreid=77133

Tom

Tom-chan

October 15, 1992 - March 23, 2009

RIP

...and into dust you shall return.

Score:
http://www.sibeliusmusic.com/cgi-bin/show_score.pl?scoreid=139568

MP3:
http://www.sibeliusmusic.com/cgi-bin/show_score.pl?com=streammp3&scoreid=139568

This piece started when I challenged myself to come up with a fugue subject that less than a fifth and was fairly simple rhythmically and very short. Previously my various fugue subjects tended to cover a large range and where long when compared to fugue subjects from the Renaissance. What I cam up with is a seven note subject that cover the interval of just a perfect fourth. Harmonically the subject is in the Phygian mode.

The subject is first stated by the cellos, followed in order by the violas, first violins, and finally the second violins. At letter [A], bar 23 a second subject is introduced by the second violins. This subject unlike the first subject covers the interval of a minor ninth. The second subject is then stated by the first violins, violas and final the cellos and basses together. The piece then slowly builds to the climax of the piece at letter [B], bar 39. Here the first violins play the fist subject while the second violins play a slightly modified version of the second subject. The violas are playing the first subject in inversion, while the cellos play a running sixteenth note patter and the bass play a pedal D#. The climax is held back not quick reaching its full potential, and soon peters out.

At bar 42 the piece slides into E dorian, with violins and viola passing around a Gregorian chant before coming to a rest on a E minor triad. After a brief pause the cellos play the first subject, now in D phygian. The violas then play the first subject while at the same time the second violins state the second subject. The last note of the second violins statement of the second subject in D phygian turns into the first note of the first subject in A phygian. Wile the second violins play the first subject, the first violins play the second subject, as with the second violins the last note of the first violins second subject turns into the first note of the first subject as the violas play the second subject.

The piece comes to an end after letter [D] with the Basses, cells, violas and first violins playing A (in four different octaves). In to this “perfect” structure the second violins enter playing Bb, just a half step above the violas. The second violins briefly play a Db before “resolving” to a C as the piece fades.

I am not 100 percent happy with the piece, as there are bits that feel forced, but I though I would inflicted it upon the world and see what happens.

The piece makes use of non-standard dynamic markings, the key to them is below.

• Key To Non-Standard Symbols
  ppp! As soft as possible
  P+ Between P and MP
  MP- Between MP and P
  M Between MP and MF
  MF+ Between MF and F
  F+ Between F and FF

Thank you for listening.


Note: The MP3 recording is a preliminary mix and stills needs to be mastered.

Mono No Aware

物の哀れ

Almost finished with a new piece for String Orchestra. A 11 minute fugue in A phygian, and a slow 7/4 time. Stay tune for updates.

Ursus