New Recordings

A few new recordings a now available.

The new recording of Insomnia is hightly recommended. The other recordings are still works in progress. The volume on 20,000 Songs Fall Silent is very low, expect in the middle. I am still mixing this one to get the levels right. The SuperDry recording is from the end of April.



Ursus Demens

Today's Listening:

Penderecki

• Threndoy for the Victums of Hiroshima
• Symphony No. 3
• Fluorescences for orchestra

David Sosnowski [http://www.davidsosnowski.com/]

• A Woman of Windswept Years

From South Mountain Sketchbook

• Ruminations on Providence
• Ascension
• Catherine In Winter
• Discomposure While At Prayer
• Weather Coming In

And a new mix of my piece “22,000 Songs Fall Silent”

“22,000 Songs Fall Silent”
Musical BLOG for the Week of December 26, 2004 Anno Domini.

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

Ursus Demens

20,000 Songs Fall Silent.

New Mix and video of my piece 22,000 Songs Fall Silent




Musical BLOG for the Week of December 26, 2004 Anno Domini.

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

Ursus Demens

SuperDry

The "Dry" Jazz Suite

The "Dry Jazz Suite" began as just an idea to write a couple of jazz tunes for jazz quartet featuring trumpet. The first in the series was SuperDry. Later I a did a BigBand version of SuperDry.

I just upload a new MP3 file of my BigBand version of SuperDry here

Please take a listen and leave a comment.

Thank you.

Ursus Demens

AMEN

Amen October 2005 Anno Domini

For Hugh Mullins, my university Theory Teacher.




Ursus Demens

I have not ruled out a return to the first section.

I am continuing working on my piece Morning Prayer for soprano sax and others. The piece has stabilized in both size and length. It is currently in five major sections, each about six minutes in length, with a total time of about 33 and a half minutes. [Note: In a previous post I mis-stated that the piece had six sections, this was a typo and should have said five sections.]

The last week or so I have only been working on the last two sections, and while the first three sections still need work they are pretty stable.

I have added a synthesizer to the fast and violent fourth section. The main bass riff and percussion/rhythmic frame work has been composed, and the main “motifs” also, but I am still working on the harmonic and thematic structure of this section.

In the last week I have worked out the harmonic and melodic frame work for the fifth section, harmonically it will be an A minor pentatonic for the “A” section, and E dorian for the “B” section. This section along with the second section is “strong” thematically, id est there is an easily recognized theme and is presented in a very straight forward binary presentation of “AABA” and has a recap of the theme at the end of the section in the form of “BA”. This is in contrast with the first and third sections which have a more “improvisational” feel and organization to them.

At this point I do not feel the need to add any more new sections to this work, but I have not decided on the finish. While I am leaning towards ending the piece with the current fifth section (movement), I have not ruled out a return to the first section.

Ursus Dmens

Synthesizers:

The problem with deciding to add a synthesizer to a composition (see post below about Morning Prayer) is that a synthesizer unlike a conventional instrument is not a singular entity. I have available to me several synthesizers all with their own unique characteristics and each with many different sounds, and each sound can be altered in many various ways. This leaves me with at least several hundred possible timbres to use, and that is using just pre-programmed patches. When you consider altering the patches or creating new patches from scratch, the possible permutations are a close enough to infinite to give me a migraine headache.

Thus for the last two nights I have gotten no work done on the actual composition of Morning Prayer, but simply have spent my time “auditioning” sounds from some of my synthesizers, and I expect I have several more days of work before I finalize the ones I want to use.

Ursus Demens

Question of the Day

Can one ever really trust someone who drives a 40 year old Purple Volkswagon beetle?


Ursus Demens

Out of Control Bit of Self Indulgent Musical ...

I am continuing working on my piece Morning Prayer for soprano sax and others. The piece has continued to grow in both size and length. I am considering adding a couple of synthesizers. As of today piece is in six sections. Each of the sections is about six minutes in length resulting in a total time of over 31 minutes.

The first section is in a slow 7/4 with an unceasing drone in the string bass (arco)and piano, ostinatos in the electric bass and vibraphone, and pointillistic percussion. Above all of this is the soprano sax playing meditative lines that make ample use of quarter tones.

The second section is in a fast 11/8, and is basically a reworking of my piece Wasuremono redone for soprano sax. In this section we have strong beat (pulse) laid down by the bongos and drumset with an ostinato in the electric bass.

The third second is in a slow 13/8 and begins with just a few of the hand percussion laying down an almost hypnotic beat. Once this trance inducing rhythm is established, the string bass returns with another drone, this time a minor sixth lower than the drone of the first section. As this section progresses layers are slowly added to the evolving texture. This is where more and more percussion instruments are added, with the soprano sax and vibraphone soloing above this mix.

The fourth section is in a fast and violent 7/4, this is the section that I am considering adding synthesizers to. This is still being sketched out.

The fifth section is a moderate 6/4 | 12/8 that is currently percussion only, no harmonic framework has been build yet, although I expect it will be pentatonic based.

At this point I do not know how many sections there are going to be, but with each section lasting six minutes the piece has the potential for being quite long. The piece I am worried has become an out of control bit of self indulgent musical masturbation.

Ursus Dmens

Pictures from Japan

From my trip to Japan in October of 1999 Anno Domini.



Complete score to extended verison of the Sun Princess.

Ursus Demens

What Ever

A little Video Animation of “What Ever”




Ursus Demens

A test: Nagoy

Nagoy




Ursus Demens