Tanka of the Day ~ Sipping rye whiskey

    
Sipping rye whiskey
    at the end of day.
    I hear an angel;
        her voice floats over the din
        of random conversations. 
   

Score of the Week: Black Fire

  

This a straight ahead Jazz tune that owes some of its inspiration to such classic Jazz tunes such as "So What" and "Killer Joe", with perhaps a very small dash of "City of Glass" thrown in. In 5/4 time and the Dorian mode; "Black Fire" for a large Jazz Orchestra (555+rhythm) is a bit dark, a bit edgy late at night, give me another whiskey sort of piece.

Score (PDF) and MP3 file at: http://www.scoreexchange.com/scores/88632.html
 
   

Score of the week: Dark Stairs in a Strange City . . .

   

A musical Haiku in 12/8 time divided 3+2+2+3+2. For a quartet of Alto Flute, Guitar, Bass and Drums.

Score and MP3 at: http://www.scoreexchange.com/scores/32585.html

A Short Cruise ...

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

A Non-Standard tune in a quasi rondo form (arch form) for Jazz Quartet. Each of the three main Themes are in a different time signature: 5/4, 6/4 and 4/4.

Score and MP3 at: http://www.scoreexchange.com/scores/38402.html
                

Score of the Week: Meisa's Lullaby

    

An arrangement of Brahm's Lullaby for for big band. It features a flugelhorn soloist with the rest of band backing him up.

I have re-titled the piece Meisa’s Lullaby in honor of my granddaughter.

Those of you who take time to listen I hope you will enjoy it.

Score and MP3: http://www.scoreexchange.com/scores/102617.html

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ImBoWAg-Ks

   

Score of the Week: Whatever

Whatever

A little Jazz number in a fast 7/8. Based on a fragment of an idea I wrote in a notebook in the late 1970’s.

The MP3 recording was done with Garritan's JABB and Sonar.

Score and MP3

Score of the Week: Eous

Eous

"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" is a made up word with no meaning.

Score and MP3
 
   

Meisa’s Lullaby

    
Meisa’s Lullaby

Written in honor of my granddaughter.

Score and MP3 of the day:
Meisa's Lullaby

Youtube: Meisa's Lullaby
 
 

Nine Years Later: A | B COMPARISON

 
Nine years ago I mixed my first piece in Sonar (5.x) using the new Garritan JABB library. Mixing music in a DAW using samples was a new area for me and I had (and still do) much to learn. On Deviant art (http://www.deviantart.com/) artist will often post an older piece that they did years earlier with a new rendition they have recently done of the same piece to show how they have improved and changed their interpretation of the subject.


So here I have done basically the same thing. I opened my old Sonar project for my piece “What Ever” into the newest version of Sonar and started redoing the piece. I had to pull out the old version of JABB that used the Kontakt player and replaced it with the newest JABB that uses the Aria player. I redid the routing of the instruments so that each now has its own bus. I pulled out the old reverb I was using for all the tracks and instead use separate(and different) reverbs on each instrument. I also changed the panning of the various instruments and I had to replace the Guitar Rig 3 that the bass was using the the current Guitar Rig 5. I ended up adding some EQ, compression and transient mastering that I did not do on my first version.


For your consideration an A B comparison:


https://soundcloud.com/ed-w-sharpe/what-ever-2006-version
   
https://soundcloud.com/ed-w-sharpe/whatever-2015-version





Ursus Demens  
       

One Eighty Five

Well I have started working on a new piece for big band. The “head” is in a standard AABA form, but with some of my particular peccadillos. In the A section every fourth Bar (bars 4 and 8) are in 5/4 time (the rest of the bars are in 4/4 time). And the B section is nine instead of the traditional eight bars long. The B section is also built on a Tone Row and Tri-Chords.

The A section features the Vibraphone over a four bar bass ostinato; id est the bass ostinato is a 17 beat pattern that is played twice in each A section. In the B section the tri-chord change every three beats; thus we have a “harmonic” rhythm of 3 beats occurring over four beats of the drums and the melody and results in us having a nine bars of 4/4 for the B sections (4 X 9 = 36: 36/3 = 12: 12 tone row played 3 times (O,R,I).

The working title is “One Eighty Five”.

Inner Flow

Inner Flow

A nine minute Jazz : Ambient: Meditation in 27/8 time.

MP3 and Score at: Inner Flow (Score & MP3)

MP3 only: Inner Flow (MP3)

EOUS a bit of "free jazz".

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

   

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

The candle

A short "tone haiku"  to accompany my haiku “The Candle”.

The candle
to dispel the night
gives its life 


The Candle

In She Walked

  
In She Walked
     
http://youtu.be/TAvNRSglm4g





A collection of interrelated haikus with a Jazz accompaniment.

Meisa's Lullaby

An arrangement of Brahms' Lullaby [Wiegenlied] for Big Band that I did two years ago.


"Meisa's Lullaby"



(Renamed "Meisa's Lullaby" in honor of my granddaughter.)

I awaken to:

the sound of running water;

a lost memory

Eous

Composition of the Week:

What Ever

A little Jazz number in a fast 7/8.

http://www.scoreexchange.com/scores/22044.html

A short cruise... (a revised Score and a much improved recording)

A revised Score and a much improved recording:

"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"


At Sibelius Music (Score and MP3): "A Short Cruise ..."

At Amaze FM (MP3 only): "A Short Cruise ..."

The Moon Goddess

An ambient piece for flute and percussion.

MP3 at AMazeFM
http://www.amaze.fm/artist/Ed_Sharpe/the-moon-goddess/


Score and MP3 at SibeliusMusic.com
http://www.sibeliusmusic.com/index.php?sm=home.score&scoreID=166121


PS: You do not need to install the “Scorch” plug-in to listen to the MP3 file, only to view the score. The MP3 uses only JABB.



=====
“The Moon Goddess”

Back in April 2009 I wrote a detailed critique of an ambient piece of music written for flute, piano and strings. While critical, I felt that my critique was fair and even-handed. The reaction to my critique, which was in response to a post on the forum by the composer, was silence by the composer, followed by two posters who had never posted to a chat page thread before, nor since, and finally the original poster (composer) deleting his initial post. This was disappointing as I was also trying to deal with the limitations of an “ambient new-age tinged” piece for flute and strings. I was curious if what I saw as limitations and weaknesses in the “style” where shared by others.

Unable to come to a satisfactory solution to static and bland harmonies, static harmonic movement, and static/repetitive rhythms I shelved the flute theme I was working on. At the same time I was working on a piece for un-pitched percussion. This piece had its own problems and limitations to over come and like the piece for flute and strings I shelved it. After working on and finishing some other pieces I went back and took a look at several unfinished scores I had lying around. Coming across the flute piece and the percussion piece I decided to smash them together into a single piece. I got rid of all the string parts in the flute piece, double the note values of the flute part and then re-bared it in 6/4 time and dropped it on top the percussion piece that was notated in 12/8 time. Thus was born “The Moon Goddess”.


The original critique: Walking

Jazz, Scat Singing, Prepared Piano and a girl singer, what more could you want?

Quartet / In & Out of Order - Isorhythm Nr.15


Jazz, Scat Singing, Prepared Piano and a girl singer, what more could you want?




Quartet / Isorhythm Nr.4





Quartet / In ferne Himmel

Scat singing like a Dolphin, way too kool!