Have a Merry Merry Christmas.

Well yesterday was the winter solstice and the start of winter. Hardly felt like winter here in Southern California, I slept most of the night without any blankets last night, much to my wife's chagrin. As I said I do not think I will try the winter weekly musical BLOG again this year, but part or me wants to, but I have so many other things that I need to be doing this year. Lately I have been in a musical funk as I try to grok the whole sequencer software paradigm. But I am slowly coming out of it, as I seem to learn a little more each day, and I have started working again on the second movement of my Concerto for Trombone and Jazz band. The one thing I have learned so far is that for me writing music is easy, it is the mixing that is the bitch and take all of the time. Anyway those are my random thoughts for this week, no real insights in music right now. So, have a merry merry Christmas.


Ursus Demens

Belinda Moody's Tonic Immobility

Two weeks ago Dr. Morse turned me on to a piece by Ms Moody called "Tonic Immobility". It is here on SibeliusMusic as just a lead sheet. Well the tune intrigued me enough to create a simple arrangement and realization of the piece. I shared that arraignment with Ms Moody and she gave her approval, “it was interesting to hear how you imagined some of the ambience of the piece just as i imagined it to be”, and permission to share it with the world. “...i am really happy for you to share it with anyone in the whole world that would like to hear!”

A little Tonic Immobility MP3

The original lead sheet can be viewed here:
Tonic Immobility Lead Sheet


Ursus Demens

Nothing

Nothing to say this week.

Well, what to do? What to do?

If you are one of the few in this universe that have been following this Blog you will know that last winter I did a Blog Musical piece of the week. This year I was seriously considering doing it again. It is no mean task to produce a new presentable pice of music each week. I was surprise at the end of last winter how much (self imposed) pressure disappeared once spring arrived and I stop writing at least one complete piece each week. Despite the pressure I would impose on myself I was thinking I would try it again this year. But, I have decided (at least as of today) no to do a winter weekly Blog piece. Why? Well, last week I got both the Sonar sampler software and the Garrtian JABB samples, there along with the GPO samples have added a lot of new software for me to learn. So I am going to be spending the winter producing new renderings/records of my existing compositions using my new software tools. While there will be no new piece each week this winter, I will be posting new “recordings”. So, please stay tuned and let me know if and how you enjoyed the music.

Ursus Demens

My first attempt and using BOTH JABB and Sonar.

"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"

Well after waiting most of the autumn JABB as finally shipped and I have begun "rendering" some of my Jazz compostions. The first (crude) MP3 is now available.

Short Cruise ...

This is my first attempt and using BOTH JABB and Sonar. (Got both packages on the same day.)

There are some balance problems that I am still working on and updated MP3s should appear over the next days and weeks. And I have not even started on tweaking all various parameters to make it “live”. Any practical (and specific) advice on using Sonar is welcomed.


Ursus Demens

//
// Ars longa, vita brevis
// http://edosbear.blogspot.com/
//

Number One Like a Bullet:

Well my new recording of Sol Demens has shot to number one on the classical chart on Acid Planet.


Sol Demens [A Mad Sun]
A meditation for two piccolos and string orchestra.
14 minutes of surreal madness
Be sure to put on your SPF 35 Sun Screen!

Disclaimer: Listening to this piece can be harmful to your psyche and the composer will not be held responsible for any damage or bruising of the listener's psyche, nor will he accept any responsibility for any negative karma that might accrued to the listener.

The recording on Acid Planet is of an older version of the score. The newest version of the score is available at SibeliusMusic, Sol Demens along with a new recording done with GPO samples.

So in the next few weeks expect some more new recordings of my stuff as I come up to speed on my new software and sample libraries. Some of my shorter pieces I will be submitting to the Composer's Channel for internet broadcast. So stay tune as things are string to pickup.


Ursus Demens

Internet Radio Stations

I might have plugged these internet radio stations in the past, so here they are again. If you are interested in music that will challenge and please you, make you think and allow you to not think I highly recommend that you give these stations a listen. You will not find your generic, mass culture, corporate controlled, mind numbing, soul sucking, narcissistic, self glorying, rehashed, re-processed, artificial, top forty noise pollution that you find on commercial radio and T.V.

Free you ears, your mind, and your soul, take a listen to:

Cygnus Radio

The Composer's Channel

[Note: the above might be a bit of hyperbole gone out of control.]


Ursus Demens

November Second

Well it has taken me until late Friday to update this here Blog. What can I say, the week does sure seem to fly by.

This week I wrote a short experimental piece called November Second. Currently it is for solo percussion and is an experiment in rhythms. I fyou check it out make sure to listen to the MP3 file to hear all of the timbers being used. The title of the piece comes simply from the fact that I wrote the entire piece on November second. I would love to hear from you suggestions for real title for the piece. Future experiments that I think will grow out of this will be to add more players to the mix. Please take a look and a listen and let me know what you think.


Ursus Demens

What's Next?

That is my wife's question. It is starting to be her external question®. In the last two weeks I have suffered through an allergic reaction in my left eye, back spasms that that laid me out for two days, a cold that ruined a whole weekend and almost breaking my little toe (it was a deep purple for three days). And last night I felt the cold trying to make a come back. So my wife asks, in her supremely cute Japanese accent, “What's next?”

Naked Lady

Well another week has flown by without me getting around to updating this here Blog.

Well the configuring of the new system is going well it is about 90 percent done and I am using it quite a bit. I am pretty much very happy with it. Just need to finish install all of my software and moving files from the old computers. The only problem I see now is that it is so fast that my wife wants to use it all of the time.

I have started to sketch out the second movement to my
Concerto For Trombone. The first movement Soul Catcher is on SibeliusMusic for listening. But ...

I have gotten side tracked working on a variation on an early piece of mine called Nagoy Devotchka This is a five part fugue that I originally wrote for string orchestra when I was a sophomore at university. I re-orchestrated it for Synthesizer (and double the tempo) when I was in putting it into Sibelius back in 2001 Anno Domini. I am currently working on two more versions of the piece.

The first version simply adds drums and Latin percussion to the current synthesizer version.

The second version (and the one I am actively working of this week) goes back to the original orchestration of a sting orchestra, but the tempo is radically slowed to a fraction of the current and original tempo. The original tempo was about eight note = 196 BPM, the current version that is double at eight note = 392 BPM the newest radically slow temp the eight note is only 30 BPM. So what is currently a three minute piece becomes a 36 minute wash of very slowly changing notes.

Although the two pieces will share 99.99 percent of the same notes, they are so radically different in their listening experience I will give the new slow piece a new name. Do not know what it will be yet. AS just for the record I considered making the piece as slow as 15 BPM!

Ursus Demens

AT LAST!

The long awaited first movement [Soul Catcher] of my
Concerto For Trombone & Jazz Band is now online at
SibeliusMusic.

This is the first of three planned movements, but as I have written before, I am still undecided on whether I will actually expand this piece in to a full three movements.

This movement is basically a 7/4 Blues with a bridge, with a slow intro & postlude.


New System Update

The other miracle is that my new system is finally moving forward, the OS is installed and boots, most of the drivers have been configured. But a lot of stuff still needs to be done, but the light at the end of the tunnel can now be perceived.

Ursus Demens

Miracles Do Happen

And what is the miracle I am talking about? The miracle that I have updated this BLOG on Monday.

First an update of my trials and tribulations with my new system. The Power supply is just fine, just stupid user error. So I got every thing powered up and started configuring the system, but after running for about 20 minutes the monitor went all crazy and I could smell something burning. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

So after fooling with it for two days I found a small “blemish” on one of the connectors on the video card. So I went out and got another video card (different brand) and put it in. Every thing started working again. So I have a relatively expensive fried video card. I suspect that the cooling fan on the card itself never actually worked. The new card is working fine, and the fan on it is working. I also picked up two 80mm fans for the case, right now I only have one installed.

But. My new issue is that I only have Serial ATA drives in the system right now, and I can not seem to get the system to boot from them. The boot from the CDROM and OS installation goes fine, but then the system does not seem able to boot from the SATA drive. The BIOS seems to be set correctly. Fought with this all day Sunday. So I picked up an IDE drive today, which I will use as the OS & Boot drive. Hopefully that will be that last of my issues.

Music

Well in the midst of all my system problems, I did manage to write a short piece of music in the last week. (As a break for working on my Concerto for Trombone and Jazz Band.) It is a short “Amen”. The score is available on SibeliusMusic at

AMEN (October 2005 Anno Domini) As I say in the program note this short ( ~ 48 seconds) piece is not for a choir that is afraid of Zeitgeist. Currently there is no MP3 available, but it is on my list to create one.

That is all for now. Stay tune for more updates.

Ursus Demens