The Olympics begin this week and it's always an exciting time for the world. I love watching the opening and closing ceremonies and the Parade of Nations, though I don't have a specific sport that I follow. The first Olympics I was aware of was the 1984 games in Los Angeles and I remember that for a long time all anyone could talk about was the U.S. gymnastics team.
TV coverage does a good job of highlighting the dramatic stories that drive the competitors and led the athletes to the games. They all have that "Olympic dream," to achieve at the highest level in front of the whole world.
Even though I'm not an athlete, I have an Olympic dream of my own: it would be an epic thrill to hear one of my compositions used in during Olympic competition. I'm not talking about the opening and closing ceremonies – that's way too much to ask. But it would be amazing to hear one of my pieces accompany a gymnastics floor exercise, a synchronized swimming routine, or, at the Winter Olympics, figure skating or ice dancing.
As a kid, I especially enjoyed hearing the music used in the gymnastic competitions because it's so full of color, energy, and emotion. I think some of my pieces would be suitable. Need something with a dark energy? Try Avatar, Elementals, or Storm Trail. Something more rhythmic and angular? There's Agincourt. Need a bright explosion of sound? Quicksilver or Star of Valor. For something more lyrical, have a listen to A Hero's Welcome. And if you need something fun and sassy, I recommend Violet's Tango, Samba Del Sol, Lemon Twist, or Mambo Incognito. Of course, Gauntlet is good for any occasion.
Professional recordings of all these and more are available at alfred-music.com.
So if you're an Olympic-level gymnast, synchronized swimmer, figure skater, or ice dancer... you're probably training really hard and don't have time for music classes, so you've never heard of me. But if you're someone who knows an Olympic-level athlete, maybe suggest one of my pieces and help make my dream come true!
Showing posts with label Elementals. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Elementals. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
New Videos
Well, Oscar Season is over and I can re-focus this blog on music. Before I tell you about some of the thing I've been up to in the past six weeks, here are some new videos.
First up is a performance of Mambo Incognito in Plano, Texas:
Now, I've seen and have participated in plenty of concerts in school gyms. It's just a fact of school scheduling and resources and, to be honest, the acoustics are often more flattering than in auditoriums. I have not, however, seen an audience in the bleachers and the orchestras filling the floor. Look at all those orchestra students! Looks like those teachers are doing something right. The performance is really good too. Great job, kids!
Up next is Gauntlet, performed at Hanahan High school for an unnamed All-County concert.
Excellent tempo. As I've written before, one of the biggest problems I hear with Gauntlet is the tempo. It requires a fast tempo, but faster is not better. Take note - this is how it should be done. I don't know who the conductor is here, but she got it just right. Also, great style on the middle section. Way to go!
Next is a performance of Elementals as a quintet performed by the Naomi Hasan violin studio in Madison, WI.
Orchestras and classes come in all sizes, so it's not uncommon to hear the same piece played by a band of sixty or a chamber ensemble. Admittedly, some pieces work better than others when reduced down and I think Elementals is one of them (though a bass added to the mix wouldn't have hurt). This appears to be a group of adult students and I think that, for the most part, they did a fine job. I don't mean to sound disparaging, but the 'cello was off. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt - maybe his pegs got knocked out of tune before going on stage or he was sight reading (I've done some sight reading in performances before).
Finally, let's hear Las Mariposas Exoticas, performed by the Lanier Middle School Philharmonia:
Fantastic. The orchestra did such a great job here and I'd like to point out the excellent use of the harp. There's no harp part in the original version and the part they came up with was very tasteful. I love the harp and wish I could write more for them, but harps in school ensembles are rare and it's not cost-effective to write for them most of the time. And in my experience, harpists can't stand playing piano parts - they're such idiomatically different instruments that it's hard to play one on the other.
First up is a performance of Mambo Incognito in Plano, Texas:
Now, I've seen and have participated in plenty of concerts in school gyms. It's just a fact of school scheduling and resources and, to be honest, the acoustics are often more flattering than in auditoriums. I have not, however, seen an audience in the bleachers and the orchestras filling the floor. Look at all those orchestra students! Looks like those teachers are doing something right. The performance is really good too. Great job, kids!
Up next is Gauntlet, performed at Hanahan High school for an unnamed All-County concert.
Excellent tempo. As I've written before, one of the biggest problems I hear with Gauntlet is the tempo. It requires a fast tempo, but faster is not better. Take note - this is how it should be done. I don't know who the conductor is here, but she got it just right. Also, great style on the middle section. Way to go!
Next is a performance of Elementals as a quintet performed by the Naomi Hasan violin studio in Madison, WI.
Orchestras and classes come in all sizes, so it's not uncommon to hear the same piece played by a band of sixty or a chamber ensemble. Admittedly, some pieces work better than others when reduced down and I think Elementals is one of them (though a bass added to the mix wouldn't have hurt). This appears to be a group of adult students and I think that, for the most part, they did a fine job. I don't mean to sound disparaging, but the 'cello was off. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt - maybe his pegs got knocked out of tune before going on stage or he was sight reading (I've done some sight reading in performances before).
Finally, let's hear Las Mariposas Exoticas, performed by the Lanier Middle School Philharmonia:
Fantastic. The orchestra did such a great job here and I'd like to point out the excellent use of the harp. There's no harp part in the original version and the part they came up with was very tasteful. I love the harp and wish I could write more for them, but harps in school ensembles are rare and it's not cost-effective to write for them most of the time. And in my experience, harpists can't stand playing piano parts - they're such idiomatically different instruments that it's hard to play one on the other.
Monday, December 14, 2009
More Like Gauntlet
I recently decided to do something about the rhythm that has been nagging me from the back of my mind and incorporate it into a new piece. The result is a fast, advanced-level piece in D Minor (occasionally going into F Major and flirting with Phrygian mode) with frequent meter changes. I originally thought Agincourt, with its 7/8 time signature would be a good rhythmic challenge for advanced students, but now I see that middle school kids are playing it with no problem. This new one (still untitled, of course) should be suitably difficult.
But while writing this new one, I got to thinking about something.
People always ask me "why don't you write something like Gauntlet again?" To which I have two responses. First: I thought I have. I'm not sure exactly how I bottled lightning with Gauntlet - it seems to be a product of the very specific state of mind I was in for two weeks in 1998 and, despite my best efforts, it remains a unique anomaly. I think that Agincourt, Elementals, Avatar (no relation to the new movie), Gargoyles, Crusader, and Storm Trail all have that same "dark and fast" quality. I also have dozens of unpublished pieces in the same milieu, but I still get asked why I don't write more pieces like Gauntlet. I'm not sure what quality it is that people respond to and want me to reproduce, but it seems beyond my grasp.
My second response is: why would I want to write the same thing twice? Even if I could write a piece like Gauntlet again, would you really want to play a piece that's exactly like Gauntlet but not Gauntlet? Would teachers buy a piece that's really really similar to a piece that they already have in their library? I still like Gauntlet, but all these years later I see a certain naivete in its construction and I'd like to think that I've grown as a composer since then. While I sometimes try to emulate the dark style and fast tempo that made Gauntlet popular, I'd rather write a piece that is unique and interesting on its own merits than a complete re-tread of something I've already done.
Let me put it this way: What if the Beatles kept writing songs like "Love Me Do" over and over for their whole career? It was a huge success for them early on, but what if, instead of exploring new sounds and growing artistically, they kept focusing on the same jangly rockabilly sound they started with? Another example: Hootie and the Blowfish, a band that stuck with its middle-of-the-road frat rock long after the public's taste for middle-of-the-road frat rock had faded.
My hero, Igor Stravinsky had this problem (on a much larger scale). He spent a long lifetime writing an amazing string of masterpieces, but all anyone wanted to hear were the three ballets he wrote in his early 30's. He never revisited the early style that made him famous and instead, focused on constantly exploring new sounds. Still, he made a career out of it, so it's not the worst problem to have. Another extreme example is Carl Orff, who lived to be over 100 and wrote tons of beautiful music, but all he's known for is the first five minutes of one piece that he wrote back in the 1940's.
So this new piece I just finished is like Gauntlet in that it has a fast tempo, a minor key and a legato section in the middle, but it also has unique challenges. If it gets compared to Gauntlet that would be great, but I hope that it stands apart and can be appreciated on its own merits.
But while writing this new one, I got to thinking about something.
People always ask me "why don't you write something like Gauntlet again?" To which I have two responses. First: I thought I have. I'm not sure exactly how I bottled lightning with Gauntlet - it seems to be a product of the very specific state of mind I was in for two weeks in 1998 and, despite my best efforts, it remains a unique anomaly. I think that Agincourt, Elementals, Avatar (no relation to the new movie), Gargoyles, Crusader, and Storm Trail all have that same "dark and fast" quality. I also have dozens of unpublished pieces in the same milieu, but I still get asked why I don't write more pieces like Gauntlet. I'm not sure what quality it is that people respond to and want me to reproduce, but it seems beyond my grasp.
My second response is: why would I want to write the same thing twice? Even if I could write a piece like Gauntlet again, would you really want to play a piece that's exactly like Gauntlet but not Gauntlet? Would teachers buy a piece that's really really similar to a piece that they already have in their library? I still like Gauntlet, but all these years later I see a certain naivete in its construction and I'd like to think that I've grown as a composer since then. While I sometimes try to emulate the dark style and fast tempo that made Gauntlet popular, I'd rather write a piece that is unique and interesting on its own merits than a complete re-tread of something I've already done.
Let me put it this way: What if the Beatles kept writing songs like "Love Me Do" over and over for their whole career? It was a huge success for them early on, but what if, instead of exploring new sounds and growing artistically, they kept focusing on the same jangly rockabilly sound they started with? Another example: Hootie and the Blowfish, a band that stuck with its middle-of-the-road frat rock long after the public's taste for middle-of-the-road frat rock had faded.
My hero, Igor Stravinsky had this problem (on a much larger scale). He spent a long lifetime writing an amazing string of masterpieces, but all anyone wanted to hear were the three ballets he wrote in his early 30's. He never revisited the early style that made him famous and instead, focused on constantly exploring new sounds. Still, he made a career out of it, so it's not the worst problem to have. Another extreme example is Carl Orff, who lived to be over 100 and wrote tons of beautiful music, but all he's known for is the first five minutes of one piece that he wrote back in the 1940's.
So this new piece I just finished is like Gauntlet in that it has a fast tempo, a minor key and a legato section in the middle, but it also has unique challenges. If it gets compared to Gauntlet that would be great, but I hope that it stands apart and can be appreciated on its own merits.
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