Guess what, everyone! Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences President Tom Sherak made an appearance in Los Angeles early yesterday morning and saw his shadow. You know what that means - five weeks of Oscar season!
It's going to be a great year for Oscar! We have the second-ever Best Picture nomination for an animated film (Up), the fourth woman ever nominated for Best Director (Kathryn Bigelow), plus, she's up against her ex-husband, James Cameron (a first at the awards). Ten Best Picture nominees and a good showing for sci-fi and action movies should make things especially exciting.
I have some catching up to do, but I thought I'd start things off with an Oscar Quiz. Answers will be posted later in the week.
Match the Best-Picture winning film with its poster tagline:
1. What does it take to find a lost love? A. Money B. Luck C. Smarts D. Destiny
2. Two great lovers of the screen in the grandest of romantic comedies!
3. They will sacrifice anything to achieve their goals...Except their honor.
4. The eye of the enemy is moving.
5. Beyond his silence, there is a past. Beyond her dreams, there is a feeling. Beyond hope, there is a memory. Beyond their journey, there is a love.
a. Chariots of Fire
b. Million Dollar Baby
c. Slumdog Millionaire
d. It Happened One Night
e. Lord of the Rings: Return of the King
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Monday, January 25, 2010
Slow Going
I've been working on a new piece for the past week or two and it's really coming along very slowly. I actually came up with the opening melody rather quickly, but everything that follows has been a challenge. The main concern is that it has an Adagio tempo, so keeping things moving and interesting is a primary concern. Also, giving the music momentum, a proper structure, and a forward-moving direction has been a real challenge. This one is in sort of an Irish style - a stylistic homage to Percy Grainger, whose music I've admired since my days in High School band.
As I told someone recently, though, a major part of my creative process is to sit back and listen to what I've done and let my imagination dictate what comes next. I just seem to be spending a lot more time than usual sitting back. There are a bunch of false starts, dead-ends, and good material that I can't seem to fit into the context of the whole piece.
The whole process has been a little disheartening, but I buckled down this past weekend and made some firm decisions. Now I'm about ready to tie things up in a coda, put on some finishing touches, and call it done, so I can move on to the next new piece.
As I told someone recently, though, a major part of my creative process is to sit back and listen to what I've done and let my imagination dictate what comes next. I just seem to be spending a lot more time than usual sitting back. There are a bunch of false starts, dead-ends, and good material that I can't seem to fit into the context of the whole piece.
The whole process has been a little disheartening, but I buckled down this past weekend and made some firm decisions. Now I'm about ready to tie things up in a coda, put on some finishing touches, and call it done, so I can move on to the next new piece.
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Bingo!
So remember that spreadsheet that I keep with all the new music I write for the year? The one that helps me organize new pieces by difficulty level and tonality?
No? Then check this out. Or this one.
Anyhoo, just before Christmas, I finished the board, filling up every square! I now have music for beginners, intermediate level, and advanced students in major keys, minor keys, and "novelty" selections. That means that I've completed my self-imposed quota for the year and I still have about four months before I send anything off to publishers! Plus, I've been working ahead for a while which means I have extras handy. I also have previously-passed-over music that I can re-submit, so there's no lack of selection when it comes time to send music to publishers in the Spring.
Also, I found time recently to do some revisions on my opera. I adjusted the vocal lines a little bit, made the choruses a little easier to sing, completely re-worked the wind parts in the final scene, and reduced the whole thing into a piano-4-hands version that will be easier to perform while still sounding like the full orchestral score.
No? Then check this out. Or this one.
Anyhoo, just before Christmas, I finished the board, filling up every square! I now have music for beginners, intermediate level, and advanced students in major keys, minor keys, and "novelty" selections. That means that I've completed my self-imposed quota for the year and I still have about four months before I send anything off to publishers! Plus, I've been working ahead for a while which means I have extras handy. I also have previously-passed-over music that I can re-submit, so there's no lack of selection when it comes time to send music to publishers in the Spring.
Also, I found time recently to do some revisions on my opera. I adjusted the vocal lines a little bit, made the choruses a little easier to sing, completely re-worked the wind parts in the final scene, and reduced the whole thing into a piano-4-hands version that will be easier to perform while still sounding like the full orchestral score.
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.
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Workin' On the Opera
I've been doing some more work on my opera recently. I actually finished it a few years ago, but now I'm taking some time to tweak it. The biggest problem is that I initially wrote everything directly to score and then reduced it into a piano part. Unfortunately, the multiple lines and cross-rhythms I used in the full score don't fit under two hands so well, so I've been writing a whole new reduction for four hands. It already sounds more like the orchestral score and if I ever get into a rehearsal setting, it should work much better.
I'm also revising some of the vocal lines in an effort to make the whole piece more singable.
I'm also revising some of the vocal lines in an effort to make the whole piece more singable.
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