photo credit: Blu_walkingshadow
I get annoyed at reading some  of my more conservative musician friends posts recently.  Specifically how they tend to marginalize the commercial music these days – dismissing it as contrived and career-calculated – where each aspect is controlled by an imaginary hierarchy of marketing teams.  Where music has no meaning outside of a holy [...]

Continue reading " On My Mind "

photo credit: TheSeafarer
Trying to start the habit again of writing about whatever I am thinking about as it related to my own continual growth as a composer, or a virtual thinking one, I am back here at the old blog.  I guess its been almost 2 years since I started this thing.  Time really [...]

Continue reading " Back at the Helm "

On this Mithras day, a mystery of my own.  Looking over the ideas last evening of a cello work, my heart dips as complications of register diminish my motivation.  The restrictions deepen any of my technical abilities and need for expression, so I must abandon this instrumentation and reconsider the violin as a central instrument.
All in all, [...]

Continue reading " Mithras Day "

I’m trying to come to terms with a number of things today regarding what I am supposed to be writing vs. what I think I should.  Right now, collecting cobwebs on my desk are four general overarching works:  a set of orchestral like variations of which 6 have been sketched to a point that they [...]

Continue reading " A Voice "

The holiday time is supposed to be one massive end of year party for everyone to get together and rejoice in what knots and gifts.  However, for me, things aren’t so rejoiceful as I have started to notice more clearly that the what knots I am indulging is more an annoyance than joyful bliss.  On [...]

Continue reading " Nutcracker Disease "

photo credit: Atilla1000
Finally, finally, I have a chance to surf the piano keys and improv a bit last evening – starting off as a review of materials and general ideas for a chamber work, and then into free floating through a general idea for some arbitrary orchestral piece.  Somewhere in there I had time [...]

Continue reading " Composing Status Update #64 "

Over the weekend, more structuring and restructuring, and more fiddling and experimentation.  A few new ideas occurred, including a variation of the main theme…and what a pitch center to place it on!  The resonance in this range is outstanding, and it works as a simple restatement (with a slight twist) I must brag.  I’m quite proud of it – [...]

Continue reading " The Elusive Pitch Center "

The evening delivery was concentrated but brief, as I indulged into actual pencil and music paper instead of graph notations and journalling.  The results were a very light sketch of the first minute of music – an introduction before the violin soloist entrance.  Twiddling and biting at the piano to check everything.  Being accustomed now to the [...]

Continue reading " The Strange Attraction "