Two steps forward. Two steps backwards.
That sums it up in a nutshell for this week. Working on A2, I spent a large amount of time off-score exploring various textural backgrounds to support the thematic material. At one point I latched onto an idea and then explored it fully as a possible figuration [...]

Continue reading " Composing Status Update #8 "

Once in a while, a bit of inspiration hits you flat in the face knocking you off your egotistical feet and onto your humble ass. That’s what happened to me this week when I came across an article and video in the Wall Street Journal on Professor Randy Pausch of Carnegie Mellon.
A number of [...]

Continue reading " Randy Pausch’s Last Lecture "

For about the last month, I’ve been listening to Music for 18M by Steve Reich quite regularly every day, twice a day. As I’ve said, I wasn’t into the whole minimalist movement thing when it was around during my turbulent years in college. Really, it wasn’t even known until around the 80’s and [...]

Continue reading " Music for 18 Musicians "

Yup, I’m back playing blitz chess online and at Starbucks with a few old fogies. Have no idea how to break this habit when there is sooo much left to be done with my compositions. I gave away all my chess books and sets and clocks and they pull me right back in.

Continue reading " Fell off the Wagon "

Pingu on Northern Sounds forum wrote the following quote in a thread, which almost sums up my own feelings about the banality of film music and why I abandoned it at the beginning of the path…
…There are two problems I can see. One is that film music is quite predominantly tonal – at least when [...]

Continue reading " Film Music Problemo "

Another rather uneventful and unproductive week. Feeling a bit gloomy and under the weather as the first feel of the fall season blows in, I didn’t get much accomplished except to layout the framework of the next section and make some determinate decisions on what to accomplish next.
As before, we are now working on [...]

Continue reading " Composing Status Update #7 "

I confess I am now California composer to the bone. There’s something about the light and the air here in Northern California that you cannot avoid being inspired by. Simplification is a constant aesthetic that passes you. Play Reich while walking to North Beach or walking through the endless flow of empty [...]

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A few years ago, there was a big whadoo that Beethoven might have died from lead poisoning – see the book Beethoven’s Hair by Russell Martin. At that time, analysis on some hair samples came up positive for extreme high lead levels. There was speculation this might have come from pewter or [...]

Continue reading " Beethoven "