Tuesday, February 5, 2008
…may his music live on…
As a teacher he challenged me. One lesson remains most vivid. After showing him the beginnings of a rather banal piece, he became very animated and chose some well placed expletives to emphasize his criticisms. It shocked me from a droopy attitude that I had assumed in the few months preceding. I learned again that composition is hard and demanding and that is why I love it. Composers have to embrace the struggle. Jorge knew it and taught it. I am glad that I can call him teacher.
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Wow.
Just found a new piece of software that has amazing potential. Songbird. Find it here:
http://www.songbirdnest.com
It is like iTunes + Firefox on steroids. Open source. Linux, OS X, Windows. It has some great features like built-in skreemr support and some very nice UI configuration options that iTunes could learn from.
Check it out and spread the word.
Thursday, December 20, 2007
I will be teaching a course in digital audio synthesis and computer music at the University of San Francisco this coming Spring 2008 while I continue work on my dissertation. I am really looking forward to developing a syllabus that will focus on the history (context), theory, practice (tools & techniques), and aesthetics of digital art music. Most of the materials I develop I will be posting in the pedagogy section of my website.
Monday, December 10, 2007
Monday, 17 December will be the Berkeley New Music Project’s Fall concert. My new piece in_videophone_surround will be premiered. It is a close collaboration with improvisor/composer/pianist Myra Melford and will feature live video and sound processing and prepared piano.
Saturday, December 8, 2007
So whats up with the crazy pronunciation of wikipedia that has started to proliferate across our culture. Every time I hear it I start thinking about covens, pagan rites, and free love. It totally grates on my nerves. I guess I shouldn’t care so much but it bugs like a bug with big bug eyes. For all you folks out there that need help with the correct pronunciation…
And here is a little reading to help you too.
Sad. Imbrie and Stockhausen both gone within just hours of each other. Two great composers. It is a bit strange to have so many of the towering figures in art music from the last century slipping away…Berio…Ligeti…all within the last few years. Anyway, just a moment of reflection on their behalf.
So why not “musical design?” This is inherently how I have come to think of “composing” music. Composition has become a process of design. For me there must be a sense of planning on the one hand and a sense of exploration on the other; a fulcrum found. There is a moment that must be achieved when all seems to fall into place, an almost serendipitous epiphany of process that brings everything into balance. An economy of means is favored; a streamlined elimination of excess that makes bare, by the subtlest means, the mercurial undulations of emotive meaning and insight. This is where the music exists for me, where it is born and dies.
In all things I seek for pleasing asymmetrical balance, a kind of elegant simplicity that reaches deep into the music. I suppose this is why I am naturally drawn to the diatonic pitch set. The octave bisected by the fifth, the asymmetrical inversions that map major on to minor, three half steps onto four; it is so simple, clean, elegant.
Take for instance the masterpiece Spiegel im Spiegel by Pärt. It perfectly embodies the above qualities — a simple scalar process that rings with elegant beauty yet envelops the mystery of music.