dComposer

I quick post today. The end of my masters degree education is in sight. A couple of meetings, a thesis defense, a couple of performances, one electronic music project, and my comprehensive orals and I'm official master of my domain.

My graduate recital was last night - I couldn't be more thrilled with the way it went. Every performance exceeded our rehearsals (a rare feat) and the whole program seemed to work well. The program ended up being about an hour and a quarter or so. I put my electronic pieces and more avant garde performance pieces in the first half. More traditional acoustic pieces populated the second half. I was worried that the first half would be too hard to take, and I'd have a mass egress at intermission. But luckily, everyone stayed (we even had some straglers who made it for the second half). We ran out of programs!!! And my parents were kind enough to provide a fantastic spread for the reception (food was the last thing I wanted to think about this weekend).

Even my last piece, an eastern european, post-jewy-jew, klezmer/niggun inspired romp, was a success, including a rousing hora danced through the hall. Conflicts of interest prevent me from offering any kind of objective review of the performance. All I can say: I'm very, very pleased.

Ok, break's over - back on your heads!  

Grinnell Singers reviewed...

ah, my old choir. I really, really miss them. As rowdy and undisciplined as we could be, we were always able to make beautiful music. Kudos to JCR and the gang. (when are you doing an original Liebman?)

As an exercise, I just priced out all the gear I'd need to make my dream home studio. It includes a $3,500 computer, $1,500 worth of software, and about 4 grand for various other gear.
If only I could just stumble upon an extra $10k in the attic somewhere...

If only I had an attic.

Dearest readers,
I sincerely apologize for my posting-hiatus. I am currently working like a dog to prepare my graduate composition recital, which will include both live and electronic performances. If you happen to be in Indianapolis on Sunday, April 13 at 8:00pm, I urge you to attend, if only for the free hat.

The rest of my time has been divided between sleep, practicing piano, and rehearsing with Ensemble 48. And of all my experiences in graduate school, playing with them - E48 is composed entirely of graduate composers (and one instrumentalist) - has been the most fun, the most rewarding, and makes me the happiest. And today, as one of my mustachioed comrades and I were talking, it occurred to me that if we - Ensemble 48 - could continue on as we are, for the rest of eternity, I would be supremely pleased. I don't know what kind of interest there is in the group for trying to continue as an ensemble - a la eighth blackbird - but I think (and others agree) that we might have a shot at becoming a successful performing ensemble.

This is all very new to me; I only began thinking seriously about it in the last hour or so. I think there's a niche we can occupy. I don't know of any professional groups that do what we do - a mix of serious composition, improvisation, avant garde performance art, and rock/pop performance. The catch: perhaps no one does it because it's not a viable path. But what if?

What if?

What if we really gave it a shot? What if we put together some gigs, began to make a name for ourselves, even began to garner a bit of income? What if we made some recordings? We surely wouldn't have substantial commercial success. Such is the reality of contemporary performance. But we could very well be able to build something. We all like each other. We're all very dedicated to the group.

I couldn't think of an endeavor more worthy or fulfilling. I'll be sure to keep you all posted.

The long awaited NY Phil concert in Pyongyang North Korea has finally come to pass. Read about it here...

I know it has nothing to do with music, but:

THIS WILL ALWAYS BE FUNNY

Ah, Lost is back on the air! Thank. The. Lord. The writers' strike almost killed half of this year's season. If that had happened, I would have been very, very sad.

But the strike is OVER!!!!

And in honor of the resolution of the Hollywood writers' strike, and the prospect of at least half of this television season being salvaged, I'd like to call attention to one of my favorite TV music composers:

MIchael Giacchino

Giacchino composes the music on Lost, he did the music on Alias as well. And he's been nominated for an Academy Award this year for his Ratatouille score (this should make ridetherobot happy).

He's fantastic. I love him. I'm even considering seeing Ratatouille, just for the score. His music for Lost is string and brass heavy. Interestingly, a portion of the percussion section they use to record his music includes actual pieces of the airplane they destroyed when they made the pilot. The score is simple, unobtrusive, but evocative and memorable. He melds the dramatic and the eerie, the idyllic and the mechanical, with subtle mastery. He also writes a lot of music for video games, a runaway industry in which more and more composers can make a living.

Here's a New Yorker article about him from 2005 by Alex Ross (author of The Rest is Noise).

Here's Giacchino's Wikipedia entry.

Enjoy!

Another link..., I know I'm making a habit of this, and I truly apologize. Sometime soon, I'll be back to my insightful and long-winded self. Until then, check out Aurgasm.us. It's a blog devoted to exposing obscure and (mostly) fantastic musical groups. The part of me that wants to be informed about non-concert music, but can't stand commercial radio is overjoyed to have found this site.
Enjoy!

Grinnell Alum makes good...

In the interest of working on my thesis instead of posting myself, enjoy Soho The Dog's thoughts on politics, composition, and that imaginary scorecard we call money.

Anthony Thomassini reviews  Lorin Maazel and the New York Phil's performance of Berio's Sinfonia. This is a piece I was introduced to this year, and I'm still trying to wrap my head around it. As the reviewer notes:

"[Berio] slips in snippets of scores from Beethoven's “Pastoral” Symphony to the Viennese waltz from Strauss’s “Rosenkavalier” to Stravinsky’s “Rite of Spring.” The fractured juxtapositions are transformed into a tantalizing and terrifying din. There is nothing glib about it, though, an attitude maintained throughout the final two movements, which summarize the whole."

The piece is quintessentially post-modern, recontextualizing the recontextualized into 'a tantilizing and terrifying din.' There's something so attractive to me about apparent chaos that is actually meticuously planned. Everyone should listen to this piece, then read a book about the piece and listen to all the pieces it quotes, then listen to the piece again, 1,000 times. (i've got 995 to go).

Ben Brantley reviews the New York premier of Jerry Springer: The Opera.

I can't decide whether I would love or hate this show.

But I think love.

love.

I love it when a book I've already decided to read keeps getting recommended to me.

I bought The Rest Is Noise, by Alex Ross last month, only to hear the author on NPR the day after it arrived.
Good pick, thought I.

A couple of days later, I get an email from a professor of mine - "read this book!!!" he says.
Really good pick, thought I.

But tonight, Ross went toe to toe with the one and only Stephen Colbert.
Me thinks this book is officially a freedom read.
Now if only I could find the time to open it!

Oh, Spring ‘08

Classes have started, campus is bustling
Players are practicing, dancers are hustling

The computer labs are full of students tip-tap-toe-typing
“Why can’t I print?” and “Where’s the browser?” goes their griping

We’re all back in this place, to play read and learn
And barring all disasters, a degree will I earn!


Be a fantastic semester, simply the best
I’m very prepared, I’ve just switched to Crest!

Yes, change is in the air, and on my toothbrush
But all alterations are not in a rush

For instance my proclivity to hit the snooze button
Or Jerry Seinfeld’s perennial distaste for mutton

Oh, Spring ‘08, be gentle, be kind
For the sake of pete, my body and mind

Allow me my goals and objectives to reach
Present me with challenges (not too tough, I humbly beseech)

Give me some lovin’ and a smooth bass line
(and a Dem in the White House in 2009?)

Rolling Stone sounds off on modern CD mastering techniques. I especially like the SXSW discussion panel they reference titled "Why Does Today's Music Sound Like Shit?"
But actually, it seems my own loss of interest in commercial music and turn towards art music exactly coincides with the rise of hypercompression trends in recording.
I blame Buch Vig. Ok buddy, you produced Nevermind, a seminal work and very important to me personally. Congratulations. now go home, retire, and stop ruining music.

So, mac users have better machines, and we're more law abiding. 

discuss.

Damn historic composers, making us contemporary composers look bad.

sorry for the lack of postings lately. Been working on doctorate applications. It's like an extra finals week.

The good news: barring any Kinkos disasters, i'll be done today, and back posting like old times.

Kudos to Jon Pareles on this dec. 9 story about Radiohead's latest album. The bits about their pay-what-you-want download scheme is two-month old news, but I loved the insider view to their creative process he provides. Composing a rock album seems to be a lot like composing concert music; that unique balance of the tactile, the physical, the sonic, the technical, the practical, and the theoretical. And the fact is, what worked before might not work again; each composition is a new universe, demanding that you rediscover the laws of physics each time.

I finished my final project for electronic music this morning. Once I share it with the class this afternoon, I will be officially done with 3/4 of my masters degree.

Holy Moses.

I had my piano jury today. more like a tribunal. It went ok. Sometime between undergrad and graduate school, i've developed a near crippling anxiety about performance. A piece played beautifully thousands of times in rehearsal comes out as if I were a slightly mongoloid cocaine baby who is legally blind, deaf in one ear, with a gimpy left hand.

The good news: they let me play two pieces, and my second piece (The Rock Carrier, by Satie) had some theatrics and performance art-y elements that I know how to knock out of the park.

If only my musical prowess were directly related to my personality.

Hooray for it being over. Hooray for winter break.