Improvisation Night at Twitter!
It was so sad that my attempt at starting an improvisation night failed… so far at least!! However, feel free to listen to my submission titled “Provi.”
Oh wait!! David Toub joined in. Perhaps Improv at Twitter has a chance??
Provi
David Toub’s as-yet Untitled Impro
Two Robots Enjoy a Gourmet Dinner
Two Robots Enjoy a Gourmet Dinner – Bat in the Belfry – 18 bagatelles (2009)
Warning: Off-Color Language
I visited Michael G. Breece’s blog today and noticed he made a mention of me (p.s. you were right). But I also noticed that he has a couple works from 2009 that are fucking great. I shit you not. As I’m in the middle of a tryst with electronic music, I find MGB’s new works inspiring, TO SAY THE LEAST.
However, I was shocked and not so pleased to hear about his new, more at peace side. In fact, I became a little fucking agitated. A little Socrates goes a long way, I always say! Sure, he had small logical faults at points, but we’re talking ancient times. Put on trial for not believing in the Gods. Zeus struck him down and shoved a lightning bolt up his ass.
What I especially like about the work below is its balance of voices and, once again, MGB’s distinct sound in all its ghostly ambient glory. Michael might misinterpret that without more explanation since he’s used to people calling his works horrorshow shit (a fixed description of the nonpop artist), but I mean ghostly in the friendly way. No, no, not Casper but the Feldman-esque way.
“Tonsils on Piano” Score
Readers, here is the score for “Tonsils on Piano.” Notice the instructions to the player piano and human. Human: Play fast as physically possible. Robot: Presto. To look closer at the score, press down on the “cntrl” button and mouse wheel in. The human is at a great loss to the player piano on this one, but perhaps one day with new technology a human could match the speed as in the audio recording at the bottom. However, if anyone manages to play this at any decent level of speed past adagio, I’d be rather impressed!
Tonsils on Piano
Of course its a little too hard to follow along with the above audio, so I’ll post this follow-along version.
Notice to All Pianists
I will be posting scores shortly for your perusal. Special shout out to post-minimalist master, David Toub, for helping out with the notation software (a work dedicated to him is coming his way in the future). But I’ll be honest, you have to bring it if you are going to play my material. Its not for amateurs.
HOWEVER, I will also be posting scores for my more ambient works which an amateur (beginner and intermediate; I fit into this category) could pick up quickly.
I want to point out, though, that the scores aren’t going to pass the academic test as far as an academic composer could score it out. But it will do the job, what else matters? If I find the time (which is unlikely), I might even pen a couple by hand.
Re: Minimalism
First, let me simply call it minimalism (min) if that’s okay. If you want to spell out the post thats fine, but I’m already getting tired of typing.
I believe there should be a distinction not necessarily between min and postmin, but between minimal and PM, the styles of both in which they vary. I think since rhythmic min became most popular out of all the min (the later min that is) that the earlier min has been left out or counted as a misplaced genre. Feldman and Satie (help me name others) and their minimalist works are valid and yet we probably tend to think of their stuff more as simply “something else” (Feldman’s case, but Satie of course impressionism and forgetting minimalism discovery), to that effect at least, instead of their ties to minimalism.
Pure rhythmic minimalism seems to have crowded the stage as of late (last 20 years +). What about those other minimalists?
Bats in the Belfry is Live: Are You Ready?
Because I’m not (ready that is). I figured Tunecore would twiddle their thumbs ala CDbaby and release Bats in the Belfry (BIB) in a couple months, but two weeks after uploading I’m now seeing it online (Amazon, Napster, Rhapsody, etc.) iTunes adds new music every Tuesday, so most likely BIB will be there this Tue.
Anyway, I’m not ready for this. Paul Bailey sent me a great info pack on marketing which I haven’t been able to finish and I’m in the middle of another project, plus the outside the music world factor; have I mentioned I’m not ready? Oh well.
Thanks again to Steve Layton for doing the cover work, Mary Jane Leach for offering a pic of the church she lives and records in for the album cover, NetNewMusic (Harrington and Layton) for letting me pin their name on the cover to represent the new music movement, and (it just seems like I need one more item to make this flow).
Beyond the world of unrelated to music work and responsibilties, etc., I’ll be focusing on electronic works and intermittently writing for piano as well.
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