 |  |  |  | | |  | Journal 15 September 06 part 1 | Journal 15 September 2006
Well, it’s been a busy summer and I’ll be on my way back to Austria in a few days. I’ve spent most of my working time this summer working on the Introduction Video. If you haven’t seen it yet, check it out. You can link to it on the home page.
I have for the first time in my life taken a holiday from the trombone. Even though I have it with me, I haven’t played the horn for the past two months. The reason initially was that there was family business to attend to as well as this video project and keeping the web site up to date. This (not playing the trombone) felt strange at first but then I started to enjoy the fact that I was taking a break from the horn. I will be getting it back in shape now and REALLY look forward to playing again. Absence makes the lips grow fonder, or something like that.
On the composition side, I just received a commission from the RTÉ Living Music Festival in Dublin, Ireland. It will be a 20 minute long piece for Violin, Viola, Cello, Piano and Trombone (me). The players are some of the top classical players in Ireland. So, needless to say, I am very excited with this opportunity. The concert will take place February 18, 2007 in Dublin. This will give me a chance for some improvisatory freedom around the composed material of the other players. Since they are not improvisers (we’ll see about that!) This also gives me a chance to compose their improvisations. Cool ugh?
The RTÉ Living Music Festival 2007 is the fifth since the inauguration of the event in 2002. It will be centered on the music of the American composer, John Adams, who will be celebrating his 60th birthday in February 2007. In his music, Adams has shown an openness to a wide range of musical influences including, in particular, jazz. I’m honored to be included.
I’ve already begun composing the piece. It will be in seven movements or sections of approximately three minutes each. 1. Begins with eerie constant structure chords pp with trombone in tight plunger mute playing the lead voice. (no piano) this will morph into something similar with cello voice in contrary motion. The piano will start to interrupt occasionally with some angular lines. Later, the piano will take over the voicings and strings will interrupt and play over the chords with some solos, duos, trios, shadowing and some shadowing in inversion. This first section is the most organized at this time. then: 2: Fast 4/4 – 12/8 with a strong pulse quartet = 160. 3. Ballad 4. Mostly ensemble with pulse quartet = 130, 5. Mostly trombone solo. 6. Mixed meter Ballad 7. 6/8 fast. All subject to change as the piece develops.
To date, the RTÉ Living Music Festival has centred on the music of Luciano Berio (2002), Pierre Boulez (2004), Hans Werner Henze (2005) and Steve Reich (2006). The festivals have featured the first Irish performances by Ensemble Modern, Ensemble Intercontemporain, the London Sinfonietta / London Sinfonietta Voices, Ensemble Ictus, Ensemble L'Itineraire and the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group as well as all of the main instrumental ensembles of RTÉ. Guest conductors have included Pierre André Valade, Sian Edwards, Alan Pierson, Stephan Asbury, Daniel Kawka, Zolt Nagy and Pascal Rophé; soloists have included Christian Lindberg, Valdine Anderson, Viviane Hagner, Maurizio Barbetti, Nicholas Daniel and John Harle.
The 2006 Festival focussed on the music of the composer Steve Reich who attended and participated in the weekend with enthusiasm and energy. For more information on the 2006 event, see http://www.rte.ie/livingmusic/
As far as the NeuHat ensemble project is concerned, I’m now working on a fast funk piece quartet =160. It’s based on a long song form with lots of traditional harmonic movement. The basic form, one chorus, is 83 bars. I keep telling myself that I need to write some short tunes! When will I listen? | | |
|  | Journal 15 September 06 part 2 | I’ll back in Austria October and November and then December in LA/SF area Pursuing some film composing possibilities. We will be playing with the NeuHat Ensemble again at the IAJE conference in New York next January 07. So hopefully will see you there.
On a personal note, if you are a US citizen, help me change the direction this country is going. Let’s not accept war or any violence for that mater. Become an educated voting citizen. Tell your elected officials what you will accept if they want your vote. If we don’t accept the trashing of our environment and the ongoing war machine or as Eisenhower coined it “The Military Industrial Complex” then we can turn the path of this country, and the planet, towards a peaceful, safe, prosperous place. Why not? We only have everything to loose and everything to gain. Imagine if the money spent on wars were directed toward healthy peaceful activities that benefited everybody.
So, that’s it for now. To be continued, of course.
Peace, EN | | |
|  | Welcome to focus on composition. | Here we will be discussing some of the various activities of the composer. What’s particularly interesting to me is the connecting between improvisation and composition, which are directly connected, of course.
To start with, as an introduction to this section of the site, I’d like to discuss some of the areas the active composer can focus on through the use of etudes. The definition of etude is: “a piece of music designed to enhance one or more techniques”.
Many of these composition etudes can be applied as improvisation etudes.
Note that the etudes can be short but can expand, if they want to, into longer pieces. The finished etudes should contain articulation, phrase markings and dynamics.
Sample etudes:
1. White Note Etude: Compose a melody using only the 7 notes of the C major scale.
1a. Write counter melody with same C major source.
1b. Harmonize melody with same C major source.
1c. Write three-part counterpoint with same C major source.
2. Using the natural pentatonic as source (CGDAE) compose a piano background. Don’t forget to establish groove and tempo first. Then compose a melody over this background using C Lydian as source.
3. Same as #2 but modulate three times with the last modulation returning to the key of C.
Have fun!!
Ed | | |
|  | Journal: NeuHat Ensemble Project | By bringing the audience into the process much earlier than usual, we can link up the artist – audience cycle way before the concert or CD release. This earlier than usual energy exchange between the composing artist and the audience should create an interesting dynamic as the pieces comes to life. In this way, the composing artist and the process become part of the performance.
Well, the first piece for this project “Wake Up Call” has been completed and performed at the IAJE conference in New York last January. If you haven’t listened to the concert tape yet, I invite you to have a listen. Remember, it’s a live concert recording so the final studio recording will be much more polished.
The IAJE performance went as well as I could imagine. Everybody played great. As usual, some of the best music that I wrote was in the improvisation sections. It’s a great experience to hear the composed sections flow into the improvisation, played by such sensitive players.
Next up is the composing of the rest of the CD or concert. Already composed are the sketches of two pieces. “Bird Dance” and “Dog Play”. “Bird Dance” is a canon where each of the three voices are playing the same melody in a different tempo and different key. It’s amazing how different each voice sounds, even though they are essentially the same thing. In this piece I intend to introduce each voice separately, combined with some improvisation, before combining them into the canon.
“Dog Play” is a long form tune, actually the sonata form, with a sort of Brazilian-ish groove. I wanted to write a piece in the sonata form, a musical form that has been used by classical composers for the past three hundred years. In this piece the, freely modulating, development section leads into an improvisation section, which I intend to use as vehicles for group improvisation. Kind of a Dixieland like improvisation where groups of players are improvising together.
For both of these pieces the bulk of the composing has already been done, so now, it’s a mater of arranging and orchestrating. There will be further discussion about these pieces and more as time goes bye.
Depending on the final length of the above pieces, then there will need to be one or more pieces composed in order to complete the CD. One of the pieces that I intend to compose will be a feature or almost a concerto for me to play on the trombone. As much as I enjoy conducting this incredible group of players, I want to be able to play with them as well. The piece, which has already been loosely sketched out, will contain a combination composed and improvised material. And will, for sure, be cross-genre, freely mixing various styles.
I invite you to join me and follow along as the project and the pieces take shape. I will be documenting everything, with audio and video commentary and journal entries, including the compositional process and through to the rehearsals, performances and recording.
Here we go…. Peace! EN | | |
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