The Centuries-Old Struggle to Play in Tune

From Slate.

New Content at Myspace

Check it out here.

I added a recording of "The City, Late On A Rainy Night" (taken from the video). I might put up a Secret E.P recording... perhaps a little later, after I start getting away from the Apple loops and whatnot.

Electronic Music/The Yellow Chair

Taking a quick break from Green Day. I'll probably crank some more 21st Century in the car. Last Night On Earth = :) But by the time I get to my car, I'll probably end up cranking Faure instead. It depends on my mood.

Anyway.

After seeing my friend Vito perform yesterday (under the name The Yellow Chair) at the Alphabet Lounge, I found myself with new ideas for my own exploration of electronic music. I recently acquired a Stylophone (courtesy of my brother), but I figured it was mostly just a toy. There wasn't too much I could do with it. That was, until I saw my friend putting on an entire 45-minute set with a toy keyboard, an alarm clock, a drum machine, and a couple of guitar pedals. Wow.

So, I have this iPod dock that I figured out I could use as a speaker for the Stylophone. See, the instrument itself is pretty cool, but it is much too quiet on its own to play for an audience. The iPod dock changes that. Hell, I could probably set up a track on my iPod and use the Stylophone to improvise over it. I could probably dust off some of my guitar pedals (I'm an amp distortion kind of player), and use those.

More to follow. And definitely check out The Yellow Chair.

So...

...I took a little break from blogging, just because of all the work I have to do. Yeah, it's been that same song and dance for weeks. Some occurrences of note:

*Orchestra readings!! They went over really well. They didn't actually get a full run-through of my piece, but hopefully I can edit what I got into a decent-sounding track. If not, I'll dump the midi file into Garageband... err... "Protools", and get a recording up that way. Stayed tuned to my Myspace page in the meantime.
*Fastball released its first studio album in five years. This is awesome news. I'll elaborate on this in a later entry.

Among other things that I can't remember at the moment. And the awesome events coming up:

*In two weeks, the MSU Chorale will be performing Faure's Requiem. The show is Saturday, April 25th at 8PM. Tickets are $15 (or free with a valid MSU Undergraduate ID). The University Singers will also be performing that night. If you're free on Friday, there will also be an open dress rehearsal that you can attend for free at 11:3o AM.
*More readings! Tomorrow is a reading with the Shanghai String Quartet (I was bad, I didn't write for them), and in two weeks, there will be readings for the MSU Wind Ensemble and the University Singers. Busy time for composition majors at MSU (well, for everyone, really).
*FASTBALL IS PERFORMING AT THE CITY WINERY ON MAY 9th!! I am super stoked for this. Last time I saw them was back in 2004 at Penn State. They are an amazing live act. Go check them out for sure during their tour this Spring.

Suggested Listening #8

Hello all/you. We're back today, on this first day of April, with another Suggested Listening. Today, we'll be looking at the music of... well, this is so amazing that a written description would simply not do it justice. In terms of its popularity, the song has appeared in many TV shows and has received a ton of radio play. Anyway, head on over to Youtube and check out this video.

Piano-Playing Cat

This is probably old news.

But I didn't discover it until last month.

And now, the cat who plays piano.

This Must Have Been An Awesome Field Show

Check out this footage of a marching band from Michigan playing the music from South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut. It looks like it's from a show that features music from Family Guy and the Simpsons as well, which must be a hell of a field show. Back in my marching band days, we did some fun field shows like that as well. Unfortunately, we never got to play "What Would Brian Boitano Do?".

Anyway, the songs featured in the video are "What Would Brian Boitano Do?", "Blame Canada", and "La Resistance/Medley". Too bad they didn't go for the whole musical, because it's really great.

More Joy Division

Transmission/She's Lost Control (my first experience with Joy Division)
Dead Souls (sadly, poor sound quality)
Shadowplay

Carmina Burana- Part 1

Last November, the Montclair State University Chorale (a group comprising of 150+ students) performed Carl Orff's Carmina Burana at the NJPAC with a group of students from the Moscow Conservatory, the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, Sarah Coburn (soprano soloist), Vale Rideout (tenor soloist), and Stephen Powell (bass soloist).

The show recieved much praise and great reviews, such as this one from the Star Ledger. Anyway, if I had this blog back in November, I would have definitely written about the show. Still, I would like to discuss Carmina Burana over a short series of entries.

The text for Carmina Burana comes from a huge compilation of poems that dates back to between the 11th and 13th centuries. Composer Carl Orff took 24 of these poems, notably ones with secular themes, and set them to fantastic music. Everybody's heard the famous opening movement entitled O Fortuna, whether it be in the Jim Morrison biopic, or in a trailer for a dramatic action movie, or in a Medieval Times commerical, or even when the New England Patriots march out onto the field. Yes, it's overused and overplayed, but that does not discount how dramatic and breathtaking the song is.

The next movement, Fortune Plango Vulnera, is a direct follow-up of O Fortuna, dealing with the same subject (the fickleness of fortune). As a whole, the twenty-five movements of Carmina Burana are grouped into five major sections, the first of which being Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi ("Fortuna, Empress of the World"). So next time, I will discuss the second major section, which deals with the coming of springtime and the feelings of love it brings, as the texts go.

And if I can somehow get my hands on a recording of the MSU Chorale performing the whole thing, I will most definitely put it up there. For now, check this out:

Montclair State University Website Feature
Program Notes

Ore Ska Band

Click Here

It's an all-girl Japanese ska band. Pretty wacky but cool nonetheless.

TV Music- South Park

With the South Park season premiere airing tomorrow, I thought it was a good idea to talk about the background music in the show. Jamie Dunlap does the background music for the show, and while he is probably not a well-known composer, he has had a ton of experience in the scoring world. Check out his extensive resume, and listen to his library of musical samples. Also, keeping relevant to South Park, check out the scene from the Season 9 episode entitled Ginger Kids that he also has on his website. The music is intense and captures the "horror" genre perfectly, and keeping with the quick production time of the show, it is quite possible that the orchestral music for that sequence was composed in just a few days, two or three tops.

While many of the episodes reuse and revamp musical cues (this is not an uncommon practice, hence many film composers having a library of musical samples), there are many other episodes with excellent original scores, most notably the Season 11 finale entitled The List.

The feature-length musical film also has amazing music, however, Dunlap was not doing the background music for the show during the time it was produced.

Density 21.5... on Vibes

Density 21.5

Check out this performance of Edgard Varese's Density 21.5 performed by a talented young vibes player.

Other Music NYC

While I was out in the city last night, I rediscovered a music store that I haven't been to in years. As always, they carry tons of music ranging from local music to the Clash to Steve Reich and everything in between.

Click Here

Plus, they have a digital downloads store.

They also have some shows there, so if I ever attend one, I'll make a note of it.

Roger McGuinn's Folk Den

Click Here

This site contains a treasury of recordings and chord charts for tons of folk songs. Totally worth the visit.

Myspace Music Account

Check it out.

I'll put up more stuff as I get recordings, such as the recording from this year's orchestra reading. The reading will be on April 1st, so expect a recording soon after that.