Back To Blogging

So, after taking a "little break" from blogging, I went on and took a big break. But now I'm back. What's new for acmenes.blogspot.com? Expect the following entries:

Fastball- Little White Lies album and concert review
Composition updates
Readings posts
Bands bands bands! The trials and tribulations of practicing, recording, performing, and not having enough money for beer.

So, a couple of tidbits.

The readings went really well, but I have yet to get recordings of the concert band and choir. The orchestra reading I got doesn't have a complete run-through, so I have to sit down one day and edit a bunch of takes into one take, which sounds a lot less fun than it will be. The choir and the wind ensemble gave me a solid run-through. The choir one especially rocked.

I'm working hard on some more compositions. I want to get around to writing a string quartet this summer, but for now I'm kind of stuck on electronic music. I'll be starting a music tech course today, so I'll get to learn more about that.

Expect recordings of Double Vision soon. One track is pretty close to being done. We'll have that on our myspace once we finish it. :) In the meantime, it's time to practice.

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.

Given the date and time...

One, with a full orchestra.
Two, piano reduction
Three, another solo piano version
And a how-to video. This guy does it pretty okay.
(And here's Dream, thrown in for good measure.)

It's amazing how many different interpretations of 4'33" are out there. I'm not a fan, but regardless, I feel that Cage's intention to "write" it was correct in that he wanted to assert that a piece with no music could be performed just like a piece with music. Each time it's performed, a million different things could happen. If music is supposedly about order, then this could be a piece of "un-music".

Think about that for a while.

Zappa

I've always been told to "listen to Zappa", "listen to Zappa", "listen to Zappa". So finally, I did.

G-Spot Tornado

Wow.

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.