Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Current and Near-Future Projects

I've been working on quite a few things lately. Juggling schoolwork, musical practice, composing, work, personal relationships, networking, and personal care-taking is difficult, as you very well may understand! I just thought I should post something about my current and upcoming musical projects, and mention what will appear on my various networking sites.

First, I have four new Youtube videos planned for the coming two months. Two of these are going to be simple slideshows with computerized recordings of "Reflection" and "Only Dreaming," chamber compositions I've written in the last year. Out of the many non-piano pieces I have created, these two are the only ones that really sound half-decent with Finale's playback engine! The third video will be a live recording of "Azure (Thexhrsign)," a rather simple piano solo I wrote in junior high. This piece is significant to me because it won me my first scholarship to the Junior Composers' Institute through a composition contest. And, as I have mentioned in earlier posts, the final video in this set will be "Shards," my full orchestral piece. I should add that there is a possibility that this won't be performed until March, depending on how the next few rehearsals go.

I'd also like to mention the composition projects I'm working on here at Concordia. This semester, I have a smaller project and a larger project. The former is a collection of short duets for bassoon and soprano sax utilizing contrasting moods and methods of two-part voice leading; this assignment was meant to help me work on my weak points as a composer, namely melody/countermelody without texture. With nothing but the two monophonic instruments playing, I cannot rely on texture and rhythms to sustain any gaps in melodic strength as I usually do, and this is a big challenge for me!

The latter is my larger project, an extended piece for Percussion Ensemble. Since I perform in a percussion ensemble here at Concordia, I have no trouble hearing the sounds I am attempting to create. However, such a strange an principally similar group of instruments poses many challenges for a composer. In contrast with my other project, this work will have to rely a lot on carefully constructed rhythm and texture, and finding ways to vary the sound is not easy with nothing but percussion instruments. Still, the challenge is wonderful, and the 2 minutes or so of music I have written so far sounds really good; it's bizarre with a lot of emotional contrast. My only worry now is if the parts I've written will prove too difficult for some of the members of the ensemble!

I've been updating my social networking sites a lot lately, so please, check some of them out! They can be found in a list at the top of the right hand column of my blog. Thanks for reading! Let me know if there's any questions I can answer or comments I should hear.

2 comments:

  1. I really like to hear about your writing projects and especially appreciate the link to www.juniorcomposers.org. Keep it coming! Will it be possible to post your catalogue at this site?

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  2. Thanks Randall! What do you mean when you say catalog? I have a list of all of my original music at the bottom of the page, but if you're referring to albums and such, I have not listed that yet. I do have one CD so far.

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