bring that beat back

It's a slow blog day. Here's Gracie Shank jammin' out on the family Baldwin. (Babies doing adult things are apparently really cute.) 2 generations of Shanks have tickled these ivories. Will she be the third? Stay tuned, peeps. She's only 1 so it might be a while before we get a set-in-stone answer on this one.

done...and on to new responsbilities and a breath of fresh air

I finished up Iron Sharpens Iron last Thursday and sent it off to the commissioner the next morning. More news about this piece as it becomes available since one of the contract stipulations was that I have to keep the details of where/when/who a bit of a secret. It was commissioned by some choir members as a surprise for their longtime director so we'll see if it completely crashes and burns. Either way they'll still have to pay, right? (Insert maniacal laugh here.)

It's nice to be (momentarily) done because school is starting back up and it's time to teach some music. I've given myself until September 1 to take a short break before starting in on the next piece for Ankeny High School (near Des Moines, Iowa). Then it's on to finish the Color Madrigals for The Singers: MN Choral Artists. It will be really nice to get that one in the can as well since it's turned into a 6-movement work composed and premiered over a year. But it will be my first "major" work so I'm psyched to have it out there.

After that it will be a nice, long break (unless something comes up...which it always does) where I can start on something I've been meaning to do for a long time.

In other news I just went out and bought:

Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds: Live at Radio City--I love these guys. I learned to use a pick listening to DMB records and have been a fan for a while. And if you've never heard of Tim Reynolds then behold his majesty (too bad this clip cuts out right as he goes into a Zeppelin cover). It's hard to believe I used to be able to play this piece (albeit much slower and not as accurately as him...maybe that means I couldn't play it...hmm). And if it isn't impressive enough he shreds this bastard out on a 12-string.

Sufjan Stevens: Illinois--This guy has said he will write one album for each state of the Union and Michigan is the only other one finished so far. He's a total genius. Listen to this. You won't hear that on Top 40 radio any time soon. It's just too creative. Track 2 takes the cake for the longest title I've ever seen: The Black Hawk War, Or, How To Demolish An Entire Civilization And Still Feel Good About Yourself In The Morning, Or, We Apologize For The Inconvenience But You're Gonna Have To Leave Now, Or, 'I Have Fought The Big Knives And Will Continue To Fight...

A ton of Rufus Wainwright CDs. This guy is amazing. How many songwriters working today count tin pan alley as one of their major influences? I only know one: him. He's a total musical auteur with a completely unique harmonic sense. He's also been commissioned by The Met to write an opera alongside composers like Wynton Marsalis and Michael Torke. So, yeah, he's the real deal.

new chair

I bought a new office chair to tether myself to while I write and, frankly, it was about damn time. There was "some assembly required." In other words I had to do everything but sew the seat cushions together, cast the molds for the plastic pieces, weld the metal crap together, etc.













25 minutes later I came up with this. Here's my old chair (which was a donation...obviously) angrily trying to overthrow it's much superior, newer replacement. I would launch into an extended diatribe about how comfortable this chair is compared to my old one but this picture makes it so obvious I would be wasting finger effort to type it out. It's day and frickin' night. I love this thing and, combined with my other new toy, my writing space is SOOOO much better.














Max tries out a new place to perch.

it's almost done...thanks be to the gods

Iron Sharpens Iron has entered the final stages of the game (dynamics, score formatting, etc.) and none too soon. It will be unbelievably nice to get this one in the can. I'm certainly not complaining but, after staring at a computer screen for so long, it gets nice to think that you're almost done. I think that, after the fun part of coming up with the piece, it can seem like an awful lot of work to make it into something that other people can bring to life. This, of course, is a prelude to the even better part of hearing it performed so, in the end, it's probably worth it.

Here is a superfluous picture of a cat re-enacting what it's like for me after hours of work and cups of caffeine (and maybe the occasional mini-bag of pretzels).












In other news I can formally announce a residency with Sacramento's Vox Musica next April. The singers and conductor Daniel Paulson threw down a breathtaking performance of Three Nightsongs last season and I'm glad to be meeting them in person and doing a little pre-concert lecturing. This is an up-an-coming ensemble that's received some good reviews so I have the feeling it will be a blast. Add to that the fact that I've never been to Sacramento before and you have a possible combustible Edison.

I also found out today that, thanks to Daniel Hughes and The Choral Project, I finally cracked Amazon.com! Their CD, One Is the All is now available on Amazon along with a great clip of their performance of Musica animam tangens. Daniel is a great guy (we're collaborating long distance this winter on a performance of A Christmas Carol) and the choir is second-to-none.

evolution of a dance

I'm sure I'm WAY behind the curve on these things but a friend of mine showed me the Evolution of a Dance thing on YouTube yesterday. If you haven't seen it's totally worth checking out. I love it when he goes into the Brady Bunch thing.

There is also the Filipino prisoner version. Someone please explain this to me.

Another all-nighter for this composer. The piece (tentatively titled Iron Sharpens Iron) has turned into a Michael Torke-esque, post-minimalist ordeal that develops over time. It's good for the short proverb I've chosen but can be tedious with all the copying and pasting that goes on. Luckily when I went to Starbucks tonight they messed up my drink and, because of that, they gave me both a regular and an iced mocha. I'll probably be up for a while...

raise your hand if you listened to banjo music last night

I went to a super-awesome Bela Fleck and The Flecktones show last night in Ashland, Wisconsin. It was--by far--one of the most amazing concerts I have been to. If you've never heard of these guys before you have to check them out. I first heard them when I was in high school and Bela played a few banjo tracks for the Dave Matthews Band album Before These Crowded Streets.

They are--to put it simply--masters of their craft. One of them even invented his own instrument. Behold: Future Man! He was dressed like a pirate for the show. He is the band's "drummer" who plays on both a conventional-ish set as well as the Synthaxe Drumitar...this instrument is very hard to describe so I'll just say that you should check out the wikipedia entry on it.

We stayed at Erica's grandma's house. This was my bedroom. It was really...shall we say..."folksy."













The cabinet in the left of the picture housed a dozen creepy little dolls in various poses. Here's "Waving-Half-Open-Eyes-Straw-Hat-Girl."













We ate at the super-classy Hotel Chequamegon (pronounced sheh-WAH-muh-guhn...go figure that one out). It was right on Chequamegon Bay that leads out to Lake Superior. Here's the hotel.












I had the grilled crab cake sandwich. It was amazing.

The concert was held in a giant tent on a snowless ski slope. Very cool. It ended up feeling kind of like a musical revival. I snapped this illegal pic that might give a better idea of what I'm talking about.

Having never seen the Flecktones live all I can say is that these guys are musical gods walking among mere mortals. Bela's banjo playing is genius: he plays it like conversation...just effortless. I'm fairly certain that bass player Victor Wooten has 12 fingers...on each hand. Future Man was...well...Future Man. And the sax player, Jeff Coffin, added just the right touches every now and then on all 4 saxes, flute and penny whistle.

I'm so glad I went to this concert. It. Was. Amazing. My experience with BF and the F-tones solidly joins Dave Matthews/Tim Reynolds acoustic at Luther College (the follow-up concert to their amazing album) and Ben Gibbard at First Avenue as my top 3.

mt. rushmore

On the way back from Seattle last June, we stayed in Sheridan, Wyoming. While we were there we ate at the Sheridan Inn (the home of Buffalo Bill and his western/cowboy/side-show company).













We started with fried green tomatoes and a side of crayons. I haven't eaten those since I was 3 or something.













My meal came with the best gumbo I've ever had.













I don't remember exactly what cut this steak was but, holy hell, it was good. They don't mess around when it comes to beef in Wyoming. Not even potatoes were allowed to foul this thing.













What cross-country drive on I-90 would be complete without a visit to Mount Rushmore? Touristy, I know. But it's always nice to see those iconic things in person. It's not as big as I thought it was going to be. As you can see, we have Presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Frankenstein.

new toy

I bought a laptop last week. It's my first "major" purchase in a long time (thanks to the fact that my stolen car was returned last summer) and I am completely in love. It's just nice to be able to take your documents with you wherever you go. Unfortunately I know the neighborhood Starbucks more than I probably should already and, with the addition of this little computational beauty to my life, it looks like my addiction to caffeine is in no danger of subsiding.













Composer essentials: a computer with Finale and a cup o' joe.

I'm still slogging away on my "secret" piece. In fact, I pulled a semi-all-nighter at Perkins last week (I left at 3:30am) in order to get a little further on it...couldn't have done that without my new toy!

The piece itself is going to be a lot of fun to sing, I think. Because it's based on such a short text (just 12 words) it will, by necessity, force me to really develop the material that I've written. It will be a choral calico quilt of sorts because there will be so many different ideas tied together. But even a calico quilt keeps you warm at night, right? We'll see what comes out. Deadline is August 20. I've never missed one yet and I don't want to start now. Yee-haw!

MacGyver (gratuitous post)

Check out how many different versions there are of the MacGyver theme online. What is so great about this TV theme that everybody and their mother has to weigh in with their own version? Don't get me wrong, it's totally awesome! I feel like I need to bottle whatever is so great about this composition and inject it into everything I write.

Just to give the uninitiated a frame of reference, here's the original TV theme (gotta love the pseudo-mullet...that beautiful plumage would get better as the years wore on).

How about on the piano?

Truly awesome: all acoustic guitar. This can't be easy.

What MacGyver retrospective would be complete without a bitchin' 80s synthesizer version? I love how he starts out with the dramatic presentation of the DVDs and then psyches himself up. He totally biffs it near the end but recovers to finish. RDA would be proud!

How about on a ruler?

An accordion?

Organ?

Voices and kazoo, anyone?

And to end on a high note: my personal favorite. The rock edit.

My brother and I used to watch that show (along with Airwolf) every day after elementary school and, thankfully, it has entered the pantheon of 80s TV shows that are revered by the population at large. God bless you, Richard Dean Anderson! You, Mr. T and the rest of The A-Team will always hold a special place in my heart.

For those of you who have accused me of not working at all in recent memory I will just say that I've been slamming out musical proverbs on a daily basis. I'm working on a piece at the moment that, due to the circumstances of the commission, I can't really talk about (it's a secret!) but it's progressing nicely. I chose a text that was way out of my comfort zone so I would have to work at it and learn some new stuff. So far, it's working.