Wednesday, April 30, 2008
sousaphone hero
I feel like I read this Onion article a long time ago on a blog somewhere (probably John Mackey's but I'm too lazy to look around) and I just ran into it again. The title is Activision Reports Sluggish Sales For Sousaphone Hero and, if you've ever played in marching band, you should check out the article. It includes this picture.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
rochester + meloy
I drove down to Rochester last Sunday to hear some great performances by the Honors Choirs of Southeast Minnesota. I've worked with them before and had a blast but I was unable to see a performance until now. 2 of the 4 choirs had programmed a piece of mine so I was able to hear the Treble Choir perform The Arrow and The Song and the Concert Choir on when god decided to invent with the soprano sax for the first time. I didn't get a picture of either of them in performance but they were both as good as you'd expect from an honor choir (and by that I mean really good). Dan Roellinger did an especially good job on the soprano sax part (which is not easy).
Both choirs performed my piece immediately after they gave out the Perfect Attendance awards so I guess my choral compositions just remind people of being somewhere on time...or something. Here's Michael giving out the awards with the choir in the background. The place was absolutely packed.
On another note, if you're a fan of The Decemberists you should check out the new (live) CD from their lead singer/songwriter, Colin Meloy Sings Live! I just bought it and I can't get it out of the CD player.
Both choirs performed my piece immediately after they gave out the Perfect Attendance awards so I guess my choral compositions just remind people of being somewhere on time...or something. Here's Michael giving out the awards with the choir in the background. The place was absolutely packed.
On another note, if you're a fan of The Decemberists you should check out the new (live) CD from their lead singer/songwriter, Colin Meloy Sings Live! I just bought it and I can't get it out of the CD player.
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
happy birthday blog!
So this blog is exactly a year old today. Here's a quick entry (which took me a lot longer to put together than I thought) on the highlights.
Month with the most entries: March 2008
It was a good month.
Single entry with the most pictures: New York - part 2
27 pics total (second place was 18). The Museum of Modern Art lets you take pictures.
Single entry with the most external links: YouTube
16 total. It was a slow blog day. Apparently I had just discovered the Internets.
Best meal: Hands down this one went to New Year's 2008.
Way to go, Chef Newstrom!
Most verbose: Color Madrigals order
Anytime you get a composer talking about their process they tend to pontificate.
Least verbose: Close Up
This photographic exercise was an obvious choice.
Most useless: Run for the Border
For some reason, I felt the need to write about Taco Bell. Of course, the discovery of a "secret" menu item at the border should never be taken lightly.
I've taken (what turned out to be) many trips since I first started this exercise in self-aggrandizing. Here are the times I ventured far enough from the Twin Cities to warrant multiple pictures and/or a blog entry:
Indianapolis
New York City
Lincoln
Seattle
Wyoming/South Dakota
Stinson Beach/San Francisco
Ashland
Milwaukee
Fargo
Sacramento
There have been plenty of premieres in the last year. I wrote about the ones that I could be at:
Sleeping Out: Full Moon
In Magna Symphonia
Color Madrigals, Vol. 1
Color Madrigals, Vol. 2
Renascence
Color Madrigals, Vol. 3
So that's a year. Here's the actual Belief and Technique for Modern Prose by Jack Kerouac that caused me to haphazardly name this blog.
1. Scribbled secret notebooks, and wild typewritten pages, for yr own joy
2. Submissive to everything, open, listening
3. Try never get drunk outside yr own house
4. Be in love with yr life
5. Something that you feel will find its own form
6. Be crazy dumbsaint of the mind
7. Blow as deep as you want to blow
8. Write what you want bottomless from the bottom of the mind
9. The unspeakable visions of the individual
10. No time for poetry but exactly what is
11. Visionary tics shivering in the chest
12. In tranced fixation dreaming upon object before you
13. Remove literary, grammatical and syntactical inhibition
14. Like Proust be an old teahead of time
15. Telling the true story of the world in interior monolog
16. The jewel center of interest is the eye within the eye
17. Write in recollection and amazement for yrself
18. Work from pithy middle eye out, swimming in language sea
19. Accept loss forever
20. Believe in the holy contour of life
21. Struggle to sketch the flow that already exists intact in mind
22. Don’t think of words when you stop but to see picture better
23. Keep track of every day the date emblazoned in yr morning
24. No fear or shame in the dignity of yr experience, language & knowledge
25. Write for the world to read and see yr exact pictures of it
26. Bookmovie is the movie in words, the visual American form
27. In praise of Character in the Bleak inhuman Loneliness
28. Composing wild, undisciplined, pure, coming in from under, crazier the better
29. You’re a Genius all the time
30. Writer-Director of Earthly movies Sponsored & Angeled in Heaven
And, finally, a blurry relic from my teenage years that nobody checked for grammar.
Month with the most entries: March 2008
It was a good month.
Single entry with the most pictures: New York - part 2
27 pics total (second place was 18). The Museum of Modern Art lets you take pictures.
Single entry with the most external links: YouTube
16 total. It was a slow blog day. Apparently I had just discovered the Internets.
Best meal: Hands down this one went to New Year's 2008.
Way to go, Chef Newstrom!
Most verbose: Color Madrigals order
Anytime you get a composer talking about their process they tend to pontificate.
Least verbose: Close Up
This photographic exercise was an obvious choice.
Most useless: Run for the Border
For some reason, I felt the need to write about Taco Bell. Of course, the discovery of a "secret" menu item at the border should never be taken lightly.
I've taken (what turned out to be) many trips since I first started this exercise in self-aggrandizing. Here are the times I ventured far enough from the Twin Cities to warrant multiple pictures and/or a blog entry:
Indianapolis
New York City
Lincoln
Seattle
Wyoming/South Dakota
Stinson Beach/San Francisco
Ashland
Milwaukee
Fargo
Sacramento
There have been plenty of premieres in the last year. I wrote about the ones that I could be at:
Sleeping Out: Full Moon
In Magna Symphonia
Color Madrigals, Vol. 1
Color Madrigals, Vol. 2
Renascence
Color Madrigals, Vol. 3
So that's a year. Here's the actual Belief and Technique for Modern Prose by Jack Kerouac that caused me to haphazardly name this blog.
1. Scribbled secret notebooks, and wild typewritten pages, for yr own joy
2. Submissive to everything, open, listening
3. Try never get drunk outside yr own house
4. Be in love with yr life
5. Something that you feel will find its own form
6. Be crazy dumbsaint of the mind
7. Blow as deep as you want to blow
8. Write what you want bottomless from the bottom of the mind
9. The unspeakable visions of the individual
10. No time for poetry but exactly what is
11. Visionary tics shivering in the chest
12. In tranced fixation dreaming upon object before you
13. Remove literary, grammatical and syntactical inhibition
14. Like Proust be an old teahead of time
15. Telling the true story of the world in interior monolog
16. The jewel center of interest is the eye within the eye
17. Write in recollection and amazement for yrself
18. Work from pithy middle eye out, swimming in language sea
19. Accept loss forever
20. Believe in the holy contour of life
21. Struggle to sketch the flow that already exists intact in mind
22. Don’t think of words when you stop but to see picture better
23. Keep track of every day the date emblazoned in yr morning
24. No fear or shame in the dignity of yr experience, language & knowledge
25. Write for the world to read and see yr exact pictures of it
26. Bookmovie is the movie in words, the visual American form
27. In praise of Character in the Bleak inhuman Loneliness
28. Composing wild, undisciplined, pure, coming in from under, crazier the better
29. You’re a Genius all the time
30. Writer-Director of Earthly movies Sponsored & Angeled in Heaven
And, finally, a blurry relic from my teenage years that nobody checked for grammar.
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
sacramento - last day
My third-and-last day in Sacramento I spent mostly by myself. I woke up nice and late (see last entry) and walked around downtown. I stopped for coffee, switched on the iPod and just walked. According to a native Saramentoan(?) I met, the only major city with more trees is Paris. If that's true it's pretty cool.
I happened by the Robert T. Matsui United States Courthouse. There is a really cool sculpture "garden" in the plaza.
There were characters scattered all over the place. The entire sculpture itself is called Gold Rush and is by artist Tom Otterness. Did you know that over 300,000 people came to California during the 1848-1849 gold rush. That sounds like small potatoes but at that time (before the Intercontinental Railroad) that was huge. Below are some highlights from the sculpture.
Irony, anyone? (The character in the foreground is taking a picture, by the way.)
How about a weird representation of a Native American woman offering a speared fish (with a hat on?) to an anthropomorphic bear?
Of course the gold rush was about 1 thing, right? I bet sculpting this was a surreal experience.
Walking back to my apartment I stumbled across this equine sculpture. Made from duct tape?
Das Capitol. The governor hangs out here. I was going to go in but, since it was Saturday, there wasn't much to see.
I stopped at Tapa The World for supper. It's a tapas bar with amazing Spanish and world cuisine.
I had the pesto sea bass with asparagus and red potatoes.
The pre-concert lecture went really well and the audience had some amazing questions which were (amazingly!) totally different from the previous night's interrogations.
One audience member approached me to sign her "composer shirt." I joined the likes of Morten Lauridsen and Eric Whitacre...and I couldn't resist being just a bit over the top (click the picture to see just what I creatively signed).
After the concert, one of Vox's Advisory Committee members took us out to dinner at the aforementioned Il Fornaio. I had the bleu cheese steak with spinach and smashed potatoes...holy effing hell it was good.
Halfway through the dinner (and after a long conversation about good Scotch and great wine), Jeff ordered us a flight of amazing single malt whiskeys. I wish I could remember the names of each of these things. The first one was 18 years old and very easy to palate, but the younger ones were much more smokey and distinct. It was absolutely amazing. I wish I could have had them all.
We finished with the traditional Passing Around of The Desserts. Here's the tiramisu.
An aerial view of my departure.
Once I boarded the plane a lady asked me if she could switch window seats so she could sit by her co-worker. She promised to buy me a drink (which never materialized) if we moved. It was just an end cap on an amazingly unique experience that, even if I'm lucky, won't be repeated for at least 30 years.
I slept most of the way home. However, I woke up at one point and glanced out the window to see what looked like dozens of lakes under the wing. It turns out (after a second or two of inspection) that they were just cloud shadows. Despite that, it still moved me to take a picture.
My time in Sacramento was absolutely amazing. Vox Musica is a sleeping giant and their audience just gets it. I would be satisfied if they had only done one of my pieces and I can't wait to go back. I hope it's sooner rather than later!
I happened by the Robert T. Matsui United States Courthouse. There is a really cool sculpture "garden" in the plaza.
There were characters scattered all over the place. The entire sculpture itself is called Gold Rush and is by artist Tom Otterness. Did you know that over 300,000 people came to California during the 1848-1849 gold rush. That sounds like small potatoes but at that time (before the Intercontinental Railroad) that was huge. Below are some highlights from the sculpture.
Irony, anyone? (The character in the foreground is taking a picture, by the way.)
How about a weird representation of a Native American woman offering a speared fish (with a hat on?) to an anthropomorphic bear?
Of course the gold rush was about 1 thing, right? I bet sculpting this was a surreal experience.
Walking back to my apartment I stumbled across this equine sculpture. Made from duct tape?
Das Capitol. The governor hangs out here. I was going to go in but, since it was Saturday, there wasn't much to see.
I stopped at Tapa The World for supper. It's a tapas bar with amazing Spanish and world cuisine.
I had the pesto sea bass with asparagus and red potatoes.
The pre-concert lecture went really well and the audience had some amazing questions which were (amazingly!) totally different from the previous night's interrogations.
One audience member approached me to sign her "composer shirt." I joined the likes of Morten Lauridsen and Eric Whitacre...and I couldn't resist being just a bit over the top (click the picture to see just what I creatively signed).
After the concert, one of Vox's Advisory Committee members took us out to dinner at the aforementioned Il Fornaio. I had the bleu cheese steak with spinach and smashed potatoes...holy effing hell it was good.
Halfway through the dinner (and after a long conversation about good Scotch and great wine), Jeff ordered us a flight of amazing single malt whiskeys. I wish I could remember the names of each of these things. The first one was 18 years old and very easy to palate, but the younger ones were much more smokey and distinct. It was absolutely amazing. I wish I could have had them all.
We finished with the traditional Passing Around of The Desserts. Here's the tiramisu.
An aerial view of my departure.
Once I boarded the plane a lady asked me if she could switch window seats so she could sit by her co-worker. She promised to buy me a drink (which never materialized) if we moved. It was just an end cap on an amazingly unique experience that, even if I'm lucky, won't be repeated for at least 30 years.
I slept most of the way home. However, I woke up at one point and glanced out the window to see what looked like dozens of lakes under the wing. It turns out (after a second or two of inspection) that they were just cloud shadows. Despite that, it still moved me to take a picture.
My time in Sacramento was absolutely amazing. Vox Musica is a sleeping giant and their audience just gets it. I would be satisfied if they had only done one of my pieces and I can't wait to go back. I hope it's sooner rather than later!
Monday, April 14, 2008
sacramento - day 2
On my second day in Sacramento, the weather was much nicer than it was in Minnesota (like 40 degrees nicer) so I was able to get 3 miles in running downtown before Dan picked me up for lunch. We went to Il Fornaio to talk choral and eat some awesome Italian food. I hate beets but, at Dan's suggestion, I tried this salad. No regrets, folks. Really, really fresh.
Would you like choir director with your margherita pizza?
Dan knew one of the head honchos at the Leland Stanford Mansion so we got a private, no-holds-barred tour. It's a California state park and the governor uses it to host foreign dignitaries, sign bills, etc.
The grand staircase was really cool. The mansion was built in the 1850s (I think) and was originally a smallish house with only 2 stories. After a flood they jacked the entire thing up and added a whole new wing and level underneath (which sits about 1'6" under the ground in order to add some height to the new first floor).
There was an original turn-of-the-century piano in the mansion with this unusual shape. Apparently, the most cost-effective way to get a piano from the east coast to a place like Sacramento (before the Intercontinental Railroad) was to ship it around Cape Horn below South America. They built them like this so they could stack them in ships and have the legs and pedals attached when they got to California.
Cool, vintage chandelier.
Leland Stanford (he founded Stanford University...perhaps you've heard of it?) was a railroad tycoon, so a lot of the furniture in the mansion is modeled after engines.
The highlight of the tour was when Dan's friend swept aside the velvet rope from the governor's official office and said, "You can sit in the desk if you want. That's one of Arnold's cigars there."
(And, yes, that's a Cobra Commander shirt I'm wearing.)
And if that wasn't good enough, this display case in the outer office was described thus: "Ronald Reagan started this spur collection."
Did you know that the first name of the actor who is currently the governor of California is an anagram for the only other actor to be the governor of the same state?
After the Stanfords left (they founded the university when their only son died) the home was donated and turned into an orphanage. The "park rangers" set up one of the rooms to look like it did back then.
Leland Stanford, being the simple and humble man that he was, had his face carved into every window frame. (I'm making fun of this but I'd totally do it...and so would you if you had the greenbacks.)
As an extra special treat we got a chance to look at the gift that Arnold and Maria give to visiting dignitaries. Their signatures are etched in silver on the front. I bet I could make a down payment on a house if I had somehow managed to swipe one of these things.
Lesson learned: if you get a private tour of the governor's mansion you should bring a bag that stuff can fit in so you can steal it.
After Dan dropped me off, I went down to the sushi restaurant directly below my apartment, Tamaya, for some great food before the concert. I can't imagine that, living in the Twin Cities, I'll ever get closer to my favorite food in my life. I ordered the spicy tuna roll.
I was still a little hungry so I went quasi-omakase and asked the chef to surprise me with something that had flavor. He made the "Cherry Blossom" and, holy crap, it was the best roll I've had since my first experience having sushi. Click on the picture...it was so amazing.
After the Friday night concert (which I have no pictures of), a few of the Vox folks and I dropped in on 33rd Street Bistro for supper. We started with the gourmet fries.
I moved on to the pan seared salmon.
Around 2am Sacramento time Dan and I decided to head to the One Man Band (check that link out!). The One Man Band (or Acoustic Sanctuary as it's actually called) is just a guy in the van pictured below who has a zillion instruments and just makes up songs for tips. No lie. Seriously, check out the hyperlink. You just walk in and suggest a subject and he makes up a song.
Here's a side shot. That's not sunrise you see (I wish I still had that endurance!). I snapped a few before I went to the concert.
I decided to link to a YouTube video of this amazing musician rather than air my post-2am-on-a-celebratory-night dirty laundry and, frankly, it is much more enjoyable. He was unbelievable! Someone told me that he actually teaches high school...unlikely...but possible, I suppose.
Enjoy. This is what I did for about 20 minutes before extreme fatigue set in...albeit way less cool.
Would you like choir director with your margherita pizza?
Dan knew one of the head honchos at the Leland Stanford Mansion so we got a private, no-holds-barred tour. It's a California state park and the governor uses it to host foreign dignitaries, sign bills, etc.
The grand staircase was really cool. The mansion was built in the 1850s (I think) and was originally a smallish house with only 2 stories. After a flood they jacked the entire thing up and added a whole new wing and level underneath (which sits about 1'6" under the ground in order to add some height to the new first floor).
There was an original turn-of-the-century piano in the mansion with this unusual shape. Apparently, the most cost-effective way to get a piano from the east coast to a place like Sacramento (before the Intercontinental Railroad) was to ship it around Cape Horn below South America. They built them like this so they could stack them in ships and have the legs and pedals attached when they got to California.
Cool, vintage chandelier.
Leland Stanford (he founded Stanford University...perhaps you've heard of it?) was a railroad tycoon, so a lot of the furniture in the mansion is modeled after engines.
The highlight of the tour was when Dan's friend swept aside the velvet rope from the governor's official office and said, "You can sit in the desk if you want. That's one of Arnold's cigars there."
(And, yes, that's a Cobra Commander shirt I'm wearing.)
And if that wasn't good enough, this display case in the outer office was described thus: "Ronald Reagan started this spur collection."
Did you know that the first name of the actor who is currently the governor of California is an anagram for the only other actor to be the governor of the same state?
After the Stanfords left (they founded the university when their only son died) the home was donated and turned into an orphanage. The "park rangers" set up one of the rooms to look like it did back then.
Leland Stanford, being the simple and humble man that he was, had his face carved into every window frame. (I'm making fun of this but I'd totally do it...and so would you if you had the greenbacks.)
As an extra special treat we got a chance to look at the gift that Arnold and Maria give to visiting dignitaries. Their signatures are etched in silver on the front. I bet I could make a down payment on a house if I had somehow managed to swipe one of these things.
Lesson learned: if you get a private tour of the governor's mansion you should bring a bag that stuff can fit in so you can steal it.
After Dan dropped me off, I went down to the sushi restaurant directly below my apartment, Tamaya, for some great food before the concert. I can't imagine that, living in the Twin Cities, I'll ever get closer to my favorite food in my life. I ordered the spicy tuna roll.
I was still a little hungry so I went quasi-omakase and asked the chef to surprise me with something that had flavor. He made the "Cherry Blossom" and, holy crap, it was the best roll I've had since my first experience having sushi. Click on the picture...it was so amazing.
After the Friday night concert (which I have no pictures of), a few of the Vox folks and I dropped in on 33rd Street Bistro for supper. We started with the gourmet fries.
I moved on to the pan seared salmon.
Around 2am Sacramento time Dan and I decided to head to the One Man Band (check that link out!). The One Man Band (or Acoustic Sanctuary as it's actually called) is just a guy in the van pictured below who has a zillion instruments and just makes up songs for tips. No lie. Seriously, check out the hyperlink. You just walk in and suggest a subject and he makes up a song.
Here's a side shot. That's not sunrise you see (I wish I still had that endurance!). I snapped a few before I went to the concert.
I decided to link to a YouTube video of this amazing musician rather than air my post-2am-on-a-celebratory-night dirty laundry and, frankly, it is much more enjoyable. He was unbelievable! Someone told me that he actually teaches high school...unlikely...but possible, I suppose.
Enjoy. This is what I did for about 20 minutes before extreme fatigue set in...albeit way less cool.
It was a totally unique experience. This Minnesota composer sat in the back of an enormous purple van in Sacramento filled to bursting with instruments and requested a song at 2 in the morning. Then I slept a lot.
Raise your hand if you've done that before and you're not from California's capitol. Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?
So that's the second day in Sacramento. I took a ton of pictures so tomorrow I'll post on the third. What I just testified to was the wildest day I had...obviously.
p.s. Anybody remember Commando? Yep. Someone should make that guy the governor of a state. Thank god nobody else is as weird as California. Wait...oh, damn.
Saturday, April 12, 2008
sacramento - day 1
After dropping off my things at the studio apartment that Vox procured for me in midtown, Dan and I went and had lunch with the choir's advisory committee. We ate at their regular haunt, The Waterboy, and unfortunately, I forgot my camera. The meal was crazy good (I had the seabass) and came complete with the best Pinot Noir I've ever had.
Dan had some things to do before that night's dress rehearsal so he farmed me out to Martha from the advisory committee. She had some errands to run around town and, never having seen Sacramento before, I was happy to tag along. The first stop was an art gallery where I snapped some photos when nobody was looking. These things were great (and poorly lit since I was sans flash).
How about weird-spooky-tooth-beaver?
They also had paintings.
After that first gallery (whose name I can't remember) we stopped at another called Jay Jay to look at some more West Coast art. Apparently we were close to Martha's daughter's school and she wanted to stop in to say 'hello.' They were rehearsing a production of The Sound of Music at that point so we sat in for "How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?" At this point it occurred to me how strange it was that I had woken up in Minnesota that morning and now I was sitting in Sacramento, California watching a musical rehearsal at an all-girls school. When I asked Martha how they got around this fact she told me that they bused some guys in to fill the male roles and changed a few others to fit. The role of Uncle Max went to Martha's daughter but they wisely (and probably illegally) changed it to "Aunt Maxine". Despite the fact that they were great, it was a fairly surreal experience. What must it be like to not have your life occasionally populated by unique experiences like this? I'm sure all these commissions will dry up at some point and I'll get to find out.
After Rodgers and Hammerstein it was warm sake at the sushi restaurant below my apartment and...
...supper at Centro Cocina Mexicana with some of the freshest guacamole you've ever had.
I ordered the Cochinita Pibil (or Puerco Pibil if you like). It's a traditional dish from the Yucatan that I've seen made before but never actually had a chance to try. They roast the pork inside a banana leaf with achiote paste to give it that red hue. This stuff was really good.
To the dress rehearsal. I walked in during the middle of winter.
The promo photographer was snapping away at the same time I was. I'm sure it was incredibly annoying.
They had a great dress rehearsal and, afterwards, Dan was kind enough to set up a get together with the choir at a tapas bar in midtown. It was my first time ever having sangria and, due to the time change, I was incredibly tired. I'm sure I wasn't much fun but I had a great time.
Dan had some things to do before that night's dress rehearsal so he farmed me out to Martha from the advisory committee. She had some errands to run around town and, never having seen Sacramento before, I was happy to tag along. The first stop was an art gallery where I snapped some photos when nobody was looking. These things were great (and poorly lit since I was sans flash).
How about weird-spooky-tooth-beaver?
They also had paintings.
After that first gallery (whose name I can't remember) we stopped at another called Jay Jay to look at some more West Coast art. Apparently we were close to Martha's daughter's school and she wanted to stop in to say 'hello.' They were rehearsing a production of The Sound of Music at that point so we sat in for "How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?" At this point it occurred to me how strange it was that I had woken up in Minnesota that morning and now I was sitting in Sacramento, California watching a musical rehearsal at an all-girls school. When I asked Martha how they got around this fact she told me that they bused some guys in to fill the male roles and changed a few others to fit. The role of Uncle Max went to Martha's daughter but they wisely (and probably illegally) changed it to "Aunt Maxine". Despite the fact that they were great, it was a fairly surreal experience. What must it be like to not have your life occasionally populated by unique experiences like this? I'm sure all these commissions will dry up at some point and I'll get to find out.
After Rodgers and Hammerstein it was warm sake at the sushi restaurant below my apartment and...
...supper at Centro Cocina Mexicana with some of the freshest guacamole you've ever had.
I ordered the Cochinita Pibil (or Puerco Pibil if you like). It's a traditional dish from the Yucatan that I've seen made before but never actually had a chance to try. They roast the pork inside a banana leaf with achiote paste to give it that red hue. This stuff was really good.
To the dress rehearsal. I walked in during the middle of winter.
The promo photographer was snapping away at the same time I was. I'm sure it was incredibly annoying.
They had a great dress rehearsal and, afterwards, Dan was kind enough to set up a get together with the choir at a tapas bar in midtown. It was my first time ever having sangria and, due to the time change, I was incredibly tired. I'm sure I wasn't much fun but I had a great time.
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
vox musica - part 1
I had an amazing time this past weekend working with Sacramento's resident choir, Vox Musica, and their director, Daniel Paulson. He first contacted me about a year ago to let me know that he and Vox performed my work for SSAA and piano, Three Nightsongs. He sent me a wonderful recording and, for all intents and purposes, that was it.
A few months later he emailed to find out whether or not I could make it out to Sacramento on a certain weekend because his choir was going to perform a few of my works for their April concert. We worked this out and all was well.
I then came to find out that, not only was this amazing choir of women going to add tenors and basses in a "one time only" event for this concert, but that the program was going to be made up of only my pieces. I was over the moon. The concert was going to be all my works. Then I completely freaked out because the concert was going to be all my works.
It's hard to describe the sensation of sitting for 2 hours and hearing only things you have written. Since a composer will often "give of themselves" (I'm sorry there isn't a better way to put that) when they write a piece, it was sort of like being confronted with all my insecurities about certain pieces for a solid and enormous block of time. If an audience member didn't like something about the concert then I would have no escape because I wrote all of it.
I'm not sure I'd like to do it again. On the one hand it was an incredible honor and very humbling and exciting but it was also extremely nerve wracking. I usually get really nervous right before a choir performs something that I wrote and this was like experiencing that for 2 straight hours. My adrenaline reserves were completely burnt out by the end.
All that being said, Dan somehow took one composer's catalog of works and made a very eclectic concert out of it. He did a piece with the men and women in different spots inside the church, a piece with cello, a piece with soprano sax, 2 with a soli quartet, 2 folksong arrangements and one arrangement of a Broadway tune with piano. And the pieces span from one of my earliest works to last year's Color Madrigals. Here's the program (just because it takes up space):
Musica animam tangens (2001)
Two Songs of Release (2003)
1. Promise
2. Reconciliation
Wynken, Blynken and Nod (2004)
Autumn (2004)
winter (2003)
Go, Tell It on the Mountain (2004)
Gabriel's Message (2005)
Color Madrigals (2007)
1. Serpents in Red Roses Hissing
2. Blue! 'Tis the Life of Heavens
3. Purple-Stained Mouth
4. Yellow Brooms and Cold Mushrooms
5. A Grass-Green Pillow
6. Orange-Mounts of More Soft Ascent
when god decided to invent (2004)
Where is Love? (2004)
It was a special concert in a lot of ways:
-The women of Vox were joined by men for the first time ever.
-I made my concert debut as a finger cymbal player on when god decided to invent. I'm sure the audience was a little weirded out by this but, when they asked who wanted to play the cymbals at the dress rehearsal, I volunteered. FYI: I charge union rates for repeat performances.
-The last piece was the only song I conducted. Dan wanted it as an encore so he didn't list it in the program. It was a great way to end the concert.
-I heard the Two Songs of Release for only the second time. I'm fairly certain it was only the second performance of the second movement, Reconciliation. It's probably my most difficult and extended work for choir. Dan performed a piece that opens to a 16-part, forearms-on-the-keyboard tone cluster with a choir of 26. It was absolutely insane. They must have had to meticulously figure out who was going to breath where.
-The Color Madrigals were performed as a complete work for the first time. Way cool!
-I was unable to attend the premiere of Wynken, Blynken and Nod so it was the first time I ever saw the cello part performed. I wrote it the year I had a cellist as a roommate and it's fairly difficult. It uses pretty much the entire range of the instrument as well as almost every color available. According to one of the choir members, I sat through most of the piece with a huge smile on my face.
-I gave pre-concert lectures at both the Friday and Saturday shows which had some really, really interesting questions.
Vox and Co. performed the hell out of that program. I really don't know how such a small ensemble could perform some of those pieces and I can't thank Dan Paulson enough (even if I tried for the rest of my life) for being brave enough to do something like that. I am so completely undeserving of that experience and, even though it's cliche to say this, words cannot express my gratitude.
I can't wait to collaborate with them again! If you're a choral music fan and you live in Sacramento you have to go to a Vox concert.
But that's just the musical aspect of the whole trip. I took a ton of blog-worthy pictures which I'll post in segments during the next few days. Thanks for getting through this verbose diatribe.
A few months later he emailed to find out whether or not I could make it out to Sacramento on a certain weekend because his choir was going to perform a few of my works for their April concert. We worked this out and all was well.
I then came to find out that, not only was this amazing choir of women going to add tenors and basses in a "one time only" event for this concert, but that the program was going to be made up of only my pieces. I was over the moon. The concert was going to be all my works. Then I completely freaked out because the concert was going to be all my works.
It's hard to describe the sensation of sitting for 2 hours and hearing only things you have written. Since a composer will often "give of themselves" (I'm sorry there isn't a better way to put that) when they write a piece, it was sort of like being confronted with all my insecurities about certain pieces for a solid and enormous block of time. If an audience member didn't like something about the concert then I would have no escape because I wrote all of it.
I'm not sure I'd like to do it again. On the one hand it was an incredible honor and very humbling and exciting but it was also extremely nerve wracking. I usually get really nervous right before a choir performs something that I wrote and this was like experiencing that for 2 straight hours. My adrenaline reserves were completely burnt out by the end.
All that being said, Dan somehow took one composer's catalog of works and made a very eclectic concert out of it. He did a piece with the men and women in different spots inside the church, a piece with cello, a piece with soprano sax, 2 with a soli quartet, 2 folksong arrangements and one arrangement of a Broadway tune with piano. And the pieces span from one of my earliest works to last year's Color Madrigals. Here's the program (just because it takes up space):
Musica animam tangens (2001)
Two Songs of Release (2003)
1. Promise
2. Reconciliation
Wynken, Blynken and Nod (2004)
Autumn (2004)
winter (2003)
Go, Tell It on the Mountain (2004)
Gabriel's Message (2005)
Color Madrigals (2007)
1. Serpents in Red Roses Hissing
2. Blue! 'Tis the Life of Heavens
3. Purple-Stained Mouth
4. Yellow Brooms and Cold Mushrooms
5. A Grass-Green Pillow
6. Orange-Mounts of More Soft Ascent
when god decided to invent (2004)
Where is Love? (2004)
It was a special concert in a lot of ways:
-The women of Vox were joined by men for the first time ever.
-I made my concert debut as a finger cymbal player on when god decided to invent. I'm sure the audience was a little weirded out by this but, when they asked who wanted to play the cymbals at the dress rehearsal, I volunteered. FYI: I charge union rates for repeat performances.
-The last piece was the only song I conducted. Dan wanted it as an encore so he didn't list it in the program. It was a great way to end the concert.
-I heard the Two Songs of Release for only the second time. I'm fairly certain it was only the second performance of the second movement, Reconciliation. It's probably my most difficult and extended work for choir. Dan performed a piece that opens to a 16-part, forearms-on-the-keyboard tone cluster with a choir of 26. It was absolutely insane. They must have had to meticulously figure out who was going to breath where.
-The Color Madrigals were performed as a complete work for the first time. Way cool!
-I was unable to attend the premiere of Wynken, Blynken and Nod so it was the first time I ever saw the cello part performed. I wrote it the year I had a cellist as a roommate and it's fairly difficult. It uses pretty much the entire range of the instrument as well as almost every color available. According to one of the choir members, I sat through most of the piece with a huge smile on my face.
-I gave pre-concert lectures at both the Friday and Saturday shows which had some really, really interesting questions.
Vox and Co. performed the hell out of that program. I really don't know how such a small ensemble could perform some of those pieces and I can't thank Dan Paulson enough (even if I tried for the rest of my life) for being brave enough to do something like that. I am so completely undeserving of that experience and, even though it's cliche to say this, words cannot express my gratitude.
I can't wait to collaborate with them again! If you're a choral music fan and you live in Sacramento you have to go to a Vox concert.
But that's just the musical aspect of the whole trip. I took a ton of blog-worthy pictures which I'll post in segments during the next few days. Thanks for getting through this verbose diatribe.
Monday, April 7, 2008
sacramento soon
I had a great time working with Sacramento's amazing ensemble, Vox Musica, last weekend. They performed an entire concert of my pieces and I took a ton of pictures. I'll post a few entries worth when I get the chance to sit down and put them in order. Here's the last one I took.
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