(posted last night but the new song on Myspace wasn't working...arrh.) I am taking a 5 minute break from the dissertation. What a pain in the butt. It is now 12:00 a.m. and I have written and re-written the first 50 bars of this gargantuan orchestra thing about 30 times now. It has been a busy, busy week folks. I am gettin' sleepy. Lesson tomorrow. Not good. Big scary Jewish prof as teacher. He no likey excuses.
Yesterday was the ole' b-day. Halloween. Or as evil old people call it, "razor apple day." Yup 32 years ago I came into the world covered in blood and slime. I squalled my first at 5:00 in the a.m. and they washed my dirty little body off and gave me to my mother. I was 8 pounds 6 ounces.
My mom has always said that of all the 4 kids, I was the biggest pain in the ass.
I guess some things never change.
In honor of my love for Halloween and scary movies...
This is an excerpt to a piano piece I wrote a few years back. I played it on a grad. Recital at Baylor and about freaked everyone into thinking I was some sort of Satanist. It is a movement for a Suite for piano that I wrote around phobias I had as a child. This one is called "birds" I saw that Hitchcock movie when I was a wee lad and was scared to death of anything flying for a good solid week or two. Then I got my bee bee gun for my 11 birthday and became the one bringing fear to those sneaky little flying ferocities. (sparrows and blackbirds only)
It is up on my Myspace if you want to take a listen.
Incedentally that particular Hitchcock movie didn't have a film score. One of the only Major Motion Pictures to NOT have a Score.
Unfortunately writing this Dissertation is kind of like trying to get a big stone to sing Great Balls of Fire at this point. No-thing is a' happening. Stravinsky reincarnate, I am not tonight.
5 comments:
I enjoyed listening to that. Keep posting that type of stuff on your MySpace page.
I just found out that one of the arrangers I work for has copies of several of Bernard Hermann's handwritten scores, including his music for Fahrenheit 451 and a suite from Psycho. I'm looking forward to spending some time analyzing them.
That is so cool! I love looking at manuscripts. I have this Facsimile of the Liszt b minor Sonata (a piece I obsessed over for about 3 years) and it is so amazing to see the creative process in action.
I would love to see some of it. You should scan a page and post it for a day or two. The recording quality of the Psycho score is half the fun. It is kind of crappy a dry but it just makes it sound sooo much cooler.
You should check out George Crumb's "Black Angels" if you want to blow your mind on some scary music. (They used some of it in the Exorcist I you listen to it you HAVE to look at the score.
I have the Kronos Quartet's recording of Crumb's "Black Angels" on the CD of the same title. (A great CD, by the way). Alias, a chamber music group here in Nashville, performed "Black Angels" about 6 months ago, but I wasn't able to go to the performance. I hope they perform it again soon.
Stephen. You told me that and I forgot. I am THE WORST at remembering certain things. I went to see Braveheart with a group of friends and I asked them THE NEXT DAY if they had seen the movie yet!
That is a bummer that you didn't get to see them.
Have you checked out the Bartok String Quartets. Probably the most influencial quartets written after Beethoven. Number 6 is my favorite and the Emerson String Quartet plays the tar out of them.
Seth - I love it. It's amazing to me the textures and soundscapes that can be achieved on a keyboard. Way cool.
Post a Comment