This is a choral arrangement of Hatikvah I wrote for my a cappella group, Techiya. It's mostly a reharmonization. I think I'm starting to have a style to them. It's homophonic, generally, and I generally go for complex harmonies rather than simple ones. If the last four bars sound like Grainger, by the way... Well, let's just say I have learned the importance of the b7 in major. (:
Listen to Hatikvah (right-click to download)
Showing posts with label compositions. Show all posts
Showing posts with label compositions. Show all posts
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Carinhoso (Pixinguinha)
This was made as a present to someone wonderful. (: You can find more information on this song here, since I also made an arrangement of it for a flute quintet (where, following Classical convention, "flute quintet" denotes a clarinet quartet -- three soprano clarinets and a bass -- with an added flute). The present version, however, consists of me singing all of the parts, and I actually wrote notes on paper this time instead of just improvising it like Basic Blues, so it sounds much better. Also, it has words in Portuguese! It's a bit annoying that my singing range and my whistling range are incompatible in this song, but it doesn't actually hurt anything. All of it was sung (or whistled) directly as you hear it in the recording, except, like in Basic Jazz, for the bass notes, which were kicked down an octave, and the bass drum, which was kicked down two octaves. There is one run in the bass that kept getting really distorted when transposed, so that run was recorded a fourth higher than it ended up instead of an octave.
Listen to Carinhoso (right-click to download)
Listen to Carinhoso (right-click to download)
Basic Blues
I named the album this is in (well, in the ID tag, not in real life) "Alkaline Jazz", because I suck. Basic Blues is just that. It won't take a proton, but it is basic. It's a 12-bar blues, because I figured that would be the easiest thing to put together. A couple of hours later, possibly less than one, actually, out came this piece of crap. I clearly wasn't listening too well to the metronome (Garage Band is cool like that and has a metronome) on the cymbal at the end there, but I figured that being totally off-tempo then rushing to catch up gives the piece, uh, authenticity. Consider this a demo of a cool thing you can do using a recording program and a microphone (my Mac is cool like that and comes with both). By the way, the bass is my voice down an octave, and the bass drum is my voice down two. Everything else is totally acoustic.
Listen to Basic Blues (right-click to download)
Friday, July 11, 2008
Grace
Full Band
The Birkat Hamazon, the grace after meals, has a very fun traditional melody (which apparently dates to 80 years ago or so), so I decided to set it for band. On Shabbat and festivals, the Birkat Hamazon is preceded by Psalm 126, labeled (like many others in that section of the Tanach) "Shir Hamaalot", or "Song of Ascents", where the meaning of "ascents", according to my JPS Jewish Study Bible, is unclear and possibly refers to steps of the temple or something similar. Here, then, I have set this Song of Ascents for wind orchestra, with an attempt to emulate, to some extent, Percy Grainger. The Birkat proper will follow.
Listen to Grace - I - Song of Ascents (right-click to download)
The Birkat Hamazon, the grace after meals, has a very fun traditional melody (which apparently dates to 80 years ago or so), so I decided to set it for band. On Shabbat and festivals, the Birkat Hamazon is preceded by Psalm 126, labeled (like many others in that section of the Tanach) "Shir Hamaalot", or "Song of Ascents", where the meaning of "ascents", according to my JPS Jewish Study Bible, is unclear and possibly refers to steps of the temple or something similar. Here, then, I have set this Song of Ascents for wind orchestra, with an attempt to emulate, to some extent, Percy Grainger. The Birkat proper will follow.
Listen to Grace - I - Song of Ascents (right-click to download)
Friday, March 28, 2008
Oro y Tomates
2 trumpets (in C), horn, trombone
My brother asked me to write a brass quartet, STAT, and to make it sound Spanish. So I did it. I tried to also make it sound a little Jewish, so you can actually pick out some Jewish notes in there (if you think you've heard that snippet before in synagogue, well, you have). Oh, and the first measure is (seriously) based on Jungle Hijinx! from Donkey Kong Country, or whatever the actual name of the song is. The inspiration really went no further than the rhythm of the first measure, but it's what it is. But there's some neat stuff in there; it's a fun piece.
Listen to Oro y Tomates (right-click to download)
My brother asked me to write a brass quartet, STAT, and to make it sound Spanish. So I did it. I tried to also make it sound a little Jewish, so you can actually pick out some Jewish notes in there (if you think you've heard that snippet before in synagogue, well, you have). Oh, and the first measure is (seriously) based on Jungle Hijinx! from Donkey Kong Country, or whatever the actual name of the song is. The inspiration really went no further than the rhythm of the first measure, but it's what it is. But there's some neat stuff in there; it's a fun piece.
Listen to Oro y Tomates (right-click to download)
Monday, February 11, 2008
Suite of the Undead
2 trumpets, 2 horns, trombone, euphonium, tuba
The 2008 entry to the BCMW contest. The idea of a march of the undead had been floating in my head for a LONG time, and I had a little tune for it, so I figured that this time, this time, I'd actually write it, and it ended up as the second movement in the suite. The requirements were somewhat different -- many movements, 13-15 minutes total, rather than three movements of around 5 minutes each -- and I, uh, well, it's too long by about a minute and a half, but I imagine it could be sped up. Oh, the creatures mentioned in the piece are Exile/Avernum-style undead -- a zombie is supposed to be a magically reanimated corpse that can be killed in a few hits (a few WEAK hits) rather than a horrible-virus-infected supermutant that zombifies on contact, though I suppose a lich may be powerful enough to do that. Or a zombie dragon (GAH, FF5!). Oh, cool note: LOTS OF SPECIAL EFFECTS! You can't really hear all of them faithfully, but the horns will do some, uh, surprising things. (: And there's some rather creative orchestration at times, with trombone down in the pedal range, euphonium an octave higher in the low range, and tuba an octave higher than the euphonium, playing fairly high. High tuba is generally underexplored, I think. At least by me.
Listen to Suite of the Undead - I - Awakening: The Lich (right-click to download)
Listen to Suite of the Undead - II - March of the Zombies (right-click to download)
Listen to Suite of the Undead - III - The Vampire's Lullaby (right-click to download)
Listen to Suite of the Undead - IV - The Werewolves' Hunt (right-click to download)
Listen to Suite of the Undead - V - Ghostly Lament (right-click to download)
Listen to Suite of the Undead - VI - Finale: The Lich (right-click to download)
The 2008 entry to the BCMW contest. The idea of a march of the undead had been floating in my head for a LONG time, and I had a little tune for it, so I figured that this time, this time, I'd actually write it, and it ended up as the second movement in the suite. The requirements were somewhat different -- many movements, 13-15 minutes total, rather than three movements of around 5 minutes each -- and I, uh, well, it's too long by about a minute and a half, but I imagine it could be sped up. Oh, the creatures mentioned in the piece are Exile/Avernum-style undead -- a zombie is supposed to be a magically reanimated corpse that can be killed in a few hits (a few WEAK hits) rather than a horrible-virus-infected supermutant that zombifies on contact, though I suppose a lich may be powerful enough to do that. Or a zombie dragon (GAH, FF5!). Oh, cool note: LOTS OF SPECIAL EFFECTS! You can't really hear all of them faithfully, but the horns will do some, uh, surprising things. (: And there's some rather creative orchestration at times, with trombone down in the pedal range, euphonium an octave higher in the low range, and tuba an octave higher than the euphonium, playing fairly high. High tuba is generally underexplored, I think. At least by me.
Listen to Suite of the Undead - I - Awakening: The Lich (right-click to download)
Listen to Suite of the Undead - II - March of the Zombies (right-click to download)
Listen to Suite of the Undead - III - The Vampire's Lullaby (right-click to download)
Listen to Suite of the Undead - IV - The Werewolves' Hunt (right-click to download)
Listen to Suite of the Undead - V - Ghostly Lament (right-click to download)
Listen to Suite of the Undead - VI - Finale: The Lich (right-click to download)
Monday, October 1, 2007
Bare Necessities (Terry Gilkyson)
3 clarinets, bass clarinet
This song is totally awesome. I don't remember how it ended up being sung at the summer program I went to before senior year of high school, but it is just really cool. The intro is beautiful, and the rest of the instrumental parts are masterful. This is the kind of stuff you don't always notice in Disney music, but back however many years ago it was, it was really good. Even the solos are amazing. So I figured I'd arrange it for my clarinet quartet as a crowd pleaser -- though we never did perform, but still. The bass clarinet is instructed to ad lib, which can only be approximated by grace notes and odd rhythms, so the recording isn't perfect. And "Oh, man, this is really livin'!" is supposed to be spoken, but it's not there. Oh, well. The bass clarinet has the solo most of the time, but during the instrumental section, the other three clarinets each get a solo. There was nothing special about the second solo -- the piano solo -- that would be interesting to reproduce on clarinets, so I replaced it, though I won't tell you with what. ;p
Listen to Bare Necessities (right-click to download)
This song is totally awesome. I don't remember how it ended up being sung at the summer program I went to before senior year of high school, but it is just really cool. The intro is beautiful, and the rest of the instrumental parts are masterful. This is the kind of stuff you don't always notice in Disney music, but back however many years ago it was, it was really good. Even the solos are amazing. So I figured I'd arrange it for my clarinet quartet as a crowd pleaser -- though we never did perform, but still. The bass clarinet is instructed to ad lib, which can only be approximated by grace notes and odd rhythms, so the recording isn't perfect. And "Oh, man, this is really livin'!" is supposed to be spoken, but it's not there. Oh, well. The bass clarinet has the solo most of the time, but during the instrumental section, the other three clarinets each get a solo. There was nothing special about the second solo -- the piano solo -- that would be interesting to reproduce on clarinets, so I replaced it, though I won't tell you with what. ;p
Listen to Bare Necessities (right-click to download)
Tennessee Waltz (Redd Stewart and Pee Wee King)
3 clarinets, bass clarinet
A clarinet quartet (see the note for Carinhoso -- there are NO STRINGS in a clarinet quartet, since then it wouldn't be a clarinet quartet; it would be some sort of mixed ensemble) version of this famous tune. I've always liked it, so I wrote it for my quartet. I don't know much about the piece except the melody, so I can't really talk about it, but hey, it's pretty. (: I should mention that while I haven't ever performed this, I have given other people the sheet music and they have performed it with some success, though not in my presence. This probably applies to the rest of my clarinet ensemble music.
Listen to Tennessee Waltz (right-click to download)
A clarinet quartet (see the note for Carinhoso -- there are NO STRINGS in a clarinet quartet, since then it wouldn't be a clarinet quartet; it would be some sort of mixed ensemble) version of this famous tune. I've always liked it, so I wrote it for my quartet. I don't know much about the piece except the melody, so I can't really talk about it, but hey, it's pretty. (: I should mention that while I haven't ever performed this, I have given other people the sheet music and they have performed it with some success, though not in my presence. This probably applies to the rest of my clarinet ensemble music.
Listen to Tennessee Waltz (right-click to download)
Carinhoso (Pixinguinha)
flute, 3 clarinets, bass clarinet
So once upon a time I had a clarinet quartet (for those of you who aren't well-trained in musical terminology, a clarinet quartet consists of four clarinets, which can be of various sizes -- this one contained three sopranos and a bass). We met once a week for half an hour each time for a semester, and we never performed, but I did get to write music for it -- nothing original, just arrangements. I figured I could transcribe some chorinhos, and those sound so much better with a flute that I figured I'd add one. Thus I wrote Carinhoso for mixed woodwind quintet (which is different from a "flute quintet", which would consist of five flutes, perhaps including a piccolo and an alto flute; this quintet only contains one flute and therefore it can't be a flute quintet). It can be said that chorinhos are to Brazilian music what ragtime is to American music. They sound quite similar, in fact. But like the Australian and European wolves, they're not related. Only later were chorinhos influenced by jazz and evolved into bossa nova. But anyway. Carinhoso is one of those "signature" Brazilian songs, something like Stars and Stripes forever in the US. It's about as famous as famous gets. I hope to be able to play it on guitar to a girlfriend at some point, but until then we'll have to be content with this recording.
Listen to Carinhoso (right-click to download)
UPDATE: While not played on guitar specifically, a much cooler, sung, recorded version (by me) is here!
So once upon a time I had a clarinet quartet (for those of you who aren't well-trained in musical terminology, a clarinet quartet consists of four clarinets, which can be of various sizes -- this one contained three sopranos and a bass). We met once a week for half an hour each time for a semester, and we never performed, but I did get to write music for it -- nothing original, just arrangements. I figured I could transcribe some chorinhos, and those sound so much better with a flute that I figured I'd add one. Thus I wrote Carinhoso for mixed woodwind quintet (which is different from a "flute quintet", which would consist of five flutes, perhaps including a piccolo and an alto flute; this quintet only contains one flute and therefore it can't be a flute quintet). It can be said that chorinhos are to Brazilian music what ragtime is to American music. They sound quite similar, in fact. But like the Australian and European wolves, they're not related. Only later were chorinhos influenced by jazz and evolved into bossa nova. But anyway. Carinhoso is one of those "signature" Brazilian songs, something like Stars and Stripes forever in the US. It's about as famous as famous gets. I hope to be able to play it on guitar to a girlfriend at some point, but until then we'll have to be content with this recording.
Listen to Carinhoso (right-click to download)
UPDATE: While not played on guitar specifically, a much cooler, sung, recorded version (by me) is here!
Concerto de Choro
clarinet, piano
After listening to a CD of Brazilian guitar music in the summer of 2005, I decided that it would be cool to write a chorinho, and as a clarinet player, I wrote it for clarinet and piano. I made a concerto out of it because, hey, why not? So here are three chorinhos in a concerto, for clarinet and piano accompaniment. A chorinho is kind of like a rag -- it's explained below, since Carinhoso is a chorinho as well. The first movement is a fast, bird-like choro; the second is a melodious waltz; the third is a boisterous samba. The second movement in particular should quiet you critics that think I can't write melodies; it's one of the most beautiful things I've written. The movement titles are just colors -- the -inho ending is a diminutive, so the first movement is entitled Yellow Chorinho (with a diminutive yellow), the second, Black Choro (where "choro" rhymes with "ouro", gold, and Ouro Preto is the name of some city somewhere, maybe), and the third, Greenish Chorado (where -ado is the ending for the past participle). So not very meaningful, but very, very pretty!
Listen to Concerto de Choro - I - Chorinho Amarelinho (right-click to download)
Listen to Concerto de Choro - II - Choro Preto (right-click to download)
Listen to Concerto de Choro - III - Chorado Esverdeado (right-click to download)
After listening to a CD of Brazilian guitar music in the summer of 2005, I decided that it would be cool to write a chorinho, and as a clarinet player, I wrote it for clarinet and piano. I made a concerto out of it because, hey, why not? So here are three chorinhos in a concerto, for clarinet and piano accompaniment. A chorinho is kind of like a rag -- it's explained below, since Carinhoso is a chorinho as well. The first movement is a fast, bird-like choro; the second is a melodious waltz; the third is a boisterous samba. The second movement in particular should quiet you critics that think I can't write melodies; it's one of the most beautiful things I've written. The movement titles are just colors -- the -inho ending is a diminutive, so the first movement is entitled Yellow Chorinho (with a diminutive yellow), the second, Black Choro (where "choro" rhymes with "ouro", gold, and Ouro Preto is the name of some city somewhere, maybe), and the third, Greenish Chorado (where -ado is the ending for the past participle). So not very meaningful, but very, very pretty!
Listen to Concerto de Choro - I - Chorinho Amarelinho (right-click to download)
Listen to Concerto de Choro - II - Choro Preto (right-click to download)
Listen to Concerto de Choro - III - Chorado Esverdeado (right-click to download)
Beren and Luthien
soprano, tenor, piano
This recording is missing the words. Beren and Luthien is a duet for soprano and tenor, accompanied by piano; the text is J. R. R. Tolkien's poem about Beren and Luthien Tinuviel sung by Aragorn in Lord of the Rings. I finished it in June 2006 and started it in the summer of 2005. It was originally meant to be a duet for myself and someone else, but the someone else lost interest and the piece wasn't finished until I picked it up again the following summer. I revived it as a work dedicated to the Harvard-Radcliffe Science Fiction Association. It will hopefully be recorded one day by HRSFen. If that happens, I will post the live recording here, of course. If you will be in the Cambridge area and want to help me record this, email me.
The poem is nine stanzas long, with each stanza containing eight lines of iambic tetrameter. That's a lot. The melody, then, is sung about eighteen times, but it's different every time: the embellishments vary, the shape varies, the chords vary, the mode varies, etc. The piano part is mostly tonal, though not always, making this one of my first successful uses of atonal material. When listening to this, I recommend also reading along in the poem. There are no repeated lines, though occasionally the singer not singing the text will sing "Tinuviel!" or "Beren!". There is also little melisma, but almost every iamb is a full beat (eighth quarter) in 6/8, so the 16th notes in "ri-i-i-sing la-a-ark and fa-a-a-al-li-ing rain" are somewhat clear. This poem, by the way, can be found at this site.
Listen to Beren and Luthien (right-click to download)
This recording is missing the words. Beren and Luthien is a duet for soprano and tenor, accompanied by piano; the text is J. R. R. Tolkien's poem about Beren and Luthien Tinuviel sung by Aragorn in Lord of the Rings. I finished it in June 2006 and started it in the summer of 2005. It was originally meant to be a duet for myself and someone else, but the someone else lost interest and the piece wasn't finished until I picked it up again the following summer. I revived it as a work dedicated to the Harvard-Radcliffe Science Fiction Association. It will hopefully be recorded one day by HRSFen. If that happens, I will post the live recording here, of course. If you will be in the Cambridge area and want to help me record this, email me.
The poem is nine stanzas long, with each stanza containing eight lines of iambic tetrameter. That's a lot. The melody, then, is sung about eighteen times, but it's different every time: the embellishments vary, the shape varies, the chords vary, the mode varies, etc. The piano part is mostly tonal, though not always, making this one of my first successful uses of atonal material. When listening to this, I recommend also reading along in the poem. There are no repeated lines, though occasionally the singer not singing the text will sing "Tinuviel!" or "Beren!". There is also little melisma, but almost every iamb is a full beat (eighth quarter) in 6/8, so the 16th notes in "ri-i-i-sing la-a-ark and fa-a-a-al-li-ing rain" are somewhat clear. This poem, by the way, can be found at this site.
Listen to Beren and Luthien (right-click to download)
A Day at the Fair for Keyboards
A treat for you! This set of works is performable only by computer. I plan to somehow release the sheet music so that anyone can attempt to perform it, but that's after I'm done writing it. (: So far I wrote only the movements you see here; I'll add more as I write them. My goal is about an hour's worth of short pieces, with maybe a long one or two, but nothing too complicated. Each movement is set for a different synthesized instrument or sets of instruments; the Intrada is for Hammond organ, the Serenade is for vibraphone, the Carnaval is for music box, the Primera Danza is for an electric piano sound, the Temple is for sitar and bass, and the Club Groove is for a synth "orchestra". I write this partly to celebrate the memory of the composer Gyorgy Ligeti, who passed away June 2006. His music was my first true introduction to modern music, and the first piece I heard -- Ramifications -- that made me really like minimalism. That piece was for 12 strings, 6 tuned a quarter step sharp.
A Day at the Fair is in that spirit -- it uses two sets of staves, one tuned a quarter step higher, to create micronotal music by MIDI. (: However, I don't treat them as separate voices in any way: melodies, harmonies, and everything all use quarter tones whenever I can fit them in. I'm writing this for two main reasons: the first is to learn to sing and become familiar with quarter steps, which have intrigued me for a while, and the second and more important is to find out what new harmonic and melodic possibilities exist with an expanded scale. One thing you will surely notice is that much sounds "out of tune". You can only really tell in chords, since the chord members don't have the expected relationships with each other. I often use the note between the major and the minor third for triads, which has an interesting neutral sound, and I flat the minor seventh of a dominant chord an additional quarter step (which brings it closer to, albeit on the other side of, the "natural" overtone seventh). Leading tones should be raised a quarter step to make them closer to the tonic. So a dominant 7th chord in C can be spelled (where d means half flat and t means half sharp) G Bt D Fd or G Bd D Fd. In the first case, the interval between the 3rd and 7th is a perfect 4th; in the second, a tritone. The normal 12-tone scale has a good solution for this that sounds fine, but in the 24-tone scale, these changes make it a bit odd. So I'm experimenting. One of the big problems is that the most important relationship, the fifth relationship, doesn't generate any quarter tones, so it doesn't bother anyone that these are normally missing -- to show you what I mean, 12 stacked fifths will take you from C to C, but if these are natural fifths, the final C will be 23 cents -- a quarter of a semitone, so an eighth tone -- sharp. That's not much. That interval (called a comma) will spoil unisons, but that's about it. Thirds will give you a quarter tone quite quickly, but our system of tonality is based almost entirely on the fifth, so that leaves little room for quarter tones. Therefore, fundamentally quarter-tonal melodies and harmonies are less intelligible to the ear. Hopefully this experiment will discover some pretty ones. (: Try the Serenade, for instance!
Listen to A Day at the Fair - I - Intrada (right-click to download)
Listen to A Day at the Fair - II - Serenade (right-click to download)
Listen to A Day at the Fair - III - Carnaval (right-click to download)
Listen to A Day at the Fair - IV - Primera Danza (right-click to download)
Listen to A Day at the Fair - V - Temple (right-click to download)
Listen to A Day at the Fair - VI - Club Groove (right-click to download)
A Day at the Fair is in that spirit -- it uses two sets of staves, one tuned a quarter step higher, to create micronotal music by MIDI. (: However, I don't treat them as separate voices in any way: melodies, harmonies, and everything all use quarter tones whenever I can fit them in. I'm writing this for two main reasons: the first is to learn to sing and become familiar with quarter steps, which have intrigued me for a while, and the second and more important is to find out what new harmonic and melodic possibilities exist with an expanded scale. One thing you will surely notice is that much sounds "out of tune". You can only really tell in chords, since the chord members don't have the expected relationships with each other. I often use the note between the major and the minor third for triads, which has an interesting neutral sound, and I flat the minor seventh of a dominant chord an additional quarter step (which brings it closer to, albeit on the other side of, the "natural" overtone seventh). Leading tones should be raised a quarter step to make them closer to the tonic. So a dominant 7th chord in C can be spelled (where d means half flat and t means half sharp) G Bt D Fd or G Bd D Fd. In the first case, the interval between the 3rd and 7th is a perfect 4th; in the second, a tritone. The normal 12-tone scale has a good solution for this that sounds fine, but in the 24-tone scale, these changes make it a bit odd. So I'm experimenting. One of the big problems is that the most important relationship, the fifth relationship, doesn't generate any quarter tones, so it doesn't bother anyone that these are normally missing -- to show you what I mean, 12 stacked fifths will take you from C to C, but if these are natural fifths, the final C will be 23 cents -- a quarter of a semitone, so an eighth tone -- sharp. That's not much. That interval (called a comma) will spoil unisons, but that's about it. Thirds will give you a quarter tone quite quickly, but our system of tonality is based almost entirely on the fifth, so that leaves little room for quarter tones. Therefore, fundamentally quarter-tonal melodies and harmonies are less intelligible to the ear. Hopefully this experiment will discover some pretty ones. (: Try the Serenade, for instance!
Listen to A Day at the Fair - I - Intrada (right-click to download)
Listen to A Day at the Fair - II - Serenade (right-click to download)
Listen to A Day at the Fair - III - Carnaval (right-click to download)
Listen to A Day at the Fair - IV - Primera Danza (right-click to download)
Listen to A Day at the Fair - V - Temple (right-click to download)
Listen to A Day at the Fair - VI - Club Groove (right-click to download)
The Mask of the Elven King
Full Band
After the success of Mystic Gate, I wanted to write another videogame suite. I started this in the summer of 2005 and haven't worked on it much since the winter following, so movements will come up as I write them, eventually. This "game" is more like Secret of Mana, or even Zelda, than like Chrono Trigger, and the name comes from Alex Ellis, who came up with it when I saw him on the street. The four-note fanfare-like theme at the beginning of the overture (II) is based on the melody that came through my head when I was reading the name of the creator god, Iluvatar, in the Silmarillion. The movements this time are more terrain-based.
Listen to The Mask of the Elven King - I - Introduction (right-click to download)
Listen to The Mask of the Elven King - II - Overture (right-click to download)
Listen to The Mask of the Elven King - III - Forest (right-click to download)
Listen to The Mask of the Elven King - IV - Cavern (right-click to download)
Listen to The Mask of the Elven King - IV - Mountain (right-click to download)
Listen to The Mask of the Elven King - IV - The Earth Shard (right-click to download)
After the success of Mystic Gate, I wanted to write another videogame suite. I started this in the summer of 2005 and haven't worked on it much since the winter following, so movements will come up as I write them, eventually. This "game" is more like Secret of Mana, or even Zelda, than like Chrono Trigger, and the name comes from Alex Ellis, who came up with it when I saw him on the street. The four-note fanfare-like theme at the beginning of the overture (II) is based on the melody that came through my head when I was reading the name of the creator god, Iluvatar, in the Silmarillion. The movements this time are more terrain-based.
Listen to The Mask of the Elven King - I - Introduction (right-click to download)
Listen to The Mask of the Elven King - II - Overture (right-click to download)
Listen to The Mask of the Elven King - III - Forest (right-click to download)
Listen to The Mask of the Elven King - IV - Cavern (right-click to download)
Listen to The Mask of the Elven King - IV - Mountain (right-click to download)
Listen to The Mask of the Elven King - IV - The Earth Shard (right-click to download)
To Sepharad (Full Band)
Full Band
Since To Sepharad was originally written for a brass octet (and you can find a better description of the music and meaning on its other post), and the brass octet is a fairly large ensemble, I decided that the piece would be appropriate for transcription to a larger ensemble, with percussion. The chimes are now actual chimes in the third movement. I changed the octaves of several things -- trombone solos became Eb clarinet solos, two octaves higher, for example -- and I played around with instrumental color, especially in the second movement. These are not new movements, but they do have a new flavor.
Listen to To Sepharad (Band) - I - The Nagid (right-click to download)
Listen to To Sepharad (Band) - II - Ramban (right-click to download)
Listen to To Sepharad (Band) - III - Abravanel (right-click to download)
Since To Sepharad was originally written for a brass octet (and you can find a better description of the music and meaning on its other post), and the brass octet is a fairly large ensemble, I decided that the piece would be appropriate for transcription to a larger ensemble, with percussion. The chimes are now actual chimes in the third movement. I changed the octaves of several things -- trombone solos became Eb clarinet solos, two octaves higher, for example -- and I played around with instrumental color, especially in the second movement. These are not new movements, but they do have a new flavor.
Listen to To Sepharad (Band) - I - The Nagid (right-click to download)
Listen to To Sepharad (Band) - II - Ramban (right-click to download)
Listen to To Sepharad (Band) - III - Abravanel (right-click to download)
Symphony No. 1
Full Band
Here it is: a symphony. Well, part of a symphony: I've only written the first two movements. I drew inspiration from various composers; I want to say Persichetti (Symphony No. 6) and Sparke (Dance Movements), but also Shostakovich (Symphony No. 5) and Ito ("La Vita" Symphony). The first movement is in traditional syphonic sonata form, though the tempo varies a bit, and it's not really in any key: I don't use traditional chord functions much, so you could call it mostly atonal, but in reality that's not very descriptive. I had originally intended this to be a piece in Bb lydian -- I was really going to call it Lemonade River; I may still write one -- hence the first measure, but by measure 4 or so it became clear that this wasn't happening, so I figured now would be a good time as any to write my first symphony. Around measure 5, which is in 7/4 rather than the intro 5/4, I decided not to be confined by time signatures, so you will never hear more than two measures in a row in the same time signature except for four bars of 5/4 a couple of times. Time signatures are constraining, because they have their own pattern of accents that the music has to agree with. Here, I let the music dictate the time signature instead of the reverse, which means that the music's natural accents indicate each new measure rather than the other way around. When I feel like it I'll do a statistical analysis of the time signatures, but they range from 2/4 to a case of 8/4, with 3, 4, and 5 being rather frequent, 2 and 6 less so, and 7 even less so. That's because 7 feels like a run-on -- if there were a secondary emphasis, the measure would have been broken. The second movement continues the principle of changing time signatures, but since the tempo is much slower, fractional beats abound -- 3/8, 5/8, 7/8, and even a 9/8 or two, sometimes using compound meter but usually just having one beat longer than the others. Anyway, have a listen. I have yet to compose the other two movements, but be patient!
Listen to Symphony No. 1 - I - Moderato (right-click to download)
Listen to Symphony No. 1 - II - Adagio (right-click to download)
Here it is: a symphony. Well, part of a symphony: I've only written the first two movements. I drew inspiration from various composers; I want to say Persichetti (Symphony No. 6) and Sparke (Dance Movements), but also Shostakovich (Symphony No. 5) and Ito ("La Vita" Symphony). The first movement is in traditional syphonic sonata form, though the tempo varies a bit, and it's not really in any key: I don't use traditional chord functions much, so you could call it mostly atonal, but in reality that's not very descriptive. I had originally intended this to be a piece in Bb lydian -- I was really going to call it Lemonade River; I may still write one -- hence the first measure, but by measure 4 or so it became clear that this wasn't happening, so I figured now would be a good time as any to write my first symphony. Around measure 5, which is in 7/4 rather than the intro 5/4, I decided not to be confined by time signatures, so you will never hear more than two measures in a row in the same time signature except for four bars of 5/4 a couple of times. Time signatures are constraining, because they have their own pattern of accents that the music has to agree with. Here, I let the music dictate the time signature instead of the reverse, which means that the music's natural accents indicate each new measure rather than the other way around. When I feel like it I'll do a statistical analysis of the time signatures, but they range from 2/4 to a case of 8/4, with 3, 4, and 5 being rather frequent, 2 and 6 less so, and 7 even less so. That's because 7 feels like a run-on -- if there were a secondary emphasis, the measure would have been broken. The second movement continues the principle of changing time signatures, but since the tempo is much slower, fractional beats abound -- 3/8, 5/8, 7/8, and even a 9/8 or two, sometimes using compound meter but usually just having one beat longer than the others. Anyway, have a listen. I have yet to compose the other two movements, but be patient!
Listen to Symphony No. 1 - I - Moderato (right-click to download)
Listen to Symphony No. 1 - II - Adagio (right-click to download)
The One-Armed Tailor
Full Band
This is a Jewish-American wind ensemble composition, finished July 16, 2006. It was inspired by "Tevye the Dairyman", a collection of short stories by Sholom Aleichem; the title is some image Tevye used somewhere (I don't remember where). I did analyze much of Jerry Bock's "Fiddler on the Roof" score, so there are some stylistic similarities, but I also listened to other Jewish music. There is a very extended clarinet solo. It's cool. As I said, it's for wind ensemble, though I'm in the habit of including a prominent string bass part. The scale I used mostly is an interesting one: phrygian with raised third. I say that because the second step functions very much like a phrygian second, and bII holds almost a dominant position to I. Interestingly, substituting a raised fourth for the fifth in bII makes a tritone with an interesting resolution; in the key of C, this is Db F G to C E G. It's a pretty characteristic Spanish sound, which is interesting because the Spanish modality has strong resemblances to Jewish and Arabic modalities. I'm not sure how this character made its way through the cultures, though my guess is that the Arabs spread it to Spain and to the new Muslims everywhere in the Muslim world, and the Jews lived mostly around the Muslims. But this is a stupid guess. Reality may look very different.
This piece is ideal for a band who wants to show off its clarinetist, but it isn't a concerto or anything. I'd say it's near the borderline, though not on it or past it. The reason, of course, is the very prominent role of the clarinet in klezmer music. Kontakt Player actually has a decent clarinet patch; the high notes sound like they would on a clarinet: squeaky. However, the recording doesn't capture ad libs at all -- obviously. Local variations in tempo by the soloist, lip bends (there should be no other kind in this piece), and the like would sound better in real life. Still, here you go. (:
Listen to The One-Armed Tailor (right-click to download)
This is a Jewish-American wind ensemble composition, finished July 16, 2006. It was inspired by "Tevye the Dairyman", a collection of short stories by Sholom Aleichem; the title is some image Tevye used somewhere (I don't remember where). I did analyze much of Jerry Bock's "Fiddler on the Roof" score, so there are some stylistic similarities, but I also listened to other Jewish music. There is a very extended clarinet solo. It's cool. As I said, it's for wind ensemble, though I'm in the habit of including a prominent string bass part. The scale I used mostly is an interesting one: phrygian with raised third. I say that because the second step functions very much like a phrygian second, and bII holds almost a dominant position to I. Interestingly, substituting a raised fourth for the fifth in bII makes a tritone with an interesting resolution; in the key of C, this is Db F G to C E G. It's a pretty characteristic Spanish sound, which is interesting because the Spanish modality has strong resemblances to Jewish and Arabic modalities. I'm not sure how this character made its way through the cultures, though my guess is that the Arabs spread it to Spain and to the new Muslims everywhere in the Muslim world, and the Jews lived mostly around the Muslims. But this is a stupid guess. Reality may look very different.
This piece is ideal for a band who wants to show off its clarinetist, but it isn't a concerto or anything. I'd say it's near the borderline, though not on it or past it. The reason, of course, is the very prominent role of the clarinet in klezmer music. Kontakt Player actually has a decent clarinet patch; the high notes sound like they would on a clarinet: squeaky. However, the recording doesn't capture ad libs at all -- obviously. Local variations in tempo by the soloist, lip bends (there should be no other kind in this piece), and the like would sound better in real life. Still, here you go. (:
Listen to The One-Armed Tailor (right-click to download)
Mystic Gate Suite
Full Band
This was my first "long" composition project -- it's twenty-five minutes long, with twelve or so movements, depending on how you count them. It is a suite from the game "Mystic Gate", which has not ever nor will ever be written (at least not to my knowledge). Think of it as a symphonic version of the soundtrack. It contains many musical scenes from the game, an SNES RPG like Chrono Trigger or Final Fantasy III/6j, and somewhere or another there is a gate which is closed after the final boss. This is all in the "program". Of course, this is not actually an SNES RPG soundtrack; it's a long work native for band. But it's cool. You can also pick out influences, if you're clever -- In Town sounds not unlike a Japanese march, more specifically one of the town themes from FF8, and if the waltz in the Finale resembles the Waltz to the Moon, also from FF8, that is no coincidence. Danger and Battle may remind you of FF5, perhaps, and the Fanfare may remind you of Donkey Kong Country, which is where I got the idea to even have a fanfare (like the blinking Nintendo logo in Mario games). And that little clarinet and flute run in the Overture is very... videogamey, no? The drums in the Battle? Enjoy; I worked my ass off for this one.
Remember, of course, that this is a crappy "recording", so the balance will be off, crescendi and diminuendi won't sound right, and that weird-sounding strident modified English horn is actually a soprano saxophone (damn Kontakt Player for not including one).
Listen to Mystic Gate Suite - I - Fanfare (right-click to download)
Listen to Mystic Gate Suite - II - Overture (right-click to download)
Listen to Mystic Gate Suite - III - Danger! (right-click to download)
Listen to Mystic Gate Suite - IV - In Town (right-click to download)
Listen to Mystic Gate Suite - V - Love (right-click to download)
Listen to Mystic Gate Suite - VI - Battle (right-click to download)
Listen to Mystic Gate Suite - VII - Dungeon (right-click to download)
Listen to Mystic Gate Suite - VIII - Overworld (right-click to download)
Listen to Mystic Gate Suite - IX - Dark Tower (right-click to download)
Listen to Mystic Gate Suite - X - Final Battle (right-click to download)
Listen to Mystic Gate Suite - XIa - Finale (right-click to download)
Listen to Mystic Gate Suite - XIb - Credits (right-click to download)
This was my first "long" composition project -- it's twenty-five minutes long, with twelve or so movements, depending on how you count them. It is a suite from the game "Mystic Gate", which has not ever nor will ever be written (at least not to my knowledge). Think of it as a symphonic version of the soundtrack. It contains many musical scenes from the game, an SNES RPG like Chrono Trigger or Final Fantasy III/6j, and somewhere or another there is a gate which is closed after the final boss. This is all in the "program". Of course, this is not actually an SNES RPG soundtrack; it's a long work native for band. But it's cool. You can also pick out influences, if you're clever -- In Town sounds not unlike a Japanese march, more specifically one of the town themes from FF8, and if the waltz in the Finale resembles the Waltz to the Moon, also from FF8, that is no coincidence. Danger and Battle may remind you of FF5, perhaps, and the Fanfare may remind you of Donkey Kong Country, which is where I got the idea to even have a fanfare (like the blinking Nintendo logo in Mario games). And that little clarinet and flute run in the Overture is very... videogamey, no? The drums in the Battle? Enjoy; I worked my ass off for this one.
Remember, of course, that this is a crappy "recording", so the balance will be off, crescendi and diminuendi won't sound right, and that weird-sounding strident modified English horn is actually a soprano saxophone (damn Kontakt Player for not including one).
Listen to Mystic Gate Suite - I - Fanfare (right-click to download)
Listen to Mystic Gate Suite - II - Overture (right-click to download)
Listen to Mystic Gate Suite - III - Danger! (right-click to download)
Listen to Mystic Gate Suite - IV - In Town (right-click to download)
Listen to Mystic Gate Suite - V - Love (right-click to download)
Listen to Mystic Gate Suite - VI - Battle (right-click to download)
Listen to Mystic Gate Suite - VII - Dungeon (right-click to download)
Listen to Mystic Gate Suite - VIII - Overworld (right-click to download)
Listen to Mystic Gate Suite - IX - Dark Tower (right-click to download)
Listen to Mystic Gate Suite - X - Final Battle (right-click to download)
Listen to Mystic Gate Suite - XIa - Finale (right-click to download)
Listen to Mystic Gate Suite - XIb - Credits (right-click to download)
Dunth Valsante
Full Band
Dunth Valsante is my third finished piece, composed in June of 2004, and it's just a light waltz. That's all it is, a light, fun waltz. It's somewhat Brazilian, though, and the first time through the trio, I tried to write a chorinho. I tried but failed, because a chorinho would be traditionally played by a flute and guitar, and the band doesn't have a guitar (nor did I want to add one just for this). So instead, I pretended that the clarinet section was a guitar, and I treated it accordingly. Hehehe.
"What is a dunth?" you may ask. A dunth is a word that has no rhymes. Month was a dunth before dunth, so dunth undunthes month. It's very simple. You can visit the Project Dunth page, as well. Spread the word. Listen to the piece.
There are some synchronization problems with the recording. I don't know why. Just imaging that it's being played by a crappy band.
Listen to Dunth Valsante (right-click to download)
Dunth Valsante is my third finished piece, composed in June of 2004, and it's just a light waltz. That's all it is, a light, fun waltz. It's somewhat Brazilian, though, and the first time through the trio, I tried to write a chorinho. I tried but failed, because a chorinho would be traditionally played by a flute and guitar, and the band doesn't have a guitar (nor did I want to add one just for this). So instead, I pretended that the clarinet section was a guitar, and I treated it accordingly. Hehehe.
"What is a dunth?" you may ask. A dunth is a word that has no rhymes. Month was a dunth before dunth, so dunth undunthes month. It's very simple. You can visit the Project Dunth page, as well. Spread the word. Listen to the piece.
There are some synchronization problems with the recording. I don't know why. Just imaging that it's being played by a crappy band.
Listen to Dunth Valsante (right-click to download)
Aleinu - March
Full Band
Aleinu is my second composition for band, composed in the spring of 2004 for my old high school to play. I suppose it's really an arrangement rather than a composition, which is a step up from my first "composition", which was a transcription. The themes are all from Jewish liturgy; the introduction and first strain are Aleinu, the second strain is a dominant version of the Shema, and the trio is Shalom Aleichem. There are some other quotes thrown in as well. This is indeed a march, my first ever, and although it's a bit long, it follows more or less the customary march form. You may wonder at the appropriateness of the themes I chose for a march, especially Shalom Aleichem. Well, many years before I ever composed anything, I had noticed that Aleinu was distinctly march-like. This was one of those things I always wanted to write, and one of the reasons I started writing in the first place. I had also planned it way before actually notating it, which isn't something I do much these days, and I knew I wanted to have Shalom Aleichem, a beautiful and slow hymn, with fast things going on underneath it, so I figured this would be great for a trio. Needless to say, I really liked the result.
Then I took Music 51, and coming back a few years later, I noticed a lot of things I could have done better. So I did them better, and here it is, improved from the original version, the Aleinu march.
Listen to Aleinu (right-click to download)
Aleinu is my second composition for band, composed in the spring of 2004 for my old high school to play. I suppose it's really an arrangement rather than a composition, which is a step up from my first "composition", which was a transcription. The themes are all from Jewish liturgy; the introduction and first strain are Aleinu, the second strain is a dominant version of the Shema, and the trio is Shalom Aleichem. There are some other quotes thrown in as well. This is indeed a march, my first ever, and although it's a bit long, it follows more or less the customary march form. You may wonder at the appropriateness of the themes I chose for a march, especially Shalom Aleichem. Well, many years before I ever composed anything, I had noticed that Aleinu was distinctly march-like. This was one of those things I always wanted to write, and one of the reasons I started writing in the first place. I had also planned it way before actually notating it, which isn't something I do much these days, and I knew I wanted to have Shalom Aleichem, a beautiful and slow hymn, with fast things going on underneath it, so I figured this would be great for a trio. Needless to say, I really liked the result.
Then I took Music 51, and coming back a few years later, I noticed a lot of things I could have done better. So I did them better, and here it is, improved from the original version, the Aleinu march.
Listen to Aleinu (right-click to download)
Fuga IV, from The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I (J. S. Bach)
Full Band
Story: one day -- must have been January 19th, 2002 -- I went with some friends to a nearly empty cheap theater to see The Man Who Wasn't There. I hung out with film people in high school (this was senior year). Anyway, the second movement of Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 8 "Pathetique" played several times. I got home and immediately listened to it, as well as some piano music my girlfriend at the time had played for me before. Next day, I decided to learn to play this on the piano, and two weeks later I could play the piece moderately well. Well, it's an easy piece. I found all my sheet music on websites offering it for free, and since I'd read (some of) Godel, Escher, Bach, I figured Bach's music is probably pretty cool. I was right. I learned some of his 2-part and 3-part Inventions (some of each one, I mean -- like, the right hand of 2-part No. 12, both parts separately of No. 14, etc.), and also printed some of the Well-Tempered Clavier. I started playing those in order (skipping the C# major fugue), and when I got to the C# minor 5-part fugue, I really liked it. Problem was, as you've probably noticed, I'm not a very good pianist, so I could never play it very well. And I kept fantasizing about a wind ensemble playing it, like I fantasized about a wind ensemble playing, say, the Star Fox 64 ending theme. Well, about a week before going to college for sophomore year (September 2003), I decided that, hey, let's transcribe this thing NOW. So I got myself a music notation program and, over the course of that week, transcribed the fugue.
That's not exactly what you'll hear here, however -- I've edited it, in recognition that this was my first "composition" ever and therefore I'd made some mistakes in orchestration. The piece was played by my high school band that year along with Aleinu March, which will go up on the website after I finish revising it. Keep in mind that Kontakt doesn't like suspended cymbals (NOTE: it actually does, but I haven't rerecorded this piece to reflect that), and while the patches generally sound pretty good, they're sometimes very unbalanced. A timpani low A, for example, is much louder than a mid-staff D for some reason, and the tuba is MUCH louder than, say, the trombone. Also, this fugue is in C minor instead of C# minor because unlike the keyboard, the band isn't well-tempered and would lose its temper if it had to play in four sharps (seven for Eb instruments -- yeah).
Aside from non-pitched percussion, this transcription is a faithful one: no notes have been altered. Some have had their octaves changed or doubled, but this is OK: imagine Bach improvising on the organ. Here I treat the wind ensemble like an organ, with changing stops. The instruments I use are the stops Bach pulls, and as it was not unusual for stops to also sound at the 8ve and the 15me, or even to have a glockenspiel, I do the same. One cannot say that this transcription is not in the spirit of Bach, save for the non-pitched percussion and the key difference. But hey, Bach uses the same chorale three times in different keys (with different words) in his St. Matthew's Passion. So he'll just have to live -- or stay dead, I guess -- with the C minor.
Listen to Fuga IV from WTC1 (right-click to download)
Story: one day -- must have been January 19th, 2002 -- I went with some friends to a nearly empty cheap theater to see The Man Who Wasn't There. I hung out with film people in high school (this was senior year). Anyway, the second movement of Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 8 "Pathetique" played several times. I got home and immediately listened to it, as well as some piano music my girlfriend at the time had played for me before. Next day, I decided to learn to play this on the piano, and two weeks later I could play the piece moderately well. Well, it's an easy piece. I found all my sheet music on websites offering it for free, and since I'd read (some of) Godel, Escher, Bach, I figured Bach's music is probably pretty cool. I was right. I learned some of his 2-part and 3-part Inventions (some of each one, I mean -- like, the right hand of 2-part No. 12, both parts separately of No. 14, etc.), and also printed some of the Well-Tempered Clavier. I started playing those in order (skipping the C# major fugue), and when I got to the C# minor 5-part fugue, I really liked it. Problem was, as you've probably noticed, I'm not a very good pianist, so I could never play it very well. And I kept fantasizing about a wind ensemble playing it, like I fantasized about a wind ensemble playing, say, the Star Fox 64 ending theme. Well, about a week before going to college for sophomore year (September 2003), I decided that, hey, let's transcribe this thing NOW. So I got myself a music notation program and, over the course of that week, transcribed the fugue.
That's not exactly what you'll hear here, however -- I've edited it, in recognition that this was my first "composition" ever and therefore I'd made some mistakes in orchestration. The piece was played by my high school band that year along with Aleinu March, which will go up on the website after I finish revising it. Keep in mind that Kontakt doesn't like suspended cymbals (NOTE: it actually does, but I haven't rerecorded this piece to reflect that), and while the patches generally sound pretty good, they're sometimes very unbalanced. A timpani low A, for example, is much louder than a mid-staff D for some reason, and the tuba is MUCH louder than, say, the trombone. Also, this fugue is in C minor instead of C# minor because unlike the keyboard, the band isn't well-tempered and would lose its temper if it had to play in four sharps (seven for Eb instruments -- yeah).
Aside from non-pitched percussion, this transcription is a faithful one: no notes have been altered. Some have had their octaves changed or doubled, but this is OK: imagine Bach improvising on the organ. Here I treat the wind ensemble like an organ, with changing stops. The instruments I use are the stops Bach pulls, and as it was not unusual for stops to also sound at the 8ve and the 15me, or even to have a glockenspiel, I do the same. One cannot say that this transcription is not in the spirit of Bach, save for the non-pitched percussion and the key difference. But hey, Bach uses the same chorale three times in different keys (with different words) in his St. Matthew's Passion. So he'll just have to live -- or stay dead, I guess -- with the C minor.
Listen to Fuga IV from WTC1 (right-click to download)
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