holiday break-busy!

an extended holiday break is one the great advantages for being a teacher, but this holiday is been very busy. since the friday afternoon that school ended (dec 20th) i have been editing music, emailing musicians, calling and mailing news outlets and radio stations, rehearsing, and recording for our upcoming performance at the cerritos center. i'm real happy to be so busy making music, but deb (my wife) gets the least of me when i'm the "bunker mentality" for a upcoming show. it represents a big milestone for us as an "alternative classical" group playing in a "legitamate venue".

if you are a regular viewer of this blog, i apologize for my delay on finishing the summerland post. i'm delaying the next posting until monday, jan 3rd.

tomorrow we will start recording my vocal extravaganza "retrace our steps". its great to be working with some of my former students from marshall high. moises estrada and marlon luna are finishing their training and interning as recording engineers and have become invaluable for putting on live shows and recording. my new cameraphone allows me to moblog pictures, so i will probably start using it to take some pictures at rehearsals and at tomorrows recording session. if i get done making the new scores and parts for tomorrow i'll try and post some pictures from last sunday's rehearsal.

the last rehearsal went well. on the 26th we had a marathon 3pm-9pm at ave 50 studio(with a great dinner break down the street at chico's. great guacamole and shrimp burritos!!)
sean ferguson (guitar) was in from ny to rehearse and and will fly back to play on this concert. for our next cd we are planning to get a good recording of retrace our steps and chopping tool. (sean) i feb and march were going to record my new pieces and plan to release it by our march performances.

anyway, i need to get back to editing scores and parts for tomorrow, and walk the dogs before it rains again.

music from summerland, part 1

this is the first in the series of blogs about pieces we are currently performing. think of this of a more friendly style of program notes for our next show at the cerritos center for the performing arts on wed, jan 19th.

music from summerland-2002

this piece was started in the fall of 2001 and was completed summer 2002. it was the first piece written specifically for my group (pbe) and is heavily influenced by movie scores, pop/rock music, and the composers michael nyman/steve reich/philip glass. i wanted to create music that combined simple rock/pop harmonies with one- and two-part forms. all of the movements in music for summerland are monogestural (they all express one thing, and in a way each piece is its own self-contained universe). the process for creating these was pretty much the same: work out a few chord progressions and musical gestures, decide where i wanted to take the piece (mostly through form and overall length of each movement), and orchestrate it based on the instruments i had available.

as the piece was completed, rehearsals and the recording session were scheduled, and the pbe was formed. the first recording was completed with eight hours of rehearsal and two recording sessions in which the strings were recorded separately from the rest of the ensemble (electric guitar, electric bass, keyboard, vibes, trombone and bari sax) because of time limitations.

the pieces were originally not named. naming things is a strange thing for me. i originally wanted listeners to project their own values onto the music. for a while i thought about giving them very generic names and i originally assigned them roman numerals I-VII. after too many questions about the numbers, i caved into requests and gave them “proper” names.

the title "summerland" comes from a set of writings by peter lamborn wilson, an anarchist/situationist writer who writes under the pseudonym hakim bey. after reading some of his writings, the term summerland came to have a new meaning, especially regarding the creation of this ensemble. wilson talks a lot about a TAZ, or tong. he describes the TAZ (temporary autonomous zone) as a place where people come together outside of society to create and share without engaging in commerce. he feels that this is the first step to living outside consumer culture. creating summerland was like starting a temporary anarchist training camp. the idea of getting nine musicians together and rehearsing and recording outside of the commercial music world (with limited or no pay) is very uncommon, and this was my first step at both writing a large composition and bringing together a collective of musicians to make music without commercial constraints.

next post:
summerland mvts 1-3, overcoming tourism, the palimpsest, boundary violations.

getting back to things

my job is getting in the way of my personal life. november and december are all about concerts, holiday programs, after school meetings, grading projects and writing progress reports. after coping with a few colds and a late night emergency room visit, i might just make it to the holiday break.

i have also spent a lot of time my ap theory class back on track. the students work very hard, but stumbled on 4-part chorale writing. once they started using notation programs (finale, cakewalk...) they were able to hear their homework and many errors dissapeared (missing notes, bad counterpoint). its another example how technology makes teaching easier.

one of the good things about being this busy is that i'm able to narrow my focus on composing. the distractions are easier to keep at bay. i don't think its the most healthy thing mentally and physically, but i have been able to plot out a few new pieces. rehearsals for the pbe are starting tomorrow and we will be recording our new cd over the holiday break.