Video of my Reading!!!

As promised to my readers, this is a reading of my Fanfare for Brass Quintet. The group is the Gaudete Brass. While the work was not chosen for their program, they provided this awesome reading which was recorded! Thanks!! I hope my readers enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QiAR4EoGTio

Long Summer...

Sorry for not posting in a few months. Summer has been very hectic so far for me. I have been in Indiana the past few months spending time with family, doing further research on my family tree, and preparing for my move to Chicago on August 20. Sooo... where to begin, lol.

Family Tree: I have made a lot of surprising discoveries on my father's side of the family. My grandfather, who passed away in 1970, lived in New Jersey before moving to the region in the 1950s. The New Jersey Woodruffs of which he belonged were descended from a Thomas Ogden Woodruff and Hannah Markwith. Thomas Ogden's mother was Elizabeth Ogden. The Ogdens, from my understanding, were a very influential family on the East Coast. In fact, Elizabeth's aunt married a man by the name of John Edison. John Edison was the Great Grandfather of Thomas Alva Edison! I, at first, wasn't even aware of this connection until I came -by chance- upon an obituary for my Great Grand Uncle. Shortly after commenting on the obit, I received a message from his daughter! I was amazed! In one of the correspondences, she relayed that family stories stated we were cousins of the Edisons! Sure enough, a little research verified it! I have really learned a lot about myself and my family from this research.

Music: It's been pretty hectic to write as much as I wish I could. I've been working, slowly, on several small projects just to keep my creative juices flowing. Nothing too substantial though.

Chicago: I have a lot of stuff prepared for my move up to the Windy City. So far, I have purchased everything I'll need to make my little dorm apartment home! I've looked into working part time in between my courses. I will give it a try - hopefully, I can manage it. I move up on August 20 and then begin a week of placement testing! To prepare, I am studying to brush up on the basic stuff. Hopefully, I can place into the appropriate theory courses, etc. I'm really psyched about this opportunity!

I'll try to post at least once a week. I do apologize deeply for being a bit busy to give updates!

Lisztian Gems

I was perusing the vast amount of videos on YouTube and came across this amazing gem by Liszt. I knew Liszt had experimented with quasi-atonality and other things, but this work really took my breath away. I think I might arrange this some day for strings - it'd be gorgeous!

Beautiful Day and a Wonderful Discussion

First, I want to say that I am going to be making a more conscientious attempt to keep regular with my blog postings. I was kind of discouraged in myself yesterday when I saw that I hadn't posted in well over a month! Shame on me! Second, today was such a beautiful day. The birds were out, spiders were starting to make their nests, and the temperature was a nice fifty five degrees! I loved it. Third, I LOVED having the windows open!!!

Lastly in today's installment, I got into a wonderful discussion on Young Composers Music Forum regarding imitation of older composers work. By imitating another composers, one member posited, a young composer can learn how to write music AND do so after the initial learning phase. I argue, however, that no one can 'truly' imitate the work of another. While you may be able to imitate some aspects of the work, you are not able to imitate others. Namely, you cannot imitate how the composer wrote the work, the reasons why the composer chose one form and structure as opposed to another in terms of development, the reason why the composer focused on certain material instead of other material, and finally you can't imitate the composers frame of mind while writing the work. So, the idea that one can fully imitate a musical style of a composer from the past is virtually impossible.


Just my two cents.

You can read the discussion here.

Update on things

I have been extremely busy with school this past few weeks and have severely neglected my readers here on the blog. I've had a little bit of time to compose and have begun work, as I think I may have already mentioned, on a work inspired by a Native American myth I received as a handout in my World Religions course. I will not post this just yet - as I want to make it a surprise to everyone on its completion! The work, though, is amazing to say the least and I have labored intensely on it - in fact, I've probably spent more time on this work then any other large scale piece in the past few years!
I do have something I can share with my readers here. Two of my videos on YouTube have achieved important milestones for me! About a year ago, I composed a set of three bridal processionals for a friend. He was going to propose to one of my dearest friends - and asked me to pen the processionals for that day. Sadly, the relationship didn't even last 6 more months! So, I posted the three processionals on YouTube where they have been receiving ample views! One of them is up to 3,000 + views and the other has broken 1125 views. I consider this a milestone largely because there are MANY classical works on YouTube that have received far less than 1000 views - with a large majority under 500. That two of my works have received so many views is something I'm extremely happy with.
So, to celebrate this milestone I have uploaded 3 new videos to YouTube and plan to create and upload more of my work to the site. One of my works, for two pianos, is currently being rehearsed and will be recorded for YouTube. I already made the video for it - and now someone wants to play it! I'm so excited. As a treat for those who read this blog - and especially for those who view it regularly and have put up with my ramblings - I am including a link to my YouTube Channel and links to all three of the new videos! Happy Valentines Day!!!!

My YouTube Channel
Fire and Ice
Solemn Dance
Unnamed for Two Pianos

Wonderful Day!

Had a wonderful day today. In my Understanding Music Class, my teacher played Name That Composer! Got to hear pieces by Haydn that I hadn't heard before (or in a long time!) I was quite impressed. Now I have to get to know more Haydn! I also heard 1 piece of Mozart's that I know I've heard before but completely forgot: one of his violin sonaten. Was interesting, it didn't sound Mozartean to me at all! Oh well, I guess that saying about learning something new everyday is true!!

Recommendation!!!

A friend of mine on Young Composers has a blog on Wordpress. I went to check it out, and must say, it is quite impressive. The blog features a a list of his works - some very nice works, indeed! I strongly recommend everyone check it out!!


Contemporary Classical Music

New Orchestral Work

After spending some time experimenting with various technique in my piano and chamber works, I decided to devote some time to orchestral writing again.  My newest orchestral work is finished.  The work is what I am calling a musical thought.  That title of the piece is called Echo: Rise and Fall.  The thought behind it is the rise and fall of empires and human civilization. The work lasts about 5 - 6 minutes.  It is the first in what I hope will be a suite.  Enjoy!

Rise and Fall

Piano Trio no. 3

So, in keeping with my focus to enter the Barlow Competition this year, I have started work on my 3rd Piano Trio.  This trio is a bit of a departure from my previous work in the genre.  The first piano trio was firmly rooted in tonality, the second trio was firmly rooted in serialism, this trio takes both and runs with it.  The material and inspiration comes from the events that have occurred to me in the past month.  Namely, the passing of my father.  The first and second movements are finished and can be found on the young composers music forum (links provided below). Leave comments please!

Piano Trio no. 3

End of Writers Block!!!

So, for the past week and a half, I have had a horrible writers block.  Largely due to not placing in any of the competitions I've entered and not being selected for any of the submission opportunities.  The writers block ended last night!  I've started work on a suite for piano, entitled Moments, I hope it goes well.  I'll post the finished product here!

Barlow Prize

Despite having the flu the past few days, I've started work on the second of a set of three piano trios I hope to finish this year.  The best of the 3, I plan to submit to the Barlow Prize this year.  The prize calls for a work for Piano Trio that displays the highest standards of artistry.  We'll see what I can do!

Early Piano Trio

So, I was going over some of my older works and came across this piece I wrote about 2 years ago.  This was my first piano trio.  At the time, I was very much into romantic classicism - and I think that that comes through in this work.  This was a very personal work to me at the time as well.  Hope you guys enjoy!

Piano Trio no. 1

Project for Performance!!!

I was talking to my lone composition student who happens to conduct a choir in his native Phillipines. I resume teaching him this week AND on top of that, I am now working on an Ave Maria for his choir.  The text is translated to his native Pangasinan dialect.  It's a nice project AND one that will get performed!!!

Placement Test

So, today I have my placement test for Lakeland.  I am sooo nervous.  I've been working on the study guide and practice test for it all week.  I got the english portion pretty much down AND I have the arithmetic and basic algebra parts down as well.  The only one that is giving me problems is college algebra.  I don't think I've used trig or any of the other maths at that level in the past 10 years.  Pretty psyched for it.

Set of 6 preludes

So, I had some problems the beginning of last week involving my laptop - had to purchase a brand new computer to use.  In the interim, I have been working on a set of 6 preludes for piano.  The purpose of these is to compose works utilizing ridiculously small restrictions.  The first is a prelude using only one note.  The second uses only 2, third uses only 3, fourth uses only 4, and so on.  The inspiration for this is Ligeti's Musica Ricercata.
Let me know what you think so far!

Prelude a 1
Prelude a 2
Prelude a 3 e 4

New Miniature!!

I composed this last week.  It has gotten some nice reviews!!  Tell me what you think!

http://forum.youngcomposers.com/t23879/miniature/

New projects... hmmm

So, I'm trying to figure what to compose next.  I spent the last day and a half breaking from composition - but I feel like I am completely wasting time.  I know I should be working and composing more, but the piano trio really took a lot out of me to compose.  I haven't had a piece effect me so much in quite a while. 

Piano Trio Nearly Complete

I've been working like crazy the past 3 days on this Piano Trio.  The First and Second movements are complete.  I feel, however, that the 3rd movement will be the crowning gem of this work.  The first two movements were mere warm ups to what I've done in the 3rd movement.  I don't know, this piece (much like my last trio) resonates deeply with me.  The emotive qualities are everywhere through out it.  In the final movement, which I have now 160 measures of, I even put my name in nomenclature - designing a row for it.  The personal nature of the three instruments assists in making this work personal to me in many ways.  I'll post the finished work here on the blog as well on young composers.

Nervousness while waiting

So, I sent out two works to really BIG competitions and now I'm nervous like never before. Will I win anything? Place anywhere? Will my work get chosen??? I hope so.. but you never know what will happen.

New Direction!

So, after spending three days getting asked over and over and over again to write something using serialism... I finally caved in. Tonight, I composed a short work that was 100% serial. The work is posted on my online forum (Young Composers). I actually enjoy the work - and despite being built completely from serial technique - it's quite listenable and accessible. Have a listen!

Starlight and Solitude