The culmination of the orchestration class I was in this semester is a reading session with the Concert Orchestra. For this semester I orchestrated the first half of my saxophone piece, and I’m planning on doing the second half next semester.
The orchestra did a good job sight reading, and I’m pretty happy with the final product. The recording is a little weird because I was playing the solo sax part right next to the microphone being used to record the whole orchestra, but you can still mostly hear what’s going on.
This is a minimalist piano piece I wrote for my counterpoint class last spring, and it will be adapted for a piece I’m writing this fall for piano and voices.
The Hand of day opens
Three clouds
And these few words
-Octavio Paz
I finally synced the video of Obsidian Butterfly with the high quality audio. It was a bit too long to fit on Youtube, so I put it on Google Video. Enjoy!
I posted this video on some forums and people have asked me to talk about the piece. I’m going to try to type up some program notes for the piece as soon as I can — But I can say now that the piece was not conceived to be programmatic at all. I definitely have no problem with people finding a program in it, but as with most of my pieces I actually thought of the title once the piece was finished. I think of the title “Obsidian Butterfly” as an image to help draw listeners into the piece — it could be interpreted simply as a butterfly made of the sleek volcanic rock or as the English translation of Itzpapalotl, a grotesque female Aztec warrier goddess. Whichever you prefer :).
When Carlin and I performed this piece for her accompanying recital, she wrote some very kind program notes which I’ll share here:
When John first approached me to perform with him his new composition, Obsidian Butterfly, I was quite excited. Most new compositions lack a form or down-to-earth quality that allows the common listener to understand the content. Often, we are left with nothing to grasp onto except for the word, “interesting” or “curious.” I often feel rather discombobulated and confused after listening to most of them, but with John’s previous composition, In Search of Lost Time (for violin, viola, and voice), I distinctly remember being drawn into its world. You shall find just as I did that Obsidian Butterfly will not disappoint the expectation of gripping you from your seat.
Without even hearing the first note, Obsidian Butterfly catches the attention of the audience merely from the curious title. The title can be interpreted as the symbolic representation of the dark, rhythmical, yet sleek atmosphere or to the grotesque Aztec female war goddess. In the beginning, the piano softly lays an atmosphere of expectation with a quiet trill, before the saxophone enters. (The inspiration for the beginning comes from the Sibelius violin concerto where the orchestra begins quietly with a shimmering tremolo before the violin softly enters with a gripping melody.) The open fifths tremolo on B and F sharp (which is also the common tone modulation to a tritone away from the original key) marks the end of the introduction, and the main motif (D-Eflat-D-Eflat-F-Eflat) is announced. Another theme that appears is the “fourth + tritone.” Throughout the composition, these motifs are repeated in various rhythmical patterns and contexts. However, tension cannot be constantly drawn without becoming overbearing, so in the middle, the saxophone cadenza builds up and momentarily releases the excitement, transitioning into a piano interlude. Tension is quickly rebuilt into a frenzy, and both themes are revisited. With the “fourth + tritone” the piece climaxes with a flourish.
Although John claims that the piece took too long to write, we are all pleased nevertheless with the results of the catchy, crafty creation. It was a great and enjoyable experience working with him, so with this final sentence, I would like to thank him once more for his creation and allowing me to work with him.
The oboe trio that I wrote for my counterpoint final in the fall semester has been expanded into a movement for my wind quintet which I’m working on right now.
It opens with a pleasant little fugue in 4/4 time. After a short episode the main subject is played again but with a beat missing (now in 3/4). This launches straight into another statement of the theme with a further beat missing, (now in 2/4) which pushes into a final section which condenses the material even further into triplets. This triplet material grows more devious as the piece continues, interrupting and confusing the main material, eventually dismantling the fugue altogether.
You can listen to the MIDI, and the TALKY Quintet will be playing this movement only in their final concert on Sunday, April 27 at 7:30pm in Recital Hall (in Merril Hall).
Last Tuesday I premiered my piece for saxophone and piano that I spent most of last semester working on. The performance went really well, and the piece got a great response.
Carlin Ma performed the piano part wonderfully. I’m really lucky to work with performers like Carlin who freely put so much effort into my music.
Also, I’m really excited about the interest in this piece from saxophonists. Several have already asked for parts to the piece — it seems like Obsidian Butterfly will have a future beyond my performance last Tuesday.
Here’s a video my mom took of the performance. The audio isn’t the best, but I’ll put up a new video once I get the official recording from the recital.
This semester Derrick Wallace performed the first piece I composed at IU, Compass Needle, for the third time. He gave the premiere performance in 2006, performed it on his recital in 2007, and gave this performance in 2008 on the trombone audition eve recital (some current students trombone students play for prospective IU students).
Derrick is a a great performer and really sells all the extra elements in the piece (direction changes, stomping, tapping, quarter tones).
In an effort to not go all of January without posting.. here is a short oboe trio I wrote for my counterpoint final last semester. It had to be identifiable as a fugue, but other than that we could do whatever we wanted.
I kind of like this and might expand it for a movement in the woodwind quintet that I’m hoping to write this semester.
I finally got the recording from the October recital and had a chance to sync it with the video (by Carlin Ma). Her memory card ran out of space in the middle of the piece and she made an amazingly fast switch to a new one which is why there is a short break in the video.
The voice loses much of the off-stage sound it had in performance because of how this was recorded, so you’ll just have to imagine.
Many thanks to the excellent musicians who premiered this piece: Morgan Harrington, voice Peter Vickery, violin Kaitlyn Flowers, viola
Well, I’ve been working on this trio for way too long, and I think it’s about time to sign off on it.
It’s for violin, viola, and voice. The violinist is center stage, the violist is back farther and kind of to the side, and the voice is offstage but with the stage-door (if there is a door) open. The voice part is wordless.
This is my first time writing for strings, and my first time writing a piece of this length. I know 9.5 minutes is probably not a lot for most people, but it is for me. The piece is untitled right now; I’ll be working on that.
Listen to the Trio There are a few really random Finale playback errors, and it’s pretty obvious that it’s Finale.. just a warning.
