…Saxophone upper divisional later today
Archive for the ‘IU’ Category
The uncommon organized morning
Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008Spring in Bloomington
Monday, April 21st, 2008
Wind Quintet Scherzo
Friday, April 18th, 2008The 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).
AI Creativity Research
Monday, April 14th, 2008Last night I dove into my topic for the last big paper in my honors class. Can artificial intelligence be creative? Can a strictly algorithmic machine produce original music that even trained musicians might identify as authentic Bach, Mozart, or Chopin? You’d be surprised.
Photography in Labyrinth
Wednesday, April 9th, 2008Labyrinth is the annual undergraduate literary magazine run by the honors college at IU. Last year they published two of my photographs.
This year they will be publishing two more pictures from me and one of my photos was chosen as the ‘Labyrinth’s Editor’s Choice Prize for photography.’ This made me really happy (I get $50 and feel a lot like Pam Beesly when she won the art contest on The Office).
Here’s the picture that won; me laying down on the top of a building in Chicago during spring break last year. I edited this picture in photoshop quite a bit to make it a surreal image. The cityscape fades up into the sky.
And the other picture that won was taken in Yosemite this summer. The mist from a nearby waterfall created a rainbow that circled around the sun. 
Both of these pictures can be had full size if you click them.
Obsidian Butterfly
Monday, April 7th, 2008Last 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.
Compass Needle
Saturday, April 5th, 2008This 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).
Curtains Close
Sunday, February 10th, 2008on Indiana University’s production of William Bolcom’s A Wedding.
Oboe Trio
Wednesday, January 30th, 2008In 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.
the midi Oboe Trio
Trio (”In Search of Lost Time”)
Friday, November 23rd, 2007I 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