Here follows a review of a piece of music. I am amused, and I am writing in an intentionally archaic style. My emotions regarding the piece are genuine. But you gentle reader may find the whole process tiresome. Be warned.

( Hearing with New Ears )

On the recommendation of the trumpet professor at my dear alma mater, the University of Missouri at Columbia, I wrote what I hope is a simple work for four trumpets. He commented that he could use relatively easy works for four or more trumpets, so I wrote him a short fanfare and fugue in C. I've officially left the choice of instrument to the ( Read more... )

Well, it begins to seem almost inevitable. I will graduate. There remains but one modest hurdle, and I am confident that with sufficient preparation it too can be vaulted. So, with luck, I will graduate in a couple of weeks. With less luck, I should still graduate by fall. (But I very much doubt it will come to that.) In other news, I have posted ( Read more... )

Well, I've done it. I've answered one of those livejournal sorts of thingies.

( Quizz results cut to spare the uninterested. )

I have recently finished an orchestral fantasy entitled Alien Landscapes. I have the piece on my website here. You can listen to it as an mp3 and download the score as a pdf.

Further, I have added a few pieces from an early book of piano works which you can see hereLastly, I have uploaded the score to the second symphony, so if you like you can ( Read more... )

Well, the newest piece, Alien Landscapes, is coming along apace. Rather predictably my professor seemed to prefer it to more or less anything else I've written lately. But I like it in spite of all that. It's sort of odd that I feel that it sounds good even though it might please the ivory tower sorts, and not because of it. I did, after all, set ( Read more... )

I've finished a cleaner draft of the new symphony, and it's up on the website as No. 2 in c-sharp. Got some work done on a score for a radio drama about a vietnam vet trying to put his life back together, called End of the Road.

Finished the draft of Symphony in c-sharp. (Symphony No. 2 for those who are counting. I renumbered "War" Symphony No. 1, and Retitled Chamber Symphony "Four Sketches," if you missed that. (That was the original working title anyway.) I'm quite pleased with how it's come out. I'll try and make it available on line as soon as I'm done editing it.

It's quite similar to Trommelfeuer's, but the handle is a reddish wood called "purpleheart" rather than the darker Walnuttier handle of hers. (I love Walnut, but they didn't have any when I went to buy mine, and the Purpleheart is pretty too. I ought to make one one of these days.) In other new the new Symphony is progressing apace. I have ( Read more... )

My friend Trommelfeuer has loaned me her baton, and I find myself increasingly addicted to the silly thing. Always thought batons were kind of pretentious, but darn it if it isn't great fun to wave it about and imagine I'm conducting a fantastic orchestra through the fight in the Troll King's lair. And the Troll King's magic. Well, all of the ( Read more... )