Caution, Hot Water is Hot

Moving My Blog. Last Post on Blogger.

2010-01-30T16:09:00.001-08:00

Hey everybody,

So, I've decided to move my blog. Blogger has been good to me, but it's starting to get really slow now and it's got it's limitations. I've decided to move to Wordpress where I can blog and have a pseudo webpage on the side to showcase some of my compositions and stuff. It's still under construction but has a lot of possibilities.

I'm excited. See you there.

New Blog is here: http://mattnielsen.wordpress.com/

New Commission

2010-01-21T07:19:00.001-08:00

About a week or so ago, a friend from BYU Singers approached me and proposed the idea of writing an art song for her possibly in time for her senior recital this April. I've always been a little hesitant to accept commissions simply because I don't really feel like I have the chops to write a piece with a deadline. This friend, however, is a fantastic singer and a wonderful musician, which is persuasion enough to consider writing something new for her. The real kicker I think was the text that she brought to me as a suggestion. Here they are:

"Lord, open thou mine eyes that I may see thee;
Lord, open thou my lips that I may praise thee;
Lord, open thou my heart that I may love thee,
Serve thee with joy, fear none above thee.

Christ be my sword and shield, my strong defender;
Christ be my light and my Redeemer.
Christ be my guide today, my guide tomorrow;
Christ in my days of joy, my days of sorrow;
Christ in the silent hours when I lie sleeping,
Safe in his holy angels’ keeping.

Christ, when I go to rest, grant me thy blessing.
Lord, keep my soul with thee now and for ever."

- Paraphrase of Lancelot Andrews and St. Patrick

It reminds me very much of ancient, Monastic, Irish poetry, which I always have an affinity towards. It seems to have some sort of luminescence about it that is simply electric. I went back to my apartment and, in about two days time, wrote out the "A" section. On Tuesday I showed her what I had written so far. After her approval, we agreed to the terms of a contract.

So I agreed to this commission. We agreed to have the deadline be February 27th of this year. I've never really worked with a deadline, but I'm pretty confident I can do this. I'm excited about what will come out of this.

A little tip to those of you interested in commissioning your own piece: Get someone else to pay for it. Commissions are more expensive that you think and paying out of your own pocket kinda puts a downer on the whole situation. The one thing you don't want to do is underpay the composer, because composers, monetarily, rely heavily on commissions. There are other options. You can get money from a city art council, some state art council, some local or regional organization with like-minded ideals, even the National Endowment for the Arts is possible. The easiest option is a wealthy relative, but that requires having a wealthy relative.

Anyway, it'll be premiered sometime this April. Speaking of recitals, I have my own to prepare for next week! Yikes!

Still Here

2010-01-12T22:04:00.001-08:00

Just started a new semester last week. Lots of new stuff (like a new apartment). Lots to be excited about, including grad school applications. It seems to be moving pretty fast, and pretty soon it'll be over.

I sent off the manuscript for "It Came upon the Midnight Clear," to a publisher. It should get there this week. Now, I wait . . . and wait . . . and wait . . .

In the meantime, I'm working on some other projects. I was approached by a member of BYU Singers who wanted to commission me to write a piece for her (maybe in time for her Senior Recital). We talked about possible texts, her desire for the outcome, and the intricate details of her range. We have yet to come to a firm agreement about the details of the commission, but I'm pretty much on board.

Also, I'm tossing around some ideas for choir pieces in the future. Some really great texts and sounds in my head, but that's all they are right now, in my head. I've tried to get some of these things down, but just had a difficult time. One of these Saturdays.

"Midnight Clear" on Performance Today! Merry Christmas!

2009-12-24T10:18:00.000-08:00

My piece was on Performance Today hosted by Fred Child (pictured left) for Christmas Eve! If you didn't catch it live you can go to their archive and find it here. It's part of the second hour and it's the second song on the list. It starts at about 6 minutes in to the show. Never really thought I'd be on the same web site as John Cage.

Yeah, I know they got it wrong, they're calling it an arrangement when it's really a setting. For those who are still confused, here's your guide:

Arrangement - A piece based on a previously existing melody such as a hymn.

Setting - A piece not based on any pre-existing material.

I don't blame Mr. Child. It was probably KBYU. Everyone here in Utah calls everything an "arrangement" when it's not necessarily so. They hear about a new arrangement by Mack Wilberg and then they think everything is an arrangement. Bless their hearts.

Anyway, Merry Christmas everybody! And a Happy New Year! Thank you Mr. Child!

BIG NEWS! "Midnight Clear," to Air Nationally on "Performance Today"

2009-12-21T11:09:00.000-08:00

I'm back in California, visiting my brother and his family for Christmas. It's beautiful, like 60 degrees and sunny. I walked outside in shorts and was just fine. Gonna go to the beach tomorrow and get a bagel with smoked salmon with cream cheese. Happy Winter Solstice everybody! Anyway, on to the real stuff.

I just got an email from Dr. Staheli telling me that my piece was submitted by KBYUFM to American Public Media’s Performance Today for their Christmas Eve program. They collect different pieces from university Christmas programs and select a few of them to air on their program. Well, one of the pieces selected to air on their Christmas Eve program was the BYU Singers performance of "It Came upon the Midnight Clear."

Is this really happening? I think my head just exploded! I'm feeling the same way about this as when Dr. Staheli asked me if BYU Singers would perform it for this year's Christmas concert. It doesn't feel real. I have to stop and just make sure that I'm not making things up.

Well, in any case, I've learned that one of the best antidotes/vaccines for an inflated ego/swollen head is work. I've still got a lot of work to do. I'll be giving updates throughout the break. And we'll see if I can take out some time to go surfing down in Santa Cruz.

Currently in Finals Week

2009-12-15T08:38:00.001-08:00

It's been a while since I've posted because I'm currently in the middle of finals week here. I've been studying and finishing up projects. I'm taking two finals today (which involves three tests), and got my last one tomorrow. In the meantime, I still need to finish my extra credit project for one class, and I need to pack up everything I own and move it all to my new apartment before I leave for California this Saturday.

But the work is paying off. When talking to a professor about my grade in his class I asked if I could see what my final grade was. He agreed and showed me what I got. I did VERY well. A smile crept across my face because this is a particularly difficult class. He then said, "You don't need to gild the lily any further." Aww yeah. P'wned!

I've been getting some great feedback about "It Came upon the Midnight Clear." Many people told me that it was their favorite piece from the entire night. Others told me they had tears in their eyes while listening to it. Many people said they really felt something uplifting and enlightening. That's exactly what I was going for. I wanted to write something that would lift people up, and strengthen their faith in Christ. I don't just want to entertain, I want to buoy up the spirit. Maybe I can help somebody when nothing else can. That's my hope.

"It Came upon the Midnight Clear" Recording

2009-12-07T18:37:00.000-08:00

Wow! What a weekend. I can't believe it's actually happened. This dream of mine has actually become reality. BYU Singers' premiere of my setting of "It Came upon the Midnight Clear," turned out beautifully. They really locked it in and nailed it. I could not have hoped for a better premiere. I'm so humbled that they would all pick up this piece and put as much energy into it as they would any other piece. Dr. Staheli did such a masterful job interpreting and conducting the piece. Wow!

It's kinda funny, a lot of people have told me that it sounds very "Whiticre-esque." I take that as a very high compliment, but for the record, I actually had Gabriel Jackson and Maurice Beesley in my head when I wrote this.

I've started putting the material together to start sending it off to some publishers. Here's page one again, with a quick and dirty recording to accompany it. Hope you enjoy! Tell me what you think.

"Midnight Clear" Premieres TONIGHT!

2009-12-04T09:00:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone! Tonight is the night! BYU Singers will premiere me piece, "It Came upon the Midnight Clear," to THREE SOLD OUT SHOWS! In addition to three packed concert halls worth of people, the show will be broadcast live Saturday Night (Dec. 5th) on Classical 89. You can listen to it streaming online here. If you can't tell, I'm super excited. I just really hope that my head doesn't explode during the performance.

In this last week of rehearsals it's really started to come together really well. It's sounding amazing. I could not have asked for a better ensemble or a better conductor. This is, literally, a dream come true.

I'll post a recording as soon as I get one. Wish us luck!

I Can't Stop Watching These!

2009-11-22T10:52:00.000-08:00

There's nothing quite as exciting as a performance of "Glitter and Be Gay," by Leonard Bernstein from his opera Candide. I found these two performance which are both really quite stunning in their own right and yet so very different from one another. The first one is Natalie Dessay (whose English is surprisingly accurate) and the second one is Kristin Chenoweth which is absolutely hilarious. It's amazing what the human voice can do.

Rehearsing "Midnight Clear"

2009-11-20T17:04:00.000-08:00

I thought I'd give an update on how we're doing on "It Came upon the Midnight Clear."

Rehearsing my piece with BYU Singers has been a most interesting, and unusual experience. I am so glad Dr. Staheli is at the helm for this piece. He's put in a lot of time preparing to give the best interpretation he can. He is doing exactly what I want him to do with it. It's almost creepy how he'll say something about the piece or my intention as a composer without any sort of previous conversation, and he'll be spot on.

It's so exciting to see the way he's rehearsing it so carefully the same way he would any other piece of music. He's really paying close attention to the smallest details. I'm really flattered and almost a little embarrassed that we're taking so much time to rehearse it. It certainly has its challenges, but Dr. Staheli is relentless in making sure that we learn and perform it correctly.

One of the most rewarding moments for me as a composer has been to take this piece to Dr. Staheli and Prof. Hall and receiving feedback. When they started talking about all the images they had in their mind while listening to the piece I smiled because it's the same images I had in my mind when I composed it. Another rewarding moment is to catch people singing or whistling the piece randomly. Definitely a rewarding moment.

I'm so excited to have people here this in our concert! I'll post a recording as soon as I get one.

Two Recent Concerts (Full of British Sp'rit)

2009-11-15T14:12:00.000-08:00

First, BYU Singers with the King's Singers.

We've had the singular priviledge of performing with such an outstanding ensemble. They are world class and yet so friendly. We had the opportunity to sing three songs with them: "High Flight," and "A Thanksgiving," by Bob Chilcott and "The Stolen Child," by Eric Whitacre. All of them were written for the King's Singers plus an accompanying choir and are exquisitely written pieces. If I had to pick a favorite, it would probably have to be "High Flight." These words are coupled with brilliant aleatoric passages contrasted with robust phrasing. There's a moment at the beginning when we've opened with these indeterminate constructs and then the tenor and two countertenors come in with this smooth legato line. Wow! It was thrilling from beginning to end.

The most difficult part about was how little rehearsal time we got. We had a half hour before the concert at best and then we sang with them. They are super busy. It's so refreshing to be so well prepared to tackle anything. It was really cool to talk with them after about how they do what they do. I talked for a bit with Philip Lawson about how they audition new members into the group. I learned they ask about Football (soccer) teams they support (Lawson is a Chelsea fan! Yeah!). Talked with Stephen Connolly for a bit about singing bass. Later, I was in the Apple Store up in Salt Lake and bumped into David Hurley. Got to tell him how singing with them exceeded all our expectations and that it was a dream come true for many of us. I highly recommend singing with them.

Second, BYU Singers and Concert Choir.

We just had our concert last night. We have a format for this concert that I just really love. Because we love listening to each other, when one choir is singing, the other choir sits on stage listening to them. It's great, because we get to listen and support each other in a very present sort of way. I really enjoy it! This concert was an all British program. Singers got to do a set of three Renaissance motets and four Purcell pieces from his operas as follows:

"Dum Transisset Sabbatum" by John Taverner
"O Lord, Give thy Holy Sp'rit" by Thomas Tallis
"Alleluia! Congnoverunt Discipuli" by William Byrd

"Around We Pace," from The Tempest
"Hush, No More, Be Silent," from The Fairy Queen
"See, We Assemble," from King Arthur
"With Drooping Wings," from Dido and Aenus

All were so much fun to sing, and Dr. Staheli did a really good job of making each piece really accessible to the audience. Some people told me that the Taverner was their favorite (kinda surprising!).

Concert Choir sang three pieces by Edward Elgar and the "Magnificat" by Finzi. The Magnificat was really stunning and a joy to listen to. I'm sure they've been working so hard on it, and what a pay off. It was a really moving performance.

Together we sang "Jerusalem," "Lux Aeterna" by Edward Elgar (an arrangement of the Nimrod theme from the Enigma Variations), "I Sat Down Under His Shadow," and an arrangement of the Tallis Cannon. Overall, it was a remarkable night we lots of great music and great singing. I love singing with these ensembles. It's such a joy in my life. When school starts to become a burden, and life in general seems like it's spinning down the crapper, singing with these groups keeps me going. It becomes a buoying force in my life.

Big Announcement: BYU Singers Premieres My Composition for Christmas

2009-11-01T08:14:00.000-08:00

That's right! I composed a piece that the Brigham Young University Singers will be premiering at our Christmas Concert this December.

It's the piece I composed called, "It Came upon the Midnight Clear." Yes, it's the same text that we're all familiar with but with completely different music. Different melodies, different harmonies, different rhythms (although one is the same).

It composed it back in July. Don't ask my why I was writing Christmas music back in July, but I was. I composed it in a single afternoon (which doesn't usually happen . . . ever) and have spent some time polishing it up and making sure that it is represented in the best possible way. I used some impressionist and post-impressionist techniques in this piece, which is not all that new of a thing for me. Quartal harmonies, secundal harmonies, bi-chordalism (to some extent), pandiatonicism (to some extent), planing, ninth chords and the pentatonic scale. This piece is kind of a different direction than I've had in the past. Less function, more color and thicker textures. I'm not sure if this is the direction I'll take my compositions in, but it's a possibility. I know I talked about counterpoint versus stacked chords in a previous blog, but I just couldn't help myself.

In one of my previous posts I said, "Not sure when I'll actually hear this, but it's still fun to write. Maybe someday." Well, that day is soon coming! When I took it to Dr. Staheli, he really liked it and asked if I would promise it to the BYU Singers. I just about died. This is a dream come true: to write music for this incredible ensemble and have their incredible director interpret it. I'm over the flippin' moon. Dr. Staheli has been studying it and we're going to start rehearsing after our November Concert. I am beyond excited! Writing music is fun (sometimes painful), but hearing it is unbelievably rewarding.

Tickets for the Christmas concert go on sale tomorrow (November 2nd), and typically sell out very fast. Please come if you can. Here's page one from the piece that I posted a while back, it's actually different now, but my computer is in the shop so I don't have the true updated version. This'll do for now. Once I get a recording, I'll post it here.

Update: I finally got my laptop back! Here's the real page one with changes:

Big Announcement Coming Soon . . .

2009-10-29T18:02:00.000-07:00

Hey everybody,

Watch this space in the next couple of days because I'm making a HUGE announcement soon. At least, I think it's huge. It's a big deal for me. I've kept it under wraps since August.

So yeah, get ready, and such.

Bryce Canyon and Zion National Park

2009-10-23T20:07:00.000-07:00

A few weekends ago, my sister invited me to spend the weekend in Brian Head with her husband and in-laws. Our weekend itinerary included Bryce Canyon and Zion National Park, which are both in fairly close driving distance. I had been to Arches National Park earlier this year and absolutely loved it. It was an incredible journey for me, almost a pilgrimage (if that's a safe word to use). On this trip, I was, again, pretty amazed by what I saw.

In Bryce Canyon we hiked down from Bryce point into the base of the canyon and all around and through the hoodoos (yes, that's their proper name) through the forests and back up to Sunrise point. It was a long hike but very much worth it. My sister and her husband were great company walking through all these amazing places. The major dilemma the entire time was "I can't take my eyes off this gorgeous landscape . . . but I'm on a rocky trail next to a sheer drop." This was typical most of the way up and down. Bryce was much more mild to hike here in October then say Arches in July, but I'm really glad we brought a lot of water because I got thirsty pretty fast.

I was reminded very much about Oliver Messiaen when he visited Bryce Canyon. He was so taken by the landscape that he used some local birdsong he dictated and wrote a piece called "Des canyons aux étoiles… (From the Canyons to the stars...)" Messiaen's music was driven by color a great deal. Seeing Bryce Canyon for the first time, I can understand why he, specifically, was moved enough to visit and dictate. The orange and red hoodoos against the green forest against the blue sky. It's much better in person than in these photos. I need to listen to that piece. I haven't found Messiaen's music to be very accessible, but after visiting, I had a great desire to buy a recording.

(Here's a hint for anyway who wants to hike in Bryce Canyon. Bring two cars (with two drivers) park one car at Sunrise point and another car at Bryce point and hike from one spot to the other. Then when you're done, just drive back to the other car and go home. I think there are shuttle services, but it's way more convenient if you do it yourself.)

The next day, after Bryce, we went down to Zion National Park. We got off I-15 and travelled along the Virgin River till we got to the mouth of the canyon. Now, Arches is amazing, Bryce is incredible, but Zion . . . there's something truly breathtaking about Zion. Most of the trip in I was speechless. I've never been so taken by a gorgeous landscape before. They do everything by shuttle now, which is kinda of a shame, but it's a good service so I don't mind that much. We drove past the different "temples" and "courts" up the canyon that got their names from their geological formations.

Our goal for this trip was to hike Angel's Landing. I've heard about this hike before, but only that it exists and that it's a good one. My sister and her husband told me that the first part is probably the hardest. The whole thing was pretty hard I think, except for "refrigerator canyon." We joke that the reason it's called "refrigerator canyon" is because it's been littered with refrigerators formally owned by greenie/treehugger/granola-munching/leaf-licking hippies.

When we got to "the saddle," I thought, "well that wasn't too bad, I could do that any day!" In fact, when we got to the saddle and saw how high were were I made the comment, "you know, it's moments like these when you say to yourself, 'dang, I'm so awesome.'" Then they showed me how far we had to go still. My heart sank with terror. It wasn't how far we had to go, or how high we had to climb. No, it was the sheer drops on either side of the trail. I turned to my sister and said, "so I have I mentioned that I'm kinda/sorta/a little/maybe/VERY AFRAID OF HEIGHTS!" I guess not. They provide a chain for you to hold on to (for dear life) at certain points. Even if I didn't need the chain, I held on like my life was on the line. I wouldn't say I overcame my fear, but definitely looked it strait in the eye and told it it's ugly.

Believe it or not, I made it to the very top and was greatly rewarded. I've never seen a view like that in my life. Yes, many people do a good job of taking pictures, but they don't do it any justice. Angel's Landing is a name very well suited. To me, hiking Angel's Landing and seeing that view was a very sacred experience for me. It wasn't the most sacred experience, but definitely one to be remembered. The whole place felt like a "temple" of nature. It some moments, I didn't want to speak for fear of disturbing the reverence of the place. Absolutely majestic. I highly recommend it.

Why I'm Glad Sound Recording Technology is a Music Degree

2009-10-06T19:37:00.000-07:00

I'm a music major, with an emphasis in sound recording technology. A lot of people find this very confusing. Why would sound recording be in the music program? Doesn't that belong in Engineering, or Physics, or some other technical school? I've also noticed some engineers ignorantly say, "why do I have to take music theory and history classes if I'm going to be a sound engineer? Learning about Leonin and Perotin doesn't make me a better engineer. Learning how to resolve a german augmented sixth chord doesn't help me know when I need to apply reverb."

I'm in an even more complicated situation because I'm in the classical voice studio for my instrument. Most of my colleges have chosen contemporary studios such a voice, guitar, drums or synthesizer. I feel fortunate because this gives me a perspective that most other musicians never have.

I've come up with a list on how being a musicians has helped me as a sound engineer and vice verse:

- Once, someone was recording a cello track in a pop song. The cellist was improvising, but the student "producer" wasn't happy with some of the notes he was playing. I was able to identify that he was playing the dominant when what we wanted to hear was the tonic. Identifying the key and matching that with my knowledge of the cello's range, I was able to suggest this change to the student. The results were much better.

- I record audition tapes for students trying to get into festivals or Master's programs. Having been a classical singer I'm able to better identify with what classical singers want in their recordings. Most of these goals in recordings are shared by instrumentalists as well. I recently got a compliment from one of the voice faculty about the recordings I've made for his students. "We like the recordings you make downstairs best." He's been recommending me to all his students.

- I learned in music theory how dissonant and jarring unresolved tri-tones can be in tonal music. This helped me learn why half-octave equalizers never became popular, because half of an octave is a tri-tone. Half-octave equalizers don't work as well to our ears as full-octave or third-octave equalizers do. That's the reason why.

- Most of us can tell when someone is singing or playing out of tune (or so out of tune that we consider it "off-key"). But how many of us can tell when someone is 25, 10, or 5 cents off? Or what we can do to fix it? Learning and performing music has sharpened my ears into a greater perception of tuning. I wouldn't be able to say "that's 14 cents too sharp," but I can hear it much more now than ever before.

- Sound recording has taught me to listen much more than I've ever done before. In sound recording we've learned and practiced two different ways of hearing: "Critical listening," and "Analytical listening." "Critical listening," is more about listening for the quality of the tone, while "Analytical listening" has more to do with the meaning of the tone.

This isn't close to a comprehensive list of everything, but these are some pretty big things that I can remember right now. My main feeling is that sound recording should be treated more like an art than as a science. I don't mean to downplay science, it's very important in my field, but science without art is dead. I considering this to be one of the best degrees available, and I'm glad I chose it.

First Concert of the Year

2009-09-27T13:43:00.000-07:00

This last weekend was our first concert of this new school year. It's the typical Choral Showcase with the Combined Choirs at BYU. Men's and Women's chorus started the evening with their combined number and their individual sets. Both have been working really hard and it payed off.

For our set we sang three songs:

- "Alleluia Cognoverunt Discipuli" by William Byrd
- "Abide with Me" arranged by Molly Ijames
- "With Drooping Wings" by Henry Purcell

The first is surprisingly difficult to memorize. I'm not exactly sure why this is, but it could have something to do with all the uneven rests. It actually came off really well, and were all glad that it all came together so well. Byrd is a really amazing composer. We're doing a song of his in Wasatch Chamber Choir.

The arrangement of "Abide with Me," was easy to learn and easy to sing, but what a powerful statement it turned out to be. It means much more to me now that it did in the past. Look up this arrangement.

The last song we sang a cappella without any strings. In this piece, we worked really hard on tuning and phrasing. It was easy to learn but hard to execute. When we took it to performance Dr. Staheli took it much slower than we ever took it in rehearsal. And even though we took much more time in certain places, all of us followed him with incredible flexibility. It was exhilarating to have everyone following something that we'd never practiced. We didn't do it as well the second night, but it was good.

Concert Choir sang just one piece, but it was the Magnificat by Finzi. Holy Cow. It was incredible. They sound like a million bucks. It was the first time I'd heard it, and I was blown away. Kudos to them for working the hardest of all of us. What a miracle.

Our next concert is with the King's Singers at the end of October. We'll be performing a relatively new piece by Eric Whitacre called "The Stolen Child." Tickets go on sale tomorrow! Also, a hello and thank you to "Ian" who came from the University of Utah to see out concert this weekend.

Hello Norway (God Dag Norge)!

2009-09-14T19:11:00.001-07:00

So, just in the past 48 hours, I've gotten about 75 hits from Norway alone. It must have something to do with the little review I wrote about the recent recording from Kammerkoret Nova. I'm not sure how the majority of them feel about it. I did get a kind comment from a lady named Mari who now lives in Denmark. Cheers Mari!

Well, I guess I should just say "Hello," or should I say, "God Dag!" I hope to visit someday. Keep making beautiful music.

As a side note, this weekend we had BYU Singers' semester retreat. It really lifted my spirits. Also I had my first graduate choral literature class with Rosalind Hall. It was FAN-JOLLY-TASTIC. I cannot believe this is a class, it's so flippin' fun.

Wee Payson

2009-09-06T07:16:00.000-07:00

The last couple of weeks before school started my friend BJ and I went up to Payson Lakes to have one last hoo-rah before school started again. I've been here once before but it was kinda busy, not really crowded, but busy. We decided to go Thursday during the day. Since school had started and other people were at work, we virtually had the place all to ourselves. For an hour or so, there was literally not another soul around.

There are three lakes up at Payson Lakes (which is located on the Mt. Nebo loop). The first time we went, we walked around the third one for a while and then swam for a bit in the second one. It was nice, but it was rather small, wasn't very deep and quite a bit of pond scum.

The third time we went up we bought some inner tubes (on sale) and floated out in the middle of the third lake (which is the largest). We just sat there floating for several hours, relaxing, enjoying the scenery and soaking up the sun. It was well nice. There's nothing quite like drifting around without a care in the world. It just felt so great to forget all responsibilities and give our minds relief. The third lake is prolly the best one.

After we were done drifting around, we got up on this dock nearby and got dry while lying in the sun. We spent the rest of the time talking about life, career plans, and this coming school year.

It's kinda sad that we didn't get to using this place till the end of summer. We should have come here all summer. I guess at least we got to come here while it was still warm. It reminds of me of relaxing on the beach in California. There are very few times when I feel so calm. So what do we do for winter?

Thanks for the pitchers BeeJ!

Back in BYU Singers

2009-09-02T16:23:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm back in BYU Singers this year, and I'm very excited about the possibilities. So far, we've been looking at a lot of Renaissance stuff, mainly Byrd and Taverner. We also looked at the first two pages of Bob Chilcott's "High Flight" that we're doing this with the King's Singers next month. Really looking forward to that.

Being back with a completely new group of people (there's been a lot of turnover this year) I started to ask a question: What does it mean to be in BYU Singers? Well, in my pondering, I've come up with a small list:

- You must be willing to learn a piece, rehearse it relentlessly, take time outside class to memorize it and then end up never singing it in concert or even recording it. All this without complaining, because it never felt like a waste of time.

- You must be willing to forfeit all personal space you once had. You do not have a "bubble."

- You must accept the fact that you will drop your music folder and all 60 pieces of music will spill out everywhere. And if you lucky, this might even take place in the middle of rehearsal. Bonus points for all the paper cuts you get trying to put your music back in some sort of order.

- You must not only gratefully accept constructive criticism and correction from those around you, but seek after it.

- You must get used to people thinking that because you're in BYU Singers you have this amazing voice that can do no wrong.

- You are with a bunch of other choir nerds who love choral music and have a palpable sense of ownership and commitment to sharing something profound. You've never felt more at home.

It's just a few things I thought of, and looking back on it, I'm just flooded with so many wonderful memories. This is such an amazing ensemble and I'm so privileged to be a part of it. At the same time, I understand completely that I'm still a pup in this group compared to everyone else around me.

I'm counting down the hours every day till the next rehearsal.

Third BYU Singers Recording

2009-08-26T12:18:00.000-07:00

Here's a recording of Josef Rheinberger's "Kyrie" from his Mass in Eb Major for double choir.

The Archive CD is almost done! Hooray!

One of my favorite posters . . .

2009-08-21T13:43:00.000-07:00

. . . to address one of my pet peeves:

Recording of Kammerkoret Nova

2009-08-16T08:35:00.000-07:00

Look what showed up in the mail yesterday! After seeing their music video of "Water Night" up on Eric Whitacre's blog, I decided that I had to investigate this choir for myself. Just looking around on their website, you get a sense of how cool this choir is. It's a good vibe. I wanted to buy the CD rather than download the album's MP3s because MP3s sound like garbage.

After waiting for a while, it arrived! Listening to it in my car and at my computer I have high praise for these engineers. It's been recorded very well. The acoustic is right, the mic placement is very good, overall, really good job.

There's a pretty good variety of repertoire on this album. First the Whitacre. They recorded both "Water Night," and "Sleep," with the idea of dreams as their theme. Let me just say that Whitacre is hard to sing for native-English speaking choirs, let alone a European choir. "Sleep" in particular is extremely difficult because of all the long phrases, sustaining a real "sostenuto sound," and tuning issues, but then add the words and it's at a whole other level. These are both exciting recordings, and in a time when Whitacre is being attempted by so many amateur ensembles that don't fully understand how difficult Whitacre is, these are so refreshing. My only complaint is that "Sleep" could have been phrased a little bit more. Lingering on a word here, putting less emphasis on less important words.

A highlight of the album for me was Rachmaninov's "Bogoroditse Devo." Excellent sound, and really exciting dynamics. This piece is a challenge for smaller choirs because of how it requires so much sustain. They pull it off really well. Another highlight for me was the "Ave Maris Stella," by Trond Kverno. I've always loved this settings since I first heard it in High School and to hear an actual Norwegian choir sing this was a dream come true. I do feel that the "Allegro agitato" in measure 29 needs even more agitation, but that's just my opinion. I also feel that the "Ave Virgo Sanctissimo" should have been at the beginning of their "Maria" set rather than at the end. I suspect the reason for this was because Ms. Sundal wanted a different color before going into the "Deus, Qui Illuminas." Which by the way is spectacular. That recording pretty much nails me to my seat every time.

The last track "Trilo," is the perfect album/concert closer for this choir. It's a stunning piece, and has been recorded here so beautifully. The notes say that it's based on western coast Norwegian tunes sung by the wives of husbands returning home from sea. It's hard to put into words how cool this last piece sounds to me. It almost feels like it was composed for this choir or something because they just nailed it here. The emotion of this recording is overwhelming and felt through the entire song. Something that this choir understands that others do not is that performances succeed best when the goal and motive is to express rather than impress.

Final thought: this is the kinda of ensemble I want to write music for. Great recordings with excellent performances. I highly recommend it.

Here's their music video of "Water Night," but just be aware that it doesn't sound as good on YouTube as it does on the CD.

Les Paul 1915-2009

2009-08-13T16:41:00.000-07:00

Counterpoint

2009-08-09T21:40:00.001-07:00

This week I bought a book about counterpoint from the BYU Bookstore (and even got $25 back for over paying!). This is an idea that fascinates me, but also eludes me. The notion of having multiple independent melodies all working together to create something harmonious is mind-blowing. It's also a feature that I think is missing in a great deal of choral music today.

The author quotes the late Robert Russel Bennett, an arranger for Broadway shows, who said that "counterpoint is the indispensable element in arranging; if it is missing, the audience's enjoyment of the music will be lessened, even thought they will not identify the missing feature."

Bold words. I can agree with him to a degree. I've noticed that a lot of new choral music coming out is mostly homophonic. Just a bunch of stacked chords. Now, don't get me wrong, I love stacked chords, and homophonic music can be really effective and moving. It can, however, be severely limiting. I want more to music that just chords, and singers want more to sing that just chords. There's something missing right now.

There's a certain kind of lost art/black magic associated with modern polyphony. It's an interesting kind of language to work in. There's only a handful of living choral composers I feel that really have it down and I am certainly not one of those. That's why I bought this book. I want to start understanding this element that is lacking from so much music today, but that makes a huge difference in the end result.

So, I've started with chapter one and will work through it slowly and probably blog about what I've learned and maybe even post some results. I have no idea how much of this I'm going to grasp, but I'm excited to at least give it a try!

Trip to Moab

2009-08-03T16:53:00.000-07:00

For Pioneer Day weekend I went down to Moab with some my greatest friends, and saw Arches National Park. It's really quite a remarkable place. It was very timely too, because I was getting very sick of the routine I was in. This was a great get-away, to spent some time relaxing and recharging. There's nothing quite like a good break.

On one of our hikes we got to talking about why we go on vacation. We asked ourselves what was so relaxing about hiking in sweltering heat in southern Utah in July. What's our motivation to get up and get away? When we take breaks, why do we travel long distances instead of seeing what our neighborhood has to often?

Regarding the last point, I knew some people in Northern Ireland who had never been to see The Giant's Causeway. From my own hometown, some friends have never see the Golden Gate Bridge or even bothered to cross it. It's funny sometimes how we'll travel around the world to see something, but wont bother with the wonders in our own backyard.

Anyway, I took this break because I wanted to get out of my office. Travel someplace where I could mentally escape my responsibilities even if only for a few days. I'm not trying to get out of my duties, I just needed some space.

More importantly, I went on this trip because I wanted to spend time with my friends, including my best friend. I wanted to strengthen my friendships with these people who are, in my opinion, the creme of the crop. They've meant a great deal to me. I was glad to be able to reconnect. Camping out in Moab, without any outside stress or obligation, allowed us to focus on what's most important.

At night, we were bombarded with stars. Our perspective of these constellations is quite fragile. We constantly forget about them simply because they are overpowered by city street lights. We all need a reality check now and then.

I highly recommend seeing Arches National Park and spending a lot of time there. Just go during a cooler time of the year!

Another BYU Singers Recording

2009-07-18T16:00:00.000-07:00

This time it's Monteverdi. This is us singing "Si ch'io vorrei morire."

This was actually not that difficult to edit. I had two recordings that sounded very similar to each other by way of mic placement and intonation and two coughs were in places that were rather easy to edit out. I'm not always that lucky.

Page one from "It Came upon the Midnight Clear"

2009-07-14T10:27:00.000-07:00

Here's a little sample of what I've just finished writing. Not sure when I'll actually hear this, but it's still fun to write. Maybe someday.

BYU Singers Recording (Sneak Peak!)

2009-07-11T17:10:00.000-07:00

Hey, I'm working on the archive CD for Brigham Young University Singers and wanted to share what I was working on. This is a recording of "Un soir de neige," by Francis Poulenc. It's a very difficult work, and definitely an acquired taste, but truly unforgettable.

Just wanted to let every who's waiting on the CD know that it's coming. Tell me what you think.

New Composition!

2009-07-09T19:50:00.000-07:00

So a few days ago I finished writing a new piece. It's a new setting of "It Came upon the Midnight Clear." Completely different melodies, harmonies, and rhythms. Nothing is the same. I'm cleaning it up right now and just tweaking it. I spend most of my time polishing stuff.

It's actually kind of amazing. I composed the majority of this piece in a single afternoon. That doesn't happen very often for me. Most of the time it stretches out over months, weeks, days at best. But this all happened really quite quickly. It was either A) a fluke, not likely to be repeated B) a byproduct of having my keyboard finally connected with my computer through the MIDI interface of my MBox 2 or C) the result an extremely focused mind. I had determined that I wanted to finish the piece that day and with that goal nothing was going to get in my way, so my inspiration gave way.

I've personally got money on A or B. I know I don't really let on about my whole process of writing. I don't really share this part of my life with a lot of people. Composing is a very personal and private affair for me, but I love sharing the results (most of the time).

I'll be posting a page or so in the future. Until then . . .

Wasting Time

2009-07-06T19:10:00.000-07:00

Okay, so to distract myself from composing and my other various projects today, I started watching Arrested Development on Hulu, and this commercial came up:

I nearly died laughing. I love how people can find humor in dire times, while still remembering that everything has a time and a season.

Just ignore the really poor overdubbing at the end.

California Legistlature = Fail

2009-07-01T11:03:00.000-07:00

Still no budget? What a joke. Why is this so hard to fix? Lawmakers will do anything to balance a budget expect cut spending. Government should protect the people, not burden them.

I'm ready for a new set of faces in Sacramento. As far as I'm concerned, everyone there right now is done.

Full Recording of Memories of Galilee (Fixed!)

2009-06-23T08:36:00.000-07:00

I'm trying out a Flash MP3 Player here and decided to use a full recording of "Memories of Galilee" as my subject. Hope it works. Tell me what you think. Enjoy:

It works! (I swear they did the modulation in tune several time during rehearsals!)

Been Here a Whole Year!

2009-06-22T10:25:00.000-07:00

I didn't realize till today that I've been blogging for a year now. 12 Days and a year ago today, I started blogging wondering what I was doing. I guess it works now. I still don't know what I'm doing. Right now, I'm editing the BYU Singers archive CD (late start), so I'll post some songs soon.

In honor of a year, I want to share two pictures that crack me up every time I look at 'em. Maybe I'm just an idiot/moron/dork, but I think these are hilarious:

Yeah for '80s throwbacks! Happy June!

Ciúnas

2009-06-18T16:27:00.000-07:00

So I'm working on that irish piece with poem by Dairena Ní Chinnéide. It's called "Ciúnas." I'm having a really hard time with it right now for one main reason. There's a line in the poem that says, "Ciúnas i mo cheann," which basically translates to "Quiet in my head." It is NOT quiet in my head right now.

I try and compose from what I refer to as "the concert hall in my head." Right now it's occupied with a bunch of other stuff. With so many things distracting me, I hardly have anytime for myself to sit quietly and listen. Maybe I should drive up to Midway this weekend or Payson lakes. I don't know.

Any suggestions?

Back in the Game

2009-06-09T20:28:00.000-07:00

Anyone reading this who is fluent in Irish Gaelic?

One of the things I wanted to get in Ireland (besides a lovely tan) was a book of poems in Irish Gaelic. I brought back four. Well, two and a half. I found two books of poems in their native language with side by side translations into English. One of the books is full of really old monastic and secular poetry from the 9th thru 12th Centuries. The other was a collection of contemporary poems called "An Trodaí/The Warrior" by a single author, Dairena Ní Chinnéide from Kerry. There's some really evocative and haunting stuff in here. I also found two books that contained some poetry in Irish as well as English.

I'm setting some of this into choral settings, but am having a hard time with it as I am not fluent (or even remotely competent) in Irish. If anyone is fluent, I'd sure appreciate some help.

On another topic, I got an internship this summer at the LDS Motion Picture Studio. I'm an audio editor for The Mormon Channel. I edit and mix content as well as openers, closers and bumpers. It's actually quite a bit of fun. I have one problem with Pro Tools though. I work with content that is typically 30 to 60 minutes long. When I want to bounce the entire episode to disk, Pro Tools does so in real time. So after several hours of editing content, I have to spend another hour listening while I'm bouncing to disk. C'mon DigiDesign! Give us the option to bounce immediately. I know the advantages of bouncing in real time, just give us the option.

I love summer. Have I mentioned that? It's a glorious time of year. I'm going back home to California for a week or so in August to visit some family, do some surfing, visit SF Symphony, and write. At least, that's the plan.

Oh, I wanted to post part of the episode where BYU Singers sang with the Tabernacle Choir on Music and the Spoken Word back in March. This was our closing number:

Back from Europe

2009-06-03T08:52:00.000-07:00

Hey, I'm back in America after a month or so across the pond. I was touring with BYU Singers in Ireland, Wales and England, and then stayed a week longer in Germany to see my family living in Gießen. While I don't have the time or energy to give an entire recap of my trip, I would like to at least mention some of the highlights for me and recommend you see the full tour story at the BYU Singers blog.

We started in Cork, which reminded me how much I love that city. It's big enough to have everything you need in a city, but small enough that you can actually get to know people and get about easily. It's really one of my favorite cities of all time, not just Ireland. We also got to take a train to Cobh (pronounced: "cove") and enjoy a beautiful day there. The weather was stunning the whole time in Cork, and it certainly didn't disappoint in Cobh. What did disappoint was the absolute lack of Fish and Chips shops. I couldn't believe the rotten luck of it all. No Chippies? Ridonculous.

We participated in the Cork International Choral Festival and had fun participating in all of the performance, but my favorite performance we did in Cork was in St. Micheal's Church in Blackrock. The place never filled up, but I didn't care at all. The people who came were so warm and friendly. The acoustic was fantastic for our music. Most of the time I don't feel that a long reverb time is appropriate for most live concerts, but here it was glorious. There were few venues after this that equaled it. This became one of my favorite concerts I've ever participated in.

Back to the Choral Festival, we participated in the Fleishman Trophy Competition and won second place. We also won the "P.E.A.C.E Award," which is given to "a choir who touched the hearts' of all who heard them and exemplified the intentions of the trophy's benefactors, the P.E.A.C.E. Movement, Cork." We felt so honored to have received this high compliment. We felt that we had accomplished the mission that we set out to complete. We all got to pass around the trophy and see what it looked like. It was a beautifully cut crystal bowl. We all joked afterward that it kinda looked like a really expensive candy dish, and that we should all expect to see it in Dr. Staheli's home or office filled with peanuts.

After Cork we went do Limerick for a concert sponsored by the branch there. It was particularly touching to me because I lived in Limerick for a while and made a slew of friends there. It's nickname is "Stab City," but when I was there I saw nothing but great people everywhere. After the concert I got to meet up with several of them. I hadn't been there for at least three years, but they all remembered me. I was swimming in nostalgia to see their familiar smiles. I only wished it could have lasted hours longer.

We then drove up to Derry. I got to visit Coleraine, where I had also lived, and we toured the Antrim coastline as well as visit the Giant's Causeway. We then drove on to Belfast and sang in the gorgeous Ulster Hall. This hall was one of the best places we sang. It sounded incredible and as you can see in the pictured, looked just as great. We were very impressed by the whole set up. It's too bad we couldn't use the organ but whatever. Just to name some other acts that have been on this stage: Charles Dickens, Edward Elgar, and Led Zeppelin. Actually, this is the hall were Led Zeppelin premiered, "Stairway to Heaven." I only wish we could have gotten a choral arrangement for the event.

This was a benefit concert we did for the Marie Curie Cancer Care Foundation with a group called Capella Ceciliana. The group performed a number of early Renaissance pieces, and also sang "The Lamb," by John Taverner. It reminded me how much I love that piece. Together we sang "Cantate Domino," by Claudio Monteverdi. Over all it was an amazing and memorable performance.

Next we went on to Dublin and spent a good while there. I also lived in Dublin for a while and was really glad to have a chance to visit again. It's such a magical place in spite of it's rough edges. Walking through the city center and hanging out on the Liffey waterfront brough back a wash of good memories. It's memories like these that keep you warm in cold times. After a short time in Dublin we took a ferry across to Wales. I have to admit, it was hard leaving Ireland again. It felt like I was leaving home again. Home has always been an illusive concept for me and I sometimes feel like I don't know where mine really is. Occasionally though, I'll get a glimpse or two of what "Home" is to me. Leaving Dublin was one of those rare moments.

Wales turned out to be a gorgeous place. We went up to the Wrexham/Chester area and did a concert there to benefit the Nightingale House Hospice, as well as perform a few songs at the Hospice itself. Since we had Professor Rosalind Hall with us (who conducts the BYU Concert Choir and Men's Chorus) we decided to visit her hometown in the south of Wales, Merthyr Tydfil. We performed in St. Tydfil's parish church and had some really magical moments. First, the acoustics were great (Hallelujah!). Second, virtually everyone in the room knew Prof. Hall and was anxious to see her conduct a few pieces. Almost all of us in Singers has sung with Sister Hall and so it was a pleasure to sing under her direction once again. There was a moment when we were singing "Pilgrim's Song," when we all started to tear up and I don't get misty-eyed when I sing. The evening was brimming with magic. Ralph Pullman (Prof. Hall's brother) gave us a safety lantern that was used down in the coal mines of Wales that symbolizes safety and peace.

We then dedicated a song to Prof. Hall and her family for their generosity in letting us keep her at BYU. She really has touched thousands of lives at BYU and it's been wonderful to have her. We sang, "Homeward Bound," and found a few days later that a video had been posted on YouTube. Here it is:

After Wales we went up to Liverpool, Preston/Chorley, and finished in Oldham/Manchester. Officially tour came to and end and we all went our separate ways. I myself went to on to Germany to visit my sister, brother-in-law, and nephew. We had a great time tromping around Deutchland. By special request, we went to Leipzig and heard two concerts in Thomaskirche. This is the church were J.S. Bach spent the last 27 years of his life working. This is the place were he wrote the B-minor Mass, the St. Matthew Passion, the Christmas Cantata, and hundreds of other cantatas. We got to hear Ensemble Concerto Sacro (absolutely stunning!) and the Thomaskirche boys choir. It was pretty awesome.

We then went to Limburg, Köln (and climbed the cathedral tower), Heidelberg, and Frankfurt city center. Everyone told me that Frankfurt was going to be a crappy place, but I actually really enjoyed it. It was beautiful week and we had a great time visiting all those places.

After a month in Europe though, I feel beat. I actually started pining for America. I'm glad to be back, and now it's time to get back to work. I've got some great ideas going and am going to start composing again shortly.

In Ireland . . .

2009-05-01T09:52:00.000-07:00

Hey all,

I can't post much right now. I'll just say, go to singers.byu.edu/blog for more/better updates.

Enjoy

Memories of Galilee (with Recording)

2009-04-21T21:55:00.001-07:00

This is a piece that I've been working on for the last two years (Most of that was polishing, I swear I'm faster now). It's an arrangement on the tune by H.R. Palmer with words by Robert Morris. Well, after years of polishing I had it performed by The Wasatch Chamber Choir (an ensemble I help conduct), and recorded with them too. I just sent it in to a music publisher. I hope they like it. Here's a 45 second sample, a performance I conducted, along with pg 4 from the piece. Enjoy!

Memories Sample.mp3

Two Very Hard Concerts

2009-04-12T08:10:00.000-07:00

These last two concerts have been some of the most difficult I've ever been involved with. The first one was back in March, the BYU Singers 25th Anniversary Concert. Why was this so hard? Three words: Two hour show. That's right 120 minutes of pure singing. We got a 5 to 10 minute intermission, but besides that it was guns blazing. And it wasn't packed with easy filler music either. It was HARD music.

Our Sets

Armaque cum scuto
Christus resurgens

Un Soir de Neige (Poulenc)
I. De grande cuilliers de neige
II. La bonne neige
III. Bois meutri bois perdu
IV. La nuit le froid la solitude

Zion's Walls
Down to the River to Pray
Followers of the Lamb

Cantate Domino (Monteverdi)
Kyrie for Double Choir (Rheinberger)
Alleluja, Christus Resurrexit (Mawby)
Gloria (Knauf)

Intermission

Evening Wind
Oread Farewell

Go Down Moses
Balm in Gilead
Ezekial Saw the Wheel

Si ch’io vorrei morire
Leonardo Dreams of His Flying Machine

And then with the Alumni of Singers we sang:
Sure on this Shining Night (Lauridson)
I Got Rhythm (arr. Staheli)
How Can I Keep from Singing (Staheli)
I mean, this thing was a beast! And there was no swapping out the way we usually do with Concert Choir. Usually we swap with Concert Choir and go back and forth between our sets, but we did not have that luxury this time. It was all us all the time.

It was really amazing doing this though. I felt like I had slain a dragon by the end. It felt so good singing all this amazing music, it was a wonderful feeling. Especially Leonardo. We really have never sung it better, even when it was stuck at the end and we were all tired. And singing with all the Alumni was amazing. We really are standing on their shoulders. They've helped build something amazing, and we're all just enjoying the harvest. They're heros in my book.

Next was our HUGE production for PBS, "The Pilgrim's Journey Home," We've been planning this one for three years. We were supposed to do it last year, but it ended up not happening. This year, however, it worked out great! Each ensemble (including the orchestra) had two solo pieces each. BYU Singers sang "Saints Bound for Heaven," by Howard Helvey, and "I Feel Like I'm On My Journey Home," by Dr. Staheli. The latter piece was really satisfying to sing. Even though we've been singing this the whole year I never tire of it. It's message is really piercing, and the arrangement is just exquisite. When we sang it both nights, it was probably the best we'd ever sung all year. Both nights were amazing.
Then we had the combined numbers. Concert Choir and Singers did two combined pieces. We sang "Whither Goest Thou Pilgrim, Stranger?" by Dr. Staheli, and "Homeward Bound," by Marta Keen. The later of which was a beautifully delicate setting that is really comforting. Men's and Women's Chorus had a combined piece with the orchestra, they sang "When Jonny Comes Marching Home." The four choirs had a combined piece and sang "Have I Done Any Good in the World Today?" by David Zabriske. Then, the entire group had three combined pieces at the end. "Pilgrim's Song" by Ryan Murphy (now associate director of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir), "Come, Come Ye Saints," by Leroy Robertson, and "Lead Kindly Light" by Mack Wilberg.

It was really interesting filming this, an entire night was dedicated to just filming the combined pieces without an audience. This is a huge deal! Ain't no messin' around. Some of my highlights from the weekend include the combined choirs doing the wave. We got really slap-happy tired between takes, and there was no audience so why not? Also, Having all the combined choirs in a circle was really quite an amazing sight. I can't think of a more beautiful sight then over 450 singers all on the same stage, singing so beautifully and sharing the same message. It's really unforgettable to see the circle close up and everyone contribute to something beyond us. Nothing can quite take the place of that.

Music and the Spoken Word

2009-03-29T17:38:00.000-07:00

Ha Ha! I'm blogging back in time! Betcha didn't know you could do that! Anyway, I wanted to share about my experience on Music and the Spoken Word.

So, Our call time was 7:20 in the morning. That's when we had to be there ready to sing. I'm not exactly a morning person so this was a little hard. To soften the blow, I decided to stay at my Grandma's condo up in Salt Lake. It's right across the street from the LDS Conference Center, so virtually no travel time! Still had to get up wicked early. So, after early wake up, short breakfast, beautification, I was ready to go.

Getting there we rehearsed for a bit in this room with a way low ceiling. Warming up such difficult repertoire early in the morning is super hard. But the Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square gave us cookies! They're awesome. After our warm up and individual rehearsal we went up to join the choir in the loft.

They put us in the center section and sat and listened to the Tabernacle Choir rehearse. Dr. Wilberg is meticulous when he rehearses. We're used to the same finickiness from Dr. Staheli, but it just seemed a little odd coming from Dr. Wilberg for some reason, I'm not sure why. Anyway, he had some brilliant things to say ("Men, put it in the top shelf"). He knows exactly what he wants and knows exactly how to get it. We then rehearsed some of our pieces together and our solo pieces. We sang "There is a Balm in Gilead," and "Whither Goest Thou Pilgrim, Stranger." The latter of which is actually rather difficult for us because, we're used to singing it with Concert Choir and their huge sound. Alas, there's only 40 of us. We did well though.

Next came our taped run through of the entire program. For some reason, singing for TV is ten times more stressful than it normally is. I mean, we've sung in front of cameras before, but Live TV is even more intense. After that came a break, and then the main event, the 9:30 downbeat. It was pretty exciting I must say. What a great challenge and wonderful opportunity.

I was surprised to find that rehearsal was so short. The responsibility is really on every single singer. If you're not there, you're not there, and ain't nobody gonna pick up the slack after you. I was also surprised to find that there weren't more briefings and policies about what you can and cannot do during a broadcast, or what to do in case something happens. I was also surprised to find myself really really tired at the end. Probably more tired then even our huge two hour concert (more on that later). I dunno.

Anyway, singing with the Tabernacle Choir on Music and the Spoken Word was a thrill. I highly recommend it to anyone out there. It's really quite exciting to sing with 300 really great musicians who are volunteering their time just like you.
P.S. Some guys from the Tab choir starting making fun of our ladies' outfit with their blue sparkles. The ladies basically retorted, "You're one to talk, you're wearing a burgondy blazer!" And the pot calls the kettle black. Hilarious.

Leonardo Dreams of his Flying Machine

2009-03-19T08:51:00.000-07:00

This is a video we worked really hard on. Come see our Concert this Saturday!

Leonardo Dreams from BYU Singers on Vimeo.

I could really use a . . .

2009-03-09T20:23:00.000-07:00

. . . massage. Anyone know a good place in the Utah Valley (preferably Provo area)?

P.S. I took two tests today: Music 302 (Music Lit) and 352 (Pro Tools). I don't think I did all that well on 302, but I feel fine. I'm not stressed out or anything. I actually feel relieved. The first time that's ever happened. When I took Music 301 tests I got physically sick from the stress. No fun.

P.P.S. I'm getting an MBox 2 this week with Pro Tools! Finally! My own copy of Pro Tools! Stay tuned.

Hilarious Commercial Right Up My Alley

2009-03-03T22:09:00.000-08:00

If you're a choir nerd and a sound geek, you'll love this. P.S. Don't adjust your volume.

P.P.S. Name that tune . . .

Radiohead at the Grammy's

2009-02-09T21:10:00.000-08:00

I love Radiohead (my favorite album is Kid A) and I saw them perform on the Grammy's with the USC Marching Band. I'm not a huge fan of marching bands, but this was flippin' brilliant. Here's the video:

Congrats Radiohead on the two Grammys!

Winter Choirfest and "Leonardo Dreams"

2009-02-04T11:14:00.001-08:00

I've been waiting for a while to talk about this concert for a little because it was really good. Well, actually, it's because I'm lazy, but let's not play the blame game. Basically this is a concert where all the choirs get together and sing in the Provo Tabernacle. Some of the highlights for me were:

- Concert Choir singing "I Will Lift Up Mine Eyes," and "The Battle of Jericho."

- Men's Chorus singing "El Yivneh Halgali."

- Woman's Chorus singing "We Are Pilgrims on a Journey" by Jared Oaks.

The were all spectacular.

BYU Singers sang three pieces: "Heartland" by Gary Fry and "Sure on this Shining Night" by Morten Lauridsen, but our masterpiece was "Leonardo Dreams of his Flying Machine" by Eric Whitacre. And it was breathtaking.

The idea behind this piece was to make a motion picture soundtrack to Leonardo da Vinci's dreams about flight. Eric Whitacre uses an amazing mix of old and new as he writes in his own style and quotes from Monteverdi's madrigals and imitative counterpoint. The poet, Charles Anthony Silvestri also takes Italian fragments from Leonardo's own notebooks about flight and sprinkles them throughout his own text. The second half of the piece is simply called "The Flight," where Leonardo "takes one last breath and leaps." The choir then starts to make sounds like a Renaissance engine with noisy motors, gears, propellors and wind. The song then ends with Leonardo flying away into the distance. It's an incredibly fun song to sing.

At first I didn't really get into this song that much, until our director, Dr. Staheli told us that he considers this piece to be sacred music. It's not really about Leonardo or a flying machine, it's about all of us and our dreams, visions and aspirations. It's about the dreams that we fear to actually live, but haunts us to the extent that we just can't live with out it. When you take that perspective, this song is no longer a gimmick, but a truly spiritual piece with a strong message that grabs the listener and doesn't let go. The feeling of the music and text is almost mercurial. We revel in the thoughts of flying, frightened by the fear of failure and then tortured to return again to our contemplations. We come to the point where Leonardo "steels himself" on the point of no return and jumps into the unknown, only to find that he grows wings on the way down. "The triumph of a human being ascending in the dreaming of a mortal man."

Because of these insights, this piece has taken on a completely new role in my life. It means so much to me now. And everytime I start to fear what I can do in my life, I'm reminded that what I need to do is "take one last breath and leap."

I'll post a recording for you all once I get my hands on one.

Rehearsing Galilee

2009-01-22T21:55:00.001-08:00

So, tonight I rehearsed "Memories of Galilee" with my choir and it was amazing! They went all the way through the second verse and chorus, and it worked out so well. They just took it and ran with it. It's so exciting for me as a composer to hear people get excited about my work and to hear them really sing it with heart. I can't wait to hear the whole thing! I'll probably post a recording or two.

One of my pieces . . . Memories of Galilee

2009-01-17T14:40:00.000-08:00

So . . . I've never actually posted any of my sheet music up here. Or even talked about it much. Here's a piece that I've been working on since 07/06. Yeah, it's been a long time.

This is basically an arrangement of a hymn by H.R. Palmer with words by Robert Morris. Mr. Morris wrote the words while on the banks of Galilee. It's gone by a few other titles such as "Each Cooing Dove," and "O Galilee," but I've learned that the original title was "Memories of Galilee."

I was learning a lot when I arranged this (still am), and I've spent nearly two years polishing it. I think It's finally ready, and I've started rehearsing this with the chamber choir I conduct. I'm really excited.

So here you are. This is page 4:

Research? Really?

2009-01-14T08:13:00.000-08:00

I have this pet peeve, people throwing around the word "research" like it means nothing. I constantly hear people saying, "I did some research on this or on that," when really all they mean is "I googled it." When people tell me they've researched something, I'm so tempted to say back, "Really? Are you sure you didn't just glean that from Wikipedia?" (P.S. I love Wikipedia)

Now that I know what research actually is I don't throw that word around anymore. Spending hours pouring over a stack of books about whatever searching for answers. I've done this many times till my eyes and brain hurt. My sister also does research in a laboratory constantly doing experiment after experiment trying to find the results she wants. These are examples of research.

So the next time you're tempted to throw around the word "research," ask yourself, did you really research it, or did you just google it?

New Laptop!

2009-01-07T13:56:00.001-08:00

I'm writing this entry on my brand new MacBook Pro! I got it yesterday, but only took it out of the box today. I wanted enough time to really set it up, plus I was totally intimidated by its ultra-hot looks. It's like rilly hot!

It's got some great features on it besides being super fast. This is my first step into the laptop world so I'm still getting used to having everything all in one place and all compact and stuff. I don't have all my files yet, but that'll all work itself out. I've already put Sibelius on here and it runs sooooooo much faster. I can't wait to see how this thing handles Pro Tools and Final Cut!

My Favorite Holiday

2008-11-27T19:58:00.000-08:00

Yes, it's true, Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. I mean, I love all the other holidays and all, but Thanksgiving holds a special place in my heart. Coming together with family, eating great food, and taking some time to reflect on what we're truly grateful for. It's a true American tradition (and Canadian I suppose). I love this time of year.

Of course, since Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, I'm always a scrooge about all that Christmas stuff that comes out before Halloween. This year though, I didn't mind so much. I dunno. I guess I've been too busy to notice. Oh well.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Our Concerts this Weekend

2008-11-16T09:41:00.000-08:00

This last weekend I got to sing in a concert with BYU Singers and Concert Choir. It was a lot of fun. It was full of ups and downs, but we came out soaring. One of my favorite parts of the concert was our format. When our two choirs perform we don't just have one choir perform than the other and that's it, we actually go back and forth alternating between the two. When one of the choirs isn't performing, they're seated upstage behind the group that's performing. That way, both choirs get to rest between sets and enjoy hearing what the other choir has prepared. I can't really imagine any better way to perform a concert now.

BYU Singers started the concert with two 12th Century Irish pieces, "Armaque cum scuto," and "Christus resurgens," both arranged by Michael McGlynn. To be honest, it wasn't our best, and I wish we could've had another chance at both of these. Overall, it was okay. The percussion we had was really cool though and really added to the effect we wanted.

Next was the set that we've really been preparing for, our pride and joy. We sang Un Soir de Neige (A Night of Snow) by Francis Poulenc. If you're not familiar with this work I encourage you to listen to it, and study it for a bit. It's a remarkable piece that's really hard to learn and even harder to master. We've been rehearsing it since early September and have been continually understanding it more and more till the moment before we performed it. It went really really well.

Next, Concert Choir performed their set of songs called, "Savior of the World." It was magnificent from beginning to end. They performed,
"Salvator Mundi" from Herbert Howells' Requiem
"Dare to Call it Good," by Thomas Tallis,
"Alleluja, Christ is Risen," by Stephen Paulus and
"Jesus, the Very Though of Thee" by Bert Vander Hoek.
It was a moving set of music, especially the "Alleluja" by Stephen Paulus. Concert Choir's interpretation was stunning with their trademark shimmering sound.

After this set, Singers got up and sang a set called "Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum" of four Latin pieces. These are old and new works of familiar latin text. These included,
"Cantate Domino" by Claudio Monteverdi,
"Kyrie in Eb major" by Josef Rheinberger,
"Alleluja, Christus resurrexit" by Colin Mawby and
"Gloria" by Greg Knauf
I could go on for a while about each of these pieces. but I'll just say that our "Gloria" was rockin'. The piece is so dynamic and electric that it's hard to not be caught up in it's tour de force.

Concert Choir sang next a delightful set called "Seasonal Shakespeare." Three Songs of Shakespeare texts set by different composers. They sang,
"It Was a Lover and His Lass," by William Mathias,
"Blow, Blow, Thou Winder Wind," from When Icicles Hang by John Rutter and
"Summer Sonnet" by Kevin Olson
The last piece was my favorite, using the words "Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day," the composer set it to a jazzy, rumba theme that just made everyone smile.

We finished the concert with a set called "The Road Home," which included pieces that will be on our fourth PBS concert film. Concert Choir sang, "Shenandoah," by Steven Samertz, and "Ain't That News" by Stephen Hatfield. Singers sang "I Feel Like I'm on My Journey Home," by Dr. Staheli. Then both choirs together sang a brand new arrangment of "Whither Goest Thou, Pilgrim Stranger," by Dr. Staheli that brought the audience to their feet.

It was a really fun concert to sing, and I had a blast both singing and listening. In case you couldn't make it, they taped it to be broadcast again on KBYU next year. So, so if you can catch it then.

Un Soir de Neige

2008-11-07T22:34:00.000-08:00

Check it out, I get to sing with these guys!

Rehearsal with the Singers from BYU Singers on Vimeo.

Sunday Ramblings

2008-11-02T19:13:00.001-08:00

This week I got sick from too much stress. I don't think I have a heavy workload but when the Music 301 tests come around . . . I feel like I haven't prepared enough (even though I studied till my brain hurt) and I start to worry. Then, when I start feeling my throat get sore my mind starts racing, "No, I can't get sick. I don't want to get sick. I don't have the time to get sick. I hope this doesn't get any worse. What if it does?" and then stress myself into sickness. At least it's not laryngitis like last year.

While I'm ill I've started to make some preparations for my junior recital which will probably be early to mid winter semester. I'm trying to figure out how much music to prepare, and who I can share the stage with (junior recitals only half and hour). I'll probably have a few French songs by Fauré and Duparc. German songs by Wolf and Brahms probably. As for Italian and English, I don't really know what to do. Any suggestions?

Yesterday I recorded all the guitar tracks for my recording project. I'm really happy with the results. I recorded an acoustic pretty much the same way I described before, and then recorded my electric with a D.I. box and by putting an EV RE27 on the cabinet. I tried a Sennheiser MD421 on the same cabinet and didn't like the sound. I mean, it was bad. I was just really glad to get all the guitar parts out of the way, now it's just drums, bass and vocal.

I'm still in the process of composing a really cool choral work. At least, I think it's really cool. It's actually the longest piece of music I've written so far. That's why it's taking so long. When I finish it and start polishing I'll write about it here.

Rehearsals are going great and our concert's coming up next weekend. Nov. 14th and 15th. Stop by and check it out. BYU Campus, Harris Fine Arts Center, de Jong Concert Hall.

Just dreaming of surfing. . .

2008-10-17T15:02:00.000-07:00

All I'm thinking right now is, "Man I want to go surfing again." I learned for the first time this summer and had a blast. Surfing is as much fun as it looks. Yeah, it's hard and stuff, but it's completely worth it. There's no feeling like it in the world. If you haven't tried it, I highly recommend it. If you've been putting off learning for a while, what are you waiting for? I put it off and regret having wasted so much time. So yeah. Surfing is great.

Awkward Bible Moments

2008-10-14T09:36:00.000-07:00

I've been reading through the Old Testament and have been learning a lot. I know this is out of the ordinary from what I usually post but I've come across some very interesting bits in the Book of Second Samuel that I felt I just had to share.

Background: When Saul was being a bad king, Samuel anointed David to be king. David serves Saul for a while and even gives his daughter Michal to him in marriage. Cool stuff. Eventually, Saul becomes jealous and tried to kill David. Michal helps David to escape and live. While David's gone, Saul gives Michal to another man in marriage, and technically becomes David's ex-wife. Awkward.

Okay, Saul dies and David becomes King and marries several other women and somehow still remains Israel's "most eligible bachelor." One day he takes the ark of the covenant into the City of David, sacrifices accordingly, and begins dancing. 2 Samuel 6:14 actually says, "And David danced before the Lord with all his might. . . " which I actually think is a pretty cool verse. But who else is at this party but David's ex, Michal herself! In verse 16 she looks out a window and sees David "leaping and dancing before the Lord; and she despised him in her heart." Awkward.

After a while Michal comes out to meet David and says in verse 20, ". . . How glorious was the king of Israel to day, who uncovered himself to day in the eyes of the handmaids of his servants, as one of the vain fellows shamelessly uncovereth himself!" Basically she saying, "Hey man, you're looking cool. NOT! Jerkface. You were totally dancing way more naked in front of those girls/groupies than you should've." How would you like it if your ex come up to you and said that? Awkward.

David, of course, shoots back and says in verse 21, "It was before the Lord, which chose me before thy father, and before all his house to appoint me ruler . . . over Israel . . . Therefore will I play before the Lord." Essentially, "Whatever. You don't know what you're talking about. I've got your dad's job now, so get outta my face." He goes on in verse 22 to say, "And I will yet be more vile than thus, and will be base in min own sight: and of the maidservants which thou hast spoken of, of them shall I be had in honour." Or in other words, "You ain't seen nothing yet." Awkward.

I literally laughed out loud when I read the final verse: "Therefore Michal the daughter of Saul had no child unto the day of her death." Of course! It seems so logical. I thought it was hilarious. Not sure if you all read it the same way that I do, or even if you thought this was funny, but whatever, I was in stitches.

By the way, "Dr. Awkward" is a palindrome.

Guitar Track

2008-09-26T13:38:00.000-07:00

At my work I'm one of the student engineers in one of the school's recording studio. This week I helped start a project for a friend in one of my classes. We laid down the click, the scratch and then the guitar track. We wanted to try out some different techniques and see what we liked. We also wanted options when it came to the mix down.

Basically we took a AKG C414, stuck it aprox. in front of the sound hole (but without getting that low woof typical of directly in front of the hole), put it in omni-directional mode without any roll-off or pad. Then we took a pair of SE3s (pencil condensor), put one pointed at the fretboard, and the other pointed at the back of the guitar's body on the right side of the player. We then panned the SE3s hard left and right. The result was spectacular. Phase wasn't a huge issue in this set up for us, and if we deside that the mix gets a bit too busy for this sound we can take out the SE3s and work just with the 414.

I always find it hard to describe sounds in words (besides actually immitating the sounds) such as "rich," "full," "present," "warm," "squishy," "biting," or "velvety." If you have the opportunity to try this set up and hear it for yourself I really encourage you to do it. It's appropriate for this project, but not be appropriate for other projects. I've taken the same SE3s and X and Y'ed them infront of guitars and gotten great results which work better with other projects. This is one of my favorite parts of working in recording sound: There's not really any wrong answers, there are just better answers depending on the situation.

I Still Can't Believe it . . .

2008-09-07T13:01:00.000-07:00

I've got some very exciting news to share. After a long and sometimes painful audition process I was accepted to sing with the Brigham Young University Singers. I still can't believe it. I've sung the last two years with the BYU Concert Choir and absolutely loved it. It's very hard to leave Concert Choir, but I feel that this is something I need to do right now. I'm excited to see the possibilities of singing with this group and the rewards of singing with them. We've already gotten most of the music for this year and it's pretty exciting. For those in the Utah Valley area, you've got to hear some of this stuff.

We're planning a tour to Ireland this April for nearly a solid month. I'm especially excited for this because I lived there for two years. I love the island and have many great friends there. I'm very excited to go back and meet up with friends again. Also, someone's got to be a translator for Dr. Staheli. Ha Ha! One of the things that drew me to audition was because Singers performs a lot, and records a lot. I'm really looking forward to it!

I have to admit, at the first rehearsal I felt like an imposter. Not because of this "I'm not worthy" fake humilty garbage, but simply because I've always been on the spectator's side. I've always watched and admired as a member of the audience. Now that I'm standing there singing with them, it just feels weird. Also, I found out how fast the choir moves in learning music. I sat there thinking, "Whoa. This is hard. This is gonna take a lot of work." You barely have time to breathe let alone think. I'm loving it already.

I'll update more about upcoming concerts later. This is going to be a good year. By the way, if any of you in the Utah Valley want to come to the christmas concert buy your tickets now. They sell out beginning of October.

Leaving California

2008-08-31T22:03:00.000-07:00

Well, I've moved back up to school now, and am twisted with mixed emotions.

I love to travel. I love to pack up and go, but moving is much more different. Picking up everything and moving becomes the most stressful times in my life. I've been doing in constantly for the past five years and will continue to do it for a long while still.

Going home to California for the summer was exactly what I needed at the time. I had such a great time and unwound from a stressful semester (and year). My trepidations of returning home after a long time away evaporated when I made new friends and reunited with old. My desire to root myself in the area came in conflict with my knowledge that I'd be leaving at the end of summer.

At the same time I've got some exciting possibilities for this semester. I've got lotsa friends up here that I really wanted to see again. I'm learning something that I love. There are so many good things about this school.

I'm divided between wanting to stay home in California or going to school in Utah. I've got friends in both places and reasons to be in either place. This internal conflict is nothing new but presently stings more than usual.

I'll just have to keep busy.

Radiohead in Golden Gate Park

2008-08-23T09:45:00.000-07:00

I've been looking forward to this concert since May when I bought my ticket. This was going to be my great way to end the summer. The Outside Lands Festival was also the first amplified concert at night in Golden Gate Park. A friend of mine and I decided to go together since we are both huge fans. I want to divide my comments and thoughts between sound engineer, musician and spectator. But before I do that, I want to gloat a bit. With a recent surgery I was able to get myself a handicap placard for my car. Not only can I park in handicap spaces, and metered parking (without paying), we got to park inside the park mere feet from the concert entrance as opposed to outside the park two miles away. Aw yeah.

Sound Engineer: This was my first concert where I decided to wear earplugs. At previous concerts I just bore the brunt of it, or left early when my ears started to feel it, or the concerts have never gotten loud enough to need them. I decided to buy some good ones this time and see how they fared. Finding the right position for them in my ear canal took some trial and error, but eventually I found the ideal to attenuate just enough sound without muffling it. As a result, after a full concert I had no ringing in my ears when I went to bed last night. None! And for those of you who don't know, that ringing in your ears is BAD, BAD NEWS. I met a man who had tinnitus by age 15, and has to deal with ringing ears the rest of his life. There's no cure or treatment. None. So protect your ears with GOOD ear plugs. Okay rant done.

I felt the mix had way too much bass and way too much kick. It's almost like they built the mix around the kick, which I don't understand, 'cause I build the mix around the vocals. The biggest disappointment though was when the audio failed, TWICE! Right in the middle of Airbag and All I Need. Needless to say we were all upset. At first, I thought "I understand this happens sometimes," but the second time I thought, "Ya know, we just don't tolerate failure in audio anymore." When the audio got cut out the monitors on stage were still working, and the cut was so clean (no pop or hiss) that it was probably a digital component that failed. The audio just failed going through the main house mix. Thom said something about how they didn't have much time to set up and apologized.

Musician: Something that was truly impressive was when the audio did fail the band kept playing like nothing happened (even thought they totally knew). Sound was gone for at least 30 seconds, but the band kept playing and getting through it. To me, that's what separates the good from the great. Lesser bands would have just stopped and waited for the problem to get fixed. But to keep playing, that takes guts.

The band performed up to standards and beyond. They did not disappoint when it comes to performing the best that they can. They also played some of the best songs in their catalog. Some highlights were "15 Step," "Airbag" (before the audio failed), "Nude," "Talk Show Host," "National Anthem," "Karma Police," "Just," and "Fake Plastic Trees." I was so excited to hear "Talk Show Host" not just cause it's one of my favorite songs but also because as far as I know they don't play it a lot. It was a really good performance of it too. For the entire set list go here.

One thing that I wish was different was how the band just went from song to song to song without talking much to the crowd. To me that's one of the things that makes a concert so special. It felt a bit too much like a jukebox. When the band started playing "You and Whose Army?" Thom started laughing and started messing around at the piano before starting again. With the camera right on his eye he started making faces and creeping us out. It was hilarious, and wish there was more of this throughout the concert.

Spectator: The biggest disappointment for me was how much pot there was. Now I know it's a hippie fest in Golden Gate Park and all, but my friend and I were both surprised at how much marijuana there was. Neither of us smoke so it was really uncomfortable for us. It wasn't just three or four people, it was literally everyone around us. We were both surprised at how indiscreet it was too, and WHO was lighting up (I swear, they could have passed as my grandparents). All we wanted to do was enjoy a Radiohead concert, not worrying about holding our breath waiting for the smoke to blow away (thankfully it was breezy). It seems so inconsiderate and rude.

The lighting was incredible. One of the best lit shows I've ever seen. It was so creative and simply remarkable. When the band concluded with "Everything in its Right Place" and left the stage it didn't feel over. Yeah, it was a two hour set, but it felt incomplete. I don't know. I was waiting for more. It was like there was no closure.

The biggest shocker was as we were walking away: the ground was covered with litter. This is Outside Lands, the whole point was to get out the message of global warming, recycling, composting, leaving smaller carbon footprints. With all this rhetoric about saving the earth it seemed so hypocritical to have so much trash on the ground. How bad was it? It was worse than litter left after a ball game. My friend and I don't exactly swallow the whole climate change pill (we're both skeptical of either sides), but we wouldn't even think about littering. It was a shock.

So, all in all, it was a good show in a crappy circumstance. I wanted to just pick up the show and drop it into a better place. I can't fault Radiohead at all. They were phenomenal. Everything else was a let down.

My Sister's Wedding

2008-08-20T22:34:00.000-07:00

Yesterday my little sister got married. It was a big day with lotsa stress. She was married that morning and had the reception that evening. The weather was very pleasant. It's California, that's a given.

I have to say, the ceremony that morning was so beautiful it made the reception seem anti-climactic. I love her new husband. He's a great man and seeing him make her so happy is all I've really wanted for her. I'm glad I got to be there to watch them make promises to each other for eternity, not just till death. It was so beautiful. I wish them all the best.

The sad confession I make in all this is that I still haven't gotten them a wedding gift yet! I'm always late on stuff like this (I have a friend in England who still hasn't gotten one from me yet . . . It's on it's way mate!). I have a good idea on what to give them, but I have yet to make good on it. It's gotta be something personalized and awesome. Something they wont want to return. Ha Ha!

Standing on the edge . . .

2008-08-06T11:38:00.000-07:00

Currently, I'm on the brink of something that's potentially very cool. I'm in the middle of writing two new pieces. Each of them is for a different type of ensemble and each of them has their own sound, color and tonal language. It's very exciting to go back and forth between the two and shift gears so dramatically. It's like speaking in Japanese and then suddenly in Swahili. Both pieces have multiple movements and

The main challenge right now is that one of the pieces is being written by stream of consciousness. I'm basically writing it as it comes; as it falls out of my head. I've got a general idea of the form, but the actual music is just coming in consecutive order. The second piece on the other hand is not so easy. I've already got the last movement composed in my head, and the second to last as not to far behind, but they're room for flexibility. The first and second movement are still very vague in my head. The transition between these movements are meant to be smooth and seamless. I'm worried that if I start dictating the last movements it might not match up with the first movements. I'm also worried that if I start writing the first two with this vague idea, it wont turn out as good as I'd hoped. I'm sure this makes no sense, but this is my dilemma. Exciting!

Anyway, should be fun to see what happens. I'll keep you posted. I noticed that I'm just writing mostly about my composing and not much about audio or my singing. Well, that'll come later I suppose.

Helping a Friend

2008-08-01T21:46:00.000-07:00

Sometimes, life happens. Good and bad. We can't always foresee it, prevent it or anticipate it. It just happens, and it's a shock. None of us are exempt. Life just happens.

I've got a friend whose going through this right now. Only problem is, this friend is hundreds of miles away. I can't be there in person to help out. The only option I have is the phone and email. It's a huge limitation to what aid I can offer. In a way, I feel powerless.

This is a friend whose helped me many times in the past. This is what friends are for, to help when the other is down. I suppose I'll just have to do what I can with the phone.

Hang in there friend.

Chihuly is a Genius

2008-07-27T20:45:00.001-07:00

So, last week I went to the de Young museum in Golden Gate Park to see the Chihuly exhibit. Unbelievable. I enjoyed his works before, but seeing so many different works in person was a dream come true. You might have remembered his works from the Bellagio in Vegas? Truly remarkable works. One of the keys to this exhibit was the lighting, and it was interesting to see how the light had so much to do with the final result.

I've read a comment recently from an author that modern music is "pretty again," and I'm sure that some people have said this about art as well. It's finally "pretty again." I'm not sure if I would say this myself although I do hold similar reservations about modern works. I would even somewhat agree with this point, but I've never felt that something has to be pretty to be good or that something good is pretty.

Chihuly's work on the other hand is both. If you wanna sit back and admire the colors you can. If you want to delve more deeply into it, there's plenty to find. All his works have a story behind them. I can't say that there's some sort of message behind them or that they're meant to make a statement. I personally feel that the whole idea was to create something that looked cool. He just wanted to make something that looked cool. And what's wrong with that? Make something enjoyable to look at, something with aesthetic appeal, sit back and enjoy it. What emotions are evoked when you see these works? When these colors are put in these patterns on this medium? It reminds me a lot of Rothko, that color can have a powerful impact on the soul. But what'do I know?

I highly recommend seeing more at Chihuly's website but more importantly, to find the nearest place that has his works and see them in person. These photos, as lovely as they are, don't do them any justice (especially the lavender reeds below). I've always felt photos undermined sculpture anyway, but until I can afford a $6,000 piece myself, I'll have to settle for this.

You've got the nerve to write a fugue. . .

2008-07-23T10:53:00.000-07:00

So, I'm writing part of a fugue into one of the aforementioned pieces and needed some brushing up. So I google "how to write a fugue," and find this video. I started cracking up. Say what you will about Glenn Gould, but he could write and had a great sense of humor. Enjoy.

Sunday Musings

2008-07-20T19:48:00.000-07:00

Wow, today is such a beautiful day. First of all the weather here in California here is just so beautiful, but also, today's just been a great day all around. I spent at least two hours on the phone with my sister in Boston. It was a great time chattin' it up. One of those genuinely lifting conversations where both parties end up learning so much. Also, I've got good friends around to lift me up and keep me on my feet.

I listed out all the music that I've started sketching out but haven't completed yet. There's about 8 pieces in total. Some of them are short, but others a quite long. It's a bit daunting, and I'm kinda thinking to myself "Where did all these come from?" and "Where in the world do I start?" I don't see it as overwhelming. I'd like to finish two, maybe three by the end of summer.

I'm still quite busy, and there are bumps in the road, but I'm very happy. In fact, I don't remember being this happy in a long time. I'm just genuinely happy, not just temporarily amused. I don't really know how else to express it. I have a lot to be grateful for.

Le Sacre du printemps

2008-07-19T13:24:00.000-07:00

Everyone wants to have some sort of exclusive hold on music that most of their peers have never heard of. To listen to something that no one else is listening to. For me, that's classical music.

Here's a video I found of the LA Philharmonic playing one of my favorite sections from "The Rite of Spring" by Igor Stravinsky. It was taken from their Grand Opening of the Walt Disney Concert Hall (which is a phenomenal concert hall both esthetically and acoustically). Enjoy.

"New World" at the San Francisco Symphony

2008-07-12T09:26:00.000-07:00

Last night I saw the San Francisco Symphony for the first time. It's kind of embarrassing, I've lived in the Bay Area all my life but never taken the time to go see the Symphony. I decided I finally needed to go and see what I've been missing this whole time. Turns out this was the best opportunity: The played Beethoven's Piano Concert No. 5, "Emperor," and Dvorák's Slavic Dance No. 8, and Symphony No. 9, "New World." In a few weeks the San Francisco Symphony will take their summer break and come back in September when I'll be back up at school. I really lucked out here.

Entering the concert hall was great. I did a research paper on the acoustic renovations of this hall and had seen so many photos of the place that I felt I had been there before. I looked at the famous "acoustical cloud" made up of over 100 adjustable glass convex squares and saw how they were arranged. It's hard to explain. To see what I'm talking about check out this movie and this panorama.

The orchestra was a bit smaller that I was expecting, I suppose it's because it's the summer. It was conducted by James Gaffigan for the summer instead of Michael Tilson-Thomas. Gaffigan turned out to be a really good conductor. The Slavic Dance was played very well and despite it being short, it was bursting with energy.

Next, Natasha Paremski came onstage to play the "Emperor Concerto." She is a stunning pianist. Her interpretation was incredible, and played with great sensitivity to each passage, and maintained a fluid sort of grace the whole time. You could tell at the same time that she owned that piano; she let it know who was boss. It was probably the best "Emperor Concerto" I've ever heard. I would like to hear this girl play Rachmaninov and see what she does with it. The only down side was that she didn't play an encore.

Dvorák's ninth was the final work on the program. I've heard it played life once before, and it wasn't very good, so I was more than confident this was going to be awesome. I was not disappointed. The SFS made the whole work sound tremendously exciting from beginning to end. Even though some of the players probably had the attitude of "Well, this is a summer concert. It's not part of the real season. I don't really have to work as hard," it didn't keep the rest of the players down. For the first time I could really hear America's influence on Dvorák. He didn't quote folk tunes but he wrote new tunes and made them sound like they were quoted folk tunes. Genius.

The highlight of the evening was the Largo, the second movement. The English Horn player doesn't really do much the rest of the evening and he's got to be warmed up, tuned and really to impress by time the huge solo comes up in the Largo. He was right on the money tonight. Along with the strings, it was just an emotional powerhouse. Gaffigan led them well through the dynamics (albeit a little too fast for my taste) and phrasing of the piece.

All in all, it was a great evening of music. You really can't beat actually going there to hear it in person. All I gotta say is: Keep Music Live.

Fragments

2008-07-09T22:17:00.000-07:00

Just as small update here,

I've finished three pieces of music in the space of just a few weeks. This never really happens. To think that I just spent four months in writers block. I've just recently become flush with ideas. I have the problem sometimes where I think of all these great ideas and never really flesh them out to their fullest potential. Out of 20 good ideas, I'll finish maybe three. I wish I had the capacity and ability to finish them all. This week though has been good for finishing ideas. If I can just keep up with what's falling out of my head...

Future of Audio

2008-07-02T13:05:00.000-07:00

I just got a new USB turntable to convert some of my parents vinyls to CD. Meanwhile, while I'm capturing the recordings through the turntable's USB output, I'm listening to all these vinyls on my stereo through it's analog output. Simply put, the sound is amazing. The high frequencies are beautifully rounded off and clear; everything is full-bodied and everything has a lot of presence. This is something you just can't get from a CD or MP3. Audio sampled at 44.1 KHz starts to fall apart at 5 KHz. MP3's quality is even worse. The quality just doesn't compare.

There are some draw backs though. Vinyls are quite fragile and easily damaged. Pops and cracks are a common place. They are large and unwieldy, without any shot at portability. Despite it's incredible sound, it's not quite the ideal medium.

So what's the solution? The sound quality of vinyls with the durability and portability of CDs, does it exist? By way of digital audio there are two options: PCM and DSD. PCM is the way digital music on CDs are sampled. We can increase the sampling rate into triple digits, say 192 KHz. Bluray disc can handle high sampling rates, but still takes a lot of processing power to make it happen. DSD isn't sampled the way that PCM, and for that it sounds fantastic. This is closer to analog that any other option (some say it sounds even better). Super Audio CDs (SACD) can playback DSD. The problem is with the way it's sampled, It's pain to edit and tweak in the studio. It's not supported very much in the professional world.

Do we have a solution? Not yet.

Disappointing Baseball Game

2008-06-25T23:14:00.000-07:00

Tonight I went to go see the Oakland A's at McAfee Stadium (smelly place) with some friends. I'm pretty disappointed. I don't know what the problem is, but we played bad the whole night. It seemed like every inning we got three outs in five minutes or less. What's going on here? These aren't the A's I remember. Granted I have been away at school and Ireland for the past five years, I just thought our team was better than this. I guess that's why the tickets cost $2 and the hot dogs were $1 each. Can't beat that. Even still, the stadium wasn't even half full (or half empty).

I'd probably be more disappointed if Baseball was my favorite sport. Football (or what the U.S. calls Soccer) on the other hand is my favorite sport to watch. I can get pretty involved with it, if we Americans ever played it or broadcast it on TV. I don't even know how to tune in for the EuroCup! I've gotta change that. I haven't gotten my "footie fix" for quite a while, and I'm feeling it. There's nothing quite like a good ol' game of football, but then again, every sport has it's perk.

Random thoughts about composing recently

2008-06-24T22:12:00.000-07:00

Well, I just finished polishing a piece that I've been writing for some time. I finished it last night and spent today fixing all the crappy things I did. Now, it goes away for about a month. I'm currently working on polishing another piece I wrote almost two months ago. It's pretty exciting stuff.

Yesterday, I printed out an piece I've written for choir and orchestra. I decided to go to Kinko's to print it on tabloid paper. The thrill of seeing my piece printed out on huge paper is hard to express. There's just one slight hang up. I wanted to get the thing spiral bound with a covers on the front and back but Kinko's doesn't have any tabloid binding. I ended up just stapling it together – kinda killed the magic.

I've got a lot of projects that I'm working on that I wonder if I'm spreading myself too thin. I have lots of ideas I'm currently trying to flesh out – which has always been one of the hardest parts of composing for me. Sketching is usually one of the easiest. The best part about composing though, is finishing a piece, having people perform it, and then hearing people unconsciously hum it to themselves. Now that's a great feeling.

California High Speed Rail

2008-06-18T09:10:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I heard about the possibility to built a high speed rail system here in California. I had heard about it before, but I didn't know how much had been planned. I found this website and a YouTube video. I also found a great article in the Fresno Bee.

I must admit, this sounds so flippin' cool and would be a amazing novelty, but more importantly this is the future of our transportation. We just can't afford to continue doing what we're doing, we've got to think of other solutions. I've always been big on improving the public transportation of the United States. After being in Ireland for two years and seeing what there system is like impressed me. We need something better here in America, and this is a good step.

Inauguration

2008-06-10T10:41:00.000-07:00

This is all a little weird for me...

I didn't think I would start a blog for a number of reasons. One of which was that I had already done this before six or seven years ago in High School. I was blogging before blog was even a word. But here I am, after all this time, at it again.

It leaves me with a lot of questions. How much do I make this a self-indulgence thing? How much do I reveal about myself. Besides the obvious answers, I guess it's a boundary I'll be learning about.

So a little bit about myself. I love music. I'm pursuing a degree in music, and it permeates just about every part of my life. Some might consider it the professional invading the personal, but I'm loving every minute of it. I really can't see myself doing anything else. People ask me what I specialize in, my reply is always, "Listen, I've finally just narrowed it down to music. I have no idea yet." It's kind of a lie. Technically my emphasis for my degree is in Sound Recording. I still have many interests though and have realized that what you do for work is not always closely related to what you majored in. I'm also a classical singer, and a free-lance composer. I'll post some of my music later on.

Why this title? I dunno. It sounded good. It was a sign I saw on the mirror in a Reno gas station bathroom. When I saw it, I knew I had to capture it on my phone's camera. When I was talking to a friend about starting a blog and what I should use for a title, she suggested the sign I saw in Reno. I guess it works. It's the kinda thing that gets my attention, and makes me laugh.

Well, I think this is a good start. More later. Cheers.