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August Champlin
- Male
- Korea, Republic of
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Welcome, August Champlin!
Music
Profile Information
- What have you composed for? Or what medium do you work around?
- film, Choir, Orchestra, Small Ensemble, Songs
- What is your favorite genre or style of music?
- Classical & Jazz
- Is music your main income source?
- No - Not at all.
- Where do you live?
- Korea
- About Me:
- My goal:
To harmonize with God's creation song.
Education:
Graduating with a BA in Music, I quickly found work in an unrelated field, teaching English. The change in career plans signaled to the onlooking world (consisting of 6 billion largely apathetic souls and my very relieved parents) that this budding composer would bud another day. After getting an MA in English, I quickly found work in a remote corner of the globe training Korean English teachers.
Living in Korea, where I couldn't express myself fully (or at all, really, in the local language), I found music the natural alternative to journaling. Of course, I kept diaries, but they became increasingly inarticulate. The larger life of the soul, a life cut off to a "stranger in a strange land," found sanctuary in music. Or perhaps God was calling out to me, stirring the internal music within.
I found a church to play the piano in and noticed that as I used my modest talents to serve others, they grew as they hadn't when I used them for self to strike out at being significant. So I decided to write music with a larger goal than had motivated my previous efforts, which had been motivated by such concerns as being "original." I doodled at the keyboard in quite the same spirit I had seen people from the Celebrate Recovery program at my old church in the States wave their hands in abandon, praising God for releasing them from a life of slavery to addiction.
A presence I hadn't felt before suddenly joined me, and my doodling transformed into communicating--expressing gratitude for life, love, and all that is beautiful around us. I was no longer trying to be "fresh" or "original" (as you can discover for yourself by listening to my music). I was simply trying to express the songs within, the songs of the soul open to the Spirit of Life that awakens it.
August Champlin's Blog
About Each Composition
The Rose of Sharon
Each day I worked on this piece, I sat at the keyboard, prayed that my thoughts would be in synchronicity with the movings of the Spirit, and worshipped while composing. I often felt distinctly impressed, while working on it, to proceed in a certain direction, when my natural inclination was to go in another direction. The resulting work is probably my strongest, but I'm not sure I can take full credit for it. Perhaps it is better to say that it was channelled. When ru… Continue
Each day I worked on this piece, I sat at the keyboard, prayed that my thoughts would be in synchronicity with the movings of the Spirit, and worshipped while composing. I often felt distinctly impressed, while working on it, to proceed in a certain direction, when my natural inclination was to go in another direction. The resulting work is probably my strongest, but I'm not sure I can take full credit for it. Perhaps it is better to say that it was channelled. When ru… Continue
Posted on June 19, 2009 at 4:00am —
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I enjoy listening to your spirit. Such passion for music and life.
Thank you for venturing over to my page! I appreciate it..........
My best
I liked your Choral. You could try to sing its lyrics in good English by Myriad Harmony Assistant with Virtual Singer. It would be better than with Word Builder.
Regards
1) Kenneth Gilbert
2) Davitt Moroney
3) Trevor Pinnock
4) Laurent Stewart
5) Ton Koopman
6) Karl Richter
7) Zuzana Ruzickova
8) Gustav Leonhardt
I'll consider describing in a blog the techniques I used in the Variations.
I will say that one really awesome sound is to have strings play ppp sul pont while the clarinet in its low registers fluttertongues and goes quickly in and out of p - f - p. Sounds almost like electronic music. You'll find that sound in my Sextet for clarinet and strings a little past the midpoint.
Your piano solo is quite enjoyable - baroque tinged with more modern elements.
But i'm still jealous about the sheer beauty of Rose of Sharon.
Fred
May I invite you to listen to "American Songs" now posted on my home page.
Thank You
Fred
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