All Blog Posts (871)

A Medieval Songbook: Troubadour & Trouvere by Feltcher Collins, Jr. et al.  (University Press of Virginia, 1982) is a valuable resource for performers and listeners of medieval music.  

Although the phrase Medieval music is likely to suggest to the general listener Gregorian chant and the church music of such composers as Hildegard von Bingen, there also exists a considerable body of Medieval secular song, most notably by the Minnesingers of the…

Complete Country Dance Tunes from Playford's The Dancing Master, edited by Jeremy Barlow (Faber Music 1986) may be of little interest to most people, but of the highest interest to those interested in its particular subject. Playford's Dancing Master was a collection of traditional songs with basic dance notation which went through numerous editions in the 17th and 18th centuries. It's usually described as a collection of English tunes, but many of them have origins…

Ancient Irish Airs and Dances: 201 Classic Tunes Arranged for Piano by George Petrie (Dover, 2002)

One of the most important collections of traditional Irish tunes was George Petrie's Ancient Music of Ireland, put together in the mid-19th century. Petrie's work went through various editions and abridgments, including one giving 201 tunes from Petrie's original book in score arrangements for piano, without lyrics, published in 1877 by F.Hoffman, of which this Dover…

I currently mostly use Sibelius notation software. For creating demos, these samples are not great. You can get plugins, but this is limited. What is a more effective/efficient way of creating demos?

So far the most promising thing I've found is Dorico, though I don't know much about that yet.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKaqprDhslU

Perhaps there can be some compatibility between Cubase and a more sophisticated…

There is so much to learn about how to abolish writer's block, to connect to the CP, and enjoying the artistic life without frustration because the development of a great idea is elusive. It's fantastic how kids can play for hours and stream creativity with or without friends. Somewhere along the trail of being human we lose some of the ease with which ideas flow. But, kids are all born with this ability and it is magnificent to watch and listen to the way they play. Artist struggle on so…

Hi, everyone--I hope the New Year is going really good for you and yours so far :)

If you have a chance, there's a blog post about my composing entitled "Conversation with Composer Bob Morabito" that you hopefully might find interesting:…

"Reincarnation of a Lovebird," in section B, the changes go like this:

B-9  Eb13  G#7(#9) C#+7 F#m(M7)   (The piece is in F#m)

The first change is very strange. 

To see this in black and white, transpose to Am and the B-9 to Eb13 becomes:

D-9 to Gb13

First listen to it.  It works.  It seems to pivot on the E (Fb).   (D-7 is much weaker to my ear)

(You can even reduce the chords to D/F/E (R,3,9) to Fb/Bb/Eb (7,3,13) and it still works)

Gb13 is…

Hi, this is my first post, I'm music composition student. Hello everyone.

I'm searching for books about neoclassical music harmony. I know there are big differences for every neoclassical composer, but am trying to understand neoclassical music and write my own piece. Up until now I have only read on the piano and analyzed some of the most famous pieces, but It would be very useful to have a guide. I'm also interested in music analysis books if there are any.

Thank you for…

I deleted a couple of things on my SoundCloud, so I could fit on my piano concerto "Chaos". It's not like a normal concerto where it battles with the orchestra. Here it is the engine of the orchestra. It wasn't originally a concerto, but the piano part became so important that I needed to give it solo billing. This is a midi (NotePerformer) version. I've had to approximate some of the free sections and fake the key clicks, but otherwise it is pretty accurate. …

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JH38lvFQqkI

Prelude in F Minor

This is a piece I wrote for a film in a film scoring class I took at Berkley School of Music.  

I've recently revised (again) my Water entry for the last contest, The Black Pool. Some were disappointed by the ending, and so was I, so I've hopefully made it more interesting. It's also a better playback medium. https://soundcloud.com/sferre701/the-black-pool-1

I'm also hoping to post my piano concerto, Chaos, as soon as I can free up a little more space on SoundCloud.

I've created a realization of my Symphony No 3 using NotePerformer3, and have uploaded it to SoundCloud for a limited time, since it is 27 min long and is hogging space. If anyone wants to see a score, just ask.

https://soundcloud.com/sferre701/symphony-no-3

Comments welcome.

**please listen with headphones—THANK YOU for listening!**

I would like to sincerely thank all those who were kind enough to ask about me during my absence from…

Following a conversation with my students this week about how they see themselves as composers, we discussed who their perfect combination of three composers would be. As this is very personal and subjective, I would be intrigued to know what you think so I could possibly add this to our discussion this week. You may have a more balanced view than myself or students.

Example:

Mine would be: John Cage for appreciation of sound for sounds sake, Beethoven for…

https://goo.gl/DWS31i