Good Day Everyone!!

When I introduce myself to people, they invariably ask me, “What did you study in grad school?”. When I tell them I studied music composition the conversation inevitably turns to questions about what I do and how I make a living. These conversations eventually led me to think about what I learned while studying music composition, and how I could share my experience with people in a way that is meaningful and helpful.

This new blog series…

After Darmstadt 1996

https://imslp.org/wiki/Anatolia_(Saral%2C_Ali_Riza)

https://soundcloud.com/user-852737091/songs-of-liberty

LYRICS:

I

Gorgeous Freedom

by Aleksandr Blok (death 1921)

translation Ali Riza SARAL

I prefer the gorgeous freedom,

And I fly to lands of grace,

Where in wide and clear meadows

All is good, as dreams, and blest.

Here they rice: the clover clear,

And corn-flower's gentle…

This, my Fifth String Quartet, continues my exploration into writing music of a more contrapuntal nature.

This work is about 24 minutes in length and I very much…

One of the music sites I look at sometimes is the well-established New Music USA.  

In this blog post I'll mention two recent articles from that site which composers may find interesting.

JULIANA HALL: PULLED INTO THE POETS’ WORLD is an extensive interview with one of the most prominent…

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.