November 2013 Blog Posts (12)

Due to so many events and changes in my life I haven't been the most active on the forum. From since the last time I posted on the site, I had a hand injury which left me with an almost severed 5th finger, with my 3rd and fourth fingers (all on the left hand) having both broken and fractured bones needing surgery and a pin inserted in my 4th finger. I had to endure painful physical therapy to learn how to use the fingers again as I had lost the ability for the simplest function I once took…

1) I just finished a couple months of trying to record electric guitar type songs. While not a total disaster for the most part I think it is okay to let them set and move on now to some new projects. They are not really keepers, but in the process I did learn a few things and I cleaned up my VST collection as well as removed Sonar X2 (just too much of a monster) from my system.

2) I decided too that songs can be divided into different categories and therefore working folders. Rock…

What could be better than that? Nothing:

http://youtu.be/gNi2oxH37vo

So, 2 weeks ago I wrote this new "lied" that was performed a few days ago and now I'm sharing it here, so you can listen to it and tell me what do you think. Especially about the last part when singers voice started to crack, although I didn't think I wrote it that high for his voice to do that :)

Tell me your thoughts, if you have any.

And here is the sound:…

This is either a really good advertising for this pianist or really bad neighboring case. Maybe Laia played really heavy music, but getting disturbed by the piano, I don't know ... I think it would be different if she were to play trumpet or drums per say ... Either way, if that woman is really suing this pianist then I stop and start to think of where the world is going to. There are so many horrible things happening around us, or not(?) If somebody is getting sued for playing, so the other…

John Tavener died today at the age of 69

In memory post your favorite Tavener piece here.

This requiem remains one of my favorite pieces, not just from him, but all time. 

I wrote this Spanish piece called El Matador Mas Grande (The greatest Matador) for Symphonic orchestra and solo Bb Trumpet.  It was inspired by the story of Manolete, considered the greatest Matador of all time.  He changed the sport…

Can you tell me what's the time, please? :)

I just have to share this with you ... That's how much the violinists think of themselves! :)

This score, by John Williams, was mentioned in a recent post by someone else. I found the score with the original animation and thought I'd share. It's one of his best IMO http://youtu.be/gaLDyrun_Cc

Congratulations to Composers' Forum member Greg Brus who just won first place and $100 USD in Harmonia's annual Scary! Music Competition. 

You can hear his winning piece, "The Mad Witch", along with the 2nd and 3rd place winners here:  Sixty Seconds Hall of Fame

You can hear all the entries here: …

I'm writing a simple piece for intermediate level strings. 

I don't play strings, and have none available to me for experimentation.

Here is my question. I think it's straightforward enough:

Are quite a few 16th notes (in C, with no big leaps) at Allegro 120 easy, or at least playable, for string players at an intermediate level?  See the MP3 below ("Fast Part") to hear the passage in question played on Finale.…