Glad to see you have American Songs up. Wonderful music. I take it you didn't care for my self-parody too much? OK - I'll stick to the straight stuff, of which I'll have some to post just as soon as I figure out how to play and record it.
Dear Frederick,
I am enjoying you American Songs very much. I have much to learn about harmony, and like you, make no living at music (I was a software engineer for 14 years, now disabled by an autoimmune disease ("allergic to myself" as I like to say, which carries with it its own cosmic humor). I think your American songs are just lovely and skillful. I hope I may learn from them. I write mostly by ear, and so listening to others' works is so very important to me.
Last year I lost my mother, and wrote a Requiem for her and secretly for other losses of a different sort; this year I lost one of my best friends to a virulent brain cancer. The requiem is slated to be performed next year... I see my body, as it gets older (responding to you declarations of aging), beginning to fall apart slowly -- for though I am only 47, death seems ever before me due to this auto-immune thing which makes me older than my chronological age. I am listening to your piece as I write this and I must heartily disagree with your comparison of your music to mine -- I have so much to learn, Frederick. My friend Matt Philli[ps, over whose music I think we had a tiff in the past, has now earned his PhD in music and I am so glad you and he are still connected!
american song, love the two distinct voices, and of course the patriotic flare, how emotion can really be pinpointed by instrumental music is a wonder, and your counterpoint is 'brave'...
composers such as yourself, can simply always compose new pieces, this is your burden....
I saw post from you on my buddy Simon's wall and thought I might like to meet you. I'm in the process of pruning some of my own work (and learning how to produce it with Reaper) right now.
Reading through your bio I discovered you are a funny guy. Listening to your music ... hmmmm...intimidating for us humble folk.
I've been considering you're "nit-picking" for the last week or two, and I've come to the decision that you're right. It needs more work. Please watch out for the revisited version on the discussion board in the next couple of days.
Cheers
Simon
p.s. Fred, please realise that there are exceptions on the musician/critic front. There are a few who can't play a note, but they make the most valuable critics. You're one of them.
Hello Fredrick!!
Thank you for your comments and suggestions. I will change things around to see what I can come out with. I also need to add some clarinets with the Eng Horn. I like your persective on the scores approach and will give it a try. I know that there are some definate tweaks that need to be made and I am not married to my original arrangement. I agree that there are parts and possibly too much going on with counter melodies. It needs to be cleaner.
Thank you again and I hope that you did enjoy "The Dream"
ok, don't know all of the pics you have, though some are fascinating! Was that Bartok playing Contrasts (the one with Goodman & I think Henryk Szerynk, I don't remember how to spell his name)?! ...and a very young Shostakovich! (Reminds me of my favorite musical anecdote when Shostakovich and Rostropovich were playing through Shostakovich's cello concerto...)
Some of the pics I don't recognize the people in at all--do you have a list?
I have been following your advice and composing, though am having to take a break at the moment as my son is singing The Polar Express...not very conducive environment for original thought!
What's interesting in the world?
I agree with you on the objectivity perspective of your own music.
When I judge music my single objective is probably personality (of the composer). Reward is easily given through clarity but when invested in, mists of complexity could give twice as much. It's far harder to digest one of Pärt's early pieces or, forexample, a James Mcmillan symphony, but understanding the complex symbolism in those let's you dive into a deeper level of music. Clarity isn't less valued because of that, it's another way of writing music exactly as meaningful (if not practised by a mainstream producer to overfill his wallet).
I'll definitely listen to your music this week and leave a few words if you don't disapprove. (In a car right now travelling to Gotland)
Thank you Fredrick, it's one of my more basal pieces but still quite pretty. Once you ventured into deeper territories with your music it's hard to look back and appreciate simplicity. Pärt turned my mind, not comparing me to him, he made me see another dimension of composing. Quality of music doesn't always spawn out of complexity and virituosity, but for many, out of depth and meaning.
Personally I try to mix the sense of complexity and content, can't judge my own pieces though! Hope you give me some of your wise criticism on the other work aswell. I'll drop by later (in the middle of a move now).
I just listened to American Songs four times. I'm going to burn it to CD and listen again one the commute home. I can't tell you how impressed I am with this piece. It's like a roller coaster ride, but without the feeling of impending death. Perhaps a pervasive feeling of pentatonicism, I'm not sure. I think you nearly channeled Mozart around 8:10 in a brief sequence over the main theme. The continual swelling and ebbing of ideas and emotions is overpowering. This one's definitely ranking in my favorite listening list; Thank you for sharing it - It's very good work.
Hi, I really enjoyed your comments on Simon Godden's channel about his symphony, so I thought I'd drop a line and say Hi, and hope we can talk about music in that knid of depth sometime.
I just want to justify a couple of things you said. The passage at 8.03 you said was in fact a repetition (developed of course) of similar passage in the first movement. For me, it had to be there. However, on several listenings you'll find (at least I do) that it (and the glissando) works OK.
I will admit to you that trying to finish the passage was very difficult and it took several attempts to try and make it a crescendo culminating in a climax before I decided not to. I hope that makes sense.
Very much enjoyed your account of Lake Baikal and the effervescent population of Siberia. Did you happen to get a glimpse of the lake monster there? Now I'm an avid follower of all things Fortean, and steadfastly maintain that about 0.01% of the claims made are credible - oops, missed a zero. I think I enjoy that stuff the way others enjoy equally frivolous topics such as celebrity gossip or party politics. Anyway, one theory has it that the monster is a mutant sturgeon, a consequence of years long dumping of pollutants into the lake by the Baykalsk Paper Mill. An alternative theory centers around the years long dumping of Russian vodka down the gullets of the locals. I've constructed a theory involving an underground tunnel system connected to Area 51, loosely tied to Majestic 12, and orchestrated by, of course, the Freemasons. But, as you always tell me, that's a story for another day.
Ah, that was the fix I needed. Sie fahren in die Schweiz, ganz gut! I think the Three Stooges line earned another spot on my favorite quotations page. As I detest redundancy, I'll have to wait until it moves down the page a bit though, to avoid superfluous repetition as well as redundancy.
Well my most recent post was, I vaguely recall, last month; I know, not very recent at all. P&F in B major (#2 slot). If you're aware of it already, disregard.
I'm working on the third and fourth of that cycle concurrently, but having some immense difficulties. Development of the third, in C# minor, has suffered due to poor consideration of subjects in inversion and modulations with respect to a narrow 5-1/2 octave harpsichord range. In the unlikely event I finish it within my natural lifetime, I might send it along before posting. Oh - a laborious string piece, 3 of 5 voices complete throughout, 5 of 5 - 75%. Also, I'm building another clavichord, 4-1/2 8va, fretted. I'll post some pictures. Enough about my meanderings.
I'm eagerly looking forward to American Songs. Something novel to get the ol' synapses off the couch. I'll be looking for it.
Composers' Forum
Music Composers Unite!
Fredrick zinos's Comments
Comment Wall (181 comments)
You need to be a member of Composers' Forum to add comments!
Join this Ning Network
Glad to see you have American Songs up. Wonderful music. I take it you didn't care for my self-parody too much? OK - I'll stick to the straight stuff, of which I'll have some to post just as soon as I figure out how to play and record it.
I am enjoying you American Songs very much. I have much to learn about harmony, and like you, make no living at music (I was a software engineer for 14 years, now disabled by an autoimmune disease ("allergic to myself" as I like to say, which carries with it its own cosmic humor). I think your American songs are just lovely and skillful. I hope I may learn from them. I write mostly by ear, and so listening to others' works is so very important to me.
Last year I lost my mother, and wrote a Requiem for her and secretly for other losses of a different sort; this year I lost one of my best friends to a virulent brain cancer. The requiem is slated to be performed next year... I see my body, as it gets older (responding to you declarations of aging), beginning to fall apart slowly -- for though I am only 47, death seems ever before me due to this auto-immune thing which makes me older than my chronological age. I am listening to your piece as I write this and I must heartily disagree with your comparison of your music to mine -- I have so much to learn, Frederick. My friend Matt Philli[ps, over whose music I think we had a tiff in the past, has now earned his PhD in music and I am so glad you and he are still connected!
Hope you and yours are well and happy,
All my best,
Karen Peace
composers such as yourself, can simply always compose new pieces, this is your burden....
hugs
douglas
listen to maurice jarre's 'building a barn'
Reading through your bio I discovered you are a funny guy. Listening to your music ... hmmmm...intimidating for us humble folk.
Oh yes, and I am a fan of Satie!
I've been considering you're "nit-picking" for the last week or two, and I've come to the decision that you're right. It needs more work. Please watch out for the revisited version on the discussion board in the next couple of days.
Cheers
Simon
p.s. Fred, please realise that there are exceptions on the musician/critic front. There are a few who can't play a note, but they make the most valuable critics. You're one of them.
Thank you for your comments and suggestions. I will change things around to see what I can come out with. I also need to add some clarinets with the Eng Horn. I like your persective on the scores approach and will give it a try. I know that there are some definate tweaks that need to be made and I am not married to my original arrangement. I agree that there are parts and possibly too much going on with counter melodies. It needs to be cleaner.
Thank you again and I hope that you did enjoy "The Dream"
Some of the pics I don't recognize the people in at all--do you have a list?
I have been following your advice and composing, though am having to take a break at the moment as my son is singing The Polar Express...not very conducive environment for original thought!
What's interesting in the world?
When I judge music my single objective is probably personality (of the composer). Reward is easily given through clarity but when invested in, mists of complexity could give twice as much. It's far harder to digest one of Pärt's early pieces or, forexample, a James Mcmillan symphony, but understanding the complex symbolism in those let's you dive into a deeper level of music. Clarity isn't less valued because of that, it's another way of writing music exactly as meaningful (if not practised by a mainstream producer to overfill his wallet).
I'll definitely listen to your music this week and leave a few words if you don't disapprove. (In a car right now travelling to Gotland)
Patrik
Personally I try to mix the sense of complexity and content, can't judge my own pieces though! Hope you give me some of your wise criticism on the other work aswell. I'll drop by later (in the middle of a move now).
Thanks
Patrik
I just listened to American Songs four times. I'm going to burn it to CD and listen again one the commute home. I can't tell you how impressed I am with this piece. It's like a roller coaster ride, but without the feeling of impending death. Perhaps a pervasive feeling of pentatonicism, I'm not sure. I think you nearly channeled Mozart around 8:10 in a brief sequence over the main theme. The continual swelling and ebbing of ideas and emotions is overpowering. This one's definitely ranking in my favorite listening list; Thank you for sharing it - It's very good work.
I just want to justify a couple of things you said. The passage at 8.03 you said was in fact a repetition (developed of course) of similar passage in the first movement. For me, it had to be there. However, on several listenings you'll find (at least I do) that it (and the glissando) works OK.
I will admit to you that trying to finish the passage was very difficult and it took several attempts to try and make it a crescendo culminating in a climax before I decided not to. I hope that makes sense.
Thanks again,
Simon
Thanks for listening and commenting.
Regards,
Larry G. Alexander
Well my most recent post was, I vaguely recall, last month; I know, not very recent at all. P&F in B major (#2 slot). If you're aware of it already, disregard.
I'm working on the third and fourth of that cycle concurrently, but having some immense difficulties. Development of the third, in C# minor, has suffered due to poor consideration of subjects in inversion and modulations with respect to a narrow 5-1/2 octave harpsichord range. In the unlikely event I finish it within my natural lifetime, I might send it along before posting. Oh - a laborious string piece, 3 of 5 voices complete throughout, 5 of 5 - 75%. Also, I'm building another clavichord, 4-1/2 8va, fretted. I'll post some pictures. Enough about my meanderings.
I'm eagerly looking forward to American Songs. Something novel to get the ol' synapses off the couch. I'll be looking for it.
Where have you been? Did your wit-well run dry, or are you off on more global adventures? I need an absurd story to laugh at.
Welcome to
Composers' Forum
Sign Up
or Sign In
About
© 2009 Created by Chris Merritt on Ning. Create a Ning Network!
Badges | Report an Issue | Privacy | Terms of Service