Gav Brown's Blog (42)

I started composing because of the music in the movie "The Sting" - the ragtime of Scott Joplin. His music is not only great sounding, but a fun fit fit for the fingers - physically enjoyable to play. Here's a piece which was not in The Sting, but which is a delightful example of his work - about 3 minutes long -

http://youtu.be/Z8c8eFXNolg

I think it's hilarious, perhaps you will enjoy it too

http://youtu.be/HU2ftCitvyQ

Another composer has posted recently on the forum about a piece he wrote inspired by French music which is about fountains. I won’t post this on his thread, which is about his composition, but thought you might enjoy it - ragtime composers liked to compose on this theme too, and one of my favorites in this genre is a piece written by a guy named Robert Hampton called “Cataract Rag.” (Cataract is a synonym for Waterfall). The middle section (starting at about 1:50) particularly is delightful…

Hi all,

Joe Wall is a Baltimore composer who does interesting things. I once got to see a multimedia presentation of this piece by him, about how, as a small child, he mused on the satellite program. I've never forgotten it. I find it meditative and hypnotic. I've been looking for it for years online and finally found it. The last few words spoken I particularly find affecting. Hope you like it.…

Bet you never thought you'd see those two phrases together, but it's so. I've got the score of this and it's fun to play: http://imslp.org/wiki/File:PMLP166877-Matthews-Pastime4.pdf

The Maple Leaf Rag was the first composition to sell one million copies of the sheet music. That rox!

Speaking only for myself, here are a few thoughts about what catches my attention on this site and what does not. This is my opinion only, it represents no-one but me.

1) GETS my attention: music posts by composers of individual pieces which show up on the home page wall or blog posts. I don't mind if these are located on this site or soundcloud or somewhere else. If they show up on the homepage or blog posts, I check most if not all of them out. I also check out the video posts,…

I grew up in the era before video games. I remember the very first video game that ever came out and played it, Pong, which was a very primitive version of tennis. But it was great at the time! A lot of early video games had great music which was very innovative and memorable. A lot of it had a penny-arcade-kind-of feel, like calliope music on a merry-go-round. Here's one of the better samples from that era IMO:…

Based on a picture of birds on telephone wires. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoM4ZZJ2UrM

Louis Chauvin was a ragtime composer who lived in New Orleans who had a reputation as being the Scott Joplin of the south. Joplin was so intrigued by the nickname that he went to New Orleans. He found Chauvin dying from syphilis. Chauvin was strong enough to play the first two strains of a piece he was working on. Joplin liked it so much he wrote two additional strains for it, and together the composition became the "Heliotrope Bouquet." It's the only extant piece of Chauvin, who died…

for a peaceful holiday season

I strongly urge you to look at the work of the rock band Yes. Their music is beautiful, very modern, very classical, and instructional about how to write good classical music in our times. A couple of albums to start with: Close to the Edge, Drama, Going for the One. They have been a tremendous influence on me - I mostly compose for solo piano - and my compositions are all over this site and on youtube. Best to you! -

What could be better than that? Nothing:

http://youtu.be/gNi2oxH37vo

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

Based on a popular song

http://youtu.be/CBXq-koIQrU

It's always been my favorite piece of his. Rhapsody in Blue is better known, and is beautiful and a work of great genius. I think with C in F, his understanding of music seems even deeper and more profound. Astounding heights of emotionalism.

Well, this blew my socks off:

http://youtu.be/8alxBofd_eQ

The great and prolific composer, known mostly for Animal House (remember all that academic-sounding music?). A wonderful composer who could write in any style. Here's a sample from "Stripes," a Bill Murray comedy from the 80s.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmjE3QEZJNs

What other great EB sounds are worth posting? Pile on!

There's nothing funner than ragtime. The Maple Leaf Rag, which was written in 1899 by Scott Joplin launched the ragtime era of music, which spanned about 16 years. It also set a record: it was the first piece of sheetmusic ever to sell one million copies. I started playing piano so I could play ragtime (this is not me playing) >…

Hello all - if you post a link to something offsite which is not your own music, (music or videos or anything else) please consider saying something about it in your post. I am much more likely to follow a link if you describe what it's about than I am if all you do is post the link with no comments or generic comments like "this is great"