Mechanical LullabiesFebruary 25th, 2009

As spring break draws near, I am beginning yet another project as I continue to work on everything else.

I have a new concept for an album called “Mechanical Lullabies” that will utilize a version of my Max/MSP patch, my guitar amplifier, and a series of digital and analog effects.  The result is already very exciting.  My first version was described in class as a far-off dreamscape with an errie quality.  At this point, all I am going to give is a description, but I am planning on having lots of content, maybe even upwards of 40 minutes when all is said and done.

Additionally, I am nearing completion on a write-up of American composer, Roy Harris.  I’ll admit that I had not heard of him before starting the project, but was surprised to learn that he was a colleague of Aaron Copland, and was instructed for several years by Nadia Boulanger.  His works resemble Copland in some ways, including his use of American folk melodies and having many works with a patriotic theme.  It was exciting to discover a great composer, especially one who represents our country so well.

Projects and Papers: Debussy and MaxFebruary 10th, 2009

I’m delving into a couple very fun and interesting projects for the semester.

The first is a paper on Claude Debussy for my 20th century history class, exploring the comparisons between how he is perceived as a composer, and what his true compositional influences were.  Debussy is well-known as an “impressionistic” composer because he developed a very unique compositional style which generally had a lack of tonal center and often felt ungrounded in a particular key.  The great irony is that Debussy did not care for his works to be referred to as impressionistic.  I found this very surprising when we discussed it in class, so I decided to make it my final paper project.  More to come on that…

I am also working on a live composition piece involving Max/MSP, as I mentioned earlier.  The piece is starting to come along, and I have made a really interesting and useful patch that creates loops at various speeds and lengths. 
There are actually four simultaneous loops that are created from taking a sample from any audio file or live sound recording.  The fun part about using Max is that you can make the program do things that wouldn’t be possible with any other software program.  More to come on that as well…

It’s looking like a warm and beautiful day today!