Same thing as yesterday, plus piano

shō excerpt

hello Henry and everyone! my brain has been slow but here are several bars of music i wrote for the shō. i had a few ideas but it was really difficult to put them down on paper. maybe sometime in the future i will continue the piece but for now here is what i've got:

some duo material

revisiting some ideas, not sure where this is going, probably will have accompaniment

Month of Music Collab 5 - Vatche Jambazian, Piano

Hi everyone!

Introducing collab 5, which is with Vatche Jambazian, solo piano. Many of you probably know that we’ve been close friends for years and I can certainly say that he is a very special musician to write for. He regularly performs classic repertoire, but he also has substantial experience with more recent works, by composers such as Ustvolskaya, Boulez and Saariaho. We were chatting about this collab about 2 hours after the news came out that Penderecki had passed away, and so we settled on this idea:

 - duration: 1 page of music, A4/Letter

 - compositional prompt: compose an elegy. Interpret this how you wish.

 - unfortunately, prepared piano is not possible, given the circumstances

 - due date: Friday the 10th of April

Here he is playing some chopin: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_c2SbFS8Vo

Here he is playing some saariaho: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqLQ83aDbbs

Here he is playing some scriabin: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V08GBsuf6kQ

Month of Music Collab 4 - Elizabeth Yung Cheung, Erhu

Hi everyone!

It's my pleasure to introduce Collab 4, from another of our composers. Composer, performer, and improviser Elizabeth Yung Cheung messes around with the skeletal sounds of solo instruments and chamber settings, cataloguing the noises your teacher tells you not to make during lessons. They've kindly agreed to do some pieces for Erhu, but have some interesting prompts in mind: they're looking for pieces that explore the sound potential of the instrument, rather than attempts at writing faux traditional music. Therefore, they have a preference for graphic scores in this case, although some notated music isn't out of the question. 

Liz says about their parameters:

GRAPHIC SCORES - up to 5min
- be as specific as you like! otherwise i will probably be interpreting it very personally NOTATED SCORES - 2-3min - no quick chromatic passages please! - think approx. ameb grade 4/5/6 on violin level??? maybe? heck
- Strings are tuned to D & A, but scordatura is possible.

- due Sunday, 5th of April

If you'd like to explore other instruments in Liz' arsenal, they also have access to an E dizi and a G dizi (and picc, C flute, alto flute).

Here is a performance of Liz', exploring sounds with the Erhu: https://soundcloud.com/greytonguelizzed/vii-hypothermia?in=greytonguelizzed/sets/hits-rather-close-to-home-2018&fbclid=IwAR0efJD2nlZSQ2HQpc8GtK7HlLy-CEEfObHZxSyo-svGkqwIz8PUxEvt8oo

Here are some traditional works that Liz has performed in the past:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cq1bEoXzj0k&fbclid=IwAR2ciu9lJL8WgECEqydzdM6my0JM2ruICJyQdVoMP8Q6Z5P9xVetHzJPfOU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7-myVJ3BdI&fbclid=IwAR2UbzYfrSJ6i1QMCRLFjliSmVdlG2e_DmJJ90bPkkdxG1_omtqDvgosYCc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_QKpppskDU&fbclid=IwAR2N8QN7fB_QjvoqAurtiDnjR0Gnk7m7bSOM1ODpmzYterSeaxP1_R50efI

A Whole New World!

Hey all! Sorry about my late contribution for piano solo - I tend to work on several things at once and nothing actually gets done. Here's a fun little arrangement I did, which seems fitting for the current climate, at least in title alone. I made some not-insignificant alterations to it just this morning, hence the delay. The recording will need to wait a few days, due to it been somewhat tricky... until then!

Awaken - for Solo Shō

Pdf here:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/emb117x9bxhbef3/Awaken%20-%20Full%20Score.pdf?dl=0

A project I've had on the shelf for a while is to write a piece for string quartet and shō, so I thought I'd use this piece to test out some of the ideas I'm thinking about.

Shō demonstration others might find useful!

Hey folks, check out this video demo for composers!! Super handy! The shō has such a beautiful sound.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUpr1F1dZt0

Here's what I wrote today, using quite a lot of the vibrato effect she demonstrates in the video. That effect isn't in the document Henry linked for us, so I hope he won't mind doing it!!

a little bit of cello

I'm working on a quartet and I'm trying to figure out how to compose a rhythm that feels catchy yet uncatchable. This still has a few catchable moments in it I think, but the problem I'm facing is that the other players sure need to be able to catch it. Hmm

three-legged dance - trio score

EDIT: oh lol i exported the wrong version, this is definitely the transposed score and not the score in C.



i completed the 2min comp demonstrating motivic development for my HSC students whooo (thank u andrew for giving me notational software advice - i had to type it all back up again but at least now i can save it and export to pdf for around 28 more days!)
the sibelius audio is here: https://soundcloud.com/greytonguelizzed/three-legged-dance


i just spent two hours annotating it to show every compositional decision i made (i even had to make up reasons for the ones that were subconsciously decided) because a few of the students have expressed their struggle at knowing and choosing what to do with their ideas. there are a total of 119 notes omg. (to be fair, around 20 of them are just squiggles.) and at least 3 puns. sorry kids.


nb: i haven't written a full piece in this 'style' in years. by style i mean... without any unconventional notation or extended techniques or improvised bits or minimalist-adjacent repetition schemes. i thought i had lost the ability to write this kind of thing but that's probably an irrational thought. part of me has just been disillusioned to think that music can't be interesting without it being extremely weird / untraditional, but another part knows way, way better than that. also what even is tradition anymore?

2 alto clef lines

this is probably what I’ll post most of for the next little while - try and focus my way through writing lines of music. morning pages but for writing music longhand. I think I need it :)

might end up as something for viola??? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

Horn Collab complete!

Just a quick update to say that I've got the videos from today's recordings, and I'm going to trim and match them to their audio tomorrow so that I can get them out to you all. Andrew was tremendously positive about the experience and has given some lovely compliments about the works.

If you didn't get around to writing a piece, he's still available to do more recordings and if you post a horn piece on the blog I'll make sure to get it to him. Additionally, he's open to more long-form works if you're working on them - and as he's also a Mandolin player, might feature on this blog again in the near future.

Wonderful works everyone!

Andrew H

flute adaptation of that horn quintet - audio

i turned the horn quintet into a flute thing bc i wanted to hear whether it was trash or actually alright LOL so here is a scrappy recording (don't put ur volume on too high, there's a bunch of clips and noise)!

https://soundcloud.com/greytonguelizzed/flute-adaptation-of-i-came-here-to-have-a-good-time-and

things i changed in the adaptation:
- transposed it
- no mutes
- instead of pedals i have singing & playing
- yep that's about it i think




i also finished the trio i was writing for the students but am waiting to hear some feedback from a pianist and clarinettist so i'll post that when i finish edits :)

The Isle of Innisfree - poem by Yeats

I decided to stay up and do my comp for today tonight, so to speak. This is the last April Song in the cycle so I'm happy it's finally out of my system! Looking to do something radically different tomorrow... any ideas?

r a n t + poem pictures

the pace of my brain and the pace of my typesetting are aligned 15% of the time, brain and longhand maybe 40% of the time, otherwise one is always faster than the other - if hand is faster, I can take time to think, but if I think too much brain takes over and it gets too erratic impatient and too hard and I really have to work on that. just practice, and lots of it. does this happen to anyone else? do you have any tips?

I still want to write the horn piece I had started to draft, but here's a little poem instead. it's a topic I want to scream about all the time and this def isn't doing what I want to be doing, but anyway.

based on information I found out about the physical origins of the word 'aphorism'

hey

h e y

check it out

universe of each little word

meaning cupped in horizons like

hands c u pp i n g w a t e r  to drink

or wash with clear reimagining

or splash to wake the eyes

enlightened

these

precious universes

savour each like chiming bells

history like s o u n d i n g o v e r t o n e s

fundamental meanings and ringing implications

check out    what happens when     you sound a word

at once you sound its meaning and let echo its history

even in this terrible poem a Notre Dame of bells ringing

neat right

n e a t  r i g h t

neat right

i came here to have a good time and - horn quintet

i'm still sitting on the title... page one is kinda "i came here to have a good time and" and page two is all like "then this happened" so yeah i'll have to figure the title out at some point.

i hope all the instructions make sense and aren't too unrealistic! though obviously i am happy to edit anything that's asking too much of the performer(s).

an open message to andrew london: hello i'm so sorry. also thank you. sincerely, liz


p.s. i'm hoping this isn't too difficult to record as one person since none of the entries need to be super synchronised... but please let me know if it's Too Much Effort!

Etude for Horn

This etude is dedicated to renowned teacher and Horn player Christopher Howes.
This piece was written thinking of his charisma.

Viola piece beginning

Started writing a viola piece today. It's hard to put out of mind the solo viola sonata by Ligeti - the mere mention of him today was enough for me to want to write this piece, so I think I'm sunk either way.

Thanks Andrew and Andrew!

Month of Music Collab 3 - Josh Batty & Jarrod Hawn, Flute & Voice

Hello everyone!

I'm thrilled to introduce the third collab for Month of Music this year, duo Josh Batty & Jarrod Hawn.

I first met Josh when he moved from the UK to assume the position of principal flute in the Sydney Symphony. He brought with him his partner, now fiancé, Jarrod Hawn, who is a multi-talented actor, singer and DJ, and the two of them have become a bit of a fixture in the Sydney scene. They're self-isolating together and it's our luck that they've agreed to take part in this!

Jarrod's voice type is a Baritone, and if you'd like to listen to it, here's a recent performance: https://www.facebook.com/jarrodhawn/videos/10108008638955225/ As mentioned, he's also an actor, and I'm hoping that some works make use of that as well.

Josh has offered concert flute, alto flute and some piccolo, on the easy side. Here's the Martin Ballade https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDIZVqJVFPM which features a little of the flashy finger work he's capable of.

Parameters are:

- Happy to try anything, regarding extended techniques, performance practices and so on

- Duration is flexible, but perhaps no chamber operas.

- Flute + Alto Flute + Piccolo are the available flutes, but should you feel the need to get wildly creative with household items, bear in mind we are in lockdown.

- Due Date : mid April. This one is the most flexible. Josh & Jarrod are, as are many of us, still trying to figure out the best way to wait out the virus, so rather than these coming in all at once, the better approach would be to send the works through as they're completed, and produce the videos when time permits. I'll let you know if a more definite 'deadline' arises.

- Also, their boxer Mr G might feature in the works, whether you like it or not. (the price for self isolating with a boxer puppy)


As ever, please leave any questions in the comments down below!

Month of Music Collab 2 - Henry Liang, Shō

Hello everyone!

Today I'm going to be posting about two collabs - this is the first!

It comes from one of our composers - Henry Liang. He's a flute & piccolo player in the Royal Australian Navy Band, and has been a freelance shō artist for a number of years. In 2015, Henry was offered by Columbia University in New York to attend a 7-week residency in Japan to learn the shō, which is the focus of this collab. I recommend you check out his website henryliang.com.au to read a bit more about his experiences in studying the instrument, but suffice it to say it was highly immersive.

The shō is an extremely interesting instrument. It's a bamboo instrument with 17 pipes, sounded by free reeds. It's played by breathing in and out through the instrument, and is capable of some pretty incredible dynamic range. Be sure to check your chords against a fingering chart, as notes are assigned per finger and humans have these limitations. Also, it's one of the only instruments I can think of that actually requires periodic heating  (check out videos of traditional players and the charcoal bbq's they sit beside).

It's a pretty ancient instrument and features in prominent place within Japanese culture, and composers including Takemitsu, Maki Ishii, Minoru Miki and Yoshimatsu have brought a contemporary aesthetic to those traditions. The 20th century expansion of Japanese musical culture throughout Europe saw the likes of Cage, Hovhaness and Lachenmann compose for it as well.

There's some good reference material out there on how to write for it, and I'll be popping back in with a good one later today, but please don't feel intimidated by it - this is a judgement free zone to get some experience with a truly unique instrument.

Henry's parameters are:

- duration of up to 2-3 minutes

- you're welcome to use woodwind techniques such as flutter tongue and singing whilst playing.

- Due date: Monday, 30th of March


Please write any questions you might have in the comments below, I'm sure Henry will be happy to answer them or point you towards a resource or two!

three little lines in longhand scribbles

I left my computer downstairs and I am not going to get it, so here is some scribble instead.
I want to combine the first two lines somehow - I got distracted then

the middle is a thought I ended

the last is an already written song in Dharug language  - I wanted to start working on harmonising it for a larger arrangement but didn’t leave any room for harmony writing fbfjgjhk

anyway, stay woke gamers

xx

some trio piece - in progress

i did around 4.5hrs of online tutoring today - i mentor a class of HSC music students with their compositions and their school moved online this week. one of the students is delighted by the sleep-ins and staying-up-lates, and another feels lonely, separated from their peers. i can't imagine how weird and stressful it must be.................

here's a piece i started tonight which i'll be trying to finish tomorrow and then fully annotating every single musical decision i made, in order to demonstrate to the class how developing motifs can work in coherent, interesting, and sensible ways. my motif here is literally just 3rds i guess!



p.s. i'm using an expired trial version of sibelius that neither allows me to save the file nor export it into audio/score... does anyone have any advice as to........ how to not completely lose all this writing overnight or over the next few days? :/ and also eventually send it to people? the only thing i can think of is to transcribe it from this screenshot onto my old laptop which has a glitchy old version of sibelius but would suffice.

The Message of the Flowers - poem by Louisa Lawson

Just realised that I could export the score as a graphic, no need to convert pdf's into images. I've been hacking at screenshots for years, would love to have known this before now.

Ahh back to my favourite poet, and this heartbreaker that I presume is about her daughter who died young. (Her son grew up to be Henry Lawson, in case you didn't know.)

It's lacking all sorts of things including dynamics and articulations, but I'll get around to that when I've finished the fifth and final song, which I think is going to be a poem from Yeats, my other favourite poet.

sad in brisbane

I miss everyone.

had a tumultuous couple of days so I just sat down and said hello to the family grand piano now I’m here for the near future at least.

it isn’t that interesting but it’s a bunch of chords that feel nice to play. Sorry it’s long, was going to cut it in half but whooop here we are.

will write more once I’m settled :)

https://soundcloud.com/jmgibson/hello-from-brisbane/s-fZO01zmARRN

i came here to have a good time and - score draft

to be adapted for horns in F in the next couple of days 😮

Blue Mountains Mist - Solo Horn

 This would ideally be played in a remote, wooded canyon, although that's my stance for a lot of music.

forgot to compose so here're some drawings

here are some mushrooms i drew that i started colouring in; in some ways it's a graphic score i guess ¯\_(^~^)_/¯