Completed Song

Hey everyone!
This is a very special one for me that has taken a lot of emotional energy to create. Turns out writing meaningful lyrics is very hard to do without relying on cliches. As I mentioned in my previous post, this song is to my closest friend Loni, a harpist, and the song is about us as kids, playing, singing, and standing by eachother forever. It's a very gentle, lullaby like melody, meant to be evocative of a song to be sung going to sleep.

Score:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/aglxzo9uwonc80w/Forever%2C%20Until.pdf?dl=0

Recording of me singing with the midi file:
https://youtu.be/vAkPnzKR-uE

Lyrics:

Come with me and step inside,

We’re going on a magic ride,

Look around and look at me,

And tell me, whisper, what you see,

Take my hand, let’s play a game,

Forever is the name.

Will you play with me, ever, forever?

Let’s meet at the tree at the top of the hill,

Passing the time, as the time stands still,

Will you play with me when no one else will?

I’ll play with you, forever until

Forever until

Sing this song, sing it light,

Sing it softly to the night,

Hum along and feel its heart,

You know you’ve known it from the start.

Take my hand, I’ll sing to you,

Forever sung anew,

Will you sing with me, ever, forever?

Let’s meet at the tree at the top of the hill,

Passing the time, as the time stands still,

Will you sing with me when no one else will?

I’ll sing with you, forever until

Forever until

Monsters may come look for you

And fill your head with thoughts untrue

But here I am, and time I’ll spend,

To turn the monsters into friends.

Take my hand, I’ll squeeze it tight,

I promise it’s alright

Minutes turn to hours and days into dust,

Silver and gold will not rust

Let’s meet at the tree at the top of the hill,

Passing the time, as the time stands still,

Will you stand by me when no one else will?

I’ll stand by you, forever until

Forever until

Will you stand by me,

I will stand by you

Ever, forever until.

Two mini scenes from a mini audio-only chamber opera. Scored for voice, choir, harp and electronics

LINK FOR SCORE :)

Chromatic Stupidity for Viola

This is my first attempt at writing for Viola and without sitting at a piano which is quite important for me as I’m always used to referring to the piano. Recording coming soon

Canon and song

Hey everyone,
two posts for today/yesterday.

Yesterday I wrote a canon about my favourite food: Fried Chicken. Can be displaced by full or half bar. If you're curious: I don't eat chicken beaks

I'm also writing a new song for my best friend whose birthday was yesterday. I'm scoring it for harp and her voice. The song is called "Forever, Until" and is about us as kids and remaining as kids forever as we get older. The structure and piece aren't complete but I thought I would post some lyrics.

Come with me and get inside,

We’re going on a magic ride,

Look around and look at me,

There’s nowhere we would rather be,

Let’s meet at the tree at the top of the hill,

Passing the time, as the time stands still,

Will you play with me when no one else will?

I’ll play with you, forever until

Forever until

Sing this song,

Sing it light,

Sing it softly to the night,

Hum along,

And feel its heart,

You know you’ve known it from the start.

Let’s meet at the tree at the top of the hill,

Passing the time, as the time stands still,

Will you sing with me when no one else will?

I’ll sing with you, forever until

Forever until

'Final cadence' for "Andante moderato" (string quartet)

Today's music is just one measure.

This is the final measure of 'Andante moderato', an 8-min string quartet performed several times by Acacia Quartet across NSW and Victoria last year and also on ABC Classic FM.

Despite all these performances, however, I never properly notated the final measure, which I instructed verbally at rehearsals. It requires two special effects. I finally did it today because someone asked to see the score.

And though I refer to it as a 'final measure', it also functions as the start of the next section of my perpetual work-in-progress String Quartet. 

figment 2 - for clarine

Good morning from NYC!
Today I have a cadenza I wrote for Mozart’s Piano Concerto K.491 in c minor.
The cadenza morphs into some quotations from Mozart’s piano music.
I was really inspired by a piece Frederick Rzweski write for my teacher Jerome Lowenthal called cadenza. And the point was to be able to perform the cadenza as a separate entity to the concerto.  Here’s my take.

More fast music (Carnival of the Chinese Animals)

Today I wrote more fast music for the animals' dance party finale and it sure is fun to write.

This section leads right into the Irish/Chinese sounding music from yesterday. At least today's music sounds less Celtic … 

Also I’m taking advantage of having 2 pianos. Here I have one of them play the tune in octaves (à la Schubert primo parts) while the other plays octaves tremolos, which evokes the strumming of a Chinese pipa.

Invention 2

Click HERE to have a liss 

Hi everyone!
So excited to be joining this illustrious group of composers.
Here is my song I wrote based on a Robert Frost Poem for Baritone and piano.

The Carnival (from Carnival of the Chinese Animals)

Today I wanted to write some fast music. 

Here is music for the finale, where all 12 animals have successfully crossed the River and are having a party. (The Buddha quietly crosses to Nirvana while the animals are living it up.)

So what is amusing here is that my 'Chinese' music sounds a little like Irish music. I'll just go with it.

Toothbrush Duet

Hey guys, here's a duet I wrote for two toothbrushes. I did a little recording, it had to be split over two files. It's called "Brush Your Teeth"

Part 1
https://mixcord.co/acapella/p/HKtsTkbxgY8uEqR6vOdKmw/?fbclid=IwAR2kwpFmRjCBar1_xJ---GQ2BhmBEhbmtd-tDE8G7THifo5RKWgVOEtDEx8

Part 2
https://mixcord.co/acapella/p/xjlyuw5MqR0WzT-bKNxpRw/?fbclid=IwAR3jmAWPuA328xR2Ixb4pR1wqTTBNcnACxQvHYZ4FfAcg37gtwz7ssiH3mU

Sheet Music
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/7nzofaax18rmmuk/AACwNUGqcKoWJsiRhKPzrF1Ga?dl=0

a little airplane thing, v tired will post more tomorrow

Mena song and violin piece

Hey everyone! I forgot to post my piece from yesterday, but I wrote a song for a close friend of mine who was feeling a bit down.

And my composition today is a small improvisationary piece for solo violin (the score is called Neue Datei). I don’t have a lot of experience writing for strings (especially double stopping) and wanted to try out something nice and easy. 

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/7nzofaax18rmmuk/AACwNUGqcKoWJsiRhKPzrF1Ga?dl=0

Mena lyrics

When you’re getting in a pickle

And you’re feeling blue

She’s the hammer and the sickle

That’ll pull you through,

She’s a buddy she’s a pal

and she’s here for you

It’s Mena Mena Mena!

Her tongue’s really big

But it moves quite quick

She’ll stick it in your mouth

Like a Bolshevik

This chick’s thick tongue’s

Like a magic trick

It’s Mena Mena Mena!

Chorus

Mena my friend it’s all ok,

You’ll fight to live another day

You’ve got the strength,

Let’s hear you say

I’m Mena Mena Mena!

She’s a sassy little lassy

And she’ss speak her mind

She’ll rip your ass in two

If she’s so inclined,

Her tongue is sharp

But her heart is kind

It’s Mena Mena Mena

Mena takes nine naps every day,

She’s a connoisseur of naps

She’s a sleep gourmet

If she’s hungry or thirsty

Back away

From Mena Mena Mena

Chorus x 2  

The Orchestrated Path (from Carnival of the Chinese Animals)

Happy Sunday everyone!

Today I orchestrated a few measures of the piano score from a couple of days ago. 

I’m finding it very interesting to have 2 cellos but no viola. 

Here I’m voicing them in very close dyads, but I’ll double the lower cello with the violin one octave above. 

It’ll be like the right-hand of a Brahms piano piece, just at lower pitches.  This should add a Brahmsian richness as long as the dynamic is soft, otherwise it’ll sound thick.

Incidentally today is Richard Gill’s birthday. Thank you Andrew for your post a few days ago honoring Richard. I didn’t know he was the inspiration behind your Month of Music project. Richard and I worked most closely together on the unique ABC reality TV show Operatunity Oz where he was a judge and I was a producer of the soundtrack album. Happy birthday Richard. 

Away with the fairies, sketch

For fun, I'm calling this project 'away with the fairies.' It's hopefully going to be a creepy psycho-horror short opera, about choosing to be lost. Not intended for live performance, I'm making use of recording techniques in my composition, so the score might not look particularly interesting when it's finished.

I'm flying to the US tomorrow, so I probably won't post - maybe I'll have finished something along these lines by the time I arrive, who knows. 

Opening sentences (Carnival of the Chinese Animals)

Today's beach-side contribution :)

This is the draft opening sentences of Carnival of the Chinese Animals. You should be able to read the handwritten text despite the photobombing by the harbour :) And yes, the pen really is bent, that is not an optical illusion ….

There are two main variants of the Zodiac animals' 'amazing race' folk story, and they differ only in whether the central character is the Jade Emperor or the Buddha. 

I asked my parents which one they knew as kids, and they said the Buddha version. So I've based my narration on that choice, and it also gives me the added benefit of writing some kōan-inspired sayings in the story. 

I've never encountered a telling of the story with this feature even in other Buddha versions, so that is an original touch I am happy to contribute because I find kōan and Buddhist wisdom and teachings quite beautiful. 

The Path (from Carnival of the Chinese Animals)

This is the sketch from today I’m currently calling The Path. 

In the story, there is a mythical river that the animals have to cross, and the order of their arrival determines their place in the Zodiac. 

The tempo and dynamic is flexible (hence no tempo marking on the sketch yet) as it may have to be used in different contexts as the 12 animals make their separate journeys to the final destination. 

If it’s starting to sound like an ancient Chinese version of The Amazing Race, don’t think that hasn’t occurred to me! I’ll probably upload a draft excerpt from the narration tomorrow.

Figment #1

Some little note games for piano. I didn't spell it out, but you could probably play the piece in any order you like.

Bassoon Quartet! "Down"

Hey guys! Here's composition no.2, a Bassoon Quartet called "Down"
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/7nzofaax18rmmuk/AACwNUGqcKoWJsiRhKPzrF1Ga?dl=0
I'm really liking how this is shaping up, will definitely revisit this later to flesh out some of the material.

Carnival of The Chinese Animals

Thanks Andrew for including me in the 11/2018 Month of Music!

The awesome Southern Cross Soloists have just announced their 2019 season, and it includes a commissioned work from me. In February SXS are celebrating the Lunar New Year with Carnival of the Chinese Animals, my new 15-20 min piece based on the Chinese Zodiac’s 12 animals.

SXS are joined by cellist Li-Wei Qin, erhuist George Gao and pianist Kristian Chong, making a very unusual lineup – flute, oboe, clarinet, French horn, erhu, violin, 2 cellos, 2 pianos (because SXS already have a cellist and pianist) – plus a narrator!

I’ve decided to include a narration, because most people aren’t aware of the folk story behind the 12 animals of the Zodiac (neither was I, really, until I started work on this project). As with any ancient fairytale, there are as many versions of the story as there are storytellers – so I’m writing my own version, with some original touches added.

I’m alternating between writing the narration and the music. I know most composers would get the text written first – and usually by someone else – but all my experience with text (sung and spoken) tells me I’ll get the best result for me if I work on them concurrently.

So my blog entries here could be about either.

I worked on this music sketch today. At the moment I'm calling it the Noble Truths theme. 

Comp No.1: Attention! (picc+snare)

Hey everyone, my first post here. Here's a little piece I wrote for piccolo and snare. Not sure how to embed stuff but here's a link to the dropbox :) https://www.dropbox.com/sh/7nzofaax18rmmuk/AACwNUGqcKoWJsiRhKPzrF1Ga?dl=0

Invention for piano

Month of Music - 5!

Hello everyone - massive welcome to the newcomers Oliver Shermacher and Lyle Chan!

This is relevant right now, so I figured that it might be good for me to share -

Richard Gill was the person who suggested to me that composing every day was utterly important. I suppose when I began Month of Music, I did it as a way of impressing him, although I never had the courage to send him the blog address. He challenged everyone with this task, and when he did, he suggested that to write just a few lines of music was entirely the point. This being said, I want to encourage everybody to do their own thing, and to share my belief that music = goodness = beauty = truth, which I specifically ripped off from him.

more of my forum piece

aaaaaahhhhhh it's due on Thursday!!!! panic!!!

more unfinished score here

yet another horn piece

tentatively called oasis... lacks dynamics...

unfinished score and audio here

Fisher Song for Flute

another horn piece!!

Trying to think of a title!! Not sure about what I came up with... right now it's called gannets diving,
named after this bird:


photo credit: By Alan D. Wilson (http://www.naturespicsonline.com/) [CC BY-SA 2.5 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5)], via Wikimedia Commons


AUDIO and SCORE HERE

I might name it northern gannets diving, to refer to the specific bird!

Spring Evergreens for Flute

more of my copying/scanning work for Amber!

for some reason blogger won't let me upload the actual scan-- I had to take a screenshot?? So weird.

Partita : Game score without annotations

This is a piece for piano and electronics, obvs you can't see much evidence of the electronics here.

inLk