aaa haven't written in days!

which is a lovely change from "aaa haven't written in months/years!"

i welcomed a new instrument into my family today, and here is a short postlude for it that i will try to play (and record, if playing it goes well) tomorrow:

now i can write myself flute quartets and record all SATB parts! well technically PCAB (picc, C, alto, bass) but pcab sounds like it could be a cuss word lmao so i better not call it that. i've already got a piccolo quintet (5 piccs), loads of C flute ensemble stuff, and a couple of duets involving 1-2 alto flutes (2 altos, 1 alto 1 voice narration, 1 alto 1 dizi). it's bass time y'all !!!!!!!!!!!!!
💫

String Quartet 1st movement, complete for now...

Posted a bit of this earlier today, finished it tonight so I removed the earlier post. Not sure how many movements this piece will be in, but I'm sure the next one will be fast.

 

 

in honour of april fools

the best trick of them all is optimism

the regular set-up of things getting better

like clockwork, kicks in on the hour

the punchline, every thing always is worse

classic, gets me every time

pessimism is the worst trick

pessimism is all premise, no punchline

it doesn't work if it all just keeps

getting worse

String Quartet movement

My string quartet writing tends to be pretty focussed on the quartet aspect, rather than on the individuality of the musicians, so I wanted to try and write a quartet that highlighted this more. This is in the spirit of a slow movement within that quartet, although I might be trying to reframe the movement structure and haven't quite figured that out yet. If you know of any works that might be what I'm going for, please throw them my way~ ty ty

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!