mostly art and music
You found it! This is where posts about my music are.
The HAIL logo represents the 5 movements of the piece and their different meters, going from 4 to 8 (back to 4). I originally started making ‘real life’ versions of the logo because it’s just fun, but during the course of the Kickstarter campaign for this project, I’ve been doing a different version every day. I’ve tried to use these as promotional content that’s original.
Continue reading “hail album art”I am seeking remixes of ‘HAIL, a bass quartet’ to be released with a new recording of this work, later this year.
If you are interested in remixing this music, first, please read about the piece of music in question: HAIL. This might give you some ideas about the piece conceptually.
Keep in mind that the stems here are rendered with Sibelius, so you may want to work straight from the MIDI or Sibelius (*.sib) files; just ask by messaging me on soundcloud or using this site’s contact page.
This contest appears on remixcomps.com, and winners will be chosen from what is submitted there. Remixes will be posted in the HAIL Remix SoundCloud group and on this page. Feel free to join the group even if you’re not remixing.
Remixes can be any length, but only the best remix for each movement which is close in length to the original will appear on vinyl (just because of physical restraints).
If working with MIDI is easier, here is a zipped archive of MIDI files for each movement. Contact me for the password.
Stems have been zipped up and ready to download from this page:
and of course, here’s everything all at once: hail_complete_stems.zip
Individual files can easily be listened to without downloading by using the SoundCloud player on this page.
Files are also available as a project on Blend, using the link here.
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HAIL is a quartet for double bass. The five movements make up a cycle of meters, beginning with eight and subsequently losing an eighth note: seven, six, five, and ending up at four (or back at eight, depending on how you look at it).
The first movement has all instruments playing arco. One bass in each subsequent movement switches to pizzicato for the duration of the work. The basses are arranged in an arc around the listener, and the technique changes go from the first to the fourth bassist – left to right.
When hail stones are formed, layers of ice build up on the original frozen water droplet while wind and heat carry the hailstones back up to their original elevation after beginning to fall. This process is mimicked by the technique and meter changes of the movements.
The current demo on Soundcloud was made with Sibelius 7.5.
this is a little piece which was not part of a larger project. it sounds like it might be a prelude to something larger, but for now it’s just itself.
[amazon_link id=”0525457585″ target=”_blank” ]The Neverending Story[/amazon_link] was not new to me circa 1998, as it was read to me several times when I was little. However, since all memory of it had been burninated away by the movie The Neverending Story (Ul de Rico notwithstanding), I felt the need to revisit this epic while listening to Peter Gabriel’s [amazon_link id=”B000065V9J” target=”_blank” ]Passion[/amazon_link], of which I had only heard a couple of tracks.
Passion is based on a soundtrack for a movie which I refuse to see, mostly because I only want to imagine Falkor soaring through Fantastica when I hear Of These, Hope.
There is enough variety in the music to span the story, and the references to many types of eastern music allude to the cosmopolitan aspect of Michael Ende’s world. The music can be repeated as long as it takes to read the story. The match is perfect as far as I am concerned.
There have been a number of books I have read while listening to music. Each case involved music and a story which were more or less new to me, which had the potential to ruin either. They may or may not work for other people, so I will try to explain why they worked for me and why I recommend them.
Try them yourself and / or post your comments on the appropriate page.
A friend of a friend (Jym Davis) made a movie. ‘Beyond the Wall of Sleep’ was the original title music for the original titles, neither of which are in the final movie. Here is the final version of the titles, sans my music, but with cool music from Kaveh Cohen.
This music was rendered with all original samples using an Ensoniq ASR-10 .
Jeweler by Design is a small, independently / family -owned custom jewelry shop in Moreno Valley. They do great work, which can be seen at the JBD website. JBD wanted music on the site, so I wrote ‘gems,’ in the playlist on this page (…which is no longer being used).
This piece was rendered using Garritan Personal Orchestra.
flight plan was a collaborative piece with mikeal stevens as a part of his master’s thesis at the memphis college of art and design. mikeal’s thesis, which you can find on his website, addresses the flow moment, when one is so focused on what one is doing, time becomes meaningless. for both of us, this happens during art production. also, mikeal experiences this during skydiving, whereas I experience this during music composition.
flight plan combines art, music, skydiving, and collaboration itself: during the performance, performers were tethered to my fingers via strings which resembled parachute cords. these cords operated the elevators on the wing system mikeal constructed and wore for the piece. there was a literal link between us during the piece.
Vector 74 was going to be a side-scrolling space shooter. I wrote this music to be used for the title screen but never saw any actual work done on the game.