mostly art and music
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.
legend two is orchestrated for the following 18 instruments:
01-04, 08-13,15-16, 19-20 are connected, with no pause in between movements.
Musical accompaniment is now written for many visual formats. Most of these formats (opera, movies, video games) tell a story; the music serves as a backdrop for the story.
The aim of the legend musical form (legend in the story-telling sense) is to re-invent this process: if music can be written as a supplementary element of an audio-visual story, why couldn’t the music be written first, leaving the story up to many possibilities?
Legend One, titled ‘July,’ is the first of hopefully several implementations of this form. It is a large work for chamber orchestra (instruments shown in as tags on this page) in 26 movements and is about an hour and fifteen minutes long. It is what I think of as post-minimalist, with each movement featuring only a few instruments.
The image is an illustration of the form of the piece in terms of theme.
the poem (or whatever a non-writer like me is allowed to call a bunch of words such as this) was written in 1999 in response to heavy rainfall in bright sunlight. the music was written between 1999-2002. each movements is a side of the box.
the sun was shining but there were clouds it came down and he came down I said, 'hey, man, what am I supposed to do with this seven-sided box?' I didn't notice what I was saying at first so he didn't really tell me or maybe I didn't understand he wasn't a man, though but he didn't really tell me so I'm not really sure what the deal is with the seven-sided box he said I could use it with friends he said if I listened he said this is the seven-sided box 'well, I can see that' the clouds passed and he said you got any friends? I just wanted to know what it did 'what's it for?' listen so I said I know people but he said, come on, everybody's got friends 'my, what big eyes you have' that's not the way it works though clouds and sunlight not everybody he said you must be a friend to somebody I just wanted to know I tried to listen when it came down, sounds could be heard some things were clear but what was the deal with the seven-sided box? there's always a side you can't see, isn't there? what is it for? huge eyes, I tell you he said he had all day 'of course I got friends' that's a strange number of sides for a box to have he wasn't from around here I got a few friends, anyway he said he was 'you'll be here for quite a while, won't you?' I gotta go get my friends listen he said there's always a side you can't see no, but really, I have good friends they listen not as sunny, but lighter and that's not really the way it works, but I think he knew that he said here, learn the seven-sided box not a man he said I could already hear it the seven-sided box 'what is it for?' listen with your friends more light listen to your friends more light it's harder to make a decision when you can't see every side, but I doubt that was the point light listen lighter everybody knows people he said you already kind of listen the important part really is wanting to listen out of the sky, he didn't just walk up to me or through the sky or from the sky the guy was tall