Mark Simon's Madhouse

[Mark G. Simon]

I'm bringing the last few posts over from the old GMG

Here's the text by retired physics prof. N. David Mermin which will be read before and inbetween movements of Carnival of the Subatomic Particles.

http://people.ccmr.cornell.edu/~mermin/homepage/Carnival4.html

[Mark G. Simon]

You can listen to "Pions", the third movement of my Carnival right here:

http://snipurl.com/1ezrg

click on the file that says "01 Pions mp3" (this is from a rehearsal about a month ago)

[rappy]

I did like this. Though it did sound quite extraordinary, it still made sense to me. Too bad it lasts only 1 1/2 minutes. Are you the new Webern? 

[Mark G. Simon]

I did like this. Though it did sound quite extraordinary, it still made sense to me. Too bad it lasts only 1 1/2 minutes. Are you the new Webern? 

Probably not. But, as I said somewhere else on the old forum, it shows I've been taking my Webern pills. There are 13 movements in the whole piece, for a total of about 30 minutes of music. Each piece had to be short.

Harmonically, my aim is to establish a new model of tonality, based on the set 5-29 rather than the regular major triad. This 5-29 set is used so consistently that it establishes an aural norm, which is why it still seems to "make sense".

[pjme]

I enjoyed "pions" - almost a little dance...Agreably light - yet without letting the tension go.
my appetite is wetted.

Peter

[Mark G. Simon]

I enjoyed "pions" - almost a little dance...Agreably light - yet without letting the tension go.
my appetite is wetted.

Peter

My original concept for the show actually included dance. Music's Recreation, the group that commissioned and performed the work, actually contacted a choreographer, and hope to be able to use her services for a future performance when funding becomes available.

[Mark G. Simon]

Four excerpts from the performance of Carnival of the Subatomic Particles can be heard here. Click on the selections "16 Particles Pions", "18 Particles Kaons" "20 Particles Eta C" and "22 Particles Upsilon"

To belabor the obvious, the movements are called "Pions", "Kaons", "Eta C", and "Upsilon". This is a better performance of Pions than the one I previously had up here.

http://snipurl.com/1ezrg

Pions contain an Up quark and Anti-down quark, and the music is based on intervals of perfect fifth and minor 6th.

Kaons contain an Anti-up quark and a Strange quark, and the music is based on intervals of perfect fourth and tritone.

Eta C contains a Charm quark and Anti-charm quark, and the music is based on intervals of a minor third and major 6th. It is also a canon in inversion over a walking bass.

Upsilon contains a Bottom quark and Anti-bottom quark, and the music is based on intervals of a minor second and major seventh.

[karlhenning]

I've downloaded them, and greatly enjoyed an initial hearing; well done, Mark!

I have to clear away some (figurative) clutter on my desk before I can speak more, but I will be listening to these several times more! Bravo!

[Steve]

Four excerpts from the performance of Carnival of the Subatomic Particles can be heard here. Click on the selections "16 Particles Pions", "18 Particles Kaons" "20 Particles Eta C" and "22 Particles Upsilon"

To belabor the obvious, the movements are called "Pions", "Kaons", "Eta C", and "Upsilon". This is a better performance of Pions than the one I previously had up here.

http://snipurl.com/1ezrg

Pions contain an Up quark and Anti-down quark, and the music is based on intervals of perfect fifth and minor 6th.

Kaons contain an Anti-up quark and a Strange quark, and the music is based on intervals of perfect fourth and tritone.

Eta C contains a Charm quark and Anti-charm quark, and the music is based on intervals of a minor third and major 6th. It is also a canon in inversion over a walking bass.

Upsilon contains a Bottom quark and Anti-bottom quark, and the music is based on intervals of a minor second and major seventh.

A wonderful surprise for the morning hours. Great job, Mark

[karlhenning]

What's in the works, Mark?

(As a sheepish aside, I've only this week turned up Stuart's card again . . . .)

[Mark G. Simon]

Karl, you've heard about this elsewhere, but I have a Sax Concerto that I wrote a number or years ago that I'm just now getting around to putting in order, meaning I've put the whole score into Finale, created a set of parts, and just today I "finished" the piano reduction (the scare quotes meaning that I still have to play over the piano version a whole bunch more times and make sure it's somewhere close to being playable). Then I'll send it to Stuart* and let him make some suggestions.

The second movement should actually be quite effective with sax and piano. I think it could be performed as a separate work.


* (Stuart being my brother, who lives in Denver and makes a living playing piano in fancy restaurants and other venues)

[karlhenning]

What flavor saxophone?

[Mark G. Simon]

Alto

[karlhenning]

To follow up with a relatively chatty question . . . what went into selecting the alto from among the saxophone choir?

[Mark G. Simon]

Well, the piece goes back to my grad student years. In fact, this was my doctoral dissertation piece. I started out to write a clarinet concerto. I changed to alto saxophone for two reasons: 1) My orchestration was getting too heavy for a solo clarinet to compete with. I decided the saxophone would have more power (I also rethought the composition so that lengthy episodes are scored only for woodwinds, brass or strings). 2) There was a orchestral reading coming up, where Cornell would hire an orchestra for grad student composers, who were expected to conduct their own works. I enlisted my alto saxophone playing friend Mark Taggart to play the solo part of the last movement, which I would conduct. The performance fell quite short of ideal, but it's the only performance the piece has ever gotten. I hope to change that.

[Mark G. Simon]

I have added the last movement of the sax concerto to my download folder. The soloist is Mark Taggart with the "Cornell Festival Orchestra" (ie a pickup group) conducted by me. This is a considerably larger file than the others.

http://snipurl.com/1ezrg

[karlhenning]

Well, the piece goes back to my grad student years. In fact, this was my doctoral dissertation piece. I started out to write a clarinet concerto. I changed to alto saxophone for two reasons: 1) My orchestration was getting too heavy for a solo clarinet to compete with. I decided the saxophone would have more power (I also rethought the composition so that lengthy episodes are scored only for woodwinds, brass or strings). 2) There was a orchestral reading coming up, where Cornell would hire an orchestra for grad student composers, who were expected to conduct their own works. I enlisted my alto saxophone playing friend Mark Taggart to play the solo part of the last movement, which I would conduct. The performance fell quite short of ideal, but it's the only performance the piece has ever gotten. I hope to change that.

But that's all terrific!  It was just a reading, no rehearsals prior, right?  It were a rare event (or you had written a suspiciously easy piece) if the performance reached the ideal, in those circs.

[Mark G. Simon]

Actually, there was some prior rehearsal, I blush to say. Each composer got two half-hour blocks of rehearsal time, if I remember correctly, over a rehearsal period of three days. There was a performance in front of an audience and that's where the recording was made. I still enjoy listening to it, in fact I'm amazed that I still enjoy the piece.

[karlhenning]

I have added the last movement of the sax concerto to my download folder. The soloist is Mark Taggart with the "Cornell Festival Orchestra" (ie a pickup group) conducted by me. This is a considerably larger file than the others.

http://snipurl.com/1ezrg

Mark, I've succeeded in downloading the file, but Media Player doesn'r recognize the file-type (?)

[Mark G. Simon]

Mark, I've succeeded in downloading the file, but Media Player doesn'r recognize the file-type (?)

Try it again. I just converted the file to mp3. (it was in the iTunes format mpeg4)