Some compositions

[froghawk]

Hi everyone, I'm new here.  I'm happy to finally find a forum where people discuss 20th century art music!  I am a student of Gerald Levinson, who studied under Crumb and Messiaen.  Here's part of a string quartet I wrote in 2010:
Hedonistic Ritual - Spectres, Remnants (Fragment until Gong) - Interruptions:
Latest performance: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBx6g9wgfwI
Debut performance of the 'Interruptions' movement: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7XDCh-Rtxk


Here's the debut recording of a piece that I co-wrote with the first violinist from said quartet in 2011:
Between Entwines for piano and violin:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWD7vnZvyHM

She will also appear on my debut rock album, which I will soon release.

[Karl Henning]

Welcome! I look forward to checking your work out.

[froghawk]

None taken - the string quartet has a movement called 'Interruptions' because the entire point of the piece was to write a work where ideas of different character and language cut each other off, somewhat inspired by Stravinsky's 'Symphonies of Wind Instruments' in its form while harmonically drawing from Ligeti's first string quartet.  The material is meant to be quite heterogeneous.  As for the other work, it is my first venture into collaborative composition, so it is not surprising that it has a certain diversity of materials.  I think it's pretty cohesive for a collaborative work, but I could be biased.  I do have other works which are much more singular in their motivic material.  Thanks for the feedback, and thanks for listening!

As for the barefoot playing, that is just the tradition of that particular quartet.

[froghawk]

Two songs from my upcoming debut album: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYwKKvcL3Os

[froghawk]

New song, this time with Messiaen and Bartok quotes!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXPfUelT-yA

The album is coming out on April 5.  Digital preorders are up on bandcamp: http://thegabrielconstruct.bandcamp.com

It will also be on CD baby, Itunes, Amazon MP3, Spotify, etc. starting on release day.

Physical copies will follow soon (whenever the layout is done) on CD baby, Amazon, Super D independent stores, etc.

for the theory nerds:

Next in the 'Interior City' series is "Ranting Prophet". There's a drum loop that runs throughout most of this tune that I tracked, but - regrettably - did not film (I included it in the first bar of the transcription). In Gabe's original demo, the loop was lifted/sampled from a Genesis tune and I stuck pretty close to it. However, I wanted to retain a hand-to-hand hi-hat feel with tom-toms and other cymbal orchestrations poking through here and there, and what came out of me is what you see. My feet are playing a single stroke ostinato underneath, with the right foot moving back and forth between the right-side pedal hat and the bass drum. The ostinato dictated not only where within the bar but also which set of hats I choked.

In the section starting around 1:54, I employed some softer dynamics. There's a cool over-the-bar polyrhythm at 2:07, then each subsequent ride strike is louder to segue back into the verse. At 2:45, the loop stays in 4-4 while the tune shifts between 7 and 6. The delayed snare backbeat at 3:08 complements the vocal. For the crazy blast-beat-driven bridge, I sought to punctuate it in spots; it usually starts at the tail end of the four-bar progression then bleeds into its repeat. There's a two-bar tag at the end in which I play a 'bomb blast' in the first bar; I came up with the idea while tracking. Thankfully, my feet were cooperative that day haha.