San Antonio Rows

[jochanaan]

english horn + electronics

http://www.youtube.com/v/ksIdUQzcJGQ

I like this! I'd love to play it...

[San Antone]

I like this! I'd love to play it...

That's really good to hear.   PM me your email and I will send you a PDF of the score and we can discuss how best to do the electronics track. 

Disclosure: I use minimal articulation, phrasing and dynamic markings, only what I consider necessary in order to nail down something that might not be obvious.  I prefer to give the performer as much latitude for interpretation as possible.  However, if you wish to have more, I will add to the score.

Thanks!

[Karl Henning]

Woot!

[San Antone]

Woot!

No pressure, Karl, but I've just about got the duo for flute and clarinet finished.  How did your performances go this weekend?  The concert was this weekend, wasn't it?

[jochanaan]

...Disclosure: I use minimal articulation, phrasing and dynamic markings, only what I consider necessary in order to nail down something that might not be obvious.  I prefer to give the performer as much latitude for interpretation as possible.  However, if you wish to have more, I will add to the score.

Thanks!

That's fine. If there are dynamic markings, I'll follow them; if none or few, I'll play it as I feel it.

[Karl Henning]

No pressure, Karl, but I've just about got the duo for flute and clarinet finished.  How did your performances go this weekend?  The concert was this weekend, wasn't it?

Excellent. Aye, this weekend, and they went very nicely, thanks.

[cjvinthechair]

Mr. Sanantonio - you know I try in my own feeble way to keep vaguely abreast of the 'new' music you keep finding for us; OK, time for the pathetically naïve question ! Electronic music - no doubt it can go beyond what 'regular' instruments might produce, but in what way are we to assume it improves upon it ?
I can quietly ignore a little electronic interlude in a 'traditional' piece, but some of the time there is minimal/no traditional piece to start with. Why should we give it our attention ?

So sorry - suspect it's sacrilege to question advancement....but what exactly does this advance ?

[San Antone]

Mr. Sanantonio - you know I try in my own feeble way to keep vaguely abreast of the 'new' music you keep finding for us; OK, time for the pathetically naïve question ! Electronic music - no doubt it can go beyond what 'regular' instruments might produce, but in what way are we to assume it improves upon it ?
I can quietly ignore a little electronic interlude in a 'traditional' piece, but some of the time there is minimal/no traditional piece to start with. Why should we give it our attention ?

So sorry - suspect it's sacrilege to question advancement....but what exactly does this advance ?

For me electronic music is not a substitute for, or an improvement upon, "traditional" music.   It is just another form of musical expression.   Music is not a zero sum game, but an ever expanding continuum of styles and sounds; nothing cancels anything out. 

There are an infinite number of sounds that are possible using electronic resources that are beyond the spectrum found using acoustic instruments.  Some composers wish to use this electronic aural palette in order to capture the kind of sonic landscape they hear in their heads, and there is an appreciative audience for their music.  For myself I very much enjoy electronic music, both as a listener and to use in my own composing.  But I do not post the things I do in order to tell other GMG members that this is music they should listen to or appreciate.  I just post the kind of music I enjoy and wish to share with this community in the same way other posters contribute early music, or Mahler, or Beethoven sonatas.

[jochanaan]

Mr. Sanantonio - you know I try in my own feeble way to keep vaguely abreast of the 'new' music you keep finding for us; OK, time for the pathetically naïve question ! Electronic music - no doubt it can go beyond what 'regular' instruments might produce, but in what way are we to assume it improves upon it ?
I can quietly ignore a little electronic interlude in a 'traditional' piece, but some of the time there is minimal/no traditional piece to start with. Why should we give it our attention ?

So sorry - suspect it's sacrilege to question advancement....but what exactly does this advance ?

My musical "career" has been focused on acoustical instruments, but I also have a healthy appreciation for electronica, and have on occasion played with makers of electronic music.  In its beginnings, electronica was all about eliminating the boundary between what was traditionally called "music" and other possible organizations of sound; but there's a lot of electronica in non-classical music that has gone back to an imitation of traditional instruments.  I'm not interested in the latter kind of electronica; I'd rather hear it played on acoustic instruments!  I'm much more interested in electronica that continues to break boundaries.  (And don't think I'm particularly young!  As it happens, I'm 55 and still looking for good new music. )

[cjvinthechair]

Thank you for your thoughtful answers, gentlemen !

[jochanaan]

Thank you for your thoughtful answers, gentlemen !

Thanks for reading! If more folks would take time to read and understand new viewpoints, forums like this would be happier, livelier places.

[Karl Henning]

I just want to say, I agree

[Mirror Image]

Here's some relevant questions in regards to the use of electronics for sanantonio, how do you formulate the ideas for usage of these electronics? Are the compositions built around these electronics? How are getting the sounds? A keyboard, a computer program...?

[San Antone]

Here's some relevant questions in regards to the use of electronics for sanantonio, how do you formulate the ideas for usage of these electronics? Are the compositions built around these electronics? How are getting the sounds? A keyboard, a computer program...?

Thanks for asking.   

Are the compositions built around these electronics?

This is kind of like the question, "what came first, the words or the music".  Sometimes I get going with an electronic track and then work backwards to the acoustic instruments, and other times it is the opposite.  But always, it is a back and forth method of re-writing each set of parts after I make progress with the work.  There is a point where I feel one of the sides is "finished", at least as to length, and then I go back and tweak each side.  Usually I there are things which are supposed to be working together between the electronics and acoustic instruments, and I will have to rewrite the way in and out of those sections for both the electronics and the acoustic parts.

How are getting the sounds? A keyboard, a computer program...?

I use a variety of sound samples ranging from 1 second to over a minute in length.  Some I create myself either from recording natural environments or other sound sources and then manipulate them in a computer program such as Abelton Live.  I still use loops and samples that I have accumulated over the last ten years or so, I must have over 30,000 of those, and I will also reverse them, or change the pitch or tempo, using either Abelton Live or Sound Forge audio editor  programs.  For the piece I am finishing for Karl, I used a lot of percussion sounds, bell trees, pots, pieces of wood chips, little jars, wind chimes, cymbals, gongs, etc. some sounding natural and some modified with the software.

I am working on another piece right now for clarinet, bass clarinet, piano and electronics in which I wrote the entire acoustic parts as a trio.  Now I  am tearing it apart and creating space for the electronics and beginning to find the right samples for it.  This is somewhat unusual for me.  But once I got going with the trio it took on a life of its own.  I am now using that acoustic material as the basis for the piece, but I will end up throwing out some of what I previously wrote and paring it down to only those parts which work best with the electronics.

The part I enjoy the most is the revision process. 

[Mirror Image]

Thanks for taking the time for writing those responses. I'm always interested to find out about the creative processes for musicians/composers.

Edit: Of course, I've been playing the guitar for 21 years, but it's always nice to talk to other musicians about their art.

[San Antone]

I uploaded to my blog the work for flute | clarinet in A + virtual percussion. 

Karl, I hope you like it and do end up playing it at some point.    This is the first time I used something other than purely abstract samples for the electronics.  The percussion samples came from a variety of sources, some natural, others manipulated and there's also some purely electronic sounds and pads under them in places.

I have gotten an video made, but am thinking I will use different images.

[Karl Henning]

I shall be sure to check it out later today!

[Karl Henning]

Our April concert has filled up already;  but there will be another occasion later this year.

[San Antone]

Thanks, Karl, I hope you find the work worthy of attention and possibly a Henningmusik premiere.

[Karl Henning]

I uploaded to my blog the work for flute | clarinet in A + virtual percussion. 

Karl, I hope you like it and do end up playing it at some point.    This is the first time I used something other than purely abstract samples for the electronics.  The percussion samples came from a variety of sources, some natural, others manipulated and there's also some purely electronic sounds and pads under them in places.

I have gotten an video made, but am thinking I will use different images.

Apologies for taking so long! I've just listened to it, a very fine piece!  I like it very well, and I am sure Peter will be up for it, as well.