Jess' Compositions

Started by ComposerOfAvantGarde, October 14, 2015, 01:37:37 AM

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ComposerOfAvantGarde

Thanks very much guys! I might upload some more of my guitar playing soon :)

Karl Henning

Karl Henning, Ph.D.
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston MA
http://www.karlhenning.com/
[Matisse] was interested neither in fending off opposition,
nor in competing for the favor of wayward friends.
His only competition was with himself. — Françoise Gilot

Sergeant Rock

Great piece of music well played. Thanks for sharing. I enjoyed it.

Sarge
the phone rings and somebody says,
"hey, they made a movie about
Mahler, you ought to go see it.
he was as f*cked-up as you are."
                               --Charles Bukowski, "Mahler"

NikF

Quote from: jessop on October 26, 2016, 07:44:12 PM
I decided to upload something I recorded in high school, not one of my own compositions, but something I played on guitar

https://soundcloud.com/jessop-maticevski-shumack/shard-by-elliott-carter

I've just listened - and that was cool indeed. Bonus: doubles as my first time hearing anything by Elliot Carter. All in all, a pleasure. Thanks for sharing it.
"You overestimate my power of attraction," he told her. "No, I don't," she replied sharply, "and neither do you".

ComposerOfAvantGarde


ComposerOfAvantGarde

Just for a bit of fun I've decided to revisit a project I've been working on every now and then since 2011. It's taking the form of a chamber opera in five scenes for about 8 instruments and 9 or 11 singers (depending if anyone doubles roles) mostly in episodic roles apart from one main character who is in every scene except for the first. I recently finished the libretto for the first scene and decided to write a little bit of music.

I've actually discussed with a composer/singer friend of mine the possibility for it being staged with a chamber opera he will be working on as a double bill for a youth opera production. He seems to know the right people to make this happen...so let's see how it goes... :)

Monsieur Croche

Quote from: jessop on October 23, 2016, 04:36:17 AM
Not yet finalised: marimba, bongos, small tuned gongs

Harp is percussion; one down, #xx to go ;-)
~ I'm all for personal expression; it just has to express something to me. ~

ComposerOfAvantGarde

Quote from: Monsieur Croche on November 27, 2016, 02:38:45 PM
Harp is percussion; one down, #xx to go ;-)
Harp will be used as percussion, yes, but please explain using the Hornbostel-Sachs classification system how harp is percussion. :P

Monsieur Croche

#68
Apart from its (somewhat) useful categories, you do know that the Hornbostel-Sachs system is a Teutonic 1930's anal retentive hairsplitting relativity, including grouping sound sources and their various means of sound production while attributing to them a hippy-dippy Rudolph Steiner influenced categorization of "Earth, Wind, Fire, Water" and sundry mystic/astrological flavors? LOL.  I do deem it 'mildly useful' as well as being somewhat of a quasi-science.  Others have made academic careers of it... go figure.

So, as cloudy as the categories are -- and aren't, in that system and wrong though it is, all idiophones (percussion in their book) exclude the chordophones... where in The Real World... you can never be wrong if you go by this criterion:
IF the instrument is primarily struck, plucked, beaten or slapped to initiate the sound, regardless if it has strings, membranes, wooden, glass, metal, plastic, etc. as the sound source -- it is a percussion instrument.  All of these share the trait of the player being completely unable to further sustain or alter that initiated sound from its initial volume and inherent subsequent decay, i.e. there is zero ability to alter that amplitude up or down once the sound is initiated.  The only 'control' a player has is in the length of that duration of decay dependent upon how strong the initial strike / pluck was.

That is where any and all like with this production and subsequent 'no sustain or change of volume control' are categorized and most usually end up placed in 'the kitchen' in world-wide standardized orchestral seating arrangements ~ even in German orchestras, ha haaa haaaa.

The sustain pedal of a piano is a bit of a oner in this group of chordophones, in that while it allows for sympathetic vibrations to add to the body of sound, those do nothing to in any way alter the actual volume once the key is struck -- by a hammer, no less.

Struck, plucked, slapped or beaten -- it is percussion.

The bowed string instruments (also chordophones) are temporarily in the percussion category whenever the strings are plucked (pizzicato) or the body of the instruments struck.  (I'll leave staccato col legno and spiccato passages to those inclined to debate how many angels can dance on the head of a pin, the argument pro or con entirely hinged on the individual passage(s) cited.)

I bet those rubbed sound sources, like the the South American Cuíca or 'singing' Tibetan bells, 'percussion' to most, are 'something else' in the world of Hornbostel-Sachs.

Well, that was a weird bit of fun.  Thank you :-)


Always best regards
~ I'm all for personal expression; it just has to express something to me. ~

ComposerOfAvantGarde

Quote from: Monsieur Croche on December 02, 2016, 11:39:16 PM
Apart from its (somewhat) useful categories, you do know that the Hornbostel-Sachs system is a Teutonic 1930's anal retentive hairsplitting relativity, including grouping sound sources and their various materials and means of sound production while attributing to them a hippy-dippy Rudolph Steiner influenced categorization of "Earth, Wind, Fire, Water" and sundry mystic/astrological flavors that has it a distant cousin of a sort of Acoustic Kaballah? LOL.  I do deem it 'mildly useful' as well as being somewhat of a quasi-science.  Others have made academic careers of it... go figure.

So, as cloudy as the categories are -- and aren't, in that system and wrong though it is, all idiophones (percussion in their book) exclude the chordophones... where in The Real World... you can never be wrong if you go by this criterion:
IF the instrument is primarily struck, plucked, beaten or slapped to initiate the sound, regardless if it has strings, membranes, wooden, glass, metal, plastic, etc. as the sound source -- it is a percussion instrument. 
All of these share the trait of the player being completely unable to further sustain or alter the sound from its initial volume and inherent subsequent decay after the initial attack.  The only 'control' a player has is in the length of that duration of decay dependent upon how strong the initial strike / pluck was.


That is where any and all like with this production and subsequent 'no sustain or change of volume control' are categorized and most usually end up placed in 'the kitchen' in world-wide standard orchestral seating arrangements ~ even in German orchestras, ha haaa haaaa.

The sustain pedal of a piano is a bit of a oner in this group of chordophones, in that while it allows for sympathetic vibrations to add to the body of sound, those do nothing to in any way alter the actual volume once the key is struck -- by a hammer, no less. Strike and decay is the order of the day.

Struck, plucked, slapped or beaten -- it is percussion.

The bowed string instruments (also chordophones) are temporarily in the percussion category whenever the strings are plucked (pizzicato) or the body of the instruments struck.  (I'll leave staccato col legno and spiccato passages to those inclined to debate how many angels can dance on the head of a pin, the argument pro or con entirely hinged on the individual passage(s) cited.)

I bet those rubbed sound sources, like the the South American Cuíca or 'singing' Tibetan bells, 'percussion' to most, are 'something else' in the world of Hornbostel-Sachs.

Well, that was a weird bit of fun.  Thank you :-)


Always best regards

Hm...convincing argument but you must remember your citations and bibliography next time. Chicago style please.   
6/10
:P

Monsieur Croche

#70
Quote from: jessop on December 03, 2016, 02:32:32 AM
Hm...convincing argument but you must remember your citations and bibliography next time. Chicago style please.   
6/10
:P

Sad to report that authoritative citations, bibli, etc. or 'strong argument' Chicago Style, often involve guns and death.  In this year, 2016, 700 homicides, with another month + to go.  That 'us Amuricans' can say that almost casually speaks volumes :-/

So... best take my word for it, if ya know what's good for ya ;-)

Now, your turn. 
What is/are the Hornbostel–Sachs categorizations -- with citations and bibliography (Strine Style, natch) for these two 'percussion' babes:

The Cuíca:
"Brazilian friction drum" (a wooden rod is affixed in the middle of the membrane, in the drum; the rod is rosined and then rubbed with a damp cloth.  "with a large pitch range, produced by changing tension on the head of the drum."  {A a near standard included in a ton of South American Samba music, I'm pretty sure just about anyone on GMG has heard it, whether or not they know the name of it.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVOtE1qSymU
[Don't you love the lengths the human race goes to in imagining and then creating an instrument like this?]

Tibetan singing bowls: Metal bells, struck and / or rubbed.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singing_bowl

One legitimate response is the question, "Does any of this categorization really matter?"
Haaa haaaaaa.
Best of luck to you ;-), and as usual,


Best regards (I here confess a relative frequency of the typo, "Beset regards.")
~ I'm all for personal expression; it just has to express something to me. ~

ComposerOfAvantGarde

Quote from: Monsieur Croche on December 03, 2016, 04:07:28 PM
Sad to report that authoritative citations, bibli, etc. or 'strong argument' Chicago Style, often involve guns and death.  In this year, 2016, 700 homicides, with another month + to go.  That 'us Amuricans' can say that almost casually speaks volumes :-/

So... best take my word for it, if ya know what's good for ya ;-)

Now, your turn. 
What is/are the Hornbostel–Sachs categorizations -- with citations and bibliography (Strine Style, natch) for these two 'percussion' babes:

The Cuíca:
"Brazilian friction drum" (a wooden rod is affixed in the middle of the membrane, in the drum; the rod is rosined and then rubbed with a damp cloth.  "with a large pitch range, produced by changing tension on the head of the drum."  {A a near standard included in a ton of South American Samba music, I'm pretty sure just about anyone on GMG has heard it, whether or not they know the name of it.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVOtE1qSymU
[Don't you love the lengths the human race goes to in imagining and then creating an instrument like this?]

Tibetan singing bowls: Metal bells, struck and / or rubbed.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singing_bowl

One legitimate response is the question, "Does any of this categorization really matter?"
Haaa haaaaaa.
Best of luck to you ;-), and as usual,


Best regards (I here confess a relative frequency of the typo, "Beset regards.")

Can't be bothered categorising these :P
But very very interesting! :)
I guess categorisation matters for some people and doesn't matter so much for others. As for me, it doesn't matter so much as I am more concerned with the varying lengths of sustain and decay of any produced sound and the timbre of it, rather than what 'type' of instrument it is.

ComposerOfAvantGarde

On a different note: here is me butchering some Bach

https://www.youtube.com/v/TcP4Hi-0CPs

ComposerOfAvantGarde

Ah, I haven't really been composing much at all lately. I have things which I will end up doing next year as part of my course and I think for now if I do anything it would probably be some kind of composition using that video above as the sound source which I will edit and remix. A bit like eRikm's Corrélation 1.

ComposerOfAvantGarde

I abandoned that project for the time being, perhaps I will do a better job at it another time. The ideas I was having ended up morphing into a completely new idea which uses the following quote I saw Lucy Aharish say: 'Who is marching in the streets for the innocent men and women of Syria? Who is shouting for the children? No one.'

I tried to sort of imitate irregular breathing patterns, inspired by a sense of struggling to live, intense stress, a sort of feeling that I can't imagine at all due to where I live in the world.

https://soundcloud.com/jessop-maticevski-shumack/no-one

Mahlerian

Quote from: jessop on December 18, 2016, 07:37:02 PM
I abandoned that project for the time being, perhaps I will do a better job at it another time. The ideas I was having ended up morphing into a completely new idea which uses the following quote I saw Lucy Aharish say: 'Who is marching in the streets for the innocent men and women of Syria? Who is shouting for the children? No one.'

I tried to sort of imitate irregular breathing patterns, inspired by a sense of struggling to live, intense stress, a sort of feeling that I can't imagine at all due to where I live in the world.

https://soundcloud.com/jessop-maticevski-shumack/no-one

Interesting.  What software did you use to create this?
"l do not consider my music as atonal, but rather as non-tonal. I feel the unity of all keys. Atonal music by modern composers admits of no key at all, no feeling of any definite center." - Arnold Schoenberg

ComposerOfAvantGarde

Quote from: Mahlerian on December 18, 2016, 08:30:18 PM
Interesting.  What software did you use to create this?
Audacity just to edit the improvised sections together into a coherent piece. It's built from a few improvised phrases i played on a Roland Aira system 1 synth.

Overtones

#77
Quote from: jessop on December 18, 2016, 07:37:02 PM
I abandoned that project for the time being, perhaps I will do a better job at it another time. The ideas I was having ended up morphing into a completely new idea which uses the following quote I saw Lucy Aharish say: 'Who is marching in the streets for the innocent men and women of Syria? Who is shouting for the children? No one.'

I tried to sort of imitate irregular breathing patterns, inspired by a sense of struggling to live, intense stress, a sort of feeling that I can't imagine at all due to where I live in the world.

https://soundcloud.com/jessop-maticevski-shumack/no-one

I like it!
Not sure about the final rain effect tbh, but all in all I think it's a great piece.
Well done (I've just now realized that you are... CoAG)!


ComposerOfAvantGarde

Quote from: Overtones on December 19, 2016, 03:02:37 AM
I like it!
Not sure about the final rain effect tbh, but all in all I think it's a great piece.
Well done (I've just now realized that you are... CoAG)!


Thanks for listening :)
Do you have any advice for avoiding the rain effect or changing the ending? I'd be interested to hear how you might do it differently

Overtones

Quote from: jessop on December 19, 2016, 04:33:29 AM
Thanks for listening :)
Do you have any advice for avoiding the rain effect or changing the ending? I'd be interested to hear how you might do it differently

I am the furthest here from a position to give any composition advice.

It works, imo, in the middle of the piece, before the voiceover, as it does not stand out in the foreground and it sounds as a short inconscious introduction to the "real world" apparition of the voice.
At the end, instead, it is given too much prominence and it just stands out as a dull rain effect.
Maybe it'd be better even by simply removing it, as is, and leave those heavily manipulated "breaths" to do the work. There is a "dry" quality to those breaths, that fits the overall work better than the (obviously wet) rain effect.

Maybe manipulate it to make it sound (or replace it with something that sounds) like "drops of powder" instead?
I'm just typing out loud :)