Greg's Gazebo

Started by greg, August 30, 2007, 11:11:10 AM

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Mirror Image

You're not going to be spending time with family on Thanksgiving? You must be a pretty lonely guy.

ibanezmonster

Quote from: Mirror Image on November 21, 2012, 09:54:02 AM
You're not going to be spending time with family on Thanksgiving? You must be a pretty lonely guy.
Nope; I live with them. We might eat at around 2 or 3 or so. My friend will be visiting his grandpa's house, which is in the area, so we're planning on hanging out in the morning. So... in the evening I'll work on my stuff some more, although rewriting my Piano Sonata is so much work that my stuff my be uploaded later than Thursday.

I wish I could be lonely if I wanted to. It would be a luxury to be able to either get away from or see people whenever desired.  :P
Are you visiting your parents for Thanksgiving?

Mirror Image

Quote from: Greg on November 21, 2012, 10:49:26 AM
Nope; I live with them. We might eat at around 2 or 3 or so. My friend will be visiting his grandpa's house, which is in the area, so we're planning on hanging out in the morning. So... in the evening I'll work on my stuff some more, although rewriting my Piano Sonata is so much work that my stuff my be uploaded later than Thursday.

I wish I could be lonely if I wanted to. It would be a luxury to be able to either get away from or see people whenever desired.  :P
Are you visiting your parents for Thanksgiving?

This is good to hear, Greg. Like you, I live with my parents. Can't afford to live on my own without a roommate and who wants one of those? :) Anyway, hope you have a good Thanksgiving. I'll be slaving away at work tomorrow, but, at least, I'll get leftovers. :D

ibanezmonster

Posting links... last step will be done tonight after 10pm.



Quote from: Mirror Image on November 21, 2012, 12:24:47 PM
This is good to hear, Greg. Like you, I live with my parents. Can't afford to live on my own without a roommate and who wants one of those? :) Anyway, hope you have a good Thanksgiving. I'll be slaving away at work tomorrow, but, at least, I'll get leftovers. :D
Definitely.




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

ibanezmonster

Quote from: karlhenning on November 25, 2012, 06:18:33 AM
Keep on keepin' on!
Thanks.
Besides the 2nd Piano Sonata, I have a few ideas... mainly titles with references to anime. Eventually I need to write an Electric Guitar Concerto and some symphonies, but that's for later. For the next few years, I might write a few small pieces about anime; I wouldn't have time to do anything epic, but maybe small acoustic guitar pieces or something. 

A few ideas:
-Until the End of the Dream (name of episode 9 of Clannad)... a melancholy for acoustic guitar, piano, cello, violin or something
-Someday in the Rain (last episode of Haruhi Suzumiya)... acoustic guitar
-Hyouka (name after the show)... acoustic guitar
-Lain (after Serial Experiments Lain)... a short, experimental electronic or orchestral work

snyprrr

Quote from: Greg on November 06, 2012, 07:06:39 AM
Done?!  :o
Awesome... I will be really looking forward to looking over the final score.

Well, it's a month later. The Five Sections that comprise 'Part 1',... oy, well, I'm 99% on Section 1, and I've completely fallen apart from the last note of Section 1 to the first note of Section 2 (in your first packet, this is the faster section on Pages 2-3). Somehow I have to re-write this Section 2,... I haven't even gone over the later bits.

Truly I need something else to occupy me too. I tend to work on one thing at a time, but I really need to stop being such a prima donna.

Anyhow, the opening Section 1, with the crashing block chords, has really tightened up. It started with everything whole-notes, but now I have chiseled much detail and meter. I'm really quite fond of this piece, it's really me.

So, I'm hoping to have this bridge between Sections 1 & 3 fixed here, and I know I can get it from what I already have... I have to cut something, turn something backwards/upside down,... I MUST be done!!

ibanezmonster

Sounds like you're just about there. Nothing wrong with going back and redetailing a few things.

ibanezmonster

I'm wondering if I should ask whether I can resubmit it for next year or just go ahead and upload it on youtube or what.

The 4 pieces that were selected didn't include mine. Birtwistle wrote that he based his selection on pieces that we would have liked to write himself. Not sure how great of a method that is; I'm writing for me, not him. How would I go about getting a real performance of this?

Karl Henning

Quote from: Greg on December 07, 2012, 09:57:47 AM
Birtwistle wrote that he based his selection on pieces that we would have liked to write himself.

Well, I suppose at least his narcissism is frank, there.
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

ibanezmonster

Well, here's the source:

QuoteThe adjudication of the Takemitsu Prize was one of the most difficult problems I have had to face. I have now been writing music for over 50 years and have completed more than 120 pieces and the more music I write the more subjective my response becomes. In fact my judgement of a piece is whether or not I would like to have written it. When I unwrapped two large cardboard boxes filled with 97 pieces of orchestral tutti a panic set in. How was I to approach the task with the maximum degree of subjectivity? The tactic I decided upon was

1. Examine each piece for at least 15 minutes
2. Reject the obvious non-runners
3. Finalise and digest the rest over a period of time
4. After a week or so make a shortlist of possible winners
The shortlist turned out to be 27 pieces. This was the most difficult task of the whole process. Of 27 pieces eighteen of them could be said to come from the same stable, namely – having dense static textures, slow tempo, quiet dynamics, super-imposed rhythmic unison expressed with often beautiful orchestration. I called them the "Rothko pile". The 9 remaining pieces were individual and did not make a composite group. The Rothko pieces because of their similarity were the most difficult to deal with. I made a short list of them – 6 in one pile and 12 in another but the decision was difficult and gave me a lot of problems. Day after day I moved two scores from pile 2 back to the other, eventually settling on three possibilities. The other group of 9 was easier and I decided on 5 possibilities which gave me eight candidates to choose four winners from.
As a general observation I noticed that there was no evidence of anything expressed through rhythmic energy or a sense of melodic invention but the whole level of creativity was wonderful and gives me hope for the future of real music.
http://www.operacity.jp/en/concert/award/news/121207.php


I wonder if my score was in the "Rothko" pile...
this is the problem with writing music in general, and the main reason I never joined a band. Personally, I would rather listen to what I wrote than any of Birtwistle's music or what I've heard from previous Takemitsu competition winners. But what decides whether I get a performance or not is one person's musical taste.

The band that wanted me to join (other than being way too far away) hasn't gotten anywhere yet. The drummer works at Toys R Us and lives with parents. Music is definitely something you do for fun, not for money. I wonder how some of these people can afford to spend so much time composing and studying in school for music when the reward usually isn't something you can live off of.

But I would like to get this piece performed. How would I go about doing that?

snyprrr

Quote from: Greg on December 07, 2012, 11:07:25 AM
Well, here's the source:
http://www.operacity.jp/en/concert/award/news/121207.php


I wonder if my score was in the "Rothko" pile...

haha ;D, well, at least he explained the 'process', haha...


I have just gotten back from an intensive rewrite of those first two sections that I was laboring with. The 'bridge' has been reworked, and now I'm on to sections 3-5. I'm actually kind of proud of this apparent final draft, I think (if professionally written) it makes a nice visual punch. I believe all the notes are right and the rhythms are correct (even with tweaking, this current draft expresses my wishes pretty perfectly).

I have read two tomes on Music Notation in the last week, and, really, apparently knew most of it anyway,... it's Compositional Issues I've got mostly; though, I've learned some useful tips.

ibanezmonster

I hate to rush you, but I've got 4 weeks until I go back to school (last day is tomorrow)... if I get your score after January 7, I can't promise I'll have much time to look at it immediately.

ibanezmonster

I sent in an inquiry, perhaps my final one. If I can't resubmit it, I may make another youtube channel that solely features my music.

QuoteHello!

I sent in a score, "Phantom Travels," to the Year 2013/Birtwistle competition and was not selected. If I send in the same score next year, will the score be eligible or ineligible?

I was somewhat surprised to see it not selected, but in the end it is one person's musical taste. Birtwistle explained that he selected scores that "he would have liked to have written." However, I wrote a Greg Cook score, not a Birtwistle score. It is easily my best composition; on the level of some of the previous winners I've heard, yet more original, I think. It would be nice to send to another judge; if not, that's okay, because then I can put the audio on youtube.

Oh... one final question. There are no recordings of the concerts for the finalists, are there?

I appreciate the help so far, by the way.

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

ibanezmonster

I can submit it next year!  :o

QuoteDear Mr. Greg,

thank you for inquiry.
You can submit same piece next year, because the judge will change.
Please send 2 copies of the score by 30 September 2013.
Concerning recordings, we don't have them, because Japan Broadcasting
Company recorded every concert.

Sincerely yours,


===================================
Jun Sawahashi(Mr.), Producer
Toru Takemitsu Composition Award
Tokyo Opera City Cultural Foundation
------------------------------------------------------------
3-20-2, Nishi-shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku
Tokyo 163-1403, JAPAN
TEL: +81 3 5353 0770
FAX: +81 3 5353 0771
===================================
Eotvos is the judge next year; not sure what his musical tastes are and not familiar with his music other than mild listenings long ago. Anyone listen to his stuff?
Saariaho is the judge two years from now. I'd love to meet her and I have the feeling that she would appreciate my piece more than any of the other judges, but if I were to win, it would be better, financially, to win next year.

I guess I was wrong on my theory that if people kept on resubmitting, the score count would build up to an unbearable number. This year, Birtwistle received 97 scores, which is lower than normal.

Just gotta correct that one tam-tam/bass drum mistake... If I don't win after several years, I should be at a point in my life where I'll have time to write another orchestral work (after I'm done with school). Age limit is 35, I think.



On another note, probably not going to call my 2nd Piano Sonata a Piano Sonata any more. Just doesn't feel like one. Might add three more short, experimental movements to form some set of small piano pieces.

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

ibanezmonster

I'm not sure if I already wrote this (I don't see it posted), but I decided to change my op.10 Piano Sonata 2 into a sort of Piano Suite. It is titled after an anime I watched recently.

My new outline for my piano work:

op.10 Hyouka
I Library
II Clubroom
III Chitanda's House
IV Mystery
V School Festival
VI Another Mystery
VII The Future

The two movements I've already written will be assigned as I and VI. After I relistened to my op.1 Piano Sonata and then listened to the movements I had written, I was thinking that they really don't sound like Piano Sonata movements at all, but short piano pieces.


I also want to write a solo acoustic guitar called "Hinamizawa," which is the town in my favorite anime, Higurashi no Naku Koro ni. The town is modeled after Shirakawa-go, which is a real village in Japan that I want to visit one day.

snyprrr

Quote from: Greg on December 20, 2012, 10:36:24 AM
I'm not sure if I already wrote this (I don't see it posted), but I decided to change my op.10 Piano Sonata 2 into a sort of Piano Suite. It is titled after an anime I watched recently.

My new outline for my piano work:

op.10 Hyouka
I Library
II Clubroom
III Chitanda's House
IV Mystery
V School Festival
VI Another Mystery
VII The Future

The two movements I've already written will be assigned as I and VI. After I relistened to my op.1 Piano Sonata and then listened to the movements I had written, I was thinking that they really don't sound like Piano Sonata movements at all, but short piano pieces.


I also want to write a solo acoustic guitar called "Hinamizawa," which is the town in my favorite anime, Higurashi no Naku Koro ni. The town is modeled after Shirakawa-go, which is a real village in Japan that I want to visit one day.

What will be the features of the guitar piece? Will you detune and play hard core asian music? (lots of whacks, thwaps, and ringing asian chords) Or fantasy?