What Are You Practising / Composing Now?

[Pulcinella]

Having completed a Motet, Violin Sonata, a short piece for Strings, a 3rd String Quartet, Flute Concerto and some Preludes for piano so far this year, am currently composing a Double Bass concerto, an interesting challenge. Think I'd better slow down a bit!

Impressive!
And all that listening/following the score too.

[Dave2002]

Having completed a Motet, Violin Sonata, a short piece for Strings, a 3rd String Quartet, Flute Concerto and some Preludes for piano so far this year, am currently composing a Double Bass concerto, an interesting challenge. Think I'd better slow down a bit!

That's very impressive.

I have reworked the scherzo piece mentioned in msg 524 a bit more - and here is the latest version - https://soundcloud.com/user-97747343...o-out101-becho

There are a lot of technical issues trying to get an approximate rendition of what I'd intended. Initially I just wanted to see if I could write anything at all, and I'm still not really sure of that! I don't particularly like the scherzo piece, but it was just an exercise, possibly to be expanded, or maybe just scrapped. I really wanted it for string quartet.

I have used several DAWs to try to get effects I'd like. Logic has been easiest for me, but I rather liked the string quartet like sounds I achieved in LMMS - when I got it working. However, there is ony one version of LMMS which works for me, and there may still be problems with that. I have recently looked at this tutorial on mastering in Logic, and it is clear that Logic has advanced features (which I didn't know of until today) which are way ahead of anything in the Open Source software - though that doesn't mean that the there isn't some merit in the open source attempts - here is the video - https://youtu.be/n_ylro6nD0k Features like checking for DC etc. are just not going to get into open source community based software in the short term.

So now I'm back to Logic, and currently I've got instruments which sound more like a string orchestra than a quartet, but I've also introduced volume and tempo automation, and some ambience by adding in reverb. This has given me more ideas, but I'm still prepared to junk the whole thing - it is just an exercise at this point in time. It is a sort of "to-and-froing" iteration between music and technology.

Given what I've now heard I might go back to the original text - there is a score - and even some working before that - and see if I can change it in ways that might work.

[Joseph K]

I have reworked the scherzo piece mentioned in msg 524 a bit more - and here is the latest version - https://soundcloud.com/user-97747343...o-out101-becho
.

Not bad.

[Suffolkcoastal]

Many of my compostions are now on my youtube channel in midi playback version, except the Requiem I finished at the end of last year as it won't upload for some reason. It is just under 60 minutes long so should do. I'm unsure why I've suddenly had an urge to compose again in the last 2 years, and am still unsure of the value of the works. I suppose it's better than hiding them in a pile under the bed as I used to do!

[Dave2002]

Not bad.

Thanks - but still working on that and other things.....

Seeing the envelope in SoundCloud made me think of deliberately writing for "envelopes".
Of course the images would probably have to have some symmetry requirements, so not everything would do, but waves + a whale breaking, or a fish might work.

Envelopes for classical music should be much more interesting than most EDM - which I suspect usually degenerates to a rather noisy long rectangle.

[Dave2002]

Many of my compostions are now on my youtube channel in midi playback version, except the Requiem I finished at the end of last year as it won't upload for some reason. It is just under 60 minutes long so should do. I'm unsure why I've suddenly had an urge to compose again in the last 2 years, and am still unsure of the value of the works. I suppose it's better than hiding them in a pile under the bed as I used to do!

Looks like you've been doing this since 1986 or maybe even earlier ....

[Suffolkcoastal]

I started composing in 1983 when I was 18, a bit of a late developer!

[BBMmk2]

I’m enjoying transcribing Franck’s symphonic poem Le Chasseur Maudit, for concert band.

[Jonathan]

I’m enjoying transcribing Franck’s symphonic poem Le Chasseur Maudit, for concert band.

I'd like to hear that when it's done Tim!

[Joseph K]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-P6C20KKZg

There Will Never Be Another You... I've hardly practiced this tune and yet I am more pleased with this than many attempts at Stella etc!

[Serial_Apologist]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-P6C20KKZg

There Will Never Be Another You... I've hardly practiced this tune and yet I am more pleased with this than many attempts at Stella etc!

Norma Winstone's partner's name is Hugh, and I've long been tempted to ask her if she sings this song. Ella used to. I suppose I could bribe a gig host to ask her!

Really nice playing, by the way.

[Joseph K]

Norma Winstone's partner's name is Hugh, and I've long been tempted to ask her if she sings this song. Ella used to. I suppose I could bribe a gig host to ask her!

Really nice playing, by the way.

Thanks - it is a nice song.

[cloughie]

Norma Winstone's partner's name is Hugh, and I've long been tempted to ask her if she sings this song. Ella used to. I suppose I could bribe a gig host to ask her!

Really nice playing, by the way.

Thinking about there’s a whole repertoire of standards with ‘you’ in the lyrics or title just waiting to be ‘Hugh’sed!

[Richard Barrett]

I'm currently involved in a project which wouldn't have been conceivable except under the current strange circumstances. I've been trying to work out how to take some kind of creative advantage of what might otherwise be a depressingly restrictive time, which has led to various things I've mentioned here before, like the virtual concert my OH and I did in June, and exploring what can be done with binaural encoding of multichannel electronic pieces. In the midst of all that I was approached by the leader of a young ensemble in Boston who are spending their summer making podcasts with a wide selection of composers, each of which consists of an interview and a performance on video by one of the members of the ensemble of a solo piece. My suggestion was that, instead of a solo piece, I would write a piece for ensemble and electronics (with solo voice, setting a series of poems by Harry Gilonis), conceived in such a way that each of the musicians would record his/her part at home and send me the recordings, after which I would construct the piece as a fixed media electronic composition made (mostly) out of instrumental and vocal sounds but also taking advantage of the specific conditions of the work-process to multiply instruments on themselves, transform their sounds to a greater or lesser extent, add synthetic elements and so forth. The result would then, a little further down the line, act as a series of electronic "interludes" between the sections of a new piece to be performed live by the same musicians. The texts are all based on (rather more freely than "translated from") the work of eight mediaeval Chinese poets, which would obviously put me in mind of Das Lied von der Erde, although the results of course will be very different. I've now received all the recordings and started work on a preliminary cleaning and tidying operation, necessitated of course by the fact that each individual was recorded in a different space with different equipment at different levels and so on. The finished piece will go online some time in late August, assuming I manage to finish it in the next couple of weeks. I will post a link in due course in case anyone's interested in hearing it.

[Joseph K]

I'm currently involved in a project which wouldn't have been conceivable except under the current strange circumstances. I've been trying to work out how to take some kind of creative advantage of what might otherwise be a depressingly restrictive time, which has led to various things I've mentioned here before, like the virtual concert my OH and I did in June, and exploring what can be done with binaural encoding of multichannel electronic pieces. In the midst of all that I was approached by the leader of a young ensemble in Boston who are spending their summer making podcasts with a wide selection of composers, each of which consists of an interview and a performance on video by one of the members of the ensemble of a solo piece. My suggestion was that, instead of a solo piece, I would write a piece for ensemble and electronics (with solo voice, setting a series of poems by Harry Gilonis), conceived in such a way that each of the musicians would record his/her part at home and send me the recordings, after which I would construct the piece as a fixed media electronic composition made (mostly) out of instrumental and vocal sounds but also taking advantage of the specific conditions of the work-process to multiply instruments on themselves, transform their sounds to a greater or lesser extent, add synthetic elements and so forth. The result would then, a little further down the line, act as a series of electronic "interludes" between the sections of a new piece to be performed live by the same musicians. The texts are all based on (rather more freely than "translated from") the work of eight mediaeval Chinese poets, which would obviously put me in mind of Das Lied von der Erde, although the results of course will be very different. I've now received all the recordings and started work on a preliminary cleaning and tidying operation, necessitated of course by the fact that each individual was recorded in a different space with different equipment at different levels and so on. The finished piece will go online some time in late August, assuming I manage to finish it in the next couple of weeks. I will post a link in due course in case anyone's interested in hearing it.

This sounds very interesting - thanks for letting us know about it!