Next Contact

2009-09-25T11:31:00.011-04:00

Saturday, September 26 is the Earthdance Festival in Second Life -

ABOUT EARTHDANCE

"Give peace a dance!"

THE EARTHDANCE MISSION is to promote peace by joining participants worldwide in a synchronized PRAYER FOR PEACE and to SUPPORT HUMANITARIAN CAUSES through the global language of music and dance.

On September 26, 2009, nearly half a million world citizens in over 60 countries will join together for the world’s largest synchronized music and dance festival for peace. The defining moment of each Earthdance event is a synchronized link-up, (4pm SLT) when every event around the world plays a specially produced song called "The Prayer for Peace" at exactly the same time.

"I think global events are a really hopeful sign. When something happens on one side of the planet, it naturally effects the other side. Afterall, we all share the same blue planet." -His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama in conversation with Earthdance founder Chris Deckker (Dharamsala)

Learn more about this annual, international festival for peace at http://www.earthdance.org

I am mentioning this because we are playing my piece called "Ritual" there - with the Avatar Orchestra Metaverse.
The Earthdance Festival is an all-day affair, (SLT time, which is Pacific Time - California); the AOM plays at 11 AM SLT.

Sound Sculpture

2009-01-29T07:00:00.002-05:00

I have been working on music and sound for "virtual" sculptures, all in Second Life. It's been quite exciting, mainly due to specific barriers to music production inside the world.

1) Samples are limited to 10 seconds.
2) Manipulation of the sound itself (pitch, length, etc) must be done outside Second Life; samples can only be played in-world.
3) As a rule, a sound can be triggered by a script in the sculpture, but they can't be "stacked", ie you can't play the sound, then play another sound over it to make harmony - the first sound will stop.
4) It's fine to loop sounds, but it starts to sound like a broken record.

More later.

Tonality

2009-01-25T09:24:00.002-05:00

Question. Do I think atonality will go away?

Answer. I doubt it. There is still a lot of things atonality can do. I do believe, that the movement into atonality and 12 tone was simply a path we followed that cannot be followed any more, however. Many people still see it as somehow more "intellectual" and therefore worthy of our attention. I don't follow movements simply because somebody proclaims its intelligence. Composing less dissonant music does not somehow make it less good. There is plenty of music that is less good from all over the world. Not every single atonal piece is a masterpiece, and not every single tonal piece is shallow nonsense.

SLCN and Music

2008-08-19T10:31:00.002-04:00

SLCN is Second Life Cable Network - the TV network for Second Life, and last week I was interviewed on this show. Here is a link to the show:

http://www.slcn.tv/programs/music-academy

The interview was sponsored by the Music Academy on line, an excellent place to meet, see and hear composers.

Singing Jesus

2008-07-18T12:33:00.001-04:00

Open Mike in Second Life

2008-07-02T07:21:00.001-04:00

HD Artists in Second Life (That's me) is offering an "open mike" on Sunday, July 6, 2008 from 1 pm PST. Music: modern classical, ambient. minimalism, noise, etc. Please email me or IM me in-world (Flivelwitz Alsop), if you wish to perform. I hope it will be a successful concert!

Han Bat

2008-06-29T16:09:00.003-04:00

Carl Stone, an American composer living all around the Pacific rim, and who works primarily with electronic music, currently has an exhibition in Japan called Han Bat. It's a multi-sound installation "that builds from slow juxtapositions of various acoustic dimensions and spatializations that were enregistered using a special 8-channel portable recording system, The Octaphone, in 2007 and 2008", according to the article at Networked_Music_Review. Sounds like it will be a blast.

Carl Stone:: HAN BAT INSTALLATION :: C-Square Gallery, Chukyo University :: 101-2 Yagoto Honmachi Showa-ku :: NAGOYA JP :: June 30 at 6:30 pm.

Second Life

2008-06-27T17:37:00.003-04:00

I have become involved in Second Life - you know, that place where lots of things happen online, or perhaps where nothing happens. It has come a long way since I first tried it years ago. Now you can have concerts, buy land, meet people, create new conent, etc. Come on in, come by my place and book a performance!

Florida

2008-03-25T18:06:00.000-04:00

When you think of Florida and Art, it can make your head hurt, I know. But there is stuff there.

1) Salvador Dali Museum - The Museum celebrated 24 years in St. Petersburg in March 7, 2006. However, the history of the collection began in Cleveland, Ohio in 1942. Industrialist A. Reynolds Morse and Eleanor Reese began their marriage and their lifelong involvement with Dalí and his wife, Gala, as friends and collectors with the purchase of their first painting Daddy Longlegs of the Evening-Hope! in 1943. They spent the following 40 years seeking out the artist's work and assembling the largest private collection of Dali's art in the world.
At the moment, there is a wonderful exhibit on Dali and Film, and you can watch many of the films Dali was involved in, including Un chien andalou and L'Âge d'Or.

2) Ringling Museum - Located on a 66-acre estate on Sarasota Bay, The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art was established in 1927 as the legacy of John Ringling (1866-1936) and his wife, Mable (1875 to 1929). Recognized as the official State Art Museum of Florida, the Museum of Art offers 21 galleries of European paintings as well as Cypriot antiquities, Asian Art, American paintings, and contemporary art. The Ulla R. and Arthur F. Searing Wing hosts a variety of traveling exhibitions throughout the year.

3) Mary, Queen of the Universe Shrine - This "church" is not really a church, there is no congregation and no parish. It was built to cater to the needs of Catholic families visiting the Orlando area. The idea behind it is to (no, really!) support and commission art and music, like the churches used to do. And all the artwork within has been commissioned specifically for the grounds.

These are the three things I visited on my recent trip there.