Bound music so far.

As I have mentioned before, I am busily having my acoustic music bound in black hardcover volumes. This entails a lot of Finale work on my part because it needs to have a good layout, along with page numbers, titles, descriptions, instrumentation, and so on. In the photo, you can see the black books there on the left. That's how many I have so far.

1. Missa Sine Nomine. SATB, string quartet, organ, handbells.

2. Missa Sine Nomine. variations. I re-wrote several parts of the mass for other ensembles.

3. Missa Sine Nomine in English.

4. Music for Advent. SATB and instruments. I have pieces for first, send and fourth Advent Sundays.

5. Aviary Corridor. Soprano and small ensemble. Poem by Charles Alexander. This was performed in Seattle.

6. Fibonacci Poems. Tenor and piano. Poems by Coli Bell. I love these short poems which are snippets from life.

7. Music for Orchestra. Not a large volume! I actually have written a few pieces, however.

8. Music for Clarinet. Organizing volumes like this can be a bit tricky; should it be put together using any pieces which include clarinet in the group, or just pieces where the clarinet is featured? I chose the latter, so a few of my works which also have clarinet will appear in another volume.

9. Music with Guitar. This is a small collection of all my solo guitar pieces. Same reasoning here as the clarinet volume.

10. Music for Keyboard. Quite short.

11. Music for Trombone and Piano. I have written several works for trombone (tenor or bass). There were a few more that I wrote, but they are not good enough to include here.

Comments

I wish everybody would learn to sing

Singing in a choir is a great enjoyment; it allows a person not only to use his or her voice, it also gives people a chance to hear and perform excellent music. Music is an important part of life and human culture, and so should be encouraged. Choirs offer people the chance to participate in culture. Too often culture is set aside, especially in this day and age, where we equate money with society. The first thing that pops into one's mind is "I wonder how much it costs?" Culture is a thing that not only has a financial value, it also has a cultural value; that's why a car is just a car, but music is more. Also, it allows for the voice of the local musicians and composers to be heard. For example, a church choir director needs to actively search out the music written by composers living in the area. Although performing music by great composers is perfectly fine, the contemporary voices from the area should also be heard. At least this is what I believe; it ...

Band Music

Writing band music for me is a blast; really, it is. My early band pieces, if I have to critique them, are that they are "ploddy"; i.e., eighth notes in repeating patterns of 4 or 5 or something, and loud fugal melodies over it. This piece, however, is a lot lighter. It is a fairly recent work, based on a melody from the Sacred Harp. Of course, it won't get performed; conductors or wind bands like music which showers all the parts with melodies and constant switching harmonies. They don't like it when the band has to function as chordal body. But who knows? I had several experiences where the band director was interested in looking at my piece, and afterwords, all I got was silence and the music returned to me.

Composition Contests

It always seems composition contests are weighted against you. I may not be the best composer in the universe, but I know I'm not terrible. I recently entered a choral composition contest, and, as usual, did not win. The composers that did win were listed, so I found some of their music on YouTube and listened. It was typical choir music that is expected today: sweeping, monotonic, and totally not worth listening to again. Eric Whitacre would be proud. The second thing, and more disturbing, is that I would say they won because they were young and fresh-faced, and are working in music. I do not work professionally in music, and I think this works against the musician. Samuel Barber, for example, called Charles Ives ''a hack who didn't know how to put a piece together." How nice. Amateur composers are given short shrift, I guess.

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