| news | photos | music | words | links & issues | etc. home | main |
11/28/05
a recent favorite is Ivan Moody's 1998 piece "Words of the Angel," performed by Trio Mediaeval of norway. the group had a free single on the itunes music store the other week ("Dou Way Robyn/Sancta Mater" on the album Stella Maris), and in exploring further i came upon rave reviews of Moody's eponymous piece on the previous album, Words of the Angel. it's got some wonderful and well-balanced textures, and Trio Mediaeval sing it flawlessly. my favorite moment is about halfway through: it sounds to me like it's a high, glistening E-B fifth in the top two voices with a low D# underneath, and somehow, they make it sound like the minor 9th resolves even though all the notes are still very present (perhaps something with shifting the balance toward the E and adding just a touch of vibrato to the upper voices?). gorgeous.1/14/05
a wonderful concert at stanford by my heroes, the emerson quartet. during Beethoven opus 131, cellist David Finckel did something amazing, and just as i was gawking and grinning, he glanced up directly in my direction. it's probably my imagination, but i thought we made eye contact, during which my expression said, "what you just did was awesome," and his expression (clandestinely) said, "yeah, it turned out well, didn't it?"
compositions
| dedicated with great fondness to the Jupiter Winds (aka Jerde and the Saturn Sisters). this is an mp3 recording of a synthesized performance. in three movements: i. introduction and tango, ii. scherzo, iii. fugue. | |
| dedicated to my favorite flute partner ever, Virginia,
who performed this in class with me for my final project in first-year
music theory. this is just a midi file, unfortunately, with piano
voices. |
|
| my final project for advanced theory I with JB. midi
file of this solo piano piece in a vaguely 19th century style, but much
too contrapunctal. |
|
| first big project in the "how to write like Bach" class
with Shep. the method? "pretend you have technique." 2-voice
midi file. |
|
| final project for Shep's Bach-worship class. 3-voice
midi file. |
|
| short keyboard composition project for JB's advanced theory
II class. actually doesn't sound much like Webern, but that's who
i was thinking of. composed using set theory, and if i remember
right, the set was based on a musical notation of my name or something.
midi file. |
|
| final project for JB in theory II. i kinda like this
one. mezzo-soprano, flute, oboe, violin, cello, timpani. it's
midi, so the voices are lame and the unmetered chant section doesn't come
across, but you get the idea. composed with a 12-tone row built
on minor thirds. |
performances (mp3s of live recordings, with me on flute)
| Robert
Muczynski, duos for flutes |
from the inaugural concert of brown new music, with my
favorite flute partner ever, Virginia. 6 movements. recorded
spring 2000. |
| Irving Fine, woodwind quintet | first half of the bowdoin summer music festival. 2nd
movement (of 5), recorded summer 2000. also played later with my
beloved Cyclopentane Winds, but don't have that recording with me at the
moment. |
| Heitor Villa-Lobos, the jet whistle | near the end of the bowdoin festival, a ridiculous piece
for flute and cello. this movement (3rd and last) gave me tendonitis.
i think you can hear the tendons inflaming during this performance.
summer 2000. |
| André
Jolivet, pastorale de noel |
it's a nice little piece for flute, bassoon, and harp that
i did at bowdoin, based on christmas folk songs or something. 3rd
movement (of 4): "la vierge et l'enfant." summer
2000. |
| Shostakovich 5 solos |
flute solo excerpts from Shosti 5, from my last year with
the brown university orchestra (spring 2003). an amazing work, and
a dazzling series of flute opportunities. nostalgia. |
| Nathan Stumpff, "here,
together" |
a piece Nate wrote for Virginia, Troy and me to play at Dan's wedding to Alissa (september 2007). |
| Richmond
Browne, chortos I |
for a change of pace, this is a work for large "chorus"
that we performed at our aleatoric-themed brown new music concert. pretty
interesting. no flute in this one, though you can hear Nate, Ashton,
and me improvising melodies. fall 2001. |
links
- best string quartet ever: Emerson (heard them live recently and was blown away--i also highly recommend their recording of the Prokofiev quartets on deutsche grammophone)
- great conductor quotations from Eugene Ormandy
- an interesting study on the old question: does it really matter what your flute's made of?
- radio as it was meant to be: BBC radio 3
- Villa-Lobos on streaming radio
- brown new music
- for Glenn Gould fans (and anti-fans)