No Food In The House piece was based on a haiku I wrote:
No food in the house
Someone please go to the store
Finally, dinner!
The piece is in three parts, each part relating to a line in the poem. Included within is an homage to Talking Heads’ Burning Down The House.
No Food In The House was written for Clarinet, Horn, Trombone, Tubular Bells, Cymbals, Vibraphone, Violin, Viola, Cello and String Bass.
No Food In The House
No Food In The House – Score
On The Sidewalk – Temporary Existence
This is my first electronic album in what is planned to be a trilogy.
On The Sidewalk, was inspired by a haiku by Jack Kerouac.
On the sidewalk
A dead baby bird
For the ants
Temporary Existence was inspired by a haiku I wrote.
Imprint of my foot
temporary existence
I leave, sand remains
Nearly an hour of music – listen and enjoy.
Cheers –
george
This piece was written in response to Naviarhaiku300 – four, five, nine years
four, five, nine years
always the first to bloom…
cherry tree
The haiku was by Kobayashi Issa: his poems were often lively and humorous, despite his life was marked by sorrow.
Always The First To Bloom was written for Oboe, Clarinet, Vibraphone, Violin, Viola, Cello and String Bass.
Unloading The Dishwasher was written in response to Disquiet Junto Project 0402: Music for Tasks
Step 1: Think of chores or tasks you are responsible for regularly that don’t take a huge amount of time, like doing the dishes, or weeding the garden, or walking the dog.
Step 2: Select out of the list resulting from Step 1 a single chore or task, for which you will, in this project, create a score or sonic backdrop.
Step 3: Take a sonic inventory of the experience of doing the chore or task from Step 2. This means making a list of the various sounds inherent in the activity, and thinking about how they work together collectively.
Step 4: Record an original piece of music/sound that serves as a backdrop/soundtrack to the activity you selected in Step 2 informed by the theorizing you accomplished in Step 3. (The length is up to you. It should be the length of however long the task generally takes.)
As pretty much always happens, I started in one direction and the act of working on that direction sent me in a completely different direction (sounds like quantum mechanics). The genesis of the piece had me recording myself emptying the dishwasher and resulted in a piece for solo viola and electronics.
Go figure.
Unloading The Dishwasher was written for Viola.
This piece was written in response to Naviarhaiku297 – awakened from sleep
awakened from sleep
surprised by the darkness–
late autumn
The haiku was by Mizuhara Shuoshi, a 20th century Japanese poet. Shuoshi rebelled against the principles of emotional detachment in haiku, which he thought limited his ability to emotionally express himself through poetry: he started a magazine called Staggerbush which focused on a more romantic, lyrical type of haiku.
I seldom sleep throughout the night, typically I wake up two or three times then go back to sleep. I generally try to make sense of the senseless dream that preceeded my current state, which should be the subject of a haiku itself.
Awakened From Sleep was written for four bowed Vibraphones, Cymbals, three solo Violins and solo Viola.
Rauschen Time was written in response to Disquiet Junto Project 0401: Noise Pacing
Step 1: Familiarize yourself with the German word “rauschen.” Understand that “rauschen” is noise in the sense of white noise, waterfall noise, background noise, static, wind in trees, rain, etc. The blurred, diffuse, continuous kind of noise, not short individual non-tonal sounds.
Step 2: You are going to make music in which one or more “rauschen” noise(s) will be used as the beat or rhythm for a track. Record and listen back to such “rauschen.”
Step 3: Select one or more noise elements.
Step 4: Create a track using the elements from Step 3 as beats or rhythmic material, and then layer something melodic atop it.
Unpitched percussion makes for nice white noise, and the different instruments allow timbres that work against and in concert with one another. I used several clusters of instruments when putting together a theme, which shows itself, but is generally not easily identifiable. Two double stopped string bass groups gave a bottom to everything – although toned they acted more as low, dark white noise.
The idea was to offer an industrial feeling, something that might accompany the movie Metropolis.
Rauschen Time was written for two Horns, two Trombones, Bass Drum, Maracas, Cymbals, Gong, Snare Drum, Tambourine, Violin, Viola, Cello and String Bass.
This piece was written in response to Naviarhaiku296 – evening haze
evening haze:
when memories come, how distant
are the by gone days
The haiku was by Takai Kito, a disciple of Yosa Buson. Despite becoming a professional haikai master in 1771, Kito remained one of Buson’s most trusted disciples until the death of the great master, and was the de facto coordinator of Buson’s haikai group.
Imagine taking that last sip of coffee on Mount Mitchell as the sun slowly hides behind a distant peak – as the evening’s haze becomes more aware to you, you understand that the there are no forces that can change the past or hide you from the future.
Evening Haze was written for Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, Bassoon, Horn, Trombone, Cymbals, Gong, Crotales, Vibraphone, Violin, Viola, Cello, and String Bass.
