As many of you have probably noticed by now, I am in the midst of updating my website. I needed to make the browsing experience here more user friendly and sleek (read: get rid of all of the excess clutter on my pages…). I will most certainly announce when everything is in place and fully operational…to be honest, I mainly need time to figure it all out, myself…

Well, you already heard the big news on my last posting. I have been appointed to the Fulbright Specialist Roster in the field of American Studies, Music. This week, I have started the process of creating projects and deciding where to go. I have many invitations from countries that I have already visited, but I also want to focus some on places that I haven’t been where my presence and teaching would have the most impact. I hope to have my first project underway shortly, and am aiming to travel and be in-residence (wherever that may be…sorry, no hints yet…don’t want to jinx anything…) by either fall 2012 or spring 2013.

…OK, one hint…the top of my list is a place where I absolutely love the cuisine…somehow, food always comes back into the picture, doesn’t it…?

Since this is January, I am off from teaching for the bulk of the month. During this time, I will be focusing on some large-scale projects that I want to share with you:

I have finally decided to take the plunge and record my next CD. This one–my 4th–will include my chamber music compositions (classical) written for/with clarinet: solos, duos, and trios. This will be the first CD containing only my written (through-composed) music, so it is an exciting (and daunting) endeavor. My first, When Wind Comes To Sparse Bamboo, included my favorite solo music (from across the centuries) to play on saxophone. My second, From a Far-off World, featured music by friends (for saxophone and bass clarinet), as well as my first compositions on a commercial recording. The third, Sfumato, my duo recording (for flutes and voice) with vocalist Galina Parfenova contained exclusively improvisations, although I did compose and realize electronic ‘backdrops’ for the improvisations.

[Note: one of the updated features to my new website will be the ability to purchase all of my CDs here...still figuring this one out...hopefully soon...]

The new CD, titled Autumn Yearning, will have a different vibe since although I am playing on every track, the CD is about my compositions and not my solo playing. This is the exciting part, and this is also why that even though I could’ve easily done a CD with all of my solo/electro-acoustic saxophone, clarinet, and flute compositions, I wanted to focus mostly on chamber music where I am part of the texture and not necessarily the main attraction, although the parts I wrote for myself are never ‘subdued’ by any means…plus, after my first 2 CDs being solo/electro-acoustic projects, it was high time for a change. Also, the one instrument which strangely I haven’t recorded on under my own name on is clarinet (and piccolo, but I don’t count that…); this is funny since in the classical world, for all intent and purpose, I am a clarinetist…funny…

So then, this month, I will record my song cycle Moonlight of Lost Dreams (text by Jacquelyn Familant) with Ms. Familant, soprano and Elaine Kwon, piano with yours truly on clarinet; my Gymnopaedia for clarinet and piano (again with Ms. Kwon); and my Three Graces for Clarinet Solo.

During this same time, I am preparing for a concert on January 23rd at Cornelia Street Cafe where I–along with violist Alexandra Honigsberg and pianist Jed Distler–will be playing the Mozart “Kagelstatt” Trio for clarinet, viola, and piano…we’re calling ourselves ‘Wolf’s Gang’…get it…WOLFGANG Amadeus Mozart…Jed came up with this one…brilliant

Wolf’s Gang is also the same crew who is premiering and recording the title track to the new CD, Autumn Yearning. We’ll record it sometime around the premiere on February 18th at Flushing Town Hall.

And speaking of premieres, I must also finish composing Roots Music within the next couple of weeks so as to send to my colleague Benoit Granier and the TIMI Modern Music Ensemble for its premiere at the Beijing Irish Modern Music Festival in March in China. As I’m sure you recall, I was commissioned by Dr. Granier and the festival to compose a large scale work that combines western classical instruments with traditional Chinese and Irish instruments and a jazz saxophone (me). My Con Edison/Exploring the Metropolis Composer Residency this fall was to research the traditional music of these cultures and to organize and create this piece. Well, as you all know, I was successful in finishing the groundwork for the composition and am now writing it all down and preparing the score for performance. This’ll be fun!

And, well, if that weren’t enough, I was also given the task over this winter break to create a two-year undergraduate composer’s workshop for Five Towns College, where I teach composition and performance. This will redefine the entire composition program, and they are giving me full reign to organize it however I wish…scary…of course, I pushed for this, so this is what I get…but I’m delighted that it’s being implemented.

And if I get bored, there are plenty of residency and grant applications due this month…will be sending out a few of those, as well…

So, here is my January…I’ll keep you all updated as the month proceeds.

Until soon,

Demetrius

It is with great honor and pleasure that I share with you the news that I have been selected for the Fulbright Specialist Roster for the next five years, beginning in 2012. This grant/award/appointment is administered by the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board (FSB), the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs (ECA), and the Council for International Exchange of Scholars (CIES).

As you all know, the main focus of my musical career is in the arena of cultural diplomacy. My work over recent years has been to bring American music to the far reaches of the globe, connect with local artists and cultural and academic institutions, and create an artistic dialogue that benefits artists, students, and audiences on both sides. Selection to the Fulbright Specialist Roster brings me better opportunity to achieve these goals by giving me the full support of the organizations mentioned above.

I plan on continuing my work in Eurasia, most especially in the former Soviet Union and China, and hope to eventually expand my work to include projects in South Asia, the Middle East, and South America.

I am proud of the fact that the US Department of State does take the idea of cultural diplomacy seriously and that it supports such programs as the Fulbright. I am also always pleased that many of the countries across the globe are receptive to such an exchange of culture.

It means that we all just might have a chance of making a difference…a real, peaceful difference. It all begins with dialogue and education.

Yours always,

Demetrius

Me with young students in Tajikistan

Me giving a master class at the Baku Academy of Music, Azerbaijan

Here I sit, writing the final blog of my Flushing Town Hall composer residency, looking out the window of the ‘jail cell’ (the room which was actually a jail cell, now the green room of the performance hall) looking out the window over hustling and bustling Flushing with its Chinese restaurants and Korean markets. I can’t barely believe that this three month period has passed…tempus fugit…

It has been a wonderful experience. Director Ellen Kodadek and the rest of the Flushing Town Hall staff have been kind and gracious with their space and time. The composition residency, sponsored by Exploring the Metropolis in collaboration with Con Edison, is a fantastic program which I can’t praise enough.

And I even have lots to show for my time beyond an enhanced palate for Chinese cuisine…

The smallest of my three composition projects was Soho Sophisticate for solo saxophone, which was premiered on November 20th as part of a collaborative concert between me, Benoit Granier, and Paul Miller/DJ Spooky in Soho. This work will get a second showing on my December 4th concert at the Cornelia Street Cafe.

While it started out as a transcription and a side project for my residency concert in Februrary, Autumn Yearning has become a major piece in its own right, potentially dwarfing even Roots Music in length, clocking in at a whopping 14 minutes! This work, for clarinet, viola, and piano, is positioned to be the title track of my next CD which I hope to release by (wait for it…) autumn (of course) of 2012. Explorations and negotiations are being made into labels and distribution, and I plan to have this piece recorded soon after its February 18 premiere. More on this later…

The main focus of my residency was the research and creation of Roots Music, the work which will be premiered as part of the Beijing Irish Modern Music Festival in March, 2012. I spent much of time meeting with traditional musicians and researching everything from the traditional music of China and Ireland to individual instruments, including spending much time mastering the Chinese dizi flute. My goal was not to complete the composition, but to have all of the preliminary work finished to begin the composing process during the winter break from my college teaching. This I have accomplished to the fullest extent my choosing all of my source material for the work, and also by mapping out the entire structure of the piece (which I completed today!).

Since the piece is about the primordial musical connection that flows between all cultures, I have taken traditional/popular music from Ireland, China, and the US as source material for the piece. I can’t give away too much about the process or structure or final product, but I can give you these three videos that may get your musical taste buds a-salivating…

How’s that for starters?

Now, the work begins on constructing the piece for it to be sent off to China for early January.

The honor of the Flushing Town hall residency gave me the time, the space, and the opportunity to research and create all of this music. I am truly indebted to Con Edison and Exploring the Metropolis and can only hope that this wonderful program thrives to support other composers for years to come.

Until soon,

Demetrius

ps–I never did encounter any of the supposed ghosts that haunt Flushing Town Hall, and especially this jail cell in which I’m working in now…well, maybe as I pack up for the day I’ll get lucky…

[Non-U.S. readers: this is a baseball reference...it basically means that almost done with my endeavors...one of these days, I may very well reference the 'Infield Fly Rule'...be wary]

The last couple of weeks at my residency have been focused on preparing for upcoming concerts as much as writing and editing my music. The last endeavor to prepare for was today’s concert with Benoit Granier and Paul Miller (aka DJ Spooky) in which we combined traditional Chinese music, experimental improvisation, and new technology. I also premiered my new work for solo saxophone, entitled Soho Sophisticate, which I wrote during my residency. It was a successful afternoon, so I am pleased with the results.

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I’ll tell you, though: one of the great perks of being in residence at Flushing Town Hall has been the vibrant visual and performing arts presentations that they give year-round. I was very lucky to be given a ticket for the NEA Jazz Masters concert on Friday night in which I got to see a number of great musicians whom I had never actually seen live. This concert featured saxophonists Jimmy Heath and Frank Wess, and pianist Barry Harris. These mainstays of the jazz firmament really presented an amazing concert. It’s funny: when I listen to ‘classic’ jazz–basically that style of the 1950′s which has been put onto a pedestal and unfortunately over-copied in recent decades in every college in the US–I have the same reaction as to when I’m listening to other ‘period’ music, like Baroque. It is wonderful in all of these instances to hear great masters of that given music play, which this concert was. I mean, heck, these guys *created* that style, so they have every right to play it to their heart’s desire. And they kept it *fresh*, which is dramatically important, especially when playing tried and true standards by Armstrong and Ellington. I was especially impressed with Frank Wess’ playing, which I really didn’t know as well as Heath’s. The almost 90 year-old Wess, was helped to the stage and to be seated, but he played some really great jazz solos on tenor sax and flute. I can only hope that I’m still doing it all that well by that age…

It does, however, give me ideas about going full-throttle with a ‘classic’ jazz quartet project (tenor sax, piano, bass, drums), but doing only my music. As you recall, I wrote a number of tunes/charts for that combination while at ARTErra in Portugal this summer…still deciding exactly what to do with them and where to go with them…most of them (as I now look at the music a few months after writing it all) could be expanded into more of a ‘progressive’ style that I am known for–if you remember from my summer blogs, these pieces were rather ‘fusionesque.’  A lot of my more ‘classical’ works can–with a wee bit of tweaking–easily be rewritten into having more of a progressive jazz vibe…food for thought…

…speaking of food for thought, I am going to miss lunch in Flushing over the weekends…may have to escape there at least one day a week for my Chinese food fix…

The next residency blog will be my last for this project, since this is my last week there. It may happen next week, or I may wait until I organize my final report to Con Edison/Exploring the Metropolis and post that…we’ll see how inspired I am

Until soon,

Demetrius

[Note: I promised never to use the time for college-related work, regardless of how far behind I am...and I haven't]

Just to catch you all up, we had the Best Buddies Carnegie Hall show on Thursday where I was soloist, premiered my composition for solo saxophone Around Monk-night (which I wrote immediately before the residency began), and had the debut of William Susman OCTET. We played a great, full audience and raised much money for the charity. Now, begins the preparation for the next series of concerts…

Next up on the block is my collaboration with Benoit Granier, Ding Xue’er, and Paul Miller at the Soho Gallery for Digital Art on November 20th. Here is the information on the project. It will be on this concert/presentation where I will premiere my new work Soho Sophisticate, which I wrote a couple of weeks ago here at the residency. Maybe I’ll play it while I’m live processed through laptop/smartphone…we’ll see how I feel at the time. Could be a trip.

This week here, I started preparing the music for my annual solo concert as a resident artist of the Serial Underground new music series, created by the Composers Collaborative, inc. at the Cornelia Street Cafe on December 4th. I’ll be playing all of my own music, including the premieres of The Love We Made and Giuffre Sketches. Giuffre Sketches will be the main work, three times the length of anything else on the program. The piece was scheduled for premiere on last year’s show, but had to be postponed due to a colleague’s illness. It’s a big piece, and I play multiple instruments on it: clarinet, tenor sax, and baritone sax. I’ll go into more detail about the piece and its significance on a later post (when I promote that concert) but the piece is a dedication to my late teacher Jimmy Giuffre and those three instruments are the ones he played the most. The tenor sax and clarinet are what I tend to play the most now, too, but this season its just been soprano and alto saxophones (save for some tenor and flute stuff early on), so my main horns have been on the back burner, but easily recoverable; considering that the winter will be heavily clarinet, this is a good thing. The baritone sax–which is the horn I played almost exclusively in my 20s–and I have had a rough relationship in recent years. It doesn’t take too long to come back, like an old friend, but it doesn’t feel as automatic as it once did, plus it’s really heavy for me now, so it’s awkward to play. Practicing it today was nice, but it did hurt some. The wonderful and talented Jed Distler and I will be rehearsing the two pieces (mentioned above) tomorrow, so we’ll see how it all goes. I do have to drag the arsenal of equipment all the way to the West Village for rehearsal, but that”s alright. The piece needed to be for these instruments.

One of the main projects I have had to accomplish this fall is the redesign of my website. This is also in the final stages, but has taken much work and time. Thankfully, I’ve smartened up enough to hire a web designer to facilitate the changes, but still…I spent a good deal of time this weekend working on mp3s, gallery photos, and design lay-out. Like the practicing and the re-acquaintance with the baritone sax, it had to be done…I’m glad I had the space–and the quiet solitude–to do it.

I will say, however that the China project(s) are going full steam, and that many other facets of this will be coming into fruition in the next couple of weeks, including potential meetings with more traditional instrumentalists…so stay tuned…

Until soon,

Demetrius

I finished Autumn Yearning…completely…editing done. It was very good to leave it for a couple of weeks. There were a few measures of music that really weren’t doing it for me, some that I wrote 2 months ago…a little bit of distance really does makes a grand difference.

Editing is always the hard part. The music writing, albeit tumultuous at times, is the enjoyable and creative part. The editing is, well, editing…adding phrase markings and articulations and dynamics…basically making the music practical for performance.

But…when editing, you can actually rethink quite a bit. case in point, if I weren’t editing after the fact of composing, I may not have come up with the ways to fix the measures I didn’t like. So again, distance combined with precision has merits.

However, unfortunately, I am only able to come here one day this week–today–due to other professional obligations. Tomorrow, I am playing with the Broadway/”Glee” star Idina Menzel at the Tilles Performing Arts Center. This will be an afternoon/evening affair where we rehearse in the afternoon (our only one, of course) and perform that evening. Sunday, we have the first real rehearsal with OCTET for our Carnegie Hall debut on Thursday, which is the same concert that I will be a soloist on and premiering my Around Monk-night.

It’ll be a fun week!

But that’s not the end of my residency project work for the week…no sir…it just won’t be happening at the residency. I have finally connected with Paul Harrigan, the gentleman from Dublin who will be the Irish pipes soloist for our concert in Beijing in March where we will premiere my Roots Music with the TIMI ensemble. I will also be meeting with folks from the New York State Council on the Arts who are connecting me with other Chinese musicians based in NYC (more on this next time). Now comes the time where I start taking the various elements that I have been exploring and will begin to construct Roots Music.

Now the fun begins…rounding third…that outfielder has got a good arm, but I think I can beat him

Until soon,

Demetrius

Today we’re going to talk about my composing dichotomy.

noun, plural -mies.

2.division into two mutually exclusive, opposed, or contradictory groups: a dichotomy between thought and action.

But first, some brief background to explain why I’m going into this:

As you all know, my collaborations with Dr. Benoit Granier and TIMI were the impetus and inspiration for my Con Edison/Exploring the Metropolis Composer Residency. Well, as it turns out, Benoit is working with the computer company Leonovo on a NYC project; he invited me to be a collaborator. The concert project–which should be held at the Soho Gallery for Digital Art on November 20–will feature a new work for me on saxophone plus guzheng and three cell phones live processed through laptops. The rest of the concert will be split between Benoit’s and my music. In honor of this event, I decided to write a new piece.

Here’s the dichotomy:

Being a composer/performer, I am referring now only to works I write for myself or ensembles I am playing in, not pieces for others or by commission. My compositions seem to fall into one of two categories, and this seems to be determined–and this hit me like in the last 48 hours–by what instrument I am playing. If I am playing clarinet, my pieces are very lyrical and tonal/modal; they also are firmly in the classical realm in-so-far as structure and being through-composed. My works such as Three Graces for Clarinet Solo, Gymnopaedia, Moonlight of Lost Dreams, and even the new Autumn Yearning that I am composing at this residency, fall completely into this category. Very conservative; very ‘classical.’ If I am playing flute or saxophone, the music is very indeterminate, improvisatory, more experimental. I use graphic notation (sketching gestures, symbols, text, geometric shapes, etc.) instead of standard music notation. These pieces have rather specific structures, but vary from performance to performance in-so-far as exact timing and content. Pieces like all three of my Interludes, …no longer to his father…, In Celebration of Sunrise, Paleo-Rock, the pre-recording ‘score’ of Corpus Apparatus, and my entire third CD, Sfumato, fall into this category.

So, in many ways, I have two rather distinct–and in many more ways, opposing–voices. Hmmmm…

I really don’t know why I do this. It’s funny: most US audiences (read: conservative) really like the more classical/lyrical pieces. I also am very aware that many boards and grant committees that do not include all composers tend to prefer such works (again, I’m amazed by the conservative nature of most visual, writing, and theater artists; it’s not a bad thing, just always surprises me). European and NYC audiences (experimental, progressive) tend to prefer the latter works and my success over seas is centered around these.

Well, anyways…considering the fact that the China/Soho project (as I am now want to refer to it as) is an experimental/computer concert, I decided this weekend to write a new improvisatory piece for me on saxophone. When I say ‘write’ in this case, I really mean sketching out a diagrammed improvisation. The new work, Soho Sophisticate, will blend bebop and free jazz elements with distinctive references to Ellington and Beat poetry. It’s also a tad melancholy. Kind of has the ‘aging hipster’ vibe to it, not unlike Steely Dan’s Deacon Blues…

…but it fits the scene…

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One of the other things that happened this weekend was that I had lunch with another of the resident composers, Paul Yeon Lee, an excellent and passionate composer who’s powerful orchestra piece Echo of a Dream was just premiered by the American Composers Orchestra at this year’s SONIC Festival.

Our conversation, not surprisingly, centered around writing for orchestra.

Mainly, we were discussing how writing for orchestra has become a lost art–I agree with this sentiment–but it also brings up a major question: is the orchestra still relevant? Now…I could go on at length about the the fact that the symphony orchestra is a 19th-century vehicle that is long past its prime–I won’t (but I WILL some day)–but I will talk about it in relation to me and other composer/performers. My music–most especially my improvisational music–does not lend itself to orchestra. My teacher Chinary Ung always said don’t write for orchestra (or opera, for that matter) unless you have a performance; otherwise, it will sit gathering dust on your shelf. I took this to heart. Also, as someone who primarily writes for himself, solo works and chamber ensembles make the most sense. When I’ve wanted large forces, I’d use electronics/computer.

It’s interesting, I think that the level of performers, the advent of technology, and the new(-ish) phenomenon of the composer/performer (remember, after Liszt there was like a ninety-year gap before this came into vogue again) has made our choices for creative vehicles exponentially more interesting.

Ever time I think that it’s time to bite the bullet and write a major orchestral work, I stop and ask ‘why?’…all the pieces I write now get performed, a lot…

…of course, if someone ASKS for one, well, that’s a different story…

Until soon,

Demetrius

I went into this weekend hoping to get at least the final ‘B section’ of Autumn Yearning done, and maybe get through the conclusion within the next week or two. Instead, I was able to plow through and write 2 minutes of music each day to finish the piece–or, at least to get everything down on paper; there is still a great deal of editing to do, but at least pretty much all of the notes are there.

The editing is the impatient part…far less creative than composing, I now must “dot the ‘I’s’ and cross the ‘T’s'”…meaning that I have to add dynamics, phrase marks, articulations, maybe a measure or two to smooth things out in the transitions…stuff like that. In other words, I have to make it ‘performance ready’ and ensure there are no ‘inconsistencies’ in the score or parts. I mean, I know what I need to do, but it still will take a lot of time.

My hope is that we will start rehearsing the piece in the near future. It will be premiered on my Flushing Town Hall concert on February 18, 2012. If you recall, I wrote the piece for clarinet, viola, and piano, the same instrumentation for my Mozart concert at Cornelia Street Cafe in January with Alexandra Honigsberg and Jed Distler. It seemed logistically to make the most sense, plus I really like the instrumental combination.

There is an incredible feeling of both exhaustion and satisfaction after finishing a piece. Kind of like giving birth…although the fullest feeling of satisfaction won’t really occur until after the editing when it is ‘publication ready’; of course, the premiere will be pretty darn satisfying, as well.

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One of the other great accomplishments of the weekend here at the residency was the reformatting and posting/publishing of my ‘Compositions’ page on my website.

http://www.dspaneas.com/compositions/

I had this page originally organized by year, but the wonderful folks at DOTDOTDOTMUSIC who are helping me reconstruct my website and branding suggested that I list everything by genre, which admittedly makes far better sense.

It’s funny…I only have listed my ‘mature’ compositions, starting from 2004′s As If for choir and chamber ensemble. I consider this the first piece of my mid-career period, the piece where my concepts finally solidified…I was 35.

There was a period in my life where I stopped writing. I refer to this as my ‘Dark Ages’…before this were my ‘student’ pieces, the works I wrote while studying with John Heiss and Robert Ceely and Chinary Ung and in the years immediately afterwards. Then during my Dark Ages my writing exclusively consisted of being a professional arranger and orchestrator…I was a good one, I wrote many, many of these, but no real original music other than working out ideas on paper.

Major life changes led to a moment where the original music needed to pour out again–it had been years, more than 8–I was scared, I must admit…As If was my salvation, my Prometheus…the fire was brought back to me and I could then give it to others…it needed to happen, and in many ways, I am very happy it did in this way…ever since, my work has been constantly flowing, as you can see from my composition page…

I also was never ‘imprisoned’ by either getting a degree in composition or trying to make my living exclusively as one. I was free not to have to subscribe to a philosophy or school of thought, and my teachers never made follow them, but had me learn to develop my own sound. I am grateful for this freedom.

I now have to decide about the early works…I don’t want to be like Alan Hovhannes and destroy all of my earlier works. I have this fantasy of taking all of the early works out of storage–and there are quite a few–and update and edit them for future cataloging and publication. I mean, I still mostly ‘sound’ the same, although the craftsmanship is definitely at an exponentially higher level. I have stolen from myself quite a bit recently; works have been reborn in completely different forms and genres 20 years later, which has been quite fun. But I think it would be fun to rewrite some of the pieces to stand with the recent works. Of course, I’d get these weird copyright dates of like 1989/2012, but that would be fun, too–and there would be a story of how/where it came from.

Maybe I can get a composer residency to do this someday….

Until soon,

Demetrius

As I begin to write this, it has occurred to me that I have reached the half-way point of my residency here at Flushing Town Hall. I am looking back on seven weeks of excellent experiences, both creative and social, and am pleased with the progress on my project(s); I am also looking ahead and thinking “I better step it up here…running out of time…more composing and less leisurely lunches of noodles and dumplings…”

Even so, the residency has been wonderful not just for composing, but also for other creative/artistic work, like practicing. Practicing is big…the one major advantage that this residency has is that I can practice ‘loudly’…I am not constrained by the noise ordinance codes of New York City apartments (where, truth be told, I have mastered the art of practicing as quietly as possible…) and can ‘wail’ to my heart’s content. As my many solo/chamber concerts approach over the horizon, I am very lucky to have this…

That being said, I did spend a lot of this weekend beginning to prepare for the above-mentioned concerts. The one with the most logistical issues is the Best Buddies Carnegie Hall Concert on November 10. I mean, even though last year’s concert had me both playing unaccompanied jazz and conducting the New York Chamber Vituosi and soloists, it was logistically easier than what potentially was in store for this year.

Conducting tenor Enrique Pina and The New York Chamber Virtuosi, Puccini; Carnegie Hall, October 6, 2010 Photo by Akabueze Kamau

You see, I have learned with age and experience to make things as easy as possible when it comes to performance logistics, mainly in regards to what instruments I am playing. Now…on this upcoming Best Buddies concert, I had composed a new work, Around Monk-night, and arranged Piazzolla’s Libertango (for me and Elaine); both for tenor sax. The wild card on this concert was the live debut of the William Susman OCTET, in which I am both the (only) reed player and also music director.

Bill is great. He is a wonderful composer and a close friend and I am always delighted to work with him. We have had many interesting and unique collaborations over the years, many of which I have played multiple instruments on. One of the pros and cons of being a multi-wind soloist is that sometimes folks want everything, and many times I am surrounded on-stage by many feet of plumbing. For Bill, I have used flute, alto flute, clarinet, and soprano, alto, and tenor saxophones (many at the same time). Other composers have also had me bring out the big guns (baritone sax and bass clarinet) as well (but don’t give Bill any ideas; he’s said about some of his pieces in the past “wouldn’t this sound great on bari…?” ) For this concert, I had no idea which instruments Bill would have me on, and I was a tad concerned with playing very intense ensemble music on one (or six…) instruments and switching to another instrument quickly to be the featured soloist. The big ‘S’ on my chest is a tad more faded than it was when I was 25…or more likely, I now realize the pitfalls of such situations…

Now, not knowing the program logistics added to my uneasiness. Would I have to play solo on jazz tenor sax and then immediately have to sit down and sound like a classical flutist? Or, would the ensemble be first and I would have to solo on a cold horn (not to mention a dry reed…)? How much time would there be (if any!) to warm-up whatever I was playing where and when?

And I’ll be honest here…I had no desire to carry my entire woodwind arsenal through the subways of NYC…this would be not only a logistical nightmare, but I’d probably in all seriousness strain a shoulder or back muscle; not good before a solo performance…I also probably wouldn’t attend the reception because I would have nowhere to put them all…

Well, this week we got the new music from Bill. Alto sax…only. “That’s it?” I mused. “No contra-alto clarinet, piccolo, or Egyptian nai flute?”

So I thought “well, that’s easy…I can do this on two horns: alto for the ensemble music, and tenor for my solo stuff…” But then “wait a minute; why am I bothering to make this even that difficult?” I mused…I muse a lot…”why don’t I just rewrite everything for alto and be done with it, and I won’t have to carry two horns through the subway? One horn, easy, done, goodbye.”

And that’s what I did. Even though I conceived of both the composition and the arrangement for tenor, I adapted them this weekend for alto. Admittedly, the pitch level is a little different than what I originally wanted, but that’s OK. Alto is my ‘touring horn’ because it’s the most flexible for the most situations…my ‘go to’ horn. It’s really funny, I have been using the same basic alto set-up for about 25 years; it’s easy, it’s simple, it works…the mouthpiece is nothing fancy or super expensive, just a store bought Meyer 5. Nice and flexible, all-purpose.

Everyone should be happy.

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The other task I undertook this weekend was to begin exploring the Uilleann (Irish) Pipes for my composition Roots Music. As of now, the exact line-up of Irish musicians for next March’s Beijing concert is still a tad up in the air, but I was guaranteed a piper…this pleases me, I really wanted a piper.

These pipes are really amazingly beautiful. It must be remembered that every culture at one time or another had some form of bagpipes, although the Scottish (Highland) pipes are far the most famous, and by far the loudest…The Irish pipes a much softer, and also extremely flexible and also, as I just found out, completely chromatic.

Here’s a little bit on the Irish pipes from the website http://www.cranfordpub.com/articles/Bagpipes.htm

The full set of Uillean pipes were designed as a mini-orchestra, complete with melody, chordal accompaniment and drones. A lever allows the drones to be switched on or off as desired, and the regulator work is an individual style-choice, ranging from rhythmic hits to full chords. Because the fingering proceeds from a closed system, a wide variety of style and ornamentation is possible, giving the player much discretion in how he/she interprets the music. Laments and slow airs are especially effective and demonstrate the mature player’s mastery of technique. A multitude of fingering options coupled with effects produced by lifting the chanter ‘off the knee’ allow a broad range of personal expression, a quality which is expected of the advanced player.

I will spend a considerable amount of time exploring this instrument since it will be, along with me, a major soloist for Roots Music. The fact that it does have a two-octave chromatic scale gives me a tremendous amount of flexibility–I was actually under the impression that is was primarily a mixolydian instrument like the Highland pipes. You learn something new and exciting everyday…

Speaking of which, I want to leave you with this incredible recording of the great Irish piper Seamus Ennis. As I said, this is an amazing instrument that I’m enjoying getting to know:

Until soon,

Demetrius

What I mean by this is not that I sit at my piano wearing a top hat, white tie, and tails…no, amazingly…it does mean, however, that I consider form and structure to be the basis of a composition. The idea of sitting at the piano/computer waiting for inspiration to strike like a blue lightening bolt from Heaven is anthema to what I consider the real merit and skill of a composer: his/her craft. I believe that in any situation, a professional composer should be able to create without being hampered–as odd as this sounds–by something so etherial as an inspired idea. In other words, one’s craft should be strong enough to create whatever architecture is needed to build the rest of the piece on; with structure comes the ‘mass’ to fill in the empty spaces. This is why before I start the actual note-writing process of any piece, I spend the proper time deciding on the overall structure–the architecture, the form–that the piece is going to take. I know where the climax points are and where the ebbs of intensity occur well before I begin. This way, I have goal points where the rest of the ‘music’ fills in the pathways and staircases to achieve. Otherwise, as far as I’m concerned, one is just flailing around without direction…

…this being said, I got a little unexpected arrival this weekend…

My goal this weekend was to get the rest of Autumn Yearning–the piece I’m writing for clarinet, viola, and piano based on the Chinese traditional song 妝臺秋思–down on paper. Now, by no means did this imply that I would finish this work; it did mean that I would have all of the material down so that I could edit and tweak and organize later: there is always a measure or two to be added, another counterline to edit, performance markings, something, but the main piece would be down.

This didn’t happen…

This piece has been a bit of an enigma. The original idea was to make a relatively simple transcription of 妝臺秋思 for western classical instruments. Sure, I’d add counterpoint and what not, but the nature of it would still be a transcription. If you remember from an earlier blog about my residency, this new piece took on a life of its own from the introduction I wrote to bring in the theme. From that, I new that I had to step back and create a different structure since the piece could potentially be much larger than originally planned….so I did…

The structure that I came up with was a ‘free sectional’ form that restated the original theme at the end: A-B-C-A. A is the first theme, B is a lyrical contrast, C is an area of instability which would eventually resolve back at A. I like forms like this that ’round back’ to the original theme. I’m also a big fan of classical rondos (A-B-A-C-A; A-B-A-C-A-B-A) and many of my pieces follow this structure. Even my large work Gymnopaedia does through its five movements (A-B-C-B-A). For you non-musicians, when the themes are restated later, they are not exact replicas, but in many ways changed dramatically…they have to evolve.

So…last week, I wrote down the C section of Autumn Yearning and this week was going to assault the summit, so to speak. “OK,” I thought, “now I’ll just write a brief, couple measure transition to move back to A; easy.” Wrong again, Boy Wonder…the transition started to develop…and it became it’s own theme…a D section…one I didn’t plan for…whoa…

But I really like it…well, like isn’t the word…I expected the C section to be the tension, but it’s not, the D section really brings this intensity, this pathos, to a new level…I am quite amazed how darkly intense this section is…where did it come from?

Inspiration, perhaps…?

Regardless, this, of course, means that I have to restructure the piece to compensate for the new section…oh, boy…an A-B-C-D-A form seems to be quite unbalanced, most especially since C is intense and D is just downright overwhelming…can’t just go home to A after *that*, can I?

What I believe makes the most sense is to transit from the D (the most dark section) to B (the most light and lyrical section) just to give the listener (and me, believe me) somewhere to ‘breathe’…*then* I move back to the A and end it. A-B-C-D-B-A. I think this’ll work…

…of course, maybe ‘inspiration’ has other ideas…we’ll find out this weekend…

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The other accomplishment of the weekend was that I arranged Astor Piazzolla’s Libertango for saxophone and piano, for me and Elaine Kwon to perform at the Best Buddies fundraiser at Carnegie Hall. This is always an amazing and special event, and I’m always delighted to be able to be a part of it. Plus last year, I got to hang out with Charles Grodin, which was a trip…

Until soon,

Demetrius