We all scream for Jim's screams

Yesterday, Jim Bonney posted some outtakes from his Mortal Kombat "death screams" session. It sounded hilarious and painful. And irresistable to my audio slice 'n dice compulsion. So I stayed up last night making this (this is the best method of procrastination I've yet found). This is 100% pure Jim, no additives or preservatives (well, a little pitch shifting, perhaps...):

Damnit, Jim

Old music

Inspired by Newman's recent post on digging up, airing out, and potentially discarding old works, followed by Mackey's post of an old work of his, I decided to do something similar.

However, both of their works (Mackey's Elegy and Fantasie, and Newman's Lullaby for Munch in Hell), even though they hem and haw and say how juvenile they might be and basically try to make a litany of excuses before you even hear them, actually sound quite good.

You wanna hear something actually embarrassing? Something so young and stupid and trite and unimaginative and predictable, that no one in his right mind would possibly post on the internet? Well, go elsewhere, I ain't doin' that, either...not that I don't have plenty of it hidden away. After all, I do have five works for band I wrote before Chester Leaps In (my first "official" band work), but they will remain buried for good reason. I will share something that's still a bit young (written in part when I was 17, then finished when I was a senior in college), and in some ways embarrassing in its failure to be effective for the chosen instrumentation (flute and piano).

So what is it already?!? The piece that spawned "Alchemy in Silent Spaces: mvt. I". Originally called "Periods of Ellipses..." (with more bad puns in the subtitles about circles, ellipses, orbits, etc...), this is the first movement, completed and premiered in the Spring of 1994. If you've heard the band or orchestra versions, you'll notice that I expanded the 'big' section quite a bit when I orchestrated it. Like I said above, I don't think it really works for solo flute and piano - I'd always thought it would work better for a large ensemble (though I never imagined it would be premiered by both the Indiana Univ. Wind Ensemble and the Juilliard Orchestra!).

This recording is by Andrea Redcay (flute) and Zoe Browder (piano) - something we put together one afternoon at North Texas. I went on to write the original RedLine for Zoe, who is, so far, the only pianist to actually perform it (and multiple times, at that!).

Ok, enough blather:
Periods of Ellipses, Mvt. I (flute, piano)

Now, back to work on this new piece for Jack Stamp's group at IUP. So far, I know it's going to be about 5 minutes, 130 bpm, have driving 16ths in the hi-hat and piano, and will sound something vaguely like a cross between Spiraling, NIN, and t.A.T.u. I'm not kidding.

Alchemy premiere in pictures

Belatedly, a few pics from the premiere...

I neglected to get a good daylight shot of the poster outside Alice Tully Hall, but my host, Tina Gonzalez, managed to nab one. Crazy, huh? My name seems so... vanilla... in that context. I should change it to something cool, like Mozartoslawski.



I don't have any pictures from the earlier rehearsals (I kept forgetting to take any), but here's a blurry one from the dress in Alice Tully Hall:


Here's a shot from the actual performance (again thanks to Tina - I'm glad someone had it together!). Alice Tully is a good-lookin' hall:


Afterward, I of course had to get a shot with Maestro DePreist himself. We thoughtfully draped cabling behind us to give the photo that modern, 'edgy,' techno-dystopia look:


And here's the fantastic flutist (flautist? flute playin' person?), Jasmine Choi. She did such a great job I never had any advice to offer her. I felt almost guilty for being so unhelpful, but I figured it sounded great - if I'd tried to make up something insightful to say I would've probably just screwed the whole thing up.


Tina managed to capture a pic of the low brass section. Low brass rocks. The second guy from the left, Chris, used to work for me in the computer lab - totally cool guy. The whole section was great. Rescoring those parts from the band version was one of the toughest challenges - the first movement alone calls for 5 trombones, 2 euphoniums, and 2 tubas. I had to squeeze those 9-note chords down to 4 people. They more than made up for it...


Finally, a post-concert hangout picture at Peter's, with some dear friends (l-r): my brother Ben, Jonathan Newman, Milica Paranosic, Dave "Wild Koba" Kobayashi, me, and Verena Moesenbichler.

Alchemy in Silent Spaces for symphony orchestra

I'm finally back from New York, and have the time and internet access to post. Unfortunately, blogger is misbehaving right now, and keeps losing the connection, so I'm going to post the recording for now and deal with pictures later. It's a single file containing all three movements, so it's a bit large.

Now, before you dive in, some points:

1) The piece is 23 minutes long, thus the 28 Mb file size (if you're on dialup, start downloading now so you'll get to listen to it tomorrrow)
2) It's extraordinarily quiet for the first 3 minutes or so, as well as throughout Mvt. II, so if you're listening on standard computer monitors, or there's any ambient noise, it's really not worth it. If you're in a car, don't even bother. (Of course, if you're reading this website while driving a car, then a) "cool," and b) "stop.")
3) Turn the volume up. UP. No, a little further...yeah, that's it. Just under 11. Perfect.

Seriously, the piece has a large dynamic range, and that's the point. I recommend high-end headphones in a quiet and dark room with all phones and such turned off. I know I sound like a diva...but really, this piece needs that kind of environment. ;)

Ok, enough. Here it is:

Alchemy in Silent Spaces for symphony orchestra.

Enjoy!

PS Juilliard has released the concert to NPR, so it may be broadcast on "Performance Today" at some point in the near future. If I find out when, I will of course make it known...