Circles on Quiet Water

For those in the Boulder/Denver area tonight, come out and see the performance of my viola and electronics composition, Circles on Quiet Water!  It's being played by the excellent Cassandra Mueller, and there are many other excellent new works on the show as well.

Why Write Casanova

At first glance, Giacomo Casanova represents a technically demanding and intellectually daunting character to bring to life on the stage. Casanova’s public stereotype far outshines the significance of his exploits. His adventures took place in an era far removed from our own. And on the subject of himself, Casanova has already written 1.3 million words about his conquests. Known as the most prominent paramour of his time, the greatness of Casanova’s love is not measured in breadth. It is measured in depth. Instead of aspiring to love as many as he, maybe we can learn to love as much. This simple statement gave me my first insight into the character and proved to be a “eureka moment” for my musical journey.

Every story has to begin at the beginning; mine started in a meeting with the charming and effervescent Bill Mooney. Through his assiduous passion and rapier wit, he helped me appreciate the creative possibilities in retelling Casanova’s story. Casanova at Twilight provided a great opportunity to reimagine a familiar archetype. With the help of his delightful wife, Valorie Goodall, we set off on a grand adventure of sex and deceit in 18th century Italy.

After adventuring for some time, I began to realize that Casanova and I were connected in ways I never anticipated. As a composer and lyricist, I found inspiration in Casanova’s witty, scandalous tales of debauchery. They fascinate and titillate. However, Casanova’s true brilliance resides in his autobiography, Histoire de ma Vie. He articulates the intimate details of his life with critical objectivity and a frankness that many others are unwilling or unable to achieve. As his story progresses, Casanova reveals the true depth of his character, his naked soul emerging from page after page of brutal, unapologetic honesty. I try to capture the same feeling of integrity in the music for Casanova at Twilight.

The music is ribald at times, and soothing at others. It bounces capriciously from one idea to the next as Casanova’s mind wonders. Themes from Casanova’s past are often misremembered or misinterpreted, especially when in pursuit of a lovely lady. He never developed a strong understanding of musical technique, so phrases and motifs often fluctuate in style and historical context. It is at once loud and brash, soft and sweet, angry, funny, ugly, and sexy. As with literature, true musical expression can only be achieved through self-reflection and a fearless exploration of the human condition. In this way, Casanova and I are brothers.

The Story of Casanova

From the Daily Camera:

Be careful what you choose for casual reading. It may lead to a musical. That's what happened when Bill Mooney decided to tackle Giacomo Casanova's 12-volume, 3,700-page autobiography a couple of years ago. The deeper he made his way into the prolific, famous -- or infamous, depending on your point of view -- 18th-century paramour's pages, the wilder the tales became. And the more Mooney discovered Casanova's life was filled with much more than wooing women. "Everybody knows Casanova's name," Mooney said. "We use it all the time, either flatteringly or pejoratively, to describe some men. 'He's a real Casanova.' But nobody really knows anything about his life." What Mooney discovered, he said, is that Casanova was an intellectual and a writer. He wrote 43 volumes in all, including a translation of "The Iliad" into Italian. He was at home in 18th-century power circles, socializing with much of Europe's political and religious elite. He became rich by starting a lottery for King Louis XV, and he was a spy. "And in his spare time," Mooney quipped, "he loved women." Mooney was so inspired by the man behind the legend that he approached people in CU's School of Music about producing a musical comedy about Casanova. "Casanova at Twilight" plays at the ATLAS Black Box Theatre on CU's campus Sept. 23 through Oct. 2. Mooney wrote the book for "Casanova," and CU doctoral student Hunter Ewen composed its eclectic score, brought to life by a live orchestra that features piano, strings and percussion. "Casanova" director Valorie Goodall has assembled a talented cast. Along with Mooney, who plays the show's narrator, Old Casanova, CU Opera Program Director Leigh Holman will perform, as will Raouf Zaidan. Zaidan's performance is a homecoming, of sorts, as he starred regularly in CU Opera in the Summer's early days when the summertime program featured Gilbert and Sullivan operettas. Also, local gender illusionist Jeffrey Kash will play two female roles in "Casanova." Mooney has a history with the university. He went to school in Boulder in the late-1950s -- he acted in the first season of the Colorado Shakespeare Festival in 1958 -- before moving to New York City and cultivating a 35-year career on stage, television and in film. In the 1990s, he returned to Boulder to direct CU Opera in the Summer shows, and transitioned into a second career as a professional storyteller. When he first picked up Casanova's autobiography, he wondered if it might spark an idea for a one-man show. Soon, though, Mooney decided Casanova's life was too rich, and it needed to be told in musical form. Casanova was born in Venice in 1725. He began writing his autobiography, "Histoire de ma vie," in the 1780s, about a decade before he died in 1798. The work is regarded by scholars as an authoritative look at European life in the 1700s. For Mooney, the details Casanova described were a revelation. "Several people have written that the 18th century in Europe was very different (from today)," Mooney said. "Sex back in Italy during that day was about as common as blowing your nose. It's a good insight into why Casanova got his name."

Casanova is Coming

Lock up your daughters! Casanova at Twilight is a scandalous new musical comedy written by Bill Mooney, with original music by Hunter Ewen, based on Casanova’s autobiography. This musical romp through Casanova’s scandalous life is directed by Valorie Goodall, choreographed by Marilyn Cohen, and features Bill Mooney as Old Casanova, Garrett Smith as Young Casanova, with Leigh Holman, Jeffrey Kash, Raouf Zaidan, Emily Murdock, Lukas Graf, Kari Kraakevik, David L’Hommedieu, and Bruce and Jere Mock.

Author Bill Mooney has written a number of plays and one-man shows; he has performed on and off-Broadway; and played the role of Paul Martin in ABC's All My Children for fourteen years. 

Composer Hunter Ewen is completing a Doctoral of Music Arts in composition at CU Boulder. 

Proceeds from the production will benefit the College of Music, ATLAS, and other CU Performing Arts participants.

Parental guidance is advised.

World Record Ballon Blower-upper

Hello all.  Many have seen this on Facebook, but here is the video of me breaking the Guinness Record for most balloons inflated in 1 hour by 1 person.  The new record is 582, as you can see below.

Ohia and Lehua Friday Night

Hello Lexingtonians! I will be performing my solo sax and electronics piece Ohia and Lehua Friday night as part of the Studio 300 festival at Transylvania University.  The concert starts at 7:30pm, in Haggin Auditorium at the Mitchell Fine Arts Center.  Hope to see you there!

Kickstarter is online

Hello bloggers!  The official Kickstarter page to fund my multimedia extravaganza "I Am Watch Television Zombie" is online!  Check it out here:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/905261689/i-am-watch-television-zombie-a-multimedia-extravag

We need your help to make the project a huge success - both in terms of donations and in terms of helping us come up with names, images, and videos to project during the show!  Brraaaaaaaains!!!

Casanova at Twilight - Tickets on Sale Now

Tickets just went on sale for my new musical comedy!  Performances will happen in the ATLAS Black Box Theater.  The show's dates are 9/23, 9/24, 9/25, 9/30, 10/1, 10/2, and 10/3, with 7:30 shows on Fridays and Saturdays, and 2:00 shows on Sundays.


ABOUT THE SHOW:
Lock up your daughters! Casanova at Twilight is a scandalous new musical comedy written by Bill Mooney, with original music by Hunter Ewen, based on Casanova’s autobiography. This musical romp through Casanova’s scandalous life is directed by Valorie Goodall, and features Bill Mooney as Old Casanova, Garrett Smith as Young Casanova, with Leigh Holman, Jeffrey Kash, Bjorn Arvidsson, Emily Murdock, Kari Kraakevik, David L’Hommedieu, and Bruce and Jere Mock.


TICKETS:
- Single tickets $30
- $5 student rush tickets available at the door for CU-Boulder students with valid Buff One Card


Visit CuPresents.org (or click here) or call 303-492-8008 for tickets

Ohia and Lehua Tomorrow

Hello all! For those in the Denver area on Friday, 5/13/11, I will be performing my composition Ohia and Lehua, at Hamilton Hall, in the Newman Center for the Performing Arts at 7:30 Friday. The show "Here and Now" is being presented by the Playground Ensemble, as part of their 2011-2012 concert series. Tickets are free for students.

New Pictures

It comes to my attention that this blog doesn't have a lot of pictures of me! Here is a set taken by the multi-talented Brandon Labadie, the day before he leaves for Juilliard.

Friday 4/29 6:30pm at Denver Art Museum

Hello blog-readers,

Just a heads up, if you're in Denver a week from Friday... I have a few performance events scheduled as part of the "Untitled" Series at the Denver Art Museum. My 35 minute silent film Etude 2 will be projected on the massive ceiling of the museum during the exhibit. I will also be teaming up with the incredible soprano singer Emily Sinclair for an interactive performance piece called "Open Score". We will be performing together from a giant score that is composed by the audience during the exhibit (gulp). Also, if you stick around for the party afterwards, you may hear my composition Saxy Dream being performed at the reception.

Denver Art Museum Ceiling

Denver Art Museum from the Outside

Choir on Sunday

Good day. If you are not in Kansas City this weekend, then maybe you are in Boulder or Denver. My composition Red River Folk Tale will have two performances Sunday, starting at 7:30 as part of an epic all choir evening in Grusin Hall, at CU-Boulder. More information here.

April 9th Concert

Hello all. For those in the Kansas City area, I have two events coming up on Saturday. I am presenting a paper in the morning at UMKC on why we like bad music, and I am performing Ohia and Lehua, for saxophone and electronics as part of the Midwestern Collegiate Composers Exchange. More information is available at http://emccomposers.org/

Monkey Attack

Here is a video of the world premiere of Invasion of the Monkey Mind.  If I ever get a free minute, I'll put up a copy of the score for any interested trumpet players. Big things are brewing; I'll be in touch when I can announce them.  In the video, as a special St. Patrick's day treat, I wore my greenest shirt.  Enjoy!

Red River Folk Tale

Hello all - hope you're doing well. For those in the Boulder/Denver area, come out to CU Boulder to see Jeff Gemmell conduct the incredible CU University Choir as they perform my new composition Red River Folk Tale. In addition to two other world premieres, the concert also features Reich's Violin Phase and Benson's Passing Bells. If you have to miss this performance, there will be others, so stay tuned!

Invasion of the Monkey Mind

For those in the Boulder/Denver area, please keep in mind an excellent performance Wednesday the 23rd at the ATLAS Black Box Theater.  My piece, Invasion of the Monkey Mind, will be closing the concert.  The performance will feature trumpet legend, CU-Boulder faculty member, and all-around nice guy, Terry Sawchuk, as he asks the question, "Can you handle the monkey?"

For those who are curious, below is an excerpt from the score.

The Monsters Live

Hello all.  A new video of last week's Monster Party surfaced, with super awesome close-ups of the Monsters in action.  Enjoy!

Monster Party

I have stolen a nice post from artist and graphic designer Stefan G. Bucher.  It concerns my recent premiere Monster Party and features a great video halfway down.

January 28, 2011

CUE THE MONSTER STRINGS

Good evening. How are you? I hope you had a good week.

If you've been following the blog recently, you know that I hopped on a plane to Denver, Colrado on Wednesday, got a rental car, and made my way to Boulder. Why? Because I wanted to be there for the world premiere of a string concerto by composer Hunter Ewen. A string concerto inspired by the Daily Monsters! (Maybe there are illustrators out there who get blasé about having string concertos written about their work, but for me... very exciting! How could I possibly miss it?)

I rolled into Boulder not knowing what to expect. Hunter had contacted me back in September, and told me this:

I stumbled on your monsters while doing research for a new chamber piece. I'd like to ask your permission to reproduce a few of your images in my score. Each performer represents a different monster and I'd like to use your artwork as a visual cue for how to act and behave onstage. 

Obviously that wasn't going to fly with me. Reproduce a few images in the score? Why not a whole bunch of animated Monster loops on stage? Much better! So Hunter went shopping among the Monsters, gathering his cast of characters. And I went to work (albeit slowly) animating nine of the Daily Monster Papers for the task. I finished the last two the night before the performance.  

Through all this I took a holiday from being my usual control enthusiast self, and left Hunter to do his thing. All I knew was that he was writing a piece for eight violinists. He sent me a synthesizer demo a few weeks ago, and I have to admit with considerable shame that I never made the time to listen past the first minute, because deadlines were tugging at me from all sides. As per usual. Well, I'm glad for it, because this way I got to see the performance, and hear the piece with the same surprise and delight as the audience at Grusin Music Hall.

And I brought my camera. Check out what happened!
(Go full-screen if you like. It's HD, don't you know!)

Isn't that the best thing ever? When you make a bunch of drawings and a few years later THAT happens, you know you're not wasting your life. I couldn't be more excited by this whole thing. Talk about a gift from the Universe!

Thank you so much to Hunter, and to Lina Bahn (formerly of the Corigliano Quartet) for commissioning the piece and performing it with the amazing CU Violin Studio cast and guests at the 10th Anniversary Celebration of thePendulum New Music Series. Thank you all for making such an incredible thing happen!

Here's a photo of the whole ensemble in mid-monstrosity. (You can click on all the images to enlarge, of course, but on this one you really get a nice sense of the hall in the bigger version.)

The cast of characters:

Flittle: Sarah Wood, Annelise Gilsdorf, Brittany Ware

Squax: Karlie Denos, Samuel Goodman

Radigast Pigsley: Hannah Leland (spoken), Alejandro Gomez Guillen

Sir Beekington Cromwell III: Tee Tong Tang, Rachel Wilkinson

Pinchclock: Oscar Soler (solo cadenza), Allison Kim, Margaret Sopoer-Gutierrez

Dr. Chomps: Michael Brook, Veronica Pigeon, Molly Evans

Garblebob: Amanda Ramey, Matt Dendy, Grace Schneider

Mrs. Squirmwiggle: Lina Bahn, Haynn Tang

Conductor: Joel Schut

Check out the score! How cool is this?

Here's what Hunter had to say by way of program notes:

Monster Party (8:30, for violin ensemble) was composed as a musical response to the monsters of Stefan G. Bucher. These wicked, adorable, delicate, stinky, chompy, brilliant monsters are, on their own, just as interesting as their unusual methods of creation. The structure and form of each monster originates from the seemingly unpredictable effects of skillfully orchestrated blobs of ink and bursts of compressed air. Often drawing upside-down and backwards, Bucher's work springs to life, as if from the ether, fully formed, each with a unique personality, backstory, method of movement, and manor of speech. He actively avoids over-polished or plasticized monsters. Lines from Sharpie markers are often visible, and nothing is done with a ruler. Because background detail is rarely included, one never knows if the monsters are the size of a bullfrog or a building.

The piece takes its stylistic cues directly from Bucher's unique method of creation. Parts of the piece were composed upside down, and new sections often culminate with melodic or harmonic "explosions," mimicking Bucher's ink bursts. The piece is purposefully rough around the edges, with quick transitions, abrupt dynamic shifts, and crunchy harmonies. But at its core, it begs the question, "what happens if a bunch of these monsters get together and have a party?"

Rather than assigning each performer to a "violin 1, 2, 3" part, I have tasked them with adopting the personality of specific monsters from Bucher's collection. How the instruments interact musically is related to how I imagine the monsters would react to one another in real life. The harmonies, counterpoint, and special effects are best interpreted as statements of the monsters rather than as gestures of the composer. Movement and dance abounds. Various vocalizations are called for throughout as well as moments of visual drama and levity. Monsters, after all, never know when to be quiet!

And when he says MONSTER SCREAM, brother, he ain't kiddin'! Watch the whole concert and you'll see! Take a bow, Hunter:

Well, there you have it! The Monsters have gone from Logan Hasson's beautiful viola coda for Monster 100 and the opening credit banjo stylings of Daniel Holter & Friends, to an amazing trombone solo by Peter Batchelder, the spine-tingling chase theme by Simone Giuliani propelling the Topanga Monster, and the smooth stylings of singer/songwriter Jed Alger.And now the Monsters have their own string concerto? Let's just say it: GTFO! The big question on my mind is, "What could possibly be NEXT?"

Whatever it is, you can count on the fact that 344 LOVES YOU

Premiere Tomorrow

For those in the Boulder/Denver area tomorrow (1/26), please visit the CU Boulder campus for the premiere of my new piece Monster Party, for 24 monsters who play violin. The work was written for Lina Bahn and the CU violin studio, and it is based on the art of Stefan Bucher (here).