Slow and Pretty Things - Now Available for Free

The album Slow and Pretty Things is a tone poem, in nine sections about my final conversation with my grandmother, Elizabeth Huff. In the last year of her life, her dementia had progressed to the point where she had lost all sense of time. Her stories could go for hours, slowly ebbing and flowing, circling around themselves like an eddy at the edge of a river. And as she sunk deeper into dementia, her timelessness became more pronounced. The destination of her stories was no longer relevent; for her, it was about the journey—the act and art of communicating. I found myself intensely engrossed in these conversations. The humanity in her voice was clear as day, but her message was obfuscated. We achieved a kind of understanding–an elegant compromise where she and I both said a great deal, and neither of us understood. She meditated on her childhood and mine, holidays with family, her pig, the war, and our spouses. Our final conversation was a beautiful moment, suspended in time and space. It was only after she was gone that I started to understand what she was trying to say. This album is structured around the themes and mood of our last talk: real instruments are altered, repeated, and stretched as if they were afflicted with Alzheimer's. There is loss and sadness, but there is also beauty and hope. Each movement is a timeless ghost, who at some point long ago had a voice, a form, and a message. The titles of each movement form the poetry upon which my tone poem is based:

Slow and Pretty Things (Hunter Ewen, 2012)
Sea-foam cotton undertows
Our last forgettable conversation
Her wholeness struck
Out across delicate, bobbing adventures–
Soft curled tales
To buoy a grandson. In meantime
She surfaces, recognizably
And we finally speak–
Slow and pretty things

Amy Pence's Armor, Amour

A very cool book of poetry by my step-mother-in-law. My song cycles are printed in the pages, and one of them was art-ified for the cover! There's also a sweet digital download of the poems being read, on top of my awesome background soundtrack. Cool enough to buy 4 or 5 copies I'd say.

http://www.ninebarkpress.org/order.html

Crumb Video Wall

My video wall that was commissioned for the George Crumb festival here
at CU is up! Please enjoy some vintage photographs, original
manuscripts, handwritten sketches, and footage from concerts this
week. The exhibit can be found in the ATL&S atrium.

8 New Videos

As promised, here are the videos from my most recent premiere, elements. The preferred viewing order is as follows:

Introduction

Crescendo

Fermata

Staccato (ugh, it drops a lot of frames)

Trill

Slur

Sforzando

Decrescendo

YouTube is experimenting with a new HD mode, but at the time being, my videos are failing to play at that resolution. Anyway, please enjoy!

Unconventional Publishing

So as strange as this seems, my latest soprano/piano piece Open Me is published in the latest issue of Ouroboros (a poetry and art magazine).  The images from the score are placed next to Amy Pence's original poetry. There is (at least for now) a free version available online, or you can purchase print issues from their website.  You can listen to an mp3 here, or watch videos of the premiere here and here.

New Novus Ordo Seclorum Video

Here's a new video from last month's premiere of Novus Ordo Seclorum.  I'm getting so many videos on this site, I think I'll make a separate page for them.  In the mean time, enjoy these new videos.

Part 1


Part 2

New Open Me Video

From the premiere, here is the video of Open Me.  The poetry is by Amy Pence, the music and graphics are mine.  

Movements 1-3

Movements 4-5

Cleveland Concert

If you're in cleveland Wednesday, drop by Amasa Stone at 12:30 for the premiere of my new piece "Harry Potter Returns to Hogwarts".  If you're not around, I'll post a youtube as soon as it's available.  I am also waiting on the youtube from last week's premiere "Novus Ordo Seclorum".

Premiere

My newest premiere is in Boulder, at CU, in Grusin hall.  It's called Novus Ordo Seclorum, and was commissioned for Constitution Day by the University of Colorado.  It uses a projected score, a series of dramatic readings, and I sing at the end (processed audio of course).  There also may or may not be fireworks.  If you can't attend, I'll post a youtube when it's up.

Moving Images

Experiencing moving images is a fairly common occurrence in modern society. Please see here if you don't know what I mean. My new piece, Novus Ordo Seclorum is going to explore that phenomenon. With a projected score, procedurally generated, the performers will be repeating short musical gestures (a la Riley's in C) that morph and evolve over time. The performance is celebrating Constitution day, and will be performed on Constitution day (9/17) at 7:30pm, Grusin Hall, University of Colorado at boulder. Please inquire with requests for score rental, if interested. I would be happy to send out the Max file.

New Gi•nt's Eye Videos

Better late than never. Here are a few movements from one of the Gi•nt's Eye performances that happened last April. Click on the videos for a brief description on who the performers are, who the audience is, what is improvised, and where the computer is coming into play. Enjoy!

Movement 1 (The "Launch" Movement)
Live audience member on piano, with reactive piano-playing computer algorithm.

Movement 2 (The "Fantasy Game" Movement)
Improvised dance, improvised music reacting to a movement-sensitive digital body suit. Real time audio and video processing.

Movement 4 (The "Valentine" Movement)

Movement 5 (The "So Long" Movement)
Soprano vocalist, live piano, computer controlled piano, and offstage flute, trumpet, ebow, saxophone. Poetry by Serena Chopra (created in Mvmt 4). Improvisational music.

I'm engaged

That's right!  After 5 years and 7 months of dating, Megan and I are finally engaged.  To see pictures and read the story of how it went down, you can visit my personal website (MeganAndHunter.com).  Keep in mind that the website is only about 80% done, but it's still good enough to be entertaining.  Enjoy!

My stuff is at Tower Records!

Please visit Tower Records to purchase Greg Banaszak's newest album "Romances for Saxophone and Orchestra", which contains my arrangement of Eugene Bozza's Aria for Saxophone. Also, please visit this fun traffic map application which tracks the locations of the last 100 people to visit this site. As I look right now, the last 100 people all came from Colorado. If you're not from CO, good for you!

Gi•nt's Eye website is up!

Though you have already seen my splash screen, I feel compelled to mention that the basic information for my new composition Gi•nt's Eye is online.  Things are being updated in real time, and the first ten Gi•nt's Eye related event's (lectures, demos, etc...) are posted.  Check back later for more information.

New Release

My orchestration of Eugene Bozza's "Aria" for saxophone is now available for purchase at the Centaur Records website. The album is "Romances for Saxophone and Orchestra", by Greg Banaszak and the Beethoven Academy Orchestra.

Gi•nt's Eye

Now is the time, in my large multidisciplinary project, when I start to think about branding. I have uploaded a couple video ideas in the hopes that people will contact me and let me know what they think.

stars

fire and eye

fire with webcam background

I need help in MUSC 4081!

For those of you who found this website trying to get help with CUs Intro to Music Tech class, please allow me to redirect you. Visit www.hunterewen.com/help for the wiki. In lieu of office hours, I'm trying to answer all questions on the wiki (or through the AIM portal on the wiki). Please feel free to email me with any other questions!

Cover Art

I just got a copy of the cover for Greg Banaszak's new album Romances for Saxophone and Orchestra (above). Look for the album, which includes my arrangement of the Bozza Aria, from Centaur Records in Summer 2007.

Commission and Video

Here are two small pieces of news that I'm going to lump together.

1) I just accepted a new commission from flautist Rachel Azrak for a solo flute piece. She has promised to give me a recording from her recital (May 19th) here on campus.

2) Many of the conductors / contest panelists I have approached regarding 01001101 have expressed curiosity about the "interactive video" element to the piece. To that end, I have uploaded the video of the first movement along with the part that the performer is expected to play. Using both of these, one can duplicate (and experiment with) the projected video that is to be used in the performance. This should yield a better understanding of what I did and why I did it. Enjoy.

New Projects

Due to the success and popularity of the solo bassoon project Key Buxom Kamikaze @ H.Q., I have decided to debut the "User Interface" for the second piece in that series. For those of you who weren't following Key Buxom Kamikaze @ H.Q., the premise was that people purchased notes (through this website) and the proceeds went to charity. You chose the pitch, duration, and measure number, and I chose the octave and ordering in the measure. For that project, the user interface was setup like an online retail store. For this (second) project, the user interface is setup like a flash introduction. There are 100+ boxes displayed on the screen--you pick one, and the corresponding note becomes the next note in the piece.

The third new project in this series is a computer generated string quintet entitled Cantilène & Caprice. This piece is in the early stages of development, but the idea for the user interface comes from online forms. You fill out the form, and a randomly generated piece is sent to you (pdf and midi) via email. I plan to upload C++ snippets as they become available (and hopefully get some good feedback from computer engineers or CompSci people).