New Premiere 3/18

I'd like to invite anyone in the Boulder/Denver area to a cool new premiere of my multimedia composition Elements.  The performance is on 3/18, in the Atlas Black Box Theater, at CU-Boulder.  The composition was written for video and 5.1 surround sound (in the DVD format), so it differs significantly from Gi•nt's Eye in its ease of use and simple setup!  After the concert I will be posting youtubes of the videos, so be on the lookout!

Alarm Will Sound

If you're interested, the unbelievably talented new music ensemble "Alarm Will Sound" is doing my piece Ultradian Bipolar Disorder, tonight in Grusin Hall at CU Boulder.  If you're in the area, feel free to stop by at 6:00.

2009 CoCoCo Competition Winner

I just heard from The Playground Ensemble that my piece Open Me for soprano and piano was selected as one of the winners of the Colorado Composers Concert Call for Scores.  The performance will be on 4/25/09, but I will post more details as they become available.  Thanks to everyone on the selection committee!

Unsilent Night

Check out Megan and me in a fun piece of performance art by Phil Kline. It's called Unsilent Night and consists of carrying boom boxes around downtown Boulder, playing some pretty, ambient music. Video is courtesy of the Daily Camera.

New Ultradian Bipolar Disorder Videos

Firstly, I am well aware that many of my recent posts have been videos.  A video section is on the way.  In the mean time, please enjoy this recording of Ultradian Bipolar Disorder.  If you want a mastered, excellent sounding version, please visit my compositions page.  I also have an excellent new shopping cart on that page if you are interested in scores.

Ultradian Bipolar Disorder: part 1 of 2

Ultradian Bipolar Disorder: part 2 of 2

Ultradian Bipolar Disorder Premiere

If you're on the CU Boulder campus tonight, please check out my premiere of Ultradian Bipolar Disorder.  There's also 3 other premieres, and Stravinsky's Les Noces.  It's going to be a very cool concert.

Gi•nt's Eye Rehearsal, Altered

So I got it in my head to post videos of all the "background fodder" I used for Gi•nt's Eye.  Some of it is pretty cool, and a lot of it doesn't show up on the current videos I have online (since it was a 2 night performance, the projected video changed from one night to the other).  For right now, let me just post this one.  It's from a rehearsal of Gi•nt's Eye, with the dancers experimenting and the piano being controlled by MaxMSP.  Keep in mind the piano programming (at the time the video was recorded) has NO MELODY and NO ADDITIONAL PEOPLE playing live.  The result is loud and "whack whack whack" but kind of dull :)

I added some video filtering (ghosting, saturation) and captured the film to use as a quasi-dynamic background, on which I mixed real time video during the performance.  Enjoy:

Update: After adding all these videos, I'm starting to get very serious about the idea of including a video section.  Maybe after DMA applications are sent out!  In the mean time, here's another video of a performance from the Boulder library that I altered in a similar way for the performance.

Ultradian Bipolar Disorder

I have an update about my newest premiere, Ultradian Bipolar Disorder.  The premiere is Wednesday, November 12th at 7:30pm (at Grusin Hall, in the music building of CU-Boulder).  I'm starting to really get into posting on youtube, so I'll try to have a video up in the next couple weeks.

Before the concert actually takes place, I wanted to say a few words about new music on campus.  I've been fortunate to work with a group of people that are, without exception, very excited and very enthusiastic about new music.  As a composer, this is a huge relief - we have all been to rehearsals that feel like pulling teeth, and my experience with this group has been one of sheer joy and unbridled enthusiasm.  I want to list all the performers below and mention that, as composers, we are forever indebted to these people that take hours and hours of their life to perfect that which we ask of them - and to those who put their musical reputations on the line to perform our music, to speak with our voice.  Thank you all:

Emma Shubin, Katie Bloise, Paul Farus, Neal Postma, Tyler Sherban, Kristi Kilgore, Greg Simon, Max Ripple, Anthony Green, Filip Lazovski, Sam Gathman, Anne Ristorcelli, Lexi Massey, and our ever-vigilant conductor Stephanie Texara.

New Harry Potter Video

Before you ask, yes it is a $5 harry potter wand duct-taped to the end of a nintendo wii-mote.  This piece is a great example of why youtube is terrible.  As hard as Case Western tried, and as good a job that they did recording and mastering this - Harry Potter Returns to Hogwarts is a piece that absolutely relies on surround sound.  There are things constantly being thrown around, spinning and moving - and almost all of that is lost on youtube.  Case Western did a great job of presenting the piece in full surround sound (and Amasa Stone Chapel is a perfect venue for a Harry Potter piece), but youtube just can't hack it :)

Putting that issue aside, the video turned out to be pretty cool!  Check it out below.

Update:  I think it's worth mentioning a specific element of this piece I really liked.  As my much tech class can attest, I am constantly complaining about two things: uninformative titles of pieces and using tech for the sake of tech.

I won't attest to the quality (or lack thereof) of my title, but I can say that what I like most about this piece is that there is no visible computer (or other tech).  From the perspective of the audience, there is no intermediary - no system of translation between my intent and their perceived meaning.  Modern wireless protocols allow us to break down that computerized barrier that separates (often times physically) performers from audience.  You are not staring blindly at a set of speakers.  You are also not starring at a person who is staring at (or at least focused on) a computer or other automated system.  Everything becomes organic.  It's personal.

This is a piece without score, largely improvisatory - which requires the tech I used (and nothing more).  It is also a presentation that draws the audience and performer together.  This is the future of electronic (electro-acoustic) music, or at least this is what I hope it will be.  I don't want people to have to draw meaning and musical sentiment from inanimate objects; I want to establish a connection (a mechanism of trust) between performer and audience.

These thoughts are rough hewn and extemporaneous; I may post a longer, more thought out version on the Cu-Pendulum blog.

Program Notes - Novus Ordo Seclorum

Click here for a link to a basic explanation of how the tech in Novus Ordo Seclorum Works. The description is mine, but the layout and formatting is from the wonderful composer Paul Hembree.

Update: there's also the briefest of mentions of me in the local paper.  The article is very Michael Daugherty, not very me - but still worth a mention ;)