October 14, 2008
Fall has befallen us
…listen
…about the musicFalling in you.
It’s Fall here. Leaves are Fall-ing: the process of being in their annual autumnal tumble. While my house and neighborhood are blanketed by spindly-leaved evergreens that belie the season, the middle of Friday Harbor boasts lots of great deciduous trees that decidedly boast lots of great colors. Even the pumpkins look like they could have Fall-en off a tree.
I am heading off this morning to two other places resting on similar latitudes that also enjoy the fall colors: Minneapolis, and New York City. If you happen to be in the Mini Apple, come over to the University of Minnesota’s Ted Mann Concert Hall on Wednesday the 15th at 7:30pm, and you can hear lots of beautiful shiny instruments played no doubt by beautiful shiny musicians, as the U of M Symphonic Wind Band makes sense out of my piece, Homecoming. There’s a fun story behind this commission, and if you click the link you’ll find a recent article about it, among other things.
And if you happen to be in the Big Apple, well, probably my best performance there will be that of dodging cab drivers, crosstown buses and Jersey drivers, and living to tell the tale. I’m going to make like an evergreen and not Fall, and with luck, not be felled, either.
I’ll be back late next week with more photos that will probably not be orange, more music that will probably sound very different from this accompanying clip, and more commentary that will probably include words not contained in this post nor possibly, any of my others. Stay tuned!
And stay upright and on top of things.
Glenn Buttkus said,
October 14, 2008 @ 7:14 am
FallingInYou@1:14 was very interesting, and the singer sounded a lot like you. Your voice is unique, if this is you, a little bit country, some jazz singer, some Janis J. Is this the song I struggled to gather the lyrics for, and talked you into posting them? No, that one was about the sea and love and such. These lyrics are great too. Would you post them please, upon your return.
The mp3@ 3:10 of HOMECOMING: Opening is stunning, containing all the good stuff you describe in the liner notes; rife with heart, patriotism, concern, pride, flags, and woodwinds to die for.. I have not read the article yet. I will try to get to it. I have never heard Minneapolis referred to as the Mini-Apple, but I am a west coast kind of a guy.
Fall certainly is here, a little less so here in the South Sound as up north on your island. How much longer will the balmy nights and mild temp days last? My wife is still picking fresh tomatoes off of her spring plants. Hope the Indians are pleased with this prolonged summer, and thanks to them for it; among other things.
Glenn
Glenn Buttkus said,
October 15, 2008 @ 4:54 am
Read your long article on the incredible experience of composing for the United States Government and kicking it with a military band. It is refreshing that your postulates about using the net to further your career, or anyone’s, came home to Mama in spades. It will be interesting surely to compare the Minnesota rendering of HOMECOMING to the Virginia premiere.
So thank you, Mamm, for sharing. Your life is an open page somewhere in cyber space, at least that part you are willing to share. It does amaze me how much you have colored our responses to your music by letting us get to know some personal part of you; getting a smidgeon of your emotions, passion, and big doses of humor. All this for most of us who have never actually met you in person. At least you post pictures of yourself now and again so that we do not have to fear that like a phone sex operator, you weave a fake and illusionary vision of yourself that may not resemble the person that you are. (Goodness, that is an odd simile, enit?). I had better get off now before I step in it.
Glenn
Paul H. Muller said,
October 22, 2008 @ 9:38 pm
The story about the wind ensemble piece was interesting. Cal Lutheran has a wind ensemble and I played in it for about 4 years. We would do a concert each year under the porch of the Reagan Library. We did lots of interesting pieces. When you are a brass player in the orchestra you are playing maybe 20% of the time. But in a band, more like 80%, so it is a good workout for the lip.
I am – ahem – self-taught as a composer. In the Ventura College library I discovered one of the most practical books ever on the subject. In between Roger Sessions and Walter Piston was a dark blue volume titled “US Armed Forces Compositional Handbook”. And there it was in just 130 pages – all about keys, tonality, chords, harmonic progressions, cadences, phrasing, orchestration – all of it in a fairly straightforward and readable manner. Who knew? Apparently the military decided it needed to have a reference volume on composing – and it was a pretty good one!
It is surprising how big the military music establishment is – the band director at CLU played in the 6th Army Band years ago and the son of our principal trumpet plays clarinet with an Army band based in Washington DC. Good to hear that they have sophisticated musicians who are committed to new music.
Military people are the best. My son-in-law is a DI in the Marine Corps in San Diego. He is as tough as they come but such a sweetheart – and there is no contradiction.
Semper Fi.