Moving the blog action

Hey everyone,

I've realized that I never update this thing. I do, however, update my website instead, so from here on out that's the place to check for anything I may have posted on here. The website is www.nickwritesmusic.com. Thanks for all the good times,

Nick

Phase games, part one

This will probably end up actually being for vibraphone and piano. But I felt like posting this little sketch, because I think it's rad. Listen here.

Short Suite for Small Orchestra, First Movement

Check this out!

Eeee gads

I haven't done the internet thing in a while (this keeps happening), this time because I've been composing, traveling, and moved into a new flat and don't have internet yet. There are various tidbits of good news though. The London Contemporary Chamber Orchestra gave a workshop to my piece Short Suite for Small Orchestra, and dug it enough to play it on their October 17 concert here in London. It was also performed by the Stranded Ensemble on June 8, and people seemed to like it a lot.

I'm writing a second, much harder piece for chamber orchestra derived from the same harmony as the third movement of the short suite. And some of the rhythmic ideas from the first. But the overall shape will be more of a single, through composed crescendo. Should be interesting.

I think I mentioned this on here already, but in August I'm heading to Dartington, in Totnes, to compose a piece for chorus to be performed by EXAUDI, conducted by James Weeks. I'm just gathering some ideas for that now.

And reading a bunch of theory books to bolster a few ideas about harmony. I'm just beginning to explore Rameau's ideas, and understand just how different French and German thinking has become. And believe it or not I'm working on adding a bit more of the German ideas to my music...we'll see how that goes.

Remember When?

I got that letter saying ERM media wanted to put one of my pieces on one of their cds? Unfortunately I won't be able to do it, because they charge an inordinately large amount for recording.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the purpose of labels to pay for recording, and then they make money back by selling the product? Paying a lot (and way less than they wanted) for recording then selling it is something I can do myself. So what are they then, a distributor? Not if they're distributed by Naxos. I don't know much about business but I think if you've got a distributor, you aren't one. I believe all that's left for them to be is a middleman who takes money from people who don't know any better in return for basically nothing. Or I suppose you do get a recording, but again, you could do that on your own for far less.

Nonetheless it was nice to be noticed. Also, on that, anyone see the Ventura County Star yesterday?

Day off

I just put composite strings on my spruce top for the first time, and am a bit disappointed. The bass strings sound really thin. I've been told, however, they (unlike nylons) take up to 6 hours of playing to sound full. So hopefully they'll get better.

Also, I was at Foyle's yesterday and picked up a piece based on its title alone. It's called The Oceans of The Moon, by Carey Blyton (famous for writing Bananas in Pajamas), and is eight variations and a theme for guitar. And is a cool and fun little piece, even if it is on the "light music" side of things, whatever that means.

Email from ERM Media

Dear Maestro Norton,

It is with great pleasure that I inform you that your composition "DREAM LIGHTS (Riverbank)" was one of the scores chosen for the upcoming recording project MILLENNIUM PROJECT: MADE IN THE AMERICAS!

The amount of submissions was staggering with over 590 submitted!

Recording contracts and all paperwork will be sent out on Monday, March 23, 2009 and should arrive to you in approximately 2 - 4 business days. (We will also enclose a CD from Volume One of this terrific series!)

This is an extraordinary recording series! Radio and media play has never been higher with over 625 outlets worldwide and exposure is fantastic with worldwide distribution through Naxos.

The recording sessions will take place in the USA with the renowned Millennium Symphony from the end of April through the end of May. You will get as many conversations and discussions with the conductor as you need. (Of course, you may attend as well!)

Some deadlines to be aware of:

*** March 23, 2009: Contracts sent out from the ERMMedia offices.

*** April 3, 2009: All paperwork due back to ERM by April 3, 2009.

*** April 6, 2009: Press Announcement (Sent worldwide) of Pieces & Composers in Project!

*** April 24 - May 23, 2009: Recording Sessions to take place in Virginia!

*** July 1, 2009: Rough edits / rough mixes of your recording sent to you on CD-R (You will have input as to balances, etc.)

*** August 1, 2009: Liner Notes and Bios finalized. CD booklet sent out to composers for approval.

*** September 15, 2009: Release of MILLENNIUM PROJECT: MADE IN THE AMERICAS! Worldwide.

Once again, Congratulations! If you do not get your contracts and paperwork within one week from today, please call us immediately at xxx-xxx-xxxx or via email at xxxxx@ermmedia.org.

You can hear fantastic ERMMedia recordings through the ERMMedia RADIO at our website at www.numusicdirect.com

Congratulations!

M.J. Ainsely

ERMMedia

www.numusicdirect.com

www.ermmedia.org

Dr. Atomic

I saw John Adams' Dr. Atomic at the English National Opera tonight. Solid music, very boring libretto and very trite, injected meaning. Interesting staging, great lighting, slightly racist costuming (probably out of ignorance, you don't get many native Americans in England- wait why were the native Americans in it again?), and taught me a major lesson:

Do NOT have a entire stage work hinge on an explosion unless you plan on having an actual explosion onstage. No matter what else you do (almost), your climax will be disappointing.

15 Albums

I was recently tagged by a friend in a facebook note to list 15 albums that changed my life. I usually don't do chain emails of the sort, but that sounded like a cool one. So I'm reposting it here. 15 albums that have changed my life, in no particular order:

1. Refused - The Shape of Punk to Come

2. Radiohead - Kid A

3. Dillinger Escape Plan - Calculating Infinity

4. NOFX - Punk in Drublic

5. Miles Davis - Bitches Brew

6. Bright Eyes - I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning

7. Steve Reich - Music for 18 Musicians

8. Cadence Weapon - Breaking Kayfabe

9. Aphex Twin - Richard D. James Album

10. Strung Out - Twisted by Design

11. AFI - Black Sails in the Sunset

12. Olivier Messiaen - Quartet for the End of Time

13. John Zorn - Electric Masada

14. Lagwagon - Trashed

15. Mars Volta - De-loused in the Comatorium

There should be a few more honorable mentions, but a lot of times it's a group of albums by a band, or a set of bands with no particular albums as number one, that changes the way I look at things, at least about music. In Rainbows (and Hail to the Thief, and OK Computer) should be next to Kid A, but Kid A was my first exposure to Radiohead. There should be something about post rock in there, which has had a huge effect on me, but tends to do so with songs. So hell yeah to Godspeed's "Storm" on Lift Your Skinny Fists, and a bunch of stuff by Mogwai, Tortoise, Sigur Ros, and more. And to David Bowie. Hunky Dory would be next on the list.

Dream Lights (Riverbank)

Listen to this. 

Click here if you want the score.

Adorno Gone PostFreakEverything-MathFolkCore

I've been reading Philosophy of New Music, and various interpretations of it, and have a very rough, short response I've been tossing around.

In it, Adorno argues that to be successful, aside from a bunch of arbitrary criteria derived from the German tradition he means to disavow, music must be radical, and radical enough to anger audiences and make them realize that their own situation in society is pretty much awful.

Philosophy of New Music followed an essay he published entitled "On the Fetish Character in Music and the Regression of Listening." In that one he "presented the change in the function of music," as one that repetitively sells the commodities of mass culture to an audience which has become, for lack of a better word, lazy in their listening.

Here's the thing: how can he expect his high-brow position on music that develops according to its own rules, within each piece, to liberate the individual consumers if they completely ignore it and it is drowned out in the noise of the chaotic mass culture he so despises? Literally, his definition of music as true art with a moral responsibility won't get anything done. It gets studied and performed in classrooms and lectured about, but doesn't move anyone to action to improve their own situation. What sort of music can do this? Music that destroys boundaries and preconceptions of itself, but does so in a way that it can compete with mass culture. So write a record that is a piece of true art, that is radical, behaves by its own internal logic, and riles up the enslaved spirit, and then blast it at everyone louder than anything ever before. Invite people to a concert of what they're used to, sell them what they know and are conditioned to want, then once you have them start breaking down walls and make an example that they'll be there to experience.

Adorno, you're right, you just don't know how to sell it. Berg was a genius. So was Messiaen (who you probably would have hated, I haven't come across his name in your writing yet). So are Radiohead and Merzbow and Raccoo-oo-oon and Dillinger Escape Plan (a few records ago). Schoenberg caused such a stir because the educated concert-going Viennese public had, at the time, a sense of consonance and harmony and order that he disrupted. The public doesn't have this anymore. To most people, a violin sounds like a violin, nearly regardless of what it is doing. Lure them in with its sweet sound then melt their skulls with a wall of feedback, and be sure to throw in a triad just to point out how badly many of your followers, Adorno, missed the point.

There's one other big point that needs to be said: I enjoy music. A lot of aesthetic philosophers seem to have forgotten about this. It's OKAY if a piece doesn't point to truth or operate according to an internal dialectic or free the soul from the bonds of consumerist, production based society. Is it art? Who the hell cares? Let's dance.

Why I Haven't Posted Anything In a While

I've been working like crazy on a fancy looking website, which is finally up and running. Here. Or here:

http://www.nickwritesmusic.com

Tell everyone.

The other reason is that I've been spending the time writing music. Dream Lights (Riverbank) is finished, for flute, two clarinets, piano, and percussion. So is another piano piece, and another is about half way there.

I've also been teaching myself puredata, which has been fun. I made a metronome that resets itself, times how long it takes to do so, then uses that amount of time to generate a sine wave. That's not music, but I've never programmed a line of code in my life before this, so that's pretty exciting.

The next big project is also under way. It's for piccolo, flute, alto flute, horn, trumpet, trombone, harp, marimba, vibraphone, tubular bells, drumset, string quartet, and six singers, and is going to be relatively epic. Meaning not Rite of Spring, but definitely more face crushing than a lot of what calls itself metal these days. Actually I have no idea. I usually start in one direction, but get lead to all sorts of other places and end up with something totally different than I expected. Nonetheless, this is going to be a fun one. And is tentatively titled "And The Star Angel Descends, Creating a Painted Sea." We'll see about that though.

Back to reading Adorno. Who is wrong!

Matt's Blog

My friend Matt, who is a good source for musical recommendations and news, started a blog. Check it out here:

http://quetzlcoatlcatfish.blogspot.com

In my own news I just got back to London from Bruges, where I caught Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time performed by the Ensemble Explorations of the Concertbegouw, as well as a lot of good beer, good chocolate, and very pretty medieval canals and buildings.

The quintet is almost finished, then it's on to writing for orchestra.

Hope everyone has a happy and safe Christmas/Hannukah/(insert holiday here)

Concerts!

The first UK show was a success! Pieces were performed by the Stranded Ensemble, our newly founded graduate composers' ensemble at King's, to a full room who were very happy. Matias Hancke and Teodoro Cromberg also pulled out some sweet electronics with their project Senales e intersecciones. They have some shows in Rome next week if you're there.

At the intermission George Benjamin came up and said he really liked my piece and the idea behind it (88 was performed) and said that I should write more of them. Then after the second half he came up again with more ideas for it. I said, "you're thinking of writing one, aren't you?" and he said, "yes, I really am." That was really exciting. Messiaen's favorite student, Britain's superstar composer, likes my stuff. AWESOME.

Today was "Composing Through Art" at the National Gallery, with presentations and workshops from both art historians and composers. It's hard to convincingly say there was an instant change in all of my art perception, but there were a few profound realizations that are going to really influence the way I look at renaissance painting. And hearing Graham Fitkin and George Fenton speak and getting to ask questions was very cool.

Tomorrow I'm either seeing Sigur Ros or seeing Strauss's Elektra at the Royal Opera House. Either one sounds pretty good to me. Then Saturday is a concert from the Ionian Singers, in Dulwich, which you should really come to, because they're shooting for 100 to keep the venue happy. It's a really cool program of Sibelius, Holst, Debussy, Ravel, Faure, and others. Info is here.

Off to work!

Reykjavik

Has an awesome scene. And the people there are outrageously nice. There is a record store there called 12 Tonar. It has cd players and couches all around the store, and the guys working there will recommend a bunch of stuff to listen to, then sit down with you and say "check out this track" and tell you all about the bands. I picked up an album by a band/project called Klive (I was unfortunately on a pretty tight budget, there was a lot of good stuff), and wrote down a few other bands to check out. Upon getting home and looking up Klive's website, I could see why the guy who suggested them smiled when I picked it. I don't know if he's in the band or not, but his picture is on the cover of one of their past records.

Similarly, I went up to a guy in a Converge shirt and more or less said "tell me about Icelandic hardcore." He went on to give me a history of their scene, walk around the store (this was a different, slightly larger one) picking out records, and put them on the store's sound system. I settled on a gem of Icelandic metal record called At The Borders of Arcadia, by a band called Celestine. Apparently their drummer is now working as a full time composer in the classical sense, so I've got to look up some of that too.

The scenery in the country, and the rest of the city outside of record stores, are both pretty unbelievable too, and the people's reputation of being warm and welcoming is well deserved. While we were walking around town someone actually honked, slowed down, and pointed out the window that my friend had dropped his glove.  In short, go to Iceland.

Here are some music pages:

Klive

Kira Kira

Celestine 

The Behavior of Clouds

New piece for violin and viola. Check it out:

Sorry I don't know how to post .pdfs on here. But there'll be a website soon enough.

Ionian Singers

I joined a choir that rehearses near Waterloo and does a lot of awesome music. They're called The Ionian Singers, and their website is here:

www.ioniansingers.co.uk

We have a show in Dulwich on 22 November, and you should come. Here's the program:

Sibelius - Rakastava, Op. 14

Holst - The Evening Watch, Op. 43 No. 1

Salter - Nocturne

Ravel - Trois Chansons

Debussy - Deux Arabesques (solo harp)

Vaughn Williams - Three Shakespeare Songs

Holst - Choral Hymns from The Rig Veda, Op. 26

Tournier - Etude de concert and Lolita la danseuse (solo harp)

Faure - Madrigal, Op. 35

Salter - English Folk Song arrangements: Cold Blows the Wind and O Soldier, Soldier

Really fun stuff, and it'll be my first time singing tenor.

Concepts

I just attended a god-awful concert, with great players, a supportive audience, and a cool venue. These things do not make up for bad music. So I am going to rant.

HAVING A CLEVER IDEA DOES NOT MEAN YOU'VE WRITTEN SOMETHING GOOD

All of the pieces performed tonight were driven (I use the term lightly) by single ideas. The first was to combine piano in unison with recorded speech. Maybe this would make for an interesting part of a larger piece, but on its own it gets tedious quickly, and points to a lack of ability, creativity, or follow through on the composer's part.

The "concept" of the next piece was to play some white noise over pianissimo (very quiet) instruments, with silence in between. Again, maybe this is a "cool sound," but after the third or fourth silence, as the next bout of static with quietly useless melodies an audience member has either a) figured out that this is the whole piece, b) is hoping something else is going to happen soon, or c) both. In the case of A, if you're the composer you've failed, and quit immediately. With B, if something else doesn't eventually happen, you have an unhappy audience member. You can figure C out for yourself.

The next of the evening continued this way. One of the pieces was a descending chromatic scale (over and over again, at various speeds, for about five minutes), for cello, electric guitar, and keyboard synth. Just because you've added electronics doesn't mean you've written something good. How the hell is "contemporary music," which is supposed to push boundaries, so far behind? This stuff was okay when it was being invented, but let's get real here. Listen to some Aphex Twin (or Phillipe Manoury, or Matt Burtner, or any good rock, for god's sake) and keep your experiments to yourself (unless that's the point AND you know what you're doing). Give me something compelling. Here's an idea:

Get an idea, then compose to completely destroy that idea, to force people to figure out for themselves what it is you're doing.

Here's another:

Write something that sounds good.

Maybe if you combine those two ideas you'll make some art. Or maybe this is wrong and you'll totally fail. If you do, hopefully it will be a complete enough failure to elicit some booing and shouting from the audience, maybe even to have a performer get punched if you've done things right. Anything would be better than sitting quietly through an evening of this to watch another composer's undeserved bow. Please excuse me, I've got music to write.

Parallels

Some people have said that composition is a lot like cooking. Maybe they're right, or maybe not. I'm not too concerned with it, I just wanted an excuse to share how awesome the garlic/spicy asian chile pepper/regular pepper/olive oil/onion sauce my roommate and I invented yesterday is. There's a big bowl of it marinating some meat in my fridge, and I am getting more and more excited the closer dinnertime gets.

Also, check out this website:

www.bugbrand.co.uk

Any ideas for a quintet?

London Contemporary Orchestra doing Messiaen, Jonny Greenwood, other good ones

I kind of can't believe the quality of musicianship in this town. I saw the London Contemporary Orchestra this past Friday, and I'd be surprised to find out if anyone in the ensemble is over the age of 25. The conductor, Hugh Brunt, graduated college just last year and already leads with a sort of balance of care and Boulez-esque precision that makes for killer shows in modern music. Brad Lubman has that too, and he's one of my favorites.

Anyway it was a sold out show, in St. Luke's church, which is a really cool venue with a kind of glass and wood box inside of the old church building, and featured the premiere of a new work by Emily Hall, called Put Flesh On! which was for orchestra, solo cello, and mixed electronics. On first listen I thought it sounded cool and that was about it, but the more I think about it the more I like it. The interplay between the soloist, orchestra, and recorded sounds is really interesting, and I think it takes hearing the whole piece to figure out what is going on.

Previous to that in the evening were Xenakis's Le Sacrifice and Britten's Serenade for tenor, horn, and strings. Sensitive performances were given to both, and I'm waking up to just how important Britten is as a composer over here. He doesn't get performed too much at home, but I've only been here a month and have already heard three of his pieces live and been assigned three more large scale ones to listen to an analyze a bit of. There's a really well balanced mix of all sorts of things going on with him, and the more I listen to the more I realize it. Xenakis was awesome as expected, short as it was.

After these three came the expected highlight of the evening, Jonny Greenwood's Popcorn Superhet Receiver. Hearing this live, especially the pizzicato section, was something I'd been looking forward to since first hearing it, so my view is probably a bit biased...but it was gorgeous, and I was just plain excited to be there, and felt like I did at a lot of rock shows as a kid through it. If you get the chance, see this piece live.

The evening's closer was Messiaen's Les Offrandes Oubliees. It's impossible to put Messiaen into words, especially considering how many people have tried and failed. Just listen to it. I haven't been that moved at a concert in quite some time. Between those two I'd put this on my list of all time favorite shows right alongside Radiohead this summer, Music for Eighteen Musicians two years ago, and Bright Eyes at the Disney Hall a while back too. It put me in a good mood all weekend, which got me working a lot on the violin/viola duo. Which is what I'm off to work on now. Tomorrow night George Benjamin conducts the London Sinfonietta in the first UK performance of Grisey's Les Espaces Acoustiques, at Queen Elizabeth Hall, so I'm looking forward to that too. Cheers.