please
email ducts with
your comments.
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ducts
stage Russell
Anixter |
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No
Budget Music It
is difficult to get recordings of compositions for large ensembles like
a big band or an orchestra -- the cost of musicians and studio time is
prohibitive -- and, for that reason, I've learned to improvise. The music
you're about to hear in Ducts Stage was recorded on the fly and with somewhat
primitive means. The first piece was recorded when I was in school and
on this occasion my music institution provided me with an ensemble. I've
not always been that lucky, though, and have had to learn to let necessity
be the mother of invention when it comes to putting together bands and
getting tunes recorded. |
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The Performances tech note: each piece of music is offered in RealAudio and MP3 formats. RealAudio plays right away, but is lower quality than MP3. You probably already have the RealPlayer to play RealAudio files, but if you don't, it's free and can be downloaded quickly and easily from the RealAudio website.
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This
first piece,
"Overtures to Purple and Orange," was written for the BMI Jazz
Composer's Workshop several years ago. I wrote it as part of an assignment
to write a 2 minute piece. The ensemble on the recording is the BMI Jazz
Orchestra, and it was recorded with a Sony Pro Walkman. The band consists
of 4 trumpets, 3 trombones, 1 bass trombone, 5 saxes (doubling flutes,
clarinet and bass clarinet,) piano, bass and drums. I was only given 10
minutes to work with the band. The band was sight reading and this is
the second take. The piece stretches out a small motive of a few notes.
I have since developed Purple and Orange into an expanded (6 minute) version,
and am looking for an excuse (money?) to go into the recording studio.
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The
film scoring class
at the Manhattan School of Music required me to write a mock TV tune.
I chose to compose a 60's cop show theme. See if you can guess where
the main characters faces would be freeze framed and shown with their
names. Here I had to produce my own music for the class. The band is
one of the school big bands also recorded with a Sony Pro Walkman.
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This
last piece
was also an assignment for the MSM film scoring class. It is for the
Max Fleischer Gulliver cartoon. The music was composed for the part
of the film where the Lilliputian finds Gulliver washed up on shore.
The little guy is frightened and runs off to tell the king. The class
had a contest to see how many quotes from other musical sources we could
sneak into our own pieces. See if you can tell where the Lilliputian
crosses a bridge (or two), runs off to tell the king, crosses through
the castle gates and into the castle and trips into a lantern. We were
given a sheet with the timings of the important actions to hit. Again
I had to produce my own music for the class. This assignment was done
using MIDI equipment, but the concept in my head was orchestral. I made
a cassette tape and the professor pressed the play buttons on the Video
and Audio cassette players at the same time. That was pretty silly,
but it locked up close enough.
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