| ABOUT
THE MUSIC |
The hardware used to produce this music was a collection
of digital keyboard-workstations, digital sound modules,
and digital samplers manufactured by the Korg, Roland,
Ensoniq, Kurzweil, Eu, and Akai companies; plus a large
collection of older analog sound modules manufactured
by the Moog, Polyfusion, Eu, Serge, and SMS companies.
Musical materials from all or a portion of these sources
were mixed, recorded, edited, and a final CD produced
on a Roland VS880.
The sounds chosen for any given song could include those
simulating any traditional solo or orchestral instrument,
.or those referred to as purely electronic or noise. The
forms and/or styles of the songs could include those related
to traditional 18th thru 20th century models of concert
music, or those from present day pop music. The title
of a song gives some clue to its form and style: Le.,
"Allegro" refers to a traditional classic form,
"Tropical Night" to a programmatic piece, "Jazz
Mix" to contemporary pops. In general it is difficult
to restrict anyone song to a single "genre". |
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| Group
1-5 |
The songs are grouped into five groups with four in
each group. As one goes from one song to the next there
is a prominent change in tempo and/or style, There is
a certain cohesion to each group such that it could be
considered a "four movement single work". On
the other hand, each song could be considered as a single
movement work independent of the others:
In my work I tend to avoid repetitive, hypnotic style,
unchanging loudness and distortion, extremes of tonal
3-chord blandness, and atonal, nonregular beat chaos.
Two of the songs were composed in 1999, Celebration and
Nostalgia in Group 4. The others were composed in 2004.
None of the songs on this site has been on line before
at other sites. Other different songs will replace these
particular twenty from time to time. |
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| Set
2 |
The songs were composed as four separate symphonies:
numbers 238, 239, 240, and 241 in October 1999. In sounds
and styles chosen they can best be called neo-classic-romantic.
They are perhaps more accessible to the concert hall listeners,
and employ less purely electronic effects and elements
of pops music than do the songs of SET 1 Symphony 241
is in 3 movements; the others are in 4. Successive movements
present contrasts of style and tempo as did corresponding
movements in the symphonies of previous centuries. Parts
of the works in this SET may be on line on other sites.
The complete works: scores (if any), and recordings (CD's)
are collected in the Bird Library, Syracuse University,
Syracuse, NY 13202. Information from Mary O'Brien, 1-315-443-3335. |
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| New
Releases |
All of the new songs are from 2007. Varying styles and forms are fairly evident from the titles.
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