Recent doings

I've recently posted many of the musical fruits of my recent (somewhat epic) stint in Banff. To summarize,

Redstone May 2009 is a piece I wrote for Disklavier player piano, premiered my last week at the Centre. Unfortunately, due to technical issues during the concert, I can offer no video of the Disklavier working its magic (the visual element is a wonderful aspect of the player piano medium), but I do have a complete audio recording.

The Lost Chorales were written in December and recorded in March. I've loved chorale writing ever since my counterpoint lessons at EAMA in 2006, and I still find the interplay of three or four lines a wonderful way to generate harmony. The ten chorales are very short but display various aspects of my interests in this area. A hermetic feeling is also involved.

If I may indulge in a bit of personal myth: this is the sound of my studio in Banff, looking at the big window across the valley to Sulphur Mountain, on a -25 degree day, at that moment right before dark when the whole world would suddenly turn a deep blue color. (The colder it was, the more intense the color became.)

Night Air, my terse and quiet chamber orchestra piece, is now displayed with its fine recording from the premiere performance by the Chicago Composers Orchestra. I've also reprinted my program notes from the concert.

The Piano Inventions, from November, are three short piano pieces based on free improvisation sessions that I recorded and later transcribed and lightly edited.

For convenience's sake, the Lost Chorales are published to my Lake of Five Oceans bandcamp page. For the record, I conceived of the whole Lo5o concept/moniker as a part of the Castle Rooms and Landscapes project, and I don't particularly intend to create further music as "Lake of Five Oceans." I think from this point the things I do as a composer/pianist will exist under my name, and the folksier, singer/songwriter, indie stuff will fall under Golconda.

I've been known to change my mind about these things, but that's the band-name status quo as of early 2011. Further updates as things develop!