Fanfare My Way Through Xmas

I’m writing a fanfare these days for brass quintet: 2 trumpets, 1 horn, 1 trombone and a tuba. Yup, the big ol’ tuba. I can almost hear the farty blasts now – whe, WHA, whe, WHA etc.
If it were up to me, the tuba would look like one of the instruments from The Grinch Who Stole Christmas, complete with a marching band percussion ensemble that somehow manages to balance on its interior tubing. However, in reality, the tuba is NOT like that. In reality, the tuba is just a huge brass instrument that an overweight man plays with his cheeks puffed out and his face all red. That’s the tuba.
There ain’t nothing pretty or exotic about it. The real question is: would you trust this man with your children?
<—- I think the answer is obvious.
Now, on to this brass quintet fanfare I have to write.
What does one think of when they think of a fanfare? Loud blasty brass, sharp angular motives? Aaron Copland, Stravinsky … John Williams? All I know is that it takes a lot of focus to write one, or at least to BEGIN to write one. Everybody seems to know exactly what a fanfare is and how it sounds yet very few can do it justice with words. What makes a great fanfare? It can’t be that hard! It’s got to be elegant, majestic, ceremonial, something that a king or queen could walk into a room to. Uplifting and reverent, sombre yet have the potential to be hopeful, all the while possessing some kind of balance and grace. This upcoming month is jam-packed enough as it is – I have to write an uplifting and meaningful piece that incorporates balance and grace for a brass ensemble? Sounds like a tall order. At least it’ll be short. THAT I do know.
Tam and I are moving into a new apartment mid-December, classes are winding down but alas, we are not going home for the holidays. BOOOO. On the bright side, no Toronto winter for us – that’s a plus. No dirty slushy black snow. I sure won’t miss that! I’m sure it’ll be a difficult time being away from the family and all. I’m going to try to let these current events guide me through it all. Take it as it comes as they say. I’ll write this goddamn fanfare and maybe begin writing something else, who knows. Oh ya, and the move and all that. I didn’t mention: WE’RE GONNA BE LIVING NEAR A FARM, HORSE STABLES AND A PUMPKIN PATCH.

p.s. check out some new online tracks! http://jame6580.wordpress.com/listen

West

Tam and I traveled from Toronto to Vancouver in about nine days. We stayed an extra day in Thunder Bay and in Calgary to enjoy a couple visits with her family. Two nights before our long drive, Tam and I sat in our nearly packed apartment. We weren’t sitting on a couch. All the couches were gone at this point. Most of our books wait for us in boxes in my parent’s basement. Having parents willing to store your stuff is great. It’s free storage. Travel the world. Leave your furniture at home!
Tam sits on a cushion on the floor in front of her laptop. She’s looking at a site about failed cakes (http://www.cakewrecks.com) Cakes with messages on them like “Happy Birthday! Fun, Forty, Flirty, FAT!” or “happy hole days”.
We sip at our super hot tea. “Regs tea” is what we call it. We call it that to help distinguish it from the other herbal teas we may indulge in most evenings. Our night usually ends with a nice cup of orange pekoe “Regs” tea or an exceedingly strong cup of coffee – depends on the night. Regs tea is delicious with cream and sweetener.

So now we’re here in Vancouver. I’ve forgotten about this whole BLOG experience. I’ve been busy moving across the country and being a student again. I’ll write more I swear. I swear. So here I am, I’m a grad student again. I’m that old guy who doesn’t blend in with the young undergrads who ride skateboards, sport bandanas, spike their hair, wax philosophical opinions, and wear plaid everything – are we in the early 90s again? Kurt Cobain would be proud.

I have to say, overall, the Vancouver experience has been positive. Not to say that Vancouver isn’t without its wankers – what city is?
The air is fresher. The trees are larger and more plentiful. The ocean is a mere hundred or so steps from campus. How can this be a bad place to study? It’s bloody fantastic. Do I miss Toronto? In a word – no. Not to say I don’t miss the people, obviously I miss the people, just not general atmosphere.
If you’re ever going to travel across this country, do it in a car if you can. It’s pretty amazing and there is so much to see. I didn’t even see it all and I wish I had. Time and money, time and money, that’s all it’s about really. And unfortunately for students everywhere, time and money are scarce. Except that, in reality, most students DO have plenty of time, they just don’t like to admit it. It’s much better to have a dramatic temper tantrum at midnight the night before your paper is due claiming that how unfair it is that your paper was due at the same time as your class presentation and your other assignments in a different class … let the sob story roll on and on.
It’s nice being a grad student and having a bit more perspective on the whole student experience. Trust me, I’ll still stress myself out for silly, immature reasons but it’s all just another life lesson in the end. Whether I learn that in school or in my daily life is irrelevant. I’ll still laugh at myself and wonder “who is this guy and why is he acting so ridiculous?” Oh wait, that’s just me being me. Not again.

The “500 Greatest Songs of All Time” challenge

I am amazed by the way music is produced. Before I die I want private instruction from a professional producer. I’m a home studio recording geek, what else can I say? Now, I’m no production connoisseur, but I do know what I like to hear and what I’d rather not hear.

I find with musical recordings, small details about the recording can really shed light on the song. I love that nowadays I can go online and research anything about a song, who the producer was, who arranged the string parts, who the performers were. Almost anything. Any extra information on a song puts it into a better perspective; its place in society now versus its impact at the time of its release (par exemple)

I’m fascinated with how to write a good song. Sure, every style has its thing(s); hip hop has its booming drums and bass, pop has its loud, upfront vocals, ballads have their unnecessary amounts of reverb and overly synthesized everything, folk music has its acoustic guitars – sometimes classifying these genres is too easy and overly simplified. Most of these things are JUST ADJECTIVES and STEREOTYPES that describe a song’s production and presentation, not its meaning, construction or form.

(trumpet fanfare)

WHAT WAS THAT?

I’ve given myself a CHALLENGE (see title). I want to listen to Rolling Stone’s “500 greatest songs of all time”, as published in the August 2010 Special Edition (forward written by Jay-Z) I’ve been doing a few over the past couple months, I think I’m on #455 now.

I hope to learn something from ALL THIS LISTENING and will be (and have been) sharing these 500 songs with friends through the least-invasive-way-of-sharing-on-Facebook, the Newsfeed. If you don’t want to hear the list – block me from your feed, I won’t take offense.

Whether you’re listening to these songs for the first time or for the thousandth time, keep in mind how a song has the potential to attach itself to your life; how we all instantly recall old memories and particular periods in our lives when we hear those songs. Am I right? Is this just happening to me?

It may be a silly idea. A waste of time. Who knows. I wanna do it. With no pressure or time limit attached to it. Just listening and maybe even learning something. I will share all 500 songs via Facebook with links to the YouTube and Wikipedia.

It’s the top 500 greatest songs of all time so it should be a good listen. Please comment on the songs you like.

Here’s a link to THE ENTIRE LIST

Serious success in the wild wild west

I was listening to Beethoven string quartet no.11 and was baffled by its frantically changing harmonies, contrasting ideas and overall serious tone. Written 1810, seriously? Also, in the score, the third movement is marked, “Quartett[o] Serioso”, so it turns out that the hint is in the title, or in this case, in the third movement’s tempo/expression markings.
I wondered “what defines serious music?” Does it exist in some divine form that composers only strive to imitate? When I’m composing, do I want to be super serious when I’m trying to indulge my creativity?
Does serious imply boring? I could go on for days, and I hope that I do. Now, enough with the italics …

In all seriousness let’s get to …

THE BIG QUESTION: why am I listening to two hundred year old string quartets? Well, I don’t have any sort of answer for you but I will say that I’ve always had a great admiration for the sound variety in string quartets; to have all four parts exposed but also to transform into one big homogeneous texture. What a terrible way to describe music. Homogeneous. Like milk. Like chemistry class. Science and art – there they are again, side by each. Although all art, whatever the medium, has its connection to science.
I have to be in a certain mood to listen to string quartets. Early morning is good. On the bus going to work sometimes. Or maybe I have to be in more introverted mood. Contemplative, reflective, and quieted.
Music always has a context. Its own reason for existing. And it’s all very personal.

So back to this ‘serious success’ business. To be honest, put all my excitement aside, I’m sick of talking about school. Don’t get me wrong, I thrilled and anxious for all of the upcoming changes in my life. I’m about to move across the country to Vancouver with my girlfriend, Tam, and our dog, Ziggy. Tam is starting her MFA in creative writing and I’m beginning my DMA in composition, at UBC. Yay, in roughly four years, we’ll both have a whole whack of letters to the right of our names representing how ‘qualified’ we are in our chosen fields. We’ll pay top dollar for those letters too so bring it on.
So here I am again, talking about moving. Moving and school. So here I am again, moving and schooling. Though this time, moving a whole lot farther away and with a whole lot more reasons.

Reason one: I love my girlfriend. Check out how marvelously stunning and charming she is and how weirdly cute our beagle, Ziggy, is. (Notice the antique 17th century map of Ukraine in the background. Her dad collects maps.)

Reason two: I’m pumped to study and write more music. My life is constantly bombarded with music. I don’t really give myself the opportunity not to be surrounded by it. I can’t wipe the smile from my face – it’s quite ridiculous how I spend my days. I know what you’re thinking … “Shutup already.” Fine. Then you’ll say, “Stop immersing yourself in that thing that you love so much!” Go ahead and stop me.
So I find this ‘serious success’ business to be all in my head. I find myself today at a potentially hectic and turbulent time, content as the musician I am; making music, exploring it and finding my own voice inside of it, however that may be. Music, to me, has a limitless capacity to express our truest emotions, I can’t help but be continually intrigued by it. I’m not the first person to think that but it’s a nice thing to observe and be a part of.

Reason three: It’s frickin Vancouver guys.

Here I go, fast as I can.

Moved In and Need to Breathe

Odd title for a post? No. Not at all with the way things have been going the last few weeks. Does anybody truly enjoy moving? … <silence> … I didn’t think so.
Ok, I won’t be a complete downer starting … now.
This post won’t necessarily be all music today. I mean, I FEEL musical and all but that’s not the point. When I “feel musical” I’ve been known to burst out into air-drumming for no particular reason and at any given time. I don’t know what it is really. I must have some kind of built up energy that can only escape in form of highly awkward and embarrassing air-drumming. Furthermore, I apologize to everyone who has accidentally been hit while I was air-drumming, though you likely neglected to notice that you were sitting on my snare drum so you probably deserved it (“sn-air” – think about it!)

Tam and I moved this past weekend and I am thankful for that, being the thanksgiving time of year. My family helped us move into our new place, rent the Uhaul trailer, and lug the multiple boxes and couches up three flights of stairs. Yup, they’re pretty awesome. And so is my buddy, Gord, who also helped us out.
You can never really be prepared for moving, can you? I mean, you can get the boxes, pack them, label them, and move them but you can never really escape the emotional mixture of super-excitement and subtle sadness that conjures together in the times before and after a move. Some people can handle it though. Some people are comfy with frequent moves from place to place, from here to there, while others scramble from their college graduations planting their roots in the suburbs, ready for marriage, babies and mortgages. The differences are baffling!
I’d like to think that I’m somewhere in between stages right now. Somewhere in between the “I can be a student all my life” stage and the “get a frickin’ career going” stage. Maybe I’m too hard on myself. Maybe I’m not. Guess I’ll just breathe for now and take it in stride. Try Stride.  Also, remember to breathe. Good day.

Can’t Get It Outta My Head

My last post was all about three songs that I couldn’t find positive things to say about. Funnily enough, I’ve been catching myself singing Hedley’s stupid “Perfect” chorus. It’s infuriating having such a terrible melody bouncing off the walls of my skull. I can’t get it out of my head! It’s flat loud signal bombards my eardrums – un-ignorable. It’s impossible NOT to listen. That’s why this type of pop music plays in malls, waiting rooms and grocery stores. It’s inescapable, this level of sound that eventually becomes white noise, blending itself nicely with the sounds around it. How comfortable to just blend into the background. Let’s all go home and put on forgettable uneventful wallpaper music and forget that we possess ears and occasionally listen to music for a reason. Or let’s all stare into a broken television set for the evening or paint our entire house interior beige, your call.

I just finished writing an orchestra piece. It’s going to be performed by The Sneak Peek Orchestra. Sneak Peek Orchestra are students from University of Toronto’s Faculty of Music and students at the nearby Glenn Gould Conservatory. Talk about getting a piece of music stuck in your brain. Please do yourself a favour and don’t write music. There are always writers and composers who say that writing it down frees the idea from you but I don’t completely believe them. It’s really just a matter of time as to when a better piece or catchier song will replace it in my brain.

Speaking of brain, I’ve been reading a book called “This Is Your Brain On Music” by Daniel J. Levitin. I remember somebody recommending it to me a couple of years ago. I started it then tossed it aside to finish my master’s thesis. A few weeks ago I picked it up again, this time with a little more intention behind it. I found out that the University of Victoria has a special PhD program where you combine music composition with another discipline, say art history, media or computer science. Those three were past examples of subjects that were discussed in doctoral defenses. I immediately thought of Levitin’s book and began to wonder. Can I combine research in music composition with neuroscience without having a degree in psychology and/or biology?
My mind is still wandering aimlessly. I’m flying around the options online and reading up on the psych course listings at Victoria. It feels like I want to take a Psych degree but I know my bank account doesn’t.

To be continued …

“Toronto’s Best Music”

I have 104.5 reasons to write this next entry. Please turn on any mainstream radio station and see what is passing as pop music today. Now, quiet the grumbling objections, I know we’ve all loved and lost certain top-forty hits over the years – I’m not condemning all pop music, if you know me at all you’d already know that. Today I’m focusing on just three songs I heard on the radio a few days ago.
After listening to the songs I asked myself, “what makes these songs so unappealing?” Besides the fact that I’m just “getting old” (I’m twenty-six), should I really feel so disconnected from this music? Is it the production or just the mediocre songwriting? I forced myself to listen and concluded that the selected artists possessed about as much style, talent and originality as the nearby shoebox in my closet. What kind of shoes? It doesn’t matter.
And what songs were they, you may ask? These ones …

Exhibit 1: Hedley’s “Perfect” (2010)
I was radio browsing, while driving down Highway 401, and was caught off guard by the whining vocal styles of Jacob Hoggard, a Canadian Idol  singer who formed the band, Hedley, after being booted from the competition in 2004. I am appalled that this band is Canadian. It’s bad enough Canada has Nickelback, now we have another Canadian disgrace to add to the catalogue. This new track is an overly produced, autotuned, repetitive, emotion-filled waste of four minutes. I like repetitive music but I don’t like bad music over and over again. It’s targeted at teenagers, I get that.  Hoggard sings about not being understood, his fear of being alone and his struggle to become a better partner. He’s very sensitive. As if the subject matter weren’t trivial enough, everything else about this song is predictable: the opening piano riff, the whiny overly-compressed emotional vocals, the climactic falsetto choruses and the formulaic build of the bridge. Why is it that when grown men sing high falsetto that girls immediately assume he’s sensitive? I might believe him if his voice wasn’t so processed. The gist of track is this: he’s not perfect but he keeps trying. Keep trying Jacob.

Exhibit 2: Ne-Yo’s “Because of You” (2007)
Should we start with his name? Let’s not bother. This track is filled with drum machines, processed hand claps, and typical nasal vocal delivery. I like R&B. Remember Boyz II Men? There’s a group of guys who could all sing live and didn’t rely on technology to fix their inadequacies. Some of their songs were catchy and memorable. Their harmonies were rich and full because of the group’s unique voices. Ne-Yo’s multi-tracked autotuned harmonies lack believability and authenticity. Musicians should be able to pull off a live performance, right? Technology can do amazing things but it can also damage the integrity of the artist. When artists start relying on gimmicks to cover up their mistakes it takes away from the subtle nuances that make them unique. It also allows untalented acts to flood the business, creating a false sense of what those artists represent. Take notes Ne-Yo … if that’s even your REAL NAME … Shaffer Chimere Smith.

Exhibit 3: Maroon 5′s “Misery” (2010)
The name of the song sets itself up perfectly. I feel ashamed to admit that I thought Maroon 5 might be cool back in 2003 when I first heard their album, Songs About Jane. Front man, Adam Levine’s shrill helium-induced voice resembles a creepy circus clown you’d hear on a children’s television show in the wee hours of the morning. The song is a typical three minute and thirty second tune with no surprises. It’s very similar sounding to another Maroon 5 single, This Love, off Songs About Jane. Levine should spend less time rolling around with models in his music videos and start writing music that communicates something of worth. Pop music is allowed to have interesting and creative lyrics. There is such thing as TOO simple a melody. Give the  listeners something to think about for a change. At least Maroon 5 is American, I don’t feel as bad hating them.

I have complained a lot in this entry but I want to stress that I’m not trying to be completely pessimistic. I just needed to vent. Perhaps this autotune phenomenon will soon die and we will soon start hearing music that’s real and believable again. It’s frustrating to hear what people are buying into. You and I both know that there are GOOD pop artists out there. You just have to be patient and you’ll find it.