Hey guys, been a while since my last update (but then again isn’t it always?).
I want to announce some new updates I’ve made to the music section on the blog.
Number one, check out the image above. I may have pointed out before that I’d originally like to organize some of my compositions into a demo CD, called “Degrees of Freedom.” (To answer your question- yes, stats pun intended but somewhat liberally reinterpreted.) I’ve always had an idea about what I would want a cover to such an album to look like, and while ideally I would want to design it all myself through a series of several photoshoots, I decided it was still high time I at least made some sort of mockup, so I ventured on over to google images and made a rough cut of my idea. Do you like it? let me know!
First of all, I’ve posted a brand-new piece, “I’m There.” It sounds kind of crappy just yet- that’s because it’s more of a demo version. It’s been sitting around while I tried to figure out what to do with it- I wanted it to be a vocal work, and given that my mic is broken, plus, finding willing vocalists, rehearsing and recording isn’t easy, PLUS I’m not exactly the world’s greatest lyricist, it kind of ended up being too much of a hassle. That’s why it’s strings. I thought strings were a good stand-in for voices until I was able to get vocal tracks. So yeah, it’s not final. I’ll get around to re-arranging it eventually, but I decided I shouldn’t hold back from posting the bare-bones concept sketch (so to speak) So I’ve posted it.
Secondly, I’ve posted another new song- well, it’s not so much a new song as a new arrangement of an OLD song I wrote called Ver Calidus. Some of you early stalkers of mine whom I perhaps do not know may remember this as a piece for flute, piano and voices- it was the only recording I made of it (barring a few updates to that very recording I had made through time), but some of you with whom I went to high school might remember it as a vocal piece with solo violin.
None of these arrangements ever really worked the way I wanted them to, however, so I decided it was time to start from scratch and try a totally new approach. The concept started off as this: “Hey, my musical style seems to have shifted somewhat towards more band/rock oriented pieces. What if Ver Calidus was arranged for a rock band?” So i set off creating a piece that could be conceivably performed by your standard setup of electric guitar, bass, drums and keyboards. However as I was developing it, I realized I got a much warmer, richer sound if I substituted the electric guitar with an acoustic guitar, and with that change came several others that kind of nullified the whole “band” idea, but regardless, the final result was a version of Ver Calidus that had more warmth, soul, and depth than any of its earlier versions did. I’m exceedingly happy with this arrangement and though I may make changes to it over time, I’m very proud of what I’ve managed to accomplish in this arrangement.
Retroactive Note: this is basically an earlier version of “Verdant Spring” on SoundCloud.
Finally, I made a few tweaks to Chao ab Ordo. (Edit: I had posted this tune to my music page earlier) Posting “I’m There” made me realize that the Suite, or at least a barebones version of it, is essentially complete. In reviewing Chao, I realized I hadn’t made some changes I had thought I made earlier. Searching my computer, I sure enough had the workings of an updated version lying around. So, I polished that a bit, and posted this new version. It addresses some issues the piece had before- namely, that the beginning isn’t nearly edgy enough, but also some more minor issues with rhythm and harmony that made it sound less… well, believable before. This new version replaces the old version, because rather than being a new arrangement, it’s really the same piece but with a few tweaks (that I think make it undeniably better). It just sounds very right now, so I doubt I’ll be updating it again any time soon.
Speaking of the Suite- reviewing it made me realize that despite having recently posted an updated version recently, Part I, Ordo Ab Chao… just doesn’t work, somehow. It seems, I suppose, too electronic, and not tangible enough. What’s more is that it still just seems really hard to take seriously, because it still sounds, in my ears, like the work of a young, inexperienced musician who’s just messing around. Some potential remedies for this problem might lie in the fact that though it opens sounding like we’re going to be taken on some epic rock journey, we don’t really hear guitars again. Ever. So, it might help to give it more of a rock edge, reduce some of the weirder electronic stuff to something a bit more traditional, and… more importantly, eliminate some of its undeniable cheesiness.
Retroactive Note: Here’s a remake of “Ordo” I had done earlier that year.
Also, I’ve made a new change to the music page- because I have a very specific order in mind for the page, rather than post updates by date, I’ll mark any piece of music that is new as of the last updating with some kind of indication in red.
So, what might we look forward to in the future? Let me tell you some of the ideas that have been in my head lately, most of which I’ve made a note of on the music page itself. First of all, I think, generally speaking, the rock-inspired re-arrangement of Ver Calidus proved to work very well. And since I’ve wanted to re-arrange Ver Frigidus for, well, longer than I can remember, a similar re-working of Ver Frigidus might be appropriate.
I also have had an idea for a follow-up to Organized Insanity. Basically, let’s pretend Organized Insanity represents the mental state of a young individual whose life seems out of control. (Let me point out that no, that’s not why I wrote the piece and NO, I didn’t write the piece because my life seemed out of control and I wanted to “express myself in music,” even if that sounds cool.) So how would the individual’s mind “sound” after several years have passed, they’ve matured a bit, and have begun to understand their role in the greater society?
I got this idea when I was messing around on a grand piano, playing Organized Insanity, and I realized that if I replaced the main CM-F#M chord sequence with cm-FM, I get something which moves and feels very similar, but sounds much more traditional, and, perhaps, catchy. Catchy enough to be expanded into its own piece, perhaps.
But as of right now that’s still just an idea- but it might be cool to try my hand at writing something with lyrics this time around. So, we’ll see what happens! Stay tuned guys and thanks for following me!
Retroactive Note: Here’s the tune “Organized Insanity” I was referring to, which I’d posted in 2009.
