Recreation of Old Music Page

A cleaned-up replica of the old "Music" page from the Blogspot version of my site from early 2012, before I transitioned to SoundCloud for most of my music hosting. Not all links below guaranteed to work.


2012

"The Beat of my Own Drummer (2012 Revision)"  Download

I'd been in the habit of reworking previous stuff with my newer skillset, so I decided to give Beat a workover. There was surprisingly a lot I could do with it. This revision cleans up some of the instrumentation, adjusts the balance of the instruments, and features a completely new middle section (it never did feel finished, and I think this is a much better direction for it). My thoughts on the piece have also changed significantly since I first posted it. While I wrote it originally to reflect on personal experiences, I now think the piece embodies more just "growing up," in general. I now think that anyone that listens can easily relate to the basic themes of childhood, adolescence, and maturity. This might suggest a new title down the road - we'll see.

"Searching for Sight (Redux)"  Download

Exactly what it says on the tin. This mix of the EDM/Rock-inspired track features a significantly greater harmonic range. Upon reviewing it, I realized that due to the effects processing I had used originally, I had severely limited the range. I reconfigured the way the effects processing worked from the inside out, resulting in much more powerful bass and treble tones - it's very noticeable - while also toning down certain aspects of the mix I thought were just "too much."

"Ordo"  Download

A new (retitled) mix of the third movement of "Ordo ab Chao" (previously called "End of the World"). For me this has always represented a sense of breakthrough and accomplishment, and continuing onwards in life using those new skills you accomplished and simply reveling in being awesome. Since 2012 has been a bit of a breakthrough year for me so far, it seemed as good a time as any to give it a new coat of paint (and title). Unfortunately still features crappy MIDI; anyone wanna learn the guitar bits for this and record for me? Seriously that would be awesome. Please?


2011

"Searching For Sight"  Download

A gritty, aggressive, electronically-driven track mashing up a few of my favorite musical phrases from my pieces together that I felt had thematic similarities. The main motif of the track is a variation on a passage from "Kuusisto," so its title is both a reference "Kuusisto"'s blind namesake Stephen Kuusisto and to the desire to search for inspiration. (See 2012 for a grossly superior revision.)

"An Sléibhte na hÉireann"  Download

A piece I wrote while travelling in Ireland, inspired by the misty, surreal quality of the landscape, especially around the mountains. Probably not one of my best, my MIDI instruments aren't great and it's pretty lacking compositionally speaking, but after a long time mulling it over I really don't have any other ideas, so I'm just releasing it as-is.

"The Beat of my Own Drummer"  Download

A prog rock "song without words." This song is inspired by my own life, growing up as a kid with ADHD. Always energetic, but never quite grooving to the same rhythm as everyone else. Though it's mostly based on me, really, at its core, this is a song about growing up; from naive childhood through rebellious adolescence and towards maturity. (See 2012 for a better / much more cohesive revision!)

"Over the Fence"  Download

A commission for the podcast Over the Fence. When Jeff's piece got rejected, I offered to work on one as well. I had really liked Jeff's piece, so I tried to incorporate subtle stylistic references to it as much as I could, but encased in an overall harder, faster piece of music. This is the piece the podcast currently uses as its theme tune. EDIT: New 2012 version to be posted soon. New version incorporates the melody from Beyond the Batter, is mixed cleaner, and features live guitar.

"Beyond the Barrier" - Jeff Wise  Download

A "mystical" sounding piece, designed to evoke a sense of adventure. It's a collaboration between me and my fellow composer and friend Jeff Wise. Jeff originally wrote this piece as a commission for the podcast Over the Fence. After he wrote the original, we decided to collaborate, and I started working on re-arranging it. Though it ultimately was rejected, he and I continued collaborating on it anyway, for fun.
Featured in episode 1 of the podcast Over the Fence.

"Kuusisto"  Download

Inspired by Stephen Kuusisto's memoir "Planet of the Blind," I wrote "Kuusisto" in an attempt to capturing his life-journey through music. It's my first attempt at trying out some new, weirder chord progressions, and I was very pleased with my results - I still consider it one of my best works.
Featured in episode 8 of the podcast The Cavern Today.
[Expect an updated version soon.]


2010

"Ver Calidus"  Download

A reworking of one of the first pieces I wrote, Ver Calidus attempts to paint a picture of the latter half of springtime just before summer hits, when the sun is bright and the weather becomes warm again. The 6-note motif is based on the call of a bird that is often heard during this time of year. (I don't know what bird it is.) (Featured in Episode 6 of the podcast The Cavern Today.)

"A Distracted Isolation"  Download

An improvisational and incredibly experimental piece of music I came up with when I once felt a burning urge to leave my house, but found myself feeling somehow trapped in my own room. This odd sense of isolation fueled this piece, which I subsequently developed and recorded in about 20 minutes. Featuring me on clarinet, which is a first!

"The End of the World Suite"
A three-part thing. I imagined The Suite as an exploration in how we deal with personal conflict. The idea came about when I decided (in 2009) to revise and expand one of the very first pieces I made back in 2007, a revised version of which became the first movement of this Suite. I've never been completely satisfied with the results, which I thought sounded dumb. I'm reworking it into a triptych simply called "Ordo ab Chao," and will be slowly releasing bits of it over the course of 2012 (probably).

I: "Ordo Ab Chao"  Download

An electronically-driven piece that explores a contrast between climactic moments and peaceful moments. Or to be more dramatic, imagine being at the onset of the world's end- Chaos abound, and yet at the heart of it all, there is still order and peace.
Though this is itself the second iteration of the piece, I've never been satisfied with it, and have been experimenting with creating a new version with different instrumentation that is both more sophisticated and more techno-driven. That ended up being incredibly frustrating, so I might just leave it alone. (Reworked version TBA; will be called "Chao.")

II: "I'm There"  Download

I'm There was originally intended to be a choral love song. The theme was really just an expression of love and the lyrics were going to be along the lines of "I love you. I care for you, and even though sometimes it's been rough, we've always been there for each other. I love you, and just I want you to know: I'm there."
Once I had made a demo version with strings, I realized I was in over my head when it came to writing lyrics and recording singers, so I left it as a reduction for strings. (Currently being reworked into another song. It ended up being very ambitious, so it's been a year and counting in the making. Release TBA; Will probably be called "I'm Moving On." [Yeah.])

III: "Chao ab Ordo"  Download

Here it all comes to a quick, dramatic, intense close. The third movement is a fast-paced rock-ey song, that, as the title suggests, evokes concepts first explored in the first movement, Ordo ab Chao, but put in a completely different light.
This a fun piece that works pretty well on its own, especially due to its relatively short length. I love this arrangement/instrumentation, but it does suffer from being made from crappy GarageBand MIDI. But I lack the means to produce a better version at this time. Maybe someday. (See 2012 for a cleaner revision, retitled as "Ordo." Still features crappy (but improved) MIDI.)


2009

"Organized Insanity"  Download

Organized Insanity was my first attempt at writing a "prog rock" song. I started writing it in high school during 2008, and in its first forms it had lyrics and everything. But it ended up sounding kind of ridiculous, so I just made it an instrumental, and spent most of 2009 coming up with new ideas for it and adding to it every so often until it was finally done.

"Ver Frigidus"  Download

A piano re-arrangement of a piece from 2007. I originally wrote it calling it "16ths end" as, at the time, I was approaching my 17th birthday and, in my teenage-angst-filled naivete, I was feeling a bit anxious about it. But I changed my mind and instead changed the focus to the awkward transitional period between Winter and Spring when the snow has all melted away but spring itself has not reared its beautiful head yet. This is almost certainly gonna get a "Calidus-esque" revision sometime in the future. It never really worked like this, and I have some fun ideas that might make it work. Original description:
Using Garageband I managed to make a version of a song I composed back in Spring ’07. The song was originally going to have lyrics, in Latin, as you may be able to tell by the scarce quality to this. The words were basically going to say “Why must we all be so sad, when surrounding us is so much joy and light!” Eventually I just gave up on giving the song lyrics, but have never been able to record it until now. Unfortunately, I only had myself to use as a basis, and so it sounds a little...wrong, especially the bass. It was also supposed to be a lot faster in some of the sections of it, but due to my facilities, it would have been hard for me if I randomly changed the tempo in the middle of the song. The last part, which is an almost jazz-inspired segment, was originally to be very lyrical, which is why it sounds so silly right now. It was to represent an answer to the question posed: because life is filled with constant hardship and strife.
Having lost its lyrical sense, I named it “Ver Frigidus,” or Cold Spring in Latin, due to the deep connection I feel this piece has with spring, particularly very early spring when flowers are just beginning to pop out.


2008

"Down By the Salley Gardens" - Anonymous, text by WB Yeats  Download

A traditional Irish air with text by WB Yeats. This song was produced in a studio as part of a demo tape I sent to colleges as a supplemental material. Featured on piano is my voice teacher, Susan McBrayer.


2007

"Theme from Oedipus Rex"  Download

During autumn 2005, during my freshman year of high school, I made some music in MIDI for a school project on Oedipus Rex. During spring 2007, I re-arranged it for string quartet. That summer, I got my hands on GarageBand, and I immediately got to making a track based on this arrangement. The result wasn't great, but it was better than MIDI, and it was the closest I was gonna get to a recording of it.
Hm. I oughta go get the old original MIDIs from 2005 and share them with you guys sometime. Embarassing? Maybe, but I got nothing to hide. We'll both have a good laugh. :P