New music posted!
January 15th, 2009, posted by EricIt pleases me to announce that I have reformatted the music page on my website and uploaded tons of new music for your listening pleasure. Well, maybe not tons, but something from each of my major projects in 2008. It feels good to have an up-to-date representation of my artistic journey, and I look forward to sharing the results with you. I suppose I should re-code with a really interesting Flash player, but I kind of like the old-school html links and that you can download hi-res mp3s if you wish.
Of all of the new things you will find on the music page (jazz compositions, an electronica piece, tracks from The Beast and Orquesta GarDel), I am most proud of “Reach Me.” It is the most involved classical piece I have written to date: an 8-movement song cycle for soprano and tenor. While I spent many hours in my room developing motives, dealing with a notated piano accompaniment (I’m a jazz guy! we just make it up!), the creative essence of the piece came from collaborating with some of my great friends from the UNC Music Department. We had dinners together – composer, lyricist, pianist, and vocalists – and talked about what piqued our curiosity, what troubled us about the human condition. Katherine Lloyd came back with an unexpected set of lyrics about love, fear, and cell phones. Initial musical ideas where developed through improvisation, aided by wine and Tootsie rolls. We ended up with something resembling more of a musical theatre piece: my job was more to give life to two characters than to use post-tonal harmonies and abstract structural ideas to assign meaning. Patrick Massey, Rachel FitzSimons, and Katie Cole premiered “Reach Me” at Patrick’s senior recital in April of 2008, and we recorded it at Zenph a few weeks later. Collaboration, friendship, open participation, improvisation, musical exploration, music as healing, these are things I love about being a musician.
I invite you to find some time to listen to the whole 15-minute piece if you can. Close your eyes if you wish, you can almost see the two lovers running around the city. And of course, let me know what you think of any of this music, criticism is most welcome.
Speaking of songwriting, The Beast is currently rehearsing before we go into the studio to start tracking our first full length album next Thursday! This will be the first time I get to work at a professional studio (as opposed to self- or home- recording), and I will write about that process as the date nears.
