Recent music

The other night I sat down and worked out what my output has been this year (from Jan 1st) and I was shocked. I have written around 30 mins of music which works out about 20 secs per day. I was shocked how I have written so much but then I have finished Relations (a piece for stereo orchestra), Rain (for soprano and guitar), The Wavering George (Violin and Cello) a bass clarinet solo and Unresolved for solo piano. Then there is a percussion piece and a guitar and violin piece that I have started to write within the last week. I dont know how this has come about but I think a switch has flipped in my head from wanting to compose to being able to compose. Every piece (bar Resolved) has either had a workshop, a performance or a performance scheduled. The situation I'm in at the moment is amazing until I remember I still have essays to write.

Also in the last few months I have had very good press reviews. The first one for Imagined Notes by Michael Dervan of the Irish Times which you can read here and the second for Puddle Wonderful. First real reviews I've had and I'm very happy with both!

I feel a bit of info about the pieces is needed, I don't normally do this unless asked but for some reason I'm compelled to. Imagined Notes was written for my final electro-acoustic composition last semester and is basically a reaction against what I see as noise music. What I mean by this is music with no overt pitch bass and simply uses real world sounds to create a piece. I know a door closing or a footstep does have a pitch but not in the same was as a trumpet. So the piece was written to lie somewhere in the middle of the noise music and real music. To do this I took recordings of a piano and an oboe and processed them via transposing stretching etc. The transpositions aimed to create a triadic harmony with the same kind of pull and push of tonality so chords were built up with 5ths, 3rds etc. Though terms such as chords should be used even more loosely in this piece than most because the transpositions where never meant to be precise but more to give the impression of tonal harmony which I think I succeeded in doing. Please do comment and discuss I'd be interested to hear feedback and if others think I did it as successfully as I think.

Relations is a piece for large orchestra with double of most things. This is to create a stereo effect for the audience. The piece is also based on one chord (G-B-E-F) this chord is intended to resonate the whole way through the piece of the piano mainly at the beginning and the end as this section is built on the harmonic series of each note. The music swings round the orchestra or bounces across from left to right. Unfortunately hearing this effect isn't going to happen any time soon, I dont think I could pull together an orchestra needed for it, but maybe in the future.

I might talk about the percussion piece a little in a week or two after its completely finished but it is similar to Relations in the sense that it is based on one note rather than one chord and develops in a similar vane to The Space Within, which I conducted in the 3rd Queen's Composers' Concerts and a recording will be up soon.

I think this is the first blog post in a while that wasn't for the reason of bitching, in fact it had no reason behind it I just felt compelled to write one. Please feel free to give me any comments or feedback about my music. Always interested to hear peoples opinions. You can also get some of my scores at Sibelius Music or Emerging Composers Library
.

Opera

The last few weeks have been a little hectic, too hectic to post here. Mainly because of finishing off my septet The Space Within but its done and handed in. Would love to hear it played properly but don't know if I'll be able to organise it with the players I know. Its the first piece I've composed almost completely without a piano or Sibelius (only used either for a few chords) so hearing it on Sibelius and it almost being exactly how I imagined was amazing. The only problems were tempo markings but that isn't that big a deal. But knowing my inner ear is developing is definitely a good thing to know. Also got my electro-acoustic piece handed in Machinist's Visual Fallacy. This is my first piece to use c-sounds, takes a bit of getting used to but a really good tool to know. Will probably use some of the techniques in my acoustic pieces. In fact some electro-acoustic techniques inspired parts of The Space Within.

With The Space Within handed in I can now start properly on the opera. Met my librettist, James Johnson, on Wednesday to talk about some of the ideas I've got and how they fit with his libretto. Still haven't written any music yet but I think the ideas will work, just got more research to do into them before I can write. It will be three singers Soprano, Mezzo and Alto though I cant find an Alto! (Anyone know a good one who would like to sing in an opera?).

As for the dates of the performance its provisionally 5th 6th and 7th of November. This is provisional but it seems a decent amount of time to get things finished, organised, advertised and rehearsed. The lineup of composers has been expanded to five: Me (Matthew Whiteside), Omar Zatriqi, Eduard Zatriqi, Conor Mitchell and the new addition Gareth Williams.

There should be a website up soon for SPARK with everyone's details on it but here is a quick break done. Omar, Eduard and myself are all composers who are studying at Queen's Belfast. Omar and Eduard are heading into a masters in composition I'm heading into my 3rd year, Conor Mitchell is a London based musical theater and opera writer and Gareth Williams is an Armagh born composer. As for the librettists James Johnson is a Queen's graduate who has written a play for Tinderbox and Michael Shannon is currently studying for a masters in writing in Queen's. Its an interesting mix of students and professionals, hopefully a good mix!

Onto other stuff. The next Queen's Composer's Concert will be on the 25th of November in the Harty room. I've managed to organise a group of players for a yet to be writting piece of mine. Sometimes I dont know which is harder getting the players or writing the music either way I'm half way there. Think I've mentioned this in a previous blog but I'm heading over to York to hear Beyond the Tone being played at Creating New Music Communities. I've somehow managed to become the Northern Ireland contact for the event and I've promised a larger piece for next years event.

Finally a slightly sour note. A few months ago I entered SPNM's call for scores with my Quartet No. 1. Got word back this week that I didn't make it into the short list. Ach well theres always next year.

This week

I always end up posting blogs at the end of the week, hmmm.
Anyway, this week has been rather hectic even with an extra day off at the start just work work more work oh and 3 concerts and a workshop (by the Lawson Trio) in 2 days. Unfortunately the workshop wasn't for my own compositions but for phd composers. Got some great ideas from it though which will be in my next composition. Well maybe not the next one (that should be the opera) but the one after that. Also went through Dogs and Wolves by Piers Hellawell with Piers. Really like that piece now and the way he works the orchestra is really interesting. If you haven;t listened to it give it a go. Gave me some ideas to put into my septet (The Space Within). I know I keep saying its finished but I keep making little changes...
Got a few more details on the concert in Cork. It will be somepoint mid November and it will hopefully be my Quartet No. 1 rather than Beyond the Tone being played. Going to use the same players that I used for the recording on my site, if they are free and we can get accommodation down there. I didn't say there were many more details just a few more!
Also started organising another Queen's Composer's Concert this week. It will be roughly the same setup as before but with the possibility of maybe one piece with electronics/tape piece possibly. The electronics is just an idea at the moment not sure how will it would work in the room but its maybe possibly a possibility (maybe!). Out of the seven replies I've got back from the email I sent, two have been electro-acoustic pieces so there is definitely and interest the rest were standard acoustic composers. Going to give it another week or two before deciding for sure which composers to choose. Thankfully know a bit more about organising this kind of thing this time than last so should run a little smoother. Thinking that the concert will be around November/December time to give people rehearsal time but not too close to hand in dates.
Finally I do apologise for my previous blog, it was written late at night and very much a stream of consciousness. Need to go back and edit it, will be posted up here when I do.
One more note, sonorities festival is on round queens this week. There are around 10 concerts on starting tonight of contemporary music. Have a look here for more info.

This Week

Back to uni tomorrow after being off for about 3wks. Got most of the work at least started thankfully and got my septet (now named The Space Within) pretty much finished. I think I'll go over it a bit more and tweek some of the ideas but it has become more substantial than I had expected (150 bars!) though I haven't worked out the playing time yet but needs to be at least 4mins. Its really funky there will be more details on the ideas behind it once I've handed it in. With the work I had to do there was hardly any time for any piano practice which is really annoying. I'm improving but not as fast as I could be.

More news on the SPARK(once I remember what it stands for I'll tell you) opera project. I have a tutorial with librettist Peter Morgan Barnes this week. When I was told the name it rung a bell but couldn't work out why, judging by his site he is very experienced. Any advice from someone with more experience than me is good. I still haven't had a chance to start on the music but I have set aside about month during the summer where I can lock myself in a room if need be.

Also there is a slight chance of getting a piece of mine played at a Cork music concert, I think something along the lines of the concert Daniel and I did the other week. The organiser's friend tentatively mentioned it to me. I doubt I will have a chance to write anything new but if not it will give me impetus to get 'Beyond the Tone' done out fully in Sibelius. Dont know how likely it is but there's no harm in hoping, hopefully get a performance out of it!

Finally, I have the recordings of the full Queen's Composer's Concert and have sent them out to those involved. Really nice recordings and everyone seems happy with them. I'll post links if anyone else uploads theirs. My Quartet No. 1 is on my site here.

Started off this blog thinking there wasn't much to say but as always I managed to surprise myself in how much I can write. Until next time.