Lee Barry Composition Diary

This month's ditty. Inclement Decembers are the new normal. This is a good a bad thing, hence harmonic contrasts. You can end the piece either in light (C Major) or dark (F# minor).     Some December by meta4s

  Something "festive", or rather seasonal (around the solstice). I like to do these transformations in and out of pop music. This is based on the chords of One Step Ahead of the Moon . The next step might be a re-mapping of the lyric against the new arrangement for something that can be sung against. Every time you make a new version of something, others become possible.

  Ink Fireworks (2015) Stills from the video of same title. Print size: 8x10 @300ppi.  

Composed in 1984 in a Mozart-age-9 style. If you like challenges on the bass, this could be for you. The recording is very lo-fi, recorded on a cassette 4-track with (ugh) reverb on it. I also did the calligraphy. I used to enjoy engraving. It was a rigorous as composing and performing. The use of the treble clef is non-traditional and unusual but as far as I know electric bass players don't read tenor clef, and this piece does a lot of switching in both parts. The third movement is the most fun to play. The Recording:   The arrangement for string quartet done a few years later: 

  Music For Places V: Music For Photographs by Lee Barry

   What once had the working title of Sea of Horizontals , is now Boden Sea 1993 . Apparently, this image was used for the cover of U2's No Line on the Horizon , which I learned only recently. A great photo has a resonance. Music For Places V: Music For Photographs by Lee Barry

 A "Standard" blues. It's an extended mix with diegetic elements (in the "world" of scene), as if you were perhaps inside the gas station in earshot of the street, with 2 radios playing, one an excerpt from The Jean Shepherd Show in 1963, and the same track looped back in, with a binaural recording of street sounds. The Station 2015 More Amarillo   Part of the mythology of the United States is its highway system built postwar and one of the more popular roadways as we know is Route 66, one of the main thoroughfares to the west coast. There's this idea of heading west that I've come across in various books as a metaphor for moving towards the future. It's interesting that it is more of a universal and not unique to the United States. One of the images that I picked for the album was taken on Route 66 while the artist was heading west from Oklahoma to California. The photo is in effect a milestone from that point in his life where he steps out of the c...

    The original image idea for this piece wasn't taken in New Mexico. It was a snapshot of Rudy Van Gelder's house at 445 Sylvan Avenue, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey. It was where Coltrane recorded A Love Supreme .     The Robert Frank photo seemed to fit better with the mood that was emerging as I tracked it. The piece abruptly shifts to the minor mode at the end and becomes very spooky. I used a radio clip from 1955 as perhaps would have been on in his car. There appears to be a cloud in the distance, with streaks of rain falling, which I see as perhaps being "omenesque". Music For Places V: Music For Photographs by Lee Barry The image is decidedly contrasty. If you look at the images on the internet, you'll see a wide range of contrasts, some very light and some even sepia-toned. What I thought was interesting about the contrast issue is that it informed the mode switch in an abstract way. The assumption is that this photograph was taken at night and was ins...

  Hiroshi Sugimoto, Boden Sea, Uttwil, 1993 Some fun taking the harmonic riff from the F-Ab-C-F bass piece and expanding it out to piano/choir, with added sections.   Sea Of Horizontals by meta4s

Something seasonal and topical. I thought I'd re-tool an old idea with a march feel and perhaps male choir. It has chords, but the melody implies them.     

  From Keith Haring's diary, February 18th 1989. It's also a song of 2 Dorians: B Dorian and E Dorian. 

  The tunings book eventually had only 15 tunings as many were very similar, but I have discovered some new ones that have some use. Like open tunings on guitar (Open G, Open A), you can tune a bass to a chord as well, not so much for its ease of fingering, but for the natural harmonics combined with fretted notes. Obviously, the barred natural harmonics at any fret produce a minor triad.    What I like to do with a new tuning is leave it in that tuning for quite a while and see what I can find. There's always some interesting intervalic relationships that you can discover.   

  Sometimes I'll take a pre-existing piece of music and arrange it for strings or other ensembles. This is adapted from Srinagar 1948 : AI-generated versions with a garbled 5/8:

  Sometimes two pieces of music can be played against one another.  These are two tracks from Music For Places II .  You can try this yourself by playing the following links in separate browser tabs:  Cold Caldera Atacama Left and right can get along if the keys are close, if the possible dissonant intervals are less probable, and that there are no rhythmic grids that could clash. (Different tempos never get along)

What I've always liked about DADGAD (other than a more easily playable F chord) is the use of open strings against fretted notes to get 'chimey' chords, without hand contortions.   Here are a few of my favorite go-to voicings:     Harmonic Cycling in DADGAD     The cycle consists of shifting from a first inversion major chord to a first inversion minor, then moving the pattern up in minor thirds (3 frets), then descending in major seconds (2 frets).   You can listen to online at Musecore . The harmony is complex but the fingering is extremely easy, and are essentially barre chords where only one finger changes position.    Transpositions very often result in strange enharmonic spellings, and in this case, wraps around on an enharmonic spelling on G# and Ab.  The bass can follow the guitar, or play a combination of roots and inversions. It functions more as a melody. Other instruments can also weave in similar counterpoints by choosing an...

  Redimade, 36"x24" Digital Giclee Print (2007) (37" x 25" Framed)   $300     Readymades often spark metaphorical thinking. I bought a shoe-shine stand at an antique store, and was immediately attracted to it for its bird-like shape. I wanted to make it a readymade, and thought I would riff on 'red' and 'ready' and painted it red, titling it "Redimade". Connecting shoes/feet to birds was too distant of a metaphor, and 'ready' and 'red' were adjacent metaphors.   After painting it I started to make spin-off pieces ("entailments"), the first one the subject piece, a Giclee print made from a vector file created by tracing a photograph of it.             Photos recently taken in 2021:  

  Music For Places V: Music For Photographs by Lee Barry       A possible arrangement for string quartet (for the Astrolabe series): Astrolabe (Part 17), By Lee Barry by meta4s

  "Composers were fascinated by Baudelaire’s poetry, as it so closely resembled music. Disciplined in technique, clear in structure, and highly descriptive in terms of imagery, his poetry held great appeal for musicians and composers alike." https://interlude.hk/charles-baudelaire-1821-1867-i-have-cultivated-my-hysteria-with-pleasure-and-terror/   There's nothing more earthy than to sit down with an existing poem and set it to music while strumming a guitar.  I chose the first verse of Music by Charles Baudelaire , and became a bit of a sea chantey. (The other stanzas don't sound particularly musical). Music doth uplift me like a sea Towards my planet pale, Then through the dark fogs or heaven's infinity I lift my wandering sail. My process of translating the music in language to composed music is to find the rhythms in the language first, then map a melody, then harmonize. You can go a step further and map new words in place of Baudelaire's, add other ver...

  Now for something completely silly. A bouncy summer song that can be played on a uke. It's also odd because it has 10-bar phrases, not the typical 8. I know my true color You know its hue I know my true color You know it's you I know it's true I believe in a color's True identity You are like no other You know it’s you I know it’s true When you see what you want to see It's never good for us I know my true color You know its hue I know my true color You know it's you I know it's true  

  Possible lyrics: Moonrise in Hernandez Moonrise in Hernandez A burning of the sky At the roadside A moment that remains Forever in our mind's eye Moonrise in Hernandez Moonrise in Hernandez Inversion of the sun At the right time The light against a cross Emblazoned on the black sky   According to Adams, the original capture was on Halloween 1941.   How it looks in daylight 2021: The video: The original idea for the song came to me on a weekend outing to the Saganashkee Slough on June 6, 2021. The slough is a small lake in the Palos Forest Preserves southwest of Chicago. "We're goin' to the Saganashkee Slough" was the riff, and when I got home I notated it. It turned out much different, although this version with the meter changes is cool too. Also interesting--given that this ultimately became the "score" for the Ansel Adams photo, there are two dates on it: 11/1/1941 and 6/6/2021. Thoughts and ideas can sometimes encode the place in which they ...

  Muralino. 19.5 x 11 inches, acrylic and pencil on black lokta paper Small study for a possible mural (“muralino”). Uses vertical lines, curvilinear shapes and only black white and red. #2015 #curves

 A possible idea for an outro/fade out

This track is based on the photo series and book of the same title by Ed Ruscha. Left and Right are the orientations out a car window and would be hard-panned/antiphonal in the recording. The genesis of the piece was from singing the title as if it was a chorus, then played all minor chords against it for a somewhat "Bond" vibe, with a music production at that time (1966), with a AM radio compressed sound. It's the shortest pop song I've ever written at 1:48, and even has a middle-8.  The numbers recited at the beginning are text-to-speech, a kind of anachronism because obviously it didn't exist then. I chose British voices because I wanted an Avengers vibe (Emma Peel/John Steed) replete with sticky Cecil B. DeMille strings and french horns. At the end as an outro I did a short guitar duet ( Havenhurst ) based on the bridge chords which crossfades between a lofi radio sound to full stereo. Behind the guitars is a binaural field recording of traffic ...

 The reason I wanted to set music to this photo (and subsequent painting) is perhaps with the same wonder and fascination of the original artist. This style of architecture (the dingbat, each with a unique signature) is decidedly Southern California: modern, streamlined, care-free, "breezy", and leisurely. ("Beautiful blue skies and golden sunshine--all along the way...") At the beginning of the piece is one of David Lynch's daily weather reports, as a kind of DJ leader. It's interesting that when I was doing the airy synth parts, the weather was exactly like the weather in L.A. per Lynch's weather report. The Shortet: Bronson Tropics (Shortet) by meta4s

Some New  (6/2024)  

    I call this "soft-slap", which is essentially playing a steady back-beat of muted notes with the right hand, and playing a chord tone with the left. This is also a derivation from the song of the same title:  https://leebarry1.bandcamp.com/track/ace-of-black-hearts Ace of Black Hearts (Soft Slap) by meta4s

A piece using the Hungarian Gypsy scale (or mostly harmonic minor). The actual track is not piano. This is just an arrangement for it, and follows the same structure. The place: Montmartre, Bar de la Lune, 1932 Music For Places V: Music For Photographs by Lee Barry

It is difficult to chose the iconic Brassai photographs because all his work is iconic in my view. But this is the first one titled Brassai 1934. (You can Google the title to find the image). The actual location is Avenue de l'Observatoire in Paris. Brassai was the photographer the best captured the idea of "noir" in my opinion, and probably was the inspiration for many cinematographers of noir films. So this is doubly interesting for me--writing "noir" music based on noir photos that influenced films that composers scored to.   Music For Places V: Music For Photographs by Lee Barry Music For Places V: Music For Photographs by Lee Barry It's interesting how you can get harmonic complexity by moving one chord shape in context with open strings. (DADGAD) Music For Places V: Music For Photographs by Lee Barry  

  Utilizing extant technologies to make art is not new. Thomas Barrow used a copy machine to create original works, called the Verifax Prints . The late German novelist W.G. Sebald used the photocopier to intentionally degrade his photography prints which he used in his books, as a way to approximate the mercurial nature of memory. Wade Guyton used wide-format printers to create original works, sometimes manipulating the printer to create interesting "happy accidents". I also used a printer to make originals with my Vellum Prints .  

        A DADGAD piece in 5/8 one minute long (plus an ending measure). It can also be played in standard tuning, or double-drop D (DADGBD) Score   ***  

      Music For Places V: Music For Photographs by Lee Barry   Lead Sheet:       Videos: A Jimmy Webb/Glenn Campbell vibe. (Think Fender Bass VI for this guitar sound): Guitar Video No. 13 An earlier string arrangement for Dorothea .  

        A new arrangement for an old prog piece in 5/8 using quintal harmony. Full lead sheet:  https://app.box.com/s/2ozyznzp2wz9td0d3dxqk45mukbtr3f2   Videos:   Guitar:  https://youtu.be/hGMhpUh5gcI     Bass:  https://youtu.be/tmt6FFcRy1U

Music For Places V: Music For Photographs by Lee Barry Lead Sheet:   A David Lynch-inspired work from 2004, based on a "Phrygian Blues" using 2 main chords, Am and Bbmaj7(#11), with a standard minor turnaround, originally titled "Vintage Smoking". In 2012 I made a music video of it, then re-used some of that footage in the new videos.  

        This is not music for my photographs. This is a "scoring" of iconic photos that many people have seen, but I'm only suggesting what they are. Some are less iconic, but popular nonetheless, such as "Still 21". The titles are the internet search for the photograph. (This is essentially an "Easter Egg" album). If you haven't already, please subscribe to my Bandcamp page to receive updates for the remainder of the releases. A short video on the background on the Music For Places series:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-wgRXJMvyo Music For Places V: Music For Photographs by Lee Barry

  A nocturnal ear worm. Interesting that it also has 21 bars, without repeats.         21/8 Dream by meta4s

 Less glum, more fun for dark times.   Video        

  VIEW GALLERY   In 2021, I also released an album "scoring" iconic photographs, and is in my Music For Places series: Music For Places V: Music For Photographs.   Liner Notes   Loading…

    January is Bb Lydian month. This piece is in a mixed meter ( 2 bars of 3/4, one bar of 4/4, 2 bars of 3/4, 1 bar of 5/4).

  Written on a lap steel tuned to open G minor. All chords are minor. The chorus section are minor thirds a minor third apart--easy to do in this tuning.

  The first piece of the New Year and The New Decade.