Sonatina in G Major (1983)

-

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: 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

January 2nds

-
Image
1/2/2005 They’re razing the old Sun-Times building in the Loop, and when I pass by it I always tune into the sound of jackhammers echoing through the empty space. [Now site of Trump Tower]                Ambient Audio: [1/2/2025: Little did we know how that eponymous tower would represent the end of American democracy as we knew it. Perhaps it was always fragile and we naively thought, even after 9/11, that it would be razed].      1/2/2007 Projects for 2007: Music For Places, Highway Cinema.  [1/2/2026: Resolutions actually do work, but it can take sometimes a decade to see the results. What's important are "seeds"]  1/2/2012             James Howard Kunstler’s prediction/forecast:             “Vlad Putin has held things together there impressively after the meltdown of the 1990s, but apparently the tranquil veneer is thin. Except for two big citie...
Read more

September 30ths

-
9/30/1997             Roy Lichtenstein died. His use of ads, cartoons, etc. is similar to using samples in music. Music is really mimicking what happens in the art world, but with a long lag time.     9/30/1998             Surfed the Net on collaborative information filtering idea. Lots of great links: The Game of Life, the “Serendip” page. Must revisit.  [9/30/2024: This was the beginning of what we now know as simply an “algorithm”—the black box that defines the world we experience online, and now in life in general because it is recommending our relationships and how we navigate them. It has not been good for society or democracy because it is about collectivism as opposed to community. Viktor Frankl: “Only the community can ensure the meaning of individuality for the individuals…only the safeguarding of individuality for the individuals can ensure the meaning of community. This is what distingu...
Read more

Hot New Earth (2026)

-
Image
  It's interesting to re-imagine old lyrics with AI with fake band names. Feel free to use the names, but you'll have the same band playing different music, which might be interesting in the AI realm. [Hot New Earth 1997]  Visionary art  Culture create Useful technology  What cannot be made? Weaving the cloth That keeps us warm Leaving the land So trashed and worn The balance of soul To the roots in the land To the gothic cathedrals Where the masses band The song and the dance Of the social norm Is now the slam dunk Of the antisocial porn  In a hot new earth In a cold cold sweat Hot new earth Meets a cold cold death Force times velocity Will give us power In a hot new...  Earth Overrated human The master of slaves Never the spiritual Just material craves A culture to integrate The math with the art The choice (joy) to be ignorant And not to be smart The removal of skin The raising of the sea Take away the trees The means for recovery Poison pills For a feve...
Read more

Composition Strategies Game

-
Strategy Deck Songwriting Strategy Deck Twelve Cards, One Draw A fresh set of constraints pulled from thirteen suits — abstraction, arrangement, harmony, rhythm and more. Deal a new hand any time. Regenerate Save Draw #1 13 suits · one strategy per card · one suit sits out each round to keep the hand fresh " >
Read more

On the Other Side of the Year

-
Image
  Summer is a plain A plateau of life Everything in full bloom In the maximum light The sun made marks On a window sill The angle changed It caused a chill The summer leaves The flowers a clock Antipode to a country road On the other side of the year If you play a movie backwards It won't end up as it started It tells a different story To follow it is harder It's that time of year You notice the night A fading of light Disappearing from sight Take a turn With the calendar birds Hope to see you near On the other side of the year A time for reading novels Obscured by clouds Seasonal tales Never read aloud Tilt and rotation Light/dark shift Shadows of the day Shift and drift The summer leaves The flowers a clock Antipode to a country road On the other side of the year   ***  My pics: Speedo, Alibi, Vapor Cone
Read more

Isomelody and Isorhythm

-
Image
An interesting exercise is to take an existing melody (as I did with the Bach cello suite) and map it over another rhythm. You can compose your own or use an existing one. With Be Bach I used the sequence of notes in the Suite and mapped it over a bop rhythm that I composed. After the melody was done I added chord changes. (Someone should write a program that will do this automatically.) Here is the source Bach cello Suite:      A more recent video:   Using isorhythm in a bass line:   
Read more

Curio No. 99

-
Image
    A string shortet based on an AI version of Hot New Earth . It's an interesting evolution: Original pop song>AI treatment>transcription>AI treatments. The string quartets have nothing to do with the original song but is its parentage. An AI versions of the AI version.  No. 1:   No. 2:
Read more

Harmonic Cycling

-
Image
A harmonic etude of ii-I-Vs through the circle of 4ths. The complete cycle modulating up in 4ths through all 12 keys: D-/C/G G-/F/C C-/Bb/F F-/Eb/Bb Bb-/Ab/Eb Eb-/Db/Ab G#-/F#/C# C#-/B/F# F#-/E/B B-/A/E E-/D/A A-/G/D    
Read more