Well, I found a site that I was satisfied with for hosting some of the recordings of the brass quintet. I wasn't planning on paying for the service, so the search for a free hosting service was painful to say the least. However, I think this one will work fine. Of course, the damaging limitation of bandwidth applies to all the free accounts, and I am limited to 15 mb per day. Thus, I did not embed the sound files into this post, as that would probably kill the bandwidth pretty quick. That's not to say there are lots of people reading this, but when an mp3 is 5 mb in size, it doesn't take long for 15 mb to go.
That being said, it might be more prudent to download (right click and save as) the files as opposed to loading them. I've scanned them, converted them and they are clean, so no worries there, but it's up to you.
The first one I'll put up is the last movement of Victor Ewald's Quintet No. 2, for brass quintet. Ewald was a Russian composer, and also happened to be a civil engineer. His 3 works for brass quintet are possibly the only true original works for brass quintet written in the Romantic era of music. There is a 4th that he wrote, but it was determined that it was a transcription of one of his string quartets, so brass players felt insulted, and don't usually count No. 4 as part of the brass repertoire. Ewald's music is characterized by soloistic playing in all parts, not just the trumpet lines. Ewald wrote every note with a purpose, be it driving the melodic or harmonic lines, or adding to the rhythmic texture. The parts may sound soloistic, but they are not for the sake of simply showing off.
The Quintessential Brass really wanted to perform Eric Ewazen's Colchester Fantasy on this recital, and we worked hard to pull it off. Ewazen is a composer who is also a professor at the Juilliard School of Music, and he writes some of the most amazing music out there at the moment. Usually his compositions are dedicated to, or commissioned by various brass musicians, or by his favourite quintet, the American Brass Quintet, who are also at Juilliard. He wrote Colchester Fantasy for the ABQ while he was in teaching at a festival in Colchester, England. Each of the 4 movements are named for, and based upon, old Colchester pubs that he visited. The Rose and Crown is the first movement of the work, and is filled with bright, sonorous chords, energetic rhythmic patterns and constantly changing and fluctuating motives.
Hope you all enjoy, let me know what you think!
Thursday, March 30, 2006
Thursday, March 23, 2006
Life slowing down...
Well, things are returning to normal around here. As normal as it gets, I mean. The recital for the Kidney Foundation was great! The quintet played amazingly well, and there were a great many people impressed with the work that we've accomplished over the last year. I was a bit disappointed with the attendance, but the timing of the recital had something to do with that. If we do this again next year, we'll be able to modify some things to fill the seats. We did manage to raise $111.30 in donations, and from mostly students at that, so that did work out well too! Once I figure out if there is somewhere that I can host audio/mp3 files, I'll put a clip up of the quintet playing (hint, hint... anyone got any clues for that?).
Now that the recital is done, I am getting a few hours of my life back every week. We are still rehearsing for a performance on the 3rd of April, plus one on Easter Sunday, but certainly not as intense as before. It is nice to be able to practice music that I have been working on for the Concerto Competition coming up at the end of April. There is only so much you can play in a day, and the last few weeks has been pretty focused on other stuff.
I got my rejection letter from the National Youth Orchestra yesterday. It didn't really come as a surprise, I knew where I had made mistakes, so I wasn't kidding myself about it, even though I did play fairly well. The only part that frustrates me is that the guy that won the audition is the same guy from last season. I understand that in the real world, that's how it works; someone plays the audition better, they win. But this is supposed to be a learning experience, and having someone repeat it defeats that purpose, in my eyes. Not only that, but it makes it harder to win the audition when they've already learned what the committee is listening for. Anyways, I find that frustrating, but they are going to mail out comments about everyone's auditions, so I'll find out exactly what the issue was with mine, and kick some serious ass next year.
Now that the recital is done, I am getting a few hours of my life back every week. We are still rehearsing for a performance on the 3rd of April, plus one on Easter Sunday, but certainly not as intense as before. It is nice to be able to practice music that I have been working on for the Concerto Competition coming up at the end of April. There is only so much you can play in a day, and the last few weeks has been pretty focused on other stuff.
I got my rejection letter from the National Youth Orchestra yesterday. It didn't really come as a surprise, I knew where I had made mistakes, so I wasn't kidding myself about it, even though I did play fairly well. The only part that frustrates me is that the guy that won the audition is the same guy from last season. I understand that in the real world, that's how it works; someone plays the audition better, they win. But this is supposed to be a learning experience, and having someone repeat it defeats that purpose, in my eyes. Not only that, but it makes it harder to win the audition when they've already learned what the committee is listening for. Anyways, I find that frustrating, but they are going to mail out comments about everyone's auditions, so I'll find out exactly what the issue was with mine, and kick some serious ass next year.
Saturday, March 11, 2006
Macs Killed My Inner Child
I recently got a brand new iPod Nano (from the most wonderful, loving person in the world!) for my birthday. I've been wanting one of these for months now, since 4 gb of dataspace for my classical music is like a toy sent down from heaven. Of course, Megan gave it to me when I was back in Lethbridge for reading week, so I hooked it up to my 'rents computer to play with it. Life was good.
However, upon my return to Victoria, I hooked it up to my laptop. Now, I've been prepared to own an iPod for months, getting and upgrade for my USB (ol' lappy was 1.0USB), clearing hard drive space for the impending rape of hundreds of CDs, and so forth. Little did I realize that Apple hates Windows users. Hates them so much, in fact, that it seems to have designed iTunes to function only with a system no more than two years old at the maximum. No amount of tinkering or screwing around with settings could even modestly convince iTunes that I, in fact, do have a CD drive on my computer. I spent about 12 hours total changing things around with my system, including some serious registry edits, which I was loathe to do, but did anyways.
Finally, after said amount of time, I broke down and called the tech support line, fearing the voice of someone who didn't speak english as their first language. Luckily, I called the Canadian line, and only got somone in french, which I could deal with. Then the shit came down. First thing the guy tells me is to do all the things that I already spend the better part of two days doing. Even though I told him what I had done to try to fix the damn iTunes in the first place. After a frustrating 15 minutes of recounting every detail of my foray into the repairs, buddy finally agrees that I've done everything on his list, and goes to find his supervisor.
Supervisor Guy seems nice, but the way the conversation starts, I know he plans to let me down hard. Supervisor asks me to email my drive specs to Apple, and they'll get back to me. They've had this type of problem before, but it hasn't been resolved as of yet, since the technology in question tends to be outdated. I could hear poor lappy's heart breaking at the sound of his unsympathetic reasoning. Needless to say, I'm frustrated. I can do everything, except playback a CD, which is silly, because the drive works fine with every other program.
Anyways, this got me a little frustrated with Apple. Then I thought, maybe if I owned a Mac, this wouldn't have been a problem. I promptly smacked myself across the face and made sure that the food I was eating wasn't rancid in some fashion.
I don't like Macs. Something about them just bothers me, kind of like door to door religious salespeople bother me. That empty pit of the stomach feeling. It's hard to describe, but this video goes a long way to explaining it. I almost died watching it, since it says all that I've been trying to get across in my random Mac diatribes over the last few years.
However, upon my return to Victoria, I hooked it up to my laptop. Now, I've been prepared to own an iPod for months, getting and upgrade for my USB (ol' lappy was 1.0USB), clearing hard drive space for the impending rape of hundreds of CDs, and so forth. Little did I realize that Apple hates Windows users. Hates them so much, in fact, that it seems to have designed iTunes to function only with a system no more than two years old at the maximum. No amount of tinkering or screwing around with settings could even modestly convince iTunes that I, in fact, do have a CD drive on my computer. I spent about 12 hours total changing things around with my system, including some serious registry edits, which I was loathe to do, but did anyways.
Finally, after said amount of time, I broke down and called the tech support line, fearing the voice of someone who didn't speak english as their first language. Luckily, I called the Canadian line, and only got somone in french, which I could deal with. Then the shit came down. First thing the guy tells me is to do all the things that I already spend the better part of two days doing. Even though I told him what I had done to try to fix the damn iTunes in the first place. After a frustrating 15 minutes of recounting every detail of my foray into the repairs, buddy finally agrees that I've done everything on his list, and goes to find his supervisor.
Supervisor Guy seems nice, but the way the conversation starts, I know he plans to let me down hard. Supervisor asks me to email my drive specs to Apple, and they'll get back to me. They've had this type of problem before, but it hasn't been resolved as of yet, since the technology in question tends to be outdated. I could hear poor lappy's heart breaking at the sound of his unsympathetic reasoning. Needless to say, I'm frustrated. I can do everything, except playback a CD, which is silly, because the drive works fine with every other program.
Anyways, this got me a little frustrated with Apple. Then I thought, maybe if I owned a Mac, this wouldn't have been a problem. I promptly smacked myself across the face and made sure that the food I was eating wasn't rancid in some fashion.
I don't like Macs. Something about them just bothers me, kind of like door to door religious salespeople bother me. That empty pit of the stomach feeling. It's hard to describe, but this video goes a long way to explaining it. I almost died watching it, since it says all that I've been trying to get across in my random Mac diatribes over the last few years.
Friday, March 10, 2006
My God, What is Wrong with People?
I just don't get it sometimes. Really. There must be something wrong with me... No, that's not it. Check out Next Country To Invade. I know this video is a joke, but the people the guy is interviewing are pretty serious about it. It's not so much the attitude, but when the guy pulls out the map that just bothers me. Didn't you people do anything in elementary school?
Wednesday, March 08, 2006
I Have No Water...
Well... there is nothing quite like waking up, and trying to flush the toilet, only to discover that the water in the building has been turned off without warning. I'm not exactly impressed, but I'm not going to freak out for another half an hour, when I become late for class.
I turned 26 the other day, and I'm not sure if it actually happened. Seems to me, it kind of feels like a speedometer rolling over in my head, but that didn't happen this time. Also, looking back, this year went way too fast. I'm getting close to being finished my first year out in Victoria already, as well, and then I'll be on the home stretch for this degree. Maybe my perception of time has been destroyed by the excessive length of my undergrad degree.
I've recently started reading sports psychology books. It's funny, because they really do apply to performance, and it seems like I play some serious head games when I perform. Gene seems to think that I lose focus when I play, which is why I have problems reading ahead in the music. Anywho, I am reading The Inner Game of Tennis, which I've read before, but I think I'll understand more now. It is the original sports psychology book, and it has spawned many sequels (such as The Inner Game of Music, which is next on the block). We'll see if it works, but so far, I can really see the benefits from actually understanding what the mind does in a performance setting.
Finally, my brass quintet, The Quintessential Brass, has finalized our program for our recital on March 19th. It's going to be one hell of a concert, and I'm starting to connect with the Kidney Foundation on it. The recital is going to be a benefit concert, with the proceeds going to the Kidney Foundation. They've sent out brochures for us, and put us up on their current events website (http://www.kidney.bc.ca/) and taken some posters out to the hospitals and dialysis units around town. I'm pretty excited out this, because we're playing some good, hard music. Eric Ewazen's Colchester Fantasy is on the program, as well as Victor Ewald's Quintet No. 2, standard fare for the brass quintet. Should be a great time!
I turned 26 the other day, and I'm not sure if it actually happened. Seems to me, it kind of feels like a speedometer rolling over in my head, but that didn't happen this time. Also, looking back, this year went way too fast. I'm getting close to being finished my first year out in Victoria already, as well, and then I'll be on the home stretch for this degree. Maybe my perception of time has been destroyed by the excessive length of my undergrad degree.
I've recently started reading sports psychology books. It's funny, because they really do apply to performance, and it seems like I play some serious head games when I perform. Gene seems to think that I lose focus when I play, which is why I have problems reading ahead in the music. Anywho, I am reading The Inner Game of Tennis, which I've read before, but I think I'll understand more now. It is the original sports psychology book, and it has spawned many sequels (such as The Inner Game of Music, which is next on the block). We'll see if it works, but so far, I can really see the benefits from actually understanding what the mind does in a performance setting.
Finally, my brass quintet, The Quintessential Brass, has finalized our program for our recital on March 19th. It's going to be one hell of a concert, and I'm starting to connect with the Kidney Foundation on it. The recital is going to be a benefit concert, with the proceeds going to the Kidney Foundation. They've sent out brochures for us, and put us up on their current events website (http://www.kidney.bc.ca/) and taken some posters out to the hospitals and dialysis units around town. I'm pretty excited out this, because we're playing some good, hard music. Eric Ewazen's Colchester Fantasy is on the program, as well as Victor Ewald's Quintet No. 2, standard fare for the brass quintet. Should be a great time!
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