arrange • compose • conduct
At least twice last weekend, I heard Anders Edenroth describe his compositional process as “like a sudoku puzzle.” (He was talking about the puzzle of coordinating bottles and singing in “Water” and later about the loop-pedal writing in their version of “Good Times” and “Catch Up, Ketchup.” And he’s right […]
I’ve written before about how the insufficiency of Roman Numeral analysis leads to problems when voicing chords. But it seems to me that chord inversions change the character of chords so significantly that we should regard inversions as equally important to the the Roman Numeral. The little 6 is just […]
I recently started building a Patreon community around new original compositions and vocal arrangements. I am loving the motivation it gives me to experiment and create new music with supporters behind me. Just yesterday, I shared the first fruit of my Patreon project, a set of Six Nonsense Canons – […]
I have a lot of ideas that don’t amount to anything. We all do. When I’m trying to create, I often try a lot of ideas that don’t lead to very much. It’s only when I stumble (it often feels like stumbling) across a unifying concept that the creative work […]
Alice Parker describes two silences: first, the inchoate silence, the preparatory silence before music begins; and second, the silence of completion, after the music ends. One of the most intriguing dances of creation is the dance with inchoate silence. I am composing a set of canons right now; and I […]
Besides “Who is it for?”, one of the most important questions to ask with any new creative endeavor is, “How could I fail?” If your new creative endeavor has no possible way of failing, then it isn’t very creative. On the other hand, if the stakes are so high that […]
I support artists on Patreon because of what’s in it for them. I love that a few dollars pledged monthly can give artists a steady income, enabling them to devote more time to their craft. But it’s easy to understand the “What’s in it for me” mindset. Like any voluntary […]
“Who is it for?” is one of my top animating questions for any artistic project. The more specific you can be about who the art is for, the more decisive you can be in crafting the art. Who, then, is my new Patreon experiment for? It’s for people who want […]
Why did I choose to experiment with the Patreon direct-patronage model? First, I think the model is really good. Working for a patron when patronage was prevalent in the Baroque and Classical eras correlates with some really remarkable music being written. Moving away from the single commission model can light […]
I’ve been creating music as a career for a long time – my first paid commission came about 20 years ago, and my work is now fairly evenly divided between teaching/conducting and writing for choral ensembles. While virtually all of my work over the last 10+ years has been on […]