Overview

A MAD PROJECT?
This is a music blog. Specifically, it’s about the music that I’ll be performing next year in the summer, a nine-and-a-half-hour aleatory/improvisatory composition for various instruments and prerecorded sound. During the course of writing, I’ll review other concerts (some by me) at the same venue, and slip in some opinions about music in general and “new music” in particular – and believe me, I am opinionated about music…

Before going on, let me get this off my chest right away. I, too, had thought that a nine-hour composition was a ridiculous idea and I never intended (at first) to perform it all at one sitting. Then, gradually, feedback from others (who will be named over the course of this thing) convinced me otherwise. It is, after all, “new music”, and new music has always been about exploration and experimentation.

AS IT STANDS NOW
I’m starting this blog somewhere in the middle. The music is conceptually complete. The prerecorded sounds are all basically made, though a few minor tweeks will probably be needed right up until the day of performance. I’ll need to finish the notated parts (for the “live” players). The date is selected: Saturday, May 21, 2011. The venue is selected: the Chapel Performance Space at the Good Shepherd Center, in Wallingford, a district in Seattle. The place has incredible acoustics, and there are concerts in there at least twice a week – mostly classical and the afore-mentioned new music. Many of the new music concerts are sponsored by Nonsequitur, a new music promotional group in Seattle (www.waywardmusic.blogspot.com). I’m going to be playing the piano for some of the nine-and-a-half hours. Besides myself, probable participants are: a guitarist (who also plays piano), two percussionists, and one each for the clarient and trombone parts. All but one have played excerpts from the Cycle in concerts before, though until I get their permission, I won't post their names here.

So that’s where it stands now – I’ll need some more musicians and I’ll need to work out much of the logistics. There’s a concert at the Chapel tonight, the Seattle Composers’ Salon, so I’ll post a review of it here tomorrow.