A few samples of some recent artwork of mine…

I’d love to know what people think. Please leave me a comment!

Thesis video posted

Given time… – for soprano and orchestra

Apologies for the MIDI… But if you’re the director of an orchestra and you happen to know a really good soprano then you can be the first to fix that problem and premier a live performance!

Contact me if you’re interested in a score. Thanks!

Published!

Finally.

More to come soon. This first trial run went pretty well. Now you can listen, preview, and purchase your own copy! Check it out!

Deliverance/Jesus Once of Humble Birth

Infinity

I love pondering on the concept of infinity. In all it’s forms. I believe that doing so is not only interesting (and “mind-blowing” sometimes) but also helpful to broaden one’s perspective on life and the purpose for it.

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One illustration I thought of once used two rocket ships, each with an infinite energy source and an infinite lifespan. Say these two hypothetical rocket ships take off from the same launch pad in Houston, TX at the same time and headed in the same exact direction, side by side. There is only one difference between these two rocket ships: rocket ship A travels at 1,000,000 miles per hour, while rocket ship B putters along at 25 miles per hour. (We are also assuming that the path ahead of them is clear from obstructions so that they could theoretically keep going and going forever.)

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Now, the question is: which ship will travel farther?

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The above illustration is pretty fun to try and wrap your head around. Whether you like it or not, everyone’s initial feeling is that A will travel farther than B, even if you know in your mind that the real answer is neither. This is because we live our lives moment by moment. That is how our brains have been conditioned to think. Even if we think of something in the future, we think of specific points in time. And if you think of this parable with that perspective it will seem like that because, at any one point in time, A will inevitably be further ahead of B. I admit that the question is flawed because it, too, is worded with the “moment-by-moment” perspective. With infinity there is no final destination; there is no “time’s up.” Yes, A will always be in front of B, but if they are on a journey that has no end, then time is literally omitted from the equation. So “miles per hour” has no more meaning.

Now for the good stuff – the personal application. What’s the point?

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Everyone is free to ponder the eternal nature of things and think about how it applies to them. For me, it’s this: I believe that our souls are eternal. We are on a journey that will never end. Our bodies will die, but our spirits will not. What this means is that our speed really isn’t the issue. The issue for each of us individually is: which direction you are traveling? Are you progressing or not? Are you working towards becoming better? It makes no sense to compare yourself to others because, in the end, it doesn’t matter (because there is no end). Does it make sense for rocket ship B to look at rocket ship A and feel disadvantaged? If we ever see someone else’s life, don’t look at how fast they’re going, only look at where they’re headed and decide if that’s really a direction you want to follow or not.

Your Accompanist

I’ve been accompanying various musicians for many years now. It’s been a professional gig for some time now and I’ve had a lot of great experiences… and some not-so-great. Here is my master checklist for everyone out there who has now or will ever have an accompanist.

• Accompanist vs. Pianist: There’s a popular Youtube video about how to treat your accompanist that is also worth watching because they hit on some of the big pointers and it’s hilarious. But one of the things they mention is that you should call your pianist a “pianist” and not an “accompanist.” Personally, I could care less if you call me an accompanist. Honestly, that’s what I am. I am a pianist that accompanies other musicians It’s my job. If you’re looking for an accompanist, you’re gonna be looking for someone who advertises themselves as an accompanist. There are many “pianists” out there that are great pianists, but are very poor accompanists. Accompanists are also pianists, just like  apples are fruit. You can call it a fruit or an apple and you will always be right. But if your particular apple gets offended when you call it an apple, then be accommodating and call it a fruit.
• Pronouncing accompanist: “uh-cump-uh-nist” not “uh-cump-uh-NEE-ist”. Only four syllables. Of course, I wouldn’t take offense if you pronounced it wrong, but you would look like a real amateur if you did.
• Where to find one: Most accompanists will advertise themselves at various places, but none of what they say will tell you if they are any good, or if they’re going to cost you an arm and a leg. My advice, get a reference or two. Ask your other musician friends who have had accompanists. And ask for details about how well they learned the music, how well they were able to follow you, how much they charge, how professional they were, etc. And the best references are professional musicians. Ask music professors. They see a lot of accompanists come in and out of their offices with each student. They would be able to tell you who to find; and if they are like the professors I know, they probably have stacks of accompanists’ business cards in their offices.
• STEP 1 after finding an accompanist: Email them with as many details about what you play/sing and what you’re looking for. Include when all your performance dates are (if you have them) and about how often you would like to rehearse. Include how many songs/pieces you are performing. If any of them are significant pieces like large sonatas or concertos, then tell them what those pieces are. Basically, the more information you can give them right from the get go, the easier it will be. I kinda hate it when I get a text or email that says, “Hi, my name is Sarah. Can you be my accompanist?” Ummm, really? And don’t start out by only asking what they charge. That is also less than helpful. Many accompanists have varying rates depending on what the gig is. If you give me a detailed run down of exactly everything you are expecting to do. I can then tell you how much per hour/recital/recording/piece/page/etc. that I would charge and even add it all up to give you an estimate of what the entire gig would probably be. If all I get is, “Hi, my name is Sarah. I’m looking for an accompanist. What do you charge?” Then it sounds like you’re not that serious and you’re really only looking to save a buck. And then I have to email back and say, “Depends on what you want.”
• Ask how they would like to be paid. Cash or check, after each rehearsal, all at once, etc.
• STEP 2 after you are both on the same page: Ask them how they would like to receive the music (i.e. in a binder? In the original books? Copies? Double sided? Hole punched? Sheet protectors? etc.). And then get them the music ASAP. Every accompanist will be different. I hate carrying around a million separate books and things. So I personally just like copies of the music single-sided. I like to put it in my own binders with sheet protectors just how I will need them depending on page turns.
• If you’re making copies, make sure you get all of the music (theirs AND yours) onto the paper. That can be tricky sometimes because a lot of original sheet music is printed a little bigger than 8.5×11. If the music is just too big, then find a way to make it work, such as scanning it first and then printing the scanned document to fit on a 8.5×11 page.
• If you’re getting your music off IMSLP or something similar, make sure the quality is really nice. Not all of them are. And if you have the choice between different editions of the same piece, choose the one with fewer pages (which means fewer page turns, fewer sheet protectors, and fewer headaches).
• I’ve also found it helpful to have copies of the music that the collaborating musician has already been using and taking notes in because then I can see where they have marked where they are going to breath, ritard, crescendo, etc. Either way, it saves time if you have some of those important things already marked in your accompanist’s music.
• Also, make sure you have your tempo markings at the beginning of each piece (and at each tempo change). One of the questions I have to ask most often is, “How fast do you want to go.” Even if the piece has a specific tempo marking on it, make sure it is the tempo YOU are planning on. That way your accompanist will know what to expect on the first rehearsal.
• If you give your accompanist a multi-movement work but are only going to work on one movement or so, make sure the accompanist knows that! There are few things more frustrating than spending the time to learn all the hard movements only to find out that you are just going to do the slow easy one.

• STEP 3 after you’ve given them the music: Ask how long they would like to practice before your first rehearsal. A good accompanist will be able to look through the music and estimate how much time they might need to prepare.

• When you think you are ready to rehearse, give your accompanist plenty of advance notice. Some accompanists have specific limits such as “no less than 48 hours notice before a rehearsal.” It’s probably best that you find out what your accompanist prefers.
• If you’ve given your accompanist several pieces of music, it would be helpful for them to know exactly which piece (s) you plan on rehearsing each time you get together.
• REHEARSAL: Make sure you know your music before your first rehearsal. Most accompanists don’t like teaching your part to you. Also, be on time. If you’ve agreed to pay them at each rehearsal, be prepared with money. Be warmed up and have your instrument ready to go if possible. You don’t want to pay your accompanist to sit there while you get your reed and mouthpiece together. If you’re a vocalist, you shouldn’t need your accompanist to warm up with, so do yourself a favor and do that beforehand.
• A piano:  This was my favorite part of that youtube video. Wherever you rehearse, have a good piano there. Some good keyboards can get the job done, but never as good as a real piano. And make sure there is a good piano bench.
• We follow you. Don’t wait for the piano unless there is some specific reason. For the most part, you control the tempo. If you feel like it’s going too fast or too slow, just let us know. Or just go faster or slower and we’ll follow.
• Vocalists and dynamics: There’s a weird paradox that sometimes comes up with vocalists and their dynamics. Usually, when you need to sing louder, it helps to have a lot of piano behind you to support you. Sometimes when I know you’re supposed to be getting louder, I will start to get a little louder so that you can also, but if you don’t get louder, then I end up drowning you out. So the lesson here is, decide with your accompanist exactly where you will get softer/louder and where you want extra support from the piano or not.
• In a performance, if you forget the words, DO NOT look at your accompanist. Your panic and confused look to your accompanist gives the impression to the audience that it might be the accompanist’s fault that something has gone wrong. Instead, make it up and pretend like you’re singing it just how you wanted to. Chances are, most people in the audience will never even know that you sang the wrong words. And those who did notice will forgive you and commend for being able to keep going despite your little hiccup.
• And finally, if you like your accompanist, recommend him/her to your other musician friends!

New Work

Here’s another new piece you should check out if you haven’t already. It’s somewhere between a short oratorio and a cantata. I was so blessed to get to work with David Larsen and Devon Thiel as the vocalists and with Annalisa Wilde and Kamille Hogg as the pianists. I experimented with some minimalist techniques and with giving quite a bit of freedom to all the performers. If you have a question or comment, please don’t hesitate!

 

New Youtube videos!

Please if you have a minute check out my 6 new videos on Youtube. This time it’s audio and sheet music! And feel free to leave feedback in the comment section. =]

Here are the links:

She Walks in Beauty, for tenor and piano

Repentance, for tenor, prepared piano, and keyboard

‘Tis On This Sweetest Day of Rest, a hymn

10th Avenue, for flute quartet

Box ‘o’ Chocolates, for three players

May I Be in Tune, a hymn for women

A cool 12-tone technique

I wanted to share a cool idea I came up with when using a tone row. This might break some of the strict 12-tone “rules” given us by the 2nd Viennese School, but this is the 21st century – time to move on. I used this method when I wrote Synchronicity for chamber ensemble.

When I came up with this little trick, I was trying to find a way to harmonize the notes of a tone row without A) feeling like I was limited to other permutations of the row, such as the usual inversions, retrogrades, retrograde inversions, and all their transpositions, B) putting the tone row inside a tonal progression and trying to make sense out of it, or C) just picking random notes out of the air that I thought sounded right at the time. Mind you, I’m not against any of these three ideas, if you can make them work. I think it’s super cool if you can make a good piece of music using only what the 12-tone matrix gives you, like much of Webern’s work that I think is pretty cool. And making a 12-tone row into something tonal sounding isn’t always easy and if done right can be very effective. I’m thinking of ViHart who is a mathamusician on youtube that made a 12-tone version of Mary Had a Little Lamb (Mary Had a Laser Bat) that is tonal, but I think is a stroke of genius (look up her video called “12 Tones”).

Anyway, enough blabbing. Here’s what you do:

STEP 1:

Set the row and the matrix aside for now. They’ll be brought back later.

STEP 2:

Divide the 12 tones into either 2 hexachords, 3 tetrachords, 4 trichords, or 6 diads. I personally think this idea works best with one of the first three. Diads would technically work, but not as effectively, and you’ll see why in a minute. I’ll start by using 4 trichords as an example. And you can either write everything out like I’m going to here, or you can notate everything, which is actually easier for me to visualize.

C,E,G – D,F,A – F#,A#,C# – G#,B,D#

I thought this would be fun for now because we have here two major triads and two minor triads that all together use all twelve tones. When you have your tones divided how you want them, it’s important to keep them all in order of lowest to highest. Later you can transpose these groups, but for now, these are the chords or note groups we get to work with.

STEP 3:

Now lay out your tone row. For this example I’m going to use the same row that Webern used in his Concerto for 9 Instruments.

B – A# – D – D# – G – F# – G# – E – F – C – C# – A

STEP 4:

Now for each note of the row, locate it in the note groups you made in STEP 2. For instance, B is found in the last group (G#,B,D#). Then you will build a chord or note set above (or below) the B by going to the left (or right). Whether you build the chords above or below doesn’t matter as long as it is the same for each note in your row, and likewise going left or right doesn’t matter either as long as it is consistent for each note. I like to either build up and go left  or Build down and go right because when I notate them on staff paper I can see clearly each new row that is created because the note spacing is maximized.

D#-  C#  –  F  –   G#  –  C  –  A#  –   B   –  G –  A  –  E  –  F#  –  D

G#-  F#  –  A  –   B    –  E   –  C#  –  D# –  C  –  D  –  G –  A#  –  F

B  –  A#  –  D  –  D#  –  G  –  F#  –  G#  –  E  –  F  –  C  –  C#  –  A

STEP 5:

Now you have two new tone rows to play with! And you can do whatever you want with them now. Be creative. You can play them all as chords, like a chord progression with your original row hidden in the bass line, or you can start using one of the other two rows as your new primary row. Or if you have two instruments playing, for example, a C flute and a bass flute. You could have the bass flute play the row (on bottom) in quarter notes while the C flute splits up the top two rows in 8th notes in some manner like this:

C Flute:       D# – G# – F# – C# – A – F – G# – B – C – E – C# – A# – B – D# – G – C – A – D – E – G – F# – A# – D – F

Bass Flute: B       –      A#     –     D    –   D#    –    G    –   F#     –     G#    –    E    –    F    –     C    –    C#    –      A

That actually makes a fun exercise in counterpoint and voice leading.

Now let’s explore what happens with you divided the tones into 2 hexachords (STEP 2). I’m going to use two hexachords that make the set (0,1,4,5,8,9).

C,C#,E,F,G#,A        and        D,D#,F#,G,A#,B

And this time I’ll build down and go to the right using the same row as before.

B  –  A#  –  D  –  D#  –  G  –  F#  –  G#  –  E  –  F  –  C  –  C#  –  A

D     B       D#    F#      A#    G       A       F     G#   C#    E      C

D#   D       F#    G        B     A#      C      G#    A     E      F      C#

F#    D#    G      A#      D     B        C#     A     C     F      G#    E

G     F#     A#    B        D#   D        E       C     C#   G#    A      F

A#   G       B      D       F#    D#      F      C#     E     A      C     G#

Now you have five all new tone rows to work with! Something really cool about this one is that you’ll notice that the first 6 chords are all inversions of the same chord, which means that if you played all twelve chords in a row, you would hear a really refreshing change in harmony after the sixth chord.

This brings up the last point I was going to mention here. No matter what tone row you start with, there are two things you can do. You can divide up the twelve tones independently from the original row (like I did at first), or you can use the row to divide up the twelve tomes. For example, if you want to have a clearer feeling of harmonic shift in a regular pattern (like my second example, every six notes) then you can take your row and split it into even halves, thirds, or fourths. Your resulting groups may be completely unrelated, but in some cases, that might even work better for you in the end.

Updates

I’ve been a busy college student and have neglected my blog writing. I’ll graduate this December, 2013 and one of my goals/plans is to be extra active on here once school is all done.

For anyone in town that might read this, please make plans to come to my senior recital on Saturday, December 14th at 7:30 pm in the Barrus Concert Hall. Free admission. I’ve put a lot of work into this recital and I really think you’re going to like it. The program will include three piano etudes, two hymns, two songs for tenor and piano (one with piano preperation and electric keyboard), a flute quartet, a percussion trio, and a cantata for tenor, baritone, and two pianos.

I’ve also updated my “Works” page and “Media” page including a youtube video of a really nice gentleman in Germany recording one of my piano etudes, Blackberry Cola.

John Cage-ians

I’ve been doing a lot of research in my spare time including listening to a lot of new music and learning about a lot of new and modern composers out there. In my search I keep running across a lot of people that took after John Cage. At first, I wasn’t sure how I felt about it, but now I think I’ve got it figured out.

*disclaimer* the following contains a lot of opinions that might be controversial and up for debate. If you want to debate, please do. I gladly welcome everyone’s opinion.

I personally respect Cage and a lot of his ideas and certainly his courage for pushing the envelope to the ultimate level. However, aesthetically, I don’t like most of his music. I think it’s cool and interesting sometimes to think about or tell your friends about, and I admit, a lot of it is cool to listen to the first time, but you’ll probably never find me listening to John Cage like I do any other composers. And I honestly think that most people are like me. They think his ideas are cool to tell your friends about, but not so much that you’re going to buy all of his CDs.

But here’s my real issue… I don’t think it’s as much of a problem today as it used to be, but I see a lot of others trying to copy what he did. Not cool. The only reason Cage was cool is because he was first. It’s kinda like how we all know who invented the light bulb, and if anyone after Thomas Edison tried to invent the light bulb, nobody would take you seriously. Nobody really cares who the second person was to discover the new world.

Following after Chopin is one thing–it’s fine because people like to listen to Chopin, and if you write like Chopin, they will likely want to listen to you too–but following after John Cage is completely different.

I’m not against learning from him if it’s used for a real purpose. For instance, I’ve thought about the psychological impact that 4’33” has on the audience and whether or not something like that would ever be practically implemented in any of my music (for instance, a longer rest than what would be anticipated). I’ve seen concert halls sold out to hear (or “not” hear) the famous 4’33” by John Cage. I guarantee, nobody will pay a dime to hear 4’34” by Alex Isackson.

I used 4’33” as an example, I actually haven’t heard of anyone trying to copy that piece specifically, but I have seen people try to copy other things he did, and I really wonder if they’re thinking about how it might come off when they do. I don’t want to name names or anything because I don’t want to offend.

I don’t know, I wasn’t around in the 50’s or 60’s. Maybe things were different then. But the world doesn’t need more Cage-ian music.