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CARLO GESUALDO   April 29 - June 25, 2008 (work in progress) Sacrae Cantiones (1603). Gesualdo's first sacred publications for five voices. I. Ave, Regina coelorum 2:11 II. Venit lumen tuum 1:41 III. Ave, dulcissima Maria 2:20 IV. Reminisceremiserationum tuarum 1:18 V. Dignare me, laudare te 1:44 VII. Domine, ne despicias 1:14 VIII. Hei mihi, Domine 1:25 IX. Laboravi in gemitu meo 1:56 X. Peccantem me quotidie 2:50 XI. O vos omnes 1:34  5:48 of multiphonics combined with 14:48 of sound made onboard an airplane preparing for takeoff. 14:48 AUTOMATIC SOUNDING  Some different sound elements put together, random, comedic, archaic, pornographic, and not for the timid? A brief, improvised process stretching to hear more and laugh more, provoke more, focus more, understand more about the combinations of things together which were never “intended” to be together. A need to assemble something musically/intellectually unpredictable… That's my "defense." “The opaque weight of the world—both of life on earth and of death, heaven, and hell—is dissolved, and the spirit freed, not from anything, for there was nothing from which to be freed except a myth too solidly believed, but for something, something fresh and new, a spontaneous act.” — Joseph Campbell, “Primitive Mythology: The Masks of God” those, that & there or this CHOPIN Preludes, Op. 28 April 25, 2008 4. Prelude No.6 1:48 October 30, 2007 3. Prelude No.4 2:00 August 27, 2007 2. Prelude No.2 for solo trombones 2:13 August 25, 2007 1. Prelude No.5 :32 Martha Argerich, piano, with trombone  PIERRE BOULEZ  March 26/April 7, 2008 of Messagesquisse (1976-77), with a recording of cello soloist Jean-Guihen Queyras and six others of the Ensemble de Violoncelles de Paris. 1. II. Très Rapide 2:04 2. IV. Aussi Rapide Que Possible :36 VIVALDI  Concerto for Strings in C Major, RV 111a, III. Presto Venice Baroque Orchestra April 15, 2008 1. Presto :58 Concerto for Strings in D minor, RV 127, III. Allegro Venice Baroque Orchestra October 10, 2007 1. Allegro 1:00 BELA BARTOK  March 22, 2008 selected Mikrokosmos (work in progress) 1. Notturno - #97 1:50 2. Diminished Fifth - #101 1:03 3. Harmonics - #102 1:22 4. Through the Keys - #104 :53 5. Children's Song - #106 1:18 IGOR STRAVINSKY  January 24, 2008 The third movement from his Italian Suite for violin and piano - on trombone with my favorite recording of it. III. Tarantella 2:05 Vladimir Spivakov, violin; Boris Bechterev, piano January 7, 2008 Had to record this brief introduction to his Movements for Piano and Orchestra (1960), playing it over and over again... 1. Excerpt :20 Michel Beroff, piano March 31, 2007 The 4-voice fugue from the first half of the second movement in Stravinsky's Symphony of Psalms Symphony of Psalms 2:48 VISUAL MUSIC  "I mean, no one truly understands it, just as no one's parents truly understand one's true love. Yet a work of art must have a life in society; once the artist has finished making it, it belongs to others. But he never made it with the idea of taking it into society. Any man that sets out to find a girl to introduce to his parents is never likely to fall in love. Any man that sets out to make a work for audiences is never going to make a work of art. A work of art is made for the most personal reasons--as an expression of love." - Stan Brakhage Artistic independence. As musicians we are often faced with the challenges and surprises of collaboration in order to realize the products of much of our creative, publicly displayed output. Yet, many of the greatest works of art have been accomplished by the individual, privately, not the collective, publicly. I have found more and more over time that there is a crucial balance to be had between inventing alone, and with (or around) others. Realizing in fact that what is accomplished alone can oftentimes feel more honest due to its having been less influenced by anyone else or thing, less under any sort of "pressures" or reliance, allowing the music to become this different, direct stream of one's true sound and hearing. The composition and purpose of these works initially is for no one or thing. They serve no purpose outside of themselves except to initially be born. Yet, it is once they are formed and alive that taking them out into the world becomes the most beautiful thing - sharing them and in a sense giving their "revelations" back to the source from which they sprang. The manifestation of these compositions has led me to calling it, Visual Music -- what for me personally is a more complete musical experience, hearing many things simultaneously through a combination of deliberate and chance procedures which enable me to coexist: in my improvisations, naturalizing the instrumental ideas further, different birds in a tree, things combined unexpectedly... With over 100 hours of sound film at my disposal (material from cassettes of my family dating back to 1974), I have found the opportunity to hear my way through an instense array of semi-forgotten experience, aligning the material with present-day tempos of musical and emotional schemata, re-using and preserving these sound histories of mine in ways much unexpected to their very particle nature when first made. Rhythmically, texturally, harmonically, melodically, dynamically -- it becomes a search for the instantaneous formulas of relationships necessary to produce the most honest music I can, a sound environment which in turn supports my individual fate as an artist working alone out of necessity, looking further within every day to expand about the world in this brief moment of loving opportunity called Life. January 23, 2008 Trombone, Electronics, Tape [ 12:09 ] January 10, 2008 Household - version II [ 6:07 ] Household - version I [ 6:07 ] Two trombones, melodica, tape December 15, 2007 [ 5:38 ] Happenings, Things, Pieces, Events [ 5:46 ] - October 20, 2007 (version with trombone here) Moment for Voices [ 11:37 ] - August 31, 2007 Piano Prelude No.1 in C Major for eight trombones [ 2:39 ] - June 19, 2007 Expanded version (from that found below) with cassettes Expansion on Bach/Celebration Song [ 4:48 ] - June 12, 2007 Arranged (from original version below) to be played for my Mom first thing on the morning of her birthday Family Pieces - May 11, 2007 [ 3:52 ] Winter Reflections - March 8, 2007 [ 1:18 ] Family Cassette Collage - January 23, 2007 [ 8:16 ] Meditations From Behind The Couch, Vitreous - September 3, 2006 [ 3:32 ] Now Of August 31, 2006 - August 31, 2006 [ 2:15 ] "We need to find the link between our traditions and our present experience of life. Nowness, or the magic of the present moment, is what joins the wisdom of the past with the present." - Chogyam Trungpa, The Sacred Path of the Warrior Davidsong - July 4, 2006 [ 2:50 ] In 1979, my brother David recorded himself on to the film of a cassette telling stories for 25 minutes. Upon now hearing this all carefully, its melodicism was nothing short of shocking. I believe that at that age (5) the linearality of both his English language and that of music were innocently washed together in creative youth, as his words would fall across the various subconscious scales available in his vocal abilities to convey. Amazing how melody can help a child depict her or his feelings, and aid in their abilities to shape what it is they must express. At times, the sudden fades up and down of volume/quality in this collage piece is for me like following the view from a camera being carried around, suddenly absorbing different dynamics of light, shades of color and intensity of texture. Once A Boy Was Born Into The World - June 25, 2006 [ 2:06 ] "Once a Boy Was Born Into The World" presents a very emotional array of material combined from numerous deeply personal sources. This piece in fact touches upon something very tender inside of me and opens up a stream of musical values which I've been unable to find through any other process. From a recording of my grandmother who died two years ago singing made-up lyrics to "Elijahu" from a 1979 Passover seder to the Smurf song at half-speed to my favorite recording of bird song, along with one of my most inspired, previously unused recordings of a trombone improvisation at home above a recording of my mother getting my brother David to talk at the age of two... There are many things... Dream of Flowers - June 9, 2006 [ 1:42 ] An arranged duet between a trombone improvisation of mine and my brother singing a song at the age of two (1976) which his Raggedy Anne doll supposedly liked, entitled "Dream of Flowers." May 26, 2006 + 1977 - May 24, 2006 [ 2:39 ] Three improvisations (trombone, melodica and kalimba) made and put together for this moment of making, with material added from a family cassette tape dated 1977 which provides a heavy textural element to the music being carried around from the past to the present. This piece for me embodies two abrasively different yet related states of energy - that of mischevious childhood, and that of the inspired, searching and relatively-mature musical artist. For Brakhage - April 29, 2006 [ 5:25 ] This is a sound-collage created with recordings from my earliest childhood up to the present day. Passionately inspired by and dedicated to the recent overwhelming influence in my life of filmmaker-poet Stan Brakhage (1933-2003). Experiencing his work has awakened me towards conceiving music such as this. Something I've been feeling pent-up inside for a very very long time. It's such an emotional thing... ROBERT SCHUMANN  January 7, 2008 The tenth etude from Schumann's Symphonic Etudes... so much fun, I love it... 1. Etude X :40 Murray Perahia, piano OLIVIER MESSIAEN  January 7, 2008 An excerpt from Le Reveil des oiseaux 1. Le Reveil... 1:28 Pierre-Laurent Aimard, piano January 4, 2008 From his Quartet for the End of Time, the sixth movement: 1. Danse de la fureur, pour les sept trompettes 6:56 Luben Yordanoff, violin; Albert Tetard, cello; Claude Desurmont, clarinet; Daniel Barenboim, piano THE MUSIC OF TURKEY The Music of the Whirling Dervishes (Mevlevi) From the Anthology LP, choir and instrumental ensemble recorded at Konya, 1968  November 18, 2007 2. Track 1 35:39 by ELLIOTT CARTER 
In 1999 I rewrote his solo piano piece, 90+, to play on trombone along with the original recording (Ursula Oppens) which I attempted semi-successfully in performance that same year at my senior recital in the Manhattan School of Music.
2003-4 I did the same thing to two other works of his for solo instruments, but keeping the "performance" aspect of it relatively confined to my NYC apartment, which was where I recorded it. The purpose of doing all this
had simply been a part of the invigorating process of becoming more closely entwined to the style of this man's music, wanting to really feel it on my instrument and in some way make it an accomplishment of my own free from
any "pressures" of time, stage, audience, venue...
1. Allemande 1:53 2. Courante 1:44 RACHMANINOFF, OFF  Rachmaninoff-off 3:37 GHOOMAR  Traditional dance song from Rajasthan, overdubbed with trombone February 22, 2007 Ghoomar 4:42 IMPROVISED COMPOSITIONS  (2003-2005) The following music represents a body of short improvised compositions which
came from certain sudden inspirations to experiment with an idea - a feeling, an image, a sound, a seed - which I felt could grow
into a small, abstract sound-poem plant which never needed water.
Compositions which helped me to
convey something surreal to hear, isolated from its influences. A personal short story.
1. Trombones VIII SOUND COLLAGE 1 July 31, 2005 A collage of various obscure(d) excerpted recordings which have been re-arranged through computer programming of mine for this abstracting purpose. Collage 1 KRIVO HORO  August 1, 2005 Trombone overdubbed on the original recording Krivo Horo, meaning "crooked dance," is a term used to identify many different Bulgarian dances of various meters; the name refers to the dance formation itself. This particular krivo is a gankino. Gankino is the older name, and an energetic dance figure identified with it is called kopanitsa and is the name of this entire dance by which it is known in Bulgaria as well as in those western countries where it is performed. This particular recorded excerpt comes from the album "Village Music of Bulgaria" performed by the Bitov Orchestra to which I've overdubbed myself playing the melody on trombone. I have friend and colleague Jacob Garchik to thank for the helpful transcription. Krivo Horo PIANO IMPROVISATIONS  Recorded in Santa Barbara, November 8, 2004 one two three four |
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