Daniel Powers

Archive for December, 2007

I’m trying to take advantage of the Christmas break to get a lot done on the trombone/euphonium/piano trio. Unfortunately it isn’t going too well at the moment. The opening section is fine, but continuing it is turning out to be problematic. I’ve started my second section over twice now, and I think I’ll need to do it yet again. Frustrating stuff.

I’ve settled on “Statements” as a working title for now. At least it’ll work until I can think of something better.

Anyway, Happy Holidays everyone. More soon.

I didn’t win. That’s the bad news. On the other hand, my entry came in third (out of 24 total). I don’t win anything, but considering that this is only my second film score, I think I did respectably.

Since I’m no longer bound by anonymity, I’ve uploaded my entry to YouTube. You can see it here.

My soundtrack was created mainly with samples from Vienna Symphonic Library; the harp and glass harmonica from the now discontinued Horizon Series. You’ll also hear three different pad sounds, two from Absynth 3 and one which I programmed myself using glass samples from Bolder Sounds (I added chorusing and a low-pass filter to darken the sound.) Sequencing was in Sonar 5.

(While you’re at it, please have a look at my first film score, created for a competition hosted by Sounds Online. The film in this case was contributed to the contest by Zennor Alexander. For the contest, we were restricted to using products produced or distributed by Sounds Online, so mine used Quantum Leap Symphonic Orchestra Gold XP, Symphonic Choirs, and a little of Percussive Adventures 1. It’s a very different film and inspired a very different score. Unfortunately, I didn’t do very well in that contest, failing even to make the first cut. Still, I like what I did, and I’m kind of having fun trying to figure this whole film score thing out. I wonder where this will lead, assuming it goes anywhere.)

Also: Little progress on the trombone/euponium piece this week. But I’m hoping to have time to work on it over the Christmas break. And I’m back at work on the Concerto Project, about which I plan to post soon.

I’ve been meaning to add a post here about some interesting concerts I’ve attended. The only problem is I’m not really a music critic, and have absolutely zero desire to become one, so anything I write is likely to come off as golly-gee-whiz fanboy stuff. I’ll try to avoid that if I can.

To begin with, Indiana State University held it’s annual Contemporary Music Festival about a month ago (and here I am just writing about it now!). The guest composer was David Baker from Indiana University. (And I’ll take a moment to point out here that Indiana University and Indiana State University are not the same institution at all. You probably already knew that, but I’ve run into enough confusion on that point that I always feel like I need to clarify.)

The Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra performed the final concert of the festival, and featured Baker’s Concertino for Cellular Phone and Orchestra. Seriously, a concerto for cell phone! OK, the whole thing was a silly gimmick, but it was fun. There was also audience participation; at points in the score, the audience was invited to activate the ring tone on their own cell phone. (I had mine with me, but I declined to participate because I still don’t know how to make it work beyond making and receiving calls. Really, that’s all I care about!) It was fun and silly, but I thought it was kind of unfortunate that this was the only orchestral work of Baker’s that was included on the festival, because it really isn’t representative of his work.

I thought of a great response in case anyone told me I should write a cell phone concerto. I kept waiting for someone to say it so I could use my reply. Sadly, no one did, so my reply must remain unuttered!

The ICO also played the third movement of my Second Symphony, which they commissioned from me back in 2001. I liked hearing it again, but I wish they had chosen to do the second movement instead, as I suggested, since it just seems to stand better on its own than the third.

Last week, I drove over to DePauw University to hear the Bang On A Can All-Stars. I’ve known about them for years but had never heard them before. I am now a big fan. I enjoy music that blurs boundaries as theirs does. Are they a rock band, or a Contemporary Music Ensemble, or both, or neither? I don’t really care what you call them, but I came away from the concert invigorated and confident in the future of art music (or concert music or whatever you want to call it). Groups like them, along with eighth blackbird, Kronos, and others, seem to be creating a new genre entirely, combining the sensibility of popular music with the seriousness of high art. Who knows where this will all lead? I can’t wait to find out.