a blog by brian

Checking In.

2009-10-18T21:56:00.001-05:00

The only thing I've really had a chance to do lately is enter a few competitions.

The first was The ASCAP/Lotte Lehmann Foundation Art Song Competition, where I submitted a now unfortunately titled art song, named "Twilight", on a poem by Walt Whitman. Scored for Piano and Tenor, it was based on a particular sonority and its mirror inversion.

The other was a competition for Areon Flutes. I sent in a few solo pieces and an old trio that I wrote a few years back. The trio included a section loosely based on the Raga Todi, which is said to have the mystic power to attract deer.

The other pieces where a set, two solo pieces that could be combined into a single duo. Each one was based on mutually hexachords. The title "Feadog Mhór" is translated from Gaelic to mean "to whistle a lot" and the individual movement "Scáth" and "Solas" are "Shadow" and "Light" respectively.

I would go into more detail, but right now I don't have so much time, so I'll just post them.

Here is the solo flute set, enjoy.

Feadog Mhór by Brian DeLaney

The Deed is Done.

2009-07-25T20:08:00.001-05:00

Well it's done.

I finished the woodwind ensemble piece for the competition. It's not quite as long as I wanted it to be, but with what I wrote I think it worked out the length it ended up. If I had added repeats I think it would have been overkill.

I went the theme of hollowearth, the music being a reflection of what I think music down there would be like (I don't really think it is real, although it would be amazing). I thought: "well if there really was an ancient civilization under the Earth's crust, what would it sound like?" I thought of the music of India, a style rich in melodic ideas yet, to the western ear, lacking in the realm of harmony. That being a source of inspiration I decided to have a drone -like, somewhat static harmony; the most minimal harmonic vocabulary I think I've ever used in a piece.

Being a submission for a competition I'm not sure if that was a good idea or not but oh well.

The harmony is also strange in the fact that I used chords built upside down, in descending thirds. All of the melodic and harmonic comes from the NOT theoretical system of under-tones (there is a lot of people who think they do not exist, I disagree). The result ends up being the Phyrgian mode, however the way it is used is completely different.

For example: in the Phrygian mode the tonic is C-Eb-G, the system I used the tonic is C-Ab-F (descending).

The title, if anyone is curious, comes from the title of the "biography" of Olaf Jansen, a sailor who supposedly spent two years living with the inhabitants of the hollow earth.

That, I believe, about sums it up, so here is a very terrible midi rendition of the piece.

The Smoky God (midi version) by Brian DeLaney

An Excuse To Play With Negative Harmony.

2009-06-30T16:41:00.002-05:00

So I have decided to try and write an eight minute piece for woodwind ensemble.

Available Instrumentation:

4 flutes (piccolo double)
2 oboe
1 Eb clarinet
7 Bb clarinet
1 alto clarinet
1 bass clarinet
1 bassoon
2 alto saxophones
1 tenor saxophone
1 baritone saxophone
4 horn
2 cornet
3 trumpet
3 trombone (including bass)
2 euphonium
1 tuba
Timpani
2 percussion
Optional: piano or harp

This project is for the Hillcrest Wind Ensemble Composition Competition, an ensemble in San Diego looking for new works for their specific instrumentation. The only problem is that it needs to be competed in just under a month.
So I am going to try to write and submit it in the little time I have.

I have wanted to write a piece with negative harmony, that is chord structures are built downward from the top, for some time now but never really got around to it. So I ran across the call for scores from Hillcrest and when I was trying to think of a concept for the piece for some reason my mind went to the hollow earth theory and I thought "hey, that could be a good excuse to use negative harmony". So here I am, trying to decide how to go about using another system of tonality yet again. It should be fun.

More as progress develops.

Thoughts On An Upcoming Project.

2009-06-20T19:00:00.002-05:00

So I have been thinking about starting a new project concurently with what I am working on now, as a sort of pallet cleanser. What I have in mind was a set of preludes and fugues based on serial ideas. I've been throwing it around in my brain for some time now but never started, but I had an idea today to I'm really excited about.

Amplified Piano.

Once amplified I can route the signal to the computer and manipulate the sound in real time in Pd. I know the idea is nothing new, however I am still looking forward to it. Now all I have to do is get my hands on some pickups for a piano.

Guitar Sonata Part I.

2009-05-28T15:57:00.001-05:00

No piece has ever given me as much writer's block than the one I am presently working on. It should be a simple matter, a sonata for guitar and piano, but I can never keep anything simple. Involved in the composition is the use of electronics and an alternative tonal scheme.

The electronics is a patch I am writing in Pd, a real-time programing environment used in the creation of audio and visual art. It is my first time to do anything substantial with the program, it is a little foreboding as far as the complexity goes, but I am very excited about the options it opens up for live audio processing.

The other variable is the harmonic idea. The entire piece is built upon quartal harmony, that is chord structures built on fourths instead of the traditional thirds. While I know I am by no means the first composer to use quartal chords, I feel as though I am going about it in a unique way. I am treating them as a separate system based on the undertones.

This was just a quick update, because I haven't written anything here in a while. More later as things progress.

Schillinger Introduction.

2008-07-19T10:19:00.005-05:00

I have decided to go back through the entire SSMC (Schillinger System of Musical Composition) and the MBA (Mathematical Basis of the Arts) and take detailed notes. I have also decided that I will put all of these notes here on my blog for all the world (or maybe like one person) to see and and maybe gain a better understanding of what I believe to be such an important work.

I don't want to say that I am dome sort of Schillinger groupie or anything but I believe that his works are truly of merit. They were not just a collection of rules set down some two-hundred years ago, nor were they applicable only to the "twentieth century" style either. People like him and Howard Hanson (whom I will have more on later) have interesting and important, allbeit somewhat radical, views on music.

I realize that I alone am not going to bring ideas like this back to the mainstream or really change anything in anyway, but most of the information you can find about theories like these are mainly just overviews or come from very expensive online teachers and courses. All I am trying to do is provide a place, where if someone is interested in what I have to offer they can get it for free.

Stay tuned as I go back through all twenty-two hundred pages of Schillinger's works that I own, it should me fun.

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Here It Goes.

2008-07-18T23:44:00.004-05:00

So I am finishing what looks to be the last of my works that will rely heavily on the major/minor system. It is a string quartet (my first) in three movements, written especially for my upcoming wedding. It is basically program music:

1. Music for before the ceremony
2. The bridal march
3. Exit music

So it is pretty basic as far as structure and tonal applications go, after all it is music to fill a particular context, in this case a wedding, so I really didn't feel comfortable going to far away from standard practice.

Here is a short overview:

Movement number one follows, more or less, the traditional sonata-allegro form (I don't want to go into to much detail, I am really paranoid about people taking my ideas, I will post more extensive examples and explanations after the performance and copyright).

The bridal march is actually a three-part mensuration canon, with a fourth free voice added, and a touch of modality.

The final movement is a short rondo, with an Irish flair.

So far the hardest part of the whole process for me is the fact that I am trying to stay within a major tonality, because I didn't think anything deliberately "minor-sounding" stayed within the vein of wedding music.

More to come as it progresses.

So It Begins.

2008-07-14T17:23:00.002-05:00

I have reached the conclusion that the tyranny of the major/minor system of tonality has gone on for too long.

Wow that sounded preachy.

Any way, I have decided not to hinder myself with the "laws" of traditional western music. It just doesn't make sense to me. Why for the past two hundred years have basically two scales been the basis for music? If you look at other countries, India (southern), for example have a system of seventy-two parent scales. A lot of them have the same basic structure of our major (whole whole half whole whole whole half) but with the intervals permuted. (I'll show examples later I just don't have my books with me right now).

So I just finished reading the Schillinger System of Musical Composition and the Mathematical Basis of the Arts by Joseph Schillinger and I thought they were amazing. They opened up a lot of doors for me, so they will probably be influencing the things I write from now on, so if anyone does read this they will learn a little more about his ideas as well.

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