JamieKlenetsky.com

End of the Year

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie) — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 01:16:00 +0000

It's hard to imagine that the year will be over in 3 days. I usually get very intense and reflective this time of year, but too many things have been happening to even have time. It's really been a great year for me, but there's so much more I want to do.

Some really good things are happening at the end of the year. I just finished a piece, "Anthem for the Golden Gate", which is for the International Orange Chorale of San Francisco competition. My mom actually wrote the lyrics for me, which I adapted. Your basic SATB. If we happen to win, it's a big performance for the Golden Gate Bridge's anniversary, plus a Mom Daughter CA trip!

Things are changing at work. My boss and I are being put in the newly formed Office of Public Information, along with our PIO. We're moving offices to the Administration building, which is where the Freeholders and other County higher-ups are, so I need to wear suits (or suit-like things) and really be on the ball. It's a huge shift and I'm a bit nervous about it. But it's also a great opportunity!

I'm also working on a bunch of sites, the new (interim) Human Services site is live, my first complete site with responsive styles and HTML 5 and all that jazz, it's simple but it works. Also continuing to work on the new Parks site, which is my baby :) It'll work on phones and is looking good. Not live yet.

Also, we got a new kitty. :) Here he is when we first got him (he's 3 months old now) being adorable!

My Plans For You Are Peace

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie) — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 02:55:00 +0000

This was performed on November 13, 2011 (last Sunday) by the Seton Hall Chapel Choir. It was recorded on an iPod touch and tweaked in Audacity, so please bear with me. Also, we'd barely rehearsed it and we had no basses that day, so our music director who had a sore throat sung that part. All things considered, didn't go too badly. :)

My Plans For You Are Peace

Antiphon:
The Lord says: my plans for you are peace and not disaster; when you call to me, I will listen to you, and I will bring you back to the place from which I exiled you. (Jeremiah 29:11, 12, 14)

Psalm verse:
You once favored, LORD, your land, restored the captives of Jacob. (Psalm 85:1)

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit;

As it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen.

Repeat antiphon

Mom's Songs

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie) — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 22:17:00 +0000

Through the years, my mom has written some lyrics and songs, along with all of the stories and poetry she's come up with. :) I remember her playing one, "Take a Chance on Me," on piano when I was little. She asked me to sing a few of them and post them online...I hope you like them!

Baby, Take a Chance on Me
You take a chance on the lottery
to try and win alot,
and even if you "hit it big",
tell me now what have you got?

(2)
You run to Vegas or Reno,
you put your money down and play,
then you take a chance and roll those dice,
and then all that you can do it pray.

(CHORUS)
So Baby, take a chance on me,
Baby, my love is free.
I'm the only sure thing that you can count on,
Baby, take a chance on me.

(3)
So get that gambling out of your system,
there's no way in the world you can win,
and come on home to my waiting arms,
and our luck can begin!

(chorus)...end....

Don't Do Me No Favors
(1)
When we first started goin' out
I had you to myself,
but now I've learned that I've been burned
'cause you're messin' 'round with somebody else.

(CHORUS)
So, don't do me no favors,
don't do me no fa-a-vor-ors, Baby,
Don't you do me no-o favors,
until your love is true.

(2)
You think you're such a TIGER,
well I don't agree with that,
Compared to all the other guys I've known,
Baby, you're a PUSSYCAT!
(CHORUS)

(3)
So when you;re tired of messin' around,
and find you're all alone,
DON'T come callin', DON'T come crawlin'
'cause BABE, I won't be home!
(CHORUS)...end...

Tribute to a Great Man
He was scorned by many,
yet feared not a one,
He knew that there'd be trouble,
but he had a job to be done.

His people had followed him,
marching in herds,
and he'd heightened their spirits
with encouraging words.

(CHORUS)
He said he had a vision, a dream and a plan"
All men would be brothers, not man against man.
He said he'd reached the mountaintop
and had seen the other side;
the side where all prejudice and wars would subside.

But now gone is the dreamer, and silent his voice,
the decision is ours now,
we must make the choice.

But words alone won't end wars,
nor will they ease the pain..
If we just do as he advised,
he won't have died in vain--
he won't have died in vain!

Singing and the Summer

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie) — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 13:28:00 +0000

Hello all. I realize that I haven't posted in months - a combination of busy-ness and a fun summer with friends.

I notice that I've been focusing much more on singing lately, trying out for professional choirs and the like. Singing is something that comes very naturally to me, from deep within, whereas composition requires a lot of thought and time that sometimes I don't want to do. I'm planning on getting back into it, but for now, let's sing.

I've left Schola Cantorum on Hudson to join a new professional ensemble, Equilibruim Voices, which is beginning this fall in Dover (very close to where I live). I love the philosophy of the group and the idea of helping in the formation of something new! I'm still continuing with Seton Hall (of course). I also tried out for the Princeton Singers, but a poor sightsinging performance might hinder me a bit. (Wow, that was difficult!)

This weekend, I'm attending the Western Wind vocal workshop at Smith College. It's a weekend of ensemble and individual training and will be fun AND educational. I'm hoping to get a sense of what I can improve in my technique, as well as have a mini-music vacation. :)

In terms of web design, things have been busy at the County! I'm working on our new Intranet as well as a new design for the Park Commission...this leaves me "done" at the end of the day and not wanting to make a new layout for this site. I'm finally starting to have ideas, however, and will hopefully actually come up with one soon.

In personal news, the boy and I are going to San Francisco for a week in the fall :) Been seeing a lot of friends and family. It's been a great summer.

Hope you are all doing well!

Lots of happenings!

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie) — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 17:14:00 +0000

I have three major projects on the horizon, just to update:

a freelance web site redesign job with my boyfriend for a local business,
(hopefully) another freelance job redesigning the Brookside Church site in Mendham, and
a piece for the installation of a new priest at a church in Princeton.

I also just participated in Schola Cantorum on Hudson's winter concert (2 concerts this past weekend). Got a lot going on!

I am hoping to move my site into Wordpress soon enough (though with these upcoming sites who knows how long this will take), and really try to embrace writing this new piece and see where it leads. On a personal level, I want to start exercising again, it's been a long time now. :)

Virtual Choir!

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie) — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 00:02:00 +0000

I participated in Eric Whitacre's "Virtual Choir" this year. He creates a conductor video and hundreds of people from around the world pick a voice part and sing! After the submission period is over, his team compiles the videos into one presentation, making a Youtube international choir. It's pretty awesome.

This year's piece is Whitacre's "Sleep," which I enjoy, though not as much as last year's "Lux Aurumque." In any case, here is my sorry attempt at a submission :) Enjoy!

Project Encore and Video Games Live!

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie) — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 20:26:00 +0000

Good news! My piece "An Ever-Fixed Mark" was just picked by Project Encore to be put in its repository. Project Encore is a service run by Schola Cantorum on Hudson (the Jersey City choir that I happen to be in right now) where composers can submit previously performed works. Conductors have access to the database, allowing your work to possibly get more performances! Very exciting.

Perhaps this will give me some impetus to write some music. It's been awhile.

In other news, the aforementioned choir and the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra will be performing in the New Jersey leg of Video Games Live! It's a wonderful symphonic concert of music from video games spanning the ages, from the classics (like Zelda and Megaman) to modern-day works (like Assassins Creed II and Diablo III). This is wonderful music, and anyone in the Newark area should check us out at the end of December at NJPAC!

Long-awaited Update

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie) — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 19:46:00 +0000

Hi everyone! It's been months, I know, but summer is summer after all. I had a great time, went to the shore, enjoyed time with friends, and relaxed in the sun. But fall has begun, and it's time to start up again.

The big plan is to redo this site in HTML, use a nice JQuery script, a little CSS3 for good measure. It will be similar to this site in content, but have a very different look and more interactive feel to it. I'm pretty excited!

I recently completed my first freelance job in a while, PatsyPalma.com, for a singer friend of mine. I used nice color and font choices, I believe (and @font-face), and hope you all enjoy it. And check out his work, Patsy is great!

I'm also participating in Scott Raposa's Emerge, a fun electronic music collaboration. 4 people work online to create a piece - one person does drums, then passes it along to someone to do bass, etc. Each part will have a twist, which makes it interesting! I've been assigned to do a drum track, due tomorrow in fact, so I'll get cracking tonight. I've never really done a drum track so this should be interesting.

Finally, I've been asked by my choir director at Seton Hall to set a text to music for the October 24 mass. I'm in the middle of it now and will attempt to record it during the performance - good chance to try out my laptop!

"We Grow"

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie) — Tue, 25 May 2010 00:45:00 +0000

Went to a good friend's graduation today (from med school)...seems we're all growing up, I have friends leaving law school, med school, getting married, even my boyfriend is only a year away from getting his masters! It's pretty amazing to watch. I felt pretty emotional today, so I wrote a song called "We Grow"....I think it suits the mood well. Take a listen!

Site Updates

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie) — Tue, 18 May 2010 14:27:00 +0000

I'm planning on redoing this site in order to experiment with CSS3 and possibly HTML5. I'd like to do a completely new design with a different feel....just a heads up.

I'm also working on a piece based on Amy Lowell's "Listening," which is a really amazing poem and describes my relationship rather well. Not sure what the arrangement is going to be yet - right now I'm just doing one voice with some chords underneath, it might end up choral but I honestly have no idea. :)

Anyway, here are the lyrics:

Listening by Amy Lowell

'T is you that are the music, not your song.
The song is but a door which, opening wide,
Lets forth the pent-up melody inside,
Your spirit's harmony, which clear and strong
Sings but of you. Throughout your whole life long
Your songs, your thoughts, your doings, each divide
This perfect beauty; waves within a tide,
Or single notes amid a glorious throng.
The song of earth has many different chords;
Ocean has many moods and many tones
Yet always ocean. In the damp Spring woods
The painted trillium smiles, while crisp pine cones
Autumn alone can ripen. So is this
One music with a thousand cadences.

Savage Dreams

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie) — Tue, 04 May 2010 20:19:00 +0000

I was tasked to make a poster design for "Savage Dreams," C4's May concert. One piece, Ring of Bone, involved absolutely gorgeous artwork by Jeremy Wineberg. My favorite of the three images involves a fish swimming through an ocean of color, so I knew I had to use that.

"Savage Dreams" is a concert of choral & electronic music, so I wanted it to be both modern and organic. I found a wonderful font called Paperclip which completely fulfilled this need. Combined with a basic sans-serif, the poster took shape.

Check out the finished result, the first thumbnail in the portfolio. I hope you enjoy! I converted the design to a similar-looking postcard and program cover.

Tribute to a Great Man

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie) — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 12:59:00 +0000

So my mom is a writer and back in the day, she wrote a few songs. After the basement flooded, she gave me her bag of lyrics/tapes and asked if I could arrange or record them. One song, "Tribute to a Great Man," was already written out, so I decided to play/sing it basically as written (a few changes and with much more of a swing to it).

This is a tribute to MLK Jr., Mom submitted the lyrics to the MLK Library and they accepted it. I think she actually got a letter from Loretta Scott King thanking her, or it at least had her signature.

"Tribute to a Great Man"

Lyrics and Music by Wendy Klenetsky

Arranged/Performed by Jamie Klenetsky:

He was scorned by many, yet feared not a one.

He knew there'd be trouble, but he had a job to be done.

His people had followed him, marching in herds,

and he'd heightened their spirits with encouraging words.

He said he had a vision, a dream and a plan.

All men would be brothers, not man against man.

He placed freedom before him, and tyranny behind,

and he want5ed to spread brotherhood throughout all mankind.

He said he'd reached the mountaintop, and had seen the other side,

the side where all prejudice and wars would subside.

He knew that by many, so hate'd he'd be,

but he'd want to be hated, if all men be free.

But now gone is the dreamer, and silent his voice.

The decision is ours, now we must make the choice.

But words alone won't end wars, nor will they ease the pain.

If we just do as he advised, he won't have died in vain!

"An Ever-Fixed Mark" recordings are up!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 11:52:00 +0000

Go to the compositions page to check out C4's new recordings of "An Ever-Fixed Mark"! I recommend listening to February 27's recording, I found that it was sung more authentically to what I was going for. I hope you all enjoy it!

13-Note Scale

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 15:15:00 +0000

It's called Bohlen-Pierce.

It's seriously fascinating. This article is definitely worth a read (and a listen). Basically, using different ratios between notes, a 13-note scale was developed. It's really jarring to listen to, "alien" as people seem to call it. It's really quite beautiful I think, but we are so used to our 12-note scale that the slight change in frequencies can be mind-blowing! Check it out.

C4 Success! And other updates

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 17:00:00 +0000

I have to say, C4's latest concert, "Sound and Fury," was probably the best I've been in. Saturday's performance was very good - technically and emotionally. I haven't felt that into music in quite a long time.

My piece, An Ever-Fixed Mark, is based on Sonnet 116. I don't usually know how a piece will turn out until I hear it performed by actual people (as opposed to the MIDI I'm used to). This piece came out to be almost a lecture from the pulpit, broad and with pauses and with the lyrics in order (the only piece in the concert to have that), kind of an explanation of love. The sonnet means a great deal to me - in my personal anxieties, the sonnet reminds me about what's important.

Thanks to all who came and gave me support in writing and being in C4. It's really a wonderful experience.

In other news, I'll be participating in the Vermont Composition Workshop in June. I think it'll be really helpful for me, to help me learn to focus on what I really want to do, which is to write pieces that are listenable but not boring (to me, so it'll have to be pretty interesting!), more singable and more moving.

Finally, there have been a couple of interesting articles lately: Weaponizing Mozart and Triumph of the Cyborg Composer. Both can change the way we think about music: the first, how Britain is "punishing" students by making them listen to classical music, turning them off to it forever; the second, how David Cope's music-making algorithm "Emily Howell" creates music with "soul", and what this means for our conceptions of making music. Definitely worth a read!

Loudness Wars

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 16:02:00 +0000

A very good article from NPR, including a great poster describing the problem.

Basically, the more you compress sound, the more subtleties are lost. Sound is a wave, and the further you compress a sound wave, the "chunkier" the wave gets. Instead of a smooth line, imagine it as a series of rectangular bars that try to approximate the curve (the poster describes it better than I could).

This has been a problem for years. The more acoustic the recorded medium, the more of the wave is preserved. So records are less compressed than CDs, for example, though CDs still retain most of the quality. As audio equipment has improved, you can hear the flaws in an old recording, but if you listen to a record on a record player, the nuances can be incredible.

As the 90s went on, sound engineers began compressing the sound more to boost the volume. Imagine a horizontal line on a piece of paper. The sound wave would be say, a third up on the paper. To boost the volume, the wave ends up covering say 2/3 of the paper, even the entire paper. The wave itself becomes less detailed as a result.

The digitalization of music is a huge problem in terms of sound quality. Like the article says, when sound waves have to be translated as 1s and 0s, the wave becomes even more "chunky", and a ton of quality is lost. It gives the music a kind of unrealistic quality that's subtle, you might not notice it offhand.

It's an interesting problem and a real one - check out the article for more details.

New Year's Resolutions

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 15:15:00 +0000

Hi everybody! It's been awhile since I've posted.

The New Year has got me thinking. 10 years ago, I was 15 years old, first starting to obsess over web design, and writing songs. Things haven't changed too much have they - I'm a web designer for a living and compose (and sing and play video games, also the same as 15 years ago). However, I have one resolution in this regard:

compose and design just for fun.

I find it very hard to just sit down and compose or design just for myself. 10 years ago, I used to write songs all the time and make a number of layouts for my many sites, one every two weeks, or at least once a month. I changed my blog layout frequently and learned a lot about designing.

I don't think I'll ever match that productivity (or should), but I'd like to take the pressure off of myself to produce, and just have fun with it. I might change my personal blog layout more, and will hopefully mess around with electronic music more, just for fun.

Wish me luck :)

Microtonal Piano

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 14:31:00 +0000

I just wanted to point out this article - a composer invented a microtonal piano, which will allow Indian and Middle Easten music to be played authentically. Really amazing!

Check it out!

Short C4 Update

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 20:49:00 +0000

Just a shout-out that C4's November concerts, "Greatest and Latest", will be held this Thursday and Saturday. Lots of great new choral music and a great-sounding choir! Check out http://c4ensemble.org for details.

In more C4-related news, my (almost-done) new piece, "An Ever-Fixed Mark", will be performed by C4 in our February Shakespeare/Elizabethan-themed concert. It's based on Sonnet 116 and I think it's beautiful. Very happy today on the music front.

An Ever-Fixed Mark

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 18:58:00 +0000

C4's February concert involves settings of Shakespearian texts. I was originally going to enter the Pacific Chorale's competition with this piece, and the theme being love, I chose Sonnet 116 as my text ("Let me not to the marriage of two minds admit impediments").

Normally, I try to rush through a piece, finishing in time for a competition, but never quite loving the results (and, more recently, not placing). This time I tried something new - I was patient with myself and my writing, and gave up on the contest. This gave me a month more to work on the piece.

It's pretty much done now, and I think it sounds pretty good! Hopefully it shows some growth in my ideas. I submitted it to the C4 Repitoire Committee. I hope this one gets performed! It's called "An Ever-Fixed Mark." Will keep you updates!

Virtual Composer

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 15:29:00 +0000

An article on Ars Technica piqued my interest. It's about a composer/programmer who basically programmed a composition AI to produce pieces, and it's got me thinking, what should we consider to be "composition"?

I'm thinking about Steve Reich and his Phase Music concept. He would write some basic fragments, loop them at different times/tempi, and just let them run until he could pick out pieces that he liked. In Different Trains he used looped vocal samples in his composition. People praise Reich for his ideas. I'm wondering just how different this is. Reich essentially "programmed" notes, let an automated process do the rest, and then tweaked/choose what he wanted to use.

And if you think about it, we aren't creating new notes when we compose, the notes already exist, and we "program" them into pieces. After thinking about it, I believe that if a person does the programming himself, like this composer did, then it IS his creation, and should be considered to be a composition. However, if music is created using a program like Adobe Soundbooth, which can be used to pick a mood, theme, and it generates music for you, it shouldn't be considered a composition - the "writer" had no say in it whatsoever.

I'm no programmer, so I'll continue writing the old fashioned way - though on a computer - and although I get a sour taste in my mouth from the idea of an AI, it does make sense, and I admire the work this composer/programmer has done.

NAGW

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 15:22:00 +0000

I recently returned from the National Association of Government Webmasters (NAGW) in Galveston, TX. It was a fascinating trip, not only because of what I learned, but because of the setting.

I spent 3 afternoons in downtown Galveston, "The Strand" and surrounding streets. Damage from Hurricane Ike was obvious, despite the remarkable cleanup in town. Many of the buildings had damage, some were vacated, and nearly all of them had a marker for the water line. (Imagine 10 ft of water - I can't.) Most businesses stayed, but enough of them left to make an impact.

It's a beautiful place, lots of Victorian architecture, the beautiful bay, historic homes, beaches on the Gulf of Mexico. But there used to be tall trees too, those are gone, and along the main route on the island, the cute little ranch houses often looked dilapidated. It was beautiful and sad all at once. The weekend we arrived, there was a celebration/remembrance of Ike, with concerts and races, and people from the Galveston/Houston area turned out. But when I was there it was the off-season, so it was pretty empty. The place feels "haunted", as a local said.

The conference was held at Moody Gardens, a resortish place. It's a very nice hotel that's next to a water park (which was closed of course), and it houses an aquarium, rainforest, and science museum. Good place for kids. Quite a contrast to the rest of the island!

I learned a great deal at the conference about advanced CSS, different uses of CS4, Web Analytics and more. I'll try to tweak this site as a test, if I don't get too lazy :) NAGW is such a valuable organization to government webmasters like myself!

Electronic Music Performance!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 00:53:00 +0000

The piece "Space Music" was composed in an hour for the New Music Hartford competition called "60/60". The idea is that everyone gets the instrumentation at 3, sends the e-mail by 4. It was a really rewarding experience.

I found out today that they'll be playing my piece along with others at the concert! This is my first electronic music performance; I feel very proud of this one! If anyone is in Hartford, CT on August 30, here's the website to visit.

I'm proud to be a part of this production - the proceeds go to a local homeless shelter - and think it's pretty awesome that an electronic piece of mine is going to be played! I'm the only one that's "fixed electronic media" (no live components whatsoever, just an mp3), which is very exciting!

Praise

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 18:58:00 +0000

If you do good work, whether at your job or your art, you will be praised at one point or another. This is generally a welcome thing, of course, to feel that what you do is appreciated. However, what if the work you did was "easy"...according to your own exacting standards, of course?

There are certain projects I need to work hard on, especially longer choral works or personal web designs. However, most of what I do just doesn't take me a very long time to do. An award-winning piece of mine only took 6 hours to write (granted, it was only 2:30 minutes long, but still), my latest electronic piece only took a half hour or so (and that's only 2 minutes long again, but still). I'm a web designer by trade, and as all of us know, most of "design" is actually updating and maintenance. Once the design is in place, things can get very simple. I made exhibits for the Historic Commission, which I felt proud of, but updating them is very simple. However, I get unadulterated praise for these updates.

It makes me feel a bit confused. Grateful, because I seem to be doing a good service, but also rather guilty. I don't deserve this praise -- it was too simple! It was "easy" for me! Other composers/designers stuggle in turmoil, working all hours, creative process churning, and I just do it!

I don't know about other artistic people, but I'm a background processor. When I need to write some music, I futz around, look at the theme, look up lyrics, play Peggle, until I finally sit down to write, get the idea on paper, go away for awhile, repeat. If I need alot of ideas, this can be a process of weeks, but if the one idea is completely sound, it goes very fast.

I suppose what we all need to remember is that we do have special talents, and the important thing is to improve those talents. If you can do something both good and quickly, you've probably improved your skills alot! What impresses others may seem like child's play to you. So take praise to gain perspective on your own abilities - I have gotten better, and there's more I want to do.

I personally want to challenge myself more if I can, write something longer or more challenging. Any ideas?

Writing in 60 Minutes

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 10:16:00 +0000

Yesterday I took part in the 60/60 Competition for New Music Hartford. This involved writing a piece in one hour for a specific ensemble, which wouldn't be specified until an hour before it was due. The options were flute/cello, a chamber group, or a fixed electronic piece - I tried doing a flute/cello duet but it just wasn't working, so I opened Live and ran with it.

What I love about writing electronic music is that it fits into that "writing from pieces" idea. I have a bunch of free VST (instruments) that I found online, which each have a number of different sounds built in. Just hearing an instrument gives me an idea. The randomness of the instruments is inspirational as well. (Some of them have interesting effects the longer you hold down the note on your keyboard!) Then there are cool effects, reverb and delay and the whatnot, to make the sounds even more unique.

The first instrument I picked immediately made me think of "Space Music", so I ran with that idea. The piece is kind of ambient, which was new for me. It's trying to evoke an object roaming through space and passing by, leaving it as it was. I think there are some interesting sounds in there.

Writing in an hour was pretty liberating. Often I'll work for a half hour, then notice the time and give up. Here, at the half hour mark, I HAD to keep going, which freed me of my imposed limitations. The piece was sent with 15 seconds to spare - I didn't get a confirmation e-mail so I hope it still counts! In any event, go to the Compositions page to check out "Space Music".