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Hello there, Long time no see ;) Life is always moving forward with its great adventures and great joy from music . Here are a few aural delights for you. Hope you will enjoy! Until next time, yours, Florie. Samba, Composer: Max Bulhões. l go "aah" whenever l hear Paulinho Da Viola's voice. Another good artist, completely in a different direction. Love it Or Leave it by an artist from Israel, Asaf Avidan, with a special voice. Check out his music Yael Naim, artist who lives in France. Released three albums, two of them which are available- Yael Naïm and She Was a Boy. More new music by Yael is on the way. The song Paris is from her second album titled Yael Naïm, which includes songs in Hebrew, English and French. Paris touches me in a special way, it describes her feelings as a newcomer in Paris. The music carries the meaning so beautifully. The second song, Too Long, is the second track from the same album. I really like the palindrome idea in the video clip.
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I have been writing songs for the same amount of time I have been writing classical music. Usually, with alternating periods where I write one or the other. Something happened and there is an urge in me to move forward with my songs (the immediate reason for that is described in my previous post). In the past four months, since June, I have been laboring on getting the right materials together, practicing, learning how to do things. Like a child, every new piece of information is a notable progress- booking my own shows, telling about my project, recording and writing new songs. I am ecstatic and feel like this is a materialization of my dream! Many years of songwriting have helped me to work out my craft to the point where I feel I have something valuable artistically to share. I will continue with this dream because this is one of my biggest joy in the world and I can not do otherwise! New and rediscovered musical inspirations: I want to share all my recent inspirations. Here they are: A wonderful discussion with Russian conductor Valery Gergiev, who happens to be one of my favorite conductors. French pianist, Hélène Grimaud, playing Ravel's Piano Concerto in G, Vladimir Jurowski conducts the Chamber Orchestra of Europe. I just adore this music, in particular, the second movement and I like this sensitive playing of Grimaud. The opera "Dead Souls" (1976) by Russian composer Rodion Shchedrin. This first chord, ha! I also like how Russian folk music style and singing style are integrated and brought to an a-tonal world in this contemporary piece. Bulgarian State Television Female Vocal Choir singing so beautifully this arrangement of the folk song: Ergen deda, cherven deda. Hope you enjoy! :)
How lovely it is to come across with such beautiful music! 3 Songs, Op.23 by ,Gabriel Fauré composed between 1879-1881. I. Les Berceaux II. Notre Amour III. Le Secret It's about time to write a few words here.
5.30 AM: "Delavarnu" is sent to performers- Akropolis Reed Quintet. Afternoon, next day: rehearsal on the piece. I can't describe how exciting this is! The best feeling there is! It's one of the things I like the most about composing- believing in what you wrote, achieving your goals and your esthetic. All the difficulties I encounter when writing music are than forgotten and there is no bigger joy or sense of accomplishment for me. Also, this time it is being acknowledged right away by performers, which usually isn't the case. Art is all about collaboration. In music the collaboration goes three ways- the composer, the performer and the listener. I send a big "THANK YOU" to Akropolis for being as enthusiastic about this as me and look forward to the next opportunity they have to perform this piece! I am super ad·re·nal·ized now! I should utilize this high energy to be my motivation for a new piece. Momentum is definitely there. My relationship with my new piece is love-hate relationship. More accurately, it was very a loving one when we were just introduced.. In the stage of conseptualization I had these thoughts in my mind: "oh, what a lovely idea I have, this new piece will be written for an ensemble I have never wrote before (so that's an exciting challanging), it will follow the concept of "unraveled" (which is the theme for Akropolis' concert, the ensemble I'm writing for). The first sketches came fairly easy. For a rather promising beginning it seemed the piece will be written in no-time and with great pleasure. Well, this piece, as any other, started shifting almost to a state of despair when another important factor enters the equation: writing "GOOD music".
What is "good music"? Can anybody describe it? I can try to name the sensations I get when I hear a "good" piece of music (the parenthesis are here because it is toatlly subjective matter). When the auditory experience is positive I stay attentive throught the listening because I feel I am reaching some place meaningful and important. Every note seems in place and the different parts of the piece feel to me to be timed "correctly"- before it gets too expected. A "good" piece will also give me something to grab on, like a motive, a certain color, rhythm, effect that returns, etc.. It doesn't have too be "pretty" music but it has to evoke some kind of emotion from me- amusement, anxiety, fear, serene etc.. I described what I am looking for as a listener, I usually try to achieve this as a composer to satisfy "listener Florie". As a composer, "good music" is about reaction of the listener and making them stay indifferent. But, where do I get the best ingredients for my piece so I can create this magic? But since there is no clear answer how to achieve it I just have to keep practicing and choose the best options I see while writing. I hope that one day, when I am odler and wiser, it will come more easily, with only love. Now that this pressure is off, I should get back to work ;) . * MUSIC INSPIRATION OF THE DAY : Emily Koh, fantastic young composer and a colleague of mine from Brandeis. Very refreshing music for this hot summer http://emilykoh.net/media/audio/ * MUSIC INSPIRATION OF THE DAY : I found this on Facebook and thought it was fantastic! The Italian conductor, Riccardo Muti, director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra speaks beautifully and with humor about conducting. It started yesterday, some kind of sadness has begun to snick in. The idea of a departure is always hard on me. My house-mate, Meryl and I met this morning for another breakfast on the porch, conversing about last night's tapas dinner. It was an enjoyable gathering over delicious food and wine and an opportunity to have relaxed longer chats. What made that evening magical for me was the rain storm that was going on right above our heads as we were seated on the back porch of the house. This was a real blessing for Nebraska, who had a dry summer. Large Kendal's were lite by Grant, our host and in that dim light Grant told us stories about his travels around the world. P.J (another resident artist, who I talked about his exhibition in earlier posts) shared adventures he had in his bike ride across California and I talked about my first experiences here in the States. Meryl expressed how meaningful this stay is to her and I think we all feel the same. What a beautiful evening it was! I got a lot of composing done while in this residency. I started a new piece for a reed quintet ensemble and I have now a complete draft of the first movement and all the musical materials for the second and third movements. A visit of the arts camp to my studio had sparked some ideas for a piece for children while I was sitting at the piano. I frantically started sketching until I had a draft of three movements. I really surprised myself, as I usually can't, or thought I couldn't, work on two pieces simultaneously. This was a lot of fun to write! I might call this piece "the arts camp" ;) Today is my last day at the center. I spent 2 1/2 lovely weeks here. Three other artists arrived on the same day with me and three of us, out of four, will be leaving tomorrow, each continues with their lives, richer. Thank you Kimmel, Harding, Nelson Center for the Arts! Here are some random pictures taken here :)           *MUSIC INSPIRATION OF THE DAY : Over The Rainbow, music: Harold Arlen, lyrics: E.Y. Harburg. Just makes me happy. Yesterday I had a "good composing day". The act of composing means organizing different elements in a certain order. So, a "good composing day" is a day when making organizational choices comes easily; you feel you have found the "right" sequence to follow what you have already written, or when you have the full picture of what you are trying to achieve and are able to convey it. No, that doesn't necessarily mean that tomorrow you will still think you have made the right choices. I can definitely revisit a piece of music I wrote the day before and realize that what I wrote is "all wrong" ;) I put the words "right" and "wrong" in parenthesis because in arts, I am always told, there IS NO right and wrong! There are more predictable/surprising/acceptable/silly solutions than others and everyone will have their own take on it. Bedside, solutions are relative and can change in the eyes of the same observer in different moments, the same way as people experience mood or circumstance change. Different people have different sense of these things. So now you are asking, what guides you, than, if you have no clear parameters of judgement? Well, the boundaries are not all that loose. What guides me are, on one side, aesthetics; music has syntax (which developed because of aesthetics) the same as language has syntax and grammar, as some linguistics and neuroscientists claim. On the other side, I have my own common sense and intuition to follow. With this part my creativity blooms. I want to tell you about a very cool exhibition that was happening here, at the Kimmel, Harding, Nelson Center for the Arts by one of the artist in residence Paul John. Pual had set up a triple live streaming from us, in Nebraska to a gallery in NYC and back here to us. A live video streaming of traffic of people at Paul's studio was projected on glass facade and thought that onto a drawing paper to a gallery in the garment district of Manhattan. A collaborator artist was drawing everything that was projected on that paper. This was live streamed back to us and we could see what she is drawing. It felt like being in two places at the same time, what a fun experience! The exhibition was a great success! Congratulations to Paul John! To learn more about the exhibition, visit: endlessendlessendlessendless.blogspot.com To learn more about Paul, visit: paulsplayce.tumblr.com or paulsplayce.blogspot.com "MUSIC INSPIRATION OF THE DAY": German-British Baroque Composer, George Frideric Handel (known as simply Handel), Piece title: Suite No. 7, Passacaglia movement. It's all about harmonic variations. It's a hot day here in Nebraska city 97°C / 36°C! and it will only get hotter as the week progresses. Sitting on the patio was impossible, even with occasional visiting winds. Today, so far has been a frustrating composing day. Do you know that feeling of standing in one place when you need to be running? The amount of time and effort one puts into their work does not corresponds with the results. At the end of a full day of composing I might end up having 5 new measures (3-6 seconds of music), after erasing everything I have done the day before. This is what I call "a frustrating composing day". The best solution for this kind of situation is taking a break and coming back to work refreshed. On my break I went to the post office, which was actually a very nice experience. People in this town do not stop to amaze me with their kindness and patience. Usually, going to the post office is not one of my favorite things to do; there is always a long line and the workers seem quite unhappy. I can't really blame them, it must be no fun having to do the same action for hundreds of times a day and recite: "do you have anything liquid or perishable?" over and over. For the costumer it is no fun, either. When standing in queue I calculate every word I am about to say because when it is my turn no mistakes can be made. Well, I faced a nice surprise at Nebraska City's post office. I got the much needed assistance and great care there. Finally! a pleasant experience using the postal service :) Boy, I am going to miss this place! THE MUSIC INSPIRATION OF THE DAY: a little "blast from the past" The English band Tears for Fears, song title: "Sowing the Seeds of Love" (1989). Empowering and feels like I want to hug the whole world. |
This blog is about new music, composing, living, experiencing. Thank you for visiting, feel free to leave a comment!
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