The third movement of Inventions for Orchestra is less subtle than the first two. It’s an all out assault in 10/8 time. While I like the visceral excitement of this final movement and the way it churns through various harmonic regions, it bears an uncomfortable resemblance to the Hawaii Five-O theme. There I’ve said it. Sadly, that momentary […]
Search: “inventions”
We found 6 results for your search.
Inventions for Orchestra, movement 2, began its life as a song called “Raining in Pittsburgh.” One day I’ll record that wistful take off on Bruce Cockburn’s “Thoughts on a Rainy Afternoon.” But in this case, its ever ascending chord sequence became the basis for an orchestral passacaglia: Inv for Orch, movt 2, MP3.
I’m slowly trying to digitize my collection of cassette recordings. Here is the first fruit: For a long time I’ve been obsessed with M.C. Escher. My question has always been, “what would Escher have created were he a musician?” Well, he would have been J.S. Bach, of course. But what would Escher/Bach have created today, […]
Categories
Two Inventions
If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then imitating imitative counterpoint must be utter musical sycophancy. Let’s just say that in the 90s I went through a Bach phase. I studied counterpoint, read through Riemenschneider’s 371 Bach Chorales collection, and pretty much every piece I wrote was an homage to the man. That’s not […]
Inspired by Bach, I wrote a series of instrumental and vocal “Inventions.” Some of the instrumental inventions ended up getting rolled into other compositions, but I haven’t done much with the vocal inventions. Vocal Invention #1 is based entirely on a phrase I read in a newspaper article about a local art gallery: “‘People,’ she […]
Categories
The Story of 6
For a couple of years now, rhythm has consumed me. It all started when I got involved in the African Drumming Ensemble at the University of Pittsburgh. Slowly a new way of thinking about rhythm evolved as my mind began to comprehend what it heard my hands doing. I couldn’t shake the rhythms from my […]