From frost on rooftops out our windows (San Francisco – frost?) to the vivid red maple blooming in front of our home, we continue to appreciate life and beauty!

Kathryn: I am still leading the Feldenkrais program for adults with severe neuro-motor challenges at Bay Area Ability Now and also co-leading a weekly meditation practice group for Tergar International on Sunday mornings, with my colleague Cristian Lotito—something I’ve done weekly since April 2020, and monthly in person before that. The photo shows me with Cristian and Mingyur Rinpoche, Tergar’s Founding Teacher.

I was drawn to the work of Roshi Joan Halifax (photo left) several years ago, and I am delighted to be able to study with her “in person” on zoom. (You can see my small face on the zoom insert above her head.)

Jim/Sky: It’s been mostly-sunny days this week on the ski slopes near Lake Tahoe, and we’re happy that we’re both skiing — at least on the fair-weather days. (Temp 36°F day and 18°F night)

Despite a ski injury last January, Kathryn has continued skiing and loves it — as she has for many years. These photos of us were taken yesterday!

 

Jim/Sky: Kathryn also got to visit with her sister Susan Amber Gordon on the East Coast, despite our lessened eagerness to travel since the start of the pandemic.

 

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Play It Again

Jim/Sky: In 2022 I started producing my feature-length film Play It Again about “Coming home to music.” I’m personally an extreme example of this. For me the coming back started in 2014, then accelerated to full tilt in 2015-2016 at The San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where I completed a full-time post-graduate year in Technology and Applied Composition. At that time, I had already been thinking about making a film about the experience, but there just wasn’t time to complete the coursework and do a film at the same time. So in February, 2022 I finally started filming. An intermediate full-length cut of the film is completed now (December, 2022) and with the filming of one more scene in January, we will have it all “in the can.”

When I went back to music in 2015 I said that “software had caught up with us” and was finally enabling a new breed of composer and compositional process — with sampled instruments it had become possible to compose and play back in real time at good quality — a new cyclical compositional process much like software development. Well by 2022 it was obvious that iPhone hardware and software were advanced enough that “filming” could be similarly streamlined and available to far more would-be producers. So I became one of those. The film is almost entirely shot on iPhone with wireless sound recording right into the camera as well. Sign up for more film info!

Play It Again — Coming home to music and how it changed my life; filmed in 2022, and scheduled for release in February, 2023. New audio albums are in the works for Q1:2023 augmenting the existing albums. Amateur Music Network; I’m on the board of directors of this org that promotes “the love of music” including upcoming workshops and a library of video of many past workshops. Joined the board of the Ross McKee Foundation, which promotes piano performance. We had a private showing and panel discussion of The Third Harmony, a film I scored in 2020. CDs of my albums are available now via special order. Just ask me.

My film will be available in February, 2023, and if you visit the Play It Again web site, you can sign up there for email notification.

(The space above is where the intro video should appear. It may be empty if you have opted out of ‘statistics’ cookies. You may play the introductory video on Vimeo)

 

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Turns out that “The Orchard Music” which is owned by Sony, claims that the very last note and the applause from our performance is stolen from a recording they represent. And it’s not even the same note. Mine ends on an F and theirs ends on an A-flat. Ah, but they are both notes on a piano. Just joking.

Well obviously this is a match made by some kind of automated process, but it’s grossly weird 1. that applause would even match; and 2. that it depends on The Orchard Music now to release their claim. Meanwhile it is assumed that they do in fact own that section of my recording, and they can monetize (put ads on) my original recording.

You know what’s even funnier. I just listened to their recording on YouTube. And now it shows that in its entire history it has had one single play. Meaning that I am the only person who has ever played their YouTube segment. In the full year that it’s been on YouTube.

(Outcome: “The Orchard Music” released their claim on July 18th, just over two weeks after it was made.)

Here’s the performance I’m talking about, In case you want to hear my entire recording…

The post Copyright Dispute Humor appeared first on Sky's Blog.

I find that taking a stab at new things that are really complex, is sometimes fun for me. Gives me enough experience that I understand the basics about some new activity or subject. Does not get me into a rut, so I can still think in creative ways about using a half-baked skill I’ve acquired.

In composition this sometimes becomes for me a fascination with chromaticism (as opposed to tonicity), which may leave a piece of music sounding less “finished” to the classical ear.

So what’s new now? I decided a few weeks ago that I want to understand better what the musicians are thinking when they read and play my music. And since I worked on string parts so much during 2016, I decided to learn to play the cello. Jason O’Connell, who is quite accomplished on viola, convinced me that it would require fewer wrist contortions than violin or viola. Convinced me. And it sounds so good!

I went to some concerts. I listened to some recordings. I sat through (in the audience) a master class. Daunting, because clearly it’s not the easiest instrument to master.

Jason suggested I take lessons from Eugenio Solinas, who just completed a PSD at SFCM this year. I was able to convince him to add me as an “older” student while I work really hard to learn the basics. I’m committed to doing this long enough to really value the experience, not necessarily to become a great player. On the other hand, it would be a real kick to be able to record some of my own compositions. And as the composer, I can make the compositions as simple or complex as I want to.

The week after SFCM classes ended, I took my first lesson. Woo hoo! Off we go.

My video (above) was made the day I obtained my rented cello and before I was taught any technique at all, and I had been playing around for a few minutes first. My first actual lesson was the next day. I’ll report on how it goes.

The post And now for Something Completely Different appeared first on Sky's Blog.

• Became well-acquainted with fellow-travelers in the PSD program. They are all good composers, and going on this journey with them was an honor for me, as I came in the least prepared of them all.
• “Held my own” in terms of being able to write tolerable music for the assignments. Well maybe with the exception of one or two pieces where I started out pretty well and went downhill.
• Learned that I have a lot more to learn about “music theory” — which isn’t really a theory at all.
• Learned a boatload about using instruments I had never written for, even in my dreams. Strings, brass, and even a little about percussion.
• Learned I can’t hear high frequencies well enough to be a mixerman. (The Mixerman story is a blast—read it.)

The post Last day at ye ole’ SFCM PSD appeared first on Sky's Blog.

So here are two special configurations that I particularly like. The top one puts the track image behind the entire player, while the bottom one puts the track image on the left side like an “album cover.” The upper player requires a height of at least 140px to look good; the lower requires 110px.

The post Embedding a smaller SoundCloud player appeared first on Sky's Blog.

Strings » [soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/playlists/179144010″ params=”auto_play=false&hide_related=true&show_comments=true&show_user=false&show_reposts=false&show_artwork=true&&visual=true” width=”100%” height=”400″ iframe=”true” /]

Classical Guitar (duets) » [soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/playlists/178606586″ params=”auto_play=false&hide_related=true&show_comments=true&show_user= false&show_reposts=false&show_artwork=true&&visual=true” width=”100%” height=”400″ iframe=”true” /]

Dakini Dances » [soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/playlists/132507989″ params=”auto_play=false&hide_related=true&show_comments=true&show_user= false&show_reposts=false&show_artwork=true&visual=true” width=”100%” height=”400″ iframe=”true” /]

The post New strings, guitars, dances appeared first on Sky's Blog.

I just completed a one-semester course in Max/MSP and our final project challenged us to build a Max/MSP program (called a patcher) that implements an interesting musical performance.

The “music” in the performance is composed from a set of audio recordings — you might even call them samples — and because any kind of audio sample could be dropped in, there are billions of ways this music might be made and might sound. Because it can all be controlled from the stage in real time, we could also put together a performance using not only the Max/MSP components but live performers.

Video clips for you to play:

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In January (2015) I began a zero-to-sixty transition from full-time computer scientist to composer. The next stage in the process begins in September (2015), where I have been accepted as a student at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music in their Technology and Applied Composition program. Their Professional Studies Diploma [PSD] is a non-degree, full-time “post-graduate program” that runs one academic year. (I guess I don’t really need more degrees — just want to learn how to do more stuff.)

You can find my recent in-progress work online and I will update this frequently. You can work “upward” from that link to find other works from the recent past. I am currently writing a three-part suite with the working name “Flight” and there is one excerpt online. A second three-part suite, which is yet untitled, is represented as well.  All are works-in-progress.

During this time I will continue to support cyberspark.net efforts in human rights and free speech, and a limited number of Red7 clients.

A pivotal event during the transition was the New Music Gathering which was hosted at SFCM in January 2015. I wrote a short article about the gathering in January.

The post Technology and Applied Composition at SFCM appeared first on Sky's Blog.

I’ll be posting links to performance recordings as they become available. (I try to write articles only about upcoming events, but in this case I didn’t know what to expect and it was so great that I have to just post this article to anchor the upcoming info.) Surprise guest Friday night in the audience was Terry Riley.

Also upcoming on March 6-8 in San Francisco is the 20th OtherMinds festival of new music. This year, for its twentieth, a review including many composers-performers from the first 20 years, so I guess it’s a look at the old new, which is still new.

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