When I walked into the Hispanic Latino Book Fair a month or so ago, I had no idea what I was getting into. I heard some worthwhile talks, and walked out with more books than I originally planned, but more importantly, I made the acquaintance of Juan Navidad.
Juan is, in a word, amazing. He's a poet, writer, and publisher (more informative page in Spanish here), and he's constantly promoting both his own work and that of the writers he publishes. He's constantly exploring new possibilities, and when we started discussing ways to work together, it didn't take long to come up with ideas. Collaboration is his mission in life,
He just brought out a book of his own, Frases para crecer en positivo, and for a reading on Saturday, Nov. 21 at the Church of the Mediator in the Bronx, I created a set of four short pieces inspired by his work. El delantero del fin de semana (The Weekend Forward) takes off from a sentence about how, when we practice a sport, we are grateful for healthy bodies and the time to enjoy them; El timón de la suerte (The rudder of fate) was inspired by a statement that that rudder is held, not only by the Goddess Fortune, but by each one of us. An observation about clocks and impatience motivated El reloj de la impaciencia (The Clock of Impatience), which is about a ticking clock as processed through a brain that keeps wishing it would go faster, and Intencion y fuerza (Intention and Force) derives from a statement that those two things are what we need to be happy: clear intentions, and the strength to bring them to reality.
I'm hoping to get recordings up soon, and there will be another similar event next week, on Tuesday, December 2, at Centro Español, on 14th St. in Manhattan, at 7 PM. The music this time will be violin with (likely) backing tracks, and I will be the violinist. El timón de la suerte and maybe El reloj de la impaciencia will be arranged for the occasion, but there will be some newer material as well.
For those who prefer a bit more advance notice, there will be another event at Centro Español on January 21, 2015, which will include a showing of artworks. More news as it happens!
Composing, Performing, Creating
Wednesday, November 26, 2014
Sunday, August 10, 2014
Updates, and lessons from home recording
It's been a long time since I've posted, so here's an update on some of what's happened and what's going on right now.
It's been a fairly busy year so far, including the premiere of some of a set of ten new pieces I wrote for euphonium and piano, as well as two concerts (one in White Plains, New York and the other in Goshen, Indiana) celebrating the 300th anniversary of the birth of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach. I performed at a benefit for the Afghan Child Education and Care Organization, and at the first-ever Azerbaijani Novruz celebration in Philadelphia.
Another thing I've been working on is recording. This is a fairly unambitious undertaking; the music will include at least two sonatas by C.P.E. Bach, as well as some J.S. Bach, and maybe a few other things according to taste and whim. It springs naturally out of the home recording I've been doing for many years. Recording and listening to myself have been two of my most powerful tools to keep growing musically, and from there it's a simple matter of asking two questions: what would make this worth sharing, and how do I get there?
One of the first things musicians learn after starting to make recordings is just how bad they sound. The microphone (or its digital equivalent) is pretty unforgiving. Mistakes and problems that you could sort of ignore while you were playing suddenly stand out and become unbearable. One of the first questions you'll have is how to improve the situation, and the first and best answer is, improve your playing.
Another early lesson is that it's necessary to be really detail-oriented. How, exactly, will that ornament be played? Where are the dynamic changes? How loud, and how soft? The more you know, and the better you know it, the higher the odds that, when you are performing, it will come out as intended.
Which leads to another question, with its attendant lesson: when is it time to stop? It's possible to work on a recording forever, honing smaller and smaller details, and never quite attaining that magical state of perfection where it's time to stop and release the results. In normal studio recording, of course, the budget, and a good producer, will put strict limits on the amount of reworking that can be done. It's always possible to find something wrong with a performance or a recording, and even more so when using a digital keyboard for Baroque and pre-Classical music. A digital keyboard is not a piano (organ, clavichord, harpsichord, etc.), and while it can have worthwhile qualities of its own, it can never satisfy someone who expects to hear an acoustic instrument.
So the question is, when is it good enough? When does it fairly represent what I can do right now? And perhaps most importantly, when is it time to release this, and apply the lessons learned to the next project?
Because there will be next projects, and other recordings, and my most important reason for undertaking this one is to improve those.
It's been a fairly busy year so far, including the premiere of some of a set of ten new pieces I wrote for euphonium and piano, as well as two concerts (one in White Plains, New York and the other in Goshen, Indiana) celebrating the 300th anniversary of the birth of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach. I performed at a benefit for the Afghan Child Education and Care Organization, and at the first-ever Azerbaijani Novruz celebration in Philadelphia.
Another thing I've been working on is recording. This is a fairly unambitious undertaking; the music will include at least two sonatas by C.P.E. Bach, as well as some J.S. Bach, and maybe a few other things according to taste and whim. It springs naturally out of the home recording I've been doing for many years. Recording and listening to myself have been two of my most powerful tools to keep growing musically, and from there it's a simple matter of asking two questions: what would make this worth sharing, and how do I get there?
One of the first things musicians learn after starting to make recordings is just how bad they sound. The microphone (or its digital equivalent) is pretty unforgiving. Mistakes and problems that you could sort of ignore while you were playing suddenly stand out and become unbearable. One of the first questions you'll have is how to improve the situation, and the first and best answer is, improve your playing.
Another early lesson is that it's necessary to be really detail-oriented. How, exactly, will that ornament be played? Where are the dynamic changes? How loud, and how soft? The more you know, and the better you know it, the higher the odds that, when you are performing, it will come out as intended.
Which leads to another question, with its attendant lesson: when is it time to stop? It's possible to work on a recording forever, honing smaller and smaller details, and never quite attaining that magical state of perfection where it's time to stop and release the results. In normal studio recording, of course, the budget, and a good producer, will put strict limits on the amount of reworking that can be done. It's always possible to find something wrong with a performance or a recording, and even more so when using a digital keyboard for Baroque and pre-Classical music. A digital keyboard is not a piano (organ, clavichord, harpsichord, etc.), and while it can have worthwhile qualities of its own, it can never satisfy someone who expects to hear an acoustic instrument.
So the question is, when is it good enough? When does it fairly represent what I can do right now? And perhaps most importantly, when is it time to release this, and apply the lessons learned to the next project?
Because there will be next projects, and other recordings, and my most important reason for undertaking this one is to improve those.
Sunday, February 9, 2014
300th Anniversary of the birth of C.P.E. Bach
This post was created in specific response to James M. Keller's
article in Chamber Music about the 300th anniversary of the
birth of Carl
Philipp
Emmanuel Bach.
The article, "A Tricentennial Nod to C.P.E. Bach", points
out that the anniversary is likely to go "largely uncelebrated",
and easily makes the case that this lack of attention is unjustified.
As it turns out, there are celebrations taking place, but perhaps not in the U.S.; this blog entry is an attempt to spread the word and give some ideas about how to get in on the fun.
Piano teachers and students, if they know nothing else about C.P.E. Bach, know him for the "Solfeggietto", H. 220, W. 117. Here are two tutorials on the piece. It has been transcribed for other instruments, as well. He also wrote several pieces included in his father's Notebooks for Anna Magdalena Bach.
But he also wrote for many other instruments, in many combinations. His works for chorus and orchestra include a Magnificat and oratorios, such as Israel in the Wilderness and Resurrection and Ascension of Jesus.
So how can you celebrate? If you play or teach the flute, piano, and/or other instruments he wrote for, it's easy: simply study and teach C.P.E. Bach's works, include them in recital programs, and mention the anniversary in your publicity. If you study an instrument that he didn't write for, why not transcribe or arrange one or more of his pieces? While there are a number of recordings of his work on Wikimedia Commons, there is still plenty of room for contributions; why not upload a recording of your performance (being aware of these guidelines)?
As it turns out, there are celebrations taking place, but perhaps not in the U.S.; this blog entry is an attempt to spread the word and give some ideas about how to get in on the fun.
Piano teachers and students, if they know nothing else about C.P.E. Bach, know him for the "Solfeggietto", H. 220, W. 117. Here are two tutorials on the piece. It has been transcribed for other instruments, as well. He also wrote several pieces included in his father's Notebooks for Anna Magdalena Bach.
But he also wrote for many other instruments, in many combinations. His works for chorus and orchestra include a Magnificat and oratorios, such as Israel in the Wilderness and Resurrection and Ascension of Jesus.
So how can you celebrate? If you play or teach the flute, piano, and/or other instruments he wrote for, it's easy: simply study and teach C.P.E. Bach's works, include them in recital programs, and mention the anniversary in your publicity. If you study an instrument that he didn't write for, why not transcribe or arrange one or more of his pieces? While there are a number of recordings of his work on Wikimedia Commons, there is still plenty of room for contributions; why not upload a recording of your performance (being aware of these guidelines)?
Thursday, January 30, 2014
Alones Together: Concert coming up Wednesday, Feb. 5!
Alones
Together: An Evening of Music for Unaccompanied Solo Instruments
Cellist
Caroline Stinson and saxophonist Javier Oviedo will be featured in a
concert of music by Jon Liechty and poetry by Andrew Kreider, on
Wednesday, February 5, 2014 at 7:00 PM at the Bloomingdale School,
323 West 108th Street in New York City. The program will
include Strength and Beauty,
a set of pieces for unaccompanied cello, the
world premiere of Sonata No. 1
for tenor saxophone, and works for piano solo performed
by the composer. The concert
is free and open to the public, but seating is limited. Donations
will be gratefully accepted.
Strength
and Beauty was inspired by the
portraits of Li Ming Shun, whose art focuses on the Asian male nude.
Its four movements are both lyrical and uncompromising, reflecting
some of the many contradictory emotions the body can evoke.
The
frank melodies of Sonata No. 1
defy easy classification; even those that seem simple at first prove
to have unexpected twists and turns.
Poetry
by Andrew Kreider is the inspiration for the piano pieces that will
round out the evening, and the variety in the music matches the
wealth of expression in the words. From the Azerbaijani-influenced
“Keepsakes” to the mad dash of “What Won't Wait”, Kreider's
verbal adroitness pairs well with Liechty's lush harmonic
imagination.
Praised
for her vibrant lyricism, fresh interpretations and expressive
performances, cellist Caroline Stinson’s solo invitations include
the Museum of Modern Art's Summergarden Series, Poisson Rouge and
Bargemusic in New York; Cité de la Musique Strasbourg and the
Lucerne Festival in Europe, and the Centennial Centre and Winspear
Halls in Canada. As a soloist she has performed with the Banff
Festival and Cleveland Institute of Music Orchestras, the Alberta
Baroque Ensemble, and the Interlochen World Youth and Syracuse
Symphonies. A champion of contemporary music, Ms. Stinson has
commissioned concerti from Steven Bryant (Cornell Wind Ensemble) and
Andrew Waggoner (Syracuse Symphony), works for cello with electronics
from Canadian composer Patrick Carrabre, in addition to chamber music
with the Lark Quartet and her new music and improvisation group, Open
End Ensemble. Performance highlights include Elliott Carter's "Triple
Duo" with conductor Pierre Boulez in New York and Europe, the
premiere of Paul Moravec's Piano Quintet with Jeremy Denk and the
Lark Quartet in New York, and performing Esa-Pekka Salonen's "YTA
III" for solo cello at the composer’s recommendation at
Scandinavia House in New York in 2011. Caroline's début CD, Lines,
was released in 2011 on Albany Records, and she has over a dozen
other chamber music recordings to her credit on labels from Bridge to
Naxos. Her teachers were Alan Harris (Cleveland), Maria Kliegel
(Germany), Joel Krosnick (Juilliard) and Tanya Prochazka. Caroline is
co-Artistic Director of the Weekend of Chamber Music in NY State and
teaches cello and chamber music at The Juilliard School in New York
City in the Pre-College Division and as Assistant Faculty for Joel
Krosnick.
As
a soloist Javier Oviedo has appeared with orchestras in New York, New
Jersey, Pennsylvania, Louisiana, and Texas. He has also appeared with
the Orchestre Lamoureux and L’orchestre à cordes d’Ariége in
France. In spring 2011 Oviedo appeared with the National Orchestra of
the Republic of Moldova and later that year with the State
Philharmonic of Oryol in the Russian Federation. This performance was
hailed by the local press as “a triumph of a concert.”
An
accomplished chamber musician, Oviedo has performed in recital on
many of New York’s most prestigious stages such as at Carnegie Hall
and The United Nations. He was a founding member of the Elision
Saxophone Quartet in his native-born Texas. The quartet will
celebrate its 25th season in 2014. Oviedo was also a founding member
of The F.R.E.D. Chamber Players which explored new or under-performed
chamber music, theater pieces, plays, dance, and art from centuries
old and new.
In
2008 Oviedo recorded his debut recording, The Classical Saxophone A
French Love Story, which featured original music for saxophone and
orchestra from around the early 20th-Century. The American Record
Guide said of the disc,
“The
music is rich, lush, and colorful, and one is tempted to praise
repeatedly Oviedo’s gorgeous sound, which fits these pieces
perfectly.” -American Record Guide
The
disc was recorded in Paris with Orchestra Pasdeloup under the
direction of Jean-Pierre Schmitt and released on the MSR Classics
label.
Jon
Liechty's
compositions have been performed in New York’s Weill Hall, at An
Die Musik Live! in Baltimore, at the Midwest Composer's Symposium in
Oberlin, Ohio, at the Indiana Contemporary Music Festival in Terre
Haute, Indiana, at the Sound in the Land festival in Waterloo,
Ontario, and at the Escuela Nacional de Música in Mexico City. He
is the recipient of grants from Meet the Composer, and from the
Honors Division of Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana. He
holds bachelor's and master's degrees in music composition from the
Indiana University School of Music in Bloomington, Indiana, where his
teachers included Donald Erb and Claude Baker.
Liechty
has appeared as a pianist at An Die Musik Live! in Baltimore, at
Symphony Space in New York City, at the SummerKeys festival in Maine,
at the Lotus World Music and Dance Festival in Indiana, at the
American Composers Alliance festival in New York City, and on
Azerbaijani National Television. He gave the world premiere
performance of Andrew Nishikawa's Piano Concerto No. 1,
written especially for him, at the Boston Conservatory. He is the
Associate Music Director at the New York Society for Ethical Culture.
Sunday, December 29, 2013
Happy New Year!
As 2013 draws to a close, I'm looking forward and back. What happened this year? What didn't? What's in the works for next year?
For one thing, 2013 was the year I started this blog. There are a lot of things I have to share that simply don't fit in a tiny FaceBook post. That's as true now as it ever was. One of my goals for next year will be to pick a better title; if you search "About Music" on Blogspot, you'll find a large number of blogs with similar titles. I'll be looking for something a bit more poetic and descriptive, and will welcome suggestions.
My inaugural video went up on YouTube this year. Hopefully there will be more, and better, to follow.
2013 was also the year of Moving Seven Ways, a set of seven short pieces for viola and claves. They stay in first position throughout, which makes them good for intermediate students. The viola part of one of them is entirely col legno, which will be challenging for those who haven't yet explored that technique extensively.
The number of my piano pieces inspired by poetry increased in 2013, with "Gəlir", a response to a poem by Nigar Rafibeyli. There will be more to come; I discovered many fine poets in 2013, both from Azerbaijan and other places, and several of those poems are prompting musical responses.
Scenes from a Fantasy Novel is not based on poetry, but it's a set of ten short pieces with titles inspired by fantasy-novel kinds of scenes. Still some editing to be done, but basically ready to intrigue and delight.
Piano four hands is a genre I started exploring in 2013. Most of the pieces I've produced so far have been pretty lightweight: a chorale prelude, and a set of variations on "The Spanish Lady's Love", to name two, but more substantial fare will likely follow.
My biggest disappointment of 2013 was not finishing the string quartet. It's getting closer, but there's still work to be done.
I did get a short piece for saxophone quartet finished, this one a chorale prelude on "Nun danket alle Gott". My avid saxophonist uncle finally has something of mine he can play with his friends! This was extremely long overdue, and it's great to have it done. More saxophone quartet music is planned, in one form or another.
Apart from composition, 2013 was the year of Audacity. I've been using it for some time for small tasks such as converting between file formats, but this year I started digging in and actually moving things around. I've been wanting to produce some CD's for awhile, and this is a substantial step in that direction.
Which brings me to next year. On Wednesday, February 5, 2014 at the Bloomingdale School in Manhattan, 7:00 PM, a concert of my work will feature cellist Caroline Stinson, saxophonist Javier Oviedo, and me. This is a concert of unaccompanied solo pieces, including Strength and Beauty, inspired by portraits by Li Ming Shun, for unaccompanied cello, Sonata No. 1 for unaccompanied tenor saxophone, and piano pieces inspired by the poetry of Andrew Kreider.
In mid-June, I'll perform in a concert in Goshen, Indiana, but right now don't have much information about what will be on the program. It's likely it will include Scenes from a Fantasy Novel, maybe some of the Goldberg Variations, and perhaps some of the pieces being worked on for the CD mentioned below. But I'd also like to do some things with musicians from Goshen, and plans for those are still up in the air.
The home-recording work is leading toward compilation of a CD, likely to include keyboard music of Frescobaldi, Froberger, and J.S. Bach; more news as it happens.
In terms of composition, it's long past time for the string quartet to be finished, but of course these things don't always happen on cue. More saxophone quartet music, and more music for piano four hands are in the works, with plans also for some wind ensemble music and a string orchestra piece for a youth orchestra in Washington Heights.
My musician friends are certainly laughing at this point, because they know too well how easy it is to decide you want to do something ... and how difficult it is to actually get it done!
Good wishes to all for a safe, happy, and healthy New Year!
For one thing, 2013 was the year I started this blog. There are a lot of things I have to share that simply don't fit in a tiny FaceBook post. That's as true now as it ever was. One of my goals for next year will be to pick a better title; if you search "About Music" on Blogspot, you'll find a large number of blogs with similar titles. I'll be looking for something a bit more poetic and descriptive, and will welcome suggestions.
My inaugural video went up on YouTube this year. Hopefully there will be more, and better, to follow.
2013 was also the year of Moving Seven Ways, a set of seven short pieces for viola and claves. They stay in first position throughout, which makes them good for intermediate students. The viola part of one of them is entirely col legno, which will be challenging for those who haven't yet explored that technique extensively.
The number of my piano pieces inspired by poetry increased in 2013, with "Gəlir", a response to a poem by Nigar Rafibeyli. There will be more to come; I discovered many fine poets in 2013, both from Azerbaijan and other places, and several of those poems are prompting musical responses.
Scenes from a Fantasy Novel is not based on poetry, but it's a set of ten short pieces with titles inspired by fantasy-novel kinds of scenes. Still some editing to be done, but basically ready to intrigue and delight.
Piano four hands is a genre I started exploring in 2013. Most of the pieces I've produced so far have been pretty lightweight: a chorale prelude, and a set of variations on "The Spanish Lady's Love", to name two, but more substantial fare will likely follow.
My biggest disappointment of 2013 was not finishing the string quartet. It's getting closer, but there's still work to be done.
I did get a short piece for saxophone quartet finished, this one a chorale prelude on "Nun danket alle Gott". My avid saxophonist uncle finally has something of mine he can play with his friends! This was extremely long overdue, and it's great to have it done. More saxophone quartet music is planned, in one form or another.
Apart from composition, 2013 was the year of Audacity. I've been using it for some time for small tasks such as converting between file formats, but this year I started digging in and actually moving things around. I've been wanting to produce some CD's for awhile, and this is a substantial step in that direction.
Which brings me to next year. On Wednesday, February 5, 2014 at the Bloomingdale School in Manhattan, 7:00 PM, a concert of my work will feature cellist Caroline Stinson, saxophonist Javier Oviedo, and me. This is a concert of unaccompanied solo pieces, including Strength and Beauty, inspired by portraits by Li Ming Shun, for unaccompanied cello, Sonata No. 1 for unaccompanied tenor saxophone, and piano pieces inspired by the poetry of Andrew Kreider.
In mid-June, I'll perform in a concert in Goshen, Indiana, but right now don't have much information about what will be on the program. It's likely it will include Scenes from a Fantasy Novel, maybe some of the Goldberg Variations, and perhaps some of the pieces being worked on for the CD mentioned below. But I'd also like to do some things with musicians from Goshen, and plans for those are still up in the air.
The home-recording work is leading toward compilation of a CD, likely to include keyboard music of Frescobaldi, Froberger, and J.S. Bach; more news as it happens.
In terms of composition, it's long past time for the string quartet to be finished, but of course these things don't always happen on cue. More saxophone quartet music, and more music for piano four hands are in the works, with plans also for some wind ensemble music and a string orchestra piece for a youth orchestra in Washington Heights.
My musician friends are certainly laughing at this point, because they know too well how easy it is to decide you want to do something ... and how difficult it is to actually get it done!
Good wishes to all for a safe, happy, and healthy New Year!
Wednesday, December 25, 2013
Wikimedia Commons
One of my goals with this blog is to highlight underutilized resources that could be of benefit to musicians. Today I'd like to write about a companion project of Wikipedia, and some opportunities for the right people to make a big difference ... maybe.
Wikimedia Commons is a huge collection of digital media (pictures, sound files, video, etc.) that are available for anyone to use, remix, and so on. This doesn't mean there are no restrictions on using them, but the restrictions are considerably fewer than customary in this age of increasing digital rights management. Most of the content is in the form of pictures, which is what is inspiring my post this morning.
One obvious thing this means for people looking for posters, CD booklet art, and so on, is a huge source of possibilities. The data included with each file includes the specific restrictions that may apply to it; often this consists simply of crediting the artist/contributor, and releasing the copies/improvements under the same terms. It's not clear to me whether, if you use a photo licensed as CC-BY-SA (Creative Commons, with attribution, share-alike) on the cover of your CD, you would have to release the entire booklet, the whole CD, or just the cover photo (the part containing the picture you used, with any modifications you made to it) under CC-BY-SA. More information on Creative Commons licenses can be found here. Note that I'm not a lawyer; if you want legal advice on the details of re-using other people's work, please get an appropriate professional to advise you.
Another intriguing possibility for musicians is contributing work. The gallery for J.S. Bach contains recordings of a number of his works, but there are many gaps in the list. Contributing a recording or two could be a way to market yourself to an audience that might not otherwise find you. If you were the sole contributor, say, of recordings for most of the WTC Book II, you might gain some advantage from that. Your user page can list your contributions, or whatever else it might be important for people to know; if you contribute a number of files, a category might be created for them. I'm a bit wary, however.
For one thing, the point of Wikimedia Commons is educational, not promotional. The kind of video you might want to release as an artist to showcase your abilities is not necessarily the kind of video you would make for educational purposes. This is a bit of a judgment call, of course; there's a sense in which it's instructive to watch any performer in action.
Another consideration is cost. If you are making recordings in your own home, using your own (relatively inexpensive) equipment, it may not matter so much to you whether you give away the results. If you are recording in a studio at a cost of thousands of dollars, you'll want to think carefully about your return on anything you release. If you decide to make a sample track available as a free download from your web site or through another online service, you would could remove it at any time. You could set whatever restrictions you wanted on other people's re-use of your recording.
Not so Wikimedia Commons. Once you've released something there, it's there for good. If someone decides to use it in a way you detest, tough. The recording you might release at the beginning of your career will remain there to haunt you at the pinnacle of your success.
Another possibility for a welcome contribution would be demonstrations of the capabilities of an instrument. Someone who wants to hear what a violin sounds like (for example) can get a good basic idea from files like these, and there's less of a sense that you're giving away something of direct commercial value. Demonstration videos showing a particular technique are another opportunity. So are pictures showing the correct way to hold an instrument.
If you are a music educator, at any level, Wikimedia Commons is the place for you. If you need a diagram showing the relationship of the keys on a keyboard to notes on a staff, find one here.
This is also a great place to contribute material you've developed that someone else might be able to use. Because this material is freely available to anyone with an internet connection, your contribution will help teach people around the world.
If you simply want to watch and listen, there are things like these.
Happy holidays, regardless which ones you happen to celebrate!
Wikimedia Commons is a huge collection of digital media (pictures, sound files, video, etc.) that are available for anyone to use, remix, and so on. This doesn't mean there are no restrictions on using them, but the restrictions are considerably fewer than customary in this age of increasing digital rights management. Most of the content is in the form of pictures, which is what is inspiring my post this morning.
One obvious thing this means for people looking for posters, CD booklet art, and so on, is a huge source of possibilities. The data included with each file includes the specific restrictions that may apply to it; often this consists simply of crediting the artist/contributor, and releasing the copies/improvements under the same terms. It's not clear to me whether, if you use a photo licensed as CC-BY-SA (Creative Commons, with attribution, share-alike) on the cover of your CD, you would have to release the entire booklet, the whole CD, or just the cover photo (the part containing the picture you used, with any modifications you made to it) under CC-BY-SA. More information on Creative Commons licenses can be found here. Note that I'm not a lawyer; if you want legal advice on the details of re-using other people's work, please get an appropriate professional to advise you.
Another intriguing possibility for musicians is contributing work. The gallery for J.S. Bach contains recordings of a number of his works, but there are many gaps in the list. Contributing a recording or two could be a way to market yourself to an audience that might not otherwise find you. If you were the sole contributor, say, of recordings for most of the WTC Book II, you might gain some advantage from that. Your user page can list your contributions, or whatever else it might be important for people to know; if you contribute a number of files, a category might be created for them. I'm a bit wary, however.
For one thing, the point of Wikimedia Commons is educational, not promotional. The kind of video you might want to release as an artist to showcase your abilities is not necessarily the kind of video you would make for educational purposes. This is a bit of a judgment call, of course; there's a sense in which it's instructive to watch any performer in action.
Another consideration is cost. If you are making recordings in your own home, using your own (relatively inexpensive) equipment, it may not matter so much to you whether you give away the results. If you are recording in a studio at a cost of thousands of dollars, you'll want to think carefully about your return on anything you release. If you decide to make a sample track available as a free download from your web site or through another online service, you would could remove it at any time. You could set whatever restrictions you wanted on other people's re-use of your recording.
Not so Wikimedia Commons. Once you've released something there, it's there for good. If someone decides to use it in a way you detest, tough. The recording you might release at the beginning of your career will remain there to haunt you at the pinnacle of your success.
Another possibility for a welcome contribution would be demonstrations of the capabilities of an instrument. Someone who wants to hear what a violin sounds like (for example) can get a good basic idea from files like these, and there's less of a sense that you're giving away something of direct commercial value. Demonstration videos showing a particular technique are another opportunity. So are pictures showing the correct way to hold an instrument.
If you are a music educator, at any level, Wikimedia Commons is the place for you. If you need a diagram showing the relationship of the keys on a keyboard to notes on a staff, find one here.
This is also a great place to contribute material you've developed that someone else might be able to use. Because this material is freely available to anyone with an internet connection, your contribution will help teach people around the world.
If you simply want to watch and listen, there are things like these.
Happy holidays, regardless which ones you happen to celebrate!
Monday, September 30, 2013
Explorations
Yesterday, on a friend's recommendation, I visited composerscircle.com, a site that features a different (usually) living composer every day. I'm not sure how long they have been operating; the online archive goes back to May 2012. But it's an impressive site, and well worth the time to check out.
One thing that's impressed me is how wide the stylistic range is. If you were hoping for guidance about any particular direction in which things might be headed, the only reasonable conclusion is they're going in all directions at once, which makes this a particularly exciting time to be writing.
Another thing that's impressive is the wide range of levels and backgrounds represented. There are composers with major awards and performances by big-name ensembles, and there are composers who are just starting music school, not always at places with famous composition programs. Most of the names are new to me, which means I'm going to be back; it's not possible or reasonable to expect to take it all in in one visit. The quality is uniformly high.
The only slightly negative thing about the site is it's not very easy to browse; within a year you have to page forward or back month by month. Be aware that every page will begin playing music or video immediately upon loading; you'll want to check your volume settings before navigating to the page.
Enjoy!
One thing that's impressed me is how wide the stylistic range is. If you were hoping for guidance about any particular direction in which things might be headed, the only reasonable conclusion is they're going in all directions at once, which makes this a particularly exciting time to be writing.
Another thing that's impressive is the wide range of levels and backgrounds represented. There are composers with major awards and performances by big-name ensembles, and there are composers who are just starting music school, not always at places with famous composition programs. Most of the names are new to me, which means I'm going to be back; it's not possible or reasonable to expect to take it all in in one visit. The quality is uniformly high.
The only slightly negative thing about the site is it's not very easy to browse; within a year you have to page forward or back month by month. Be aware that every page will begin playing music or video immediately upon loading; you'll want to check your volume settings before navigating to the page.
Enjoy!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)