Étude-Tableaux No. 1: Lander Pass

I wrote a new piece last month, Étude-Tableaux No 1. I realized after I wrote it that it made sense alongside a piece I wrote in '07, Lander Pass. The problem with "Lander Pass", however, was I had only played it from memory -- I'd never written out the score. When I got sick last month and couldn't leave my house for a couple weeks, I made the time to finally transcribe the piece.

It ended up being difficult to transcribe as I realized that my improvised playing from sketches was virtually impossible to notate. The timing and meter were all over the place. I changed and simplified the piece somewhat as a result. I hope it is better. "Lander Pass" is now Étude-Tableaux No 1, and the previous No 1 is now No 3. No 2 is also already written (mostly), and coming soon.

I sat down and recorded No 1 earlier this afternoon. There are several sections where I'm faking it still, and the arpeggios just aren't even or clean. One day...

Étude-Tableaux No. 1
Étude-Tableaux No. 1 score

Étude-Tableaux No. 3

After a fairly significant lapse, I'm writing again. I've been a bit busy lately with work and school. And my kids.

I considered continuing my preludes with a second book. Yet at least for now, I want a little more freedom to explore new ideas without boundaries and structure. A single prelude might satisfy such goals, but not a set. And so I'll try something new, paying homage to a former resident of Menlo Park. I hope to record this piece in the coming weeks.
[5/1/2015 just recorded it. needs work.]
[5/30/2015 no 1 just became no 3]

Étude-Tableaux No. 3
Étude-Tableaux No. 3 score

ps I'm not gonna talk so much about the structure any more. If you discover something interesting, it may have been by design.

Baldwin vs iPad

Smule marketing approached me the other day and asked me to record the Presto Agitato from Beethoven's Piano Sonata Op 27 No. 2 in C-shart minor, "The Moonlight".  Their concept was to juxtapose performances of this piece on the piano with the "Magic Piano" from Smule.  I mentioned I didn't know the piece and it would take some time to learn it.  They responded by asking if later in the week would work.  I chuckled and reminded them I wasn't Van Cliburn.  They asked to confirm whether later in the week would work...

Not that week but a week later (!), we recorded performances of the piece at Smule's offices in San Francisco with me on the piano and Naoko Maruko of Smule on the iPad.  Here is the final video:

Ironically, they didn't use my first recording.  They claimed the piano was too fast for the iPad—it couldn't keep up (not the performer but "Magic Piano" latency).  So, we came back two days later and recorded again at a slower tempo.  

It's a fun video.   Kudos to Smule marketing:  cute concept and nice editing.  And great job Naoko.  I think the piece might actually be harder to play on iPad than Baldwin.

Chopin Preludes Opus 28

I sat down this morning on my Steinway B and recorded a few of the Chopin Preludes I've been practicing.   They're not quite ready but getting closer.  I'm hoping to put together a recital, perhaps commemorating many different recent life events, both personal and academic.

I was inspired by Kenneth Hamilton's at Stanford a month ago in the Reactions to the Record IV Symposium.  Kenneth's lecture walked through the recent history of piano performance, focusing on the changes of the past century, perhaps relating to the era of the recording.  He spent considerable time exploring the notion of the unpolished, authentic, improvisatory elements of performances in the previous century, including the practice of 'preluding' between pieces in a performance.  Most of this preluding represented somewhat spontaneous musical musings of a pianist in transitioning between pieces, although in many cases I'm sure those transitions may have been planned, composed, or perhaps drawn from a collection of tools.  Beyond such musings, we have several collections of preludes in the canon of western music, notably Bach's WTC I and II, but also Chopin, Debussy, and Scriabin to name a few.

I contemplate a recital where every piece is connected to another piece through preludes, mostly those chosen from Bach, Chopin, and Debussy (and perhaps one or two of my own), but also sometimes more improvisatory in nature.  My hope would be to create a somewhat continuous ribbon of music from start to end with no breaks, where different movements of disjunct works might be integrated with one another in novel ways.  Ideally the listener in the end perceives the works but also the connections between them (that is to say the preludes), and in some cases might have their lasting attention drawn to the preludes themselves.

Chopin Prelude Opus 28 No. 1 in C Major
Chopin Prelude Opus 28 No. 10 in C-sharp Minor
Chopin Prelude Opus 28 No. 14 in E-flat Minor

Old Castle, Bruyères, and Lander Pass

I sat down this morning before work and recorded a couple more pieces.  I'm posting them alongside one of my own works that I recorded years ago.

Most know the story of Modest Mussorgsky, a Russian composer of the 19th century, his music, the struggles with alcoholism.  His opera, Boris Godunov, to me proudly stands beside Bizet's Carmen and Mozart's Don Giovanni.  Pictures at an Exhibition, a piano composition, is mostly know through orchestral or even marching band arrangements.  I learned the first few movements of Pictures a year ago or so.  My brother Greg played it (and played it well) 30 years earlier at Stanford while studying with Mr. Baller.

Debussy's second book of Preludes includes some of my all time favorite pieces.  I performed Brouillards (Fog), Bruyères (Heather), Canope (Canopic jar?), and Les tierces alternées (alternating thirds -- really an etude as much as a prelude) years ago at Stanford.  I relearned Bruyères yesterday.

I wrote Lander Pass in October of 2007.  I performed it at the Daniel Pearl Memorial Concert at Stanford in 2008.    

Old Castle from Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition
Bruyères from Debussy's Preludes Book II
Lander Pass by me

O mio babbini caro

In the context of Smule, I was meeting with the director of digital media for the San Francisco Opera a week ago. We were talking about potentially collaborating with the SF Opera and Smule's Sing!product. Wouldn't it be amazing if you could sing with the acoustics of the SF Opera hall, with the SF Opera orchestra? And wouldn't it be more amazing if you could actually sing with some of the top artists in the world? We shall see.

It was funny, though, because we were talking about what songs might make the most sense for the Sing! community, and I naturally thought of Mozart and Puccini. My colleague at the opera mentioned, "yeah, I suppose we should include some pop music". As opposed to the ring cycle?...

Anyway, I was reminded of how much I adore Puccini arias (guilty as charged), and so sat down and recorded O mio babbino caro this morning. I performed this alongside selections from Strauss and Schubert with a friend over the past couple years.

O mio babbino caro

O mio babbino caro, mi piace, è bello, bello. Vo'andare in Porta Rossa (it) a comperar l'anello! Sì, sì, ci voglio andare! e se l'amassi indarno, andrei sul Ponte Vecchio, ma per buttarmi in Arno! Mi struggo e mi tormento! O Dio, vorrei morir! Babbo, pietà, pietà! Babbo, pietà, pietà!

Oh my dear papa, I love him, he is handsome, handsome. I want to go to Porta Rossa To buy the ring! Yes, yes, I want to go there! And if my love were in vain, I would go to the Ponte Vecchio And throw myself in the Arno! I am anguished and tormented! Oh God, I'd like to die! Papa, have pity, have pity! Papa, have pity, have pity!

Brahms Op 116 No 4

My Schumann episode continues, this time with Brahms Opus 116 No. 4.  Such a sweet piece.

One analysis of the piece (that I freely borrow from Professor Barth at Stanford) proposes a dialog between tenor and soprano.  We see the clues in the opening of the piece.  The tenor has a piano dynamic and wedge on the ascending chromatic motion through B-sharp to C-sharp, whereas the dolce response of the soprano has descending fifths and sixths, eventually with descending motion to G-sharp.  Of course C-sharp is a third below the home key of E, while G-sharp is a third above.

We see the recurring passage built on this opening tenor gesture at mm 32-36 where we arrive at G-sharp, and then again at mm 49-52 where this second time we arrive at C-sharp.  

I won't elaborate on the arpeggiated una corda section starting at m 36 with the melody in octaves plus a sixth, including the pronounced ben legato, but leave that to the imagination of the reader.  Eventually, and once again through with ben legato gestures, the two separate voices finally converge (merge?) on E, coinciding with the arrival of E as the harmony at m 67.

Brahms Opus 116 No. 4

Kind in Einschlummern

I appear to be going through another Schumann period (episode?).

I went back and started reading some of his KinderSzenen a day ago. I decided to record the Kind in Einschlummern this afternoon. I first did a recording via iPhone in the Smule Sing! Karaoke App. I then used a better recording device for this second recording, link below.

Kind im Einschlummern from Schumann's KinderSzenen Op. 15

The scenes from childhood are easier pieces but, not to be confused with his Album für die Jugend (Album for the Young), were not written for children per se. The titles to each song, like much of Schumann's work, apparently came late. I suppose you shouldn't read too much into any of the titles other than to explore more ideas of how to interpret each piece. Yet this song, and taken in from the whole cycle, certainly seems to suggest that the days of innocent youth are nothing more than reminiscences now.

Schumann Arabeske

Jaehyun Park recorded the video of my performance of Schumann's Arabeske in C Major Opus 18 at our final studio concert at Stanford. I've posted the video here:

It was a fairly insane quarter given I was defending and submitting my dissertation for my Ph.D. Between the Ph.D. and Smule, I didn't have time to finish the late Schubert Sonata, D958 in C minor, that I had started. Yet I couldn't help but learn the Scherzo and Largo movements from Chopin's 3rd Sonata while finishing my dissertation (I don't know why -- something about confronting my demons when completing the Ph.D.), but it wasn't ready either. So I played the Schumann Arabeske at the concert. Unfortunately there were a few memory slips. Oh well. I hope I have more time for piano now that I'm finished with my Ph.D.

I defended my Ph.D. yesterday

I started auditing classes in the music department at Stanford in the fall of 2005.  I was admitted to the Phd program at Stanford's Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA) two years later, entering in the fall of 2007.  I passed my qualifying exams in the fall of 2008, the same quarter we launched Smule.  I completed my special area exams on June 3rd of this year (2013).  I defended my dissertation yesterday (11/12/13).  And I passed.

Here is the abstract of my dissertation.

Correlation analyses of encoded music performance by a large and diverse international community of amateur performers reveal insights into fundamental questions of musical behavior.  Specifically, by observing demographic data encapsulated in a corpus of performance recordings, we can conjecture about cultural, geographical, topographical, socio-political, economic and other potential influences, as well as explore possible 'universals' in musical thought and practice.

A century ago, Bela Bartók visited what were then remote regions to identify and characterize folk music at its source.  Subsequent investigators and collectors, particularly in the context of colonialism and with a variety of objectives [Agawu] sought to clarify and categorize music from a broad spectrum of cultures and regions.  In some cases western music was introduced to an indigenous populace specifically in order to observe and record listener reaction [Sachs].

Bartók recording folk songs from Slovak peasants in 1907.

Although fraught with issues, there is a great deal to gain by examining how a particular populace interprets a foreign object. In terms of cultural objects such as a work of music, inferences can be drawn as to what (if anything) is 'universal', as well as how to characterize cultural differences.

As music delivery, through increasingly pervasive mobile devices, becomes more available as well as more interactive, new opportunities arise to study musical practices.  Interactive applications merge audio playback with recorded performance, effectively providing users novel musical instrument interfaces that are amenable to mastery by amateurs. These software instruments are limited in their acoustic richness and expressive control. They also are largely biased in their available sounds and tunings toward mainstream western musical practice. On the other hand, within a relatively short time and with minimal frustration, users both young and old can learn to perform and record music including a wide range of pre-composed works in diverse styles and genres and from numerous origins. More importantly, despite (perhaps, because of) these instruments' limitations, particular aspects of performance -- specifically rhythmic agogics -- are recorded with accuracy and stored efficiently.

The underlying premise of this thesis is that, embedded in the encoded music performances by this diverse community of amateur performers is a wealth of information about musical performance practices. Statistical analysis of these performances can provide insight into musical behaviors as a whole, as well as comparative observations on the cultural, social, economic and geopolitical influences on music performance.

This study attempts to address questions of musical practices from an entirely novel perspective, specifically taking advantage of massively popular game-oriented music performance programs on mobile devices.

A photo my brother Curtis took of my oral defense at Stanford.

Thanks to Jonathan Berger, Chris Chafe, Giancarlo Aquilanti, George Barth, and Bryan Wolf for your insight and support. Special thanks to Craig Sapp, Ge Wang, and Nick Rudolfsky (among others).

Sea Bass v45

I'm finally getting around to publishing a piece I wrote with Professor Mark Applebaum last winter, Sea Bass v45, a tribute of sorts to his own Cat Fish.  I had a lot of fun working with Mark on this piece.  He and I have similar values but quite different perspectives regarding music.  Working with him forced me to confront some of my own ideas in ways that were perhaps less comfortable.  Yet I think this is precisely why I'm going to school. 

Why v45?  Well, it's kind of silly to include that in a title, but technically that is the name of the file on my Mac.  For some reason, version 44 didn't cut it and I needed one more iteration.  And why wasn't v33 or v34 perfect?  Who knows? 

I suppose if I delve into it a bit more, I started with the concept of metric modulation, where you begin with a meter/tempo and then somewhat unperceptively modulate to an adjacent meter/tempo.  I wanted to use the technique to allow the piece to initially sound completely abstract and then somewhat surreptitiously modulate to some metrical structure and so you (the listener) would realize that the piece was less abstract or unstructured but only in retrospect.  I'd modulate then back to something more abstract (lacking any any metrical structure or reference), etc.  Mark wasn't convinced with these drafts, and I suppose I wasn't either.  Next I wondered if the structure might be more metrical but yet embedded in a way that was not obvious, so that I would keep the listener in a state of suspended and confused curiosity...   And eventually this required 45 revisions, hence v45.

Eventually (say v30), the structure of the piece relied on two techniques:  first, at a macro level, metric modulation to take you (the listener) in and out of focus of the structured vs the abstract; and second, at a micro level, metrical counterpoint.  I used three metrical strings, one of length 12, one of 13, and one of 14.  They are grouped into smaller units such as 1-2,1-2,1-2-3,1-2,1-2,1-2-3 [14].  Etc.  And so at one, the core of the piece is attempting to get your ear to lock into one of these strings and then migrate your ear to an adjacent line.  My assumption is that, all else equal, eventually your ear will go to the shortest string. 

Sea Bass v45 Score
Sea Bass v45 MP3 ( virtual instruments)

Bach WTC in F/f

Finally caved in and bought a Steinway.  It almost seems like a betrayal of Mr. Baller. He had a Bösendorfer 225 and Yamaha C7. He believed the Steinways had problems.  He would always ship his Bösendorfer around to wherever he performed. (And eventually so did I!)

My first piano (other than the Knabe I grew up on in my mother's house) was a Yamaha S400 back in '92. I loved it—still do. My second piano was a Bösendorfer 225. I spent some time at the factory outside Vienna, meeting the artisans, testing several out, and finally choosing the one I liked. I shipped (yes, a ship) it to California in '00. When I built the second house in Wyoming, I shipped the Yamaha out there, where it remained (until '21). Eventually I picked up another second piano for the CA house, a used Baldwin, which I love—I've always liked the older Baldwin pianos. Very sturdy. If you visited the dungeons of Dinkelspiel @ Stanford, the Baldwins held up the best. Well, when Smule opened up our new office in San Francisco, I decided to move the Baldwin up there, allowing friends from the company to play in our office. It's been great. And last week, I replaced the Yamaha/Baldwin as the second piano with a Steinway B. I haven't played the Bösendorfer since. It almost seems like we broke up.

I decided to try and record a couple new pieces on the Steinway. I think I would be better off recording on a broken down piano so that my technique and mistakes could be blamed on the instrument (including that missed F vs E-flat on the recap of the f-minor Prelude below).

Prelude in F major, Vol. 1, WTC
Fugue in F major, Vol. 1, WTC
Prelude in f minor, Vol. 1, WTC

Schubert Impromptu in F-minor D 935 No. 1

I've been spending more time at the keyboard the past few months. I don't know why I ever accept periods where I can't play every day. I realize how important spending time with the piano has always been to me.

My technique and voicing control remains a bit of a disaster. Yet I see a path forward. It will take many years. I am determined.

I'm performing before a jury panel at Stanford on Tuesday. Of the pieces I learned this quarter, I decided to focus on the first Impromptu from Schubert's second set, No. 1 in F-Minor. There could not be a more sublime creation in this world, excepting perhaps Schubert's Sonata in B-flat D 960 or maybe Chopin's 3rd Sonata. Technically I'm rationing these latter two pieces, lest I lose reason and purpose beyond my middle age.

My playing still suffers from the core issues of my life: always pushing forward toward a goal, yet never really taking the time to enjoy each moment along the way. There is never enough time it seems. Yet in music, I realize there always is plenty of time -- a realization that never manifests in any of my performances. Hence my own sonata which is an incessantly anguished push towards the end. And so, I have no pride over this recording, but retain it (like the others) to remember where I've been, as opposed to where I hope to go.

Impromptu in F-minor D 935 No. 1

(I didn't splice or remaster anything. This recording was the third and final take, all in the space of this evening. Indeed it is authentic, supposing that such a value applies to recordings).

Beta Collide performance of "not here, not now"

Thrilling to hear Beta Collide perform my new piece. Thank you, thank you Molly & Matthew.

I've included a reasonably high quality recording of the performance as well as the final score. The context for the concert, once more, was a series of pieces composed in response to Professor Mark Applebaum's "Theme in Search of Variations III". I chose to limit my piece to only two of the four ensemble members (flute and piano), in part because I wanted to focus on the resonance of the piano in this piece which would require a muted dynamic, but also I saw an opportunity to use the exercise as a means to justify writing a long-anticipated slow movement to my first piano sonata. The use of flute and piano in a piano sonata indeed has precedence!

The structure follows my other movements, but with an Applebaum twist. Mark's piece build on a structure of rotating ambiguity in time and space. In my piece, I adopt this same table, but create ambiguity around harmonic center. The hope is that in a very subtle and nuanced way, the resonance of the piano pulls the harmonic center down, up, or possibly reenforces that center. This harmonic center itself is somewhat ambiguous given the polytonal structure. A study of the score, however, would reveal certain pitches and harmonies that are re-enforced and implied by the open bass strings. The metric structure, following the form of my other movements, has the piano in five versus the flute in three. In the central dopio movemento, the briefly align on 4.

not here, not now
not here, not now score

Lento "not here, not now", from Sonata No. 1

Finished the slow movement of my sonata for a project at Stanford, namely a response to Mark Applebaum's Variations III.

Yes, this movement of the piano sonata requires a flute, or more specifically an alto flute. If Ives could, why can't I?

The piece is very much about the resonance of the piano, and the projected overtones of sustained and open strings, particularly those in the lower bass. The nuance suggests some ambiguity, whereby in some instances the flute line is bent sharp and other instances bent flat through the set of piano strings that remain open and sustained. The piece will vary, of course, by piano and tuning, which is part of the fun of the performance of the piece. Obviously it works best on the longest strings of a concert grand, and would be quite horrible on an upright.


Like the other movements of the sonata, this movement works with contrasting metrical structures, in this case the flute in 3 versus the piano in 5. Of course they come together in the middle stretto, both converging in 4.

The piece also applies the polytonal structure I've developed throughout the sonata. In this case, we have a progression in E Major against its retrograde in F minor and its inversion in F# minor. The middle section moves to G major and its retrograde in D minor. Etc.

Note that the mp3 here is horrific. Sibelius can't understand and project overtones, nor does it handle any of the flute quarter tones. Fortunately the piece will be performed by Beta Collide in a concert at Stanford on December 2nd. I'll update the blog with that recording when it becomes available.

not here, not now (Sibelius)
not here, not now score

Another pajama-music morning

Not sure what my kids think of their father playing the piano in the early morning in his pajamas.

Technique is a bit rusty. Need better life structure with family first, art next, and then the rest.

Recorded a couple Ravel pieces with my iPhone, the Menuet last week and the Prelude this morning. Probably should have played it a second time as I missed a note the first time. I decided to bring back my Prelude #12 to sit alongside these two Ravel pieces. I realize it's in a different league but, after sitting in the dust for five years, I still enjoy this piece.

Ravel: Prelude
Ravel: Mouvement de menuet, from Sonatine
My Prelude #12

Sonata No. 1 Maestoso, draft next

Is it possible to maintain Maestoso through a migration from the rhetorical to the anti-rhetorical? Beethoven maintains the cantabile throughout his Op 111, Arietta. Yet the piece seems to leave this world and its purported clarity. Is it possible to contemplate the retrograde of Ive's (or perhaps Schumann's) cumulative form? Is such a form nothing more than an embellishment of sonata form?

I've rewritten the second half of this piece. Virtually impossible to play now. I've taken out the bars. The 3:4 structure needs to stand on its own.

Sonata No. 1: Maestoso Score
Sonata No. 1: Maestoso

Be Still, My Soul

David Crowder asked me to do a musical number for the Valparaiso ward in a few weeks. Went back to this piece I wrote in '06 and created an arrangement for alto, baritone, and piano. One of my favorite hymns remains "Be Still, My Soul" from Mr. Sibelius.

Frankly the structure of this modest 'arrangement' is limited and metrically I find it quite square. I was tempted to rewrite here (five years later), but alas, I can't bring myself to do it. It is what it is. We'll see how it sounds in a few weeks.

I've dedicated the piece to the Apostle, Neil Andersen, of the Quorum of the Twelve of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. He is such a wonderful leader and person. I would like to honor him.

Be Still Arrangement

Sonata No. 1 Maestoso

A new movement for my sonata. This is an early draft. As I learn to play the piece, like the Allegro from Sonata No. 1, it will certainly evolve.

If the Allegro explores a metrical interpretation of Sonata form, so too does the Maestoso. The Allegro explores the relationship of 6:7, with 6 perhaps identified symbolically with a 'tonic' and 7 a 'dominant', developed through sonata form. In the Maestoso, the form is theme and variations, except the theme derives metrical 3:4. Consider the simple opening of the piece:


From the opening, the listener is presented with two sources of ambiguity. While in 3/4, the piece suggests 3 yet by the third measure proposes 4. A second source of ambiguity stems from the neighbor tones, C# and D. Do we 'tonicize' the 'D' by treating the C# as a leading tone (the key signature suggests as much), or instead do we have a Phrygian motion from D to 'C#? In fact, there seems to be a symmetrical relationship between two.

Similarly, the following table outlines the structure of the two voices found in the first variation on this 'theme' (mm. 10-28). The rows give tonal field, its key, and the metrical units of each gesture.


Etc.

Draft Score of Sonata No. 1: Maestoso
Sibelius Generated MP3

Miserere Nostri for Soprano, Alto, and iPhone

I've written a piece for the Daniel Pearl Memorial Concert. The piece will be performed at the concert in Memorial Church on the evening of October 7th.

The piece applies my poly-tonal inversion model, and derives the base harmony from the Tallis masterpiece, Tallis in G, the inversion (Soprano and Alto parts) inverted in F.

You can find a nice performance of that Tallis piece here:

Tallis Miserere Nostri

This piece always seems to give me solace whenever I hear it. I don't know why.

The text comes from Psalm 123, quoted in Latin then English here:

1 canticum graduum ad te levavi oculos meos qui habitas in caelo
2 ecce sicut oculi servorum in manibus dominorum suorum sicut oculi ancillae in manibus dominae eius ita oculi nostri ad Dominum Deum nostrum donec misereatur nostri
3 miserere nostri Domine miserere nostri quia multum repleti sumus despectione
4 quia multum repleta est anima nostra obprobrium abundantibus et despectio superbis

1 I lift up my eyes to you, to you whose throne is in heaven.
2 As the eyes of slaves look to the hand of their master, as the eyes of a maid look to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to the LORD our God, till he shows us his mercy.
3 Have mercy on us, O LORD, have mercy on us, for we have endured much contempt.
4 We have endured much ridicule from the proud, much contempt from the arrogant.

Miserere Nostri