So like four months ago I said that I'd have some symphonic examples for you tomorrow. And then I posted them to Bandcamp but didn't actually post them to the blog. Whoops.
But I have something significant today. It's not complete by any means, but it's complete enough to start orchestrating. Here's what the 4-piano reduction of Symphony No. 1 sounds like:
(Note from 2014-02-21: Due to the limits of my non-pro Soundcloud account, I had to delete this sample. It'll be back once I launch ScoreShare later this year.)
I'll spend the next several weeks in Missouri orchestrating it, and I'll try to post lots of audio examples. TRY.
I know, I said like a month ago that I was going to post sound clips of my dissertation tomorrow, and I keep not. I've been busy with planning a lecture recital and putting together what I'm about to show you.
I've talked about Hammer in some depth before, and I'm in the process of taking all those programs I've built (Hammer/Keys/DAVID/Encore/Mallet) and turning them into one big program that I can sell to people, and that big program is named Liszt. It's still being developed, but here's a part that's more or less done.
I've had to schedule a variety of rehearsals over my academic career (something that will no doubt continue), and it's been a challenge to play email tag with an ensemble basically saying “Hey when are y'all free?” So building on the calendar portions of Liszt, I built a rehearsal scheduler that takes the availability of all participants and spits out possible times. Let's see how it is in action.
Liszt (the big program) requires an account, but since the rehearsal scheduler is just a simple utility (for now), it relies on email addresses for scheduling. This means it's passwordless, but it also means that the first thing that has to be done is email validation.
Once the email address is validated, the user can start assembling the survey. Here, the schedule coordinator sets basic information including the title, length of meeting, and date range of meeting, along with some general information about the meeting or rehearsal.
Next, the coordinator adds participants, and a blank calendar is created for each.
Participants add their “Busy” times to the calendar.
Once all calendars are in, the coordinator can look at a list of possible times for meeting. By default the program looks for times between 9am and 5pm, but these thresholds can be changed to show different hours.
Once a time is scheduled, the program creates the appropriate Google Calendar, Outlook.com calendar, and ICS files (for Outlook and iCal), and the participants are emailed the chosen time.
So that's a basic overview of the Liszt Rehearsal Scheduler. It's still rough around the edges as I find all the bugs, but it's workable. And it's a glimpse into what Liszt will soon become. To give you an idea, here's what my Liszt dashboard looks like:
We're getting there!
I've been hard at work on the dissertation/symphony (symphontation? disserphony?) and I'll be posting some clips today or tomorrow, but here's what's going on in VanderLand:
I've submitted applications to faculty vacancies at Wash U. and Columbia. There's a music tech position I have my eye on at MO Western, and I'll be putting that together soon.
I've decided that my lecture recital is going to cover Over Every Open Field as well as AXIS, my Xbox instrument. Which is good, since that happens in less than a month (!!!)
I'm coming real close to finishing up my rehearsal scheduling helper, and that's going to be a fairly big deal once I get it working and clean it up and release it. It's likely going to replace Hammer as my CMS, and will probably involve a commercial offering.
My sleep schedule is totally whack, which is why I'm blogging at 1 in the morning instead of sleeping. I'm trying to rein it back in, but it's a difficult process.
I went to my first (and likely only) OU football game, so I can finally no longer say that I've been here 5 years without seeing a single game.
I've been making fun of everyone doing their general exams right now, instead of doing them in the Spring like I did. Especially you, Ikard.
Soooo yeah, that's what's been going on here. No fancy pictures this time, sorry.
Wow, I really suck at blogging. I'll get better at that.
The big-ish news I've been meaning to post for a while (read: forever) is rearranging my home studio. David Ikard rearranged his earlier this summer, and not wanting to be left behind, I decided that I should update mine as well. For one, I have these really awesome bookshelves/speaker stands I built when I was supposed to be studying for general exams.
The stain is a bit darker than my desk, and they've been varnished since I took this picture. Anyway, with my homemade desk and L-shaped desk setup, I had no real place to put those speakers. And it was a mess.
So, following Stephen King's advice about putting your desk in the corner (or, in my case, against a wall) instead of out in the open, I got rid of the L-shaped desk (sort of, it's in my bedroom as a computer workstation desk), opened up the floor a lot, brought in a couple of comfortable chairs, and did my best to reduce the clutter, and here's what I ended up with.
The indirect lighting and rug are nice touches. The office has also not been that clean since I took the picture. The third frame that says WHAT is for my next recital poster, once I get that designed.
Anyway, after that I took a vacation back home, only to return to find my computer had died. It was annoying, but after replacing the power supply, motherboard, processor, and RAM, it's back to new, and no longer looks like this:
As far as school goes, I no longer have any real classes, so I get to spend my four-day weekend writing. I've honed in on a one-movement symphony, which is slowly coming along.
Meanwhile, it's game day in Norman, and I'm going to brave the traffic to get away from campus.
One of the things I've been wanting to do for a while is modify this site's design, since more viewers are using phones and tablets to access content. And this site has never really been mobile-friendly, despite the (absolutely terrible) mobile site and mobile determination script (Are you using a phone? Good, then go to the mobile site. Using Opera on a Mac? You too). But now, This site (and my personal website over at http://kylevanderburg.com/personal/) look far less terrible on mobile devices. The blog is still a little questionable (due to all the pictures from flickr), but it's a start. (EDIT: this is fixed!).
So, go and resize your browsers!
I've been gone for like six weeks. Normally, this happens when I'm writing music, but none of that has happened lately. I plan to post some detailed updates soon, but until then, here's where I've been and what I've been doing.
I passed my general exams! All I have left is a class this summer, a recital, and a document.
I didn't get a new job, which is all well and good because I didn't want to have an 8-5 work schedule anyway.
I started working on the document proposal for the aforementioned document.
I've decided not to go to Australia for ICMC this year, because it's expensive and they keep not releasing the program. Or answering my email.
I installed Windows 8.1 on the Surface and the desktop, and love it (though it doesn't seem to love my laptop).
There's a new program note for Daydreams of Arcadia, and a new mockup of Deus in Machina.
And so on, and so on. There's also some furniture and marketing things, but we'll get to those.
FROM AGENT JOHN EDWARD GET BACK TO ME IMMEDIATELY?.
I received an INTEL MEMO from the WHITE HOUSE in my office today and I must advice you as follows:
1: I received an Intel from our wiretap internet protocol office that my communication with you have been breached by impostors which have prompted immediate action from my side to make sure that this transaction is secured. Today, I issue you this code for communication (G11) which must be contained both in the subject and at the end of any of my email letter to you, This is for your own good.
2: With instruction from the White House and the United states Department of Homeland Security, I am informing you that you due consignment box containing your total payment fund of US$10,000,000.00 (Ten Million United States Dollars) is approved for release and delivery to you as soon as you fulfill all “OBLIGATION” and offset the refundable “TAX CLEARANCE LEVY” mandated by the IRS on all consignment that has been in our vault over 3 months.
Note that as i write you now, your funds contained in your consignment box is presently in our maximum storage vault in Atlanta, GA and will only be marked cleared for release once you fulfill all “OBLIGATION” stated on your release questionnaire by Homeland security.
Once I hear from you, I will instruct further.
Regards,
Agent John Edward
I was informed this morning that Blueprints of Eternity has been accepted for inclusion in 2013's International Computer Music Conference!
Acceptance message follows.
—
Dear Kyle Vanderburg,
On behalf of the International Computer Music Conference 2013, I am pleased to inform you that your submission, titled
Blueprints of Eternity
has been accepted.
Please note that if you submission is an installation submission, this acceptance is dependent on the ICMC's ability to facilitate your work. We will be in touch shortly to discuss installation and equipment requirements.
We have included the reviewers' comments at the end of this message. If you log into our openconf site you should also be able to access these. Let me know if you have any questions or concerns.
Please note that you will need to confirm your intention to present or perform by the 31st of May, 2013.
Authors of all works and papers presented at ICMC 2013 require registration as a delegate. If possible please do this by the 30th of June, 2013. This can be done from our Eventbrite page: http://www.eventbrite.com.au/myevent?eid=5863360469
Visit our website for up to date information and news on ICMC 2013. A full program will be released next month.
http://icmc2013.com.au/
Congratulations,
Program Committee, ICMC2013
conference@tura.com.au
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Strictly limited source material can be hazardous because it demands so much of the composer’s manipulation skill just to keep things interesting. In this case, the composer did achieve interesting transformations of the limited source.
But as a whole, structurally, it was not a strong attention-holder. Seemed to need much more dynamic contrast, and more timbral diversity. Spatially flat as well – needs to be opened up – and I’m not convinced that active diffusion will help much, given the relative lack of interplay between L and R.
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Blueprints of eternity. This work is a study in time using a kitchen timer as the sole source sound. There is a good sense of space after the open monophonic passage and some very neat and precise manipulations which sustain the narrative. The work also has a tight form. The sound recording as it stands does not lend itself easily to transformation and as a consequence some of the transformations are a little harsh. This may be partly mastering but partly the unresponsive nature of a timer click.
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Engaging sound material and journey from recognisable sound source to more abstracted detail. There are some attractive spatial trajectories and placements of materials within the overall structure. The closing section is particularly well handled. Because of the soundworld's timbral uniformity (all appearing to originate from one source), more variation in contour, shaping and depth perspective could be welcomed.
Yesterday, I was awarded the Ernest Trumble Award for Outstanding Graduate Musicology Paper ™, and with it, a box of stuff that Dr. Lee found in his office. Here is the content of the box, in all its glory (in Turabian, of course):
Bukofzer, Manfred F. Music in the Baroque Era: from Monteverdi to Bach. New York: Norton, 1947.
David, Hans T. and Arthur Mendel, eds. The Bach Reader, A Life of Johann Sebastian Bach in Letters and Documents. New York: Norton, 1945.
David, Hans Theodore. J.S.Bach’s Musical Offering: History, Interpretation, and Analysis. New York: G. Schirmer, 1945.
Moser, Hans Joachim. Heinrich Schütz: His life and work. Translated by Carl F. Pfatteicher. Saint Louis: Concordia, 1959.
Terry, Charles Sanford. Bach, a Biography. 2nd ed. London: Oxford, 1950.
Unger, Melvin, ed. Bach: Journal of Riemenschneider Bach Institute 31 nos. 1-2, 35 nos. 1, 36 no. 2, 37 nos. 1-2, 38 nos. 1-2, 39 nos. 1-2, 40 nos. 1-2, 41 nos. 1-2, 42 nos. 1-2, 43 no. 1.
Annotated Program to the 68th annual Baldwin-Wallace College Bach Festival.
Annotated Program to the 69th annual Baldwin-Wallace College Bach Festival
1 seed rattle
1 remote to a Tascam CD RW5000
1 notebook
And the paper that caused all of this? Standardized Contrapuntal Technique and Bach's Riddle Canons from The Musical Offering.
