PROF

COMPOSITION

SCORE

COMMENTS

Elevation

8.50

Very pleasant to listen to. I fully see myself recording this and bringing it on vacation to play in the car on the way to Myrtle Beach. Poignant melody with the 'cellos to begin with, sun-kissed Jamaican beach feel later on, not taxing on the neurons at all, yet nothing about it is boring. Again, another piece that is what it is, no pretension. Well done!

The 60s Blues

Gaspains

8.80

LOL - I almost thought this was a French title (sorry, Simon)! Well, I've heard better - but NOT MUCH!!! This was, in fact, a GAS! I had to open a bottle of Sabatucci Primativo just to properly enjoy the coolness that exudes from every pore of this piece. The only misgiving: there wasn't MORE! My gal wanted to dirty-dance, but then your friggin' piece ended too soon - you BASTARD! LOLOLOL

Red Islands

Piano Concert 1, mov 2

7.50

snore.....*cough!* ahem! sorry, was there music playing? There were DEFINITELY loud and soft parts to it. And it ended with plucked strings. And it alternated between g-minor and D...... incessantly. That's about all I can say about it.

Altman Sonata for piano

8.00

Excellent comprehension of the sonata form, and starts off with a "hit-the-floor-running" entrance that is undeniably attractive. Good treble vs. bass syncopation. Measure 24 has a pleasant momentary slide into the minor, but what fascinated me was measure 92: the FUGUE, baby! Well, not strictly a fugue, but well appraoached anyway. Overall, a very professionally done piece, even if the development of the "sonata" was absent.

Friday's Waltz

7.00

I was very, very happy to hear this - - - when it ended

Alien Wars

Funk (A Brief Insanity)

Piano Concerto #6 Mov3 Op38

8.20

Yes, we all know you are the Saint-Saens of the 21st century - lol! Music like this is hard to characterize, mostly because it is emotional more than anything else. There is considerable skill in partitioning instuments against the piano, yet there is something I can't quite understand: with all of the orchestral tricks up your sleeve, why isn't there an actual melody that I can hum when I walk out of the concert hall? Perhaps this is trivial, yet when I speak to someone who, unknown to me, has attended a symphony concert that I was present at, either he or I will ask if we remember a particular theme of a particular piece - and we will both hum or whistle a tune that OUGHT to be identifiable by two people who attended the same concert. I have a sneaky feeling that if this piece were played, we'd have a hard time blowing wind through our lips. It's not that it isn't beautiful at times - hell, a c-major chord is that, without even trying - but piano figurations, runs, arpeggios, all with sumptious string, brass, and woodwind accompaniments do NOT a concerto make. Let's LOOK at Saint-Saens, for example: even at his wildest (e.g., the Overture to "Samson et Delilah", or the "Egyptian" concerto #5 for piano and orchestra, there were actual themes that one could hum when
the show was over. I know you are able to do this, but your retiscence to do so may be overcome by a desire to be completely "original".
This is the tail wagging the dog, and no one can prove this to you until you yourself see it. I suspect you are in fact capable of giving true
musicality to whatever your already considerable musical skills can produce. Either that, or you doomed to Yanni-Hell. It's your choice.
The genius of Mozart is that he could do, behind the scenes, unbeknownst to the uneducated or insensitive of his listeners, what you are
doing for an entire piece - and he could do it in his sleep - while AT THE SAME TIME, he could provide a real melody or identifying principle
that even an idiot could take home with him after the music was finished. You're not doing that, and that pisses me off, because I think
that you are able to (since you have the "patter" and "chutzpah" down), but are just too damned lazy to go the extra step.
LAYERS - that's what I'm talking about. Sure, appeal to the emotional side of your listeners (that's fucking EASY), but have something
concrete to say about something specific that you are passionate about. All of this assumes that you do, in fact have something to say.
If you are under 40, it is possible, but unlikely. Irregardless, with respect to what is addressed in this music, very, VERY well done.

Accordions Duet Op42

7.00

Klesmer on, alternatively, methadone and crack. I didn't exactly envision myself on the banks of the Seine, though I could apprehend the culture from which this sprang - - or, rather, dripped. I guess I'd have to learn the accordian to really appreciate this piece. Yup - that'll happen

Trio No 1

Battle of Fleetzan 2002

Horses of the Time

Standing Man

8.20

Lovely. Good trumpet solo. And unpretentious as hell, no going for the emotional balls, so of course you had 'em hook, line and sinker.

Walk of the Grave

The Eagle and the Child

Mary Edna

Never Again

8.60

Good solo work, needs more development. For example, the lively eighth notes in the treble might have been nicely complemented by, say, imitative eighth notes in the bass while the treble went on to something else. Still, short and sweet and good to hear.

Piano Studio 3

9.00

Scriabin incarnate! LOL

A Strange Song

7.50

Not so strange, really.... tonic to subdominant to dominant keys, it epitomizes the standard rock/pop formulation - but with a few noteworthy surprises. I liked the chromaticism at the bridges, but disliked some of the instrument choices - but that's just a personal preference, and may even be related to my pitiful soundfont library. Pleasant to listen to, right up until the fade-out.

Handel's Great Drunk

8.30

Interestingly ending on the minor tonic key, this work represents a great effort by a person who is honing his contrapuntal skill. Kudos, and keep going!

Reinvent

Circa 21

8.20

Well, I was fully prepared to dis this piece, then it went on and became interesting, what with pizzicato strings, triplets being born everywhere, fantastic "Mike Connors as Mannix" horn work. One note: the beginning, with chords flowing in the strings - there has GOT to be a "legato" button in your software somewhere! Otherwise, great mood piece, if you're in the mood for "Our Man Flint". Good work!

Sister Ann Joins the Carnival

8.80

Wow..... I could definitely see this in a David lynch or John Waters film, exactly abbout someone's sister named Ann, joining the carnival. A lot of strange dissonances, and changing tempos and rythms, which kept me off center. LOVED the percussion starting at around measure 172. But too damned long, damn it. I mean, do you REALLY want someone to get up in the middle of your piece to pour himself yet another glass of wine? A stroke of genius: the solo trumpet/trombone/whatever at the end. Too bad you couldn't have incorporated it earlier. Weird as hell, so of course I loved it.

Hungry Heart

Pilate Shrugged

I Am Myself

Shadowplay Waltz

7.70

Fun waltz tune, even if the strings were a bit heavy-handed. Again, as in a previous piece this month I reviewed, a LOT of emotional goodies, but no real melody. WHY am I so obsessed with melody? Dunno - ask any of the great composers from the last 300 years why THEY were, too.

Entrance of the Scholars

8.80

What an interesting cross-cultural piece of music! If you have the flair for the exotic and unfamiliar (as seems apparent in this piece), then I say GO FOR IT! Very, very well done.

The World is Round

Hallelujah Chorus

7.00

I don't give kudos for unoriginal works. Sorry - but good effort on your part.

Chesh Lank

8.50

Very, VERY fun percussion and catchy syncopated rythms here - I listen often to the lads in seesiun at Anna Liffey's Irish Pub, and this is what they do on a regular basis, and it was a pleasure to hear it here. This sort of style lends inself to NON-treatment of themes - "what you hear is what you get" - and this person has completely understood what was expected in form and style, and gets a relatively high score from me because there is absolutely no pretension whatsoever in this piece.

String Quartet mov 1

7.80

Very good part-writing, but - again - no IDENTIFIABLE theme. I wrote something similar a million years ago in high school, which bored most of the listeners then with the length with which I would attempt to say something important. Hint: the important things, musically, only take abbout 4 measures - how you make them into hundreds of measure is up to you, but they should only serve to hammer home those 4 original ones.

String Variations

n/a

My One and Only Love

The Enchanted Storm

9.30

Now, WHY do I have the feeling that Seth wrote this? LOL! Son, I'm not dissing you - in fact, this is the best modern representation of a thunderstorm (of sorts) since Beethoven's Sixth Symphony, 3rd movement. Very professionally worked dynamics and instrumentation. Question: I have yet to see a work of yours (well..... assuming it IS Seth I'm addressing. Sorry if I'm wrong) that has no colorful description, or visual connotation. I'd be fascinated by a different approach, sucj as in your well-tempered fugues and canons.
All of this is assuming, of course, I am addressing Seth. And if I am, that ought to say something to you, son. Like, break out of the mold.

Dawn

8.30

Again, a piece that knows it's place, and doesn't try to convince others that it's more than it is: a kind of tone poem, with delightful glockenspiel and bell effects - a real mood-maker, and though I'd never shell money out to see it live, it was my priveledge to hear it here. Thanks!

Boris and Natasha

Scherzo on Bee 10

8.00

Lordy, lordy, lordy..... on the one hand, I feel guilty about slamming something that someone has obviously spent a LOT of time doing.
Son - you're NOT Beethoven. He was a consummate orchestrator, a cultural and political (yes, political) icon - he made sure a musician of any merit never entered through a servant's entrance again... he's the only one in musical history who could say, at the beginning of a concert where royalty was present in the front seat, and WOULDN'T stop fucking talking, "For such pigs I do not play!!!", and then storm off of the stage). Your respect for Beethoven is commendable, and your desire to emulate or "finish" what he left undone is even more so - but you need to understand where he fit into HIS time, and why he doesn't always fit into OUR time, unless it is with a twist. It is a GREAT thing that you've done with you 600-odd measures, and I encourage you to continue. At the same time, I must say that it is NOT of the same quality that Beethoven's work would be. Son, this is NOT a problem: all you have to do is become as good (VERY entirely possible) as him, then do this over again. It is too long, and too unvaried in both character and instrumentation.
AND.... I can't wait until you do this again, properly. You have a gift, and more importantly a love for the music.
Cripes, who else besides Ron Roos would spend so much time on it? LOL - keep truckin', Gerd, I am rooting for you.

End of the Storm

7.60

Sturdy, solid work that needs much, much more. Very nice touch with the bells, esp. at the end. Keep growing, expanding, experimenting - you will have so much to offer to your listeners.

Symphony 2, mov 1

9.20

VERY original, with strange yet familiar progressions, and - good lord - a theme I hummed on the way to the front porch for a cigarette break! Prokofiev, or Mussorgsky, reincarnated! Espescially interesting is the fugal treatment at measure 165. I think I can identify this composer (there's a clue - write something that identifies you), and he gets a high mark anyway....LOL

Symphony 2, mov 2

9.60

Gotta be by the same dude/chick - and just as well done. Take heed: buy tickets NOW for this person's concerts. They have that Lisztian, eastern-european backbone that is SO missing from modern music. Virtuosic without being a "showoff", this work speaks to human beings if they are not already dead and buried. I'm very sorry if anyone else can't "get it", but this is the real McCoy - excellent lower woodwind/bassoon/obe work, as well as for timpani.

Gran Ciaccona

10.00

There is simply not enough room in my excel file to describe how good - and why it is good - this piece is. Not a friggin' note from Pachelbel (except for his bass line), and the inventiveness, I suspect, could go on well into the next decade were the composer so inclined. Exhibiting a consummate understanding of the baroque idiom, and in particular the "sonata de camera" style of writing that was in response to the "sonata de chiesa" so favored by the boring and overbearing church, this work should plainly clue those interested in writing seriously into contacting this person for lessons. But take a number, and get in line - I'm first. From measure 66, where there is a change and preparation for the fugue that follows, right on to the finish, we hear the likes of which has not appeared on this website to date. And then there's the fugue itself (beginning at the middle of measure 75) - I've written equal, but only once, and never better. If you're a woman, I want to bear your children. This is THAT GOOD. Instumentation properly placed, the "call and answer" problems exquisitely addressed, and form/style strictly adhered to without any loss of individual expression.
This is the canon that Pachelbel would've wanted to write if he'd had any sense at all - true, too late for the time, but this just proves my point -
a completely original work-within-form, one of the hardest things for an artist to do. And this, ladies and gentleman, is an artist. BRAVO! BRAVO! BRAVO!

Concert 43, mov 1

7.70

Well, well, well - - finally, the spectre of fomr/style vs. originality comes up in someone other than ME! LOL - good understanding of the form, proper development, acceptable solo work - and completely unsurprising and unmelodic. Yeah, yeah, yeah, there's melody in there - but it is a Salieri piece, essentially....you remember him, don't you? He's the guy whose ass got kicked by Mozart on every fromt, if I recall. And the reason is that he did what was expected, and it was his great fortune that those who expected him to toe the party line were royalty. His music still stunk. An excellent effort at recreating the from, but without spirit - it remains a merely intellectual exercise.

Veliki Traven

Astro Odyssey

7.50

That would be "Odyssey", btw. So much promise, but it remained impossibly loud and obnoxious for a full 170-odd measures. Really, where was the melody? Or harmonic progression? Sure, it's just one man's opinion, and by all means ignore it - but if you can do this (and for so gawd-awfully long) then you can certainly juxtapose it with something some of us call a "counter-theme". Of course, this presumes foreknowledge of the concept of a "theme". Not trying to rank on you too badly, but this is just so much fanfare, and nothing at all remains for the ravishing of the listener's soul. If this discourages you from continuing to write, then you're a pussy - I mean, you obviously know how to formulate ideas, and manipulate chords, and throw in some wild-sounding woodwinds for color. Now try and learn how to do that with your own voice. This sounds too much like bad t.v. music - - - so stop watching it, and get to work.

The Proposition

Fantasia

Rock on the Town

Chinatown

TOTAL AVERAGE

8.24