Requited Music: Anatomy of a Scoring Gig
In July 2016, I received a call from Monadnock Media asking if I’d be interested in scoring one of their short films intended for the soon-to-be-opened museum. Monadnock’s style was about the closest marriage between music and picture I’d encountered in over two decades of film composing.
Polychromatic Music
We have no words for many perceptual aspects of hearing–imagery, visualization, dimension, space, etc.–so we are faced with communicating auditory concepts in analogy or metaphor. My perspective is to link visual and auditory perceptual concepts into an idea of ‘pitch-color’.
Michael J. Schumacher: Composing is Listening
Although Michael J. Schumacher has stated that he is interested in “defining boundaries and not crossing them,” he does not let that limit his own extremely wide range of musical activities—from the immersive Room Pieces and other sound installations to dance collaborations with choreographer Liz Gerring, to his indie “dance pop” band diNMachine. “I love lots of kinds of music; I’m just aware of the differences,” he explains.
Leveling Up, Part 3: Entering the Marketplace
You’ve written a band piece. Now what? If you were commissioned by an ensemble to create something new just for them, a few problems are likely already solved for you: instrumentation, difficulty level, length, and first performance. And you’ll probably get paid, too! It’s a great gig. Another way to enter the world of educational band music is to compose on spec. There is a lot of value to be found in filling your catalog with multiple pieces at a variety of grade levels.
Composing for Carillon
The carillon is one of the most public of instruments, yet most people never know who it is playing the instrument since the performers hidden from view, Carillonneurs strive to convince audiences that we are not machines playing the same tunes each day; we are real humans capable of expression and dynamic variation with lots of diverse repertoire.
It Ain’t Over Yet. Don’t give up on Net Neutrality.
Don’t give up on #NetNeutrality. The FCC currently has the authority to do what it has just done and repeal net neutrality rules. But Congress can step in and pass legislation that repairs the damage.
Leveling Up, Part 2: Making the Grade
The leveling system provides a shortcut for educators who are looking for new pieces. It has also helped create a set of standards. There is basic agreement between the various publishers and the state lists about what the grade levels mean, but there is also overlap between the levels.
NewMusicBox Mix: 2017 Staff Picks
New Music USA being all about the discovery of new sounds, staffers here like to celebrate the end the year with a shout out to a track that caught their ears and hung on for any number of good reasons. Don’t see a 2017 favorite of yours? We hope you’ll tell us more about it below in the comments so we can all give it a listen.
This Is Why Your Audience Building Fails
New music offers the world something unique that is worth sharing as broadly as possible. We desperately need to get better at sharing it.
Creative Productivity Challenge Day 5: Confidence
Some people think confidence is the key to success. It’s a handy rationale because we can always blame our lack of productivity on our lack of confidence. Let’s overturn those assumptions.
The Art of Play
“How can I make the act of creating new art feel less like work and more like PLAY?” Danny Clay has been asking this question of himself and others to inspiring result. Composing can be messy. Why not just make something you feel like making? The music might surprise you.
Leveling Up, Part 1: The Business of Sheet Music
Music is an art form and defies boxes and labels, but leveling music makes it easier to sell.
Creative Productivity Challenge Day 4: Process
High standards and a pursuit of the ideal are the hallmarks of any creative practice, but perfectionism can prevent us from appreciating or even achieving extraordinary results. How do we allow for the playful, exploratory, and experimental part of the process as well as for the critical, and analytical part?
Burnout is a b****. Let’s avoid it.
Megan Ihnen was worried. Getting mired in small tasks without a big vision kept her incessantly “busy” but accomplishing very little until she felt completely burnt out. In the end, it wasn’t self-care and motivational Pinterest quotes that recharged her, but something much more direct: the inspiration and productivity that can naturally follow audacious (but clearly defined!) goals.
Creative Productivity Challenge Day 3: Purpose
Flow: it’s that magical place when we are “in the zone” and operating at peak creativity—we’re focused, our mind is quiet, we’re working with a marvelous ease and time seems to disappear. How can we set ourselves up to get to the flow state more consistently?
On Starting
I’ve found this to be true again and again: get past the difficulty of starting by simply starting. How to do that looks different every time, so there’s no secret trick to it. The only consistency is that starting is the transition from merely thinking about composing to actually composing.
Creative Productivity Challenge Day 2: Self-Messaging
Doing our best work demands that we get past the voices of our fears, self-limiting beliefs, and self-defeating assumptions. What has helped you?
When Everything Utterly Sucks
Somewhere in the homestretch of writing a new composition, I become convinced—temporarily, falsely—that not only is there nothing redeemable about this awful piece, but that composing itself is meaningless, I’ve committed myself to a worthless career, and I’m a bad composer.
Creative Productivity Challenge Day 1: Creativity Habits
Whether it’s a new piece we’re writing, a work we’re learning, an ensemble we’re launching, or a fundraising campaign we’re spearheading, let’s look at what helps us to bring our best and get the work done.
Creative Productivity Challenge Dec 4-8, 2017
NewMusicBox’s Creative Productivity Theme Week starts here! Join us for a special 5-day challenge to help you boost your artistic output and make the new year your best yet.
Here’s A Plan
We can’t bring back the cheap rent, abundant loft spaces, and free time that helped us to form our own independent ensembles, but we do have the internet. Music is who we are, and we must keep fighting for our right to create it.
On Big Questions of Creativity and Intention
or: How I learned to stop worrying and love Zuckerberg’s machine. As with other areas in the many realms of public discourse these days, there are times when, for me, taking a gander at the old quotidian chit-chat stream on Facebook has just become unbearable. It’s OutrageBook in these trying times, or LookAtMeWinningBook, which it’s… Read more »
There's Still So Much to Learn, But I'm More Confident Now
The past year has been extraordinary for me. I didn’t imagine that my piece Likely Pictures in Haphazard Sky would have an interesting life beyond The Yale Philharmonia’s December concert. But in February 2017, I learned that I had been chosen to participate in the American Composers Orchestra Underwood New Music Readings and later in the spring, I received an invitation to attend the Minnesota Orchestra Composer Institute.
What does it mean to be American?
What is American classical music? Does classical music have something meaningful to say in this conversation about being American? Derrick Spiva decided to write a string quartet to shed light on the America that he has experienced, and that quickly sent him on a much bigger journey than he anticipated.
