arranging

welcome to what I am most proud of to date -- some lovely string arrangements for voices, piano and my voice -- but my arranging/composing voice. I am starting to meld into my identity. When people advise you to embrace yourself, whatever does that mean -- but more importantly to my current specs, what does that entail?

For me, it is a little bit about labels, in an NLP sense of what sensory experientials they connote and thus what my work will embody. Impressionistic minimalism. That's me...I think. Marrying the beautiful washes of the French painters with the bare bones approach of nothing wasted gifted to us by minimalism (think whitacre and lauridsen drinking absinthe in a cafe with Part!)

This is all a good discovery going into a year of the most commissions I have had to date. It is so lovely to have opportunities to shape things -- dance, film, concert music, abstract performance art. Suffice it to say, everything is loosening up and falling into place -- even my high notes!

Revelation

So...
Already I have failed in my quest, but to quote a friend's prof -- "FAILURE is LESSON too!"

And so I learn the lesson of this practice, for all practice is to embody a lesson -- and that is that I am embarking on a "Year of Composition."

Not a daily practice in a literal sense. But a year in composing -- 365 compositions on this blog. And then I will retire it and move on, or go where the lesson leads me.

Pressing concerns this week, namely learning to embody Edith Piaf, have been incredibly rewarding and all-absorbing. That and releasing my first ever recorded project in the form of a compilation album for UNEDITED. My original arrangements -- out in the universe to be enjoyed by my anonymous audience. It is a brave step for me and I am most excited by the prospect of letting my work go into the unknown.

Enjoy the trip, as I am certainly doing that very thing.

Bon Voyage~
MusicBall Discoteque!

DAY 3 : Dream Comp

This morning I simply could not get out of bed. It was as if all of the ideas that have been spinning in my head converged on my subconscious and plumb wore me out. I recall having word dreams that transformed into compositions all through the night in my sleeping consciousness. It was a wild ride. Something of what I can recall is below.


Lifting.
Drifting.
Leaving the page.

From one piece springs new melody.
Find your line through the tunes of another mind.
And lift it from the page.


Technically, as I fell victim to sleep rather early last night, this is yesterday's composition.

DAY 2

dedicated to Pedro

DAY 1

Daily Composition

This commences a one-year cycle of daily compositions. I will write an evocative, literal soundscape composition each morning and post to the site. What I hope to gain, is immeasurable. What I seek to learn, is incomprehensible. What I seek to share, is everything.

Hurt and Happiness

I have had numerous exchanges recently concerning the nature and potential of happiness, or rather a happy life. It seems that so many do not consider that happiness may exist in the same moment as hurt, pain, regret, or many other numerous emotions that test and refine (define?) the human condition.

In the light of this past weekend's events, it feels even more possible to me that our lives are a delicious mixing of the two -- happiness and hurt. There are good hurts after all, and happy lies and many other such sayings -- perhaps there is much wisdom in even the simplest idiomatic expression and paradigm.

When life can end so quickly, it seems each wasted moment is priceless. If only our awareness was as keen as our sense of loss in hindsight. So with that being said, I am voicing the following items on my bucket list for the universe's eyes and ears -- truly now what we voice is both heard AND seen given the multi-faceted nature of the interweb.

Ahem...

1. Richard Armitage, I would like to go riding with you in Hyde Park and then have supper and wine...in New Zealand.

2. I want to walk the Great Wall of China with TN Hahn and discuss parallels in Christianity in the West and Eastern Buddhism.

3. Mierle Ukeles, I want to shake YOUR hand.

4. I wish to visit Nigeria and study African Drumming there first hand.

5. Achieve Master Gardener status somewhere.

6. One day, I want to learn to gallop on a horse -- and enjoy it!

7. Travel with my concerts to small intimate spaces and spread cultural commerce.

8. Get a tan and fit into my Brasilian Bikini.

9. Enroll in an Aerial class and work up to the Egyptian Mummy and perfect my splits.

10. See Alaska, India, and Easter Europe -- and sing in creative spaces in each.

and 11. Write American Soundscapes for the next 10 years!

Cheers!
MB Disco