Victorian Post Mortem Overture No.1 in C-Major

Gahahah. Here you go, buddy. Your 1000th like. Well deserved.

 

Ha !! Funny. Yeah..... well.....

A good time for me to play that I enjoy "perceptions vs reality". Imagine me logging on and reading your post.

How I think I handled it.



Vs. the actual camera footage

"Don't believe you lyin eyes"

 

@Alexander Schiborr

 

ARRRGGHHHHHh

I just made a 90-minute video.......going over what I could not in the one above, and when I got to the end

"System-error"

Dahh !!!!

On man....... I am deflated. So frustrating. I can't re-do. To soul-crushing.

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Continue on. Don't let any in-progress feedback give you doubt.

End of the day write the music you love and die happy.

Don't worry about what technique you don't know. Your enthusiasm for what you are writing is a gift, and you gotta roll with that.

I have severe depression, and my last 6 months have been going from one anti-depressant to another.
I had to turn down a feature film gig, fallen behind with my publisher, and basically...... I am out.
(for a while)

(My reason for writing this is also because I bet I am not the only composer who has severe depression)

So..... take your shot while you can. You will never be as good as Rachmanioff.....but he is dead.

Your time is now.....take the shot.
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Fuck...... I don't know how to re-do what I said in the video....... maybe later in a week or two

Either way, have grit and give it all you have.

Doug

 

It's a little different. As you have seen, I just record and begin talking. When I hit stop, instead of the editor window opening up, the error message. There was literally no chance to save. What you are describing sucks too, but at least there is a preventable way. This is more like having the program
crash every two minutes, where it does not matter who you are there is no workable flow.

I wonder if it has to do with OS compatibility.

I don't if it's possible for me to adequately demonstrate; None of that is why I am suggesting you study his works. Nothing to do with style, or the materials. NOTHING.

Let me try and give a glimpse in a written post to follow

 

I think I told you I took some lessons from a professional illusionist while in NYC. Not to perform, but to see if there was any cross over I could use to inspire my thinking of music composition. In a lot of ways, yes.

Please watch this: (let's presume everything we see is how it actually unfolded. Meaning no one is in on the trick and the response is an honest one even though he is an actor. aka; He is not acting.)

The thing with these tricks, is we all know.....somehow there is a logical explanation. But we don't know how it is done.

Card tricks are interesting in the sense that no one is sitting around going "Hey... I would like to see a card trick"

For most card tricks, the trick is over before handing over the deck of cards. Logically, it's pretty safe to say the card was never in the deck
when he handed it over. (unless he also makes demos for Fluffy Audio and has mastered the whole time/space continuum thing)

It's a "red herring" to control the attention of the person the trick is being done to. It's an obscurantist method.

We know the card did not "just leave the deck". In hindsight, we can also safely assume the card was planted in the fruit, and some method
of hiding the cut was done. For example, why does he ask it to be turned on it's side? I am pretty sure that knife is cutting the orange no matter what.

Here is the point: think of Mozarts material not as the magic, but in the presentation. Just like cards and fruit tricks.

Let's say we found out the secret to the trick. Try performing it then. There are so many factors of risk.

• How did he know 9 of hearts would be the card.
• Why did he pick the Orange and not the banana?

The magic is really in the presentation and the persuasion. Really this is much a master class on Persuasion as Illusion.

I don't know the exact method of the trick, but it seems to me a few things could be clues.

Notice where he points, very casually at :38 when he says "grab a piece of fruit for me". Note too there is no reason for having him search thru the cards, its a distraction. The orange is placed most prominently, and the little subtle hand gestures go unnoticed but they have a huge effect.

In fact, David Blaine is very deliberate with his hand gestures. Notice at :48 he turns the Orange as he asks if "we can cut this."
Why did he do that? No one in ordinary life will turn a piece of fruit in your hand and ask that question. Perhaps he wanted to hide something?
But he does it so matter of fact.....that is the magic. It all seems normal.

It goes on, and you can see how much his finger and body language influences Harrison Ford.........next we'll look at Mozart

 

Now listen to the first 2 minutes of this piece

(*** this was never a finished composition by Mozart. The d minor section and the ending in D major were put together by the publisher.
It's like Beethoven and "moonlight". It was never submitted by Mozart, and well.....they needed an ending)

 

So your theme -- and it's most clear @ 4:30 in the version you sent outlines





Yes, you have leaps, and a little decoration, but this is the main crux of the "tonal gravity"

Mozart - also has extra decorations but the crux of his theme outline the same range and scale degrees




That's the "gist"


The following looks more like how we hear Mozart's theme

 

Ok, let's look at 2 "magic tricks". This is what fascinates me about Mozart. It's not the aesthetic or melodies or even the counterpoint.

I trust you listened once without skipping ahead to this.

Here is the question. The theme at :53. Is this the first time we have heard the theme?

Of course, I would not ask, unless I am going to say NO.

Go back and listen again

 

That reminds me of a great David Blaine parody, but I don't want to derail the thread any further. Please send me a private message so that I can share it with you. I tried, but you seem to have it set up so others can't contact you that way.

I can relate. I even think some of the metal riffs I've been writing recently are melodically/harmonically better or at least more interesting than most of the orchestral stuff I tried to write. As an experiment I switched the VIs from guitars to harps once, and it worked surprisingly well.

Yeah, don't burn yourself out! After the last weekend where I spent way too much time in my DAW tweaking guitar sounds, I thought I need to step away from it for a bit as well.

 

Yes...... however what I am suggesting is a "tool" of "Control" is "Varied Repetition". I'll circle back to your reply, as I want to continue with Mozart.
His repetitions are so varied..... that they are easy to miss.

I'm with you, but IMO this is just like the question of Orchestration vs. Composition. Where are the lines to be drawn? My opinion is Orchestration is an integral part of the composition. It is composition. It's not Ketchup ....something you add on at the end for a little extra flavor.

Did you read the Swan Lake melody post? Where I did suggest the melody is actually 2 voices and contrapuntal?

And keep going! Don't let anyone from the internet kill your flow or create doubt. Do YOUR thing.
You can ask me questions anytime ---- the door is always open, but I also know there needs to be only one chef in the kitchen
and after this point, I'll move to a holding pattern as too much input can be counterproductive.

 

Ok... so to complete the first question I asked, by asking another:

Did you catch the melody in the opening?

So our basic set of notes for the melody




Now look at the circled notes below.





He has already prepared us to hear the melody. It's actually right in the "melody" voice of the opening.

VARIED REPETITION

Now onto part 2

 

You know what?

Let me leave part 2 as a question for you or anyone here.

At 1:36 we get repeated E's alone.

Where has Mozart done this already to plant that in our ear? As a clue, think about the "Structural" goal of a Sonata.

I and V. Right. So his moves are not just "cosmetic surgery" but also have a structural "goal" in mind.

Why I just let you cook with that, and just know Mozart has already set us up.

It's like Romeo and Juliet but in reverse. In Romeo and Juliet we are ahead of the characters.
It's obvious to us that they will fall in love, and so we wait for them to "catch up" and realize it themselves. (but of course, we don't see the surprise end)

Mozart is always a step ahead. The more you dig the more you see this guy is thinking on multiple planes at one time. Get beneath the surface.

I end with a summary in the next post

 

As an aside..... I have been going back and forth with the Dorico team about my upcoming review.
It's a philosophical stance on my part: Notation cannot be viewed outside of musical understanding and context.
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The basic "gist" of my points are/were

1. These comments, while using your piece as a starting point, are more towards the "future" you.
I am only trying to point out things I feel you have not considered - or perhaps more accurately describe things I find interesting about music....which may not be for you at all.

*** I am listening to your latest version as I write this. IMO you are at your best @ 5:11 onwards up to 6:45. You set it up well about 4:50 ish.
I'll regret saying this but... here we go... over the many pieces I have heard of yours it often seems like you get "turned on" once you reach tutti/bombast mode. That's awesome. It's a core strength of yours. (just keep your pants on) I am trying to suggest details that will aid the sections that are not this.

2. It's all connected: Melody often has very strong harmonic implications. (yes, you can re-harmonize ---a ton.) We can both hear this, and when reading say improvisation theory, improvisers think of melodic lines within harmonic context. "Guide Tones" or "Target Notes" such as 3 and 7. It's common to hear jazz students get assigned Autumn Leaves and being asked to play arpeggios of the chord progression as "training wheels" etc.

Just as Melody and Harmony are separate yet joined, so too is counterpoint and harmony. (and counterpoint and melody)
The same for "Composition" and Orchestration. Additionally, all of these have the often under-talked about (IMO) element of rhythm.


To be continued so I don't have a crash and delete