This coming Friday May 24th will be the premiere of my new piece “Rift” by the Vancouver Metropolitan Orchestra.

It’s a  brutal short piece (ca. 5’00”) for chamber orchestra. Very intense and, well, brutal. This is me returning to what I loved to do and probably do best. To give you a sense of it, it starts with the timpani playing solo with the indication “Like war drums. Fill the hall.” So I am looking forward to it and I hope the orchestra does well with it.

Here’s information about the concert. 

 ”Comforting Skin” has been picked up by Anchor Bay Entertainment and is getting released on DVD May 21st.

I composed the score for this film using a chamber group enhanced with sparse use of samples and electronics. The score is dark and makes much use of dissonance and extended techniques but is also very melodically driven.

The soundtrack was released on Movie Score Media’s Screamworks label.

You can read more about the DVD release of “Comforting Skin’ here. http://www.amberlight.ca/ABEpress_Comforting_Skin

During December and part of January I was busy orchestrating along with the lovely Penka Kouneva.

In January our wonderfully lean music team of four people flew to London where I was fortunate to conduct the orchestra in the world famous Abbey Road studio.

It was my first time in Abbey Road and  it turned out to be, well, a life-changing experience for me. Here are some pictures from my time there.

Elysium at Abbey Road

Elysium at Abbey Road

Conducting the large string section, 62 players strong. What a sound!

The strings

Conducting the score for “Elysium” at Abbey Road.

Under the Decca Tree.

This last Friday and Saturday were the recording sessions over at Vancouver’s famed Warehouse Studios, where I was sitting in the booth supervising, producing and guiding the composers as they each had 25 minutes to record their pieces. On Friday was the string quartet and Saturday a near orchestral sizes brass ensemble.

The whole process, from seminar to recording, was very enjoyable and positive and the Guild was generous enough to offer me one session with the brass. So I wrote some short sketches for brass and had a great time conducting a group of very talented musicians.

My thanks to the Guild for this great experience, and thanks to David Ramos for the pictures!

I really believe that. Music theory should be a manifestation of something that is real and not something forced and artificial, and I live it everyday in my own writing.

For example, I am currently completing a new commission for the Vancouver Metropolitan Orchestra, and I am using some simple ideas of form based on what I think would be a universal human experience: confusion leading to clarity.

Here’s the passage from this piece that led to me writing this blog post.

Screen capture from work in progress

The counterpoint is very tight and overlaps, leading to lots of dissonance and lack of clarity in the lines as they get kind of jumbled together. It’s confusing, it’s messy, it’s nasty and unclear and and filled with tension on its way to a resolution.

I love this simple idea of confusion leading to clarity. I am sure this is something we instinctively understand because it is an intrinsic part of our daily lives. And so it has become one of my most commonly used guides in my writing.

My goal is to write music that is as organic and natural as the best improvised solo yet as tightly constructed as the best screenplay.

This is my workspace.

Although I use plenty of music technology, my room is set-up to have lots of space for good old-fashioned paper. It is as rich, bright and energetic as possible with my one small window. I used to like it darker but tastes change. I am no longer a fan of dark, gloomy studios for writing music. Now I think the next iteration of my writing space will have lots of windows if possible, as long as there is nothing outside to take my mind away from my writing. Tress, I’d like if it was only trees outside.

If usually sketch on the big board in the back to various degrees of completion then bring it over to the smaller board where I do mockups and fix-ups and whatnots. What I’d like to add next is a writing board on the desk that I can write more easily on. That’s next, will make writing the inevitable changes as I do my mockups more convenient. Right now I use the side of the desk. Works fine, but not as elegant.

There is a divide between audiences and concert composers. Orchestras are suffering everywhere. That’s in part because it is a musical museum and also because, perhaps, composers take themselves a wee bit too seriously?

Let’s face it, music is not an essential to life like water, food, air and shelter. It is an extra. But it is those extras that we live for, the extras that make our lives special.

In the decade since I graduated with my master’s degree in composition, my perception of my role as composer has gradually changed.

And now, you won’t see me writing numbered symphonies or concerti, or a 30 minute song cycle where people must sit still without clapping through uncomfortable silences as pages are turned. You won’t hear me talk about pitch systems or extended techniques to an audience at a pre-concert talk.

My aim is to write melodic, evocative music that is, fresh, unique, engaging and often fun to play and hear. Music that is an asset to the musicians who plays it and a joy (with a bit of challenge) to the audience who listens.

Because I believe the concert hall can be a place of wonder, excitement, emotion and awe. That concert music can be new. youthful and full of life. Not just a place for a good nap!

So that’s why I say that I will no longer refer to the music I write as “serious music” or “art music” and I will not refer to my pieces as “works”.

They are just pieces of music. No more, and certainly no less.

My Star Wars album from 1977

My first musical love affair was with John Williams’ score for “Star Wars”. I remember clearly lying down in my mother’s living room as young lad of 8 or 9, chin in hands, listening to the entire soundtrack on the vinyl I received as a gift.

I read and re-read the liner notes as I listened to the music, a single page containing descriptions of all the tracks and all the themes. Even though I was quite young, I treated that piece of paper like gold and it is still intact in the original record sleeve from 1977, here in my studio.

I was taking piano lessons at the time and asked to play the music from “Star Wars”. I received a photocopy of the music, which I practiced very hard. I drew my own cover for the sheet music, taking great care with it. It was a x-wing being pursued by a tie-fighter with the Death Star in the background.

I can still sing you every single note of the Star Wars score. And now, many yeas later and with a master’s in composition behind me, I can tell you which parts of Star Wars come directly from the Rite of Spring. And you know what…?

I don’t care.

My love for this music is a link to my childhood, and there’s nothing that can change that. And on top of that, now that I know what happens during the composition of a film score (deadlines and temp scores) I can easily forgive a few minor “hommages”.

After my Star Wars score I received the vinyl for Superman. Same story and now I know every note.

After that it was the vinyl for E.T. Same thing.

I had brief affairs with Vangelis, Danny Elfman and Henry Mancini, but they never lasted. I always came back to John Williams.

To say that John Williams is the reason I love orchestral music so deeply is perhaps not a stretch. Our adult lives are shaped by our childhood experiences, and John Williams’ music was a big part of my childhood. In an era before VCRs, his music was a connection to my favourite films and I listened and listened until the scores became the central element.

Now, as I make my way as a professional film composer, his music is a constant reminder of the level of excellence I aim to achieve in my own career. From the indelible melodic writing to the glowing orchestrations, to the perfect dramatic placement of the music and the pacing of the score, John Williams music remains my biggest source of inspiration.