Originally Posted by: Pier-V

About the question at the end, well the answer is simple: I'm not a virtuoso pianist at all! Everything you listened to on my Soundcloud is programmed in the exact same way, that is with mouse only. I admit that sometimes editing every single note can be frustrating, but it is always compensated by the satisfaction of seeing the composition and the performance slowly taking shape as a whole and enhancing each other.

Well, if I was impressed before I am absolutely flabbergasted now! You pecked every note of Valse d' adieu one at a time into your sequencer with a mouse then massaged every phrase, every voice into expressive, flowing music? Incredible! I was completely fooled. Thank you for sharing your 3 tips; I wish I was in a place to put them to use but I am still dreaming of the day I can get the computer and software I need to create my own music. Rest assured that I will keep your guidance in mind when that day comes. Again, thank you!

Tom

Very nice tune. For me, the brighter tempo/higher key felt better. I listened to the slow version first and enjoyed it but hearing the original was a revelation. It felt lighter, more complex and flowing. Your technique of programming your MIDI without a keyboard gives me hope! I have no keyboard chops whatsoever so I will need to use your method of pains-takingly sculpting every phrase. I know that most of my favorite composers here are wonderful pianists, able to play the lines in real time, baking much of the musical nuance right into the recording. Your work proves that this is not an absolutely necessary skill (although it would certainly be nice to have!). Thank you for sharing. I will check out more of your work on SoundCloud and YouTube.

Tom

PS: Well, after listening to more of your music, I find myself with a question: since you are a virtuoso pianist, why did you chose to create Chant for a Lost Spring without using the keyboard? Lots of wonderful music, BTW

Dave, when I reflect on the gifts I have in my life, the opportunity to listen to your wonderful music is high on my list. Thank you sharing it with the world.

Warmest holiday greetings to you and your family.

Tom 

Dave and Becky,

This is a really beautiful piece. I don't know if I am missing the boat completely, but for some reason, I find myself feeling hopeful after viewing it, despite all the harsh truths it points out.. As you know, I've always enjoyed the music but the combination with images and your poetry adds a another dimension altogether. I was especially impressed by the video and photos you used. It seems that music isn't the only art form where talented creators are striving to find an audience for their creations. I'm glad that you could showcase them, too.

All the best to you, and Merry Christmas!

Tom

He's back! I wondered what you had been up to and I'm pleased to find that you have been busily creating piano-and-whatever tunes. I've always thought that recitalists would be the folks most open to your music. Can you imagine being, say, a French horn soloist and simply having to play the 2nd Mozart Horn Concerto at every gig until you die? The chance to learn a new piece that has plenty of challenge and is still accessible to an audience would seem to be pretty attractive. This piece is great! It kind of reminds me of the Halsey Stevens, but very much in your voice. Thanks, BTW, for hipping me to Bandcamp. I have listened to Aria's Dance so far and will check out anything else I have not heard. Wishing all all the best to you and your family.

Your fan,

Tom

In searching through the vast VSL offerings for everything I need, I became aware of an odd omission: SYNCHRON-ized saxophones in the SYNCHRON-ized Single Woodwinds. You see, I come from the wind band tradition and most of my musical ideas will be realized in that medium. My band ambitions are OK; VSL has all the wind and percussion instruments I need in the various SYNCHRON and SYNCHRON-ized packages. But when the new SYNCHRON-ized Single Woodwinds came out, I was really surprised to see no saxes. Heckelphone? Check! Contrabass clarinet? Got it! Oboe d'amore, basset horn? But of course! Alto sax? Nope. For my modest needs, the cut-down versions of the saxes in SYNCHRON-ized Special Editions Vols 2 and 4 will probably be OK, but more advanced users could benefit from a complete SYNCHRON-ized saxophones package. I know you can't do everything at once, but really...did your market surveys actually show a bigger customer demand for heckelphone than alto sax?

Originally Posted by: jsg

While working on the ending of this movement I tried exactly what you suggested for the ending and I decided against it. Letting the ostinato end without the last chord was certainly an option but I chose the larger ending with the full orchestra because this movement is the last movement of a 4-movement 35 minute work and felt this works better for the piece as a whole.

Ah, I get it! My assumption that there was a Finale movement after this one was incorrect; you added that final chord for pretty much the same reason old Strauss put the coda on Hero's Life. It puts a satisfying finish on a long, large-scale work. Makes sense. Thanks for explaining and again, I really enjoyed the piece.

Regards,

Tom

Jerry, I like this the most of any work of yours that I have heard. It is complex and feels very logically developed but it never seems like an academic exercise; full of fun and always interesting. I was continually surprised and pleased when it turned a way that I didn't expect. If I could offer a small criticism: I wish the ending had just been the finish of that pizzicato line on the tonic; the chord felt tacked on. I've read that Strauss was going to end Ein Heldenleben with nothing but the solo horn and violin fading out on Eb 3 octaves apart...pretty unsatisfying for the audience after 45 minutes of snarling along with a gigantic orchestra! Fortunately, he was talked out of it and put on the coda. For your piece, though, simply tip-toeing out the room seems natural, especially if you are (I assume) moving right into the Finale. Just a thought; I am interested in what your thoughts were. Again, a very cool piece. Thanks for sharing it!

Tom 

Originally Posted by: William

They advise people to get followers - ha-ha! I think I may have one.

At the very least, Bill, this gets you up to two!

Tom

I've always enjoyed this piece, Dave, and am pleased to hear that you have adjusted it to make it more attractive to concert musicians. As always, I wish you much success in getting live performances of your wonderful music; it deserves to be heard and enjoyed. On a strictly technical note, I'm wondering if you have updated your website to include this new rendering of the piece. I am comparing the YouTube of the new Synchron version to the recording on davidcarovillano.com to see if I can hear a difference. So far, I can't spot any with my barely functional audition. Are they different?

Bill, you win. I was certain this was a recording of Becky playing the tune and complimented the Carovillanos as such on their YouTube page. Turns out you are correct; Dave assures me that this is a virtual recording! Wow. So congratulations to Dave and Becky for this masterful composition and MIDI realization and congratulations to you, Bill, for having the ear to spot it. I didn't.

Thank you, Macker, for this thoughtful reply. I feel that I now have a better understanding of your strong negative reaction to a score that struck me as reasonably interesting and original (even if I could hear influences of this and that throughout). In fact, I was comparing apples and oranges. In my case, I listened to the score with only the vaguest understanding of the story it was written to accompany. I imagined how the cues might work to enhance a film that I was just imagining; sort of like envisioning a movie of Till Eulenspiegel after listening to the tune and reading Strauss' bare-bones outline of the story in the score. You, on the other hand, experienced the music in the context of its support of the actual movie...and found it wanting. Fair enough. At this point, I think I may give the movie a shot, if only to see how the score works for me in performing the task it was actually created for. Thanks again!

I have to admit, I had not heard of this picture or any of the hype surrounding the score. Your strong reaction piqued my curiosity, however, so I sought the score out on YouTube. I was astonished. Not so much by the music itself, but more by the powerfully negative effect it had on you. Oh, I get it that we all have our own taste. There is music I like very much that I understand is probably not all that hot; there is also music that I don't really dig that I know to be significant works of art. I cannot comment on the film; I have not watched it, but I listened to this score in its entirety (1:33!). I doubt I will ever invest the time to repeat the experience, but it held my interest and evoked images in my mind that I have to believe are of the type the filmmaker intended to accompany and reinforce his story telling. I liked the minimalist chamber orchestra the best, but I also liked when they brought swatches of big, lush 50s Hollywood, too. The Swing Era stuff worked; especially the cues that had that Minimalist Big Band vibe (sort of like if Duke Ellington and Steve Reich had a love child). And all of it really authentically performed/recorded/produced. No, this isn't going into my regular listening rotation. But "sets new lows in...entry-level, bush league scoring? Nowhere near up to scratch?" I am not nearly musically sophisticated enough to have heard that.

You are, of course, entitled to your opinion. Your intense dislike and offhand dismissal of this piece just surprises me, that's all. I have always read your contributions to this forum with great interest...often while nodding in agreement. In this case, I disagree. But more than that, I don't understand the criteria upon which you based your total rejection of the value of this score. For me to get anything useful out of a critique of a work of art, I need to have that. In other words, Macker, why do you think the score to Mank sucks?

Great piece, Bill. I've always listened to this on Spotify, where you had to divide it up into two 6-minute chunks to fit their format, I suppose. I like it better presented as the unified work it was meant to be. I also dig following along with the score; great job! It sounds like this chart dates from your Bruckner days; hanging tenaciously with an adagio tempo throughout. Big and somber. Thanks for sharing it with us.

Congratulations, Bill! This was an incredible undertaking. I'll have to wait a bit until I can take the time to watch it all the way through, but I watched some of the initial scenes to check out the score and see how the dialog-free story telling worked. Very cool. It kind of makes me think of those earliest sound movies as they were making the transition to talkies where you just had music and Foley stuff. The score fits right in with that time frame, too. But all that with modern audio and video effects. Can't wait to watch the whole thing.

Originally Posted by: William

MMKA you are right about it being a difficult piece, I played horn on the first and so far only live performance, and received nearly fatal lip damage.  Well, that's a bit of an exaggeration, but it has blistering horn and trumpet parts.   I did have some mercy and put the second, third and fourth parts down an octave in a couple places...

Final thoughts: Yes, Bill, you are exaggerating. I have it on very good authority that the first horn part, while challenging, is completely playable by old men with pulmonary conditions at an elevation of 6,040' (1,840 m) without causing permanent damage.

Bill and I have already communicated at length about this fine composition so I will address my remarks here primarily to the VSL community at large. Suffice it to say that I was so impressed by this piece that I recommended it to the conductor of our adult community concert band for inclusion in a future program. He loved it, too. I got Bill's beautifully prepared score and parts and we will perform it...whenever we are allowed to get a band together again, that is. Here's hoping I live long enough to see that day .

That being said, I don't think the importance of Bill's VSL version of this work can be overstated. To many concert music enthusiasts, wind bands are strictly denizens of the parade field. But for over 100 years, serious concert music has been composed for wind ensemble. Many of the most famous concert musicians of the 20th century wrote for band (or transcribed their orchestral compositions for the medium): Holst, Vaughn Williams, Grainger, Hindemith, Copeland, R. R. Bennett...Stravinsky himself, for crying out loud! Today, concert wind ensembles are found around the world, from student and young peoples' groups, to adult community bands, to the finest colleges and conservatories, premier military bands, and professional organizations. But VSL has made absolutely no attempt to market their products as a tool for aspiring band composers. And this in spite of the fact that they would not have to record any additional samples to do it. In this recording, Bill has proven it! It should go straight into the VSL music library. In fact, if I were the VSL marketing people, I would make something of a big deal of it. It could be their opening to a large, untapped market.

One final thought for you composers out there: bands will play new music. You don't have to compete with 400+ years of classical chestnuts to find room on a concert program like you do with orchestras. Just sayin'...

Originally Posted by: Pianokey56

...suggestions of instruments to add to the VI collection: 1. a tenor horn, like the one used in the intro to Mahler's 7th symphony

I'm surprised that the English brass band aficionadi haven't been screaming for years for this one.

Rangi (and you, too, Rangi),

I'm not really qualified to answer your question from a virtual composer's point of view but I can tell you what would work for me as a vocalist. I have used tracks like the cello part you are contemplating with good success. In my case, I am a reasonable but not great sight singer. If I want to learn something quickly that has strange intervals, a guide track helps. I have recorded multi-tracks of close harmony that can get kind of complex and the guide tracks made the learning process go a lot quicker. That being said, it is going to depend on just how "avant garde" your chart is. If you are asking for unusual extended techniques, you'll probably have to sing them yourself to give your baritone a clear picture of what you're wanting from him. My suggestion: if you have a guy in mind and intend to record, ask what works best for him. Some people can read fly specks and he may not need anything but the chart. I hope this helps you. Both of you.

Tom

Very cool piece, Stefan. Your hornist did a great job with it, too. I am really interested in your blended live/VSL recordings because I hope to do some work in that arena myself. Do you have the sheet music available for the Sonata? In the time of of COVID, it's always nice to have something new on the music stand when you can't get together with your friends to play a tune.

Originally Posted by: tinycomet

You're located in Salt Lake City as well? This was shot at the University of Utah close to downtown. 

No, I'm from Colorado Springs, but I've been to SLC a few times and could tell where you were.

Sam, all I can say about your essay is "+1". You very clearly elucidated what I've long felt about recorded music, particularly as it is used in the cinema. Cinematic orchestral sound has evolved in a way that sounds extraordinarily "fake" but works for its intended purpose. Your remark about the frame rate brought to mind seeing the Peter Jackson Hobbit films in HFR (48fps) 3D. I was struck by how obvious it made it that these were actors in make up performing on an artificially lit sound stage...you could tell that Ian McKellen's beard and nose were fake and the mix of CGI with live actors in the green screen shots just didn't work. It is ironic that a technology that makes the film much more realistic has the troublesome effect of making it clearer that it actually is fake. It is harder to suspend disbelief and just live the story.

This, of course, makes for an interesting problem for VSL, whose whole claim-to-fame has been the extraordinary realism of their products. For those of us hoping to accurately create concert music that we will, in all likelihood, never hear performed by a live professional orchestra, VSL is the only game in town. But for the folks who are sure that they will be the next Hans Zimmer, it's a different story; the hyper-realistic VSL samples need a battery of expensive, complex plug-ins with an El Capitanishly steep learning curve to make them sound "fake" in just the right way. Enter the BBO line. Good stuff, but you have to wonder if VSL has got a long road ahead of them trying to catch up to competitors who have been following this approach for years. What I don't understand: why VSL doesn't focus its marketing on musical hobbyists who actually want to hear music they have composed. Set up a website to present concert music created by customers using their products; contests for concert music (not wannabe film scores) made with VSL stuff, judged by big-name music pros and with nice prizes; you name it. Do you think it is because their products are too expensive for hobbyists? No way! People will pour plenty of dough into hobbies they think will give them pleasure and satisfaction, and music has always been a prime example (do you think that Steinway only sells pianos to the Rubinsteins of the world?). Well, however it goes, I wish them luck. They make great products and I hope they will still be around when I have saved enough pennies to get them. End of rant...

This is absolutely exquisite! I especially liked the tight sound and close-ups in the real world...her handbag and shoes, the distant sound of traffic (on Wahsatch Dr, I suppose), the sharp clicking of her heels on the bridge...it's all outdoors but it feels claustrophobic and closed in. Then, in the dance sequences, slo-mo and just your music. Freedom! Your dancer is wonderful and your cinematography and editing showed her moves beautifully. As for your music, I'm with Bill. Don't be too critical of your work; it fits the video perfectly and sounds great. Bravo!

Originally Posted by: Macker

My other half watched your video and said she enjoyed the models (she has designed and built several miniatures, some of them quite complex), the animation and music, but would have preferred a stronger storyline.

Macker, this is exactly what happened at my house! My wife Gerrie is a director and actor in local theater. She watched it with me and immediately stated that she wanted a stronger storyline. Interestingly, she worked out a rather specific story, which differed from the one I had worked out in my own head. Which is precisely why I enjoy such a nonspecific, abstract work; it lets you write the story you need to hear. That may be why I've always preferred instrumental music to songs with lyrics. I know the bass lines and horn figures to songs that I don't recall any other words than the hook. And I'm talking about Hall of Fame, #1 hits that everyone else in the world has completely memorized. Music, to me, is not just a vehicle to dispense poetry....without words, it tells me the story I need to hear.

(I left this same message on the YouTube of the video, but I thought it needed to be shared here, also.)

Bill, this is simply astonishing! Absolutely fantastic work! I was especially struck by your attention to the tiniest detail: the Foley work, the lighting, the incredible props, the computer-animated sequences...right down to the scratchy "needle-in-a-worn-record-groove" sound in the silent spots. The music is wonderful; every cue compliments the visuals perfectly, right down to the source cues. I'll let folks know that they need to check this out, if only to get an idea of what one talented person can accomplish with modern audio/video equipment and a ridiculous amount of creativity and hard work. Thanks for sharing it. I'm curious...there must be some sort of contests in the film production bag for which this would be a strong entrant. Are you going to submit the Dream for consideration in something?

Oh, OK, I get it. Frankly, I feel a bit silly for not grasping your meaning off the git-go. Clearly overthought it. I have considered doing something like that to help me record myself with MusicMinusOne tracks. You don't have a MIDI file to track along with but you could manually record the click while listening to the track then adjust any click that went a bit rogue to put it right on the sweet spot. Of course, with the same amount of time you could probably memorize every ebb and flow of the accompaniment and just...uh...play the damn thing. But what fun would that be?