Phi Mu Alpha

On Friday, at the CCM Wind Ensemble Concert, Phi Mu Alpha presented my award for the piece All Grief Empty, the Clear Night Passes. The piece wasn’t performed that night, but my friends Neb Macura and Michael Cortes took some pretty sweet pictures.

New Music Box

Found this online via Twitter through LACOtweets. This is a tone matrix, something that André Michelle constructed using a simple sinewave synthesizer triggered by an ordinary 16-step sequencer for our enjoyment. Kind of like a zen garden with sound: you punch in squares which trigger pitches (on the D pentatonic scale) and create your own sound experience. Pressing the spacebar clears the pitches so you can start all over again.

Click here to experience the tone matrix.

Click here to read more.

Sibelius 6

Sibelius just released Sibelius 6, an upgrade that promises to cut your editing time in half. Their new magnetic layout will prevent symbols from running into each other; you can track changes, "conduct" your own music, sync your score with sequencers (Pro Tools, Logic, etc.), and supposedly the playback MIDI sounds are better.

Last night I downloaded the demo version, and I tested it out on one of my sketches. It already looks cleaner. I also discovered that there is a plugin where it can combine rests for you (if you copy and paste sections and have some hanging rests, this is a godsend), and you can paste sections "as Cue."

Not bad I say. If I upgrade, I will have to shell out some money. I suppose this option is less expensive than hiring your own scribe.

Organic Granular Synthesis?

Found this on Rainn Wilson's Soul Pancake website this morning.

Diego Stocco - Music From Sand from Diego Stocco on Vimeo.

Happy 10th Anniversary, NewMusicBox

Here's to NewMusicBox.org, a site for many of us composers who want to know what's going on in the new music world. Admittedly, I set NewMusicBox.org as my home page.

According to Sequenza21, there really hasn't been a site dedicated to new American music.

So, in celebration, NewMusicBox.org has posted these articles regarding the future of new music.