prophetik music   Judges ⚖️

being a composer myself, i can tell you that while composition is hard - really hard - performing is more so because as a composer, you have an eraser. as for research, as a vocalist i never perform a piece before i learn what it's about, and what the composer was into when he wrote it. as a saxophonist, it's the same way. i recently did a piece called Tableaux de Provence on my senior recital. had i not researched it, i wouldn't have known that it was a tribute of sorts to Maurice's time in Provence, France, or that the name (in a slightly obscure dialect of french) means Pictures of Provence, or that each movement was inspired by a unique experience that she had there. THAT makes for a much different performance. just being able to play a piece isn't enough - you've gotta be able to go back and say, 'this is why i did this, and this'. and by the way, most performers don't have teachers to tell them what to do where on a piece. i haven't had a teacher actually tell me what to do somewhere on a piece in months and months and months. i do my own research, my own listening, and my own studying of the piece. that's all i'm going to say regarding this argument. if anyone wants to start a thread, that's fine - just link me there. but i'm not going to continue to post.

this ain't true. there are a large number of famous performers who have done fantastic arrangements, adaptations, and original compositions that are well known. you saying this tells me that you're a well spoken but musically illiterate person...else you would have remembered liszt, paganini, bach, buxtehude, chopin, debussy... if there's one thing i've learned in college, it's that practice is in no way simplistic and easy. while your statement above says 'you get good by practicing, duh' with a bunch of bling added on to make it look good, you should know that practicing is in no way an easy thing to do. it's possibly one of the most learning to practice was one of the most valuable things i learned at college, in all reality. just because you're technically good doesn't mean that you're truly a good musician. this entire paragraph is an enormous load of bullshit, fyi. it also proves that your definition of music doesn't extend beyond HOSHIT INSANE GEETAR SOLO because you don't understand that. is the jazz pianist at your school as good as Herbie Hancock because he can comp chords too? of course not, and it's not because of Herbie's insane knowledge of style and his crazy technique. it's because Herbie's got a pocket so deep that a four-year-old could play in it and sound hot. interpretation is one of the most difficult things to really, truly understand for non-musicians because of the depth behind it, just like in an incredibly complex piece of artwork or a beautiful sunset or anything like that. and the fact that you're saying that a performer's ability is determined solely by interpretation is just as wrong. stage presence, interpretation, research skills, and the ability to theorize and execute a musical idea are all important aspects of a performer's ability - while we often laud interpretation because of the fact that it gets the lion's share of the time in the news, those are all just as important. interpretation is by no means trivialities, either - if someone went through to play a really great solo piece and hit every note, but it sounded lifeless and dead, is that a good performance? no! it's the interpretation that MAKES it art, not in spite of it. more bullshit. you're just writing words with no idea to what they mean. particularly since your first sentence screws with everything you just said. although i think your houdini metaphor raises an interesting question, you're forgetting something. houdini didn't do his act with the idea that people would do it over again. beethoven and wagner and bach and palestrina wrote music to be performed, over and over and over again - and the people we say are fantastic performers are the ones that can do that music EXACTLY as it was in the composer's head. don't get me wrong, i agree with you here. society has lost a lot of depth of understanding in the art work in the past few hundred years. that said, i'm a modernist when it comes to artwork. that does not mean, however, that all art nowadays is worthless, or that the art that's been done in previous times is not any good either. do i understand the point you're attempting to get at? not really - as a performer it doesn't make much sense to depreciate your role. you saying that anyone can do what you do on guitar (which wasn't really all THAT impressive, honestly, learn more than one thing to do with a flat VI chord already) by just repeating endlessly. but you don't have soul when you do that, the spirit of the music is gone when you drill endlessly like that. there's more to a performance than notes and rhythms - and until you understand that (which, it's not a concept that an infant can understand, trust me on that), you really aren't as good as you think you are. in general, no one is, but you definitely aren't. edit - argument and counterargument: done. let's restrain further posting to the PM box to prevent this thread from getting off-topic.

weeks, not week, man.

epic orchestral, anyone?

i'm getting this as soon as i'm back back in the dorm, on a computer with a sound card.

i love xfx products. i use them in most of the computers i build - they're solid and dependable, and they come with tons of useless yet cool free shit. i'm totally going to write a track for this.

sexcellent edit - dunno if i'll be able to throw something together in time, i've got four shows and a dress rehearsal this weekend that i'm the tech director for D=

when i went to DL that, it just gives me a 403 ACCESS FORBIDDEN (at least, i think that's the numeric code) page. can you upload it somewhere for anyone who wants it? or just send it to me and i'll do so.

subbed mine. it's not really done, but i won't be able to finish it before the due date because of the recording required. so i subbed what i had.

oh knoes, it's time for hippie harmonies by joe peacenlove

not bad for a high schooler. just cause you're not ready to win the Van Cliburn doesn't mean that you're terrible =)

how long have you been playing piano? and how old are you?

norg wins the universe edit - on third listenthrough, norg wins TEH UNIVERSE!

lol oa btw i'm bald as you now

i need another song, since mine is so light on melodic source material (it's pretty, but it repeats way too much for what i want). i'm taking toxic seahorse as well for a verse and bridge melody. and btw, it's rock that i'm doing.

i emailed teh vrit about doing a collab on his track, but i haven't heard back from him.

i honestly once dated a flutist from band camp, for like months and months and months. no shit.

in 2004, i became one of three students in NYSSMA (new york state school music association) to have a perfect score over 7 or more auditions, and reached all-state (first chair) for the second time, making me the top-ranked saxophonist overall in the state for the second year in a row. ^that's my musical high point so far. we'll see what grad school brings.

yeah, virt's pretty good at what he does.

tableaux is one of my favorite pieces. played it in high school, played it for a jury in college, and chose it for my recital because it's SO dang good. there's so much there that you miss on the first few times through it.

i was going to wear leather gloves, but i wore tails and a dark red vest and tie. it was nice.

if i can throw something together...i'm there. edit - dude, make it longer. like, by a week. please?

paule maurice - tableaux de provence (alto and piano) alfred desenclos - prelude, cadence, et finale (alto and piano) akira yuyama - divertamento for marimba and alto saxophone (duh) david jones - mass transit (sax 4tet, me on bari) it went well! not as perfect as i'd have hoped, but it went pretty well. i'll have recordings soon.

and i'll post music as soon as possible after it's done. wish me luck! edit: everything's up at http://prophet.escariot.net/recital/ in both a zip of 128kb. here's the tracklist. 1. introduction (an email my sax-hating professor wrote to me ages ago that i couldn't help but let everyone else enjoy) 2-4. movements I-III of paule maurice's Tableaux de Provence. light french classical saxophone, and my favorite on the concert. 5. desenclos's Prelude, Cadence, et Finale. heavy post-romantic, mostly atonal, slightly serialistic classical saxophone. my pianist sucked on this piece, but it was still fun. by far the hardest piece on this recital, and it shows. 6. yuyama's divertimento for marimba and alto saxophone. there's a significant 6-mallet section in the middle that my guy messed up (very difficult stick change, apparently), so the 6-mallet part isn't as good as it could be, but it was still pretty good. very enjoyable listen. 7. jones's mass transit. AWESOME funk/jazz sax quartet, stomping included. very much fun, although we sound terrible. i played bari sax on this one, which is why the top sounds so wacked. it starts on two, if you're curious. and, yeah, we've only got two majors in the group, which is why we sound so darn bad. and you can totally hear me laughing during the applause at the end. anyways, enjoy! enjoy, everyone!

i'm taking a look at the other songs on the soundtrack. don't think i'll try to top prizm's bowserispissed mix, but we'll see with the others.