A few weeks ago, thanks to a generous man, I attended a performance of the Boston Symphony Orchestra for the first time. Beethoven and Haydn were obviously delightful, but I was most moved by Béla Bartók's Piano Concerto No. 3. The second movement, Adagio religioso, nearly brought me to tears (not an easy task). Bartók wrote this concerto in the final months of his life as a gift for his wife. When I am moved by something, I become just the slightest bit obsessive. So I came home and read all I could about Bartók. It turns out he was responsible for pioneering a musical style called Night Music which is characterized by "eerie dissonances providing a backdrop to sounds of nature and lonely melodies." Ahhhhh, yes. Right up my alley. In an effort to do something constructive with my new obsession, I composed today's sixty seconds from a few of my favorite sections of Adagio religioso and set them among the very literal sounds of the night. Enjoy. THE SUNDAY SOUND: April 3, Night Music For those following along in an RSS reader, click through to the original post to hear today's piece.
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I am thrilled to announce the redesign of my website and the return of my sixty-second sonic creations. If you were around these parts last summer, you remember The Daily Sixty. I challenged myself to create a new one-minute audio piece every single day of August. After thirty-one grueling days, I fell in love with the idea. There is something so great about forcing yourself to edit things down... compress full ideas into a teensy little minute. (Kind of like how I throw things away ALL THE TIME in my non-sound world, too... you don't want to be a t-shirt from last year in my closet, let me tell you.) Now, I will be creating these mini-works weekly and sharing them with you on my favorite day of the week. Enter The Sunday Sound, coming April 3. Special thanks to my fabulous graphic designer, Anita Haynes. The website redesign would not be the least bit impressive without your amazing work. |
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