Music

If it wasn't obvious, music is a huge part of my life. I listen, write, play, dream, and fantasize about all things music. It makes me move. It makes me cry. It makes me happy. It makes me angry. Whatever it does or says music can be wonderful. I try to be open minded and consider just about all kinds of music. I blog about my music experiences a bit too but the purpose here is to share with you my current and past projects. If you want to see what I've recently been working on, visit my blog filtering out all but articles about music creation.

Recording/Producing Music

I have a humble little studio at home which I have been building in hopes of recording and producing music. I've put together one album under the name "Otacon" which was a mix of house, techno, and trance. It was done using ACID and eJay and boy, have things come a long way since then. I have always been excited about the idea of making music and then sharing it with others in hopes of stimulating some sort of response.

Admittedly it can be hard doing that with electronic music but I think it's possible. I want to record a mixture of techno, house, trance, electro, rock, funk, orchestral, and folk fused with vocals spoken, sung, and rapped to create a unique and inspiring blend of thought and phonic orgasms. Perhaps it is a lofty goal but whatever, I just want to have fun recording ideas, making beats, and putting out songs.

Writing Scores

I have had an interest in writing music since hearing classical recordings of piano, opera, and orchestral works as a kid. I had a few meager attempts but I finally wrote and finished a few substantial works in about 1993 while in junior high school. I emulated F.F. Chopin in a lot of my earlier stuff but eventually I wove in a little of everything I heard; Liszt, Bach, Beethoven, and so on. To see the work, click on it. You will need Sibelius' Scorch plug-in to see anything.

The works gradually increase in maturity as the years pass. I haven't written much since then. I realize that these aren't amazing works of wonder but at that time I was very proud of what I accomplished.

• Ballade No. 1 — My first larger piece for the piano. It has a lot of strange time signatures thrown in and some wacky transitions from section to section. It was difficult to transpose it from paper to digital medium. I think a lot of what I was playing was also hard to write down in the first place because of my limited understanding of musical theory. The plug-in makes the transitions sound mechanical but the reality was that it was played with fluidity and much improvisation transitioning in ways that seemed to make sense.
• Ballade No. 2 — The idea comes a year later and already the thoughts are much better written out. There was still some trouble writing things out as this piece was unfinished on paper and the section presto con fuoco onwards took a while to rediscover and finally complete. The chromatic influence of the Romantic era makes itself apparent in this piece.
• Etude No. 1 — Initially this piece was called "Wallowing" in that I was felt so helplessly in love but I felt I could do nothing. It was never satisfactorily finished, though, and eventually I rewrote a substantial part of this piece and released it as Etude No. 1 which, unfortunately, was a naming convention I took on during my I was infatuated with all things piano. This, in my opinion, was one of my best works.
• Etude No. 2 — This is a work of incredible speed and bravura influenced by Chopin. I think the speed should be 'as fast as you can possible play it' but I am not sure what that would sound like. The focus was on turns into octaves but it doesn't qualify as a fully fledged study.