Music of Randall Davidson
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      • Tout par compas...(transcription)
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Moving Company | blog

Colleagues' music that moves Randall now.

A cool transition...

1/2/2020

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...between two pieces I love.

David Lang's Just (After Song of Songs)​ from the movie "Youth."  
...and composer-lyricist Dizzy Gillespie's Con Alma performed by Stan Getz (sax), Chick Corea (piano) and Grady Tate (percussion). 
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Thorkell Sigbjörnsson (1938-2013)

9/10/2019

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I only just became aware of this composer. He graduated from Hamline University in St. Paul, Minnesota at about the time that my teachers at the University of Minnesota (Paul Fetler, Eric Stokes, Dominick Argento) were starting to establish their practices.
​Mr. Sigbjörnsson worked tirelessly at the Icelandic Academy of Arts and on Icelandic National Radio as an advocate and curator of the musical life in his native country. Until lately, his music has been little-known. This music from 1981 is experimental for its time and has an audience of less than 10,000 (I'm pretty certain). But the nature of the internet and social media has radically altered the size and nature of his audience in two profound ways:
  1. This music is now available for a long time (forever??) via YouTube. The audience will grow by its accessibility over time. I'm happy to help in that regard.
  2. A 2013 video of his setting of an ancient Icelandic poem, Heyr, Himna Smi∂ur, has become a sensation on YouTube as a result of an impromptu performance caught on a cellphone in a train station in Wuppertal. The folk pop group, Asti∂ir, sang the music with bare feet, beers in hand and loudspeakers blasting announcements in the background. And yet the music enchanted millions of listeners. Thorkell's creative work continues to change and shape culture because the nature of time and distance and culture have been forever altered. These changes can sometimes be good...
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JAMES BROWN Please, Please, Please

1/19/2019

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I think many teachers of music composition train their students to create "sticky" melodies (something that are memorable, even unforgettable). One of the melodies I think demonstrates stickiness is James Brown's melody for "Please, Please, Please." 
I'd love to hear if you find this melody especially memorable. What techniques does Mr. Brown (!) use to create the stickiness.
Here are just a few of the things my students and I have listed as the elements of stickiness...
  • repetition of lyrics, articulations, pitches, form and rhythms; predictability
  • exaggeration of dynamics, rhythms, articulations, pitches high & low
  • surprising intervals, rhythms, articulations, dynamics, harmonies, silences
  • economy of different melodic, rhythmic, harmonic ideas

What do you think? 
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ARVO PÄRT "Fratres"

1/2/2019

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I've been on a music tour bus for more than four weeks playing Christmas music with pianist Lorie Line. Someday, I'll post her music but it is now Epiphany, and I am in a self-reflective mood and this music suits me.
This particular composition by Pärt steadies my breathing at first and like Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings raises my temperature ever so slowly until I find that there is a pounding in my chest. 
Pärt's compositions mirror one's meditation on resounding bells, tintinnabullations. This music centers around the focus you bring to the listening experience. If you've never heard it, do yourself a favor -- pause...calm your mind and body...close your eyes...concentrate your breathing...focus on your heart beating...and you will be rewarded.
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Tom Jobim "Águas Março" (The Waters of March)

11/29/2018

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The epitome and genius of cool, in my book, is António Carlos Jobim (aka Tom Jobim). He is cool, in the superficial sense, because of his personal affect: well-educated, urbanity, humor, nonchalance, understated, Brazilian in the 60s. He invented cool in the 60s. Watch this video of him and Sinatra -- who is cool and who wants to be cool?
More interesting to me, is his more substantial and lasting cool. He melds together a sophisticated harmonic language with simple (sometimes monotonous) melodies; pessimism (no other word will do) and frustrated desires is his tone; love, life, society, and humanity is his poetic inspiration.
This particular song (The Waters of March) captures his essence more than any of dozens of remarkable songs. Pessimism and hope woven together in lyric and harmony. Ah. Jobim.
A stick, a stone
It's the end of the road
It's the rest of a stump
It's a little alone

It's a sliver of glass
It is life, it's the sun
It is night, it is death
It's a trap, it's a gun

The oak when it blooms
A fox in the brush
A knot in the wood
The song of a thrush

The wood of the wind
A cliff, a fall
A scratch, a lump
It is nothing at all

It's the wind blowing free
It's the end of the slope
It's a beam, it's a void
It's a hunch, it's a hope

And the river bank talks
Of the waters of March
It's the end of the strain
The joy in your heart

The foot, the ground
The flesh and the bone
The beat of the road
A slingshot's stone

A fish, a flash
A silvery glow
A fight, a bet
The range of a bow

The bed of the well
The end of the line
The dismay in the face
It's a loss, it's a find

A spear, a spike
A point, a nail
A drip, a drop
The end of the tale

A truckload of bricks
In the soft morning light
The shot of a gun
In the dead of the night

A mile, a must
A thrust, a bump
It's a girl, it's a rhyme
It's a cold, it's the mumps

The plan of the house
The body in bed
And the car that got stuck
It's the mud, it's the mud

Afloat, adrift
A flight, a wing
A hawk, a quail
The promise of spring

And the riverbank talks
Of the waters of March
It's the promise of life
It's the joy in your heart

A stick, a stone
It's the end of the road
It's the rest of a stump
It's a little alone

A snake, a stick
It is John, it is Joe
It's a thorn in your hand
And a cut in your toe

A point, a grain
A bee, a bite
A blink, a buzzard
A sudden stroke of night

A pin, a needle
A sting, a pain
A snail, a riddle
A wasp, a stain

A pass in the mountains
A horse and a mule
In the distance the shelves
Rode three shadows of blue

And the riverbank talks
Of the waters of March
It's the promise of life
In your heart, in your heart
​
A stick, a stone
The end of the road
The rest of a stump
A lonesome road

A sliver of glass
A life, the sun
A knife, a death
The end of the run

And the riverbank talks
Of the waters of March
It's the end of all strain
It's the joy in your heart
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PINK FLOYD Grantchester Meadows

11/27/2018

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Pink Floyd's album, "ummagumma" has a song about an axe murderer and a song inspired by electronic music ("Several Species..."). After the racket and horror, this sweet bird song á la Leonard Cohen calms the waters until comedy strikes. Listen.
Lesson for my ears: synchcopation of affect.
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GRACYNA BACIEWICZ String Quartet No. 7

11/27/2018

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Gracyna Baciewicz is one of those composers that I believe other composers already know. After she passed away in 1969, I was afraid her music would become lost (up until recently).
Her Quartet #7 really speaks to me with great vigor, an unflinching stare, powerful theatricality, clarity of expression, the long view. ​I love this music.
​Lesson: No energy is ever lost. Do your best.
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ERIC RADLOFF & MIA MINICHIELLO Shine

11/27/2018

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"Shine" is a song by the now-former Bear Attack. Co-written by Eric Radloff and Mia Minichiello. Eric is a colleague at Junior Composers. He's a former student but is now a colleague. I love the stickiness of the melody and the production elements "Shine" with great power pop.
I've met Eric's significant other, Jenna, and I think an earlier, simpler demo version of this song is very strong -- many times the demo carries more authentic, unvarnished appeal to me than the "produced" sound of the final version..Some mornings, I wake to this song playing in ear (a strong endorsement) because the ear always nose.
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NICO MUHLY ​Drones, Variations, Ornaments

11/27/2018

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A colleague suggested an Irish ensemble's recording to me (thank you, Robert Rumbolz). I listened to it and was mesmerized by this piece by Nico Muhly. 
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NAHRE SOL I Love You Bye

11/27/2018

1 Comment

 
Young musicians aren't young for very long. They grow and age and gain experience and begin to attract an audience just by "doing" what musicians do. An example that I'm watching right now is a young woman who uses the stage name, Nahre Sol. Her name in reality is Alice Hwang.
She is a pianist and composer and member of a trio of musicians that put on recitals in Toronto. 
Their name is Happenstance. Read more about the group and about Alice, here. I like how she is doing what she is doing. Her music is very attractive to my ear. Her work reminds me of the act of musicking (See Christopher Small's book of the same name). The ideas are very pianistic and remind me also of Christopher O'Riley's re-working of RadioHead.
Does the fact that one reminds you of another (previous) person's work make the new work derivative? I wonder if we should care at all about this question but I've heard it used in a dismissive way in music panel discussions and board rooms when describing an artist's music. I believe "derivative" is meant to be mean and critical. It makes one sound smart. It is nothing less than musical assassination. (I know this is a provocative use of language. It is meant to be.)
No creative work is possible in a vacuum. There are no original ideas, just unique applications of ideas that have been around the world, for a very long time. The world is becoming smaller and more inter-connected; we are always learning and borrowing from each other. All the time. Creative people know that they are performing a magic trick; we pass ourselves off as unique and as sprung from the brow of Orpheus. But it ain't so. We learn from each other and exchange music ideas every day. Our invention contributes to the next person's contributions which is a contribution to the next person's...and so.
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    Composer Randall Davidson creates music, and performs, produces, and promotes music of others. This blog is an annotated, virtual playlist of the music that he loves and that he calls "sticky" (aka memorable​).

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  • Home
  • Boys Art Music
    • Choir-Songs >
      • Download sheet music
      • Feature: Lover's Lament
      • Tout par compas...(transcription)
    • Chamber music >
      • A Most Knowing Woman
      • He's Gone Away
      • How Can I Keep from Singing?
    • Keyboard works >
      • Walden Etudes
      • Two-part Invention
    • Large Ensemble
    • Garrison Keillor repertoire
    • Opera, Dance, Theater
    • American Songs
  • Profile
    • Photos
    • Related websites >
      • Composer sounds
      • Producer
      • Performer
      • Room721
      • Teacher & Advocate
  • Moving Company | blog
  • Contact
  • Products