Piano meditation: The tempest
Who said program music is rightfully dead? In fact, I love it when music evokes a scene, mirroring some living phenomenon. It already mirrors, amplifies and often juxtaposes our emotional and spiritual experiences. In the case of my next piano meditation, the idea was simple: a storm. In order to create the effect I played a series of arpeggios, often faster than my fingers could move, causing a...
Read MorePiano meditation: One note, no more
I’ve always been disappointed the One Note Samba by Antonio Carlos Jobim doesn’t stick to one note, though the tune is catchy as hell. So for this second piano meditation I decided to try sticking to one note, and only one note. That doesn’t mean one frequency. In this case I used five different octaves of G, but never left G. It’s not all that pretty, and I made a point...
Read MoreThe first keyboard meditation
This is an exciting post for me, because I’ve decided to start posting some improvised piano music here, taking a risk, but getting it out there. For as long as I’ve been playing piano I’ve held these types of personal sessions, where I hang my head and wail on the piano, following every idea as it pops into my head, encapsulating the mood of the moment in notes and chords and...
Read MoreMusic: My piano is chanting
Today I share a piece of music, Chant 1, which is last piano piece I’ve written in a while. The general idea of the piece was to create a melody and to repeat it, each time adding a new note to the harmony. The motive, which is played in unison with its harmonies for the entire piece, starts out as a two part harmony, later picks up a third, fourth and lastly fifth voice. I chose...
Read MoreMusic inspired by the haunted hospital
I consider it a perk anytime I get to use my creativity at work. And, in the case of the most recent example, I found some inspiration I can use on my own projects. A few weeks ago I produced a video for Long Island Business News about the abandoned Pilgrim State campus in Brentwood on Long Island. It was once the largest mental institutions in New York state. It had its own railroad station, its...
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