The trio premiere went well and they did a fantastic job for such short rehearsal period. We filmed and recorded the piece on last friday and Kirsty Macdonald is editing it now. Just can't wait to see the footage and put it up online. It's a nice visually entertaining piece.
Last night, I did a gig for Rotary International, where we played a few pieces as an item but mostly as background music. They gave us a buffet dinner. This was the dessert that we didn't get to have as we left before it was devoured. The International Rotary president (from Korea) came up to Jenny and pointed at her and demanded to know if she was Korean. No.. she's a kiwi, and chinese heritage. Also pointed at Vanessa, who's from Hong Kong. Then he left us alone. He didn't point at me.
These cakes look good, but I have a feeling they all taste the same. En Masse produced..
Today I started to mentally prepare for packing mode. I drew these diagrams to help me think what to take. Also to help pass the time so I didn't have to compose..
I am finding more and more with serious composition I have to be in a semi-meditational mood before I can feel like working. All other distractions have to be seen to. So at the moment I'm just going with that feeling. If I don't feel like writing, I won't. But time is of the essence. So what I try to do is make some notes about structure or listen to other music. Or sometimes just sit and do nothing and try to unwind. It is at these moments that I think my brain does the best thinking. Unconsciously. That's why I always have good ideas when I wake up or am in the shower. There's a lot of research on this and I am quite interested. The power of Power naps also. Mmm napping. Especially in winter.
This is my manuscript for the piece so far. Most of my sketches have been done on computer, but I like to go back to handwritten every now and then. It forces you to use your imagination, and not just rely on playback. Although playback forces you to imagine aswell!
The nuts and bolts of the notation are what really slow me down.. actually thinking of the music as notes and rests and bars is kind of boring, so this time I've got help from Ryan.. but I guess I still have to do a lot of the working out anyway. He'll tidy up the rest! yay..
Here's what the piece looks like on computer - totally zoomed out, every little blue square is a chunk of recorded melody. I haven't got every instrument there, and they're not in order, but you can see how many ideas I have, and stitching some together to make sense is what I have to do now.
Mental exersion needs food...here are my composing snacks. I love gerkins. mmm.
I am kinda behind on the AYO piece because this week I scored two tv commercials for Saatchi and Saatchi. This is pretty exciting, as I'd like to do more commercial music and these pieces of music were not too hard and fun to write. If you see the new sealord ads on tv with 'brian' - that's my music. Gotta do the final mix tonight. I managed to record 5 instruments live, so I thought that was quite good going for a 3+1/2 day turn around for two ads. I recorded double bass, guitar, electric bass, tenor sax and trumpet. I had one meeting with Saatchi and creatives at the beginning, and then it was all via email and phone. I like that with technology I could have been working in another city and nobody would know.. kinda what I hope to do in new york.
Still haven't been to see pandas yet, too busy. Maybe end of the month. Am looking forward to it. Also haven't got to any film fest movies yet, really want to see Man on a wire - about this french dude who tightrope walked between the two towers, and many other world landmarks. Just thinking about it makes my feet go tingly.
Things I want to take to new york:
A tomato sauce dispenser (a tomato tomato sauce dispenser..you know what I mean)
A kiwi tea towel
A big print of my antique nz birds poster to put in my room
My chihuahua puppet
My cassette sellotape dispenser. Oh it's so cool.
My cat. :( customs may have a problem with this.
righto back to work.
~CC
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