MY WORLD

This is my blog space where I publish thoughts and experiences I have.

Symphonic Compositions

The New Symphony

While working on my journey of life through music composition I believe that no one would take my works seriously until I had completed my first symphony. Therefore, I sat down for a month and wrote my first symphony. The experience was very enjoyable and composing for full symphony off-the-cuff was surprisingly easy for me. Prior to taking this on, my perception of symphonic composition was complex and foreseeably difficult. I must admit, my decades of music practice, study, and music theory education made accomplishing this task almost seem like fun and not at all like "work".

You may download the works from my audio samples section.

As is the case with all my works, please take care to protect my copyrights and do not freely distribute my recording or printed scores without my pre-arranged written consent. Thanks a million!

Violin Compositions

Violin Concerto

My Violin Concerto is complete and ready for public listening. I have published the work in my audio samples section. This concerto is for full orchestra and was a pleasure to develop.

I am not publically performing this work personally but would consider allowing professional violinists to perform the work upon request. If you are interested in performing the work please drop me a message and I'll get back with you ASAP.

Solo and Accompanied Works

I have worked on solo violin works for many years. Recently, I have had a bit of free time to fully round out my #1 Violin Concertina. I am working to develop my desired expression of this piece and will be adding it to my full-time play list. I look forward to having this piece well under control and hope it will serve to please the audience as much as it has served to challenge and reward me.

I have also built a few Offertory pieces and Slow, Yearning, Sorrowful pieces. These works are accompanied by Piano and are ready for action. I do not have recorded or manuscript samples available to the public at this time. I will get around to doing it sometime in the future. I would have composed an organ accompaniment part but unfortunately MakeMusic Finale only comes with a single Church Organ sound which I find distasteful. I would like to see a great "Catholic Church" pipe organ incorporated into the Garritan Sound library distributed with Finale.

Research and Development

Violin Fixtures

My father was telling me a story about a Baroque Violinist he watched perform several of the Bach Brandenburg concerti and during his dialogue he mentioned the Violinist had no fixtures on his instrument. I laughed when he said that. Side note: I have also read about J. Heifetz refer to shoulder rests as scaffolding. For many years, I have tested, made, altered, adjusted, and disposed of more chinrests and shoulder rests that I care to recall. I, personally, can appreciate a naked violin for all its natural beauty and light weight. Even though my appreciation is great, the reality is that mating the Violin (or Viola) to the human body is no simply task and one size does not fit all. What I have found is one size, fits one. After many years of research, development, and testing, I have finally produced my own chinrest and shoulder rest. Both are hand made and customized to me. After having perfected and produced these items, I can play with a relaxed posture and with more ease than ever before. I can also support the instrument horizontally without any assistance from my left hand. This serves me so well that I am now able to focus on the feel of the music and my interpretations without worrying about supporting the instrument, or worst... it slipping during a shift and me instinctively clamping it with my jaw. I am delighted to report the days of stabbing neck and shoulder pain, inaccurate shifts, playing out of tune due to inaccurate shifts, and fear before or during a performance because of troublesome shifts are FADING AWAY. When it comes to my Violin playing the "Maslow Hierarchy of needs" has taken effect and I have jumped a few layers up the pyramid. I feel like I have shortcut ten years of practicing by having the Otwell-Comfort-Fit fixtures.

New Repertoire

I am pulling together some new popular tunes which I will play for the less formal gigs. The first iteration of these tunes will be on solo violin. Later, I will record some background chords on a classical guitar and play along with them.