The pieces have been licensed under Creative Commons terms, so they can be downloaded for non-commercial use and sharing.
I have always enjoyed performing music, whether reading from a score or improvising. I started off playing clarinet in high school band and orchestra, then picked up bass for the thrill of being part of a rock band, I only began learning keyboard in grad school (when one looks for excuses to avoid working on the thesis), and really wanted to be able to play the classics, such as Debussy and Chopin. I never got good enough to play these works flawlessly, but I loved learning how music was constructed, and what it was about good music that made it so transcendent, able to transform people's feelings. This eventually led me to try composing with some degree of earnestness.
I perform and record my music using a Yamaha S90 multi-timbral synth, connected to a Powerbook 4G through an M-Audio interface. I edit and re-arrange both midi and audio using MOTU's Digital Performer which is a real amazing piece of artistic-ware. I often do not record onto a beat track, using my own rhythm, which is free to vary as I feel. This makes converting my MIDI compositions into scores not so easy, but it allows me to be more creative. The following pieces were all created between 2001 and 2005...
The pieces have been licensed under Creative Commons terms, so they can be downloaded for non-commercial use and sharing.
This piece evolved out of my impressions of Wai'peo Valley on the Big Island of Hawaii.
I had visited this magnificent location twice, last time with friends who were all engrossed in discussions of science and math .
There was surf and wind, sun and birds, and waves were crashing on large cobble stones...
All around us were these incredible steep sides of the valley, with waterfalls on all sides. And in the middle was this little farming village where taro was growing.
Sounds of life and ocean were everywhere...
I enjoy diverse musical works, ranging from
Chopin to Neil Young. Yet even here I think there is something similar between
between the two of them with them pertaining to a certain poetic moodinesss.
I wrote this piece in one take... it caught the mood, so I barely edited it.
While I was in Paris working for a french company, I spent some time walking around the street at night...
it's amazing what fertile ground quietude can be sometimes!
Place d'Italie is a little circle in a working class area, with a subway stop... it was quite cold there in February.
It began as a Japonisme image, and then I included
some abstract sonic imagery to evoke a sense of how space and time
interplay during development of complex forms: ontogenesi via il suono...
This was a piece I had composed in the evening while on an island off the coast of New Hampshire
It was a way for me to take a lot of emotional feelings of love and longing and put them to music.
Never could put words to this, but a friend wants to give it a try...
These were constructed either from published scores, or midi files. I rearranged the scores and instruments, sometimes a lot... I like to re-paint the tonal qualities with new sounds and ambience, hoping to still preserve the original intent, but with a fresh eye... Since it's MIDI, some pieces may make it appear as if I am quite proficient on the keyboard-- nice thing about midi editing in non-realtime!
I always loved how this piece used emotional images to invoke the raw beauty of a storm...
One of my favorites from Grieg-- It depicts such a happy moment...
BTW, has anyone noticed how this has similarities with the procession of the children in Roger and Hammerstein's "King and I"?
It's a stirring dance piece--too fast for a Tango (Tarantella?)... incredibly lush, and oozing with emotion.
Evokes the warm evening mood in Argentina as everyone's getting ready to go out.
Always liked how Genesis could go from folk, to pop to progressive.
This piece was a favorite of mine and my english friend, Sarah...
I interpretted it as the ceasless march of time... our current events and actions
disperse as ripples into the universe at the speed of light
This piece has become more poignant as I've gotten older!
This was a fun challenge since Debussy really pushed the limits in using tonal color
I really tried to work in the Japonisme ambience of this work
This is just the first movement of three.
A simple image piece, that has the haunting emptiness of a featureless snow field.
There's rag and there's "RAG"-- this complex composition is quite contemporary (1970), during a Rag revival period.
Having visited Charleston, South Carolina, I can easily imagine the image of a ghost living on one of those
beautiful old mansions near the waterfront (battery park). This particular apparition seems to have memories of both happy and sad times.,
The cycle of the vision goes on and on... Twyla Tharp used it in one of her dance works.
A rather short, but interesting piano piece that has complex rhythm changing between the 2 voices
For a comparison, I have two other renderings using different instrumentation: Fantasy, and Vocal
Here's a real bizarre connection: listen to the Beach Boys' "God Only Knows", and see if you don't notice a similarity...
I don't think many kids can get this syncopated rhythm down, but it is very playful;
The melody is quite simple and repeating, but its rhythm points are always different.
Great jazz piece, staged in multiple parts... nice build up, fun emotions, even exhilerating at times.
Would be great to hear while riding on a motorcycle!
HomeI will be adding additional pieces in the future...Hope you enjoy!
Please send comments to: Eric Neumann
Copyright Jan 10 , 2007
