From the monthly archives:
I remember living in slums (now expensive condos) in Boston while going to the New England Conservatory. My apartment building shared an alley with drug dealers and prostitutes, so we heard a LOT of noise in those days. The second day I lived there the abandoned place across the street where many of those people [...]
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From time to time organizations decide to have a “retreat” where members of the company or department get out of their usual surroundings and get out of town. Once out of town, and with usually long hours of discussion ahead of them, participants are able to open up and talk extensively with each other, brainstorm, [...]
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[I am sitting quietly doing my morning Sudoku puzzle, drinking coffee. It's 5:30 in the morning. I look up and smell the air: tobacco? patchoulli? old scotch? And an ovoid figure hovers into the room and slowly comes into focus. It is Igor Stravinsky, with sun glasses in a kind of safari outfit with sunglasses, [...]
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One of the greatest tragedies for a composer is to not hear their music performed live. Charles Ives could have been even more formidable had he heard more of his music, especially the music he took chances with. In college, the biggest hole in my education was brass ensemble. I had written a wild five [...]
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[Audio clip: view full post to listen]
“Women Are”
Music by Roger Bourland
Words by Mel Shapiro
In this song, O is telling his son Telly how women, that is real women, are — as opposed to the virtual women he met on porn sites. The lyrics say “Women are” and then the music is supposed to finish the [...]
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Tonight I’ve asked my colleagues and friends Juliana Gondek and Michael Dean to help me read through Homer in Cyberspace, the new musical I just finished with with book and lyrics Mel Shapiro and Dan Keleher. We’ve invited a small group of friends over to listen and comment. Mel will give a synopsis of the [...]
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Last night I finished composing HOMER IN CYBERSPACE. Yes, I still have to orchestrate the last four numbers, do some inserts here and there, and write some underscore and so on, but I finished. Daniel, Damon, Jane and I went to Hugos for a quick celebratory dinner and my face was unable to stop smiling. [...]
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Before I moved to California, my teacher, Leon Kirchner, introduced me to Leonard Rosenman. I remember several trips out to his beautiful Malibu home. I brought my music, and we played each other music for three hours, and chain-smoked.
Leonard taught a few times for us at UCLA. And before my time, he taught music [...]
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For the past three months, I have had a slim social life. I have had to miss many concerts, dinners, and parties. As I’ve told my friends, “all I do is be Chair and compose.” (Oh yes, and keep this blog active).
The composition of this piece has interrupted nearly every aspect of my life, from [...]
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