29:
Mel Shapiro
I’m doing the music to a short film by Mel Shapiro called INFRARED. Mel, as you may remember, wrote the book and lyrics to HOMER IN CYBERSPACE — a musical we premiered last years. I’m playing all the parts myself using Logic 9 (just arrived yesterday). It’s the smokiest, jazziest music I’ve composed to date, but somehow the material seems to call for it. The orchestration so far is piano, pizz acoustic bass, brush light drums, and sustained strings. I’ve got a muted trumpet obbligato line in each cue if we need it — I’m leaving it out because it interferes with the dialog, but by itself, the chord progression is screaming for a melody. So, I’ll probably string together a piece made from cues from INFRARED and if we end up using the trumpet melodies, I’ll get a REAL trumpeter to play that line.
[I have some advice for electronic musicians in emulating monophonic instruments (i.e. instruments that can only play one note at a time) on a keyboard: don't let notes overlap; use ONE FINGER to play the melody whenever possible. You'll find this works surprisingly well, especially for brass. This won't work for fast passagework, of course.]
The “hit” song from the 38 minute film is called “Terrible” which is a very infectious Vaudevillian-type song that I know people will like.
20:
For academics, summertime is a time of recharging: reading, doing our research, catching up on projects that we didn’t have time to do during the academic year, and traveling. I note that my blogging pattern is about once every five days of late. My year has been so busy I just haven’t had the time to write every day. For my faithful readers, know that I plan to blog for the rest of my life and when I step down as Chair of our department, I know that I will be more regular.
For my summer composition work, I am just about done with my settings of Eloise Klein Healy, and will have a public rehearsal/reading of it next week with the poet in attendance, and Vox Femina singing it under Iris Levine’s able baton. My collaborator in Homer in Cyberspace, Mel Shapiro, has a short film for me to provide music for. I have another movement of a piano piece to finish. And I hope to get back to the interrupted “Mozart and the Grey Steward” a short opera with words by Thornton WIlder.
I answered one of those alarming letters warning that my airline points were going to disappear, so I had better buy magazines. I did, and now have two huge piles of unread magazines I will try to make my way through. I also have a pile of books that I plan to start finishing.
I hope to block off a few weeks to try to finish my book on Rufus Wainwright. I will be interested to hear his new opera, which should have received its premiere by now.
A trip to London, Paris and southern France later in the summer will be our big vacation this summer. I plan to visit my parents at least once in Phoenix; two or three sabbaticals in Palm Springs; several trips to the Bay area; and a possible quick trip to Kauai.
The UC system is facing huge cuts. It appears we will all be taking 8% cuts to our salary for a year. The Herb Alpert School of Music is completely revamping its undergraduate curriculum, so I will be having meetings this summer and fall to work on that new reality.
I am still loving my Palm Pre, and am so relieved to be rid of the iPhone. I have colleagues who live for the iPhone apps, so they will likely never switch. I realized that I don’t really need to convert anyone to the Palm. I’m still thrilled that Apple is becoming so ubiquitous.
I hope to be more social this summer and establish a more regular exercise program to keep this body in good shape.
And finally, just the thought of doing NOTHING sounds terrific to me.
Sigh…
28:
RB at Haleakala
What a year!
The highlight of my year had to be the premiere of HOMER IN CYBERSPACE, my new musical written with Mel Shapiro. I don’t have the interest or connections to try to send it to Broadway, but am certain it could have a huge audience if put in the right hands.
A trip to Hawaii with Daniel, Mitchell and Mark was thrilling. We loved it so much we are considering getting a time share on Kauai. Prices are lower than ever with people trying to sell theirs with the downturn in the economy.
I got married to Daniel Shiplacoff, and after the passage of Proposition 8, I guess we are still married but I’m unclear what our legal status is. I’ll keep it as married.
This year Daniel took a job at Palm Inc. (of Palm Pilot fame) and is working on some mysterious new things that will be announced at the Consumer Electronic Show in Las Vegas in a few weeks. I wasn’t sure how his commuting back and forth from Sunnyvale would work. I had visions of our marriage falling apart but it just got stronger. It gave both of us concentrated time to do our own research, and could look forward to spending quality time together over long weekends.
I have enjoyed seeing the growth of social networking resources like Facebook and MySpace. It is especially gratifying to reconnect with old friends, and to follow my own students in their post-graduate lives.
This year my brother Andy’s health went into a final decline. He is now in a hospice in Reading MA. Yesterday we had a wonderful birthday party there for his daughter Hannah. We were a noisy bunch and were a bit worried that we were disturbing the other people there but the nurses assured us that it was welcome. Andy couldn’t have been happier. He got his picture taken with everyone. This may be his last party, but who knows. He’s been an amazing survivor. He has faced his imminent death with courage, grace, intelligence, and candor. He has been good to finish the unfinished business in his life. His blog and especially, his recent posts have elicited a remarkable response from the many people who have known him in business and life.
I was upset about being excluded from a top 50 Classical Blog list because I write about other things than classical music. I am a composer, and composers have lives, but as far as this anonymous blogger is concerned, I don’t belong. Fine. I dealt with it, but I find myself wanting to start another blog where I can write about things that may not be appropriate for the Chair of the UCLA Department of Music to write about, like “sex, drugs, and rock n roll.” I keep putting off posts in this category to my retirement when I can write without worrying about what my students’ parents (or my parents, who are faithful readers) might think. To that end, I’ve decided to start a new blog in January where I will be anonymous.
I have rejoined the new music scene in LA after some 15 years of avoiding it. I am thrilled to go to these concerts and see a new audience. I have been somewhat baffled by the rise in single, often widowed, retired women who flock to hear new music. The wilder the better for them. Whodathunk? I refuse to change my musical language so that my music can be programmed by Esa Pekka and Pierre Boulez. I am more than happy with who I am musically, and have seen how my music touches people.
I finished my first year as Chair of the UCLA Department and anticipate I will continue in this post for several more years. I find it challenging and rewarding. I am happy to be at the helm during our transition to becoming the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music. I have enjoyed working with our Deans and with Tim Rice, the school’s director. Designing a radical new curriculum has been exciting and long overdue.
I am amused to see the world’s enfatuation with texting. It seems all I see are people shuffling down the street texting or looking at their cell phones like zombies. Young people can’t hold concentration to have real conversations, preferring to check out and text with some other bored friend. I’m ready for this technology to move to eye glasses, and for a return to real conversation, but I know texting is here to stay. (I text regularly.)
I am thrilled to see the Bush era end and for Obama to become our new leader.
I, along with many other music teachers, am puzzled as to the lack of passion and obsession in young composers with regards to learning new music. Why, in my day, I remember trudging home from the music library with oversize scores in my arms, spending hours poring over the notes, the orchestration, the invention, the craziness. I would be obsessed over a composer and listen to everything they had written: Ives, Stockhausen, Boulez, Berio, Stravinsky, Webern, Schoenberg, Berg, and the rest. Nowadays, young students barely know who these composers are, and don’t really seem to care. Where has all the passion gone?
I am horrified that young people today don’t know folk music. People from my generation grew up on it and know thousands of so-called folk songs. Young mothers are singing rap and hip hop to their infants. I just find that weird.
I’m fascinated by the widening gap between theists and agnostic/atheists especially in young people.
I have no interest in pursuing more involvement in composing film music. I am happy to help train young composers who ARE interested, but scoring one every so often is fine. That being said, I’m thrilled to see the rise in interest in film music, worldwide. I dare say film music is far more popular (and perhaps relevant) than most of the so-called classical music being written today. For young film composers, studying metal music today is just as important as studying Bach harmony. I’m puzzled to see that USC is now offering a BM in popular music. Why? Since when does one need to go to school to learn how to be a pop/rock musician or songwriter? None of the songwriters they will be studying did, so why should anyone else?
I am fascinated to see the old world order crumble — politically, ecologically, economically, musically, and socially — and feel fortunate to have been alive during the period I’ve been alive. I wish I were optimistic about the way the world will be in 100 years. I hope I’m wrong. I hope the world can begin acting like a single, mega organism. I wish that corporations will learn to have a heart. I hope the world can learn to become more tolerant of social diversity — that it should be assumed that other people are not like you, and that that is ok, and normal.
[Photo by Mark Carlson of RB at Haleakala, in Maui]
25:
Although not as colorful as a New England fall, Los Angeles is having its fall. Santa Ana winds and hot dry weather together with fires along Sepulveda Blvd alongside the 405 have added color to the sky and particulate matter for we breathing types. Jenny and Matias are down for a wedding and staying with us. They have 4 month old Katherine with them. Katy has been a beautifully behaved infant with lots of personality. But she, her mom, dad, and my husband are all suffering from the dry skin from this weather. I guess I’m acclimated to it.
I finished excerpting the numbers from HOMER IN CYBERSPACE yesterday. I’ve decided to not slavishly put the songs up on this blog in their original order, but bounce around. The next song I’ll post is one of the most beautiful: “I used to be beautiful” which turns into “you are so beautiful” in the final duet of the show “My one thing.”
–
With the economy in turmoil as it is, and the election coming up, and friends and family in tough times, I still find much to be happy about and am feeling generally happy these days. I still have not written a note of music since May and am building up a huge momentum. Starting a new piece today would likely give rise to an UP piece. It’s an exciting build up, like looking forward to a date.
I’m reading a book called THE NOTORIOUS BYRD BROTHERS about the album by the same name. This is one of my favorite Byrds albums, but it was a rocky time for the group. Rick Menck paints an interesting backdrop to the album that adds a new dimension to appreciating that great band.
Mark O’Connor gave a second talk in my theory class on Thursday, and spoke about his music as being “American Music” (I think that was the phrase). He beautifully illustrated various passages in his own music that showed influences from a wide variety of countries.
His evocation of a train was charming. There was the violin as the chuga chuga chuga faster and faster aspect, and the woo wwooooo whistle. This, according to Mark, is American.
I could barely go to sleep the other night after his concert. His breakneck speed on the violin is exhilarating.
14:
Moorea at sunset
MP3: Play audio file (no-one2wait4.mp3)
The trickiest part of setting these lyrics for me was setting the name “Penelope” and saying “I love you.”
No One to Wait For
Music: Roger Bourland
Lyrics: Mel Shapiro
The Captain: Patrick Logotheti
No one to wait for
No endless longing
No one to worry for
Just someone belonging
To you
Someone who’s really here
Here at your side
Whispering in your ear
I love you,
Penelope
I love you,
So much
I love you
Penelope
Here and now
This I vow
I’ll be here
Always.
No one to wait for
No endless sadness
No one to worry for
Just a sweet gladness
With you
Someone who’s really here
Making you strong
Holding you near
I love you
Penelope
I love you
So much
I love you
Penelope
Here and now
This I vow
I’ll be here
Always.
© 2008 Mel Shapiro and Roger Bourland
30:
.
MP3: Play audio file (Rejection.mp3)
Rejection
.
“Rejection” from HOMER IN CYBERSPACE
.
Music: Roger Bourland
Lyrics: Mel Shapiro
Calypso: Jessica Armstrong
.
REJECTION
Flypaper sings Rejection
After much introspection
It’ud be dereliction
Not tellin’ you what turns me on
(Baby)
Profound inspection
And sheer detection
Makes obvious what turns me on
(Baby)
Tear up my letters
Don’t return my calls
Spurn me every which way
See how this sucker crawls
Rejection!
Love it to death
Oh yeah
Rejection
Who needs crystal meth?
When he’s finished, lost the fire
And wants out, wants me to die
Planning my demise something dire
That’s the joy, that’s the high
Rejection
Planning some escape plot?
Oh, yeah
Rejection
Give me all you got
(Download me baby…)
© by Mel Shapiro and Roger Bourland
[Photo: backstage snapshot of one of Jessica's performance]
09:
MP3: Play audio file (part-time_lover.mp3)
“Part-time Lover”
“Part-time Lover” from HOMER IN CYBERSPACE
Music: Roger Bourland
Lyrics: Mel Shapiro
-
Part-time Lover
Woman 1 and chorus
(Sing)
A married man wants a part time lover
Who he can call any time or other
Come over
Relax
Before you send him home
Iron his slacks.
Doin things his wife won’t do
Used to do
Too tired to do
Listenin’ to his stories
Dull as they are
Callin’ him a hero
Handin him drink and cigar
Doin things no one else will do
Shouldn’t do
Wouldn’t think to do
A married man wants a part time lover
Who he call any time or other
Relax
Love him to death
No strings attached.
Doin things I want to do
Shouldn’t do
Can’t resist not to do.
Listen to his stories
Dull as they are
Massaging his body
Nothing’s too bizarre
Come on over boys.
That’s right. Keep coming
Women’s voices chanting, maybe on top of the above song:
Hey laddie, hey laddie ho
The salt of the earth is in from the sea
Hey laddie, hey laddie ho
Stretch out that oar and give, give, give some loving to me
(Some of the men jump over hoard and dance with the women).
O-Man
And port side you could hear—
Men singing:
(Sing)
A married man wants a part time lover
Who he can call any time or other
Come over
Relax
Before you send him home
To what he lacks.
Doin things his wife won’t do
Used to do
Too tired to do
Listenin’ to his stories
Dear as they are
Callin’ him a hero
Make him feel a star
Doin things no one else will do
Shouldn’t do
Wouldn’t think to do
A married man wants a part time lover
His own little secret sort of a brother
Come over
Relax
Love him to death
No strings attached.
Doin things I want to do
Shouldn’t do
Wouldn’t be me not to do.
Listen to his stories
Dear as they are
Massaging his body
Nothing’s too bizarre
(The rest of the men are dancing with each other).
01:
MP3: Play audio file (someday-soon.mp3)
“Someday Soon” by Roger Bourland and Mel Shapiro
“Someday Soon” from HOMER IN CYBERSPACE (2008)
Music: Roger Bourland
Lyrics: Mel Shapiro
Tenor (”O”): Kevin Muster
©2008 by Roger Bourland and Mel Shapiro
.
Every opera has to have an aria with a passacaglia (a melody in the bass that repeats over and over) and this work is no exception. You’ll hear the ground bass in the introduction in the piano. In this number, Odysseus thinks about his long-lost son Telemachus.
.
Someday Soon
My son
I’ve gone off to war
My son
Take care of your mom
My son
I already miss you more and more
My son
Be good
The beat of the drums
The parade of guns and men
The show of force
The taste of glory
In our mouth again
We’re gonna hunt and fish and ride
Someday soon
Side by side
My son
I went off to war
My son
Many long years ago
My son
Guess you grew some more
(Ha, ha)
My son
Be strong
The heat of battle
The will to fight and die
An enemy who won’t admit defeat
Their need for glory
And country is why
We’re gonna hunt and fish and ride
Someday soon
Side by side
My son
I’ve been off at war
My son
How long has it been now?
Do you remember what we’re fighting for?
My son
Be proud
The will of the foe
Trying to break ours
There’s no chance of truce
Both sides need glory
It’s the only sense in fighting wars
My son
I’m done fighting this old war
My son
I missed your youth
Can’t bear to miss you much more
My son
Be true
We’re gonna hunt and fish and ride
Someday soon
Side by side
26:
On Sunday, two days after our Mill Valley marriage, Richard and Paul invited two dear friends for lunch. Tatyana and Serge are terrific people and the fact that they came bearing jamon iberico had me prejudiced in their favor from square one.
I have tried to get HOMER IN CYBERSPACE out of my head for months and only recently am I replacing it with other music. (There IS a FIREBIRD loop that goes on forever in my head like an alternate form of tinnitus.) Richard, always a great fan of my music, was unable to come to any performances of HOMER because his husband Paul wrecked his leg and couldn’t walk. So, in that Richard had just married us I figured I could sing for my supper and sing some excerpts form HOMER. I did so on Friday night after our marriage; I did in the car driving in Richard’s Black Prius; and for the Russian contingent on Sunday. It was great fun to revisit but my brain is infected again. Daniel played all the accompaniments on his iPhone and was able to hook it up to the house PA or the car sound system.
As I sang, I celebrated the response: Richard just smiled greatly the entire time; Daniel looked at me lovingly; Serge looked transfixed; and Paul and Tatyana let their hair down (and then some) and danced and mimed and sang along like teenagers. Schubert would have loved it. I love it when music can physically grab people like this.
21:
MP3: Play audio file (igods.mp3)
Conference of the iGods; © Roger Bourland and Mel Shapiro
“Conference of the iGods” from HOMER IN CYBERSPACE
Music: Roger Bourland
Lyrics: Mel Shapiro
Chief: Nathan Langdon
—
Conference of the iGods (12:51)
Tina:
Stay as far
Under the radar
Of the i-gods,
My man
Don’t let them
Know you exist
They won’t hesitate
To control your
Fate
Don’t let them
Get your number
The i-gods are as strong
As titanium
And deadly as
Uranium
They’ll re-wire your head
Lead you around by the nose
Their favorite game
Is anything goes.
Don’t let them
Even know you’re alive
They’ve got a tele-conference going
Say,
This may be worth knowing
Tele-conference of the i-gods
Chief
(Taking roll)
01010101010101010?
Each one answers when asked
“Present”
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