Retrace Our Steps (Emusic Review/John Schaefer)
i was very happy to see that WNYC’s John Schaefer wrote a great review of Retrace Our Steps for the E-Music website.*
“Composer Paul Bailey winningly describes his ensemble as an “alt-classical garage band.” With 4 singers (two of whom also speak), strings, winds, piano, electric guitar, vibes, and electric bass, it’s as good a description as any. Retrace Our Steps is his “secular oratorio in 4 acts,” and while the opening notes of Act I and of Act IV sound like they might have come from Arnold Schoenberg’s Transfigured Night, the dominant musical references are to Philip Glass and Michael Nyman. Bailey’s pulsing, tonal chamber music is married to texts by Gertrude Stein, Guy Debord and Jenny Bitner. All four acts are highly rhythmic affairs, but each has its own character: Act I insistent, Act IV a more reflective cousin (a neat trick since the rhythm seems to be the same); Act II with a stinging electric guitar part leading the way; Act III with an elegant combination of vibes and rocking strings and guitar. Rather than providing a narrative in a traditional oratorio sense, Bailey gives us a series of aural snapshots dealing with isolation, alienation, and the irony of modern communication (that when it is so easy to communicate, it is still so hard to communicate effectively). A further irony is that this message is carried by some immediately accessible music; if the message is that instrumental rock and new classical music are not so far apart, that message comes through loud and clear.”
and last week WNYC recently replayed the original show that featured my music.
*i’m not sure what is going on but it looks like Act II hasn’t been uploaded properly on the emusic site. If you have had problems and have downloaded an incomplete track please email me and besides giving you a link to Act II, i’ll also be happy to send you a special “surprise”.
and of course you can download the whole album right here for free at anytime
Retrace Our Steps, Act 1
Retrace Our Steps, Act 2
Retrace Our Steps, Act 3
Retrace Our Steps, Act 4
(download graphic libretto)
(download Graphic Libretto and Mp3′s)
summertime news and notes
for me summertime is the only of the year to time to catch up on some projects and get a little housecleaning done (professionally and personally). after a relaxing camping trip in catalina (hiking around two harbors was great!) i finally started going through my many “summer todo” lists that i made throughout the year. for whatever reason i always feel that i have to have “something tangible” completed by the 4th of july. so here is my list:
- unfortunately this website had to be burned to the ground and reinstalled. for some reason my template stopped working and it took me a while to figure out how reinstall from scratch. luckily it wasn’t as hard as i thought (thanks @vansgirl12)
- also most of this site should be quite useful now. scores (.pdf, .mus (finale), and .mid) to most of my music is now available through creative commons. all that means to me is that you can use it however you want; as long as you attribute me, and the work is not for resale.
- i started mixing the ‘alt-classical’ CD/EP again. i have to admit that doing all of the recording and editing alone (mostly) is too much of a narcissistic experience for me. eventually i’d really like to be able to hire somebody to do it, but until that day comes i have to get some distance and be able to disassociate myself from the music i wrote and we (the pbe performed). the good news is that 2 years after the fact (recording) i can now listen to that music and enjoy it (i totally understand why some actors can’t see themselves on film). currently i’m pretty close to finishing 3 tracks (principle of sufficient irritation, cheap admiration, myinnnersatan), and i’m thinking of downsizing it into an EP just to get it done. at this point i can only anticipate more problems getting clearance to release my covers of Weezer’s Sweater Song and Radiohead’s National Anthem.
- and finally, it was great to get an email (thanks caryn!) that a few weeks ago the PBE’s 1st album “Music from Summerland” was featured on John Schaefer’s New Sounds (WNYC) radio show “The Pulse of Minimalism, 060909” podcast download. its our 2nd featured spot on the show and i’m really ectastic to have interest in my “back catalog”. along those lines i have made the 7 summerland mp3′s freely available to download. enjoy! (i also learned a great lesson about making a special page for “press photos” so gig photos like this never see the light of day again)
like i said in some previous posts its hard not having a group to write or perform with right now, but mixing is keeping me plenty busy and if things go well i’m also hoping to get in the studio to record my Requiem for a High Homicide Enclave (2008)
holiday break-busy!
an extended holiday break is one the great advantages for being a teacher, but this holiday is been very busy. since the friday afternoon that school ended (dec 20th) i have been editing music, emailing musicians, calling and mailing news outlets and radio stations, rehearsing, and recording for our upcoming performance at the cerritos center. [...]
Music from Summerland, part 1
this is the first in the series of blogs about pieces we are currently performing. think of this of a more friendly style of program notes for our next show at the cerritos center for the performing arts on wed, jan 19th.
music from summerland-2002
this piece was started in the fall of 2001 and was completed summer 2002. it was the first piece written specifically for my group (pbe) and is heavily influenced by movie scores, pop/rock music, and the composers michael nyman/steve reich/philip glass. i wanted to create music that combined simple rock/pop harmonies with one- and two-part forms. all of the movements in music for summerland are monogestural (they all express one thing, and in a way each piece is its own self-contained universe). the process for creating these was pretty much the same: work out a few chord progressions and musical gestures, decide where i wanted to take the piece (mostly through form and overall length of each movement), and orchestrate it based on the instruments i had available.
as the piece was completed, rehearsals and the recording session were scheduled, and the pbe was formed. the first recording was completed with eight hours of rehearsal and two recording sessions in which the strings were recorded separately from the rest of the ensemble (electric guitar, electric bass, keyboard, vibes, trombone and bari sax) because of time limitations.
the pieces were originally not named. naming things is a strange thing for me. i originally wanted listeners to project their own values onto the music. for a while i thought about giving them very generic names and i originally assigned them roman numerals I-VII. after too many questions about the numbers, i caved into requests and gave them “proper” names.
the title “summerland” comes from a set of writings by peter lamborn wilson, an anarchist/situationist writer who writes under the pseudonym hakim bey. after reading some of his writings, the term summerland came to have a new meaning, especially regarding the creation of this ensemble. wilson talks a lot about a TAZ, or tong. he describes the TAZ (temporary autonomous zone) as a place where people come together outside of society to create and share without engaging in commerce. he feels that this is the first step to living outside consumer culture. creating summerland was like starting a temporary anarchist training camp. the idea of getting nine musicians together and rehearsing and recording outside of the commercial music world (with limited or no pay) is very uncommon, and this was my first step at both writing a large composition and bringing together a collective of musicians to make music without commercial constraints.
next post:
summerland mvts 1-3, overcoming tourism, the palimpsest, boundary violations.