Even though summer is pretty much over, I’m just getting my super super tiny [summer project] out. This was originally intended to help cover costs when traveling to Aspen (for a Summer Festival, as the title translates to), but now that that’s all ended, it’s kind of to help cover costs of my upcoming trip around the States to learn either violin or librarianship from people of varying levels of fame.

Or just for people to enjoy. I hope you will take a [listen] and enjoy.

The project was recorded over the course of a few days back in May and took forever to completely master mostly because of time differences and, well, life. It features other members of [Select Start], but please note it’s not another Select Start album because not all the members of the band are performing.

There are worse things to do on a day off than play Nintendogs while listening to Leon Kirchner.  (Would this behavior have been considered rebellious in some particular time period?  Kirchner’s music sounds like it could probably have been the Classical equivalent of the Sex Pistols at some point in terms of cultural reception.)

I somehow stayed on a Yo-Yo Ma and David Zinman kick, listening through the 1996 album of cello and orchestra works by Richard Danielpour, Leon Kirchner, and Christopher Rouse.  The last movement of the Danielpour has a motif that mirrors Hitoshi Sakimoto’s main theme from RomeoxJuliet, which was first aired in 2007.  I wonder if Sakimoto had heard this concerto before writing the score.  It certainly fits both pieces.  The Kirchner is quite pretty and expressive, and Zinman has such a respectfully affectionate portrayal of him in the liner notes.

What has become surprising to me, personally, is how much more attuned my ear has become to listening to these kinds of compositions.  I remember feeling confused by these three works upon first listening.  But they make sense now and I can hear actual structure and ideas.  It probably started with either the Barber Violin Concerto of the Corigliano Violin Sonata: pieces that I could somehow make sense of despite their dissonances and unexpectedly musical harmonies.   Now, after performing not a few works abiding by these same principles, this way of listening has improved?  I suppose I can’t complain about it.

When I took off my headphones, Dvorak’s Violin Sonatina Op. 100 (Itzhak Perlman) was streaming through my dad’s computer in the adjacent room.  It’s still such a cute piece after all these years.  I should get around to learning it properly sometime.

FreeCell is for listening to new music.  It’s just barely stimulating enough.

One major benefit of being back at my parents’ house is being able to riffle through all the albums my dad owns but I never paid enough attention to when I was younger (He owns 14 copies of the Dvorak Cello Concerto that I know of…)

Tonight is the Barber Cello Concerto and Britten Symphony for Cello and Orchestra (Yo-Yo Ma, David Zinman, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. ) – both of which I’ve never heard before (though Barber’s Violin Concerto is hands down my favourite violin concerto.)

Barber could definitely have made this concerto more “modern.”  I’m glad he didn’t; My dad probably wouldn’t have bought it if it was.  What an amazing recording.

There is no more special or powerful being anywhere than a real mother.  It probably takes more skill to be a mother than run a country.  For starters, it’s not really an office you can leave once you’ve stepped inside.  For afterstarters, they’re so very very scary when they are angry.

But some of us get lucky too.  I will never forget my mother teaching me to read and do math.  Or the fact that her best dishes are impossible to replicate perfectly and I miss them terribly sometimes.  Or the time she explained to me how babies are made, but only on a cellular level (When I asked how the cells meet, she gave me a medical textbook and a smile.)

Or stealing back the N64 from my apartment because she was in MarioKart64 withdrawl.

Besides, who else could say those magic words as truly as a mother? (“You need a bra”)

Happy Mother’s Day, Mum.

January 1-4, 2010.
Hilton Marks Center
Alexandria, VA

[Select Start] is returning to [MAGFest]!!  I’ll also be sitting in a few songs with [The Oneups.]   Look at the guest list ([Sid Meier] anyone?) and the band list ([Armcannon]! [The Megas]!)! Everyone should go!

More information to come soon.  I’m very very excited.

“It is all a long way from the beeps and bloops of the first video games.”

I’m surprised it took, of all publications, the [New York Times] this long to write some variation of this sentence – namely using “long way” in combination with “bleeps and bloops.”  Fairly nice article otherwise, though.

In other news, it’s time to  find a new sentence, or just onomatopoeic sounds, to describe how evolved video game music and the culture such around has become, methinks.

Friday, July 31, 2009 – 10pm
Smoke and Barrel Tavern
Fayetteville, AR

performing with The Oneups.

more information [here]

Back to practice…

The gmail music player produces better music file sound than my winamp.

Today, here is the music of a quintet from [Eminence Symphony Orchestra] (previously mentioned [here]) and Final Fantasy miscellany.  Still thinking of finding the direct path to joining them.  Still thinking of how I can turn into [Hiroaki Yura].

If you weren’t aware that these melodies were from video games, an anime, and a soundtrack to a novel, would you have thought that they were composed for such?  Be honest…

Tracks: (all files uploaded onto zshare.net. Music is rightful property of the artists. I don’t own any of these…Please buy their music and support them.)

+ [Dash] (Romeo x Juliet) – Hitoshi Sakimoto
- performed by members of the Eminence Symphony Orchestra
- Short, but very fun to play.  I don’t remember it from the series at all, but this version is charming and has an odd ending.

+ [The Fall of Darkness] (Kirite) – Yasunori Mitsuda
- performed by members of the Eminence Symphony Orchestra
- Kirite is an irresistible album.  I recently arranged this piece for Select Start and was sincerely afraid that we would read through it once and then forget about it.  After all, from a market standpoint, the piece is risky, being from an unfamiliar not-video game.  However, the opposite happened and after two readings, they actually really wanted to put some solid work into it.  So we’ll see how far this goes!

+ [Estrelas] – Nobuo Uematsu featuring Risa Ohki
- from the Final Fantasy: Love Will Grow vocal album, sung to the melody of “Gilbert’s Harp” from Final Fantasy IV

+ [Cosmos] (Dissidia : Final Fantasy) – Your Favorite Enemies
- Yet another strangely resolved piece.  Interesting lyrics.

While going over past posts in order to organize the [new page], the fact came to my attention that as much as I write about music and performances on this site.blog.webspace, I’ve never actually posted up any recordings involving myself.

Don’t get used to it.  There are more through [myspace] anyway.

Here are some personal tracks, edited a little by yours truly, unless otherwise noted:

+ [Title] – from Megaman III
- A large majority of my recorded sound is through [that band] I play with.  I really like this recording, arranged by David Yasensky, guitar.

+ [Green Hill Zone. Marble Zone] – from Sonic the Hedgehog
- Because that first one is a bit short.  Also arranged by David and featuring solo work by Kanako “Kiki” Sueyoshi, violin, on the second melody.  You can get our CD for free on our [website].

+ [Boy Aims for Wild Fields]  – from Secret of Mana
- I talk a lot about [The OneUps] here and should write a post of their music someday soon.  But for now, this is a collaboration from a [MAGfest VI] rehearsal back in 2008, featuring OneUps bassist/keyboardist/producer/monkey trainer [Mustin] on bass and musician extraordinaire [Kunal Majmudar] on drums.  The beginning is a little shaky as we try to find a decent tread.

+ [The Vagabond] – composed by Tyzen Hsiao; rearranged by Maho Azuma and me; performed by Maho Azuma (flute), Christine Lee (piano), and me (violin)
- Back a summer or two ago, Select Start was asked to perform in one of the university cultural assemblies.  Sadly, the majority of the members were out of town so we re-arranged this tune for anyone still in town.  Tyzen Hsiao is one of the more prolific Taiwanese composers, and the piece just worked out nicely overall.  This was recorded during a later Select Start rehearsal, which accounts for the background noise that I apologize profusely for…  The three of us are looking for another opportunity to re-record it in a silent setting.

+ [Eternal Harvest] (from Final Fantasy IX) – Christine Lee, piano
- So this one isn’t me at all but I have to pass on this recording whenever I have an excuse to because it’s so pretty.  Christine is a rather significant inspiration in my life.  For starters, she played my junior recital better than I did and then decided to go and be a doctor after all.  This is from the very first Select Start CD ever.

I’ve kind of been hiding this, but it seems to be getting around the Internets lately anyway so what’s the harm.

Here it is – the [Womengamers.com] interview (on behalf of [OCRemix]) in all it’s glory.  Though I’m not particularly a fan of my own answers (I didn’t think he was going to publish it verbatim…), I’m very quite honored to be on it with such accomplished ladies as [Jill] and [Nicole].  Many big thanks go out to [Larry Oji], M. Brandon Robbins, and [Jeriaska]…

[click here for the article]