Okay so I was checking out this recording session at Abbey Road for Grace, composed by Austin Wintory, when I came across this picture which had me watering at the mouth.
Four bass clarinets plus four contrabass clarinets - OH YES. What a combination. I wish I could hear a little of what they were recording. Awesome!!
Well there’s one thing that always gets me going. Gets me so excited that I want to start a project such as that myself. It is orchestral collaborations with bands etc. Just love it. Some “purists” hate it, but they are just boring. To me, they are something that the players love, because they are at long last doing something new and fresh, and the audiences love it because of too many reasons to note. Of course also, it brings a whole new audience to an “orchestra” concert.
These were popularised firstly I guess by the legendary Michael Kamen. He orchestrated and conducted so many concerts, including ones with Pink Floyd, Queen, Eric Clapton, Aerosmith, David Bowie, Bryan Adams, Sting and Metallica. The latter, I think, is absolutely amazing. See a track from it here. It is so wonderfully orchestrated and put together. Of course the huge full size orchestra makes it all the more better.
MANY of these happen each every year and I wish there was some place where I could keep track of them all. Another one I found was a recent one from the UK. This orchestra is much smaller in size, but still, it’s an orchestra. This one is The Bays, who are an improvisation kinda band, who teamed up with The Heritage Orchestra in Liverpool. They also do some amazing stuff with how the orchestra players get their music … check it out.
Finally, I can’t leave without mentioning a little homegrown talent. John Psathas recently arranged all the music for a Little Bushmen / Auckland Philharmonia gig. I couldn’t make it to the concert, but have watched the documentary, and it’s fantastic. It’s a three part doco which starts here, but if you want to go straight to the final concert, see that here.
Well I’ve only briefly mentioned three, so do let me know if you have any favourites.
Recently, award-winning composer Alexandre Desplat was at the Sony Scoring Stage to record his score to the highly anticipated drama, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Directed by David Fincher and stars Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett. While catching up on the scoring session, I was HIGHLY EXCITED by the discovery of a gong drum.Look at this thing. I want to write a gong drum concerto. It’s being played there by Greg Goodall … what a job. I wonder what the likelihood is of one being in NZ. Hmm…..
Ok well that was a horribly geeky title, but what the heck. Well you haven’t heard from me in a while … that’s because I’ve been engrossed in my new toy (…business asset). lol Yes after my entire life of being a PC user, I finally saw the light and purchased a new Apple MacBookPro. Wow, wow, wow. Just the look of it is enough to satisfy me, but it’s performance is amazing. I’ve been running Sibelius 5 on it and what a joy that is. I do everything I need to do in no time, then wonder if I have actually done it all cause seemed so completely stress free. lol I’m now Microsoft free which is great. Am using iWork in place of office. It seems far superior and is seamlessly compatible with office documents (on import AND export). So the point of this blog, is to, yes, encourage you all to see the light also.
Luke Di Somma, a friend of mine, has been accepted into the Tisch School of the Arts Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program at New York University. He is based in Christchurch and is a fantastic composer and musical director and has many shows to his credit. You can check out his bio at his site, but my point is, for him to get to New York he needs $200,000. Yes, that’s correct. How is he going to get it? That is a very good question.
Go check out his site and read up on all the awesome stuff he has been up to. If you happen to have a spare $200,000 sitting around then make sure you get in touch with him. If you don’t, he would still love to hear your support.
Bye for now, Ryan
Hey everyone, well this week one of my orchestras, the Kristin Symphonia, performed at the KBB Music Festival at the Auckland Town Hall. They did very well indeed. There was some interesting acoustic problems going on as the timpani especially was positioned so far away. Generally though they did extremely well … the first movement from Dvorak’s Ninth in particular was superb.
In the end we got a BRONZE award. A little way off gold (we’re saving that for next year) but we are very happy with the result, as it is the first time in the orchestra’s history that they have received an award at the Festival.
It was my first Festival of this type, so listening to the other orchestras and seeing how everything works makes me excited about the prospects for next year.
How exciting, Sibelius 5 has just been released. I have ordered my version.
WOAH exciting!!
Well NZ Music Month starts today!! Hope everyone gets out there and makes the most of it!! Click on the picture below and there is a BIG list of whats on, and links, and info, and … just go check it out!!
Hey again, just thought I’d give a plug for my Uncle’s Oratorio.
“The Living Word” by Christopher J. Archer
The Living Word is a work for choir, orchestra, organ and soloists. It was premiered in 1999 at the Holy Trinity Cathedral in Auckland. It is a great piece of music and is being performed again at St Heliers Presbyterian this Easter. He has a short documentary on the original production at YouTube.
If you’re interested in more of Chris’ work or for more info on the Oratorio, let me know and I’ll pass on your interest.
Hey everyone,
Thought I’d just let you all know what I’ve been reading up on lately and have got very interested in. … Online music marketing and promotion, specifically relating to indie artists. I’ve subscribed to two podcasts and read a few books all which I thoroughly recommend. Before I mention the podcasts, note that you can subscribe through going to the site or just find it through iTunes.
The first podcast is Online Music Marketing with Jay Moonah. He is based in Toronto and has so many great ideas, tips and guests which make his podcasts fantastic. Examples include search engine optimization for artist websites, financing and fan incentives, using flash and videos, through to using MySpace and last.fm, through to owning your own (web) destiny.
The second is Artist Empowerment Radio brought to you by Bob Baker. He is absolutely full of knowledge on many areas and is “dedicated to helping creative people of all kinds get exposure, connect with fans and increase their incomes through their artistic passions.” I’ll get to his books soon, but his podcast covers similar topics to Online Music Marketing, but also leans towards Artist Empowerment, such as feeling good about your music, taking action, growing your career etc.
I’ve also been reading some books that I’ve found very interesting and full of great stuff. Three by Bob Baker (all books and much more available here: www.bob-baker.com):
And one by David Nevue (lots of resources and book available here: www.musicbizacademy.com):
“How to Successfully Promote Your Music on the Internet”
I won’t go into the books too much cause the titles kind of explain it all, but they are all definitely worth a read. There definitely was alot of information in them that I already knew (as most people would find who have an established MySpace account … for example), but there were always many more exciting things to discover. Both their websites are full of articles and resources also, so definitely worth checking out.
Ok as I’m sure most of you know, most of John Williams’ film scores are taken from classical works … in fact basically all of them. Anyway last night was at a NZSO concert and I swear in Sibelius’ 3rd Symphony, there were FOUR themes from John Williams’ Jurassic Park. Has anyone else recognised these?? Or was I just hearing things?? Let me know…
Hey everyone, another NZ events page is eventfinder.co.nz. It stacks up against NZLive really well for browsing through. But the catch is that to list events, or to monitor events, you have to pay. There is a free option but you can only list OR monitor ONE event at a time. NZLive seems to do everything it can plus a bit more and it’s free. Eventfinder have been around since the beginning of the year, so it will be interesting to see if/what they introduce to have that something different against NZLive. Anyway it IS a great site and definitely worth a look if you’re on the hunt for events.
If you’ve been to one or either site, let me know what you think.
Check it out www.eventfinder.co.nz.
Tonight was the launch of John Psathas’ new CD View from Olympus featuring three concerti recorded by the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra with Pedro Carneiro (Percussion), Michael Houstoun (Piano) and Joshua Redman (Saxophone). Of course I had to get a CD straight away. Included is a DVD called Creating View from Olympus. WOW WOW WOW. I’m very familiar with the View from Olympus concerto and reasonably familiar with the others, but listening to this recording is as if they are new works. The standard is incredible. It is the biggest recording project ever undertaken here in New Zealand, and is absolutely amazing.
If there is one CD you have to get, it is this one. It is put out by Rattle Records, also available through SOUNZ, and for any more info I VERY VERY VERY STRONGLY RECCOMMEND you to go to www.viewfromolympus.com.
Flipping heck! MySpace is amazing. I’ve always heard about it, and maybe about a year ago I signed up for the normal MySpace, but didn’t do anything to it. Then maybe a month or so ago I changed to MySpace Music and started getting friends, and put bio up, and just doing everything you do. And lol, its wicked. I’m hooked. Have been getting emails from all sorts of exciting people. Anyway soon I’ll get some music up and things will continue to grow which is awesome.
SO VISIT www.myspace.com/ryanyouens AND BECOME A FRIEND.
AWESOME!! NZLive is the new online home of everything cultural in New Zealand. It is fantastic. It has only just gone live but is already buzzing with hundreds of events and organisations. It is so comprehensive that I suggest you register to My NZLive, which lets you customise the site.
Hey everyone, for all of you who use the Sibelius software, this is an OUTSTANDING resources page with great fonts, plug-ins and resouces. I only just found it but it has been WOW SO USEFUL. Check it out…
OH MY GOSH!! John Williams’ ORIGINAL film scores are being published by Hal Leonard. Not arrangements or toned down versions, but the original ENTIRE scores as recorded for the films. So you can see his original compositions in their entirety. ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC!!
I guess the catch is that they are costing between about US$380 - $500 EACH. Ahh well. If anyone knows any libraries stocking the scores (probably in America) let me know and I’ll see if I can get an interloan or something.
Thats got to be the best thing I’ve heard in a long time.