Consequences of Leaving a Record

Posted in electronic, fixed media on February 21, 2015 by Jacob Feinberg

255930061-1-150x150Consequences of Leaving a Record

MP3 (I suggest downloading because this may be too large a file for uninterrupted streaming.)

Duration: 4 hr 24 min 19 sec

Year(s) of composition: Source Materials 1992-2001, Concept 2009-2012, Realization 2012.

A very long piece (the first in a conceptual series) compiling synthesizer sequences created between 1995 and 2001 (though some were written as far back as 1992).

Scrapbook/Landform Variations Book 1

Posted in electronic, fixed media, multi-movement piece on February 21, 2015 by Jacob Feinberg

1680549056-1-150x150Scrapbook/Landform Variations Book 1

STOP! Please listen with headphones or full speakers or else you will miss much of the music. 

The internal speakers of computers, cell phones, MP3 players (including IPODs) and tablets generally aren’t good enough. As a test, if you do not hear a fairly loud low rumbling note in the first few seconds of the first track, Declaration of War (LFV1), your speakers do not have enough bass frequency response to play all the music in this album. Additional pops, clicks, and distortion may also occur with lower-fidelity playback equipment.  [Declaration of War (LFV1) was slightly distorted just from the conversion to MP3 format; here is a higher fidelity WAV file (70.5MB).

1 Declaration of War (LFV1) MP3 Duration:  6:39

2 Of Knowing Others (Alone) MP3 Duration: 13:16

3 Wormholes: Canonically Flat MP3 Duration: 7:26

4 Pith Of An Inheritance, Inconspicuous And Rare (LFV2) MP3 Duration: 10:56

5 Suite MP3 Duration: 6:46

  1. Scrapbook (0:00)
  2. If You Lived Here, You’d Already Be Home (LFV3) (3:40)
  3. As If We Were Invisible (LFV4) (4:56)
  4. As the Subconscious Is Mythology…(LFV5) (5:34)

6 To Slow The Speed Of Life… (LFV6) MP3 Duration: 5:00

7 Microcosm With Fractal Edging (Study in 10-EDO) MP3 Duration: 5:34

8 The Turn Inside (LFV7-9)/Solemnity Arcs (Study in 11-EDO) MP3 Duration: 5:25

9 Cascade And Cirque (LFV10-16) MP3 Duration: 8:06

10 The Journey That Is Taking Me (LFV17-22) MP3 Duration: 5:00

Total duration: 75 minutes

Years of composition: 2005-2011

About the Landform Variations

About the Scrapbook pieces:

In 2006, I wrote a piece for theremin and violin called Of Knowing Others which was the basis for this solo electronic piece. The original piece was largely constructed to facilitate different kinds of improvisational interplay between the performers so reworking it was an interesting challenge. I chose the title from a quote attributed to Confucius: “I do not fear that others do not know me; rather I fear it is I who does not know others.”

Wormholes: Canonically Flat was composed in 2005 and revised in 2011. The canonic form of the piece is conceptually modeled on a wormhole: a shortcut through the time-space continuum or a way to quickly (or instantly) travel to another place or time. Astro-physicists disagree on whether wormholes exist, whether they could be formed by two connected black holes, and whether anything could survive passing through them.  The piece is “flat” because there are “flattened” elements of stasis in the piece.

Suite is a collage which combines previously unused material generated for For Melinda Rice and Of Knowing Others with LFVs 3, 4, and 5. There are four sections:

  • 1) Scrapbook (0:00)
  • 2) If You Lived Here, You’d Already Be Home (LFV3) (3:40)
  • 3) As If We Were Invisible (LFV4) (4:56)
  • 4) As the Subconscious Is Mythology…(LFV5) (5:34)

Microcosm With Fractal Edging and Solemnity Arcs are studies in which 10- and 11- equally divisions of an octave (EDO) are used instead of the 12-EDO typical in Western music.

2nd Collection of Essences and Ephemera

Posted in electronic, fixed media, multi-movement piece on February 21, 2015 by Jacob Feinberg

2nd Collection of Essences and Ephemera

MP3 to follow

Year(s) of composition: 2001-2005, extracted and revised 2009

2nd Collection of Essences and Ephemera: OneiroStation

The Collections of Essences and Ephemera contain both excerpts (essences) of pieces – sometimes just a short melody stated once – as well as complete shorter pieces (ephemera). The 2nd collection features selections from OneiroStation, an opera I worked on during 2001-2005 before abandoning the project. The music presented here was arranged for unaccompanied piano(s) in 2007-2008. The opera went through several arrangements and orchestrations, re-writes of the libretto, and even varying numbers of characters.

1st Collection of Essences and Ephemera

Posted in electronic, fixed media, multi-movement piece on February 21, 2015 by Jacob Feinberg

1st Collection of Essences and Ephemera

MP3 to follow

Year(s) of composition: 2000-2004, extracted and compiled in 2009

1st Collection of Essences and Ephemera:
gifts, sacred works, musical abortions, solitude, dried fruit, word-stripped songs, sentimentalities, and music for children, shadow-play, film, stage, tunnels, and miscellaneous other vacancies

The Collections of Essences and Ephemera contain both excerpts (essences) of pieces – sometimes just a short melody stated once – as well as complete shorter pieces (ephemera). The 1st collection contains pieces composed between 2000-2004. Those not written for unaccompanied piano(s) were arranged in 2008. These are largely light, fun, spontaneously-created pieces, some of which served particular extra-musical functions. They are more traditional than most of my other work.

 

Everything Will Make Sense Given Time

Posted in electronic, fixed media, multi-movement piece on February 21, 2015 by Jacob Feinberg

everything-150x150Everything Will Make Sense Given Time

1. people are gone too MP3 Duration: 1:32

2. band (a) / exhale (sweet dreamer) MP3 Duration: 6:53

3. reprise / (b) MP3  Duration: 7:58

4. everything remembered / closer dream desert (unexplained) MP3  Duration: 8:54

5. preludes (like morning) / transport (heavenfire) MP3  Duration: 15:00

6. burning, sweet as day / water, nothing unravels MP3 Duration: 8:28

7. watchmaker’s paradise MP3 Duration: 4:44

Total duration: 54 min

Year(s) of composition: 2005-2008

Like Summa de Nada, Everything… collages compositional etudes and rock songs. Some of the collaged materials found on Everything… were already collaged for earlier pieces so the end result is partially a collage-of-collages.

 

For Melinda Rice

Posted in electronic, violin on February 21, 2015 by Jacob Feinberg

For Melinda Riceformelinda-150x150

Commissioned by Melinda Rice and premiered by her on Jan 22, 2006.

MP3 of first performance

Duration: 22:17

Year(s) of compostion: 2005

For Melinda Rice is an electro-acoustic piece with a modular violin score and multi-track recordings of violin which create a dense drone.

Eight Systems

Posted in 'cello, viola on February 21, 2015 by Jacob Feinberg

Eight SystemsOLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Composed for a concert of new short works performed by Cassia Streb (viola) and April Guthrie (‘cello) on October 12, 2005.

MP3 of first performance

Duration: 5-6 minutes

Year(s) of composition: 2005

See You Soon

Posted in 'cello, piano, song, voice on February 21, 2015 by Jacob Feinberg

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERASee You Soon

A setting of a poem by Mazarine Treyz.

MP3 as performed by:

Soprano – Kris Wildman

Piano – Danny Holt

‘Cello – Aniela Perry

Duration: approx 4:00 (this recording 4:06)

Year(s) of composition: 2004

The performers begin and end each phrase together but intentionally drift rhythmically in-between.

A door just opened on a street…

Posted in 'cello, piano, song, voice on February 20, 2015 by Jacob Feinberg

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAA door just opened on a street…

MP3 as performed by:

Soprano – Kris Wildman

Piano – Danny Holt

‘Cello – Aniela Perry

Duration: 2:50

Year(s) of composition: 2003, revised 2005

A setting of an Emily Dickinson poem. One of five such pieces used in Solitude, a collaborative project with five filmmakers. The original vocal line, which contained the words of the poem, was moved to the ‘cello part and the poem’s stanzas are not sung in the revised version.

A door just opened on a street–
I, lost, was passing by–
An instant’s width of warmth disclosed
And wealth, and company.

The door as sudden shut, and I,
I, lost, was passing by,–
Lost doubly, but by contrast most,
Enlightening misery.

Summa De Nada

Posted in electronic, fixed media, multi-movement piece on February 20, 2015 by Jacob Feinberg

Summa De Nadasumma-150x150


Suite 1 

1. For Melissa MP3 Duration: 4:19

2. The Same MP3 Duration: 2:14

3. Radio MP3 Duration: 3:21


 

Suite 2

4. The Wind Blows Us Elsewhere MP3 Duration: 9:39

5. Counting Sheep MP3 Duration: 3:24

6. Danielle And Ginger MP3 Duration: 6:57


 

Suite 3

7. You Know My Secrets MP3  Duration: 2:22

8. Broken Flowers (Science Fiction) MP3 Duration: 9:13

9. Torn From Live Space MP3 Duration: 6:20

10. Lying Still MP3 Duration: 4:27


 

Suite 4

11. Palace of Echoes MP3 Duration: 3:04

12. If Only To Be Numb… MP3 Duration: 5:18

13. Ghost(s) MP3 Duration: 5:30


 

Total Duration: Approx. 67 minutes

Year(s) of composition: 2003

Summa de Nada is largely drawn from the same sessions as Junesong but the pieces (some collaged and others free-standing) are arranged into 4 suites.

Like oddball extended techniques? Listen for me playing an electric razor through humbucker electric guitar pickups.