Aghaei and Jacobsen's Ascending Bird

This is a pretty cool piece, again performed by the 2011 Youtube Symphony Orchestra. The video also features Kseniya Simonova, a Ukranian sand artist. I'll maybe write a description up of it later.

Mason Bates' Mothership

Mason Bates
alive

Mason Bates is an American composer of symphonic music. Distinguished by his innovations in orchestration and large-scale form, Bates is best known for his expansion of the orchestra to include electronics. One of the most-performed composers of his generation, he has worked closely with the San Francisco Symphony and currently holds the position of composer-in-residence with the Chicago Symphony.

His piece Mothership, which includes an electric guitar solo, is performed below by the 2011 Youtube Symphony Orchestra.

Galante's Transcendent Journey

Rossano Galante
(still alive)

Rossano Galante, pictured in the cheesy picture to the left, has composed many pieces and even orchestrated a few movies two of which are 3:10 to Yuma and Live Free or Die Hard.

Transcendent Journey was a piece composed and premiered relatively recently. Transcendent Journey was commissioned by and dedicated to the Hofstra University Symphonic Band. It premiered on May 3, 2008 under the direction of Dr. Peter Loel Boonshaft. I was fortunate enough to be under the tutelage of a former-student of Dr. Boonshaft at the time and was invited to the concert at which this piece, unbeknownst to me, was premiering. This piece definitely makes up for Kirkpatrick Fanfare.




If you'd like to download this, just right click and save as:
Transcendent Journey
Recorded by the Central Winds under the direction of Andrew Perry

Boysen's Kirkpatrick Fanfare

Andrew Boysen, Jr.

I didn't really feel like looking up stuff about this guy. He's still alive and fairly young.

In honor of Saint Patrick's Day, totes posting this piece. It's pretty all right but ahwell. I'll post something totes rad tomorrow to make up for it.

Huapango de Moncayo

José Pablo Moncayo García
(June 29, 1912 – June 16, 1958)

Huapango is a corruption of the Nahuatl word huapanco that textually means on top of the wood platform according to the dictionary of the Real Academia Española ("huapantli", wood table; "pantli", row; and "co", place, on).

Despite his being an excellent Mexican composer, and even considered vital to the Mexican nationalist composition movement, there was never much scholarly research done by either Mexican or foreign music scholars. Moncayo was thought to have a promising career as a composer and conductor. However, his career was hampered by the difficult cultural environment, difficult political situation and his premature death. His death, at an age just shy of forty-six, practically marked the end of Mexican Nationalism in the musical arts.

Moncayo sought to compose a piece that could encapsulate the national aspirations of the Mexican people. In 1941, Moncayo finished his composition titled Huapango which premiered on the 15th of August performed by the newly formed Orquesta Sinfónica de México under the direction of Carlos Chávez. The bright and colorful piece that is Huapango is a testament to the brilliance and nationalistic ideals of Moncayo. Any Mexican should be proud of this music. If there were ever a reason I would want to be Mexican, it would be so I could claim Moncayo's music as my own.




If you're trying to think of who Moncayo looks like, it's Chazz Palminteri.

Ticheli's Loch Lomond

Frank Ticheli
(January 21, 1958 - Present)

Normal guy. Pretty chill.

Ticheli's arrangement of Loch Lomond is one of my favorite pieces to listen to. Loch Lomond is a Scottish folk song. There isn't really much to say, but this piece is holy goddamn good.

At 5:46 in this recording is one of my favorite notes ever written. The build to it is just fantastic and the way it releases is godly. Of course no recording can ever do it proper justice, but when I performed this piece in my high school wind ensemble, I would get chills running down my spine because it's so awesome.

Anyway, listen, and turn the volume up as loud as you can bear.

Strauss's Die Fledermaus Overture

You know this piece.


Die Fledermaus Overture, by Johann Strauss II

Tsintskaro

I'm not quite sure how to describe Tsintskaro (in Georgian: წინწყარო). Haunting? Beautiful? Calming? Tsintskaro, translating loosely to "By the Spring", is a fairly famous Georgian chant or "folk song". It can be found Herzog's 1979 remake of the classic 1922 silent-film Nosferatu starring the infamous Klaus Kinski as Nosferatu. Tsintskaro can also be found featured in part of Kate Bush's song "Hello Earth" off of her album Hounds of Love.

Alford's Colonel Bogey March

Kenneth J. Alford
(February 21 1881 – May 15 1945)
b. Frederick Joseph Ricketts

Technically, he is Lieutenant F. J. Ricketts. He composed under the name Kenneth J. Alford though, so for all intents and purposes of this blogasaurus, it is Alford's Colonel Bogey March.

What better way to start the month of March than with a march?

The Colonel Bogey March has been famously used in many films ranging from The Bridge Over the River Kwai to such films as Spaceballs.

There isn't much to say about marches as a genre. They typically follow the same style/form. The form is as follows:

1. Quiet Intro
2. Repeat Intro but Loud
3. Trio
4. Dogfight
5. Grandioso

Most of these can easily be picked out. Obviously you can tell when the intro is repeated but louder. The trio is the more flowing part that comes after. It's the not very accenty/staccatoish/marchymarchy bit. The dogfight is pretty much what it sounds. The woodwinds and the brass typically fight or answer each other back and forth loudly and whatnot. And then the grandioso is either the melody from the beginning, but quieter and then is repeated louderly and then it ends.


Anyway, here is Alford's Colonel Bogey March.