This seems to be developed from Crane II, which was recorded immediately previously. It also sounds related quite a bit to a harmonic theme in "Glacier Discovery" (the third track on "Passages") – it shares phrase lengths and harmonic relations. But it is more florid, more active, and ultimately more mistake-ridden and uninteresting — it ends up sounding too much like noodling. Hence my dropping the F-bomb at the 3:20 mark (parents, cover your children's ears!). Then I glissando, to figuratively wipe the slate clean and start over.
I'll say, though, I've no idea how I got the sostenuto pedal and the low register depressed in the middle of the improvisation. Literally – I don't remember. It makes for a fascinating and shimmery texture. But if people don't realize that what you are doing is organic, they think it's just some Enya effect. And I will admit that it makes me play a little like Enya. By which I am less than thrilled. And you can hear it when, at the end, I realize just how banal I've become and have to wipe the slate clean again.
Why am I posting this? Maybe to show you that sometimes the good stuff just won't come out.
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Recorded on September 1st, 2008, at Magic Closet Studios, in Portland, OR.
I love how austerely this piece begins. It is open and empty. I left the sustain pedal down for much of it, giving an extremely wet texture. It doesn't stop, either — as I throw more notes in, leaving the pedal down, they all mix together in a swirl. Unfortunately, I lose it and abort the piece at 4:35. So I suppose this is what's called an "outtake", but the beginning was too lovely not to post.
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Recorded on September 1st, 2008, at Magic Closet Studios, in Portland, OR.
Here, just for you, is another brand new improv, one that is not on either CD. I really dig the rhythm in this, how the two disjointed hands mesh together to form something cohesive. You can hear, though, that at times my hands and brain could barely manage to stay together and in time. The ragged (and repetitive) nature of this piece is why it didn't make the cut for the new CD, but the energy is so great that I wanted to share it.
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Recorded on September 1st, 2008, at Magic Closet Studios, in Portland, OR.
This is the last piece in my "Paintings" series. Coincidentally, the painting for the first piece was also by Andrew Wyeth - I am pleased at the symmetry. I am also pleased at how this piece turned out. I found a very interesting motif and explored it thoroughly, but I don't find it belaboured. The piece does not settle into a standard key and avoids standard cadences. It is open, cold, and harsh.
"Winter, 1946" (1946) by Andrew Wyeth Click on the painting to open up a larger version in another window.
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Recorded on August 12th, 2008, at Magic Closet Studios, in Portland, OR.
The first time I tried to channel a Thiebaud painting, I failed. This time, however, I had the image in front of me, and I must say I was much more successful. This improv is peaceful and slightly melancholy. It has a nice arc and doesn't overreach.
"Man Sitting - Back View" (1964) by Wayne Thiebaud Click on the painting to open up a larger version in another window.
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Recorded on August 12th, 2008, at Magic Closet Studios, in Portland, OR.
As I finished interpreting Sidney Goodman's "Figures in a Landscape" the first time, I wasn't altogether satisfied. I felt like I had not done a good enough job of capturing the melancholy and foreboding that I felt in the painting. So I decided to try again. I think that my two efforts taken together are a better counterpiece to Goodman's painting.
"Figures in a Landscape" (1972-3) by Sidney Goodman Click on the painting to open up a larger version in another window.
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Recorded on August 12th, 2008, at Magic Closet Studios, in Portland, OR.
I took another literal approach to start this piece (inspired by Caravaggio's "Narcissus"). The positions of the first four notes in the right hand are reflections of the corresponding notes in the left hand (I'll leave it to you to determine which note is the axis of reflection). In fact, the first fifteen notes are all reflections. (They are not chromatic reflections, but rather remain diatonic.) Having found and established a feel and motivic ideas for this piece, I could then leave the rigid rule behind and flesh it out. I do return to the reflection motif often (though not always about the original axis).
I am pleased with how delicate the piece begins, and I like that it becomes very traditional sounding. As I move away from that, it gets a little sloppy, unfortunately, but I'm able to pull it together and wrap it up nicely.
Click on the painting to open up a larger version in another window.
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Recorded on August 12th, 2008, at Magic Closet Studios, in Portland, OR.
The second in this three-part series of non-paintings. I named them after the fact because I thought they had a similar touch, a shared something...
(On this one, the touch ran out at around the 4:40 mark and the piece fell apart, but I liked the rest of it, so I kept it. Please forgive the ragged ending.)
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Recorded on June 11th, 2008, at Magic Closet Studios, in Portland, OR.
The bad links have been fixed; you should be able to listen to these pieces now. Sorry for the inconvenience!
The next artist I wanted to try was Wayne Thiebaud. He is one of my favorite painters. He is famous for his cakes and candies, but I like his landscapes, especially his cityscapes. The problem was that I did not have the image of a specific painting in my head, only the style he works in. Here is one of his cityscapes, "Hill Street (Day City)" that is similar to what I was imagining (click on it to enlarge):
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Recorded on June 11th, 2008, at Magic Closet Studios, in Portland, OR.
As you can hear, this piece never goes anywhere. I was not satisfied with where I was getting, and when my left hand started walking without me into a blues, it tripped and, well, I put an end to that right there.
I should have realized that using such a hazy, unspecific image in my head would not work, but I didn't, so (after a little shake out and sip of water) I tried again, with a different, more melancholy tack.
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Recorded on June 11th, 2008, at Magic Closet Studios, in Portland, OR.
I was not far into this new improv when I realized that I was no longer imagining a Wayne Thiebaud painting. Instead, a different painting had crept into my head, one which I could see specifically: Edward Hopper's "Nighthawks." Here is the painting (click to enlarge):
The melancholy of this piece did not fit the sunny Thiebaud style at all, and latched onto another urban American painting with a more personal gloom. Strange how the subconscious works, isn't it?
For my second painting, I chose Yves Klein's indelible "IKB 191." That's actually a fib. I chose International Klein Blue, and "IKB 191" is one of a number of monochromatic paintings Klein made with that color. Here is the painting:
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Recorded on June 11th, 2008, at Magic Closet Studios, in Portland, OR.
There is a physiological/psychological phenomenon called synesthesia that affects a great deal of people. Synesthesia is defined as the production of a sense impression relating to one sense or part of the body by stimulation of another sense or part of the body. Different people experience it in different ways - for some, it means associating different words or letters with different colors ("Tuesday seems rather bluish!"). Some people will see colors and imagine them having particular textures. It's not just imagination, either; the person will actually feel the color, or smell it. It is a fascinating condition, and I recommend that you read more about it.
So, without listening to it, I bet you can guess that this piece will be the most synesthetic by far of my painting improvs. While for "Christina's World," I mainly used the image as a launching pad, a font of inspiration, with "IKB 191" I grabbed on to the bright blue idea, and kept it in the forefront of my mind. Now, I am not a synesthete, so this piece is not a transcription of what I heard as I imagined the painting. But I did my best to translate the viewing experience into music, and throughout the entire piece I tried to play the painting, play the blue.
Still, there seems to be an arc, a dramatic line to the piece; I'm sure it is harder to avoid in a time-based art. (I suppose I could have just played a big, fat B flat major chord.) After all, it needs to start, and it needs to finish. "IKB 191" (the painting) is dazzling and upfront, but it doesn't feel abrupt to me. So maybe the music fits after all.
This piece is pretty much just two chords, D and G, with a five-note motive above them (d, c#, e, b, g), elaborated and exaggerated. It also climaxes in the first minute and a half, and spends the next five winding down. It was definitely the last piece for the day.
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Recorded on April 23rd, 2008, at Peace Church of the Brethren, in Portland, OR, with a Zoom H4 Digital Recorder. Edited with Audacity music software.
After I play a particularly long, lush, and dense improv like "Margot Adler," I usually begin the next one sparsely and simply, as in this piece. It is light, simple, unaggressive, and unambitious. It is a little bumpy (by design - I didn't want it to be smooth and soothing), but not jagged. The blues progression provides even more predictability.
Finally at 4:30 it begins to build, but not in drama, only in rambunctiousness, ending energetically.
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Recorded on April 23rd, 2008, at Peace Church of the Brethren, in Portland, OR, with a Zoom H4 Digital Recorder. Edited with Audacity music software.
In this piece is another example of a treble pedal tone. It's an open fifth, which lets me imply either minor or major with the tune. You can hear it's clearly minor for the first minute, but then it becomes slightly nebulous.
I especially like the accented notes that fall before the beat. It gives an interesting rhythmic cadence, sort of a stumbling feeling.
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Recorded on April 23rd, 2008, at Peace Church of the Brethren, in Portland, OR, with a Zoom H4 Digital Recorder. Edited with Audacity music software.
Sometimes I like to start with just one note in each hand. It simplifies the texture, gives a lot of space, and allows me to think in melody rather than harmony or texture. In this case, it yielded a wonderfully simple bass line - D, F#, B, A, C, C#. As that line repeats slowly and methodically, I explored D major above it. I really like the simplicity of most of this piece, but I don't like the ending, when I think I got a little bored and copped out. (I considered fading out the recording, but that might be more of a cop out.)
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Recorded on April 23rd, 2008, at Peace Church of the Brethren, in Portland, OR, with a Zoom H4 Digital Recorder. Edited with Audacity music software.
(Another repost, because I keep embedding the wrong audio! Sorry! Without further ado, the real"Alex Chadwick"...)
This piece is the complement to the last, having been played only with my right hand. My right is much more dexterous than my left, but there's still only so far my fingers can reach at one time. Most artists will tell you that setting artificial limitations such as this can be an excellent way to free up creative energy. I tell my writer friends, when they are blocked, to try writing with one hand – it can really help!
This piece gets a bit nervous, a bit deranged, as I try to settle into a comfortable one-handed rhythm, but I never get there; in fact, I get less and less comfortable, and it eventually peters out.
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Recorded on February 11th, 2008, at Peace Church of the Brethren, in Portland, OR, with a Zoom H4 Digital Recorder. Edited with Audacity music software.
(This is a repost, with repaired URL's for the correct mp3. Take another listen!)
I felt like I needed something firmly in a minor mode. How much more minor could I get than C# minor? The answer is none. None more minor.
Spinal Tap references aside, this piece is interesting mostly because I played it all with my left hand, partly as an exercise, and partly because my right was exhausted. You can hear the one-handedness in the deliberate feel. My left fingers are definitely not as dexterous or gentle as my right. Also (obviously) there is a little pause in the treble whenever I have to jump down to play a bass note. The melody, when there is one, is quite fractured because of this. It makes for a unique texture.
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Recorded on February 11th, 2008, at Peace Church of the Brethren, in Portland, OR, with a Zoom H4 Digital Recorder. Edited with Audacity music software.
The goal of this blog is to post, on a semi-regular basis (I try to update it weekly), recordings of piano improvisation sessions, for people to listen to, and possibly comment on. These pieces are free improvs – stream-of-consciousness creations. Each improv session yields multiple pieces. A new piece starts when I sit down to play, and ends when I get up. Some pieces are split into movements, based on significant shifts in musical direction, usually with a complete stop. For more info, please read the introduction.
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