This week was an amazing week of traveling. The first stop was North Mesquite High School where their director, Jeff Jones, and the North Mesquite marching band has been preparing an “all Markowski” show called “Out There - Music from Beyond the Mark.” Like I mentioned in my last post, their show included music from Out There, Shine, Sitting, and Shadow Rituals, all fantastically arranged by composer/arranger Ryan Janus.

Over the last few years, I’ve gotten a lot better at knowing what to say about my own music in front of different ensembles, but when “points” and “moving your feet” and these things called “sets” are involved, I have to retrain myself a little bit. Marching bands are great (though I skipped out on this in high school), but I think it’s really easy to forget how musical they can actually be (which, I’m sure is no easy feat when 100+ pages of drill is involved).

In Texas, there are lots of marching band experts who know the game well, so my approach was to coach the students exactly as if they were performing their show indoors in a more concert-like setting. That is, I wanted to concentrate on more subtle aspects of the music that were not necessarily on the page, such as bigger phrasing ideas, blending, and knowing exactly what melody or idea to listen for. The group was incredibly receptive to my ideas, and I’m really anxious to see (and hear) how these ideas affect their next marching competition.

With less than 12 hours to sleep and repack in Arizona, I flew next to San José State University where Dr. Edward Harris and the San José State University Wind Ensemble were preparing to perform one of my newest compositions, Dreamland. Dr. Harris has programmed much of my music with his ensembles over the last few years, including performing Turkey in the Straw with the San José Wind Symphony, Tidal Forces with a San José Summer Music Camp, and has made a fantastic recording of Instinctive Travels which you can listen to here on my website. And now, he has done me a big favor to help produce a great new recording of Dreamland which I will post here soon!

The piece calls for a Fender Rhodes electric piano, as a timbre to pay homage to artist Gary Wilson, and while almost all synthesizers these days have a Rhodes patch, I totally dorked out at the sight of an actual Mark II Rhodes Stage Piano! Here’s to you, Gary!

It’s definitely been a big week. Walden even premiered the same night as the Dreamland performance so I will post that recording, too, as soon as Lawrence Stoffel at CSU Northridge sends it to me. It’s going to be hard for this next week to top the last.

I just received the first printed edition of Walden yesterday. The premiere is coming up, too, on October 13 at California State University, Northridge so I’m looking forward to sharing a real-life, living and breathing recording of the piece soon. But if you haven’t heard it yet, here is the beautifully lifeless MIDI mockup. Also, check out the Walden page for other information and a sample score.

This season of Voyage Trekkers is nearing its end, and episode seven — The Clutches of General Kang — is the most musical yet! (Download an mp3 of the score here!) I know I’ve blogged about this web series a lot lately, mostly because it’s been a lot of fun having a weekly composition assignment to fulfill. I’ve written in the past about how I’ve been able to turnaround these short scores, often overnight, but Nathan made sure I had a couple of extra days with how involved this particular homage to Flash Gordon was supposed to be. So in that respect, it took about three days.

I really respect Nathan as a director because he is able to communicate how he wants the music to feel without using musical terms. It seems that many film directors don’t know much about music and are lost when it comes to words like crescendo or stab, but I’m not convinced that directors would necessarily benefit from picking up a music dictionary. On the contrary, I think this could open up an opportunity for directors to try and write through a composer rather than simply letting the composer write.

This is why I love Nathan. Instead of giving me specific music-related notes, he gives me fun, metaphorical emotion-full notes, my favorite so far which has been, “25% more adventure!” For some reason, I can better relate to this type of feedback than I can to something like “Can I have more trumpets?” “25% more adventure” implies, perhaps, the idea of more brass, but by saying “adventure” versus “brass,” he has given me the creative freedom to figure out the best compositional/orchestral solution to fit his direction.

I guess this post is kind of a rant and kind of my two cents to film directors who are collaborating with composers, perhaps for the first time, and to other composers (who, perhaps, are also collaborating with film directors for the first time).

Directors: while the film is ultimately your vision, try not to write through your composer. It can undermine your faith in their craft.
Composers: music can change tone so easily. Make sure the one you choose matches your director’s vision! (And don’t be afraid to rewrite to make things better)

Remember that this is a joint effort. Don’t forget to work together, to [professionally] argue for what’s best for the project, and find a best solution that both parties are proud to own.

Kiwanis Park Pond at dawn; Tempe, Arizona

I’m excited to be on the verge of finishing a new piece for concert band called Walden. And of course, I want to share my first draft here on my blog. To begin, here are my program notes so far:

Much of the music I have written over the last several years has been a fast, frenetic dreamcatcher of rhythm and texture. While I love this fast-paced electrifying style, it was my friend, Robert Stumpf, who first preached simplicity and, over the years, has continued to urge me to write more lyrically. With Robert’s words still echoing in the back of my head, the idea only recently seemed exciting to explore.

I suddenly had the urge to chill out and write something more pastoral — something “simple.” In an effort to uphold this simplicity, I eventually found myself thinking of Henry David Thoreau’s writings. I even found myself wandering to a neighborhood lake in the late night/early mornings, before sunrise, perhaps in a feeble attempt to relate, even if for a moment, to the life Thoreau wrote so poetically about over 150 years ago. It seemed only appropriate, therefore, to name this piece after Thoreau’s own liquid sanctuary, Walden.

My ideal of Walden, however, isn’t necessarily only calm and tranquil, but is one that is full of life — one that moves with great harmonic and rhythmic motion. There have been other musical arrangements of the same name that are all very transparent and lightly orchestrated that perhaps romanticize the lake’s magical stillness. I hope my interpretation captures a contrasting lushness, vibrance, and animation, complex in the details, but not without a few nods to tranquility. This is how I picture my own Walden to be.

Here is a MIDI mockup and a sample score. As always, if you give it a listen, please email me and let me know what you think! I’m really stoked to hear this piece live.

Episode 2: Social Network. Tune in for more at Squishy Studios!