New Things, But Now Back To Work

Hello again.  Apologies again. Here’s what I’ve been doing.

I am on SoundCloud now!  My only track so far is a contest entry from a few months ago, but I hope to post more soon.  I want to try (keyword “try”) to post something on there every week, even if it’s just a few seconds long.  Here’s my link.

I have started an business on Etsy, com for my photography and crafting hobbies!  Please go check it out here, OrangeStreetNorth.

I guess that’s it for now.  I’m also still in the midst of juggling too many things at once.  Hopefully, this blog won’t suffer as much anymore.

What I did last summer…Part 1

Three music for media projects during my final, thesis semester.

-Animated short film (for a film scoring contest): Virtus Vitae

–Clip (not used in the final version) from the opening of a documentary about breast cancer called “Baring It All”

-Commercial/promo spot from C-SPAN: White House Week

I am Master, and I shall call you Padawan.

In August, I graduated with a Master of Fine Arts!  Consequently, I “feel” like a Jedi Master of Music or something, especially because I currently have students.

I feel like I have a thousand more ideas now too, but first I have to” work.”  I have a freebie children’s piece that I’m doing for a friend, and I have some transcribing and editing work that is paid!  I’m trying to write an orchestral piece (originally, I wanted a symphony) for a contest next month.  I’m also busy with my students, my “little padawans” as I now sometimes refer to them, with festivals, holidays, and recitals coming up.

This time around graduating, I’m thankful that I haven’t gotten much post-graduation depression, as I have in the past.  I’ve still had many ups and downs, but thanks to my many friends (mostly musical) and family, I have a lot more hope for my future of making it in the world.  I feel more prepared, but I have also learned that I’ll never feel perfectly prepared for anything worth that is trying.  So, I have to just remember my support system and take leaps of faith.  Not too hard, right?

Busy, busy, busy, but not much getting done…

Wow, it has been a while.  Sorry.  I’ve been getting busy again…new students, two student recitals coming up, more homework, past homework catching up with me, habitually taking on more than I can handle, etc…

But I finally have it posted on YouTube! (The contest’s short film that I wrote music for.)

Hope you enjoy.

Also, I’ve been seriously considering (finally) getting my own domain name.  Unfortunately, I just ordered 500 more business cards with WordPress in the domain name.  I guess that will have to wait a bit.

Self Promotion

Yes, like the title says, I’m advertising myself right now.

If you haven’t “liked” me on Facebook or “friended” me on MySpace (www.myspace.com/annachapman), please do so.  You can also follow me on Twitter@ACMusic101, YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/user/AnnaBoomMC), and LinkedIn.  I’m also on Music2Deal.com, MusicDealers.com, and AudioCatch.com, but only recently with these.

I have a piece of my short film score (the credits music) from the recent competition that I entered posted on my MySpace page, and the filmmaker has given permission for the entries to use his film with each original score for self promotion.  I will have it up on YouTube soon with my score, even though I was not chosen as one of the finalists.  (But one of my fellow classmates is a finalist in the competition!)

On another note (haha-I haven’t yet gotten tired of using that pun), one of the non-musical things that I do is photography, where I consider myself an amateur: http://www.annachapmanphotos.printroom.com/

That’s it for now.  Happy browsing. 🙂

Film Scoring…finally!

In my final, Thesis Semester, I am finally studying film scoring, my dream! I’ve kind of been studying it amateurishly ever since I started composing, but this is the first time that I will dive right into it, with the right tools (software at least), for the real deal of scoring for media.

I’m on my second assignment now, but it’s the first official one of the semester. The unofficial one was scoring an animated short for a contest put on by CINE, more info here. I am hoping sometime to be able to show that one online, but right now I can’t because of the rules of the contest.

My current assignment, the first official one of the semester, is to score the opening part of a documentary. That one I might be able to post when I’m done but I’m not sure yet. My deadline for it is next week, so I will hopefully have another blog post then.

Oh, Jazz…

Well, I did end up writing two pieces for the jazz ensemble at my Vermont residency in February, but there was not enough time allotted for me to get to hear them both.  One was an arrangement of the percussion piece that I mentioned in the previous post, and the other was a tango, which was the one I chose to hear, have performed, and have recorded.  I am still trying to put the sound files together for the mix that I want for this tango, and also for the percussion piece.  So, hopefully, I will have them available for listening this week sometime.

Between homework for my new (and final!) semester and the craziness that comes with spring for my music students, I’m kind of overwhelmed right now; hence the short blog.  But I’m going to try again, God willing, to stay more steady with my blog (and updating my online presence as a whole), even if that means this is all you get each time.  Thanks for still supporting me in my musical and life goals!

“So, I’m composing a dance suite.” “Oh, with an Allemande and Minuet?” “No…it’s…um…Ballroom actually.”

Finally, I have posted the Ballroom Dance Suite that I worked on in the last six months (this last semester)!  It is five dance movements for Piano Quintet (2 Violins, Viola, Cello, and Piano).  You can listen to all the movements here (whether or not you have a MySpace account):  http://www.myspace.com/annachapman

Here is a little bit more about them.

Foxtrot-“Don’t Know What To Do”

Since this dance was invented in the early part of last century, it’s typical music has a big band sound and a medium slow swing tempo.  This was the dance that I did not have specific musical ideas for.  But I was helped by remembering the sounds of dance orchestras in the early part of the century (and in the old black and white movies), especially the string sounds.  After much trial and error, I finally came up with two flowing swing melodies, off-beat piano accompaniment, and a whole step key change.  The two themes then just take turns and dance around each other in bouncy delight, at least that was the intent.

Samba-“Do You Know How To Samba?”

This dance is the most percussive of the ones that I chose.  I tried some special effects on the string instruments that I “hoped” would be percussive enough (without making the musicians too upset about hitting their instruments).  In the result, the sounds were percussive but not loud enough to balance well with the piano and full violin melody sounds.  This might have been the most difficult movement for me to write.  It is the dance that I know the least out of this grouping, but the layers of rhythms in the music were also a mystery to me until I did some in-depth study of the Samba.

Rumba-“So It Does”

Surprisingly, I’m starting to love this movement more and more even though it was the last one I composed, and I was very rushed to get it done.  However, I do feel the need to, at some future point, change the instrumental texture that is under the melody.  Once again, I have the strings playing quieter effects against the louder timbre of the piano, which isn’t always a good mix.  I used some of the rhythms that I learned for the Samba in this movement too because they are similar Latin dances whose main (and most obvious) musical difference is tempo.

Tango-“March of the Tango”

I soon found out after composing this movement that “Tango” can mean several different things to different people.  For me at the time, I wanted it to mean smooth and staccato, affection and tension, and cohesion and conflict…opposites for the most part.  That became a tall order very quickly, but I finally formed it in my mind and got it written down.  I was very proud (and still am proud) of it and what it represents in my compositional journey.

Waltz-“Honey Waltz”

In contemporary classical music, the Waltz does not seem to be a standard or prevalent form of music.  In Ballroom Dance, the Waltz is is considered one of the classic standard dances.  In both cases, I identify the Waltz as old-fashioned, not modern, but still valuable because it is a past form.  When I originally wanted to write a waltz, I had thought that I could “update” it for the contemporary classical era.  To do that, I  thought I would have to abandon much of the standards present in the most famous and popular waltzes that I knew of.  However, the most essential part of waltz music for dancers is the rhythmic stability that it has, so I needed to keep that.  I also could not truly depart from the beautiful and classic/romantic harmony and melodies that the vast majority of waltzes have.  But I did have to keep the tempo slower than many of the famous Waltzes to fit the true Ballroom dance style of the Waltz.

Life is Music (wait, that’s backwards)

My first semester Music Composition project in Graduate School is done!  For a while now, I’ve been waking up, composing, eating, teaching, composing, practicing, and then composing some more, all the while still hoping that I’m actually learning something and getting better instead of just rambling on and on with music.  The premise of my project was two selections from one scene out of an idea that I had for an opera in the blues/jazz style.  The opera that I have in mind would be based on the Biblical Jacob’s life.  I wrote the text for the one scene (and some staging directions), then got to work on the music, studying about the styles and writing in them.  The scene is when Jacob (Jake in the opera) meets his future wives.  He makes a deal with his future father-in-law (Louie in the opera) for the daughter that he has fallen in love with (Rachel in the opera).  Louie then conspires to trick Jake into marrying his other daughter (Leia in the opera).  I finally produced an instrumental “Transition” (or scene transition) to the scene and a song (aria and recitative) for the end of that same scene.  The “Transition” will be performed by the ensemble in residence at my upcoming residency in Vermont, and the song (aria and recitative) will hopefully get recorded (in a rough version) before then.  In the mean time, here are parts of the scores for your perusal and enjoyment.

Transition to Louie’s Scene-CallithumpianConsort-AnnaChapman-Preview1

Transition to Louie’s Scene-CallithumpianConsort-AnnaChapman-Preview2

Transition to Louie’s Scene-CallithumpianConsort-AnnaChapman-Preview3

Not Me Blues-Band-AnnaChapman-Preview

Any attempt to copy, distribute, or claim this musical material for personal use or gain is against the law and will be severely frowned upon.  The composer claims all rights to and ownership of this music.  Please contact her with questions or requests for distribution.