Category: Blog

Looking Back, Looking Ahead

7/13/2018

When I woke up today memories of my graduate composition recital came to mind. It has been many years since I thought about it. The music was presented in an unconventional way. Each piece was performed in a different location. The audience walked from place to place and was led by actors from the drama department. The actors were in costumes and street theater was performed along the routes. A ragtime band led the audience to the last performance.

The compositions included a string quartet, a piece for flute and electronic tape, an instruction-based piece for 14 instruments that included staging, and an extended jazz piece. Most of the music had an avant-garde flavor. However, my concept for the event was for it to be fun and accessible. Afterwards, Dr. Tyrone (my composition professor) came up to me with a big smile. He loved it.

In 2012 I wanted to write a new piece that expressed the spirit of that earlier time in my musical life. Smaller Ups And Downs was the result. The piece came to me in a dream! Instead of hearing the music, I saw pages of a score. The dream also gave me ideas for an 11-tone harmonic complex based on intervallic relationships. Upon waking up I wrote down as much as I could remember from the dream. Then, as I worked on the score in the days that followed I used my intuition to fill in the gaps.

This piece is for 5 wind instruments (flexible instrumentation) and soloist. The role of the soloist is entirely improvised. In addition, the soloist does not have to be limited to one musician. It can be expanded to multiple musicians -- up to a small band (any genre). This music has a great amount of freedom. Any creative possibility can be explored.

Ensembles that are interested in playing Smaller Ups And Downs can write to me from the Contact page.

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Lost Music

7/3/2018

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I was reflecting just now on all of the music that I wrote before 1989. With a handful of exceptions, all of that work (handwritten scores and lead sheets) was lost due to one reason or another.

I was thinking about several pieces that I wrote in the late 1960's and early 70's. In particular, two pieces for concert band -- Haiku Sketches and Ten Events for Band. It has been many years since I thought about them. There was also an extended piece for double quartet (classical woodwinds and jazz ensemble) as well as several pieces for experimental theater. As I write these words, more originals and arrangements are coming back into my mind. I did A LOT of writing during those years!

At this stage in my life and in how my music has evolved, it is likely that I would no longer care for those earlier pieces; but, some of them might have been like meeting old friends again. Regardless, what's gone is gone. I am entirely happy to have all of the music that I have written since 1989...almost 30 years worth. When I think about the pieces that I no longer have, I can see how they served as a foundation for the music that came later. In truth, nothing is ever lost.

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Gary Wackenhut Letter

5/16/2017

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I received this letter from my friend Gary Wakenhut in April 2016. I wrote a number of tunes for his ensemble (including his wife Anne) which they recorded in the 1990's and early 2000's. Gary passed on in February 2017.

"Roger, I don't think you are aware of how many people listened to your music back in those early days. One of your compositions is on 12 of our 16 Collecting Consort releases. Through the years, those recordings have sold over 200,000 copies. That's a lot of people hearing your music when you weren't aware of it.

Don't feel badly that no one gave you any feedback for your compositions. When people mention their favorite recording, I often ask them what their favorite composition is on that recording. They can never give me an answer even though each recording has many familiar folk, classical, and contemporary selections . I think that has something to do with the spirit of our recordings and the expressive capacity of your compositions. People seem to enter a different reality, perhaps on a deeper unconscious level when they listen to this music.

It all goes back to me answering your ad for "free compositions" in a music magazine. You sent us a book of your music and I responded with a gift of one of our cassettes. After listening to it, you wrote "Winter's Woods" for us. You truly captured our essence and it appeared on our next recording. That must have been the late 1980's. Thus our collaboration and release of your compositions continued until we quit producing CDs in 2005. 200,000 recordings is a lot of listening time for Roger Aldridge's music.

Now we are exploring videos of nature with our music as the sound track. I expect it won't be long until a Roger Aldridge composition appears on one of those videos. I suspect "Treasure the Chesapeake" might make it. Thanks for all these years of great collaboration and friendship."

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Fairness For Musicians

4/7/2017

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This is part of a message that I received in an email from Bandcamp: "If you give fans easy ways to directly support the artists they love, they'll take you up on it every time". Is this statement true?

During the years of vinyl records, and later with CDs, music listeners purchased a physical product. Now, in today's world of digital music -- while one can purchase music downloads from sites like ITunes, CDBaby, and Bandcamp -- many people listen to music without paying for it on streaming sites like Youtube, Soundcloud, etc. These sites make money through ad revenue, third-party use of music, and other ways. However, the musicians, whose music draws people to these sites, typically receive no or little money for the number of plays their music receives. This is a departure from TV & radio where composers receive royalties for the use of their music.

Musicians need financial support from those who listen to their music. Fan-funding is a simple concept and it can help: If individuals give a small amount of money as a show of support to a particular artist, the collective amount spread across many people can help to fund new projects. Fan-funding campaigns are typically done within a specified time period for a single project. However, this concept can be used by fans in on-going ways such as licensing the artist's music for videos, purchasing sheet music, as well as buying MP3 downloads or CDs as several possibilities. Simply put, even in small ways, please support the artists who are creating the music you enjoy.

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A Big Band Misconception

7/12/2016

There is a common understanding that each saxophone, trumpet, and trombone player in a big band has an individual part. However, that is a misconception with regard to harmony.

Traditional big band arrangements -- with 5 saxophones, 4 trumpets, and 4 trombones (13 horns) -- typically use 4 or 5-part harmony. This means 2 or 3 horns could play the same note, with unison or octave doubling, in a given harmonization.

As an example of harmonic doubling, following is a traditional way to harmonize a melody in top-down, close-position writing for 5 saxophones: The 1st alto plays a melody note and the three chord tones below the melody are played by the 2nd alto, 1st tenor, and 2nd tenor; then, the baritone doubles the 1st alto an octave lower. While there are 5 saxophones, the chord voicing is actually 4-part harmony.

Close-position 4-part harmony can also be used for the trumpets and trombones when they play together as a brass section. The 4 trumpet parts are often written first and then the trombones double the trumpets an octave lower.

Open or spread voicings can go beyond the 4-part harmony used in close-position writing. In spread vocings, the trombones and/or lower saxophones often play essential chord tones (such as 1-7-3) and the trumpets and/or higher saxophones play chord tones and tensions. Using tensions (natural or altered 9, 11, 13) makes it possible to have 5-part, 6-part, or 7-part harmony. This gives a greater amount of richness to an ensemble sound than with 4-part harmony. However, unison or octave doubling still occurs when even 7-part harmony is used in concerted saxophone & brass passages.

Given the extent of harmonic doubling in big band music, I have an idea to offer to big bands: Try playing my mid-size ensemble scores with doubled players on a part. As I envision it, this will give a fresh sound to a big band.

Of prime importance is having lines with individual tone colors instead of harmonized saxophone, trumpet, and trombone sections. To do this, an expanded palette of tone color is created by having the brass as individual colors in different mutes & open with a mix of saxophones and woodwind doubles. If they are available, including instruments such as soprano sax, flugelhorn, bass clarinet, and tuba is a good way to add more color. With this palette of color choices, each wind instrument is taken out of its customary role in a section and combined with another instrument(s) to produce a distinctive sound for a given line in the score. Creative combinations of instruments are encouraged.

As a way to begin, I recommend my piece Fanfare for big bands to try. It is reasonably easy to play and its page on my website has a suggested assignment of parts.

Bands are encouraged to experiment with my music and ideas. The Mid-Size Ensemble page has more about my approach to a jazz ensemble along with a sample of recordings.

A Gift

4/25/2016

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I was reflecting on how music has been a gift to me. At times I think of it as a language that enables me to express myself in a deeper way than I can with words. Many things in life are of interest to me and I have a natural curiosity. There are times when I am having a discussion with someone about life and I am told, "You should write a book". My reply is always the same, "All of this is in my music". I feel a deep happiness when people tell me they understand.

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About Rich Pulin

3/1/2016

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I want to give a thank you to Rich Pulin. When we met through the Jazz Arranging group on Facebook in 2015 I was not familiar with him. However, I quickly realized that Rich is a world-class composer-arranger/trombonist. He has worked with many of my jazz heroes. Here is a link to his biography at All About Jazz.

Happily, Rich took an interest in my music and invited me to be on his Pulin 4 Jazz radio show. It became clear that he runs with the big dogs when I shared the show with Bill Crow (whom I have admired for many years). I had a great time on Rich's show and we decided to make it a monthly program.

I feel a deep gratitude to Rich for how he connects with my music and brings it to his international audience. According to Rich, his show has listeners in 196 countries.

In addition to the various music projects that keep Rich busy, he is devoted to The Early Childhood Music Education Foundation. Please visit its website and, if you are so moved, give it your support.

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Early Childhood Music Education Foundation

4/6/2015

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The Early Childhood Music Education Foundation was founded by musician friend Rich Pulin. Please visit the foundation's website and read about its mission and projects. If it inspires you, consider giving your support.
http://www.theearlychildhoodmusiceducationfoundation.org

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A Shift In My Music

3/24/2015

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It feels to me that a shift is happening in my music. Over the years I have seen how I go in cycles. For many years I focused much more on writing (in particular, writing tunes) than playing. For around 7 years it turned around and I focused almost entirely on playing and did very little writing. Then, around 5 years ago it was like a creative dam burst open and I focused heavily on developing concepts and writing for mid-size ensemble. Now, I am feeling a shift back to tunes.

While I like to write for ensembles, it has been my feeling for quite a while that my most creative work is in my tunes -- in particular, the ones that defy a conventional genre classification.

David Arivett is going to make demos of some of my tunes that have not been recorded. We are going to start with "Samba da Aguia Pescadora". I will add the recording to my site as soon as it is ready. Stay tuned....

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Woodwind Quintet Jazz

1/22/2015

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Looking For: A woodwind quintet to collaborate with a jazz group for the purpose of creating fun and adventurous music.

I have been a fan of the woodwind quintet for many years. One reason is I like how each instrument in the ensemble -- flute, oboe, clarinet, French horn, and bassoon -- has an individual tone color; however, they blend together beautifully as a collective. With this perspective of a woodwind quintet, I used it as a role model when I developed my concepts for mid-size jazz ensemble.

My vision for a woodwind quintet is to use it as a horn section in a mid-size jazz ensemble along with a featured soloist and rhythm section. While my scores are written for flexible instrumentation, to enable the music to be played by many combinations of instruments (including saxophones and brass), I often hear a woodwind quintet in my mind as I am working on a new piece.

My article on Mid-Size Ensemble has more about my concepts for this kind of an ensemble. The page also has several recordings as a sample of the music.

If the members of a woodwind quintet would like to explore these ideas, please write to me from the Contact page.

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Looking Back, Looking Ahead

Lost Music

Gary Wackenhut Letter

Fairness For Musicians

A Big Band Misconception

A Gift

About Rich Pulin

Early Childhood Music Education Foundation

A Shift In My Music

Woodwind Quintet Jazz

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