When I record the djembe, I record with a mic up top and a mic down at the bottom. Here I have turned it into a stereo track with some live reverb. The bottom mic captures the bass sounds, and the top mic captures the subtle treble timbres. For this example, I’m playing a Latin based rhythm quickly followed by an African beat.
This drum has substantial sustain for it’s size. Today humidity has affected the drum a little bit. Sometimes I use a heat gun to remove some moisture from the drum, bringing up the pitch to it’s original tuning.
Included in the standard repertoire of flutists the world over is the Fantasie by Gabriel Fauré, Op. 79. It seems that the piece was not composed as a result of a flash of inspiration. Paul Taffanel asked Gabriel for a piece suitable for his flute examination at the Paris Conservatoire. I am not completely fond of every aspect of Fauré’s Fantasie, but it does communicate a certain charm, and the story behind the composition of this piece is the inspiration for my attempt at my own “brilliant” composition. I must confess that my teacher, Martin Orenstein, introduced Gabriel’s Op. 79 to me with a “story”, as was his custom, including some details I am not sure are commonly related. It was his way to try and coax me into accepting it as an examination piece for myself. Mr. Orenstein’s stories seemed very interesting to me, especially the stories that would lead me to accept the most difficult of pieces to play.
In the summer of 2011, I was inspired to take a turn at composing a “brilliant” piece that would be both fun and challenging to play. I started by improvising with a theme in C minor that had been rolling around in my head for some time already, and It would take several nights of intense improvisation on the piano to settle on the form and development of the theme.
They say that all compositions come out as a result of improvisation, and showing off a little bit can also be a bit of fun. Having an original composition to showcase both composition and performance skills is not entirely a bad motive, either. While this piece offers a bit of lyrically melodic content for both the piano and the flute, It also contains rhythmic challenges for the pianist and poses some ethereal harmonic progressions typical of a fantasy piece.
Fantasy in C minor for flute and piano is now available on the www.sheetmusicplus.com website. This printing contains the score and separate parts for the piano and the flute (34 Pages of Music). It is easy on the ears, not at all avant-garde, and it does not push too much in an experimental way. It should be about 4:42 minutes in length. The adante tempo marking is flexible (80-86 bpm), and the tempo should become faster at about the second half of the piece. Dynamics should fluctuate at the beginning and grow in intensity as the piece moves towards the end. Phrases should breathe and not remain static.
Fantasy in C minor for flute and piano is the 5th cut on my album release of Adagio in Praise for flute and orchestra. You can find this release at your favorite online store.
The time of the deep mist is here again. Fall is knocking on the door. Last year I went out on one of these misty days to take pictures, and I’ll have you know that we are more than 30 mi in from the sea. At the town square was a flock of seagulls, and as I approached they began to swirl in flight around me. It was like being in a whirl wind. I attempted to video tape the effect, but the video didn’t capture the moment. I later composed a piece entitled, “Inland Seagulls”. With this piece I played a Native American flute that was given to me by Kenny Reels, a local tribal elder of the Mashantucket Pequot Nation. I also used a djembe to create the haunting sounds in this piece.
