This has been my favorite opera aria since I heard the Met broadcast.

Sung to the a-bomb.

Over the past few months the_stalwart has been working toward the release of his newest RPG, Serial Homicide Unit. A story game in which the players follow the lives of the police chasing down a serial killer, and the final days of the soon-to-be-victims.

It's a unique game for many reasons. First of all, it is an audio rule book. That's right, you don't read it.
A recording of the rules guides you through the game as you play.

Even more interesting is that the voice belongs to me.

Further adding to the interesting, there's some title music to start off the recording, also by me.

So, since my grubby mitts are all over this game, I recommend you go and buy it. (Playtesters should already have an e-copy. If you didn't get one, let me know and I'll pass the word along to Michael.)

Michael has asked me to work up an advert for the game. Once that is ready, I'll post it here.

This one too, is one we tried out in high school but I didn't actually get to sing in concert until Westminster. Only years later have I noticed that my high school choir director put some pretty challenging stuff in front of us; lots of polyphonic works and old Renaissance stuff. I think it's because he was largely left to his own devices.


In geek news, I heard a few good things about the Battlestar Galactica board game from a post by gillan. I decided that I'd seek it out. Then, I made the mistake of watching a few episodes online to get into the spirit of the game. My long dormant love of space opera/conspiracy drama was activated and suddenly I want to watch all the episodes of the show and make any and all available friends play this game. So, thanks Brett. It took me 7 years to overcome the space opera bug after Star Wars was ruined, and now I'm right back in. Hooray. Sigh.

This one takes me back. I first worked with this piece in high school. Our director was feeling out the choir at the start of the semester, to see what we could handle. Though we only gave this piece a few try-outs it stuck immediately as one of my favorites. Just hearing the part at 22 seconds, when the full chorus harmony hits still gets me, even after having heard this one maybe hundreds of times.

This one is also an actual Renaissance work by Thomas Luis de Victoria rather than a modern re-imagining.

Here's another English composer rewriting an old classic. Ralph Vaughn-Williams "Wassail Song." Wassailing is one of those great old words. Carousing without the seedy undertones. Eat, drink, sing, and be merry.

That high pitched sound is crappy audio encoding. Sadly, this is the best video of the song I could find.


As a side note, I've posted a few religious works so far but there's no subversive intent here. The concept of a "war on Christmas" was invented by a neo-nazi, so I don't buy into it. If you hear God in this music, that's your thing and you're welcome. I'm just here to point out that medieval style polyphony sounds good.

Benjamin Britten is another of my faves. His modern choral works ran throughout my school days from the first Chapel Choir class my freshman year. He was also a lover of the old tunes of medieval Europe and loved to reset texts in Middle English. Here's a choice selection from the "Ceremony of Carols."



The only thing better than a Middle English Christmas carol is one being redone by a twentieth century composer.

It's also fun to see the faces the kids make, wringing as much pathos from 1'15 as is possible.

I think somewhere around 1950 they stopped making good Christmas music. And even then, I feel we were in decline for about 2 or 3 centuries. If there's one thing I'm a snob about it's my Christmas music. So, go listen to some modern pop diva butcher "Let it Snow" and then come back here and watch this.


See, that's what I'm talking about! Crazy turn-of-the-century British man rewriting Elizabethan carols.

I don't hate other Christmas music. Along with Benjamin Britten's "Ceremony of Carols" I've also sung some great jazz arrangements of "Walking in a Winter Wonderland" and the Westminster Singers traditional "Twas the Night Before Christmas." I'm just saying, is it too much to sneak in an occasional "Hodie Christus Natus Est" among the others?

If this makes me a crotchety old man, it makes me a 500 year old crotchety old man.

Yesterday was the concert for the Greater Trenton Choral Society, led by Chris Loeffler. It was a good show. Not my best, not by a long shot, but it feels good to have the accomplishment. My throat is a bit raw and my voice is lower today from pushing too hard. We had a good space to sing in and I got to liking the sound of my voice bouncing off the walls, so my piano markings became mezzo-forte and it grew from there.

In addition to the program of Americana choral music, I got to do 3 Ned Rorem songs solo. He's become one of my favorite composers of American lieder as he writes tuneful stuff with the modality and harmonic exoticism I like. I got those songs under my belt in about 3 weeks too, so that's a benefit.

Leff has already begun thinking about the fall program but first we need to get our summer recruitment drive going. Some of the existing members seem to want lighter fare, but Leff is hoping we can get enough new blood to try something like Mendelsohn's "Elijah." I'd enjoy that.

That was lots of fun.

The Aliens You Will Meet live show was gratifying. It was great to meet the people who are the fans of the show and who enjoy the music I've made for it. Thanks.

I've been incommunicado for much too long now, but now that the semester is over I've nixed two of my big weekly commitments. Now I can actually get things done instead of picking up projects just long enough to have to put them down and go teach people.

Of course, I still need to magically know a few pleasant songs by an America composer by the end of the month. I think the audience is going to be small anyway, so I won't be embarrassing myself in front of anyone important.

Another bit of narration and scoring by yours truly.

Fury of the Widowmaker

I did this one as a quickie to test out the violin in a new sample library. I originally wanted to use viola, but the sampler needed to be updated, and then I forgot I needed to upgrade my VST to DXi wrapper, and so on. The viola is happy now (as is the Tuba.)

Onward.

I expected to be disappointed. I was not. I was enthralled.

Minor quibble. Maybe a SPOILER for people who haven't paid attention to the trailer.

What is with the closing music? No slight against Mr. Giachinno, but this was an entirely new breed of monster movie. The 10 minutes of "Godzilla vs. The Martians: Steel Cage Match!" was out of place and upsetting to me. I'm sure it was what the director wanted, but it killed the closing mood for me. Maybe that's what it was meant to do. Lighten it up a bit. Well, he wrote the music well. It's just too bad it had to be there.

You can come watch me sing in the Boheme Opera of NJ's production of La Traviata; Verdi's most oft performed opera of love gained and lost. Performances are this Fri. evening and Sat. afternoon. Details and ticket stuff.

I'll be the one on the right near the back in a tux. Oh. That might not be specific enough. Okay, I'll be the one on the right near the back in a tux who's singing.

Jenn and I greatly enjoyed Salon Con this past Saturday. It was quite a change from the events we're used to attending. All of the activity I'm accustomed to seeing over a long weekend was packed into one day.

Jenn made contact with some good people and may take on a few jobs. Sales were good too. Very good. I've decided she needs to draw corsets and goggles onto the few illustrations that are lacking, so that next time the sales will be unstoppable.

We got to meet up with some good friends from Philadelphia. They showed off their costumes and Jared remembered how to knit in the sewing circle salon. By the way, break a leg on your callback Brendan.

We were situated close to Voltaire in the dealer's space and when the room was quiet we got to talk about music trends and trade witty remarks, usually about the awful music of the New Jersey 80's. He played a great show and I was impressed that even with his success, he's still happy to entertain a small crowd. Something my jaded heart to longer expects from artists. He has secured a space in the top 10 coolest people I know. Be careful, Manning. If you don't get into that band of new wave Parisians, you may lose the lead.

Photos may be found on my Flickr account. Heah.

So, yeah. Great fun. What's next?

Headline.

This one makes me feel really weird. I wasn't a fan of opera until college, and I didn't really enjoy his work compared to some little guys, but this man was an absolute constant. He was the classical musician that EVERYONE knew. He may well be the last opera singer to have that wide-reaching appeal.

That's probably why it bothers me. Opera will be a little more obscure without him around.

Well, that and Jerry Hadley.

And Bryn Terfel bowing out of the Ring cycle.

I picked a bad time to renew my interest.

Henceforth, I shall not write music for puny humans. My compositions shall be for choirs and orchestras of ALIEN BEINGS!

And computers, I guess.

Theme by me.

Score by me.

Narration by me.

The Water's Fine.

Wow. This is getting ridiculous. I've never been much of an egotist, but I'm getting closer with every release.

Spec track for a project I'm pretty sure I'm not getting. Pretty rough, but you get the idea. Also short.

If I suddenly find out that they do want me, I'll have to pull it down. Meanwhile, enjoy.

Toy Waltz

I'm proud of the carousel sound. I think I will use it again.

Yet another podcast with theme music by YT.

Voices of Tomorrow

This is a science fiction podcast devoted to bringing the works of 365 Tomorrows to the internet airwaves. After a hiatus (while blackwell finished her MA studies) it has re-launched. Please enjoy the works on offer.

Aliens 11.

This Time It's Personal!

Like, Totally, Really Personal!

Like, They're On A First Name Basis!