Mahlon

A work for violin and piano inspired by gypsy music of russian, jewish, hungarian, eastern european, and other cultures.

Hi guys, my name is Mahlon Berv, i'm a composition major at the jacobs school of music, im here to post some new music, hope you like it. Brand new piano improvisations in several styles. Would love to hear your comments/feedback Rock Piano

I'm afraid this discussion has deteriorated into ridiculousness, thanks everbody who participated respectully and constructively, I do think though that Mr. Greenberg is worth talking about, wether it's on an Internet forum or in real life. It appears he Is going to have a strong voice in the future no matter what he ends up doing.

Just had an idea, he should probabally focus on small forms before he continues writing "symphonies", because he may end up with a bunch of big mediocre pieces rather than small but well-written works. I suppose that's up to his teacher though.

Well I think it is a little unfair to be offended that his music is a little similiar to shostakovich if not "watered down". He is still developing as a composer and you can hear other influences too. When composers start out they almost never begin with a unique voice right away, even the great ones. It seems as if most of what he does is all by ear, which would explain why alot of it may sound derivative. But I still think he shows great promise. Any other thoughts?

Jay Greenberg: News, Reviews & Features - IMGArtists.com I bought his premiere CD a couple of years ago and just happened to listen to it today. I think it shows quite a deal of talent and a good feel for orchestration and melody, but I found it somewhat lacking in organizational coherence, something he can obviously work on as he develops. I was wondering if anyone had any opinions on Greenberg's music. Also interesting is how he's been branded by the media as the next "Mozart". I think it's kind of taking advantage of this young musician's talent to call him a genious. Is this simply a marketing ploy or do some people feel they can really say Greenberg is a "genious" without having heard what he does as a mature composer? For that matter, what is a genious anyway? I guess it's not really quantifiable, but I'd like to know what people have to say about that. I read in a blog post shown below the idea that a kid with great talent and a bit of luck, i.e. Greenberg, may have an easier time getting orchestras to perform his works than more established, mature composers. What are your thoughts on this? listen.: Some Thoughts on Jay Greenberg

thanks for the advice, I fixed the problem!

Hi. I'm a Sib 5.2 user. I had a layout question. I have a score for an unusual combination of instruments. From top to bottom- French Horn, Trumpet, Timpani, Glockenspiel, Snare Drum, Piano, 2 Violins. My problem is that when I originally created the score, I made it in landscape format because it seemed to fit better on the page. Now that I need to make a concert score for the conductor, I tried turning the landscape version into a portrait score and there are numerous problems. Often the dynamics are covered by the staves or squished into the staves, there are large spaces between systems, and there are many pages with only one system on the entire page. I've tried editing engraving rules, and changing system and staff size, and this helps a little with the dynamic issues, but there are still pages with 50 percent of the score blank and the other 50 percent one system on it. Is there an easier way to fix this rather than having to edit the engraving rules by trial and error? I'm really not sure what numbers to put in, so I've just been trying random things, sometimes it helps, sometimes it doesn't. Can someone give me some advice on what to do? It seems to work better as a 9 by 12 concert score rather than an 8 and 1/2 by 11 printer paper size, but there are still problems. I've tried creating a new score entirely so that it has all the defaults set, and when I add the instruments there is still the same problem with only one staff on the page and the rest of the page is blank.

This is Your Brain on Music is a fascinating one about music and the mind Alex Ross's The Rest is Noise is great if you want a fun and very readable introduction to 20th century music history Beethoven's Hair is a good read Another good book about the composition process is The Muse that Sings The Muse that Sings: Composers Speak ... - Google Book Search

The New Classical This was originally an assignment for journalism class, and then it turned into something I do on a regular basis. It's a blog about my experiences in music and about the new music scene, or how I see it. Here is an excerpt... Today I met one of the most influential and extroadinary genious's of modern music, Pierre Boulez. By good fortune, my piano teacher, Joanna Chao, happened to be playing a piece of his at Juilliard with the Argento Chamber ensemble, Improvise for Dr. K, and Boulez was scheduled to come in for a private rehearsal with the musicians. Amost everyone in the room, about 20 people, were musicians (besides the camera man), and for a few moments there were such heavy hitters present as Ara Guzelimian, the former director of Carnegie Hall and now Dean of the Juilliard School, as well as Joseph Polisi, President of the Juilliard School. As you can well imagine, I was completely and utterly awe-struck at the very chance of coming to watch Boulez rehearse with the musicians, and when I finally arrived, it was a rather remarkable occasion. Boulez came in with an entourage of sorts, and then proceeded to greet the musicians who were to play his music. What followed was something I will never forget. The musicians played first Boulez's Improvise for Dr. K, and second, Boulez's masterpiece, La Marteau sans Maitre. For each piece, they played with great clarity and precision, and were conducted masterfully by Michel Galante. Yet masterful isn't good enough for Pierre Boulez, and he made that very clear from the moment he entered the room. Almost as soon as the musicians began to play Boulez stopped them, and he went on to demonstrate himself how the music should be played. By variously conducting himself and in concert with Galante, Boulez displayed a sense of musical perfection reserved for the Gods. He obviously had many fascinating comments and anecdotes to say during the performance, so I will only mention a few. One comment that struck me in particular was his insistance on playing the music "poetically". As precise and perfect as the musicians were, Boulez warned not to turn the music into something mechanical, but to allow it to be free and natural. Ironically, one of the ways to make music "seemingly" natural in the first place, is by tediously preparing beforehand. An example of this was the specifity of Boulez's comments, for he didn't always deal in metaphor. In fact most of the time he was showing Galante the technicalities of conducting the piece in terms of subdividing and phrasing. The piece itself was fascinating to me, because I had only heard it once before, the night before on a recording actually! Anyway one of things that intrigued me about it was its use of timbral and coloristic effects, especially in regards to the percussion. The interaction betwen the voice and the alto flute was also quite beautiful, almost hauntingly so. I was reading that Boulez's earlier compositions are more serial in nature, and that Le Marteau was one of his first pieces to be more free formally and musically. Maybe the freedom that Boulez was trying to convey to the musicians was a freedom that even he had to discover, way back in 1954, when the piece was written. After the rehearsal, Boulez warmly thanked the players and the audience, and went around to shake everyones hand. I was too chicken to strike up a conversation with him, but I did manage to pose for a picture. What a day! I'm the kid in the back poking my head out to get into the frame :toothygrin:

thank you so much, I've never heard of a piece being described as chocolate, but I don't mind it! lol, it's interesting that you mention the slow part being a bit long, my teacher felt the same way, at least in terms of balance, that the slow part may run on a bit, since I end the first movement with a very slow transition. I will look at your more specific comments later, thanks again, I really appreciate any and all comments, especially constructive critiscm most of all. Looking back on it actually feel I used the high register of the cello almost too much at times. I think it can work really well but I possibly could have used the entire range of the cello more in the piece. I'm not a string player, (I play piano) so I have a bit to learn as far as orchestration is concerned, but am really excited and eager to learn. I'm headed to IU jacobs school of music as a comp major for the fall of 09... measure 92 is a chord that sounded great on the piano.. but didn't come out right in performance, it's a bit too dissonant for the context of the piece

Score Trio for Flute Cello and Piano Recording Mahlon Berv ? Flute Trio ? Listen free and discover music at Last.fm I started writing this piece at the New York Summer Music Festival last summer with David Ludwig and Eric Sessler. I continued working on it through February of this year with Eleanor Cory, and this is the result. As I've recently become infatuated with the music of Bela Bartok, the melody is somewhat folk inspired. The piece is written in a traditional 3 movement form, fast slow fast, and is part neo-romantic, part neo-classical. The performance is from a reading at Mannes College.

very good article, fascinating idea about the difference between emphasizing the sound versus emphasizing word diction. Where the stage version with real singers gains in its power and vocal beauty, the film version gains in its intimate, close up nature, as well as what I believe is some gorgeous cinematography, and realistic although I admit (hyperbolic) murder scenes, that is something you just cannot do on stage. All in all I love them both. Whats great about a work of art so original and magnificent such as Sweeney Todd is that it can be interpreted in so many different ways, and I think that's one of the most beautiful aspects of art in general. Mahlon

Thanks everyone for the advice. I just listened to the original actually. I was quite astonished just how much was cut out of the movie. The chorus is an integral part of the piece, and hearing the original makes me realize this. I also obtained a pdf of the score through some clever downloading, if anyone is interested in it let me know. Cariou may not be your favorite singer, but he sure sings better than Depp, anyway I've realized just how badly some of the music was sung in the movie, because the movie was my first chance to see sweeney todd, and then I listened to the original afterwards. Anyway, cheers to them reviving such a remarkable work of art, even though it wasn't as good as the original.

Also interesting contrast, George Hearn- Ephiphany- YouTube - Sweeney Todd - Epiphany Johnny Depp- Epiphany- YouTube - Sweeney Todd - Epiphany (Johnny Depp) I think they do it justice in their own ways. Depp for film, Hearn for the stage.