Dan Gilbert

I don't think that there's any reason to believe that music has any inherent emotional qualities. There aren't really any well founded reasons why different harmonies would incite different emotions. And we can see that in music from different cultures that are less influenced by Western music, they associate different emotions with different sounds. So if you look at emotion in music that is assigned by the listener, not the composer, the question becomes a little bit meaningless.

So - Louis Andriessen. Good composer, or best composer? http://www.classicaltv.com/v810/not-mozart-m-is-for-man-music-mozart (There's lots of (artistic?) nudity in that one, so don't watch if you don't want to see it!) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INehqNO_apg I loves him so much. He's coming to Montreal in a few days and I'm really hoping I get a chance to *at the very least* wrap my arms around him and whisper sweet nothings into his ears.

I think one possibility is that the divide between classical and popular music could close. Of course, I think it will end up closing in closer to the popular music side, because I think that in many ways classical art music is artificially supported by pretension. I think there is a culture of disdain growing for that which considers itself to be high art. Meanwhile, what I would traditionally have considered popular music is showing more and more of the same characteristics of art music. I think that if most people were asked, they would say that popular music has the same artistic potential as classical music. Many of the successful composers today infuse their art with elements from popular music, and I don't think their success is a coincidence. This is, of course, a scary thought for me, as a person who has spent their life up to this point vehemently avoiding popular music.

Good work! My favorite is the section leading up to 4:00 where the harmonies go from more diatonic to more chromatic at a particularly climactic part of the piece.

Actually, I don't think that what you are looking for exists to any satisfying extent, as it sounds like you are looking for modern "great" composers who compose in the styles of previous eras. Although we don't exist in an era of a unified musical style, in general, one thing that defines contemporary music is its departure from the specific ways of constructing music of the past. Having said that, there are composers whose music has more in common with the music of the past than others. If you are looking to get into more contemporary composers (which is always a good idea) but you are adverse to the kinds of aesthetics which came out of the modernist movement, you can still find them. On the other hand, if you want to get acquainted with new composers, you have to be willing to get acquainted with new aesthetic styles. Here's a couple quick suggestions off the top of my head: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsfJIJ7ZQ2c http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INehqNO_apg Keep looking until you find some contemporary music that suits your taste, and gradually, your tastes will grow to accommodate more music!

One of two songs I wrote for my sister to perform on her senior undergraduate recital. The lyrics are a poem by Thomas Hardy:Now with a live recording!Neutral TonesWE stood by a pond that winter day,And the sun was white, as though chidden of God,And a few leaves lay on the starving sod,--They had fallen from an ash, and were gray.Your eyes on me were as eyes that roveOver tedious riddles solved years ago;And some words played between us to and fro--On which lost the more by our love.The smile on your mouth was the deadest thingAlive enough to have strength to die;And a grin of bitterness swept therebyLike an ominous bird a-wing....Since then, keen lessons that love deceives,And wrings with wrong, have shaped to meYour face, and the God-curst sun, and a tree,And a pond edged with grayish leaves.-Thomas HardyThanks for listening! Comments appreciated. Neutral Tones

One of two art songs I wrote for my sister to perform on her senior undergraduate recital. The lyrics are a poem by Thomas Hardy:Now with a live recording!Let Me Enjoy ILet me enjoy the earth no lessBecause the all-enacting MightThat fashioned forth its lovelinessHad other aims than my delight.IIAbout my path there flits a Fair,Who throws me not a word or sign;I'll charm me with her ignoring air,And laud the lips not meant for mine.IIIFrom manuscripts of moving songInspired by scenes and dreams unknownI'll pour out raptures that belongTo others, as they were my own.IVAnd some day hence, towards ParadiseAnd all its blest -- if such should be --I will lift glad, afar-off eyesThough it contain no place for me.- Thomas HardyThanks for listening! Comments appreciated. Let Me Enjoy

Thank you both very much for the positive feedback! Thanks for pointing out the problem at measure 63. I wrote this piece hoping to eventually orchestrate the accompaniment (along with additional movements which I plan to write). Therefore I wrote the piano part initially as a sort of short score, and when I rewrote it as a piano part, I accidentally left a couple impossible-to-play artifacts. As for future movements, I think I am going to try to make the clarinet part more central to the music and perhaps more melodic.

A short prelude for clarinet with piano accompaniment. W/ Live Recording (my friend Ian on the clarinet) Comments are appreciated! "Prelude for Clarinet"

Just finished this duet for a Hannukah concert at my temple. My goal was to write a Hannukah song that sounded like a Christmas song, because people like listening to Christmas songs and no one listens to Jewish liturgical music. The lyrics: Al hanissim v’al hapurkan V’al hagvurot V’al hot’shuot V’al hanifla’ot she’asita la’avoteinu Bayamim hahem bizman hazeh ([We thank You G-d] For the miracles, the redemption, the mighty acts, the saving acts and for the wonders that You have done for our fathers, in those days at this time.) But I changed the lyrics around somewhat to extend the song. Comments welcome! Al Hanissim.MUS Al Hanissim.pdf

I also had this problem. You can either reinstall finale, or you can hook your computer up to an external monitor, arrange the display so that the sizing controls of the window are visible on one monitor or the other, and then reduce the size. Neither are particularly fun, I know.

I am highly entertained. My apologies about your wife, - Daniel

Very good work.

Yah, but to get to the hide/show option you probably have to replace the automatic whole rest that fills the measure with a whole rest of your own that you put in manually. Then, when the rest is highlighted, press "h".