composing partners' blog

On "TSF Jazz" radio, I came across "The Duke", a huge tribute by pianist and composer Dave Brubeck who wrote this song in 1958 to another great pianist I let you guess the name ...
Brubeck has enchanted my youth, I saw him ten years ago (at least) on stage, in Créteil (near Paris); Paul Desmond his wonderful sax was not there, alas, he died too soon. That day he was accompanied by a singer ... his daughter! The same thick glasses, but the white hair; Another time, another performance (a little disappointing) ...

I found again this wonderful version, with its fantastic chords. Let us not forget that Brubeck was a student, as other jazz composers (Quincy Jones, Astor Piazzola, etc.), of "The Boulanger" (Nadia, of course, the French teacher, her sister having died too young too).

And here's another version, (not as good, unfortunately, this is not the Newport version !), but it is still "The Duke", played by Brubeck himself. It has been uploaded on Youtube, but this is not a video, there's only music, and picture of the composer at that time ... !):-/

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(Published by The New York Time: June 25, 2009)
DONGGAOCUN, China — Perhaps the only thing more aurally challenging than a roomful of novice violinists screeching their way through “Mary Had a Little Lamb” is a roomful of novice violinists screeching along on out-of-tune instruments.



Violin lessons in Donggaocun, about an hour’s drive from downtown Beijing. The town manufactures string instruments.

“Stop,” Chen Yiming shouted to her students, an enthusiastic bunch, ages 8 to 47. “Can we please pay attention to our instruments and make sure they are tuned correctly?”
After a short break for adjustments, the cacophony resumed.
Violin fever has hit this drab rural township with hundreds of residents, young and old, picking up the bow as Donggaocun tries to position itself as the string instrument capital of China.
Once known primarily for its abundant peach harvest, the town, about an hour’s drive from downtown Beijing, has become one of the world’s most prodigious manufacturers of inexpensive cellos, violas, violins and double basses. Last year the town’s 9 factories and 150 small workshops made 250,000 instruments, most of them ending up in the hands of students in the United States, Britain and Germany.

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I receive this mail from an American blogger, and, for once, it looks interesting.

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Soprano Valérie Guillorit sing works by composers John Sernee Associates and Yves Rinaldi on 13 June 2009 at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris.

Passing through Paris, Valérie Guillorit, in an interview with composer Yves Rinaldi, reveals her unusual career development. French artist based in Holland, she teaches singing at the Conservatory of Amsterdam since 2004 while pursuing a career as a soloist.

YR: What led you to live and work in Holland?

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All our congratulations to theses two winners, who recently joint us at our Composing partners Salon de musique.

And now, let's getting to know them better.

John Sernee (who wins the first prize) is Dutch.

He was born in 1948. After classical studies in Amsterdam where he was a student of Henk van Bergen at the Concertgebouw, John Sernee began his career with the practice of trombone.

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Listen to MusHar radio up there, right corner, and click on Symph_BB_(Scherzo): That's the Scherzo of the new Symphonietta Alex wrote for his baby, the little King Arthur.
You'd like to listen to the whole piece? .../...

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He gave me an appointment in his church at 7:30 a.m., rather early (he is an early bird !) He had a look to the score, said "that's a toccata" while I'was preparing my gear (DAT and microphone).
Then I start recording and we climb together to his organ, upstairs (that's why you hear some noise at the beginning).
And he plays for me, for me alone !

And finally, what did I do after this early concert? Guess it ! or read more …/…

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This orchestral fantasy project (downloaded 200 times, up to now, in spite of

its size, 18.6Mb. You can get it here!) brought me quite a lot of feedbacks already.

I notably notice they reproach me for its exuberance. Roughly, this would go off in every direction... Why not? Is'nt it a fantasy? Some people are up to say it would make a good film score for a French comedy movie...What do they take me for ?

Fortunely, others peoples (or the same) say that this music is a Great Composition, definitely original, vivid, well done, which should interest musicians, amateur or professional chamber orchestra.

Humm... Not a symphonic orchestra? Well, so, it has to be better placed… Now there, that's better for my ego. ) .../...

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Vaguely based on the story of the eponym novel by Umberto Eco, (under the Italian title Il nome della rosa), this orchestral work is composed as a Symphonic fantasy. You can get it here.
As the plot unfolds, the score develops along several musical themes, from the beginning of the story - two monks (maybe Don Quijote and Sancho Pança? they look so ! ) riding on to a mysterious abbey where they usually have terrific adventures, fighting against the forces of evil; to the end: both monks riding away from the fuming ruins of the monastery. .../...

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Is it necessary to write about Zidane to get some more visitors on our web sites? Too bad, forget Zidane and its phoney excuses, forget our July 14th brass band if you are in France, and let's speak about the two new winners of our permanent composing contest and their songs, Foxdrop by Cyrus and Miles was in the box (a music box, of course!) by SolCarlus.
The question was: Who is the very best? In both cases they composed jazz pieces, not classical music, but in very different style. This might have driven this special decision of our jury keeping both titles.
Alex said: (sorry, Alex, for my bad translation in English (. . .)

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Here is our new guest composer, the new winner of our permanent composing contest. His name Jean-Armand Moroni. And his piece is called "Des Profondeurs" (in Latin "De Profundis"). That's not really cheerful, but that's a great piece of orchestral music, very impressive and beautiful. See below, just the beginning:

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We are happy to welcome Arnaud Roy and his friend Pascal Arnold, our new guest composers in the Salon de musique. They are THE winners of our permanent composing contest, for the next 3 months. The piece's called "comptine jazz". You can listen to it on our MusHar radio, up there, or download it here.

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For 6 month, Alex has been sending us his pieces of music, all more and more interesting. Did you listen to his works, specially the allegro ( 1st movement) of a piece for small orchestra? A wonder of finesse in the writing, of invention in the orchestration, a piece of music which I use to listen to every evening without flagging, always finding there some new and very special thing, a proof of its richness, isn't it.

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Do you think that music is not merely goods for sale as well, but also a life value which is elevating listening or composing people? Do you think music is to be shared, and not to make some clever manager rich?

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