Here's Idea 18 of 52 Ideas.  I think it was a little inspired by Jonsi, whose music I adore.
You can hear all the ideas so far on my SoundCloud profile.

It can be kind of crazy to try to fit in a new "idea" every week.  There's been so much going on!  I just finished performing the opera "Semele" last weekend, I had a huge event at my voice studio last night, and I leave on a 10 day European tour tomorrow!  Lots of good stuff, but I'm determined to get some composing in regularly anyway!

Exciting news!  In less than a week, I'll be headed across the Atlantic to do a 10 day European tour with Cappella Romana.  We're going to sing in London, Germany, and Greece.  

Some highlights of the tour include:

• Appearance at the Tage Alter Musik festival in Germany
• Performance at St Bartholomew the Great, one of London's oldest churches
• Cappella's first appearance in Athens, Greece
• Masterclasses and special events at 2 different academic institutions

I've done several tours with Cappella, but this one will be a little different for me, because it is only men and we will only be singing Byzantine chant (as opposed to other programs, which often have women singing and incorporate some modern music).  I will be traveling as an isokrat, which means my primary role is to hold the ison or drone for the chant.  This can be a very unique experience - in some ways very stagnant, but also quite meditative and trance-inducing.    

Here's the full schedule:

May 14, 2013, 8:00pm

Recital of Byzantine chant by Cappella Romana 
and the Choir of the Archdiocesan School of Byzantine Chant
The Great Hall at the Hellenic Centre
16-18 Paddington St. Marylebone, London W1U 5AS
Free admission, reservation recommended
More info here

May 15, 2013, 8:00pm

Desert and City: Medieval Byzantine Chant from the Holy Land
Cappella Romana 
St. Bartholomew-the-Great, Cloth Fair, EC1
(London's oldest church)
London, England
More info here

May 17, 2013, 10:45pm

Cappella Romana in Concert
Tage Alter Musik festival
Regensburg, Germany
More info here

May 19, 2013, 8:00pm

Cappella Romana in Concert
Holy Metropolitan Church of the Annunciation
Patras, Greece
More info here

May 20, 2013

Cappella Romana in Concert
The American College of Greece 
Athens, Greece
4:00pm: Master Class
8:30pm: Concert in Cotsen Hall
More info here

Lastly, here is a video of our men's chant group performing a couple months ago at Stanford University, in a "virtual acoustic" of Hagia Sophia:

It's been a little while, so I'm excited to be performing an opera this weekend!  I'll be singing the role of "Jupiter" in Handel's Semele. These performances are put together by violinist and shop owner David Kerr through Baroque Opera Workshop. 

It feels so good to be singing this music!  My part has some really lyrical moments and some wickedly-challenging coloratura. 

Here's a picture from rehearsal yesterday:

And here's info about the shows:

I'm having an unusual set of feelings this week, inspired by all sorts of life events and such.  Below is the music that needed to come out today as part of 52 Ideas.  Sometimes I just sit at the piano and I feel like I just marvel at the beauty of a single major chord (in this case F Major).  And then I start to marvel at the marvelous feelings that come up when I just change one note, or two notes, or three notes. 

I just want to "be here now."  Simplicity and beauty and...being present. 

Ever wonder what opera is all about?  Well, as usual, leave it to Sesame Street to explain it clearly!  :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Xrab76v5zU

This is Idea 16 of 52 Ideas.  It's the first time I've tried to "rewrite" something.  My wife Abby really enjoyed Idea 13, my "Quintal" idea from a few weeks ago, and she suggested that I continue developing the idea.  So I used the basic harmonies and rewrote it as an electronic piece. 

(By the way, if you're interested in hearing everything I've written so far, you can just go directly to my SoundCloud profile.  Or you can see all the blog posts tagged with "52 Ideas.")

I'm singing a concert of Renaissance polyphony with Cappella Romana this weekend, so I've been spending all week in rehearsals singing this beautiful music. 

I was feeling inspired by these amazing composers like Victoria and Guerrero.  And I thought - what is simplest form of polyphony?  It's a canon or round. 

So I wrote a simple canon today....no words yet, just a tune!  Anyone have any ideas what the words could be about?

I've been working a bit with rhythmic concepts so far during the 52 Ideas project.  As a singer I'm particularly drawn to the lyrical, ooey-gooey, long lines.  And as a sometimes choral singer, I like the vertical sonorities that maximize harmony and dissonance. 

But I just don't spend a lot of time in my musical life in the rhythmic world (other than having the professional necessity for excellent rhythmic skills, which I do have).  As I have been playing with electronic music and also beatbox (a couple weeks ago), I came to a realization - I don't really understand how drumming works....I've never played a drum kit, and I have really minimal experience with hand drums like congas or djembes. 

So last week I had a drum lesson!  I met Mike Dunay at a Playback Theater event, and he taught me my first ever drum lesson.  It was fun and I immediately noticed how much there is to learn. I'm hoping to spend more time on the drums and get more experience in this area. 

This piece I wrote is REALLY in process...I'm almost embarrassed to share it because it was really hard to do.  I was trying to create some drums loops without using the pre-made loops in Garage Band.  And I feel like my mind sort up comes up blank when I try to do this. 

So, here is Idea 14, with a reminder....this is all an experiment!  I'm trying something new!
(Also, you might want to listen to this one with headphones or good speakers, otherwise you won't be able to hear the bass part.)

It's a BEAUTIFUL day today in Portland - sunny, warm, and just happy.  Curiously, this is the music that emerged from my soul.  It's a reflective piano piece that uses the concept of quintal harmony (chords built on the interval of a 5th).  Enjoy!
(You can also listen on SoundCloud)

My friend Brynn Baron is a very talented writer and actor.  We work together in Playback Theater.  She recently posted on her Facebook page: 

An engaging conversation followed this comment, including comments like "keep writing, and edit it later" and "cliches are part of the process."  One person even noted that her metaphor about the soccer fans was completely original, not cliche at all!

I can TOTALLY relate to Brynn's comment.  That's part of the reason I created 52 Ideas.  Any time I would compose before this year, I would get frustrated that what came out sounded so much like someone else's music, or like something I had written before.  Or sometimes the work would evolve to the point that I would just start playing and singing the song I already knew....thus ending any originality for the day.  

My thought this year while I've been composing goes like this: if it sounds cliche, go ahead and write it.  If it's showing up in my head, it clearly needs to come out, so let it.  And there's always next week!  I've got 52 chances to write something original!  

So I'd like to take this moment to honor my favorite cliches!  NONE of us can escape our influences and musical history.  As much as I wish some of these influences weren't here, they are part of me.  So I'd like to show them some love.  

Influence: Chris Rice

Chris Rice is a very established Christian Contemporary singer-songwriter.  He is here to represent the years and years and years of time I have spent sitting in church singing.  Church was where I began singing when I was a toddler.  Probably more than half of the time spent singing in my life has been in church as a church member, choir member, soloist, and finally years and years of being a worship leader.  Chris Rice is my cliche fall guy for all other Christian Contemporary and Praise and Worship music that is rolling around in my head, including Michael W. Smith, Chris Tomlin, Amy Grant, Bebo Norman, etc. 

Influence: Opera 

Yes, this one is obvious.  I went to college and grad school to learn opera, and it stuck.  I have performed for years as an opera singer, and at some point along the way my brain (falsely) learned that this was the "best" way to sing.  Of course, I love opera and continue to sing it all the time.  But I want to use my voice in other ways, too.  If you listen closely to any original song I've written, you'll notice it starts out in a kind of medium vocal range, then in time my voice just starts to ascend higher and higher.  I LOVE the epic and dramatic nature of operatic singing.  

Influence: Choral Music

In my professional singing career, I've spent a lot of time singing classical choral music.  Subsequently, I've begun to really enjoy the sound of people singing together.  I love the blend of human voices and the way each voice is unique, yet we combine into a unified whole.  This is, of course, in spite of years in school being told that choral music was bad for my voice and that I should focus on being a solo singer.  Well - sorry college professors! - I sing choral music!  And I like it.  :)

That brings us to this guy:

Influence: Eric Whitacre  

I don't know why Eric Whitacre's music feels like a guilty pleasure.  He's one of the most successful classical composers today, and he's written so much music.  He also created the Virtual Choir, which is a really beautiful concept where people from all over the world sing together via Youtube.  But "serious" classical musicians are afraid of commercial success, I think.  Alas, I love the sound, and it wants to creep into everything I write.  His music is crunchy and harmonically dense.  Eric also represents a few other composers of similar ilk in my mind, like Morten Lauridsen and Rene Clausen. 

So those are probably some of the biggest "friends" that keep showing up in my writing time.  

When I think of being a COMPOSER, the picture that comes to my head is this:

Mad Scientist Composer

This is an image that really freaks me out.  I don't want to be some sort of mad scientist alone in a room working on my "masterpiece".  People would say, "He's so brilliant!  But he just gets in that room and forgets to eat and bathe and becomes so antisocial.  What a savant!"  LOL!

I am social by nature and interactive.  And I'm much better on my feet and moving than sitting still.  Perhaps in some ways I'm less of a composer and more of an improvisor.  I need to DO IT, not just think it.  

The other image I'm haunted with is this:

Struggling Singer-Songwriter

This is the classic struggling singer-songwriter, spending his life recording his own music and attempting to hawk it off to people at bars, coffeeshops, and anywhere people will listen.  Without major support from a label or a killer online presence, this just feels like a labor of love, without a lot of return.  And I'm pretty sure the music I write is "bigger" than this - musically speaking.  I'm not one to create intimate, living room music.  My nature is more epic.  

So I'm ready to create a new definition of what "composer" means to me.  I am ready to claim a new identity for myself.  

These are some of the identities that want to emerge.  

Emerging Identity: Recording Artist

As a classical musician, I sort of feel like an accomplished film photographer who never learned to use a digital camera.  I know my music theory inside and out, I can make microscopic adjustments musically in a performance situation, and I hear really nuanced details in music.  (All of this comes in handy as a music teacher, of course!)  But when it comes to recording technology, I'm such a novice.  Did you say condensor mic...Phantom power...Signal chain...Huh? I'm attempting to learn more from this vast field.  I'm also trying to let go of being perfect, and just using the skills and technology I have available to me.

In a related category:

Emerging Identity: Electronic Musician

I love electronic music.  Digital media brings endless possibilities of sound.  I could spend hours just tinkering around with the drum loops and sounds I can use in Garage Band.  I have hesitancy around this identity, too, because it seems reserved for the "cool kids".  Also, I can see the price tag adding up on the equipment and software and education required to get good at this.  

Emerging Identity: Producer

I am a little hesitant to even include this one, because it seems like such a pipe dream.  I have this dream of producing large scale performance events, epic and grand in nature.  These performances would incorporate a good number of the influences I've just written about.  But...how?  When?  Where?  I know it's there inside me, but it's hard to see the steps to get there.  

Emerging Identity: Ringleader

As I mentioned above, I'm a social creature.  I'm not always a fan of the musical environment that divides the "creators" from the "observers."  We are all creators and we are all innately musical.  I want to create and write and express myself, but I also long to be a space-holder for others to be creative.  I want an environment where I can create, and others can immediately respond with their own expressive ideas, right in the moment.

For now, I'll just keep writing new music every week.  Onward and upward!