Bach playing in the background
Keyboard sounds layered on top
Tinitintus ringing in my left ear
Floor creaking above ... (but not the pounding as before)
Almost time for another round of Gabapintine with a Methylphenidate chaser
I'll bet Bach always colored within the lines
lovely variations unfolding continuously help to glue the day together
the grinder found will be dry soon and ready for action
When?
Are you asking or accusing?
Can't we rationalize the experience as therapeutic?
The speakers sound really nice buried beneath the desk
(and still no complaint from the tapping keyboard)
I am keeping the volume subdued ... but Bach will not be denied
his speed and clarity cut right through regardless the volume
always calling our attention back to right now
And the glorious ability we have to hear him at a moment's notice ...
at no time in history have we been so blessed with this access to the past
(or there about at any rate)
who knows how JSB would have rendered his variations?
We only know the interpretations of today's "talent"... the good the bad and the ugly.
Of late I have often lamented the failure of our culture to appreciate it's living artists
instead we continue to worship in the museum of all things old
and far removed from the light of day
Please give Mozart his due ... but do we need each generation's iterpretation of the complete piano works? Wouldn't a modicum of performance time better serve
by exposing the work of the guy next door?
All contemporary music is not serial or noise in a box. Some of the pieces are a fond remembering of the tonal arrangements that render us weak kneed and abuzz
and all tingly as the waves move through our bodies and dust off our souls.
Yes!
I do have an axe to grind.
I do not pretend to be of the same genre as the above mentioned.
But I do make the spiders on the wire come to life every now and then
with quite a nice effect ... if only for a few seconds.
And "yes" ... I would like an audience of my peers
to witness what I have rendered before I am put asunder.
But that is not an absolute necessity .
In my mind, however, it would be nice. (cue the Beach Boys)
Born March 24, 1948
in Elk City, OK.
Lives with spouse
Renee LaPlante in
Cedar Rapids Iowa
Bachlor's degree from the University of Southern Mississippi and graduate work st the UW-Madison
Contact Hugh :
Recently I was asked how I go about writing my music ... what is the process? My answer is "very carefully".
Usually I have an idea which stimulates the start. For example: I was interested in the Russian Gulag and read a book about it ... I was moved by the suffering that took place there and sat down to write "Lord have mercy". Depicting the suffering was difficult ... I used a 12 tone row for starters. Along that same line, I was reading a book about Hattiesburg, Missippi where I grew up ... and discovered that I was attending Blair H.S. the morning that the KKK drove out to fire bomb Vernon Dahmer's house while trying to kill him and his family. That caused me considerable anquish because I could not remember anything about that event. So I started working on a composition to commemorate that historical time.
Not every piece is driven by that sort of passion. Sometimes the idea can be fairly simple. "Let's write something more modern ... using a 12 tone scale" was the impetus for the third movement of the Symphonic Suite.
Today I'm going to write another piece based on my windchimes ... probably will use the pentatonic scale. When you aren't driven by a desire to satisfy the needs of a performance or performing organization, it frees you up to follow your whims and desires.
So I sit down in front of my Sibelius page and begin to think and to feel ... and to jot down ideas. I usually let the ideas come about in a linear fashion ... jot them down in order as they arrive ... then I go through and orchestrate to the best of my ability ... give them their color and dramatic meaning. My music usually finishes up sounding like a movie ... there are a series of characters interacting with one another. Sometimes they are nice. Sometimes they are sad. And sometimes they are mean and ugly. But always they are entertaining ... to me.
Starting in June of 2022, all of the compositions were rewritten/edited using the Note Performer software addition to Sibelius.