Menu
ELECTRONIC COTTAGE
  • HOME
  • REVIEWS
  • ARTICLES
  • COMMENTS
  • HOME
  • REVIEWS
  • ARTICLES
  • COMMENTS

Orchestra Piece 2018

11/30/2018

15 Comments

 
Picture
tom_furgas-orchestra_piece_2018.wav
File Size: 165110 kb
File Type: wav
Download File

"Orchestra Piece 2018" was composed and recorded with Mixcraft Pro Studio 6 and mixed down with Mixcraft 7. It was composed with "virtual" (sampled) instrument sounds, all done on the computer. Scored for flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons, horns, trumpets, trombones, percussion, and strings. My goal with this piece was to create a work that was as idiomatically "orchestral" as possible using sampled instruments. With sampled instruments it is easy to do a lot of things that a "real" orchestra would never do, and I wanted to avoid that. It required a lot of study and understanding of the way the various sections of the orchestra interact, and kinds of melodic contours and voicings that one hears in orchestral pieces. For example, I avoided "quantizing" the rhythms which would have made them so tight they they'd sound like they were done on a computer.  Some of the entrances of choirs of instruments are staggered slightly, as is usually heard in even the most tightly rehearsed ensembles. The harmonically astringent and rhythmically disjunct sound of my work was inspired by the atonal "classical" music of the post-war period (late 1940's onward).
15 Comments
Chris Phinney
11/30/2018 10:24:29

Welcome to EC Tom! Glad to see yoo here. Been a long time!

Reply
Tom Furgas
12/1/2018 08:29:29

Thanks, Chris! It is great to hear from you again.
Tom

Reply
C. Goff III link
11/30/2018 11:06:11

Enjoying your Orchestra piece, Mr. Furgas, thanks for sharing. I've got a big load of your music on compilations that I've collected for about a million years, but I've never directly made your acquaintance. I tip my hat to you, particularly regards your work with MIDI that dates back into some very ancient calendars.

Regards this current offering of yours, I think you might really enjoy Greg Segal's newest orchestral work, if you have not yet heard it. Link here if curious:

https://gregsegal.bandcamp.com/album/33

Keep up the good work. CIII

Reply
Tom Furgas
12/1/2018 10:11:43

Hi Greg -
Listened to some of "33". So far, it's great! Has a distinct Zappa influence, but it's still basically yours. As for not being classically trained, I count that as a plus, not a drawback at all. I myself am mostly self-taught. Read lots of orchestration and composition books when I was in high school, and learned a lot that way, but without being dragged down by classical theory. What you're doing is great, so keep on doing it. Glad you liked my Orchestra Piece. Hal will be posting other works by and by.

Reply
C. Goff III link
12/1/2018 12:41:55

Hey Tom. Great you dig the Greg Segal album. But I am not Greg; I'm Charles Rice Goff III. I just thought that Greg's new album would be very much up your alley.

My own recordings cover a pretty wide range, and I play a lot of instuments, mess around a lot with MIDI too, but in all my own 40-plus years of recording, I've never been quite equipped with the tech it would take to put together a true "orchestral" album.

Rafael González
11/30/2018 13:28:07

Amazing!!! Welcome to EC.

Reply
Hal McGee, EC Editor
11/30/2018 14:35:45

Tom has added an explanatory text to the article.

Reply
Frank
12/1/2018 00:17:21

Doing something similar was on my (huge) 'To Do'-list also. But, I think I can never reach your quality in this piece. Great job!

Reply
Tom Furgas
12/1/2018 10:13:57

It took me 40 years to figure out how to "orchestrate" and have it sound fairly idiomatic. But don't despair! If what you do sounds good to you, that's the only criteria you need. Keep working, and put your work out there for us to enjoy.

Reply
Leslie Singer
12/1/2018 17:51:25

Tom, great to hear your piece. Welcome to EC!

Reply
Adam J Naworal
12/8/2018 02:34:07

Very nicely done and a really interesting read as to the process of creating it! Thanks for sharing this and welcome to EC, Tom!

Reply
Richard Franecki
12/13/2018 18:17:58

Tom!!!
Great to see you're still around and active!!! I too am into improvisation and electronics as heavily as ever. I've recently begun work on a eurorack format system.
R. Franecki....

Reply
Tom Furgas
12/13/2018 19:19:07

Hi Richard!
Great to hear from you. I am glad you're enjoying my recent music. I have been active continually since 1983 and don't plan to stop.
I still very fondly remember our two collaborations on cassette, with you on the fabulous ARP 2600. Hoping you still use that beast to this day. Drop me a line anytime at tofu4879@gmail.com. Hoping to hear from you and maybe we can do a new collaboration...? Hmm!

Tom

Reply
Hessel Veldman link
5/21/2019 06:02:29

Hi Tom,
Your Orchestra Piece 2018 will be broadcasted on May 30: https://www.concertzender.nl/programma/pakrammel_507699/

Reply
rohit aggarwal link
11/26/2019 05:05:00

thanks for the information

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Picture

    Tom Furgas

    Born in Youngstown, Ohio
    in 1954.

    Piano lessons beginning
    at age 5.

    Started composing
    at age 12.

    Made tapes on a portable cassette 
    machine starting
    ​in 1969.

    Started home-taping seriously in 1983.

    Have sold and traded tapes and, later, CD's since then. 

    Musical 
    interests:
    contemporary classical, free improvisation,  electronic

    music both popular and "classical", noise, audio collage, experimental
    music of all kinds.  Have done many collaborations by mail and electronic media.

    E-mail

    Archives

    August 2019
    April 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018

    RSS Feed