New Music: “New Moon Over Eden”

A new piece for your consideration. My title is more whimsical than usual (hint: what does a ‘new moon’ look like? <grin!>)

The tune is played on the glass armonica. When the tune is repeated, the armonica  is doubled two octaves lower by a bass clarinet—a fun sounding combination, if I say so myself!

• Here's the the whole piece (4:11)
• Here's the the first 30 seconds

New Music: “Tales of the Laughing Dragon”

With this piece I’m just having too much fun with a symphony orchestra!

The second section of the piece, by the way, is a ‘canon’, which is fancy music-jargon for a ’round’ like “Row Row Row Your Boat” (although ‘canons’ can also take other pretty interesting forms). For you music readers, music world has a ‘shorthand’ for notating canons—’Row Row Row Your Boat’ would look like this:

Row, Row, Row Your Boat

In other words, the first group starts with line 1. When group 1 reaches the end of the first line, they continue with line 2, at which point group 2 starts with line 1, and so on. When the first group reaches the end of the last line, they continue with the first line.

Here is my canon (in the second section of the piece) in this standard canon notation (with my apologies for the alto clef but with either the treble or bass clef there are WAY too many ledger lines):

Tales Of The Joyful Dragon Canon

• Here's the the whole piece (6:26)
• Here's the the first 30 seconds

NEW CD: Gothic Christmas

I just returned from a long trip to Transylvania <wink!> where I helped a f(r)iend make a recording: Count Bachula (666-?), the not so great great great…great uncle of the famous composer J.S.Bach—on the Transylvania side. Count Bachula and his music have recently been unearthed. The Count wanted to record some of his Vampire Holiday Favorites such as:

Count Bachula at Castle Bachula's Mighty Pipe Organ

• “We Wish You a Scary Christmas”
• “Silent Fright”,
• “Rudolf, the Red-nosed Werewolf”
• “The Thirteen Nights of Christmas”.

Count Bachula recorded these on the mighty pipe organ at Castle Bachula, accompanied by the Transylvania Vampire Choir (directed by Dr. Van Helsing), Quasimodo on bells, and a dread host of others.

All the songs sound vaguely familiar to me, but the Count swears his songs are millenia old.

By the way, the suggestion that Count Bachula and I must be related because we look so similar is, of course, completely ridiculous!

Gothic Christmas

More information, including pictures of Castle Bachula, “Vampires in the News”, sound samples of all the tracks on his CD and more can be found at the Count’s website:

http://www.CountBachula.com

Information about Count Bachula’s new CD, Gothic Christmas, can be found here, or click the CD cover at left—if you dare!.

Warmly (while I’m still warm!),

william zeitler