@mcmullin@musicians.today
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mcmullin

@mcmullin@musicians.today

Composer of music in search of a spirit of wonder.

Current projects include The Luminous Mysteries, a setting of the complete prayers of the rosary for choir and orchestra, and a series of compositions custom made for individual musicians recovering from strokes.

#Composer #NewMusic #ContemporaryMusic #MusicAsPrayer #MusicInHealth #tfr

#中文
#español

(Banner image above: colorful abstract painting, watercolor on rice paper, by PC Ning. Avatar: boring headshot of me.)

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mcmullin, to random
@mcmullin@musicians.today avatar

@mxtthxw just in case you haven’t seen this

https://syzito.xyz/@selzero/112447447925059728

mcmullin, to random
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I've now got a PeerTube up and running where I'll be posting score-following videos of my music as I make them:

@mcmullin

(Anything I put there I'll boost or link to from here too.)

currentbias, to random
@currentbias@open-source-eschaton.net avatar

The sheer amount of people who stopped wearing masks as soon as they were optional demonstrates how many people never understood why they were wearing them in the first place, which is a tremendous and ongoing failure of institutional public health

mcmullin,
@mcmullin@musicians.today avatar

@MobileOak @currentbias
Effective COVID mitigations are not impossible. And they are only expensive compared to not needing them in the first place. Compared to needing them and not having them, they’re cheap.

mcmullin, to random
@mcmullin@musicians.today avatar

I have just failed to prove I’m not a robot more than a dozen times in a row. Either:
• The motor vehicles site is malfunctioning
• Captcha is seriously leveling up in difficulty
• I’m wrong about what bicycles, motorcycles, buses, traffic lights, crosswalks, stairs, and mountains* look like
• I’m a robot

*Yes, I got as far as “can you at least see a mountain when one’s in front of you?” And they say I can’t.

mcmullin, to composers
@mcmullin@musicians.today avatar

Turns out goldfish (and people too) are unfairly maligned when it comes to memory and attention.

And this caught my attention:

“We've got a wealth of information in our heads about what normally happens in given situations, what we can expect. And those expectations and our experience directly mould what we see and how we process information in any given time."

Crucial for music: what the listener brings to it is essential.

https://noc.social/@todayilearned/112262464357644952

@composers

mcmullin, to Creativity
@mcmullin@musicians.today avatar

Two good questions this morning from Andrew Simonet. The second is one I don’t think we talk about enough: you can’t just have the greatest art from the greatest artists, without the whole cultural ecosystem that produces and nurtures them. The minor artists and the failed experiments all play essential roles too.

https://view.flodesk.com/emails/660b0120c1a8c9a0c7ddedcc

#creativity #art #music #ContemporaryMusic #composers @contemporarymusic @composers

mcmullin, to H5N1
@mcmullin@musicians.today avatar

I don’t mean to minimize the potential risk of , and I hope it doesn’t become a serious problem. But it bugs me that some of the same people who spent the last 4 years saying (which has killed millions with no end in sight) is “just a flu” now see H5N1 (which infected one person) and are all “omg omg there’s a new kind of flu oh no!”

mcmullin, to random
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Two recent conversations—with @terjefjelde about strange ways that American culture gets taken up in Norway, and with @skinnylatte about American food, what it is and whether it’s as bad as everyone says—brought to mind the following anecdote from more than 20 years ago.

With apologies to @m2m , this would be more appropriate as a blog post than a thread, but I haven’t actually started a blog yet, and I wouldn’t start it with this.

1/12

mcmullin, to classicalmusic
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I keep meaning to make more score videos with recordings of my music. I've got a few on Youtube (in my pinned posts), but I'm thinking I should try Peertube. Can anyone recommend a good Peertube instance for this kind of thing?

@contemporarymusic @composers

mcmullin, to random
@mcmullin@musicians.today avatar

“There needs to be something alive on the other end of the line, a source of energy that comes from somewhere else, so that your job becomes to wrestle with this and draw it in and find out what exactly it is.”

From: @janhoglund
https://mastodon.nu/@janhoglund/111822247803464395

mcmullin, to composer
@mcmullin@musicians.today avatar

I'm working on a large-scale #composition for #chorus and #orchestra with soloists.

What should I listen to for inspiration?

Any time period, any style -- I'm interested in seeing different ways of combining these forces, and studying the nuts and bolts of #orchestration.

If you're a #conductor, #choral director, or #composer who has wrestled with this, what would you say are the key do's and don'ts of writing for this combination?

@composers @classicalmusic
#ClassicalMusic

mcmullin, to random
@mcmullin@musicians.today avatar

Question for any out there: how do you interpret slurs in a part?

For example, if you see a melody or arpeggio spanning a few octaves in a bar or two, and it's obviously one single gesture, do you play it differently if it's under a slur than if it isn't? Which do you prefer to see?

I've noticed I'm not at all consistent about this in my scoring, which makes it look like I want different things when that's not necessarily so.

mcmullin, to random
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https://www.honest-broker.com/p/how-african-musicians-came-to-medieval

mcmullin, to Spotify
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This is pretty ridiculous. I have exactly 2 tracks on , with approximately zero plays (though actually I have no way of knowing), and whatever royalties they generate go to the performers, who may then send me a cut if they choose to. So this doesn’t immediately affect me in any real way—but still.

1,000 Streams or Bust https://dadadrummer.substack.com/p/1000-streams-or-bust

@dada_drummer

mcmullin, to random
@mcmullin@musicians.today avatar

@hilljam 's recent post about perceived vs measured loudness reminded me of something I've been curious about.

Much audio talk stresses compression, where it seems everything at every scale gets compressed every step of the way, with the apparent aim of squeezing it for every possible drop of loudness.

And this puzzles me. Loud is fine, but if everything's always equally loud, then it's also flat, with no shape.

A little thread about dynamics...
1/4

(cc @m2m)

https://open.substack.com/pub/jamieslist666/p/a-word-on-lufs?r=1n47ld&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

mcmullin, to random
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When I was a student, algorithmic compositional processes were all the rage, sometimes computer assisted but usually not. In theory, @composers should be able to use the new “AI” tools in all kinds of interesting ways. But instead they’re mostly used by streaming companies to fill playlists with generic muzak that no one gets paid for. Do listeners care, or is that what they want?

Ted Gioia’s take:
https://www.honest-broker.com/p/ai-is-defeated-in-hollywoodbut-what

mcmullin, to jazz
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Anyone else remember these guys? Not sure why I just thought of them, but it's good to hear this again.
https://song.link/i/1167826959

mcmullin, to boston
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We managed to get away from up the for a bit this month, got out on the water in kayaks a few times, and saw some tremendous skies.

A wide-angle photo of dramatic clouds in n a bright sky over White Beach, .
A fading rainbow in front of grey clouds topped with bright white. Trees on either side frame sunlit bushes, a green lawn and wildflower garden in the center, behind which a lighthouse is visible in the distance across , .
The same yard as in the first photo, from a different angle in steeply sloping light before sunset, beneath a clear sky.

mcmullin, to chinese
@mcmullin@musicians.today avatar

Can anyone out there recommend good streaming / shows for me to watch with my 80+yo in-laws? with subtitles needed (for them, hard of hearing) and English subtitles appreciated (for me, hard of understanding). Nothing dark, heavy, sad or violent. They are not into martial arts, but some is okay if it’s not just all fighting. Modern or period settings, but prefer to avoid war/occupation and cultural revolution stories. We’re running out of light comedies…

mcmullin, to random
@mcmullin@musicians.today avatar

I’ve been absent from the conversation for a while, but it wouldn’t be right to let the week go by without somebody posting Ellington at Newport 1956, Diminuendo & Crescendo in Blue. Legendary performance…
https://youtu.be/wIX7fnYANak

mcmullin, to random
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Just drop by


mcmullin, to composers
@mcmullin@musicians.today avatar

For me at least, this question is more likely to shut down than get it flowing. Maybe worth considering before I commit to making something, but not helpful to think about once in the process.


@composers

https://botsin.space/@oblique_strategies/110370934847572720

mcmullin, to random
@mcmullin@musicians.today avatar

The other day, talking about issues on the fediverse, @mekkaokereke proposed an (apt) analogy which led to a tangential conversation about racism in Boston. I noticed, as I have whenever this comes up, a curious thing about what “Boston” seems to represent in the public imagination.

A thread (a rant?) about …
1/7

https://musicians.today/@mcmullin/110283766606470442

mcmullin, to composers
@mcmullin@musicians.today avatar

Last week @terjefjelde asked me about my techniques, use of , and thoughts about , and I promised to reply when I had more time. Here’s a too-long thread about this and other things that came to mind…

1/18

@composers @contemporarymusic

https://mastodon.social/@terjefjelde@mastodon.social/110220685067926603

mcmullin, to guitar
@mcmullin@musicians.today avatar

By way of further , I'll post some of my music.

First, a short piece for solo guitar, dedicated to my wife, and performed by Steven Lin. Enjoy! (And feel free to let me know what you think.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkAbmM4qnQE

@contemporarymusic



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