Aere's “Explorations” Album
My second album I did on the Yamaha S90-es synthesizer, is titled “Explorations”.
This is new music, that I have not yet produced as a CD album.
The cover picture I had in mind, which I like to picture in my mind as the “Sunlight On The Water” piece plays, is one I took of Jenny Lake, in Grand Teton National Park:
The
pieces in this album are my 'latest-and-greatest' along the lines of
carefully crafted pieces, with multiple instrument parts, which I
could never hope to perform live (because of those multiple parts).
As such, they are strictly studio productions.
Actually, there are only a half-an-album's worth of pieces in it. In the future, I may add more such pieces, but currently, my music interests are in doing pieces I can perform live, and are almost entirely improvisations.
All of the pieces is this album are built on a main track, which often is an improvisation (also called an impromptu).
I worked on these impromptu main tracks for some time, playing with the ideas, but with all of them, there came a time when I simply pressed the “Record” button of the sequence-editor, and started playing.
All of the other parts were improvised (and perfected) against that main track.
The name (and track number) of each piece is the link you can click-on (or right-click on and download) to listen to the piece. Use your browser's back-button to return to the index (here).
You are free to use this work in any way you want to, as long as you attribute me as the author. Depending on the scope of the use, it would be nice if you could also tell me about it, at: aere@keymusician.com
So with no further comments, here is my Explorations album.
Explorations
By Aere Greenway copyright © 2016
This
work is licensed under a Creative
Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
01 – Romance In Descending Thirds 4:18
This piece is built on a sequence of descending thirds, using the Yamaha S90-es's “Soft 5th” sound. The sequence is repeated (looped) many times, as I put in different instrument parts along with it. It builds to a climax about half way through, with many simultaneous parts, and again builds to a climax at the end with many different parts.
Here is a screen-shot, showing the instruments used in the various parts:
The
underlying music is based on tracks 7 and 8 (with the “Soft 5th”
sound), which is looped repeatedly.
Here is a piano-roll picture of the sequence of descending thirds:
Other
instrument parts are improvised against this repeated musical phrase,
and these parts are heard singly, or in various combinations.
Track 6 (Double Reed Quartet) is used for the bassoon part. Track 4 “Sweet Oboe” is first used to state the theme.
02 – Impromptu 2 - Sunlight On The Water 4:05
This is my favorite piece of all of my compositions done on the Yamaha S90-es synthesizer.
Picture in your mind as it plays, that perfect day, relaxing at the beach, or the lake, with sunlight glinting on the waves of water.
Here is a screen-shot, showing the instruments used in the various parts:
Track
8 (the “PianoBack” sound) is the impromptu piano piece on which
the entire piece is based. All or the other parts are improvised
against this part.
03 – Impromptu 2 - Sunlight On The Water - Piano Solo 4:05
A friend of mine, a piano-music enthusiast, thought the piano part alone worked as a solo piece, and even liked it better than the orchestrated version. In deference to him, I have included the impromptu piano solo version of the piece.
The piano part uses the “PianoBack” sound of the Yamaha S90-es, which is a piano sound with an orchestral background.
See what you think.
04 – Allegretto In Soft 5ths - On Our Way 3:04
Though most of my music tends to be introspective and calm – music to meditate by, people have said, this piece tends to be more lively and up-beat. To me, it captures the mood of cross-country bicycling, and thus gets the name “On Our Way”.
Here is a screen-shot showing the instrument sounds used:
The
entire piece is based on track 14, using the “Soft 5ths” sound.
Here is a piano-roll picture of the theme on which the piece is based:
05 – Impromptu 3 - Remembrances 4:24
Like other pieces in this album, this piece is improvised against a piano improvisation.
Against that, first the flute, and then the English horn sings a mournful song, accompanied by other instruments.
It alternates between the Dorian mode, and the Mixolydian mode.
Here is a screen-shot, showing the instrument sounds used:
The
impromptu piano piece is in track 3, using the “PianoBack” sound.
So there are all of the pieces so far. Perhaps I will add more pieces to this album in the future.
- Aere