Under almost every circumstance, I would not post another composer’s work here unless I had a specific reason. That happened once before when I used another composition as direct inspiration for a work that I wrote. In this specific post, I post as a performer as much as a composer. My 5-year old, Malachi, walked up to me recently, handed me some sheets of paper and asked if I could play what he wrote. I was so surprised!
I have performed (and occasionally recorded) a lot of music but this was an absolute honor. Malachi wanted the music to be the CRAZIEST thing I have ever played. I have performed some crazy music, besides the improvisations I like to do, and this was so fun. So much fun. I played for him Stockhausen, Cage, Ligeti, among things I may not remember exposing in his five years of life.
How does one realize an abstract score such as the one given? Well, it starts with many of the elements involved in creating an improvisation – arc, form, continuity. Malachi wanted crazy, so I interpreted that as very un-pitched material, in the tonal sense of pitch material. I think if you follow the video, the rhythms make sense, or at least have logic in my particular interpretation.
Lastly, as a parent, which is something I do not talk about on this blog, this makes me SO FREAKIN’ HAPPY. And when I played my rendition of his notes, he had a HUGE grin. SO EXCITED. SMILEY FACE HAPPY. 🙂 Enjoy!
Ben, this is wonderful! Congrats to both you and Malachi 🙂
Who knew he had paying attention all these years! It was really fun to record too.