Breathing again

Funny Kind of Sad

Meandering

Picture is from our trip to Italy, this is from the travel with train from Rome to Rimini. This track was made in advance of the posted Naviarhaiku 444 contribution I made, and one can say its a pre-study for the NH444 I did, the creation of the settings on the synths and as one of many studies of progression.

In July

This started off as a solo finger-picking guitar tune but I ended up improvising over it. Now it is a guitar trio. I enjoyed getting my acoustic guitar out of  mothballs...

Diamonds In The Grass

Q-Bass Boy Bros.

Oceans Are Dying

Well, why not? : )


Photo for cover by Lalu Varghese on Unsplash

It's Christmas Time

‘The Solar System does not play well-tempered’ was commissioned by the Royal Academy of Music for the ‘200 Pieces’ celebration of the institution’s bicentenary. It was premiered by Leo Kerr on 30th Nov 2021 in the Angela Burgess Recital Hall. 

The slightly whimsical title comes from a talk given by Dr Nicole Pawellek at the Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge, in which she looked at historical theories of ‘music of the spheres’ (the title of her talk) through the lens of modern astronomy and astrophysics. There was one particular slide that leapt out at me showing how, amazingly, densities in the asteroid belt appear to exactly match the ratios of partials in the harmonic series! This became the starting point for my piece: on one side portraying the dramatic contrasts between the cold depths of space and violent encounters with asteroids, and on the other side, using the harmonics shared between a musical instrument in one’s hand and the asteroid belt as a source of harmonic and structural inspiration!

The Solar System does not play well-tempered (MP3)

Composed, arranged, performed, and produced by:
Carlos Vivanco

The Hungarian minor scale, double harmonic minor scale, or Gypsy minor scale is a type of combined musical scale. It is the fourth mode of the double harmonic scale. It is the same as the harmonic minor scale, except that it has a raised fourth scale degree to introduce an additional gap , or augmented second. It is a symmetrical scale with a slightly ambiguous tonal centre, due to the many half steps.Its step pattern is W, H, +, H, H, +, H, where W indicates a whole step, H indicates a half step, and + indicates an augmented second (three half steps, enharmonically equivalent to a minor third but functionally distinct). While in intervallic terms, it would be described as: 1 2 ♭3 ♯4 5 ♭6 7.
The scale contains two augmented seconds,[5] one in each tetrachord.[1] It also contains an augmented fourth between the first and fourth degree.
This scale (and its modes like the double harmonic scale) is the one perfectly balanced seven-note subset of the equally tempered chromatic scale: when its pitches are represented as points in a circle whose full circumference represents an octave, their average position (or "centre of mass") is the centre of the circle. Other examples include the Dorian mode of major and fifth mode of melodic minor.
The axis of balance for the Hungarian minor passes through the fifth and the flat nine, which is not included in the pitch set.

The scale may be used with minor or m+7 chords. See: chord-scale system. Chords that may be derived from the B Hungarian minor scale are Bm(maj7), C#7♭5, Dmaj7#5, E#6sus2b5, F#maj7, Gmaj7, G7, A#m6 and more.

This scale is obtainable from the double harmonic scale by starting from the fourth of that scale, so the C Hungarian minor scale is equivalent to the G double harmonic scale.

In Indian classical Carnatic music, Hungarian minor scale corresponds to Simhendramadhyamam, while the Gypsy variant corresponds to Shanmukhapriya.

This scale is sometimes also referred to as "Gypsy Run", or alternatively "Egyptian Minor Scale", as mentioned by Miles Davis who describes it in his autobiography as "something that I'd learned at Juilliard".An alternative (and less common) version is the asymmetric Aeolian ♯4 scale, the only difference with the Hungarian minor scale being that the 7th degree of the scale is not raised. This form of the scale can also be used in the fourth mode and would then be referred to as the Neapolitan scale.

Summer Dreams

Hungarian Minor

Child of Nature

Echoes of Nature

Darren Bloom is a composer, conductor, producer and educator. Described in The Times as ‘almost mystical… a genuine frisson’, Darren’s music is noted for its combination of ‘evocative harmony’ and ‘raw power’. His recent chamber symphony Dr. Glaser’s Experiment, commissioned by the London Symphony Orchestra for their 2016 Futures Festival, was praised in theartsdesk.com as a ‘confident answer to the question: How can an orchestra perform the music of the future?’ Darren’s chamber work Strange Attractors was selected by the UK panel of the International Society for Contemporary Music to represent the UK, and his chamber opera KETTLEHEAD was created as part of his second year of residence with the London Symphony Orchestra as a member of the LSO Soundhub Scheme. Recent projects include a curated set for New Dots’ Curiouser event, which incorporated his new work Alice’s Dream Fragments for the Octandre Ensemble, and Borexino-Borealis, a commission from the Park Lane Group for the Borealis Saxophone Quartet.
 
Darren is a founding member and conductor/creative producer of the Ossian Ensemble with whom he has given the premieres of dozens of new works over the past decade. Other conducting highlights include a performance of Sir Peter Maxwell Davies’ Five Klee Pictures in the presence of the composer, recording music for BBC4 documentaries, directing several youth new music ensembles, including the Composers Ensemble at Junior Trinity, and making his third annual appearance as a conductor for the LSO Soundhub Scheme.
 
Darren studied composition with Edwin Roxburgh, Brian Elias and Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, and conducting with Neil Thompson, Edwin Roxburgh and Christopher Austin. He was awarded a DipRAM and the Manson Fellowship from the Royal Academy of Music as well as recently being appointed an Associate of the RAM. In 2015 he commenced an AHRC funded PhD in Composition at the University of Cambridge under the supervision of Richard Causton.

The Solar System does not play well-tempered (MP3)

Darren Bloom

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