Shedding Skin for orchestra, a reading by American Composers Orchestra, Jazz Composers Orchestra Institute, Miller Theatre, New York, NY, 2013.


Shedding Skin for orchestra, read by American Composers Orchestra, 2013

Autumn Leaves 4.24.2014

All Blues 4.24.2014

So What 4.24.2014

Summertime 4.24.2014

Rehearsal recording 5.8.2014

Still a bit rough; this is a long and demanding piece, but I've made a great deal of progress.

J.S.Bach.Emaj.Prelude.Violin.Partita.#3

World Premiere and Commissioned by American Composers Orchestra at Jazz at Lincoln Center on April 9, 2015, Conductor George Manahan

Sanctum, for orchestra and recorded sound, explores the sound of improvisation in Holiness-preaching traditions. I draw inspiration from recorded sermons, The Praying Slave Lady by Pastor Shirley Caesar, The Eagle Stirs His Nest by Reverend C. L. Franklin, and Reverend Charles Albert Tindley’s hymn, Stand By Me. Included are the voices of Marlene Pinnock and of activists in Ferguson, Missouri from 2014. Sanctum is my artistic response to recent events of police brutality. By employing techniques of layered repetition, rhythmic intensity, sounds of moaning and whooping, and voices of the past and present, Sanctum invokes solace found in the midst of persecution and tribulation.


Sanctum was commissioned and premiered by American Composers Orchestra with the generous support of The Jerome Foundation and The Peter Heller Fund.

http://acosoundadvice.blogspot.com/2015/03/courtney-bryan-native-of-new-orleans-is.html 

Sanctum for orchestra and recorded sound

What my grandmother used to call "porch-sittin' music." 

This is a tune I've been messing with for a few months; I might write some lyrics at some point. Yesterday was a beautiful blue sky Seattle day and the whole thing finally fell together. Sometimes music really is about mood.

This morning I heard Allan Holdsworth passed away. Damn. I met him once. The rest of us for music will always pale in comparison. Anyway, this song is my thoughts for him today. Whatever alien planet he's gone back to, I hope it's beautiful there. RIP

-Seattle, WA; April 16, 2017

Guitarwar

Clear Sky Jam

This is a piece I wrote and recorded in 2017, over an 8-month period from approximately March to November. I am extremely proud of this piece. It represents an absolutely back-breaking amount of work, and I can honestly say it sounds pretty much exactly as I had intended it to sound, from the guitar tone to the string orchestrations and right down to the mix EQ. In particular, I owe the string players a tremendous debt of gratitude for their performances. I'm also sharing this on Facebook and elsewhere for those who haven't heard it yet. 

Thanks for listening.
-----
All guitars, bass, acoustic piano, drum programming, orchestration, engineering etc., partridge in a pear tree: Me

Allison Bengfort, Teresa Hayden, Anna Cullver, Kendal Keyes, Tania Halladay, and Dell Wade helped me out on strings. It has been my great privilege to work with these fine musicians on this project. I owe them big time.

Guitar tones courtesy of the Korg Ampworks box Jay got me a deal on that time in Reno.

Mixing this monstrosity was a nightmare. By the time I was done I was literally crossing my fingers hoping my laptop wasn't going to catch fire and melt before I was finished; the Audacity session was ~3.2 Gb and my hard drive was starting to make funny noises.

Thanks to Danny Danzi for everything he's ever taught me about mixing and mastering, I learned more from him while working on "45th Street Blues" than I learned in my previous 8 years in college. No joke, that.

Thanks to Ross for giving the final mix that last little necessary push by stating the obvious ("Maybe just bring the lead up a little").

Thanks to Ender, Jay, Ross, Brett, Justin, Piney, Lou, Shawn, Viv, Ulnie, and everyone else who has always made Guitarwar a fun place to hang out, whether it be at 3:00 in the afternoon or 3:00 in the morning. (Are all guitar players insomniacs? Do we all drink too much coffee so we can play faster or something? Probably yes.)

Thanks to Music Center Of The Northwest <mcnw.org> (especially our executive director Michael Alstad) for allowing me to set up shop on the premises, record string parts in the auditorium, and just generally leave a trail of chaos and befuddlement pretty much in one door and out the other. Coolest place I've ever worked for, and one hell of a non-profit music school. 

GEAR:

Godin Freeway Classic guitar
Yamaha RBX bass
Korg D888 mobile recording console, assorted Shure mics (string session)
Korg Ampworks
Presonus Audiobox USB
HP Pavilion laptop POS
Sibelius 7 notation software (scoring, MIDI drum programming, string orchestration)
Studio One 3 (drum samples)
Audacity (multitrack audio)

"Cascade Point" is the title of a 1983 science fiction novella by Timothy Zahn.

Cascade Point

Intertwined Distances (2018)
Solo Harpsichord and Electronics (quadrophonic)

commissioned by and written for Mahan Esfahani
Premiere: March 2018, Madrid, Fundación Juan March
http://www.march.es/musica/detalle.aspx?p5=100310
Recording: Live radio broadcast 

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Some words about the piece: 

Distance, Movement, Silence, Perception, Paradox, Continuity...

According to Merriam-Webster, distance is a separation in time, an extent of advance from a beginning; and in mathematics it refers to the degree or amount of separation between two points, lines, surfaces, or objects.

In this piece I am exploring the qualities of various dimensions of ‘distances’.
The piece opens perceptual spaces and plays with the listener’s perceptions. It is an observation of how the sound moves and travels within the concert hall, of the distances between the performer on stage and the audience, and of the relationships of both with the quadraphonic speakers. On another level, it explores the phenomena of distance in time (the centuries- old harpsichord being placed in a modern environment) and distance between people (geographically, emotionally, etc). Our daily life is made of these intertwined distances, which are constantly in movement and change.

On a personal level, the electronic component comes out of a close collaboration, between Mahan Esfahani and the composer.

The sounds are solely harpsichord sounds, specially recorded for this piece. In association with various filters and processes, the material developed further and gained other colours and qualities.
The piece is an observation of these constant movements of sound and various perceptions of distances – and of ultimately how all these unite and convolute by twining with each other.

Cascade Point

David M. Shere

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