Avant composition by Mazz Swift and performed by Hear in Now.
Mazz Swift, violin, Tomeka Reid, cello and Silvia Bolognesi bass.
Recorded on March 23, 2011 at Grace Church Van Vorst in Jersey City New Jersey.


Hear in Now's "Last Night's Vacation"

A preview track from my new album "Glossolalia - NeoQuartet plays music of Dosia McKay" http://dosiamckay.com/music/recording-glossolalia/

"First In Flight" is a slogan found on all North Carolina car license plates, commemorating the achievement of the Wright brothers. The composition is my nod toward the state of North Carolina, which has recently become my new home. This fast paced and energetic piece is full of colorful harmonic progressions, vibrant melodic lines, playful jazzy riffs, and dreamy soundscapes depicting the thrill of a take off and flying.

Karolina Piątkowska-Nowicka - 1st violin
Paweł Kapica - 2nd violin
Michał Markiewicz - viola
Krzysztof Pawłowski - cello
Guest soloist: Paweł Nowicki - vibraphone

©Ⓟ2014 Dosia McKay / Gavia Music (ASCAP), all rights reserved
www.dosiamckay.com
www.neoquartet.pl

First In Flight (preview)

Judith Barsi (1978-1988) was a film and television actress from the 1980s whose most famous role was the voice of the charming Ducky in the Don Bluth animated film The Land Before Time (1988), a role she herself named as her favorite of a tragically short career. Unfortunately The Land Before Time would be one of the last roles of her life. Her father was an alcoholic and regularly abused Judith, both physically and mentally. This abuse took its toll on Judith who broke down in an audition for All Dogs Go to Heaven. Sadly, she was never removed from her father’s care and after years of threats, her father ultimately murdered her and her mother when she was only ten years old.

I, like most who stumble upon Judith’s tragic story, was heartbroken by the waste of precious life. To discover such a painful back-story to one of the truly happy memories of my childhood was a complete shock. Although very little can be done for her now, For Judith is my humble attempt at a tribute to her memory.

For Judith

This is the second movement of a four-movement work for orchestra based on the four major rivers of New Jersey. The music opens in the Great Swamp, a pristine National Wildlife Refuge located in northern New Jersey. Although a place of quiet solitude, it contains a multitude of soft, atmospheric sounds like wind breezing through reeds, birds, frogs, insects, and various water sounds. The soft, metallic percussion sounds create an aural atmosphere resembling that of the swamp.

The music then moves to the “main river music,” but in stark contrast to “The Delaware” movement, this movement is dominated by sparse textures and orchestrations. If the purpose of “The Delaware” was to put the listener on the river, experiencing its majesty firsthand, the purpose of “The Passaic” is to mimic a reminiscence of what this river once was. Dramatic gestures and registers are almost non-existent as the music remains like an echo.

This reminiscence is eventually interrupted and although this section meanders its way to a small climax, it never fully completes itself. The subtle agitation of this section is the “coming back to reality” to what the river is today with its trash strewn banks and polluted waters. Not wanting to succumb to these thoughts, the music moves back to an even quieter variation of the main theme before finishing off with a brief recollection of the opening swamp music.

River Thoughts - II. Passaic (live)

Obviously, like most of my work, the title should give away as to the affect I am trying to invoke in the listener, and it's an ode to the open minded amongst you, how these types of inebriants can be used for creativity, just as it was in the 19th C. before the puritans and politicians came in to ruin things they knew nothing about.This was done totally with Reason and I did a lot of experimenting to build many CV controlled things. The bass alone used 4 Thors in a combinator, 10 oscillators I think. The vocoder-like Thor used throughout, used the Synchronous wired into the CV ins of Thor to control all sorts of parameters. There are many different types of percussion used including Redums and Dr.Rex. Hope you get something good out of the music. I think I wrote this in about 5 days, including all the programming involved.

About the art: when coming up with the title, I found this great artist from Hungary who had a book with the same title, Attila Sassy. His work is well worth checking out too.

Opium Dreams

Dosia McKay is an American composer of music for concert stage, film, modern dance, and multimedia. Her portfolio includes works for solo instruments, chamber ensembles, choir, symphony orchestra, as well as synthesized sound. A versatile writer, Dosia fluently weaves elements of classical harmony, jazz, pop, avant-garde, ambient soundscapes, and the lyricism of folk melodies of her native Poland.

First In Flight (preview)

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