Paul!! You've done it again!! Beautiful! Bravo!!!

piano with pedal sustains , alto sax , trumpet ,synth pad confront the abyss and find sadness and beauty

Dark nights of our souls

Premiered April 2019 in Duncan Recital Hall

Joshua Hong, conductor
Megan Torti, flute/piccolo
Julia Simpson, oboe/english horn
Justin Best, clarinet
Julianne Mulvey, bassoon
Shawn Zheng, horn
Ayman Abouleish, trumpet
Zach Glaser, trombone
Joe Desotelle and Justin Kang, percussion
Wesley Ducote, piano
Mae Osawa and Julianne Oh, violins
Sarah Mason, viola
Nathan Hsu, cello
Rachel Martin, bass

Image: Achilles Mourning the Death of Patroclus, by Cy Twombly

as the light begins to drift (2019) for sinfonietta

The melancholic contemplation of Mark van Maaren aka Les Salopes  https://soundcloud.com/les-salopes inspired me to complicity in this musical narrative. You can listen to the original track here https://soundcloud.com/les-salopes/the-first-blackbird?fbclid=IwAR1-ZEhzFySv9PgK3We9rxesOK3ie1F5w77xBbdPf8ie9svCZ2Hl6gtFmQw

Idea, text, voice, keyboards, bass, flute, arpeggio guitar, percussion by Mark van Maaren.
Trumpets, lead guitar, drums, some effects and final mix by Guitarbeard

Buy https://guitarbeard.bandcamp.com/track/story-telling-time

Story Telling Time

I’m walking the streets
As the city sleeps
All curtains are closed
The blinds all down
No lights shining through any window

No one to be seen
No voices to be heard
As in a concrete desert
I’m Feeling unobserved

The wind taking it slow
Moon hiding it’s face behind a cloud
My footsteps echoing
Bouncing of the brick walls

A gentle drizzle shines the road
A quiet rain
A Doppler siren sings it song
Of troubles , far far away

Streetlights making an aisle
showing me the way
Though I walked this road many times
Knowing every crooked curb, every loose tile
I appreciate the gesture

Traffic lights still keeping control
Of things that aren’t there
The green man flashes happily
The orange light imitating the sunset
And even the bridges are vast asleep

A city sweeper passing by
His cart in a hurry
Heading where he is needed
Heading towards a tidy day

Across the street a drunk is making a fight
With gravity and himself
But give him the glory of a winner
And trust he’ll get home safe

Walking by this place
Where some sort a party is nearing it’s end
Lazy, late laughter of tired folks
Shreds of dancing music
But no more dancing shadows behind the window

The lush trees around the park lane
Give cover to the half boys, half men
Keeping their secret habits out of sight
Smoking, talking, alert yet calm
A quick look enough to see I’m no danger

The smell of rising bread
The steamy windows of the bakery
A promise for this upcoming day
At least there will be breakfast

A distant train
Pounding it’s wheels on the track
The rhythm of transit
The beat of big and small journey’s
There is always those who have to go somewhere

If I take it slow
I might hear the blackbird

Story Telling Time (Mark van Maaren / Guitarbeard)

This piece consists little gesture to keep it intimate. The ending is a bit "Mahler-isch" to make the ending as long as possible. At 2.02 and 2.10 you hear a so called "Trugschluss" (deception). It is a well known trick to postpoon the end-chord with a chord that goes a complete other direction as you would expect. It gives a lot of tension....

Elegie (composer Ad van Nederpelt)

Photo by wonderful Elseh
https://www.flickr.com/photos/187686180@N02

"All Things Dark" by D'ark Tha Murky

To get a realistic idea of an orchestra you should play al the different parts of instruments, certainly not copying or quantize them. So I took 8 different violons 1, 10 violins 2, 8 viola's, 8 celli, 8 basses and three flutes, one alt flute, french horn, bassoon, tuba, harp and played all the different parts. I positioned the sections with altiverb. All strings are from Audio Modelling VST, played with breath control TEC. I arranged this beautiful song of Gershwin. Listen with headphone or hi-fi for the best results.

as the light begins to drift (2019) for sinfonietta

Paul Novak

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