Brand-new Saxophone Quintet music
Rick Hirsch
Dig this fantastic new record from the University of Kentucky Mega-Sax Ensemble. They’ve got two of my pieces on the album, including the brand new…
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Sausage-making: How I Wrote the Underscore for a Book Trailer
Rick Hirsch
I was commissioned to compose underscore music for a picture book trailer.
As you’ll see below, a book trailer typically shows some illustrations from a book while a narrator gives a brief overview of the text. The underscore is the background music under the narration.
Here’s the finished product for this assignment:
By the way, did I mention that my wife Rebecca E. Hirsch is the author of this amazing book? (She is so inspiring to me in so many ways).
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If you’re curious as to how Rebecca and I made this book trailer, read on. Here’s how the process looked from the composer’s standpoint.
1) Book immersion
Seated at the keyboard piano in my music room, I read the book and immersed myself in the feeling of the text and illustrations.
2) Develop a few different themes
Using my phone’s voice memo app, I recorded myself improvising 3 different themes. I would then send these to Rebecca (the author) so she could decide which one seemed to create the mood she wanted for the trailer.
Here’s what I was thinking when I came up with each theme:
1b: Gentle twinkling of stars, space, sweet innocence of a child.
2: More motion than the first, but also with space and a warm feeling.
3: This one was a little more generic and didn’t really seem tied to the feeling of the book, though it does use a couple of the motifs heard in 1b.
(My instinct was that offering a ‘wrong’ option would help the other ones seem more ‘right’).
3) Author chooses the theme she likes and sends any feedback
Rebecca chose theme 1b, which was also my favorite (though, I didn’t reveal this to her until after she decided).
4) Flesh out theme to full length.
By this point, Rebecca had made a rough draft of her slides and narration in iMovie. As it turns out, she timed her slides to go with shifts in the music, like when the owl appears in sync with the musical color change. It was truly a two-way collaboration.
To flesh out the music, I improvised while viewing her iMovie draft to make the music support and complement the full narration. (I watched the video on an iPad resting on my piano keyboard’s sheet music holder). When I felt like I had it down—and could play all the way through with out messing up—I made a ‘good’ recording. (This was important, because my piano-performance chops are quite limited. Trust me on this).
To get a clean recording I plugged my keyboard into an audio interface using two speaker cables (one each for the left and right channels). The audio interface sent the signal into GarageBand on my computer.
5) Finalize the A/V
We imported the final audio recording into iMovie and reduced the volume of the music during the narration. Rebecca did some final tweaking of the video and narration timing to make everything fit together seamlessly.
6) Notes:
• I didn’t notate the music, as there was no need. It was easier for me to remember where my fingers were supposed to go, than to take the time to notate and then practice the notated music. (See note above inre my limited piano chops).
• It was fun!
• Here’s the final audio at full volume:
Now go get a copy of this book for your favorite kid!
Food Coma live
Rick Hirsch
One of my newer jazz ensemble pieces is a Grade 2 jam called Food Coma.
Dig Caleb Chapman’s Crescent Superband with a spot-on interpretation. This was the premier performance of Food Coma at the 2020 JEN Conference in New Orleans.
The ending is must-see-TV.
Yuletide update
Rick Hirsch
Three months ago I wrote about new saxophone music in the works.
Since then the music has been edited, revised and engraved; a graphic designer has designed the cover; the text pages have been written and typeset; demo recordings have been made; and a local print-shop is all ready to print the first batch of books.
Yuletide Improvisations is a book of fifteen beloved Christmas and Chanukah songs reimagined.
Here are final-versions of two of the hand-written sketches shown in the original post.
New music in the works
Rick Hirsch
I do the crossword in pen, but I write music in pencil.
Here are some draft sketches of new music I have in the works: a twelve-song collection of Yuletide Improvisations for unaccompanied saxophone. (Estimated publication: late summer/fall 2021)
I’m sharing these snapshots simply to show that music doesn’t come out (of my brain) fully formed. It’s a process that involves capturing an initial idea, then revisiting it over the following days to slice, dice, nip, and tuck into a nice whole. Of course, there’s also simply tossing things out that are just not making it.
Click the thumbnails below to view.
Václav's on C Melody
Rick Hirsch
Dig this: Spanish concert saxophonist David Hernando Vitores recently recorded this video of my composition Václav’s Dream.
Interestingly, he performed on the less-common C Melody saxophone, which looks like an overgrown alto, but sounds more like a tenor.
His interpretation is wonderful and has a lovely mournful quality to it. Bravo, David!
Trio improvisation
Rick Hirsch
A few years ago I spent a day experimenting with the Acapella app. I ended up improvising three one-minute saxophone trios.
Here’s the first one, a sweet and tuneful little theme:
Zoom camp in the books
Rick Hirsch
Last week was the 2nd Annual Fraser Street Saxophone Camp. And even though it was on the Zoom, it went great!
My young, enthusiastic teaching faculty did a fantastic job team-teaching the HS and older MS students (I taught the youngest MS students). And our special guests were a hit (more below).
Overview
» 20 students, aged 11-18, divided into 3 groups by age and experience
» 3 guest artists: Ian Hendrickson-Smith (the Roots!), Greg Johnson (SF), Kate Anderson (NY)
» 4 Assistant Teachers — homegrown kids who are now studying saxophone in college:
Alex Rothstein (studies with Steve Jordheim @ Lawrence U)
Shane McCandless (with Gary Keller @ U of Miami)
Jimmy O’Donnell (with Jim Umble @ Youngstown State)
Ian Brannan (with David Stambler @ Penn State)
» We focused exclusively on process over product, making the experience engaging and positive for the students. There was a lot of time for watching/listening and discussing music. We had engaging conversations on different aspects practicing. And our guest artists discussed everything from performing on live television, to effective embouchures, to being willing to fail in order to grow.
» We did our best to expose the students to all kinds of saxophone music, including Jazz, Classical, Ethnic, Pop/Rock, and beyond.
» We had a faculty solo concert and a rousing round of Saxophone Jeopardy!
» And, of course, there was camp swag, including the 2020 pandemic special edition COVID-19 mask
As much fun as this week was, we are all hopeful that in 2021 we will all be vaccinated from COVID-19 and will be able to hold the camp in person. Fingers crossed!
Send me a note if you’d like to be notified when the the 2021 camp begins enrolling.
2nd Annual Sax Camp
Rick Hirsch
The second annual Fraser Street Saxophone Camp is now enrolling.
Find out everything you need to know about it on this page.
Silent Night in Sydney
Rick Hirsch
I woke this morning to receive this text from a longtime friendly acquaintance and former teaching colleague:
Rick, I’m standing in a jazz club in Sydney (Australia) about to hear the Sydney Jazz Orchestra play some of your jazz arrangements. Cheers! /Rob*
(That’s Robert Nairn, the phenomenal professor of Double Bass at the University of Melbourne)
A few minutes later he sent me this phone video:
One final thing for us Northerners to acknowledge is that it’s the middle of the summer right now in Australia!