I wrote this piece thinking of something that should flow as a river. I didn’t want the title to be “The River,” but rather something that was more creative and easygoing. The notes were supposed to, again, flow like a river. I wanted the specific timing of the melody to be in different places as the different parts of the music go on forward. https://youtu.be/PylubSzVPDI This is Justin Park presenting his composition to The New England Conservatory of Music at the Contemporary Music Festival. Here’s the full score of the piece. Try it out for yourself!
Young Composers
Right Beneath the Clouds
This clarinet trio was inspired by two ideas. First was my perspective from my own apartment. Skyscrapers, bridges, Central Park, and construction outlined the melody of my piece, given to the clarinet. Shadows and overlaps between these structures formed the cello and piano parts for the first movement. Most of the pitches are based on the octatonic scale beginning on C. In the second movement, the inspiration comes from a very different source. “Quatuor pour la fin du temps” by the French composer Olivier Messiaen gave me the idea of unison between the voices, which served as the perfect contrast to the busy, opposing voices in the first movement. Altogether, I pictured the loud, busy life I might see if I was right below a cloud and looking down, while on the other hand, a full and unified blue sky would be seen if I just looked up. Take a listen to this piece on SoundCloud here: https://soundcloud.com/user-28081890/right-beneath-the-clouds Photograph titled “Parade of Clouds” by Asfia Jawed, published in our May 2018 issue.
‘Misted’: music for saxophone and piano, by Abe Effress, 11
Abe Effress, 11, playing saxophone in Marina Del Rey I have been playing saxophone since I moved to Los Angeles from the mountains of Colorado four years ago. This year, I wrote a piece for piano and submitted it to the Composers Today program for young composers. I became very interested in making music, and have started to realize it is a passion that I want to pursue. I decided to really challenge myself with this new song, “Misted.” This is the first time I have composed music for two instruments, piano and saxophone. The saxophone that you hear was inspired by a spider that has been living outside of my windowsill in the room I share with my brother. This song is in a minor key because for one day the spider was not there and it made me sad when I thought my new friend had gone away. Many of my creations, especially my writing, are dark and gnarled, like the branches of my mind. In this song, I also included my love for music production in the form of a beat, which I added in GarageBand. When I started making songs on GarageBand this summer, my parents decided that I could get an Instagram account for my music, fiction stories, drawings, and any other art created by me. The positive response I have been receiving from real professionals in the music production industry has motivated me to work even harder. Here is a link to the full audio with the piano and drums; and this is the link to me playing the saxophone part out on the Pacific Ocean in Marina Del Rey, and to more of my work on You Tube. There is a video of the spider on my Instagram page, @wearing_a_wig. I really hope you enjoy “Misted.” I did my best to write down the notes for both instruments even though the piano is naturally in a different key than the alto sax. Thank you for taking the time to check out my work! From the Stone Soup Editors: Do you play saxophone? Download a printable copy of Abe’s composition, ‘Misted’, and try playing it yourself. Leave a comment for Abe below, and if you do try his music yourself, send us a recording of yourself playing his piece. Enjoy!
