Monthly Archives: September 2013

CD: Airy – Music for Violin and Piano

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airy music violin piano mcdonlad kurkowicz

Airy: Music for Violin and Piano

CD of Airy: Music for Violin and Piano was released today on Bridge Records 9402. This recording includes compositions written by John McDonald over a 22 year span, with performances by virtuoso violinist Joanna Kurkowicz and the composer at the piano. Cover art is by Jan Kubasiewicz.

Lyrical Study, Op. 10, No. 2 (1985)
Poem, Op. 12B (1985)
Brief Pastiche Of A Theme By Schoenberg, Op. 15 (1985)
Four Single-Minded Miniatures, Op. 27 (1987)
Mad Dance, Op. 66 (1986/88)
Lily Events: A Suite Of Seven Little Studies, Op. 97 (1989)
Sonata For Solo Violin, Op. 219 (1994)
Suite of Six Curt Pieces, Op. 326 (1999-2000)
Lines After Keats, Op. 336 (2000)
Airy, Op. 436 (2007-2008)

Aphorisms for Composers – August to September 2013

September 16, 2013.

I have a hunch that many of the most striking pieces we hear involved a lot of staring into space on the parts of the composers who formed them.

On Writer’s Block/Dry Spells: How about writing music about not being able to write music? Halting, hesitant, missing parts?

September 15, 2013

On Prolificacy (2): I’m still trying to get it right.

On Prolificacy (1): I’m trying to quit.

September 7, 2013

How can one sublimate control issues by writing a piece of music?

September 6, 2013

Does a piece of music by one of us need “last only long enough to admit [us] to a sympathetic haven?” [quotation from an August 26, 2013 New Yorker article about forger and art philanthropist Mark Landis; speaks to how much our desire and/or need to compose is tied up with the need for approval and inclusion]

September 5, 2013

What constitutes “new musical territory?”

August 5, 2013.

Are you wasting resources? Do you need all those notes?

I like scanning and sending hand manuscript electronically, but the scans are not always clear or bold enough to serve as performance materials for musicians. Scan, send, check in. Use snail mail too.