Monday, June 24, 2019

New iPad Air

Looking around for a compositional tool, I vaguely recalled a commercial Esa-Pekka Salonen did for, of all things, the iPad. I also ran across a YouTube video demonstrating a lot of amazing things you can do in GarageBand on an iPad because of the touch screen. Glissandi, for example. I have a problem with glissandi. I use them a lot on string instruments (including guitar) but Finale, my notation program, really hates them. When I put in a glissando any one of the following might happen in the audio rendering:

  • Nothing might happen—not only no glissando, but no sound whatsoever
  • There might be a scale instead of a glissando
  • There might be an actual glissando
And if I have glissandi in all four instruments at once (my string quartet) then I will get all of the above possibilities! In GarageBand you can easily do glissandi in string instruments. I am just getting started on using the program though. Apart from its complexity, the issue for me is that the program is designed to use in the composition of pop songs so there are a lot of built in defaults I have to figure out how to work around. For example, the program assumes you are going to be in a particular key (though there are some exotic scales available, for non-Western instruments at least).

One very intriguing area is percussion. There are a lot of interesting instruments available and I can’t wait to see what I can do with them. You can also record directly into the program so the possibilities are really enormous. GarageBand is kind of a smart synthesizer, recording studio, and digital production program. About the only thing it doesn’t do is notation and maybe I just haven’t found that section yet!

Anyway, I just got the iPad and have barely scratched the surface of GarageBand so we shall see. The  iPad, with an add-on keyboard also makes a nice, small laptop so I may take it with me the next time I travel and do my blogging on it. I am writing this post on it!

Before I was asked to write a string quartet, I was just about to write a piece for violin, guitar and percussion. Here is a piece by Lou Harrison for guitar and percussion that is nothing like what I have in mind.


2 comments:

Marc in Eugene said...

Honestly, I don't know how you (anyone, I mean) can be done with a new work-- I imagine that I'd fuss about this and that for years only to decide that I had to start all over again. You are occupied with your no 2 and I've been reading Jane Glover's Handel biography (she's here to conduct Mozart's Requiem that opens the OBF; don't ask), being reminded that while he could work for months on something he could also spend approximately two seconds on another.

Intended to strike a blow for freedom! [clenched fist raised] by beginning to use the name/URL option for comments only to realize that that would mean I don't get email notices when someone else comments: other people's observations/insights being a wonderful feature of the blog, long live Google! I guess. And-- it is early-- just now I realize that the URL belongs to my very useless blog at... Blogger. Evviva, Google!

Bryan Townsend said...

It's complicated! My Dark Dream piece, that was rather a turning point for me, took a long time to come together. I tore it apart and completely re-wrote it three or four times. But, finally, it did come to an end. Now, with the new quartet, I have a definite deadline, so come hell or high water, the quartet players will get the score and parts on time. That's why I am working so hard on it now, because I want to leave time for fine tuning and fiddling later on!

I think how it works for me, is when I am experimenting, exploring new ground, it takes a long time. But once I have staked out some territory, then I can go ahead fairly quickly. The great advantage people like Handel and Mozart had was that they were working within an established vocabulary and with particular genres. Their genius was within certain boundaries even though they may have extended them. A composer today is often working without any of those certainties...

I have never used the Name/URL option so I don't even know how it works!

Thanks again for your comments, Marc.